Pain. Swirling, biting, clawing, piercing, hot and overwhelming pain. That's the first thing Rey noticed when the darkness receeded, pain. Her whole body felt like she'd been run through a meat grinder. Her ribs, just below her right breast were burning, her left hip was throbbing, her shoulders felt like they had been ripped off and put back on with bonding tape, her outter left thigh stung like a thousand sand flea bites and her right thigh felt like it had been reattached after an unfortunate incedent with a junk shredder.

Even her hair hurt, she realized, when she tried to turn her head.

A groan tore from her throat when she tried to open her eyes... Even they hurt.

'Ben?' She begged her aching swirling mind to reach out to his. 'Can you hear me?'

She could feel him nearby, but he didn't answer. "Ben?" She croaked without opening her eyes.

"Rey!" Came a friendly voice from what sounded like a long way off. A warm hand clasped hers. "She's waking up!" The familiar yet distant voice called happily.

She risked a fluttering glance toward the warmth holding onto her hand. "Finn…" She rasped through parched lips. "Is he alright?"

"He will be, Rey." Finn's smooth, creamy voice echoed in her head.

"Poe? Chewie?" She asked weakly with darkness swirling through her mind.

"Both fine, only you and Ben got hurt." Finn assured her.

Rey squeezed his hand and submitted to the pull towards unconciousness.

Ben woke up in agony, his entire body wracked with pain. He knew that only about half his pains were his own and that knowledge made him sigh with relief in spite of the pain. 'Rey?' He reached into her mind. She wasn't awake, he realized and was relieved further. The fact that she wasn't feeling this pain was a small comfort.

He opened his eyes and sucked in a painful gulp of air… his eye lids felt like they were full of sand. Refusing to give into the temptation to close them again he glanced around, taking in his surroundings with his eyes and the Force at the same time.

"Poe?" He gasped, shocked to see the man.

"Yeah, buddy, I'm here." Poe hurried over to his bedside. "Do you need a medtech?"

"Yeah…" Ben groaned painfully. "She needs sinmorph."

"You could use some too, I bet." Finn said stepping into Ben's field of vision.

"I've been through worse without it." He rasped. "But yeah, she'll feel this when she wakes up, so I guess I need some, too."

"Alright buddy, I'll get someone right on that." Poe said almost gently.

"The babies…" Ben croaked.

"They're ok." Finn assured him.

"The Syndrenal?" He was too painful to mince words. "Will they be… damaged after all that?"

"You'll have to ask the tech, I have no idea." Finn frowned.

"How did you escape?" Ben finally thought to ask.

"I'm not completely sure, but the powercore failed, Poe pried the doors to our cells open… we boosted a shuttle and when we passed by the hangar where the Falcon had been… it wasn't there anymore, just a huge crater." Finn gave Ben a curious look. "What did you do to cause that?"

"Chewie did it, not me, we left the hangar at .5 past light speed." He replied tiredly.

"Well, that must be what did it." Finn grinned. "The shockwave knocked down walls through the whole level and took out the Core from there I'm assuming... It definitely caused enough chaos for us to steal a hyperdrive enabled shuttle from a different bay…" He leaned down to look into Ben's slitted eyes. "You killed that blue bastard on take off." He grinned menacingly. "And about ten thousand of his best troops… it was echoing through every speaker on the ship."

"The ship… it got away…" Ben was starting to drift towards sleep.

"No, it didn't." Finn assured him. "Poe called in their coordinants from our shuttle, we've been informed that your escape left it dead in space close enough to the Kessel Cluster that it drifted right into a black hole just as our fleet caught up to it."

Ben frowned. "How did you find us?"

"This was the closest medbay, we called in to see if you were here." Finn shrugged.

"Ok." Ben sighed and passed out.

'Ben?' Her voice echoed in his mind, pulling him from his fretful sleep.

'I'm here, sweetheart.' He thought back to her.

The pain was more of a dull throb throughout his body than the hellish agony it had been before. He opened his eyes and looked down at himself.

He frowned in confusion. He was clean but nude beneath the thin sheet that covered him from ribs to ankles. 'Where are my clothes?'

Rey turned her head to look across the narrow divide between their sickbay beds. 'I don't know, but it looks like someone cleaned the blood off of you, maybe they took the clothes for washing.'

He looked over at her and his frown deepened, 'Where are your clothes?'

'Probably with yours.' She thought.

He was reassured by the feel of his unborn daughters' hearts beating strong, their force signatures pulsing steadily. For a moment he relaxed into his pillow, staring at his wife, thinking back over the events that had brought them to this place.

He frowned and called out, "Chewie?"

Chewie purrowled as softly as he could and stood up from his chair by the door.

Ben's voice was much more normal than it had been since he'd been shot as he asked, "What happened? The last thing I remember was making it out of the black hole field and turning the pilot's seat back over to you."

Chewie told them about the destruction of Soul Reaper, the escape of Finn and Poe, and how, in the wake of their victory, most of the hold out systems in the known galaxy had petitioned to join the Federation.

"How long have we been out of it?" Ben gaped.

Chewie made a mournful sound.

"Three weeks?" Rey said sharply.

Chewie nodded.

Ben let out a long sigh and attempted to sit up. "Force, I feel as weak as a newborn." He groaned when his third try failed.

"That's to be expected after all you've been through." Said a mild voiced human in a medical smock as he bustled into the room. "I'm Doctor Pershing, prisoner base 814's lead physician." The tall reedy man introduced himself. "I'm the one who patched you up."

"Thanks." Ben and Rey both said simultaniously.

"I'm betting you have some questions for me, and I know I have some for you." Pershing smiled mildly.

"Our girls…" Rey stroked her enormous belly. "Will they be affected by all this?"

"Only time will tell for certain, but I don't think so, all of the scans and tests we did while you were out of it showed them to be functioning normally for this stage of gestation." He answered.

Both parents-to-be let out a relieved breath.

"When can we leave?" Ben asked, eager to leave the hospital setting as far behind him as possible.

"Your strength should return pretty quickly over the next day or two. As soon as you can walk out of here, you're free to go." The doctor informed them his natural friendliness shining through in the smile that went all the way to his eyes.

"Good," Rey said with a thin smile. "We need to get back to the Redemption. Gliss is probably worried sick about us."

"You maybe." Ben sniffed.

Chewie hung his head, his shoulders slumping, and told them about the fate of their ship and it's brave captain.