Chapter 5: I Must Remain Faithful

It was a quiet morning in Rey's chambers. She had decided to spend the day in bed, after experiencing severe stomach cramps the night before. When Finn had poked his head in to check on her on his way to breakfast, as he had taken to doing most every morning and then night since he had learned she was pregnant, she had shooed him away, insisting that she was fine.

Now she was sitting up in bed and beaming down at her blanket-covered stomach, caressing it and the baby within. How strange - only a few months, and she had already learned to love the child. Despite the circumstances in which it was conceived. Despite how it was likely destined to grow up never knowing its father.

"You are like starlight..." Rey sang cooingly to her bump. "You are like sweet rain..."

She was so focused on the child just inside of her, that she forgot that the door was open, did not sense the new presence steal softly past the entryway until he spoke:

"You're glowing."

Rey jumped slightly, clutching a hand to her heart. "You startled me!" she laughed, as she beheld Poe Dameron gazing down at her with a beaming smile.

"I'm sorry!" Poe held up his hands in playful surrender. "I guess I'll be saying that a lot from now on..." The Commander sheepishly rubbed a hand along the back of his neck. "I'm sorry for how I reacted to finding out you're..." his voice trailed off. "And I'm sorry I made you reveal that secret before you were ready."

Rey smiled softly, finding his discomfort actually quite cute. "Apology accepted, Commander."

Poe now circled the bed and sat on the edge of it. "Can I get you anything? Anything at all?"

Rey trilled out a laugh. "I'm fine, Poe, really..."

"I just need to be sure. It is a commander's responsibility to take care of all of his troops..." His eyes flitted down tenderly towards Rey's baby bump, as if he was including the unborn baby girl in that group. "And... I care about you a lot, Rey."

For some reason, Rey felt a nervous flutter in her stomach. Was it possible...? No, it couldn't be.

But it was, as Poe suddenly took Rey's hand in his. "More than that... I love you, Rey. I admire the strength with which you attack any problem, especially this most recent development. Your bravery on Crait. And... I can tell that the subject of the baby's father leaves you in pain." He gave her hand a comforting squeeze. "If it is within my power... well, it is, actually... I could take care of you. And the baby. Neither of you would want for anything!"

Rey blinked in utter surprise, amazed at how she had now witnessed two men offer to help parent a child that was not theirs. And to have the offer come from someone like Poe Dameron... she was extremely flattered. It would be so much easier, Rey surmised, to just let the baby be reared by someone who was not seen as a threat to the whole galaxy - a good and decent and (she had to admit) handsome man who would never let anything happen to those he cared about.

But, handsome and brave as Poe was, he wasn't the man who made her feel frustrated and helpless all at once. He did not challenge her, skilled pilot though he was. He wasn't... Ben... So, gently, she took her free hand and placed it over his.

"Oh, Poe... I'm so flattered... and touched. But... I must remain faithful. I have to remain faithful to him." And she held his gaze with her eyes, willing him to understand.

"The father," Poe guessed. Rey nodded. Poe smiled kindly. "I understand." He rose from the bed. "Get some rest." Pecking Rey on the cheek, which she allowed, he left. Rey slowly rose out of the bed and turned to her vanity as Poe disappeared out of sight.

Scarcely had the door closed behind him, then Rey felt a shift in the air, and a deep voice - a deep voice that was most definitely not Luke's - almost sang, "Well, I thought the pompous peacock would never leave. Prancing around like he owns every woman in this place - it's downright unnatural!"

Rey screamed, clasping both hands to her mouth to quiet herself as she now saw Ben Solo's reflection staring back at her in the corner of the vanity mirror.

"How did you find me?" Though she knew full well how.

"Oh, it was easy," Ben dismissed with a wave of his hand. "I just listened for the sound of complete and utter betrayal and followed that. You have been unfaithful, my love. Very unfaithful."

Rey ground her teeth in frustration, his words stinging like a lightsaber blade piercing her skin. How dare he suggest...! "I have not been engaged in infidelity!"

"Oh, really? Then what was that display with the traitor FN-2187, slobbering his face like a lovesick puppy?"

Rey flinched, caught completely off-guard. How had he seen that? She would have sensed his presence, their Bond roaring to life. And a more important question: how much had he seen?

"Or that pathetic excuse for a pilot, that airhead pecking your cheek? As if he has a chance with you! He isn't worthy enough to kiss the ground at your feet!" Ben's voice was grating, contemptuous, barely holding back a primal scream.

"At least he's here! And Finn too!" Rey snapped, hating how Ben still referred to her friend by his Stormtrooper number, an insult to her dear friend's identity.

"Why are they hanging around you so?" Ben seethed, his voice a deadly hiss as he stepped closer, his reflection enlarging in the mirror. "Do they think you are theirs for the taking? Pathetic fools... you're mine!"

Rey gave a mirthless laugh. "Oh, you have made that quite clear, Ben Solo! You've laid your claim on me for sure!"

Ben blinked, not expecting the verbal parry. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about this, Ben!" And Rey spun around to give him a full view of her swollen belly.

Ben's face went completely slack. Drooped, almost. Rey half-expected him to melt like a chalk mural washed away by rainwater. He couldn't speak. And then he fell to his knees at her feet. Through the Force, Rey could sense his anger shrink away, as though sucked through a vacuum.

For a long moment, neither expecting parent spoke. Then, oh so softly, Ben pressed his lips onto Rey's stomach, right over her belly button, much more pronounced since before her pregnancy. "Is it a boy or a girl?"

Rey could not bring herself to be angry with him any longer, so adorably did he ask the question. "It's a girl," she beamed, whispering the answer breathlessly.

Ben blinked, and then frowned slightly. "Oh, boo!"

Rey gawked at him, even as the smile had not faded from her now open mouth. Placing her hands on her hips, she scoffed at him. "You would prefer that I bear a son?" She'd be damned if she provided him with an heir for the First Order! Plus, it was hard not to draw any misogynistic conclusions from Ben's reaction.

But Ben only smiled, and Rey was surprised to not sense a politically, or even prejudiced, ulterior motive in his thoughts. "Of course. Every man wishes to have a son. My father did, and he got his wish."

Rey smiled at him softly, remembering the gruff old man who would now be the grandfather of her child. "Well... maybe one day... I will have a son." She desperately had wanted to say 'We will have a son', but her courage failed her. Still, she left the premonition hanging in the air. A tentative promise. An offering.

Ben now stood, his ungloved hands tipping, tilting her chin upwards. Those giant hands now cradled her cheeks and jawline as his lips fiercely met hers. Rey was startled by the affection, but not as much as she was by the wet tears slipping onto her face. Tears that were his, not hers. She could hear the pining agony, mixed with the relief and even... joy in his voice. And a fear that she might disappear again.

"I've missed you!" he whispered into her mouth. The desperation of his physical worship did not stop. "Did... did you mean what you said? About..." Even as he could not find the words, the voice, with which to finish, Rey sensed what he wanted to ask through their Bond. The inquiry made her lips curl up into a gentle smile against his.

"Of course I meant it." And from the way Ben now took her fully in his arms and kissed her with a crippling hunger, and from the way she accepted his kiss, maybe - just maybe - that offering she had floated would come to pass after all.

That afternoon, after Ben faded from their Force connection, Rey finally willed herself to leave the confines of her chambers. Strolling the grounds of the Resistance base, caressing her baby bump all the while, she smiled whenever fellow colleagues grinned back or tipped their hats at her. Most everyone in the Resistance had accepted her condition, and were doing their best to be as understanding as possible.

But one person did not give Rey such a friendly greeting. One person was not understanding. Rey now came upon Rose Tico, sitting against a wall, her head buried between her knees as she sobbed.

"Rose?"

Rose snapped her head up and upon seeing the voice's owner, gave her a glare. "Why are you here? Bored carrying on with Finn?"

Rey blinked, thrown by the hypothesis and deeply hurt by its implications. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't pretend you don't know! I saw how you threw yourself at him when he claimed paternity! I hope you two are happy; you deserve each other!"

Ah. So that's what this was about. Rey knelt at Rose's side, as much as her pregnant stomach would allow, and carefully placed a hand on Rose's shoulder, half-expecting the technician to shrug her off. But Rose didn't. "Rose: there is nothing going on between Finn and I. Nothing," she emphasized. "He is like my big brother. He was my first friend when I had none and he cares about me. But just as a friend. That's all it is."

Rose chuckled derisively, shortly. "Bull. He loves you. He good as told me once. And who can blame him? How can I compete with you? You're beautiful!" And her head jerked with the slightest indication towards Rey's womb. "I bet it's always been easy for you."

Rey found herself laughing. "Easy? That's not the way I would describe it..." And she heaved herself into a sitting position beside the brown-skinned girl. "The baby isn't Finn's, Rose. He lied. He was just trying to protect me. And I was so overwhelmed when he defended me like that, I couldn't help it. He's... family to me. And... I'm in love with someone else. And that someone is the baby's father." She now nudged Rose's side, wanting to encourage her and lift her spirits, following the guesswork. Well, it wasn't guesswork - it was as plain as the nose on her face. "Go after Finn! Tell him how you feel. You have my blessing. Besides..." And Rey now failed to bite back a smile. "My baby will need a doting aunt to play with."

A shocked Rose raised her eyes to Rey's, blinking back tears. "Really?"

Rey grinned more broadly. "You can even be godmother, if you want."

The hug Rose now gave her was quite unexpected, but Rey accepted it warmly.

"I'm sorry!" Rose hiccuped. "I should never have thought that you... that you were..."

Rey just shook her head, the smile staying on her face. "Apology accepted."

Rey had never had a friend who was also a girl. But, she had a feeling that Rose would make as finest a first girlfriend as she could ever have.