Rose had convinced Rey to miss one day of classes, even though she knew she'd regret it and her graphic art teacher was less than forgiving when it came to absences. She had emailed him, though, and he had responded with an abrupt: iFeel better. See you next class./i She had never missed a class, so she hoped that this one time would be excused and ignored. Rose shuffled her into her bedroom and flicked the light off with stern instructions that she should go to bed as soon as she could. Rey fell into bed, still fully clothed, and fell asleep immediately.

Rey felt like she fell into a dream that was taking progress without her. She ended up right in the middle of it, and suddenly, she was at her new job, behind her new desk. When the phone rang, it sounded as if it was miles off and sinking into a large body of water, and she found it hard to answer. She could never quite reach the phone. It was like she was driving a car and she couldn't remember how to drive a car. Finally, she answered the phone, feeling herself sink ever smaller into the floor. There was no one there, just the distinct feeling that there was someone on the other line. She kept repeating hello, hello? until she hung up the phone.

She heard him calling for her. Always 'Miss Beckett', sometimes it was brushed along the lobe of her ear like a lover's whisper, and other times she could hear him yelling, giving her the sensation of falling in her sleep. The more she walked in the direction of his office, the smaller the hallway got; the darker the atmosphere. He was baiting her, pulling her forward even though she began to realize that she was crawling the hallway had gotten so small.

Her knees bruised with the hard floor, and his voice got closer. It came from every which way before it was a flurry of repeated whispers, all in his voice, all insistent. Miss Beckett, Miss Beckett, Miss Beckett. If it had been a spell, she certainly would have felt cursed. The louder and more insistent they got, the quicker she crawled, until the hallway opened up, sending her spiraling into the darkness below. As soon as her body hit ground-

Rey shot up, releasing a startled gasp and realizing she was now awake. It had only been a dream. A nightmare, really. She groaned, feeling a fervent pounding in her head. She had a feeling of having overslept; her mouth was dry and her thoughts were foggy. She was still exhausted, but now, a sort of aching had settled in, as if she'd been sleeping in one position for too long. She groaned, rubbing her forehead to try and stop the pounding headache.

She looked at her phone, which was blinking purple on her nightstand. She unplugged it, and fumbled, unable to see what she was doing until she reached over and turned on her lamp, nearly knocking it over for the third time in the process. She had six missed calls, which was unusual even if she had missed class. All of them were from Jo, the woman that had hired her. Oh no. She found her voicemail before hitting the button, bringing the phone to her ear. Each voicemail became more frantic than the last until Jo asked her if she'd be willing to come into her shift early. Something had happened with Hilda, and she'd gone home for lunch and never returned.

Rey couldn't say she blamed her, but she wished she'd gotten the woman's number so she could call her and thank her for being kind that morning. Rey didn't want to go into work early. She didn't want to go into work at all, but she had to hope that the first nights hazing from the horrible, prick boss was going to get better. It had to get better, right? All she had to do would be to prove to him that she was capable of the job, and he'd lighten up on her.

A little voice in the back of her head said: that man will never lighten up on anyone. She quashed it, deciding to ignore it for the time being. She slid out of bed, pulling her hair out of her face. She found it was tangled and bumpy from sleeping in a ponytail and she was forced to try and pluck the band from the mess it had made. She grabbed her brush and tugged it through her hair before she pulled her robe on. It was a fluffy thing in the most obnoxious color of pastel pink she had ever seen, but it was warm and it served it's purpose well.

She shuffled out into the kitchen, expecting to see Rose sitting at her desk, but the apartment was empty. It unsettled her more than she already was, hoping to see a familiar face after her weird dream. She found a note on the fridge from Rose, in which Rose told her that she'd be gone for a few days. She'd decided to go upstate and see her parents. Rey frowned, though she was glad Rose had at least warned her. Rey made herself a pot of coffee, hoping it would help her to feel less drowsy. She emailed her other professor before she dialed Jo back.

"Oh, Rey," She exclaimed, obviously relived. "I'm glad to hear from you. Sorry to interrupt your day, but I was hoping I could ask you to come in early tonight? We have someone in line to stand in for Hilda tomorrow if she doesn't come back, but I need someone here," She was pleading, it seemed.

"I can be there in a couple of hours," Rey said. "Is that alright?"

"Yes, perfect, I can watch the desk until then,"

"See you then," Rey said, hearing Jo hang up and the line disconnect.

Rey released a groan when she remembered Mr. Rens dark voice and his irritatingly condescending tones about how she should pick up his dry cleaning and continued groaning. She shuffled back into her bedroom.

This time, she was less focused on her appearance. If she was going to make it through another night, and a longer night, she had to be comfortable. Her flats were business casual enough. She pulled out a pair of dark, khaki dress pants and a simple collared shirt. She tugged her blazer on, finding the look was good enough. She didn't care to impress him with her appearance, in fact, the less he looked at her the better. She hated him already. She adjusted her blazer angrily before mocking his tone. She paused, pinning a small bee brooch that her foster mother had gotten her before she left home to the lapel of her jacket, just to add a bit of sparkle.

"Miss Beckett, you're here to answer phones," She pulled her face into the ugliest one she could manage before she grabbed her purse and shoved her phone into it.

She was no longer under any illusions that he would leave her enough time to work on homework, so she left her backpack behind. He probably wouldn't leave her enough time to do anything. She would be forever running back and forth between his office and the break room, getting him coffee that he didn't even want. It would be her new hell.

She stopped at the dry cleaners, which was out of her way, and handed over the ticket he'd shoved in her direction the night before. The man looked at it, before heading back to retrieve the suits that had been left behind.

"You're the new assistant?" He asked, seeming to be well acquainted with Kylo Ren.

"No, I'm just the receptionist," She said, frowning as she pulled out his heavy black credit card and handed it over to the man. She was surprised he'd trusted her with it, but even he seemed to know that making her pay for the dry cleaning on his very expensive suits would have pushed a boundary.

"Hmph, well, good luck. Mr. Ren is a piece,"

She didn't know what he meant by that, but she took the card back and stuffed it into her wallet before shouldering the heavy suits in an attempt to keep them dragging on the city sidewalk. It was still light out, but by the time she made it to the office (after one maddeningly unbalanced bike ride), the sun was going down. It was still an entire three hours earlier than when she was originally scheduled to come in. She pushed the door open and found Jo sitting at the desk, speaking on the phone to someone in what Rey liked to call: baby this mad customer tone.

"He made you pick up his dry cleaning?" Jo asked in disbelief after setting the phone onto the receiver with a click.

"Yeah, I made the mistake of falling asleep last night," Even though Jo had hired her, she felt comfortable admitting it.

"Oh yeah, he really doesn't like that," Jo said. "Go on back and hang them up. He isn't here yet,"

Rey nodded and took them into his office, which was open and the door was left ajar. She was relieved he wasn't here yet, and she found his closet and hung the plastic wrapped suits up in an area where he'd see them so he wouldn't come for blood thinking she hadn't picked them up. When she moved through the small kitchenette, she realized that he had a coffee maker with a whole selection of pods resting right there on the counter. She'd been so caught up last night, she didn't realize it.

"He had a coffee maker in here the whole time?" She muttered, under her breath. "Jerkwad,"

"What was that, Miss Beckett?" His voice shot through the quite sharply, and Rey found the hairs on the back of her neck standing up before she realized she had made a mistake.

Slowly, she turned around.

He had expensive sunglasses pushed over his hair, though the sun had mostly gone down by then. He was wearing a three piece suit, with a silk tie tucked into the vest and a silk scarf tucked into the jacket. Diamond cuff links glittered at his wrists, and even those seemed a bit flashy for him. His dress shoes were shined and pointy, just like his attitude. She wanted to make fun of his nose, and his too big lips, and shout neener-neener at the end of it, but she was forced instead to be polite. This was her job, after all.

"Nothing, Mr Ren," She said, making her way quickly to the door to try and get out of the splash zone as quickly as she could. He slid quickly from where he stood, blocking her path out of the door. She might have been small, but she was prepared to fight him if he cornered her. She had a sick image of shoving one of his expensive pens into his jugular.

"I could have sworn I heard you say something, Miss Beckett,"

She realized she might not get out of there unless she gave him some sort of answer.

"I was just noticing that you have a coffee maker in here," She said, as kindly as she could manage.

"Oh, right," He said, flippantly. "Well, you never asked," He looked smug, and he lifted his sunglasses off of his dark hair.

She tried to duck around him, but he got in her way again. This was like schoolyard bullying all over again, except that this bully was a good deal more frightening than any she had dealt with in school. He didn't have acne, and she couldn't take comfort in the fact that he was dressed badly (because he most certainly wasn't). He held out his hand and looked at her with raised brows. She was surprised at it until she realized what he was after; his credit card. She tugged it out of her purse and resisted the urge to chuck it behind her, thinking he would only force her to go pick it up before he'd let her leave. She handed it to him, and he stepped out of the way of the doorway.

"Miss Beckett," He said, his tones warning. "I expect to see you back here in an hour,"

She stood stiff, pausing briefly before she nodded her head and quickly made her way back to the front desk.

"I hate him, I hate him, I hate him," She was muttering under her breath when she freed Jo from the front desk.

"We all do," Jo said, trying to comfort her new charge as best she could. The files that had been there the night before were gone, but Jo didn't say anything about it. Rey wondered if Hilda had finished them before she had left. "Don't show any weakness," Jo warned. "He's like a shark that way,"

"A shark?"

"He smells blood in the water,"

And with that very ominous final sentence, Jo said goodnight and shuffled out of the front door.

Rey found that the evening hours were busier than the overnight hours, and she took a good deal of calls and fielded a good deal of e-mails. She forwarded them where they should go, and helped people in and out of the building, directing those that had never been there to the correct areas on the map she was barely starting to get a handle on. An hour passed quickly and she realized she had a small alert on 'yakker', the office messaging system. It was him. Surely he was too busy to be sending her personal reminders?

The calls had slowed, but she felt uncomfortable leaving the desk without switching on the automated messaging system that would play a recording and allow the caller to leave a message. She shoved her purse in a drawer, though she paused briefly to realize that someone's belongings were still in there. She frowned, but she didn't have time to think on it right at that moment.

She knocked at his door softly, hearing his voice.

"Come in," He muttered, obviously distracted with something. He was sitting in front of his laptop, the blue glow the only thing lighting up the room. He had a panoramic view of the street, which was littered with neon signs from noodle shops and all night convenience stores.

"You wanted to see me?"

"I have a proposition for you," He said, glancing up briefly from his laptop. He motioned in an exasperated fashion to the chair on the other side of his desk. "Well, sit down,"

"I'll stand," She said, proud at her small moment of defiance.

"Fine," He said, standing up and coming to the other end of the desk where he parked his butt and looked her over. She fought the urge to step back, Jo's words ringing in her ears.

No weakness, no weakness.

"I'm in need of an assistant," He admitted. Big surprise there.

"So?" She asked, blinking at him. If he was going to treat her like she was stupid, she might as well act stupid. At least in that very moment when it felt good to do so.

"So, I want you to be my assistant," He said slowly, looking at her down his nose.

"No," She said, bluntly. If he was surprised, he hid it well, but she couldn't imagine why he would be surprised, or why he was even offering her the job to begin with.

"I can't even make coffee," She blurted out, unable to stop herself.

"No, you can't," He agreed. "But that's why there are twenty four hour coffee shops and credit cards," He said. Was he teasing her?

"Are we done?" She asked, her tones clipped. She was barely hiding her disdain for him then.

"No," He said flatly. "I'll double your pay. I'll pay you time and a half for hours worked over the normal work week," He slid a piece of paper out of a folder and handed it to her. It was a non-disclosure agreement, and a contract pledging her time to him for a full year. That wasn't alarming at all.

"I go to school, I don't have time to work overtime," She said.

"Oh really? Do you have student loans?" There was nothing friendly in his tone.

Damn it.

"You got that blazer at some sort of convenience mart, I'm sure. And the shoes you were wearing last night had to be years old," He said, airily. "It's obvious that you're in need of money,"

"No," She said again, flatly, rebounding back to his offer of employment. She couldn't believe this man, and though she couldn't help it, her cheeks flushed hot with embarrassment. He didn't even seem to notice that he had hurt her feelings.

"Think it over," He said, smirking at her. She could have slapped him. She tried to hand the disclosure agreement back to him and he wouldn't take it. They stood there, staring one another down for a long time before her hand fell back to her side, paper still clutched within.

He dismissed her with a little wave of his hand and mouthed the word 'Go' like she were some sort of dog to be ordered around.

"Oh, and Miss Beckett," She paused. "If you won't accept this agreement, you can consider your employment here terminated by the end of the week,"

She had to think that if she hadn't fallen asleep last night she wouldn't be going through all of this. She stormed back out to the front desk, completely forgetting that she had wanted to look at the belongings that had been left in the drawer, or that they were even there.

Arrogant bastards and blackmail were not what she had been expecting. She was sure that she should not accept his offer, and she should listen to her gut and pack up her stuff and leave at the end of the week and never come back. She kept thinking of his eyes, and the timbre of his voice, and despite how much she wanted to hate him, she didn't want to give him the pleasure of her leaving. It was not a good reason to keep a job, just to try and get under someone's skin, but she was determined where he was awful.

He left her alone that night, which was a blissful reprieve. She was thankful she hadn't had to march back and forth between the break room to get him coffee he wasn't going to drink, which left her some time to try and complete what class assignments she could on the work computer. There were more people in the building that night, a small pod of IT people who took calls during the night time hours and the manager who watched over them. When she went to the break room to eat lunch, she found it wasn't empty and dark.

"Hey," One of the girls said. "You must be the new receptionist. I'm Edie," She said, smiling.

"Jakob," Her friend said. "Y'all are beginning to be like mythical creatures. Hard to find and don't last long,"

"Jake, shut up," Edie said, spooning up some store bought ramen into her mouth.

"Rey," She said, grasping her purse a bit awkwardly. "I don't see why it would be difficult for a receptionist to keep this job," She couldn't keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

"You've met him, then?" Edie asked. "We're lucky, he doesn't deal with us as much," She shuddered. "He gives me the creeps,"

"Me too," Rey said in response.

Rey had brought a lunch in that night. She had packed a frozen dinner that was basically just mac-n-cheese and a sad little apple. It was better than spending her hard earned money on the vending machine. She microwaved her frozen meal and sat down across from her two new coworkers. Well, past coworkers, it now seemed like.

"He's already fired me," She admitted. "End of the week,"

"Wow, that's a new record," Jake said, blinking in a surprised fashion. "What'd you do, insult his mother?"

"I fell asleep my first night here,"

"Oops," Edie said, mimicking what Rey had said the night before.

"Yeah, oops," Rey replied, pulling an amused and sad face.

"Well, look at the bright side, usually he just shouts and doesn't give you even a week, so I suppose you should feel lucky,"

"Oh yeah, I feel really lucky,"

They all laughed.

On her way back to her desk, she checked her phone. There was a new message from Rose, who explained that her time at her parents might be longer than she was expecting. Rey frowned and mentally noted to call her when it wasn't so late. She had an email from her professor, telling her that she could gather the notes from the missed lecture from a friend and she would be fine. She had graphic design, traditional art, math, and a science class. She struggled with the math class just a bit, and it didn't help the her professor was completely unforgiving.

She pulled out the drawer that was designated for her belongings, and her attention landed on the purse again. She couldn't fight her curiosity this time, and she tugged it out of the drawer. She thought maybe it was Jo's, but when she thought back to that evening she remembered that the woman had had a large tote bag. This was an old Coach bucket purse that looked well worn and well loved. She zipped it open, hoping to find an ID. Maybe there was a way she could call someone or have Jo call someone.

She pulled out a wallet that had glitter all over it, and clicked it, watching the thing swing open. There were credit cards, and a phone that was held in the wallet by a small elastic band. Rey furrowed her brow in confusion. She had a bad feeling about someone leaving their phone behind. She realized when she pulled the ID card out, that she recognized the photo. It was Hilda. It shocked her. Why would the woman have left for lunch and not taken her things with her? Why would she have left her phone? And why hadn't she come back for them?

Rey slid the ID card back into the wallet, trying to turn the phone on. It was dead, and there was no charger in the purse. Her charger wouldn't fit it, so she decided not to mention what she'd found to anyone just yet. She could ask Jo about it tomorrow, she supposed, but she felt the need to keep it quiet just then. She put the purse back in the drawer, troubled with the significance of it. Surely if she meant to leave on lunch and not return, she would have taken her belongings with her - and if she'd forgotten them, she would have come back by now.

She swallowed heavily, reaching for the fresh cup of coffee she'd made. She took and unsteady sip of it, finding it burned her tongue and forced her to cough a bit.

She was glad when the sun began to rise and Jo finally came in. She looked tired. Rey had shoved the small purse within her own, intending to take it with her. She didn't want it to disappear. She had a bad feeling it might have if she'd left it there. She thought she might look through her phone and see if there was someone she could call to find out if Hilda was alright.

Jo looked at Rey and smiled. They exchanged pleasantries before Rey broke out into the unusually chilly morning. The cold woke her up a bit. She wouldn't have long to sleep today, and she couldn't miss any more classes. She was glad she wouldn't have to be back at work that night, though. It was her day off. She had split days off, worked into where her heavier class days were, which meant she wasn't really going to get a break.

She went home and found the place was a let down when Rose wasn't there. That reminded her to call her roommate. It was early, but she thought the woman was probably up already. It rang a few times before she picked up.

"This is Rose," She said, distracted.

"Hey Rose, it's Rey," She said, though she didn't get a response right away as Rose seemed to be speaking to someone in the background.

"Sorry Rey," She said, suddenly back on the line.

"Is everything OK?" She asked, concerned for her friend.

"Well, no," Rose said honestly. "My mom got diagnosed with cervical cancer," Rose said. Rey could tell she was having a hard time not crying. Rose and her parents were very close. "I think it's probably better if I stay up here for awhile,"

"I understand," Rey said, quietly. "I'm so sorry, Rose,"

"Listen, my dad isn't going to pay for that place if I'm not living there. I know this puts you in a rough spot, but he's going to break the lease and send movers in for my stuff," Rey had always thought that Rose's parents were well off, but she realized they'd never really talked about it. "The apartment said they could give you a few weeks to get out of there, but that's really all they can spare,"

Rey felt her heart sinking into her stomach.

"Oh," She said, obviously disappointed.

"I'm sorry, Rey, I tried to talk him out of it, but I don't pay for it..."

"It's OK, Rose, it isn't your fault. You should be there for your mother,"

"I'm glad you're not angry," She sounded relieved.

"No, I'll figure something out," Rey said. What, she didn't know. Homelessness? "Keep me updated, Rose. I have to catch a few hours of sleep,"

They hung up after a few moments, and Rey sat at the kitchen table with her arms wrapped around her legs. She was trying to make herself as small as possible, and she was chewing on her nails, an old nervous habit she had mostly broken herself of. She looked at her phone, vaguely hoping that Rose would ring her back and tell her it was all a big joke, but it didn't happen.

Rey pulled the contract out of her bag and set it on the table in front of her next to Hilda's forgotten purse. She fingered the edge of it before she leaned down and filled it out, signing it. It really did feel as if she was signing her soul away to the devil, but the desperate had a tendency to do those things.

Afterwards, she caught a few hours of sleep.

The day of classes went by uneventfully, and she made her way home again. The day had gone from chilly to sleeting, awful gray rain, and she was damp when she got home. She had a boat load of homework to do, and she knew she had to do it then or she might not get time. The landlord had already posted a notice on her door, letting her know how long she would have to get out of there. She frowned as she read it, releasing a heavy sigh.

She finished her homework and repeated the whole thing the next day, finding that her shift had come on her quickly through a haze of homework and lectures. She hadn't slept much, but after class she'd gone home and caught a few hours of sleep before she'd showered and dressed. She wore an old pair of Doc Martens over a pair of tights and a short skirt. Her sweater was overlarge and comfy with a sort of criss-crossing pattern on the back. She pulled the sleeves down over her hands before she began digging around for her umbrella.

She had charged Hilda's phone, but she hadn't been able to get any of her contacts to answer. It was so strange, and unsettling. It was as if she had never existed at all. Rey put the purse back in her tote bag, intent on putting it back into the drawer and letting someone know about it the next morning. She found her clear umbrella and went out into the drizzling night, stopping at a coffee shop and ordering a hot caramel latte.

She was early when she got into work, but there was no one at the desk. She thought maybe Jo had gone home early, but was relieved to find that she had just gone off to do an errand. She came back and Rose greeted her.

"Hilda never came back," Jo said. "I can't get a hold of her at all,"

"I'm sorry," Rey said. "Does anyone know where she might have gone?"

"It's probably nothing serious," Jo said. "She probably just decided she didn't want the job anymore and didn't want to deal with leaving notice,"

"Maybe," Rey said. She knew Jo was likely just trying to talk herself into believing that it wasn't strange.

"He'll be in meetings all night, but he wanted to see you as soon as you came in,"

"He's here already?"

"Always here on rainy days," She said. "Have a good night, hun," She shouldered her bag and left, leaving an air of emptiness behind her.

Rey put on her bravest face and tugged the papers out of her purse. They'd gotten a little crumpled with the journey, but they were intact overall. She didn't knock on the door, she just pushed it open. He was at his desk. She was glad to see surprise registering on his face, it felt like a small victory. She held the papers out, dropping them on top of whatever he was currently doing. She knew she was being rude. She didn't care.

"I'll do it," She said. "But I want a sign on bonus, effective immediately,"

Kylo Ren laughed.

"How much?"

"Twenty-five hundred," She said simply. She might be risking the offer, but he had seemed so interested in hiring her on.

"Fine," He said, and they shook hands. His was unnervingly cold.

"I want you to write it out and sign it," She demanded, waiting there in silence until he had. He made a copy of it, handing it over to her.

"Effective immediately," He replied. "Or within three to five days, depending on your bank,"

When she moved to go back to the front desk, he stopped her.

"Miss Beckett," He said.

"What?"

"Your office is there," He pointed across the hallway. "For now, we'll be moving up into the upper floors shortly,"

"What about the front desk?"

"The security guard will fill in until we find someone to fill the position,"

This was too weird, but she was so broke and desperate she ignored the bad feeling in her stomach.

2 chapters in one day on this here au. try to keep your pants on.