"You're Not Alone"
By EsmeAmelia
Chapter 3
"Ben, Ben, wake up!"
A small hand shaking his shoulder drove Ben out of a troubled sleep full of dreams about his parents staring at him in fear, flinching away when he tried to get near them. With a groan, he slowly opened his eyes to find Rey kneeling over him, her lips pursed and her eyes wide in the dim nighttime light.
"You okay?" she asked. "You were crying."
Ben had to hold down a chuckle at her asking if he was all right when she was the one who'd been abandoned and forced to do child labor to survive. Still, as he wiped his hand over his eyes and it came back damp, he had to admit that he was touched by her gesture. "I'm fine," he said with a sigh. "I just miss my mom and dad, that's all."
"Me too."
Ben gulped as he scrambled to a sitting position. "Here," he said, reaching for the pack of crackers and the bottle of water that sat by his bed. "I've been carrying these all day in case you showed up." He pulled open the cracker bag and uncapped the water. "I'm sorry, I know it's not much, but . . ."
She snatched the crackers and water and started stuffing the crackers in her mouth and gulping down the water as if she hadn't seen food or water for ages. Ben felt his heart ache for her, wishing he could fly in and rescue her from wherever she was.
"Rey," Ben said once she was finished, "do you know what planet you're on?"
Rey shook her head. "It's really hot," she said with a frown, "and there's lots of sand. I don't like it."
A desert. That didn't exactly narrow things down much. "How many suns are there?"
"One," said Rey, cocking her head as if of course there would never be a planet with more than one sun.
Okay, not Tatooine, but that still didn't narrow things down much. "Does it have any moons?"
Rey held up two fingers.
A planet with a desert, one sun, and two moons. There were probably thousands of planets that fit that description and Luke definitely wouldn't let Ben stop his Jedi training to go off on a wild bantha chase searching for a little girl.
Then there was also the matter that Rey might not be safe if Luke found out about her . . .
"Rey, listen," he said, gazing into the child's eyes, "I don't know where you are, but someday I'll find out, and when I do, I'll come rescue you. It might take years, but someday I'll come for you."
To Ben's shock, Rey frowned at his promise. "But what about Mommy and Daddy?"
"What about them?"
"What if they come back for me? I gotta be here if they do."
"Rey, they're not coming back!"
Now she was actually glaring at him, her lip pouting. "Yes they are!"
"Rey, you told me they left you and flew away."
"Yeah, but they're comin' back!"
Ben let out a long sigh, realizing that he couldn't reason with a child who was still in shock over her parents abandoning her. Believing that they'd come back for her was undoubtedly a coping mechanism. "All right," he finally said, "maybe they'll come back."
Rey nodded as if he'd just confirmed her beliefs. "You don't need to rescue me. Mommy and Daddy will."
The level of steady confidence with which she said it almost made Ben believe it too for a moment even though the notion made no sense. How did a six-year-old convey so much certainty?
"Can you tell me a story?" Rey suddenly asked, stifling a yawn.
Ben gulped. "A story?"
Rey nodded. "I miss Mommy and Daddy's bedtime stories."
"Well . . . I'm not very good at telling stories," Ben fumbled.
"I don't care," said Rey, lying down next to him. "I'd just like a story."
How could he refuse that? "All right," he said, lying back down as well, "but if you disappear during it, we'll have to continue it later." He chewed on the inside of his cheek, remembering how his own parents told him bedtime stories that made him feel safe enough to go to sleep . . . at least until the nightmares came back.
And there was one story in particular that he always loved to hear.
"Once upon a time," he began, "there was a princess. She was a brave warrior who fought in the Rebellion against the evil Galactic Empire. One day, she was trusted with valuable plans for the Empire's big weapon, the Death Star, which could destroy a whole planet . . ."
. . .
Eight-year-old Rey sat outside the fallen AT-AT walker she'd recently claimed as her home, gazing up at the endless clusters of stars. They were up there, somewhere. Around one of those stars, maybe even looking at the sky themselves right this moment and missing their daughter. Maybe they were planning to come get her soon, maybe even tomorrow. Tomorrow, she could have her family back tomorrow, it was at least possible, right?
"Hey."
The familiar voice drew her out of her reverie. She looked down from the sky and sure enough, there was Ben, who was in the process of sitting on the ground across from her. "Hey," she responded. "How's it going?"
Ben shrugged, his mouth crinkled in a slight frown. "Nothing really new. My uncle still thinks I'm not ready to take the Jedi trials, so there's that. I also realized today that it's been six months since Mom and Dad last visited."
"They'll visit again soon," Rey instantly said.
Ben ran his teeth over his bottom lip. "I'd like to believe that, but Mom's so busy right now and Dad wants to be with her to provide moral support. The senate's trying to find information about something called the First Order – I don't know the details, but it's got something to do with the old Empire." He released a sigh. "Mom and Dad always seem so tired when I talk to them on the comm . . . but look at me, I shouldn't be griping to you when you're much worse off than I am."
"It's okay," said Rey. "We both miss our parents." Again she glanced upwards at the stars. "Maybe looking at the stars will help you feel better. My mom and dad are up there somewhere and so are yours." A sudden realization brought a grin to her face as she looked back down at Ben. "And you're up there too!" She pointed up. "You're up there . . ." She pointed at Ben. ". . . and you're here!"
That got Ben to snicker a little. "You're right. I still don't know why we link up like this, though."
"You still haven't asked your uncle?"
Now Ben was chewing on his lip again. "Look, things would get complicated if my uncle found out about this, okay?" He cleared his throat. "Anyway, have you found out what planet you're on?"
Ben asked this question almost every time they linked and Rey always answered no.
Even though it wasn't true.
Jakku. She'd known the name of the planet for almost a year now – she'd picked it up from overhearing people in Niima Outpost – but she hadn't told Ben even though his eyes pleaded with her every time and part of her always wanted to say "I'm on Jakku, please come find me and take me away from this awful place!"
"No," she said again, lowering her eyes in hopes that Ben wouldn't see the lie in them. She kept telling herself that she had to lie because her parents were still coming for her, she had to be here for them to find her.
Despite the hunger, despite the burning heat, despite the dreams of Ben finding her and taking her away to a life far from here where she would never have to be hungry or lonely again.
She had to stay.
