Chapter Text
The ship skimmed over Naboo slowly enough to appreciate the world’s beauty. The planet was exquisite, covered in water and trees and elegant cities. It was hard for Rey to believe that it existed in the same galaxy as Jakku.
Their grandmother really had been a queen. Kylo had shown her footage on the HoloNet of a beautiful woman with elaborately dressed hair and a lavish gown encrusted with jewels. She had ruled a world, and Rey had been dumped on a ruined planet and forced to scour for bits of junk to keep from starving.
Their grandmother could never have imagined it, surely. She must have believed that her children and their children and on for years would be safe and well. Yet her family had shattered after her death, losing each other and drifting through the galaxy wreaking havoc.
Rey thought of how easy it would be to lose Kylo and went cold.
“There it is. Varykino.”
Rey jerked herself back to the present. Below them, on a lake island, was a mansion surrounded by gardens. It was there their grandparents had fallen in love and married. If she’d survived childbearing, surely that’s where they would have raised their children. Rey would have visited in her childhood, known her family.
Maybe her father would have loved her then.
She wouldn’t have met Kylo when he pursued her through a forest, but instead known him from childhood. Maybe he wouldn’t have fallen to a monster like Snoke if she’d been there for him. Their family had failed him, too.
The only reason he wasn’t with Snoke now, she knew, was because of her. It was the first thing that told her he cared about her, before he’d ever said a word of love. He’d left the man who’d ruled his life since he was a boy for her, because she’d said she didn’t want to be near him. And Kylo had agreed.
It was the first time she understood what it was to have a family.
“It’s beautiful.”
He smiled. “I thought you’d like it.”
There were, he’d told her, a couple of ancient aunts left, ensconced in the family’s estate, where their grandmother had grown up. Like the lake house, it was too risky to stop there, but they’d be able to fly over and imagine their grandmother there as a child, playing on the grass and walking in the gardens. And someday they’d come back, and walk those paths themselves.
The Naberrie estate, however, was in the west. And although they were now past Varykino, Kylo was still flying north.
“Kylo?”
He wasn’t smiling anymore, and his eyes didn’t leave the control panel. “There’s a ship behind us.”
She tensed. “Are they…”
“I don’t know.”
“Why aren’t we lifting off?”
“Because that would be confirmation. If we try to evade it’ll put a target on us. Right now they don’t know anything. If they did they would have attacked.”
“So what do we do?”
He grunted, “Take the conn.”
She took over the piloting duties, which were usually hers anyway. “What now?”
“Head to Gallus City and lose them in the traffic. After we shake them we’ll head for the nearest hyperspace corridor.”
“What are you going to do?”
His look was grim. “Whatever I have to.”
They’d never used their ship’s guns. They were in good condition; Kylo wouldn’t have bought the ship if they weren’t. But firing them, like taking evasive action, would be confirmation. And if it was an unmarked First Order ship, they would be in constant contact with headquarters, so downing the ship wouldn’t solve the problem. Not by firing on it.
Kylo’s own inclination had always been to attack, furious and unrelenting. He had never had patience; his former master had punished him for that lack many times.
But he was powerful, more powerful than almost anyone in the galaxy. He called upon that power and reached out, stretching, feeling, grasping. He channeled his fear and his anger until his mastery of the Force extended beyond anything he’d experienced and he was suffused with the purity of the Force, without the dishonest bifurcation of light and dark. He felt what he wanted in his hand, and he squeezed.
“Kylo!”
He opened his eyes. His hand was empty, and the ship behind them was dropping out of the sky. It slammed into a lush green meadow, cartwheeled a few times, and burst into flames. It would look natural to anyone who cared to inspect the wreckage, but he knew better.
A ship couldn’t fly with a crushed particulate phase inverter.
The fog of sleep lifted slowly from Kylo. First he was aware of the body he was wrapped around, hot like the planet she’d lived on for so long. Then contentment made itself felt, a feeling he’d never known before Rey. All the years of struggling to find meaning, all the prophets he’d followed. Snoke, with his insane preoccupation with power. And the seduction he’d presented, that Kylo had desperately embraced, of following in his grandfather’s footsteps and finishing his great works.
What a joke.
Snoke was mad. Kylo saw clearly now how unhinged Snoke been by his ambitions and past failures. He’d dragged Ben Solo in, a willing victim, too naïve and self-absorbed to recognize a monster when it flattered him.
And Luke Skywalker. A fool if he’d ever known one. So devoted to his order that he’d abjured life and love, even when it had shown up, beseeching, on his doorstep.
Anger flared at the thought of the solitary struggle Skywalker had condemned Rey to. So pure. So smug.
And his grandfather, Anakin, who’d loved a woman who was beautiful and strong like Rey, and had been loved by her in return. Yet he’d gone mad, choosing power over his wife, over his children. The first, but not the last, generation of Skywalkers to fail in the most basic and necessary test of humanity.
Vader had chosen power. Luke had chosen devotion.
Kylo would not make those same mistakes.
Perhaps it was time to help the Resistance along. After his abandonment of the First Order months before, he was probably not very high on their list of priorities. For years, even decades after the war ended, they would have to concentrate on rebuilding worlds and restoring order.
By then Kylo Ren, a man known only by his mask, would be unidentifiable to anyone still living.
With a jolt he thought of his mother. He pushed away any maudlin notions before they could bloom and decided to send some anonymous information the Resistance’s way. It had nothing to do with sentiment. It was a practical matter, that was all.
He and Rey were creating a future together, and they didn’t want to look over their shoulders forever.
He’d known, always, that he’d needed love, thirsted for it. Had never felt its surfeit. It was only now that he realized that the need to feel love for another was just as strong. His love for her filled and warmed him, a living thing that couldn’t be contained. It was like having her warmth inside of him, nestling against his heart. He needed it to live.
He trailed a hand down her side, nudging between her thighs. She was warm and damp, as she always seemed to be. Always welcoming him in.
She was extremely damp. He drew his hand back to sniff at her arousal, but sat bolt upright at the familiar smell, one he had known intimately for years.
Blood.
He scrabbled down the bed and saw, to his horror, that her thighs were stained with it. He touched her softly, and fresh blood dribbled over his fingers. Her life’s blood, flowing out of her. Because of him. He hadn’t even been aware of being too rough with her. Fuck, why hadn’t she told him?
He grabbed a soft shirt and tucked it between her legs, then ran to the cockpit. He checked their heading and immediately entered coordinates to the closest major planet. His hands shook, and he forced himself not to think of Rey bleeding out before they got there. He would go mad if she died.
He couldn’t survive with her death on his hands.
He remained in the cockpit, struggling to control his spiraling fear, for several moments. He cursed himself for never studying Force healing. Until Rey he’d been independent, his eyes only been on the next mission. What did he care for the well-being of others? And now she was paying the price for his smug self-absorption.
His chest was tight as he rushed back to their bedroom. Would she be falling farther from life? Would her sweet body be losing its warmth? Would she hear him as he comforted her?
He knelt beside her. Her face was relaxed as ever, as if untouched by the life leeching from her. He pressed his lips against her forehead. He remembered, from long in the past, that it was something you did when you loved someone.
She was as warm as ever, sunlight in human form.
Her eyelids slid open and she smiled. His heart cracked. He could not lose her.
“What time is it? It seems early.”
He forced a smile. “Don’t worry about that. We’ll be landing on Corellia in a few minutes. We’ll be there for a bit. You’ll be able to see Coronet City. You can eat anything you want, I promise.”
The smile dropped from her face. “Corellia? Are you insane?” she demanded, sitting up.
He grasped her shoulders and tried to urge her down. “It’s necessa—”
“What’s this?” Rey asked, pulling the folded shirt from between her thighs.
Kylo’s voice was frayed. “You need to put that back and lie down until we land.”
“Why didn’t you just wake me up and let me know my period had started? I’m not sure the blood’s going to come out of this. This might be a rag now.”
Kylo fell back onto his heels. “Your period,” he repeated, dazed. “Your period.” He dropped his head into his hands, unable to comprehend fate’s kindness. It felt unnatural and illusory, something he wasn’t allowed to have.
He opened his eyes and she was still there, bright and alert, frowning. “What did you think it was?”
He opened his mouth but no sound came out, and he could feel his ears turn fiery. Finally he mumbled, “You were losing blood. I never thought about your cycle.”
“But Corellia? We agreed not to go to any major planets again until we were certain no one was looking for us.”
“You were bleeding! I wanted to get you to a hospital!”
“There are dozen planets you could have chosen instead of Corellia!”
“You think I would entrust your life to some half-trained hick who’s probably a spice addict?” Kylo scoffed.
Rey rolled her eyes. “Land on Tralus,” she instructed, referring to one of the system’s more sparsely populated planets. She flopped back on the bed, crisis over. “Or Talus. We might as well stock up on supplies while we’re here. And we’re getting some fried murat. And maybe other stuff. Maybe all the other stuff. You promised, I heard you.”
Kylo went to the cockpit, still shaky, and brought them down on Tralus well outside any inhabited area. They could fly to a more central location later; at the moment the only thing he wanted was to get back to Rey. The sense of unreality persisted, as if he would wake from a dream to find her lifeless beside him.
He returned to the bedroom and crawled over her. He needed her comfort.
She started a little, having already begun drifting off to sleep. Now she was covered in man, her man, his face buried in the curve of her neck and his arms wrapped around her. She gave up on sleep and drew her arms around him. He shivered a little. Poor sweet man had been scared.
She remembered the first time she’d bled, and how terrified she’d been. No one else had been there to explain, to worry or soothe or even laugh at her distress. She’d been sure she was dying.
She thought of how she’d feel if it were him bleeding. Of how she’d feel if she lost him.
She started shaking now, too. She tried to nudge his face up so she could kiss him, but he kept it buried against her neck. She pressed kisses against his hair, stroking his back and murmuring her love to him. She was still learning how to love someone and let them love her, and she made mistakes.
Finally he turned his face up. There were traces of tears on his face, tears she hadn’t even been aware of him shedding. She pressed her lips against his eyelids, willing him to understand.
He ducked his head and began to cry harder. He nudged his thigh between hers and she parted them, cradling him where he belonged. He tried to enter her, but he was soft, and his sobs became audible. She felt a brushing against her leg and looked down to see him take himself in hand and pump desperately. He tried again, and this time he was hard enough to enter her. He pushed himself in to the hilt with no preliminaries, his way eased by her blood, then sank back down on top of her, shaking and desperate for comfort.
“I’m here. I’m fine,” she soothed. “I’m fine.” It felt odd to have him inside her without being aroused, full but not uncomfortable. She knew he would crawl inside her and live there if he could, and the knowledge brought her peace. She needed to be needed, needed it more than anything.
He rocked against her, his sobs gradually slowing. Finally he lifted his head and looked at her. His eyes were swollen and his cheeks damp, and he was beautiful. For the first time she knew she meant more than anything else in the galaxy to someone. For him there would never be something more important on the next horizon.
She cupped his face. “I love you,” Rey whispered. “I’m not going anywhere. This happens every month. I promise I’m okay.”
He raised himself on one elbow, beginning to return to himself. “We’re not having a baby.” He hadn’t thought of birth control; he was a very stupid man. But he’d never had a relationship before. Now, with Rey, there was a future to think of. And the possibility of a bright little Rey darting about, her quick hands in everything and her laughter echoing.
Or a sullen, supercharged baby Ben, vibrating with the combined power of his parents. Maybe children weren’t a good idea.
She lifted her eyebrows. “Do you want to?”
“I haven’t thought of it. Not yet,” he added. “I can get a contraceptive implant when we go into town.”
“I can get one.”
He frowned. “I meant what I said. I’m not letting some backwater excuse for a doctor work on you.”
But he was fine with said doctor working on him. She gave him her sweetest kiss.
He sighed into her mouth, and she could feel his tension easing.
He hardened further, and his thrusts became purposeful. She wrapped her legs around him, not aroused, really, but relishing the feel of him inside her. He finished with a groan and she hugged him close.
The frantic thrum of his heartbeat was still slowing when he slid down her body and began petting between her legs. He fit his shoulders between her knees and set his hands along the inside of her thighs, already painted with her blood and his come. He leaned forward, blowing at her snatch, dripping with his spendings and unbelievably lovely.
She jerked up, pushing him away.
“What?”
“Blood.”
“It’s you,” he said, puzzled. “Like your come.”
“No, it’s dirty.”
He frowned. “How could it be dirty? It’s part of you.”
“You’re not supposed to taste blood.”
“I sucked your finger when you cut it yesterday. You didn’t say anything then.”
“Period blood, I mean. It’s different.”
He ran a finger along her pussy, ignoring her shudder, then raised it to his lips. “Tastes the same. A little salty from the come.”
“You’re not supposed to eat that! You’re not supposed to eat either of those.”
“Why wouldn’t I eat my come? I eat yours. You eat mine.”
She shook her head, obviously frustrated. “You’re just not. It’s wrong.”
“Nothing can be wrong between us. How could it be?” His earnest expression made her heart twist. She relaxed her hold on his hair and nodded.
He dipped his head and nuzzled into her. He licked at her delicately before fastening his soft lips around her clit and suckling.
Rey tightened her fingers again, her head dropping back. In a few minutes she was thrashing and moaning, his strong hands holding her thighs open. He hummed against her, making her knees shake uncontrollably. She came in a gush against him, blood and cream streaking his face.
He pulled back and raked his fingers through her curls, reveling in the evidence of her pleasure. A little more blood trickled out and he followed its path with one finger, then traced it up again and watched more blood spill out.
Her fingers toyed with his hair lazily. “What are you doing?”
“Learning you.”
She smiled. “I’m not sure how much more there is to learn.”
“We have a long time to see.”
He rose to his knees and reached towards her. She thought he was going to put his arms around her, but instead he stroked his hands down her torso, streaking her with blood.
“You look so beautiful,” he whispered, eyes dreamy. “A goddess. My goddess. You’re so dangerous, so powerful, but you brought me to life. You saved me.”
He reached down and his fingers were at her entrance again, probing. It was much later that they both fell asleep, marked with blood and nestled in each other’s arms.
This time when Kylo opened his eyes he was wide awake, his muscles tense. Someone was in the ship. He hadn’t heard anything, not that he could remember, but the same instinct had saved his life many times in the past. Now it would protect the both of them.
Rey awoke as he rose silently. He held out his hand, gesturing for her to remain quiet; he didn’t even notice that they were both still covered in blood. He didn’t pause to dress or arm himself; he was all the weapon he needed. Someone was on their ship, looking to kill them or haul them to the First Order or just rob them.
And Kylo was going to send him back where he came from in pieces.
Soundlessly he slipped from their bedroom. Whoever the intruder was, he was silent. Professional. Didn’t turn on lights, walked with a light step. Seemed to know the layout of the ship.
Just didn’t realize which bedroom they were using.
Kylo waited until the man had disappeared into the disused bedroom before following. Adrenaline coursed through him and he fought to keep it under control, felt his discipline fray as it hadn’t in months. He would not lose. It was not possible. But he had never before had such stakes.
For the first time his life actually mattered.
He must have made a sound: The man swung around. He was big, heavily armored. Expensively equipped with a cutting-edge disruptor. One that could slice through the walls of the ship and pass through Rey before Kylo could take a breath.
The intruder wasn’t there to rob them, and he wasn’t there to lose.
Kylo shot his arm out to call the disruptor to him. Before he’d even completed the thought the man lifted his other hand and flung a blade at him. Kylo jerked back, tried to evade it, but the narrow doorway blocked his movements.
The knife sunk into his shoulder and he stumbled back. His blood flowed out, joining Rey’s.
“Sorry,” the man said. “Didn’t mean to damage the merchandise. Just needed a little distraction.”
The faintest noise sounded behind Kylo, and then everything went black.
Before Kylo did much more than register the hood thrown over his head he felt a ridged muzzle jam into his side. A particle blaster. He heard the low buzz that preceded its firing and, as if in slow motion, blindly slammed his elbow back at the head of the man behind him. A sharp crack sounded, and the man fell back with a muffled curse, the aborted shot fizzling out.
A roar sounded and the air beside Kylo heated and turned acrid, and he knew the disruptor had been fired. Please, Rey, please be down on the floor, please. He had no god to pray to, knew no religion other than the Force, but he would have prayed to every long-forgotten deity to keep her safe. He ripped off the hood, ignoring the man writhing on the floor behind him. He swung around and the first attacker was there, as large as Kylo, even more muscular, eyes as cold as an arctic ocean.
Then Kylo heard footsteps in the passageway, and there she was.
The attacker swung to face Rey, and a slow, nauseating smile crawled over his face. “So the rumors were true.”
The man was between him and Rey, blocking his access to her. She was closer to death than she was to him. These men were here for him, and they’d found her, sweet and beautiful and gallant.
He wanted the man’s throat between his hands. He wanted to reach his arm out, stop the man in his tracks, and choke the life from his body. He wanted to do that more than he wanted air, but at that moment, that moment that everything mattered, Kylo Ren could not feel the Force.
He shoved away his panic before it could take hold. Fine; he’d always enjoyed working with his hands. He took two steps before the man whose nose he’d broken leapt on his back and recharged the damn blaster.
Kylo didn’t even try to dislodge the man, just angled to get a view of Rey. He had to see her, had to know she was all right. The big one with the disruptor towered over her and reached out as if to touch her, and that’s when Rey brought her staff down on the sensitive spot where the neck meets the shoulder, and the man went down with a grunt.
The man clinging to Kylo’s neck fired the blaster, and Kylo braced to absorb it. It wouldn’t be a lethal jolt; they wanted him alive. He’d stood up after receiving a shot from the bowcaster, and this was a gnat compared to that. His muscles contracted, willing him to drop, and he ignored every lying impulse his body told him, focusing on the woman in front of him, the only person who’d never given up on him.
Two seconds. Three. There. He jerked the knife from his shoulder and swung it behind him, sinking it in the side of the man clinging to his back. The man went down shrieking, and now Kylo was strong again, knew he would not fail. In two steps he was on the man in front of him, who had regained his feet and was starting for Rey. Rey brought down her staff again, knocking the disruptor from his hand, and then Kylo framed the man’s head in the last embrace he would ever know. Out of the corner of his eye Kylo saw Rey bend for the disruptor.
Beneath his hands the man’s struggle went from defiant to desperate. He knew what was happening, and he knew he couldn’t stop it. He was outmatched, a pawn sent to retrieve a knight and his queen.
With a final twist, an ugly snap filled the cabin. Kylo let the broken body fall as he watched Rey advance on the other man with the disruptor in her hand, then end his life with a single shot.
The first time they’d met she’d fired on him. She’d killed several stormtroopers first, then fired on him again and again. She wasn’t an innocent; like him, her hands were red.
But not like him, not really. He told himself that so he wouldn’t think how he was dirtying her. That he wasn’t endangering her at every minute.
Kylo knelt and lifted the first man’s limp arm, activating the device built into his wrist guard. He swiped a few times, then nodded grimly. He held it out to Rey. There was a clear picture of Kylo, his eyes shut, the scar she’d given him vivid across his face. It must have been taken while he was in the infirmary after Starkiller collapsed. Probably the doing of that fucker Hux. And beneath his picture—
“Reward. Kylo Ren AKA Ben Solo,” Rey read. “Alive 25,000 credits, proof of death 10,000 credits.” Kylo dropped the man’s arm, but Rey continued to stare at it. What had happened on Vuln and Naboo weren’t coincidences. He was being hunted. For that much money, they’d keep coming. They’d never stop.
The two of them had to find a place beyond the reach of the First Order.
“At least they want you alive,” she ventured.
Kylo’s expression was grim. “That means they want to punish me before they execute me.”
Rey went gray beneath her tan. “You’re not—they can’t—”
He stood up and stepped back, away from her. “Rey, it isn’t safe for you to be with me. They’re crawling out of the woodwork, and you’re not safe. I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you.”
“I can help—”
“You can. You’re an amazing fighter.”
For a moment, just a moment, she relaxed. He wasn’t going to leave her. She would die, she knew, if he left. She’d been rejected too often. She could live without money, she could live without food. She couldn’t live without love, not another minute. She would die without it.
And he was the only one who’d ever loved her.
“But I can’t live with putting you at risk.”
She reared back, panic filling her. “No. No, you can’t do this. I can’t be alone again, I can’t do it. You said you’d never leave me. You promised! Why do you want to leave me?”
Tears stung his eyes. “I don’t want to leave you,” he said painfully. “Just thinking of it kills me. But I can’t live with knowing you’re in danger because of me. I’d give my life to keep you safe.” He cupped her face, wiping her tears away even as he fought his own. “If I didn’t love you so much I’d never even consider it. You have to be safe. I need that. I need it more than I’ve ever needed anything.”
She shook her head violently, disbelief in her face. “If you do it, you’ll be like him. You’ll be doing the same thing he did. I can’t, I can’t do it. I’ll go mad. I’ll die. I can’t, I can’t—”
Her pain and fear flayed him. He shook his head in self-disgust, horrified at his own cowardice. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Rey. I was wrong. I won’t do it, I promise. I’ll never leave you. I was stupid and wrong. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I did that to you. I swear I’ll never do it. I’ll never say it again, never think it.”
She shuddered in his arms, unable to stop shaking. “I’d rather die tomorrow than be without you,” she said raggedly. He turned her face up and pressed kisses to it, frantically trying to soothe her. Hearing her talk about dying made his chest so tight he could barely breathe. It was safer for her if he left. It was even safer for him. But she needed him, maybe even more than he needed her.
He’d never had anyone need him. He’d only needed, desperately, and been left unanswered.
He was going to ruin it. He was going to get her killed, and he’d survive to grieve her. Or he’d die doing something stupid, something unbearably stupid, and let her down. He had no expertise at sustaining anything, only destroying things. She was precious and perfect, and he would be her downfall.
The war had been over for several years before Finn Calana ventured into the Polaris system. The planet he stopped on was lush and tropical, but he didn’t really notice. He had bigger things on his mind.
Right now, though, he just wanted some junk food. His wife wouldn’t let him pack any. She knew he’d just stop and get some, but she didn’t intend to enable him.
He was making a beeline to the snack section of the shop when a woman passed him. He didn’t even look at her, not really, but some instinct—the same one that had kept him safe even in the most terrible moments of the war—snapped his head around.
And there she was, a living memory. “Rey!”
The woman froze before turning around. When she registered who it was she smiled, but not the big, fierce smile of years before. This was the expression of a woman who wasn’t sure how she felt about being recognized.
She didn’t like to be touched, he knew that, but he couldn’t stop himself from hugging her tightly. After a moment she put her arms around him.
“Maker, Rey, I was afraid you were dead,” he blurted.
She pulled away and frowned. “Why would you think that?”
“We heard about Kylo Ren’s death. The general and, uh—everyone.”
She flinched, glancing away.
“We weren’t sure if you were still with him. They didn’t find much in the wreckage. Just enough to identify him.”
“No, I wasn’t with him. He…”
She was silent for a long moment, and guilt washed over him. Maker knows what she’d endured with Kylo Ren. “You don’t have to tell me.”
When she finally spoke her eyes were far off, in another time. “The First Order wouldn’t stop coming for him. He hated for me to be in danger because of him. Finally he decided to make a stand. You know where it got him.”
Finn was flummoxed. He didn’t know how she could care about him, the monster who’d kidnapped and tortured her, who’d tried to kill both of them. But somehow she had, and she’d convinced herself that he’d cared as well. Finn knew, from what General Organa had said, that Rey and Ren were related, and that was why she had gone with him. He’d been shocked, but Rey’s desire for her family had moved him. Ultimately it had inspired him.
Maybe it was the remembered power of that longing that had inspired Finn to search for his own family.
Rey shook her head, seeming to turn from the past. A smile spread across her face, freer than before, one that made Finn feel like he was again the just-escaped stormtrooper trying to find where he belonged. They’d known each other such a short time, but she’d never dimmed in his memory. It had been the first time he’d lost a real friend, and the memory was sharp.
“Why didn’t you come back? Nobody blamed you. You were always welcome.”
“That wasn’t the life I wanted,” she said, her face dimming a little. “I missed you, though. What are you doing now that the war’s over?”
He nudged her arm. He wanted to squeeze her hand, but she’d never liked that. “I’m here looking for family.”
She tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
He couldn’t repress a smile. “After the war ended I searched the First Order’s records. I was able to locate my home world and find my parents. They’re still alive, Rey. I know them. I see them every day.”
Her jaw dropped. “How—how did you—”
“They never left. They wanted to be easy to find. Just in case.”
“They never gave up on you,” whispered Rey.
“That’s right. They always hoped we’d return.”
“We?”
The smile dropped from Finn’s face. “The First Order didn’t hit Merilla once, Rey. They attacked twice. I have a brother, three years older than me. They took him when he was five months old.”
Rey’s eyes widened. “And he’s here?”
“No, I’m just here to refuel and pick up some stuff. I’ve got a good lead. I told my parents I’m on a business trip, just in case it doesn’t pan out. No need to get their hopes up.”
“And you’ve been searching for him all this time?”
“When I find a lead. In the meantime, I have my hands full,” he said, pulling out a holo, smaller and lighter than the kind used during the war. All those old weapons engineers had to do something to make a living these days. He clicked it on and the image of a laughing woman appeared, trying to convince three rambunctious children to face the recorder and wave.
“They’re beautiful, Finn,” Rey said warmly. “I’m so glad for you. Family is the most important thing.”
He thought of Rey, who’d waited and dreamed of family for so many years, out here at the end of the galaxy, without the thing she’d most wanted, and his heart hurt. “Rey, come home with me. My wife knows all about you. She’d love to meet you.”
“What about your search?”
“I’ll swing by on the way home and pick you up. Or you can come with me—it would be like old times. Come on, we were a great team!”
Rey’s expression was tender, but he could read the refusal in it. “You know, I’ve wondered about you for years, Finn. You’re one of my happiest memories from those days.”
“Rey, I don’t want to lose touch again. The war’s over, there’s no reason—”
“Mama!”
Rey swung around, and Finn turned to see a girl of seven or eight, hair gathered in a familiar three-knot style, race into the shop. A boy, much younger, staggered in on chubby legs and hid his face against Rey’s trousers, wrapping his arms around her.
“Mama, we’re ready,” the girl said, dancing around in a way he was very familiar with from his own three jumping beans. “Papa wants to know if you need help or if he should take us to the park before we drive him insane.”
Rey was a mom. He didn’t know why it surprised him; she’d always hungered for family. But somehow, in his mind she’d remained forever young, his winsome companion of just a few short days—days that had changed his life.
To him she’d always be that bright, shining girl who could take apart a ship or take on a monster. But this was something he’d never imagined, and he felt a long-forgotten worry ease at the knowledge that she had what she’d most wanted.
The door to the shop swung open, and a man stepped into the doorway. His hair was night shot with silver, and his hunched posture made Finn flinch. He’d seen it before, in a dead man.
“…Rey?” Finn whispered.
The man in the doorway gave him a hard stare. He didn’t move until Rey nodded at him and bent to kiss the boy holding onto her legs. “Go with your father. I’ll be there in a minute.”
The girl took her brother’s hand and tugged him along, and the man swept them both into his arms. He gave Rey a long, searching look before leaving.
For a moment Finn smelled burning plasma, and he was there again, in Tuanul, in an armored suit. He was trapped, a stolen child grown into a reluctant soldier, and freedom was beyond his grasp. Rey was trapped now, this girl who’d withstood sand and starvation and war, trapped like he had been.
When Rey turned back to Finn her face was tranquil, and she reached out to squeeze his hand.
“It’s good to see you, Finn. I’ve often wondered about you. You were my first friend. You have the kind of life I always wanted for you.”
He knew what she was going to say, but he had to say it anyway. Had to make sure. “Rey, come with me. Bring your children. I can keep you safe. I have friends who can help.”
She smiled, a cloudless sky on a summer’s day, and walked to the door. “I’m right where I want to be,” she said simply.
“I told you, Finn. Nothing’s more important than family.”
The End