Thief (of my heart)

Chapter 3

When Rey comes to, it's in utter blackness, a strange warbling sound around her, like being underwater but without the gentleness of it wrapping her in its embrace.

Cold and unable to get her bearings, she fights. Fighting is what she does best. That and stealing.

As soon as the thought of fight hits her, the sounds grow louder. Every part of her body moves, thrashing, bucking, gripping, kicking, yanking, tossing and turning. She is still trapped in darkness so she pulls and claws and digs at any and everything she can grip or grab. Her voice is quiet, having long learned it's best to just fight, don't waste energy screaming.

No one ever hears her anyway.  

Suddenly, something that sounds familiar makes it way past her panic, her anger.

Her name. That is unusual. She's used to the terms bitch and whore, stupid girl and piece of shit. Names like ugly, scrawny, useless, skinny, flatchested. Those are what she is called.

Never her own name. Which may not even be her own name but what does it even matter anymore? It's all she knows.

Rey Johnson. Plain. No middle name. She doesn't even know her own birthday, the date just the marker of the day she was found, abandoned, starving, freezing and alone.

Rey hesitates in her anger for a millisecond, chasing the voice that called her.

Then, her wrists and ankles are caught and she is being tied down.

Fear like she has not known in a very long time grips her. For as many times as she's been hit, she's never been tied down. It's a fear she's had. Whether something had happened at some point and she's repressed it or it's just a common fear, she doesn't know.

"NO!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DON'T TIE HER DOWN!"

"SIR!! ITS FOR NOT ONLY HER SAFETY BUT OUR OWN…"

"I DON'T GIVE A FUCK! TRY SOMETHING ELSE!"

"IF YOU CAN'T CALM DOWN SIR, YOU'LL BE REMOVED."

"I know, I know. Rey, please, stop fighting, open your eyes."

Oh, her eyes are closed. Why didn't she think of that? Well, one eye is closed. The other…

Rey slowly blinks open, immediately encountering a painfully bright light in her good eye.

"Stop! Dammit, I finally got her to open and you blind her. You people, I swear. Rey?"

She blinks again.

"Your ears are still huge, Solo. The hair isn't helping much."

He smiles. He fucking smiles and Rey, for reasons beyond her comprehension, stops breathing a minute.

Who even knows why? Not her.

Ben Solo moves his monstrosity of a hand towards her face, slowly, as if he wants to caress her but then he stops, hand hovering above her. He's still smiling though and for some stupid reason, she's still not breathing.

Probably just the whole situation.

Whatever.

"You're okay," he says in a whisper, either reassuring himself or Rey. Who's to say?

"No," a woman's voice says from somewhere behind Ben, "she's certainly not okay, sir. This display was from something very traumatic that occurred. That's what I'm about to get to the bottom of."

Ben is now looking back over his shoulder, his hand merely an inch from Rey's cheek. She's confused and scared. She's tied to a gurney in what appears to be a hospital and is surrounded by strangers. They are all in scrubs wearing stethoscopes and various medical apparatus but that doesn't comfort her. She's exhausted and hungry and thirsty and hurting everywhere.