under the mask [ a Kylo Ren fanfiction ]

Chapter 22

Lena

Morning came far too quickly for Lena's taste. She had hardly slept in the past couple days, sick with worry, and she would love nothing more than to be able to hibernate for the day.

Unfortunately, life had other plans.

Lena was sound asleep until a loud knock on the door startled her. "Sir," a girl's voice said. Groggily she sat up, Ben didn't move. She nudged him softly. He opened his eyes about to say something when the girl spoke again. "Sir, are you awake?" The door knob jiggled.

Ben jumped up out of the bed. "Yes," half nervous, half asleep.

 "I'm here to check on you this morning and bring you breakfast." He gestured quickly to the closet door as he walked to answer the door. With a understanding nod, Lena slipped into the closet and pulled the door shut without making a sound. 

Her heart hammered in her chest, and her hands shook slightly from the immediate rush of adrenaline.  Lena pushed her ear closer to the door trying to listen to what Ben was saying.

"Thanks," Ben grumbled, sleep still lingering in his voice. 

"You shouldn't be walking around," the girl said, Lena heard footsteps coming into the room. "Lay down, I can get whatever you need." 

Jealousy started to burn in the pit of Lena's stomach. She moved her self so she could see out of the crack between the door. The girl was blonde, almost white blonde, which contrasted awfully against the white uniform she wore. Medic, Lena thought recognizing the uniform. 

"I'm fine, I don't need anything," Ben said with irritation woven into his words. The girl seemed to take the hint ducking her head down. He flicked his eyes quickly to the closet doors, but otherwise didn't move.

"Yes, of course. Myself or one of the other medics will be back to check on you later on," the medic turned and hurried out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Lena started to move from the closet, but Ben put his hand up to stop her. He walked back over to the door and out of sight, she heard the door open, then close and lock.

"You can come out now," he said weakly returning to his spot on the bed. He looked nauseous, and he was sweating terribly.

"Ben?" Lena asked walking over to him a putting her hand on his forehead, he had a fever. "You're burning up, do you have any medicine?" 

He pointed over to the tray that the medic had brought. On it was a glass bottle of small round white pills and a note next to it. She scanned over the directions that were written on the note, then picked two out of the jar. 

Before she could give them to him, he jumped out of them bed and ran to the bathroom. Lena hurried after him as he started retching. She had too look away, the noise itself made her want to throw up too. 

Lena had never been one to get sick. For some reason as a child, even when everyone else got sick she managed to avoid it. People use to joke and say she would make a great doctor because she was immune to everything. The only problem was that Lena didn't handle sick people very well. 

Flustered, she remembered Leia putting cold cloths on Ben's head when he was younger. Lena followed suit and went and found a wash rag then soaked in cold water. Ben leaned back against the wall breathing heavily with his head in his hands. 

"Here, put this on your head." she gave him the rag and sat down next to him. He nodded in thanks pushing the rag up to the top of his head. His hands were shaking, he rubbed them back and forth on his leg trying to get them to stop. Lena grabbed the hand that wasn't hold the rag and held it until it stopped shaking.

After a minute, Lena got up and started fixing the room for him. She wasn't sure what do with a sick person, she wasn't even sure if he was sick. Did he have an infection from one of his injuries? Was the medicine just not reacting well with him? Or maybe it was that Ben got up too quickly and just got dizzy. 

Whatever it was, he was in no shape to do anything. So Lena fixed the bed so he could lay down whenever he felt that he could leave the bathroom. She moved the tray of food to the nightstand and pulled a garbage can next to the bed incase he had to vomit again. 

Lena deemed it to be acceptable for now and went back to check on him. 

"Do you think your going to throw up again?" Ben shook his head no without opening his eyes. "Come on then, you need to lay down." 

Lena pulled him to his feet, which was a lot harder than she thought. His height playing a small problem. Never the less, she got him to stand up and walked him to the bed. 

"Lena, I have something to tell you." his voice quivered slightly. Lena frowned, he was in no shape to be telling anything.

"Tell me later, right now you need to sleep," she persisted pulling the blankets over him. Ben grabbed her arm before she could back away.

"No, I have to tell you now." The tone of his voice scared Lena, she realized it wasn't going to be good, whatever it was. She hadn't yet accomplished being to completely feel someone emotions with the force, but somehow now she could feel his guilt. 

"I killed him," Ben eyes swam with tears and Lena stomach dropped onto the floor. 

"Who?" she felt like she already knew. Lena was sure she had felt what happened, was sure she had heard the girl in the vision say something along those lines. But she had denied it, promising herself it couldn't be true. No, please no. Lena pleaded with herself. Not what I'm thinking, please no. 

"My father."