What She's Worth (Reylo)

Chapter 13

"...oh! Uh...hey, kid."

"Dad." Ben spoke into his comlink in a flat voice, and was responded by shuffling from the other end followed by the ambient hum of machinery. He had the impression that Han Solo, for whatever unseen forces that compelled him to call, was probably hoping to just leave a message. Ben wouldn't even have answered the call if he hadn't thought it was Rey. He made a mental note to check who was calling next time before hitting the receive button. "What do you want?"

"What's with that tone?" Han laughed, though there was a slight edge in his voice. "Can't your old man call to greet you a happy birthday?"

Ben sat up from where he had been resting under the garden's purple flowering tree. He had been there almost the entire day, meditating, idling away, and waiting for Rey to return from an academic excursion with her fellow younglings to Coruscant. Every class had at least one excursion with Luke to visit Coruscant's war museum during the course of their stay in the academy. And just like when he had to take his own excursion a few years back, Ben was a nervous wreck. He always was whenever Rey left his side for even a minute. An entire day was torment, mainly for fear that the creature would be able to reach into his mind again. So far, it hadn't, but it was still a horrifying thought. He didn't even want to think about his and his fellow Jedi Knight Initiates' upcoming voyage for their trials, which could very well last several weeks.

In fact, it was the mere thought of that journey that upset him so much, he actually forgot he was turning twenty three that very day.

"Oh," was all he could mutter after a long silence. "Uhm...thanks."

"Your mother told me to greet you for her if I manage to contact you," Han mentioned. "Says she's been sending you messages but she's not sure if you ever got them."

"I did but it was all badly corrupted. Radiation interference." Ben let the explanation hang in the air for a moment as he realized something about the uplink between himself and his father. "Your voice is pretty clear. Where are you?"

"I'm on my way to Pamarthe. Just passed by your system so I guess that explains the crystal clear uplink."

"You passed by and you couldn't even visit your son, after what, eight years of not seeing him?" Ben seethed inwardly but managed to control himself. "Still looking for a young blood for your racing team?"

"You betcha." Ben could almost hear his father wink, and he felt himself cringe. "That's where Greer Sonnel is from."

And so began Han's litany about this Greer girl, of how talented a pilot she was and how she now worked as Leia's personal assistant and doing a great job at it.

The pride in Han's voice as he continued to talk about Greer Sonnel stung Ben more than he thought it would. A racer, mechanic, pilot and a political assistant to boot. Maybe his parents should just go and adopt this girl and disown him, he thought angrily.

"You'll like her," Han pressed on. "She's witty and has the same dry humor as you do. And she's a looker too. I'm sure you'll appreciate that."

Ben blinked rapidly. This was...different. His father wasn't trying to make him jealous. Han was trying to set him up with this girl!

"How's Mom?" Ben cut in. "You said you were able to get in touch with her."

"She's busy as usual," Han declared the most obvious thing in the world but Ben didn't care. Anything to change the subject would do. "They're almost done constructing your grandfather's statue at the Senate. A celebration during its inauguration will be held in a month or so."