•LEGACY - A Reylo Story•

EPISODE LXVIII - YOU AND I

Your child is mine.

No, Rey thinks wildly. No, that's impossible. You're dead!

Snoke laughs and laughs, and as Rey whirls around to look for her daughter, a door locks behind her.

"Let me out!" Rey screams, pounding her fists against the steel. General Hux passes by, brow drawn in a scowl. "Help!" she calls, but he vanishes.

Padmé howls, but Rey can't reach her because she's trapped in this freaking room. The baby's cries echo all around her, louder and louder and louder, and Rey's screaming too, and the screams tear her apart.

"Rey, wake up!"

Her eyes fly open as Ben shakes her shoulder. She glugs in air, tears sticky on her face. Ben looks at her with his jaw hanging open. "Again?"

"Sorry," she mutters.

"Don't be. It's not your fault."

"Where is she?" Rey sits up, arms shaking. Her breath hitches.

"Here." Ben nods down, and Rey sees why he hasn't been sitting up. Padmé's curled up on his chest.

Rey's terror melts away. She reaches for her daughter, lifting Padmé, who blinks sleepily.

"I think she's teething," Ben tells her. "Which explains a lot."

"Oh!" Rey sighs in relief. "Okay."

"What was your dream about?" he ventures.

Rey swallows. "The usual. Snoke. Taking Padmé. And I'm back there too, trapped." Watching Phasma die, again and again. Watching Ben come for her, only to die. Watching Ben throw her off a bridge, like he'd pushed his father, even though she knows he would never harm her.

Ben wraps his arms around her, drawing her towards him. He says nothing, because he's learned fairly quickly that Rey doesn't want words. Instead, he presses his chin against the top of her head.

But he has to know he stalks her nightmares, too.

Rey closes her eyes, remembering their wedding day. She wore an azure dress, her hair in its signature three buns, but interwoven with gold twine by Leia. And she kissed him on his lips, on his scarred face in front of Luke, Finn, Poe, and the entire Resistance, because she loves him.

You're a monster, she spat at him once.

Now, she doesn't see a monster, but his actions still haunt her dreams.

"I'll ask your mother if she has any advice for teething babies," Rey says, prying herself away from the warmth of his body.

"May I make a suggestion?" He nods to Padmé. "We may want to start introducing her to solid food."

A grin spreads across her face as she drops one shoulder of her nightdress. "What, you wouldn't like my chest all chewed up?"

"You put up with my face; I'd put up with your chest. But I don't think you want that kind of pain." He smirks.

"I can ask your mother or Luke to watch her for a little bit this afternoon," Rey suggests as Padmé smiles at her. "So we can have some time together."

"Yes, please." His lips flicker upwards, and then fall as if something's weighing on him.

"What's wrong?" Rey queries.

Ben shakes his head. "I'll tell you later, okay?"

"Sure." She changes Padmé and gets ready herself, heading to train with Luke in the morning—as much as their daughter allows her and Ben to train, although Finn, bless his soul, offers to watch his niece at times as well.

Her mother-in-law spends most of the day directing the Resistance, but in the afternoons, she tries to spend an hour or so with her family. This time, Leia confirms that her granddaughter's likely teething, and offers Padmé some small red fruits to play with, put in her mouth and gum on. "Have fun, kids," Leia calls, Padmé on her lap. "You have talked to Dr. Kalonia about—"

"We're fine," Ben calls, dragging Rey out of the room. Neither of them is eager for Rey to wind up pregnant again. Although Rey would like to have another kid. Eventually. When she's not so tired her bones ache.

But for now... she melts into Ben's touch, their breaths and their bodies syncing.