"Anything you need before you depart?" Leia asks.
Poe shakes his head. Finn, Poe, Luke, and BB-8 plan to leave in the morning.
"Well, let me know. You are, I understand, soon to be my nephew-in-law." Leia smiles. "Your parents would be thrilled."
"Where's your father?" Poe jokes. "We can ask him to double-check." He raises his hands. "Not that I have any doubts."
"I didn't think you did."
A group of Resistance members pass by where Finn is crouched on the ground, rolling a ball to a giggling Padmé. Several of them look to the child with less than benevolent expressions.
Poe clears his throat. "Actually, I do have an idea. Not really a need, but a suggestion."
"Shoot." Leia waves her hand. "You've earned the right to speak your mind, Dameron. Long ago."
"Well... I know Chewie's planning on leaving to visit Maz and Lando on Takodana. If you can convince Ben and Rey to go there too—if we do wind up needing something from them, it might be easier if they don't have to deal with the brouhaha—"
"Plus it might be good for them to get away," Leia finishes. "Although, Poe, Ben's promised to stay on D'Qar. He can't just leave."
He's not a prisoner, but he's not quite free. Poe sighs.
"I've an idea, though," Leia says. "We'll ask Chewie to postpone his visit, and Maz and Lando to come visit us." She frowns after he crowd. "We might need them."
Finn tosses Poe a small smile as Padmé starts to cry. Finn rolls the ball back and she stops and giggles.
"Do you ever wish you could just run away from it all?" Poe asks Leia.
"Your parents had that exact wish," Leia says quietly. "They retired to spend time with you." Mist clouds her eyes. "I won't deny that there's a part of me that wonders... what might have happened. If Han and I had done the same." She shakes her head.
Han might still be alive. Or not. Poe remembers how Snoke manipulated Ben from the time he was a child—a child Padmé's size. Bile surges up Poe's throat as he watches Finn sweep the little girl up in his arms. Ben thought he was a murderer by the age of eight.
How many of the stormtroopers in training believe the same thing?
"But now, you don't want to?" Poe chokes out.
"No, you can't put that in your mouth, Padmé," Finn says as the baby starts to wail. Rey darts over.
"I do, but I don't know whether I can. Not yet." Leia blinks. "I feel like I have an obligation to uphold. To the Resistance. Then again, that's what I felt thirty-plus years ago, too." And look where it got me, her words echo.
But she won't leave, Poe knows. Not until the Resistance agrees to let Ben live in peace.
Before, she stayed and lost her son because of it. Now, she stays to save her son.
YOU ARE READING
•LEGACY - A Reylo Story•
Fanfic*WRITTEN PRE-TROS, POST TLJ* When a ship crashes near the Resistance base, Finn and Poe are shocked to discover Kylo Ren. What does he want? And where is Rey? And as for Kylo, he must decide how much he can trust them with what he knows about Snoke...
