Mother ~ The Sequel to Breeder

11

"Wow," I said for about the fiftieth time, trailing my fingers across the lines of my husband's palm, flipping it over to touch his knuckles. "It's so real, I can't believe it."

"Imagine how I feel."

It was too late to be up, but I couldn't sleep, not after everything that happened today. General Organa was the grandmother of my child. The most fearsome commander in the First Order was born to a princess and a war hero. And somehow, my four-year-old knew about Luke Skywalker, spoke about people and places he should have zero knowledge of with the clarity of someone five times his age. I couldn't burden Greyson with that, not on what was such a happy day for him, so I stewed, alone, in my worries. 

"Does it feel just like the other one?" I asked.

He clenched his left hand into a fist, then slowly released it. "More or less. The doctors said it would take a few days for the nerve endings to normalize, and that I should do activities that require nuanced motor function skills to help the process along." 

Smirking, I slid off my sleep shorts, pushing his new hand down under the covers. "Is my pussy nuanced enough for you?"

Greyson couldn't suppress a giggle at my dorky seduction. He attempted to roll his fingers around my clit as he did easily with his right hand, but couldn't manage the smooth, effective rhythm I needed to climax.

"Sorry, babe, I don't think I've quite got that down yet."

I sighed as he replaced his left hand with his right. "That's okay," I murmured. "I can't get off with my left hand either."

"Really?" 

"Yeah."

He sat up so we were facing each other, still touching my clit, using his left hand to jerk off. "I'm don't have a problem on myself."

After we finished, he snuggled up against me, and we laid in silence for a moment. 

"Do you want to go to bed?" he asked.

"Not really." 

"Is something bothering you, my love?" Greyson kissed my temple, holding me closer to him.

A million thoughts raced through my brain: it was long overdue that I tell him about Ben's father, about how he saved my brother and helped me escape, about the love I experienced while in captivity. It'd been years, and it wouldn't hurt him to know how I felt about the man who gave me our son. But it might hurt me- it might kill me to say the words.

An alarm ripping through the night nearly scared me out of my skin. Almost immediately, I heard crying from the other room, and Greyson and I dove out of bed, running to the boys' room. 

"Klint, Farrow, Ben, are you all okay?" I shouted over the alarm.

"Farrow got scared," Klint explained, though he looked pretty terrified himself. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," I said, scooping Ben into my arms.

Greyson, after doing the same with Farrow, turned to me and said, "Something's wrong. We need to find out where that alarm is coming from."

I stepped into my shoes, Klint doing the same before helping his father lace up his boots. After I draped a blanket around myself and Ben, we scurried into the hall and were quickly swept up by a crowd of people fleeing in all directions. Grayson grabbed me by the waist with his free hand, Klint standing between us.

"We need to find Commander D'Acy," I shouted.

"How?"

"I don't know."

I'd hoped this was just a mechanical malfunction, but something was seriously wrong. I tried to avoid the obvious conclusion, but the weight of the moment bore down on me. The First Order found me- he found me.

"Astrid!" Parting the crowd with superhuman power, General Organa appeared at my side. "Let's go!"

"Where?"

"I have an escape pod waiting for you."

"All of us?"

"Just the four of you."

Turning my head, I saw Paige Ticco dragging my husband away, Klint and Farrow rushing to grab my leg, their pretense of boyish bravery disappearing. "No, please, I can't be away from Greyson, not again."

"Mommy," Ben said, touching my cheek. "We have to get out of here."

Leia guided us down the corridor, using brute strength (and possibly the Force) to clear a path. "Listen to your son. Don't you want to keep yourself and your children safe?"

Finally, we escaped the throng, and I gasped wheezingly. Without all those bodies surrounding us, the temperature dropped nearly twenty degrees. My clothes were soaked in sweat, heart hammering in my chest, and my oldest sons looked just as terrified as I felt, their green wet with frightened tears. Even General Organa, with her mussed hair and ashen skin, seemed shockingly fragile. But when I cradled Ben against my chest, I felt his pulse slow and steady against my skin, unnaturally calm.

"Here it is." Leia pressed a hidden button, a metal panel sliding out of place, the gap it revealed glowing an unnatural bluish-white. "Take this escape pod; we'll find you once it's safe."

The memories of the last time I took a pod like that one washed over me, making bile rise up in my throat. I remembered the pain of a brutal childbirth, nearly giving up and allowing myself to die; I could still see Ben's face as he sealed me away, saying goodbye forever. Or at least what I thought was forever. Now he'd come back for me, come back for his son.

"Quickly, Astrid, we don't have time waste."

Klint and Farrow didn't need to be told twice, hustling into the strange contraption. Under different circumstances, I knew my eight-year-old would be over the moon to get an up-close look at Resistance technology. Instead, he just held his little brother, waiting for Ben and me to join them.

"What are you going to do?" I asked Leia.

"I have to stay here and help the rest of the compound evacuate, but I promise I will see you soon."

"Where are you sending us?"

"Takodana," she said, securing us inside. "Ask for Maz Kanata. She'll help you."