Chapter Text
One year later:
Some days, Rey woke up and couldn’t believe what her life had become. She was free, her family had grown, and there was a happiness she had never thought possible.
Those first few months, Finn, Ezra, Paige and Rose stayed with Luke in town, while little Sabine shared Leia’s bed much as Rey had. The four boys slept in makeshift trundle beds in the living room, under Synara’s watchful eyes. Rey wondered if Ben would ever wake up and wonder what he’d been thinking, taking on all these new family members, but somehow at the end of every long, very tiring day, she cuddled next to him in bed and saw nothing but love and contentment in his eyes.
Luke had enough evidence to put Plutt behind bars, however he had not managed to recover the funds he had pilfered. Which was only part of the challenge facing the new family that now encompassed the Solo’s and Rey’s siblings.
Ben and Luke had successfully procured the land north of the Solo homestead for all the Plutt orphans, but the house on the land was one of the smallest claim shanties she had ever seen - there had been no way it would fit everyone. The church in her old town had helped as much as they could, once Luke had made it clear what atrocities Plutt had committed in the name of “caretaker,” but there was only so much they could do, when they had already given so much to Plutt.
So before the government would come in and take Plutt’s land back to grant to someone else the next spring, they contemplated if it was worth tearing down the old house for lumber to use on their new land. Furthermore, Ben and Luke had been unable to figure out how to actually get the materials moved. In the end, Rey gleefully watched Ben and his uncle be impressed at the ingenuity of her siblings in action, as they solved the puzzle. Finn and Ezra had banded together, and offered the railroad company their services in order for them to load their materials onto a train car and have it shipped. It would take most of the winter for them to work it off, but the solution was well worth it. They then secured the assistance of the Holderness twins for the endeavor, by helping them to bring in their harvest in record time.
So, Rey, her older siblings, Ben, Luke and the Holderness twins had all dismantled the Plutt residence board by board, and had it shipped to their new hometown while Leia looked after Grogu, Temiri and Sabine. It had taken a number of days to do it, especially since they wanted to re-use all the boards, but they got it done.
Then came another surprise. Before they boarded the train back to De Smet, they were accosted with the surprise of the twins that Plutt had talked about taking on. The church begged Ben to take the children, and while he was at first averse to the idea, he looked into the soulful eyes of those two boys who had just lost their parents. So they arrived back in De Smet with two new children, Kaz and Poe.
Ezra claimed he was grateful to the twins, because Grogu and Temiri had two new exciting boys to follow like little ducklings, rather than annoying him. Rey didn’t fully buy that, but she watched him change and thrive under the mentorship of Ben and Luke, and had no doubts in her mind how blessed her siblings were to have found the Solo family.
She watched Mother grow more gray at the shenanigans of the twins, once they settled into their new lives, but even so, she still knew Leia was grateful for her new extended family. Especially for little Sabine, with whom Leia had bonded quickly with.
As for herself, she had never felt more fulfilled, never more grateful. She couldn’t believe that she’d found such a loving wonderful family in the Solo’s and all without having to give up her own forged family. Her heart burst with happiness, knowing that they all had opportunities now, and had gotten as far away from Plutt as she had. While she’d had a very hard start to her marriage, sewing constantly to bring in money, then bringing in not one, but two harvests, dismantling a house and rebuilding a house, she’d been content.
But never had she been more content than she was right now. She looked fondly down at the sweet little face that was nodding off more than suckling right now. Sweet little Adaline Rose Solo, was the cherry on top of all the beauty that had happened that year. Born nearly a year to the day that Rey herself had arrived on this homestead, Adaline had been a source of joy for everyone. It had been a hard birth, and she was unlikely to bear any more children from her own loins. She still saw shadows of fear in Ben’s eyes when he saw her sitting quietly with their daughter, with significantly less energy than she was used to having. He’d come “too damn close to losing” her, he’d said when she’d woken up after passing out, and she’d known then what it was like to scare Ben Solo, because she’d never heard him curse before or since.
Rey slowly readjusted Adaline and pulled out her handkerchief to gently dab the milk that had dribbled from her now sleeping mouth. Smiling down at the beautiful fabric, she remembered when Ben had given it to her the morning after they’d married.
“In the ad, I promised…well, ok, my mother promised you waterfalls. I still don’t know what that is, but I found something that made me think of waterfalls and see, it’s all yours.” Ben handed her the most lovely handkerchief in shades of blues and greens, and he pointed to the initials on one side of it: RS.
Tears flowed from her eyes. “Oh Ben, it’s beautiful! It’s…oh it’s my name!”
A gentle smile took over Ben’s face. “Yes, sweetheart. It’s your name. You are now and forever, Rey Solo.”
It had been the only gift he’d given her, as they’d all made sacrifices that year. Windows had to be replaced in their home before winter, the new land purchased, and they had to keep as much of their potatoes as they could for seed for the next year. The town had come together to help them all out with food and clothing, when what they hunted and had to sew wasn’t enough. With the addition of Synara, Rose, Paige and Sabine, their household had taken on what sometimes had felt like the whole town’s worth of sewing. To keep them all out of debt though, it had been worth living leanly. Being pregnant that winter, they’d all insisted she eat as much as she needed, so she had still not experienced going without food like she’d been used to, growing up.
It was so fun watching her siblings change and grow. The Holderness twins were officially courting Rose and Paige, and Rey had the feeling there would be a few weddings coming up here soon. Ezra was now 18, and while he still helped out in all the ways needed, his wanderlust nature had tamed a bit with finding a role model in Luke. Farm life had never been for him, she knew and she had a feeling the town would wind up with a new deputy some time soon.
Her darling brother Finn loved every moment of owning what he did on his farm, however, and he was what made it all work over there. She didn’t see him nearly often enough, as he was usually working hard at his fields with Synara. Maybe she’d see about hitching up the buggy to go see them later today, she mused, as she drifted off to sleep alongside Adaline.
***
One recent evening, after a particularly lovely dinner with the entire family at the larger adjacent homestead, Ben had finally confided to her that one piece of his past he’d worried she would hate him for.
“You see, my parents always wanted more children, but they weren’t able to have any more after me. Not long after we moved in, I heard Father talking to Mother, about how he wanted to build another room onto the house. We couldn’t afford that, but he had it in his head, after seeing this orphan earlier that day, that he wanted to build that part of the house and adopt that child. He was talking about trying to take out a loan, and I was furious. You see, all growing up, it seemed they were working to catch up on his debts. He wasn’t a bad man. He wasn’t a gambler in the normal sense. But he gambled our future and stability away with his big, generous heart. When we moved here, it was a clean start, and things were finally looking good. I didn’t want to be stuck as a farmer, and I was hoping to help them establish this place and then go make my own way in the world. But here he was again, going off half-cocked about bringing in some stranger, and going into debt for an addition on the house. So…I burst into the room and laid into him, years of pent up fury unleashed on him. I said the most hateful, worst things. No son should ever treat his parents that way.”
Rey had leaned into his shoulder, holding onto him and feeling his tears start to drop onto her cheek.
“And well…his heart couldn’t take it. I’ll never forget the look on his face as he collapsed on the floor. It’s hard for me to close my eyes and remember him, without seeing that last look of horror, of betrayal, of shock and pain. And for what, Rey? Because he wanted to adopt someone who couldn’t help themselves?”
Rey reached up and wiped his tears away, his actions with her siblings suddenly making sense. “So you did all this for your father?”
Ben sniffled. “No. And yes. I mean, sometimes I dream of him grinning at me with his smirk, and nudge me, telling me ‘see, you get it too, son.’ The thing is…I do get it now. I saw it with you. With your siblings. I saw him in them. He grew up an orphan, and he got into the craziest shenanigans with his best friend, but he was resourceful. Always resourceful in ways I never understood. He may have gotten us in debt a lot but he never failed to get us out too. When I saw you all together, I realized how similar you were to him. And yes, I had to help. And Mother, well…it was a way to help make the rest of her life as full as it could be.”
Rey grinned. “Although I think Poe and Kaz might be the death of her one day.”
Ben laughed shakily. “That is true. There’s something about those two boys that are special. And also unbearable.”
“You know you love them.”
“I do, heaven help me.”
It wasn’t but a few days after that that Ben had come to her sheepishly to ask her for something that had been weighing on his mind.
“I know it’s the worst time of year to discuss this, with all the harvests coming in, and winter upon us, but I wondered…what you would think about me building 2 additions onto our house?”
Rey had rolled around to him and looked at his moonlit face in surprise. “For?”
“Well…I thought one would be for Addie and Sabine. Mother really needs her bed back. And the other…well…would you be ok if we kept the twins here with us? I know it’s silly. We all just worked so hard to make rooms at the other homestead and we’re just about ready to move the youngsters over there but…”
Rey melted under the look of tenderness on his face. “You love them as your own sons, don’t you?”
“I really do. Not to say I love Tem or Grogs less by any means, but they’re so close with and established with your siblings already. And Sabine, well, I just don’t think Mother would recover if we shift her over to the other homestead. She loves that girl so much.”
“I think we would probably all agree that would be cruel. Sabine has confided in me she is sad about leaving Grandma Leia. We can call everyone together and ask what they think, but yes, I love your idea.” She pulled him closer and gave him a kiss. “You are the biggest hearted man I know. I love you with all of my soul, Mr. Ben Solo.”
“And I love you with all of mine, Mrs. Rey Solo.”
The End