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“Rose? Rose, wake up. Please, please wake up. Rose, I need help.” Rey whisper shouted, gritting her teeth every few seconds so she wouldn’t scream. She waited a few moments, but Rose didn’t move. When Rey finally got up enough energy to try rousing her again, Rose groaned and rolled over in her bed.
“Rey? What is it?” she mumbled, not bothering to open her eyes. When all she heard in response was a choked-out whimper of her name, Rose was instantly awake, bolting up and turning on the light. She spotted Rey on the floor next to her bed, curled up in the fetal position and clutching her lower stomach, eyes screwed shut and tears streaming down her cheeks.
Rose jumped out of bed and was at Rey’s side in an instant. “Oh no, Rey! What’s wrong?!” she asked as she felt Rey’s forehead to check to see if her friend had a fever. Not finding one, she tried to keep her voice as calm as possible though she was starting to panic while Rey started to shiver. “Rey? Honey, you gotta tell me what’s wrong. Talk to me.”
Rey sniffled and bit her lip, letting out an agonized whine before letting the words rush out before she lost the energy to say them. “It hurts so much. I woke up and went to the fresher and there was so much blood and I thought I could stop it, but I think I made it worse and I wanted to go to the med bay, but I fell and now I can’t move! It hurts so bad!”
Rose deep a took breath to steady herself then checked Rey over. She was dreadfully pale, shaking like a leaf, and there was a bit of blood seeping through her sleep shorts and onto the floor. Standing up, she grabbed a pillow and blanket off Rey’s bed and after covering her up, Rose pet the top of Rey’s head and leaned in close. “It’s gonna be alright, Rey. I’m gonna go get one of the nurses and I’ll be back, you hear me? I’ll be right back!”
With that, Rose grabbed her jacket off the chair next to her bed and threw it on as she bolted out the door, sprinting to the med bay. Rey took a deep breath and did the only thing she knew would bring her comfort as the pain nearly blinded her. If she was to die tonight, she needed to see him again. She closed her eyes, reached for the bond tethering her to Kylo Ren...no…Ben and pulled as hard as she could. When the sound of the room around her cut out, she opened her eyes and grinned. She’d done it, she called, and he had answered. “Rey?” he spoke quietly, as if in disbelief that he was suddenly here with her.
Delirious with a mixture of pain and relief, she let out a weak laugh at that sound of his voice even as another shot of agony ripped through her. “Ben! You came for me, you really came! I knew you would...” It was all she had time to say as the world around her faded into darkness.
The moment she passed out, the bond was cut, and Ben was left with too many questions and not enough answers. He turned off the droid he’d been in the middle of sparring with then walked to the middle of the room and got in his meditation pose, saber resting in his lap. A few deep breaths later he was able to sink into oblivion and begin a frantic search for her in the Force. Following the bond, he had to bite his lip to keep from getting upset. Her signature was faint and lacked much of the warmth he had become so accustomed to feeling in her presence, it made him feel like she was dying. He went to tap on the walls she had built to keep him out, ones he’d beaten on time and time again to get any kind of attention from her, only to find them crumbled away. Kylo Ren would have reveled in this discovery, but Ben was horrified. She knew if she didn’t wake up soon, she would have no real protection from the Force, leaving her defenseless to outside influence. A shiver went through him as the memory of Snoke torturing her flitted to the surface of his mind.
With that thought he pulled away as gently as he could and searched for another. Thankfully he didn’t have to go far. “They must be close to each other”, he thought to himself as he “knocked” at his mother's mental defenses. When she let him in, he found himself standing next to her as she sat in her quarters, a cup of tea half raised to her lips. When she turned and saw him, she gasped and jumped, nearly sloshing the steaming liquid all over herself. Ben caught the liquid and returned it back to her cup before it hurt her.
“Ben?! How are you doing this?!” she gasped out his name in shock. He would’ve laughed at her, but he was too focused on the unmistakable sounds of med droids. He prayed they were up to date enough to help Rey with whatever had happened to her.
“The Force, Mother! How else? Now don’t pester me, this isn’t a simple feat by any means. What’s wrong with Rey?” he asked, not wanting to speak with her more than was absolutely necessary.
Leia raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m not even going to ask how you know that she’s hurt, but I’ll tell you. She’s had a periovarian cyst rupture, it was rather large and needed to be removed, but she missed the signs. The rupture burst her left fallopian tube. It’s able to be repaired, thank the Maker.”
Ben repressed a shiver at that. “Will she be alright? Can it affect her ability to conceive children?”
Leia’s face went from sheer confusion to immense shock in the time to it took him to finish that sentence. Now she stared at him like he’d told her he himself was pregnant.
“Uh...uh…she...she should be just fine” she stuttered out astonished, then his words sunk in. “I beg your pardon! Why in the stars do you care?!”
Ben gave his mother a smirk that rivaled his father’s and winked, “You’ll find out”. He cut the bond as she went to speak again.
Leia took a deep breath, let it out slow, then marched straight to the med bay. She was going to sit by that girls beside until she got answers.
Four days later when the bond connected them again, she appeared next to Ben in his bed. “Are you feeling better? You scared me.” he whispered as he nuzzled into her neck.
Rey wiggled back until her butt was against his lap and her back hit his chest. “I’ll be fine and you’re lucky I like you, Ben Solo. Your mother was adamant that I get a new implant put in until the war was over. I had no idea what she was talking about, then all of sudden she started crying on me and talking about peace talks and ending the war! I can’t believe you said something like that you kriffing nerfherder!”
Ben laughed, more to himself than at her, then gently bit her shoulder. “I love you too. Get some sleep, I’ll see you at the meeting tomorrow…my Empress.”
Smiling mischievously, she nailed him in the ribs with her elbow. “Sweet dreams, Emperor.”