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The familiar sound of the incoming Skype chimes that had become as mood boosting as Pavlov's bell ringing through from the living room pulled Ben out of his thoughts as he rummaged through the pile of clean laundry in their utility room for what had to be the fourth time that day. Summer had slowly given way to autumn and with the October evenings drawing in, Ben had found himself almost constantly searching for at least one of his two favourite sweaters with very little luck over the past week. He’s not a vain man in any sense, but he is very particular about the thickness of his sweaters. With the weather becoming so precarious and changeable almost by the hour, he could leave the house in the morning with one that’s too thick and by lunchtime he could be baking from the inside out and left in an uncomfortable and sweaty mess for the rest of the day. But too thin? What’s the point of it? That was just asking for a cold. His two favourite sweaters were just the right thickness which meant they catered for both eventualities and also meant that he never had to attend a meeting with a client looking (and smelling) like he was in dire need of a shower.
He sighed irritably, rubbing his eyes and gave up, choosing instead to go against his fatherly instincts and turn up the thermostat on his way through to the living room. He had pulled the entire house apart over the last week so it was unlikely he would find them now. He could always ask Rey, it didn’t matter if she was currently in another state, she always knew where everything in that damn house was.
As he crossed the kitchen he could hear the reassuring lilt of his wife’s voice filling the adjoining living room and felt his spirits lifting. This time tomorrow she would be home and they would all be together under one roof again, something neither of them could wait for. Ben had missed Rey immensely, with this being the first time since the birth of their daughter eight years prior that they had ever spent so much as a night apart. But he knew from their late night phone calls that Rey was finding it much harder being apart than he. At least he was in their own home with the daughter that reminded him so much of Rey in her absence. Initially, when Rey announced her return to California to attend jury duty, they were more concerned about how Emilia would cope without her mother given that she had also never been away from Rey for more than the odd night or two that she spent at her grandparents’. But between extracurricular activities or visiting a friend's house after school and various activities with their close friends and family during the weekends, unless she made the odd statement that she missed her mother, their girl surprised them.
He hovered around the living room door, allowing Em time to speak to her mother without his interference, listening to her telling Rey about the pop quiz she had at school that afternoon and a surprise trip to the local ice cream parlour with her aunt Gwen when Ben’s photography shoot overran.
He had just folded up the dish towel for the fourth time when Emilia poked her head around the door, her glasses reflecting in the bright kitchen light. “Dad, moms on the phone. Are you coming in?”
Ben smiled warmly at his daughter and walked around the island towards her, “Absolutely. I just thought you might want to talk to her first without me hovering. You know, girl talk.”
“Oh I wouldn’t dream of keeping you love birds apart.” She told him as she turned around and made to walk back to the computer.
He surged forward, grabbing her by the waist and hoisted her up. Emilia shrieked in surprise before laughing as she instinctively kicked out at him. Ben walked towards the computer with his daughter in his arms and beamed as his wife came into view.
“So much sass for such a little person.”
Ben lifted Em up higher and sat down on the chair before placing the wriggling girl on his lap and shifted to get comfortable.
“I’m not little, you’re just freakishly big!” The girl grumbled back.
“Tiny little person,” he lightheartedly mocked.
“It’s nice to see some things never change,” Rey said, her voice dripping with amusement. “She gets this from you, you know.”
“Me? Difficult? Never. She may have my looks but that sass is all you my dear.”
“ She is sitting right here you know!” Emilia growled at her parents Indignantly.
His daughter’s remark reminded him of himself when he was her age, always being the subject of his parents murmurings, and he began to feel guilty. “I know, Emi,” he said reassuringly, the corner of his mouth quirking upwards. “Sorry, baby.” He looked up at the screen and met Rey’s mirthful but noticeably tired gaze, and he winked. “How are you, sweetheart?”
At the change of discussion the girl relaxed into her father's protective embrace and sighed almost contentedly. Or as contentedly as she could with only one parent physically in the room.
“Not bad, it’s been busy over here and we just about got a coffee break before heading back into the courtroom,” she told him as she pulled her chestnut hair out of the three vertical buns at the back of her head and ran her fingers through it absentmindedly. Judging by her flushed appearance, it was likely Rey had started the call before she had gotten back to her hotel room. “So I haven’t eaten yet.”
He winced, knowing how early she arrived at the courthouse that morning. A hungry Rey was a scary Rey and one Ben tried to avoid at all costs.
“Needless to say, at this point I could probably eat a horse.”
“People do that?!” Emilia asked nervously, pulling away from Ben to look between them.
“It’s a figure of speech, dear, don’t worry.” Rey told their daughter gently, watching as Ben pushed the frizzy tendrils of her inky locks behind her ear.
“Can I go and play on the Switch?” Em asked, distractedly as she noticed the time.
“Only if you’ve finished your homework.” Rey answered automatically, “I want to spend as much of this weekend with you as possible.”
Emilia nodded and held up her small stack of exercise books and pieces of paper to show her parents.
“Then sure, after you have a quick shower and change into your pyjamas. I’ll give you a call when it’s time to say goodnight to mom.”
“Speaking of clothes,” Ben turned back to his wife, “I don’t suppose you know where my good sweaters are, do you, Sweetheart?”
“Which ones?” She asked him, her brow furrowed as though she was trying to recall the particulars.
“My Henley’s, one navy and one maroon.”
He watched as she silently got up from her chair and disappeared off screen. He could hear her rummaging around, zipping and unzipping various bags in the background.
When she returned to her chair, she sheepishly held up the two sweaters and Ben snorted. “Of course you have them, I should have known.”
“I thought they were your old ones, I just wanted something of you. According to the other jurors the weather over the past week has been a record high for the time of year,” she said as she pulled the red sweater on and curled up. “but for the life of me, I can’t keep myself warm. I thought I was coming down with something at first, but I think I just want to come home. Feeling so nauseated is bad enough, but at least food will put a stop to that, trying to warm up is worse. Even with fancy hotel heating”
Ben met his wife’s tired gaze, concern flooding through him. “Have you been eating enough?” Now that she mentioned it, she did look paler than usual, her hazel eyes missing their usual sparkle.
“Actually, with the exception of today I haven’t stopped eating. It’s almost as if I’m—“
“ARGH!” Rey was cut off as Ben suddenly yelped and jolted upwards in his seat, not expecting the impromptu arrival of the family cat, Oliver, and his sharp claws as he jumped up onto his master’s back and then onto the table.
“For the love of god, we need to put a bell on this heathen.” Ben grumbled, his lip twitching as he tried not to laugh while the cat forcefully rubbed his black fluffy head against his human’s cheek.
“What’s the point? He’ll have pulled the darn collar off within the hour, and it’s a waste of $5.”
“Just get him a buckled one, he’s not an explorer anymore. He spends most of his time with Em, so it’s not like he’s gonna hang himself.”
“True.” Rey groaned as she put her phone down, and he heard her shuffling around in her room again.
“Please don’t tell me you’ve got a cat collar in there as well as my sweaters, or I’m going to start worrying about you.”
He heard her titter softly as she shuffled back into view, holding one of his old band shirts and her pyjama bottoms.
“No cat collar, but I do think I have more of your clothes in here than mine.” Rey replied as she pulled his shirt over her head and pointed at it.
“What are you going to do about dinner?”
“Oh right. Eurgh,” she whined, “please don’t make me get back into my tight clothes and be around people.”
“Room service?” He queried.
“That’s expensive! Christmas is coming, Ben.”
“It’s also not us paying for it, dear.” He pointed out, “and even if we were paying for it, I’d still rather you rest and ate something in your room than disappearing to order food when you feel like shit.”
It was like a light had just turned on in her mind, and he couldn’t work out if the scowl on her face meant she was regretful that she hadn’t thought of that sooner or whether she felt bad for entertaining that particular thought.
———
Shortly after Rey said goodnight to their daughter, Ben had settled on the sofa with Emilia curled up in front of him watching The Clone Wars as he brushed through her damp, frizzy black curls. “What do you think about us making a special meal for your mom tomorrow to show her how much we missed her?”
Emilia turned the games console off and grinned up at him, nodding enthusiastically. “Yes, yes, yes! Can we make cheesecake too?”
He grinned back and placed his hands on the sides of her head gently to stop her moving and tangling her hair further. “We can make Nana Paddy’s if you like, I know how much you both love her Naberrie recipe.”
“Will Nana Paddy be at Grandma and Grandpa’s for Thanksgiving this year?”
“Oh, I should think so,” Ben responded as he started to braid her hair, something that Padmé and his mother had taught him when he was a young boy. He had a sneaking suspicion that his grandmother was going to outlive them all. “She might even be there for Grandma and Uncle Luke’s birthday at the end of the month.”
———
Ben woke up several hours later to movement coming from Rey’s side of their queen size bed. He was awake enough to spread his fingers out over the sheets, assuming that Oliver had decided to invade his space again as he often did when it was cold.
His hand brushed against something warm but not catlike in the slightest, and Ben realised that at some point after he fell asleep talking to Rey, his little girl had curled up on her mother’s side of the bed.
Emilia had always been a very deep sleeper, it was something that had scared her parents to death when she was a baby, but the fact she was only wrapped in a cocoon with her throw blanket made Ben want to bundle her up in something warmer lest she wake up shivering.
He eased himself up gently and rubbed at his face, he never did sleep well if one of the girls were out of the house, and if Ben wasn’t looking forward to seeing his wife in the flesh, he was definitely looking forward to getting a full night's sleep knowing that they were all in one place.
“Okay, Google, turn the bedroom lights on to forty percent,” he murmured to the Google Home hub beside the bed as he turned to check the time, finding somewhat disappointedly that it was only just past two am.
The lights came on and showered the bedroom in a warm golden hue, giving him enough light to properly cover the girl back up in the duvet that had been kicked to the side and tuck her into it without being bright enough to disturb her slumber.
As though summoned by the light turning on, a black shadow in the form of Oliver jumped up onto the bed with a pleased chirp and promptly cuddled up to Emilia in the space left between her knees and stomach and sighed contently.
He had never really been a cat person, but this cat he could make an exception for, even if the feline did enjoy making visits to the neighbours and pilfering rotisserie chickens from their kitchen counters, a crime that had unfortunately been done more than once and earned him his true name. Oliver had been a faithful best friend to his daughter since she was just a baby and usually where you could find Em, you would surely also find Oliver.
Ben smiled weakly at the small pair and snapped a quick photo to send to Rey before turning the lights off and trying his best to go back to sleep at least until the sun rose.
Ben | Sorry sweetheart, looks like you’re going to need to find a new bed when you get home.
——
“How much kibble does Oliver have left, sweetheart?”
Emilia, who was captivated by the smell of the supermarket’s breakfast pastries currently being heated up, hummed to herself. “Um..”
Her father chuckled as he pulled out his wallet and asked the store assistant for several croissants, handing one to her. She may have her father's wild curls and pale skin, but Emilia was more like Rey than most realised. Especially when it came to food.
“I’m sorry, what was the question?” The girl asked him sheepishly once she had swallowed the last mouthful of her pastry, brushing the crumbs off of her Taylor Swift tour t-shirt.
Ben grinned as he wiped a small flake of pastry from the corner of her mouth and started to move down the aisle. “Did you happen to see how much kibble the cat had left when you fed him this morning?”
“I think he has about this much,” she replied, holding her hands a few inches apart.
“Alright, well, it won’t hurt to get him some more. We need to find mommy’s tea and a few other bits,” he said as he went through the shopping list. “But then we’re done, and we can go home and play Mario Kart for a bit before we start making dinner. Sound good?”
——
Ben and Emilia stood in their kitchen that afternoon, the sound of the radio filling the room as they worked. If Rey could see the mess they had made, she would probably keel over before they even got her to the dinner table.
“Alright, turn the mixer on slowly, honey. If it’s too fast then we’re going to have to scrape icing sugar and cream cheese off of the ceiling.”
She carefully turned the mixer on while Ben stood beside her and handed her the next few ingredients to add while it mixed until it had all been beaten together.
“Okay, nex—“ Ben took one look at his daughter, white powder coating her black t-shirt, hair and her glasses and shook his head before picking up his phone and snapping another photo.
“What are you doing? Wait, that’s not going on Facebook, is it?” She asked nervously.
“Of course not, what do you take me for? I was just going to send it to your mom. She should be boarding in an hour.”
Ben | sent one photo attachment
Ben | I think she got a bit carried away. .
Once sent, he looked up from his phone, he helped her pour the filling onto the crumb base and smooth it out.
Ben looked at the mess coating the counters and floor and grimaced, they didn’t usually make this much mess. “Okay, erm.. why don’t I leave you in charge of chopping up the vegetables to go with the roasted brisket? I’m going to sweep and clean up a bit.”
“Who taught you to make all of this?” Emilia asked as she chopped, and Ben loaded the cheesecake into the oven, “I know it’s Nana’s recipe and it definitely was not mom.”
It was not a secret that her mother was not the best cook in the world, her talents were primarily in growing fruit and vegetables in the small greenhouse in their garden and not cooking them. She had quickly learnt from Ben how to make the most basic of recipes, but she didn’t enjoy it as much as Ben did.
Ben chuckled softly at her contempt for her mother’s cooking skills. “Nana Paddy taught me most of what I know,” he said as he worked, “grandma and grandpa were very busy when I was your age so I spent most of my time with Nana and Gramps.”
He recalled how bitter he used to be about how little time his parents spent with him as a child. It was partly why he and Rey decided when Emilia was a baby that they needed jobs that fit best around their daughter and not the other way around. As a result, he started his own business which meant he could work out of the converted outbuilding on the border of their garden most of the time with his meetings and outdoor shoots happening while Em was at school.
—
Ben and Emilia arrived at the airport slightly ahead of schedule, not being able to sit at home and wait any longer, having done all of the cleaning up and the desert resting in the oven.
“What’s mom's flight number?” Emilia asked as she sipped her milkshake and looked up at the screens.
“FN2187,” he responded as he folded the thick sweater that he had brought for Rey up for the third time. He handed his phone to her so she could track Rey in real-time while he looked over some of the work that he had pointedly ignored that day.
When the arrival of flight FN2187 was finally announced, Ben and Emilia made their way to the baggage claim area to loiter while waiting for Rey to go through security.
“How long will it be?” Emilia asked with a sigh of boredom as she shifted from one foot to the other.
“Not long, honey, there are lots of people flying in and out so it’s very busy. Stay close to me.” Ben told her as he stared ahead, looking for Rey’s trademark hairstyle of three vertical buns.
His daughter was getting restless, Ben knew how easily she got bored, and it was most likely not helping that she couldn’t see over the crowd of people heading toward them.
“I can’t see anything,” Emilia huffed as she went to sit on the metal bench behind her father, only to have him grab her wrist gently and pulled her back to him.
“What ar—“ she tried to ask before he lifted her and she squeaked in surprise. “Can you give me some warning before you do that!?
“Where’s the fun in that?” he asked, his arms wobbling as they supported her full weight. “I can’t keep you up there for long, but how’s that view?”
“Much better!” She chirped, ironically similar to a parrot. The girl carried on watching the people walking past and played a game with herself; pick a person walking towards them and create a backstory.
That was, until she caught sight of her mom and excitedly tugged on her father's hair.
“Ow— Em— Emilia, stop pulling my hair! What has gotten into you?”
“Mom’s coming, I can see mom!” She almost shouted, tapping his shoulder to make him put her down.
The girl was off as soon as her converse hit the floor, with Ben closely following behind her. As they approached Rey, Ben watched as his daughter flug herself at her mother.
Rey dropped her cabin bag as she caught Emilia in her arms and hugged her tightly, leaning down to kiss her forehead and inhale the scent of her shampoo. When the girl finally let go of her mother, Ben stepped forward to greet her properly, pulling her to him and kissing her softly. He had been waiting for his moment since she disappeared around the corner in an Uber ten days ago.
—
Rey moaned around a mouthful of Padmé’s cheesecake and savoured the mixture of tart berries with the rich and creamy filling, thanking her lucky stars that her husband was handy in the kitchen.
Their roast brisket dinner had been devoured and the Solo’s sat at the table, a quarter of cheesecake sat on each of their plates and a mug of tea accompanying it as Rey told them about as much of her ten days in California as she could.
“And their ‘ tea’,” she added with air quotes, “it’s like no one has ever heard of a hot cup of tea. The one establishment that offered to make me one microwaved it. They microwaved the water, Ben!”
Ben gasped, his face horror stricken as he held his hand to his neck as if clutched at his metaphorical pearls. “Absolute savages, completely barbaric. They should be ashamed of themselves.”
Rey snorted, knowing exactly what his angle was.
“Why didn’t they just boil the kettle?” Emilia asked, frowning as confusion marred her flushed face.
“Not everyone has electric kettle here, Em,” her father told her, “from personal experience, iced tea tends to be more popular than hot tea. We have one and grandma and grandpa have one because we all know your mother’s an addict who gets grumpy if she doesn’t get her fix.”
“Oh hush, Ben Solo. You’re only saying that because when we met you couldn’t make a decent cuppa to save your life.”
“What happened?” Emilia asked, her head resting on her hand as she happily basked in the presence of both of her parents.
“When your dad and I met he tried to anonymously woo me by leaving a cup of tea on my desk before I got to the office every morning. I didn’t know it was him at first, he always arrived before I did, you see.”
“And daddy’s tea was bad?”
“Oh, it was the worst ,” Rey replied, a cheeky grin plastered across her face as she looked at her husband whom stared back, his full lips quirking. He was trying his hardest not to give away his amusement.
“You wound me, Mrs Solo. I slave all day to make you dinner and this is how you thank me?”
“Ben, be reasonable, it was dreadful and you know it.”
“And yet you still drank it!” He accused her, poking fun of her claim.
“Because I didn’t want to hurt your feelings! ….And I had a feeling if I poured it into one of Luke’s potted plants I may have killed it.”
Emilia giggled at her comment. “So how did you find out it was him? Did he tell you?”
Rey smile fondly at the memory as she recounted the story to Emilia. “No, I had a feeling it was him when I noticed that my mysterious secret admirer never left me a cup of tea on the same days your dad wasn’t in the office, and my theory was confirmed when he was out one week with the flu.”
“What happened next?”
“Uncle Armie happened, actually.” Ben told her as he rolled his eyes. “Neither of us helped ourselves. I refused to tell her how I felt about her, and she refused to tell me that I was a horrible tea maker.”
“So.. did uncle Armie tell you?” Emilia asked, “because that seems too nice for him.”
“No. He ridiculed me in front of your mom.”
“Oh, that sounds more like him. What happened then?”
“He asked me to make him a cup of tea. I claimed I didn’t know how, but he told me that he had watched me murder a cup of tea religiously every morning for eighteen months by microwaving it.”
“You microwaved it?” Emilie asked in a similar fashion to her mother, wrinkling her nose in disbelief.
“Excuse me, I taught you how to use a spoon young lady so less of the judgement!”
“Sorry, in that case I’m glad I learnt how to make a cup of tea from mom.”
“I got to work the next morning and was too afraid to make your mom her tea. But she had already beaten me to it anyway. I found her along with a cup of tea in my favourite mug waiting for me at my desk, and the rest is history.
Rey stood up from the table and stacked their plates, taking them over to the sink to wash up.
“I can do that,” Ben told her as he came to stand beside her, taking the dishes out of her hands and ending any argument she was about to make. “You’ve had a long day, and I think somebody else is ready for bed.” He nodded across to the table at their daughter who had her head resting on her hand and her eyes drooping shut.
Normally, if Ben had cooked dinner she would wash up and if he tried to change that, she would argue vehemently. But she missed getting Emilia ready for bed and reading with her.
She nodded and stretched up onto her toes to kiss him on the cheek. “Right, miss, we need to get you washed, dressed and into bed because you and I have a date with Harry Potter at Azkaban.
Her words caught Emilia’s attention, who got up from the table and stretched, making her mom wonder how much longer they had before her daughter was taller than her.
Once he had put everything in the dishwasher and put some fresh food down for Oliver, Ben climbed the stairs, following the sound of his wife’s soothing voice and approached their daughters bedroom.
He quietly pushed open the door and leaned against the doorframe as he looked over at his girls as they cuddled up in Emilia’s bed. Rey had one arm around her dozing daughter and the other holding the book she was reading, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. He had not been allowed to read them to her during her mother’s absence, not that he minded. It was their thing, just like he and Emilia loved to play Mario together. She had loved watching the Harry Potter movies while growing up, but up until this year she had never read the books. Well, unless you count the times Rey had read them to her while she was still in utero.
“Harry climbed the ladder first. He emerged into the strangest-looking classroom he had ever seen.” She murmured. “In fact, it didn't look like a classroom at all, more like a cross between someone's attic and an old-fashioned tea shop.”
At the sound of her daughters soft snuffles, Rey looked down to find her sleeping soundly. She carefully put the bookmark into the book and put it down on the bedside table, switching the lamp off. She tried to disentangle herself as slowly as possible to prevent disturbing Emilia, but she needn’t have worried.
Rey approached Ben quietly and they left the room with the door ajar.
—
“I haven’t felt this cold in years,” Rey mumbled groggily, the thin veil of sweat cooling against her bronzed skin and making her snuggle up closer to her husband while they lay in bed that evening. The muted static buzz accompanying the flickering of the television fading into the background as the couple continued to bask in the soothing presence of each other that they had both missed in her absence.
“When was the last time you felt like this?” Ben urged as he rested his chin on her head and drew circles on the bare skin of her lower back. He had a feeling he knew what the answer was, but he wanted her to reach the same conclusion without him saying anything. She’d had so much going on for the past ten days that she likely hadn’t given it much thought.
She hummed in response as she laid against Ben, the waves of heat rolling off of him blanketing and helping to warm her up. Rey used her finger to make shapes on his abdomen. It had been some time since she last felt this bad, usually she was warmer than usual, not colder.
“Outside of the flu, I’m almost positive that the last time I felt like this was when I was pregnant with Emilia.”
Now that the couple had reached a point in their lives where things were slowing down, and they had an established routine with their daughter becoming more independent, the couple had decided it was a perfect time to expand their family of three. They had been trying to conceive since May with little success, but neither of them were worried, instead just focusing on the daughter they already had and taking it at their own pace.
Rey paused as her words sunk in, finally coming to the same conclusion that Ben had reached the night before, and she sat bolt upright, almost headbutting him in the face.
“We need to go to the drugstore. I think the one next to 7-Eleven on Third is open until midnight.” She said as she got up out of bed a bit too quickly, almost losing her balance as blood rushed to her head.
Ben couldn’t work out if she was panicking, excited or a mixture of both as he watched her pull her socks on and pick up the discarded clothes that she had left on the soft cream carpet.
“Slow down, sweetheart, just wait there,” he told her as he grabbed his pyjama pants and rolled out of bed, walking into their en-suite bathroom.
After a few seconds of rummaging through their medicine cabinet, Ben emerged with the pregnancy test box in his hands, and Rey stopped what she was doing.
“When did you get these?” She asked him, one eyebrow quirked in curiosity as he handed her the box.
“This morning. I had a feeling I couldn’t ignore when you mentioned you were constantly cold and hungry during our call yesterday.”
“Emilia—“
“Doesn’t know.” He said as he switched the television off and turned the lights on. “She was too busy inhaling the box of croissants we had just picked up from the bakery.”
“She really is my daughter, isn’t she?”
“Like I keep telling you, she might look like me, but underneath all of that Solo bravado and Skywalker hair she’s one hundred percent Niima. You never know, our next child might be the opposite.”
“God help us all.” She laughed at the thought of a small child with her warm golden eyes and her husbands stubborn but kind nature.
She fiddled with the duvet cover as she thought over her options. Their options. “We could go and take a test now and we’ll know for sure, but I don’t think I want want to yet,” she mumbled as she curled back up on the bed and looked at him warily.
“Why?”
“Because I thought by us trying for another baby that we would get warning for either eventuality. That I would feel it, maybe morning sickness or food cravings. But other than being cold and tired, I haven’t felt anything, don’t feel like I’ve had enough time to prepare myself for disappointment .” For not getting the answer we want. “With Emilia I knew from the start.”
Ben knelt on the ground in front of her, his dark chocolatey eyes unwavering as he looked up at her. “So let’s sleep on it,” he told her. “They say it’s best done in the morning anyway.”
They got back into bed and Ben pulled her lithe form to his chest again and tucked the duvet in around her. “Okay, Google, lights out.” he said, awaiting the affirmative chime.
“Ben?” She asked through the darkness.
“Mm?”
“Is that why you bought me pickled onion crisps?”
“Excuse me, Princess , you're in America now and we call them chips. But to answer your question seriously, yes.”
“Thank you.”
They went silent again and Rey tried breathing in time with the ticking of the clock in hopes that either it or Ben’s heartbeat would lull her to sleep.
“There’s Häagen-Dazs in the freezer too, isn’t there?”
When he didn’t immediately reply, Rey assumed he had fallen asleep and she couldn’t help but envy him.
“Yes.”
——
Five hours. Their restraint lasted five hours. When the clock struck four am, the couple were sat silently in their bathroom, awaiting the results of the pregnancy test. In their defence, they had tried to sleep and Rey had dozed for a short while, but the prospect of their lives changing forever less than a day after being struck with the real realisation that Rey may very well be carrying their second child filled them with too much adrenaline to relax suitably, and after Ben had refluffed the pillows and reorganised the duvet twice, Rey gave up.
As the seconds ticked by, the used test sat face down on the bathroom counter while Ben sat on the floor, back propped up against the wall and his head resting on Rey’s thigh as she carded her hands through his thick inky locks. When they got to the airport to meet her twelve hours prior, Rey had assumed this would be the best night's sleep she would have since she left them, but she was wrong.
Three minutes had never felt longer, and when the phone in her hand finally vibrated between them, their eyes met with the silent question of who would be the one to look first.
“Together?” He asked, getting up from the floor and offering her his hand.
“Together.” She confirmed, taking and squeezing it lightly.
——
Two months later
“Sweetheart, it’s three am, as excited as we are, I’m sure if we woke Em up now she’d sleep through Christmas, and my mother would never let us hear the end of it.”
“I think once your mother realised why we had woken Emilia up, she’d be thrilled.” Rey sniffed.
“I’m sure she would, but my mother’s screeches on top of a grumpy daughter are another thing I don’t want to encounter at three am on Christmas morning when there’s still the possibility of an extra four hours of sleep.”
He had a point, she knew he did. But they had waited two months to tell Emilia their news and her inability to sleep because of her excitement rivalled the night they found out she was expecting. “You’re such a grinch, Ben Solo.”
He chuckled quietly, kissing her bare shoulder as he pulled her closer. “And yet here we are, ten years later with you carrying our second child, and I haven’t heard you complain about my grouchiness once.
“And you say the sass comes from me.”
——
After a lie in that probably wasn’t really a lie in when they were more excited about getting up early, Ben, Rey and the Skywalker-Solo family were gathered in Han and Leia’s living room watching as their daughter painstakingly and carefully pulled off the bits of tape that were holding the wrapping paper to her first present.
“C’mon, kid,” Han said gruffly from his place on his recliner in the corner, “gift wrap was made to be ripped!”
Leia, whom was silently watching her granddaughter, threw a screwed up ball of gift wrap at her husband. “Quiet, Han, Emilia can take as much time as she wants.” She said as she gestured to her granddaughter. “Carry on, dear.”
As she finally unfurled the wrapping and neatly placed it beside her present, the girl gave the box a little shake in hope that it would give away its contents.
If their daughter noticed her dad filming her opening her presents, she didn’t say anything. She was too busy peeling the last bit of sticky tape off of each side of the box.
Emilia lifted up the lid and curiously unfolded the pink and blue tissue paper. She carefully pulled out the folded up t-shirt and held it up in front of her so she could read it properly, and her jaw dropped. Ben breathed a sigh of relief that Rey had packed his good camera.
“What’s it say, Em?” Rey asked innocently as she sat in her husband's lap, grinning at her daughter's dumbfounded reaction to her present.
“No longer riding Solo. Baby Solo #2 due May 2020.”
As the Skywalker-Solo’s collectively gasped, their daughter blinked a few times before forcing herself up from the floor and threw herself at her parents, wrapping an arm around each of them.
Ben stopped filming and put his camera down, wrapping one arm around his daughter to pull her closer to them. All three Solos were unaware that Leia had started filming as soon as her son had stopped.
“Is it a boy or a girl?” Emilia asked with a wide grin. “How long have you known?” “Does anyone else know?”
“Slow down and breathe, Em, we want you to live long enough to meet your brother or sister.” Rey told her quietly as she rubbed her back.
“We have a scan on the twenty-eighth to find out the sex and want you to come with us. We’ve known since the day after your mom got home in October and you’re the first one to know, no one else knew until you read out the t-shirt.”
As Emilia hugged her mother tighter and looked away, because she’s not going to cry, thank you very much, she could feel the small bump of her sibling pressed against her side and she didn’t know how she had missed the blatant changes in her mom’s figure. Even if she was always wrapped in her fathers sweaters.
The girl stood up after one last hug, noticing that the five other occupants of the room were still watching them, for the exception of Leia who was currently sobbing into her husband’s shoulder.
Ben noticed that Em didn’t go back to her original spot, instead choosing to sit at the feet of her parents as the gift giving carried on with the rest of the family opting to congratulate them once the exchange was finished.
In that moment, as he watched his wife smile with happiness and their daughter flush with excitement, Ben truly understood what people mean when they say that lives had the ability to change just as seamlessly as the way summer that year had given way to fall.