Chapter Text
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Precious and fragile things
Need special handling
- Precious, Depeche Mode
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Her name was Bria Bey Dameron and she was four and a half years old.
Grownups always laughed when she said that, but the half year was really important. After all, she was almost five.
She lived on a planet called Coruscant in an apartment so high up that she wasn't allowed to be on the balcony or the landing pad alone, but if she sat at the force field and looked out, she could wave to the ships as they passed by. Sometimes people would even wave back.
Her daddy was a senator and while she didn't really understand what he did, he worked in a massive building that he sometimes took her to see. She loved those trips; sitting in his lap, he would show her all the controls that made the speeder fly. Daddy loved flying and Bria couldn't wait to be big enough to learn, too.
Mommy worked, too, but Bria didn't really know exactly what she did. Mommy said she was a teacher. Daddy said she was a master. Bria once heard someone call Mommy a Jedi, whatever that was. Bria didn't really care. Mommy had amazing powers; she could make things float and she always knew what Bria was upset about, even if Bria didn't know herself.
Her daddy and her mommy loved each other very much. That was how, they had told Bria, a baby had come to be growing in Mommy's belly.
Bria wasn't sure how she felt about being a big sister, but Daddy had explained that the baby, her brother, would need her help and would look up to her as he got bigger and that seemed like a pretty important job.
It took forever for the baby to come. For a long time, Mommy didn't look any different, but she did get tired easily and even sick sometimes. But she still picked Bria up and played games with her like hide and go seek and the breathing game. She and Mommy would sit on the floor, their legs crossed and eyes closed while they took deep breaths and released them slowly. It was hard to sit so still some days, but Bria would have done anything to make Mommy happy.
Bria didn't realize Mommy's body was changing until she tried to climb up onto her lap one day.
"Careful, Bria," Mommy said, touching her belly as Bria sat on her knee. It was only then that Bria noticed how round it had gotten under her loose shirt. "Put your hand here."
Frowning, Bria let Mommy put her hand right on the strange bump. After a moment, something moved under her palm. She looked up at Mommy only to find smiling her beautiful smile. "That's your brother," she said. "Just a few more months and you'll get to meet him."
A few months might as well have been a few years. The only really good thing was that her Grandpa came to stay with them when Mommy's belly got so big that she stopped going to work.
Grandpa Kes lived on another planet, but he visited often and whenever he did, he would always bring Bria a present. But Bria liked his stories best of of all--he would tell her all about the adventures he'd had when her Daddy was little. It was weird to think of Daddy being little, but Grandpa had shown her pictures. She looked a bit like Daddy, with her curly dark hair, but her face was much more like Mommy's.
There were no pictures of Mommy when she was little and Grandpa Kes was the only grandpa she had. Mommy didn't have a family of her own.
But she did have a best friend and Finn was one of Bria's favorite people. He and his wife, Rose, didn't come to Coruscant very often, but when they did, it was so much fun because they always brought their daughter, Safie, who was just a year younger than Bria. It was nice not to be littlest person.
Everything changed for Bria Bey Dameron, four and half years old, on the day her brother was born.
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Bria woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of voices outside her bedroom door. The room was dark; it wasn't time to get up, but people were awake. Even for grownups, this was strange.
Tiptoeing to the door, she was about to open it when it suddenly opened on its own. She might have screamed if Grandpa Kes hadn't been on the other side.
"Baby girl," he said, surprised. "Did we wake you?"
Nodding, Bria flew to him, plastering herself against his leg until he picked her up and set her in the crook of his arm. "Why's everyone up?" she asked, rubbing her eye.
"Well...your mommy's...the baby is..." Grandpa seemed upset about something. "The baby is ready to be born," he finally said. "But he's a little early."
From somewhere in the apartment, she could hear someone cry out. It was Mommy, she realized. Nothing else so far had really scared Bria, but Mommy was strong. Mommy wasn't afraid of anything. But Mommy was upset. And that was enough to make Bria start to cry.
"Hey, baby girl." Grandpa kissed her head. "Don't cry; everything is going to be fine."
"Mommy...I want Mommy!"
Just then, she felt someone lift her out of Grandpa's arms. Daddy. Throwing her arms around his neck, she buried her face there.
"I'll take her in," Daddy said to Grandpa. "Rey wants to see her before we leave."
Bria lifted her head and sniffed. "Where are you going, Daddy?"
As he carried her to his and Mommy's room, Daddy said, "Grandpa told you the baby is coming?" She nodded. "Well, the baby and Mommy need help, so I'm going to take them to the medical centre."
"Is Mommy sick?"
"No, but having a baby is a lot of work," he said, brushing her tangled hair off her face. "And it hurts, so that's why Mommy's in pain, okay?"
Bria nodded as Daddy carried her into the bedroom. Mommy was sitting up in bed, her eyes closed, taking deep breaths. Still, she knew when they entered the room. She always knew when Bria moved during the breathing game.
BB-8, the best droid in the entire universe and Bria's best friend, sat next to the bed; he beeped at Bria, but she only understood "hello." She was still learning how droids spoke.
Mommy opened her eyes and smiled, but her smile wasn't as beautiful as usual. "Bria, come here, sweetie." Daddy put her down onto the bed and Bria crawled against Mommy's side. "Don't be scared," Mommy said, holding her tightly. "Everything will be fine."
"I'm not scared," Bria lied, her voice muffled as she nestled closer to Mommy.
"That's because you're very brave," Mommy whispered, putting her cheek on Bria's head. She held onto Bria for a long moment, before finally lifting her head. "Poe..."
Suddenly, Daddy scooped Bria up. She tried to fight him, to get back to Mommy, but when she twisted her head back, she could see Mommy holding her belly, her face scrunched up, her teeth clenched.
Daddy handed her to Grandpa after giving her a hug and a kiss. "Grandpa will tuck you into bed, Bria. Be good and try to go back to sleep, okay?"
"Daddy, don't go!"
For a moment, she thought he might stay. He ran his hand through his hair and down his beard like he always did when he was thinking about something, but then he kissed her forehead again and said to Grandpa, "I'll keep you posted."
Grandpa held her as she screamed and cried herself to sleep.
****
Mommy and Daddy weren't back when she woke again. The sun was out and Grandpa was making pancakes for breakfast, but they were still gone.
While Grandpa was in the kitchen, Bria sat in the wide, open living room, playing with her toy X-wing. Usually she loved running around the room, bouncing between low sofas and chairs as she made the model ship fly through the air.
But not that day. She wanted to scream. She wanted to kick her legs and scream until Mommy and Daddy came home.
"Stupid brother!" As she shouted, she hurled the X-wing with all the might in her body towards the invisible force field that ran the length of the room as it turned into the balcony and the landing pad where Daddy's ship usually sat.
But rather than bounce off the field, the toy plane sailed onto the balcony and landed on top of the cushioned seats that ran along the edge.
Bria blinked. The force field wasn't on.
She'd been on the balcony before with Mommy or Daddy, but never by herself. Daddy had told her that it was dangerous and that's why there was the force field, to make sure she never got close enough to the edge to fall.
Bria slowly stood up. She wanted her plane.
It was windy on the balcony and her toy, balanced on the top of a cushion, was in danger of flying off. Bria climbed the seats and stood up. It didn't feel dangerous...until she looked down.
So much space stretched out below her. So much that she couldn't even see the ground it was so far below. She was just about to grab her plane and go when a sudden wind picked up her toy, knocking it off the cushion. Bria tried to grab it, but she lost her footing and stumbled forward.
Something grabbed her and pulled her back. She thought it was Grandpa until she looked up and saw a tall man with dark hair standing on the balcony.
"You shouldn't be out here," he told her.
Bria blinked, tears gathering in her eyes, from her lost plane and the very scary feeling that something really bad had almost happened.
"Why are you crying?" the man asked. "You're fine."
She sniffed. "My plane..." Tears slipped down her cheeks. "I lost my plane."
"But you didn't fall," he said. "So don't cry."
Bria nodded, holding in her sobs. "Who...who are you?"
The man didn't answer. He just sat on the low bench around the edge of the balcony. "Where are your parents?"
"Mommy is..." Bria gulped for air. "...having a baby."
He nodded for a moment. His eyes looked sad. "Yes, that would distract them, wouldn't it?"
Scrubbing her arm over her eyes, Bria sniffed again. "I'm Bria Bey Dameron," she introduced herself. "Do you have a name?"
"Yes," the man said.
Bria waited as long as she could. "Is it..." She searched for a name that she liked and settled on the name of a boy at school. "Jaster?"
He nodded. "You can call me that, Bria Bey." He paused. "BB?"
She lifted her shoulder. "Daddy says that was a happy cobincidence."
"Coincidence," he said.
"Yeah, because Mommy and Daddy met because of BB-8."
Jaster smiled, but, like his eyes, it was sad. "Oh, I know that." He turned his head and for the first time, she noticed a long scar running down his face.
"You know my Mommy and Daddy?"
Looking back at her, Jaster ignored the question and asked, "Why are you so angry, Bria Bey?"
"I don't want a brother," she said, folding her arms over her chest.
"Is that all?" She nodded. "I wanted a brother," Jaster said. "Or a sister. I was mad at my parents for never giving me one."
"You can have mine."
This time, when he smiled, it wasn't sad. "Thank you, Bria Bey." He stood up. "You need to go inside and get off the balcony."
Right then, Grandpa Kes called for her. "Bria! Come have breakfast."
Bria looked towards the kitchen and asked, "Do you want to stay for pancakes?" But when she turned back around, Jaster was gone.
Grandpa found her a minute later when he came looking for her. Muttering a curse word under his breath, he grabbed her up. "What are you doing out here?! Baby, it's dangerous!" He looked around. "They must have forgotten to turn on the force field when they left."
"The wind blew my plane away," Bria told him. "But Jaster kept me from falling."
"Jaster?" Grandpa asked, carrying her to the kitchen. "Who's Jaster?"
"My friend," she told him. "My new friend."
****
Her baby brother arrived in the afternoon and after she and Grandpa had supper, they went to the medical centre to meet him. Mommy looked really tired and Daddy was holding the baby, so Bria clung to Grandpa.
"Bria, come here," Daddy said, sitting down on a chair near Mommy's bed. "Come meet your brother."
She walked to him slowly, not really wanting to go at all. But then she remember Jaster. He wanted a brother or a sister, so maybe it wasn't so bad.
"This is Nichos," Daddy said, grinning. "We're already calling him Nic."
"Nic," Bria said. The baby in Daddy's arms was pink and almost bald and looked like a squished potato. "He's really small."
"He's got a lot of growing to do," Daddy said.
Bria looked at Mommy. She was watching them, but her eyes were half-closed. "Is Mommy okay?"
"I'm fine, Bria-bear," she whispered. "Come here."
"Be careful," Daddy said. "Mommy's very tired and sore."
Crawling next to Mommy in the bed, Bria said, "Mommy, your belly's still big."
Mommy nodded. "The baby took up a lot of space. But it will go away." She tucked Bria's hair behind her ears. "Tell me what you've been doing today."
"Grandpa made pancakes," Bria began. "And I lost my X-wing."
"How'd you do that?"
"It flew off the balcony. I tried to go after it, but..."
Mommy looked at Daddy, then at Grandpa. "She was on the balcony?"
Grandpa nodded. "The force field didn't go back up and I didn't think to check. I'm sorry."
"Not your fault, Dad," Daddy said. "It's mine. We were in such a hurry... But Bria, you know better than to go out there."
"But my plane!" Bria told him. "Jaster was there and he didn't let me fall."
"Jaster?" Mommy asked.
Grandpa cleared his throat and spelled something that Bria couldn't understand. "I-M-A-G-I-N-A-R-Y F-R-I-E-N-D."
"Ah," Mommy said. "Well, even with Jaster, you should never, ever go on the balcony, Bria. Promise me."
"I promise, Mommy."
She snuggled back against Mommy's side and closed her eyes. For Bria Bey Dameron, four and a half years old, the day her brother arrived had been very long and very strange.
But at least she had made a new friend.
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TBC