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The aging mechanic standing in front of Rey scratched his grey bristled chin and tutted.
‘This isn’t going to be an easy fix, kiddo.’
Rey’s heart slumped in her chest. ‘There has to be something you can do?’
Rey wasn’t ready to say goodbye to her crappy Vauxhall Astra just yet. They had been through a lot together.
‘Is there anything that you can do to get her running again that won’t cost me an arm and a leg?’
The man smiled in a crooked sort of way. ‘Maybe I can get it down to a couple of thumbs for ya.’
Rey laughed and smiled. ‘Thank you.’
‘You’re welcome. Let me go check some parts out back. Ben! Stop being so antisocial and come keep our customer company.’
Rey heard a groan from behind her and a chair creaked as someone stood up. Footsteps started towards her. Growing closer and closer…
That’s when Rey felt it. The familiar calm that always washed over her when he was near and then the scent. Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Her mouth started to water. It couldn’t be her Ben. It just couldn’t be. Could it?
He was right behind her now. Her heart sped up as she turned and looked at him. He was still so tall. Not as tall as she remembered him, but he still towered over her. Same kind, dark eyes. Same jet black hair that fell over his forehead and curled around his slightly too big ears. Same full lips and muscular form, features she was able to appreciate so much more now as an adult.
When was the last time she had seen Ben? She must have been six or seven. She remembered crying herself to sleep for a week after he disappeared. It had been so hard to go on without him. Without her special friend that only she could see.
‘Ben?’ she whispered.
‘Yeah, that’s me,’ he said with a grin.
‘How are you here?’ she said.
Ben frowned down at her. ‘What do you mean? I’ve always been here. This is where I work. Do I know you?’
Rey felt sick. ‘Don’t you recognise me? It’s me, Rey. Don’t you remember me at all?’
Ben shook his head. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know you.’
‘Yes you do!’ Rey grabbed his T-shirt with both hands. How could he not remember her? He had to remember. He just had to.
‘I was smaller, with longer hair? Often in ringlets? Don’t you remember the orphanage? Don’t you remember the games we used to play? Don’t you remember singing me to sleep? Or the stories you used to tell me about the others like you?’
Ben removed her hands from his T-shirt and took a step back. ‘I’m sorry, Rey. You must have me confused with someone else.’
Tears were forming in her eyes now. Tears of frustration and embarrassment and anger. Anger that he had left her when she had needed him the most and now he didn’t even have decency to remember who she was?
‘It’s you. I don’t know if you are lying or if you really don’t remember me. But I know you, Ben. You were always there for me and then you disappeared. I’ve missed you everyday since then. Every single day… and now here you are hanging out at some garage in the middle of nowhere without a care in the world? This was your big important mission you abandoned me to take care of?’
‘Look I’m sorry, but I really don’t know who you are, lady.’
‘Lady?’ Rey cried.
The older mechanic reappeared before Rey could slap her beloved old friend right across his stupid face.
The older gentleman looked at them both. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked.
Ben looked bewildered. ‘I don’t know, Dad. She claims to know me.’
The older man’s eyes focused on Rey with interest. ‘Really? Were you friends as children maybe? Tell me.’
Rey suddenly felt very uncomfortable. She couldn’t explain to Ben’s father that she knew Ben because he was her imaginary friend when she was growing up, oh and then there was the fact that he didn’t seem to have aged a day to her. If she couldn’t get Ben to believe her what chance did she have of getting anyone else to accept the truth?
‘I must be mistaken,’ Rey mumbled. She handed the mechanic her car keys. ‘Here, I’ll come back in the morning and check on your progress.’
She walked away as quickly as she could, hoping there was a bus stop somewhere she could use to get back to the hotel.
‘Wait!’
Rey turned around at the sound of his voice. Ben ran up at her and stopped inches away. Her heart thumped in her chest. This felt so different now that she was fully grown. She zoned in on his mouth then caught herself.
‘Come back. We’re miles from anywhere. At least let me drive you to your hotel,’ he offered.
Rey nodded and followed him back to the garage. While Ben retrieved his car. the older man introduced himself.
‘I’m Han. I’m sorry about before. I just got excited that you might be able to fill some gaps in for us. You see, my wife Leia and I took Ben in when he was sixteen years old. Sort of adopted him. He remembers nothing of his life before then. I thought perhaps you might have been a piece of the puzzle we’ve been chasing for twenty years.’
Rey shook her head.
‘I’m sorry I can’t help,’ she said.
Han smiled. ‘No matter. We love him anyway. Ahh here’s Ben.’
Ben pulled up beside them in an old pick up truck. Rey got into the passenger side and waved at Han as they drove away.
‘So where to?’ Ben asked.
‘I’m staying at the travelodge in town.’
Ben nodded.
Rey’s hands fidgeted in her lap. Finally she couldn’t hold it in any longer.
‘Your father told me they took you in when you were sixteen. He said you didn’t remember anything of your life before that day.’
Ben clutched the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.
‘Yeah, my dad has a habit of sharing information I would rather keep to myself.’
Rey blushed. Geez. She didn’t remember him being this bristly.
‘Ben, I know this sounds crazy, but I do know you.’
‘From my childhood?’ Ben asked.
Rey shook her head. ‘No. When I knew you, you looked exactly as you do right now only with less motor oil on your cheeks. You were always there for me when I was a child. No one could see you but me. You were my best friend. We were so close I thought of you as my big brother.’
‘Rey, you have to realise this sounds insane.’
‘I know, but you have to believe me. It was you, Ben and then one day you disappeared. I don’t remember the exact year. I just remember it was September 28th because it was the day before my birthday.’
‘That’s the same date that Han found me wandering around on the back roads with no idea who I was.’
‘Oh my god,’ Rey whispered. ‘Something happened to you. Something took you away from me. What was it?’
‘It’s just a coincidence, Rey. You had an imaginary friend who sorta looked like me. That’s all.’
‘An imaginary friend who looked exactly like you? Same handsome face? Same beautiful dark eyes?’ Rey blushed when she realised what she had said.
Ben kept his eyes on the road but she noted the edges of his ears went pink just like they used to. Her heart contracted in her chest. There had to be some way she could prove to him she was telling the truth…
‘We’re here.’ Ben announced as he pulled up outside of her hotel. Rey’s heart sank. Their time together had come to an end. But there was always tomorrow. She had to try and think of a way she could convince him of the truth before she saw him again.
‘Thank you, Ben,’ she said before getting out of the truck.
Ben nodded. ‘See you tomorrow, Rey.’
‘Yes, see you tomorrow.’
She watched him drive away and then hurried up to her hotel room. She got out a pad and paper and started to write down everything she could remember about their time together. There had to be something she could use to jog his memory of her.
‘Please remember me,’ she begged as she scribbled furiously on the notepad until late into the night.
**********
Ben thought about Rey for the rest of the day. He thought about what she had said and the way her dark curls fell around her gorgeous face and how her lips looked so tempting when she ran her tongue over them. Could any of it be true? Han had confirmed he never shared the date with her, so it was strange that she would pluck that particular day out of thin air. It was also strange that he didn’t remember anything from his childhood. They had always assumed it had been some sort of trauma… but what if the reason he couldn’t remember anything was simply because he hadn’t existed before that day? He shook his head and laughed. That was madness… utter madness… but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something about Rey’s story was familiar to him. He picked at his food at the dinner table that night and excused himself to bed far earlier than usual. He googled imaginary friends and psychic abilities but didn’t find anything useful. Eventually, he decided to give up and go to bed.
In his dreams Ben was in a long, dark room with rows of small beds. He walked down to the centre bed where a little girl was crying.
‘Shhhh, Rey,’ he heard himself say as he crouched down by her bedside.
Rey smiled up at him through her tears. He took her hands in his. There was a red welt across her palm. Ben felt anger flare in his chest. Mr Palpatine had disciplined her again. For the thousandth time Ben wished with all his might that he could take tangible form so that he could teach the disgusting brute a lesson. Ben pushed Rey’s hair back soothingly.
‘Why can’t I go with you, Ben?’ Rey sobbed.
Ben’s heart squeezed in his chest.
‘I would take you with me if I could, Rey. You know that. But it just isn’t possible. Close your eyes and I’ll tell you a story.’
‘About the other angels? The ones like you?’ Rey said excitedly.
Ben nodded, glad to see her tears had stopped.
Suddenly, Ben was transported to a white room, around him where five beings dressed all in while and seated on tall white thrones arranged in a semicircle around him.
One of the beings began to speak.
‘Benjamin Solo you are charged with inflicting harm on a human male, how do you plead?’
‘Guilty,’ Ben heard himself say.
‘For the crime of using your heavenly gifts to bestow violence upon one of the living you are to be stripped of your powers and banished to the human world.’
‘That bastard got what he deserved! He was hurting those children!’
‘It is against our laws for you to interfere! All you may do is observe and care for your charge. Nothing more.’
‘I will bear my punishment. Just please, I beg you. Place me near to her. Let me remember her. I need to protect her. She needs me.’
‘She is no longer your concern. It is customary for those who are banished to retain no memory of their time before their banishment began. You will not be an exception to this rule. You will arrive on Earth the same age you were when you met your untimely death and crossed over.'
‘No! Please! Wait!’
Ben awoke in his bed in the dead of night. His heart thumping in his chest and his clothes damp with sweat.
Everything she had said was true. He had been her guardian. He had slipped up and manipulated Palpatine into caning himself. The man had been removed from his post after insisting that an unseen force had made him do it. Ben clenched his fists. He had begged to be allowed to be near her. Instead they had parted them and taken his memory. Now, twenty years later, they had somehow found each other again. He had to see her. He jumped out of bed and pulled on some clothes, trying to leave the house as quietly as he could so as not to alert his parents to his departure. He jumped into his pick up truck and headed for Rey’s hotel.
**********
Rey jolted up in bed.
‘Ben,’ she whispered into the dark room.
Suddenly, the phone in her room started to ring. She picked it up.
‘Miss Johnson? I’m so sorry to be calling so late, but there’s a man here who is insisting upon seeing you….’
‘I’m coming.’
Rey put the phone down and jumped out of bed. Frantically pulling on her clothes and trying to make herself look as presentable as she could as quickly as possible. She jumped into the lift and her heart caught in her chest when the doors opened at the ground floor with a ding and their eyes met once more. Rey took his hand and pulled him into the elevator, pressing the button for her floor. They looked at each other. She searched his eyes hopefully.
‘You know, don’t you?’ Rey said.
Ben nodded. ‘I remember. I remember it all.’
Tears formed in Rey’s eyes as she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his middle and burying her head in his chest. Ben stroked her hair gently, trying desperately to remember she was his charge and willing his body to stop responding to her in such an inappropriate way.
The lift doors opened, and Rey smiled and took his hand as she led him to her room.
‘I’m so glad I found you,’ Rey said as they sat down on the edge of the bed together.
‘I’m so sorry, Rey. I’m so sorry I left you.’
‘What happened?’
‘I was stripped of my powers and banished to your world because I broke the rules.’
‘Palpatine. That was you, I had long suspected…’
Ben nodded. ‘I hated what he did to you and the other children. My superiors said it was not my place to interfere.’
‘Bastards,’ Rey hissed.
‘I begged them to place me near you, Rey. I begged them to let me keep my memories of you.’
Rey took his hands in hers. ‘It’s okay, Ben. It’s not your fault.’
‘But I wasn’t there when you needed me, Rey. I can never make that right.’
‘You protected me from Palpatine, Ben. You were just doing your job. This isn’t your fault and look at me. I’m here. I’m fine and we’re together again. That’s all that matters.’
Ben smiled at her. ‘You were always a fighter. Fill me in. What happened after I went missing?’
‘I hung around the orphanage until I was fifteen, then I managed to escape. Met a bunch of other misfits on my journey and we all live together in a tiny flat in the centre of London. I’m a Primary School teacher now.’
‘A teacher. That’s what you always wanted to be.’
‘It is,’ Rey said with a smile that lit up the dark room.
‘You always could brighten my mood with your smiles,’ Ben murmured.
Rey blushed and Ben fought the urge to kiss her. He cleared his throat awkwardly.
‘Do you have… um… are you… is there…’
‘I’m single,’ Rey said answering his unspoken question. ‘Are you with anyone?’
Ben shook his head. ‘I’ve never actually been interested in anyone until…’ he didn’t say the word ‘you’ but by the look on Rey’s face he guessed she already knew.
They were silent for a while. Their hands still joined together.
Was it wrong to want her so much? She said he had been her best friend, her big brother, he shouldn’t feel this way about her. It was wrong.
Rey sighed and closed her eyes. ‘You still smell like cookies… it’s delicious.’
‘Do I?’ he asked.
Rey inched closer to him. ‘To me you do.’
She looked up at him expectantly. His eyes zoomed in on her mouth. Those soft, plump lips were a woman’s lips.
‘When I left you were still just a little girl,’ he whispered.
‘That was twenty years ago, Ben. I’m not a little girl anymore.’
Then she kissed him, and everything blurred out of focus and Ben lost the battle with himself over what was right and wrong, and simplified his duty down to one primary aim to give Rey anything she wanted of him, body, soul and heart.
**********
One month later…
‘That’s the last of them,’ Rey announced as she loaded the final box of her things into Ben’s pick up truck. Ben grinned at her and kissed her forehead.
‘Let’s go home then,’ he said.
Rey smiled and nodded. She took one last look at her little flat then they got into the truck and sped off. Rey’s heart was filled with joy. The last month had been the most wonderful chapter of her life so far. After spending every second of her remaining holiday time with Ben, returning home had been tough, so Rey had been overwhelmed with love when Ben turned up on her doorstep one day later and proposed. Of course she had said yes. She loved him more than she could possibly say and she knew he felt the same way.
They had quickly made plans to find a place for them both to rent near Ben’s parents and Rey had been lucky enough to secure a teaching job at the small local school. Mainly due to her wonderful mother in law to be who also happened to be the head master's sister.
As they sped back to their small, run down house in the tiny town she now thought of as home, Rey once again thanked her lucky stars that Ben had found his way back into her life.
When they arrived, Ben insisted on carrying her over the threshold and they laughed as he maneuvered them both through the tiny doorway. They fell onto the sofa in fits of laughter that soon turned into sighs of pleasures as their lips found each other.
‘Promise you won’t leave me again?’ Rey murmured between kisses.
‘Never, my love.’ Ben vowed.
Rey cradled his cheeks with her hands and looked up at him. ‘They screwed up when they tried to take you from me. They underestimated how strong our bond is.’
Ben nodded. ‘You found me even out here in the middle of nowhere. I was so lost, Rey. Then you came to my rescue and showed me who I really am.’
Rey smiled. ‘I’m glad I finally got the chance to repay you for all the times you were my hero growing up.’
‘I’ll always be your hero, Rey,’ Ben whispered as he kissed her once more.
‘And I’ll always be yours, Ben,’ Rey promised softly against his lips, before they both became lost once more, but this time they were very happily lost in their fierce love for one other.
**********