Chapter Text
The name’s Rey – Rey Kenobi.” she said as she shook his hand.
Her hands were soft, Ben marveled to himself. As was everything about her, it seemed: from her shouder length hair to her small frame to her big smile and even bigger dimples.
It was easy to see why Hux and Phasma had chosen Rey as their surrogate mother: there was something infinitely attractive and fascinating about her.
After three very painful miscarriages, his business partners and friends of many years had realized that an alternative way was needed to have a baby. “Endometriosis is dreadful business.” Phasma had drawled in her usual detached voice, yet a glint of sadness in her eyes had revealed to Ben what pain his friend had been through for many years. “But the doctor says my eggs are fine, so Hux and I have decided on IVF and a gestational surrogate mother. Naturally, you’ll be the baby’s godfather.”
And here they were now – the surrogate mother had been chosen and her pregnancy was well over two months underway. Hux and Phasma had insisted on Ben meeting her and had therefore thrown a celebratory diner party at their house.
“Ben Solo.” he replied, reluctantly letting go of her hand.
Rey took a sip of the drink in her hand – a alcohol free beverage, served in a luxurious wine glass. “The baby’s godfather.”
“Yes – but I think they asked to be polite, not because I’m so good with children!” he smiled bashfully.
“None of your own then? Or any nieces and nephews?”
Oh no. Ben was 32 and by the looks of it would stay single and childless forever. If Rey was the kind of person who had an aura of niceness around her that instantly attracted people, Ben possed the quality to scare everyone away in that same time span.
“I’m an only child. No, this kid’ll be my first.”
Rey laughed when he threw a faux-anxious glance at her lightly swollen midsection. “Don’t be nervous! If even half of the things that Hux and Phasma have told me about you are true, I’m sure you’ll be a wonderful parental figure in this childs’ life.”
“You have got to be kidding me.”
Just because he shared the CEO responsibilities of First Order Packaging & Shipping with Hux and Phasma it did not mean his job wasn’t overall stressful and tiring. This was to be his first afternoon off in months, and now he was supposed to do what?
“I’m asking you this as a friend Ben.” Hux’ stern voice sounded over the phone. “By the time Phasma and I have made the trip back from Cardiff to London, Rey’s appointment will be long over.”
Ben didn’t reply, overthinking the situation. Hux and Phasma were in Cardiff on business, while Ben was still in London – and therefore closest to Rey.
“We would have accompanied her ourselves had this not been an unscheduled emergency appointment. Look, I’m sure everything is alright but Rey fears something is amiss with the baby and I don’t think she sound be alone right now.”
“I barely know her Hux.”
“You do! And from what I can tell you’ve gotten along just fine up untill now!”
He was right about that in a way. It had been almost three months since Ben had first been introduced to Rey and in that time had met her on a number of other occasions. She was clearly a bright young woman, and strong too, but the idea that she was going through this pregnancy scare all by herself made his stomach queasy.
When did he get so weak?
“Fine. What’s the address of her gynaecologist?”
Ben heard Hux breathe a smile sigh of relief on the other end of the line, after which the red haired man told him where to go.
When Ben arrived at Rey’s doctors’ office, he was quietly escorted to the examination room to which she had already been admitted.
She lay on an examination table, her t-shirt rucked up to show her protruding stomach. Rey was about five months along, if Ben wasn’t mistaken. He had expected to find her nervous or anxious, yet that was not the emotion that lay on her face.
She seemed angry?
He greeted her with an awkward wave while making his way over to her side.
“Hello.”
“Hi.” she answered briefly, not looking at him.
Rey’s doctor, who had been busy with setting up equipment in the corner of the room, turned to him.
“Goodafternoon Mr. Kenobi! Happy you could join us.” The woman shot both of them reassuring looks. “Let’s see how your baby is doing huh?”
“He’s not- oh my god.” Rey whispered, hiding her face behind a hand. Ben, flustered himself by the doctor’s omission, wasn’t capable of correcting her either.
After squeezing a liquid gel onto Rey’s stomach, the doctor set to work with the ultrasound transducer, staring at ultrasound images appearing on the screen of the computer beside her.
“You wanted to come in today because you haven’t felt your baby move in a while, right?”
Rey nodded her head in confirmation.
“Can you give me an estimate of how long exactly?”
With each movement of the doctors hand, the tiny yet unmistakable shape of a baby was appearing more and more clearly on the computer screen. Ben’s eyes were glued to it in fascination – he’d never seen this before.
Rey’s eyes were fixated on the monitor too. “Two days. The baby is usually very active but now it’s stopped moving completely, for some reason.”
“Let’s see if we can find…” the doctor murmured, before turning back to Rey with a big grin. “There!” she said, pointing towards a tiny flittering motion in the grainy black and white picture. “The baby’s heartbeat.”
Something inside Ben deflated. He wasn’t an expert on this type of stuff, but if the baby’s heart was still going, all would be well.
If Rey too was relieved, she certainly did not show. If anything, the annoyed expression on her face seemed to become worse.
“And going at a normal rate from what I can tell, so you have no reason to be concerned Mrs. Kenobi.” The doctor smiled at her warmly. “I can see why you were worried, but baby’s too need to rest up a bit sometimes. It’s normal. Give it a few days and I’m sure your child will be back to pushing and pulling at your insides again!”
Rey sighed heavily. “As it says in my file, it’s not- Christ almighty. Just clean me up, will you?”
Only now clearly sensing her agitation, the doctor quickly wiped away the gel from Rey’s stomach. The younger brunette sat up straight away, straightening out her clothes before grabbing her bag and storming out of the examination room.
Ben, still somewhat dazed from seeing Hux and Phasma’s child up close and knowing it and Rey would be fine, mumbled a ‘Thank you’ to the doctor before quickly going after Rey.
He found her near the elevators, her face a distinctive red shade. “I’m very sorry for all of this, obviously I was an idiot for making this appointment in the first place.”
“It’s quite alright. Rather safe than-”
“And also sorry for the mix up. My own gynaecologist isn’t here today so they had to squeeze me in with a different doctor. I don’t think the women read a word of what’s in my file, otherwise she would have known this isn’t your kid. It’s not even mine. ” Rey spoke quickly, adding a sarcastic laugh at the end.
“Rey? Slow down.” In a gesture unlike himself, Ben gently stroked up and down her back a few times. “It’s fine. The two of you are fine.”
She shot him a surprised look, at which he immediately retracted his hand. Comforting her had seemed like the right thing to do just a second ago, yet it looked like he’d misunderstood her needing support.
“Sorry-”
“No worries. Like you said, we’re fine.” She give him a genuine smile this time. “Thank you for coming. My friend Finn is coming to pick me up, so you can go back to work – I guess that’s what you were doing before I interrupted. I’ll see you later.”
With that goodbye, she stepped into the elevator, pressing the button to the ground floor. Ben, too embarrassed move in beside her, waved her farewell and took a turn left, heading down by stairs.
The next time Ben met Rey was a few weeks later – again at the instigation of the soon to be parents.
Phasma had strolled into his office, holding a bundle of paper. “Rey recently started this birthing yoga class thing and Hux and I had promised to go along a few times. So we know how to support her when she’s in labor and everything - but alas.” She rolled her eyes. “Business is keeping both of us busy. I have some paperwork that I promised Rey I would get to her as soon as possible.”
Phasma had given Ben her sweetest smile. “Could you please drop by her yoga gathering this afternoon and deliver it to her? It’s right around the corner from your three o’clock appointment with the people from Snoke Industries.”
Ben had been easily moved to do it this time around. The strange meeting with Rey at her doctor’s appointment had been stuck in his head – and he had been hoping for a chance to see her again. To know how she was doing now.
To see if she was alright again.
And so he drove by her gym class. As he would go straight to a business meeting after handing her the files, Ben was dressed in his finest black suit and couldn’t have stood out more amongst the pregnant women and men decked out in sportswear.
“Ben?”
His eyes had been scanning the room for Rey’s beautiful form, but she’d located him first. His ears growing a clear shade of red, Ben turned to greet her.
Like the other women in the room, she was wearing comfortable clothes – tight fitting ones that showed every curve on her pregnant body.
Christ, she was getting more attractive by the minute.
“Hi Rey, good afternoon, ah yeah, I mean - nice to see you again.” Ben said as he fumbled in his bag for the papers he was supposed to give her. “Phasma asked me to stop by and give you this.”
“Oh…” Rey’s voice drifted off as she looked through the documents he’d handed her. From the glance he'd stolen at them earlier, it was paper work concerning costs Rey would have to make due to her pregnancy and that Hux and Phasma would cover.
“I guess this means her and Hux won’t be joining me today? Again?”
There it was again – that anger. The same kind of annoyance he’d felt from her the last time he’d seen her.
“Sadly no, but they are very sorry about it. Perhaps next time-”
Before he could finish, a unfamiliar women had stepped in between them, throwing an arm around Rey.
“Good afternoon stranger!” she cheerfully spoke to him. Judging from the distinct lack of a pregnant stomach, Ben concluded that she must be the class’ instructor. “I see you finally brought your significant other around huh Rey?”
Before Ben could step in and brush off the statement – The baby’s not mine, it’s not even Rey’s! She’s a surrogate and I’m just the spare parent! – Rey stepped in with a surprising statement.
“Yes.” She spoke, freeing herself from the instructors grasp and moving to Ben’s side, sliding one of her hands in his. “This is in fact my husband. The father of my child.” The last sentence was spoken with a sly smile at a distinct volume, attracting attention from the other people in the room.
Ben looked at her, too stunned to reply. What-?
I’ll explain later. Please play along for now? said the pleading look in her eyes.
And so Ben did. He coughed, recomposing himself. “Yes. I am. Her husband. Father of that baby. Put it in there all by myself.”
The instructor laughed at his joke, while other men in the room shot him knowing looks.
“But I’m sure you had at least a little help, right Rey?” The instructor laughed, winking suggestively at her. “Well, if everyone is here then, I think we can get started. Uhm – you, sorry I didn’t catch your name?”
Rey squeezed Ben’s sweaty palm, reassuring the both of them in their silly performance.
“Ben, it’s Ben.” He replied.
“Ben, you if you could take your shoes off and place them on the bench behind you? Just listen to my instructions for the next hour and follow your wife’s lead, she’ll show you what to do.”
His cheeks flushed again at those words – his wife – and he quickly leaned down to undo his shoes and hide his embarrassment. A vague thought floated into his mind as he did – didn’t he have an appointment in about thirty minutes? An important one with representatives from Snoke Industries?
Suddenly, he couldn’t care less about it. Being here, with Rey, doing whatever it was that they were doing, seemed much more important.
The next hour, Ben was once again treated to a completely new experience. Rey’s birthing class focused on exactly that, the act of giving birth, with both mothers and fathers being instructed on how to handle the experience relaxed and holistically.
As the instructor talked them through all kinds of breathing exercises – “Breathe slowly in and slowly out, contracting and relaxing the muscles in your pelvis and anus at the same rate!” – Ben could feel Rey sneakily stealing glances at him. He was focused on getting this right but Rey seemed to find it all too funny, quickly averting her eyes when she seemed ready to laugh out loud.
The class eventually wrapped, with Rey’s instructor wishing Ben all the best and hoping she’d see him again next time.
When Rey had freshened up and Ben put his shoes back on, he accompanied her outside and offered to ride her home.
“Oh no, it’s alright.” Rey waved away his offer. “You’ve already helped me a lot today. I should explain what all that was about.”
They smiled at one another awkwardly. “Yeah… I must say, considering your behaviour last time at your doctors’ I wasn’t expecting this?”
At his words, her expression hardened considerably. “What do you mean by that?”
Crap. He’d done it again, said something stupid and upset her. Christ, why did he always behave that way with people. “You seemed quite annoyed that the replacement doctor assumed I was your husband, so when your instructor did the same I guess I didn’t think you’d-”
“You know what? Forget it. I’m sorry if I bothered you so much.” She backed away from him. “I never told the people in this stupid class I’m a surrogate mother because it’s none of their damn business, which has had the nasty side effect that I’ve been constantly judged for coming alone. When you showed up I thought that-”
She paused, clearly not sure of what she would say next.
Ben finished it for her, understanding quite correctly what she’d been thinking. “That I could help put a stop to that? And Rey, that’s totally fine, I’m very happy to help.”
“No, it’s not.” She said, frustration clear from her voice.
Something was upsetting her, yet Ben couldn’t pinpoint what it exactly what.
“Like I said, never mind. I’ll see myself home. Bye.”
And once again, she swiftly took off – leaving Ben again to his own thoughts.
What the bloody hell?
Ben had practically giving up on his relationship with Rey – whatever it was that constantly happened between them, he loathed to upset her – when she unexpectedly called him three days later.