Chapter Text
Ten years later…
Rey braced with one hand against the dashboard and closed her eyes as the ancient station wagon peeled out of the driveway, the other protectively curled around her belly.
“Don’t worry, Peaches!” Nonny shouted, reaching a hand to cover Rey’s affectionately. “We’ll get you to the hospital, and you’re going to have that pup safe and sound!”
“Hands on the wheel!” Rey squealed, closing her eyes.
Nonny was as sharp as ever at eighty, but her driving hadn’t improved. But Ben was on the Chandrila University campus, administering final exams to his students, and he couldn’t get away until the last one had handed over the blue book. Every text he sent her pinged desperately on her phone.
By the time he arrived, it would be Kylo in full freak out mode, and not her gentle Benji. But she guessed maternity staff at the hospital were used to that from demihuman parents.
To everyone’s surprise but hers, Ben had pursued a PhD, specializing in 19th century poetry, and now he was an assistant professor at Chandrila U, in one of the most well-regarded English departments in the country. It wasn’t as tweed-jacket a world as the movies would suggest, but he was happy with his books and his research and his students, and they lived in the same neighborhood as his parents.
And Nonny.
Nonny who had all but moved in the moment they’d bought the house, claiming that Leia’s house was boring now without Ben, and with Leia always busy in the capitol city. After winning her lawsuit against the school district, then the Department of Youngling Services, Leia had run for public office and won. And won again.
So enter Nonny, with her casseroles and fresh baked bread and her warm hugs and optimistic, insightful chatter.
“Mom?” a little voice piped from the backseat, and she heard the nervous note in the little boy’s words. “Does it hurt? Are you going to be okay?”
Cassian, their little guy, had been adopted just after she finished law school. It had been a busy, chaotic time as she scrambled to find work, with Ben still finishing his dissertation, and heightened attention from the media as Leia went on campaign, but when she had read a story in the newspaper about a beta youngling abandoned at a police station, she’d known she had to do something. She couldn’t leave this baby boy to chance.
Ben had agreed immediately, Nonny had pulled strings, and the aftermath of the lawsuit meant that DYS was trying to improve their standards for all fosterlings, and in short order, the young couple had found themselves the adoptive parents of a tiny beta, estimated to be two years old, with big brown eyes and the biggest heart.
Everyone adored him. He was smart and good-natured, and Ben read to him every night before bed, and Nonny fed him wonderful meals, constantly trying new recipes with ‘her little sous chef’, and Rey romped with him in the backyard, and kissed the scraped knees, and cuddled with him and Ben while watching TV at night. Han told him tall tales, and Leia bought him lavish presents.
If other families looked askance, no one cared. The Skywalker-Organa-Solo-Niima clan had claimed a pup for their own.
And now Cassian was delighted that he was going be a big brother to the little one Rey was carrying.
“I’m alright, Cass,” she told him. “Don’t you worry about me. Are you excited? You’re going to have a brother or sister!”
“Will they like Paw Patrol?”
Admittedly, she hoped not. “Of course! You can watch it together!”
Nonny grinned and spun the steering wheel, and Chandrila flew by in a blur. She wondered when Nonny had added jet fuel to the wagon’s tank.
A cramp hit her, and she groaned. “Please, drive faster.”
She had an idea that the little one in her belly was going to be as impatient as their father.
*
Her alpha was crying.
He was holding the little bundle of joy in his arms, with tears streaming down his face, his brown eyes swimming with emotion. Joy. And more joy. Until it had overwhelmed him.
Rey was exhausted, every muscle in her body aching, but despite all that, she felt like she could punch a grizzly bear. She’d done it.
She’d had the pup. Ben had arrived, growling and panicked, but in time to hold her hand and coach her through the breathing patterns they’d learned in the birthing class, and to calm her anxiety by scenting her, rubbing his wrists along her neck and nuzzling her wrists when she became convinced she wasn’t going to be able to do this after all, and perhaps she should just go home, perhaps a mistake had been made, and she wasn’t pregnant after all, just a clerical error, that was fine, yep, she wasn’t pushing a massive Solo-sized baby out of her hoo-ha today, because that was clearly a terrible idea.
But she’d been wrong.
She could do it. Ben had kissed her, praised her, comforted her, been her strength, and now they had a daughter.
A sweet, tiny daughter with dark hair and hazel eyes, red-faced and squawking, who had re-atomized their universe completely.
“Benji,” she said softly, stroking his arm and looking up at him, looking down at their daughter. “Isn’t she beautiful?”
He exhaled a laugh, and she could see he was searching for words to fit and finding nothing suitable. He was as handsome as ever, broader, more solid, but still defiantly kept that shag of dark hair she loved, even though it wasn’t very professorly.
“That doesn’t do her justice. She’s divine.” He nosed along the baby’s brow, even though at this age, her scent would be negligible. It would just be that new baby smell. He glanced her way, eyes shining with love. “Like her mother.”
Rey flushed. She was a sweaty mess right now, but she guessed she could believe him on this. Seemed pretty miraculous that she’d just pulled off bringing another youngling into the world.
Just over ten years ago, no one could have predicted this.
Any of it.
After she’d had a chance to shower and re-establish herself in bed and feed the baby, they’d invited Nonny and Cassian in to meet their new family member. Nonny had vibrated with delight, sighing over the baby’s dainty features and soft skin, then, handing her to Cassian, who was carefully seated in a chair, made way to Rey.
“You did well, sweetheart,” she whispered, hugging her tight. “I am so glad to be here for this.”
“She’s wrinkly,” Cassian pronounced, recoiling from the red-faced bean of a baby.
“She’ll smooth out,” Nonny said brightly, snorting with laughter. “Just like your toes after a long bath.”
The little boy nodded as if he understood exactly what Nonny meant.
“What’s her name?” he demanded, looking up at his parents and grandmother.
Rey and Ben looked between each other, and she nodded to him. He took her hand and sat on the edge of the bed, looking as at peace as he ever had.
Ben lifted Rey’s hand to his lips, then faced his grandmother and son, speaking with pride. “Her name is Elizabeth. Elizabeth Padme Niima-Solo.”
Nonny grinned, eyes glimmering, and she leaned over the baby and stroked her downy cheek. “A good name for a good future.”
Cassian regarded his baby sister curiously, then made a face. “Ugh, she stinks.”
“That won't always be the case,” Rey said lightly, her hand tightening on Ben’s.
Ben grinned, nose-scrunching. “Sometimes it gets better.”
A lot better.
*