Ben spends the next two weeks sitting in the med bay. He's not sure why he feels like he needs to atone for so much, but he's there anyway, sitting near his father. Snoke couldn't take the old man out as easily as that. He'd been beaten up pretty badly, broken bones and bruises the likes of which he'd probably ever seen.

Han had spent the first week in the bacta tank as they tried to heal him. The Resistance fought on. Without Snoke at their head and with the Supremacy soon destroyed by the Resistance bombers, it was just a matter of time before the war was won and they could begin rebuilding all that had been lost.

"Ben?"

He startles when his father speaks, turning to look at him. "You look like hell," Ben says.

"Feel it, too." He offers up a grin.

"That was a stupid thing you did," Ben says, but there's no ire behind the words. He saved him. And more than that, he saved Rey.

"No more stupid than telling Luke to kill you."

Ben stares at him.

"You think I didn't know?"

"Luke told you?"

"After." Han shrugs. "But I saw the looks you two exchanged. You really love her, huh?"

Ben closes his eyes for a moment. He can feel the bond with Rey, strong again, the line between them etched in gold and silver. There are still spots in it that are a bit torn and he's not sure they'll ever heal completely. But he's here. She's here.

And Snoke is dead.

It's strange, really, not feeling him in his head. He feels lighter somehow, like he could float away. He's not sure if what he's feeling is happiness, but he likes it.

"Ben," comes the voice from the doorway.

"Hey kid," Han says as Rey steps in. "Better," he says to her unspoken question. Ben turns to stare at him and Han shrugs. "You don't need the Force to know she's going to ask the same question she asks every day."

Rey blushes and Ben has to choke back that little bit of niggling desire that takes him over every single time he sees her.

He never thought he'd see her again, never thought he'd get a chance to be with her in any capacity. He still wakes from nightmares, sometimes, of Snoke getting into his mind, and of that moment when he granted his uncle permission to end his life for the sake of them all.

And then his father…

He'd almost lost him. Even Han doesn't know just how close he came to dying with Snoke's last bit of vengeance.

Rey comes to stand behind him, her hand on his shoulder. Han looks from him, then to her, and then he winks. "Go on, you two. You don't need to hang around this old smuggler. I'll be fine…"

"But…" Ben starts to say when he hears the door open again.

"I'll take it from here," his mother says and Ben stands, grateful for her presence. She's been a rock these past days. She directs the Resistance with the same firm hand and affection that she has for him. Get your rest son, you're no good to him like this, son. He loves you, you know.

She's forgiven him for his past transgressions, and it's like a weight has lifted off his chest. The anxiety that has always plagued him begins to melt away in the warmth of their love.

And the strength of Rey's.

She hasn't said as much, but he sees it shining out of her eyes, feels it in the way she wraps herself around him when he wakes from a nightmare. They're not hiding their relationship anymore, and she's as good as moved into the room he's been occupying. There's no need to sneak around. Not anymore.

Everyone won't approve of it, and some are taking longer to come around than others, but they'll get there. Somehow, he just knows this. Rey, ever the beacon of light, will not let them drag him back into the darkness of Kylo Ren.

He's gone.

And he's gone for good.

He reaches out and Rey's puts her hand in his, letting him wrap his long fingers around her more delicate ones. It's almost natural these days, the way they reach for each other. He's not going to lose her, never again.

"We'll be back to check on you later," Rey says. "So you better not get up to anything."

Han just smirks.

"I won't let him," Leia says. She's been spending quite a bit of time with Han, and Ben wonders if they're trying to reconcile the relationship that had been faltering for so long. He had been the catalyst for its demise, that much he knows, but their personality clashes were infamous long before he was born. Now they look at each other with affection and maybe a little bit of sadness. There's a lot of time lost there.

Time he hopes he never loses with Rey.

"Come on then," she says, and he follows happily. He'd follow her anywhere. The ends of the galaxy if she wants him to. It's a strange, giddy feeling, to feel bound to someone and want it.

When they step out of the room, his uncle is standing there. He wouldn't say Luke's face exactly lit up at the site of them, but he looks decidedly less grim these days when confronted with Ben and Rey. He glances down to their clasped hands before meeting Ben's eyes.

"I'm glad I didn't have to kill you," Luke says and Ben is almost sure he sees a smile playing around his uncle's lips.

He nods. "I'm glad you didn't have to, too."

"What…" Luke begins and Ben watches as his eyes move to Rey and then back to him. "What are you two kids going to do now?"

Ben knows what's he's asking, in his own roundabout way. He's not sure how to answer him. Not yet. They haven't discussed where to go from here, what they want to do with their lives. All Ben knows is whatever his life entails, it has to include Rey.

"We're not sure," Rey answers. She hesitates before she says her next words and he can see the worry written into the lines between her brows. "I don't want to become a Jedi."

Ben breathes a sigh of relief at that.

Luke gives her a long look. "I didn't think you would. It may be time for the old Jedi ways to die out," he muses. Ben's eyebrows shoot up and Luke spares him an amused glance. "You'll still study the Force? Still learn more about it?"

Rey nods.

"There's a lot to explore still," Ben concedes. He means with the bond, mostly, which seems to grow stronger each day that Snoke is not in his head.

"That's all I can ask," Luke says, and then he moves past them, heading toward Han's room. It's nice, Ben realizes, seeing them all together again. There's still a lot of hurt there, between his parents, between Luke and Ben, between all of them really. But there's the chance for healing, for moving forward, for reclaiming what was lost so many years ago.

It's all he can ask, he supposes.

Rey's wrapped up in his arms, warm bodies still pressed together after their latest bout of rather enthusiastic lovemaking. It's so much more now than it was before. The bond is open and strong, and each time she feels they draw into each other that much more. Without Snoke's oily presence somewhere in the back of Ben's mind, they've been allowed to freely explore the bond.

And explore it they have. She blushes to think about it sometimes. Feeling him inside her from within her body and from within his at the same time is a strangely intense way of experiencing such a thing. She doesn't know if she could ever go back to doing it without the bond allowing that experience.

"So what are we going to do?" she asks, pressing a kiss to his bare chest before looking up at him.

He looks a bit of a wreck, hair damp and askew, those ears that she so long ago brought up poking out from the dark mess of his hair. "More of this?" he says, and grins.

She'll never tire of seeing him smile. He'd done it so rarely before but in the days since they defeated Snoke, she's seen more smiles out of him than the entire time before. He's still haunted, still introspective, but she sees more and more of the person he should have been coming out.

He'll get there.

Eventually.

"Ben," she murmurs as he leans down to kiss her. She leans into it, lets him dip his tongue in, caress her mouth with soft lips and tongue. It's a gentle kiss, the type she really cherishes. "You're distracting me."

"That was the point."

"You can't be ready already," she mutters.

He laughs at that. "Well, maybe not. But you can be." He leans down and presses a kiss to the skin just below her earlobe.

"Ben." The warning note in her voice makes him pull back and he offers another soft huff of laughter.

"What do you want to do?" he finally asks.

She hasn't entirely thought about that, though various ideas have crossed her mind. Return to Ahch-to, explore more of the Jedi teachings. She doesn't want to be a Jedi, but that's where she knows she needs to start to understand more about the Force. Travel the galaxy with Ben at her side. She's seen so little and heard about so much.

"I don't know," she admits. "I just know…" She trails off there.

"Know what?"

"It has to include you." The words come out in a rush. "Whatever happens. It has to be about you and me and this bond between us."

She can barely get the last word out before he's leaning down to kiss her. When he pulls back, she's surprised at the serious look on his face.

"What?" she asks.

His hand comes up to cup the side of her face and she leans into the touch. He's become…soft…somehow. He still has those hard edges, scars from his time as Snoke's apprentice, scars from childhood neglect, scars from Luke's near-attempt on his life. She knows that won't change, but she hopes that they soften a little more with time.

His eyes seem to search her face and she feels her cheeks heat a little at the intensity in his gaze. "You know I love you, right?" he asks. His mouth curls up a little at the words and Rey feels everything inside her melt just a little.

Is this what love is? she wonders. And as her heart feels full to bursting, she realizes that yes. Yes it is.

"Yeah," she says, leaning up to kiss him. "I know."

He doesn't say anything else for a moment, just stares at her, and then his eyes slide away. She can feel him pulling away from her, from the bond. And it takes her a moment to realize what he had been hoping for.

"Wait…" Her voice chokes up here. She's never said it before, not really. She's thought it. She knows it to be true. But still, sometimes she thinks what does she know of love? Abandoned by her parents to a life of hardship and poverty, scrambling for every little scrap of food and water she could find.

But then she thinks of her friends, of Finn and Rose, of Han and Luke and Leia. They're family now. And none more so than Ben.

She smiles then. "I love you too. You do know that, right?"

She watches as he takes a deep breath, before pulling her into his arms for a soft kiss. "Yeah," he murmurs as he pulls away from her and tucks her in close to him. "I know. But it's good to hear it anyway."

They stay curled up together, and as she starts to drift off, she hears him murmur against her hair. "Takodana."

"Hmmm?"

"Let's go to Takodana."

"Where we first met." It's strange how now, after all this time, she can almost look back on it with fondness. They had been enemies, once trying to kill each other.

"We can live there for awhile."

"It's very green," she offers up. She loves Chandrila, but Takodana was beautiful in a way even this world wasn't. Lush and green and wonderful.

She feels more than hears him laugh. She likes laying there, her head pressed against his chest, hearing the beat of his heart, slow and steady against her ear. "It is," he murmurs.

"Good. Then let's go there."

"Good," responds with. "We can build a little cabin on the lake."

"You'll teach me to swim?"

"Of course." There's a pause. "And we can have a whole bunch of dogs."

"A bunch of what?"

He laughs again. "Dogs. Trust me, you'll like them."

"I trust you," she murmurs. And she realizes, in some way or other, that she's always trusted him.

She falls asleep that night still listening to the beat of his heart, knowing that this is only the beginning of their life together. And for the first time, perhaps, she's looking forward to the future.

To all my readers, THANK YOU...for the reviews, for all the support. It means the world to me! Extra special thanks to the amazing ladies of the Reylo Fic Recs chat group. Without them, this story never would have seen the light of day.