Epilogue Part One: Purpose

Disclaimer: I own nothing here, but unconditional love is to a Jedi's life.

AN: I decided to challenge myself and write a theme that I think most people try to skip over. It might feel a little awkward but I think I keep things vague enough.

Ben stood with his arms crossed, leaning against one of the consoles in the main hold. He watched with a barely concealed concern as his wife marched right passed him for probably the tenth time in her determined circuits through the ship's looping corridor. The pale overhead lights flickered dubiously, as if in direct response to Rey's current temperament.

Ben sighed in frustration. Their argument some twenty minutes prior had not gone well. He had been working on clearing out a clogged shaft in the ventilation system at the time, compliments of a former Porg resident, when Rey had stumbled into his view, claiming with a frantic look that "it was time".

He would admit to not having extracted himself from the maintenance hatch with any sort of grace. His head still stung from when he banged it on that blasted utility tray in his haste to join her in the corridor in order to place a careful hand to her round abdomen. He would also admit that surviving the past nine months of his wife's pregnancy had not been particularly easy, especially since she insisted on doing everything the "natural" way.

Ben thought he had been patient and yielding up until now, but he had hoped once the time for delivery arrived that she would at least agree to go to a proper medical facility. He had been wrong.

He felt another twinge of irritation as Rey, in all her determined stubbornness, passed by him again. "Shouldn't you lie down, or at least be sitting still?"

"No, that doesn't feel right," Rey answered hastily, not slowing her purposeful stride. "I need to keep moving."

Ben rolled his eyes and had to wait for her to loop back around to him. "Remind me again why I can't take you to a medcenter?"

She finally paused long enough to sigh out her own frustrations at him. "I you. I don't need a bunch of people hovering around me, poking and prodding me with needles." She waved a bothered hand and turned back to her pacing through the ship. "Besides, humans have been having babies for millions of years. I think I'll be fine."

Grumbling with annoyance, Ben moved to fish through the medical supplies that he had previously laid out and disinfected. After finding the desired stim, he stepped over to intercept her newest circuit, causing her to halt and glare at him with all her pregnant fury. "Will you at least take a pain suppressor?" He said and held it up, as if it were a peace offering. He would not put it past her at this point to simply shove his mass out of her way. "It would make feel better, if nothing else."

Huffing at him, she held out a hand and nodded impatiently. "Alright, fine, give it here. Heaven forbid should feel any discomfort in this situation." After administering the drug she pushed passed him and continued with her pointless trek. "Now will you go outside or something?"

"You want me... to go outside?" Ben questioned carefully, thinking he hadn't heard her right. Of all the times she shouldn't be alone, wasn't it ?

"Yeah!" Rey snapped back, as if he had asked the most absurd question imaginable. She slowed her pace before rounding the corner, long enough to shoot over her shoulder, "you're stressing me out!"

"I'm stressing out?" Ben nearly thundered, altogether incredulous.

"Don't make me tell you again!" Rey yelled back, having disappeared down the curving corridor once again.

"Unbelievable!" Ben growled, threw up his hands and stomped over to the loading ramp. He passed a warbling and concerned R2-D2 as he went. "Signal me if anything happens."

The droid beeped back affirmation and remained firmly parked in the alcove of the gun turret tube, where he could easily monitor Rey's roving activity. R2 was the only other intelligent... on the ship that Ben could rely on at the moment, and for probably the first time since they had settled on Takodana, he was reassured by the astromech's presence.

Stepping out into the jungle planet's sunlight, he was met by the familiar sight of their newly established homestead, with a slightly slopped clearing of short, scrubby grass littered with stones and boulders that had yet to be cleared. Ben closed his eyes and took in a deep, calming breath of fresh air. Through the Force he could feel Rey's temperament spiking with distress and fear, although she seemed less agitated now that he was out of her way.

Scoffing in exasperation, Ben began a pacing route of his own, from the ship to their shield generator and back again. The sounds of his surroundings did little to calm his brooding thoughts; the cries and calls of wild birds in the forest nearby merged with the lapping of water from the lake not far from the ship.

It wasn't like he was to agitate his wife, but he was feeling just as distressed and afraid as her! After all, if she were to end up having some kind of rare complication while giving birth, and the worst were to happen, then he would forever blame himself for not taking her to a proper medcenter in the first place!

He stomped back toward the generator, grumbling incomplete thoughts to the air. Not only was he , but he also felt extremely weighed down by the trials of the past few months. It seemed like he could do right when it came to keeping her comfortable, fed, or just happy in general.

For one thing, neither of them were able to sleep well lately because she was always tossing and turning, complaining about how the bedding just or that he was breathing too loudly. Huffing out of sheer irritation, he flicked a sharp gesture at a defenseless rock in his path, sending it flying off into the lake where it made a huge, gratifying splash.

And then there was the food! In hindsight, the first few months of her pregnancy were more or less easy, when she was practically eating everything in sight. But , come two months ago she had become the most finicky eater he could ever imagine! It had even come to a point where she would become spontaneously nauseous if he so much as the wrong type of food!

As if that wasn't enough, there was also the psychological side of things. Granted, his mother had warned him about the mood swings, but he had never quite expected them to be so... or just plain . One moment Rey was humming contentedly while tinkering with her most recent mechanical project on the workbench, the next he would find her collapsed on their bed, crying into her pillow and muttering about something so inconsequential that he felt like roaring mindlessly in Shyriiwook!

"It's that bad, is it?" spoke an elderly yet familiar, female voice.

So consumed by his writhing thoughts, Ben hadn't been aware of Maz's arrival even though her speeder bike was growling like an Akk dog before she parked and shut it down beside the generator. He also hadn't been aware of how unusually tense he had become, with his fists clenched at his sides and every single stone and pebble within a ten foot radius floating around him tremulously.

"It is." Ben turned to face the ancient alien and released his unintentional hold on the inanimate objects, letting them drop with a collective clatter. Somehow, throughout his soliloquy of frustrations, he had completely forgotten about calling Maz for help.