Chapter 7: Brothers and Sisters

Finn walked slowly up the ramp to the Falcon, rubbing at his temple to deal with a persistent ache in his head. Coming into the hull proper, he found Rey bouncing Little Finn in her arms. She'd probably just finished feeding him.

"Hey." She pecked his cheek as he sat down heavily at the dejarik booth. "Where have you been? The Council meeting ended half an hour ago." He could hear the wistfulness in her voice, that feeling of being left out. She had come to appreciate and enjoy the Council meetings better, ever since Ben's acquittal. Before long, she would be back from maternity leave.

Finn awkwardly rubbed at the back of his neck. "I was talking to Jannah," he admitted at last.

Rey nodded, sliding into the booth across from him. The baby at her breast, she poured herself a mug of cafe. "About?"

Finn took a deep breath, watching Rey closely. He could never lie to her, and ever since he had learned he was Force sensitive, he and Rey had grown quite in tune with each other as Master and Padawan apprentice. Sure, the intimacy would never be close to the Force Dyad Rey and Ben shared, but the Force did make keeping secrets that much harder for the best friends. Folding his hands in front of him, Finn spat it out:

"She's been encouraging me to go off with Lando. To find answers about my family, as she did."

He felt Rey's fingers still along Little Finn's tiny cheek, brushing away a dribble of milk from where he had been nursing. She was peering at him deeply, frowning.

"You want to go." It was a statement, not a question. In fact, it sounded almost accusatory.

Finn sheepishly grimaced. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted."

Something unreadable came over Rey's expression in that moment. She looked like she wanted to storm off in a huff, so Finn took her hands in his before she got the chance. He could feel anger, confusion, hurt and deep-seated fear swirling around her heart.

"Rey... you found answers about your family. Granted, they weren't the answers you might have wanted, but you got them. And Jannah finally knows where she comes from..."

Huffing out a breath, Rey tossed his hand away and stomped from the booth. Finn scrambled after her, eyes and voice pleading. "Somewhere out there, I have a family. Don't you want me to know who I am?"

"You have a family!" Rey whirled around angrily to face him. Her eyes brimmed with tears. "Here. With me. And Poe, and Zorri and Ben and all of us. And I know who you are: you're my best friend. My brother. The namesake of my child. The man who gave me away and danced with me at my wedding. Can't you just rest in that knowledge, love, and be content?"

Finn just smiled at her affectionately, lightly rubbing her arms. "Of course I would, if I could. But I was somebody before I was any of those wonderful things, and I want to find out who that is."

He heard Rey let out a gasp that sounded like she was covering for a sob, and she turned her face away, nuzzling her little boy close. Just then, the Damerons came up the gangplank, hand-in-hand, quickly followed by Ben.

"What's going on?" Ben grinned, but his face fell when he beheld the tension in the room.

"Nothing," Rey croaked. "The godfather of our baby just wants to go on some fool's mission to find himself and it will be so dangerous..." Her voice abruptly trailed off, and she had to put a fist in her mouth to tamp down another sob. In her arms, the baby was squirming, feeling its mother's distress and starting to cry.

"Hang on... Rey..." Ben prompted gently as he guided her to pass their infant to him. Then his eyes locked with Finn's.

"This is about Jannah, isn't it?" Finn guiltily nodded.

"And you want to go," Zorri guessed.

For a long moment, there was silence.

"Well, Rey's not wrong!" Poe blasted out at last, and he looked almost as distraught as Rey did. "There's power struggles and anarchy! And with the Black Sun and Crimson Dawn crime syndicates running around... it's dangerous!"

"I quite agree," Ben concurred firmly. He turned hard to Finn. "If you're really going to do this, you have to tell Lando he can't use the Falcon. A ship like that is too recognizable, and if Black Sun or Crimson Dawn caught you, you'd be held for ransom. Or worse."

"Don't!" Rey squeaked, tears glistening in her eyes and her body positively quivering. "I can't think about it!"

Finn looked shattered. Rey was still refusing to look at him, preferring instead to gaze out the viewfinder. Finally...

"When would you leave?" Her voice was hollow.

"Well, if I asked Lando now and he has to charter a ship, likely the morning after next."

She still wouldn't face him, so Finn reached for her hand. Encouragingly, she didn't throw it away. "Rey... please let me do this."

She turned back to him, tears streaming down her face. "Finny..." and she almost moaned his pet name. "I don't want to lose you..."

Finn just smiled. "Rey... you won't. I'll make you proud."

She nodded numbly. Taking Little Finn back from Ben, she hurried back into the Captain's Quarters. Finn thought he heard a sob before the door slammed. He glanced to his best friend's husband.

"Take care of her, you understand me?"

"Find the answers you seek. Then get your black ass back here. Do you understand me?" Ben's voice was hard. "Because I do not want to have to pick up the pieces if you get yourself killed!"

Finn bobbed his head. "Noted."

Ben eventually went in to comfort his wife. Poe wandered down into the gunner's port, mumbling something about the turret guns needing oiling, but likely just needing to be alone. Left by himself with Zorri, Finn turned to his buddy's wife.

"Am I doing the right thing?"

Her face pretty, Zorri bit her lip. "I can't answer that."

The rest of that afternoon, evening and into the night, Rey sat up in bed, cuddling Little Finn to her breast while sobbing uncontrollably. Ben held her in his arms stoically, kissing her hair and rubbing her back while simply allowing her to weep. He wished there was more that he could do to comfort her.

"Go-o-o-d... My Finny..." Rey wailed, burying her face into Ben's chest. Her tears were damp, fat and constantly streaming down her face. Her eyes were red, having turned blotchy hours before. Ben wondered if she would ever cry herself out, yet he remained patient and still. Consummately supportive and soothing. He had learned a long time ago that Finn shared a deep bond with his wife, in a very familial sense. Their bond was almost as strong as the Dyad he shared with Rey, but he had learned overtime to not feel jealous over it.

And Ben also knew that Rey would be emotionally ripped at the seams while Finn was gone. He vowed to help her through it, and he prayed to the Force and to the Maker to look after his wife's best friend.

The following morning, the group stood in front of a used Y-Wing freighter. Ben soon came striding out of the hull, clapping Finn on the shoulder.

"I just spoke with Lando. The good news is that he and Jannah took so long because they didn't know where to look or what they were doing. Now they do. Lando's hired a reliable slicer to hack First Order ID docs and try to find your file in the Stormtrooper archives." He handed Finn a data chip. "Here are some access codes to get you started. Your old serial number - FN-2187 - might actually be your best clue. We'll have the slicer trace it and find out who registered it, and where." He sighed. "I don't know much about how Hux and Phasma ran things, but I do know that they kept meticulous documentation of every trooper they 'recruited'. There may even be a picture included, of you when you were first abducted." Ben looked Finn hard in the eye. "Find your file, and you'll find out who you are, and where you come from."

Finn grinned. "A great place to start. A shortcut! Doesn't seem so bad..."

"Yes. And you're going to use that shortcut to get the answers you need, then come back here in a timely manner." The former Supreme Leader's voice brokered no argument. Unspoken, and unplanned, the two men embraced. "May the Force be with you, brother," Ben rumbled.

Finn turned to Zorri. The beautiful bounty hunter gave him a warm smile. "Avant-gone," she murmured farewell in her Kijimi native language, before kissing his cheek. Finn tried hard not to blush. Then it was Poe's turn. Lip quivering, the pilot finally let out a kind of emotional growl and threw his arms around Finn. Finn hugged him back.

Rey was last of all. Finn choked up. "I think I'll miss you the most..."

Throat wobbling, Rey hugged him close, then kissed the corner of his mouth. Brown eyes piercing, she looked emotionally worn out. "You'd better come home to me..." she whispered. Cradling her baby in her arms, she choked out, "Say goodbye to your uncle, Little Finn." She made the baby wave his fat little fist.

Finn stroked the child's head, then throwing his rucksack over his shoulder, he headed for the Y-Wing...

It was only several weeks later when news of a Y-Wing making landfall spread throughout the little city on Ajan Kloss.

It was deep night, when Rey got the news. Rushing out of the Falcon, and seeing Finn, she let out a cry of grateful relief as she threw her arms around him. Her best friend was beaming, jubilant.

"I found them, Rey! I found them!" And picking her up, he spun her around, as Rey shrieked in delight. Coming to rest in his warm hug, Little Finn nestled between them, she smiled.

"Well, what did you find?"

A sudden roar of delight and Rey was being gently pushed aside as Poe made to tackle his best friend. Before long, Finn could see Ben and Zorri. Glancing over his shoulder, Finn just grinned. Following his gaze, Rey gasped.

A middle-aged man and woman were being escorted by Lando down the gangplank. They had eyes only for their son, but were also eyeing the rest of the assembled group curiously. The dark-skinned couple finally stood next to Finn, and the man dipped his head in greeting.

"My name is Samuel. Samuel Nescius. This is my wife, Ashonda."

Finn turned back to his friends, eyes wild with excitement. "We found them on Stewjon. That's where I was born! Oh, you should have seen it, Rey! There were green, grassy fields, and skies so blue..."

"Stewjon?" Poe gawked. "That's clear in the Inner Rim Territories! A long ways from here, anyway."

Ashonda was now studying the group curiously, her gaze particularly fixated on Rey and the baby in her arms. "Who are all of you?"

Standing to the side, Finn showed them off proudly. "This is my family," he got out at last. "I found it, all on my own. It's complicated and blended. But still mine." Glancing back to Poe, he nodded. "Yeah. Still mine." Clapping a hand on the pilot's shoulder, he began introducing them one by one.

"This is Poe, my brother. Here's his lovely wife, Zorri." Stealing an arm around Rey's shoulder, Finn continued proudly. "This is Rey, my best friend... and my baby sister." Rey beamed, tears in her eyes. "Her little boy, my namesake, Finn." He pointed to the last member of this thrown-together family. "And that is Rey's husband, Ben."

Samuel smiled. "It's an honor to meet all of you. It is a great comfort to know our boy has made a life for himself."

"I'll say he has!" Poe boomed proudly. "Co-General, alongside me!"

Samuel looked delighted. "My boy..." he marveled in a whisper. "My son's a General..." Ashonda whimpered, tears glistening as she nodded. Feeling the mother's emotions, Rey touched her arm.

"What happened?"

Ashonda breathed long and low before beginning:

"He was only a week old when the First Order showed up. Sam and I hadn't even had the chance to name him. They burned the farm, and turned loose the sheep... and stole my baby from me."

"Sheep?" Poe cocked an eyebrow.

"I was a shepherd by trade for many years, until I retired," Samuel offered up. "We were poor... but we got by."

Poe chuckled and clapped Finn on the back. "Well, Finn? Want to trade in that lightsaber for a shepherd's crook?"

"Absolutely not," Finn hissed, his eyes twinkling.

"Ssh! Don't interrupt!" Zorri admonished her husband.

"Some time later," Ashonda continued. "Kylo Ren appeared. He and some First Order officers demanded that we quarter them and turn over our livestock. When we refused, Ren burned the place yet again. We had only just rebuilt. After that, we jumped between living on the streets and with friends for a time."

All this time, Ben had been staring at the ground, absorbing Ashonda's story and not looking at anybody. Based on Finn's age, and if he really was abducted as a newborn, Ben knew he couldn't have been involved as by that time, he still wasn't with the First Order. And yet...

He felt Rey touch his arm lightly. "Ben?" His wife's voice was soothing and sweet.

Taking a deep breath, Ben spoke up. "There is something I need to say."

Sensing his mind, Rey's eyes went wide. "Honey, you don't have to..."

"I need to." Facing Finn's parents, he confessed. "Mr. and Mrs. Nescius, words cannot express how sorry I am for what you have gone through. For I... was once Kylo Ren." He cast his head down. "For what I did in that life, I deeply regret, and on behalf of your son, I am deeply sorry."

Samuel seemed to have lost the ability to speak. Finally, his dark face rapidly turned purple in barely contained rage.

With the Force, Finn sensed what his father intended to do just before his father did it. The budding Jedi leapt in the way.

"No, Dad! It's OK!"

"It is not OK, son!" Sam thundered with rage. "Now, stand aside!"

But Finn didn't budge. "No, sir. I'm sorry. I ain't moving."

"Finn, don't you realize what he's done?!"

"I'm fully aware of what he's done." Finn's voice was firm. "And I have forgiven him for it."

Sam appeared speechless. "I wouldn't care if you'd forgiven Darth Vader himself! He must stand trial!" And he pointed a quivering finger at Ben.

"He has, over a year ago!" Finn's voice softened. "I was on the jury to decide whether to put him to death or to pardon him, and do you want to know how I voted?"

Sam shook his head, though his expression appeared genuinely curious.

"I voted to spare his life."

Sam now looked stunned. "Why?" he almost moaned.

Finn scuffed at the ground, willing himself to look his father back in the eye. "A number of reasons," he mumbled. "First because: there is good in him. I've felt it. And the Force told me it wasn't done with him yet. There is more power in sparing a life than in taking one away. Also because..." and Finn glanced back to Rey. "I couldn't break my little sister's heart." Rey looked at Finn tearfully and beamed. "She looks at him the way I want someone to look at me someday. When you realize someone's in love - when they're really in love - how can you vote to take that away?"

Finn's voice faltered as Ashonda cupped his cheek. "I'm so proud of you," she whispered.

Sam was quiet for a moment. Then at last, he spoke, pointing sharply at his son. "When you were born, I aimed to someday make you a man." He gulped noticeably. "Though I can't say I would have done the same thing, had I been in your position..." His eyes met Finn's. "I'm so proud of the man you have become."

Turning back to his parents, Finn hugged them and smiled warmly. "Why don't you two go along with Lando and get checked in? Then meet us back at the Falcon for supper."

"It's the white piece-of-shit freighter over in the next clearing!" Poe joked. "You can't miss it!"

"Hey, watch it, Dameron!" Ben growled, but his face held no malice.

The group was settled around a campfire just at the base of the Falcon, talking and laughing. Finn was chortling with Poe and his father, though the older man made a point of staying a far cry away from Ben. Across the bonfire, Rey rocked Little Finn to sleep, a smile on her face as she drank in her son's sleeping form. Next to her, Ashonda watched, transfixed.

"That one week seemed to last forever for me. I'm amazed of how many memories I have of my boy in such a short time."

Rey giggled, kissing Little Finn's head. "I can't imagine what Finny was like as a baby."

Ashonda smiled crinkly. "I have one picture. Would you like to see?"

Rey brightened. "Yeah."

Taking out a hologram comlink from her cloak, Ashonda clicked it open. A colored photograph beamed up, of a chubby little baby with a toothy smile. Rey laughed. "Awww..."

Ambling over, Poe took a good look at the photograph over his cousin's shoulder. "Wow, Finn!" he hollered. "You were a real fat little baby!" Finn sent him a rude gesture. Laughing, Poe shuffled away.

The women fell back into companionable silence. At last, Ashonda chuckled. "So, you're my son's sister. Funny, I don't recall giving birth again..."

Choking on her bowl of soup that she was balancing on one knee, Rey grew red in the face. "I... I..."

Ashonda just cupped her cheek. "Girl child, I don't see color. And it's obvious my boy is very attached to you. Why, you were almost all he talked about, the flight here. Then when I saw you, I thought you were his wife, at first." She smirked. "Course, if that was the case, your young-in would be as brown as a bantha, 'stead of white as bantha's milk!" Throwing back her head, she hooted. Rey continued to flush scarlet. "But no matter," the old lady continued. "You still must care for my son very much, if you named your young-in after him."

Turning back to Little Finn, eyes brimming with love, Rey said softly, "It was a promise that I made, after he voted to spare my husband. A vow, really."

"A vow, say you?" chuckled Ashonda.

Rey nodded, the firelight glinting in her solemn eyes. "As sacred as the vows I gave on my wedding day. The moment that promise left my lips, I knew I had to honor it."

Ashonda nodded. "Finn is a fine name, though perhaps not the one I would have chosen, if things were different." She smiled curiously. "How did he get his name, anyway?"

"Funny story, that," Poe wandered back over, ladling into Rey's bowl some more broth. "Your son helped me escape from a First Order warship. We stole a TIE fighter and everything. I asked him his name, and he gave me his Stormtrooper serial number: FN-2187. Well, I knew damn well I wasn't calling him that, so I took the two letters and came up with Finn. He took to it like a Porg to a Wookie!"

Ashonda appeared perplexed. "A who to a what-now?"

Rey touched her arm, smiling softly. "It's an expression."

Several nights later, Finn called up the Falcon's gangplank. "Hello, hello, hello? Anybody home?"

"Come on up, Finn!" Rey greeted. He ran into the ship, taking long strides. He found Rey and Little Finn over by the sink. Ben was in the dejarik booth caring for his calligraphy set.

"Hi," Rey and Finn kissed cheeks as she greeted him. Immediately, she could feel in the Force his agitation, his... excitement. "What is it?"

"Jannah asked me to marry her," Finn spat it out.

Rey's one hand went to her mouth to stifle the gasp. Ben's head craned from around the booth.

"Jannah proposed?" At Finn's nod, he mulled over it, before asking mildly, "What did you tell her?"

"I asked for her to give me time to think about it," Finn's grimace seemed to indicate he knew how half-assed an answer it was.

"But you want to say Yes," Rey realized. It was a statement, not a question.

Finn grinned bashfully. "We've become quite close," he admitted. "But we've never discussed marriage... and usually the guy asks the girl... I don't have much, I don't have a ring..."

"Finny:" Rey interrupted, a gentle hand on his arm. "Do you love Jannah?"

"Yeah." His answer was surprisingly sure and immediate.

Rey beamed. "Then what else is there to think about?" Softly, she kissed his cheek. "Now get back over to her and say Yes. Go with my blessing."

Finn grinned so wide, it nearly broke his face. Pecking her forehead, he sprinted from the room.

Laughing, Rey happily snuggled up beside her husband. Ben just huffed in bemusement.

"This family's getting more sprawling by the minute."

"Ben!" Rey laughed.

Several months later, Finn and Jannah were married. Poe Dameron served as Best Man, Rey and Zorri were bridesmaids, and Ben assisted his baby boy in bearing the rings, father and son sporting twin smirks the entire time. At D'Acy's pronouncement that the two ex-Stromtroopers were now bonded for life, Ashonda Nescius cried.

At the reception, Rey happily embraced Jannah, the bride. "Welcome to the family, sister."

Finn grinned emotionally, taking his wife's hand as they faced the Solos and the Damerons. "Is there room in this family for two more?"

"You have to ask?" Poe laughed.

"Well... I know we're not connected like you guys by blood..."

Rey took his hand, holding her arm up against his. "Blood, color - doesn't matter. You remember that you're a part of this family, whether you like it or not."

Finn grinned. "Sure, little sister - Uncle Finn and Aunt Jannah, huh? I'm sure you'd want us as babysitters."

"Hell no," Ben murmured, his eyes twinkling. Poe also smirked in amusement.

Her face alighting, Rey played with Little Finn's feet as she nestled back into her husband's arms. Against all odds, they had found each other and fought to be together. Against all odds, they had made their own little family; the beautiful future in Rey's vision had come to pass.

For Ben and Rey Solo, all was well. And despite Poe's long-ago assertion that life wasn't a fairytale, for these two beautiful people, it was. They lived happily ever after.