When we return to Naboo, Stella greets us.
She's smiling and happy when we get there but later, when we're sitting in the hotel room that we've been living in for the past couple of months, I can tell something's wrong.
Poe kisses her on top the head and pulls the blankets over her. She's half-asleep but still manages to smile up at him. "Love you, Stelly-Belly." he says and she replies with a tired, "Love you... papa," as she begins to drift off.
I smile at the two.
"I am exhausted," Poe announces, throwing himself down on the bed. He turns towards me. "Would you mind if I slept for like...a year?"
"I'd love to sleep for a year," I say. "But we have a little girl who's birthday is coming up and I know we'd both feel very guilty if we missed a whole entire year of her life."
"She can sleep too," Poe says. I laugh. "Obviously I'm joking, but, I am sleeping for at least thirteen hours."
"Wish I could say the same," I reply. "But I know for a fact that it'll take me at least three hours to fall asleep no matter how tired I am and I'll most definitely wake up at least two times in the night and will probably be woken at seven in the morning by that little girl over there." I nod towards the sleeping Stella. "However, laying down and remembering every embarrassing thing I've ever done in my whole entire life sounds nice right now, so I think I'm gonna do that."
"Basically, what you're telling me is that you never sleep?"
I shrug. "Basically,"
~
Two hours after falling asleep, I wake up to someone poking my face.
I pretend that I don't notice it, however, and keep my eyes closed because I'm so exhausted and if I wake up now I will fall face-first onto the floor. But the poking doesn't stop and I open my eyes.
To see a teary-eyed Stella.
"Sweetie," I say, barely whispering because my voice is too exhausted to work. "What's wrong?"
Stella's lip quivers, but she doesn't speak.
"Aw," I say. "Do you wanna lay down with me and Papa?"
She nods her head and crawls in bed, cuddling between Poe and I.
"What's wrong?"
She makes a face like she's about to cry, but she doesn't. "Bellamy is scared."
I sit up. "Hm?"
"Bellamy," she says. "He's scared. He lost his mommy and daddy and he's scared."
"Where is he?" I ask.
"I don't know," she says, shrugging. "He's sad... and he wants a hug. I want to give him a hug."
"I do, too, sweetie." I say. "I do, too."
~
It takes awhile for Stella to fall back asleep, but I don't fall back asleep at all.
I'm both mentally and physically exhausted and I so badly want to curl up into a ball and sleep. And cry. I also want to cry.
When Poe wakes up (he doesn't get the thirteen hours he wanted, sadly) I tell him what Stella said and then we find everyone else and tell them. Basically, Nathanial is dead. Zoey is dead. And Bellamy is missing.
It's times like this I wish I was still a young child.
I was so innocent then.
~
Here's the thing about Rey and Finn.
They're adorable.
Finn would've walked into that base by himself if it meant getting Rey back, and she'd do the same for him. They just love each other and that's what makes them so sweet. So, so sweet.
There is, however, something different about them.
The best way I can describe it, they've always been adorable but lately they've been adorable times one hundred.
No one knows what's wrong with them— well, Poe might, he's been very giddy around them lately and I'm pretty sure I saw Rey slap him once for it— but other than that, no one knows why they're acting the way they are.
Rose is making herself crazy trying to figure out what's going on with them. She has so many theories she's started to sound like Shane Dawson.
"I know why they are being adorable!" Rose all but screams one day.
Caden gives her a look. "They're always adorable."
"Yeah, true." Rose says. "But they've been especially adorable lately and I know why."
"Okay, I'm interested." Caden says. "Why?"
Rose smiles and says two— really three— words. "FinnRey baby."
—
Authors Note:
This chapter was bleh. But I'm really excited for the next couple of chapters because *spoiler* they're extremely fluffy. Also, this chapter is sort of leading up to the main story (47 chapters in. Took me long enough) Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for reading.