Chapter Text
The door shut with a slam behind them and Rey followed it shortly after with the hammering of her fists on the door. The skirts of the dress were hitched up in one of her hands and she used her spare one to rap harshly on the wood. “An hour you said!” She screamed at it, though she got no response from the other side. Rey continued on in that same rhetoric for a few minutes until she realised that it wasn’t working. How was she going to explain this to her grandfather? Rey groaned loudly and then leaned her back into the door, looking at the room they’d been locked in.
The room itself was a spectacle.
The sides of the room were decorated with hundreds of copies of Ben Solo’s book the Finalizer. In the middle was a kind of ice sculpture which she supposed was representing the ship in the novel. Rey rolled her eyes at it all as she walked into the centre of the room, looking at the gift bags and the other extravagances which were littered about the place. For a private wedding, they’d sure gone all out.
“You’re getting gift bags from your own wedding?” Rey asked, picking up the nearest one which had an assortment of things like confetti, sweets, gift vouchers and some other gifts.
From where he was stood, Ben turned around with his arms crossed and gave Rey a stern look as she started laughing, unpacking the gift bags, “Look, you have a diamante calculator.” She was howling by this point, sat on the edge of the sofa off to one side of the room. He looked incredibly unimpressed with her,
“Well, Jesskia insisted.” Rey shrugged and continued to look around,
“Are you having a wedding based on your book?” She now asked a little seriously. A little pink flourished around Ben’s cheeks and ears and he scoffed, shaking his head without really giving Rey much of an answer.
“What is it you’re doing here, exactly?” Rey set down the gift bag and her gaze found Ben’s again,
“What do you mean?” Ben looked furious now,
“Being paid to be my wife? Playing dress up?” Rey stood up and matched his expression,
“Hey, this was supposed to be to help your big day- it was supposed to be an hour, I have things to do to you know.” Ben laughed,
“Like what, hang around old toilets?” Rey’s cheeks went bright red,
“I told you I’m not a toilet attendant!” Ben didn’t look convinced and just shook his head, loosening his tie. “I have to get out of here, my grandfather’s expecting me.” Ben rolled his eyes,
“Well, sorry for keeping you.” He was now looking at the windows and the external doors to try to get out. “I have to get out and help look for Jessika.” Ben said with a little conviction. Rey flopped back onto the sofa, finding the dress still difficult to wear and altogether too heavy with this kind of stress going on around her.
“Hey, did you sign the register?” Rey asked Ben, looking up at him over her shoulder. He stilled and turned back to face her,
“You saw me sign it.” He pointed out. Rey ran her finger over the ring he’d placed on her finger at the church,
“It’s just, uh, in the commotion I think I signed my own name on the register.” Ben’s face fell, “Does that mean we’re, um?” She held up her hand, and he did the same to where the little wedding bands now lay. “That’s the legal bit, right?” Rey had gone pale and Ben looked as though he’d just run the length of Hegg.
Ben swore under his breath and Rey felt like she was going to keel over.
“We’ve got to fix this.”
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The media centre tent had been set up outside the castle where it had been announced Jessika Pava and Ben Solo would be spending the rest of the time on their honeymoon. By this point, there were several newspapers gathered all prepping stories. The flap to media tent was thrown open with force as the leading editor of one of the biggest gossip papers in the USA, Editor Snoke, walked in with force,
“I need pictures.” He hissed. The reporter nearest to him laughed,
“You’ll be lucky- there’s nothing. No ones seen anything, it’s like they’re not even here.” Snoke didn’t look amused and just disregarded him,
“None of you have information, but Dameron will have what I need.” His voice was like silk, an intern was following him round, writing down notes of everything which was going on around them.
The same reporter started laughing.
“You mean the famous Dameron, sat over there?” Snoke raised his gaze to the corner of the tent where Poe was sat, halfway through a pint of beer, sobbing helplessly over it. Putting up a hand to the intern, Snoke took a seat opposite Dameron,
“Tell me you have the pictures.” Snoke demanded, slamming a hand down on the table. Dameron sat up, though wasn’t shocked. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes on his sleeve. Snoke looked anything but impressed.
“I can’t. I’m in love with her.”
“What?”
“Jessika. I can’t hand over anything of hers anymore; I love her.” Snoke slammed his hand back down on the table,
“You have to be joking-“ Poe stood up,
“Dammit, I love her, I-I have to tell her.” Poe ran from the tent, leaving Snoke looking perplexed and with an expression somewhere between fury and confusion. Everyone returned back to normal within a few minutes; phones were buzzing and there was a gentle hum over the media tent. Only one person remained staring at Snoke; a woman with smooth skin but who was hobbled over like an elderly woman with a hood over the top part of her head and thick glasses. Her eyes were fixed on Snoke with purpose.
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By this point, Ben had found the only solution to his problem was going to be found at the bottom of a bottle of champagne. He should have been married to Jessika by now and finding his way off this island, instead he was in a room with a complete stranger, who now also happened to be his lawfully wedded wife.
Rey had sunk into the second bottle of champagne and the dress hung a little looser around her shoulders.
“Mind the dress.” Ben chided as he took another sip of champagne. Rey giggled.
“Was it expensive?” Ben rolled his eyes,
“What do you think?” He sat next to her, taking the bottle of champagne off her and setting it to the side. Rey pouted at him and hit his chest with the back of her hand.
“I was enjoying that.” Ben nodded,
“Mmm. Well, remember this isn’t your wedding.” Rey snorted and held up her left hand, where the wedding band lay,
“I beg to differ, husband.” Ben pulled a face,
“Don’t call me that.” Rey shrugged and was about to speak when someone came crashing in through the external door. Rey didn’t recognise the man, but Ben’s face was a fury, “You?!” Poe Dameron brushed off the dust from his jacket and looked between Ben and Rey,
“Where’s Jessika?” He asked, furrowing his brow,
“Like I’d tell you, how’d you get in here?” Poe gestured to the room he’d come in from,
“Scaled up the walls; surprisingly easy when you know how.” He wriggled his eyebrow; Ben was more than aware of Dameron’s skill set. He had once scaled a ten storey building to snap him and Jessika when he had visited her at work, so nothing really surprised him particularly about the man.
“Get out of here.” Ben said, stalking towards him. Rey slunk back a little, trying to become invisible.
“Who is that?” Ben looked at Rey then back to Poe,
“She’s no one.” Rey snorted,
“Excuse you, I’m your wife.” Ben shook his head,
“She is a huge mistake.” Poe looked between Ben and Rey,
“You two are married?” Ben looked sheepish,
“Sort of. It was an accident.” Poe looked overjoyed,
“This is fantastic.” He said, “You know she’s better for you.” Ben stared at Poe, “It’s just a better match, Solo-“ In that moment, Ben lunged forwards, making a grab for Poe. However, the champagne in his system slowed his responses and he went crashing into the side, taking one of the bookshelves with him.
Poe made a dash across the room, trying the door Ben and Rey had been pushed in but found it locked. Rey moved out of his way, watching as the men took turns trying to land punches against each other. Poe was more interested in getting out so managed to deflect Ben’s misplaced punches and went the way he came, running out the side and leaping from the window. Rey looked out and heard the splash as Poe hit the water and swum out towards the banks. He grinned over his shoulder at where he could see Rey and Ben watching him and waved to the pair of them. Ben was incensed.
“I’ve got to find Jessika before he does.” Ben said, running about the room like a thing possessed. Rey watched him with her arms folded,
“Well I need to go too, but if you haven’t noticed genius we’re still locked in here, unless you fancy swimming?” Ben groaned and looked out of the window and pointed at the little paddle boat moored nearby one of the windows.
“There, if I can get to that then I can get out of here.” Rey crossed her arms over her chest,
“If you’re going, I’m going too.” Ben at this point had started tying towels and whatever fabric he could together in knots so it formed a makeshift rope. Rey watched him as he worked, bickering with him all the while.
Eventually, Ben had amassed enough fabric to reach the little paddle boat from the window.
“Well it’s been fun, but this is where I leave you.” Ben announced, waving at Rey as he started to work his way down the makeshift rope to the paddle boat. Rey looked at him over the side of the window,
“I’m coming too.” Ben, who was now in the boat, shook both his hands and his head in her direction,
“No, no you’re not. You’ll get the bottom of the dress wet here, I’m sure someone will release you later.” He grabbed the paddles and began to turn away, “See you.” Rey's cheeks were scarlet,
“What makes your girlfriend more important than my elderly grandfather? He needs me too!” Ben didn’t reply, so she started to climb down the rope, hoping to catch Ben and the boat before it was too late. Having reached the end of the rope, she stuck out her foot to reach the end of the boat, just as it slipped from her grasp under Ben’s direction. He looked around at her,
“What the hell are you doing?” He snapped at her. Just as Rey had turned to give him a reply, her hand slipped and she fell from the rope into the water of the moat.
The weight of the dress pulled her down almost instantaneously. Rey wasn’t a stranger to swimming; on Hegg there’d been little else to do but swim in the sea as children, so she could swim, but as she tried to get back up to the surface she felt something tug her down. In a panic, she realised she was losing air all at once and the dress had snagged on something at the bottom of the moat.
Darkness pinched at the edges of Rey’s vision as her arms went limp and she struggled to hold onto reality.