Chapter Text
It really had been only a matter of time before the plumbing turned against her.
Rey’s Saturday morning started like any other.
She woke up and went for a run.
When she got home she headed to the bathroom, turning on the shower to get the hot water running when the showerhead exploded off the shower wall.
That was how Rey found herself in her local hardware superstore in the bathroom aisle scrolling through Youtube trying to find a relevant tutorial on how to install a new shower and tap set instead of joining her friends at their usual brunch spot.
“Did you need any help?”
Rey’s head snaps up at the familiar voice and finds herself staring into a pair of pretty dark eyes.
“Oh. Hi Ms Niima,” Ben Solo looks surprised to see her. “I didn’t recognize you.”
Of course he hadn’t. She wasn’t dressed for school, who expected their freshman year English teacher to be haunting the aisles of their workplace looking like a drowned rat in their sweaty workout clothes?
“Hi Ben,” Rey glances at the green polo shirt with the hardware store’s name on the right side of his chest and the name tag underneath.
She gives her old student a friendly smile, “I didn’t know you were working here.”
She hadn’t seen him around school for some time. His dad passed away suddenly a few months ago. Leia had taken a leave of absence and the deputy principal, Amylin, had stepped in as acting Principal. Ben had withdrawn from his classes for the final two months of the semester.
“Oh, I just started, I didn't want to sit at home all summer.”
Rey blinks in surprise. Ben is starting his senior year in a month's time. She would have thought he’d be up to his neck with football training, starting to look at college applications, or going out with his friends enjoying his freedom before the final year of school starts.
He glances at her phone and asks, “You’re looking for a new tap?”
“New showerhead too,” Rey replies, “Only the existing ones are so old, I’m worried I’m going to get the wrong parts.”
Ben nods, “Did you take a photo?”
“Oh, sure!” Rey pulls up her photos, scrolling quickly through her camera roll as Ben watches her screen intently, she is slightly embarrassed by the number of photos she has of her orange and white cat stored on her phone. She pulls up the photos she’d taken of the broken shower head and hands the phone to Ben.
His eyebrows shot up in surprise, “Oh wow, the tiles, they’re...really pink.”
Rey makes a face. “I know, they’re hideous. The bathrooms were renovated in the seventies, salmon pink was apparently all the rage.”
Ben grins and hands the phone back to her. Rey notices how small her old iphone looks in his massive hands and feels a small pang for the small, skinny boy who had joined her in her classroom for lunch during his freshman and sophomore years.
He has been so horrifically shy; hiding his sullen face behind his lanky dark hair. It must not have been easy, being the smallest boy in the year and the Principal’s son. As far as she could tell he didn’t have any friends and Rey had suspected he ate lunch in her classroom to avoid being bullied by the bigger boys.
Rey hadn’t minded his company, he was smart as a whip, even if he tended to fold into himself in the corner seat to make himself as invisible as possible during her classes and never participated in the discussions, she had discovered that he was a voracious reader, and once he felt comfortable enough in her presence he had started to talk they had bonded over their mutual love of Murakami, Lord of the Rings, Hilary Mantel, and Galaxy Wars.
Then, between the end of his sophomore and junior year he’d gone through a freakish growth spurt. He had been unrecognizable when he came back to school, he towered above the tallest boy in the year and his shoulders had filled out considerably.
And just like that it was like Rey had felt like she was watching an American highschool fairytale happen in real time. Ben quickly got drafted into the school’s football team early in the school year and he was so busy with training and being the school’s new star footballer, he had stopped eating lunches in her classroom.
Rey still passed him in the hallway from time to time, leaning up against his locker with a new girl every other week hovering at his elbow.
Ben always had a smile for her and greeted her with a friendly, “Hi, Ms Niima,” when their paths crossed, and Rey was truly happy to see him blossoming at school and all the attention he was getting. She’d missed their talks though.
Ben wanders over to the shelves and starts rummaging through the boxes filled with assortments of parts that had overwhelmed Rey for choice.
“I think I know what you’ll need.” He tells her, crouching down to peer at something on the lower shelves, the shirt he is wearing strains over the back of his broad shoulders as he reaches into the back of one of the shelves searching for something. “I’ll give you a few different parts to take with you if you don’t mind, they’re not expensive, and it will save you the trouble having to come back again.”
He stands back up and turns around, showing her the new parts he had picked out for her, explaining why he thought they would be suitable for her shower. Rey is impressed by his know-how. She has enough tact not to ask where he had learnt how to fix a tap and thanks him profusely for his help. He assures her that it's fine and walks her to the till.
“Did you see the new Galaxy Wars movie yet?” Rey asks him as he ushers her to an unoccupied checkout station.
“Oh, no. I haven’t had the chance yet. I read online that it was disappointing.”
Rey nods. “It was soul-crushing. I think I cried for a week afterwards.”
Ben gives her a small teasing smile, “Mourning your space Hamlet?”
Rey laughs. “Also for Kira. I just can’t believe they wouldn't give her the happy ending she deserved. It was such a betrayal.”
Ben puts through her purchases himself and packs them away in a brown paper bag for her. “Good luck Miss Niima.” He says sincerely, “Come back if any of the items aren’t the right fit, I’ll replace them for you, free of charge.”
“Thanks again, Ben.” She hesitates, then she reaches out and places her hand on his arm. “I was really sorry to hear about your dad.” She says softly.
Ben doesn’t reply, he just stares at her hand resting on his arm.
She bites her lip, wondering if she’s overstepping, she quickly withdraws her hand, “And if you ever need to talk, my classroom’s always open to you okay?”
She can’t read his expression, but he jerks his head in a nod, his Adam's apple bobs and as she leaves she wonders if she should have kept her mouth shut.
Maybe he had been getting through the day just fine and here she was reminding him of his loss needlessly just because, what, she thought he would appreciate having an ex teacher he hasn't spoken to for over a year to assure him he could talk to her anytime he wanted?
Rey makes it to her car before she lets out a mortified moan.
***
Rey is pleased when the parts Ben had chosen for her fit and screw into place perfectly.
She texts Finn and Rose to apologize for missing brunch along with a photo of her shiny, new showerhead and taps.
Finn: 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾
Rose: Queeeeeen. Look at you go! 😊
Rey rewards herself with a long shower before going into the huge kitchen to fix herself something for lunch. Her orange and white tabby, Baby, winds herself around Rey’s ankles meowing softly as she reheats leftover pasta from last night on a small portable gas stove.
She had inherited the rundown Victorian Manor last year when, of the blue, she had received a letter from a law firm called BH Partners & Sons. The letter had informed her the firm had been appointed executor of her grandfather’s estate and she was the sole beneficiary under the will.
Rey had felt like the solid ground beneath her feet had shifted to quicksand.
She’d grown up in London in the system, shuffled from foster home to foster home for as long as she could remember. When she turned eighteen she had tried to find out any information she could about her parents. There was nothing.
She had been five hours old when she was left on the doorstep of a police station in a town three hours’ drive outside of London. Pinned to the front of her blanket was a piece of paper with three letters on it, Rey .
She’d almost died from exposure to the cold. They’d given her the last name Niima, after the town she had been found in.
That was the extent of her file.
She’d moved to America after she finished university. She had grown sick of grey, overcast skies. She’d bought a one way ticket to sunny Los Angeles, California.
She immediately got swallowed up by the sprawling beachside metropolis. No plan, no friends, $4,000 in cash in her pockets. She spent her first night sitting on the beach, staring at the waves, shivering in her T-shirt and shorts, surprised at the temperature drop and tried to imagine what happened next, thrilled and exhilarated by all the possibilities.
She’d found a teaching position here in Chandrila, a small beach side city about five years ago. Chandrila was one of the most expensive towns on the Coast, as if all the beach side mansions were not evidence of that already, the area was occupied with a mix of old-money dynasties like the Organas and new-money Silicon Valley CEOs who moved here with their young wives to start a family.
She loved Coruscant Academy, she loved the students, she loved Leia, who was the most hardworking and caring Principal she had ever met, the school had also led her to Finn and Rose.
Everything had changed when she received that letter.
She had been shocked to find out that she still had family. Even more devastating had been the knowledge that her grandfather had lived only a half hour drive from her workplace, that he had known of her existence and never even bothered to reach out to her before he died.
She had met with her grandfather’s attorney in his office, a cold-mannered man named Armitage Hux who informed her his firm didn't have any information about why she had been abandoned at birth or how her grandfather knew about her and why he’d left her everything in the will.
The estate wasn’t worth much. A few thousand dollars in a bank account and a huge Victorian Manor built in the nineteen century that was falling apart.
Nobody would buy the house in the state it was in and the money it would cost to renovate it was astronomical.
But, a house was a house. Rey had never had anything to her name other than the beaten up rust bucket she drove around in.
Her teacher’s salary left much to be desired and the house was mortgage free, all Rey had to pay for was the rates and utilities so it had made sense for her to end her lease and move in.
She had been disappointed to find no photo albums or letters or any personal keepsakes in the house to give her a clue as to the family she had come from. The only remains left behind of her grandfather was a soiled mattress in the upstairs bedroom where he had been found after a week by his cleaning lady and the electric chair lift that had been installed to help him move up and down the grand staircase.
He had been close to a hundred years old when he died, and he had lived here all alone.
Why didn’t you come find me?
Why didn’t you want me?
Finn and Rose had come over to see her new home and had immediately told her the place should be condemned and tried to convince her to leave with them and have it knocked down.
Rey had refused.
She had some basic repair skills, the foster family she had lived the longest with had been a severe and devout Christian family. Her foster father had been a stern, stoic German carpenter and he had bought home broken and old furniture, sideboards and tables, he’d found to restore and sell for money on the side.
He had taught her how to use a hammer, and saw, and how to strip and varnish wood to make it gleam and look brand new.
She had enjoyed the work, watching something abandoned and broken become beautiful again. She had even considered becoming a carpenter like her foster dad when she grew up but then he had died suddenly from liver cancer and her foster mother wasn’t willing to support Rey on her own, so Rey had moved on.
She’d spent the last few months going through the rooms clearing out the rubbish she found.
She’d ripped out the threadbare and moldy carpet in the downstairs rooms and found that the floorboards underneath were in relatively good condition.
She spent her time watching house flipping programs and Youtube tutorials.
The house had potential, she had told Finn and Rose.
And it was nothing a few fresh coats of paint couldn’t fix.
But problems had started to pile up on her as soon as she moved in, it had been a very wet fall, full of thunderstorms all through September.
First, the roof had started to leak, then, during one particularly strong thunderstorm most of the windows in the house had blown out, the basement flooded, and finally, the power in half the house went out.
An electrician Rey had called out had informed her that whomever had done the electrical wiring in the house must have been a lunatic because none of it was up to code.
Rey was currently sleeping on a mattress in a downstairs bedroom behind the kitchen that must have been the servants quarters because it was the only room in the house with working windows and that hadn’t been infested with the awful damp, wet smell that had permeated the house.
Rey had turned the power off until she could figure out what to do about the electrical wiring.
It wasn’t too bad, especially now that the weather had turned warm once more.
She had gone to a camping supplies store and blown a thousand dollars from her savings on portable solar panels and a portable battery so she could keep a small fridge and heater running in the colder months.
She still took her laundry to a laundromat like she still did when she was renting, she had battery operated lamps and she was saving money on her electricity and gas.
Her grandfather had named her his heir and left her this house.
Surely that meant something didn’t it?
Maybe he had been unwell, and he hadn’t been quite in his right mind during his final years.
Maybe he had been ashamed of what her parents had done and this house was the only way he could think of making amends.
Rey had longed and waited her whole life for family, for belonging. This huge house was falling apart, but it belonged to her .
And she was determined to make the best of it.
She had decided she would fix it up herself. She’d devote her time and love to it and turn it into a real home.
She imagined the exterior of the house once it was finished; the windows restored, the walls covered with a fresh coat of paint and the surrounding gardens cleared of weeds and neatly landscaped.
During winter the fireplace in the living room would be lit with an inviting and cozy fire to fill the house with warmth and light, the rooms would smell of smoky wood-fire.
Sometimes, just when she was falling asleep, she allowed a tall, dark-haired, faceless man to make an appearance and hold her in his big strong arms while they danced barefoot on the perfectly restored hardwood floors.
Perhaps transforming this ruin to that perfect home would take years. She would need to scrimp and save every penny to put it into this place.
But if there was anything she was good at, it was waiting, and fixing broken things.
***
Rey had to return to the hardware store a few days later, it was a particularly hot day, she didn’t dare turn on the air conditioning in her car for fear of overheating the engine so she is a sweaty mess when she runs into the store, she doesn’t pause to enjoy the store’s cool air washing over her.
She dashes straight into the tools and equipment aisle and finds herself colliding with a tall, hard body.
“ Oof .” Rey nearly falls back onto her butt but a pair of huge hands quickly reach out to steady her.
“Miss Niima, are you okay?”
It’s Ben, staring at her with worry on his long, pale face. His eyes dart down her body with concern before quickly returning to her face, his cheeks turning pink.
She is wearing an old white t-shirt, denim shorts, and flip flops. Rey had left the house in such a rush she’d forgotten to put on a bra. She suddenly realizes her nipples are probably poking out through the thin material. She forces herself not to cross her arms in front of her chest.
“Hey, Ben. Hi.” Rey says breathlessly. “I need your help, I need a really sharp knife and a drywall hammer. The biggest one you have.”
“Oh, sure.” He quickly takes her down the aisle, grabbing her the hammer and a knife before hurrying to the front for Rey to pay. “Is everything okay?”
“It’s my cat.” Rey explains, feeling anxious and sick. “I didn’t see her all day yesterday and then just now I heard her scratching and calling for me from inside a wall. I tried to cut a hole to get to her, but none of the knives I have are sharp enough for the job.”
Ben scans her two items and her credit card in record time and she thanks him, clutching her new purchases to her chest, she runs back out into the parking lot.
Her car won’t start. It’s too hot. It will be hours before the sun sets and the engine is cool enough to start again.
Rey leans her forehead onto the steering wheel trying not to cry.
Poor Baby, she’s the worst cat owner in the world. Why hadn’t she thought to seal off the vents in the house? There are probably a hundred of them, filled with juicy rats and tempting spiders, it had only been a matter of time before Baby crawled into one of them.
Rey wonders how long she’s been stuck. She hadn’t shown up for her breakfast yesterday morning, and then again this morning, that was when Rey had started to get really concerned and started looking all over the house for her.
She is distracted from her misery at a gentle knock on her car window.
It’s Ben Solo.
“Is everything okay?”
“My car won't start.” Rey’s voice comes out scratchy and she blinks back some frustrated tears.
Ben looks over her beaten up 1986 Toyota Corolla and says, “My shift just ended. Can I give you a lift?”
Rey nods gratefully. She grabs the hammer and the knife and follows him across the parking lot to a metallic grey Chevy Chevrolet with black racing stripes. The license plate says M FALCON.
She slides into the passenger seat, staring at the beautifully restored leather seats. “Boy, you’ve got a sweet ride there,” she says quoting a line from one of her favorite bad movies.
Ben huffs out a laugh at her terrible Southern accent. “She was my dad’s.” He explains. “His pride and joy.”
He starts up the engine, it comes to life with a smooth purr, an arctic blast of cold air comes out of the vents as Ben carefully backs out of the parking spot.
Rey smiles at how slowly he maneuvers the car. She would have forgiven a teenage boy with a car like this one to be a little reckless, but his big hands on the steering wheel carefully guides them out of the parking lot to merge safely onto the road.
“Take a left here,” Rey directs him.
The car falls silent, so Rey asks, “How’s your mom?”
“She’s fine. She’s been going to lots of out of town conferences. Our therapist says she uses her work addiction as a coping mechanism. I just think she is using work to avoid our therapy sessions.”
Rey blinks, taken aback by his candid answer. “So therapy wasn’t her idea?”
“Oh no, it was,” Ben replies, his eyes on the road, “Our Rabbi suggested family therapy and she thought it was a good idea at the time, but I think she thought the therapist was going to be working with me on my anger issues, she didn’t realize her and her work addiction was going to get so much focus.”
He glances over at her, a little startled. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to unload all that on you. You can pretend you didn’t hear it if you want.”
“It’s ok.” Rey assures him, wishing she could reach over and take his hand in hers. “I told you my classroom door was open to you. I meant it. Even if school’s out at the moment.”
Ben looks over at her again, his face is open and earnest when he says, “You always made me feel welcome. I never thanked you for that. It wouldn’t have been fun, listening to an annoying kid talk at you for an hour straight when you’re supposed to be on break.”
“No, not at all.” Rey assures him, “Sometimes I read a book or see a movie and I think that you’d really enjoy it and I find myself wanting to tell you about it. I - I’ve missed our lunches.”
Silence falls again. Rey glances over at him and his jaw is clenched tight, like he wants to say something but he’s trying to hold it back.
“Right here,” Rey says, “It’s the house on the end of the cul-de-sac. Can’t miss it.”
Ben pulls into the wide driveway peering out the windshield to look at the house with its boarded up windows, tall cast iron fence, the gardens overgrown with weeds.
“This is where you live Miss Niima?”
“Yup. Welcome to my castle.”
“God, it looks like a murderous clown is going to come out of it at any moment and take the form of my darkest, deepest fear.”
“Actually Pennywise is a very respectable housemate. He stays down his well most of the time and remembers to put the toilet seat down after he uses it.”
Ben grins and puts the car into park, “Can I come in?”
“Only if you help me rescue my cat.”
***
Ben cuts a neat hole into the drywall with her new knife and Rey reaches in to pull out a dazed and filthy Baby, she meows pitifully and drinks thirstily from her water dish while Rey fusses over her, nudging a fresh can of catfood at her little nose.
Ben wanders into the kitchen long after Baby has scoffed down her tin of food and Rey is cuddling the grungy cat in her arms, not caring that both of them are probably covered in muck and dirt that is at least a hundred years old.
Ben takes a seat on the floor with Rey and Baby, crossing his long legs lotus style. “You did a good job on the floors in the living room.”
“Thanks, I’m going to leave the varnishing till after the rooms have been repainted. But the roof needs repairing so that’s going to take priority now.”
“You’re doing all this on your own?”
“My friend Finn comes over when I need an extra hand, but otherwise, yeah. I’m working on it whenever I can find the time. I took a job teaching night classes at the community college to help with cash, but most of that is probably going to go to the electrician.”
“What about your windows?” Baby has escaped Rey’s arms and wandered over to sniff curiously at Ben. He pats her head absently as he stares at Rey with concern. “What if there’s a summer storm? You can’t replace the wiring without getting those windows fixed up first.”
Rey shrugs helplessly, “I know, but the windows are too old, I can’t just replace the glass, I have to replace the whole frame as well. The carpenter who came out quoted me four hundred dollars for each window. I think there’s fifty windows in this house that would need replacing. I don’t have that kind of money lying around.”
Ben purses his lips, gets up off the floor to walk to the closest kitchen window, he turns back around to face her after a moment and says confidently, “I could do it.”
Rey blinks. “What?”
“The windows, I know where to get the materials for the frame, and it will only set you back about fifty dollars for each window.”
Rey gapes at him. “Ben, no, I couldn’t - I wouldn’t be able to pay you for your time.”
“I don’t want your money Miss Niima. I need a project to get me through the summer. This is perfect.”
Rey casts her mind around for a reason why she can’t accept his offer of help, “Surely you have enough to keep yourself busy? What about football practice?”
“I quit the team.” He says offhandedly, turning his head to look around the kitchen.
“After - well, it just didn’t seem important anymore. Besides, all the attention and the pressure, I didn’t actually enjoy any of it. It was turning me into a huge asshole, but it took my dad dying to make me see it. I don’t want to spend my time training my ass off so I can be good at throwing a stupid ball around a football field. I want to...have time to read again, and spend time with the people I really care about.”
Ben turns and the look he gives her...every single hair on her body raises up in warning.
Her heart pounding, she opens her mouth to tell him no, but before she can he pads across the room to her, crouching down so their faces are more or less level.
She looks into his dark, needy eyes and everything inside her weakens and softens.
She recognizes that look, it’s been over three years but she still remembers walking into her classroom with a pile of papers to mark and a sandwich to see a young man in the corner desk looking at her with those same eyes.
“Please, Miss Niima? Let me help you.”