Ɓen opened his eyes as he heard someone enter his tent. He wiped his eyes with the sheet, not wanting anyone to see that he had been crying. He'd gotten between Rey and one of her friends, he'd even caused them to fight, he couldn't help but hear some of what they were saying.

He quickly became embarrassed and pulled his sheet up to his chin as he remembered that he wasn't wearing a shirt. He looked up to see Rey with a shy smile on her face and he blushed.

"What are you doing here? I thought that you were going to..."

"I didn't want you to be alone," she cut in.

He smiled up at her. "Thank you," he whispered. "Let me put my shirt on..."

"It's fine Ben, I don't mind," she interrupted. She lifted the sheet and laid down next to him.

"I heard Poe yelling at you. I was going to go out there and punch him in the face for talking to you that way, but I thought that would just prove him right," he said.

Rey nodded. "Just ignore him. Honestly we've always fought about one thing or another. He has no right to treat that way."

"But why would you choose me over your friends?" he asked.

"If Poe makes me have to choose between my friends and my husband, than he's not a true friend. Besides I love you."

She leaned closer to him and kissed him gently. She looked into his eyes for a long moment, then her eyes wandered down his bare chest and stomach. He blushed and wanted to hide under the sheet again. He fiddled with the sheets nervously, watching her as she looked at him. Her brows creased as her eyes landed on a long scar across his stomach, she gently brushed her fingertips across it. He felt his heart race at her gentle touch.

"What happened?" she whispered.

He reached over to touch her cheek. "It was a long time ago," he whispered. Then he kissed her lips softly. After a moment, he pulled away. "Goodnight sweetheart."

"Goodnight Ben," she answered.

He closed his eyes turned over, with his back towards her. He was trying to act like he had fallen asleep so that she wouldn't ask any more questions.

"Ben..." she whispered and he felt her place her hands on his back.

She looked at the scars that streaked across his back. It looked like he had been beaten with a whip, more than once. She gently traced the long scars with her fingers, some were barely visible, others were red as though recently healed. "... who did this to you?" she whispered at last.

Ben swallowed hard, inwardly fussing at himself for turning over. He turned to face her again, he stroked her hair for a moment before answering in an almost inaudible whisper. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Ben, please... please tell me," she pleaded with him.

"I don't want to trouble you, Rey," he gently moved her hair back away from her face. "I've caused you enough grief."

"You're already troubling me," she wrapped her arms around him and gently moved her hands along his back. "I don't like the thought of someone hurting you like this."

He looked at her for a long moment but didn't speak.

"Please tell me, Ben. Keeping it to yourself won't make you feel any better. You can tell me anything. I'm your wife, remember?"

He sighed deeply. He supposed that there was no use in keeping it from her, she had already seen the evidence of what he had been trying to hide. He had to show that he trusted her, otherwise she wouldn't trust him and that could cause another wedge to come between them and that was the last thing he wanted. "My parents sent me to train with my uncle when I was very young. I finished my training when I was thirteen, so I returned to the castle. But my parents wanted me to have even more training, so they sent me to train with Snoke, he was the greatest knight and swordsman in Alderaan at the time. But his teaching methods were not what I had expected. When we trained together he held nothing back, he said that war wasn't fair and I had to fight or die. That was how I got the scar on my stomach."

"That's awful," she whispered.

He became lost in her beauty as he looked at her and he reached up softly brushed his fingers across cheek. Then he continued, surprised by how easy it was to talk to her, even about things he couldn't even bare to think about. "After I had been training with him for a year, he told me about his plan to overtake the kingdom. He promised that if I served him, he would let my family live. But if I refused, he said that he would kill everyone I loved. So I agreed, thinking that it was the only way to save them. I was young and I didn't realize that he was using me to destroy them," he paused for a moment, seeming as though he didn't want to continue. She was looking at him expectantly, so he swallowed hard and forced himself to continue. "When I failed him, or didn't meet his expectations, he would beat me. Sometimes he would beat me just because he felt like it. But it was what I deserved."

There were tears in the corner of her eyes, "why?"

"Because, I betrayed my parents and my kingdom. I wasn't strong enough, I was too weak."

"You didn't betray your parents Ben, you were just trying to save them. You sacrificed yourself to Snoke for them, that doesn't sound weak to me."

"I suppose you're right, but Snoke said that it was all my fault and..."

"Don't listen to anything that monster told you Ben. It's his fault, not yours. If you didn't do as he asked he might have killed your parents and there's no telling what he would have done to you."

"But, I should have been strong enough to stop him."

"You were just a child, there was nothing that you could have done. Especially after he hurt you so much." She looked deep into his dark eyes. "Are you afraid of him?"

"Yes," he whispered.

She nodded running her fingers through his thick black hair. "I promise that I'll never let him hurt you again." She pulled him closer to her and began to gently rub his back and stroke his hair.

He leaned his head against her chest, and wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her close. "That's not what I'm afraid of, I'm afraid that he'll hurt you and my parents," he whispered.

"We're going to save your parents," she promised.

"What about you?"

"I'm safe right now, here in your arms." She kissed the top of his head.

He smiled and snuggled closer to her.

"Don't think about Snoke right now, try to get some sleep."

He closed his eyes and focused on the feeling of being in her arms, the soft thumping of her heart. "Please don't leave me."

"I'm not going anywhere," she whispered as she continued gently massaging his head.

He moved closer to her and he began to drift off to sleep as she continued to hold him.