The Flame (sequel to Kidnapped by Kylo Ren)

Chapter 20

Nira's POV

It had been only three days since I'd truly awaken and learned of my baby.

It was as if I had come back to life. The three days of my deep depression were no longer. The entire time I was suffering from it, I felt like I was underwater. I had pushed all senses away from me. It was a miracle I had come out in the good shape that I was in.

Now I was fine — well, not fine, but as fine as I could've been. Giano was scared that he'd lose me again; he was hesitant around me. But I wasn't afraid. I knew I would never fall back into my stupor. I had a focus now, a purpose. My child.

When I'd waken up, I had showered and slowly eaten. My meals were originally small but as soon as I began taking in food again my baby and I both developed quite the appetite. I now ate increasingly large meals. I needed the calories to survive, and my child needed the calories to grow at almost eight times the rate of a normal human baby.

I don't know which quality from -- I can't think the person's name -- either myself or the other person involved with the conception of this child allowed for the growth to be so accelerated, but every day I noticed a very perceptible difference in the bump size.

My love for my child, it seemed, couldn't grow. That may seem like a backwards statement, but it's not. As soon as I heard the news of my child, as soon as I truly took it in, I loved this baby with as much love as a person's heart can hold.

I fully intend to care for this child with all of my capabilities. I want to raise him or her into a respectable young person. I want to teach them everything I have learned about the cruelness and kindness of our galaxy. I want to protect them from harm until they can fend for themselves. I want to care for them.

The baby was always lurking on my mind. If I was completing a task then the baby was still there, occupying some part of my mental space. If I was having a conversation with someone, part of me was still simply aware of the being growing inside of me. Always I thought of my baby.

Everywhere I went I couldn't take my left hand off of the bump. It was natural, instinctive. If I walked down the hallway, my left hand absentmindedly caressed my stomach. When I slept, my hand rested on my bump. When I conducted any task, such as eating or writing, I completed the task completely one handed, because my left hand rested on my stomach.

Currently I was sorting through food that Giano had brought back from the market closer to central town. He had brought me back to Theed on Naboo, his hometown. We were residing in an abandoned home close to the central hangar. The doctor he had brought in was his family doctor.

The plan was to keep my hidden as long as possible. If the First Order were to come, then I would have to run to an escape ship set up for me in the hangar. Giano instructed me that if the First Order appeared over Theed to leave him behind if we were separated. I hated the idea of that, but he made me go along with it regardless.

I paused my difficult work of washing a piece of fruit with one hand for a moment and looked out the window over the sink. It had been quite a long time since I had stood in a house with a window that overlooked nature.

The grass was bright green and immediately beyond the hut was a steep hill that lead to thick forestry. I left the window wide open. The breeze blew strands of my hair over my shoulders. I closed my eyes and stood in the wind, admiring its cool tendrils. Not letting myself think of him -- of the person who had left me.

I was actually in peace.

I was scheduled to have birth in two weeks. My life on Jakku with Giano had seemed pointless, but here on Theed? With a child?