#is flinging myself across a massive room on wheels on demand too much to ask for

[limulusamebocytelysate]

I should be able to walk for 1 minute max and get to a big free sports hall where I can rollerskate at any time of day. Preferably I would not have to go outside to reach it but I can compromise on that. I think this would improve my quality of life immeasurably.

[elopez7228]

Scenic Route 21/47

Read on AO3 : https://archiveofourown.org/works/18268208/chapters/43229774 

Start over : https://elopez7228.tumblr.com/post/620919089893933056/scenic-route-0147

***

Hmmm, there he went flirting again. She would have liked an exchange without romantic undertones.

Rey to Ben :

You can’t just say things like that.

She thought her own answer was a little caustic. Oh well, at least she could see his reaction.

Ben to Rey :

Are you mad at me? Can I make it up to you somehow?

*

Rey to Ben :

I’m mad at myself.  My life is a disaster right now, I don’t have time for a fling. Sorry if my actions made you think otherwise.

Truthfully, her actions were much more receptive than she would care to admit. But if he was wise he wouldn’t dwell on the semantic abuse.

Ben's answer didn’t take long:

Ben to Rey :

I'm going to silence my phone for the concert.  I understand where you’re coming from, you know, even if it doesn’t always look that way. You can trust me.  

Rey rolled her eyes. Subtlety was obviously not his forte...

Rey to Ben :

I don’t trust strangers. We'll have to get to know each other before anything else happens. Happy concert!

*

Ben to Rey :

Okay. Good night to you too. TTYS  

Kylo Ren

He signed it Kylo again. Rey made a face;  she didn’t like his stage name. Or the appearances he put up when he was in character. If she was to consider giving Ben Solo a chance, she would rather not deal with Kylo Ren.

She had her coffee (blegh), her chips, and her Snickers, before wiping her fingers on her jeans. What a peculiar honeymoon: alone with a dog, in the back of a car older than herself, eating snacks for dinner like a broke college student.

Desperate to find an electrical outlet to charge her laptop, she resolved to unplug the vending machine for about fifteen minutes. It was probably the most illegal thing she ever did in her life, and even then—she thought with some irony—she was far from being a hooligan.

She slept for a long time the next day.  The previous nights had been long and exhausting. It was BB8’s impatient barking that finally woke her up. The poor dog needed to get out, she was pacing restlessly in the back seat. Rey pushed herself upright and scratched her head. The car stank of dog and sweat.  She herself had slept in her clothes from last night and was now sticky with perspiration and grime.

"My kingdom for a bubble bath," Rey grumbled, realizing with disgust that she had not brushed her teeth the night before either.

She was utterly unrecognizable. If she had been told a month ago that she would be traveling alone, sleeping in her clothes, and forgetting all notions of basic hygiene, she would have been shocked by such absurdity. How very wrong she would be!

She opened the door and let BB8 roam, then dragged herself out of the car with some difficulty.  She had slept badly and her neck hurt.

BB8 made a few laps by herself, wagging her tail excitedly before finally relieving herself between two other cars. Meanwhile, Rey refilled her dog bowls with water and food.

She was putting the bag of dog food back in the trunk when Maz reappeared.

“Hello,” the little woman greeted her. “Did you sleep well?”

"No," Rey admitted. “I'm cold, dirty, hungry, and hurting everywhere. I would give anything for a hot bath...what about you? "

"I have strong bones, and I workout. I’ve had more difficult nights.”

Rey pulled her toothbrush out of her bag, followed a bottle of water. Indifferent to Maz's presence, she began brushing her teeth with an expression of undisguised joy.  

“Ere did you ‘leep?” She mumbled, her mouth filled with foam.

“Under the stars. I found myself a cozy nook between two motorhomes. And apart from a family of opposums, I was undisturbed by wild animals during the night.”

Rey rinsed her mouth. “You should have accepted my offer, it was still less risky... "

Maz shrugged. “I like to sleep with the sky above my head, don’t worry. Don’t you think it’s time for breakfast?”

“Not a moment too soon!” agreed Rey, whose belly was rumbling loudly. “But where are we going to find food in this area? At a hotel restaurant?”

“Let me, I know a place. How about a breakfast and a hot bath? How does that sound?” Maz offered, adjusting her enormous glasses.

Rey gaped at her incredulously. “A hot bath? You're kidding...”

“You’ll see. So, shall we?”

Rey took the wheel, following Maz's directions as she guided the Falcon across Yellowstone from south to north until they reached Mammoth Hot Springs, one of the most popular points of interest in the entire park. Maz pointed to a parking place  in front of the village hotel. After haphazardly smoothing their dirty and disheveled clothes, they entered the restaurant together.

The menu had Rey drooling. She ordered a mountain of pancakes with maple syrup, a large coffee with cream, and fresh fruit on the side. Maz, despite her meager frame, ate no less than her companion but in fact more. Scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, sausages, a black tea, and yogurt with fresh fruit. The two women sighed contently after wolfing down their meal, and Rey even let herself lick the plate clean, ignoring the disapproving glances from other customers.

But alas, she was filthy, she smelled, her hair stood in odd clumps on her head, and she obviously didn’t mind her table manners. It was too much for the restaurant staff, who politely but firmly asked them to leave the premises. Maz  demanded a doggy bag before paying, then left the room with her head held higher than the Queen of England.

Once outside, Rey let out an irrepressible giggle and allowed herself cherish the pure joy of having a full stomach, a life in front of her, and a friend to share this moment with.

The surplus of sausages was presented to BB8, who also deserved her share of the feast. When they finally caught their breath (after laughing for a good ten minutes at the offended pearl-clutching of several hotel guests), Rey stretched out on the lawn in the center of the village square.

She turned to Maz, who sat cross-legged next to her. “Thank you,” she said.  “I haven’t eaten or laughed like that for a long time.”

"I’m glad," replied the tiny woman. “Two days of traveling in such good company—a good meal was well-deserved, and the least I could do.”

Rey closed her eyes, savoring the feel of the sun on her face.

“Do you still want that bath?” Maz asked, reaching out to her gently.

“More than ever,” Rey replied as she sat up suddenly. “But how are we going to manage it? Unless you’re telling me you snatched someone’s room keys while we were in there?”

“You don’t know me at all, do you? I live for the great out doors, child! I always find a way. To the Falcon!”

It took roughly ten minutes to reach the state border, located at the extreme northern point of the park. Rey stopped the car to spontaneously take a selfie in front of the "Montana" sign. Maz posed with her eventually, after no small amount of pleading.

The border of the national park was only a few kilometers north of them. Maz directed Rey to turn right and park on a rugged patch of raised earth overlooking the Gardner River.

“Take some clean clothes and a towel and come with me,” Maz gestured, getting out of the car with her bag in tow.

“What?” Rey gaped incredulously, “Here? I asked for a bath, not a plunge in some wild river that probably plummets right down into the glaciers...”

Maz was practically glaring at her now. Rey raised an eyebrow. What was the old woman plotting?

They walked for several hundred meters on a trail that stretched alongside the river itself before reaching a rest area equipped with benches and informational signs. The latter described the hot water source that bubbled just beneath the riverbed.

“Welcome to Boiling River,” Maz grinned broadly, “one of Yellowstone’s best-kept secrets to date.”

But Rey wasn’t listening anymore. She was instead busy struggling, on one foot, with her jeans that did not want to come off. Soon the denim was lying on the ground, followed by her sweater, and her t-shirt. Hesitating, Rey found herself in her underwear, rummaging in her bag for the bikini she knew she had stashed somewhere.

She put it on without worrying about being seen naked, and rushed into the water in pursuit of BB8, who had just jumped into the river with an enthusiastic splash.

"Bloody hell!” She shouted at the height of ecstasy, letting herself slide into the steaming whirlpools of the river with delight.

Depending on one’s proximity to the spring, which boiled underground and mingled its scalding waters with the cooler Gardner River, one could enjoy a bath at 45 degrees (Celsius, of course) or colder.

“No soap allowed!” Maz yelled, taking off her boots. Any soap or shampoo would pollute the water. They had to respect park rules, after all.

Rey didn’t care.  To hell with shampoo!  The very caress of the hot water on her skin was divine. She could feel the dirt being swept away by the current, the sweat disappearing into the whirlpools, and her fatigue dissolving into the waves.

The two women took advantage of the spring for over an hour. Thoroughly reinvigorated, they went out to dry in the sun.

Rey put on clean clothes and carefully brushed her hair.  They would need a real shampooing eventually, but it was less urgent now. She could easily wait until she reached another campsite.

Consulting her phone, she found that it was almost noon. Her expression darkened, it was time to call Poe.

She apologized to Maz, who was busy putting on her clothes, and walked away to have a little privacy.

No signal.

Damn. She would have to either return to Mammoth Hot Springs, or failing that, would have to bargain for the hotel's wifi password.

Gathering their shoes, the two women returned to the car. There was a massive grey SUV parked on the side of the road, just a little further away.

Rey had the feeling that she had seen it before somewhere...but it was a popular model, she might have just become accustomed to seeing dozens like it at a time. But was the owner?  She had had the impression that she and Maz were quite alone in this part of the park.

She shrugged, eventually driving south to return to the nearest town.

Rey left the car door open to let in some fresh air, and gave BB8 to Maz as soon as she recovered enough bars to call England.

“Hello Rey,” Poe’s voice greeted her, “doing well, I hope?”

"I'm fine, yes," Rey confirmed, and strangely enough, it was true. She felt good. Poe's voice had not upset her, and no malice was trying to seep through her own words. She felt calm and rage-free.

“What about you and Finn?”

“I can’t complain. Not the best of times, but it’ll pass. No improvement in Finn, he’s still in a coma. "

"Can he hear when we talk to him?

"I dunno," Poe mused. “The doctors say so...”

“And what are you telling him?” Rey's voice was barely above a whisper.

“I tell him about my day, and I tell him about you doing your trip and going on the adventure of a lifetime.”

In the silence, she smiled. Her eyes were red and burning with tears again.

“Tell him that I forgive him, please. Tell him tp stop being a vegetable and that this should have happened differently, but that I understand. I understand. Okay?"

"Okay, I'll tell him. Thanks, Rey.”

“Poe?  Don’t hang up. Tell him he should have a vested interest in surviving, otherwise I’ll curse his grave every day by growing endives next to it and singing all the songs that annoy him.”

She heard Poe laugh. “He does hate endives with a passion.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“Okay.  I'm going to tell him that we'll grow a garden of endive and spinach on his grave if he forces us to.  If he’s not awake tomorrow, it will be nothing but his own fault.”

“Exactly!”

Finishing up the call, Rey wiped a tear for her cheek. She smiled in spite of her grief.

At the wheel of her SUV, Syed breathed an exasperated sigh. She had slept in this fucking car instead of a nice bed, she had watched Rey and her new best friend Granny Whatshername eat like pigs and get kicked out of a restaurant, she had waited patiently for these two numbskulls to stop splashing in the water like children, and now she was witnessing a telephone conversation she couldn’t hear, but which was apparently so touchy-feely that Rey was literally blowing her nose at the end. She fired off a text:

Syed to Ben :

RAS with R. No suspicious activity.  Tourism + bathing. Waste of time!  Authorization to return?

The answer didn’t take long:

Ben to Syed :

Look harder. She’s hiding something. U can do better than that.

“Bastard!” Snarled Syed, punching the steering wheel and sounding the horn. “You're doing this to punish me! Son of a bitch!”

She was dead sure, after two days of nonstop surveillance, that this Brit was here by accident and that FORCE was watching her for no reason whatsoever.

She was, unfortunately, equally certain that Kylo Ren had reached the same conclusion but that he claimed otherwise because he refused to quit.

Let this bitch go. He had decided to seduce her, him and his bloated ego. As long as no one stood up to him he wouldn’t budge, and it was Syed who paid the price.

It was time to mobilize Hux and Snoke to put an end to this ridiculous charade.