When Disco Met Rose

Lovely day today on C...umm, the planet where we are vacationing. I think Rose is finally had enough of swimming! Never knew Echo and I raised such a little glimmerfish! But then, we didn't raise her...or we did, but we haven't yet because i'm still pregnant with her. This whole situation still confuses me at times.

On my birthday a few months ago, I was accosted by Governor Tarkin. Some nonsense about taxes. Lord Vader rescued me by performing his patented RFC-Reverse Force Choke. It enables him to bring people or objects to him. So, Vader RFCs me to his ship in order to save me from arrest. But something happened that no one quite expected, and Vader needs a warning label on the RFC-Warning! The RFC should NOT be performed on pregnant women! When I returned to the shop, via shuttle (that RFC is disorienting!), my best friend and business partner, Kitiyari was waiting for me. Sleeping on the sofa in the shop was a little red-haired girl, about 7 years old. So beautiful and peaceful. Then the bomb dropped, the shoe fell, the bottom fell out of my reality, and other such cliches for surprises. Kiti explained that the little girl came into the shop and asked Aunt Kiti where Mommy was. Mommy being...ME. Well, she did have my red hair...and she referred to herself as Rose Gryphon. Ok, that was the name we were planning on giving her...and Gryphon was a suggestion for our last name, as Echo didn't have one. As the little one opened her eyes, my heart burst open. She had Echo's eyes. Those same wonderful, kind eyes I fell in love with, looked at me sleepily and then smiled, said 'hi Mommy' and gave me a big hug.  Instant love. I knew she was mine. I knew she was Echo's. And I knew that I never wanted to stop hugging her. I asked her how she got here. Rose told me that she was playing outside the shop after school when she saw a flash of light (we assume this was due to the RFC). She came into the shop and saw her Aunt Kiti and asked for me.

Thank goodness for Kiti! She took care of my Rose and called Echo. When he walked in, his little girl said, "Hi Daddy!" I wish I knew what was going through his head at that moment. Was it the same things going through mine: how? what? when? Then I remembered that I was pregnant. Or was I? Rose was standing before me, but I was supposedly pregnant with her, and only about 6 weeks. Did this mean I wasn't going to experience her moving and kicking inside of me? Giving birth to her? The first smile, steps, words? Little panic attack. Mental note...make a doctor's appointment as soon as possible. We took her home. Desperately trying not to confuse her any more than she was, but looking at each other with a "What the kriff is
happening?" look in our eyes. We explained as best we could when she asked why things like her room, and Daddy's uniform were different. Rose took the explanation in stride. Kids are resilient and amazing beings.

There are days that I cry thinking about what we've missed with Rose. We don't have the memories of those wonderful milestones. We don't have baby holos. I don't know what her first word was, but I try not to dwell on what I can't change.  There is a rule, we don't ask Rose questions about what she remembers from 'her time.' Kiti explained to her that she can't tell us or it will cause a paradox...or as Rose says a 'parrot ox.' Well, the baby is still inside me and starting to move around. Rose named her Lily...we like the flower names. So little Lily Blue Gryphon will be here soon. Even though, technically, she's Rose. We'll raise her as her own person. And Rose will be a wonderful big sister.

Someday Rose may ask us, "Daddy, Mommy...how did you have me 7 years before you even met?' and hopefully, by then, we'll have an answer.