Chapter Text
Rey bolted upright on her cot and gasped for air like a fish that had been flopped onto shore. She swung her legs over the side of her cot but could not shake the feeling of having been yanked unwillingly from the depths by some unseen tether.
Piercing pain lanced through her wrist. She opened her mouth in a silent scream. She turned it over and flexed as she heard a crack and felt something warm and wet run over her forearm. She had a vision of her flesh ripped open and bones protruding but as she flipped her hand over and back, she realized there was nothing wrong with it. Her arm was perfectly intact. What she experienced was not her pain.
She launched herself from her bed and dashed towards her door. It slid partially open as she approached but became stuck as usual. With a growl, she waved her hand and it crashed back into its pocket. She saw a spark and heard a fizz but ran through the opening, undeterred by having rendered her door inoperable with an overly aggressive use of force. Someone was in trouble and not just anyone, someone connected to her through the force.
She sprinted down the corridor leading from the residences towards the hangers. She followed the distress call into the expanse of the hangars like a rushing stream. It rippled and bubbled around her, ever pulling her forward towards its source. Amber and violet swaths of light swirled and trailed back behind her out of the corner of her eyes. She had never experienced anything quite like it but did not have time to unpack it at that moment.
Finally, she heard something more substantial in the bay. There was a visceral hiss of labored breath followed by a groan, its tremulous tone caused her insides to flush cold. A work light glowed just beyond a large transport ship. She ran around the nose at the same instant legs jerked under a type an x-wing class ship. Her heart rate exploded.
“Poe,” she cried.
“Unh, R-Rey!” he stuttered. “Please . . . help.”
As soon as she dropped to her knees, she knew exactly what she would see, but that did not stop her breath from seizing in her chest. Poe’s hand was caught up in the belly of the x-wing, a panel pinned it just beneath his wrist. Blood dripped like syrup down his arm and dribbled off his elbow onto the concrete floor. He had wedged a bar up to free himself but appeared nearly spent from the effort. His face was pale and sweat slicked his hair.
“I-It slammed shut on me,” he whispered raggedly, “it sh-shouldn’t have done that. I-I decoupled the main inverter-”
Before he could wheeze in his next breath, Rey gathered a great well of force energy and dispatched the panel in a similar manner to her door to her quarters. Poe’s arm dropped out and he slumped back against the concrete.
“Where is BB-8? He should have been hooked up to the computer,” Rey inched forward. “Why wasn’t he here helping you?”
“Finn needed him for a trip to Gervi. Unh, m-my arm,” he panted and mumbled something in a language she did not recognize.
His eyes went impossibly large at the site of his crushed and unnaturally bent hand and forearm. His face blanched. Pain radiated off him like solar flares. Her stomach lurched as throbbing waves pulsed through her body. Again, she was struck by her unexpected connection to Poe, but she pushed her thoughts aside. In the next instant, she scrambled under the fighter and half on top of him. She propped herself up on one arm and held out her hand.
“Give me your arm,” her voice wavered.
She could feel him shaking underneath her frame. His teeth rattled.
“Give me your arm, Poe,” she demanded.
He swallowed and offered his mangled appendage. She wrapped her fingers around the broken wrist. His blood seeped between her fingers. She sucked in a breath and let her weight settle on him so she could place her other hand on his chest. Her fingers delved between the halves of his shirt so she could just rest the pads of her fingers on his skin. She closed her eyes.
She reached out but did not have to reach far. In her mind’s eye, Poe’s potent form pulsed amber and purple. So consuming was his presence that she had to shoo the colours away and reach beyond him to the forests and swamps of their moon. Miles away, a pack of Grundlins danced in the canopy. She tapped their chaotic vigor and pulled it towards her and Poe.
Every cell of her body tingled as the force flowed up through her towards the tips of her fingers. Beneath her palm, Poe’s heart slowed, and his huffed breaths drew out. She felt the shift of bones and the furious knitting of flesh in her other hand. Poe let out a long sigh as the pain eased away. She could feel its violent pangs retreat and shrink like a fading star. Rey focused with all her might on that dull winking, determined to snuff it out completely.
“Rey,” Poe’s voice was rough, “I’m okay.”
She squeezed her eyes tighter and shook her head. Pain remained. A twinkle of it sparkled deep, deep down within Poe. She followed it and started to fall but instead of shrinking, the tiny ball of light seemed to get larger. Around her, Poe’s form began to glow brighter on the amber spectrum. Its intensity increased until she experienced a pull. She gasped. The edges of her being began to dust apart and get sucked into the amber vacuum.
“Rey,” Poe groaned, “s-stop!”
Rey hovered there a moment, trapped in the ether. Inside her mind, she cried out in frustration. She had failed him. He still hurt, but she could not fix it. She could not fix him…
“Stop!”
Next thing she knew, her world tilted off axis and her stomach heaved. Her eyes flew open as she tumbled over. Air whooshed out of her lungs when her back slammed into the floor. She blinked several times as she stared up at Poe. His heavy weight pinned her against the concrete. He hauled in several breaths. A couple loose locks fell forwards over his brow. Rey frowned. His face was shadowed but inexplicably . . . appealing. She swallowed.
She flexed her limbs as she tried to sort out where her body began and his ended. A bit of grit of dirt on a cool slab pressed into the back of her hand. There was pressure around her wrist, it was held to the floor in a vise-like grip. When she peeked sideways, she saw that it was pinned down by Poe’s formerly broken limb which looked very much restored as a lean muscle in his forearm strained. Next, she felt something warm and solid beneath the palm of her left hand. When she tensed her fingers, she discovered a faint bit of chest hair under her digits. She let out a wheeze as she focused. Her other hand was still flattened against him, her fingers half buried between the halves of his white shirt.
She swallowed again, her throat felt tight. Poe was all sorts of on top of her, but her connection to him was much more intimate, like parts of her soul had knitted to his when she had tried to heal his injuries. She feathered in another thread-like breath, suddenly terrified to meet his gaze. Still, she looked up from where her hand quivered on his chest into the deep well of his dark eyes. She did not know where his pupils began, and his irises ended. His lip trembled as he spoke.
“What did you do to me?” he asked raggedly.
His heart rate had picked up again. She could feel its insistent thud under her fingers and the rush of blood through his veins.
“I-I’m sorry,” she replied shakily, “y-you were hurt.”
“Mmph,” his brow furrowed, “I felt you carving into my mind. L-Like a . . . backwater surgeon with a rusty scalpel.”
“I was trying to take the pain away,” she whispered.
A huff of hot air scalded her cheeks. “Some things aren’t yours to take. Don’t ever do that again.”
Rey winced against a sting in the back of her eyes. Whatever she had unwittingly chased down that hole flared and flung off searing shards. The blister of his old injury tore through her psyche. Poe experienced it at the same time as a flashback. He tensed.
“I’m sorry,” Rey rushed out.
She could not help the spontaneous surge of force that poured from her fingertips into his chest. Poe swore and closed his eyes. He dropped his head. His face hovered less than an inch away. He loosened his hold on her other hand only to jerk back her sleeve and rub his thumb across her pulse. She felt his need then, the need to feel the comfort of the force, but not just that . . . there was a powerful urge within him to connect to her again. She felt it too, an insatiable . . . longing.
That is when something changed, like a seed sprouted. Rey arched a little, desperate to slake the heady feeling. In a heartbeat, she was plunged back into herself and acutely aware of everything physical. Poe’s heat, his weight, his scent . . . warm and . . . masculine. A sound rumbled in his throat.
“Rey.” His nose brushed hers.
She clutched his shirt. His body surged along hers once and she was rocked against the floor. Her lips parted. She wanted more, more of . . . whatever that had been. Her insides coiled into a tight knot.
“Poe,” she pleaded.
“Hmmph, this is such a bad idea,” he muttered.
Lips came down on hers and with them, a rise within her like nothing she had ever experienced. She clutched his shirt and bent against him. Poe groaned from within his chest, its raw rattle vibrated her fingers. She felt unhinged, drugged even. She wanted everything he was doing to her but had no idea how to reciprocate. Tentatively, she opened her mouth and moved her lips. A tremor coursed his frame and a white-hot swell of desire soaked through every fiber of her being. He pressed into her again, his legs, hips and torso promised a kind of unfamiliar dance. She thought she might burst.
Then, their tongues touched, and something did explode. A wave of energy ballooned and mushroomed out. Rey froze as she heard and felt the vibration of a massive crash followed by the squeal and creak of metal. Poe jerked his head up.
“What-?!”
He dragged himself up. Rey scurried to her feet.
Somehow, the x-wing had been flung against the side of the transport ship with its belly ripped open. Rey glanced anxiously at Poe. His mouth was agape. He raked his fingers through his hair as he gulped in breaths.
Rey clenched her teeth and reached for the stricken jet, anxious to fix her mistake. Metal moaned as she lifted and repaired the small craft. She plunked it unceremoniously down next to the transport. Several people, tousled hair and seemingly roused from their sleep, ran into the hangar just as she reformed the damaged cabin of the transport. They all stopped and stared. Rey dropped her hand. She turned a wary eye to Poe. He shook his head and stepped back; fear had glazed over his expression.
Her soul fractured. He was one of the most important allies she had, and she had just given him a reason to distrust her on the basest of levels. She may as well have bitten him.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered miserably.
Then she fled.