Cassian had never liked nightclubs. They were all so bright and so dark at the same time, and the noise of the music and people screaming made his head spin. Even in his younger years, before the police and even before the army, he had preferred a quiet bar with one or two friends to a raucous club; now they just made him feel old.
Kay Esso, his partner and the closest he had to a friend, sat next to him, looking equally as uncomfortable and out of place.
Out of seemingly nowhere, the young and spritely intern Leia Organa plonked down next to him. When Cassian had first met Leia, he wrote her off as just another kid who got the job because her father was the boss. However a year on and Cassian had made the (very wise) decision never to cross her.
"Oh come on you two!" Leia all but shrieked, grabbing onto Kay and shaking him. "Even Draven's up, there is no way I'm letting you two sit here looking miserable all night. Have some fun!" She started to tug on Kay's arm and he shot Cassian a look of panic.
"Actually Leia, we were just heading to the bar," Cassian intercepted, saving his friend. Leia's grin did not falter.
"Perfect! I'll take a vodka and coke, Cass!" She smiled.
"Aren't you 19?" Kay questioned. Leia shushed him as she shoved him out the booth, and Cassian couldn't help but laugh.
"These office parties will be the death of me Cassian, I swear it," Kay reflected. "I sometimes find the criminals less vexing than our youthful colleagues." Cassian smiled as he pushed his way through the sea of people. He couldn't help but like Kay; the two were similar in age and pessimism, which lead to a predictable friendship.
The crowd seemed to grow with every step Cassian took. It wasn't long until he turned around to discover Kay was nowhere in sight. He called out to him, but it was all in vain - Kay was lost to him for the night. It briefly crossed his mind he may never see his friend, or the outside world for that matter, again.
The sight of the bar was his salvation. He sighed with relief as he collapsed into a gap against the counter. Eventually he caught the attention of the barman and ordered only one beer, disregarding Leia and even Kay.
"You look lost," came a soft English voice from next to him. Almost startled, he looked over to see a short young woman, gently sipping at a drink in her hand. She was exceptionally pretty; short brown hair that fell to just her shoulders, mellowed green eyes, and a soft face. She was wearing a short black dress, nothing too extravagant but on her it looked incredible.
"Just a bit," he laughed and she smirked as a reply. "Well, you don't exactly look too invested yourself." And it was true; despite looking the part much more than Cassian did, she seemed nervous and jumpy - it was almost unnoticeable, but Cassian was well-trained in the art of reading people.
It was her turn to laugh this time, nervously he noted. "Am I that obvious?" She paused to think before continuing. "This isn't really my scene. I came with the hopes it would be, though I haven't got much farther than the bar all night." She took another sip of her drink and then turned to look up at Cassian with a smile. "Liana," she introduced herself as.
"Cassian, he offered back. He noticed how dimples form around her lips as she smiled; he liked that.
"So, Cassian, if you're the type of person who feels lost in a nightclub, what are you doing here?"
"I was supposed to be getting drinks with friends," he replied, looking around the sea of people and not seeing one familiar face. "But I seem to have lost them." Liana laughed again. She had a pretty laugh. "What about yourself?" He asked.
"Like I said, I hoped it would be my kind of thing," Cassian noticed a faint glimmer of something akin to resignation, almost defeat, in her eyes, but it was gone in an instant, replaced once again with her smirk. "But I don't know, maybe I was hoping to meet the right person."
If years of training had not taught how to keep a poker face, Cassian would be blushing. He took another sip of his drink to mask the grin, Leia's demand to have fun echoing around his head. The time on his watch read 12:43 am, and he concluded he had more than overstayed his welcome in this god awful nightclub.
Turning to face the beautiful young woman in front of him, he made a decision.
"Well, Liana," he said in his best attempt at a suave voice. "If neither of us particularly want to be here, we could just… Leave?"
Her smirk grew wider, and she couldn't conceal her blush as well as Cassian had.
"I don't see any reason why not," she replied, smiling. "Lead the way, Cassian." Without thinking about it too deeply, Cassian took her hand and started to make his way back through the crowds. The last thing he saw in the club was Leia staring at him and Liana, then smiling at him, and finally - giving him the thumbs up of approval.
When he woke, Cassian was slightly surprised to see she was gone. The nightmares had woken him up again; the blaring red lights of his alarm clock read 4:37 am, roughly the same time he woke up every night.
On the odd occasion he went home with a woman, when he woke up in a cold sweat with the beginnings of a scream caught in his throat, the woman was still lying there, sleeping blissfully. He would then just lie there, feigning sleep until the woman eventually left. But Liana was already gone. There was a slight pang of sadness in his stomach, mixed with the usual adrenaline and fear after a nightmare. Cassian had really liked her.
But alas, she was gone, and with nothing but a first name and a face, it was unlikely he would ever see her again.
He dragged himself out of the tangle of bedsheets (which smelled of her), still feeling queasy, and stumbled into the bathroom. His hands were shaking and perspiration was still dripping from his forehead. Fighting the urge to throw up, he splashed his face with cold water and slid down onto the cool bathroom floor. He rested his head in his hands and began to recount the names of the last five people he spoke to. A coping mechanism he had been taught in rehab years ago, it was one of the few that actually worked.
Once he felt like he could stand again, he pulled himself up and trudged back to his bedroom. Clambering back into bed, he hoped of of just a few more hours of sleep; the unfamiliar scent of perfume calmed him, and sleep came much easier than expected.
He was awoken once more by the sound of his phone aggressively vibrating on his bedside table. Jumping up in a sleepy panic, he grabbed his phone and answered. Kay spoke before he had the chance.
"Cassian," Kay's voice sounded perhaps the most agitated he had heard it sound in a long time. "I hope you're up and dressed, I'm pulling into your street now."
Cassian couldn't quite process what was happening. He checked the time and it was still an hour and a half before they were supposed to be in work.
"Kay what's going on? Has something happened?" He asked, rather groggily.
"They've found her, they've found Jyn Erso."
It took him a few seconds to realise what he had just heard, and then Cassian's mouth fell open.
Three months he and Kay had been searching for the daughter of infamous narcotics chemist Galen Erso; she was their best hope at locating Galen, and getting access to the information Saw Gerrera had been hoarding from them.
"Dios mío… Kay I'll be ready in ten minutes, wait outside for me."
"Well, hurry, I've got Leia here with me." Kay replied, and Cassian's eyes narrowed.
"Kay, you didn't…" There was a brief pause from the other end, followed by a horrified gasp.
"Jesus christ, Cassian, no! She fell asleep in the taxi and I didn't know where she lived! Good lord, just hurry up."
As promised, ten minutes later Cassian was flying down the stairs of his apartment and outside into Kay's car. Kay was quite sour with him for abandoning him for a girl last night, however it was quickly forgotten considering the urgency of the situation. A half-asleep and fully hungover Leia sat in the back seat, she welcomed him with a grunt.
They had barely started driving before Cassian was showering them with questions.
"Antilles picked her up this morning for drunk driving," Kay explained. "It wasn't until she was being processed and they ran her prints that she was recognised. I just got off the phone with Draven, you and I are to question her with him when we get in, Leia will be shadowing us."
Cassian ran a hand through his hair, attempting to take in everything he was being told. A strange mix of nerves and disbelief was slowly growing in his stomach; for so long he had dreamed of taking the Empire cartel down. To take out Erso would be his first major blow.
His hangover and lack of sleep long forgotten, Cassian all but leapt out of his car and into the precinct. The place was in chaos. Detectives and officers alike running around, paperwork flying everywhere; amidst the chaos was Captain Draven talking on the phone, who promptly breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Cassian and Kay.
"Andor, Esso!" He barked. "Erso's in the interrogation room. I'll be there shortly; I'm on the phone with the Chief, she wants information, and soon." Kay and Cassian nodded in response, and wasted no time walking towards the interrogation room, Leia following just behind.
Once there, Cassian suddenly felt overwhelmed. He paused just outside the door, and turned to Kay - seeing the same exhilaration in his eyes. With a slight nod of encouragement to his friend, Cassian swung open the door.
And there, cuffed to the table in the middle of the room, sat Jyn Erso. The second Cassian saw her, his stomach fell to the floor. She was still in the same black dress.