"Looks like your boy made it back, Poe."
Poe Dameron turns from where he's fiddling with a section of Black One's circuitry to shoot a glare at the smirking Snap Wexley.
"He's not 'my boy', Temmin," grumbles the Commander defeatedly. He's danced this jig enough times with his fellow Resistance fighters to refrain from becoming a flustered mess whenever anyone calls his "relationship" with a certain ex-Stormtrooper into question. Now, Poe endures their remarks dismissively, much to their dismay.
Using the hem of his shirt to wipe the sweat and grease from his face, the Commander scans the tarmac outside the X-wing hangar. Sure enough, Finn and Rey are strolling up to the building, smiling and chatting in the glow of the evening sun. Poe takes a moment to watch them, a fond smile on his lips. Despite their unforgiving upbringings, the two youths always seem to find a reason to enjoy life every day.
Suddenly, a ball of orange and white excitement zooms past the pilot, calling out salutations as it nears the walking duo. Rey immediately kneels to greet the BB unit, while Finn looks ahead and spots Poe, teeth flashing as he grins at the older man.
"Hey, Poe!" he yells, already striding towards the X-wings to meet him. The boy's grin is infectious, and the pilot can't help his own goofy smile as he jogs out to meet him halfway and pull him into a familiar embrace.
"Ack, Poe, you reek!" Finn groans, stepping back and scrunching his nose jokingly.
"Really? Don't you love the healthy musk of a hardworking pilot?" Poe grins wolfishly, closing in on the younger man only to be pushed back playfully. Raising an incredulous eyebrow, the Commander shoves the former Stormtrooper back. In a matter of seconds, the two men are play-slapping like children, their raucous laughter turning the heads of the soldiers and personnel wandering the tarmac. They are on the verge of wrestling right there on the hard ground when Rey makes her presence known.
"Ahem. Good to see you, too, Poe," Rey chides as she smirks at her roughhousing friends. BB-8 stands beside her, staring them down with his singular optical receptor and twittering disparagingly.
Dameron grins sheepishly, slapping Finn on the back before embracing the young Jedi as well. He supposes he can't help acting so ebullient around these two; they make him feel like he's 20 years old and without a care in the world.
"Ugh, Finn's right. You need a shower," Rey chuckles as she releases the older man. "How long have you been working out here?"
"You know me," replies Poe, tilting his head towards the parked Black One. "My baby needs a lot of pampering. But anyway, you guys find anything interesting on your little expedition?"
"Er, actually...yeah, we did," says Finn, his smile faltering as he fiddles with the sleeve of Poe's old jacket. This earns him a look of concern from said pilot, and a more sympathetic one from Rey. "I'll show you after dinner...OK?" The young man offers, his earnest eyes glimmering with the light of the setting sun.
Poe's gaze immediately softens at Finn's apprehension. "Of course, buddy, whatever you want. I just need a few minutes to finish up here, so why don't you and Rey get a head start?" Dameron extends a greasy hand, which Finn reaches out to clasp instantly. The two men hold on to each other slightly longer than necessary, the elder telegraphing as much comfort as he can to quell whatever anxiety is plaguing Finn.
"Alright. Thanks, Poe," the boy smiles softly, and Poe prays that he won't take notice of the blush rising to his cheeks. The pilot feels happy to have been the one to wipe the stress from Finn's winsome face.
"See you in a bit, Poe" says Rey, placing a gentle hand on her friend's arm and leading him in the direction of the cafeteria. Poe waves lazily at the two, gazing at their retreating forms and wondering what exactly Finn discovered on his assignment that's worrying him so.
"Ah, love!" Jessika Pava sighs loudly right beside the Commander, making him jump out of his skin with an unbecoming shriek. This sends the female pilot into a fit of laughter, doubling over at her senior's bewildered expression.
"Very funny, Testor," grumbles Poe, pushing past her to begin tucking his X-wing in for the night.
Dinner was uneventful, and Finn kept any sign of uneasiness hidden throughout the meal. It's when he and Poe are walking back to their room that the older man notices his slightly hunched shoulders and fidgeting fingers once again.
"So, are you ready to show me what you found?" Dameron inquires casually as they enter their dorm. He begins changing into a clean set of sleepwear, giving Finn time to formulate a response.
The younger man moves to sit on his bed, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "Yeah. You remember those Senators from the Republic? The ones who gave us a ton of intel on the First Order?"
"I do. That's why you left with Rey, right? To follow some leads?" asks Poe, pulling on a shirt and turning to face his roommate.
"Well, yeah," Finn sighs, glancing about the room before locking eyes with his friend. "But those Senators also had data on Stormtroopers. Like, about where the First Order took them from."
"OK," replies Poe simply, trying to guess where this conversation is heading.
"Poe, they had files on the entire FN-Corps. They knew where I was from," Finn reveals, eyes solemn.
"Oh." It's all Poe can say in light of this unexpected bit of news. He wants to celebrate the fact that Finn was finally able to find his roots, but the ex-Stormtrooper doesn't seem so keen to do the same.
"Buddy, that's great, right?" inquires Poe carefully, settling down next to him and slinging an arm around his broad shoulders. "Now you can go find your home, maybe even find your family!"
Finn remains silent for a long while, staring down at the floor and worrying his bottom lip with his teeth. Poe sits beside him as a pillar of support, his hand gentle as it rubs his friend's arm.
"Rey and I stopped by my home planet while we were away," says Finn, still unwilling to meet Poe's surprised eyes. "It wasn't a very interesting place; lots of mountains, kinda dry. And my...hometown was pretty much abandoned."
Poe can't help but wonder how foreign a word like "hometown" feels on Finn's lips.
"I never thought the First Order cared enough to record where they kidnapped people from," muses the pilot.
"You'd be surprised," smiles Finn wryly. "Their records were surprisingly complete. My guess is that they sent scouts to monitor homes for 'prospective recruits' before nabbing them."
"Sick," Poe mutters in disgust of the regime. "So, does that mean you were able to pin down a house?"
Another deafening stretch of silence follows.
"There wasn't much left, honestly. At least, nothing I recognized," Finn shrugs before pulling a device out of his jacket pocket. "I did find this though, in the house…my house," he murmurs more to himself than to Poe.
Dameron's eyebrows rise at the object in Finn's hand. "Looks like a portable holocomputer. An ancient one, too. Have you taken a look at its data?"
"No, not yet," Finn replies, placing the computer on the bed beside him and resting his head on his hands. "Rey helped me fix it up, though."
Poe bites his lip, unsure how to proceed with the current situation. Finn's stress is palpable, and the older man is stumped on how to console his friend. "Do you...want to see what's inside?"
"That's the thing," sighs the ex-Stormtrooper, turning to stare at the pilot with those earnest, dark eyes. "I'm...scared, Poe; of what's on there, I mean."
"Scared?" Poe's brow furrows as he considers Finn's words. "If that computer did belong to your family, I doubt there's anything bad in there."
The older man holds in a gasp as Finn reaches up to grasp the hand still resting on his shoulder. Slowly, Poe lifts his arm and passes it over Finn's head, letting their joined hands rest in the boy's lap as he awaits a reply.
Finn squeezes Poe's hand a few times before speaking up. "It's just...what if the stuff I find on there isn't what I hoped for? What if there isn't even any information on my family? What if…" he trails off uselessly, hanging his head.
"Finn," Poe enunciates, the name he gave the ex-Stormtrooper rolling off his tongue as pleasantly as ever. "There's only one way to find out." The pilot dips his head, hoping the younger man will catch sight of his reassuring face out of the corner of his eye.
"Of course, you don't have to look at it right now," sighs Poe, pulling his hand back and pushing himself off the bed.
"Wait, Poe," says Finn with renewed zeal, gripping his friend's hand and holding him in place. He reaches out to pick up the holocomputer with his other hand, thumb hovering over what is presumably the power button. "You're right. I want to do this now. With you."
Dameron can only blink in surprise before smiling warmly. He didn't expect Finn to want to share something so potentially personal, but he isn't about to deny his friend's entreaty. "I'll be right next to you, buddy."
Finn takes a deep breath before switching on the device and setting it on the floor. Small lights on the computer blink before it whirs to life, the projector in its center filling the space between the beds with faint, blue holograms.
"BB, could you kill the lights? Thanks."
The astromech complies with a smattering of beeps and boops, and immediately the bedroom is lit only by the ghostly glow of the holocomputer.
Poe dares to glance at his roommate, whose wrinkles on his brow are more pronounced in the low light as he leers at the icons and captions floating before him. "I...don't recognize this language."
"The operating system looks pretty easy to navigate," the pilot reassures Finn, reaching out with his finger and cycling through the fuzzy icons populating the space before him. Testing one nondescript folder greets the two men with what appears to be some sort of error message. Several more attempts to open other folders yields similar results.
"I think the data's corrupted," Finn murmurs despondently.
Before Poe can respond, BB-8 squeaks and rolls over to a highlighted folder floating off to the side. The droid points at it with its pincer, wiggling in place excitedly.
"BB-8 says that folder looks pretty important. Wanna check it out?" asks Dameron, turning to Finn. The boy stares at the projection and gulps before nodding mutely. Poe squeezes his hand reassuringly before opening the contents of the folder with a wave of his hand.
The blue projection displays emptiness for a few eternal seconds. Right as Poe debates if this folder is also a lost cause, a myriad of images begin popping up in the hologram. Soon, the two men are faced with a swarm of faces and landscapes, photographs of Finn's past that were kept safe by the little device.
"Whoa," is all Poe can say, barely a whisper. He turns to see Finn reaching out with a trembling hand, fingers brushing over the face of a dark-skinned woman, her curly hair tied back in a loose ponytail.
"Is that…?" Finn trails off, captivated by the woman's cheerful face. Poe sits still and lets Finn cautiously swipe through several similar images until another figure appears: A large man with a blinding grin who bears an uncanny resemblance to the boy sitting next to the pilot.
By now, there is no doubt in Poe's mind as to who were the owners of this holocomputer.
The Commander watches with bated breath as Finn's fingers caress the projected images with great care, as if they might shatter and cease to exist. The former Stormtrooper doesn't seem to mind the language barrier, or the messy audio on the videos. He is enraptured by the preserved moments of love and happiness between the young couple; experiences he was robbed of when the First Order molded him into a mindless soldier.
That's when Finn's awestruck eyes find another folder floating in the cloud of memories. With a tentative touch of his finger, the folder expands, its contents taking the two onlookers' breaths away.
The young woman from before is positively glowing with joy, her stomach swelling with new life from beneath her maternity clothes. The man embraces her tenderly from the side, gazing adoringly at the mother of his unborn child.
"That...that's me," Finn breathes without a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
"Oh, Finn," Poe chuckles and jostles their joined hands, a gleeful smile on his face. The pilot can't say much else in the face of this treasure trove of memories.
More scenes from the woman's pregnancy follow until a video clip appears. In it, the man stands alone, smiling radiantly down at a bundle of blankets nestled in his strong arms. Finn and Poe gasp audibly as the camera moves closer, revealing a sleeping infant with a head of dark, frizzy hair. Despite the corrupted audio, the man's deep voice filters through the computer's speakers as he sings a wordless lullaby to the child. Melancholy rises in Poe's chest as he witnesses the tender love being bestowed on the newborn.
A few seconds pass before the baby stirs and opens his dark, curious eyes, blinking owlishly at his father. By now, Poe is familiar with the bright and earnest eyes belonging to Finn, but he wonders how exhilarated his parents were to look into them for the first time.
The mother's voice can be heard just off-camera, making what sounds like a quip or joke that draws a hearty laugh out of the father. Poe hears Finn chuckle beside him, and the Commander turns to the younger man in amazement. The ex-Stormtrooper is grinning from ear to ear, eyes watering with filial joy as the holocomputer shows him a window into a life long since passed.
All too soon, the video ends, and the familial illusion fades. Finn and Poe are left sitting numbly in a Resistance base, smack dab in the middle of a merciless galactic conflict.
Poe watches as his friend's face falls with realization, the sorrow returning to his eyes as the flickering holograms taunt him with an unreachable life he'll never be able to enjoy. The boy bows his head in shame, shoulders shuddering as tears begin flowing down his dark cheeks. Unable to stomach the heartbreaking sight, Poe pulls Finn against him, wrapping him in an embrace he hopes conveys a fraction of the love Finn's parents held for him.
The younger man crumbles in Dameron's arms, ruining his shirt with salty tears as more than 20 years of emotions repressed by the First Order burst forth. Poe nestles his face in Finn's short hair, each mournful sob like a stab to the pilot's chest. Nevertheless, he remains stoic as his friend unloads the grief weighing down on his soul.
"It's OK, buddy. I'm here, you're OK," Poe murmurs softly, rubbing the back of Finn's jacket in an attempt to console him. It's really all he can do; the Commander knows that Finn will only stop crying when he no longer has the energy to continue. Sure enough, with the passing of each minute, Finn's agony releases its cruel hold until the man is left slumped against Poe, snuffling against his chest.
"Are you alright?" Poe asks, pulling back slightly to look down at Finn. When he doesn't receive a response, he nods to BB-8, who rolls over to turn up the bedroom's dim lights. The former Stormtrooper only stares at the opposite wall, eyes dull and unseeing.
"I never thought I had a family...who loved me," Finn sniffs, voice hoarse. "And now...they're gone."
"Hey, hey, you don't know that," chides Poe gently, cupping the boy's unblemished face and tilting it towards his. "They could still be out there."
"I...I know," sighs Finn, sitting up and wiping the streaks of moisture from his cheeks. "But, the First Order...you've seen what they do to people who stand in their way. If anyone tried to stop them from taking me…" he trails off. There's no need for him to finish that thought.
Poe clenches his jaw and looks down at his lap, damning himself for hastily suggesting that Finn's family may have survived their encounter with the Order when the very opposite outcome was much more probable.
"Besides," Finn continues sullenly, "I'm not their son, not anymore. The Order made me a Stormtrooper; a brainless soldier for a fascist regime who doesn't know shit about love, or companionship," he grumbles self-deprecatingly, pulling his jacket tighter around his frame. "They wouldn't want a thing to do with me."
Poe wishes he could destroy everyone in the First Order who made Finn and so many others feel like such a waste of space.
"Listen to me, Finn," utters Poe, gripping his friend by the shoulders and staring intently into his shimmering, bottomless irises. "That's not who you are anymore. You're brave, loyal, virtuous, everything the Resistance could ever want in one of its fighters. If you ever find your parents again, they'd be so proud of the man you've become."
As Poe finishes his sincere proclamation, he's taken aback by the astonishment on Finn's face, so open and vulnerable in a way he's never seen. "You're wonderful, Finn," the pilot assures the young man with an affectionate smile.
Poe feels like he could whoop for joy when Finn's signature grin spreads across his face once more. "Oof!" the older man gasps as his friend launches forward and wraps his arms around his neck, burying his face into his shoulder.
"Thank you, Poe," says Finn, voice muffled by the soft fabric of Poe's shirt.
Dameron chuckles, sporting what he's sure is an idiotic grin. "No problem, buddy."
When Finn pulls back, his expression is decidedly sheepish. "Er, sorry about...you know...having a breakdown," he murmurs, motioning to the tears and snot staining Poe's sleepshirt.
Poe sighs exasperatedly, but not at Finn's emotional response to having made such a tremendous discovery about his past. The Commander would never grow tired of solacing his dear friends, especially if thier name was Finn. He simply wishes the ex-Stormtrooper would be a little more forgiving of his own shortcomings.
"Don't apologize, Finn," says Poe reassuringly, "This whole thing can stay between us, OK?"
This elicits a breathless laugh from Finn. "Yeah, that'd be great."
The two men fall into silence, appreciating the security of their light embrace as they sit on the bunk. BB-8 rolls over to Finn, nuzzling its dome into his leg and purring like a furry pet. The young man smiles sweetly down at the droid and strokes its head with careful fingers.
Poe watches him, wondering how the in the world someone so gentle could've endured life in a place of darkness for so long.
"Finn," the pilot speaks up, leaning over to pick up the still-glowing holocomputer. "The data in this computer, the memories; they belong to you now." Poe places the small device in Finn's calloused hand, not unlike how Lor San Tekka presented him with the map to Luke Skywalker. "No one can take these away from you. And once you get the files translated, there'll be so much more you can learn from them."
Finn holds Poe's gaze as he orates, dark eyes filling with wonder as the boy realizes the value of the treasure trove now resting in his palm. With a flick of his finger, an image of his parents reappears above the projector, embracing each other as they hold their infant son between them. Finn's eyes soften nostalgically as he takes in the young family's bliss.
"You know, my real family isn't here right now," says Finn, lifting his eyes to meet Poe's. "But, here with the Resistance, I feel like I belong to another family; a family that's been more courageous and faithful than I could ever hope to be. General Organa, the pilots in your squadron, BB-8, Rey...and I can't forget the person who's most special to me."
Dameron's eyes widen imperceptibly, his heart rate picking up tempo thanks to Finn's affectionate gaze. "Who...who would that be?"
"Oh, Poe," Finn smiles radiantly, the love of his mother and father shining through him as if he were the brightest star in the galaxy. "It's you, of course!"
Poe barely registers the large hand rising to wipe away the errant tear trailing from his eye. The pilot reaches up and grasps Finn's hand like a lifeline, the emotion and contentment rising within him almost too much to bear.
"Finn...thank you," he weeps. There's no way he can fully thank this amazing boy for rescuing him from the clutches of the First Order, for contributing so much to the Resistance's efforts, for confiding in him so willfully and openly.
But perhaps, Poe reasons as he regards the hologram floating between them, there is a way to express his unending gratitude.
"Thank you...for being born."