~Five Years Ago~
"So you'll be flying with the Black Squadron," Leia said, wrapping her arm around Lorelai's shoulders as they walked around the Resistance base. "I think you'll like the leader too. He's fantastic."
Lorelai cocked her head back. "And when have you known me to take a liking to anyone who's in charge?"
"You like me."
"True, but you're different."
Leia stopped and turned to face Lorelai. "Do me a favor and at least try to get along with him."
Lorelai hummed as she feigned giving Leia's request a thought. She then let out a dramatic sigh and rolled her eyes. "Okaaaaaaay," she groaned, jokingly. "I guess, I can try."
The older woman smiled before punching the young woman's arm. Lorelai, stepped back, holding her hands up. "Hey!"
"It's a good thing I warned Dameron that you were a bit of a pain in the ass," Leia grumbled.
"Warned me about who now?"
Leia turned around and Lorelai's eyes widened at the man standing there. He was only a few inches taller than her with bronze skin and perfectly, tousled black hair. His dark brown eyes were confident and determined. When he looked her way, Lorelai couldn't help but notice his cocky smirk falter a bit and his Adam's apple bobbed. She could feel a knot in her stomach forming.
"Commander Dameron, this is Lorelai Vendetto," Leia introduced, gesturing to Lorelai. "This is the young woman I've been telling you so much about."
'And yet you failed to tell me about him,' Lorelai thought to herself.
Poe's lips curved into a grin. He pointed to her. "You're Leonard's Vendetto's kid."
Lorelai gave a nod, pursing her lips back. She scolded herself not having seen this coming. "Indeed I am."
"My parents flew with your dad for so long. I can't think of single story my dad has told that doesn't involve Leonard."
She tilted her head to the side and her eyebrows furrowed. "Oh really?"
"Yeah. Did he ever tell you about a Kes Dameron?"
"Yes!" She clapped her hands. "Yes he did!"
Poe's eyes lit up. "That's my dad!"
"You're kidding me!" Lorelai folded her arms across her chest and shook her head. "How have we never met before?"
Poe shrugged. "My dad moved to Yavin 4 when he left the force."
She chuckled. "You don't say? Because that's where my dad and mom went too."
His smile fell and his lips curved so his mouth hung open a jar. He raised an eyebrow and walked closer to her. "So you're from Yavin 4?"
"Born and raised."
He scratched the back of his head. "How have we never met?" He looked to Leia. "Did you know this?"
Leia shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, I've only known her her entire life. But I don't know what that says."
Poe glanced back at Lorelai and smiled. "What squadron did you say you were joining?"
"I didn't," Lorelai laughed half-heartedly. "I'm joining the black squadron."
Poe nodded, grinning at her. "Good. We could use someone like you."
Leia put one hand on Poe's shoulder and the other on Lorelai's shoulder and stood between them. "My work here is done. Poe, show Lorelai around and will the both of you please do me the courtesy of making me not regret this?"
Lorelai chuckled, keeping her eyes on Poe. "There's a distinct possibility."
~Present Day~
Poe inched his X-wing in the direction of the Star Destroyer but made sure to keep enough distance to where they weren't able to see him. BB-8 sitting in the back of the X-wing beeped.
I have a bad feeling about this.
Poe turned on a couple switches. "Happy beeps here, buddy, come on. We've pulled crazier stunts than this."
Leia's voice filled his ears. "Just for the record, Commander Dameron, I'm with the droid on this one."
"Thank you for your support, General. Happy beeps."
He turned his pa system on. "This is Commander Poe Dameron of the Republic fleet, I have an urgent communique for General Hugs," he said.
A pause followed until General Hux's voice was heard. "This is General Hux of the First Order. The Republic is no more. Your fleet are Rebel scum and war criminals. Tell your precious princess there will be no terms, there will be no surrender-."
"Hi, I'm holding for General Hux," Poe cut him off, smirking.
Another pause. "This is Hux. You and your friends are doomed. We will wipe your filth from the galaxy."
"Ok. I'll hold."
Another pause. General Hux broke the silence. "Hello?"
"Hello? Yup, I'm still here. Hux? With an 'H'? Skinny guy. Kinda pasty."
He could hear General Hux growl on the other line. "I can hear you. Can you hear me?"
Poe's grin widened as he said, "Look, I can't hold forever. If you reach him, tell him Leia has an urgent message for him...about his mother."
He turned his ship away from the First Order, heading in the direction of the Dreadnought. He turned on his pa system once again, only this time he was reaching someone else.
"Loreali, do you copy?" he asked.
Worry reign over him when she didn't respond. He cursed himself for letting her in on this when another X-wing soared right past him, almost causing him to jump out of his seat. BB-8 squealed.
"For force sake, Lorelai!" he scolded her on his PA system.
Her laughter filled his ears. "I couldn't resist." She let out a whoop as she drew closer toward the Star Destroyer. Her heart raced as the adrenaline rushed through her. "Feels so good to be back!"
The First Order fired shots at her, mistaking her for Poe. She was able to dodge them by leaning her X-wing off to the side. She laughed wildly as she flew around the Star Destroyer. She couldn't remember the last time she had so much fun flying around on her own.
She turned on her pa system to tell Poe when a different voice came out of the receiver – Leia's.
"Who gave you permission to fly in a X-wing because I don't recall having that conversation!" Leia scolded.
"The doctors at medbay in D'Qar did. They gave me some medicine thingy or something. Either way, I'm fine and I got this."
"And you're ok with letting her do this, Commander?" Leia asked, turning the tables to Poe.
"I trust her," Poe defended.
Lorelai grinned. "How'd those words taste coming out of your mouth?"
"I meant them."
It was then Poe flew upward, causing him and BB-8 to jolt a bit. The droid squealed once again.
"That's got a kick!" he exclaimed.
His X-wing came into a close distance with the Dreadnought as he flew around their cannons, destroying them one by one.
Meanwhile, Lorelai continued to dodge the First Order's shots when she noticed the large swarm of TIE fighters behind her. She turned on her pa system.
"Poe, we've got company," she reported as she turned her X-wing around and started firing at them. "How many more cannons you got left?
"I see them," Poe responded. "I got one more left but I think I can handle two jobs at once."
He flew around and found himself flying beside her. "Just like old times," he remarked. "You ready?"
"Let's do it."
They separated before turning around to fire at the TIE fighters. Poe then led a bunch of TIE fighters while BB-8 tried to fix the glitch from earlier. He made his way toward the Dreadnought's final cannon. Leia's voice appeared in his headset.
"Time for you and Lorelai to turn around and disengage," Leia ordered.
"I'm taking out a Dreadnought. These things are free killers. We can't let 'em get away."
But Leia wasn't having it. "Disengage now, Commander. That is an order-."
Poe turned off his received and returned his focus on the final cannon. "Let's go, BB-8. It's now or never!"
Poe flew through the fire and slid the X-wing around, firing at the Dreadnought's final canon as well as a couple TIE fighters behind him. He turned on his pa and connected to Lorelai.
"Did you see that?!" he hollered excitedly. "Did you see that?! All clear!"
"Babe, I love you and I'm so proud of you, but we have a shit ton of TIE left so it's time we called-."
Just then Lorelai felt a jolt. "That son of a bitch did not just hit me," she mumbled.
"Lorelai, you good? You almost got hit there."
"Call the others now. We need back up."
With that, several Resistance pilot flew in their direction and started aiming direct hits at the Dreadnought. Lorelai turned back and followed them, the adrenaline running through her veins. Suddenly, she noticed something coming out of the dreadnought. She turned on her intercom for everyone to hear. "Just wanted to let you all know that the First Order is about to start shooting at us right about now so please be aware of your surroundings."
A male Resistant pilot's voice was heard. "Lorelai, on your right! Move out of the way."
Lorelai sped forward and dodged the shot. She sighed in relief. "Shout out to whoever that was that warned me, by the way."
She flew around the vicinity of Poe's X-Wing and continued shooting at the First Order. It was then she noticed two Resistance ships blowing up, one right after the other. It was then she noticed there was only one bomb fleet left as the others had blown up. She cursed under her breath and reminded herself to stay focused when another Resistance ship blew up, this time right beside her. She dodged in time, receiving a damaged a small chunk of the top part of her X-wing.
"Fuck me!" she exclaimed.
Poe's voice came on to the intercom. "Lorelai, what happened?"
"I got hit. The top half of my right wing is demolished."
"I need you to get out of here now. Right now. I've got this."
She went to protest when Leia's voice came on to intercom. "Lorelai I need you to get out of there. I'm already losing too many fighters as it is and it's becoming a blood bath."
"I'm fine-."
"That's an order. Get back now. I'll try to have some others follow you."
Lorelai shook her head. "Alright," she caved in. She turned the X-Wing around when two other Resistance ships blew up right in front of her. She swallowed hard, trying to avoid getting worked up. She then put her X-Wing into hyper speed and headed toward the Raddus.
When she was far enough away, she saw the last Resistance bomb fleet blow up.
Lorelai threw off her helmet and wiped away the beads of sweat trickled down her forehead. She closed her eyes for a moment and let out a defeated sigh. When she thought about the day she would return to piloting, watching a handful of her co-pilots dying didn't wasn't exactly a part of that vision. It didn't help that she was still in grieving Han Solo's death either. If anything, what she had witnessed made her question whether or not she was ready to come back.
But then again, she didn't expect to come back so soon.
It had been only a few days after she returned to the Resistance when earlier, news of the First Order bombing the Resistance's base on D'Qar spread like wildfire which led to a sudden evacuation. She had heard about it as she left medbay for her final check up after her concussion. Poe was already rushing over to pull her out of medbay when he first told her. Without even thinking, she ran into her quarters and grabbed the blaster Han had given her and a couple other necessities.
While boarding the Resistance's ship, Poe pulled her aside and asked her if she was able to fly again. She answered "yes" without any hesitation proved to him by successfully flying her X-Wing into the hangar. It was then Poe put her name in for the impromptu mission but kept it a secret. Before they left, Poe made her promise she wouldn't pull any stunts. She promised and she managed to keep it, but now wished she had made him promise the same thing to her.
The little voice in her head said what she was too afraid to say aloud. Maybe if he had listened to Leia, we wouldn't have lost so many people.
She had to let it go - for her and Poe's sake. Mainly, for Poe's sake. Knowing how he handled guilt, it was on her to be the one to keep it together. Poe valued his team more than any other leader on board. To him, they were family. She also was aware of how furious Leia was at Poe for going against her orders and figured it would be best to try to get to Poe before Leia could.
She climbed out of her X-Wing down the ladder. She handed her helmet to one of the mechanics and thanked him. She unzipped her orange jumpsuit down to her waist, exposing the white tank she wore underneath. Her arms slid out of and she tied the sleeves around her waist. Her eyes scanned the hangar for Poe when she spot his X-Wing parked in the middle of the hangar. Poe was climbing down the ladder as she pushed through the slight crowd to get to him.
By the time Poe turned around, Lorelai was close enough for them to make eye contact. Lorelai slammed into him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Poe wrapped his arms around her waist and nestled his head into the crook of her neck. A few seconds of silence and stillness between them passed before she pulled back to look at him.
"Are you ok?" she asked, her hand holding the side of his face.
"Yeah, I'm fine. More importantly, are you?"
"I told you, the medicine sped up my recovery and-look, long story short I'm fine." She paused, hesitating. "How many do you think we lost?"
He sighed. "I don't know. But had we retreated, the First Order would have blown us and this ship up in no time. It had to be done."
Lorelai swallowed hard as the little voice in her head returned. It didn't really have to be done.
"You do realize Leia's pissed, right?" Lorelai said stepping back. "I mean, she's really, really pissed."
"It'll pass. What's she going to do, fire me?"
"Well, no but-."
Poe cut her off by cradling her face in his hands. "Then nothing." He smiled as he leaned in and gently pressed his lips against hers.
BB-8, still in the back of the X-Wing, beeped excitedly. Poe and Lorelai pulled apart upon hearing the droid.
"Finn…naked…leaking bag?" Poe asked as he turned his head up to the droid.
Lorelai scanned the hangar when she noticed someone standing out in the hallway. It was Finn, now awake and wearing only boxers underneath the flexpoly bacta suit.
She hit Poe's arm excitedly and pointed at Finn. Poe's eyes lit up as the two of them raced toward their friend. Lorelai threw her arms around Finn. "I'm so happy you're awake, bud!"
Finn hugged her tightly and she pulled back to kiss his cheek. She then let go to let Poe hug his friend. Poe then pulled back and his smile fell into a serious expression.
"Let's…uh…we need to get your dressed" Poe stammered as he grabbed Finn's arm. Lorelai grabbed Finn's other arm as they directed him toward the end of the hall. Poe turned to Finn. "You must have a thousand questions."
"Where's Rey?" Finn questioned.
The trio stopped. Poe and Lorelai exchanged looks before Lorelai said, "We'll explain while you're getting dressed, alright?"