A/N: I don't own anything but the story idea. Please do not read if this is in anyway triggering. PLEASE! I just wrote this because it distracts from my own depression and helps put emotions to use in a healthy outlet. Please no hate.

Rey hurries down the street, cursing everything she can think of, as the rain intensifies. Her, Poe and Finn just finished having dinner at Maz's Diner. They stayed until the place closed at ten o'clock and they reluctantly had to say goodnight. She turned down the ride home that Finn had offered, insisting that she'd be fine walking and that she rather enjoyed it anyway. How much she regrets that decision now. The clouds that looked far off and nonthreatening just a few hours ago have invaded, throwing everything they have at the small figure running down the street. She would absolutely love to call Finn to come back and pick her up but her phone is dead, not to mention she doesn't want to bother him. It's late and it's her own fault that she's out in this weather. She determines she'll just have to suffer through it, hopefully not for too long. She starts crossing the Starkiller, a closed off bridge that is a shortcut to her apartment building. On days when the weather isn't trying to drowned her, she really likes to sit and look out at the view. She feels like she can see the whole world from there and for a girl who thought her life would end in the claustrophobically small bedroom she was confined to, it makes her extremely content yet at the same time gives her a urge to run off and explore what lies beyond the horizon. Now as she crosses the abandoned bridge, she can make out a lone figure ahead of her. As she nears him, she see's he's standing atop the railing. With the wind and rain, it almost looks like he's just floating in the air, like those cartoons, about ready to fall. What she doesn't realize is that's pretty much what he is doing; hovering inches away from the drop that will easily end his life. The war raging inside his head is more intense than the storm raging around him; the decision between staying or going, stepping down or stepping off, life or death. He doesn't notice the girl walking quickly towards him. He's shaking, not from the chill of the rain or the biting wind wiping his rain-soaked hair against his tear stained face, but from the terror of the choice in front of him. He wants to take that small step that will end everything but he can't move. There is something in him still fighting to live, to survive. He cries harder and screams at his cowardly self, his voice drowned out by the rain and wind. Rey is now close enough to hear him and realizes what's going on. She closes the distance between them quickly, her heartbeat racing with the memories of her own past crashing into her mind, and hoping against hope she gets to him in time. She stands a few feet away from him, trying not to startle him.

"Hey." she shouts, making sure she's heard above the din of the storm. She's soaked through and freezing but couldn't care less at the moment. She's too worried about this stranger's well being. His head wips around at her exclamation. A crack of lightning strikes and illuminates his face. His eyes are shot from crying and full of despair, his mouth open slightly taking in short breathes. She realizes she knows him. Well not really but he's stopped in a few times to the second hand store she works at. She knows his name but other than that, all she knows about him is comes from the gossip that floats around her work place. She doesn't give it much attention though.

He looks at her shocked. He thinks maybe he's jumped and this is just a hallucination in the unconscious state between living and dead. He didn't think anyone would be out here on Starkiller this late, in this storm, especially her, but finds some small semblance of relief by the interruption.

"What are you doing?" he asks, still balancing precariously on the railing.

If it wasn't such a tense situation, she'd laugh at his question. He's the one literally inches away from death and he asks her what she's doing?

"I was going to ask you the same thing. Why don't you come down here and we can talk?" she holds her hand out to him, though with his towering height added to the three foot railing her hand is pretty pointless. He hesitates, glancing between her and where the swirling water beacons below.

"I feel it to, you know; the pull to the dark." she states, her voice cracking. "The voice of death sounds so sweet sometimes but it's a lying bastard."

His eyes find hers and he can tell she's crying, even in the rain. He's too familiar with the act. "You?" he questions, not willing to believe the energetic girl he's come to admire from a distance could be capable of the thoughts that constantly bombard him.

She nods, "Mmhmm. It does get better though, I promise."

He shakes his head, "No, not for me. I don't deserve it, anyway. This...this is better for everyone." He looks back down into the darkness below and turns his body away from Rey.

In a rush of clouded panic, she scurries up onto the railing next to him. "You listen to me now, Benjamin Solo. Your happiness is not dependent on other people, you hear me?" she grips his arm, just above his elbow. He looks at her confused, not because she's standing next to him or holding onto him but because she knows his name. Still he shakes his head at her.

"You don't understand. I'm a screw up. I don't deserve to be here. No one wants me here." he's crying harder now, the warmth of his tears contrasting the chill of the drops of rain they mix with.

"It's not about what you've done but what you're willing to do. Everyone makes mistakes but you can't let those define you. What defines you is how many times you get up after you're knocked down." her grip on his arm tightens and her tone takes on a whole new level of seriousness, "And don't you dare tell me that I don't understand because no one understands better than I do As of right now, I want you here but if you decide to jump then I'll be jumping right along with you." her words leave him speechless.

"No." he finds his voice. "No, you can't do that."

"And why not?" she glides her fingers down to find his and intertwines them.

"I can't let you hurt yourself because of me." he pulls his hand free of hers.

"Then why hurt yourself because of someone else?"

His thoughts rush to his mother. "It's not, though. It's me. It's my fault. I don't deserve her." he cries out. She was always so gently with him. He remembers the way she'd pull his hair away from his face when he was concentrating on something, the way she'd always give him a kiss on the forehead when he left to go anywhere, the way she'd snuggle him in his bed when he was younger and had nightmares. "All I do is disappoint her."

"That isn't for you to decide." she says, hardly above a whisper but it sounds like a shout to him. She doesn't know who he's talking about but she knows he obviously cares very deeply about them. He slumps down and slides off the railing onto the walkway of the bridge. Rey follows quickly behind. "My apartment isn't far. Why don't we go talk somewhere warmer?" And safer. she thinks.