A/N: Man, I suck at crossposting... Anyway! I wrote this for Femslash February. There are so many cute and well-written fics for this ship already that I was almost embarrassed to try myself, haha. Still, I think this came out okay. I haven't read most of the expanded materials, so let me know if the characterization seems off. I'm not as well-versed in the Star Wars lore (Star Lore?) in general as I'd like, really, so any critique in that regard would be helpful. Enjoy!
.
Jess turns a corner too quickly, nearly running into someone. That someone turns out to be Rey, the name on everyone's lips. Rey sidesteps before they can collide, blinking a fog out of her eyes and offering a smile that kicks Jess in the backs of her knees.
She opens her mouth to apologize and instead says, "You're going to find Luke Skywalker."
Rey looks taken aback, her smile slipping, and Jess cringes.
"No, I'm Jessika. No, I mean I'm sorry– you flew the Millennium Falcon!" Horror creeps up from her toes at the words. "No, that's not– just, I thought–" that the old junk heap ran on Han Solo's stubbornness as much as on fuel, but Jess at least manages to trap those words behind her teeth. Han is a hush topic right now for many of them, and Jess has heard whispers of what he'd been to Rey in the short time they'd known each other. She presses her hands over her face and groans, "I am so sorry."
A laugh surprises her; she tears her eyes from her palms in time to see that Rey looks surprised too. It's a good look on her, Jess decides, this shade of surprised. Rey looks as though she's discovered some new delight– or maybe like she's found it again. That Jess's fumbling had put that look on her face eases the shame.
"It's alright," Rey says. She gives a shake that Jess almost misses, the tips of her lips quirk almost shyly and she says, "It's fine, really, I know exactly how you feel."
Jess, who feels her heart beating behind her eyes, doubts that.
"You're the first person who's actually said that to me," Rey tells her, staring over Jess's shoulder at nothing– or maybe at something, Force-sensitive as she is. "That I'm going to find Luke," she clarifies, the words rolling slow off her tongue like she's tasting them. "It's like everyone knows and expects it, but no one has said it just like that, even General Organa."
"Will you be leaving soon?" Jess asks; she worries as the words come that they might be too eager, but finds them tempered by an unexpected flash of disappointment. It occurs to her that may not necessarily be any better.
"I will be leaving soon," Rey murmurs, less to Jess and more back over her own shoulder– toward the medical bay, Jess realizes. She sounds like she's apologizing when she says, "It's best I don't put it off too long."
"He'll understand," Jess blurts out. She wants to kick herself the moment the words are out, ringing a hollow reassurance about a man she's never met and hardly seen. "I mean, after what he did for you and for all of us, I'm sure he'll understand."
"I know he will," Rey says; there's something in the way she says it, almost a reassurance in itself, that makes Jess believe her immediately. "That doesn't make it any easier to leave him like this."
The way Rey talks about Finn, the way she looks down the hall as though he's standing there, runs like cold fingers over Jess's scalp. She's quick to run a hand through her hair, making a mess of her already messy ponytail, chasing the feeling away as best she can. What sort of thing is that to feel, she scolds herself, when she's only just met Rey and after what Rey and Finn have been through together?
Forcing a smile, just selfish enough to clap a hand on Rey's shoulder in reassurance, Jess says, "Then I guess you should hurry back to him."
The glance Rey casts at Jess's hand on her shoulder is enough to make Jess worry that she's overstepped. Before she can break contact and apologize again, Rey's own hand comes up and over top of hers, her touch light but firm. She's looking at Jess very closely; Jess doesn't know what she's looking for, never mind what she sees.
"I'll hurry back," Rey says, the words seeming unconvinced of their welcome despite the sure tone in which Rey speaks them. "To him and to everyone else."
She looks Jess straight in eye, almost challenging. Jess's throat catches and she hates herself a little for having to break eye contact and cough it clear. When she looks back again, she finds Rey smiling a shy sort of smile at her and hastens to clear her throat before it can close up again.
"I–"
"Rey," comes the voice of General Organa. The woman herself strides towards then down the hall. Her eyes pass over their hands still joined on Rey's shoulder but she doesn't so much as quirk a brow. "If you have a moment, we have some things to discuss."
As politely as it's worded, it's clearly more order than invitation.
"Of course," Rey says. She squeezes Jess's hand before letting go and turning to meet General Organa. "I'm free now."
The General's eyes flick Jess's way and back to Rey so quickly it could almost be a trick of the light; the smile teasing the corners of her mouth is small enough to be the same. There's something like an apology in her eyes when she nods and gestures Rey toward her office, then starts off ahead with long steps.
Rey clasps a hand on Jess's shoulder for one blessed moment, says, "It was good to meet you, Jessika. I hope I'll see you when I get back."
It's a statement with many layers, which Jess chooses to take at its face. She nods more enthusiastically than is called for and says, "We should get together when you get back."
Rey's lips twitch; Jess gets the feeling she's expecting another apology or some more sputtering, but Jess said exactly what she wanted to say and stands by it now. She adds, "There's not much to do around here but I can take you up for a flight if you want."
There really isn't much to do, but Jess would be lying if she said she didn't suggest flying because it was a way they could get to know each other in intimate company and a way she could show off rolled into one package.
"That would be fun," Rey agrees. Her smile turns sly at the edges and sets a spark of mischief in her eyes. "Maybe I can take you up in return."
The implication freezes the breath in Jess's lungs. It's all she can do to gasp, "Wait, really–" before Rey has turned to catch up with the General. Jess stands staring after her for longer than she'd care to admit before remembering to go back on her way. She spends the rest of the day on her feet but feeling as though she's among the stars already.
