BB-8 whirred and beeped, the sound bleating into Poe's headset as Black One approached the gently glowing blue and green orb of D'Qar. Poe wondered just how many more times he'd make the same approach. He knew that General Leia was in communication with allies on Corescant, Naboo, Mon Cala, and Corellia; whether she was looking for a new base of operations or planning something else entirely was up in the air. None of them expected an instant retaliatory attack from the First Order, for it was surely in frantic disarray after the pounding it'd taken. But then, the Resistance and the Rebellion before it hadn't survived by laying back and hoping their enemies were catching their breath. Sooner or later, they would have to move. He would miss D'Qar and it's shadowy halo of asteroids; the lush, towering forests that ringed the base round had always reminded him of his childhood home on Yavin IV. He tried to etch the vision of it, peaceful, verdant, into his mind's eye.

It was good to be flying, even if it was only to release a few sentinel probes at the edge of the system. After days of sitting on his hands, ducking praise, and tinkering needlessly on his ship, General Leia had finally called him in. The mission was simple and pragmatic: Release all the probe and sentinel droids and long distance scanners the base owned. They would know in a matter of seconds if a ship at light speed so much as sneezed the system. The movement of flight, of being utterly in-tune with his ship also kept him from thinking about Finn.

BB-8's voice sounded again and Poe snapped out of his reverie. "Sorry, what?"

From it's perch directly behind the cockpit, BB-8 tossed it's head back in a droid version of an eye roll and impatiently repeated it's query. [It looks like a severe weather system is moving towards base from the east at 20 knots. I see a lot of electronic discharge. Do you want to alter our approach vector?]

"Oh, don't worry—we'll miss that by a mile. I'll just skim it and slip right under the radar." Poe grinned to himself. It was always a thrill to ride the top of a big storm, feeling the ship bucking around him on the edge of control. BB-8 groaned.

[Last time you did that the static knocked out half my sensors. Remember how badly Controller Dand yelled at you? Do you really want to risk that again?]

"Okay…okay," He sighed. "Get me the new coordinates."

[Already on your display.]

Poe glanced at the readout and adjusted course, swinging effortlessly round to approach the base from the west. The planet grew, swelling before him until it filled the canopy. He braced for the lurching pull of atmosphere; it tugged forcefully at the ship, bathing it in a sudden fiery-orange light, and he cut to sublight engines with reflexes even the droid admired. The light dimmed as the orange wash faded and the ship dropped speed. BB-8 had been right; the approaching storm drifted raggedly in from the east, shrouding the sun in dark tatters. Even at such a distance, Poe could make out small flashes of lightening arcing jaggedly between steely mounds of cloud.

As he dropped altitude, a wall of wind slammed into the ship, howling past the canopy and rattling Poe to his bones. "Yeesh!" He bit out as he steeled every muscle in his body against the stick to keep the ship level. "You said 'storm', not 'hurricane'." Even so, adrenaline coursed hotly through him and he grinned at the slight challenge.

A nervous voice crackled through his headset, organic this time. "Colonel Dameron, good—we were just about to comm you. We need you grounded in the next ten minutes."

"Don't worry—I'll be there in two. BB-8 already warned me about the storm."

"Yes sir." The runway tech confirmed.

Black One came dodging in fast, appearing almost without warning out of the darkening sky. He slowed hard over the low green mounds and short duracreet runway. Poe angled the ship over his usual landing bay, tripodal landing struts already extended, and settled easily into place. A small knot of runway techs stood huddled together against the rising wind, ready to hurriedly batten down, tow, and charge the ship. The canopy levered open and the lashing of the wind threatened to knock him bodily out of his seat. Gripping the support bars solidly, Poe climbed down to the runway and passed his helmet to a reaching Tarsunt aide. Quickly, he shrugged out of his life-support vest and unlatched the buckles of his flapping flight harness, passing these to the same aide.

He tried to shout his thanks but the wind shoved his voice back into his throat. Followed by a low roll of thunder, he turned and dashed for the sheltering hanger bay. BB-8 hadn't bothered waiting for him; the droid was freakishly afraid of rain and thunder. He spied it cowering behind a box of crates near the long, low main entry.

"Hey…come on, buddy. Let's get further inside, huh?" He knelt down, placing a hand on the top of the droid's head.

A sharp, ear-splitting crack of thunder rattled man and droid alike. BB-8 took off as if it'd been kicked, pelting full-tilt for the mess hall. Poe followed after it, trying not to laugh. He can handle getting shot at and bombs going off all around, but not a thunderstorm. The tech crew entered, towing the black and orange x-wing behind them. The blast doors closed and the howl of the wind was cut off. Poe breathed a sigh of relief that they'd all made it inside without getting fried. He carried on after BB-8 and caught the popping, sputtering buzz of welding. Circling round the nearest X-wing he spied Snap lying flat out on his back, a welding mask pulled over his face as he tacked a seam near the boot of one of his ship's landing struts.

"Hey Snap. Have a wire come loose?" He asked, averting his eyes from the sun-bright glow of the torch.

Snap halted, cutting the torch and levering his mask upwards. He wiped a grimy hand over his face. "Yeah, I think some shrapnel or something nicked a wire back on Starkiller. Didn't have anything better to do, so I figured I'd take a look." He sat up, studying Poe. "Man, you look like your canopy got blown off coming in. Is it bad out there?"

"Yeah, and it looks like it's gonna get worse. If we don't lose power from this I'll be surprised."

As he said it, the hangar went black except for the softly glowing lights of a few droids. It became eerily silent without the constant hum of heating and cooling units and energy conduits.

"You were saying?" Snap said dryly. He made to stand, cracked his head on the wing of his ship and cursed.

"I'm prophetic!" Poe laughed into the darkness. Snap's groping hand smacked into his face. "Hey!"

"Sorry, that totally wasn't on purpose." Poe reached out to steady him and to keep him from hitting him again. They stood silently, Poe straining his ears expectantly. A subterranean grinding rattled through their feet as the Resistance's army of generators kicked on; like everything else at base, they were either obsolete castoffs or cobbled together and rather suspect. The noise was horrible and Poe grimaced.

"Wonder how long this'll last?" Snap shouted as the lights flickered back on.

"Dunno. Hope it's not for very long. I wouldn't trust some of those old things to run an oven, much less the medbay." His thoughts jumped to Finn. If he hadn't been awake, surely the cut in power and the noise of the generators had woken him. Would he be nervous, sitting there alone, wondering what was going on? Might he misinterpret the storm for an attack? "Hey, I'm gonna go check on Finn." He half yelled to Snap who gave him the thumbs up and left for the mess hall with his fingers in his ears.

He found medbay in in some disarray; aides rebooting life-support systems that had crashed, dashing back and forth with their arms full of equipment. He saw Kalonia striding hurriedly to bedsides, counseling and inspecting her patients. He could see Finn, awake, half propped up on an elbow as he stared out at the chaos. Poe darted over to him, and Finn's face lit up as he saw him.

"Poe!" He said. "What's going on out there? The lights cut out. It's not an attack is it?"

"Don't worry, it's just a storm. The generators have kicked on, so we're okay for now." Poe took up his usual position at his bedside. Heat crept up his face as he looked at Finn, a tight constriction sweeping through his chest. Did he remember the kiss? He hoped he did. He hoped he didn't. "How're you feeling? You were pretty out of it yesterday." He led.

"I feel a lot better. I can sit up now—and Kalonia says I'll be able to leave tomorrow. But she doesn't want me to try walking, not for another week." He frowned, eyes following the path of a tech carrying what looked to be half a mile of tubing.

"That's good though, you'll get to get out of here. I always hated being stuck down here."

"You've been hurt enough to have to stay?" The concern in his voice was touching and Poe tried to ignore it.

"A few times. She made me stay the night after I got back from Jakku. Ran me through every neurological scan in the book." He didn't add that this was because Kylo Ren had mentally tortured him.

"That is something I wanted to ask you about. You said you got thrown from the crash. How'd you manage to get back here?"

Poe settled in to his seat, grinning. He launched into the story of his trek through the scorching desert, of being picked up by a Blarina trader whom he'd subsequently saved, through some inspired flying, from a gang of thieves. After that, the grateful Blarina had given him a ride to the nearest town where he had contacted the resistance for a lift. "Let me tell you, Kalonia was not pleased. Said I was 'deliriously dehydrated', like I'd done it on purpose."

"I know that feeling. I ended up drinking out of an animal's trough, I got so thirsty." Finn shuddered, recalling the horrid, sour taste. Then he found himself grinning. "I still can't believe we got off the Finalizer. I wish I could've seen Phasma's reaction."

"Phasma?"

"Yeah, I was transferred to her squadron just a month before we busted out. She's huge—towered over me, and she had this really glossy chrome armor. Unmistakable."

"I remember seeing her in Tuanul village!" Poe shook his head. "Nasty piece of work."

"Tell me about it. Solo and I, we took care of her though." Finn grinned devilishly. "We left her in a trash compactor on Starkiller base." He looked dreamily up through the ceiling, as if he could picture bits of chrome plated armor drifting through space. "Doubt she made it off."

"Nice." Poe smiled. "Crushed into a tin can and then blown up. You don't do anything half-assed, do you?"

"Well, so far I've managed to fail at getting killed."

"Came pretty close though." Poe arched a brow. "When I saw Chewbacca carrying you off the Falcon I thought for sure you were dead." He reached out and placed his hand on Finn's arm. "I'm glad I was wrong."

A small smile tugged at Finn's lips and Poe remembered the feel of them, the soft way they'd parted beneath his mouth. Poe swallowed and withdrew his hand. "So, you must be getting pretty bored down here, right?"

"Really bored. Do you have anywhere you have to be? Because it's nice to talk. Dr. Kalonia chats with me every now and then, and so do some of her aides…but I don't really know them, and they don't have a lot of time, you know?"

I'm sure some of them would like to do more than talk with you. Poe had caught one aide, a slim young Zabrak, eying Finn yesterday. It made him feel protective and angry.

"Yeah," He shrugged, "we're on low power mode until the storm passes and we get back online. I've got plenty of time."

"Good!"

Poe walked back to his quarter's hours later. As a commander and now a Colonel, he was lucky enough to have a private room. It was small, a mere 10 by 10 box with a refresher unit crammed behind the rooms one partitioning wall, but he could at least be mercifully alone—unless he chose not to be. He'd had a string of lovers over his years in the Republic and Resistance. His longest relationship had lasted for many years, but had ended horribly. As the war had heightened and he had been called on more frequent and more dangerous missions, he'd taken to one night stands. There had been many, some of which he was not particularly proud of. But it was easier. There was no risk of getting hurt, no attachments. For a long while he'd convinced himself that a quick fuck was enough. He wondered who he was kidding; though he kept his body satisfied, the perfunctory physicality itself had long worn thin.

And now he found his mind full of Finn. Innocent, guileless Finn. What the hell are you thinking, Dameron? He sighed, undressing and sitting heavily on the edge of his bed. You don't even know if he likes men. Maybe he doesn't even know. And if he was actually into you, where would you take it? Who knows where we'll be stationed—or if he'll even want to join the Resistance. This is my life. Staying away for weeks at a time, almost dying, repeat. Why would he want in on that?

Of course…the First Order will have it out for him like no one else. He'll have to keep on the move too, and who better to do that with than someone who's fighting the same enemy? Maybe it could work? Or...maybe I would lose him.

He rubbed his eyes, exhausted to his core. Even so, arousal flickered through him as Finn's lips swam through his mind, his earnest smile, his broad back. He was glad of BB-8's absence as he took his cock in his hand; not that the droid hadn't caught him in far more intimate acts. For a moment he thought of finding someone to fuck him—it would be easy to do; he was attractive, popular, and his predilection for one-night-stands well known. He could probably have someone in his room in under ten minutes. There was that tech, Tal Amir, down in astro-repair that had given him the familiar once-over that plainly promised free sex if he wanted it. But there was only one person he wanted right now. He pictured Finn as he pleasured himself. He imagined the other man stretching him open, filling him, and he could feel the release building. Poe came hard, body clenching emptily, needily, and surging hot on the heels of his winding pleasure was cold disappointment. He lay back, panting and deeply unsatisfied. Goddammit. He cleaned himself off and rolled onto his side. It took a long time for him to fall asleep.

The power kicked over from the generators sometime in the early morning. Poe had almost gotten used to the lulling drone of the generators and their sudden silence woke him out of a heavy sleep. The room was illuminated by a soft blue glow that showed BB-8 resting in his charging station. Poe stood, having to piss now that he was awake, and trudged blearily into the refresher unit. He caught a look at himself in the mirror as he shambled past. He snorted a laugh at his tired, bedraggled appearance as he pissed. He hadn't shaved in days and his hair was a mess. Finished, he washed his hands and rubbed at his eyes. He'd just fallen back into bed and gotten comfortable when the comm on the bedside table went off.

With a groan he reached out and fumbled blindly for it. "Yeah, Poe here," He muttered thickly.

"Colonel, it's Lenkai in medbay," Poe sat up immediately, sleep dropping from him like bombs from a fighter. Her voice was strained, urgent, "we've had something of an incident. Would you be able to come down here?"

Poe was already up and moving, pulling on his pants and shirt while juggling the comm from one ear to the other. His heart was hammering. Had Finn somehow taken a turn for the worst? BB-8 had woken, rolling from it's charging port and peering up at him in confusion. "I'm already on my way. What's going on?" He pressed open the door and sped down the half-dark hallway, BB-8 at his heels. The droids superior hearing allowed it to easily eavesdrop.

"It's Finn. He began screaming in his sleep so one of our nurse's assistants went to wake him. He reacted violently." Poe hurriedly keyed a lift and stepped inside the claustrophobic box. He cursed it's slow, rattling descent.

"We gave him a mild sedative, but he is very distressed. You're the only person we know of that's close to him—we were hoping you could help calm him."

"Of course," Poe breathed as the lift's doors slowly slid open. "I'll be there in just a few seconds." He thumbed off the comm as he hurried down another hallway and down the short flight of stairs that led to medbay. He saw three assistants keeping nervously back from Finn's bed. Kalonia's head nurse, Lenkai, approached him and escorted Poe towards Finn. "He broke Soun's arm." She stated.

Finn was sitting upright, his face in his hands and breathing heavily. He was drenched in sweat. Poe swallowed as he walked softly, slowly up to him.

"Hey, buddy…" He soothed.

Finn jerked at the sound of his voice as if he'd been hit. Poe was aware that Finn was crying, his shoulder's heaving. Pity stabbed though Poe like a knife. He knew what this was—he'd seen it before, and experienced it himself.

"Hey, it's me, Finn. It's Poe. It's okay…you're safe."

Finn shuddered and brought his tear-streaked face out of his hands. His face was tortured, confused. "Poe?" he gasped, staring up at Poe as if doubting he was real.

Poe nodded, his brows drawn. He wanted nothing more than to take Finn in his arms and hold him, sooth him until his shaking stopped. But he knew better than to touch him right now, when his hold on reality was so fractured.

"You know where you are?"

Finn looked around the room, as if seeing for the first time the frightened assistants, the gently beeping displays, and the other beds full of staring patients. His breathing began to slow. "The…the resistance? Medbay." His dark eyes darted back to Poe, holding him as if he were the only real thing in the room, the one person in the galaxy that bridged his horrifying past and unsure future.

Poe reached slowly, hesitantly for him. Finn tensed at the movement but didn't lash out as he had when the nameless ghost had tried to hold him down. Poe took his shaking hand gently, rubbing and caressing his knuckles and fingers. "That's right. You're in medbay, Finn. The doctors won't let anything hurt you. I won't let anything hurt you."

Finn swallowed, his eyes closing heavily, weighted with exhaustion and old horrors. Slowly he came back to himself. "I'm sorry," he croaked.

Poe looked over his shoulder at the hovering assistants and nodded. Relieved, they moved away to other duties, though they glanced back often.

"Was it about the First Order?" Poe asked tiredly, hooking a foot around the leg of his usual chair and dragging it closer. He sat down, keeping his hand on Finn's.

Finn nodded mutely, unable to look at Poe. "I saw things…it was…it was so real. They had me again." He drew his free hand over his eyes, wiping away tears. Poe said nothing. He simply held his hand and tried to force all of his concern and unsaid feelings into his touch. "I dreamed I was back in my barracks…but there were other people there too, all g-gathered together in a circle, like the villagers were on Jakku. But it wasn't the villagers. It was you." He met Poe's eyes then and looked away hurriedly. "It was you, and Rey, Solo, Chewbacca…everyone I care about. They kept telling me to kill you all. I wouldn't and they...hurt me." Finn's hand twitched in Poe's, clammy with sweat.

"But I wouldn't, no matter what they did. And then he came. Kylo Ren. He was torturing you all and when he was done he made the other troopers sh-shoot you and he made me watch. And then they held me down—I think—I think that's when I woke up. The nurses were dressed in white—I thought they…"

"You thought they were Stormtroopers." Poe finished for him.

Finn nodded, looking as lost and ashamed as a little child. "Did I…hurt anyone?"

"Not badly." Poe said and then immediately wished that he'd lied as Finn's face crumpled.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, again digging the knuckles of his free hand into his eyes.

Poe couldn't stand it any longer. He released Finn's hand, sat on the edge of his bed and drew him against his chest, holding him tenderly. Finn's arms hesitantly wrapped around him, his face buried in Poe's neck. Poe could feel hot tears running down his skin and he rubbed between Finn's shoulders the way his mother used to do for him when he'd been scared.

"It's alright to cry, Finn," Poe whispered, and he felt Finn give wholly against him, his hands tight on his back. It felt easy to hold him, to comfort him and to have Finn's hands on him. A gentle and deep connection that had been missing from his life for too long, and entirely absent from Finn's. He held him until his shaking stopped and when Finn finally pulled away the ex-trooper looked like he could sleep for years. "I'll stay here tonight, okay?"

"Okay," Finn murmured as he sank slowly back on his bed.

Poe pulled the crumpled white blanket up to Finn's chest and sat back down. "I'll be right here." He took Finn's hand again and squeezed reassuringly.

Finn woke once, a few hours later. He felt something thick against his hand and looked down to see Poe's fingers interlaced with his. The pilot had fallen asleep, his head resting softly on his bent arm and his dark hair spilling on to the blanket. Finn's throat worked, unable to speak through gratitude so profound it threatened to make him cry. And there was something more than gratitude. It felt good to have Poe here, with him, his hand in his. The emotion was very nearly foreign and he lacked the vocabulary to express it even to himself. He just knew he didn't want Poe to leave. Not now, not ever. He sat up slightly, careful not to wake Poe, and reached out his right hand. He moved with comical slowness, as if afraid of what might happen, of what he might realize, if he touched Poe right now while the pilot was vulnerable and while his own emotions were so raw. Gently he placed the palm of his hand on Poe's forehead and then stroked back through his tousled hair. He'd done this to himself when he'd had headaches, and he'd always found the motion soothing.

Poe didn't wake, though he sighed. The exhalation was hardly audible, but Finn caught it and grinned to himself in the darkness. He lay back down, squeezed Poe's hand, and then willed himself to sleep.

*Pats Finn on the head and gives him a cookie* - Bluestem