Poe worked it out. Rook was still stuck out on her last mission, and he wanted to pick Cora up. He had traded and bribed a few people in order to get these few hours away before his next mission. He landed the ship in the same spot he had been when he dropped Cora off, but as he walked down the ramp, he was met by an unfamiliar male. Poe pressed his hands together in greeting, happy he had learned a little bit to communicate. The male turned and walked toward the forest, stopping once to look back at Poe. This started a tightening in Poe's chest, and Poe realized he was supposed to follow.

They walked for about fifteen minutes. The path opened up to a large clearing, and huts made of varying materials like mud, straw, or trees were scattered in no particular order around the perimeter. The male led Poe into the woods a little further to what was obviously Cora's tent. As he approached he could smell a sick stench. The door flaps were open and he poked his head in. Cora was lying on the ground clutching some kind of dried gourd bowl. Her skin was so pale, and she looked at him with glazed eyes. He dropped to the ground next to her. "Oh Cora, what happened? Why didn't you send us a message?"

"Food poisoning I think. Two days ago. Wasn't so bad yesterday. Today you were on your way," she croaked out weakly. "Can't stop vomiting." As if to prove it, she leaned into the bowl and threw up.

Poe put his hand on her back until she finished, then moved the bowl away. He pulled her to a sitting position with considerable trouble as she moaned and cried about the movement. He needed to get her back to the ship. His chest constricted a little more with worry as he lifted her into his arms-she felt like a feather, she had lost so much fluid. He tried to keep her awake as he walked, asking about her gear, were things packed up, and so on. She didn't talk, but at least grunted and nodded in response. He decided to lay her on the floor of the lavatory room. He brought in a blanket and tried to get it under her body as best he could, then went back for her gear.

Jam-Jam was waiting for him at the tent. She wordlessly handed him a leaf with a purple tentacle on it, then motioned with her hand imitating an eating motion. Poe hoped he understood, but it seemed like she was showing him what had made Cora sick. He smiled at her and took the leaf, then packed up the tent and got back to the ship as fast as he could.

When he got the ship into light speed, he went to check on Cora. She was still on the floor where he left her. He tried to rouse her, but got no response. She must have fallen asleep or passed out from dehydration. He knew there were hydration bags on board, and she needed them badly. He looked at her clothes, and realized that not only would he have to get her shirtsleeves up somehow to get the needle into her vein, but that it was soaked with vomit. There was no way he was going to spend fifteen hours with that shirt. This was not going to be fun.

Poe went through her pack and found what would pass for a clean shirt, and had sleeves short enough to be able to attach the hydration bag to her vein in her arm. Now he had the uncomfortable task ahead of him. She was going to be mad later, but she needed the fluids. He awkwardly started pulling her shirt up her torso, then realized it was stuck to her skin. With blood. As he carefully peeled the fabric away, he began to see it was a pattern of metal bits embedded into her skin, much like he had seen on Jam-Jam. As he got the rest of the shirt off, he realized she had covered most of the new adornments herself with tape and gauze, which seemed to be healing just fine except for a few areas where the blood had seeped through and dried to the shirt.

He knew instantly what she had done. He had seen the same pattern on Jam-Jam when he met her. But the tribal female's adornment had been healed for obviously years. Cora's was only a few days, possibly only hours old. Small gold chips had been embedded into her skin in a spiral pattern, which started on her side at the bottom of her ribcage and finished with a small spiral below the collarbone. The entire area was purple with bruise, but it would probably be very beautiful when it healed. Poe swore under his breath and got up to get more supplies. He returned and washed off the dried blood, then reapplied her disinfecting cream. He stared at the mess, and muttered a few harsh words at her unconscious form. It wasn't that he objected to what she had done, but his own realization that his stomach was tight with worry, and he had the sudden need to protect her from pain. He pulled the shirt he had selected over her head, and wrapped the hydration bag around her arm, activating the self injector. Relieved he was done, he sat back against the wall and looked around. What a mess. Medical supplies and bodily fluid-soaked fabrics lay all over the room, and his insides felt torn apart with these new feelings of primal protection. He took a deep breath and picked it all up. With a glance back at Cora, he left the room to dispose of it all.

About an hour later, Poe could hear Cora dry heaving again. He ran into the lavatory to see she was still unconscious. He lifted her into his arms and tilted her forward to prevent her from choking, and began shaking her to wake her. She opened her eyes slightly and drew in a huge breath, then proceeded to throw up into the toilet again. This went on intermittently for the rest of the trip, and Poe eventually made himself comfortable on the floor and held her to his side so he could help her when she heaved, and could replace the fluid bag when it was empty. She stayed awake, but he wasn't sure how much she was really aware of. At one point, Cora looked at him with wide, unfocused eyes and mumbled, "You're so full of life. I can see it. I'm going to go before you." Poe held her tight against him. "No, you're not. You're just dehydrated and loopy." He felt a huge weight lifted when he heard the alarm from the cockpit go off, signaling their arrival to D'qar.

Two hours later he was in his flight suit, preparing his team for their practice mission. As he flipped the switches to power up his x-wing's engines, he took a moment to settle his nerves. Not having slept in twenty-four hours and dealing with Cora had made him a little shaky. He reminded himself that she was fine, just very dehydrated, and he would check on her when he came back in a few days.


I stiffly rolled out of bed. I was determined to take a shower today if it killed me. There was crust all over my side from the medicine they had glopped on over the piercings, and the rest of me hadn't been really clean in a while. I stepped under the water and felt the sting as it washed down my body. I really hoped I wouldn't regret my new body modifications. Participating in the rituals was the most exhilarating work I had ever done.

I managed to put clean clothes on and climbed back onto the bed. I was still utterly exhausted, but I hoped I would be able to get back to work in a day or so. It wasn't like I had a physically strenuous job, I could sit in a chair all day. As I was fading back into sleep, I heard a faint knock on my door. Somehow I pulled myself awake and made it to the door. I opened it to see Poe standing there. I stared at him for a moment of horror, then closed the door.

"Cora, please open the door, what's wrong?" he said.

"I'm horribly embarrassed," I said. "I am so sorry you had to deal with me like that, it must have been so disgusting. I can't look at you."

Poe turned the door handle and pushed it open. "Then let me look at you so I can see you're ok."

I gave in, mostly because I didn't want to be a jerk. "Come in. I'm ok." I turned and walked back to the bed. I just didn't have enough strength to keep standing there after all the activity I did earlier.

Poe followed and sat in a chair near the bed. I pushed my pillows so I could sit up and talk. "Tell me what happened," he said.

"Well, I had a great time, got lots of stuff recorded, and we all got along really good. They had a ritual celebration scheduled two nights before I was supposed to leave, which is why I wanted to go when I did. They asked me to participate, which was amazing." I looked at him sternly. "Just so we're clear, I did not join in their activities to connect with their gods, if you're thinking of our conversation before you dropped me off. But I did do the body piercings, or whatever you want to call it."

"From what I saw it was more mutilation, but I'm sure it looks better when it's healed."

I stared at him silently for a moment. "You saw?"

He looked down at the floor. "Yeah. Now it's my turn to be embarrassed. You were a mess and needed fluids so I had to do something." He rubbed one hand along the side of his face. "Tell me the rest."

"Hmm. We had a big feast, and I either ate something bad or incompatible with my human digestive tract. It started making me sick that night, but I didn't stop puking. I took all the meds I had with me but they didn't work. I knew someone was picking me up the next day, so I decided to just wait since getting a message to the base would be risky. I remember you carrying me back to the ship, but the next memory I have is waking up in the infirmary. Now you fill me in."

Poe looked at the floor again. "Please don't feel weird. Because I don't." He looked up and into my eyes. "You had thrown up all over yourself. I couldn't hold you over the toilet and not vomit myself, plus I needed to get the hydration bag attached to you, so I had to get you into cleaner clothes. There was so much blood when I got your shirt off, I had to take care of the piercings. I'm sorry if this makes you feel violated in some way, but I wasn't enjoying myself, I was mostly trying not to puke along with you."

I closed my eyes and put my hand over them. "You had to hold me over the toilet? Oh, that is worse than you seeing me naked. Naked and vomiting. No, I'm not feeling violated, well, maybe a little, but I'm back to being horribly embarrassed. I obviously didn't intend for all that to happen."

Poe reached over and grasped my hand. "I know. Just remember that I am glad it was me instead of a stranger that picked you up. It very nearly was, and I had to leave as soon as I got you back. I'm glad you're getting better." He stood up and let go of my hand. "Are we ok? I think you should get some sleep."

I tilted my head and gave him a lopsided smile. "I guess we're ok. Give me a while to digest all this and deal with it. Lock the door on your way out, if Rook ever comes back she has her own key."


AN: So... this chapter was a little awkward for me. The intent was to show the change in Poe's feelings from just liking Cora to realizing he really cares about her. After so many rewrites, this was what remained. But enough about this one-on to better chapters.