Rey had a habit of watching Finn sleep. He went through spells like this, where it didn't seem like he'd come out of it, and others where he could move around. The doctors had put him under again for another treatment and she didn't think he'd wake again for hours, at least. She thought they should put him in a bacta tank, but their bacta supplies were scarce. Rey was considering what she could do to scavenge some up.
Poe came in sometimes too. Rey liked him more and more as she got to know him. He seemed like a good man and his interest in Finn was obvious even to her. She was more than happy to assist - she very strongly cared about Finn, but not in the way he was crushing on her. At least that's what someone had told her. She'd just thought that Finn was very friendly, but looking back at it in hindsight…
It didn't really matter. She'd protect Finn with her life if it came to it.
"Care for a game?" Poe held up a sabacc deck. "Doc says he'll be out another six hours, they're trying something different for his back."
"Sure thing," Rey said. She moved a chair over for Poe to sit on, then guided a hovering tray between them for the cards.
"Why don't we deal Finn in?" Poe flashed her a grin.
Rey glanced at their friend, then nodded with a smile. "If you're sure. He'll probably clean us out."
It was actually difficult for Rey to sleep. Even though the room she'd been assigned was utilitarian, the bed was still too soft, and there was too much noise. The distant echo of machines and people. She was too used to being alone, just herself and the sound of the wind across the sand dunes.
And to make matters worse, her feet were freezing. She pulled her boots on and left the room, hoping maybe she could find a place that would be easier for her to sleep. If she could even wind herself down enough to do so.
The base was colder than she was used to. Nowhere near as bad as Starkiller Base had been, but still well below the threshold that she considered comfortable.
"Hey." Jessika's head popped out from a doorway, startling Rey. "Can't sleep?"
"No. Not really. Too loud and too cold." Rey's lips twitched and she looked down at herself and the way she'd wrapped her arms around herself.
"Want to come in?"
"Sure." Rey followed Jess back into the room. It was almost as small as hers, though a lot less spartan and more chaotic. Old Rebellion propaganda posters were taped haphazardly to one wall, mixed with paintings of what looked like Jedi. A dejarik table sat near a display. There was a bunk bed against another wall, and Rey looked at it closely. "Where's your bunk mate?"
Jess smiled, the expression almost haunted. "I don't have one. Not anymore. He was shot down over Starkiller Base."
Rey immediately felt bad for bringing it up. "I'm so sorry."
"He was a good man. Used to drive him nuts when I'd leave my boots in the wrong place. Or when anything was left in the wrong place." Jess's smile brightened. "Best prank I ever saw was when we reversed everything in this room. He walked in and screamed."
Laughing, Rey took a seat on the edge of the bottom bunk. "That sounds means."
"He dyed my flight suit fifteen different colors. it was revenge!"
"Ah, escalation." Rey had never been in a prank war. She'd read about one once, in a story she'd found on an old ship about a padawan who'd short-sheeted her masters bedding. She didn't know how true it was, but it had been a funny story.
"It ended up involving the General." Jess lifted her hand to her hair, ruffling her fingers through it. "She...uh there was an unfortunately timed incident involving buckets of soap."
Rey stared for a moment, then looked down at her feet as she tried to imagine General Organa covered in soap. "That couldn't have been good."
"We all got chewed out. Then a few days later we got some orders and scrambled right? Supposed to be a blue milk run, something easy. I thought it would just be an escort. Something like that."
Rey looked up again. "And then what?"
Looking up at the ceiling and trying to keep a straight face, Jess continued. "We jumped to the assigned coordinates. There was this freighter waiting for us. But it wasn't an escort. It was a pick up. We each had to dock with the freighter and take on a crate in the cockpit with us."
"What was in the crates?" Rey scooted over as Jess sat down next to her. It was almost too close, and she rubbed her hands on her knees.
"Milk," Jess replied, a grin spreading across her face. "The general sent us out on an actual, real live blue milk run."
Rey laughed. "I like her. That's so brilliant."
"It was. We drank nothing but that milk for weeks. That was probably the real punishment." Jess shook her head. She glanced over at Rey, started to move her hand over then changed her mind. "You look cold."
"Not used to this planet yet." She shrugged. "I'll adapt."
"We could pull the blanket off, I have some old holos I picked up a few years ago. Most of them are really bad. Sometimes a bunch of us will get together and watch them."
"Never seen a full, uncorrupted one. I was lucky to have things I could read." She kicked her boots off as Jess tugged a blanket loose. It took them a few moments to get settled, but Jess's heart nearly stopped when Rey leaned against her.
She turned her head to look more closely at Rey. The woman's eyes were closed, and her breathing had slowed. Jess chewed on her lip. If Rey was asleep, this was hardly the most comfortable position for either of them. She didn't have to worry about it though, because Rey peeked at her with one eye. "Ever since I left Jakku, I keep breaking all my rules for myself. I let myself get close to people. I think I might actually have friends. People I can trust. Every time I've trusted someone it's come back to bite me in the ass."
Jess's cheeks colored, and she didn't respond right away. Instead she rested her cheek on the top of Rey's hair as she sorted through a gamut of emotions before speaking. "I don't think you have anything to worry about here. Finn seems like the kind of person to fight anyone who'd hurt you, and the rest of us will help. Besides. if you're going to break the rules, might as well go all out, right?"
"I still can't get used to all of these people." Rey laughed. "And the way some of them look at me. Like I'm something more than I am. And I don't even know what I am."
"How do you think I look at you?" There were so many rumors that Jess didn't know how to separate truth from fiction. She just knew there was something about Rey that spoke to her, and that it went beyond the clear attraction she felt for the woman.
Rey pulled her head out from under Jess's cheek, and looked at her. She searched Jess's eyes. And maybe there was something else there, like how Finn had looked at her a few times. But where she only felt fond affection for him, she was starting to feel something else entirely from the way Jess looked at her.
"...I'm still trying to figure that out. But I don't think it's anything bad." She put her hand on Jessika's knee. "Thank you, for letting me fly. And for spending time with me."
"You don't have to thank me for that." A little voice in the back of Jess's mind prayed that Rey wouldn't move her hand, even as another little voice in the back of her mind was sounding alarms and a third little voice was inquiring as to the exact softness of Rey's lips.
But one of Rey's feet bumped into Jess's and she jumped a little. "Your feet are colder than a wampa's backside!"
"I grew up in the desert!" Rey exclaimed.
The two women looked at each other, then Jess started laughing. Rey's laugh quickly joined hers. Jess got up, untangling herself from the blanket and moving over to her foot locker. "What you need are some socks."
"I could just put my feet on yours, that would keep them warm."
"Yeah, and give me frost bite." Jess straightened, triumphantly holding up a pair of orange and white striped socks. They were by far the most ugly piece of clothing she owned, but they were comfortable.
Rey stared at them in disbelief before her face cracked into a beaming smile. "Those are the most horrendous things I've ever seen! I love them!"
"I'm going to run out of clothing at this rate." She tossed the socks at Rey's face, but Rey's hand snapped out and caught them before they could hit her.
"You could stop lending me things," Rey suggested. She pulled the socks on and wriggled her toes in them. They were warm and comfortable and she felt an odd little sensation in her stomach when she looked up at Jess again.
"The helmet was a gift," Jess reminded her. She sat back on the bed. "But the socks, I want those back as soon as we requisition you some."
"Thank you." Rey's tone was genuine, and affectionate. She took Jess's hand between her own. "I mean it, truly."
Rey woke early in the morning, tangled in blankets, her back aching and neck cricked from the position she'd been in. Jess's head head was pressed into her shoulder and her hand was warm on her ribs. Carefully, and with great reluctance, she disentangled herself from pilot and fabric, and pulled on her boots.
Jess stirred and groaned. "Ugh, what time is it?"
Rey looked at the chrono, it's display too bright for the hour. "Oh five hundred."
"Shit." Jess stumbled out of bed and started pulling a change of clothing out of her footlocker. "I've got twenty minutes to hit the sonic before I need to report for duty."
"Sorry." Rey moved out of the way to give her room. "If you like I can get you a cup of caf. You look like you need it."
"Great, thanks." Jess turned and smiled. "Last night was fun. We should do that again."
"I'd like that...but it might be awhile." Rey fiddled with her sleeve. "I'm leaving this afternoon."
"...Oh." Jess hugged her clothing to her chest, trying to ignore the vice that had suddenly tightened there. She was just starting to get to know Rey, and she was leaving?
Despite the fact that she was leaving her friend (leaving almost all of the friends she'd ever made in her entire life), Rey couldn't help but grin. "I'm going to find Luke Skywalker." She grabbed Jess by the shoulders, squeezing tightly and word by word she lit up. "I'm going to find him, and I'm going to train, and I'm going to bring him back."
"You absolutely have to introduce us," Jess said, torn between sadness that Rey was leaving, and elation for her. "I'm kind of a big fan."
"I've noticed." Rey winked at her, and then she hugged Jess. Jess dropped her clothes to hug back, with no intention of letting go until she had to.
"Don't you need to use the sonic?" Rey whispered.
"It's okay, I'll just stink for today. … Do you want me to let go."
Rey closed her eyes. "No. Not yet."
The rest of Jessika's day went by in a blur. She'd done fuel inspection duty a hundred times before and it was as mind numbing now as it was each and every time. Three times in a hundred she'd found a problem or discrepancy and today wasn't one of those times.
A bustle of activity drew her out of the hangar, and she followed the crowd towards where the Millennium Falcon sat. She pushed her way through the crowd, and watched as Rey walked towards the ship. The other woman turned, and their eyes met. Rey smiled at her, nervous and excited, before she strode up the ramp, destined for the unknown.
The Falcon was long gone before Jess turned around. She walked slowly through the base until she reached the infirmary. Finn lay, still under from his last treatment. She hadn't been the first person with this idea. Poe sat nearby, shuffling a deck of cards. "Keeping an eye on him?"
"Until she gets back," Poe replied. But the way he looked at Finn told Jess all she needed to know about his motivations.
"Well someone needs to keep an eye on him for her," she said. "It might as well be us."
Poe grinned at her, then started to deal out the cards. "So, you wanna play for credits, clothing, or duty?"
"Loser has to tell Finn she's gone."
He shook his head. "I know him better. Let me."
"Fine. But I'm not betting any clothing." Jess shrugged, but then something ridiculous hit her. "My socks. She still has my socks."