Summary: Rey takes her new friend home. Just in time.

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Rey flew as low as she could without flooding the engines with sand, and clung to every spot of cover that she could find. The moon was waning, and the wind was high, so she had the darkness to hide her and the roar of a sandstorm to muffle the engines.

Her heart still leaped into her throat at every unexpected sound, or black flicker in the barren Waste.

But she made it to the Gorgon without being spotted.

Should be safe, she thought. The Gorgon was far enough below the surface to escape notice, and given the remote location, the odds of it being discovered accidently were slim. But still…

It's MINE.

Rage surged up inside her, fueled by adrenaline, fear. Her fatigue vanished. The world snapped into sharp, icy clarity. She away laughed the ache in her knees, the raw skin on her wrists, the bruises on her arms from hands and fists. A minor setback, that was all.

She hid the speeder under an outcropping of rock, covering the shiny, exposed exhaust pipes with a tarp the previous owner had stashed under the seat. She found the line she'd rigged up with ease, despite the dark, and danced down the rope, barely bothering to hold the wall for support.

The luminescent tape she'd left behind guided her to the central turbolift with ease. Rey travelled fast, unburdened by pack or climbing equipment, one thought in her mind; get him out.

Everything else was just details.

The main turbolift was still dead from the upper decks, but she was sure, somehow, that she'd be able to get it going from down below. She climbed down into the dark as quickly as she could, never missing a hand or foothold, efficient and sure, and all but ran to the med bay when she hit bottom. She rushed by the bodies without a second thought - the bilge, the death-soaked air was nothing, not compared to what was topside.

He was awake when she entered, had adjusted the cot so that he could sit up. He gripped the handrails and leaned towards her as she rummaged through the storage closet, his eyes narrowing as he took in her wide eyes and sharp fingers.

"What happened?"

Rey almost jumped out of her skin. His voice was much stronger than before, and full of concern. Deep. Personal.

The jagged rage binding her fear slipped. She sagged against the bulkhead, her vision blurring.

No…

Somehow she straightened. Her fingers closed on a thick cloth strap.

Cry when you're safe.

"I'll tell you later. We're getting out of here." Rey snatched up the straps, set them down next to the stretcher, and pulled her multitool out of the bag she'd left near the partially-disassembled stasis tube. She picked up the sledgehammer for good measure. "I'll be right back."

"Rey – "

"Thirty minutes," she heard herself say, and headed for the turbolift.

##########

She was done in twenty.

Well, mostly. The manual control she'd rigged up with scrap metal, her welding torch, and lots and lots of high-grade engine tape wouldn't hold for long. But it'd get them up a few decks to the working turbolift she'd found when she was exploring. I'll fix it for real later.

She stumbled across an Old Imperial top-grade chainfall in the storage room, close to where she'd found the welding torch and flux; a far better model than the one she'd bought from Vona.

Vona…

A cold hand closed over her heart.

She wouldn't…would she?

Rey had never seen those particular offworlders before. The regulars knew not to come after her – Plutt's goons saw to that – But sometimes beings with more greed than sense saw her stash, and only registered her as a skinny girl with a pretty face. Prey.

No…

But she couldn't dwell on it, not now. Rey stashed the chainfall, extra climbing rope, and a heavy blanket in the lift, and headed back for her friend.

##########

The hardest part was convincing him to take the sedative.

"I won't move," he bit out. His eyes cut her to the core. Fear spiked out of nowhere, burying cold claws into her nerves. For a moment, she wanted nothing more than to throw the sedative away, to just carry him on her back, in her arms, he'd be so light…

"You won't survive," she snapped instead. "I don't care how tired you are. You'll tense up. You'll fight me. You'll move. And I'll drop you." Her voice failed her. "Please. I've moved heavier things than you, and further than we have to go, but they were static, and…Please."

Please trust me.

Slowly, the cold faded. The man sagged against the mattress and shut his eyes, breathing deep.

"Just don't put me under," he said at last, his voice dropping to a whisper. Rey leaned closer, her hand slipping to the guard rail. "If I…If something happens, I want to be awake." She nodded, a lump welling up in her throat, and reached for his hand.

"I won't," she said. She pressed his fingers as gently as she could. The skin was softer than before, more responsive. She could still feel the bones, but they had blood and motion. He was coming alive. "This will just relax you a bit."

His fingers tightened under her, digging into the sheet. But he nodded.

"Do it."

She took his wrist, found a pulse, and prodded his neck carefully, looking for a vein, keeping the hypo injector in plain sight. He flinched as she finally pressed the cold metal to his skin. Rey took a deep breath.

"All right. On three. One…" She activated it. "Sorry…"

His pulse surged violently under her fingers. Rey cried out as his chest heaved, and he surged halfway off of the mattress, his other hand whipping out to grasp ineffectually at her tunic. She caught his hand and looped her arm around his shoulders, holding him steady.

It took longer than she'd expected. Rey had wrestled with the dosage for some time; He was so thin that the standard dose for an adult male would likely kill him, but his system was too well-developed for a child dose to be effective…Eventually she'd diluted it to half-strength, and prayed that it would be enough to keep him relaxed (very relaxed) but awake.

Several tense minutes later, the last of the tension bled out of his thin body. He slumped limply against the pillows, an odd little smile playing across his thin lips, humming a low jumble of notes.

Thank the Force… She'd thought for a moment that he was going to fight her after all.

Rey waited for his breath to go quiet, and his heart to settle. Then she tucked him into a hospital robe, oddly careful of his modesty, and lifted him onto the stretcher. She covered him with a sheet, tucking him in up to his shoulders, and strapped him in as securely as she could without binding his limbs. Just in case. He was light enough for her to cut him loose, and carry to safety, but only if she had to. She wouldn't be able to use the chainfall if she lost the stretcher…

Do. Not. Dwell. Focus on the now.

Rey smoothed down the edge of the sheet, adjusting it so that the edge wouldn't scrape his exposed skin any more that it had to. She'd chosen the softest, thickest sheet that she could find, but there wasn't much that she could do about the pinch of the straps.

He'll bruise, she thought. But she didn't have much of a choice.

"It'll be ok," she whispered, checking his pulse one last time. His eyes moved rapidly under thin eyelids.

Not asleep, just relaxed, she reminded herself. It will be fine.

Rey screwed up her courage, twisted the rage around her core, and wheeled him, into the turbolift.

##########

The next three hours were the most terrifying of Rey's life. As expected, the lift gave out on her 40 decks up. Only her years of experience navigating wrecks in worse shape than the Gorgon saved them from falling to their deaths. She smashed the auto-close mechanism with her sledgehammer as the deck rocked beneath her feet, braced the door open, and pushed the stretcher into the blacked-out corridor.

She was three yards from the lift when it dropped like a stone. She didn't even hear it hit bottom.

"And now, for Phase 2," she whispered, tossing a magnesium flare down the corridor. The man mumbled a low reply, a light crease furrowing his forehead. Rey smiled a little, despite the adrenaline rocketing through her blood. "Just what I knew you'd say…"

It was slow going. She hadn't mapped out the deck, but the schematic she'd dug out of the supply hold said that there was an emergency turbolift (with full manual capability) on the far side. Fortunately she'd found replacements for both her head and wrist lights, and had rigged up a makeshift red filter for both. Going off of the chronometer in the med bay, it was well past dawn. She could do without the shock to her vision when they hit daylight.

But they made it, albeit with a few bumps along the way. Like the others - and, as Rey was coming to suspect, the rest of the ship – the deck was free of both bodies and wreckage. Even the lighting panels looked intact.

If I can get the power running, I might even be able to get them working, she thought, possibilities playing through her mind as she wrenched open the lift doors. Ok, six decks…

##########

She was right about the sun. Heat and light blasted the corridor when Rey cracked open the escape hatch. The man gave a low cry and squeezed his eyes shut. His body twisted painfully as he struggled to escape the stretcher.

"It hurts – my eyes – "

Rey rushed over and covered them with her hands, shielding him from the sun with her body.

"I'm sorry!" she whispered, thinking fast. She hadn't thought it would be this bad; he trembled under her hands, his thin skin already reddening.He's going to burn…

"We'll wait a few hours," she said finally, after he'd calmed. She wheeled him further into the corridor, not quite out of the sun, but enough to let his eyes adjust slowly. "But we need to go during the day – being out at night is – we just don't want to be out at night."

No response. Not that she'd been expecting one.

##########

They waited until the sun glowed orange. Dusk. Rey took a deep breath and shook him awake.

"We're heading out," she murmured. "Just hold still for a little bit longer…" She dug a bottle of protective ointment she'd scavenged from the med bay, and smeared a generous layer on his exposed skin. He winced as she smoothed it across his prominent nose. "You'll thank me later."

"How old is this?" he asked hoarsely. "It smells like burned plastisteel."

"Um...It's not expired, I checked," said Rey, swallowing. It was very definitely not the time for that conversation.

Finally, he was covered to her satisfaction. She checked his pulse, breathing a sigh of relief at the slow, strong beat. As far as she could tell, he was still pretty out of it.

"I'll be right back," she said. "I need to set this up." She hefted the chainfall over her shoulder. "Um, I was going to do this before I came down here, but…"

He cocked an eyebrow, blue eyes suddenly sharp.

"What happened?" Rey winced.

"Long story. I'll tell you later…But we're wasting daylight." She snagged the rope she'd left behind, and climbed towards the sun.

##########

I was wrong. This is the hardest part.

Setting up the chainfall had gone smoothly. It was really just a series of pullies and a durasteel cable with a hook on the end – perfect for hauling large loads. And it was manually controlled – no power required. She tested it by shimmying down the cable, reasoning that if it could support her weight, it could hold the stretcher.

Everything was ready. She lashed the stretcher to the cable and hook with the extra straps and moved it to the edge of the hatch, making sure it stayed as stable and horizontal as possible.

Then it was the moment of truth.

"All right," she said. "I'm going to climb back up and – and –" She shivered. Why am I afraid? "I'm going to pull you up. With that." She pointed up at the chainfall, barely visible up on the edge of the drop. "It will be all right," she said, not sure if it was to herself or to him.

Rey barely caught the response, the smile.

"I know…"

You can do this.

Rey set her jaw, checked the straps one last time, and climbed back up.

##########

It worked. She turned the crank slowly, carefully, making sure the cable didn't get caught up in the pully chain. Incredulous hope grew in her breast, spreading rapidly when he was halfway up, and flamed high and wild when the edge of the stretcher appeared over the cliff side.

Then came a deafening crack. The ground rocked underneath her, cracks spidering along the edge of the cliff, slicing straight for the chainfall.

NO -

Rey cried out and threw herself on the crank. The cable jerked wildly, dropping the stretcher down several feet. Screaming now, Rey grabbed at the cable, oblivious to the metal ripping into her skin as three straps snapped, spilling the stretcher onto its side, its occupant flopping like a rag doll against the remaining restraints.

He was close enough to touch.

Somehow - somehow - he stayed on. Rey kicked the chainfall, snatched the laser cutter out of her tunic, and threw her full weight onto the cable. She ripped off the sheet, cut the remaining straps, and hauled him over the edge of the cliff, ignoring the pain in her hands, raw terror grinding in her heart. He lay limp, boneless, on the hard ground, blood trickling from a cut on his forehead, his face slack, dazed.

The laser cutter hit the ground, slippery with blood. She stared at her raw hands, at the puddle of red on the ground, the pale man trembling at her side. Rey pressed her face into the rock and sobbed.

##########

The ride home was a blur. When she could move again, Rey doused her hands in ethanol, scrubbed out the grit, and wrapped them with Bacta bandages. She strapped his trembling body into the seat next to her, and covered him with a heavy tarp.

Rey flew as low to the ground as she could, careful not to clog the engines. She stuck to the lengthening shadows, and watched the horizon, her senses lashing out at every strange shape; she knew that she wouldn't survive an ambush.

And it wasn't just her. Not anymore.