Chapter 28

"It's starting to feel like every time I turn around, you're here sabotaging my X-wing." Ana couldn't help herself and laughed at the overly affronted comment. Turning to see Poe's wide smirk beaming at her, she simply shrugged, depositing her harris wrench and snatching up a rag from the nearby rack to wipe the worst of the grime off her hands.

"Well, you know…I've gotta make sure they do it right. The explosion's gotta be big or you won't be satisfied, after all," she said with a wide grin, her initial attempt at deadpan failing miserably. Poe let out a loud laugh before turning his attention to where Ana, his regular mechanic Orson and another base tech had been working on fitting his black X-wing with the newest of the prototype accelerator pods. He spared her a questioning but deeply amused glance.

"So this is what obeying doctor's orders looks like, eh, Adyé?" She scoffed at his off-handed remark. "Aren't you supposed to be hands off right now? This doesn't look much like supervising," he said with a laugh, gesturing to her grime-covered fingers. She wiggled her fingers toward his face, causing him to flinch back to avoid getting a black smear on his cheek.

"Since when have you known me to sit back, Hotshot," she countered, purposefully raising her voice as she continued, casting a glance back toward the fighter. "I wasn't about to let them have all the fun without me. Acceleration pods are tricky things, especially untested ones like this one. Someone has to make sure it's done right." Off beneath the engine manifolds, Orson barked out a laugh of his own at Ana's friendly taunt and flashed her a rude hand gesture. Ana grinned even as Poe chuckled, stepping forward to confer with the mechanic for a moment.

"So you're still technically grounded, then," he asked once he'd stepped back to where Ana stood behind his fighter, her practiced eye watching the last steps of the process closely. Ana let out an impatient sigh before she could help herself.

"I'm fine," she said demonstrating with a wide motion of her healing arm and collarbone; there was barely even an ache anymore, "but Kalonia won't clear me to fly. Not after catching wind that I was working on the Falcon earlier, after…" she faltered, swallowing thickly in an attempt to restore her voice. But Poe seemed to hear what she hadn't said regardless, reaching out to squeeze her uninjured shoulder gently. Glancing up, though she saw the shadow of intrigue in his eyes, he said nothing. He just leveled her with a silent, sympathetic look.

It was amazing how that one look could say so much. That he finally understood the 'whys' about her and that, now that he knew, he knew better when to give her her space. And that right now, even though he could tell she was doing better, he could also tell that she still needed that space. Some time. That she still had a little more work to do to get her equilibrium back. She was more grateful than she could say for that. She returned his look with a weak smile of her own, his small gesture nevertheless doing wonders to help her wrestle the conflicting emotions in her chest back under control.

"Anyway," she continued after a moment, putting extra effort into making herself sound unaffected by the resurgence of her unstable emotions, "she's barred me from anything strenuous on pain of sedation." Poe winced in sympathy. She knew he knew what that was like. She wouldn't be surprised if he'd been threatened with the same thing after his Jakku adventure. But then he levelled her with a dubious look.

"Because this isn't strenuous at all," he said dryly, gesturing toward the work being done on his X-wing.

Ana simply shrugged, her tone frank. "I haven't really done much of anything. They've been doing all the heavy lifting," she said with an absent gesture toward Orson and the other tech.

"Hasn't stopped her from poking her nose in to take over connecting the syncros," Orson piped up from below the pod, a wicked grin on his face.

"Or the hooking up the power actuation manifolds," Drey, the other mechanic lending a hand added cheerfully from up on top of the fighter. And that was followed by a cheeky, warbling string of beeps and whistles from BB-8, who poked his head out of his socket to provide his own addition to the list. Poe crossed his arms, looking to Ana expectantly.

"Oh? The ignition regulation circuits too?" Ana's nose wrinkled and she shot the pair of mechanics a rude gesture of her own that had Poe laughing again. Grumbling to herself, she stepped forward, meaning to get back to work on the modification, only for Poe to latch onto her arm and start tugging her away.

"Okay, Adyé, let's get you away from temptation." Ana huffed irritably at his playfully chiding tone, putting on an exaggerated scowl but reluctantly allowed him to guide her away from the black X-wing regardless.

They swung back by the hanger berms, pausing near the one Ana's fighter used to berth in so Ana could shuck her mechanic's jumpsuit and slip her orange pilot's one over her plain clothes—might as well be prepared, she figured.

"That got pretty heated with Jotis, back there," Poe said, eying her curiously as she shrugged off the grease covered mechanic's suit, stuffing it into the locker next to her. "I know that you're usually pretty bold with Command, but that was something else." There was a knowing glint in his eyes. Admiration too. Ana shrugged, her cheeks warming faintly.

"He's a Vice Admiral who apparently doesn't know squat about the capabilities of the ships he's flying beside," she said as she stepped into her orange flightsuit, zipping it up. "Of course I was going to set him straight. Especially given our current situation." Poe raised a brow at her, his lip tugging at her dismissive tone.

"And the fact that it's Athara Skywalker's ship had nothing to do with it?"

Ana could feel her flush deepening, faltering as she reached for her flackvest and FreiTek unit. "Switch off, Dameron," she bit back half-heartedly, jabbing an elbow toward him as she fell into step next to him. He dodged, laughing. But as they turned back toward his fighter, he grew serious, pulling her to a stop with a gentle touch as his voice lowered.

"She was your mother," he asked carefully, his curiosity only barely restrained, "wasn't she." Though she got the sense that he already effectively knew, she nodded her confirmation, her hand rising to brush unconsciously at the pendant hidden beneath her flightsuit.

"Yeah," she said softly, her voice faintly hollow as the familiar stab of grief and missing twisted sharply in the centre of her chest.

But oddly enough, it wasn't quite so crippling as it usually was. Force, it felt strange to be so…open. Dare she even think it, it felt…good. Poe smiled sympathetically before mercifully switching gears.

Sort of.

"So I suppose that means when you always say the Flame is your ship, you weren't kidding." A small laugh was startled from Ana at his switch back to their usual banter. She shot him a wry glance.

"Damn right," she quipped back. He tactfully ignored the lingering tremble in her voice as they started walking again.

"So, since you're still on the ground, does that mean there's some truth to the talk that Commander Daad is captaining the Flame for the evacuation?" All at once, Poe's question had Ana scowling for real, her eyes lifting involuntarily skyward to where she knew the Flame was hovering in Orbit with the rest of the Fleet. The Ninka has arrived not long after the briefing had ended and, as Jotis had predicted, was already almost finished loading, the Bunkerbuster having far less cargo space than the far larger Raddus or the cargo-converted Vigil. Grudgingly, she nodded.

As the briefing had broken up, Ana had found herself being called aside by Leia, the General wearing a rather sedate expression.

"Since you're not flying this one, we're going to need a temporary Squadron Leader." Ana had nodded along in reluctant agreement to her Aunt's observation. She'd been hoping that Leia had been about to override Kalonia's order that she stay out of a cockpit and reinstate her for the inevitable upcoming skirmish, but that wasn't to be.

The general plan that had been settled on during the briefing was that, outfitted with his new accelerator pod, Poe—brash and all but fearless as he was when fighters were concerned—would approach the First Order ships in Black One, drawing their attention to himself. He would then proceed to engage the accelerator and take out as many of the lead ship's—or dreadnought if it numbered among the First Order force—surface armaments as he could. At that point, if they still needed more time, it had been reluctantly decided that their two bomber squadrons, complete with fighter escort provided by the newly arrived Capital ships, would be sent in with the goal of hitting the lead ship's main reactor. But that had been stressed as a last resort, only to be deployed if the Fleet still needed more time.

But as soon as the last shuttle had reached the Fleet, that was it. The fighters would pull back and the Fleet would make a run for it.

It was as simple and as complicated as that.

But with Poe tied up with the first phase of their diversionary plan, Ana out thanks to her injury and a handful of their other remaining top pilots already having been sent off in all haste with a few of the Resistance's top brass to different regions of the outer rim—to try and sway their tentative allies into the fight and begin scoping out new locations to set up a temporary base, Ana had found out when she'd noticed Snap, Nunb Pava and a couple others all leaving—it meant they were out of their regular squadron leaders just at the moment. Ana had sighed and proceeded to silently go over who was left and who would be best suited to heading the remaining fighters set to escort the bombers.

"Best fit's probably going to be Tallie Lintra," Ana had finally offered. "She's one of my usual seconds and she was called back from her mission to the Reach. She can fly lead while I'm grounded." Leia had nodded in agreement.

"I wondered if she'd be your choice." As Leia flagged over an ops officer to track down Lieutenant Lintra, Ana had naturally assumed that was all her aunt had intended to bring up just then. The Command Centre in the middle of an evacuation wasn't the right place to be unpacking how Ana was coping, after all, and Ana hadn't thought there was anything else Leia would feel the need to bring up.

She had, of course, been wrong.

"Oh, and Ana, there's one more thing," Leia had said then, sounding nearly cautious, causing Ana to turn back to the General; because it was still the General speaking, not her aunt. "I want you on the Raddus with the command crew. Commander Daad will assume command of the Flame." She hadn't expected her Aunt to suggest any such thing. If Ana wasn't going to be in a fighter, she'd naturally anticipated she'd be on the Flame. It was all but her ship…it was her ship. She hadn't understood. Part of her still didn't. It had only taken a moment, but she'd quickly regained her voice.

"What? But General—" But Leia had held up a hand then, cutting off Ana's protests with a quelling look.

"It's not a request, Ana. I want my squadron commanders close. And I want you near the fighters in case we need you," the General had explained, her voice growing clipped as her patience grew strained, her focus unwavering from Ana. "I know you're not technically cleared to fly yet, but that may not be a luxury we can afford. I need you where you can do the most good." Ana had been stunned nearly speechless. Nearly.

"I can do the most good right now in a fighter," Ana had objected hotly. "But since that's not an option, apparently, the next best place for me is on the Flame. And if it comes down to it and you need me in a cockpit, the X-wing is still onboard. I can jump in it easily enough." Leia had sighed heavily, a hand raising to massage lightly at her temple.

"And the X-wing is combat ready?" She'd levelled Ana with a penetrating look that said she knew the answer already. Ana huffed, her arms crossing. Leia was right. The old Rebellion era X-wing was barely flight-ready at times, and if Ana was being honest, she wouldn't trust it in a combat situation unless some serious work was done on it. Work she didn't have time for. Leia's expression had softened minutely for a moment before her General's manner was firmly back in place.

"Since I can't put you in a fighter unless there's no other choice, I want you on the command bridge with me to keep an eye on our counter-attack," Leia had explained. Her tone had brooked no argument, so no matter that Ana had very much wanted to mount one, she knew in that moment she'd be arguing with the General and not her Aunt. So she grudgingly let it go. Something Leia had easily picked up on, the older woman's frame relaxing minutely. Leia had offered Ana a wan, grateful grin then.

"I want to have you where we can still benefit from your instincts," she'd said, her tone softening. She'd smiled wryly then. "Because you do have good instincts for this sort of thing, Ana." Her reasoning was implied and clear; as far as Leia was concerned, Ana's lineage and her influences told. Ana had been tempted to pout, her aunt's subtle flattery aside, but had settled for shooting her aunt a disgruntled look instead.

But she had complied, unhappy about it though she was—she still thought that her instincts would be better put to use on board the Flame—and Ana had watched the red corvette lift off into orbit without her.

Next to her, Poe was giving Ana a sympathetic look, valiantly trying to hide his amusement at the face she was making.

"So, happy about it? Not happy?" he asked leadingly, knowing her answer perfectly well form her expression alone but unable to resist the opportunity for a little good-natured teasing. Especially since it did jolt her from her huff. With a half-hearted grin, she swatted lightly at his arm, earning a mock exclamation of pain and a poorly disguised laugh.

"If she really wanted me to help in the skirmish, she could've left me on the Flame," Ana retorted resentfully, "or she simply could've overridden the order to ground me and put me in a fighter. What help am I going to be in the Command Centre," Ana trailed off in frustration, shrugging helplessly. "Especially if they do show up with a dreadnought." Poe glanced to Ana with a grin, though it didn't quite manage to disguise the wariness lingering in his eyes.

"Happy thoughts, Adyé," he scolded cheerfully. She pinned him with an exasperated stare.

"I'd be happier if I was going to be doing something useful, like captaining the Flame or sitting in a fighter," she repeated dryly, her tone not quite managing to hide how unsettled her unexpected assignment had left her. Poe bumped her shoulder with his in commiseration.

"Now you're just sounding like a corrupted holovid," he admonished lightly, his eyes laughing. "And you're not exactly useless, Adyé. You've got a good eye and good instincts. Not to mention you're a good pilot. I know I'll feel better having you looking out instead of some other Commander who's never flown a mission." Smiling wanly at his attempt to cheer her up, Ana bumped his shoulder the way he had with hers.

"Flatterer," Ana retorted with an involuntary grin, her cheeks beginning to warm again. "You know, being nice isn't going to distract me from the fact that you're just happy there won't be anyone to show you up out there this time around," she teased weakly. Poe chuckled, reaching up to squeeze her shoulder gently before pulling them to a stop as he turned serious.

"I do mean it, Ana. If anyone's going to be spotting us up there, I'm glad it'll be you." She faltered, her breath catching at the way he was smiling down at her. But then the moment passed and he was smirking roguishly once again. "And, you know, your point too." Ana scoffed, the sound hiding a laugh of her own even as his grin widened.

It was then that a command tech chose to interrupt them, approaching with a sense of urgency written on her face.

"Commander?" Both Poe and Ana turned at the greeting, but the tech—Ressue, if Ana remembered right—was looking to Ana. "The General's looking for you. The command shuttle's been cleared to leave and is waiting on you." Biting back a sigh, Ana exchanged a look with Poe.

"Duty calls," she intoned dryly, earning a faint grin in return. Poe's fingers squeezed lightly on her shoulder again before dropping away. And a little part of Ana regretted the loss.

"Keep 'em on their toes," he tossed after her, "and maybe warn me if it looks like I'm about to get blown up." Ana couldn't help the laugh that burst out at his reversion to their usual dark banter, his tone perfectly casual as only he could seem to manage.

"No promises," she said wickedly back, "but I do kind of like having you around, so I'll think about it." He grinned, sparing her a jaunty salute that had her heart suddenly beating a little faster; she could swear he knew it had that effect on her.

But as he turned to head back toward his fighter, Ana called after him one final time. "Oh, and Dameron?" His brow furrowed faintly in question. Ana smirked, ignoring the quivering unease that was beginning to take up residence in her stomach. "Don't antagonize them too much. All we need is a distraction, not a dead Black Leader."

Poe grinned roguishly. "No promises, Adyé," he shot back. Ana bit back a groan, rolling her eyes at his cheeky response. But a smile curved her lips regardless. The man was incorrigible and confident to a fault. And it somehow cheered her more than any genuine assurances that he'd take care would have done.

It was a smile that stayed with Ana even as the shuttle carrying her, Leia and the remaining members of Resistance Command up to the Raddus completed its journey to the Fleet's flagship.

It only faded when the sensors picked up on the signals the entire Resistance dreaded.

Star Destroyers.

The First Order had arrived.


A/N: And here we are. Officially into The Last Jedi. *cue dramatic music*

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