The first thing he felt was sand. Everywhere. Irritating his eyes, stealing all moisture from his mouth, hindering his breathing in his nostrils. The cold hit second. He hadn't gained enough consciousness to open his eyes, but by the chill in the air, he figured it was long past sunset. Either that, or the afterlife was much colder than he'd thought it would be. He could see a faint glow of light though his eyelids and willed himself to open his eyes. His vision was still coming back, be he could see the light came from the blurry figure of another person, sitting a few feet away from where he lay in the sand. Poe blinked a few times, trying to bring his surroundings into focus.
Poe sat up, immediately snapping his eyes shut and wincing as he did so. Crash landings will do that to you. He heard the person next to him shuffle, and was greeted by a blaster inches from his face when he opened his eyes. His blaster. His eyes flicked up to see the face of his companion.
"You're alive. Good." She stated, her expression neutral.
"Is it?" Poe responded, slowly lifting his hands into the air. The woman surveyed him before reaching into a bag next to her, blaster still held steady, her eyes never leaving Poe. A heavy static hung in the air, until finally, she lowered the blaster and tossed a canteen to Poe, who narrowly grabbed it before it hit him square in the face. Poe stared at the canteen in his hands, not moving.
"It's just water." The woman chimed in again. Poe didn't move; "By the stars-" she huffed, jerking the canteen back and taking a drink; "see? Not poisoned." She threw it back to Poe. This time, he nearly ripped it out of the air, taking a long drink from it.
"We're not far from a well, you can wash the sand off your face if you'd like." Poe didn't hesitate before pouring the remaining contents of the canteen over his face, washing the grit from his eyes. Something landed softly in his lap as he did. He looked down to see a light colored linen scarf, which he grabbed and dabbed at his now-wet face.
Poe turned his attention back to his companion. His vision now clear, he could see the woman before him. She sat with her legs crossed, covered in a loose coat made of the same light material as the scarf she'd given him, the hood of the coat pulled up over her head. She wore a scarf around her neck, which she no doubt wore over her face while traveling to protect her from the sand. The light he'd seen earlier was coming from a headlamp. Even in the relative darkness, Poe could tell she was pale, perhaps not originally from the sunny planet of Jakku. A few dark strands of hair had come loose from a long braid that hung over her shoulder and now framed her face. She peered at him with dark, wide set eyes, her expression still frustratingly neutral.
"How long have you been watching me?" Poe broke the long silence between them.
"A while now. Sun set a few hours ago." She replied. She was dressed for the daytime sun, Poe could tell that much. But it didn't really answer how long he'd been there; "I heard a crash and came to investigate. Found you, did not find a ship. Crash sounded a bit further off, though." She finished. So he'd only been out for half a day, Poe noted. Time was still on his side, he hoped.
A loud roar from the distance snapped both of them to attention.
"We should go," she stated, pushing herself off the ground before grabbing her bag and offering a hand to Poe, "we've pushed out luck out here long enough as it is." Poe stared hesitantly at her hand.
"Who are you?"
"… Or you can test your luck with the ripper-raptors if you'd prefer." The woman snapped, not withdrawing her hand.
"They're scavengers." Poe responded, taking her hand and allowing her to help him up. She shoved his blaster into his hands before turning on her heel and walking away from him.
"So am I, doesn't mean we won't kill something if we're desperate."
Against his better judgement, Poe followed the woman, mimicking her delicate footsteps, the light of her headlamps scanning the sand in front of them for hidden dangers. Before long, Poe was able to make out the outline of a modest shelter. Their destination, he assumed. As they grew closer, Poe could see the shelter had been built from ship parts, scavenged, no doubt, by the woman that had saved him. When they made it to the threshold, the woman pulled open the makeshift door and held it open.
"After you." She gestured. Poe hesitated momentarily, gripping his blaster in his hand. He knew there was a very real possibility that this woman was not a friend to him, and that others could be waiting for him on the other side of the threshold; "Kriff, just get inside, there's no one else in there." She huffed, clearly sensing his hesitation, before pushing Poe hard in the back.
The darkness in the room fell away as the woman lit a lamp, illuminating the small space inside. Despite the ragged exterior, the interior was…homey? Small, no grandeur or elegance, but comfortable nonetheless. Seating from luxury ships that had met an untimely demise had been fashioned into a couch for the room, a few small tables where captains' once wrote ships logs now held lamps or other trinkets, a hammock hung in the furthest corner, next to a table strewn with papers and scraps of metal.
"It's not much," she offered, "but it's safe, and it's a roof over your head." Poe whipped around, momentarily forgetting that he wasn't alone. Illuminated by the soft flickering of lamps and candles, Poe could now clearly see the face of his savior. She had taken down her hood and was now undoing her long braid with nimble fingers, her eyes fixed down at the ends of her hair as she worked. She had high cheekbones and a heart-shaped face, freckled dusting her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. Sensing eyes on her, she looked up at Poe through long, dark lashes, and, for the first time, smiled.
"You must be hungry-" She started, raking her fingers through her now-loose hair and shaking it out.
"Why are you helping me?" Poe spat before he could stop himself. The woman had shown herself to be a friend this far, but Poe knew from experience that her position as his savior could change at any moment.
"Because it's the right thing to do." She offered, her back now turned to him as she shimmied out of her coat and hung it on a hook near the door.
"You're the second person to tell me that today, you know that?" The woman turned back around and stepped close to Poe, clapping her hands on his shoulders. She stood nearly as tall as he did.
"Well maybe you've got someone looking after you from the other side." She offered, raising a hand and patting his face with mock affection before gliding past him into the makeshift kitchenette, leaving Poe to consider her words. After recent events, she might not be wrong about that.
"You can put that blaster down, Dameron, I mean you no harm. The desert would have taken care of you if I hadn't." She called, the soft sounds of pans and whatever she was preparing punctuating her words. The sound of his own name snapped Poe back to reality.
"How the hell do you know-"
"So you are Poe Dameron?" She cut him off, her head whipping to the side to look at him, a wide grin spread across her face; "Stars I'm good!" She stepped out of the kitchen, two glasses in hand, and offered one to Poe.
"More water. You were out for a long time in the sun, you need to rehydrate or that food will come right back up. Sun poisoning."
The woman sat down on the old cruiser bench and Poe followed, taking a sip of water, hoping to find clarity in the distraction of drinking. None was offered.
"See the thing about being a scavenger is that people don't really consider you a person," the woman started, tucking her legs underneath her on the couch; "which means people will talk around us without really understanding that we can, in fact, hear what they're saying. Well, most of us can, anyway."
"Ok-"
"-so word travels fast, if you know who to listen to. First Order was here, village destroyed, prisoner taken-" the girl paused to take a sip of water before continuing, "-prisoner escapes, there's a crash landing on Jakku, you see where I'm going with this?"
No. Poe didn't. The woman rolled her eyes and continued;
"Look, I'm sure there are many members of the resistance that are smart and cunning and that work their way out of precarious predicaments all the time, but there are only a few who are known for it. Only a few that would draw the First Order to this junkyard of a planet. Only a few that would be here, alone, to begin with. So I took a guess- who could steal a TIE Fighter from the First Order and make it out alive? Why, the poster boy of the Resistance himself, flyboy Poe Dameron." she concluded.
Poe stared at the woman, obviously pleased with herself and her powers of deduction. He was impressed, to say the least.
"So you helped me because you knew who I was? Because I'm with the resistance?" He asked. The woman scoffed at him.
"Hell no. I need off this planet. I need a pilot." She grinned at him again, leaning closer towards him in anticipation.
"You're the second person to say that to me today, too."
"Maybe I've also got someone on the other side looking after me."
With that, a timer dinged and the woman was on her feet, moving gracefully through the small space to the kitchenette. When she returned, she set several small plates and bowls on the table, holding rather grayish looking loaves of bread and equally bland looking stew.
"Sorry it's not more appetizing, but it's all I've got to offer." The woman tore off a piece of the bread and bit into it. Poe did the same, surprised to find it wasn't entirely terrible. Bland, but palatable.
"I'm Pippa, by the way." She added, mouth still full of bread.
"Pippa, thank you for your kindness, but I don't know that I can help you-" Poe started, but when her eyes flicked up to meet his, full of sadness and longing, his stomach twisted and his breath caught in his throat; "-not right away, I mean. I was on a mission when I was captured. I have to find my droid and get back to base as soon as possible." Pippa's face had reset to the emotionless expression he'd grown accustomed to when they had first met. She tilted her head slightly, raking her eyes over his face. Poe shifted uncomfortably in his seat, her gaze slightly unnerving.
"An astromech? Little orange and white guy?" She asked. Poe nodded.
"How-?"
"Last seen taking off in an old Corellian freighter out of Nima outpost. Two people with him." She stated flatly. Poe's heart sunk, but his curiosity was also peaked.
"How do you know?"
"Scavengers listen, well, the smart ones do. A lot of us are connected, you know." Pippa pulled a comlink out of the top of her tunic, flashing it to Poe before tucking it away. Poe grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to look at him.
"What else do you know?" He demanded, not letting go despite Pippa pulling away from him.
"A few hours before sunset, stormtroopers were seen at Nima, there was a chase, two people and a droid stole a ship from Unkar Plutt and took off. As far as was seen, they made it off the planet." Poe grinned. There was hope.
"How long until sunrise?" He asked, still not dropping his hands from Pippa's shoulders.
"Probably 4 hours or so?" Pippa offered.
"What have you got of value around here?" Poe whipped his head around the room, scanning for anything the scavenger hadn't already traded to Unkar Plutt.
"Not much-" Pippa started, a grin spreading back over her face, "nothing valuable enough to trade for a ship."
"You're good at listening, good with ship parts, got any other skills?"
"…We're going to steal a ship?" Pippa questioned excitedly, cupping her hands around Poe's face.
"We're going to steal a ship." He repeated.