[Rose]
Rose shut the door to the bunk area. It allowed people from the main compartment to access the refresher, which they began doing once the general announcements and information-sharing was over.
The first one in complained loudly that someone named Bigs had not cleaned up after himself when washing the crab meat the night before. The second one to use the refresher (named Blaze) complained that the first one (whom he called Major), having noticed the problem, had an obligation to clean it up himself and so they (Blaze) weren't going to either. Leaving the mess for some third person to find.
Rose was surprised that it was the staff sergeant who weighed in the matter, with First Sergeant CL-0745 saying nothing. Or maybe she'd gone to the forward compartment for a unit report. Rose wasn't sure who ended up having to clean. She was trying to filter the whole thing out, but the stormtroopers weren't being especially quiet about their blame-laying and feuding. She had to pee, but hearing them griping kept her where she was.
She asked Finn, "Do we need to be worried about General Hux?"
"No," he said with an unbothered shake of his head. "If he was going to kill us, then he would have said outright that he wasn't going to."
She thought through that. "He would have lied through his teeth, you're saying."
"Yeah. Since he didn't, and he really can't admit that he's not going to do anything – well, I suppose he could admit it and he sort of did, but if the High Command was still around he couldn't – anyway, we're safe."
"Good to hear. How are you?"
He sat up carefully. "Not bad, considering." He was naked. The blanket was thin. It pooled around his waist and over his thighs. A lifelong member of institutionalized military, Finn was comfortable with nakedness. Which was a good thing, as his clothes had been shredded.
He examined his left forearm, where the slice had turned into a wide, red line. His skin was still filthy – neither of them had bathed the night before. The sole concession to that had been Rose washing her hands, face, and forearms. Finn looked at the heel of his palm. "There was a mark here yesterday. A poke. It's completely gone now. That stuff you put on it is the good stuff." Finn checked his legs. The big gouge was still there, but it wasn't an open wound at the moment.
"That looks fragile," Rose said of the thin membrane of skin trying to form over it.
"Yeah. Check my back."
She did. It was an expanse of muscle, so impressive she had to give herself a shake to focus on his injuries. "It's mostly the same as on your legs – little stuff gone, medium stuff mostly healed, big stuff sealed over but it looks like any exertion might tear it back open. You need to take it easy today. Bedrest if you can."
Finn grumbled. "How's this one?" He reached back, feeling around for the one on his ass.
She sighed wistfully. "Marring perfection."
"What?"
"You have the most incredible butt I've ever seen."
He blinked at her, half grinning, like no one had ever told him anything like that and it was hard to believe.
She added, "It's like the one on your leg. Just barely hanging on. Looks like you bled on the bed." She gestured.
"Hm. Yeah." He ignored the bed and kissed her softly.
Outside, they heard someone loudly complain, "I think those are bug guts!" and "I'm not touching them." It ruined the otherwise tender moment between them.
Rose pulled away and shook her head. "Just clean it up already!" she said in the direction of the door. She half hoped they heard her, but if they did they didn't indicate it. "There's only one refresher. We all use it. It's not that hard to figure out."
Finn chuckled understandingly. "I do not miss working sanitation."
"Should we apply more of that stuff? From the medpack?"
"No, it should be fine." He sat on the bed and pulled over his clothes. "We used that all the time in training. Anything that broke the skin, you'd slap that on it and the next day you'd be ready to go. Bruises you just lived with unless you thought something was broken, then they'd have the droids look at it. You had to be careful what you complained about, though. If it was serious, you might not want to tell anyone."
"Why?"
"Medical termination. Especially for kids and cadets. Or subadults. If it was something that would take a lot of rehabilitation or that you could never recover from …" He shrugged. His clothes were a bloody ruin. He gave up on them and examined his boots next.
"Like yesterday, with that stormtrooper?"
"Exactly. No one's going to put a prosthetic on a foot soldier. Now, maybe an officer. Not that I can think of any who had them." He looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "Officers get a lot of perks. Did you know they were training me to be an officer?"
"They were?"
Finn nodded. "I don't know what the exact plan was, but they wanted me to get a couple rounds of active combat experience under my belt and then they were going to transition me into some kind of logistics role. As an officer. Direct promotion. That's a big deal in the Order."
"I'm glad you're out of there," she said.
"I know … I know you keep saying that. But …" Finn looked up hesitantly from examining one of his boots. "Rose, I'm thinking of going back."
"What?" she said in shock. "Why?"
He spilled quickly. "Snoke's gone. Kylo Ren's gone. A lot of the High Command is different. Something big's going on and this Sidious thing is just going to shake things up even more. They need leaders. They especially need leaders who know it doesn't have to be the way it used to be. Who are willing to fight to make things better."
She stared at him with wide eyes. "Would … would they even take you?"
He shrugged. "Right now I'm a unit commander answering to a general who's declared a truce with us at my request. Maybe. I know my history – you know, First Order history, imperial history. Stranger things have happened."
She shook her head disbelievingly. "I thought you were happy to be out." Or was she the one who was happy he was out?
"I am. But … I want to end the war. I want to make the galaxy a better place. Maybe I'm needed more … with them."
"Finn, they tried to shoot you yesterday."
"They didn't."
"But they were going to!"
"You did."
"It was on stun!"
From the other side of the door, Kaydel asked, "Everything okay in there?" Their voices had been raised for some time now, but the words were probably indistinct.
"I can't believe this," Rose said as what Finn was proposing finally filtered in. He looked so serious. "Yeah," she told Kaydel. "Yeah, we're fine. Is the refresher open? I have to pee."