Five months earlier

Rey pushed her sunglasses up her nose. She still hadn't seen him show up and ten minutes had already passed over their designated meeting time. She wasn't entirely surprised, though. Maybe he was in some car, like she was, waiting to see if she'd come out. Maybe he would ambush her, even in this broad daylight. Or maybe he'd snipe her. He was a cop. He had sources. He had people. He'd be able to pull it off, more so than most others.

But he had a kind face. He helped her out and even bought her hot chocolate. Surely a man who was that sweet wouldn't try to kill her, especially since he had every opportunity from the moment he hit her with his car. Or maybe that's what he wanted her to think. It was a trap, it had to be. Rey wrestled with these doubts; she wanted so desperately to have an ally.

That's when she saw him – jogging across the parking lot, raising his hand in thanks to a car that slowed down to let him cross. He looked around, casually, and hopped onto the sidewalk outside the Panera Bread. He didn't even stop his stride and just waltzed right in.

It was now or never. Rey flung her car door open and hurried across the asphalt, reaching the entrance just as the door closed behind him.

He didn't even try to go incognito to mask himself from her. He looked just like she had seen him before, but instead of the LAPD uniform, he was wearing a pair of jeans and a quilted down vest over a long-sleeved shirt – a typical ensemble for a Southern Californian when the temperature dared to dip below 65. He was standing at a self-serve kiosk, not even looking over his shoulder. It was almost imperceptible, but she could see the subtle outline of a gun's holster under his vest.

Rey sauntered up to a kiosk next to him and idled tapped the screen. She felt him look up at her, but he didn't say anything. At least he was a smart cop, she mused.

He lollygagged on entering his order until he glanced over to see that she was close to finishing hers. He swiped his card, grabbed a pager, and took a cup over to the soda machine. She took her own pager and headed over to the dining room where she found a number of small tables lined against the windows. She sat down at one and pretended to play on her phone.

A minute later, he walked over and sat at the table behind her so that their backs faced each other. Through a side-eye glance, she could see his blurry reflection.

"I'm surprised you contacted me," he said, more to the screen of his phone than to Rey. "But I was surprised in myself, that I even signaled you."

Rey didn't respond. She knew better than to interject. Interviewees always gave up more information when there was dead silence on the other end. And it worked with Poe. He kept rambling. She could feel the uneasiness in his head. Her read of him was murky uncertainty, but she didn't sense any hostility.

"I was compelled to reach out to you, but I wasn't sure. I'm so glad you reached out. I was certain that I got you in trouble somehow and that you were caught. I thought it was that big guy, the one with the tattoo, I'm pretty sure I've arrested him before, he's just so familiar and—" His pager buzzed and he watched as an employee brought a tray to his table. Rey and he both waited until the employee walked out of earshot.

"Where did you learn that symbol?" Rey asked, cautiously.

Poe hesitated with his grilled cheese in hand. He contemplated his sandwich for a moment before dropped it on the plate. "My mother."

Rey masked her shock as best as she could while another employee arrived to deliver her lunch. The bowl of chicken noodle soup looked wholly unappetizing now. She let the shock absorb long enough before she could speak.

"What do you mean? Your mother?" Her voice was a shaky whisper, hissed through unmoving lips as the fear bubbled inside. Something about this didn't feel right.

Poe must have sensed it, because he shifted in his chair. He leaned away from the window and scanned the dining room, casually biting into his sandwich. "My mother was Jedi," he murmured.

"Your mother was part of Hoth," Rey realized. "That's how she learned of the calling symbol."

He made an affirmative noise with a mouth full of sandwich.

"And how did you know that I-?"

"That you're Jedi?" He didn't damper his laughter and he smiled broadly. "I didn't hit you with my car."

Rey stirred her soup, pretending to be interested in it. "I seem to recall flying across the pavement and landing on my shoulder. I seem to recall a dent in your car's hood. Or did I imagine all of that?"

"There's a reason I had to destroy the primary dash cam footage," Poe said. "So strange how that new camera had an issue. That surely would have been an interesting thing to explain how a 120-pound girl crunched the grill of my patrol car without even touching it."

Rey absentmindedly smeared some butter on her bread. A man entered the store, wearing dark sunglasses. Strange. It was dusk. "I don't remember that."

"My back tires went up when the front of my car stopped and you about forced the bulbar off the bumper."

"I did?"

"Yep. I took photos if you want to see them."

"No," Rey said, watching the man with the sunglasses approach the cashier. "I believe you. Hey, do you see him? Do you see that guy over there?"

Poe's chair squeaked a little as he casually leaned back in his chair and tried to glimpse the cashier's area in the window's reflection. "I can't see him, you're in the way."

With a swift movement, Rey pushed her bowl of soup over and it landed noisily and explosively behind her, splattering the back of Poe's leg with floppy noodles. The few people gathered in line, including the man, all whipped their heads around to see what was the commotion.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she cried out, grabbing a pile of napkins. She knelt down and dabbed at his pants. "Look over my shoulder," she whispered.

Poe glanced up. "That's okay, miss, it's just an accident," he said, loudly. A café employee was hustling over to assist and the man in the sunglasses watched from his place in line. Poe had looked for only a split second, but the man and he locked gaze for that moment.

"I know him," Poe murmured, dropping his head and wicking some soup off of his shoe.

"What?" Rey hissed.

"Sir, are you okay!" The employee bellowed, appearing at Rey's side with a cloth and a mop in hand, and blocking Poe's view. She stared at him, concerned that they were about to be sued for soup burns.

"Uh, yeah, fine, fine," Poe said dismissably, as he saw just the backside of the mysterious man slipping out the door. "Shit. Ah, yes, thank you, we're okay here." He shouldered his way between Rey and the employee and took off jogging.

"I'm sorry, so sorry," Rey babbled, quickly trying to push all of the wet napkins together and smiling broadly as she too, departed with haste.

She burst outside to meet the chill of the early evening and spotted Poe's figure tearing off down the parking lot. The man had a good lead on him, but Poe's determination brought him close. Rey tore after them, dodging cars in the congested parking lot, and followed them to the backside of a long stretch of department stores where she lost them behind the endless line of parked trailer trucks.

"Poe!" she called out, unsure if it was safe to actually yell his name. Her feet pounded hard on the asphalt, as she had to catch up with him. And then she saw him – he ducked out from behind a Target truck and leaned over, hands on his knees to catch his breath.

"Who the hell is that?" Rey demanded, glancing around nervously. It was getting dark fast and her eyes couldn't adjust quick enough. Every blob of a shadow was the potential outline of a man.

Poe opened his mouth to answer and instead grabbed her and pulled her behind the trucks. There came a squealing of tires and at the same time, a bullet glanced off of the truck's metal, just inches above their heads.

"Shit!" Rey gasped. She instinctively patted her head and neck, searching for blood.

Poe dragged her toward the backside of a building that the trucks were parked against. Another bullet ricocheted. "Get up!" he demanded. He climbed on the back of a truck, teetering on the narrow metal lip. He gripped her fiercely and helped pull her up just as a car's headlights passed in the space she had been standing in. She flattened herself against the closed roll-up door of the big rig, gripping the inside of the frame.

"Sh-sh-sh," he whispered. They stood on awkward tip toes, bracing themselves against the door, hands joined in the middle to keep their balance. She was shaking, but his hand was calm and squeezed her reassuringly.

The car stopped. The headlights remain trained a few trucks down, illuminating the graffitied backwall of a loading zone about twenty feet away. Two car doors opened and slammed. Tires crunched on loose gravel. So, there were probably at least four of them – the guy they were chasing, a driver, and two goons.

Poe looked at her and, in the darkness, she could see his head nod slowly. Whoops. She didn't mean to blast that thought into his head, but at least he wasn't scared she did it.

Sounds of footsteps grew closer. One set came from their right, another from their left. The car was creeping backward, its headlights moving in a flashing staccato between the line of trucks. Rey's heart thumped in her ears. She tried to remember her training but her thoughts and feelings were racing wildly. She had never been shot at before – that was definitely a game changer.

But Poe, he probably had been shot at many times. That must have been why he was so calm. He gently and slowly released her hand, making sure she could stand steady, and reached into his vest to get his weapon. He held it close, readying to use it.

Rey's panic worsened. She couldn't risk losing him, not when he protected her. She needed another ally, and maybe this time, someone outside the immediate Hoth inner circle. Besides, she didn't want someone to die because of her. Again.

Footsteps encroached. Rey sensed they were nearby. They were closing in, as they swept from truck to truck. Poe released the safety on his gun. The car stopped, and another person got out.

It's now or never.

Rey closed her eyes and reached out with her mind. She could make out fuzzy images, seeing approximately where the men were circling around them. If she had been calmer, she could be more precise in her judgement, more honed in her mind's eye, but she was still shaking and afraid. Being shot at was not particularly conducive to coordinating with the Force.

She thought of other times she had been so scared. Her aunt dying. The stupid bullies. Kelly! Kelly's eyes! Her fright, her shame, her anger. The images began to sharpen, the men's footsteps fell in line with Rey's humming heart. She could see the car, there was someone leaning over the hood with a gun – a big gun – maybe a rifle? Kelly's face popped in her mind again, oh her sadness, her anger. It mixed with Rey's and soon she could not tell whose anger belonged to whom, the footsteps were just around the corner, they'd find them, they'd kill them both and the car! The car!

"Fuck! The car!" A man's voice screamed, panicked, frightened. He went running, and so did the other.

Fingers on her shoulder. She gasped. Eyes open. Poe stared and his jaw dropped.

She could hear it now – the crackling of a huge fire. It cast a tremendous glow and she could see Poe's face lightened up, streaked with nervous sweat, eyes bugged out like a goldfish.

"Was that you?" he hissed.

Bam! An explosion rocked the car and its metal frame groaned and creaked. Rey and Poe almost fell from the truck and found their balance leaning their hands into the wall of the loading dock.

Rey only nodded, unable to speak.

Another man screamed. Agony, agony, Rey could taste his fear. He was on fire. A great cacophony rose as the men panicked. There was a sound of crackling glass as it showered across the asphalt. The man's cries turned into something inhuman.

Poe slapped her – not hard, but just enough to shock her back to reality. "Rey! Snap out of it! We gotta get out of here!"

Rey flinched at the stinging in her cheek, but it ripped her from her trance. She hopped off the truck, suddenly not so afraid. Poe kept himself close to shield her and they crept along the loading docks, using the trucks to hide themselves as much as they could, but it wasn't that necessary – the would-be murderers were too busy trying to extinguish their buddy and deal with the more immediate problem of a randomly exploding car.

"Where are you going?" Poe demanded once they reached her car.

"Back home." Whether that was her apartment or the safe house, she wasn't sure.

"Alright, I'm going to make sure you get home safely."

She shook her head. "No way. I still don't know if I can fully trust you."

He looked at her like she just sprouted an extra head. "Are you crazy? We almost got killed out there! Did you happen to forget the guy that was shooting at both of us?" He realized his voice was escalating loudly and angrily and he crouched down, tugging her hand to bring her down with him. "Rey, that was insane. That was incredibly unsafe. Those guys clearly wanted you, dead or alive, and it didn't matter."

"You said you recognized the guy in the restaurant!" she hissed, accusingly. "Maybe he was trying to kill you, and not me! Who the hell was that?"

"Nuh-uh, nope, no way," he snapped. "Not giving that info up so quickly. I'll confess it all, but you gotta get me with your so-called auntie, or whoever that person is that met you at the hospital."

"I'm not about to let you follow me and endanger them," Rey growled.

"Look, Rey, hear me out." He grabbed both of her hands and held them firmly. "Rey, I want in. I want to be part of this. I wasn't supposed to know my mom was part of Hoth but I found out, anyway. I want to carry on her memory, I want to take this monstrosity down. Those assholes who tried to kill us both? I don't want any more blood shed because of them. Let me in. Trust me. Let me prove myself."

Rey's eyes flickered as she tried to assess him, tried to see if his feelings were true. She knew it wasn't right, but she courted his mind, just a little bit. He winced and flinched.

"Please, don't," he murmured. "Not without my consent, yeah?"

She dropped her face in embarrassment. "Sorry."

"My ma tried that enough when I was a kid," he laughed. "Nothing like your mom knowing your secrets before you can figure out how to lie about them."

"Look, I'll see what I can do. I can't promise to grant you an audience or anything. But I'll talk to Le—the group. I'll promote you. But I can't promise they'll see you."

He patted her hand in thanks. "You doing that for me is appreciated. Alright, well get out of here. I'll stick around and see if any other funny business happens. Call me when you can, okay? At least let me know you get home safely, too."

Rey swallowed hard at the lump in her throat. "I will." She slowly got back up to her feet and looked around cautiously. There was a smoky cloud coming from behind the department stores and an increasingly-loud fire siren approaching.

"Hurry up, get out of here!" Poe ordered. He tucked his hands in his jeans and stood up. He tried to look casual as could be and wandered away without even a goodbye.

Rey slipped into her BMW and it wasn't until her hands wrapped around the steering wheel did she realize how her palms were so sweaty. Everything was sweaty. She glimpsed her face in the rearview mirror as she backed out and she looked ghastly. But she was alive. As she pulled out of the parking lot, she looked for Poe and saw his shadow walking toward the fire truck that screamed into the parking lot from the other entrance. Satisfied, she floored it and headed toward the freeway.

Tapping a menu on her console, she rang Leia's number.

"Rey? Where are you?"

"I'm heading home." Home, the safe house.

"What's going on?"

Rey sighed and nervously rubbed the leather steering wheel. Leia didn't like extending their inner circle and she certainly wouldn't be happy about this, but Rey made a promise to Poe. "Leia, there's someone I need you to talk to."