Poe pulled into his driveway and smiled involuntarily at the familiar figure sitting on his front doorstep, head resting against his large potted fern. He couldn't see her face, but her hair was tied back into a trio of buns that he would recognise anywhere, and he was certain she would wear that shirt – midnight blue like the night sky and dotted with constellations – every day if she could.

Ever since she started dating that co-worker of hers, Ben, they hadn't seen each other as often. Nowadays, they only saw one another in groups – and even then, nine times out of ten, she cancelled last minute due to being too busy.

Between her upcoming promotion and her quest to track down her birth parents, Poe wasn't surprised she didn't have time to socialise lately. If that was all it was, perhaps it wouldn't bother him so much. He'd long since accepted she would never feel the same way for him that he did for her, and he'd made his peace with that.

But there was something amiss, and he knew it wasn't just jealousy talking. He didn't like the way Ben treated her when he tagged along. Whenever Rey left his line of sight, he got antsy, and there were times he spoke to her like she was a dog being housetrained – and failing at it.

For the first time in a long time, he'd have the chance to talk to her one-on-one and make sure everything was alright. Maybe Ben's peculiarities were just awkwardness, or discomfort at being surrounded by people he didn't particularly like, or something equally innocuous.

Poe desperately hoped that was all it was. Ben was the first man Rey ever loved, and he hated the idea he might be mistreating her. Turning off the engine, he grabbed his laptop bag and hurried over. 'Hey, it's been a while since we met like this.'

His step faltered when she turned towards him. Her face glistened with tears, and her eyes – usually so expressive, so lively – were dull and empty. The only time he'd seen her this devastated was when her adoptive parents died.

'What happened? Is everyone okay?'

'Ben and I broke up,' she said flatly.

His breath caught in his throat. 'Did he hurt you?'

Thankfully, she shook her head, but that didn't explain the sheer devastation leaking from her every pore.

The front yard was too open for this kind of conversation. He unlocked the door and led her through to the fridge. 'Do you want a beer?'

'Only a dozen.' She accepted a bottle and took a long swig. 'Remember how Ben's friend that's into family history offered to help me track down my birth parents?'

'Of course.' It was all she talked about for weeks. Poe and Finn had tried to help with it before, but none of them knew enough about family history to get very far, so she'd been over the moon at the friend's offer. 'You said he didn't end up finding anything.'

Rey's mouth pressed into a tight line. 'Yeah, well, apparently, he did. I ran into Hux at the shops this morning, and he asked me how my grandmother is. My biological grandmother, who apparently lives three hours away and has been trying to find me for decades.'

'Your grandmother is alive?' Poe asked, unable to fight the urge to grin. Despite the circumstances, he knew how much this discovery would mean to Rey. Ever since she could remember, she'd been curious about her birth family, and that had just intensified after Han and Leia's deaths. 'Do you know her name?'

'And her phone number,' Rey said with a nod and the faintest hint of a smile. 'I left her a voicemail while I was waiting for you.'

There was only one reason the message wouldn't have gotten to her originally; only one reason she would feel so down when this news would usually have her jumping for joy. 'Ben knew, didn't he? He lied.'

'According to him, he didn't lie; he just didn't tell me the full story.' Her voice was taut and lethally controlled, like a crossbow string waiting to fly. 'When I originally asked him what Hux found, he said he couldn't find my parents – which, Ben argues, is true since they're dead. He claims he wanted to protect me from scandal. My grandfather is in prison for life for war crimes, you see, and he thought it was better for me to go on thinking of myself as the daughter of philanthropists rather than the granddaughter of a mass murderer. My grandmother didn't even know what he did until the trial; her testimony's all online.'

Poe let out a string of curses that would have made his mother blush, and to his surprise, Rey didn't even flinch, just drank the rest of her beer.

'The real kicker,' she continued, 'isn't even that he hid it from me. He actually went into my phone and blocked my grandmother's number so she wouldn't get through if she managed to track me down. Ben put me in a worse position than I would have been if I'd never even asked Hux for help to begin with.'

There were a million things he wanted to tell her. How Ben had never treated her well in the first place. How she would find her feet again and come out of this stronger. How whatever choice she made from here would be the right one. But Poe doubted she was ready to hear any of that. Time, distance and silent support would help her more than any number of platitudes ever could.

So instead, he settled for, 'The spare room's yours if you need a place to stay. Finn and I can go with you to pick up your things if you want backup.'

'Thanks, that would be great.' She ran a hand through her hair. 'But first, I really need a few hours to just not think about family or packing or… or what he did.'

'That's alright too.' He gestured towards the Xbox with his beer. 'Want to play Halo?'

A/N: Prompt: '"That's right! It was a twist!" "No, it was a lie. A lie is not a twist."' from Bob's Burgers 1x05