They stayed on the other side of the planet until Poe gave them the all-clear. They didn't want any attention drawn to them since they didn't have anything to protect them with. Waiting, of course, made Kat antsy but the second Poe's voice came through the comms telling them that the First Order left, she brought them in for a landing.
The transport door opened and Leia stepped out much to the shock of Han. Kat soon followed, standing just behind the older woman with C3PO nearby. No one spoke a word, not knowing what to say after so many years being apart. Not to mention Han just saw the only missing member of this family reunion leave with Rey.
BB-8 was the one to put things into motion for as soon as the excited trill sounded C3PO began to speak. Kat wasn't paying too much attention since the orange and white astromech rolled directly to her, chirping about how excited it was to see her and how she would very much like Rey but they needed to save her from Kylo Ren. Kat couldn't help but laugh, scratching at the droid in a similar fashion she had seen Poe often do. "Slow down, BeeBee. It's good to see you too."
His excited beeps soon turned to sorrowful ones as he relayed the message about how Poe had died in a crash on Jakku. Kat just smiled and shook her head causing an inquisitive beep. "Did you not see his X-Wing? He's very much alive and back to being a pain."
The droid beeped ecstatically as it rolled around Kat which made her laugh. Soon a Wookiee calling her name broke her away from the mini celebration she was having with the droid. She looked over to see Chewbacca offering his hands out to help her stand from the crouch she was currently in from talking to BB-8. A small smile tugged at her lips as she took his hands. As soon as she was on her feet, he brought her in for a hug which caused her to laugh. "Yeah, I've missed you too."
Chewbacca let out a soft growl which caused Kat to sigh. "I know, I know. He could have at least said goodbye though. Or even a see ya later, kid."
The Wookiee growled once more and Kat pulled back. "It's not his style, yeah, yeah." She then looked over to Han who was still talking with Leia. "I kinda just want to run over and give him the biggest hug ever even if I'm still a little hurt."
She rolled her eyes at Chewbacca's next remark. "Well, wish me luck." Seeing him smile, she knew that it was the right choice. Maybe he would even stick around longer.
She hurried over, shouting "incoming!" as she jumped into Han's arms, wrapping her arms and legs around him much like she did as a child.
Han stumbled back but neither of them fell over as he held onto her. "Aren't we a little old for this?"
Kat laughed. "Never."
Leia smiled at the pair as Kat let go, setting her feet on the ground again before being distracted by Chewbacca. Kat and Han shared smirks with each other, silently saying that all was forgiven.
"You must be Kat. You don't look scarier than the First Order." Finn said as he stepped forward to the small group.
Han chuckled, patting Finn on the shoulder. "You've never seen her angry, big deal. I'd keep it that way too." He said before calling for Chewie to head back to the Falcon.
"How do you know who I am? And who told you that ridiculous description?" Kat rolled her eyes until she noticed the jacket around his shoulders. That was Poe's. She stepped forward in amazement. "Wait, are you Finn?"
The man before her was taken aback. "Uh, yeah, how'd you know?"
Kat smirked. "You'll find out soon enough." She didn't want to ruin the reunion between him and Poe. "Now, what did he say exactly?" She asked as they walked to the Falcon.
"He just said that he needed to get back to Jakku to get his droid and that you would kill him. I asked who you were and he said that you were his colonel who could be scarier than the First Order."
Kat groaned, rolling her eyes. "I really am gonna kill him." When she noticed the Falcon though, a smile tugged at her lips. "Hey, make sure those two follow us to base, will ya? Although I'm sure Leia didn't give them a choice."
Finn nodded. "I mean I'll try. I really need to figure out a way to help my friend though."
"What happened to your friend?"
"She was taken by the First Order. Kylo Ren had her."
Kat placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "We'll figure something out. Let's just get back to base first."
Her name was then called and she yelled a 'see you soon; into the Falcon before taking off to the transport. Leia met her outside with a small smile on her lips. "He was worried about you hating him."
She didn't even have to hear his name to know who Leia was talking about. Chewbacca had told her the same thing that Han was worried possibly even more so for Kat's reaction. "Oh, we're still going to have some words but Chewie talked me down. He's back and that's what matters the most to me."
Leia squeezed her arm before they went back into the transport. The co-pilot had already gone through the preflight protocols so all Kat had to do was take the ship up. BB-8 rolled up to Kat's seat just as Poe's voice came through asking if they were ready to jump to lightspeed.
Kat stood as the droid beeped excitedly at hearing Poe's voice, helping him into her seat so he could see the black marked X-Wing leading the convoy. "Just one second, there was someone who wanted to see you for themselves."
Poe chuckled as BB-8's beeps came through. "Hey, buddy. I'm glad you're okay too. Ready to get back home?"
An affirmative beep was all it took before Kat gave the order to everyone to go to lightspeed.
As soon as the transport's door opened, BB-8 whizzed past, headed straight for Poe's X-Wing. Leia took the other's inside to start preparing for what information the droid could provide and to figure out a plan for the Starkiller base. Kat stayed around, giving directions to Chewbacca for the med bay and telling Han that she would still like to talk before things got too chaotic. The colonel was then off to go check on her pilots and to do a headcount.
"We all came back, colonel," Snap said with a smile as she approached.
Kat nodded, grinning. "Great job today." She told the pilots that walked past. There was nothing like a successful mission with no casualties. Now she just needed to start planning for the next one.
She was making her way back to the main hub of the base when she heard her name. She turned to see Poe jogging after her, BB-8 not too far behind and Finn following. "I want you to meet, Finn," Poe said as he draped an arm around her shoulders.
"We've already met." She shrugged his arm off his shoulders not quite ready to be that close to him again. "I did never say thank you for breaking him out. He may be acting like a nerf herder right now but I'm still grateful, especially since you went against the First Order. That takes a lot of bravery."
"Nerf herder?" Finn asked instead of taking the compliment.
Poe rolled his eyes. So maybe they needed to officially make up instead of going on the hope that she would have lightened up around him due to the victory they just had. "We apparently are still fighting from yesterday. Did Finn tell you about his friend?"
Kat chose to ignore Poe's jab and answer his question. "Yes, he did. I was about to head inside now to start figuring out our next plan."
"I might be able to help with that too. I was stationed on the base too. That's where he's taken my friend, I'm sure." Finn offered.
"Well, what are we just standing around here for!" Kat exclaimed before motioning for the men to follow her.
They found Leia at central command, most of the others in command standing around her. When the older woman saw Kat, she dragged her over. "Thank you for finally joining us, colonel."
That's when Poe decided to pop in. "General Organa, sorry to interrupt. This is Finn. He needs to talk to you…" He was cut off by Leia taking the former stormtrooper's hand.
She then gave a brief look over to Kat as if saying so that's where you've been. "And I need to talk to him." She said, looking back to Finn as she shook his hand. "That was incredibly brave, what you did. Renouncing the First Order, saving this man's life."
Finn looked to Leia in shock. Sure he didn't exactly hide the truth from Kat on Takodana but Poe had mentioned her so he assumed she knew. His assumption had been confirmed when Poe told him how he survived the crash he thought had killed his only other friend. Did everyone know? "Thank you, ma'am, but a friend of mine was taken prisoner."
Leia nodded. "Han told me about the girl. I'm sorry."
Poe noticed that her sympathy seemed to rattle Finn so he spoke up, getting to the bottom of things. "Finn's familiar with the weapon that destroyed the Hosnian system. He worked on the base."
Leia turned to Kat with a raised eyebrow. Kat just raised her hands as if saying don't yell at me. "You continued your meeting without asking me any questions." She said, emphasizing her gesture.
"We're desperate for anything you can tell us," Leia said, turning back to Finn.
"That's where my friend was taken. I've got to get there, fast." Finn said.
"And I will do everything I can to help, but first you must tell us all you know."
Kat looked around and grabbed a datapad so she could write notes as she listened to Finn speak about the First Order base that housed a weapon no one had ever seen before. The fact that it was powerful enough to wipe out an entire planetary system was terrifying.
Poe stood next to her, reading over her shoulder at what she was typing. He noticed that she would put in her own comments or thoughts in between what she heard. She was planning while simultaneously listening to what Finn was saying. "Are we gonna talk?" He asked when Finn repeated something that Kat already had notes on.
"Now is not the time commander." She kept her focus on her notes, going back through her comments to see if anything was coming together.
"Well, obviously not now but I feel like we should at some point because clearly we still have some issues to work out."
He was trying to work his way back behind her walls and her first instinct was to push him away. She didn't want to have this conversation now especially since he seemed to be pushing it even after he agreed that the timing was wrong. "Did you really think a week was going to change everything?"
Silence greeted her even though there was conversation happening around them. She reluctantly looked over to him and noticed the hurt in his eyes before it flipped over to anger. He stood, fully prepared to drag her away when Leia spoke up.
"Are we interrupting something, colonel?"
Kat shook her head and Poe walked off, not seeing the glance filled with regret she threw his way as he walked away. "I was just bouncing an idea off him and he got excited about it." She then said, knowing that Leia could see through the lie.
"Well, what was it?"
"We send Captain Wexley to do some recon on the base for us. We can confirm all that Finn has told us and hopefully even get a scan so that we can better plan for our attack."
Leia nodded. "That's a very good plan indeed. Go inform the captain of this and we'll reconvene once he's made it back."
With that, the group dispersed and Kat hurried away before Leia could come talk to her. She found Snap and Kare enjoying some caf together. She smiled as she joined them at the table. "So, we've found out some information about the weapon the First Order used to take out the Hosnian System. It's located on a base they're calling Starkiller."
"They're a creative bunch aren't they?" Snap said with a laugh. "I'm assuming you're telling me this because you want me to fly recon?"
Kat nodded. "Exactly. We need a scan of the base so that we can better plan our next steps."
"Sounds easy enough. Coordinates loaded in?"
"Always. Now you guys haven't happened to see Poe, have you?"
Kare chuckled. "Think he and BeeBee went to go do maintenance checks on his X-Wing."
Kat stood with a small, grateful smile. She went over and made a cup of caf before making her way to where Black One sat. Sure enough, Poe was sitting in the cockpit while BB-8 was stationed in the droid's spot on the starfighter. She stood at the bottom of the ladder and held up the cup when he looked down at her.
Poe let out a sigh and motioned for her to come up.
She did, climbing up until she could sit on the top rung, handing over the cup. She honestly didn't even know how to start but she knew an apology was necessary. "Poe, I'm sorry. I didn't even mean what I said. I just said it to push you away because it's easier to keep you at arm's length."
It seemed like that's all she needed to do before the words just kept flowing. "I told you that week that you scared me and those hours I spent thinking that you had died just reinforced that for me. Except for Leia, everyone I have ever cared about has left me and it felt like the minute I let you in the universe took you away. When you came back I wanted to do nothing more than to protect you because you did what no one else had before. You came back. Then we fought and it was clear that I couldn't keep a wall around you so I put the pieces you had managed to tear down back up so I wouldn't get any more attached than I already am."
Poe let out a sigh. He couldn't exactly stay too upset with her when the rational part of his mind had told him that she had fallen back into an old habit. "Looks like we both need to work harder on our promise then."
Kat laughed, relieved that he had forgiven her. "Yeah, looks like we do." She then looked up at him, a smile on her face. "Can I make up my nerf herderness by showing you the Falcon?"
Poe grinned at her. "By even suggesting that all has been forgiven." He had heard all about the Millennium Falcon. Even with how close his parents were with Leia and Han, he never had a chance to board the legendary ship.
She climbed down, waiting for Poe with an outstretched hand. He took it with ease before they both hurried over to the freighter. BB-8 following behind them. Just as she lowered the entry ramp, Han's voice was heard.
She quickly dropped Poe's hand and turned to Han, looking as innocent as possible. She felt like a teenager again, getting caught sneaking back into her room.
Han couldn't help the smirk when he noticed Kat's expression. He had been watching the pair standing in front of him with Leia since Kat had made her way to Poe's X-Wing. He had felt like such a dad when he grumbled about how he didn't like the way his daughter was looking at the pilot and vise versa. Leia had laughed at that telling him that he'd then hate to know she had been trying to set the pair up. She had even tried to stop him from interrupting the pair but he was convinced they were going to be up to no good once they made their way to his ship hand in hand.
"Go back to whatever it was you were doing, flyboy. I gotta talk to Kat." He looked over to Poe who was giving him a look of being caught.
Kat let out a sigh and mouthed sorry towards Poe before the commander left father and daughter alone. She then turned her focus back to Han and crossed her arms. "So you come back and you think you can intimidate my friends again?"
"Friends don't look at friends the way he or any of your other so-called friends for that matter, was looking at you, kid." He gave her a pointed look.
She rolled her eyes before motioning towards the Falcon. "Can I go onboard now? I'd like to properly say hello to her."
Han chuckled and motioned for her to head on up the ramp. He easily returned the smile that was tossed his way before she ran up the ramp.
Entering the Falcon felt like coming home. Kat ran her fingers along the interior, letting nostalgia wash over her. She had learned how to fly on the freighter and basic mechanics, even how to shoot. It may have been years but everything looked to be the same as she remembered it.
"She's still a thing of beauty isn't she?" Han asked from where he sat on one of the benches in the lounge.
Kat nodded, coming to sit next to him. "I've missed her, missed you." She admitted, resting her head on his shoulder.
He brought an arm up to wrap around her shoulders. "Leaving without a goodbye was just easier. I had already been in a fight with Leia about it and I couldn't have a similar fight with you too. I just had to hope that you would forgive me."
She let out a sigh and pulled back to look at him. "Chewie talked me into it." She admitted. "I do forgive you, though. I mean I essentially ran away to Naboo so it was just hard that I had to go back to school without knowing when I'd see you again."
"I know, kid. You know I'm real proud of you, right? You've been doing a damn good job bossing people around here or so I've heard."
Kat chuckled. "Thanks, Han. That really means a lot."
"Now about this pilot…" He trailed off and gave her a pointed look.
She stood up, shaking her head. "Nope! I'm not having this conversation with you. There's nothing there. I should probably be getting back anyway." She hurried away at the sound of Han's laughter.