Chapter 3

"Kriff," Poe Dameron muttered under his breath as he heard his name called from behind him. "Walk and talk, kid, I've got another meeting in 5 minutes."

"General, I know that you're busy, but we really need these supply orders signed off on. The delegation from Naboo will be arriving shortly to negotiate our use of the Naberrie estate during reconstruction, but we might want to keep everyone fed and restock our supplies while we work out those details," a young woman said, chasing him with a data pad.

Poe nodded his approval and took the data pad to enter in his override code. "Get it taken care of, Tahiri. I'll be out all afternoon so let Connix know if you need anything else."

"Yes sir, General Dameron." She gave him a quick salute and retreated.

The General had spent years longing for a command, but now that it was his he'd give anything to just soar around in his X-Wing blowing things up. That is, if there were actually still things out there to blow up.

"Any word from her?" Finn asked as he fell into step beside his friend, having spotted him walking towards their makeshift conference rooms.

"Don't you think I would have told you already if there was?" Poe replied tersely.

Finn held up his hands in defense. "No need to get snippy, Poe, I know we're all stretched pretty thin. I'm headed into this one with you with some reports from the mechanics on the fleet."

Poe stopped in his tracks. "I'm sorry. I'm just. This is a lot and I don't have a clue what I'm doing. Where the hell is Leia when we need her, right?"

"You're doing fine. We all are. Just keep moving forward. Literally - we've got this meeting in t-minus 2 minutes." Finn clapped his friend on the back to set him off in the right direction. "I'm sure it will be fine."

"We're running dangerously low on funds," came the news that no one wanted to hear as Poe and Finn joined other fledgling New Republic leaders around a large round table. Some of the members of the council were attending via holo, but most were present in the meeting room.

Poe met eyes with Admiral D'acy, who had delivered the blow. "How dangerously low?"

"We've got enough to last us maybe another 3 cycles. We'll have to appeal to the banking clans for any funding beyond that or find some new allies with deep pockets." She replied.

"Guess it's time to turn on the charm then, Dameron," came the voice of Zorii Bliss.

The smuggler turned fledgling diplomat sat opposite him, sans helmet for the first time since he could remember. Her hair fell in ringlets around her face and made him remember why she hid behind the mask - a face like hers was one in a billion systems.

"I made some connections on Corellia back that might be able to help us out now that the First Order has left them high and dry. Finn, let's try to schedule that trip as soon as Rey gets back." Poe said before turning back to Zorii. "And Bliss, I'm sure you've got some contacts in your comm that can help us out."

She scoffed. "Hardly. I don't have any that want to get involved with government regulations."

"What regulations? We're not even a government yet," Finn countered.

"I'll see if I can pull any strings," she conceded.

"Jannah, how is it going with access to the First Order archives?" Poe asked.

She shook her head, her brown curls bouncing with her movement. "No luck so far, General. I've got some allies on the inside of whatever is left of their structure but none with archive clearance. We're going to have to get in there ourselves, I think, but we'll have to find a way to do it diplomatically. We can't risk alienating them any more than they already are if we're going to bring them into the fold."

"Agreed," D'acy replied. "We'll tread carefully there. Perhaps the more former First Order we come into contact with the more we can interest in the project."

Finn cleared his throat and chimed in. "The fight against the Final Order cost us a lot of ships and most of the ones that did come home came back with some extensive damage. I spoke with the chief mechanic this morning and the repairs to the fleet are 80% completed. There is still a large store of parts from scrapped ships that will help with piecing them back together and it looks like we should have all of our ships operational again within a fortnight. We took heavy losses, but a lot of the crews that joined in at Exegol have opted to stay and help for the time being."

"Good news, I like that," Lando Calrissian chimed in from across the room. "Any word yet from Rey and Chewie?"

Poe shook his head. "Not yet, General, and if they don't get their asses back here in the next couple of days I'm going to go out there and bring them back myself."

Lando laughed. "You sound like Leia whenever Luke would run off on one of his adventures. Give her some space, Poe. She might really need it right now."

The younger man nodded. "I know. I just worry she's going to get my droid into some kind of trouble out there."

Zorii raised an eyebrow at him. "Sure, you are. Well, I think that's all we've got for this session. Anyone object to breaking for lunch and getting on with what we need to be doing?"

A chorus of agreements rang around the room. The holos flickered out and those in the room rose from their seats to get back to the real work.

Ajan Kloss was a humid planet covered in old growth jungles. Vines covered trees and rock faces everywhere except for the small area that the resistance had cleared out for their staging area. Even then, their modifications to the landscape had been minimal. Finn wandered around, hands in pockets, and trying to keep his mind clear and open.

It had been a few months now that he had found himself able to feel the energy signatures of other beings around him and he had begun to realize that this was the Force. Perhaps he would never tap into it the way that Rey could and use it's power as a tool, but being able to read a room and get a sense of what those around him were thinking was proving to be useful in these early days of the rebuilding process.

Finn sat on a large rock, legs crossed beneath him, and began to reach out with his mind. He sensed living creatures, mostly small, in the trees and forest around him. He could feel the bustle of resistance members back at the base. He gasped as he realized that there was someone nearby; near and watching him.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." Poe said, approaching from behind him.

"It's cool, just didn't see you there. What's up?" Finn asked.

Poe huffed out a long sigh. "How are we supposed to do this? You were a Stormtrooper. I'm a pilot,"

"Spice runner," Finn corrected.

"General," Poe countered. "You're really not going to let that go are you?"

The other man laughed and gave him a shrug. "I mean, it's not every day you find out your best friend was a spice runner in another life."

'Yeah, well we can't all be perfect," Poe retorted.

"I'm not perfect," Finn laughed, "far from it."

Before either of them fully knew what was happening, Poe Dameron had closed the gap between himself and his friend and had planted his mouth fully on Finn's. Their lips melted together for a long moment and the world stopped spinning or was spinning too fast. Neither of them could be sure. They broke apart slowly and their eyes met.

"What the hell was that?" Finn asked, catching his breath.

Poe shook his head. "Sorry. I'm sorry."

What Poe hadn't counted on was Finn grabbing his arm as he turned to leave and pulling him back to him, placing his hand on the side of Poe's scruffy face and kissing him back. "Don't be."

They were both quiet as they rested their foreheads against each other, neither quite sure what to do next. A cool breeze rippled through the jungle and Finn was suddenly very aware of all of Dameron's feelings as they reached him through the Force. Finn smiled and pulled Poe into an embrace that they could have shared forever.

"Kriff," Poe muttered as his comm chirped. He laughed and kissed Finn once again before answering. "Go for Dameron."

"General, we thought you'd want to know that the Falcon is back. Should I let them know you'll meet them at the landing field?" The voice on the other end asked.

"We'll be there," he replied. "Tell her to stay put."

Rey, Chewie, and BB-8 exited the Millennium Falcon followed by their new companions. Finn and Poe caught sight of them as they approached the ship and smiles beamed across both of their faces. Rey caught her friends and pulled them both into a hug as BB-8 rolled around their feet, nuzzling his dome into Poe's leg.

"Hiya, Beebee," he greeted his droid, dropping down to his level to shake him around. "I missed you, buddy! Where did she take you this time? Tatooine? You took my droid to Tatooine? You know he hates sand, Rey!"

Rey had tuned out Poe, however and was introducing Finn to the stormtroopers that they had picked up in Mos Eisley.

"Welcome to the Resistance," Finn told them. "Er, Republic? What are we now? Anyway, glad you're here and not trying to keep the First Order afloat."

KT smiled. "Yeah, something tells me that that would have been a dead end. A lot of troopers look up to you, you know. You'll have to regale us with your stories someday, General."

Warmth spread across Finn's cheeks. "I just did what I thought was right. Now, I'm sure Rey already told you that we're doing what we can to find out where all of the First Order stormtroopers came from, but if you guys want to pick names in the meantime, we'd be happy to stop calling you by your Registration Numbers."

"Way ahead of you, Finn," DL told him. "I'm Delair. KT is Kata and RT is Ryatt. We had a while in hyperspace to start thinking about it."

"All right, well let's get you all debriefed and settled in, then!" Finn exclaimed, leading the group into the comfort of their headquarters.

"Poe," Rey said to get his attention. "Don't be mad about sand - I'll get Beebee-Ate an oil bath as soon as we're settled."

Poe, having seemingly forgotten about being angry with her, pulled her into a hug that surprised her. "I'm just glad you're back and he's in one piece. Glad you're in one piece, too."

"Oh," Rey exclaimed as she hugged Poe back. "Yes, well it's not like we ran into a lot of opposition out there. Has everything been okay here?"

He nodded. "It's fine. I'll catch you up to speed. C'mon, let's go grab some ale."

"It's morning, isn't it?" Rey asked. "Why not grab some caf?"

"Fine, but I'm putting a shot in it and you're not going to stop me, okay?" Poe said pointing a finger in her direction.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Dameron." She replied, following him and BB-8 off towards the dining hall.

Author's Note: Hey! Still with me? Awesome! It's going to take a while for any Reylo components, and I lurve Stormpilot, so there's some shippy goodness in this chapter and still to come. Thanks for reading and please, if you love it or hate it, or even feel indifferent give me a quick review so I know I'm what direction I'm heading in. Thanks again and May the Force Be With You!