Disclaimer: Characters contained within do not belong to me.

Notes: Thanks for hanging on, despite the drama. C'est la vie, as they say...

Little Star

by Kristen Elizabeth

"A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time."

- Mark Twain

On Dr. Kalonia's instructions, Poe was taken from the surgical suite to a recovery room, as far away from the bustle of the main ward as possible. Rey and Kes, Finn and Rose were already there, waiting for him, each of them silent

When the door slid open and a medic guided the floating medical capsule into the room, Rey pressed her hand to her mouth to keep her emotions in check. Post-surgery, Poe was even paler, his normally tanned skin now a chalky color that made her shiver in fear. Someone had tried to clean the blood off his face, but they hadn't been able to scrub it all away. His dark curls were now half-hidden by a large, white bandage that had been wound around his head.

And he was still so frighteningly motionless.

After transferring him to one of the two recovery beds, the medic left, passing Dr. Kalonia as she entered. She immediately went to Poe's side and started checking his vitals. Breaking away from Kes, Rey approached her husband's bed.

"How is he?" she asked, her voice throaty with choked back tears.

"Stable," Harter said. "For the moment." The doctor looked up at Rey. "How are you?" Rey shook her head, but the older woman wouldn't let her off that easily. "The baby is still moving?"

"A lot." Rey looked down at her husband. "Can he hear us?"

"I don't know," Harter admitted. "Some doctors think so. Personally, I've never had a patient wake up from a coma and remember anything that was said while they were under."

"Poe is special. If anyone could, it would be him."

The doctor reached across her patient to take his wife's cold hand. "Yes, and he's strong. With more to live for than most people. Remember that."

Across the room, Finn tore his eyes away from the body of his best friend and looked down at his wife. There were tears in her eyes; she was trying to hide them by blinking them back, but it was a losing battle. "Rose, I promise you. It's going to be fine."

She shook her head. "I want to believe that, but the truth is...you can't really say for sure. Can you?" She brushed her hand across her cheek. "This isn't light saber training or even figuring out the sex of a baby. This is...you're accessing powers that you've never even attempted to reach before."

"I can do this, Rose."

"And what if it's too much?" Rose looked up at him through her tears. "If it asks too much of you?"

Finn cupped her face in his hands. "If you're thinking what I think you are, this isn't the same. Poe isn't dead like..." He lowered his voice. "Like she was."

"What if that doesn't matter?" Rose covered his hands with her own. "I just need you to say...there's a line, Finn...a line you won't cross."

He pulled her to his chest and wrapped his arms around her small body. "Rose...it's Poe. I hear you, I do, but I have to try." Finn looked over just in time to see Rey stroking Poe's limp hand. "For both of them."

Leaving Rey to have a moment with her husband, Dr. Kalonia approached Kes. Having known him for over 30 years, since the days of the first Rebellion, she put her hand on his shoulder. "How are you holding up?"

Poe's father swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Hart, he looks like Shara did...the day we lost her." After a second, he asked, "Am I going to lose him, too?"

"I can't answer that, Kes," she said.

He nodded. "That's good." When she frowned, Kes added, "The day Shara died, I asked you the same question...and you said yes."

Harter cleared her throat. "I'm sorry."

"No, don't be. You didn't lie and because of that, Poe and I both got to say what we needed to tell her before she died. I've never really thanked you for that." He kissed her cheek, shocking the unflappable doctor. "Sorry I'm about twenty years late."

"It's...it's fine." Glancing away before he saw the embarrassing blush she could feel coming on, Dr. Kalonia looked back at her patient. "Do you think this can work?"

"It has to," Kes said. "My son survived every horrible thing that Shara and I fought so hard to keep him from having to experience." Looking at Rey, he added, "He deserves to hold his child."

After giving his wife a soft kiss, Finn walked to the other side of the bed, facing Rey across Poe's body. "I'm ready. What do I...?" he trailed off.

"The power to heal," Rey started, her voice small, but steady, "comes from the light side of the Force. It's love, in its most basic form."

Finn frowned. "I've seen you heal a sand snake. Don't tell me you loved it."

"Compassion is love, Finn."

"Okay," he agreed. "So..."

"It won't be hard for you to reach the light within yourself," she told him. "When you find it, project it. Send it into Poe. Picture his wounds and just...erase them."

"Just like that?"

Rey nodded. "I believe in you, Finn. So would he."

With a sigh and a nod, Finn closed his eyes. "Rey," he said, opening them a second later. "How will I know when it's worked?"

"I don't know," she admitted.

"Okay..." Finn blew out a breath. "Here we go." Placing his hand on Poe's shoulder, he closed his eyes and reached out to the Force.

At first, there was nothing. A sharp blow, a sudden burst of pain, and a second of panic was all Poe felt before the darkness enveloped him.

And now, in a place that was halfway between reality and a dream, somewhere between consciousness and eternal sleep, he found himself lost in the moments that had made up his life.

His mother's hands, soft and strong, covering his small fingers as she guided him through basic maneuvers in her grounded A-wing. "Fly us to the stars, baby!"

His father's voice, heavy and hoarse, as he kneeled down in front of him. "She's not in pain anymore...we have to remember that."

His new friend, a man with a designation, not a name, jubilant to have escaped from his hell. "Finn...yeah! Finn! I like that...I like that!"

His general and teacher, exasperated with him as always. "There are things you cannot solve by jumping in an X-wing and blowing something up!"

His heart, his Rey, warm and soft beneath him, trembling more than she realized in the moments after their bodies joined for the first time, but trusting him completely. "It's okay. It doesn't hurt anymore. Please...I just...I need you."

"Poe."

He heard the voice, but it wasn't his parents, his friends, or his wife-it was all of them, all at once, calling to him.

"Poe, it's time to wake up."

But could he? Did he want to? The ones he'd lost were alive here; the ones who were alive would never leave him.

"This isn't the end, Poe." Leia, her voice rough, but kind.

"Baby, there's still so much waiting for you." His mother, forever young.

"Your child." Finn, who might never get such a gift.

"Your wife." His father, who would never see the love of his life again.

"Please come back to me." Rey, left behind by almost everyone she'd ever loved. "I love you, Poe. I love you...please don't leave me...I love you..."

"I love you..." Like a sunrise, the darkness began to fade. "I love you, Rey...love you..."

The chair Kes had pulled up to Poe's bed wasn't the most comfortable thing to sit on, even for someone who wasn't pregnant, but Rey couldn't bring herself to move. That would have required letting go of Poe's hand and she just wasn't prepared to do that. Just in case she never got to hold his hand again.

A few feet away in the second bed, Finn slept, watched over by Rose. According to the doctor, there was nothing wrong with him except for extreme exhaustion. There was no way to tell, though, whether he had been successful. He'd never spoken; only minutes after putting his hand on Poe's shoulder, he'd slipped to the ground, unconscious. Only Kes's quick thinking as he darted forward to catch him had kept Finn from cracking his own head open on the floor.

Now the two most important people to her lay side by side in medical beds, unresponsive. And she was powerless to help.

When Rey closed her eyes, tears spilled down her cheeks. Deep within her body, she felt the baby kick. Hard. With her free hand, she touched her rounded belly, rubbing it as if she could soothe the child, but the kicking didn't stop.

Wincing, she opened her eyes...and in that very second, Poe's forehead crinkled and his dark lashes lifted.

Rey drew in a sharp, ragged breath. "Poe..."

Still halfway in the darkness, Poe murmured, "Love you...I love you, Rey..."

In the sudden flurry of activity...Kes shouting for Dr. Kalonia, Finn waking up, Rose bursting into tears, Poe trying to sit up, Kes pushing him back down, the medics flooding into the room taking scans...Rey's hand never once slipped from her husband's.

"I thought I was going to lose you."

Night time in the medical centre was never really quiet, but with Kes having gone home with BB-8 at Poe's insistence and Finn and Rose asleep in the other bed, Rey's admission broke the silence that had fallen over the room.

Poe shifted more onto his side, to make sure she had enough room in the bed that was not built for two. Resting his chin on the top of her head, he could only say, "I'm so sorry, Rey."

Their entwined fingers rested on her belly. The baby was the first thing Poe had asked about...not his own health, but the well-being of her and their child. Only when he'd heard that they were all right would he listen to the doctor explain what had happened in the space yard, how severe his injuries had been, what had been done in surgery to fix him, and how-through means that she left Finn and Rey to explain-there was no longer any sign of injury and, more importantly, any brain damage. And although Dr. Kalonia insisted that he and Finn stay the night for observation, it was like the accident had never happened.

He might have believed it was all a dream except for the dried blood in his hair and the anguish he could see in Rey's eyes.

"And I couldn't do anything," she went on. "I couldn't bring you back."

"Honey," he said, nuzzling his nose against the back of her neck. "I never wanted to scare you like that."

She was quiet for a long moment. "Most of the people I've loved, I've lost. My parents, Leia...him..." Rey twisted her head in order to see him. "You are the one loss I don't think I could survive."

Poe lifted himself up on his arm to look down at her. "You underestimate yourself." Off her doubtful look, he squeezed her fingers, pressing them firmly against her belly. "Besides...you wouldn't have been alone."

"You would have had me." From the other bed, Finn's voice startled both of them. Poe twisted a bit in order to see him. "And Rose and Kes," Finn went on. "You're never alone."

Stretching his hand out, Poe smiled when Finn took it. "Listen to the wise Jedi, Rey."

They stayed like this, their hands forming a chain, throughout the night.

TBC