Poe inspected the X-Wing, "You say she's good to go?"
"Should be. Won't really know how well she flies until you try her out. You won't be able to do fancy moves like you are used to just yet, but she should be able to do the basics. I have some parts coming in soon and then, you won't be able to tell the difference between this one and that old hunk of junk you used to fly." Tel crossed his arms and leaned against the ship.
Poe and Tel used to butt heads about his old X-Wing. Tel hated that he always had to fix it and gerry-rig it just to fly. Tel called it a death trap and told him repeatedly he needed a new ship. Poe refused every time and kept the old girl flying.
"I will have her home by midnight."
Tel sighed exasperatedly, "Don't fly too far or too high in case something goes wrong."
BB-8 rolled excitedly over to their new ship. Tel had outfitted it so BB-8 could still be his copilot. Rey and Maia were returning from the forest, soaking wet. "What happened to you two?" He asked.
Rey's disgruntled look turned to joy as she saw him getting into his ship. "Is it finally fixed?"
"I'm about to take it for a test flight."
"Can I go next?" She had been so busy with Jedi training, she hadn't had time to work on any of the ships with Tel or even fly the Falcon.
Poe laughed, "We'll see how it goes."
Maia joined them, "Be safe."
"I always am." He winked and put his helmet on. Rey laughed at something he couldn't hear as the engine fired up.
Up in the sky around the planet, he felt free again. This was where he belonged. Leading the Resistance had felt restricting in the last few weeks and it felt good to be back in the pilots seat. He went a little higher and BB-8 reminded him that he was supposed to stay close.
"Everything is fine, it won't hurt anyone to go a little farther." He shushed his overprotective droid. He pushed it a little farther, a little faster, the adrenaline rushing through his system. He let out a 'whoop' as he circled around the base. More people had come to out to see the first new ship fly. A smile overtook his face as he pulled a sharp turn around towards the hangar.
The engine let out a scream followed by a puff and his controls went dead.
"No no no no." He repeated as he pushed dead buttons on his X-wing.
He was dead in the sky, he couldn't talk to BB-8 and the ground was approaching far faster than he liked. He was headed straight for the base and no amount of pilot trickery was going to stop him now.
He was going to die.
Suddenly his ship stopped midair, jerked in his seat, he crashed against the side and shot pain down his arm, but he had stopped moving. He exhaled in relief as the ship slowly descended to the tarmac. He looked out for Maia or Rey, but at that moment the ship dropped the last thirty feet. Just as he started falling he glimpsed sudden movement on the field.
He jerked forward and hit his head on the dash and felt the landing throughout his whole body. Even though his helmet absorbed most of the impact, his vision was still blurry as he tried to escape the cockpit. He squeezed out a broken window in the canopy, a bunch of mechanic's helpied him out by pulling on his arms. His leg buckled under him as soon as he put weight on it, but he managed to stay standing. "Where is she?" He pushed them all away. BB-8 ejected himself from the wreckage and beeped disappointedly at the state of their X-Wing.
Another group of people had gathered near the bay doors, Rey and Finn among them. He limped over as fast as he could and got there just before the medics. Maia was laying on the ground, eyes closed, bleeding from her nose. A blood vessel had burst in her forehead, spreading red and purple over her forehead. He knelt by her, pain shooting up his leg, "Maia, wake up." He grabbed her face.
"Poe." Rey was crying.
"No no no, I wasn't worth it Maia, I would have been fine, you know me."
Her head rolled to the side and he was pushed away by medics. Rey was still crying, Finn gave her a hug and motioned for him to come over. Finn included him in the hug, holding onto his friends as if this would solve all of their problems.
"What happened?" He demanded.
Rey took a few calming breaths, "I don't know, I went inside, to talk to Tel about the other ships and I felt you ship crashing and, I didn't react fast enough and she wasn't strong enough to do it herself."
"You didn't help her, or stop her?"
"Poe, we were watching you die, we were in shock. Maia's had to have seen pilots die like this before and never stopped them like this. We didn't think she could." Finn said softly.
He took a step back and his leg gave out. They caught him, "you need to go to the med bay too."
There was a hairline fracture in his left thigh bone, a sprained wrist and a minor concussion. Considering he could have died, he'd take it. They told him Maia was still unconscious but they didn't think she was dying. They weren't sure how to handle her so she was just under observation for now.
Leia was less than happy with him as she chewed him out for being reckless now that he was a Resistance leader. "Go get some sleep Dameron, that's an order." She finished her rant with a stern look.
"I don't think I can right now, I would rather stay here."
Her face softened a little, "I will be here, you will be the first call I make if something happens. Now go."
He slept but he didn't like it. Four hours were all he got. BB-8 came back and told him he needed a new ship and then grumbled about his problems before going into his charging station. He finally just got up and went to the medbay.
Finn was sitting with her, "Leia had to work, we figured you would be even angrier if we left her alone."
Poe rubbed his face, "Sorry if I sounded angry at you. I'm just scared."
"But you are angry at Rey."
"I don't want to talk about it right now." He took Maia's hand. She did look a little better.
Finn stood up, "Comm me if you need anything." He paused at the door, "You don't have a lot of excuses now Poe."
Poe nearly drifted off, pressing his head into her hand, praying to. . . he didn't even know who. The Force? Did you pray to the Force?
Her hand twitched under his head and he looked up as her head rolled to the side, "Maia, hey hey." He held her head and had her look at him. Her eyes were about half open and she was taking deep breaths. "Maia, come back to me."
He kissed her, that's what the hero was supposed to do, kiss the girl and make everything better. But Maia didn't respond, her head rolled back to the side and seemed to be unconscious again. The monitor beeped.
"Commander, what are you doing?" A doctor was standing in the doorway, arms crossed. "Get out of my medbay!"
"I didn't, she woke up!"
"Get out now! Kissing is not going to help her!"
"I can't leave."
"Leave or I call security and haul your ass to the brig."
Poe knew a battle he couldn't win, so he took up position outside the medbay. Then the same doctor banned him from the east wing entirely and sent a message to security about it. Leia tried to negotiate on his behalf but had to concede that it wasn't good for him to be hanging around the medbay all day.
He was eating lunch sullenly the next day. BB-8 was clean and repaired again, and feeling much better than he did. He was still injured and had nothing to do but sit and worry.
Finn and Rey were on the Falcon with Chewie, hiding from him he supposed. Rose had tried to distract him but failed and so she slunk off somewhere to be alone too.
Someone sat down across from him. It was Tel, "I hope you are feeling as bad as you look."
Poe chuckled darkly, "I deserve more than that."
"Don't beat yourself up too much. She could have let you die, but she didn't, she chose to save you. You should be grateful to her."
"I am, I swear. I will let her know when she wakes up."
"Mmhmm yeah." Tel gave him the knowing look of an older brother who knew exactly what his intentions were towards his sister. Before he could defend himself Tel laughed and waved his hands, "Like I said, don't beat yourself up too much." He stood. "I have to get to work repairing your mess again. Your droid has been a big help." Tel patted him on the shoulder as he left the cantina.
He looked back and standing there was the angry doctor, Dr. Kellen, he remembered, "Banning me from eating my lunch now?"
She sighed and took a seat, "Actually, I thought you would like an update on Maia's condition, the General gave me permission to share everything with you."
"Will she wake up?"
"Her vitals are getting stronger, we were worried there for awhile after your. . . incident, but she's coming back. If you would like to see her again, you can have two hours a day until she wakes up."
"What exactly is wrong with her?"
"Exhaustion? Stopping an X-Wing from crashing, even with the Force, I imagine it takes a toll on the body. But we can't be sure. I'm trying to get my hands on old medical texts from before the Empire but those things cost on the Black Market."
"Thank you, for helping her."
The doctor nodded and stood up, "And I'm sure with your limited medical knowledge, you thought kissing her would help her. But please, don't do it again."
Poe nodded, unable to come up with a response to that one. He was angry at everyone involved in this, but mostly himself. He had been reckless and he knew that if he hadn't pushed the ship then none of this would have happened. He could try to blame Rey all day long, but he knew it was his fault.
Two days later he walked into the med bay and saw Maia sitting up in bed, talking to Leia. He froze in the doorway. She turned her head to him and burst into tears and reached out for him. He fell into her arms and hugged her as she cried into his shoulder.
"Commander, please release my patient." Dr. Kellen said tiredly.
Her eyes were now red from crying, her face splotchy like it was when she got too mad at him. Leia gave her a cloth and she blew her nose. "Are you okay? How long have you been awake? Why didn't anyone call me?" The words flew from his mouth like birds and Maia smiled weakly in return.
"I will be fine. You almost died."
"You almost died! And I couldn't save you like you saved me!" There was a long moment between them as he realized what he had said and how angry he had sounded. The first thing he had felt was relief that she was awake, the second thing was anger that she had risked herself to save him. He had been saving all his frustration at her for this moment it seemed.
Leia cleared her throat, "I will leave you two alone." at the same time Maia said "I don't need you to save me."
"Why don't both of you go, I need some time with Maia, you can come back later." Dr. Kellen interrupted, cutting the sudden tension and giving him a pointed look.
That seemed to snap both of them out of it. He wasn't angry at her, he reminded himself and he needed to stop acting like it. "She just woke up!" He exclaimed, motioning to her.
"Yes, she did. I have tests to run and I don't trust you alone in my medbay Dameron. Come back in an hour."
Maia looked at him quizzically, "What did you do?"
"I will tell you later."
He found Rey, Finn, and Rose standing around an old A-Wing, discussing how best to fix it. "She's awake."
They all looked relieved, "Can we see her?" Rey asked.
"I got kicked out again, so no, not for another hour at least."
Finn shook his head, "What is that doctors problem with you?"
Poe turned to Rey, "Sorry I got mad at you earlier. It wasn't your fault."
"I'm sorry too." Rey responded softly, ducking her head shyly. "I could have done something to help but I didn't."
"You're still learning. It's my fault she had to do it in the first place."
Finn gave him a side hug and the girls joined in quickly. He felt safe in their arms and happy for the first time in the last few days. He was lucky to have their support and love, even when he messed up as badly as he just had. He didn't deserve it.
An hour later, Poe walked into Maia's room in the medbay, "I brought BB-8, he's been worried sick about you." BB-8 beeped that Poe had been very sad lately, "Traitor."
"How are your injuries?"
He patted his leg, "Healing just fine. I'll be back to work by the end of the week." Silence hung between them, he could tell she was hurt by what he had said earlier, "Maia, I know I don't need to protect you. But you shouldn't have risked yourself like that to save me."
Maia smiled a little and patted the bed next to her. He sat, unsure if he was forgiven or not. "Dr. Kellen told me why she kicked you out of the medbay."
"Which time?"
"The first time?"
"Ah, the one I was planning on telling you about. Listen, I did it-"
She cut him off, "Whatever you are about to say doesn't matter."
Before he could protest and say it did matter, she grabbed his face and kissed him. Poe's grin was so big she pulled away, "Are you trying to get me kicked out of here again?" He asked
"You've foiled my plan."
"For the record, I was going to say I did it because I've been wanting to for awhile now but you intimidate me for so much I figured kissing you while unconscious would make me less nervous."
She laughed and leaned up to kiss him again. He gave her a proper kiss this time. His hands went to her back, pulling her as close as possible. He was lost in the feeling of her lips against his, her hands on his neck, caressing at the hairs on the back of his neck. This was everything he had thought it would be and more. He broke from her lips and kissed down her neck, nuzzling the skin behind her ear. She laughed and swatted at his back, "Cut it out flybrid or you'll be banned for life."
Her eyes were alight in a way he had never seen before. He wanted to kiss her again, but he bit his lip, "Why did you save me?"
He thought the answer would be simple. Either 'I couldn't live without you' or 'I love you' but she didn't answer for a long time.
"Did you know the original Jedi texts don't say anything against personal attachments?"
"What?" No answer could have surprised him more.
"Luke made this big deal about teaching us not to be attached to people, or things. That nothing was greater than the Force. Personally, I always thought it was because Luke had never been kissed before." She shook her head, "That's beside the point. My childhood and teen years was always 'Don't love anything it's all going to die and be a part of the Force one day anyway and holding onto things will just turn you to the dark side.' But the original texts never said anything like that, probably because they lived on an island and abstaining from procreation was probably not sustainable. But instead, the texts are a celebration of life and love in all it's positive forms. They believed that you should love where and when possible and accept when it changes and moves and occasionally when people die and become one with the Force."
"You're getting to the point soon right?"
"I have been reading the texts, trying to find a loophole to the whole non-attachment things for two months before this. I saw your X-wing crashing and I didn't want all that research to be for nothing. There is nobody else I would toss out everything that I had ingrained into me as religion since childhood other than you."
He nodded, "I think I understood most of that."
She smiled, "I couldn't let you die Poe Dameron, my ever flying bird, I've put too much work into you.
He laughed and pressed his forehead to hers.
TBH I could leave this here, with Poe and Maia all safe and happy, but what is the fun in that?
Apparently I accidentally uploaded Chapter 9 twice, don't post chapters after 3 glasses of wine friends, that's my bad guys.
More to come soon!