Chapter 14
The entire Resistance was teetering on the edge of controlled chaos and full-blown madness. The new base was on the home world of the Twi'leks, Ryloth. The Twi'leks feared that the First Order was going to follow in the Empire's footsteps and occupy the planet, so when they had heard that the Resistance was looking for a new base, they offered an abandoned cave city to them and had modified it so that it had a similar layout to their old bases.
The cave system was located on the thin habitual piece of land in between the Bright Lands, the desert-like part of the planet that constantly face the sun, and the Night Lands, the part of the planet that constantly faced away from the sun. While the atmosphere of the planet was breathable, they couldn't spend much time on the surface for fear of heat storms coming from the Bright Lands and attacks from a predatory species called the lylex that were one of the few creatures able to withstand the extreme temperatures.
Because of all of this, once the transports had landed on the surface, they only had a few moments to unload all of their passengers and cargo and head down into the caverns behind the safety of the blast doors. After the transport was unloaded, they would be taken underground into another cave system that was accessible by only a thin tunnel.
They attempted to keep things organized, but of course, that didn't happen. Things that were supposed to be sent to the med bay wound up the mess hall, and things that were supposed to go to the command room went to storage rooms. Leia Organa was overseeing the setup of the command room, trying to keep herself busy and her mind off her potentially dying daughter.
"Princess," Lando said softly, putting a hand on her arm.
"She's here, isn't she," Leia responded, not turning around.
"The medics are sending a stretcher up to the surface as we speak. They asked if you would meet them in the med bay."
Leia barked out a few orders to the scrambling technicians and spun around.
"Then let's go."
She stalked out of the room in the awkward pace between running and walking with Lando close at her heels and his cape billowing behind him. Her heart was in her throat the whole way there and her eyes burned with tears that threatened to fill them. Leia barley stopped at the doors to the med bay, throwing them open and rushing inside. Rey and Luke were standing off to the side and looked up when Leia and Lando came in.
"Where is she," Leia said rushing over to them. "Where is my kid?"
"She's over there," Luke said soothingly, gesturing over to a crowd of medics, "they're looking her over right now."
"I need to see her," Leia said, taking a few steps forward.
Luke and Lando reached forward and each grabbed one of her arms, effectively stopping her.
"You have to let them do their jobs," said Lando firmly. "You can't get in their way."
"I am not going to get in their way, but I'm not just going to stand here! That's my daughter," Leia said, her voice bordering on hysterical, as she jerked her arms away from them. "She's all I have!"
Within seconds, she was at Allana's side, and Luke, Rey, and Lando were close behind.
"Oh my god," Leia said, reaching up to cover her mouth when she caught sight of her daughter.
They had removed her clothing down to her underwear in order to properly see and bandage the wounds. Her body was covered in sand from her time in the desert, she had bruises from falling, and was deathly pale. Allana was hooked up to countless machines and had multiple tubes injected into her arms.
"General Organa," the head medic said tentatively.
"How bad is it," Leia responded, not taking her eyes off her daughter.
"The wound on her thigh isn't serious, but it has become infected. The blaster bolt to her stomach ruptured her intestines and her stomach is bleeding. Her heart is significantly weakened from the strain, and she's also suffering from dehydration and severe sun stroke."
"Is she…is…how long," Leia choked out, unable to voice what she wanted to.
"She's not going to die as long as there are no complications in her treatment. We're going to try to stop some of the bleeding, and then we're going to put her in bacta for around twelve hours. After that, provided that the bleeding has stopped and her intestines are repaired, we're going to hook her up to an IV, so she can receive antibiotics for the infection and fluids to combat dehydration."
"She's going to live," Rey said slowly.
"She is. Everyone needs to leave the room in order for us to begin treatment. General Organa can stay if she wishes."
"I'm staying with her," Luke said firmly.
"Luke," Leia began.
"I'm staying Leia."
"No, you're not," her voice taking on a hard edge, "you don't need to try to protect me from this. I. Will. Be. Fine. The best thing you can do for me right now is let me be alone with my daughter."
"Are you sure," Lando asked tentatively.
"Yes. Lando, can you please oversee the set-up of the base? I can't…"
"Anything Princess."
"Rey," Leia said, turning to the girl still looking at Allana, "Rey, look at me."
Rey slowly turned her head, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. Leia walked over to her and hugged her tightly.
"I want you to find your friends, get something to eat, find your bunk, sleep a little if you want, and then you can come back here. Please do that for me."
Rey nodded slowly, squeezing Leia a little bit tighter. She eventually let go and let Lando lead her out of the room. Leia then turned to Luke.
"You can't hold my hand through this," Leia said slowly. "I need to do this alone. You need to go make up with your kid."
"I will," Luke said, kissing the top of her head, "just reach out if you need me."
"I will."
Luke left the room, pulling the door tight behind him, and Leia sank down into a chair off to the side as the medics worked on her daughter.
…
Rey walked around the base as if in a daze. Lando had given her directions to the mess hall and promised to send Finn, Ami, or Poe to find her if he saw them, but then he had run off to see what still needed to be done. Rey was sure she was lost in the maze of caverns that were filled with boxes and people running from one place to the next.
"Rey," someone called out.
She spun around and almost collapsed with relief when she saw Finn running towards her.
"Finn," gasped Rey as he enveloped her in a bone crushing hug.
Rey lost herself the familiarity of his embrace. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face into his neck.
"You're not dead. You're not dead," he repeated over and over as they stood hugging each other in the middle of the hallway. "I'm so glad you're not dead."
Suddenly, everything was too much for Rey. The emotions she had been holding in since Allana collapsed came rushing out. Tears poured down her cheeks as she hugged Finn even tighter.
"It's okay," he murmured softly as he stroked her hair. "It's okay."
Just at that moment, Ami and Poe came tearing down the hallway.
"Rey," Ami said, coming to a stop right next to them, "my dad told us you were back on the… are you crying?"
"Here," Poe said, opening a door to an empty room, "let's go in here."
Finn guided the still sobbing Rey into the room with Ami close behind them. Once inside, Finn helped her sit down on the ground. She clung to him, and Finn kept his arms wrapped around her while Ami knelt down on her other side, and Poe sat on the ground in front of them. Ami reached out and undid Rey's hair from the messy bun it was in and began braiding it in an effort to calm her down.
"Do you want to talk about it," Poe asked softly.
Rey took a deep shaky breath before speaking.
"It all happened so fast," she said, her voice barley loud enough for them to hear, "I got hit on the arm and the next thing I knew she was on the ground. Then we were on the speeder, and then the speeder died, and then…"
"Go slow Rey," Finn said softly, "take your time."
Rey furiously wiped at the tears rolling down her face.
"The speeder died when I could see the farm on the horizon," she said taking a deep breath, "We were so close. I knew I couldn't get there carrying her, and I didn't want to leave her alone. So, I got her off the speeder and in the shade of this cliff. She was talking to me while I changed her bandage, but then suddenly she just passed out. I sat there for hours just waiting and just sitting there helpless!"
"You did everything you could," Ami said.
"There was so much blood. I should have stopped the bleeding. I didn't know it was possible for someone to lose that much blood."
Finn, Ami, and Poe exchanged looks.
"Rey," Finn said slowly, "where is Allana right now?"
"Med bay," Rey choked out, "how do I tell Leia that I killed her daughter?"
Ami grabbed her chin and forced her to look at her.
"You didn't kill her," Ami said firmly, "they're treating her right now. She's not dead. You did everything right."
Ami stood up slowly and put her hands on her hips.
"Sitting here is not going to help her. I'm going to take Rey to find her bunk, so she can shower and get some sleep. Poe, I know you have work to do so go do it. Finn, I need you to go to the Winged Calrissian and get Rey something to eat that's not ration bars or whatever slop they're going to try to pass off as food. Go! Now! And whatever you do, don't bother General Organa."
Rey slowly untangled herself from Finn and let Poe and Ami help her up. She leaned heavily on Ami as she led her out of their quiet little corner and out into the noisy base.
…
Leia had been sitting there for six hours. Two hours of watching them cut her daughter open, and four hours of watching her float in the bacta tank. She had only gotten up to move into a chair in the room with the bacta tank. A medic had left a tray with some food on it, but she hadn't touched it. She stared blankly at the bacta tank as the door hissed open and someone sat down next to her.
"You need to eat something," Lando said, nudging the tray towards her.
"Not hungry."
"Doesn't mean you don't need to eat."
"Lando, please."
"I'm not leaving till you eat something. It's late. Most of the base has already had dinner and is headed to bed, and I know for a fact that you probably haven't eaten since you found out about Allana which was roughly forty hours ago. Eat something."
"If I eat it, I'll just throw it up," she said, glancing at the tray.
"Try it. Please?"
She groaned softly but picked up a piece of bread and bit into it. And immediately spat it out.
"It tastes like chalk," she said, taking a swig of water.
"Thanks for trying," Lando said, focusing on Allana.
They sat in silence for what felt like hours until Lando spoke up.
"I saw him by the way."
"Who?"
"Han."
"Oh."
"I saw him right before he died. Stopped by on his way to pick up some Rathtars. I'm guessing he landed on your base a week or so later."
"And then he died," Leia said, bitterness creeping into her voice.
"He was worried about you."
"What," she asked, turning to face him.
"He knew I was in contact with you. Sending the Resistance supplies. He wanted to make sure you were alright."
Leia's hand automatically went to the wedding rings she wore around her neck.
"He never stopped loving you Princess. I don't think he ever was."
"Lando, can we please not talk…"
"He asked me if I would look after you if anything happened to him. You and Allana."
"Lando, please."
"I just wanted you to know that," he said reaching out to squeeze her hand, "because I know that when things get hard you like to shut people out and pretend that you can do all of this on your own. You don't have to do this on your own Leia. If you need anything, just ask. Okay?"
"Okay," Leia said softly, "thank you Lando."
"No problem Princess."
…
Rey jerked awake from a deep sleep to someone shaking her shoulder. Her heart was racing, and her throat was on fire. She opened her heavy eyelids to find Luke staring down at her, concern written all over his face.
"I stopped by to check on you, and you were screaming," he said softly, helping her sit up, "you were having a nightmare."
"Oh," she said, gratefully accepting the glass of water that Luke handed her.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No. Is Allana okay?"
"She's still in bacta. She has about four hours left."
"But she's not dead?"
"Not dead."
"I going to see her," she said, already scrambling to get out of bed.
"Not right now," Luke said grabbing her shoulders and steering her back towards the bed, "it's the middle of the night, and Leia wants to be alone with her right now. I'll wake you up when there's an hour left. Lando's going to wake Finn and Ami then too. We'll all go see her together, and I think Poe is going to join us."
"I need to see her now."
"No, you don't," Luke said sternly, "right now you need to sleep."
"Fine," she said, sliding back into bed.
"Rey?"
"Yes Luke?"
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for not knowing that you were my daughter. I'm sorry for not looking harder for you. I'm sorry for not telling you myself. I'm sorry…"
"Stop. Please," Rey said tiredly.
"Rey…"
"You're my father. I've come to terms with that. I know that you're sorry. Can we please talk about this later when I'm not really tired and we're not worried about Allana?"
"Of course," he said smiling softly.
He got up to leave the room, but before he could open the door, Rey called out.
"Luke?"
"Yeah," he said, turning around to look at her.
"Can you…can you stay with me? Please? I don't want to have another nightmare and wake up alone."
Luke didn't say anything, but he flipped off the lights and sank down into the chair next to her bed.
"Goodnight," she said softly, moments away from being claimed by sleep.
"Goodnight."
…
When there was exactly one hour left of Allana's time in the bacta tank, the door slid open. Lando and Luke took the chairs on either side of Leia. Luke slung his arm around Leia's shoulder and she melted into his side while Lando grabbed her hand. Ami hugged Leia gently before sitting down on the floor next to her father and pulling her knees up to her chest. Poe slid down to sit next to her, and Finn and Rey sat down next to Luke their arms slung around each other. Chewbacca lumbered in and stood off to the side, his arms crossed over his chest. They sat in silence for a long time, just staring at Allana floating in bacta.
"I'm sorry Leia," Rey suddenly choked out, "if I had been paying attention, she wouldn't be in this tank, and if I had acted quicker she wouldn't have lost so much blood and…"
"Rey," Leia said kindly, "come here."
She stood up and walked over to Leia. Leia stood up slowly and wrapped her arms around her.
"You did everything right. You kept her conscious for as long as you could, you kept her wound clean, you kept her as cool as you could, and you stayed calm. The only people that can be blamed for this is the person that fired the blaster. That was not you."
Leia pulled back and used her thumbs to wipe away the tears that were rolling down her cheeks.
"It's not your fault," she whispered, kissing Rey's forehead. "Now go sit back down."
Leia let her go, and Rey walked back to her seat.
"Before she passed out she was joking," Rey said once she sat down. "I went to change her bandage and as soon as she saw it all she could say was 'mom's going to be pissed.' What kind of person jokes when they're dying?"
"Her apparently," Poe said, "she did that once with me. We were ambushed and her X-wing was shot down. Once the First Order was gone, I went down to look for her. She was still in the X-wing and not too badly hurt other than a broken leg. It was a really bad fracture and her bone had broken through her skin, and while I was panicked about how to get her back to the base without hurting her more, all she could do was joke about it. I think that's the only time I've ever been truly angry at her."
"I remember that," Leia said thoughtfully, "you looked about ready to strangle her by the time you guys were back on the base."
Ami laughed out loud.
"I'm sorry. I really shouldn't be laughing right now, but she used to pull stuff like that with me all the time when we were kids."
"She does stuff like that when she's scared," Luke said staring at his niece. "It's her way of coping. Han used to do that all the time in the old days. Anytime he was nervous or stressed out, he'd cope by making some joke or sarcastic remark."
"He did, didn't he," Leia said, a faraway look in her eyes.
Before anyone could say anything else, the door opened again, and a medic stepped inside.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's time. We need all of you to vacate the room."
Without a word they all stood up and walked single file out the door. Once outside, Leia leaned into Chewbacca and Luke for support, Lando wrapped his arms around Ami, Finn held onto Rey, and Poe leaned against the wall, his eyes closed. They stood there for what felt like years until Allana was rolled out and placed on a bed.
"The bacta was successful," the medic said as someone else attached an IV to Allana's arm. "She's going to need to stay in here for a few days so we can observe her, but it looks like she'll make a full recovery."
"When will she wake up," Rey blurted out.
"Any moment now. It's probably best that she only has one person at her side when she does wake up. We don't want to stress out."
"Go Leia," Luke said nudging her forward, "we'll be right here."
Leia slowly walked over to her daughter and clutched her hand tightly. Everyone watched, holding their breath. Leia gently rubbed circles on Allana's hand with her thumb, willing her to wake up. Eventually, Allana's eyes started to twitch and her hand gripped her mother's.
"Lana," Leia said softly, "open your eyes. You're safe. You're okay."
Allana's eyes slowly fluttered open, and she stared up at her mother.
"Hey baby," Leia said, breaking into a smile, "how are you feeling?"
"Hurts," she moaned softly, "and tired."
"I know," Leia responded, smoothing her hair back. "It'll go away soon."
"Hi," Allan croaked out, catching sight of the others in the room.
"Hi," Ami said stepping forward, "you know you promised that the next time I saw you, you would be in one piece."
"Sorry," she responded, grabbing her hand and focusing her attention on the others in the room, "I'm not an exhibit. Come welcome me back from the dead."
Shortly after she had woken up, Allana fell back asleep, something that doctors had assured Leia was perfectly normal. Everyone said their goodbyes to Leia and left the room except for Poe. The two of them stood in the doorway of her room, watching her sleep.
"You should go to sleep," Leia said to Poe.
"I think I'm going to stay here a little longer."
"The medics are monitoring her you know."
"I know. I just want to be here in case anything…"
"I get it."
Leia sighed softly.
"I promised Luke that I would go get some sleep, and something tells me that he'll drag me out of here if he has to, so I'm going to get going."
"I won't stay long," Poe said softly, "goodnight General."
"Goodnight Dameron," she said squeezing his arm. "I told you she was going to be fine."
AN: Hi all! My beta reader was unable to work on this chapter with me, so it definitely isn't the same level as all of the others. Please let me know if there are any mistakes I need to be aware of, and please leave a review! They truly make my day and give me motivation to write the next chapter!
