Chapter 2

The rest of the morning was spent on repairing her ship. Not that it bothered Alex. She had grown up around the smell of oil and the clanking of tools against metal. It was what made the engineering bay Alex's favourite place on base. Memories of watching her father and Chewbacca work on the Millennium Falcon crept into her mind as she worked on her own ship. Alex smirked as she remember how, more often than not, her father would curse after being shocked by the spaceship and Chewie would roar in laughter, prompting her and her mother to join in. This would quickly turn into a light-hearted argument between the three while Alex watched gleefully with Luke and her br…

Alex snapped out of her reverie.

Such things were of the past.

Han was gone.

Chewie along with him.

Her mother was there, but kept her distance.

Luke disappeared.

And Ben…

Alex quickly focussed back on her ship, her good mood ruined. No matter how hard she tried to stop thinking about her brother, she just couldn't. Despite everything that had happened, the connection between them remained. They were twins after all. Though Alex had suppressed the force bond between them to the point where he could no longer feel her presence, it was still there. Like a shadow on a cloudy day, faint but still present.

At that thought, Alex finally threw down the tool in her hand. She wouldn't get her focus back now. She cast her eye over her ship. Her U-wing wasn't the flashiest ship in the galaxy but it flew. It was no T-70 X-wing (which was arguably better in terms of speed and manoeuvrability) but Alex's job was about stealth and being unnoticed. For this, the old U-wing was perfect.

She had almost finished her repairs. A couple more hours and her girl would be up and flight ready. Alex smiled to herself, running her hand over her ship. Alex may have failed at being a Jedi but, when it came to mechanics, she conquered. She was after all her father's daughter.

Poe had only just managed to get away from the command room. What was supposed to be a brief meeting between him and the general had turned into a full scale conference between the commanding officers of Resistance. The First Order had increased in number again and it was becoming increasingly harder to gain recruits for the Resistance. Though ever since Ziff had leaked that poster of Poe onto the holonet, recruitment had increased. However, it still took time to train them.

Poe scoffed as he remembered the suggestion by Commander Anderson to cut down on the time allowed for cadets to train, to get them working for the Resistance faster. Despite being in charge of the Intelligence division, he seemed to lack his own at times. Thankfully, his suggestion was quickly vetoed by General Organa. Thank the force for that woman.

Shaking his head, Poe continued to wander down the busy corridors. He had nowhere in particular that he needed to be at the moment. Snap and the rest of his squadron were probably goofing around in the canteen by now and BB8 was down in repairs after getting clipped in the last battle two days ago. Poe had missed his little droid, having become used to his constant presence beside him. A lot of damage had been done that day. The Resistance won the battle but at a high cost. Fifthteen pilots had been killed. Not their biggest loss but still significant.

Even their ships were not spared, Poe's own black X-wing had taken a beating as he had pushed it too far trying to support his pilots. He had managed to burn out some of the wiring causing one of the engines to glitch. BB8 took a hit as a result. Poe knew that once the droid was fixed, he would have to grovel for the droid's forgiveness. BB8 may be small but force knows when he held a grudge, the droid was terrifying.

Making up his mind, Poe decided to swing by engineering to check on BB8 and his ship. The droid first otherwise he's never hear the end of it.

Alex had just finished securing the last wire when the noise level in the engineering room suddenly increased. Looking up briefly, Alex immediately turned away again with a roll of her eyes. Shouts of greetings were echoed across the large hanger as the Resistance's greatest pilot joined them.

Once again, Alex wouldn't say she hated Dameron, it was just that he seemed to treat everything like a game. She couldn't think of one briefing where he hadn't cracked some kind of joke. Not to say that they weren't funny, just Alex believed there was a time and place for that kind of thing.

Because of this, Alex had garnered her own reputation of cutting him down. Quite brutally at times. But did he learn his lesson? No, he only got worse. Leia had lost count of the number of times she had to separate the two officers. The base even had a running tally on who had won the most arguments between them. It was Alex of course, but Poe wasn't far behind.

Alex could hear him getting closer and after a quick survey of her surroundings, Alex groaned as she spotted a very familiar black X-wing parked right to her ship. How she missed it before she didn't know.

Pointedly turning her back to him, Alex fiddled with the wires in front of her. There was nothing left for her to fix but it made her look busy and might deter the Commander from approaching her.

"Good morning Captain Simms. Terrorised anyone yet today?"

Apparently she didn't look busy enough.

"I think you mean afternoon, don't you Dameron?" Alex corrected before twisting in her seat to face him. "And, as for the last part, why terrorise others when I have you?"

Poe smirked as he looked down at the woman before him. "Nice to know that I have your undivided attention."

"Hardly," Alex scoffed, turning back to her ship. "You just happen to irritate me more than others."

Poe edged himself back into her line of sight by leaning against her ship. This earned him a scowl which he responded with another smirk. "That hurts, darling," said Poe raising a hand to rest above his heart. "Here I thought I was special."

"Well here I thought that you were supposed to be the galaxies best pilot. Burning out your engines? I thought you knew better. And don't call me darling."

"Well, I could fly circles around you any day."

"How would you know, Dameron? You never seen me fly and I had a very good teacher." Alex took her eyes off the wires in front of her to look up at Poe.

"Is that a challenge?" Poe leaned closer. "Darling."

Alex just glared up at him and he just smirked at her.

That was until…

"Not interrupting anything, are we?" came a voice from behind them.

Both Poe and Alex jerked away from each other to look towards the voice. There stood the rest of Black squadron: Karé Kun, L'ulo, Oddy Muva, Jessika Pava and Temmin 'Snap' Wexley. It was Karé who had spoken.

With a quick glance at Poe, Alex responded with, "Not at all. Now tell your commander to stop bothering me."

Jessika stepped forward with a grin, "Shot down again Dameron. I think you're losing your charm."

"Hardly," replied Poe walking towards his squad, swagger in every step. "I was just talking the captain here into friendly competition."

"Oh really what on?" asked Snap.

"Flying, what else?" answered Poe. This resulted in a collective groan from his squad. "What?"

"Really Poe? Hardly fair of you of all people to challenge someone at being the better pilot." Snap looked at Alex who raised an eyebrow up at him. "No offence."

Alex sighed. "None taken. It's not like any of you have seen me pilot. But rest assured, I would give even Dameron here a run for his money."

"In that?" Snap asked, gesturing to Alex's U-wing.

Alex paused, glancing over Black squadron. They all showed the same scepticism as they looked over her ship. Scoffing, Alex quipped "First, my ship is incredible so back off. Second, I do own an X-wing."

Shock was evident on all their faces, obviously trying to recall if they had ever seen Alex with an X-wing. Poe recovered first, about to reply when he was interrupted by a series of excited whistles and beeps. The group turned to right as a little orange and white droid came rolling up to Poe.

"Hey there buddy." Poe knelt down to the small droid. "I was just coming to see if you were okay."

BB8 beeped back a reply.

"Yes I was. Captain Simms here distracted me," Poe retorted.

This time R4, who had been quietly listening, finally decided to chip in with his own reply. And it was not in Poe's favour.

"You should lie to your droid Poe. They always find out the truth," snickered L'ulo.

Poe let out a laugh before apologising to BB8. The droid begrudgingly accepted and then rolled over to sit by R4.

"Anyway…How about it, Captain?" grinned Poe after turning back to Alex. "Let's see who the better pilot is."

Alex was silent for a second before pushing the wires she was holding back into her ship and repositioned the panelling to hold them in. She secured the panelling before answering. "Alright." She stood up, turning to face Poe. "But it will have to wait. I have a something I need to take care of first." Alex grabbed the datapad that her mother had given her earlier, waving it at Poe.

His eyes glinted with recognition. "Anything interesting?"

"Not sure yet." Alex walked over so that she was standing on his left. "But Dameron, I couldn't tell you either way. Classified information and all."

"Come on darling, I can keep a secret," chuckled Poe. The difference in their heights allowed Poe to tower over her.

"Sorry. No can do. Come on R4." With one last glance at Poe, Alex walked out of the hanger with R4 trailing along behind her.

Jessika let out a low whistle before turning to Poe. "Of all the people you could have had a crush on, it had to be her."

"I do not have a crush," scoffed Poe. "There's just something different about her. It's like she is keeping a secret."

Oddy sat down on a crate and said, "She's a spy. Of course she has secrets."

"Thanks Oddy. I didn't realise," Poe quipped sarcastically. "That's not what I mean. There's just something peculiar about her."

"Peculiar?" asked Karé.

"I think you just have a crush on her mate," chortled Snap.

The rest of the squad laughed while Poe merely chuckled as well. He cast his gaze back to the empty doorway that Alex had exited through. He knew she was holding something back. Something big. It was this thought that Poe used to justify his fascination with the intelligence officer. After all, it was his job to protect his soldiers and the Resistance. And if Alex Simms was hiding something important, he was going to find out. He needed to. At least that's what he kept telling himself.