Together

"I'm sorry."

Rey looked over at the man sitting next to her. They were huddled up together on the bench seat on the starboard side of the little cruiser. Rey had her feet up on the bench and was hugging her knees, while Poe had his arm wrapped around her shoulders. The temperature inside the ship was just above freezing and was slowly dropping, but Rey knew that wasn't a concern.

The fact that they were also slowly running out of oxygen was a bit more distressing.

"It's not your fault," Rey told Poe quietly. "You didn't know that patrol would be there. I think you did an amazing job getting us away."

And he had. He had flown this ship, an older model that was unknown to him until they had 'borrowed' it for this mission, brilliantly. The First Order patrol didn't have any reason to hassle them, as their forged credentials were perfect, but they didn't need a reason. They were in control and they were bored. When they didn't like Poe's answers to their questions, they had announced they were detaining them and were sending a boarding party. With the two storage containers full of weapons on board, Rey and Poe could not let that happen.

Poe had made a run for it, and he had succeeded in ducking and dodging the resulting laser fire for the most part. But one lucky shot had hit them just as Poe jumped to hyperspace. They had made it maybe about ten seconds into the jump when the ship fell out of hyperspace. For over an hour, Rey had helped Poe try and make repairs to the ship, but there was nothing they could do. Everything was fried. Engines, communications, life support.

The ship was literally dead in space.

The little stolen cruiser had nothing in the way of emergency life support. No space suits, no thermal blankets, no filtration masks with oxygen attached.

After determining there was nothing more to do, they had settled close together on the bench, sharing each other's body heat.

"In a way, it is my fault," Poe argued. "I was the one who wanted to stop here for supplies that aren't necessities." A contact had informed them that a supporter had a large number of data pads and other clerical equipment available. While these things would come in handy with the growing Resistance, they weren't essential.

"You were just tired of Leia complaining about our equipment," Rey said with a smile. "You're just trying to make her life easier."

"Yeah, and look were that got us."

Rey shrugged. "Well, I could say something profound like 'we're all going to die at some point,' but I don't think you want to hear that."

Poe snorted.

"At least we're together," Rey added softly. She rested her head on his shoulder. She could already feel herself getting light-headed.

"Isn't there a… thing… you can do with the Force?" Poe asked. "Where you can go into a coma, or something?"

Rey lifted her head and looked at him, shock filling her. "What?"

"You can do that," Poe continued, his eyes huge and worried. "Maybe you can survive until help comes."

"We don't know that help is coming," Rey argued. The Resistance knew what planet they had been heading to, but the odds of them being found lightyears away from there were beyond astronomical. Poe had engaged the emergency beacon in his pack, but it was meant for use on planet surfaces, not the middle of space. "Besides, I'm not leaving you alone."

"Rey, if there is even the slightest chance of you living through this…"

"No!" She laid her head back on his shoulder, effectively ending the debate.

"You're so stubborn," he whispered.

"And you love me all the more for it."

"I do," he confirmed. "I do love you."

Rey felt tears forming in her eyes at his words. Though they had become more than friends over a month ago, he had never said those words to her.

"I love you, too, Poe."

She felt him kiss the top of her head, and she squeezed her eyes shut, feeling the tears slide down her cheeks. She started to slide into sleep when she felt something almost like a poke on her brain. It woke her up, and she struggled to focus. She recognized the feeling, now. She looked at Poe, who had also been fading into sleep, as he became alert to her tension.

"What is it?"

"Leia," Rey breathed. "She found us."

As soon as the words left her mouth, the Millennium Falcon appeared in the viewport.

"Well, it looks like we're getting out of this after all," Poe grinned.

Rey smiled back. "Together."