Finn was getting better every day. He was up and walking again, getting the details on everything that had happened in his absence. He had to be reunited with BB-8 who positively freaked out when it found out Finn was okay. Finn didn't understand a beep of anything the droid was saying, but Poe assured him it was all good. They would occasionally see Dara around the base. She looked stony faced and grim. She looked sick, tired, gaunt. Whenever Poe got the urge to go over to her and see if she was okay, he quickly thought better of it. Somehow he knew she just wanted to be alone. The General was showing more of a brave face, and was continuing her excellent work leading the Resistance. She hardly spoke two words to him, but he expected no different. She was a busy woman. Finn was giving as much valuable information about the First Order as he could. Poe was happy to see that he wasn't greeted with too much distrust. Most people seemed to understand that Stormtroopers were conditioned since childhood to be what they were. And Finn had broken free of that. He had been stolen away from a family, most likely and conditioned to be the way he was. Poe couldn't even begin to imagine what that must have been even like.

It was nice to finally get to know Finn. He was just as quirky and endearingly clueless as Poe had thought he was. But he was a smart and brave guy. His actions had certainly proven that. Finn told his story of his adventures with Rey and everything that had happened since they had crash-landed that TIE fighter. Whenever he spoke about Rey, he sounded like he really admired her.

"She sounds like a hell of a girl." Poe said, when Finn was recounting the tale of how Rey had flown the Millennium Falcon back on Jakku. Finn caught his probing look.

"Okay, I guess I like her a little." Poe quirked a brow. "Okay more than a little." Poe was laughing when he saw Dara approach him, her face set with determination. He stopped laughing and straightened up in his chair. Finn had sense enough to stay silent as she approached. She was still wearing black, her long white hair scraped back in that braided bun. Her eyes were rimmed red from crying, her face was pale from sorrow and tiredness, she had bags under her eyes, but she looked calm.,

"I need you to take me to a point on the opposite side of the planet." Her voice was monotonous. Grief had drained her. Poe looked at Finn and gave him a nod as a means of saying goodbye. Finn nodded back. He started to walk with Dara.

"I have one condition."

"What?" she said, shortly.

"You have to eat first."

"No."

"Then I'm not taking you anywhere." She stopped walking and turned on him. She looked a little bit angry. "I know what you're going through. I know you probably haven't eaten in a while. I can tell to just look at you. You're going to get some food with me, then I'll take you where you want to go."

"I'll just get another pilot! You're not special, Dameron." she snapped. She started to storm away from him.

"Fine. But they won't care about what you're going through. You need someone to care right now." That stopped her. "It's just food, Princess. It won't hurt you." She looked fit to spit fire. She was either going to storm out of his life forever, or she'd let him take care of her. He wasn't going to back down.

"Fine." It was a begrudging remark, but he'd won the showdown. She came back to him and they headed down a dark, grey corridor towards the canteen. "I'm not hungry." she said in a small voice.

"You'll surprise yourself." The canteen had a cluster of pilots, engineers, and ground troops. A good deal of them waved and shouted banter at him. He gave them all a nod. It was a big room, they'd have a little privacy at least.

"Sit. I'll be back with food." Poe hopped over the counter in one fluid motion and went into the kitchen in the back. He cracked a couple of eggs into a bowl, poured in some milk, chopped some spring onion, and bacon. He fried it up quickly enough in a pan. He poured her out a large glass of water and came back out to her. He sat in front of her at the trestle table and placed the food in front of her. He could see that the smell was already working on her. He pushed a fork across the table, silently. She picked it up, still staring dubiously at the omelette. She scooped up a mouthful onto the fork and took a delicate bite. Before long the omelette had disappeared. She gulped the water down.

"So you cook too?" she muttered, meekly. Poe gave her a warm smile.

"My mama taught me. Feel better?" She nodded. He seemed to have calmed the tempest that had been threatening to whip him in the face. He made a mental note. Dara had a temper on her when she was in a strop.

"Thanks." He could tell she was feeling bad for having snapped at him earlier.

"Come on. We have places to be." He waited for her to get up, and they walked together to the hangar.