Poe watched the woman as she slept, fiddling with his thumbs. One of the medics came in and checked her pulse and wound.
"Are you sure you don't mind watching her, Poe?" The pilot shook his head.
"No, no, it's fine. I'd like to help out as much as I can." He said earnestly. She nodded and smiled.
"Well if you need a break just let me know, I'll just be over in the evac ship." Poe smiled and nodded in response. She left the room and Poe sighed out.
He leaned back in the chair and looked at the woman again. Her brow creased for a moment and he wondered if she was dreaming, and if she was—what she was dreaming about. Poe only felt mild guilt about watching her this way while she slept, he was watching to make sure she didn't randomly die throughout the day.
But still he watched her with a soft smile on his face. He didn't know her. Only that her name was Elle, she was a Jedi, and for some reason Leia didn't feel he was important enough to be privy to that information. But he let it go.
He was more excited by the fact that she was a Jedi. Or at least he hoped he was. She owned a lightsaber and killed a small squad of stormtroopers. So if she wasn't a Jedi, she was pretty damn close.
And god, was she beautiful. Dark hair and olive tinted skin—Poe ran his hands over his eyes. What was he thinking? They were there to help this girl.
Maybe he did need a break after all.
"You're hurt." He said, touching the area of her stomach covered in a thick bandage. Elle sighed, her skin shivering in pain and chill. "What happened?"
"Someone shot me." She whispered to the man, who laid next to her in the bed. He held his arm around her waist and rested his forehead against hers. Elle felt cold, freezing actually. The man was not warm like usual, and his chilling breath sent goose bumps down the skin it touched.
"Why did they shoot you?" He asked, his hand ran through her hair.
"Because I..." She paused, her mind foggy and her vision blurring. The smell of bergamot filled her nose and it sent her thoughts racing. He was real, his body-a solid form under her palm.
"Tell me." His grip on her hair felt the slightest bit tighter. Elle tried to push back but he grabbed her neck, at first tenderly.
"Because I killed them." She said, his grip on her neck tightened and she struggled to push herself away. She saw his eyes, and the sadness and anger in them. He kissed her then, and she felt the hand soften around her neck but still held-a finger slowly caressed her jaw. He pulled away and began to speak when-
Elle jumped awake in an instant of panic, her side burning—an ache through the entire left side of her body. The last thing she remembered was fighting off a group stormtroopers who had landed on her planet. With the First Order. And she had dreamt of him, the man, what had that meant?
As her vision was fuzzy, she looked around her bed and table but failed to find her glasses. She sighed and tried to concentrate on the area around her. Slowly she absorbed the room and noticed a young medical specialist in a chair beside her bed asleep. Resistance by the look of it. She was thankful BB-8 had gotten the message out so quickly.
Elle attempted to stand slowly but her side stung with a sharp pain that released itself through each of her limbs. She slowly shifted herself to a sitting position, her legs draping over the side of the bed opposite the sleeping medic. She breathed in fully and out fully, realigning her conscious with her reality. She had no idea how long she was unconscious for, but when she had dreamt of the man, his touch felt so real. It was growing more and more real with each dream.
Slowly Elle stood up, with rickety legs like a new born animal. She held her side that was bound tightly with a microfiber around her entire stomach, that both constricted her movements and increased her ability to move without too much pain. She slipped on a thick sweater and gently stepped out of her room. Following the wall she found the shelf where she kept her spare set of glasses and slipped them on.
Her eyes narrowed and she perked her ears, searching for any sign of BB-8 or Pax. But heard and saw nothing. Slowly, with a slight limp Elle began to search the ship for her companions, growing slightly worried they were harmed in the fight.
After several minutes of searching Elle stepped through the threshold of her greenhouse and spotted Pax and BB-8 with a man in a tan leather jacket. As she stepped closer she quickly gained the attention of him and her companions.
"Oh hello, I hope you don't mind, it's very nice in here compared to outside." He spoke, referencing the level of humidity she kept the room at for the plants. Elle paused and narrowed her eyes at him. He was handsome, with tanned skin, dark curly hair, and a knee-weakening smile. Was he real? Slowly she lifted her hand to his shoulder and pushed it. After watching his body react to touch she smiled.
"Sorry, just-making sure." She laughed nervously. "I was wondering where my dog and droid ended up." She glared playfully at BB-8 who shied away from her and hid behind the man's legs. "You must be special, they don't tend to like anyone."
"They're the special ones, especially your BB-8 unit. Even mine doesn't speak so highly of me."
"You have a BB unit?"
"Almost the same as yours, but white and orange." The man spoke and Elle nodded, smiling at BB.
"BB-8's saved my life more than it should've, I couldn't ask for a better partner." Elle suddenly felt a gentle breeze take ahold of a scent, like rosewater, off the man. The smell calmed her, like the breeze of summer…when she was young.
The man spoke again, "I think you're the only person I've met that sees the usefulness of a BB-8 unit, they're absolutely-"
"One of a kind." Elle and Poe spoke at the same time. They both chuckled gently.
"I'm Poe by the way, Poe Dameron, Resistance Commander Pilot." He stuck his hand out and she shook it, weakly. Still not feeling quite herself in front of his man.
"Elle Gana, but I'm sure you're already aware of that." Poe smiled then again, and Elle felt her heart melt. She then attempted to completely ignore the feeling she just got in the pit of her stomach.
"Yes, I am. And I must say it's a pleasure. You really ripped those troopers a new one, I'm impressed."
She chuckled, "Yes, that's one way of putting it...but thank you. I am quite surprised I was able to do so, so easily. But I guess these stitches in my side are indicative of my rusty experience...I was lucky you got to me so quickly, thank you."
Poe shook his head, "Anything for a fellow rebel." Elle looked down and nodded, subconsciously. She wasn't a rebel per-say, but she really didn't feel like getting into that conversation.
"So, how long have I been passed out since you got here?"
"Oh just a couple of hours, I'm actually surprised you're already walking. I got shot with a blaster once when I was a kid, just nicked me in the side but I was out for at least a week." Elle smirked, quickly growing incredibly fond of this happy-go-lucky pilot. "But I'm not a Jedi so my body works a bit differently-wow I am rambling and making a fool of myself." Poe stuffed his hands in to his pockets and glanced around anxiously.
"Do I make you nervous, Mr. Dameron?" Elle asked him, a suspicious leer in her gaze. Poe smiled, a sort of shy smile but still confident.
"No?" He laughed nervously. Elle gave him a look of light indignation. "Okay yeah, a little bit."
Elle smirked. Good that makes two of us, she thought to herself.
"So how long will you all be staying here?" Elle asked softly picking a few melon berries off a bush.
"As long as you need us I suppose." Elle nodded and offered him her palm full of berries. Poe smirked and took a couple. He popped one in his mouth and closed his eyes in pleasure. "You know the last time I had one of these I was probably ten years old."
Elle smiled, herself enjoying the sweet/sour taste of the berries. Then she got an idea, if only to test out her strength after her injury. Slowly she focused on a bush in the back of the green room and force pulled a Jogan fruit to the middle of the room.
"What about one of these?"
Poe watched her float the fruit with a slight awe struck expression as it passed his face. He picked it out of the air and tossed it up and caught it a few times and gave her a smile.
"Now if I had that ability I would not be using it to pick fruit." Elle smirked.
"What would you use it for—" Elle paused for a moment and sucked in a breath. Without warning the pain dug into her brain like a saw. BB-8 started beeping and rushed over to her as she fell to her knees.
"Elle? Are you okay?" Poe said as he kneeled in front of her, BB-8 beeped at him. This happens all the time. Poe nodded and turned his attention to Elle who was clinching her teeth with her hands running through her hair. Poe held a look of panic on his face as Elle began breathing heavily. Gently Poe placed his hands on her shoulders, sitting directly in front of her and started speaking softly to her. "Hey, come back. You can push it out, just listen to my voice."
Elle slowed down her breathing and opened her eyes. The pain had…her mind raced as she was surprised to see Poe in front of her, his eyes searching her in a rush. The pain had completely subsided, in seconds. The headaches usually lasted ten minutes, not...seconds. Elle felt Poe's hands softly rubbing her shoulders in an attempt at comfort.
"Does that happen a lot?" Poe asked.
"Yeah, ever since I ended up here its nearly every day. But they typically last...a lot longer than that." Elle said and Poe gained a rather cocky but still gentle smile. He offered his hand and helped her stand. Suddenly Elle gripped her side, Poe held her tightly as she lifted her hand covered in blood.
"I think you might have popped a stitch or two." Poe said.
Doctor Post restitched Elle's side as she sat up on a table in the Resistance ship, where she offered to stay awake in trade of anesthesia. And despite the pain Elle paid it no mind as she could not stop thinking about what had just happened.
She started having another headache, feeling that drilling and prying within her mind, when suddenly she was brought out of it by a voice, Poe's voice.
She watched Poe in the corner of the room as he himself watched the doctor stitch her side back up, chewing his fingernail nervously.
Elle looked at the patches on his jacket, his hair, the blaster at his side, he was a complete picture of a Resistance pilot. Poster boy. Elle had met a few pilots in her day, typically trigger happy, adrenalin junkies. Not that that was a bad thing. Poe seemed different, or at least had more attributes than the typical pilot.
But then Elle felt different. The air she breathed seemed different, off some how. Of course she had a very trying couple of days, and given the fact she hasn't seen another human in over a year she's seen an exorbitant amount of them lately.
Elle just...felt at an odds.
Post finished with her stitches and patched her up again. "Now I would normally suggest someone to refrain from extraneous activity but your wound is healing a lot faster than I'm used to."
Elle smirked. "Yeah, one of the many side effects."
"You say side effect—I say a gift." Post packed his medical supplies, "Either way I think I'd like to stay for at least one more day to check on the healing, if that's alright with you, Miss Gana?"
Elle sucked in a breath and nodded reluctantly. "Are you sure the Resistance can spare a doctor for two days?"
"For you, we can." Elle nodded, but unsure of what he really meant.
Elle hopped down from the table and walked toward the door. She turned for a moment and pondered her words. "Just till tomorrow right?" Post nodded, "Good." Elle nodded and snuck a glance at Poe for a split second before she left.