Chapter Three – Mourning Leia
Rey stood alone, away from the rest of those who attended Leia's ceremony, near to the edge of the force field which surrounded the shrine to Alderaan and Leia's burial place. Rey pushed her hand into the shimmering dome, playing with the resistance. As she did so, she softly hummed a children's tune.
Poe, walking by with a small crowd of people around him, hears turned his head to look for the source of the sound. Excusing himself from the hangers on, he walked her way. His pace was slowed by the attendees who stopped him to shake his hand and have what they promised would be a brief word. Poe thought he had finally extricated himself completely when a very large, very furry, white creature came up to him and began to vigorously shake his hand. The hand shaking turned into bowing and general supplications, as Poe tried to get the alien to stand up. "It's Ok, its Ok," Poe said as the alien began to bow more deeply so that he was almost prostrate on the ground. "You don't have to do that. Please, don't do that. Please get up. Please. It's great to see you too, thank you for all that you do for the fleet."
When the alien stood up and started bowing again rapidly, Poe said, "Ok, Ok. You do wonderful work. Thank you!" Poe patted the alien on the shoulder and walked away from it towards Rey. As he approached from behind, Rey smiled and stopped humming.
"What does he do? For the fleet?" she asked
Poe shrugged his shoulders, saying, "I don't know. Thing is growing so fast, hard to keep track."
Rey looked over her shoulder at Poe and smiled sadly before saying, "That's your job now."
"Yeah," Poe sighed. "What was that song?"
Rey looked confused and asked, "What?"
"The song. I heard you singing it to Leia when you sat with her, and a couple of times…you know," Poe hesitated to speak directly of Leia's death, "since."
"Oh, sorry. Didn't realize I was doing it again," Rey said. "And it wasn't really singing, just humming. I can't remember the words. Must be some song from Jakku. I had forgotten it. Remembered it a little while back. It seemed to help her sleep better."
Poe smiled and then the two stood around awkwardly. To distract himself Poe picked up a rock and threw it at the force field. It bounced almost directly back at him, hitting him in the leg. "Owww!" he shouted.
Rey grinned as she said, "It's designed precisely to keep stones from impacting the surface. What did you think would happen?"
Poe rubbed his leg where the rock hit him, looked up smiling at Rey and asked, "You could have stopped that from hitting me, couldn't you?"
"Oh Poe, how would you learn then?" Rey asked in mock seriousness.
Poe rolled his eyes, which widened Rey's grin and elicited a grin from Poe in return. She asked, "What brings you away from the gathering?"
Before answering Poe looked out at the asteroids, the fleet and the stars behind them. Then he asked, "Am I ever going to see her again?
"The old Jedi books say that every living thing, upon dying, becomes one with the Force. So I guess that means that one day you will be with her again. We all will," Rey said hopefully.
While Rey answered Poe stood with his hands in his pockets, pushing pebbles around with his feet. When she finished, he looked up at her and said, "Yeah, that's not what I meant."
Rey nodded and said, "You mean is she going to appear to you, the way the old Jedi Masters appeared to Luke?"
"Yeah," Poe said hopefully.
Rey shook her head and said, "I'm sorry Poe, I don't think so."
Poe said, with a hint of self-pity, "She's got better things to do I guess."
"Leia said that Luke believed only those strong with the Force could see them. Even then, I think you need some training," Rey said.
"How did he know that?" Poe asked skeptically as he bent down to pick up another rock. "I thought you said this was a new development, the ghosts thing."
"Apparently some of them appeared to Luke on Endor, after the battle there, and Leia couldn't see them," Rey said.
"Really?" Poe said, looking surprised. He then threw the rock at the field, this time at an angle so it bounced towards Rey. The rock stopped in mid-air before it hit her. She reached out gently to grab it.
"She said she could feel something odd that night. Something sad amongst all the celebrating," Rey said. She threw the rock hard back at the field, angling it so it would bounce back towards Poe, who caught it. He gave Rey a smug look, as though catching it with your hands was more impressive than using the Force.
"Why sad?" Poe asked. "Seems like that would be a happy night." He threw the rock again, bouncing it back towards Rey. She caught it with her hands and raised her eyebrows at Poe.
"Well one of those spirits was her father," Rey answered. Poe's eyes widened, and Rey bounced the stone back to him. This time Poe caught it and held it.
"I could really use her help now, you know," he said.
"We all could," Rey said sadly.
"Sounds like you have all the help you could need. You're probably talking to those old dead Jedi all the time," Poe said, as he tossed the rock up and caught it.
"Not really, no," she replied.
"No?" Poe asked, continuing to toss the stone.
"Guess they all have better things to do," she said.
Poe caught the stone and holds it. He and Rey exchanged a look, as the realization set in that it was all up to them. From the crowd Rose Tico called Poe's name. They turned to look as she walked towards them.
"Sorry Poe," Rose said. "The Corellian delegation has a…request."
Poe's shoulders slumped and he said, "If this is the monument thing again…"
"What monument thing?" Rey asked.
"The Corellians are claiming that because Leia was married to Han Solo, and Han was a Corellian, that that means she is also Corellian," Poe said exasperatedly. "They want to put up a monument here. All the other major factions say if Corellia gets to have a monument to her, they should get one too. The Alderaanian refugees are angry that Corellia is claiming Leia as theirs. It's a mess."
"Yeah, well, it's the monument thing," Rose said. "I didn't know she and Han got married."
"By Corellian customs they did. They lived together and obviously they had a kid. I have to go deal with this," Poe said.
Rey answered, with mock solemnity, "The weighty decisions that come with the burdens of leadership."
Poe shook his head and started to walk back to the main group, but then turned back to Rey, saying, "Rey, don't leave without me. I have something to discuss with you."
"No problem," Rey said.
Poe turned back around and walked towards the crowd. Once he was out of earshot Rose turned to Rey and said, "Isn't he your ride?"
"Yep," Rey said.
Rose said, apologetically, "He's got a lot on his mind."