FREE FALLING ━━ p. dameron ✓

twenty three

As we all sit in the medbay, thinking up ideas to distract Holdo, Poe stands up. I do too.

"Where are you going?" I ask him.

"I just want to see if Holdo has a plan. If she has any idea what she's doing." Poe says. I can see the anger behind his eyes.

"Let me come with you."

Poe shakes his head. "No."

"Why? It's not like this is going to get messy. And if you think it is, then that is an even better reason for me to come with." I say.

Poe sighs. He's knows I've made a good point.

"Fine." He finally says. I turn and nod at Lula before scurrying after Poe.

"You know we just lost our last support ship." I tell Poe. "All 400 of us are on this main cruiser now."

Poe nods. "I know. Our fuel is down to four hours too. I'm nervous."

"We all are."

The two of us arrive at the makeshift bridge and find D'Acy guarding the door.

"She in there?" Poe asks. He's not waiting for an answer.

"The Admiral's banned you from the bridge. Let's not have a scene." D'Acy says. She looks nervous.

"No, let's." Poe pushes past the Commander and steps into the bridge. I follow. Immediately all eyes turn to us. "Holdo?" He says loudly.

D'Acy follows us. "You're not allowed in here."

Holdo sighs and turns to Poe and I. "Flyboy. Ms. Solo."

"Cut it, lady. We had a fleet, now we're down to one ship, and you've told us nothing!" Poe walks towards Holdo while I stay by the doorway. This isn't my fight. "Tell us that we have a plan! That there's hope!"

"When I served under Leia, she would say hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you can see it...."

"You'll never make it through the night." Poe hangs his head looking obviously beaten. D'Acy lets out a happy sigh beside me.

Holdo tilts her head. "Yes."

Poe glances up at her, disgust splayed across his face. His eyes drift to a screen behind Holdo. His eyes widen. "Are you fueling up the transports?"

Holdo sighs. She obviously didn't want him to see that.

Poe walks towards the screen. The General fueling up the ships gets up and steps away from Poe. "You are. All of them? We're abandoning ship?Is that...that's what you got?" He turns back to Holdo.

Anger flashes in Poe's eyes and he kicks a chair. He pushes a pile of papers off a desk.

Everyone around me flinches by his sudden outbursts. Poe is always so calm and controlled, even in dangerous and nerve wracking situations.

I do not flinch. He needs to vent, to get his anger out. Instead, when he stops and looks at me, I nod at him in reassurance.

Holdo turns to me and her upper lip curls in disgust. I wrinkle my nose at her.

"It's not my fault. That's what you brought us to. You are a coward. Those transports ships are unarmed, unshielded. We abandon this cruiser, we're done. We don't stand a chance." I state. I cross my arms over my chest.

"No, you are not just a coward, you are a traitor!" Poe says. The chain around his neck is askew, and one dark curl had fallen against his forehead.

Admiral Holdo turns and stares at Poe, her mouth set in a firm line.

"Get them off my bridge." She says.

Two guards wrestle Poe and I off of the bridge.

"Hey! Get your hands off of her!" Poe yells. He finally gets his arm out of his guards grip, and steps towards me.

"I'm fine Poe! I just-" I say, yanking my arm out of the guards grip. I adjust my shirt. "Be careful. When General Leia comes to, she won't want to know that you manhandled her daughter." I sneer.

The two guards turn to each other, worry splayed across their faces.

"We were just following orders." The one who had been holding me mumbles.

"Watch yourself." The other guard warns.

They both turn and walk to the bridge, whispering among themselves.

Poe pinches the bridge of his nose. BB-12 whirs up to us, and beeps sadly.

I reach down, and intertwine my fingers with Poe's.

"Come on Dameron." I whisper. I give his hand a squeeze. Poe lets out a sigh, and I lead him back to the medbay.

Poe takes out his comlink to Finn and turns it on.

"Finn, Holdo's loading the crew in the shuttles. She's going to abandon ship. Where are you?"

"Poe, we're on our way back to the fleet. We're so close." I hear Finn's voice. There's obvious worry in it.

"Did you find the Master Codebreaker?"

Finn pauses. "We found a codebreaker. We can shut the tracker down. Just buy us a little more time."

Poe presses the comlink to his forehead and squeezes my hand. "All right, hurry." He finally says. He turns off the comlink.

"We need to tell the others." I say. Poe nods.

BB-12 whirs ahead of us. I'm not even sure where he came from? He has a good habit of turning up when I most need him.

"Finn and Rose will get here before Holdo can do anything about the transports." I whisper to Poe.

He shakes his head. "We better hope so."

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Okk but in this scene, Poe looks hecka fine. 🥵 fight me on this.

word count: 1121