Chapter Text
“BB-8, take care of our guy, okay?” Your favorite droid beeped back. “Don’t let him do anything careless. We don’t need another emergency landing situation like last time.” You gave your boyfriend a side glance, basically warning him with your eyes that if he even tried doing anything stupid you would tear him to shreds when he returned. BB-8 beeped back, agreeing with you.
“Y/N, we’ll be fine. It’s a quick in and out mission.” Poe came over to you, arms going around you in a warm embrace. “We’ll be back in no time.”
“Okay, okay, just be careful. You know the First Order, they’re unpredictable.”
“Which is exactly why this is a secret mission, no back up or big forces coming along. The General wants this to be as low key as possible.” Just as the words left his lips, none other than General Organa herself came walking behind you two with a small smile on her lips. “General.” You both gave her a wave and smile.
“Poe, Y/N. It’s time. We need to get that map before the First Order does.” Poe quickly went to get BB-8 set in the X-Wing as you and Leia continued to talk.
“The First Order knows about Jakku?”
“No, at least not that we know of, but word spreads fast all around the galaxy, so we need to move fast.” A slight look of terror ran across your face, and Leia immediately grabbed a hold of your hand. “Poe will be fine, dear. He’s strong and one hell of a pilot. If anything does happen, he can handle it.” You both smile and you nodded.
Poe was the best pilot in the Resistance; probably the entire galaxy. You knew he could handle anything that got thrown at him, but you still couldn’t help but worry. As Poe got BB-8 settled and grabbed a hold of his helmet, he finally looked towards you. “I’ll be super quick, okay?” He cupped both your cheeks, smiling lovingly at you as he gave you a kiss. With the General just inches away, you both kept it short and you gave him one more peck before letting him go. “I love you, Y/N.”
“I love you too. Now go, be safe and bring back that map.” You shared another loving glance before Poe turned to get into the X-Wing. As he did, Leia and him shared a few words that were too quiet to be heard by you. You turned towards BB-8, saying goodbye to your small droid friend. “Take care of each other, buddy.” BB-8 beeped back, saying he would.
Leia stood with you as Poe flew off, and you couldn’t help but let a small tear fall. You quickly wiped it away, but the General definitely saw it. “Come on, dear. It’s late and you need rest.” You nodded and followed her back to the living quarters on the base.
–
Waking up the next morning, you expected to hear word that Poe and BB-8 were already en route back to the base from Jakku, but instead, it was chaos.
You raced over to the main building, in search of General Leia, to find answers. The entire base was a mess, everyone running around from place to place, yelling and talking about different things. You could hear snippets as you raced around, but you wanted to hear it all from the General herself.
When you finally spotted her, she looked up and locked eyes with you. You knew right at that moment that something had gone wrong. You walked over cautiously, finally reaching her and asking the question you didn’t want to ask. “What happened?”
Leia sighed, and sent away some of the people around you two, before grabbing both your hands. “The First Order got word about the location, and went to Jakku.” Your heart was racing and your breathing was uneven. “Poe was captured.”
“Oh my god,” You felt your breathing become even more uneven, if that was even possible.
“There’s more.”
You looked up at the General, fear written all over your face. “What?”
“There’s been reports of a TIE fighter crash landing on Jakku hours after. We just got this information, and we’re sending in the Resistance to investigate to-”
“You think Poe was in that TIE fighter?”
“The First Order has spread all throughout the galaxy that they are in search of a BB-unit droid that has the map.”
You nodded your head, putting together the pieces. “BB-8 has the map and they escaped."
“It’s just an assumption, for now. For all we know, Poe could still be in the hands of the First Order.”
You let out a shallow breath. “Or dead in Jakku.”
-
The General asked you to stay in your room that day. She knew if you were to be on base helping in the search of Poe and BB-8 that you would go crazy. You laid in your bed, thinking about simpler times.
Flashback
You were six years old. You were an only child, with no other family besides your mother and father, who were both fighters in the Resistance, so as a result you were often left with different volunteer babysitters.
Today was different, though.
“Y/N, honey. You’re not going to stay home with the babysitter today.”
You looked up at your mom with a confused glance. “Where are we going then?”
“Do you remember last year when mommy’s friend passed away?”
You nodded. One of your mom’s old friends back from her Rebellion days that lived on Yavin 4 had passed away sometime last year. You remember traveling with your parents to the funeral along with some of your other parent’s friends, Leia Organa and Han Solo, and their son Ben. You and Ben had known each other your whole lives. He was just one year older than you, and since you were a girl he often picked on you, but you still considered him a friend.
When you arrived on Yavin 4, both you and Ben’s parents stuck you in a room with another boy, who looked not much older than you or Ben, while the adults socialized in another room. “Y/N, Ben, this is Poe. Be nice to him, okay? He’s been going through a rough time.” As your mother left the room, you both turned towards Poe.
Both you and Ben eyed each other before looking at the boy who sat on the floor. Ben spoke up first. “I’m really sorry about your mom.”
Poe finally looked up at you both and you could tell from his puffy eyes that he had been crying. “Thank you.” He tried to give you both a smile, but failed. “I’m Poe.”
You decided to speak up next. “I’m Y/N.”
“And I’m Ben.”
Poe stood up and looked towards Ben. “Is it true that your uncle is a Jedi?”
Ben smiled and nodded. “Yeah, it’s true, and in a couple of years, I might get the chance to be his padawan and train to be a Jedi too.”
Poe’s eyes widened in amazement. “Do you have the Force?”
You tried hard not to snicker. Ben nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t really know how to use it yet.”
“That’s so cool. Your uncle gave us the tree we have planted in the yard.” Poe walked over to the window, pointing out to the Force-sensitive tree. “My parents have told me so many stories about all the missions they went on with your parents. Is it true that both your parents still fight in the Rebellion?”
You shook your head. “Our parents fight in the Resistance now, it’s kind of the same thing.”
Once again Poe’s eyes widened. “That sounds amazing. I want to fight in the Resistance when I grow up.”
“You should visit the base, there are Resistance fighters everywhere. One time a pilot actually let me sit inside an X-Wing.” Poe’s jaw dropped at your words.
“My mom was a pilot when she was in the Rebellion. I think I would like to be a pilot too.”
The three of you spent the rest of that day talking about the Resistance and what life was like living on the base, while Poe talked about life on Yavin 4 and his memories of his mother. When it was time for you and Ben to leave to return home to the base, you both waved goodbye to Poe.
“Well, hope to see you on the base one day!” Ben said, before you nodded in agreement and followed him back onto the ship with your parents.
Now here you were, over a year after meeting Poe Dameron for the first time, and your mother was telling you that he was coming to live on the base.
“Well, my friend’s little boy, Poe, he’s going to be staying with you for a while. His father is helping us on a very special mission, so you both need to be very good while we’re gone, okay?”
“How long will you be gone?” Your father had already been gone for a month, and now your mother was leaving too. You gave your mom a very noticeable frown.
You mother crouched down to your level, taking a hold of your hand. “Three weeks, tops. General Organa will be here, and she promised to check in once a day to make sure you’re both acting good. You be good to the babysitters; listen and behave.” She kissed the top of your head. “Come on, honey. We need to go now.”
You followed your mom to the child care building on base. When you walked in, you immediately spotted Poe. When he saw you, he smiled and waved. You were about to let go of your mother’s hand and run over to where he was, before your mother’s words stopped you. “Okay, Y/N. Be good. I love you, angel.”
You smiled up at your mom. “I love you too, momma. I’ll miss you.” You wrapped your small arms around her waist, squeezing tight.
When she left the building, you turned around to walk to Poe, only to find he was already in front of you. “Hey.” He gave you a warm smile. “My dad said I’ll be staying here for a while, isn’t it awesome?”
You nodded. “Yeah, maybe we can go see the pilots take off in the X-Wings later.”
Poe’s eyes widened and he nodded. “We should!” He looked around the playroom you two were at. You two were the only other kids in here. “Hey, where’s Ben? Doesn’t he live on this base too? Maybe he’ll want to come with us.”
“Ben doesn’t really like to hang out with me. I saw him last week I think in the cafeteria.”
Poe’s brows furrowed together. “Why doesn’t he like to hang out with you?”
You shrugged, before saying simply, “It’s because I’m a girl, I guess.” When you were four and Ben was five, you two were attached at the hip; at least that is what your parents told you. Once he hit the age where boys thought that girls were gross, he stopped hanging out with you. “We used to be friends when we were smaller, but now we don’t really talk.”
“Well, that’s really dumb. And mean.” You smiled slightly at Poe’s words. “Do you want to play a game?”
—
That’s how the next two and a half weeks went for you and Poe. You would spend the day together, playing and running around the always empty child care building, before General Organa would drop in and check on how things were going. When your babysitter would doze off, and General Organa was gone, you two would sneak away to where the X-Wings were.
You and Poe were eating lunch together in the cafeteria when none other than Ben walked up to your table. “Hey Poe, Y/N. Can I sit with you guys?”
You assumed Poe would be his ever polite self, and say yes, but you were surprised when Poe opened his mouth and said, “Only if you promise you’ll be nice to Y/N.”
Your head shot up, your eyes wide. Poe was smiling at you, thinking what he had done was the right thing. Ben’s brows furrowed, before looking between the two of you.
“Uh, yeah, I promise.” Ben laid his tray next to Poe’s, sitting down slowly. His brows were still furrowed. He looked up at you, frowning slightly. “Am I mean to you?”
You took a deep breath. “Well, you don’t like to play with me anymore like you used to.” You shrugged it off.
“Well, I’m really sorry. I don’t really get to play anymore because I’m trying to get myself ready for when I can begin Jedi training with my Uncle Luke.”
Poe turned towards Ben. “When do you start?”
Ben shrugged. “My mom says I can’t go till I’m at least thirteen, but my Uncle Luke says I should've started already.”
The three of you continued to eat your lunch while having a casual conversation. As you were in the middle of a funny story, a hand rested on your shoulder. You looked up to see it was General Organa.
Ben smiled up at his mom, as did Poe. “Hey, mom.”
You all could see something was troubling her. She didn’t smile or reply to her son, instead she crouched down to your level, still holding on to your shoulder. “Y/N, honey, I need you to come with me.”
You were confused at first, but you said goodbye to Poe and Ben, following the General outside the cafeteria where you two were in private. You both sat down on a nearby bench, where she grabbed a hold of your hands.
“Y/N, I need to tell you something. Your mom and dad got put on a ship together to return back to the base, but something happened, and,” A frown was set on her face. “They didn’t make it, sweetie. I’m so sorry.”
“What?”
“They passed away, Y/N.” You felt the tears start to prickle down. “I’m so sorry, sweetie. I’m going to be here for you, though, okay? I promised your parents I would watch over you always.” She opened her arms out and the two of you hugged for a while before hearing footsteps approach behind you.
“Y/N?” Both you and General Organa looked up to see Poe and Ben. They were both frowning, wondering what was going on. “Are you okay?” Poe’s voice was kind and gentle.
You couldn’t find any words to say, so General Organa spoke them for you. “Her parents have passed away, boys. We all need to be strong so we can help Y/N.”
Poe stepped forward, before wrapping his arms around you in a hug. Poe whispered in your ear, “I’m sorry, Y/N. I know what it feels like.”
When Poe released you, you were surprised to find Ben hugging you next. He didn’t say any words, but the hug was still sincere.
—
Life would never be the same again after that.
With no parents, and no other family members, the only option was that you get dropped off at the nearest planet in hopes of being adopted.
Both Poe and Ben didn’t want this to happen, and neither did General Organa. When Poe’s father returned from the mission, the only survivor, he and General Organa agreed that together they would watch over you, which meant that Poe was moving for good on to the Resistance base.
Although the pain of losing your parents was still fresh, you were happy that Poe was going to be living on base.
Through the years, Poe got to learn more about piloting and X-Wings, while Ben got to learn more about the Force and what it takes to be a Jedi. You weren’t sure what you wanted to do with your life, but you knew you wanted to help in whatever way you could with the Resistance.
You were thirteen now, with Ben being fourteen and Poe being seventeen. It was the night before Ben was to leave for his Jedi training with his uncle.
In the past seven years, you three had grown to be attached at the hip and the best of friends. You and Poe had been planning the perfect going-away party for your friend for the past three weeks. You ultimately decided to do something for just the three of you.
“So, are you nervous? Excited? Both? This is finally happening!” Poe playfully punched Ben’s shoulder. “You’re going to be a real Jedi!”
Ben chuckled softly, before saying, “Yeah, I’m nervous and excited. I know it won’t be easy.”
You took a bite out of some of the fruit you and Poe had gathered. “How long do you think you’ll be gone?”
Ben shrugged. “I don’t really know. Uncle Luke says I have a lot to learn and since I didn’t get a head start by starting out young, it could take a while.”
You frowned. You didn’t want Ben to be away for too long. “How long is a while?”
“One year, maybe two…”
You and Poe’s eyes widened. “Two years?” Your frowned again. “That’s…that’s a long time.”
“But just think! I’ll be a Jedi, and I can finally begin to help in the Resistance.”
Poe smiled. “And I’ll be a pilot! Together we’ll be restoring freedom to the galaxy!” The two boys laughed and high fived each other before realizing you were still frowning. You hated not being of any real value to the Resistance. Poe quickly tried to make the situation better. “And of course we’ll have Y/N, who will be our General one day.”
You felt a blush creep up your neck and to your cheeks. Poe always knew what to say to make you feel better. “Thanks, Poe, but I don’t think I really have anything good to offer to the Resistance like you two.”
Now Ben was pitching in too. “Are you kidding? Y/N, my mother is practically mentoring you to follow in her footsteps. Trust me, one day you’ll see how valuable you really are.”
You smiled up at both your boys. You would miss moments like this, where you could just talk about anything and everything. As the night went on, you realized that things really would be different from now on.
You didn’t know it then, but it was the last time you three would all be together like this.