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Dusk had fallen by the time the medcenter staff agreed to let her inside.
"How is he?"
"His condition has stabilized," the doctor reported, "but he'll need some time to rest, General."
"I understand," Leia answered. "I won't stay too long." After a nod from the doctor, she let herself into the room.
It was quiet but for the hushed mechanical puffing and beeping of the support systems; even Poe's droid, BB-8, had parked itself near a monitor in uncharacteristic silence. Under the sheets of the room's lone bed, Poe Dameron lay so still that he might have been mistaken for dead. But as Leia drew a chair up next to him, she noticed the faint rise and fall of his chest and the color that still lingered in his skin - what was visible of his skin, anyways, under the numerous bacta bandages. Setting a hand on the edge of the bed, Leia forced back a sigh.
The exploratory missions to find a new base for the Resistance had not been going well. The kindest welcome the advance squad had received had been a polite but firm rebuff from the inhabitants of a lonely and isolated moon. The rest of the missions had been nothing but toxic atmospheres and hostile wildlife and angry locals and - in one particularly unpleasant instance - three First Order TIE fighters, scouts themselves, that the Resistance had been forced to quickly dispatch. It was some small mercy that they hadn't lost a man yet, but the most recent mission had very nearly broken their streak.
It was a shame, too. The heavily forested planet would have been an ideal place to set up a new base. And reconnaissance from above the atmosphere hadn't picked up anything problematic. Leia had given the go-ahead for a ground mission after that, and Poe and the rest had landed to explore a little, right before wandering into hell.
According to Pava's report, fifteen minutes later they stumbled across a smuggler's cache hidden deep inside the primordial forest at the worst possible moment: when the smugglers were storing their goods. Their pleas had done nothing but ignite an explosion of blaster bolts, and as the trees smoked and burned around them, the crew struggled to retreat back to their ships. Poe (of course) had brought up the rear to ensure no one got lost or left behind, and when one of the smugglers lobbed a concussion grenade after them, he'd taken the worst of the hit. Running on adrenaline or pure flyboy bravado, Poe had managed to get back to his ship, and only after safely landing on D'Qar had he passed out in the hanger (mid-boast, as Pava recalled with an exasperated roll of her eyes). He had looked alright, but as the doctors later relayed, the shockwave damage from the grenade had mostly been internal. It was miraculous he'd stayed conscious long enough to reach D'Qar.
Leia gave up trying to hold back her sigh at that point. Gently, she set her hand on Poe's arm, his skin warm beneath her fingers.
"Well, I'm certainly glad you made it back in one piece," she murmured, "but next time, you'd better let me know when something's wrong." Poe didn't even stir.
"I'll take that as a 'yes, General'," Leia joked quietly. "I'll remind you when you wake up, just in case. Or at least, let your friends know. They'll let me know, and it will all be in your best interests. I can't have my best pilot hurting too badly to fly." Her hand shifted from Poe's arm to his cheek, and her expression softened. She'd known him since he'd been a child, and in her eyes he still looked painfully young. He belonged with his squadmates in the hangar or mess hall, swapping jokes and stories and laughter - not here, alone and silent and still, under a sheet that seemed more and more to her eyes like a shroud. Gently, Leia ran her hand lightly over his dark hair.
"Get well soon, Poe. I'll be back soon."
"He's woken up?"
"Yes, General." The medical droid bobbed its metal head in confirmation, then hastily whizzed after Leia as she stood from her chair to head to the medcenter. "His condition improved and the doctors decided to bring him out of the induced coma. It is reported that he's awake and is able to talk."
"That's excellent news." Leia couldn't help the smile that crossed her face. "I'd like to talk to him-"
"Er, excuse me, General," the droid interrupted politely, "but the doctors were afraid you might ask about the mission. They recommended that the debriefing wait until later."
In truth, Leia hadn't been remotely concerned about the debriefing: it was true Poe had been in charge of the mission, but Pava had told her everything she'd needed to know. Still, she couldn't help her curiosity.
"Why is that?"
"His injuries are not completely healed, so he was put on some medication to alleviate the pain," the droid explained. "It may make him… difficult to understand, as one potential side effect. We also had to remove BB-8 from the room. It was quite overjoyed at his recovery and kept rolling in circles around his bed, and the doctors were concerned that it would overexcite him."
"Ah." Leia gave a small shrug. "Well, I'll say a quick hello, I don't want to push him too hard. Thank you for your report." The droid beeped politely and sped off, and Leia made the rest of the journey to Poe's room alone.
As reported, Poe had indeed woken up. Some of his bandages had been removed, and he lay back on his pillow, blinking owlishly at the ceiling with slightly glassy eyes. His hair appeared even curlier and messier than usual.
"Good afternoon, Poe." Leia smiled as she settled into her bedside chair. "It's good to see you've rejoined the ranks of the living." Poe turned to look at her, but seemed to have trouble focusing his eyes. Leia raised her eyebrows.
"Poe?"
"I'm sorry, it's just..." Poe raised a bandaged hand in an attempt to rub his eyes and missed, "everything's a little shiny."
"I understand," Leia said gently, fighting back a smile as she repositioned his hand. "How are you feeling?"
"Light." Poe grinned sleepily. "Flying." After a moment, his expression grew alarmed and he tried to sit up. "I'm not flying right now, am I?!"
"No, no," Leia reassured him, taking him gently by the shoulders and settling him back down in his bed. "Calm down, it's fine. You're in the medcenter."
Poe frowned, squinting. “Medcenter,” he repeated. Then, his expression sank into a look of comprehension. "The mission," he muttered, half a groan. "Did, did anyone else-"
"A few cuts and scrapes, as I understand," Leia informed him, "but you took the worst of it. Try to avoid concussion grenades in the future, please. I have enough gray hair already."
"I didn't mean it," Poe replied. "I'm so sorry-"
"Poe," Leia's hand found its familiar place on his arm, "it isn't your fault. Things go wrong sometimes, and there's nothing we can do but work together for the best possible outcome." But Poe still looked stricken; his eyes now shone with tears on top of the drug effects and his hands had started to shake, fumbling across the sheets for something to hold onto. It was a state Leia rarely saw him in, and had anyone else been in the room, it might have gone differently. But she had been there to comfort him and hold him close when his mother had died so many years ago, and all of those defenses Poe had built over the years - against the pain of loss and death and failure - all fell down so quickly with her there. Poe had never been able to keep up a front for her. Perhaps she had just known him far longer than anyone else that now remained.
"I don't know where they came from but I led everyone right there, and they could have gotten killed, I'm an idiot-" Poe choked on his guilt and moved to wipe tears that threatened to overflow, but in his state of drug intoxication he smacked himself directly in the eye instead and let out a surprised yelp. Leia couldn't help the laugh that escaped her then, but hastily she cleared her throat and leaned over, taking a corner of the bed sheet and drying the man's eyes for him.
"Did you knock some sense into yourself?" Leia gave a knowing look to Poe, whose expression showed only confusion. "You're so caught up in worrying about other people that you're forgetting you're the only one who got stuck in the medcenter for longer than an hour," she explained. "And as I recall, the last time that happened, you tried to convince the doctors that your arm wasn't actually broken, it always looked that weird." From his pillow, Poe blinked slowly, then gave a weak smile.
"BB-8 ratted me out that time."
"Good," Leia retorted. "I'm glad someone's keeping an eye on you when I can't." Her tone softened, and she reached up to push dark locks of hair out of Poe's face.
"You're both good at that," Poe admitted, half a sigh. For a moment, no one spoke, and the silence in the room settled like a gentle fog, driving out all traces of the previous tension that had stuck stubbornly in the air.
"Poe." It was Leia who broke the spell. "Will you do something for me?"
A machine next to the bed beeped softly, and after a moment Poe visibly relaxed, his eyes large and hazy again.
"I can do something for you," he replied, words slow following the fresh dose of medicine. "Wait... what do you want me to do?"
"I want you to rest."
Poe look startled. "What about flying missions?"
"Poe," Leia said patiently. "Where are we again?"
The pilot glanced around. "The medcenter."
"The medcenter," Leia repeated. "Should you be flying if you're in a bed in the medcenter?"
"I should always be flying," Poe answered, with a slightly manic grin.
"The answer I was looking for was 'no'," the general sighed. "But it's good to see you're getting better already." Standing from her chair, she smoothed down Poe's sheets before turning back to him. "Get some rest," she advised, bending over to wrap his shoulders in a gentle hug. Poe caught her arm gently before she could pull away.
"Mom-... thank you."
For half a moment, Leia found herself stricken silent, before fumbling and finding her voice again.
"It's nothing," she murmured, pressing a kiss to Poe's brow. "Rest." Poe's grip loosened, and by the time Leia had straightened back up, the drugs had done their work and he'd drifted off. It was fortunate; she wouldn't have to answer for the tears that clouded her own vision as she slipped quietly out of the room. In the corridor outside the medcenter, she wasn't quite so lucky: the same droid as before crossed her path as she made to return to her office.
"General," it piped up in a metallic voice, "are you alright?"
"Oh, yes," Leia replied. She took a breath to clear her thoughts and flashed the droid a small but genuine smile. "I'll be just fine."