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Some of the Destroyers crater really badly when they land.
Rey’s parked her speeder on the edge of the crater and taken a sled down with her tools. There’s a lot of debris strewn about, too. However this one went down, it was messy. There’s no easy entrance to this one from the ground, so she scales the Destroyer from the outside. She makes a pretty good haul. It’s a good day, she thinks, scaling down the Destroyer. Straight to the Outpost, then straight back home.
Rey takes a step near the bottom and the metal cracks into nothing beneath her foot. She tips over backwards and she hits the ground hard. The second she does her left shoulder is shunted into pain and she screams, the sound ripped out of her, her vision whiting out for a second. She tries to blink it away, gasping. She looks over to her left to see a thin metal pole sticking out of her shoulder.
Rey wets her lips and tries to pull herself off it. The pain gets worse and she screams again, tears streaming down her face. When she slumps back down, she hears a clang. The pole’s connected to something. She’s lying on something flat. The pole’s connected to it, she realizes. She won’t be able to pull the pipe through her.
Okay. Okay. There has to be a plan.
Of course there’s a plan.
Rey uses her good arm and grapples for her belt with a sweaty hand until she finds the communicator. She brings it up to her lips and presses the button on it. It chirrups for an agonizing minute before it gives her the quick dual beep telling her to leave a message.
“Din,” she wheezes. “Din, it’s me. Din, I kriffed up. There’s a pole inside my shoulder, and it hurts. It hurts a lot and I can’t get up. I can’t move and I don’t know what to do. Please. Please come help.”
She takes her thumb off the communicator and lowers her arm, trying to breathe through it.
Breathe through it.
Rey takes a deep rattling breath and closes her eyes. She is trying to repair her galaxy box. She has to unscrew one of the sides. There are four little screws. She has to tilt the box on its side. She has her tweezers. There is a piece of metal that has gotten stuck in one of the gears. With the tweezers, she fishes it out. The gear has sixteen teeth, and-
“Kid?”
Her eyes fly open as her thumb presses down on the button. “Din!” she sobs.
“You’re hurt?”
She can hear what sounds like muffled blaster fire. “Where are you?”
“I’m on a job, it’s not important-“
“No, go focus on that, I don’t want-“
“Rey. It’s okay. I’m coming for you, okay?”
“Din, it hurts.”
“I know, kid. I know. Listen, I have to let you go, okay, I gotta take care of this, but I’m just a couple worlds away, I’m gonna call you when I can. I’m gonna come take care of you. Just be brave for me for a little while longer, okay?”
Rey presses her lips together for a second, closes her eyes and forcing back a sob.
“Okay,” she whispers. “Okay. I’ll be brave.”
“Good girl. I’ll be back, okay? Just hold on.”
“Okay.” The line goes dead and she closes her eyes, taking in jagged breaths.
Rey is working on the hypermodifier for the speeder. She will need to take apart the case with a screwdriver. The case has six screws. She needs to clean each piece. First is the big gear. The big gear has thirty six teeth. There is a residue on the teeth. She will use her smallest scalpel to scrape it out. There’s a clinking and she opens her eyes.
There’s two scavengers in wraps with big goggles eyeing her warily. Relief blooms in Rey’s stomach.
“Help me!” she cries. “Please, please help, I’m hurt, I can’t move!”
The two scavengers look at each other, then Rey, and starts shuffling forwards.
“Thank you, thank-“
One of them picks up her scrap bag and starts for her ship. The other picks up her gear bag and follows.
“No, no, no, please, please, don’t leave me, please-“ the panic is making her voice higher and higher. “Please, please, you can take anything you want but please, please don’t leave, please don’t leave me!”
The two of them ignore her screams, silently scaling the crater, climbing on her speeder and riding away.
Rey grits her teeth.
She is taking apart the-
She is rebuilding the-
She is cleaning the-
She is screaming, a scream that turns into one sob, and then another. It hurts, it hurts, her shoulder hurts and the sand underneath her is wet, and night is coming and she’s alone, she’s alone and it’s cold and it hurts worse than anything she can ever remembering hurting in her twelve years and she’s alone and she hates it-
“Rey?”
She brings the communicator up. “Din.”
“I’m only a few minutes away, kid.”
“Din, they took my stuff.” It comes out relatively inarticulate.
“What?”
“Two scavengers came and they took my gear bag and my scrap bag and my speeder and they left me.”
“It’s okay. I’m gonna get you your stuff, okay? Don’t worry about it. How you feeling?”
“It hurts,” she sobs. “I wanna go home.”
“I know. I’m coming, okay?” It’s the closest to frantic she’s ever heard him. “You’re gonna be okay. You know why?”
“Why?”
“Because you’re the toughest girl I know. You and the kid, you’re the two toughest kids in the whole galaxy.”
“I don’t wanna be tough! I want things to be easy! I want life to be not so hard!”
“I know. I know you do.”
“I worked so hard on the speeder.”
“We’re gonna get the speeder back. I promise.”
She sucks in a rattling breath. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, kid. I’m all good. Don’t worry about me.”
“It sounded dangerous.”
“It wasn’t too bad. Just a firefight. It happens.”
“How do you know where to find me?”
“The communicator set we use has tracking enabled. I can find you, you can find me.”
“Oh.” She takes in another breath. “That’s smart.”
“Yeah. Grogu’s got a cool rock for you.”
“That’s good. I like cool rocks.”
“I know.”
“It hurts.”
“I know. I’m coming as fast as I can.”
“They just left me.” Rey snarfles. “Why do people leave me?”
“Rey, listen, okay?” Din’s voice is sharper than it was before. “I want you to pay attention.”
“Okay.”
“I am never gonna leave you. Any time you call me, whatever I’m doing, I’ll come straight to you. I’m always gonna be here for you. Okay?”
Rey lets out another sob. “Okay.”
“Never forget it. I’ll always be here.”
Rey sees the incoming speck of a ship. “I believe you.”
“Good. Hang tight, kid. I’m coming in.”
She watches the Gambit land and the ramp descend. Din comes rushing down it.
“Okay, Berry,” he says, kneeling by her. “What’s the situation?”
“There’s a.” She swallows. “There’s a plate it’s attached to. You can’t pull it straight out.”
“Okay.” Din pulls a laser cutter out of his belt. “Kid, I’m really sorry, but this is gonna hurt.”
She swallows again. “Okay.”
Din gently slides an arm under her and quickly lifts her up. Rey screams as he clips the pole underneath her. He lays her back on the sand and clips off most of the pole coming out of her shoulder. This time when he lifts her up it doesn’t hurt quite so bad. He quickly carries her into the ship, laying her on the floor.
Din pulls his gloves off and runs his finger up the pole. “It’s not barbed. That’s good. Does it feel like there’s another part in there?”
“I don’t know,” she whispers.
“Sorry.” Din tries to move the skin around the wound as Rey grits her teeth. “Dank ferrik, I can’t get a good look at it-“
He pauses, looking up at Rey, who blinks away tears to see him better.
“Okay,” he says softly, taking his hand away from the wound. “It’s gonna be okay.”
Din reaches up and he takes off his helmet.
He doesn’t look as old as Rey would’ve thought, all things considered, knowing he’s about Han Solo’s age, wavy silver hair and light stubble, a small scar on his left cheekbone. His brown eyes meet Rey’s wide ones and they both freeze for a moment, staring at each other.
Din swallows and turns his attention to peering at Rey’s shoulder.
“It looks like I can just pull it out,” he mutters. “It’s gonna hurt.”
Rey squeezes her eyes shut. “Do what you have to.”
“On three. One, two, three-“ he yanks the pole out and Rey screams, back bowing. “Good job. You did good, Rey.” He rests her back on the ground. “Okay, I’m gonna get-“ He looks up. Rey looks over hazily to see Grogu, tilting his head, eyes wide.
“Kid, you know I never ask,” Din starts, but he’s already rushing towards Rey. He plants a hand on her shoulder and she whimpers, turning away from him. “No, it’s okay, it’s okay.”
Grogu closes his eyes and furrows his brow, and Rey watches as slowly, her wound becomes smaller and smaller, the pain easing until the skin is unbroken. She stares as he blinks sleepily and curls up on the ground.
“I didn’t know he could do that,” she whispers.
“He doesn’t very often. Takes a lot out of him. How are you feeling?”
She stretches a little and winces. “Sore. And sticky.”
“You think you can make it up to the cockpit?” She grimaces. “Okay, fair enough. Stay here, okay? I’m gonna take you home.”
“Okay.”
Din climbs the ladder and Rey curls up next to Grogu.
“Thank you,” she whispers, closing her eyes. “I appreciate it.”
The comforting hum of the Gambit doesn’t quite lull her to sleep, but it does slow her heart rate and she feels herself settle a little. When the ship lands, she opens her eyes to see Din descending the ladder.
“Go get your comfiest clothes,” he tells her. “There’s a ‘fresher in the corner. I can wait in the house.”
It’s strange to see him like this, Rey thinks, the way he seems almost nervous to look at her. “Okay.”
Cleaning the blood off feels good, and Rey bundles herself in the softest clothing she has. She descends the ramp and heads into the house.
Din is sitting there, armor in a corner, leaving him in a long sleeved brown shirt and black pants. Rey hovers in the doorway. He shifts awkwardly. Eventually, he holds out his arms.
Something in Rey breaks and she rushes to him, going to her knees and burying her face in his chest. He immediately wraps his arms around her, resting his chin on top of her head.
“It’s okay, Berry,” he whispers, pulling her in close. “It’s okay. I got you.”
Rey hiccups. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. Never apologize.” He sounds a little hoarse. “Kid, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that this is how your life is. I’m sorry you don’t get a bed, and friends, and all the stuff kids should have. I’m sorry you’re growing up with portions. I’m sorry you’re having a childhood where sometimes you lie bleeding in the sand. I’m sorry you don’t get to be some spoiled kid from the Core Worlds where you grow up with everything you ever wanted. I’m sorry you’re growing up alone. But… you’re loved, okay? You’re so loved. And any time you need me, I’ll come running.”
She nods into his chest. “I’m tired,” she mumbles.
“Take a nap. You’ve earned it.”
She nods again.
“M’not alone,” she whispers. “I have you and Grogu.”
Din kisses the top of her head. “Go to sleep, kid,” he whispers, and Rey allows herself to drift.
When she wakes up, Din is gone and his armor is gone, but Grogu is curled up into her, so she knows he can’t be far. She wraps her arm around him and he hums in his sleep.
Eventually, Din comes in with her gear bag. “Got your stuff back,” he says.
She perks up. “Really? The speeder, too?”
“Speeder, too.” He holds up the bag. “I’ve got bread and cheese. You hungry?”
“Always.”
They eat inside this time so Din can eat with her without the helmet. Grogu’s very insistent that he sit in Rey’s lap, so she and Din sit side by side as he nibbles on some cheese.
“Been thinking,” Din says.
“Yeah? What about?”
“Maybe I could sit still for a little while. You be okay if I hang around here some more? I can stay in the ship. Make sure you have your own space.”
She smiles. “I think I could manage.”
“Good.” He smiles faintly. “Kinda nice to see you, y’know-“ he gestures. “Unobstructed.”
“You, too. I like your face.”
Din snorts, looking back at his bread. “It’s a face that’s seen some shit.”
“So’s mine. Just means you’ve survived up to this point.”
“You’re a smart kid, you know that?”
“I have my moments.”
“All your moments are your moments.” Grogu makes an imperious kind of noise and Din hands him some bread. “You wanna hear a story about pirates?”
“Always.”