Author's Note: Less fluff than my usual. Must remember sometimes that they're at war. This will be a two-shot.

Disclaimer per usual – I do not own Star Wars or any aspect of the SW universe; just a fan with an idea. No profit here, just fun for me.

"Get him out of there!" Rey cries, nearly frantic as Black One lands roughly in the hangar.

There are medics waiting nearby, but Rey is impatient, flinging her hand out. The X-Wing platform ladder slides over as if of its own volition, and the canopy of the X-Wing clangs open. BB-8 finishes the shutdown sequence, and he drops down out of the fighter, beeping in a way that makes it clear he is upset. The X-Wing looks entirely undamaged, and the ship itself is. Its pilot, on the other hand, is another story.

"Poe!" Rey is nearly ill when she sees how much blood there at his temple and covering the right side of his face, trailing down and soaking one side of his flight suit. The sticky, drying liquid is harshly dark against his unnaturally pale skin. His helmet is in his lap, hands both limp on his legs, positioned in a way that makes it clear that his last move was to reach up and close his canopy. Luckily, BB-8 had been able to lock the canopy and fly the little fighter.

His buzz, usually ever-present in the back of Rey's head, is nearly completely gone. The only reason she isn't hysterical is that it's still there, barely present, but there. She touches the pulse point in his neck, and she almost faints with relief when she finds his heartbeat with her fingers, slow but steady, and she can see his chest move, though not nearly with an acceptable cadence. "Flyboy?" she calls softly, gently ruffling his hair on the left side of his head. He doesn't respond, and his muted buzz doesn't change.

She turns. "Medic! Now! He's barely breathing!"

She moves out of the way, back down the ladder, and she watches as two large medics go up, slip a brace onto Poe's neck and gently pull him from the cockpit. They get him down the ladder and onto a waiting stretcher. They quickly take him towards the medbay, Rey, Chewie, and BB-8 right behind them. Rose, who just emerged from her own X-Wing, watches them go. She then climbs up the ladder and peers into the cockpit. She mutters, "What the kriff happened?"

One side of the seat and the adjacent cockpit wall are drenched in Poe's blood. She looks around the cockpit, spotting a large piece of shrapnel, the shape of a piece that is missing from her own ship, in the footwell of the fighter. She grabs it, and she gasps. One side of it, the blunt edge, has a tinge of blood on it. Rose swallows back tears. They were shooting at her as she took off, and this was the result. This happened to him protecting her.

A moment later, she hears a stricken voice repeat the same words she'd said moments ago. "What the kriff happened?"

She spins, and Kes, with Finn right behind him, is staring up at her, and he runs up the ladder and demands, "Rose, what…" His voice trails off and all of the color drains from his face as he notices the blood-soaked cockpit of his son's fighter. Without another word, he bolts back down the ladder and heads towards the medbay at a dead run.

Rose watches him go, murmuring, "I'm so sorry," as Finn comes up the ladder. As he climbs, Rose drops to her knees on the platform and starts to cry. Finn doesn't understand, but he gathers Rose's tiny form into his arms. She's clutching the piece of shrapnel and sobbing as he carries her down the ladder and follows the others to the medbay.

Two Hours Earlier

Their small convoy lands on Endor, only a couple hours' jump from their current base. Poe and Rose are both in X-Wings, designated Black One and Black Four, respectively. Her refurbished and freshly-painted X-Wing is on its inaugural mission. She has spent the last few weeks working with Poe in a simulator and then near the base, and Poe has been impressed with how quickly her flying has improved. After their last drills near the base, he'd ruffled her hair and said, "Paige would be so damned proud of you, Rose."

The Falcon lands nearby, in one of the grassland areas of the moon. They're on the opposite side of the moon from the Ewoks, something that disappoints Rey, who was curious about them. She and Chewie emerge from the Falcon, Chewie shooing the porgs back inside and closing the ramp. He likes to grouse about the little creatures, but Rey swallows a smile. She knows he has a serious soft spot for them.

They're here on a supply run and a recruiting mission. They'd received word through a spy they trust that a small group of would-be rebels had been training here, and that they had brought several cases of rations and some weapons specs with them that would be of interest to the Resistance. They were twitchy, though, according to the spy, and wanted to meet with an officer.

Poe, who had cabin fever in the worst way, had been quick to volunteer. His new role on the command staff for Leia had been taking a lot of his time, and his few short flights with Rose were not satisfying his need to fly. Leia knows that she can't have Poe grounded all of the time – knows that it would make him a little crazy – so she readily agreed to the short, relatively low-risk trip.

BB-8 and Rose's astromech stay in their respective X-Wings. Rose, trailed by Poe, comes over to meet Chewie and Rey. She's bouncing with excitement, and Rey catches Poe's look of amused affection as he watches the little mechanic-turned pilot tell Chewie about her flight. Rey joins Poe, slipping her hand into his. "What time and where do we need to meet our contact?"

"In about five minutes and right here." Poe looks around, surveying the terrain. He doesn't love the area the contact chose. It's in the center of a small valley, highly accessible and susceptible to ambush. He catches what looks like a glint of metal halfway up one of the walls of the valley, but the sun then goes behind a cloud. He stares at the spot a moment longer, his eyes far better than most people's, but he doesn't see anything.

"What is it?" Rey immediately senses his change in mood. She follows his gaze up the now-shadowed hillside.

He shrugs. "Probably nothing."

"Your eyes don't lie, Flyboy, and your instincts aren't often wrong, either." Rey continues to scan the hills, now on high alert herself.

He huffs out a worried breath. "This just feels significantly exposed. We're basically in a bowl. This location makes no tactical sense for a drop unless it's a…"

"Trap." Rey finishes for him.

"Yeah." He looks over at Rose and Chewie. He's not surprised to see that Chewie also looks to be wary; he is, on the other hand, pleasantly surprised to see Rose looking around with suspicion, too. The young woman is a quick study.

Poe makes a rapid decision. "Back to the Falcon, Beautiful. This is no good."

She nods, thinking, "You too, Flyboy. Let's get out of here."

"As soon as you, Chewie, and Rose are in the air," he thinks back. Using his voice, he yells, "Rose, let's go."

Rose looks surprised, but she complies immediately. Rey takes off for the Falcon, but they're all too late. Chewie is on board, firing up the old freighter, but blaster fire nearly catches Rey on the shoulder. She barely has time to duck out of the way before a barrage of blaster fire rains down. Chewie is yelling at her, but she sees that Poe and Rose are pinned down.

She yells to Chewie, "Get her in the air and pick me up in a minute!"

The ship takes off, hovering close with her ramp open – Chewie can't shoot without Rey, but he can provide cover. Poe and Rose are both behind his X-Wing, blasters drawn, but whoever is shooting at them seems to be trying to spare the fighters. He thinks that information at Rey, who nods.

She thinks at him, "You and I need to draw them off, so Rose can get to her X-Wing."

He looks at her, a sly smile popping up on his face. "Want to give them a shove?"

She knows what he means. They've been working on his Force abilities. They have come to realize that, on its own, just communicating and connecting is harmless to Poe. He can also do one or two more significant things now, but any more than that, and his headaches and nosebleeds, like what happened on their trip back from Yavin 4 a few months ago, return.

"Let's do it, Flyboy," she thinks back. They go back and forth for a few moments, both of them returning blaster fire towards the hill, but also working out the plan. Rey only balks when he said he's in the air last, but she knows he takes his leadership role seriously, even more so since Q'Dar and Crait.

Poe looks at Rose, who is returning fire along with him. "Get ready to move, Rose."

"You and Rey have a plan?" At this point, all of their close friends are fully aware and comfortable with his and Rey's silent conversations.

"We do. We're going to give them a push, and you make a break for your fighter. We'll lay down cover fire after we push them back. Or I will. Rey is going to be getting over here, and she's getting the lightsaber out." He tries to give her a reassuring look. "Ready?" When Rose nods, he inhales and exhales a deep breath, clearing his head and relaxing his body. When he's prepared, he mentally confirms that Rey is ready, and then he yells to both Rey and Rose, "Now!"

He and Rey both thrust hands towards the source of the blaster fire. It stops abruptly, and Rose bolts for Black Four, blaster drawn to return fire if she needs to. Rey joins Poe at Black One, and her lightsaber comes to life. Rose makes it to her X-Wing and is in the cockpit when the blaster barrage resumes, some towards Rose, but most towards Rey and Poe, something they'd hoped for given the clear attempts by their assailants to avoid damaging the ships.

Rey begins deflecting shot after shot, and she thinks to Poe, "You get in Black One and then lay down cover fire for me from the cockpit so I can get on the Falcon's ramp?"

He reluctantly agrees. He'd prefer that she be on the Falcon when he gets into his cockpit, but he knows that he'd be completely exposed. He notices Rose rise into the air, and she begins to lay down fire from her X-Wing. Rey notices too, and she calls, "Go, Flyboy!"

He nods, getting one more round of fire off before climbing his ladder and turning to start firing towards the hill again. He opens a comm channel on his fighter console and yells the plan to Chewie. Poe shoots again and again, and he feels a flash of relief when Chewie comes into a lower hover, just a few meters from the ground and even closer to Black One. "Your turn, Beautiful," he yells between shots.

With a grace Poe never could have managed, she leaps to the wing of his X-Wing while BB-8 fires up the engine, and a moment later, she is on the ramp of the freighter. As the ramp closes, Poe drops into his seat. Rose is still hovering, firing at the hill. They are mostly firing at Poe, but now that they're all in ships, they turn fire back to Rose. Poe hits his comm. "Black Four, get out of here. Break atmosphere and jump home."

"Got it, Black Leader!" Rose replies.

Poe then calls Chewie. "We're ready to go. Pull up, Falcon, and get out of here. See you at home."

The Falcon rises, and Rose turns her ship to go as Poe reaches up to close the canopy. A single shot hits the edge of one of Rose's wings, and a chunk of the metal shears off. It flies towards Black One just as Poe moves to slam his canopy closed. In a moment that had about a million-to-one odds of happening, the chunk of metal flies through the gap of the closing canopy, and it hits Poe's right temple before bouncing to the floor by his feet.

His body goes limp, his mind dark. BB-8, having been by Poe's side for nearly half of Poe's life, knows something is wrong. The little astromech locks the canopy and connects to the correct system, lurching the X-Wing into the air. He is determined that no one will capture his master again.

On the Falcon, Rey was about to relax when Poe's buzz goes nearly silent. She begins to call to him, flashing back to their trip home from Yavin 4. This time, though, he doesn't wake. He doesn't respond. For the two-hour jump home, his buzz never intensifies, and he is silent.