I'll Come Back for You

She waited with baited breath, mindlessly twisting the simple silver band on her ring finger until it wrung red burns into her skin. Some skin had begun to peel. Isla wasn’t even the one to notice her actions; her friend, Ian Wheeler, subtly yanked her hands apart and gave her a warning look. She didn’t acknowledge him and instead continued fiddling with the ring.

They were anticipating Commander Dameron’s transmission to notify the base of his return. It had been hours. The first passed without much of a fuss; it could’ve been a timing issue or maybe he had to stop to refuel. Whatever it was, Isla waited through it with several others as if everything was going according to plan. But somewhere during hour two, Isla couldn't help but notice the look General Organa had given Admiral Akbar. It was subtle, as the General was nothing if not professional and tactful, but it screamed to Isla that something was awry. It made her antsy.

By hour six, she felt completely numb.

Isla looked down at her hands, finally letting go of her wedding band. She fidgeted with it so often during times like this that the inscription on it had faded. It hadn't even been ten years yet—hell, they had barely just made it to five.

She'd also been peeling the skin from around her fingernails—another one of her nervous habits—since she’d been asked to come to the control room. Now she was left with small scabs. Isla began picking at those until they bled. Crimson beads formed on several of her fingers, which she wiped discreetly on her black pants. Nobody noticed her movements; all eyes were fixated on the holotable.

At first they had called her in because she was one of the people who had helped coordinate the mission; she was "in the know". Then they asked that she check to make sure the equipment was functioning properly. Now she was sitting here because it was her husband that was missing.

It wasn't like him to delay transmissions. He knew that they were an integral part of protocol and, more importantly, that they were important to her.

***

"General," a young, red-headed officer looked over her shoulder. "We've just intercepted a transmission from the First Order." The General moved swiftly over to the monitor and spoke softly with the young woman, their faces grim.

The entire room held its breath.

General Organa spoke.

"I’m afraid I have some bad news. The First Order has destroyed the village on Jakku.” Those who still had feeling in their limbs sat up abruptly; others gasped. Isla Dameron froze.

“We’ve lost Lor San Tekka, and, as far as we know, there were no survivors…except those taken prisoner." She briefly made eye contact with Isla. "Commander Dameron has been captured by the First Order. We do not yet know our Commander’s location, but we can assume he’s been taken aboard the Finalizer for interrogation. We will be discussing an extraction plan shortly, but we need to consider things carefully, as we have no way of knowing what happened to the map. Based on the message we just received, we know the First Order does not possess it.”

The General added the last part somewhat thoughtlessly, "Let's hope they don't get too much information out of him."

Feeling her eyes begin to well up, Isla dropped her head and bit her lip to keep the tears from spilling down her cheeks. They’d been through similar situations before and things always managed to work out; but this was different. The First Order didn’t play games. Isla’s chest tightened. No, she thought hastily, shaking her head. Not yet. He has so much life left to live. The dread of finally having to tell their little girl that her father was not coming home flickered in her belly.

And then suddenly, she became angry.

Smoothing her loose bun back, she tucked an errant yellow wave behind her ear and ran a hand over her mouth. Lieutenant Isla Dameron was a respected officer in the Resistance for a reason; she was sharp and she was tough; Isla didn't roll over and give up that easily. If her talents could be utilized for anything, it was going to be to bring her husband home.

“You should have sent me with him,” she snarled.

***

Poe felt it in his bones the moment BB-8 burst through the door of the hut. The First Order had arrived. He'd done as Lor San Tekka had said and hopped into his fighter, but he wasn't quick enough on the start-up. When he saw the flames eating up the back of his X-Wing, his heart began beating wildly.

While returning to his family was Poe's top priority, he was a member of the Resistance and the Resistance's top priority was retrieving the map that would lead them to Luke Skywalker.

Poe's needs were second.

He had tucked the map into BB-8's secret compartment and instructed him to leave the village.

"I'll come back for you," he told BB-8.

As he crouched behind some wreckage, he remembered how he'd spoken the same words the morning he left for his mission.

---

"Isla, sweetheart," he whispered, lying across from his wife in their bed. The sun had yet to rise, which meant Ada would start tossing and turning soon. She was an early bird, like her parents.
"I'll come back for you." She smiled lazily, grabbing his hand and kissing his knuckles. "I always do."
"You'd better, Commander." Her thin fingers wove into his wavy hair, pulling his face toward hers. "I love you, baby."
Poe pressed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes, enjoying the silence and her soft breathing. It was a part of their small ritual that accompanied each assignment and Poe found it soothing. Soon Isla would get out of bed, pad around their cramped quarters, and make sure he had everything he needed. Did he have his knife? Who’d been instructed to make sure his blaster was charged?
She'd put on her casual uniform and lace up her black boots before smoothing the collar of his flight suit. In this case, he was going undercover, so he imagined her inspecting the collar of his old leather jacket instead.
"I love you, Birdie."
The soft moan of a morning stretch slowly separated them. Poe rolled out of the bed and picked Ada up from her small cot in the corner. Any children on base usually slept in barracks away from the main buildings, but on nights before an assignment, Ada slept with her parents.
"Good morning, little blackbird." He tousled her hair and buried his face in her neck, taking in her smell. Another part of their ritual. Despite being groggy from sleep, a slow grin spread across her face, exposing her tiny, perfect baby teeth. They'd start to fall in a couple of years. She had her mother's smile.
"Goo'mor-ning," she whispered, hugging him closely. He kissed both her cheeks and then her forehead.
She murmured a question softly—he couldn't quite make all of it out. "You…fly in…with X-Wings?"
"Yes, baby girl."
She grabbed his cheeks and looked at him closely.
"Fly fast?"
"You bet."

---

Some thought it was dangerous to have children on the Resistance base, but that didn't mean it wasn't done. There were others and they were well taken care of. Poe knew what it was like to grow up with distant parents who were working toward the greater good. His little girl was not going to grow up the same way, wondering whether it'd be months or years or never before she would see her mom and dad again. He didn't want to her growing up to feel like she'd hardly known them at all.

It was a risk, but they were willing to take it to be a family while they could.

***

A hooded figure emerged from the shuttle that had recently landed, scattering the villagers into their hiding spaces. It was downright menacing. Force-sensitive or not, Poe could feel the man's presence immediately. It was the darkest of dark, blackest of black.

He shivered. So this was Kylo Ren.

Poe had only heard of his reputation, but had never (thankfully) come face-to-face.

And Kylo Ren wanted the map.

He watched as Ren sliced into Lor San Tekka with his crude, crackling lightsaber.

Before his mind could stop his fingers, Poe pulled out his blaster, aiming it at the figure in black. Within seconds he felt Kylo Ren's wrath—his sheer, raw power. He was completely immobile, saw the blue ray from his blaster frozen in mid air.

And then they grabbed him. The hit to the face stung a little, making his eyes watery. Kylo Ren knelt in front of him in silence. Poe spoke first, the sarcasm masking his fear. They dragged him onto the shuttle.

He listened to the screams of the villagers as Kylo Ren ordered a massacre.

***

Now Poe was slumped against the cool metal wall inside the shuttle, his hands shackled behind his back. He could feel the weight of his wedding band tucked inside the little pocket inside the front of his jacket, along with a small holo of his family.

By this time, he knew she was well aware of what had happened. He knew she would have been waiting with the others for his transmission, and waiting to hear his secret message sent directly to her line only. See you soon, Birdie.

The memory brought a bit of warmth to his body.

They'd been in their mid-twenties when they first met—24 and 26. The Resistance was still relatively new then. He'd come from the New Republic Navy and she'd come running from something she thought she would become.

He wanted to take her up in that X-Wing—her first time flying aside from taking the shuttle to the base. As Isla was a native of Coreilla, he'd been floored to know that she'd never been off the ground before. The fact that her first time would be with him had made his skin flush.

She'd asked him, "So what is it you pilots call your ships…birdies, or something?" Her pale skin had reddened slightly when he corrected her—told her that they were sometimes called birds, not birdies.

But the name stuck. When Ada had been born, he'd scrambled to find a nickname as fitting. She'd been born with a shock of thick, black hair, just like his; he'd called her his little blackbird.

Poe couldn’t keep these thoughts—or images of their faces—at bay; they flooded his mind and it worried him just a little.

Was this it?