Dropped Thread - Finn - Anything You Can Do
It had been months since Rey’s journey to find the elusive Luke Skywalker when she finally completed her objective of bringing him home. Nearly all of the base had turned out upon their arrival to greet them, though it was mainly to welcome Luke back. Rey disengaged herself to search the crowds for the few people she actually knew here. A quick scan told her Finn wasn’t in the group and she didn’t have much longer to look for him.
That night was a whirlwind of congratulations and meetings, the latter of which Rey spent detailing why it had taken them so long to return. She’d been training and only once Luke thought her strong enough to encounter the Dark side again without being tempted by it had he agreed to return with her.
It wasn’t long after their arrival that the General came to the conclusion that Rey was ready for another mission, although she granted an easy one to start out with. It was a simple recon assignment and she would be able to take along whomever she chose.
Grinning at the idea, she gave the General her selection before taking off to find the room of the only logical choice. She knocked on his door when she found it, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“Fiiiiinn! Are you here?”
There was a clatter from the other side of the room, the sound of a trillion small parts falling to the floor, abandoned. Finn had been busy all morning, decrypting intercepted First Order broadcasts, trying to get his kriffin’ comm to work (every time he brought it in, the guy at the desk said that it was fine, and yet every time he got back to his room, it started making those noises again), and trying desperately to restore some order to the accumulated reports. Everything was high-pressure, looming-deadline, but who cared about anything else when Rey was finally here?
The door to his ‘office’ hissed open, revealing Finn and his sharp eyes and dark scowl.
“Where the hell have you been?” he snapped, though he could maintain the illusion for about a second longer before he was wrapping his arms around Rey and squeezing the breath out of her lungs. “It’s so good to see you.”
She winced so deeply when she heard the clatter from within the room that her right eye almost closed completely, a look which she held until the hydraulic doors opened. Then, even at the sight of Finn scowling, her face brightened and she grinned so widely it hurt.
“Oof! Sorry,” she protested, the words a little strained as she had to choose whether to speak or to fight for breath. She wrapped her arms around his neck and returned the tight hug until she really couldn’t breathe anymore. “Okay, enough of that. No more hugging,” she groaned and pushed herself gently out of his embrace.
She took a deep breath and grinned up at him again. “It’s good to see you, too. Conscious this time. That’s an improvement. How are you?”
Finn snorted. “Trying to stay this way. You don’t want to know about me,” he said, ushering her into the room with a hand on her arm. “I’m not the one who went off to find the great Luke Skywalker.”
The hand on her arm squeezed experimentally, part of Finn’s sudden revelation. “I’m guessing either you found him, or you’ve been in one of those jails where they make you break rocks all this time.”
She rolled her eyes as she walked into the room with him. “I do want to know about you. I’ve been worried sick,” she insisted. “Especially given the fact that you were unconscious when I last saw you.”
She chuckled at his guess. “No, I found him,” she promised. “I definitely have not been breaking rocks in jail. What a pointless task.”
“That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing,” Finn sighed, sweeping a hand illustratively over the melange of gadgets and sheets on his desk. (He’d describe it as ‘a mess,’ though it was really anything but.) “Except these rocks are even harder to break. We’re trying to figure out where the First Order relocated to.”
There was a sour look on his face.
“I tried to tell them that I’d be more help on the field, but no one else seems to think I’m ready to leave here.”
“Ah,” she winced as she looked around his workbench. “Yeah, we sort of destroyed their last one, huh?” It was their own fault for building a planet around a perfectly destructible weapon, really.
She grinned as he complained. “The General seems to think you’re ready o leave. She’s given us a mission on Endor. When will you be ready to leave?”
“No,” Finn gasped, unable to contain his excitement. Like it or not, Rey was getting swept into his arms and squeezed. “I’m finally free of this place? Let’s go right now. I’ll just get my jacket.”
Was there anything else he needed? Not at all. He made it a point to get attached to nothing on D'Qar; one never knew when it would be time to relocate. His jacket was within grabbing distance, and he draped it over his shoulder, ready as ever.
“Yes!” she laughed, or tried to. The sound turned into another groan when Finn hugged her again. “You’re going to crush me,” she whined but returned the quick embrace and let him disentangle to get his coat.
“Ready? I left the Falcon to be fueled up, so it should be done by the time we get back out there.” She hoped so, anyway. As much as she enjoyed being home at the base, she loved the idea of traveling to a new place. She’d never seen Endor before and was more than eager to.
“The Falcon!” Finn was laughing and whooping. Rey might not have wanted to stand in his way here; anything within a five mile radius really was potentially in the way of his mad dash to the ship – and Finn planned to give no quarter.
“I’ve never missed a ship so much before,” he raved, unable to contain himself at the thought of soaring through the skies again. Hey, maybe this time: no tractor beams! That’d be the life, right? “I’d kiss it…if it wasn’t so full of Wookiee hair.”
She followed him out and didn’t try containing her grin. Seeing him alive was thrilling enough but he was so excited, she couldn’t keep from chuckling. “Yes, the Falcon,” she teased.
“You’ve no idea what a pain that hair is,” she snorted. “It’s even worse right now. I haven’t had a chance to clean it out yet, so it’s all over the place.” She had a feeling he wouldn’t mind so much, though. “Have you really not been off base this whole time?”
“Don’t even start with me,” Finn said, wagging his finger and grinning. “I may have been cooped up here, but I haven’t been gathering dust. In fact, I think I might just blow your mind on this mission. Chewie.”
Finn was prepared to give a little wave, maybe nod his head respectfully. He wasn’t prepared to be ensconced in Chewie’s massive furry arms, pulled in like prey. Chewie wailed something, and Finn tried to twist his head out of the jungle of hair that was catching on his lips.
“What did he say?” he asked, muffled and sputtering. “Tell me this is a hug and not him about to throw me into Hangar B.”
Rey laughed as Chewie grabbed Finn, giving her no time to properly respond to Finn’s “mind blowing” comment.
“He missed you,” she said. “He’s happy you’re okay, believe it or not.” She knew the two hadn’t been on the best of terms the last time they’d encountered each other consciously, but Chewie had been focused a lot on Finn’s well-being since then. She could feel the concern radiating off him without him speaking half the time.
“Okay, don’t break him, Chewie. We’ve got work to do,” she added and stepped around the two to board the Falcon. “Are we ready to fly?”
Finn took that roaring bellow behind him as something akin to an aye-aye-captain and followed suit. His first impulse once inside the ship was to breathe deeply and re-acclimate himself with it – but just in the nick of time, he remembered what a bad idea that would be. Especially when the vents first kicked in; Han had told them once that that weird funk had been lingering in the ducts since before they were born.
“You gonna let me fly this time?” Finn teased her, leaning over the pilot seat. He held out one arm experimentally. “You should – look at this, I can reach the shield toggle from here.”
“Hey!” she protested and gave his hand a light smack. “Ha ha. You’re hilarious, aren’t you?” she rolled her eyes. “No, thank you. That’s what I have a co-pilot for,” she said with a nod to Chewie.
The wookie gave a satisfied, gargling roar, and made his way to his seat.
“Exactly,” Rey grinned and hip checked Finn. “I don’t expect we’ll be running into any trouble on the way to Endor but you can man the guns if you’d like. Just like old times,” she teased.
[ Dropped thread ]
