A Galaxy Quite Close to Home

Chapter 7: Poe

They had been staying at the cheapest motel they could find inside of city limits for a week, starting to see the little money they had begin to run dry. The room was nice but they could only really afford one bed and Finn was spending many a night on the floor. Rey had offered to switch but he insisted that she slept on the bed. They had set up a little spot in the corner with a little box with kitty litter in it that BB gladly used.

Now though Rey was searching through the morning paper for any job listings, they were hard to find without the internet but they didn't have access to it. Finn was dead asleep on the bed, snoring away under the covers in nothing but his boxers. BB was curled up by his head, not sleeping but relaxing happily. She had gotten just a little bit bigger, crazy how animals grow. Rey grumbled and threw the papers down on the floor and grumbled, grabbing her bag and making sure it just had a snack and her tools in it. She left a little note saying "I'm going to go find work while your lazy ass sleeps. Don't wait up for me and feed BB."

Rey walked the streets quietly, it was getting closer and closer to dinner time and the streets were emptying as the restaurants filled and people went home. She liked it a lot more with less people. She turned a corner onto a less busy street and found a man looking nervous, hovering above his car and staring at the smoking engine. She approached him confidently and smiled.

"Hey. Need any help?" he turned at the sound of her voice, obviously surprised and pulled right out of thought. He was tall, dark features and probably about thirty. A good looking thirty though. He ran his hand through his hair and eyed her in an odd way that she could only read as familiarity.

"Uh, yeah. Maybe. I kinda.. I don't know. I'm a good driver but never really was much of a

pro at diagnosing the problem." he chuckled softly and put his hands on his hips. He bit his bottom lip and squinted at her, as if he were trying to figure something out. She shifted her weight onto one foot and nodded at the car.

"The air filter is clogged." he looked at her with surprise.

"You haven't gotten closer than five feet. How the hell did you figure that out?" he looked at her now, impressed and curious. Rey shrugged and smiled.

"Let's just say I've spent a lot of time around cars. But this is a problem I can't fix right now. Or right here. We'd need to tow this thing somehow but it's getting late and I haven't got money to tow it." the stranger's face darkened and then lit up, looking like he solved a puzzle and he pointed at Rey.

"I'm sorry this is entirely unrelated but, uh, that's my jacket." he looked at her with confusion again and she looked him back in the eyes, the same expression written on her face. She laughed and shook her head.

"Uhm, no. This is my friend's." she looked down at Finn's jacket.

"What's your friend's name?" he put his hands in his pockets and leaned back against the side of his car. Rey didn't see any importance in the question but she answered none the less.

"His name's Finn. I don't see why it's important. What's your name anyway?" his face lit up and he practically jumped forward, excitement in his eyes.

"Holy shit... uh, my name is Poe, Poe Dameron, but oh my god..." he reached out and grabbed Rey's hand and shook it hard, grinning madly, "You say his name is Finn? Just Finn, that's it?"

"Uh... yeah..." Rey shook his hand back and squinted at him. Poe laughed and shut the hood of his car and turned to Rey again.

"Take me to him- What's your name?"

"Rey."

"Take me to Finn, Rey. Please. I gotta find something out." Rey was apprehensive of letting the man she had known for five minutes, Poe Dameron was his name apparently. She had dealt with strange men before but this time she had a sneaking suspicion this guy had something to do with what Finn was running from.