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█▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀█ chapter fifty-five:let you go █▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄█
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THE FALCON ASCENDS into hyperspace without issue. Before the First Order can react, the battered freighter clears Crait's surface and disappears in a brilliant flash of blue light. For the time being, they are safe. This time, no one will be able to follow them. This time, the Resistance will truly escape. But other than that, there is little reason for anyone to celebrate.
It's quiet on the ship. Less than twenty people survived the First Order's assault against the Resistance. Cargo storage compartments are turned into makeshift barracks. People crowd the rooms of the freighter and stake claims for themselves on any open space they can find. Many of them fall asleep on the hard floor of the Falcon without any bedding, bone weary and exhausted from days spent running and fighting for their lives. Their sleep is dreamless. Nothing disturbs them. They just drift, lost in oblivion as they rest.
Indira envies them. She can't sleep.
It isn't because the floors of the Falcon are hard. It isn't because of the incessant cooing of the round-shaped avians that Rey brought back with her from Ahch-To. It isn't because of turbulence or pain or any other discomfort — she's just sad.
And she can't sleep.
Even so, there's a certain safety in pretending. If people think she's asleep, they won't bother her with questions. If people think she's asleep, they won't ask her about what happened outside of the Falcon on Crait. If people think she's asleep, they won't expect her to hold herself together when she feels like she's falling apart. So, Indira curls up on the floor in the Falcon's forward hold. She closes her eyes and pulls her knees up to her chest, turning her back to the rest of the room.
She doesn't sleep. She just pretends.
Leia knows. So does Rey. So does everyone, really, but no one calls her bluff. Even so, Leia stops by to stroke her hair occasionally. Rey drapes a blanket over her and touches her shoulder gently. They know she isn't really sleeping, but for her sake, they pretend, too.
