Bonded in the Silence: A Reylo Fanfiction

Chapter 10: Arrival

"Rey?" an urgent voice said.

Rey was deep in a slumber at that moment until someone started violently shaking her shoulder.

"Hey, you alive?"

"Unfortunately" Rey groaned as the world around her got louder. Cracking open an eyelid, she was relieved to see Finn kneeling next to her with a concerned look on his face.

"Uh, why are you sleeping on the floor?" he asked, gesturing to her bed against the other wall.

As she began to move, aching soreness awoke in her limbs from the durasteel floor, and she wondered how long she'd slept there in the night.

"I guess I must have sleep-walked over here. I had bad dreams. " As she spoke the words, all the memories of the night before came flooding back to her, and she reached out to grab Finn's arm.

"Finn, have you heard anything from the base? About Leia?"

Finn shook his head. "Comm silence, remember? We can't keep in touch with them so it can't be tracked."

Rey didn't let go of his arm. "In my dreams, Leia came to say goodbye to me. She was in a bed on the base. I think....she died last night."

He covered her hand lightly with his and reassured her. "It was probably just a dream."

Rey wanted to argue and start crying all over again. She was frustrated by not only the bond that was opening more frequently, but by the circumstances where they could not confirm with the base or Maz. There was no point in arguing with no proof anyways, so she let it go and pushed it far away from her mind for the time being.

She felt as thought she was ninety-years-old standing up from the cold floor wrapped in her blanket. Feigning a smile, she quietly said "Ok, are we here already?"

"You bet we are," Poe's voice called from outside her room, "along with a whole lot of other ships. It must be a transaction day, because the port here on Tatooine is packed."

Finn studied Rey before he started backing away toward the door. "Everything is going to be fine...I'll let you get dressed to we can have one more meeting before you head out with Poe this morning." He ducked out of the room and shut the door after exiting.

She stared at the spot she had slept while clutching the blanket and wondered how long the link stayed on last night. Mental shields could be summoned during her conscious periods, but could she protect her thoughts in her dreams?

*

Poe's heavy steps banged down the metal ramp out of the freighter. When he reached the sand, he stopped to look back up the ramp.

The visor of the helmet Rey wore was already starting to fog up with the moisture of her sweat. The heat of Tatooine was nauseating compared to Jakku, and it took all her will not to strip off one of the layers she wore to hide her figure in the ensemble.

Poe's face was covered by a linen draped from one side of his cargo hat to the other, leaving his eyes bare. He pulled at the collar of his jacket to signal that he was feeling the heat as well. It was a small price to pay to hide any recognition from First Order allies.

Staff in hand, Rey made her way down the ramp, taking in the dizzying scene of humans and other species bustling back and forth. Some carried shipping containers to similar freighters, others hustled their 'live purchases' in chains aboard other vessels, and there was an abundance of chatter in the air.