CONSTELLATIONS | Poe Dameron

CHAPTER XVIII

"Damn it," I muttered under my breath as I looked at the small scrape on the inside of my arm that I had made hours ago. I was hoping to see the red mark fade more; a visual proof that my treatment was working at a quicker pace. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

I had decided to start taking my bacta concoction myself since the threat of the First Order was growing. Normally, I would've ran this by General Organa or at the very least let Tash know what I was doing, but I didn't need anyone knowing it was at this stage just in case. The bacta was artificial, and I was able to form it into a gel type pellet for consumption. The aftertaste left something to be desired, but overall it was an efficient form of administration as long as it started to work. I'd doubled the dosage yesterday, and that seemed to jumpstart my healing process as I had wanted it to. Hopefully with the higher dose in my system, I'd get the desired results within a few days.

I was starting to feel a shift in our world. It was this deep, unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach letting me know that things would soon change. The only way I knew how to silence it was to continue working, but that never could quite shut out the small voice in the back of my mind. It didn't help that BB-8 was still missing. I missed the droid. He brought such joy to myself and Poe. Though he carried on as normal as he could, I knew that he was just as concerned as I am about BB-8's return.

I rolled the sleeve of my coat back down and stood up to put my notes away in a locked drawer. I needed to stop by to see Leia and see if there were any updates.

Walking down the twisting halls, I first headed out to the hangar to spy on my stubborn, rule-breaking patient. I had caught Poe exerting himself more than he should numerous times since he returned. Tally was constantly scolding him, which I was grateful for, but it didn't make much difference. He had been healing quickly, and I was honestly hesitant to tell him that in the worry that he'd take that as a "you're free to go back to normal." I walked up to the outside, but stayed tucked near the entrance and let my eyes scan over the other pilots and their ships before stopping on the black X-wing.

Behind the ship was my patient, stretching up to tinker with one of the engines. He was stretched enough for his shirt to ride up, allowing me to see the top of his healing hip and the bottom side of his bandage. "Would it kill him to follow instructions for once?" I whispered to myself as I made my way towards him. The loud sounds of the hangar covered up the clicks of my heels as I walked behind him and crossed my arms.

"Dameron!" I shouted in a stern voice. The pilot froze before slowly bringing his arms down to his sides. He turned to me with a sheepish grin on his face.

"Hey doc, didn't hear you come out here."

"Wouldn't be the first time you didn't hear or listen to me. I'm sure there are plenty of others who can be helping you with whatever you are doing. If you'd set aside your pride for one second, you'd probably heal faster." I rolled my eyes as I grabbed a stool from next to the ship and yanked the soldering gun from his hand. Throwing the stool down, I kicked off my shoes and climbed up, taking a look at the open compartment at the base of the engine. "Let me guess, soldering the pump line to the chamber?"

Poe had an incredulous look on his face before releasing a laugh. "Of course you know how to repair a ship."

With yet another eye roll, I ignored the man as I fixed the pump line. It didn't take long before I was climbing back down and setting the gun on the top of the stool. Turning to Poe, I was surprised to see quite a few mechanics and pilots gathered around. I did my best to ignore them as I stood in front of the smirking pilot.

"No. More. Working. On. Ships." I said, poking him in the chest with each word. "Seriously, you're so close to being healed up. There is no reason to backtrack because of your own stubbornness, okay?"