Chapter Text
From up here, the tiny bursts of light over Endor were silent. Almost shrouded in night but for a slice of bright emerald scything down one side, the sanctuary moon resembled nothing so much as a rich fruit someone had just started to peel. Fireworks like fireflies trembled and skittered busily across the surface.
From up here, where they made no sound, Bodhi could enjoy them. The flight deck of Home One was almost silent itself, deserted amid the celebrations. Muffled noises of jubilation came from somewhere else on board, but not here. Here there was just him, gazing down at Endor’s silent flares.
A door; footsteps; a hand appeared on his shoulder. “We just heard,” said the deep, familiar voice. “Luke made it off. He’s ok. He’s alive.”
That was good. Bodhi nodded. General Calrissian squeezed his shoulder briefly and let his hand fall. The fireworks went on below them.
“There’s more to do,” said Bodhi eventually.
Calrissian laughed: a broad, hearty, golden laugh, like a corsair in a casino. “Always, Captain, always. Sure was real nice of the Empire to build another one for you.” He grinned. “Since you missed the first one going up, and everything. All that hard work and you missed it first time.”
Bodhi obliged him with a chuckle. “Yeah. Tell them I caught it this time. No repeats needed.”
“I’ll pass on the memo. Come on, Bodhi, you’re missing the party.”
The younger man took a deep breath, turning from the viewport at last. “They’ll set a date now, won’t they.” It wasn’t a question. “Now that the ‘immediate threat is stabilised’.”
The general’s pirate grin slid away. “She’ll be fine,” he answered without conviction. “Whatever else, she’s still a hero of the Rebellion.”
“I think that one’s long since run out.”
Calrissian looked away. There was nothing to say.
“Go on,” said Bodhi. “Don’t miss the party.” He looked back out at the glittering moon. “I’ll be along.”
Bodhi didn’t remember being afraid of her when they’d first met. Catatonic and dishevelled, like him, she had at the very least been a long way down the list of things to be afraid of at the time. Later on, of course, he’d witnessed her rage and fire, but as a torch, not a furnace. It had guided people, and he hadn’t felt afraid of it.
But the woman who lay inert on the cot at the far end of the brightly lit cell, eyes fixed dully on the ceiling, made Bodhi feel afraid.
“Timer started,” the guard muttered to him, and the door slid shut behind him. She made no sign she had even noticed him arrive.
Bodhi took a deep, shaking breath, released it slowly, and started across the cell toward her. She shifted minutely, and his step faltered.
“They – they made it,” he told her. “It’s done. General Solo’s team is still down on Endor, a ground squad’s gone down already, they’ll bring them back tomorrow. And Commander Skywalker made it out ok. He’s safe. It’s all done.”
No response came.
“So… so what I mean is I guess you’ll hear soon,” he finished lamely.
Court martial. The tiniest tilt of her head in agreement, or acknowledgement, or something else he couldn’t know. Bodhi took another shaky breath and forced himself to move the rest of the way over to her, to sit on the edge of the cot, his back to her, the sealed door in front of him. It looked a long way away for such a small room.
“I’m – I’m just going to sit here for a bit,” he said muttered, blinking furiously at the floor, wondering if she could hear his pulse racing, smell his adrenaline, sense him working out how fast he could get to the door if he needed to. He felt like he would flinch if she so much as spoke.
Then her hand appeared quietly in his, and gripped it tightly. He squeezed back as hard as he could. He didn’t need to look around to know that, silent and still, Jyn Erso was still staring at the ceiling.