Chapter 2
Poe and Rey dragged the Captain into the blazing sunlight, her chrome armor sending glares of light into every direction. The pair had to stop every few steps to readjust themselves to the weight of the trooper.
“How---the hell ---did you manage to get her on the Falcon by yourself?” Poe asked, stopping to pull Phasma’s arm further over his shoulder.
“That’s a good question.” Rey huffed in response. She shifted her weight and glanced around them. Several pilots and workers had stopped their tasks to gawk at them. She turned her focus to a hanger off to her left as a nearby mechanic shouted at them. It was in a dialect Rey couldn't recognize.
Poe snapped his head up and yelled back, something that Rey guessed was not at all pleasant. Poe’s outburst sent the mechanic scampering back into the hanger, but not before he shouted another assumed to be profanity at the two.
“Don’t mind him.” Poe said, rolling his eyes. “C’mon. We should get her inside before she cooks in this armor.”
Rey sent a glare towards the hanger the loud-mouthed mechanic had disappeared into. She huffed and fell instep with Poe, dragging Phasma into the cool halls of the base. Poe led her through a few corridors and multi-purpose rooms before they came across a long hallway. It was eerily bare and made a shiver run down Rey’s spine.
“The main infirmary is bound to be crowded.” Poe sighed, pulling Rey towards a small doorway. Inside were several medical regulation beds and some equipment. Rey pondered the lack of equipment and assumed the main infirmary was desperate for the extra machines and were using them to treat the others who had come back wounded. Rey eyed the room and felt the pleasant sense of relief settle over her as she realized they were alone.
It took a lot of effort from both of them, but Poe and Rey managed to haul Phasma onto a bed near the front of the small room. Rey moved quickly towards the head of the bed. She pulled a few levers and watched as the bed sank into a more horizontal position. She hoped that from this position it would be easier to disrobe the woman of her obnoxiously shiny armor.
Poe, in turn, stayed rooted at the foot of the bed, his arms crossed tightly across his chest. “I don’t like this.”
Rey ignored his comment as she leaned over Phasama. “We have to get this armor off her.” It’s probably what saved her from the fall into the compactor she thought.
She gave the woman a once over, trying to decided where to start first. Finally, she settled on her already undone arm, the gauntlet was gone but the black glove beneath was still, mostly, in tact. Rey gently pulled the glove off and studied the hand under it. Phasma’s left hand was covered in various scrapes and already dark bruises. She hopped the rest of her body was spared the brunt of these injuries, but the large amount of dried blood caking the chrome plating told her otherwise.
Rey continued gently removing the armor, slowly moving her way up Phasma’s arm. She couldn’t believe how intricate the armor actually was, and how heavy. She pulled an arm band close to her face and studied the piece. It was probably built to deflect laser blasts and other firearms. Rey wondered briefly how it would hold up against a light saber.
A sudden clang pulled her from her trance. She turned to face Poe, still standing at the end of the bed. He was yanking armor off Phasma and throwing it haphazardly into a pile on the floor.
“We have to be gentle!” Rey restored, reaching out and swatting his hand from the troopers thigh.
Poe chucked the piece he had in his hand across the room, it struck the wall with a loud clang. “I don’t care!” he shouted. “As far as I’m concerned she…” He stopped and gestured at the woman on the bed. “Should been left on that forsaken planet to burn with the rest of the First Order!” He threw his hands up and stalked towards the exit. Pausing at the door he glanced over his shoulder at his friend.
She was still standing next to bed, twisting the arm band in her hands. She couldn't stop the hurt from openly pouring over her features.
He sighed.”I...I’m going to check on Finn.” He mumbled before leaving.
Rey turned back towards Phasma and let out a deep sigh. Silently she began removing the woman’s armor again.
When she was finished, the woman left lying on the table was somehow not what Rey was expecting. She was tall, but that was obvious even before the armor was removed. The black under armor she wore covered, what Rey would guess to be, perfectly chiseled arms and legs. Tears in the material revealed slices of her torso and arms, the paleness of her skin shining brightly against the black cloth.
Rey studied the woman’s body for a second more before turning towards her head. There was a thick crust of blood under the chin of the helmet the women still wore. Rey leaned forwards and hesitated, not wanting to injure her further. She lifted the helmet off as gently as I could and was shocked by the face beneath it.
Phasma’s face and hair were matted with blood, a large gash stretched from her temple to the middle of her forehead. Her left eye was most likely swollen shut and a deep bruise was developing around it. Rey could feel her heart beat in her chest, heavy and fast, as she rushed out of the room and called for a medic.
A moment later the doctor came bolting in. He stopped halfway into the room and stared at the bloody armor on the floor.
“You expect me to help her?” He questioned, extending his arm to stop the medical droid that came floating lazily after him, from continuing on to Phasma’s bedside. “I wasn’t aware we were still taking in stray stormtroopers!” A thick layer of disgust seemed to drip off the sentence.
“Yes!” Rey growled. “I expect you to treat her!” When the man stood rooted in place she snapped at him again, “ I have orders from General Organa that this woman be treated!” She half lied. As the man stared and huffed, it seemed as if her was weighing his options; either treat Phasma or deal with General Organa. The former seemed to be a better option, for a mere minute later he shoved past her and stalked towards the bed.
Rey hoped that her outburst wouldn’t come back to haunt her.
The medic and the droid then immediately went to work. The droid seemed to make quick work of the gash on Phasma’s head, cleaning and sealing it with such ease it entransed Rey. It hovered here and there over the woman’s body, most likely scanning for broken bones she thought.
A minute later the droid Rey had been so carefully observing drifted out of the room. She then turned her attention back towards the medic.
“She has a broken zygomatic bone, three fractured ribs, and a pretty badly broken wrist.” He huffed. “Not to mention the dozens of lacerations.” He added.
“Will she be okay?” Rey asked, hoping the urgency in her voice wasn’t obvious.
“She will, but we need to move her into the main infirmary to treat her.” He responded as he motioned for Rey to help him.
She moved behind the head of the bed and pushed it gently away from the wall. The medic pulled the bed through the small doorway and down the large hall she and Poe had dragged Phasma through only a short while before. Further down the hall, the medic paused and waited for the door behind him to lift open. Once inside the main infirmary he guided Rey to a smaller wing filled similar beds, each neatly set up around the room and each occupied by, what Rey assumed, were injured pilots and other personnel. The wing was quieter than the main room, but still had the ambient murmur of machines and medics moving about.
Once the bed was in place, the medic hooked up an IV drip and a few of other machines. Rey watched as he stuck the needle gently in Phasma’s arm. Rey seemed to flinch for her, absent mindedly rubbing her own arm where the needle had gone in. The medic continued to treat Phasama as if she were a regular patient. Rey wondered just to what extent that would continue. Once done the medic glanced up at Rey and motioned towards Phasma.
“How long has she been unconscious?” He asked, folding a blanket neatly over the woman’s legs and torso.
Rey racked her brain. Everything seemed so blurred together, like it took place years ago. She returned the medic’s gaze and shrugged. A helpless feeling washed over her, the same feeling that washed over her as she watched Finn fall, bloody in the snow.
The medic rolled his eyes and pulled a thin curtain away from the wall. He yanked it around the area of the bed and shooed Rey, making her take a few steps back.
“She’s in pretty rough shape right now. It’ll take a while for a full body scan and for us to set her bones.” he gave Rey a once over glance and added, “You should get some sleep yourself.”
Rey peaked behind the curtain once more before walking off. Dozens of emotions flooded over her at once. She didn’t quite know what to make of them. She wanted to hate the woman she rescued, she wanted to block the surge of emotions that overcame her when the Captain’s mask was removed. But somehow she couldn’t shake the warm feeling that has swelled in her chest. She pushed the thoughts out of her head and wandered aimlessly through the infirmary.
The last few beds in the wing seemed to have been left unoccupied. She sighed and sat down on one, yanking her boots off and throwing them against the wall. The thin mattress felt like a welcoming cloud after the day she had been through. Rey pulled the sheets over her, not minding the rough and stiff texture. She took a deep breath and let the ambient noise of the infirmary put her to sleep.