Close to Me {Poe Dameron}

one

She honestly didn't know how she kept it up before. Staying up late was the name of the game while in school. It was the only way to go out and still pass her classes with flying colors. Then again where she was now was nothing like her time on Naboo despite the constant attacks from Imperial sympathizers. Far away from the local politics, missions were more about reconnaissance than physical battles. If a fight happened, the mission hadn't gone to plan. No formal declaration of war had been announced but they were certainly at it even if right now it was more of a battle of wits.

Kat let out a shaky breath. Exhaustion seeped all the way to her bones. She didn't really have to be here; her squadron was doing a routine patrol. She wanted, no needed, to prove that she rightfully deserved her rank as a colonel.

The whispers were that she only received the rank because of her ties to the general. At age ten, Kat lost her parents, and the family that took her in happened to be Leia Organa and Han Solo. The former just so happened to be the General of the Resistance which caused people to talk when she showed up to D'Qar and became Colonel within two weeks of her arrival. She shouldn't let the whispers bother her but they had been following her ever since she got back from university. Kat had a lot to unpack while studying and with no adult supervision around, old habits returned.

After the Organa-Solo family took her in, Kat struggled to settle into her new life so she often acted recklessly and acted out. On Naboo, she no longer had anyone constantly reminding her that there were better ways to act, reacting and behaving how she wanted while working through the utter betrayal she felt towards Ben Solo when he turned to the Dark Side and joined the First Order as Kylo Ren. Kat gained the reputation of a party princess, choosing to drown her sorrows in drinks, dance, and men. Sometimes it would even be all three. Most of the people in her life disappointed or left her. So she would leave those she slept with before she could get hurt, especially after her boyfriend cheated on her.

She did study though, through all of the partying and fighting. Despite all her hurt and anger, she still wanted to help people and make sure the First Order didn't take over like the Empire did. So she pushed through those four years, finally finding that balance between reckless and focused by the time she graduated.

The damage to her reputation had already been done, though. When she returned home, she walked the halls of the capitol building to Leia's office, the woman she could never call mother but was her mother all the same. Whispers were there too. Having been chief of staff for Leia before she left to study, foregoing the traditional route of schooling, those who knew her family couldn't believe that walking before them was the girl who had so much promise. They now only saw her as the wild child, figuring that the only reason why she was back in the building was that she had been kicked out of school.

She was met with an empty office, cleared of all personal possessions. Her best friend, Darby, had come in and was the one to tell her what Leia had been up to while she was away. With that new knowledge, it was a no brainer. Now it was all about how to reach out to Leia and how to get to the Resistance base.

When she joined the Resistance on D'Qar, the whispers returned. She only got her position because she's the general's daughter. She's going to ruin this whole thing. She should have stayed home. Are we that desperate for recruits? No way she's as good as the general claims.

So that's why she was here during a routine patrol instead of asleep in her bunk, her arms shaking slightly as they worked to hold her up. She watched each of the blimps on the screen as the four X-Wings flew the course they had planned out for this particular trip.

She commanded the entire Navy. She knew how to fly, did it fairly well if she did say so herself, but most of the time her feet were on the ground acting as the all-seeing eye for her team even if there was Ground Control. It made it easier for her to help when things didn't go as planned. That's where her reckless behavior came in, following impulses and instincts more than mapped out plans. It was why Leia had named her a colonel. Kat was good at seeing the big picture and being able to put in those fine details that would make it all work. Not to mention Leia trusted Kat's leadership and knew her adopted daughter would make sure a mission was done with as little casualties as possible.