PHOENIX ━ dameron

017| sweetheart

"No, this is all you," Lyra reminded her. "You should tell your mom to come check in on operations soon."

"Absolutely not," Reeve shuddered. "Last time she was here she threatened to come out of retirement and stay.  Oh, there's Georgie," Reeve pointed across the runway.

"Which means Ellis won't be far," Lyra said, lips twitching up into a grin. At that second, Ellis walked around the other side of his ship, which was sitting outside with the instrument panel open while the two of them worked on it.  Not much work was getting done, as usual.

"Should we yell for them?"

Lyra stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled loud enough that everyone in their vicinity turned to look, including Georgie and Ellis.

"That works too," Reeve said, grinning. She glanced over her shoulder and started to walk away. "I'll see you soon, Ly."

"Is that actually Lyra?" Georgie hollered.

"God it's good to see you up and walking around!" Ellis said as they got closer.

"It's good to be up," Lyra said, glancing at Reeve's retreating form. Her best friend turned around and gave one last wave before she was gone back inside.

"Have you seen Eden yet?" Ellis asked, wrapping an arm across Lyra's shoulder. "She was just out here asking–"

"Lyra!" Eden's voice came from behind them. Lyra was tackled into a bone-crushing hug.

Shock echoed through her.  Even for all the time she had spent leading them, part of her didn't know how to accept the way they cared for her.  When she had been locked in that cell all alone, it was easier to believe that she would be forgotten.

Aliyah walked out of their hangar block's entrance and waved, a wide grin pulling at her serious expression. Elgie was rolling beside her, and Lyra could make out her snide remarks of binary as the two of them got closer.

"Look at that," Georgie grinned, "Gang's all here."

"You really scared us, you know?" Aliyah said to her, eyes roaming to make sure Lyra was still in one piece. "Do not even think about doing that again."

"I won't" Lyra nodded, looking at all of them with fresh eyes. "I have you all to thank."  This is more than I deserve.

"Don't kid yourself," Aliyah told her. "We know you would have done the same for any of us."

"Yeah, plus, things kind of fell apart without you here," Eden said with a slow shake of her head. "Disasters left and right."

Ellis held up a hand and cleared his throat. "For the record, I didn't cause any of those disasters."

"Neither did I," Georgie cut in.

"They actually didn't," Aliyah said with a resigned sigh. Still, she was trying not to smile.  "Base operations are just hard pressed to function without you here."

"So how do you feel?" Eden asked. She stuck out a hand and grabbed a strand of Lyra's ponytail. "And what's with the gray?"

Lyra laughed. "Side effects of First Order torture."

"Wicked," Georgie said. They had all read the mission report, and they had all been aboard Malarus's ship. It was a relief that they wouldn't need her to explain anything too deeply.

"I'm just so glad you're back," Eden said gleefully, dragging Lyra into another hug.

Lyra sighed into her shoulder. "You have no idea how much I missed being with you all."