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virtie333 · 1 month ago

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Snowbound - Poevember 2024

Poe Dameron, a former military pilot living a quiet life outside of a small mountain town, is trying to ignore his new neighbor, the too-young and too-beautiful Rey Skywalker. But a blizzard is about to change his life forever.

Cross-posted on AO3 (even if you read it here, please give it a kudo there!)

Modern AU Damerey (Poe Dameron x Rey Skywalker)

9800 words (sorry, not sorry)

Rated Explicit, but not until the very end. Hurt/comfort. Neighbors to Lovers. Talk of PTSD, Depression, and Suicidal Ideation. Forced Proximity and Sick Fic. P in V protected sex and Oral sex (female receiving).

Lieutenant Colonel Poe Dameron, former F-15 pilot for the United States Air Force, sat at his worn dining room table, staring at the blizzard outside his kitchen window, idly wondering how much snow it would take to bury his whole cabin enough to suffocate him.

He could just fall asleep and never wake up. It would be so easy. So peaceful.

Almost as if he could read his master’s thoughts, BB, his Border Collie, gave a sharp yip. Poe jumped slightly, startled out of his maudlin thoughts, looking at his dog and grimacing. “Yeah, you’re right,” he said out loud. “I couldn’t do that to you.” He took a deep breath, turning back to the blinding white outside. Dawn had arrived, bringing daylight but no sun. Just wind and snow. Lots of snow. “Maybe our neighbor lady would take you,” Poe muttered. She seemed to like animals.

BB yipped again, but this time he was standing at the back door, looking at Poe expectantly. With a wince, Poe stood and walked across the kitchen, barely registering the cold floor under his bare feet. He should probably turn the heat up since the temperature was dropping fast outside. Maintaining warmth in the old house was a bit of a chore. He opened the door and watched as BB shot out. “Don’t get stuck in a snow drift!” he shouted after the dog, only partially serious. BB was a very smart dog and knew better than to wander too far, especially in inclement weather, but it was really bad out there and BB was still at risk in the storm.

He saw the dog heading toward the property belonging to the neighbor he had just been talking about, and he shook his head in frustration. BB liked going over there to see the young woman and to play with her dog, a little tri-colored rat terrier named Deo. Or at least he thinks that was its name; he had heard her call out to the dog a few times since the woman had arrived in August. Now it was November and they were facing their first major snow storm.

Only it wasn’t just a snow storm. The Blizzard Warning had been posted yesterday morning already, with up to three feet of snow expected along with winds reaching 50 MPH; winds like that were unheard of here in the mountains outside of summer thunderstorms. Temperatures that had been in the 60s yesterday were dropping steadily, and they were expected to be in the single digits by tonight. While the air temperature was just under freezing when the snow started, making the snow wet and heavy, the wind chill was already in the teens. He was stocked up on canned goods and firewood in case the power went out, so he was ready.

He hoped his neighbor was.

When his former neighbor, a gruff older man he only knew as Skywalker, passed away last May, he had expected the house and land next door to go up for sale. Instead, a young woman whom he assumed was related to Skywalker took over the property, moving in with her dog, a donkey, and a small herd of goats. In September, she added a horse to the mix, and though he never saw them outside, he spotted at least two cats in a window facing his property when he had been chopping wood one afternoon. He had seen her face peering out at him from the same window, but she had ducked back fairly quickly when she realized he had spotted her.

Feeling self-conscious for the first time in years, Poe had put his shirt back on.

To be honest, he had been surprised she hadn’t come out to talk to him at that point. Twice since she had moved in, she had come over to his house, politely knocking on his door. He had ignored her both times. He had come up to this mountain to be a hermit and he was going to make sure she knew he had no interest in being neighborly. While the land across the gravel road they both lived off of was owned by a rancher who ran two-hundred head of cattle, the rest of the land that surrounded his forty acres and her fifty acres belonged to the National Forest Service. His cabin was five miles along a well-maintained but unpaved road to the highway, and another eight miles to town. It was as close to the ‘middle of nowhere’ he could get, and he liked it that way.

Suddenly, BB was at the back door, jumping on it and barking frantically. Poe felt his heartrate increase as his anxiety shot up. BB never got that upset without a reason. He moved back to the door quickly, opening it without looking out. He expected BB to rush in, bringing snow and cold with him, but instead the dog spun around and ran to the edge of the deck, then turned and looked at him, barking maniacally. Even someone not used to dogs would understand what he was trying to say.

“What the hell, BB?” Poe grumbled, looking out at the swirling snow. He couldn’t even see his neighbor’s house, which was only twenty yards away. BB ran toward him, reaching out to tap him on the knee, then spun around again, this time running all the way down the stairs into the snow, angled toward the neighboring house. He had gone over there, Poe knew. Now he was desperate for Poe to go there, too. His anxiety still sky-high, Poe turned back into the house and toward his bedroom. He pulled on socks and a flannel shirt, then ran back out to find his boots, pulling them on and lacing them as fast as he could. He grabbed his coat and headed out the back door. BB was tap-dancing on the deck, and as soon as he saw Poe bundled up and coming out, he hopped down the stairs and started running toward the neighbor’s, jumping the snow drifts in his way.

“This better not be a false alarm,” Poe groused as he zipped up the coat and pulled his gloves out of the pocket. He trusted his dog, though. Something was seriously wrong.

The snow was drifting badly already, with some drifts already knee-deep. He plowed through them, finally seeing the dark shape of the other house through the blinding snow. Only BB wasn’t heading toward the house. He was going left, toward the barn that was situated on the other side of the garden behind the house. There was a fence with a gate right behind the garden, and he knew there was a lovely stone path that led from the house to the gate, but that was now covered in snow. There were no animals visible on the other side of the fence, so he knew they must be safe in the barn, but he did see a dark shape in front of the closed gate. It was to that shape that BB ran.

Poe rushed forward, knowing he was walking over the garden and hoping he didn’t trip on anything, heading toward BB and the immobile shape. He could barely hear the barking of the woman’s terrier coming from the house behind him, sounding desperate. As he got close, his fears turned to reality as he realized it was indeed his neighbor, slumped down by the gate in the snow. BB was nosing where he assumed her face was, but she was bundled up in a pair of green coveralls, a hood and balaclava covering most of her face. She was dusted in snow, telling him she had been here for a while, and there were mostly covered tracks in the snow leading to the barn, telling him what she had been doing before BB found her.

He squatted down in front of her. “Hey!” he said loudly, reaching for her. She appeared to be kneeling, leaning against the fence. One of her gloved hands was gripping one of the fence rails. “Hey!” he said again, leaning in to see what he could of her face. “Are you okay?”

Her eyes were closed and she did not respond.

“Miss?” He shook her shoulder slightly. “Hey!” Still no response. Using his teeth, he removed the glove from his right hand and brought it up to her face. She reacted to his touch, her eyes opening slightly. Her skin was hot. Too hot. “Hey, can you hear me?”

She blinked at him, then turned her head slightly. Her hand slipped from the rail and she slumped even more. She mumbled something that sounded like “sleep” and he reached for her, holding her up so she didn’t fall completely into the snow.

“Yeah, no,” he grumbled as he moved in to grab her under her arms. “You can’t sleep here.” He moved to stand, pulling her up as he did so. “You’re sick. You’ve got a fever. You need to sleep inside where it’s warm.”

“I am warm,” she mumbled, but she didn’t fight him, grabbing a hold of the back of his coat.

“Yeah, well, the wrong kind of warm,” he told her as he directed them both toward her house. “You fall asleep out here, you’ll be frozen to death in an hour, fever or not.”

She said something he couldn’t understand, then tripped and fell against him. With a heavy sigh, Poe shifted so that he could pick her up in a fireman’s carry over his shoulder. She didn’t struggle, but he could hear her say something unintelligible again. He pushed through the deepening snow, finally reaching the steps that led up her back deck, BB at his heels. He could see the little terrier watching them from the screen door, his expression fearful. Carefully, he balanced the woman just enough he could free a hand and get the door open, praying the little dog didn’t run out into the blizzard. But BB pushed inside ahead of him, herding the little dog backwards and making room for Poe to step inside.

Looking around frantically for a place to set the woman down, Poe tramped through the kitchen and into the main room, aiming for the couch that sat on the far side of the room. He set the woman down with a groan; she may be skinny, but she wasn’t tiny. She moaned, but did not open her eyes. She was also shivering. How long had she been out there before BB found her? He turned and went back to close the inner door, keeping the cold and snow outside, then removed his own coat so he could maneuver better. He headed back to the couch and began removing her outerwear.

Boots first. Big, black insulated rubber muck boots. Then he unzipped the coveralls, pulling them off her shoulders and down her body. She had a hoodie on underneath, and as he pulled the coveralls over her hips, he saw she had thermal leggings on. At least he knew she had been prepared for outdoor work in frigid weather. He threw the coveralls back toward the kitchen, not wanting all the snow still stuck to them to melt over her carpet, then he untied the hood and pulled it down, gently pulling off her balaclava. Her brown hair was in a tight braid, but it was also soaked in sweat. Her shivering became more violent, and he was glad to see it; it meant her body was warming itself up from the external cold. He figured it wouldn’t take long with her fever helping from the inside.

A big gust of wind hit the house, and suddenly the light in the kitchen and the light next to the couch went out. “There goes the power,” Poe mumbled. He looked over at the two dogs who were both sitting quietly watching him. He scanned the room, glad it was daylight and the house had lots of windows. He noticed an orange and white cat on top of the stairs that led up to an open loft. Her bedroom, he wondered? There were two blankets folded on top of the back of the sofa, and the fireplace off to the side was currently cold, but it not only had wood in it ready to be lit, but a good stack next to it. Okay, this woman was prepared for the weather, he thought.

She just hadn’t planned on getting sick.

Poe reached for the zipper on her hoodie, tentatively pulling it down. She had a pale blue camisole on underneath, and no bra; the outline of her small breasts were clearly evident under the cami. He looked around the room again, noticing what looked like an oversize sweatshirt over the back of a pretty wooden rocking chair close to the fireplace. He went over to grab it, then went back to the woman, removing the hoodie and pulling the soft and warm looking sweatshirt over her head. He wondered if it belonged to her boyfriend as he pulled her arms through the sleeves. He had never seen a man visit her since she had moved in, but maybe it was a long-distance relationship. There was no way she could be single.

He grabbed one of the sofa pillows and carefully laid her down so her head was on it. She wasn’t really unconscious, he knew, but she didn’t seem to be aware, either. She was unresisting as he situated her lengthwise on the couch, then he brought the blankets down to cover her. Her shivering had stopped, but her face was still hot and he could tell she was still sweating. It felt wrong to cover her up, but he was still convinced hypothermia was the main threat. He could however try and make her more comfortable. He went to the kitchen, grabbing a dishtowel and turning on the water at the sink. Nothing. “Shit,” he groaned. “The power’s out, dimwit,” he told himself. Like him, he was sure her water source was a well, and the pump was electric. He wondered if she had a generator.

He went to the back door, opened it and used the towel to pick up a bunch of snow, wrapping it up as he closed the door tight again. He used his hands to work the snow, melting it, getting the cloth as wet as he could, then dumped the rest in the sink and took the cloth over to the woman, putting it over her forehead. She shuddered, then settled.

Poe sat down briefly on the coffee table, his mind busy as he planned what he had to do now. Start a fire, collect some snow to melt for water, check to make sure they had food for the duration, for both people and animals. He wouldn’t bother going back to his house, yet; it was going to get cold, but there was nothing in it that couldn’t handle that. If she didn’t wake up completely by sunset, he should probably go check on her animals in the barn; he assumed that’s what she had just finished doing when she collapsed, so they should be fine until dark. He pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket, unsurprised to see no signal. Even on clear days it was hard to get a signal out here, and there would be no internet with the power out. The way the weather was, even if he could get a hold of emergency services, it would be too dangerous for them to try and make it out here.

It looked like he was here for the duration.

******

The woman’s fever broke around one in the afternoon.

Poe had gotten the lower level of the little house nice and cozy by then with a good fire. He had found as many large containers as he could in the kitchen and filled them with snow, setting them next to the fire to melt, and he kept a cool, wet cloth on his patient’s forehead to help with the fever. Sometimes she would open her eyes, but he could tell she was completely unaware. She was restless, mumbling words he couldn’t understand, and never responded to anything he said. Her dog had joined her on the couch, either lying on her hip or perched on the back, as if he was guarding her. Though he had never done anything aggressive toward Poe, he still watched everything Poe did with distrust. BB followed Poe around in whatever he was doing, settling on the floor in front of the fire the few times Poe let himself sit down on the old recliner kitty-corner from the couch.

Poe tried not to snoop, but it was hard as the morning passed and the afternoon advanced. There were pictures throughout the room, including one of her with Skywalker. They were smiling and seemed happy. He wondered what their relationship was to each other, and he wondered why Poe had never seen her visit the older man. Granted, he had only lived here for a little over a year before Skywalker died, but the man had seemed just as much of a hermit as Poe desired to be.

Poe was relieved when the woman’s temperature returned to normal. She settled and seemed to finally fall into a real sleep. As four o’clock neared, he decided he better check on the animals in the barn. He bundled up and headed outside, BB insisting on coming along. Before he left the deck, he checked under the tarp at the far end, pleased to see even more firewood ready if needed. Then he grabbed the snow shovel that sat propped up against the railing and headed down the stairs into the snow.

The wind and snow had not let up at all, but because the temperature was colder than this morning, the snow had changed consistency. Instead of feeling like he was getting pelted with mini snowballs, he felt like he was getting battered by small bits of glass. He trudged toward the barn, using the shovel to scoop through any drifts that got a little too big. When he got to the gate where he had found his neighbor, he saw that the snow had drifted so badly there that it was over the fence in places. He shoveled the gate clear just enough for him to open it, then pushed through. The area between the barn and the gate was almost bare, but the snow had drifted up against the barn itself, blocking both the big door and the smaller ‘people’ door. He shoveled that one clear, and pushed inside.

He was met with a chorus of nickers, bleats, screams, and brays.

He had been worried about water, not sure how he would get enough for the animals he knew were inside without power, but immediately his worry was eased when he saw the 55-gallon stock tank against the wall, full of water. The animals themselves were in stalls, the little grey horse in one, the donkey in another, and the five goats in the third, but there was a bucket next to the water tank that allowed him to transfer water from there to the buckets hanging in the stalls. There was a thin layer of ice over the water in the big tank, but it was easy to break through. Once he knew all the animals had water, he opened a bale of hay and distributed that, too. He wasn’t going to feed anything else without knowing what they all required; just hay would suffice for now, keeping their bellies full and their bodies warm. As he worked, it got darker and darker. The sun was setting. After topping off the water and giving the animals one final look over, he and BB headed back to the house. Most of the areas he had shoveled on the way to the barn were already drifted over once more.

Once back inside the house, the first thing he did was check on his patient. Both she and her dog were sound asleep. A wave of exhaustion washed over him and he looked at BB. “We should probably eat before sleep, huh?” The dog wagged his tail in response. “Let’s see what she’s got.” He moved to what he knew was most likely the dog kibble container and opened it up. The food was still in the bag, and he was happy to see it was a higher-end kibble, not the cheap crap. The little terrier had woken the moment he opened the container and was at his feet next to BB in a split second. Poe laughed. Finding the little dog’s bowl next to the container, he took an older looking plastic bowl from the cupboard and filled them both with appropriate amounts of food, then fed both dogs. As they ate, he searched the refrigerator, knowing most of the contents would probably go bad before the power came back so he might as well eat some of it. He was pleased to see some bottled water, and grabbed one up, drinking it down quickly. He also found slices of ham and lots of cheese, so he grabbed a pan and some bread and prepped a couple of ham and cheese sandwiches. He put the pan over the fire, and while he couldn’t hold it long enough to call them ‘grilled,’ it melted the cheese and was delicious. He let the dogs out, watching the little one carefully to make sure he didn’t stray too far into the snow, and finally he settled back in the recliner, watching the woman sleep.

He should find out her name, he thought idly. Her purse was on the counter near the back door and her wallet was most likely inside of it. And yet, he didn’t look. He preferred to wait until she woke up and told him herself. He snorted softly. As if he hadn’t had the chance to let her introduce herself in the past.

He sighed and closed his eyes.

******

He dozed, but didn’t sleep, so when both dogs started moving about and the little one started whining, he was awake immediately. He sat up straight from where he was slumped in the chair and looked over at his patient.

She was blinking, looking around her with confusion. She spotted him and her eyes widened. “Wha- what’s going on?” Her voice was rough and…she had an accent.

“You’re okay,” Poe told her softly. Her dog was clambering up her body, his tail wagging faster than lightspeed, and she reached out to pet him as she focused on Poe. “The power went out a while ago, but everyone is safe and warm in here.” He had spotted two more cats up in the loft, but only the orange one had ventured down for a brief time.

“What happened?” She started to sit up, clearing her throat. She rubbed her head, and he knew she probably had a headache due to not only whatever had caused the fever, but dehydration. He got up and moved to the kitchen, pulling a bottle of water out of the not-so-cold fridge. He opened it as he brought it to her.

“You had a fever,” he told her. “I found you passed out by your back gate in the snow.” He looked at his dog, who was looking back and forth between them. “Well, BB found you and let me know.”

He watched as she drank, then she focused on him again. “What time is it?”

Poe looked at his watch. “Almost midnight,” he told her, surprised himself it was so late. Maybe he had slept a bit in that chair. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

She took another drink and licked her lips. “I was calling in to the store. Talking to my manager. I was joking that I was glad it was supposed to blizzard because I didn’t feel well enough to come in, but calling in sick is tough.”

“Where do you work?”

“Bea’s Books.”

Poe nodded. He was familiar with the book store. The few times he visited town, he usually stopped there to stock up. “Your boss is a prick, huh?”

She laughed softly, and Poe found himself startled by the brilliance of her smile and the odd color of her eyes. “Yeah, she is,” the woman said, taking another sip from the bottle. She raised an eyebrow. “I own the store.”

Poe couldn’t help but laugh.

“I remember heading out to the barn,” she continued. “I remember making sure the stock tank was full and everyone had plenty of hay.” Her eyes widened again in panic. “The animals!“

Poe interrupted her. “I was out there just before sunset. Everyone is okay. I watered them and gave them more hay.”

She settled, nodding, then she focused on him once more. “I don’t even know your name.”

“Poe,” he said softly. “Poe Dameron.”

“Rey Skywalker.”

He nodded. “Related to the Skywalker who used to live here, I’m assuming?”

“My father,” she whispered, her expression turning sad. “He moved here after my mum died. He asked me to come, but I had a good job in Glastonbury and didn’t want to leave England. I had intended to visit this past spring, but something came up.” He saw a tear slide down her cheek, but she wiped it away quickly, biting her lower lip. “I didn’t expect…”

Poe nodded, already thinking about his dad. “My mom died when I was a kid. And now I’m thinking I should maybe at least give my dad a call.”

She looked at him seriously. “Yes. You should.” She was silent for a while, then she cocked her head at him. “So, I suppose I should thank you for saving my life?”

Poe shifted in his chair, shaking his head. “You would have eventually come around and made it back to the house,” he told her, even though he didn’t believe it.

“Bullshit,” she quipped. “If I don’t remember you bringing me in here, taking off my clothes, and taking care of me for the last several hours, then odds are I would have just fallen asleep in the snow and never woken up.” She smiled slightly. “Thank you.”

Poe felt his face heat. “I didn’t take off your clothes,” he muttered.

She snorted a laugh, then winced and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, he could tell she was hurting. “I need to use the loo,” she said, pushing the blankets off of her legs and putting her feet on the floor. Poe jumped up and took a step toward her, holding out his hand. At first, she looked confused by his action, but then as she pushed herself up onto her feet, she wobbled and grabbed him. “Oh!”

“You’ve been out of commission for almost seventeen hours,” he told her. “You’re bound to be a bit weak.” He stepped into her and proffered his arm. “I’ll help you to the door.”

She took his arm and leaned on him as he slowly walked her to the bathroom, which fortunately was on the ground floor. As they walked the short distance, he asked about her remaining animals. “I’ve seen your cats, but I didn’t see where you keep their food or litter.”

“I have a walk-in closet upstairs that I use as their room,” she told him.

“I’ll go up and check their food and water, then,” he told her.

She just nodded, focused now on her destination. He let her go as she used the doorframe to support herself. “Just yell out when you’re done,” he told her, wondering if she actually would. She seemed pretty damn independent and stubborn.

He headed up the stairs to the large open loft area. A lovely four-poster bed sat near the far wall, which was almost all floor to ceiling windows, and a desk sat off to the left with a laptop and stacks of papers. The closet was on the right, and the whole wall it sat behind was covered in full bookshelves. Of course, the owner of a bookstore would be a bookaholic, he thought with a smile. He went into the closet, pulling out his phone to use the flashlight as the light from the fire below wasn’t enough to see by up here. Two covered litter boxes sat in the left side of the closet, and two water fountains, neither of which were running now that the power was out, sat on the opposite side. Two empty bowls were in the middle, but Poe found the cat food up on the shelf right above them, along with some more bottled water. The food was the same brand as the dog food, he saw. He filled the bowls, then took a couple of bottles and filled the fountains, which were both half empty. He wondered just how many cats she had; they were all hiding from him now.

He headed back down the stairs, unsurprised to see Rey already back on the couch, the big orange cat in her lap purring away. He sat back down in the recliner. “It’s cold up there,” he told her. “But not freezing.”

She nodded, but didn’t speak.

“Do you want something to eat?” he asked. “I noticed you had cans of soup. It should be easy to warm up some over the fire.” He cocked his head. “Maybe some Tylenol, too?”

The corner of her mouth curled up. “There’s a bottle in my purse,” she said. “And yeah, soup sounds lovely. Bean and ham if possible.”

Poe moved to the fridge and pulled out another bottle of water, then grabbed her bag, taking both back to her. “What is it with women always carrying around pain meds in their purses?”

She snorted. “You try bleeding out your uterine lining every month, then ask that question.” She dug out a small pill bottle.

“Yeah, yeah,” Poe winced. He moved back to get a saucepan with as long as a handle as possible to put the soup in, also grabbing a can opener and spoon. He was glad he had snooped through the kitchen earlier when there was more light and knew where everything was. “So, if you moved here from England, how did you end up with so many animals?”

She swallowed down a couple of pills and looked at him. “I’ve just always wanted a little herd of goats. I love goats. So, I found them the day I moved here. Henry the donkey came with them.” She laughed. “I bought Feisty a month later when I realized I actually had room for a horse. I used to ride all the time as a child.” She shrugged. “Deo and the cats came with me.”

“How many cats do you have exactly?” he asked as he took the full pan over to the fireplace, carefully warming it up.

“Three. The two girls are shy. Thomas isn’t.” Both Thomas and Deo were on her lap now. The cat was bigger than the dog, he realized. “How about you? You mentioned calling your dad, so he must not live around here.”

Poe nodded slowly. “Upstate New York. It’s where I grew up.”

“How did you end up here?”

He shrugged, but stayed silent.

“Quid pro quo, Mr. Dameron.”

He winced, but nodded. “Lieutenant Colonel Dameron,” he muttered. “United States Air Force, retired.”

“Pilot?”

“Yeah. Mostly F-15s.”

“Combat?”

“Yeah.”

“And now you’ve become a hermit in the mountains,” she said softly. It wasn’t a question.

“Drones are taking over my job,” he said with a smirk.

“Yeah,” she replied sarcastically. “That’s why you left.”

She knew. Somehow, she knew. He had seen too much. Killed too many.

“I was a nurse,” she continued. “I worked in the ER for the last two years before I came here. The pay was good, but the things I saw…” She shrugged. “It was rough, but I bet it wasn’t even half as bad as war.”

Poe was silent for a while, stirring the soup, feeling the heat of the fire on his face. He knew she was waiting for him to say something, but she wasn’t going to pressure him. “When you’re a pilot, you can distance yourself from the violence,” he started. “You can shoot down other fighters and not think about the human element. You never see their faces. You never know their names.” He paused. “The base I was stationed at in Iraq was hit several years ago. The mess was the intentional target. Suicide bomber. I wasn’t there at the time, I was on the other side of the base, but I ran to help.” He took a deep breath. “Two of my friends were in there. Twenty people died. You couldn’t even match up the body parts.” The soup was starting to boil, so he pulled it away from the fire, stirring it as he walked back to the kitchen. “I was never the same after that.”

He set the pot on the stove and pulled down a couple of bowls from the cupboard. He poured the soup into the bowls, splitting it in half. “Last year, while I was training on the F-35, there was a malfunction in the pressure throttle. I had to eject. Broke my leg after landing in rough terrain. The plane just barely missed base housing. I still have nightmares where I’m watching from my parachute as it crashed, only this time taking out several houses with it.” He brought the bowls over to Rey, who was focused on him intently. He handed her one, then sat back in the recliner. “I was diagnosed with PTSD and Clinical Depression and offered early retirement. They said I’d probably had both since the incident in Iraq.” He gave her a wry smile. “Mental health isn’t really a priority in the armed forces, though it’s better now than it used to be.”

He started eating, suddenly self-conscious. He had never talked so much about his past to anyone, even the therapist he had been seeing before deciding to come here and use nature and solitude to help heal. Rey watched him for a while, then started eating as well. When they were finished, he took her bowl and his to the kitchen, leaving them in the sink to be washed whenever the water came back on. He added a couple of logs to the fire, then sat back in the chair. She had settled again, looking sleepy. The pain killers must be doing their job, because she looked much more comfortable.

“So, how did a nurse end up owning a bookstore?” he asked, super curious.

“It was my father’s,” she said softly. “I had the option of selling it, but… I like it. Just like I like living up here, even if it means getting snowed in from time to time.” She smiled at him. “I like my neighbor, too.”

He snorted, but gave her a soft smile in return. “Yeah, well, don’t get used to me. When this storm is over, I’m going back to ignoring you.”

“Wanna bet?”

******

When Poe woke up, he quickly realized two things immediately. One, was that Rey was not on the couch. And two, he couldn’t hear the wind anymore.

He sat up, pushing the footstool of the recliner down slowly (Rey had warned him the animals liked to climb underneath it when the footstool was up) and looked about the room. There was grey light coming in the windows, letting him know dawn was almost here, and the fire had obviously had more wood added to it recently. He heard a noise and turned his head to see Rey moving about the still dark kitchen.

“Hey,” she said when she saw him. She had the coveralls he had stripped from her yesterday morning in her hands.

“What are you doing?” he demanded, getting onto his feet and heading toward her.

“I was going to go check on the animals in the barn,” she said. Her voice was tentative. She didn’t sound enthused. “It looks like the storm’s over finally.”

He shook his head. “You were just unconscious with a severe fever, Rey. You do not need to be doing any physical work right now.” He reached forward and gently took the coveralls from her hands.

“I feel fine,” she argued.

He nodded. “But you’re still weak. And whatever it was that caused the fever could cause you to relapse if you stress your body too much. You’re a nurse. You know I’m right.”

She sighed and her shoulders slumped in defeat. “I wasn’t really looking forward to going out there, but you have your own life to get back to. You don’t need to still be babysitting me.”

“It’s my choice to take care of you, and that includes checking on your animals.” He laid her coveralls over a chair and started putting his boots on. “Do you want me to give them anything other than hay?” he asked.

“There are two plastic garbage cans in the tack room,” she said. “They’re labeled. The goats can have two scoops of the goat feed in the big, long feeder in their stall. Henry can have half a scoop of the horse feed, and Feisty can have a whole scoop. Their water will probably be frozen by now. There’s a mallet on the shelf in the tack room you can use to break the ice if you need to.” She paused. “I can make breakfast, at least. Do you like bacon, or are you not a meat eater?”

“Bacon isn’t meat,” he grinned. “It’s ambrosia.” He frowned. “Is it still good?”

Rey nodded. “I had some in the freezer. It looks like it’s just barely thawed. I should be able to fry it all up over the fire.”

“Okay. I’ll shovel a good path if I can, so you can get out there later.”

She nodded. “Thank you, Poe. For everything.”

He gave her a soft smile and pulled on his coat and gloves.

The temperature outside had to be at or near zero, but there was absolutely no wind, for which he was very grateful. He worked at shoveling a narrow path to the gate, then dug around the gate a little more so that he could close it and open it again without too much trouble. Once more, the area between the gate and the barn was almost clear of snow, but he shoveled all around both doors to the barn; he was pretty sure the animals would want to get out eventually. Once inside, he was surprised at how much warmer it was. The combined body heat of the animals and the drifted snow that had insulated the barn somewhat helped, he was sure. It was still well below freezing, though, and he did have to use the mallet to break up the ice. He watered them all, gave them more hay, then gave them the feed as Rey told him to. He doled out more water as most of them had drunk immediately after the first round, then headed back to the house. Hopefully the power would be back before Rey needed to come out again.

The house smelled amazing when he entered, and his stomach growled. Rey already had a stack of cooked bacon on a plate on the coffee table, as well as two glasses of juice and two bottles of water. The dogs were both eating kibble, and Rey was standing at the fire with another pan full of bacon, carefully flipping it with a pair of tongs. Her face was rosy from the heat of the fire, and her smile was bright when she saw him.

“All good?” she asked.

He nodded. “They all seem happy, if a bit bored.”

“Hopefully they can get out this afternoon for a while. I’ll need to clean their stalls.”

“I’ll help,” Poe said automatically as he stepped out of his boots and hung up his coat.

“Poe, you don’t-“

“I’ll help.”

She sighed and nodded toward the pan with the sizzling bacon on it. “This is the last of the package, so dig in.”

He sat on the recliner again, taking a sip of juice, then took a slice of bacon. He just nibbled on it, waiting for her to join him before really eating. It didn’t take long, and the smile she gave him as she added to the stack of bacon and sat down on the couch was even better than the food in front of him. They both began to eat, and while they did so, they talked about past winter storms they had both experienced. Having grown up in Southwestern England, Rey wasn’t used to much snow, and the bitter cold of the northern U.S. winters was unheard of. Poe had dealt with winter weather growing up in Northern New York, and heavy snows were not unusual, but this particular storm was bad in his experience, especially so early in the season. They wondered how people in town were faring. Did they have power? How long would it take the plows to make it out this far? Both of them decided they should probably invest in some emergency radios for use in future storms.

They continued to talk about everything and nothing for the next several hours. Around eleven, the sun came out, making the white outside blinding. They made cheese sandwiches for lunch, and Rey ventured into the chilly loft to clean litter boxes. The other two cats, a tuxedo named Tasha and a tortoiseshell named Freckles, followed her back down, watching both Poe and BB with wary eyes. In the afternoon, Poe helped Rey bundle up into her coveralls and they made their way out to the barn together. Rey made sure the gate was shut behind them, then she opened the big barn door and let everyone outside. Poe watched with her, laughing as the animals ran around cavorting in the snow, then he helped her clean out all of the dirty straw and frozen poop from the stalls, dumping it all behind the barn in what was essentially a compost pile. They added fresh straw, fresh water and food, and brought them all back in just before sunset. Poe had never really done anything with large animals before, but he found he really enjoyed the work. His beautiful companion was an added bonus.

Chilled but satisfied, they went back into the cozy house, where Rey warmed up a can of soup over the fire while Poe moved some more firewood in from outside. They ate quietly, both tired for different reasons, and once finished Poe stood to take both their bowls back to the kitchen.

“I should probably go back home now that I know you’re okay,” he said as he added the dishes to the small stack in the sink.

“It’s going to be freezing,” Rey countered. “A fire won’t be able to warm up your house after being cold for this long. Not easily.”

He looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

“You’ll have to stay here at least one more night,” she said decisively. “If the power is back on by mid-day tomorrow, then you can get a fire started over there and let it warm up the house before tomorrow night.” She shrugged as he continued to look at her. “I’ll take the recliner if you want the couch.”

He snorted. “The recliner is fine,” he said softly. He wasn’t going to admit he was glad for one more night. It was crazy, but he didn’t want this forced proximity to end. He didn’t want to go back to being alone.

Rey shot him her thousand-watt smile and got up, passing him in the kitchen. “Let’s play some poker,” she said as she got a bag of potato chips and a large bag of M&M’s out of the cupboard, then grabbed a couple of cans of soda from the warm fridge. She held up the bag of M&M’s. “We can play with these!”

Poe laughed. “Game on!”

******

The power came back on sometime around three in the morning.

Poe woke when the light in the kitchen and the one next to the couch flicked back on, and immediately there was a clicking sound from the heating vents. He realized that not only was BB squeezed up next to him on the recliner, but Thomas the cat was sleeping on his lap as well. He smiled, then focused on the woman sleeping on the couch, her little dog and the other two cats curled up in various locations around her. He sighed heavily, knowing what the power coming back on meant.

He didn’t want to go back home, he thought. No. He didn’t want to leave this woman. She made him feel joy. She made him feel protective. She made him… feel. He didn’t want to lose that.

He realized her eyes were open and she was watching him, her sleepy gaze relaxed and trusting. He pulled his hand out from under his blanket and looked at his watch. There was no need to get up and start the day yet, he thought. He pushed his way past the two sleeping animals and got up out of the chair, then moved to turn off the lights, first the one in the kitchen, then the one next to the couch at Rey’s feet. When he turned back to the chair, both BB and Thomas had curled up in the middle of the seat. To add insult to injury, Deo had left Rey and jumped up on the chair to join them.

He heard Rey laugh softly and looked at her. With a raised eyebrow, she lifted the edge of her blanket in invitation. Poe hesitated. The couch wasn’t that big. It would be a tight fit. He took a step closer, sitting on the edge of the couch carefully, then lay down next to her, his back toward her. The two cats jumped up and moved away from him, but they didn’t go far. As he brought his feet up to the couch, she tucked the blanket over him, leaving her arm around his waist, spooning with him. He tensed, but he could feel her breathing deepen and knew she was already falling back to sleep, perfectly comfortable being so close to him. After a few minutes, he relaxed as well, and he joined her in sleep.

When he woke a few hours later, he was shockingly comfortable. He felt her move a little behind him and decided he better get up so she could get up as well; he didn’t need her climbing over him right now.

“It’s Sunday,” she whispered.

“Yeah,” he responded. “So?”

“The store’s not open today.”

“You couldn’t even get there if it was,” Poe grumbled. “Which is good, because now you need to help me dig out my house.” He sat up as he said this.

She laughed. “Deal. After breakfast.”

“We can make some legit toast today,” he told her with a grin.

“And coffee!”

An hour later, they bundled up and headed outside with BB. They fed the animals and let them all out of the barn. Rey put a submergible heater into the water tank after they broke the ice and they left the door to the barn open so the animals could go in to eat and drink when they wanted. Together they then shoveled a path to his house, and Poe was grateful there was no fence between the yard part of their properties. There was a wooden post and rail fence that surrounded the back half of her property, and an old barbed wire fence around his. He wondered if she would like if he re-fenced his land with the same wooden fencing she had and allow her to use his pasture for her animals. Maybe he could get a horse of his own to add to the herd; he had ridden as a child, too, and missed it. The idea of roaming the mountains on horseback with this woman really appealed to him.

Once they made it to the house, he went in to turn up the heat. It was cold, but still above freezing inside, as the heat had been on, just not very high; he hadn’t had a chance to turn it up before BB had come to take him to Rey. The sun was out once again, and the temperature was a bit warmer than the day before, so he figured the house should warm up well before sunset. That thought didn’t really cheer him up. He had no reason to stay at Rey’s anymore.

They worked together to shovel his driveway, then hers. Right after they got the animals back in for the evening, they heard a loud roar coming from the road. They watched as a plow made its way past their houses, turned at the dead end where the gate for the neighbor’s cattle pasture was, then headed back toward town. “Looks like I’m going back to work tomorrow,” Rey said. He couldn’t tell if she was happy or sad about that fact.

“Then let me take you out to dinner tonight,” Poe responded.

She looked at him, startled. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I can get on-line, see what’s open. I’m sure a lot closed up even in town for a while.”

Suddenly, she was excited again. He left to go back to his house to shower and shave, then met her in front of her house. She was wearing a cute dark blue sweater dress with wool leggings and heeled boots. Her hair was loose around her shoulders. They decided her three-year-old SUV would be better to drive than his twenty-year-old pickup. He took her to the Bumpin’ Buffalo Bar and Grill, where he knew the food was good and the atmosphere pleasant. It wasn’t at all busy, and the staff was short a couple of people, but those that were working were on top of things, and the service and food were excellent.

“I’ll have to go shopping after work tomorrow,” Rey mused as they sat talking after the meal. “Replenish my fridge.”

“Yeah,” Poe nodded. He hadn’t had a lot in his fridge, fortunately, but he would need to get a few necessities.

Rey tilted her head at him. “Please tell me you’re not going to hide away again.”

“Would you let me?” Poe asked seriously.

She shrugged. “If you don’t want me around-“

“Oh, I want you,” Poe interrupted, his voice soft but intense. “In every way you’ll let me have you.”

Rey’s mouth formed a cute little ‘o’ and her eyes widened. Then she licked her lips and shifted in her seat. She focused on him. “Stay with me again tonight,” she whispered.

“Why?” he asked. “More poker?”

“Strip poker, maybe.”

Poe felt the corner of his mouth quirk upward. “If you want my clothes off, you can just ask.” He winced and looked down at the table. “Unfortunately, I don’t have any kind of protection.”

“I do.”

He raised an eyebrow at her.

She gave him an embarrassed shrug. “A friend of mine gave me a box as a going away gift, sure I would find some hot American man immediately upon my arrival here. Sadly, it’s unopened.”

“You moved to the wrong place, I guess,” he told her. “No hot American guys here.”

“Wrong,” she said with a smirk. “Stupid man just ignored me for three months.”

Poe nodded. “He is indeed an idiot.”

Forty-five minutes later, Poe found himself on his back on the floor in front of Rey’s fireplace, watching the flame light up her naked body as she rode him. He had his knees up, his feet braced on the floor, his hands gripping her hips tightly as she bounced up and down on his cock. He moaned as he watched her small but perfect breasts jiggle with her movements, which were becoming erratic, then he stared in awe as the skin of her face turned a rose color, the blush extending down her neck and over the tops of her perky tits. Her thighs clenched tight around his hips and her cunt squeezed his cock as she shuddered and cried out above him.

Her shoulders drooped as she came down from her high, and her closed eyes opened to look at him in shock.

He pushed back on her hips. “Up! Up!” he told her, his breathing hard.

She whined, but she obeyed, sliding off of him and slowly getting to her feet. He forced himself to his knees, then he grabbed her thighs once more and pushed her gently back toward the couch behind her. She gasped softly as she fell onto the furniture and he scooted between her legs, pushing her thighs open without giving her a moment to think. He dived in, anxious to taste her glistening folds. He had wanted to go down on her first thing, but she hadn’t given him the chance, stripping naked as he built up the fire, then pulling him down to the blankets she had laid on the floor by his belt loops. Somehow, his clothing was eventually discarded, piece by piece.

But now it was his turn to control things, and he was determined to make her come on his tongue. He reveled in the squeals and sighs and “Oh, my God! Poe!” He thrilled at the feel of her fingers in his hair, first combing it, then gripping it hard as her back arched and her thighs closed around his head. He played with her clit, sucking on it, then fucked her with his tongue, moaning into her as he felt a fresh wave of her juices flow out. Poe had always considered himself experienced at cunnilingus, and had never left his partners wanting, but he had never tasted a woman as amazing as this one, whose reactions were so honest and powerful and beautiful. When she came again, sobbing his name, he felt proud and humbled at the same time.

He straightened up, watching her carefully as she reclined back on her elbows, trembling. When she opened her eyes to look at him, her expression made him smile. She bit her bottom lip, her gaze moving downward where his cock, condom still on, was standing stiff against his belly. She met his eyes once more, a small smirk appearing on her lips, then she shoved herself up and moved past him. He turned to watch as she kneeled down on the blankets, her back to him, then dropped her front end down so she was on all fours. She looked at him over her shoulder and wiggled her ass.

“Fuck!” he hissed as he turned and moved toward her, dropping down on his knees once more, this time behind her. He took himself in hand and slid into her weeping pussy. She gave a high-pitched moan as he sank in, balls deep. “You okay?” he huffed, knowing she must be super sensitive.

“Oh, yessssss,” she sighed.

He started thrusting, trying to go slow, but not succeeding. The way she moved underneath him. The sounds she was making. The way she smelled. The feel of her tight, wet cunt gripping him. He couldn’t hold on to his control any longer. He started plunging into her, over and over and over. She responded by lowering her upper body to the floor and saying “Yes! Oh, my God, yes! Please! Harder! Oh, fuck me hard! Poe!”

He felt her body spasm right before his own body convulsed, and he threw his head back, shouting out as he emptied himself. “Oh, God! Rey!”

When he could focus again, he pulled out of her and carefully removed the condom, tying it off and tossing it into the fire. He reached for Rey, wrapping his arms around her waist as she giggled, watching the condom melt in the flames. He sat back on his heels and pulled her up so she was sitting on his thighs. She let her head fall back onto his shoulder and she sighed heavily, then shuddered, and he realized her giggles had turned into sobs.

“Hey, hey, hey,” he said pushing her away and encouraging her to turn and face him. He sat so his back was against the couch and straightened his legs, then pulled her into him again. She straddled him and let herself fall against him, once more laying her head on his shoulder as he held onto her tight. “You okay?” he asked softly into her hair. “I didn’t hurt you?”

She shook her head. “No,” she said. “Far from it. I just…” she paused. “It’s never been like that before. I used to hear people talk about how great sex was, and it never was for me, but that… I don’t even have words for how amazing that was.”

“It was pretty fucking incredible,” he agreed. “I haven’t even been interested in sex in years. Too busy in my own stupid brain. But you… you made me feel again, Rey. It’s never been that good for me.”

She sat up and looked at him. “So, you’re not going to go back to ignoring me?” She had a smile on her face, but her eyes were serious. She was really worried this was a one-time thing.

“Impossible,” he whispered, reaching up to stroke her face. “How it happened this fast, I don’t know, but I want you in my life forever, Rey.” He swallowed. “Is that scary?”

She nodded. “Yeah, it is scary. But it’s right.” She leaned forward to kiss him, then nuzzled his nose with hers. “It’s perfect. I love you, Poe. And I want to keep making you feel. I want to help you heal. I want to grow old with you.”

He snorted. “I’ll be getting there sooner than you, I’m afraid,” he joked. “But I would be honored to share my life with you, Rey Skywalker. I love you, too.”

Suddenly, BB, who was curled up with both Thomas and Deo on the recliner, his new favorite spot, whined. Poe and Rey both looked at him, noticing that the dog was looking out the side window.

“Hey, it’s snowing again,” Rey said.

Poe looked at her and smiled. “Let it snow.”

THE END

#damerey #fanfiction #jedipilot #poe x rey #poevember #modern au #smut

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