Slip used to say things like that once in a while, during rough combat simulations or drills- thought you were gonna leave me behind. It's sad to hear it come from her, no matter how much sense it makes lined up with the way she usually acts. Finn bites down his old first response, because he can't exactly say you're one of us and call it at that.

There aren't enough of them to make an 'us'. There sort of have to be two of them there to qualify.

He's not sure he has the words to explain the things he wants to. That he was the one who started insisting she needed to be their pilot in the first place, or that he feels like maybe if he hadn't tried to leave, she wouldn't have been taken. That she deserves to have someone come for her, and anyone with half a brain could probably figure that out with enough time, and he's never-- never really made a friend, like that, before.

"By the time we got there, it looked like you didn't need the help," he says instead, and maybe he sounds a little proud, so what. Pretty much everything that could go wrong on that base did go wrong by the time they were trying to leave. Finding Rey wasn't one of them. Well, maybe more like Rey finding them. That's where the pride comes in.

His expression softens.

"I couldn't just wait for a chance to find you. I had to make one."