Playlist:
❶ "The Fort Battle"—The Last of the Mohicans OST
⊘ Silence
❷ "Imperial Attack"—A New Hope OST
❸ "Lando's Palace"—The Empire Strikes Back OST
❶ As the next year passed and the First Order rose under the leadership of Supreme Leader Snoke, Leia's duties in the Republic became more vital, and her time with her son was limited to the extreme. Han still had not returned, even after two years.
She and the military were the first to recognize that the New Republic leadership was blind to the threat of the First Order rising from the ashes of the Empire. As battles ensued, the Republic lost worlds on the edges of their territory, reports of children stolen and parents enslaved. And the Republic did nothing.
Leia argued in the Senate, "We have to crush this uprising, this First Order. Don't you see, Senators, everything that we have worked for, all the lives that have been sacrificed for this Republic, will have been for nothing if the First Order takes control?"
Senator Luarha from Worrheal said, "The First Order is not that big of a threat. I think you are overreacting, Senator Organa. They aren't the Empire. We will prevail. I move that we begin treaty negotiations with the First Order." His long black hair swished behind him each time he moved his head.
"What about the children stolen? Their parents enslaved?" she asked. "It's not just negotiations, resources, but lives at stake."
Luarha rolled his eyes. "Merely rumors. We have no proof of any of this. My contacts report these systems have left the Republic of their own volition. It is not our policy to interfere with self-determination. We could send inquiries to the First Order. I'm sure they would be amenable to a new treat."
With her hands clutched at her sides, Leia said, "We already have a treaty with them. If they aren't honoring this one, what makes you think they'll honor a new one?" She sat down with a huff, fed up with this stupid bureaucracy. She crossed her arms and stared at the guard by the entrance to avoid glaring at the imbecilic senators.
⊘ When the assembly dismissed, Leia marched back to the nursery to pick up four-year-old Ben. When she reached the establishment, she found him gone. "Gone? What do you mean gone?" Her worst fears of the First Order stealing her son away raced through her mind. "We have security. No one is supposed to remove a child from this facility without proper clearance. How—"
The nursery attendant said, "Yes, here, an authorized party signed him out. All identification matched his release records."
Leia scrutinized the sign-out log. "It's impossible. Are you sure this was him?"
"Yes, ma'am. Here is the hololog. You can see that we released him to his father and a very imposing Wookiee."
Leia dropped her jaw as the hope of seeing her husband again flooded her mind, as well as all the choice words she had planned for him. But then another fear crossed her. Where was Ben? Did Han take him off planet? When she felt out with the Force, she laughed. She felt all three in her suite, and they were jumping on her bed in the middle of a pillow fight—with her expensive pillows. Thank the Force for high ceilings.
"Thank you. I think I need to save my suite from two children and an overgrown Ewok." She grimaced as she hurried down the corridor to the apartment.
❷ When she opened the sliding door, a deactivated Threepio startled her. After the initial shock, she breathed a sigh of relief and grinned. Han was home.
She entered her bedroom to discover a disaster of epic proportions. At the top of her lungs, she yelled, "What is going on in here?"
They all froze in mid-leap, Han and Chewie falling to the mattress. Ben levitated himself with pillow in hand ready to fire it at Chewie.
"Ben Solo, you come down from there, right now. Do you hear me, young man?" He stayed there, glaring at his mother. "You can either bring yourself down, or I will bring you down myself, the hard way. Which is it going to be?"
Ben slowly lowered himself to the bed.
❸ "Good boy, Ben."
"Mommy, Daddy's home. I knew he was coming. I fe't him in my bwain. Oh, and he's so much fun."
Leia just shook her head and giggled. "Yes, that I do know. Welcome home, fly boy. You, too, Chewbacca."
Han moseyed over to Leia and kissed her, with Ben and Chewie looking on. "I've missed you, Your Highnessness."
Leia looked at Chewie and Ben. "Hmm," she suggested to Han with a sly smile.
Han asked, "Hey, Chewie, mind taking Ben into the other room for a few minutes? Leia and I have some catching up to do."
Chewie murmured something, picked Ben up sideways, and tickled him the entire way into his bedroom.
Han reached behind Leia with his long arm and shut the door behind them. "Now, where did we leave off the last time I was here?"
"Han Solo, if you think you're going to waltz in here and act as if you didn't miss two years of your sons' life while you galivanted around the galaxy doing who-know's-what with who-know's-what, you've got to be hallucinating." She tossed a pillow at him and pointed to the bedroom door.
"The couch?" He flashed her his goofy smile. "Come on, Leia, it's me."
She hesitated for one moment before pushing him into the living room where Chewbacca chortled at him.
Maybe tomorrow night, Han, but not until you ... oh, what do I want? She sat on the bench by the expansive window and pulled her knees up to her chin while she worried at her fingernails. As she stared at the mountains in the distance that reminded her of her precious Alderaan, she ruminated on the situation. Him. Here. Us not fighting. She started pacing across the lush white carpet. But he'll never stay until HE wants to be here. How do I make him WANT to stay? Loving him, giving him sex is not enough. Surprised he came home at all, if that's all he wants.
For the first time in a very long time, since her training with Luke, she climbed on the ottoman in her room and lifted herself into a cross-legged position, with her feet over her knees. Kriff, it's been too long since I did this. She pulled her thoughts away and drifted into meditation on the Force sending one question out: What now?
Did you know ...
● Han hates all droids but especially Threepio. In the Legends Han Solo Adventures books, this prejudice is explained because a droid had betrayed Han at one point in his life and almost killed him.
● Han was a little boy during The Clone Wars. The fear of battle droids invading Corellia probably played a significant part in developing his prejudice against droids. It also explains why he frequented Chalmun's Cantina in Mos Eisley—they didn't serve droids and didn't want their kind. (Perhaps an indication that prejudice against droids had carried over from The Clone Wars.)
● When I first saw The Force Awakens, instead of hearing, "The Jedi were real," when Rey stared at the map segment, I thought she said, "The Jedi Worr-he-al," believing that she was pointing out a system on the map. That's where I took the name from. I still smile each time I hear that line.
Tell me what you think ...
● What steps could Han and Leia take to develop their relationship past the physical?
● From this scene, who is the disciplinarian in this home? Would things be better if the parenting roles were reversed?