Rey had set down the bulky freighter as gently as she could, a rush of emotions swelling over her that she couldn't quite describe, much less process. As Chewbacca growled to her his thanks, she met his eyes for just a moment before having to look away. She made her way, disoriented, through the empty corridor and down the ramp into a sea of verdant green and cacophonous cheering. She saw joy in the crowd, but she could not feel it herself. Relief, perhaps, that the angry young man and his giant machine had been defeated, but she could not feel joy. She scanned the crowd for eyes she knew must be feeling as she did.
—
"Hey, who told you to touch that!" had come the rough voice of the old man as he entered her cabin, his eyes darting first to her and then to the holoprojector that had caught his attention. Her scavenger's instincts had gotten the better of her, and she had pressed some buttons near her bed, and, impossible to conceal, a holovid was playing on loop in the middle of the floor. Solo had been angry at first, but his eyes tamed as he looked between the two of them, and now a curious feeling had replaced them. She felt a stirring as he smiled, and she looked at the projection again with a new appreciation. Curiosity spilled over her, though, and she asked him, grinning, 'who is she? She's beautiful!"
—
And she still was. Far away, Rey spotted her. She was older than the projection she had seen, but her face had lost none of its gentle grace, her eyes none of their caring. And as the General met Rey's gaze, she saw, too, the pleading eyes of the girl she saw in her cabin on the Falcon.
—
"My mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed," the projection had continued. The girl wore a long, white robe, simple but elegant, and her hair was piled into buns on the side of her hair. It reminded Rey of old photographs of the Galactic Senate she had seen in a crashed battleship out on the dune sea on Jakku.
"Beautiful, sure. And feisty," said Solo. He seemed to come out of a reminiscent daze. He grinned, and his face became boyish for not the first time since Rey had met him. "She got me into more scrapes than anyone else I've known, but I'll be damned if she didn't get me out of most of them herself, too."
—
The General put her arms around Rey. They embraced, emotion swelling over both of them. Rey felt like the feeling of loss she felt was swallowed up and engulfed by an even greater and deeper feeling, and her heart became stuck in her throat. She felt the General's tears on her neck and then tears of her own, tears that had been stuck just behind her eyes, came pouring out down her cheeks.
—
"The princess? But I thought she was a—"
"—myth, right." The man nodded. "I'm sure some of what you'll hear about the war is exaggerated, but Leia was—she is—the real deal. And if she was stubborn then, just wait until after the war." He pointed at her, wagging his finger. "You just don't want to get her talking about trade negotiations."
"Where is she?" Rey asked.
"She's where she always is, where she's needed. Hell, she's where I should be. Running this damn Resistance against the First Order. Once we see Maz, that's probably where I'm headed next. I've been running away for too long."
"Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."
His eyes jerked over to the vid again, and he seemed to realize he'd been talking too long, and he gruffly stood up. "Anyway, you should get some sleep. We're going to have a big day tomorrow." And he had blinked off the projector and left her alone in the room.
—
"I'm so glad you knew him," whispered the General, holding her even more tightly. "He was…a good man. One of the only good men I've ever known." Rey held on as tightly as she could.