"Mom!" came the wail from Ben's room. "The ghost is back!"
Leia stiffened. "Be right there." She closed her datapad with a swipe, locking it. She didn't need to at home, didn't really need to lock her files down while working in her office, but old good habits were as hard to break as old bad ones. She had enough of those lingering, such as her hand grasping for a blaster at her belt at the first sound of Ben's cry.
She hurried to his room. He slept with his door ajar, the better to see the light from the far end of the corridor and hear the comforting sounds of the rest of the apartment. She slipped through the doorway, her eyes adjusting to the darkness in his room. She found the edge of his bed and sat down.
"I'm here now. It's okay."
Ben had crawled up to the top of his bed, knees scrunched to his chest, covers pulled tight around him. "In there."
"I'm going to turn on a light."
Leia flipped on the lamp, watching Ben blink the light away. His closet door was shut. She stood and opened it, turning on the light globe at the top. Behind her, he hissed in fear.
The closet was not empty, but the pile of clothes, too-small shoes, and old toys were joined by praised and forgotten art projects from nursery school, not any spirits she could see. To make him happy, she moved her arm through the hanging clothes. "It's gone now. See?"
She waited for an answer. After a moment, Ben said, "Okay."
Leia turned off the globe, shut the closet door firmly, and sat back down on his bed beside him. Most parents would have dismissed their child's fears with comforting words and a gentle prod that ghosts didn't exist. Leia remembered the same conversations with her mother and father.
They'd been wrong or, hoping to protect her, they'd lied. Leia had seen a ghost when she'd been little like Ben, a beautiful woman who appeared by her infant cradle with a sad, loving expression before vanishing. She knew that ghosts walked the world beside their loved ones, sometimes briefly, sometimes for years, usually unseen and unheard except by a few with the gift. Ben was as strong in the Force as she'd ever been, and while her parents had reason to stifle any whisper of the Force around their daughter, her son had been encouraged from early on to become familiar with his own powers.
Mother and Father would have loved Ben so much.
"I didn't see anything. Can you tell me what you saw?"
"I didn't see it. I heard it."
"What did you hear?"
He nestled deeper into his covers. "It was weird and spooky."
Leia smiled tenderly at him. "All right. Well, it's not making any more noises now. Maybe it's gone. Do you think you can go back to sleep now?"
"Can you stay?"
She gave a flicker of her eyes to the door, down the hall, and back to the treaty she was reading in preparation for tomorrow's meeting with the Highran delegation. "I can stay for a while."
Han was better at comforting Ben on nights like this, but Han was four system away and wouldn't be back for days. Despite everything they had been through, Han thought Ben was imagining things. He'd even bugged Luke the last time he'd visited, making him come in here to reassure Ben there wasn't anything supernatural lurking in his room. Han would be happy to stay in for an extra cuddle even so.
Ben budged up to make room for Leia to move beside him. She sat up at the top of the bed with him as he twisted and moved his legs farther under the sheets without getting any part of his body too close to the closet door. She could see Han's point. Talking him out of his fears now would let him sleep better. Teaching him to face them would let him sleep well for the rest of his life, though. That started with reminding him his parents loved him and were there for him.
"Close your eyes."
Ben blinked at her then shut his eyes with a yawn. His hair was getting shaggy again already. Hadn't Threepio just trimmed him? Or had that been weeks ago? Her days and months blurred together, and every moment, Ben grew a little more. She'd blink her eyes like he just did, and he'd be taller than she was. Tonight, though, he was her little boy. She slid down a little and put her arm around him as he settled and his breathing gentled towards sleep.
The closet rattled.
Ben jumped, his whole body tensing then piling into Leia's startled arms as he shuddered. She forced herself not to scream as she gave him a hug, staring at the door.
Their apartment building had a security team. That was why she'd chosen this complex. Between threats on her own life and worries about possible threats to her husband or son, Leia took no chances. They could be here in under one minute.
She'd faced down enough terrors in her life to check out one unknown before she did.
"Ben, go into my room until I come get you."
He nodded and scampered out of the room. Leia didn't keep a blaster in the apartment, and there weren't many possible weapons at hand. She reached for a toy ship, its strong metal hull a comforting weight in her hand. It would be of no use against a ghost, but she felt better. Then she approached the closet door, and with a firm grip, she yanked it open.
A rodent the size of Ben's hand zoomed out of sight under a pile of old art projects.
Leia sighed, a weird relief flowing through her as she turned the light globe back on. Some digging through the detritus stuffed into the closet revealed a small but serviceable hole at the floor, previously hidden by a pair of shoes he'd outgrown. She found a sturdy piece of plastene from one of his toys, and propped it into place with the heavy ship.
Then she went into her room. "It's okay, sweetheart. No ghosts. It was a mousekin."
Ben's eyes went huge. Leia sat next to him and gave him a quick hug.
"I've put something over the hole for tonight. Tomorrow, we'll patch it properly together. No more mousekins, no more noises. Okay?"
"Okay," he said, clearly worn out.
"Do you want to sleep in here tonight with me?"
He nodded and climbed under the covers, and was already half-asleep by the time his head touched the pillow. Leia kissed him.
"I'll be in later. I have a little more work to do tonight. I love you."
A faint snore was his only reply.
end