Title: Baby Girl
Author: sea102883 (aka BigFatty)
Timeframe: spans EU
Characters: Han & Jaina Solo, cameos by a few others
Genre: Father/Daughter Mush
Summary: A look at Han and Jaina's relationship through the yearas.
Disclaimer: I own nothing relating to Star Wars, that's all George Lucas, not me.
Notes: This was my first story I actually finished.

He couldn't believe the transformation his life had undergone in the past two days. He thought he was ready, prepared, and equipped to handle it; stars knew Leia had spent enough credits to make their apartment look like it. Yet holding his not quite two-day-old daughter, Han knew he couldn't have been more wrong. Leia had done her best to ease his fears about parenthood—and some nights it felt like she actually had—but that feeling of security had gone flying out the window right alongside his feeling of being prepared to be a parent. Looking down at the sleeping newborn he was holding he couldn't help but have the questions attack his mind once more: Will she hate me? Will she be embarrassed to have a smuggler for a father? Can I really do this? And the worst question of them all: What if she gets a boyfriend?

Han knew that would be years off, decades if he had his way, but it was still worth thinking about finding some remote planet and building a fortress. You know, just in case.

It wasn't that he loved his daughter more than his son. But his love for Jaina was different than his love for Jacen, not any less, just different. This was his baby girl. It didn't matter if she lived to be 900 years old like Yoda, she'd always be his baby girl.

It almost scared him how quickly he had come to that conclusion. Lest one forget the main reason he saved a certain princess from a certain fortress of another kind was to earn a financial reward to keep a Hutt or two from breathing down his neck. His love for Leia had grown and soon from there on out if she needed rescuing it was because of how he felt about her. Not that he would easily acknowledge it verbally, and not that that first financial reward wasn't appreciated. But soon it wasn't about the credits, it was because of love. The process had taken a while, even more on those days when he didn't want to admit that a proper and dignified princess of all people was getting under his skin. But this feeling of dying to prevent his daughter from feeling the slightest bit of sadness was instantaneous. There was no process with this; she was his baby girl and would be for as long as they both were alive.

She was a couple months shy of being a year-and-a-half. He and Leia had been escorted to the classified safehouse of a planet where their children were being kept to make preparations for when their third child would join his older siblings in a few months. While Jacen was content with crawling as a mode of transportation, his sister wasn't. Pulling herself up with anything low enough to the ground she could, she would bobble herself into a standing position before letting go and attempting to walk. Attempting would be the key word. It always made Han's heart skip a beat to see her fall to the ground. But Jaina would just look at him, smile, and try again.

He wasn't sure which emotion outweighed the other. The way his heart would melt when she looked at him and gave him that grin, or the fear invoked in him knowing that she was this stubborn and determined and she wasn't even two yet. He knew he should be proud that she had such boldness to her, But lets not kid ourselves, he thought. She's a Solo—that kind of attitude is bound to get her into serious trouble eventually and probably more than once. But as she pulled herself up once again and flashed him that smile he decided he could worry about her future troubles later.

"He what!"

"Han, calm down."

"I will not calm down. He hurt her, Leia. I swear if he made her cry—"

"Han, where are you going?"

"Firing up the Falcon, and teaching him not to mess with my baby girl."

Han stomped his way down to the hangar, jaws clenched the whole way. Zekk, that name just sounds evil. He had hurt his daughter. He knew something was wrong when Jaina had sent a message to Coruscant from the Jedi Academy for just Leia instead of both of her parents per usual. It had taken Han a full five hours to pry the information out of his wife, but what she had told him sent his blood boiling like a lava pit.

He arrived at his ship to see Chewie blocking the entry ramp with his arms crossed his chest. "Move out of the way, Chewie."

(I don't think so, Han. Leia commed and told me what happened. She's fourteen-years-old and he's sixteen-years-old, they're bound to have a scuffle or two. It's nothing worth you flying to Yavin and killing him for.)

"You only say that because you don't have a daughter."

(You know how mad she'll be if you show up guns blazing.)

Han hated to admit when he was wrong. He analyzed the situation and instead of telling Chewie and Leia they were right he decided to get things ready in case he got lucky and Leia and Chewie weren't around to stop him.

(Where are you going?)

"Shopping for parts to upgrade the quad cannons."

Chewie rolled his eyes and headed back to his repairs.

She's sixteen, she shouldn't have to be fighting a war. He had heard through the grapevine that Jaina's wingmate had been killed in action. She should be finishing school, daydreaming about what she's going to do with her life, not fighting a war. He wanted to comm her and see how she was doing, but things weren't as good between father and daughter as they once had been. She was busy running missions with Rogue Squadron and he was still trying to get back to as close as normal as he could after Chewie's death. He looked over to a holo hanging on the wall. She was four and they were on some planet whose name he had long forgotten. He was sure it was on some diplomatic mission Leia had dragged to whole family on promising to spend some time together that didn't happen due to meetings and the like. He and Jaina were walking into the sunset in a meadow, their bodies silhouetted. She was holding onto his index finger telling him where they were going to find Jacen who had run after yet another animal he had found.

Han wished life was that easy again. Walking through a meadow, her holding his finger, being able to just for a little bit ignore the fighting and bickering that was taking place just beyond the sky, but life isn't that kind. He wanted nothing more than to pull a rank he hadn't officially had for years and find out where the Rogues were and hold her hand. Hold her hand and tell her everything was going to be okay, even when he himself didn't believe it. But she's his baby girl, and he always swore he'd do the best he could and then some to keep her happy. He took another sip of his whiskey, took a deep breath, and hit record.

"Hello baby girl, I know things haven't been as good between us as they used to be. I know this war hasn't been easy on you… I know your whole life hasn't been easy on you. Just know I'm always here if you need to talk… or do some repair work."

He didn't know what was worse: his daughter falling for a Fel or that he never got around to building that fortress on some remote planet. He saw how the kid looked at his daughter when he thought no one was watching. Han nearly vaped him on the spot for it; no one has the nerve of looking at his daughter like that with her father standing right there and should expect to walk away from the situation uncharred.

But reluctantly, and never stated aloud, he was glad the Fel had shown back up in Jaina's life now. He seemed to be one of the few who get through to her after the hell of losing Anakin and her trip to the dark side. He wished that she would come to him with her problems like she did when she was six and gotten her fingers pinched trying to help Chewie make some repairs to the Falcon. But she wasn't six anymore, as much as it pained him to admit. He may see her as his baby girl, but everyone else saw her as a woman. And it wasn't fair.

The reason he hated the look Jag gave Jaina was because that's the way he used to look at Leia back before they had become a serious couple. He still looked at his wife in a similar way, but this was one that was tempered by years of happiness and heartache, a more intimate look.

He hated that he wasn't the first man she ran to, yet it was something he had a feeling he had to get used to. But did the first man in line have to have the last name Fel?

It was like the good old days, sort of. Yes there was still a war going around them, but for this afternoon neither of them noticed. She, and the rest of Twin Suns, had the day off and her parents just happened to have shown up at their base in need of some never-ending repairs.

At first he thought it was her R2, Cappie, "singing" to itself while running some diagnostics, but then he recognized the tune as one Leia had taught all the kids when they were young to pass some hyperspace time. He couldn't remember the lyrics for sure, but he was certain it was a happy song if the melody was any sign. All three of his kids had loved that song when they were a little; unbeknownst to them the only reason they learned the song in the first place was because Leia lost the bet of how long it would take before one of them asked, "Are we there yet?"

"Dad… Dad. Twin Suns Lead to Falcon. Falcon, respond."

"What? Oh, sorry. What do you need?"

"I finished working on the shields, what now?"

For a second he had a flashback to the one night where the whole family had been dragged into a diplomatic dinner. Han had snuck out early to escape the snobby politicians for a while on the Falcon, but he didn't realize till he was halfway to the hangar that Jaina had followed him. That night he taught her about the inner workings of the hyperdrive. Leia had been furious when the two had arrived home, Jaina with oil and grease all over her brand new dress. It took all the self-control Han had not to grin like an idiot over the same post-repairs dress. He knew Leia had long ago realized the tradition of fancy dresses and elaborate hairstyles had ended with her, but did he have to let her get dirty in a new dress?

"Dad, you're staring again."

"Sorry, I'm just a little tired. What do you say we grab a bite to eat before we start on something else?"

Han never stopped being grateful for the fact that Jaina not only had a twin brother, but grateful also that they got along so well. Jag had been sent away rather quickly on a mission. It was one of those missions that had to be top secret and incredibly dangerous if the Goddess didn't know about it.

Knowing that Jaina would be down and worried and under even more pressure not to show it to her fellow troops, Jacen had organized an impromptu sabacc tournament. It was down to Jaina and Han after hours of betting and drinking. She was beating him. He taught her how to play the game, and she was beating him. What happened to respecting your parents?

After losing the last of his credits, Han and his fellow "Death Stars era" heroes left the "kids" to celebrating and claimed getting old and having to go to bed as an excuse to find a new place to drink and swap stories. Jaina was swarmed by her fellow pilots and friends congratulating her on her victory over her father and everyone else that evening. Han looked back and smiled, grateful that so many other people were taking care of his baby girl.

It was over, finally. It had claimed countless lives, a handful of planets, and his best friend and younger son. Finally the war was over. Leia and Mara walked into the Skywalkers' temporary shelter on Zonama Sekot both wearing smirks. Their husbands were immediately curious as to what was going on and Leia told Han to sit down. Not that he did, but at least his wife had warned him. She tried not to laugh at his reaction as she told him that Jag had offered to take Jaina back to Csilla to meet his family. It took all three of them to hold him back and get him to stop make threats long enough to tell him that Jaina had declined.

For what may have been the first time in her life, she hadn't made a rash decision. She was going to take some time and analyze the situation before proceeding with her relationship with Jag. Han couldn't have been happier that she had picked this time to turn into Jacen.

Granted he was once again faced with the fact that one day Jag would ask the question again and she might say yes. But that day wasn't today.

As Han had expected, Jag had asked Jaina the question again and she had said yes. Two years after their wedding, Han entered a private room in the medcenter on Denon and crossed over to the bed and kissed his sleeping daughter's forehead. He then looked over at his son-in-law sitting in a nearby chair.

Jag looked up at his father-in-law and said, "I understand."

Han nodded. Of course he understood. He understood why Han wanted to beat him when Jag had been caught kissing his daughter. Why he was mad when Jag had taken his daughter away to Csilla to meet the dreaded Fels. Why it had taken Han all the strength he had and then some to give Jaina away at her wedding. Why Han had even after all these years of knowing the young man nearly wanted to punch Jag in the face seven months ago when Han and Leia had been invited over for dinner at the Fels' for a special evening.

Jag had met his baby girl.