"Mom, that kid's parents are so old."
Leia Solo was walking through the shopping district with her three young children, Jacen, Jaina and Anakin, when Jaina pointed over to a gray-haired couple playing with a toddler. "Sweetie, I think those are probably her grandparents."
"Grandparents? Do we have those? They look nice," Anakin chimed in.
"Oh, yeah," Jacen interjected. "My friend Decklan told me about his grandparents. Said they give him candy all the time. Do we have people who will give us candy?"
Leia smiled. "I'm afraid that you're not going to be getting any candy from your grandparents," Leia said. "Why don't you guys relax and I promise I'll tell you about them when we get home, all right?"
The children sighed in frustration, but remaining true to their typical attention spans, quickly dropped the issue. Leia knew the time would come when she'd have to explain her heritage to her children and it was a moment she had dreaded since before they were even conceived. She and Han had had many discussions about when the right time would be. They knew they needed to be old enough to understand but not so grown up that they would be angry and resentful that the information had been withheld from them for so long.
The twins were now eight and Anakin was six. Bright children, to be sure, and as Han and Leia had expected, the time to tell them would be prompted by the kids themselves. Once returning home from their afternoon of shopping, they somehow managed to make it through dinner without more questions being asked.
The children had been excused from the table to go off to the living room and play with their toys. Han and Leia were clearing the plates when Leia finally had a quiet moment to tell her husband about the earlier conversation. "Han, the kids asked me about their grandparents this afternoon."
Han stiffened a little. "What did you tell them?"
"I haven't told them anything yet. I'm not really sure where to start."
Han put the last of the dishes in the dishwasher. "I don't think they need to hear about Vader yet."
Leia sighed. "I don't, either. I don't plan on hiding it from them forever, but I don't think they need to know about it until they're old enough to handle it better. I could tell them about Anakin, though, and Padme. And I do want to tell them about Bail. Bail would've loved having grandchildren."
Han leaned and kissed the top of his wife's head. "I bet he would've, sweetheart. I think you can start however you want."
She took his hand and led him into the living room where their children were on the floor playing a game.
"You kids ready to hear about your grandparents?"
The three children looked excitedly at their mother and nodded their heads. "Come on up here," she said, sitting on the couch while Jacen sat down to her right, Anakin to her left and then Jaina next to Anakin. Han seated himself on the other side of Jaina and wrapped an arm around his daughter's shoulders.
"You three kids had some pretty amazing grandparents. But, unfortunately, you're not going to get to meet them," Leia began.
"Why not?" Jaina asked.
"They passed away before you were born," Leia said sadly.
The children looked thoroughly disappointed. "But that doesn't mean they're not watching over you and all of us in some way. And I can tell you for certain that they would've loved you three almost as much as Daddy and I do."
"So, what were they like?" Jaina asked.
"It's an interesting story, actually. My parents – the people who raised me – were wonderful, kind-hearted people on Alderaan."
"That's where you're from, right, Mom? Until the bad guys took it away?" Jacen asked.
Leia took a deep breath, always amazed at how children could state such horrible things so matter-of-factly. "Yes, sweetie. It was a wonderful place with wonderful people. But I wound up with those parents because my real parents couldn't take care of me."
"What do you mean?" Jacen asked.
"You guys know what adopted is, right?" Leia continued.
"I think so," Anakin said, not appearing to actually have any idea.
"It's when another mommy and daddy take care of a baby because the mommy and daddy who had the baby can't. It doesn't mean that they love it any less, it just means that they are not related by blood."
"You didn't adopt us, did you?" Anakin asked.
Han had to laugh at that, wondering if sometimes the kids wished that. "No way, kid. Me and your mom went to a lot of trouble to have you three and you all grew in Mommy's tummy. You are one hundred percent ours."
Leia tried to conceal her smile at Han considering what they'd done to create those children as 'trouble.' She'd certainly never heard any complaints. "That's right. And that's why you guys look like us, too. Anyway, my father was Bail Organa, a viceroy and a senator. But to me, he was just my father. He was a wonderful, sweet man who was a great father and wanted nothing more than peace and justice for all of his people. He taught me about honesty and integrity and how important it was to have the respect of others.
"He was married to Breha Organa, and you know what? She was a queen."
"Is that why Daddy calls you princess?" Anakin asked.
"He calls me princess because I am a princess." So many people still referred to her as Princess Leia, and she herself wondered if the title really applied anymore. Her children, of course, simply knew her as Mom.
"Does that make me a princess, too?" Jaina asked hopefully.
"In a way, I suppose. And you two are my princes," she said as she put an arm around each of her sons and pulled them closer.
"You'll always be my little princess," Han said to his daughter and she smiled.
"The sad part is that she died when I was very young. But my father did a wonderful job of raising me by himself and with the help of some of my aunts."
"I'd say he did a great job," Han said with a grin.
"So why were you adopted?" Jacen asked.
"My real mother was also a queen, Queen Padme Amidala of the Naboo. She was another beautiful senator who also worked hard to maintain freedom and justice in the Galactic Senate. And she fell in love with and married Anakin Skywalker."
"Hey, that's like me!"
"Yeah, buddy, that's where you got your name from," Han said as he reached over and mussed his son's hair.
"He was a great Jedi and an incredible pilot. But things weren't all happy for them. Sometime after they were married Padme found out she was going to have me and your uncle Luke. But…" she wasn't sure exactly how to tell this part of the story, so she left it vague and promised herself she'd elaborate and tell them the more complete truth later.
"Almost right after we were born, they both died. So we needed someone else to raise us. And… they decided that it would be easier if we were raised by different people. So I went with my new parents and Luke went to live on Tatooine. We didn't even know we were brother and sister until we were all grown up. Actually, we didn't even meet each other until we were grown up."
"Sometimes I wish I didn't have my twin sister!" Jacen yelled and Jaina stuck her tongue out at him.
"Come on, now, you guys don't know how lucky you are. I had a good childhood, but it was lonely sometimes not having any brothers or sisters. So I know it doesn't make up for not having any grandparents here to meet you, but I just wanted you to know that they were great people who would've loved you very much."
"Were you sad when they died?" Jaina asked.
Leia took another deep breath and glanced at Han, who gave her a look of empathy. "Yes, sweetie, it was very sad when they died. I was too little to remember when my real parents died. But I was quite sad when my mother and father died, even though I was almost grown up when Bail died. It's still sad even when you're grown up."
"I don't want you to be sad," Anakin said, looking on the verge of tears himself now.
Leia hugged her children to her. "I'm not so sad anymore, don't worry. Now I've got you guys and Daddy and uncle Luke to make me happy."
"You're not gonna die, are you?" Anakin looked alarmed at the sudden realization that parents could be taken away from him.
Han and Leia both immediately said, "No!" maybe a little too loudly. Leia continued, "No, sweetie, I don't want you to ever worry that me and Daddy aren't going to be here for you for a long, long time, all right? We won't leave you, I promise."
It was an unfair promise to make, but even though she wasn't sure she could keep it, she knew that they would both do whatever they could to make sure it was the truth.
"What about you, Daddy?"
"What about me, Jace?"
Their oldest son continued, "What were your parents like? How come we don't know them?"
Leia felt her chest constrict. Han never talked much about his past - only that his earliest memory was wandering the streets as a young child. He had no idea who his parents were or what happened to them. And he hadn't even had the advantage she had of two, loving people taking him home to take care of him. Nobody was there to love him as a child, and whenever she looked at their own children and thought of him at the same age, going through what he must have gone through, her heart ached for him. He always told her that it was long past and she shouldn't worry so much about it, but she couldn't help it.
Han swallowed hard and went with the simplest answer. "Cuz I don't know who they are, either."
"Were you adopted like Mommy, too?"
"Not exactly, Jaina." He felt it might be a bit traumatizing to tell them of his abusive childhood of thieving and scamming people and he certainly didn't want them to be aware yet of the fact that there were horrible adults out there who would harm innocent children. "I, uh, I didn't get new parents. I grew up with a bunch of other kids who also didn't have mommies and daddies. I don't know what happened to mine." Han looked as disappointed as his children, but he broke the moment of silence. "But, hey, it's okay, right? Now I'm grown up and I have my own real family."
"Who tucked you in at night?" Anakin asked.
"Yeah, and who made you dinner?" Jacen wondered.
"Who kissed your elbow when you fell down and hurt it?" Jaina added as they all stated only a few of Leia's many, loving tendencies as their mother.
"It doesn't matter now, does it? As long as you guys get great parents, right?"
"Where are you from, anyway?" Jacen asked.
"Corellia."
"Did Corellia get blowed up, too?" Anakin asked, looking concerned.
"No, kiddo, Corellia is still there."
"Can we go see where you're from?" Jacen asked hopefully.
While Han obviously didn't care to relive old memories of his childhood, he felt a strange sense of pride for his home world and now for the fact that his children wanted to visit their roots. "You know, that might not be a bad idea. What do you say, Mom?"
It had been a while since the family had taken a vacation and Leia felt that it would be nice to be able to show the children where their father had come from. "I think that might be fun."
The three young Solos smiled excitedly and then Han spoke up again. "Why don't you guys go get ready for bed and me and Mom will be there in a few minutes, okay?"
Later that night after the children had been tucked in and were soundly asleep, Han and Leia were in their room getting ready for bed . "I dread the time when I have to tell them about Vader. They're going to have to hear about it sooner or later," Leia said when she emerged from the 'fresher in her nightgown.
Han was seated on their bed, pulling off his boots. "I know, sweetheart, but they'll be all right. They're good, smart kids. It's not going to change anything for them. I just don't ever want to have to tell them some of the stuff that happened to me when I was a kid. Gods, when I look at those three, and think about some of the stuff that happened to me when I was their age…"
She sat down next to him and leaned her head against his shoulder, rubbing his chest comfortingly.
"I just can't imagine how anyone could be so awful to treat a little kid that way," Han said quietly, his head now resting on Leia's.
"I know, sweetheart," Leia said. "I'm so sorry that was how things had to be for you."
"It's okay, it was a long time ago. And now I've got this," he said, giving her a squeeze and then leaning down to kiss her gently.
"I think it will be fun if we take them to Corellia, too," Leia said. A nice little vacation."
"Yeah, it made me feel pretty good when they said they wanted to go see it."
"We can do something else that will make you feel pretty good," she said throwing a leg over his body and moving in to nibble on his ear lobe.
"Sounds good to me…"