Title: Freezer Burn Author: Alison E-mail: abodie@umich.edu Feedback: Yes please. :)

Summary: Just a short (very short) pondering on what may have been going through Han's head as he was frozen in carbonite in ESB and RotJ. Takes place in the minutes before he (unbeknownst to him) is unfrozen by Leia at Jabba's palace.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own them, although I wish I did. They belong to Lucas and 20th Century Fox. I am making no money off of this.

He imagined the feel of her hair as he ran fingers through it, the long, flowing tresses like rose petals on his skin. He had felt it once, long ago- or was it? Time felt funny to him, as if much had passed and yet life was paused on a single second.

It was no matter- not really. Time, that is. She was a totally different story. His life began and ended with her smile. When that had happened he had no idea, but again the notion of time passing, stopping, whatever, no longer held any real meaning for him.

It never occurred to him to question where he was- his situation, the circumstances surrounding it. He was simply there. Here. Whatever.

Images floated in front of him- images from his past. The good, the bad, and the ugly. And he found that they were only tolerable (the early ones, at least) because he knew that they led him to her. And, of course, that made everything all right.

He saw the abuse he endured- watching it as if floating outside of his body. He watched the faces change even if the circumstances didn't. He had always done what he had to do to survive- this was just more proof of that. It was horrible, embarrassing, shameful but he knew that should he ever tell her, she would forgive him for it all. And he continued.

The odd jobs, the numerous escapes, his first smuggling run, his first kill- it all played in front of him like a holovid and he watched, enthralled. Never once did he wonder why he was watching it, he just soaked it all in. Bria, Lando, Chewie, the more the merrier. And he watched.

And then, there she was, in all her regal glory. And his heart soared. It was as if he had been shocked back into life again. He could practically FEEL her standing there, smell her soft perfume, hear her soft laughter..