Title: Small Comforts
Author: DaenaBenjen42
Characters: Han, Chewie... Ismaren Family...
Genre: Drama
Timeframe: post-ANH (AU for Splinter of the Mind's Eye)
Disclaimer: Happily playing in the sandbox.

Han could feel the weight of his companion's sidelong glare as he piloted away from the supply depot. The Wookiee hadn't so much as said two words the entire time they had bartered with suppliers, and had only bothered to grunt unintelligibly twice to show his displeasure...

"And we'll take a gross of those," he said as he pointed to something that he vaguely recognized as food. The supplier person nodded and finished the order for them.

Walking away with a hoversled packed with supplies, he bumped into someone. A female someone. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"Don't be," the beautiful stranger told him timidly, avoiding his eyes.

Han suddenly realized that she was holding a little boy in her hands. "Are you all right?"

"Fine."

He stared to reach out to her, but Chewie grunted, and Han suddenly remembered that they were on a limited timeframe as it was. Still... something in her tone told him that nothing was, in fact, fine. "Ma'am?"

"What?"

Even the one-word responses had an edge to them. "Are you in need of some assistance?"

She shook her head. "Not really."

"We could give you a ride if need be." At that, Chewie grunted again, reminding him that they needed to be going.

Finally she looked at him. "You would do that?"

"Can you pay?"

She laughed. "Of course. You offering?"

"Yes."

...which was why Chewbacca was glaring at him. "We couldn't leave them there, you know." Getting no response other than a glare, Han sighed as he completed the jump to lightspeed. Then he stood up, shook his head, and left the cockpit.

Entering the small lounge area, he stopped and watched as the woman interacted with the little boy. They seemed so... normal. Was that the word he'd wanted? Probably not, but it fit.

The woman tore her attention away from the boy, noticing him at last. "Oh, it's you."

Han laughed softly. "Were you expecting someone else?"

"Not really. Could have been your large furry companion, too." She frowned at him. "Does he do more than grunt?"

"Yes," Han said as he sat down in a chair and faced them. "Bad day and we're a little behind."

"Oh." She turned her attention back to the child and made a face at him. "Thank you for getting us out of there..."

"It's Han," he helpfully supplied. "And don't mention it. Your name would be?"

"Roganda."

"On the run?"

"No. Ran into some storm troopers. They... recognized me from their tour of duty on Coruscant."

"Sounds like you're on the run." At her mild glare, he mentally backpeddled. "Or not... We've got a stop to make to drop off our cargo. There anywhere you need to be?"

She gazed at him for a long moment, then nodded. "I'm taking my son to a surgeon. Irek, say hello to the nice man." The little boy, who couldn't have been more than three or four years old, shook his head at her. "Come on, now. Han here is nice and now not a stranger." He shook his head again, buried his face in her shirt front, and Roganda tried to smile at Han. "Sorry. He's not accustomed to talking to new people yet."

"No need to be sorry. Why are you taking him to a surgeon?"

For several long minutes, she didn't speak and avoided his gaze. Then she sighed and met his eyes squarely. "You'll think it's crazy."

"Lady, I live crazy on a daily basis."

That answer must have amused her, because she laughed. "All right. I found a way for him to manipulate machines through the Force, but it has to be done when he's young or it won't work."

Han had heard many weird or just plain down right odd things in his life, but this... this was one of the stranger. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"I prefer not to think of it that way, Captain."

Somehow, that answer did not fill him with confidence.

~*~*~*~*~

After dropping of the supplies at the Rebel base, checking in with General Rieekien, and finding out that the Kid and the Princess weren't back yet, Han had gone out again and taken the woman and her son to their destination on some backwater out of the way planet.

Sitting in the cantina and waiting for her to show up, he was getting restless and edgy. She should have been here by now.

Deciding not to wait another ten minutes, Han got up out of his seat and made for the door. He was outside the cantina when he felt the ground tremble beneath him. It was weak and didn't last very long, but he know a groundquake when he felt one. Looking around, he didn't see any damage immediately, but looking down the street, he did.

A building was in ruins. Hand on his sidearm as he walked quickly, he got the building before anyone else... was this the place that she'd told him she'd be? Pulling his blaster, he carefully entered the building. There was rubble everywhere.

He found her in what would have resembled an operating theater if it had still been intact. She was sitting on a rock, staring at a pile of rubble and slowly rocking back and forth. Wordlessly, he took her in his arms, knowing he didn't need to say anything. Words meant nothing to her now, but something tangible, a touch, meant everything.

"I didn't mean for it to happen," she sobbed when she finally let herself speak, voice harsh with emotion. It made him wince to hear something so raw and unbridled. "I didn't..."

"I know," he gently whispered into her ear.

"Did it?"

Wanting to protect her for just this moment, he shook his head. "Only if you believe it did, Roganda. Only then." Glancing around at the scattered debris, he shuddered involuntarily. So much destruction...

"It was supposed to be a simple," she said a while later. No one had come and he hadn't let go. She hadn't wanted him to let go. "Come to this place, get the procedure done. Simple."

"And?"

She motioned to the debris. "It wasn't. Not even close."

He nodded. When he'd hooked up with her, the idea to put her son through a procedure to help him influence mechanicals with the Force hadn't seemed safe at all. The very thought had seemed dangerous from the start.

She pushed herself out of his arms and stood up. Glaring down at a rock, she kicked it. Watching it bounce off, she kicked another, and then another... "It should have been me!" As she ran out of small rocks and made ready to kick a bigger one, he grabbed her from behind. "Let me go, you oaf!"

"No. You'll hurt yourself."

"So?" The rhetorical question was met with silence as she seethed and stared at the rock she'd been about to kick. "What difference does it make it I hurt myself?"

"It makes a big difference to me, Roganda."

"Why does it make a difference to you if I hurt my foot? It's my foot, and I can hurt myself if I want to!"

He sighed and released his grip, realizing that if he didn't let her at least try to kick something, he'd be next. It wasn't exactly a secret between them that she'd had some serious and hard training at one point. "All right... if you feel like you deserve to hurt, I won't stop you."

She looked from him, to the rock, and back again. "You mean that?"

"Of course I do." More than she knew...

Sighing, she sat down on the rock instead of kicking it, and just looked at him hollowly for a minute or two. He returned the gaze evenly, and she looked away. "Thanks."

"For what?"

"Coming after me, Solo." She shook her head and glanced around again at the scattered debris. "It's just... so much time and effort for this, I failed at the first step, and the ground quake, and..."

He sat down across from her and put a hand on her knee. "I couldn't not come."

She glanced at him, blinking hard at the gesture. "And I'm really glad you did."

They sat there for a another minute or two before Han stood up and held out his hand. "Come on. Let's get you out of here and find something to eat."

"But what about...?"

"We'll deal with it. Food first."

She stared at him, then nodded, took his hand, and stood up. "Lead on, Captain."

Picking up the blaster that he'd set down in a hurry and reholstering it, Han led her away from the husk of a building.

~*~*~*~

Life in the cantina was going on around her as she stared at the table top, intent on thinking of nothing but the sturdy mesh that made up the table. It should have worked...

"Here," her companion said, interrupting her train of thought as he set a drink down in front of her.

She glanced at it, noting it was actually caf and not something else, and looked away again. "Not thirsty."

"Drink anyway."

"This is supposed to be a festive time, but... sure doesn't feel that way. Not at all."

He reached across the table and took hold of her hand gently. "I know it doesn't, Lady Ismaren."

She snorted incredulously. "I'm no lady, Solo. Just like you're not an officer... Where's your shadow, by the way?"

"Waiting for us at the ship."

She nodded and glanced at the cup of caf again. "Why caf?"

"Comfort food."

"Mmm... Solo?"

"Yes?"

She fought to meet his gaze evenly, relieved when she found compassion there. A tear slid down her cheek and she began to shake her head slightly. "I wasn't trying to kill my child. I didn't mean for it to end like that. I really, really didn't."

"I understand that part, Roganda."

She was silent for several long moments as she stared at the cup of caf, then looked at him again. "Irek caused the quake, I think."

Han frowned. "What makes you say that?"

Roganda motioned to the activity going around them in the cantina. "It was too localized and there's nothing broken here."

"That doesn't mean..."

"Plus, I felt a surge in the Force right when Irek was waking up from the procedure. That's why I think he did it."

"Ah. Don't know much about the Force," Han muttered as he broke her gaze and looked away. "Hokey religion and nonsense to me."

For a moment, Roganda thought she'd seen pain reflected in his eyes, and it made her wonder. What had his life been like before she'd met up with him? She frowned. "No, Solo. It's very real... it's in all of us. In everything." She picked up the cup of caf with her free hand. "Even in this."

Han turned back to stare at her as she finally allowed herself to drink the caf. "You make it sound so simple."

"It is... I've had better caf. Way better," she said as she winked at him and he chuckled.

"I figure that's an indicator of how good this place is."

"No, I got that from the mesh table top. Nice dive you found on Solstice Eve, Solo."

Han shook his head as he leaned closer. "No, calling it a dive would elevate it six notches. I've been in places that were dives... they have better caf."

She set the cup down and leaned closer to him, purposefully copying his body language. "Oh really?"

"Really."

Roganda smiled, accepting the humor of that statement. "Thank you." And then she kissed him.

the end... for now...