I've broken out of my TFA funk. Happy Holidays! Enjoy! xox
AN: I know I know. The Liberation of Coruscant is not an official "Missing Moment" - BUT, I don't care. :) Also, it's been years since I read the X-Wing series (and my brother has borrowed my copies of them to boot) - so i'm running on Wookiepeedia, coffee and artistic license. (oh yes, not mine obviously... blah blah blah - my version would have ended a lot better for everyone...)
R&R - please, they make me sooooooo happy. xox
Agony. That's what this was. Pure agony.
The dim night lighting from the open fresher burned her eyes.
A familiar heavy weight beside her shifted and rolled, causing her tender brain and stomach to do the same. Leia gripped the side of the mattress and waiting for the pitch and yaw of her internal organs to settle back to where they ought to be. The pounding behind her eyes intensified and she turned her head slightly, trying to find a new comfortable position. It wasn't possible. Last night - or the start of it at least - was still rattling around inside of her mind. The waiting. The worry. The watching and planning. It never got any easier sending people away to war, she had thought harshly as she stood at the command deck watching the transport vessels and fighters take up strategic positions, preparing the invasion. The Liberation - as everyone was calling it.
The battle was blur. Lasting hours and costing so many lives. Impossible odds. That's what they had beaten - again. The weight of what they had fought for and won had manifested itself in crushing elation. The immensity of the battle and the hard earned prize - freedom - had light a fire within all ranks of the Rebellion which Leia had never dreamed possible.
Her head throbbed in memory of that excitement and she moaned in pained annoyance and the weight beside her shifted again.
"You awake?" Han's sleep stiffened voice queried.
"Yes." She croaked, throat burning.
"You alive?"
"No. Please stop talking." She pressed a hand against her forehead. Han chuckled and eased off the bed, padded over to the sink and filled a glass. He returned, depositing two pink pills into her palm and holding the water in front of her face. "No thanks."
"It'll help."
She moaned again, this time in frustration and sat up gingerly, pulling her legs up in support. He sat by her knees, watching her with a slight grin creeping across his face.
"Thank you."
"Give it twenty minutes, you'll feel better."
"If you say so." she breathed, leaning her head back against the pillows.
"Trust me, I've have years of experience." He kissed her sheet covered knee and took the glass from her.
"Well," Leia straightened the sheets tucked in around her. "We had fun. I think..." she added, closing her eyes again.
"Yes. We did." He smiled, last night flooding his senses.
Han knew she wouldn't remember the last half of last night. The party had reached a crushing climax; countless toasts, endless alcohol, music blaring and beating against immensity of metal and crush of people. They had sat, surrounded by friends, old and new-founded, laughing and shouting, free for once of the oppression of tomorrow, or all the "what ifs" which had started to pile up over the last few weeks in preparation for this mission. Th Rouges had 'liberated' several large shipping containers of wine, ale and numerous liquors - among them a dozen or so bottles of barrel aged Corellian Reserve - which Leia had drank, straight from the bottle, mischievous grin on her face.
Members of the Council stopped by, smiling and vaguely disapproving before disappearing again, to stand along the wall at the back and congratulate themselves. Han had tossed back several shots of fire whiskey with Luke before settling down on a crate. Leia had wrapped around him, one hand grasping the bottle of Reserve she had claimed, laughing and carefree above him. Her free hand ran bravely up and down his torso, pausing only to drink again. They had become frenzied near the end of the night, drunk and clumsy. He held her to him, bottle discarded somewhere on the floor, Leia undulating above him, straddling his lap and whispering wicked promises and enticements into his ear. He nipped and kissed his away across he neck and throat, heeded by the sounds of celebration and her spiked panting.
A slurred cheer broke his attention and he pulled her away from him slightly, her body slumping towards his. He gasped, clearing his head as he did so. She was intoxicating. Addicting. But they were causing a scene; time to wrap this up. She didn't hesitate as he lifted her, steadier than he expected to be, and started off towards the suite. The Falcon was closer - but they would get no quiet there. Not tonight.
Leia awoke briefly as he lay her down on their bed, smiling brilliantly at him.
"We did it." She said simply. Her eyes closed and smiled.
Yes, Han smiled, watching her from the side of the bed, shedding clothes slowly. Yes they had.
xXx Earlier xXx
It lay glistening below them. A ripe jewel on a rich sea of black. Coruscant.
Months of planning. Years of fighting. Days of battling. Hours of waiting. Waiting.
The Core. They had finally reached it. And mere hours ago, they had lay claim to it. Merciless and agonizing; the campaign had taken a hard toll. Personnel, supplies, money, droids and time. Everything had bled for this.
Council had watched; surrounded by read-out screens and the muffled electronic voices of pilots crackling like invisible giants across the battle plan. Tiny dots blinking in and out flitted and danced across the screen.
In and out. In and out. Rhythmic and enchanting, she could not turn her attention from that terrifying display. Her nerves spiked and shattered, waiting to all those tiny green dots to blink back in again. She couldn't know, would have no real way of discerning which tiny point of light was his. So, instead, she watched all of them and let herself ride the wave of terror and relief when the screen light back up, and the dots she had been watching were all still there.
Comm-chatter spiked instantly, voices rang clear and thunderous across the bridge. It's over! It's over.
Leia sagged forward, resting her forehead on the display and closing her eyes - the blinking dots still flashing across her vision, now a muffled green haziness which washed away in front of her. Over? After all of her years planning and fighting and bleeding and crying and shooting and running. Over?
Hanger door alarms blared - the Rouges were back. Wedge first, followed by Hobbie and Tycho, in close succession - each no doubt battling for second place - as they always did - with the remaining fighters tight behind them. What was left of Lancer Squadron appeared next. Come on. Come on. Rebellion special forces troop carrier arrived. Please. Rouge pilots leap from fighters, embarrassed each other and anyone else within groping distance; whooping and cheering as they did. Endor was shattering. Coruscant was altering. Where are you? Come on! He would be last - she knew him well enough to know that. Damn hero. Needing to make sure everyone got back safely, ducking and dodging and generally showing off until the very last moment. Aircraft after aircraft. Each a huge relief, but still not good enough.
Waiting.
They had fought that morning, as they always seemed to do in times of stress and looming death. She had declared that she was coming with him, better to help him - she was a fairly good shot - than sit and wait for everything to happen without her. He was angry. He wouldn't let her.
Leia smiled remembering, resting her twitching hands against the railing in a vain effort to keep her nervous habit at bay.
"Let me!?" She had yelled at him through the doorway to the fresher of her - their - suite on board the command ship. "That's right," he answered loudly. He was a sight, half naked and furious, hair still wet and shaving cream trickling down his neck, missed by the hasty swipe of the towel a moment ago. He towered over her immediately, covering the ground between them in two easy strides. "I won't let you!" She had taken half a step back from him, glancing around frantically, irrationally wanting to hurl something at him. Something heavy. Let her, indeed. "And what exactly do you expect me to do?! Sit around here waiting for you!? Hoping you make it back to me!?" She vaguely knew she should keep her voice down, sound carried through these walls more than would be expected - she had found that out the hard way months ago, much to her complete embarrassment. But, at the moment she didn't care. Yes, he had shouted back, that's exactly what he expected her to do, and for once could she just for kriffing sake do what he asked her to do?
Their fighting had reached boiling point - as it usually did - but they couldn't leave it for later, standing toe to toe, angry and scared for each other; they might not have a later. Instead of answering, she had grabbed him, pulled him to her desperately. His arms had wrapped around her and he whispered all manner of reassuring promises into her hair as she half cried against him. They had surfaced, sometime later to the blaring of the comm unit and subsequent angry growling of his cranky co-pilot. He needed to be gone already. They were waiting for him.
"Come back to me." she had whispered, watching up at him as he dressed; laying still tangled in the sheets. Paralyzed with the overwhelming worry of loss.
"Always." He smiled slowly, tracing the lines of worry in her eyes before leaning down to kiss her bare shoulder.
"Han-" her next words caught as he pulled his shirt over his head, reaching for the pack.
He had left her before. But this was different. Somehow, everything was different.
"I know." He replied simply, "I love you, too."
Then, he was gone.
Leia's grip on the handrail tightened minutely. She had wanted to stay there. Wrapped up in their sheets, still warm and wait for him to stride back through their door, toss his bag into the corner and kick his boots off against the wall. He would grin at her, in that obnoxiously beautiful way he always did. "Miss me?" He would ask, and he would let her pretend that she hadn't, he would smile and she would smile back. He would be home; where she needed him to be.
But, she couldn't do that. The battle had needed her too. She stayed locked away for as long as she was able, staring at the closed door, bedding pulled tightly around her. His voice still echoing in her ears.
She had made it, finally, up to the bridge, standing quietly at the read-out displays, staring out at the ships hanging around the command centre like small toys. She watched the Falcon float there, tantalizingly close. Imagined the cockpit, the growling, the swearing, the "You can't talk to me like that, I'm a General now" attitude Han causally toss around these days in a successful bid to drive everyone crazy. She could see them in her mind, settling down in their seats, Han would exhale, centering himself. Chewie would be flicking dials and checking pressures. Han would reach across the console and grab his wear worn gloves, sliding them on, flexing his hands against the soft leather. She smiled and watched her floating home straighten out, bank slightly, pull back and shoot forward, careening down at a sharp angle into the planetary grav-well.
The sound in the hanger was deafening; snapping her out of reverie.
Excitement had been steadily reaching a crescendo. It pulsed through the air, vibrating around the hanger, spilling into the hallways and across the crew decks - it was excitement at a magnitude which Leia had never experienced before. Hard to breathe. Impossible to comprehend. Everything they had fought for, killed for, starved for; it had all been worth it. Here they were.
From her current vantage point, discretely tucked into the corner of the top landing staircase to the hanger, she witness everything, feeling it fill her heart and overpower her mind. But she couldn't enjoy it. Not entirely. Not yet.
Waiting.
Her brother was down there. She could feel him happy; rejoicing with the various pilots. toasts were already being raised, the ground assault troops cheering and shouting, the Rouges - true to form - had started pulling crates and containers to make tables and benches, pulling bottles of wine, ale and whiskey out from packing boxes and shipping bags. They were in for one hell of a party. She smiled, teeth softly holding her lower lip as Wedge and Hobbie scramble up and stood together on a familiar looking now-empty shipping container, each holding a bottle of Corellian Reserve, shouting and heckling the other pilots. Suddenly, a cry went up, fists raised and cheers filled the already overwhelmed space.
Leia's feet here moving before her mind caught up with why she was being propelled forward. Dashing down the stairs, she came to a quick stop at the bottom, flanked by Luke and the Rouges. Luke was speaking to her, but she couldn't hear him. She shook her head, brain sluggish. A familiar humming had filled the air. And with a streak of light, another ship vaulted through the still gaping hanger bay doors.
The noise fell away. Everything blurred. Safe. He was safe. He had come back to her.
Luke's arm fell across the back of her shoulders, squeezing her tightly for a quick moment then let her go, pushing her slightly forward. The Rouges whooped and cheered as the battered freighter settled to the deck. Her boots were soft, the small thudding of her feet on the metal floor decking matched the increasing thudding of her heart. The hanger was quickly filling up, Leia pushed passed crew, pilots and excess personnel as she raced towards the newest arrival. Hearing the repulsors hissed in mild annoyance as the hatch opened and lowered, she met the ramp as the familiar silhouette descended. She launched herself at him, laughing and crying at the same time. Burying her face in his neck. He caught her, held to to him and breathed in the familiar smell of her hair.
"I'm back, it's okay." He cooed softly into the curve of her neck. She nodded and hugged him tighter before releasing him slowly. "Drink? I know I could use one." She nodded again and let him tuck her protectively under his arm.
"The Rouges - they found the best stock." She laughed, hugging him close to herself. "It's yours."