Full Disclosure
By Susan Zahn and Erin Darroch
Summary: In the aftermath of the destruction of the second Death Star, Han and Leia have some catching up to do.
Disclaimer: All characters depicted herein are the property of Lucasfilm, Disney, etc. Our only profit is in the form of readers' feedback. Please be generous!
Ratings/Warnings: M; mild language; angst; adult themes
Tags: Han/Leia. Romance/Angst. Han Solo/Leia Organa
Note: With thanks to our lovely beta readers: CorieMariee, BonesBooth206, YellinYee, and Marjorie Joyce.
Chapter 1
The family you come from isn't as important as the family you're going to have.
-Ring Lardner
Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed.
- Irene Peter
It was inevitable that the boisterous celebration would give way to quiet reflection as the evening wore on and the survivors of the Battle of Endor surrendered to contemplation, inebriation, or sheer exhaustion. The bonfires interspersed throughout the Ewok village had died down, allowing those still awake to sit closer in comradeship as the chill air of the night crept in.
Not that Han Solo needed any excuse to wrap a protective and proudly possessive arm around Princess Leia Organa. He was pretty sure that nothing short of an Artusian mining drill could have pried him away from his treasured spot beside her tonight. Between their whispered playful conversation and countless kisses, they'd become rather oblivious to the rest of the universe, and at some point most of the universe must have retreated to more interesting and less awkward places to continue the festivities, leaving them virtually alone on their particular platform high amongst the trees. Their only company was another affectionate couple across the fire from them, a pair of young Ewoks who appeared to be likewise engrossed in private conversation.
The hypnotic flames of the small fire they were seated before had finally lulled them into silence, and neither were keen to end the peaceful and cozy interlude. Han shifted his arm around Leia's shoulders, and she dropped her head back as he initiated another kiss. She responded with warmth and, for a long moment, he indulged in the heady pleasure of her mouth moving against his, and the intimate caress of her hand sliding down the length of his thigh. Although they'd withdrawn from socializing when they'd settled down together by the fire, he was becoming increasingly aware of the need for them to find a final destination for the night—and soon. The night was wearing on and the accumulation of kisses was having a strong effect on him and, he thought, on Leia, too. It was with some dismay, then, that he felt her begin to pull away slightly, a look of distraction in her dark eyes. She sat forward and turned her head to look at him over the curve of her shoulder, her face framed by a loose cascade of fire-lit brown hair.
"You still need to report to High Command tonight," she reminded him with apparent reluctance. "We both do."
"Our job's done, Sweetheart," he informed her, purposefully trailing his fingertips up the line of her spine through the thin material of her borrowed dress. "Death Star number two is dust. I think we've earned a night off. Anyway, what're they gonna do? Reprimand us?"
"Yes, actually. That's exactly what they'll do."
"Well, I don't give a damn. And what's one more reprimand for you, Princess?"
Leia gave him a half-sweet, half-sour look. "Thanks for the reminder, General."
As his hand slipped beneath her unbound hair to caress the nape of her neck, though, she closed her eyes and leaned into his touch once more. "Reporting to High Command does seem an anticlimactic way to end the evening, doesn't it?"
Han grinned at her choice of words and leaned forward to slip his other hand around her waist, enjoying the way she tilted easily towards him, melting under his touch. "Speaking of climactic ways to end the evening…I'll tell you whatI'd like to do," he murmured against her ear. "How about we commandeer one of these little huts and I'll ravish you in a pile of furs?"
She rewarded his proposition with a faint blush and a smile, but she had clearly made up her mind to resist further distraction for the moment. "Han.…"
The hint of reservation in her voice reminded him that their monthlong journey to Bespin—when they'd finally reached a deeply satisfying level of intimacy together—had taken place over half a year ago. Although it seemed to Han like only a matter of days, Leia had lived through every minute of that long separation, and he'd clearly missed some important developments while he had been hanging unconscious on Jabba's wall. Just when he thought they'd finally surmounted all the old obstacles, it was starting to feel like new ones were arising. There was something else between them now, a lurking shadow behind her eyes that told Han he would have to rein in his ambitions for the evening, at least until they had settled whatever it was that was bothering her. Leia's expression grew more serious as she appeared to summon her courage.
"Han," she began, adopting a marginally more formal tone and drawing away to put some space between their bodies. She drew up one leg and shifted to face him. "We need to talk.…"
Han nodded with a sigh, reluctantly acquiescing to the change in mood. Eager as he was to continue with their kissing and caressing, he knew her well enough to recognize that she wasn't going to be deterred. "Yeah, I've been waiting for this. This is the part where you explain to me how Luke is your brother."
A slight frown creased her brow. "Well, yes. But there's more to it than that." Leia studied his face. Although she seemed to be judging whether or not he was ready to hear the explanation, he got the feeling she was the one who felt unready. "It's…complicated."
"I imagine it'd have to be. Go ahead, tell me." To emphasize the point that she had his full attention, he removed his hands from where they rested on her body and clasped them loosely in his own lap, waiting.
Seemingly reassured by his tone and demeanor, she drew a deep breath. "You know that I was adopted into the Organa family, right?"
Han nodded. "Sure, I did my due diligence on you some time ago." He gave her the briefest teasing lift of an eyebrow—she'd accused him of as much while on their long sublight trip through the Anoat System, in part to deflect his own teasing over her doing exactly the same in her early attempts to know him better.
"Right. That part of my life was fairly public. But most of the details remained confidential. There was no mention of where I'd come from or that my mother was from Naboo."
Han watched her, racking his brain for any scraps of old history but coming up short. Naboo was a Mid-Rim planet in the Chommell sector, but beyond the fact that a major early battle in the fall of the Old Republic had taken place there, the name meant little to him.
"My mother—my real mother and Luke's—was Padmé Naberrie. She was a queen of Naboo, and was married, evidently in secret, to a Jedi knight. We were born twins, and she died shortly afterward." Leia's rich voice dropped almost to a whisper as she spoke the last words, and a flicker of profound sadness crossed her features. Han's eyes roamed her face, trying to match the information she was supplying to the catalog of knowledge he'd accumulated about her and Luke.
"Twins, huh? I guess that explains your both having the same Majority Day…." He remembered the night on Serricci when they'd discovered that fact. Leia nodded, giving him a moment to absorb the news.
"Obi-Wan Kenobi was our mother's friend, and Luke thinks that it was his decision to separate us after she died. He sent us into hiding to protect us from the Sith, who were destroying the Jedi Order at the time. I was given to Bail Organa and his wife, Breha."
"So you jumped from one royal house to another?"
"Yes, essentially. Luke was taken far away to an exact opposite situation, to be raised on Tatooine as a simple moisture farmer. Obi-Wan remained nearby and Luke remembers seeing him and talking to him every now and then as he was growing up. Luke thinks now that Ben was there to watch over him. To protect him. So he grew up, like I did, without knowing anything about his real parents."
"Until he intercepted your message to Kenobi…." Han was beginning to appreciate the sheer scale of such a coincidence. Leia's expression told him that she felt as amazed and mystified by the apparent facts as he did. Her escape from the Death Star had been miraculous enough; the fact that her own long-lost twin brother had been the one to release her from her cell simply beggared belief. As he tried to process that fact, a darker thought intruded and he met her gaze again. "How long have you known?"
"That's complicated, too," she sighed. "I mean, I only learned the truth last night, and Luke was told when he went back to Dagobah to finish his Jedi training. But I've always suspected something was…different…about him. Not like you." Leia ducked her head slightly, almost seeming to blush again, then lifted her kaffe-colored eyes to his. "You know what I mean. I never felt the same way for him as I did for you."
"You could have fooled me," Han smirked, trying to lighten the mood a little. He could tell from her face that she knew which incident he had in mind.
"That was intentional, to make you jealous when you deserved it. Although I suppose I could have made a better choice of whom to kiss.…" She trailed off, looking mildly embarrassed as she glanced across the fire. Han followed her gaze and noticed that the Ewok couple had given up on conversation in favor of more demonstrative expressions of affection. He raised an eyebrow and looked back at Leia with a suggestive little grin.
"Wouldn't have mattered who you kissed. I still would've been jealous."
Her expression lightened for just a moment; she turned back to him and returned his smile, accepting his confession for what it was. "I did feel a connection to Luke. Immediately. But it was nothing like the sort of…chemistry I was feeling with you. I didn't know what to make of it because there was no context to it, other than in comparison with you. I didn't know what to do with all those emotions."
Han felt a bit lost. This was the sort of conversation most men would steer a wide course around, and the sensation was compounded by the fact it was coming from a woman who rarely talked about anything so personal. This side of her—of their entire relationship, for that matter—was new to him. So he didn't say anything. That seemed the safest bet.
Internally, however, her words triggered a flood of memories of the times—and there had been many over the past couple of years—when he'd watched Luke and Leia together and noticed their similarities. In his darker moments, he'd even felt resentful and jealous of the easy camaraderie between them, of the seemingly effortless harmony they enjoyed together. The fact that they were twins explained so much.
"When Luke initially told me about this last night, and then when we talked again this afternoon and shared what little we knew, I realized how there were so many hints along the way. Little pieces to the puzzle that I've had all along. Without that context of the bigger picture, I had no idea what they could mean. But it all just snaps into place and makes sense now."
"Hints?"
Leia nodded and began to elaborate, ticking off reasons on her slim fingers. "Why the topic of the Force was never forgotten in the Organa chambers, and why I was educated in that aspect of Old Republic history when most of the galaxy either ignored or outright banned the subject. Why my father—my adopted father—sent me to find Kenobi when he felt desperate enough and the time was right, rather than some other courier, a safer choice. Why Luke and I almost instantly understood and anticipated one another in a way I could never explain."
"Because of the Force?" Han's old habit of automatically dismissing such mystical talk was at war with his desire to understand what she was laying out before him, and where she could possibly be heading with this story. It was all still pretty far-fetched, but then again he'd seen some crazy things since hooking up with these two people—twins!—and at this point, he was prepared to believe just about anything.
"Yes, because the Force is strong in our family, and those who separated us had their reasons to keep us hidden. I suppose their hope was that we would be given the chance to grow up and help defeat the Emperor and his Sith."
"Wait. Does that mean you're…uh…?" Han faltered, as the actual meaning behind her words began to sink in.
"Force-sensitive?" She smiled faintly at his expression. "I think so. My adopted parents never told me that I had that potential, but little things I'd never been able to fully understand or explain began to happen as I grew older. Sixth-sense things, like flashes of insight and emotions I could detect whenever I spoke with someone. The occasional dream of events that eventually happened. They didn't mean anything to me at the time because they were out of context, but they just felt like more than normal dreams. Premonitions and 'bad feelings.'"
"Well, you aren't alone in having those. I get them all the time. Comes with the territory."
Leia's dark eyes held a hint of a smile, as though she were grateful that he was keeping things grounded with his usual humor. "Yes, only mine were eerily accurate enough after the fact to leave me wondering. Like when I said I needed to be with you when you confronted Jabba. Things didn't happen exactly how I'd 'seen' it, but in the end I was right. I was there with you."
Han remembered her sharing that premonition specifically, and how much he'd been spooked by it—by the complete conviction she'd shown about it at the time.
"I realize now that this special ability has probably helped me all along, fueling those intuitions that gave me such an advantage when I became politically active. I didn't know how I was doing it, or even that it was anything special.…" She shrugged a slim shoulder and looked down, picking absentmindedly at the hem of her buckskin dress.
"So you think you were actually tapping into this Force thing all those times?" He was remembering some of the many instances when she'd caught him with that uncanny ability of hers to anticipate him, or to suss out what he wasn't saying. All those times she'd seemed to read him like a datapad when he'd tried to hide behind half-truths and bravado. She'd read him from the very first day they'd met.
"Yes, I think so, although not consciously. It wasn't until Bespin…" She hesitated, her eyes once again shifting into a faraway gaze for a long moment. "It wasn't until we were in Cloud City, with Vader, that I started to realize the truth."
Han drew his head back slightly as he let that sink in. They'd barely had time or inclination to talk about the specifics of what had happened during their forced separation in Vader's custody, or after Han had been encased in carbonite. He'd only gotten the rundown of major events from Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian. He had no idea of what Vader might have done to Leia then, and he dreaded finding out. All he did know was that the Sith Lord had been present and an active participant in her detainment on the first Death Star—it was one of the things she'd eventually shared with him during their countless and priceless talks during that long sublight trip. "But that wasn't the first time you ran into Vader.…"
"No. He told me while in Cloud City that he'd suspected I had some Force ability that first time, which is why he'd ordered a stay of execution just before you and Luke arrived on the Death Star."
Han actually saw her shudder, despite the radiating warmth of the bonfire. He resisted the urge to pull her into his arms. He wanted nothing more than to shield her from the disturbing thoughts that clouded her features, but the tension in her slender frame told him that she had more of the story to tell before she would accept any comfort.
"The Force was awakening in me and Vader recognized it. He tested me on Bespin. I didn't know how or why, but I reacted on instinct and shut him out. But it was too late. He then used me, used that power somehow, as a beacon to draw Luke. That's why he tortured us and didn't even bother with questions."
Han could feel his stomach flip at the bitter memory, both from the fear he still felt from the event, and in sick anger at the very thought of Leia being manipulated that way.
"I could feel it then, like nothing I'd ever felt before, but I still couldn't understand it, and I think on some level I didn't want to. I didn't want any part of it, or of him."
"Understandable," Han grunted. He expected Leia to agree in that moment, and wasn't prepared for the look of pain that flashed across her lovely face. It was enough to make him think he'd said something wrong. But she pressed on.
"But then Luke called out to me through the Force. That was how I knew where to find him and rescue him there. That was when I knew exactly what was happening. It was the Force I'd been feeling all that time. It still made no sense to me why or how, but I couldn't deny it anymore."
"Luke called out to you?"
Leia nodded, dropping her gaze from his. "He did, somehow. He spoke to me, even though I was already on board the Falcon and we were escaping. He was just suddenly there in my mind, and I knew where he was, and that he was in a great deal of pain, and I had to go to him…."
Han drew a slow breath in, still taking all this in and trying to process everything. "And that's how you knew today that Luke was okay after this Death Star blew up?"
"Yes." She lifted her eyes to his. The nearby fire limned her features in gold and made her loose hair appear almost russet in color. Han had to resist once again the urge to reach out and touch her, to draw her close, kiss her and erase the uncertainty in her eyes. Instead, he simply nodded in acknowledgement of what she was telling him.
"So you have a special connection with him?"
"Yes…but…it wasn't until last night that I learned the full truth. About our father."
"Don't tell me it was old man Kenobi?" Han tossed out as he drew another deep breath and straightened out his back, starting to feel like he was reaching the saturation point.
Leia visibly winced at his offhanded joke, and he wished he could take it back.
"No. Our father was a Jedi Knight named Anakin Skywalker. He was…until he fell to the Dark Side and became known by a different name…."
And it was only then, as her words lingered in the cool night air and he saw the very real pain from the night before reemerge in her expression, that Han began to grasp the larger picture. He'd been paying such close attention to the warp and weft of the story she was weaving that he'd failed to notice the grand pattern. They were talking of fallen Jedi Knights and the collapse of the Old Republic here; there were some things that still remained common knowledge, at least to those old enough to remember the immediate aftermath. A cold chill settled into the pit of his stomach as he looked at her, and he felt a whole new level of appreciation for just how brave she really was.
"Ah…." There was no question that Han was feeling a bit nauseated now. It was all falling into place for him, finally. "That was your father back in Cloud City, wasn't it?"
Leia's head snapped up and she searched his eyes, even as he tried to read the myriad emotions flashing in her own.
"Darth Vader," he supplied, his tone flat.
She looked away again, her head dropping as if in final defeat in shame. "Yes."
"And that's why Vader knew we were here on this moon? Through that connection?"
"Yes."
The very magnitude of this news left him stunned, speechless. His rapidly over-clocking brain pieced together that information and matched it against other lingering questions, such as why three star destroyers and Vader's own flagship had inexplicably broken formation to chase after them as they escaped from Hoth, and how the Sith Lord had anticipated and awaited their arrival on Bespin. The monstrous creature had been using the Force to track and hunt his own child.
Staring at Leia, it felt as though he were looking at someone he barely recognized…and yet that wasn't true. She was still very much the same woman he'd spent more than two years getting to know very well. All those little hints were facts, and they'd always been there, yet it felt as though, until this moment, he'd been looking at her through a huge and unfocused lens that had suddenly sharpened into perfect clarity.
If there was one thing he did still know for a fact about Leia, it was that she would automatically shoulder the blame for this, like she did for so many other things that had happened around her—things completely out of her control. He could see it in her eyes even now—that look of regret and fear, and what he suspected was a dose of self-loathing. The reason was obvious, and that was one thing he could do something about, that he had the power to correct.
"Leia, none of that changes anything."
"But…."
"None of us gets to choose our parents. Hell, I left my family and changed my name because I didn't want anything to do with them or their business anymore. As far as I'm concerned, you're still the same person you were before last night. You were already all these things. The only thing that's different now is that you know why, and the only way that's gonna change things is if you let it."
That declaration seemed to silence her objections and she met his gaze with a look full of relief and gratitude, although he could see a trace of uncertainty lingering in her eyes. She voiced her misgivings a moment later.
"But Vader was so evil," she said in a low voice, dropping her gaze. "There's no doubt about that, no matter what Luke says about him being full of regrets at the end of his life. He was vile, and nothing can reverse the harm he did. And if Luke and I have inherited Force sensitivity from him, what else—"
"Stop that," Han interjected. "I know you. And I know Luke. You've both had lots of reasons to go bad—more reasons than most people I can think of. But you haven't. In fact, the two of you've done more to fight him than practically anyone else in the galaxy. If that's not proof that you're better than him, then I don't know what is."
Han had hoped that his little speech would be enough to lift her spirits, but his comments seemed only to have reminded her of something else. She fidgeted for a moment, dark eyes averted, biting at the corner of her mouth. Although she looked distinctly uncomfortable, she nevertheless seemed determined to drag something else out into the open.
"There's one other thing…. Something that happened on Jabba's barge."
Han swallowed hard. He wasn't sure he wanted to know the details of what had happened to Leia at Jabba's hands, and certainly not on the heels of everything else she'd told him. He was starting to regret asking in the first place. He scanned Leia's face as she gathered the next words.
"I was chained to Jabba's platform when Luke made his move. Everyone was distracted, watching the skiff and what Luke was doing out there. And I…took advantage of the opportunity to free myself."
"That's my girl," Han murmured with a smile, reluctant to interrupt, but unable to stifle his admiration of her courage.
"But I didn't just free myself. I couldn't have been strong enough on my own. I usedthe Force. And my chain." She gave him a meaningful look.
Han gazed back at her, reading between the lines of her confession, while imagining a rather brutal scene in his head. She was offering nothing more, but he didn't need the details. Her troubled expression told him that she was disturbed by her own actions, and that was another thing he could do something about.
"It wasn't anything he didn't deserve," Han summed up, loading his voice with a tone of absolute certainty. It was a safe assumption that half the galaxy would sleep easier now that Jabba was dead; Han was sure of that and he wanted Leia to realize it, too. "And it was in self-defense. You used the tools you had handy—all of them. That's called being resourceful."
Leia opened her mouth, as if preparing to contradict him, but then she closed it and he could tell she was reading him again as she scanned his face.
Okay, yes, he conceded to himself, maybe the experience of being read by her felt a little different now knowing how she saw through him so easily. The result hadn't changed, though.
And indeed, as if she'd seen through him to his heart and found the truth there, Leia seemed to relax ever so slightly. She sighed. "You needed to know, Han. Before we go any further. Before we get any more serious about one another, you needed to hear everything."
"And I'm telling you none of these things changes anything for me. Hell, Leia, do you think I'd have gone through all this just to give up on you now?"
"This afternoon you seemed ready enough…!"
He gave her a stern look. "You know that was different. I thought you'd changed your mind about me."
Leia shook her head, sending a cascade of loose brown hair tumbling over her shoulder. "No. Never." She fixed her dark eyes on his and he could see the lingering question there. "I worried that it would change things for you—after you learned the truth—but I couldn't bear the thought of trying to move forward with those secrets between us."
"Well, stop worrying," Han said flatly. "Jabba got what he deserved. And Vader may have helped create you, but he wasn't the father who raised you. I know you're a good person at heart. You're nothing like him…. Does that help you feel any better?"
Leia's eyes stayed on his as she nodded, a faint smile brightening her features. For the first time since their conversation had turned serious, she tentatively reached over to place her hand over his clasped ones. "It does. Thank you."
Han enclosed her hand within his and was about to attempt to lighten the mood with a quip, but then something else she'd mentioned suddenly resurfaced in his mind. His grip on her hand tightened.
"Wait…before we get more serious? What do you mean?" After nearly missing that clue, Han wasn't about to blow this opportunity by jumping to the wrong conclusion. In all the turmoil and rush of the days since his rescue from Jabba's clutches, they'd yet to actually talk about a future together, and during the trip to Bespin they'd avoided the topic because it had seemed painfully futile. Even now, he wondered if they were speaking prematurely—tempting fate by looking too far forward, with too much hope.
Leia's expression changed slightly. "Well, I mean…" she faltered, obviously groping for words. "I don't know. Just…well, what did you have in mind?"
For a long moment, Han simply stared at her. He scarcely knew what he had in mind, apart from his short-term goal of getting as physically close to Leia as possible, as soon as possible and for as long as possible. In the long term, he also knew that he was as serious about continuing their relationship as he had ever been about anything in his life. The days since his emergence from carbonite had passed in frantic activity and now, here they were, with the remains of the second Death Star drifting away into the blackness of space, and a wide-open universe of possibilities in front of them. For the first time since he'd dared to begin toying with the idea of a future with Leia, there seemed a real possibility that it could happen. He felt a slow smile spreading across his face and his head began nodding almost of its own accord.
"What do you think? You think a princess and a guy like me could work something out…?"
For the first time in days, Leia's smile seemed to reach her eyes. "I'm sure you've bet against longer odds…."
Relief flooded Han at the realization that they were finally on the same page. "Sure. But I have a hunch this particular gamble will pay off big-time."
Leia's smile grew even broader.
"Let's see…" Han gave her hand a squeeze and leaned in a little closer. "For a start, there's no bounty on my head."
Leia's chin tipped up ever so slightly, as if happy to let him draw out the facts. "That's right," she agreed.
"We've knocked out another Death Star, and the Empire is on its knees."
"That's what they're saying in the reports."
"And you're not in love with Luke."
Leia laughed quietly, shaking her head. "No. Or with anyone else."
"Except for me," he reminded her.
"Except for you," she affirmed with obvious affection.
"That does sound serious," he teased, raising her hand to his lips to press a kiss to it. He cocked an eyebrow as he turned her hand over and placed a lingering kiss on the inside of her wrist. Lifting his head, he caught sight of the Ewok couple across the fire from them and hesitated, feeling both his eyebrows climb to his hairline.
"Maybe not quite as serious as those two, though." He nodded his head to direct her attention to their companions on the other side of the platform. The natives had abandoned all pretense of shyness. "Not yet, anyway."
Leia's jaw dropped, then she hurriedly turned her face away from the pair, looking back at Han with scandalized laughter in her eyes. "Oh, my. Perhaps we'd better give them some privacy."
"Unless you want to follow the local custom? What do you say, Princess? Right here, Ewok style?" Although he'd thought he was ready for Leia's playful assault, she was very fast, and he felt the familiar dig of a knuckle into his ribs despite his laughing attempts to block her. He was chastised more than usual when she managed to find a bruised spot, and he winced as he grabbed both of her hands in his to prevent further damage. "Well, they have the right idea if you ask me."
"Time to move, flyboy. Come on." Leia drew away, laughing softly, and got to her feet on the corrugated wooden platform before he could protest or pull her closer. She paused to straighten her rough-hewn dress and then pliantly stepped into his embrace as he stood and drew her against him for a long hug.
"Where did you have in mind?" he murmured into her hair, his warm hands spanning and encircling her waist.
She tilted her head back to look up at him. "How far is the Falcon?"
"About half a click. Lando said he set her down in the clearing near the bunker."
Leia nodded, appearing to consider their rather limited options in this suddenly crowded village within the treetops. "What about Chewie?"
"We're in a forest, sweetheart. Chewie won't sleep on board the Falcon tonight. He'll be up a tree." As he spoke, he reached for one of the torches ensconced on one of the nearby poles and cast another amused glance at the amorous Ewoks.
"C'mon, Princess. Let's go before these two give me any more ideas."