AN: For Sofie C., because she comments on everything I write and is so supportive. Thanks, friend.
If this seems familiar, it's because you just read the exact same thing one chapter ago. The only difference is this the original Fix-the-force-awakens AU before I made it an earth AU. So this is the exact same scenario with the exact same dialogue but it takes place in the Star Wars 'verse. This version somehow seems a little more feelsy and angsty to me.
Thanks to Reading Writing Watching for beta-ing. This is the version you read.
"I know what I need to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it. Will you help me?" She was right there, watching the scene unfold, her estranged husband on the left and her fallen son on the right. Anything, Ben. We'll do anything.
"Yes. Anything," Han answered. Ben extended his lightsaber towards Han and Han reached out to take it from him. Yes. I knew there was still good in him. Come home, Ben.
Suddenly, the red blade exploded from the hilt. Han's face contorted in pain even as he reached out and brushed his fingers over his son's face. Han started to fall and Leia suddenly realized that they were suspended thousands of meters in the air. She reached out to catch him, but missed by millimeters. She watched helplessly as the love of her life fell into the abyss below.
"Han! No!" The screams ripped through her lungs, but she couldn't stop them.
"Leia." Ben had a hold of her now, too, and was pushing her towards the great chasm.
"No!" She fought back but found her arms pinned to her sides.
"Leia." He repeated. He sounded so like his father. "Leia, sweetheart, open your eyes." It was a gentle command.
"Ben, what have you done?" She yelled, feeling tears stream down her cheeks.
"Leia, it's Han. Wake up, Leia." Han. The hands tightly gripping her at the shoulders weren't those of her son trying to force her of the edge, but Han's, trying to keep her from tumbling out of bed.
"Han?"
"I'm right here, sweetheart. Come on, you're gonna fall," he coaxed gently. She realized that they were perched on the foot of the bed. "That's it. It was just a nightmare." He soothed quietly. She looked into his weathered face. She was slightly relieved to find no pain or fear written there, just quiet concern.
"You're okay?" She asked quietly.
"I'm just fine." He assured her.
Han knew the drill. Even nearly forty years after her imprisonment and subsequent torture, she still had nightmares. He'd spent the last 35 years in bed beside her through every imaginable horror. They'd startled him considerably at the beginning, but eventually, he'd grown used to them. Whether she was able to wake herself or needed to be shaken back to reality, she would seek comfort in a warm and safe embrace.
Leia was looking at him with wide eyes, as if she wasn't sure he was real.
"I'm right here, sweetheart, and I'm not goin' anywhere." He promised her quietly, offering a hand to prove he was there in the flesh and not as a hologram. She took it cautiously and he tugged her back up to the head of the bed. Han guided her gently towards him until they were both stretched out together, chest to chest, sharing his pillow. His hand worked small circles into her back beneath her sleep gown.
Secure in the knowledge that he wasn't going to turn to dust before her eyes, she returned his embrace with one arm and brushed the fingers of her other hand over his chest. She found no gaping wound, no new pink scar. There was only the old mark near his collarbone from a cantina fight years and years ago.
"Is Ben okay?" She whispered.
"Ben? Ben who?" He asked.
"No, Ben our so—we don't have a son. We don't have any children at all." Torture on the Death Star had made it impossible for Leia to have her own children, not that the idea was particularly appealing after learning of her lineage.
"Well, we do have Poe." He reminded her. Poe Dameron. He was the son of Kes and Shara Dameron, both of whom had fought alongside Leia and Han. Kes was killed in action a few years after Endor and Shara went the same way five years later. Han and Leia had taken Poe in and raised him as their own ever since. Now, he was a military career man, a squadron commander for the New Republic, and he was as much their son as any natural child would have been.
"Han, where are we?" He was used to the disorientation, too. Leia's force sensitivity made her nightmares seem so real that she often couldn't differentiate dream from reality for several minutes.
"We're in our cabin on the Falcon, we're in hyperspace, and we're probably somewhere around the Hosnian system right about now. We're goin' to Ord Mantell with a shipment," he told her.
Leia remembered it all now. Han had resigned his commission shortly after the battle of Endor and had done a few different things over the years while she'd stayed in politics until her retirement two years ago. They had started a shipping company together. Now, they were doing what they always wanted to do: flying together, not worrying about being back in time for the Senate to resume. Spending a few days in hyperspace doing whatever they wanted to, whenever they wanted to...flying all over the galaxy, meeting real people that weren't trying to play angles or push agendas. Seeing her brother more than once every 8 months. Taking off for someplace romantic for a few days on a whim.
"You didn't leave me for a few years? We didn't have some big knock-down-drag-out fight that sent you packing?" She asked. Han chuckled.
"We've had some knock-down-drag-outs before, but I haven't ever started packing because of one of them. I don't think I could leave you if you wanted me to," he reassured her, squeezing her tight. He loved that they still fit perfectly together even though they'd both changed over the years.
Leia reached out in the force, feeling for her brother's presence. She had no trouble locating it. It was calm and peaceful and greeted her warmly.
Luke hadn't disappeared, and she didn't have a son who'd fallen to the dark side. Han hadn't left her and he hadn't fallen into an endless chasm.
She pushed a hand into his gray hair and pulled his lips to hers.
All was well.
