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December 1928
The first heavy snowfall of winter had blanketed the city in white, glistening along the buildings and along the edges of the sidewalks. Leia made her way down State street to Marshall Fields to begin her Christmas shopping. As she walked into the lobby of the department store, Winter was already waiting for her, her blonde hair tucked under a woolen hat, her heavy coat unbuttoned over her dress in the warmth of the store. The two girls made their way towards the racks of clothing in the women's department. Leia tried her best to focus on shopping, pushing the thought of Han aside as she tried to remember all who she needed to purchase gifts for this year.
"He hasn't tried to call you?" Winter asked as she browsed through a rack of dresses.
"I swore I've heard the phone ring late at night, but father was still up in his office. There's no way I could have answered, I was probably imagining things anyways" Leia replied, a sadness in her voice.
Studying a dress, Winter shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe you should try to find him?"
"I don't know where he lives or even his last name! I sound so silly, pining over a man who I only spent a few hours with!"
"You clearly like him, Leia. I've never seen you so mopey before" Winter pointed out. "I practically had to beg you to come out with me today. You normally love Christmas shopping".
"What about that fellow you were with?" Leia asked, trying to get her friend to change the subject.
"His name was Chewie!" Winter giggled. "He was a good dancer, but he's not my type".
Leia let out a long sigh. Maybe she should just let the thought of Han go. He hadn't called in weeks, probably forgetting all about her by now. She was just another girl he met at a party, why should she think she was anything special to him? She couldn't help to think that she had felt something between them that night though. If he was only looking for an easy one night fling, he had the chance to put a move on her, but he hadn't. Every bit of a gentleman the whole evening, he had looked out for her, whisking her away to safety when the warehouse was raided, protecting her from trouble.
Han had paid off Jabba, keeping the crime boss off his back for the time being. He'd run a few more small jobs for the Hutts, always making it a point to go inside to look around the speakeasies he was delivering to in hope Leia would somehow be in attendance. Each time, he left more disappointed that she was not there. He wasn't sure why he hadn't tried to call her. He desperately wanted to. Each time he picked up the phone in Fiona's hallway late at night, his nerves got the best of him, setting it back down before he gave himself a chance to dial any of the numbers he had already committed to memory long before the ink had faded from his palm.
Starting the Falcon was a chore that morning, each try ending in the old engine sputtering out before dying completely. After the snowfall, the city fell into a deep freeze, the air biting cold as winter fully took hold.
"Come on old girl, don't fail me now" Han muttered as he turned the key in one last attempt to start the old Ford, the engine stumbling over itself before finally roaring to life.
Picking up Chewie, the two drove down the street, the snow covered yards of homes whizzing past them as Han navigated through the neighborhood.
"Any news from Lando?" Han asked, hoping Chewie had some good news from him. He was running low on money after paying back his debt to Jabba and needed a distraction from his ever consuming thoughts of Leia. Rent was coming due and he was not only low on funds, but on excuses to use on Fiona. He knew she really needed it this time of year, the house was still cold and Christmas was coming.
"Nothing. Mayor Organa's really cracking down. Four truckloads got busted last night. Border is swarming with cops and the river's frozen over. Looks like it's gonna be a slim holiday for us this year" Chewie replied as he lit a cigarette, the smoke curling slowly in the air as he took a long drag.
Han groaned as he gripped the steering wheel, working his frustration out on the leather before pounding his fist against it.
"Goddamn it".
Chewie glanced over Han, his brow furrowed as he took the truck around a corner a bit too quickly. Skidding slightly on the icy pavement, Han quickly corrected the Falcon as Chewie grabbed hold of the dash to keep from sliding out of his seat.
"You know, maybe if you called her, you wouldn't be in such a mood".
"It's not her. It's all of this. The mayor. No work, the fact I'm already freezing my ass off and winter has just started" Han snapped back.
"It's her".
"Will you just shut it, fuzzball?"
"How about we go see a picture show? At least it's warm there" Chewie suggested, hoping that a few hours in a darkened theater would at least distract, if not clear, Han's mind some.
Han shifted in his seat as the newsreels began, the theater growing dark as the film began to roll. He didn't follow the news much, the word he picked up on streets was more valuable to him than any information a broadcast could give him.
A booming announcer's voice began along with the footage. "Has Mayor Organa finally succeeded in cracking down on the flood of illegal liquor? Seems he's got plenty to celebrate this holiday season as crime rates in Chicago fell in the past month, multiple busts by the boys in blue stopping the Hutts right in their tracks! Seen here with his wife and daughter, the Mayor was all smiles as the Organa family attended the annual Christmas tree ceremony in the downtown plaza!"
Footage of a decorated tree came into focus, the Mayor grinning in front of it as he cut a large ribbon, his wife standing beside him. Han shot up in his seat when he noticed Leia, standing behind them in the footage in long winter coat trimmed in fur clapping politely. He could hardly believe what he was seeing. The girl that had been in his thoughts for weeks, the one that made his nervous just at the thought of calling her, the one who so gracefully inked her number onto his hand. "Leia Organa, I'll be damned" he muttered to himself. "Daughter of the mayor who thinks the likes of me and Chewie as some rebellious scum polluting his city".
Han had barely paid attention to the feature, some Buster Keaton comedy that had Chewie laughing like a hyena next to him at every slapstick fall. Han kept thinking of Leia, the footage he had just seen of her playing over and over in his mind. She looked different in the newsreel, gone was the carefree smile she had the night she was with him, replaced with a stoic expression. Her eyes seemed distant, although she was exhibiting polite social graces in public, her mind seemed to be anywhere but there. He wondered what she could had been thinking about or if he was just reading too much into it and she was just bored, having probably attended the same ceremony since she was a young girl.
Shutting the front door behind him as he returned home, Han started to make his way up the stairs. Still in a less than stellar mood, all he wanted was to do was get into bed and fall asleep. He wished Chewie had never made him go to the pictures with him. If longing for Leia was bad enough, it was now worse knowing that if he had any chance with her, if her father found about them, he would put a stop to it immediately. Men like him didn't date girls like Leia. She was wealthy, educated and had a future ahead of her. Han had nothing to his name other than his rusty Ford, a criminal record and a handful of loose change in his pockets. There was no way a scoundrel like him and a Princess like her could ever feasibly be together.
Holding a basket of laundry, Fiona turned into the hall. She had barely seen Han of late, always missing him by a couple of seconds as his long legs took him directly upstairs to his room, his bedroom door slamming shut behind him until he left the house again without so much as a goodbye to her.
"Han! What's wrong with you lad?" Fiona called out to his disappearing figure at the top of the staircase as she rested the basket against her hip.
Stopping on the stairs, Han turned, the wood creaking under him as he paused, taking a few steps down to come into her view. "Hi Fiona. Nothing. Just had a long day".
"From the looks of ya, you've had a long couple of weeks, always comin' back here and heading right up to bed".
"I'm fine. Just tired".
"You've got a girl on ya mind?" Fiona chuckled as set the laundry basket down and took a long look at Han. He looked every bit of a forlorn man who was hopelessly in love and without a clue what to do about it.
Han couldn't take it anymore. He was miserable without Leia, finally admitting to himself he needed to stop being a coward about the whole situation. Just because she was the Mayor's daughter didn't change how he felt about her. The girl he had met that night in the speakeasy was just Leia, no status, no political connections, just a girl that made him smile when her deep brown eyes met his and his heart skip a beat when she laughed.
"Yeah, Fiona, it's a girl" he admitted.
"Is she a good girl? Not one of those molls you picked up at some juice joint?"
"No. She's…." He trailed off. How would he even begin to describe Leia?
Fiona smiled. She had never seen Han like this before and it reminded her of Mr. Doyle at the beginning of their courtship. Too cocky and stubborn to admit his feelings, yet being torn up inside over it all.
"If she's got you this scuffed up over her, she's clearly something special. Stop being so daft" Fiona chided as she bent down and picked up the laundry basket again. "Go find her before you break her heart".
Shifting the Falcon into gear, Han rumbled down the street, making his way northward towards Leia's neighborhood. If he couldn't work up the nerve to call her and hadn't run into her in his familiar haunts, maybe he would have some luck in running into her in hers. He half remembered the directions she had given him that night to her street. After a half dozen wrong turns and a couple of curses, he parked his truck outside of the large Victorian home that he had asked was hers the night he had dropped her off. Sitting back in his seat, he wondered to himself what the hell he was actually doing. He didn't even know which house was hers, only that she lived on that particular block. It was growing dark, the gas street lamps flickering on, casting long shadows over the snow covered yards. Fiona was right. He would forever live with regret if he never saw her again. He hopped from the Falcon, shoving his hands deep into his pockets as he began up the street. The frozen snow crunched under his boots as he looked at each of the homes on the block as he passed them. None of them seemed right, although he wasn't exactly sure what he should be picturing for the Mayor's home.
The second to last home on the block was a stately red brick two story. A circular driveway arched thru the snow covered front yard. A wide front porch wrapped around the front of the house. The railing was draped in Christmas greenery, gently swagged and adorned with red bows. The front door was decorated with a large wreath with a Chicago flag hanging in the center of it. The home looked as though it belonged on the front of a holiday card, a picturesque house that Han suddenly had a good feeling about. Cutting thru the side yard, the snow was deep as he trudged through it and looked up towards the second story. A single window was lit up, partly hidden by the bare branches of a large oak tree. I better have a little Solo luck with this he thought to himself.
Picking up a small piece of ice from the ground, he tossed in his gloved hand a few times, eying the single illuminated window as he lined up his shot. Tossing the pebble of ice, it hit the glass with a sharp clink as Han stepped back in the snow waiting to see if there was any movement behind the curtains. Nothing. He reached down to the ground, quickly finding another small chunk of ice and tried again, this time hitting the window pane squarely in the center. A shadow moved across the window, the corner of the curtain shifting as it was pulled back. Han held his breath, hoping to himself he hadn't gotten this wrong, his body already prepared to run like hell in case it wasn't the correct house.
Peering out her bedroom window, Leia noticed Han below standing in the side yard, the snow well past his ankles. She fumbled with the window latch as she opened the window a crack.
"Han! What are you doing here?" Trying to keep her voice low, her parents were awake inside, chatting together over coffee and dessert in the lounge. Han couldn't have chosen a worse time to show up.
Taking a few steps forward in the snow, Han looked up at her.
"Came to see you, Princess".
"Why didn't you call me like I told you to? Instead you're tossing rocks at my window?"
"How about you come down here and we'll talk?"
"I can't right now".
"Oh. Okay". He began to turn in the snow, his shoulders slumping, realizing what an idiot he had been thinking showing up unannounced, wandering through stranger's yards in hopes of finding Leia.
"Han, wait! Give me a minute. I'll meet you at the corner".
Han stopped, turning back around at her voice, completely elated that she somehow was going to make this work. Smiling, he raised his hand, pointing in the direction of the end of the block in which the Falcon was parked. She nodded back, shutting the window and drawing the curtains closed behind her.
Chewie had left a half finished pack of cigarettes on the truck's dash. Han was more than nervous while he waited for her, lighting one and taking a long drag. He watched the darkened street for any sight of her, the minutes seemingly growing longer and longer as he waited.
Flicking the spent butt out the cracked window, Han finally was relieved as Leia pulled open the Falcon's passenger side door, her small body hopping up into the truck.
"How'd you manage to sneak out?" he inquired, impressed that Leia could slip out so easily.
"Told my father Winter wanted to do some last minute shopping".
The two sat in silence for a moment, not exactly sure what to say to one another. Han was slightly in disbelief still that he was even seeing her again. Despite being wrapped in a long coat and a thick scarf, she looked every bit as beautiful as he remembered her from the night he had met her. Her hair was pinned in a circle of braids, a few loose strands falling gracefully around her face, her cheeks slightly pink from the cold air.
"How come you didn't call me?" Leia asked, turning slighting in the seat to confront Han.
"I wanted to. Every time I went near the phone, I wondered how many times I would have to try before you actually picked up".
"So you never even tried?" Her tone was less than friendly now, her eyes hiding the hurt she felt from his admission.
"What would I have said to you, huh? Tell the mayor you're going out a couple of hours with some guy you met down on the south side in a speakeasy?"
"How did you know who my father was?"
"I saw you in a newsreel. How come you didn't tell me?"
"Who my father is doesn't change anything".
Han scoffed to himself. "I don't know, Leia" he said as he pointed at her and then himself. "You think your old man would be okay with this?"
Leia crossed her arms and looked back at Han. "Did you come all the way up here just to throw rocks at my window to get me out of my house to be a jerk to me?"
It couldn't had been further from Han's actual intentions, but he realized he had been curt with her, his arrogant nature getting the best of him for a moment.
"No. I haven't been able to get your from my mind since that night I met you".
Leia wasn't quite sure what to say back to him. He was cocky, a little full of himself and rough around the edges. She had never met anyone like Han before. The men she had dated before him always picked her up properly, greeting her father at the door before taking her out to expensive dinners or to the pictures. They drove new cars and wore European suits and while they were nice to her, she found them boring. She had never lost herself in thought over them the way she had with Han. Never pined over them or missed their touch the way she had missed Han's work worn fingers around hers.
Taking her hand, he began rubbing his fingers against her palm, holding it close to his chest against his coat.
Leia could hardly believe they had gone from disagreeing with one another to suddenly him embracing her hand. Her stomach fluttered as she looked at him. "My hands are dirty" she stammered.
"Dirty?" Han asked, a confused look crossing his face.
Leia sighed. "I lied. I didn't tell Father I was going out. I climbed down the tree outside my window".
Han gave her a lopsided grin. "My hands are dirty too. What are you so afraid of?"
Leia could list off a million reasons why, her mind racing as Han's fingers continued to work against her small hand. She didn't want him to stop, his touch against her sending electricity through her.
"Afraid?" she scoffed.
"You're trembling" Han remarked.
Leia hoped he wouldn't have noticed, attributing her subtle shaking to the cold rather than her nerves. "I'm not trembling" she lied as she shook her head.
Han shifted his own seat, moving closer to her. "You like me because I'm a scoundrel. There aren't enough scoundrels in your life".
"I happen to like nice men".
"I'm nice men" Han whispered to her, the tip of his nose brushing against hers.
"No, you're not...You're…" she began to protest before her words disappeared.
Han pressed his lips against hers, half expecting her to pull away from him. Instead, she kissed him back, her eyelashes fluttering shut as pressed her lips against his. The kiss deepened between them, the world around them standing still for a moment as they met together.
The sound of a car rumbling past broke them apart. A gold colored Cadillac sped past them, slowing slightly as it reached the end of the block. Leia sat back in her seat from Han as her fingers left his. She watched the car's brake lights disappear as it turned into the driveway in front of her house.
"I have to go" she exclaimed. In a blink of an eye, her hand was already on the door handle of the truck.
Han reached across the Falcon for her other arm, resting his hand against her coat sleeve. "Why, sweetheart?" he asked, causing Leia to look back over her shoulder at him.
"That car. It's one of my Father's friends. I need to get back home".
Leia turned back, giving him a small chaste kiss against his cheek before opening the door and stepping down onto the slushy pavement.
Han looked at her standing in the cold, her hand resting against the open door frame. "When am I going to see you again?"
Leia glanced down the street and then back at Han. "I don't know. Call me?" she replied impatiently. She knew at any moment, her mother would be knocking at her bedroom door looking for her, a world of trouble coming to her if she was not there to answer.
"I will. I promise" Han assured her, truly meaning every word.
She smiled at him before closing the Falcon's door, the metal creaking in the cold. Jumping over a mound of snow, Leia hurried down the street towards her house, disappearing into the darkness.
Leia had managed to sneak back into her room in the nick of time, pulling off her coat and scarf and tossing them into her closet just as her mother knocked at her bedroom door. Smoothing out her skirt, she took a deep breath as she opened her bedroom door, hoping she did not look questionable in any way.
"Leia, will you be joining us downstairs?"
"Of course, mother".
Chief Peter Oberholtzer was one of Mayor Organa's closest friends and most trusted allies in his fight against organized crime and illegal liquor in the city. He was a thin man with golden blonde hair that was combed neatly away from his face into a stiff style. He was always put together, his suits always pressed and Leia always thought of him as a little too full of himself. He was stuffy, always walking with perfect posture and to her, came off as a bit of a know it all.
Leia entered into the lounge, politely greeting Chief Oberholtzer as a maid served the group tea and Leia took a seat near the fireplace in a comfortable chair. Her father and the police chief were already deep in conversation. Leia took a sip of her tea, the warmth of the liquid welcoming after sitting outside in the cold in Han's unheated truck.
"The Hutts are finding new ways to smuggle liquor in. We thought we had a leg up on them but they're clever".
"What do you mean, Chief?" Bail questioned his friend.
"They've got bootleggers all over the city. They're still running the hooch somehow, even though we've been stopping it by the truck full at the border. We think they might have hidden it in the city somehow before winter set in. We have gotten some information on one of Jabba's most trusted runners, a man by the name of Han Solo".
Leia almost choked on her tea, quickly hiding it with a small fake cough as Bail glanced in her direction from the corner of his eye, wondering what could have caused his normally polite daughter to make such a noise in the company of guests.
Bail sat back in his chair and rested his hand against his temple, his fingers working in small circles. "Why can't these young men just be good upstanding citizens? There's plenty of work in the mills, the slaughterhouses, even opportunities for education if they wanted them".
"They live young and fast. They might have the skills and the smarts, but they want to make quick money, not an honest living" the Chief explained to the Mayor.
"So this Solo fellow? What makes him so important?"
"Not quite sure yet. We did find that he supplied a large amount to speakeasy a few weeks ago that got raided down in Bridgeport. Couple of guys we picked up there that night gave us his name in a bargain to lessen their charges" The Chief took a sip of his own tea as Bail processed the information about Han.
Leia listened intently to the conversation, keeping her eyes focused on her cup of tea to not draw any further attention to herself. If only her father knew that Winter and her had been in attendance that evening at the very speakeasy they were currently talking about. Leia began replaying the events of the evening in her mind, recalling how much sense it now all made that Han had wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible, why he had pulled her through the crowded dance floor and had the knowledge of the back stairwell. Han was no mechanic as she had assumed, he was a smuggler, a scoundrel in every sense of the word. Yet, her opinion of him did not change, much as his did not when he found out she was the Mayor's daughter.
The Organas had long retired to bed, the large house now quiet as snow began to fall outside. Leia sat at her window, looking down into the yard at the tracks that Han had left earlier slowly becoming covered with a fresh layer of white powder. She couldn't help to think about them sitting together in his truck, the way his fingers held hers, the way his wool coat and newsboy cap smelled like a mixture of cigarette smoke and engine grease. The way he had pressed his lips against hers, their kiss and how she so longed for another from him.
The ring of a phone from the hallway jolted Leia from her thoughts. Quickly standing from the windowsill, she pulled her robe tight around her nightgown as she made her way to the phone. Picking up the receiver, she quietly answered, her eyes darting up and down the hallway looking for any indication that the noise had woken her parents. The hall remained dark and silent.
"Hello?" she whispered.
"Leia?" Han's voice replied through the crackly transmission.
"Han!"
"How's my Princess?"
She smiled at his nickname for her. "I'm fine, thank you. You actually called".
"I promised you I would".
Her and Han chatted for a few minutes until Leia saw a light come on from her parents room, the pale yellow glow seeping underneath the door into the dark hallway.
"Han, I have to go" she whispered.
"When can I see you again?" he quickly asked, noting the urgency in her voice.
"Tomorrow evening?" she suggested, remembering that her parents would be attending a holiday party and would be gone well into the night. "Meet me at the corner".
"Goodnight, princess".
Leia set the earpiece back onto the phone before tip toeing back to her bedroom, easing her door shut quietly. As she climbed into her bed, pulling her heavy quilt over her, she couldn't help to smile to herself. She would be seeing Han again, despite the information she had overheard about him tonight, she still was giddy with the idea of her handsome scoundrel and their blossoming secret affair.
The next evening, Mayor Organa and his wife had left for the holiday party just as Leia had expected they would. She watched her father's car leave the driveway from the front window before rushing upstairs to ready herself to meet Han. She chose to wear a plain dark blue dress over black stockings, nothing flashy, if anything an outfit just as simple as she had chosen to wear to the speakeasy. Finishing the last few plates of her braid, she went to wrap the long strand around her head as she normally would. Pausing, she deciding to let the braid hang down over her shoulder. Wherever they were going, she didn't want to look like Leia Organa the Mayor's daughter. She wanted to look like just Leia. Pulling her coat over her, she fastened the buttons before leaving her house and making her way down the block towards the Falcon, parked in front the large Victorian home in which was quickly becoming her and Han's normal meeting spot.
Hopping into the truck, she smiled at Han. He leaned over to her, kissing her a few times before starting the old Ford.
"You look beautiful, Princess" he remarked.
"Where do you want to go?" She hadn't really thought of what exactly they could do together. Anywhere near her neighborhood, she was bound to run into someone who knew who her and would most definitely question her on who Han was.
"Are you hungry?"
"A little bit, yes" she replied.
Han knew he couldn't afford to take her to any restaurant downtown that Leia was accustomed to dining at. The only money he had at the moment was a few dollars in his coat pocket. He hardly cared he would be spending the last of it on her, wishing he had more to take her somewhere nicer, but also knew it would not be wise to be seen with her in any place she might be recognized.
Parking the Falcon outside of a small luncheonette on the south side, snow had begun to fall again, big fluffy flakes twirling through the air as they made their way into the building. Sitting at a table in the back corner, a waitress brought them coffee before taking their orders. Han let Leia order first, both out of politeness and so he could mentally calculate the total before ordering himself, having just enough in his pocket to cover the two of them. He needed some work from Jabba desperately, thinking to himself he'd need to contact Lando in the morning to see if any of the heat has died down on the Hutts.
Taking a spoonful of her soup, Leia looked across the table at Han who was taking massive bite of a corned beef sandwich. Clearly lacking any proper table manner training, Leia couldn't help to giggle to herself. Even while practically unhinging his own jaw, she still found him handsome.
"You are a scoundrel aren't you?"
"What do you mean?" He asked as he finished chewing.
Leia just smiled at him. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course, Princess, anything".
"That gold Cadillac that passed us last night. It belongs to the Chief of Police, one of my father's most trusted friends" Leia began, not exactly sure how to approach the subject with Han. She already knew what Han was involved in, but wanted to hear it from him directly, a test of him of sorts. While she already had fallen for him, she needed to know that she could trust him with her heart.
"So?" He asked, taking a sip of his coffee.
"Are you Han Solo?"
Han froze for a moment, piecing together that whatever Leia was getting at was not good. If she had heard something about him from either of her father or the police, it was most likely something negative and caused a slight panic from him of why his name was even brought up in the first place between the two men. Hoping that telling her the truth would not cause her to feel differently about him, he swallowed, his throat suddenly dry as his voice cracked a bit.
"Yeah, my name is Han Solo".
Leia's dark brown eyes looked at him in silence for a moment, Han unable to read her expression from across the table, wondering what she could possibly thinking now that she knew who he really was.
"When the Chief was at my house last night, my father and him were talking. He said a few of the people they busted at the raid gave up your name in exchange for lesser charges".
"Shit" Han muttered. He hadn't heard that bit of news from anyone he knew yet, it coming as a surprise that any of Hutt's men had ratted him out to try and save themselves. Jabba didn't like squealers, he knew how the portly man usually dealt with anyone who was anything but tight lipped about his operations.
"What exactly do you do, Han?"
"Why do you want to know? You want to rat me out to your dad and his cops?" He was suddenly wary of her, all of this, her and him seemed too good to be true, his mind jumping to that it might be a trap. He could never be too careful, only Chewie, Lando and the Hutts knew exactly what he really did for money.
Reaching across the table, she rested her hand against the top of his and gave him a gentle smile. "No. I just want to know the real you. You know who I am and I want to hear it from you, not just from some conversation".
"I'm a smuggler, Leia" he confessed, his voice near a whisper despite the diner being almost empty. "I'm exactly what your old man thinks is the cause of every one of Chicago's problems".
"I don't agree with all of my father's politics. I like you, Han. What you do doesn't matter to me".
Wrapping his fingers through hers, he felt any of his earlier discomfort and doubts about Leia slipping away. He had never felt the way he felt about anyone before, how she just unconditionally accepted him despite all of the odds stacked against them. He never wanted to let her go. Everything else be damned, he loved her from that very moment on.
To be continued...