Once he'd seen them safely into hyperspace, heading back to Hoth, Chewbacca went to check on Han where he sat vigil beside Leia's medbunk.
The human briefly nodded to the Wookiee before his eyes went back to the unconscious princess, too lost in his thoughts for conversation.
While Han had always known this mission was a bad idea, had vocally and repeatedly protested against going to Ord Mantell, he never would have imagined that he would be the one to put Leia's life at risk — his reckless choices, both in the present and the past.
His breath had been caught in his throat for the entirety of her mediscan, and even though it revealed nothing beyond her deep but innocuous scalp wound — which had been sealed shut and disinfected with bacta — it still hadn't provided Han with any relief.
Because although the blaster was set to STUN this time, it didn't change the fact that next time it may not be. That there would, in fact, be a next time. As surely as he was sitting there.
It was an inevitability; he could see that now, had no choice but to see it. If not Fett, someone would come after her again, use her as bait to get to him. And that was without even touching upon the risks of mere proximity.
Chewbacca's soft growl broke Han from his rumination. [We're leaving], the Wookiee stated knowingly, not a question, already sensing his captain had made up his mind.
"I have to," Han quietly confirmed, his first words spoken to anyone since instructing Chewbacca to fly the ship while he tended to Leia in the Falcon's medbay.
It had worried Chewbacca then, and continued to worry him now. Not the princess's safety – male or female, royal or pauper, he'd never encountered a human as resilient as she. No, what concerned him was Han's broken state. [Little Princess is strong], he encouraged. [She'll pull through.]
"She will," Han nodded, and that certainty incited at least a slight upward twitch of his mouth that could have become his trademark half grin were it not for the weight of his guilt bearing down on him. "But it's not just this," he said, indicating her prone body. "They know, Chewie," he revealed with the closest to hysteria the Wookiee had ever witnessed from him. "Gods, I was stupid. Fuckin' careless." He dropped his elbows forward onto his knees, his fingers clenching in his hair as forehead met palms with enough force to make an audible thunk. "What I was thinkin'?!" he raged, caught in a spiral of agitation and self-reproach.
[What do 'they know', Cub?], Chewbacca asked, speaking slowly, soothingly, in an effort to calm him.
Han looked up, but with eyes too ashamed to hold his for long. "She is your weakness, that's what Fett said. And apparently everyone knows it. But why wouldn't they? Kest, it's not like I was very good at hidin' it."
With that, something seemed to explode inside Han, and Chewbacca watched — stunned, even at his two hundred-plus years — as Han flung himself to his feet, letting forth a string of curses. "Shit, skrag, mother karkin' son of a Sith! FUCK!" He kicked his chair across the medbay with all the violence he wished he could have directed at Fett but he knew belonged levelled squarely at himself. "That won't be the last or only hunter that has Leia in their crosshairs. They'll use her to get to me; she'll never be safe. And she can't — " Han's voice broke and he turned away, clearing his throat before continuing. "She can't be in that kind of danger."
[She already has an Imperial bounty on her,] Chewbacca reminded him, well-aware that his friend had never once forgotten but pointing out the illogic in thinking he could prevent her life from being in jeopardy.
Still, Han shook his head resolutely. "This is different."
Chewbacca grunted his understanding. Many a time, he'd deliberated along these same lines about his own family. Both his conclusions there, and his knowledge of Leia, led him to utter, [Little Princess would rather live with the danger than see you go.]
Han spun back around. "Well, she ain't gonna die with the danger. Jabba's even more of a worm-brained stoopa than I knew if he thinks I'm gonna let that happen. I won't be the cause of her gettin' captured, tortured again, worse. Dead. It won't — it can't be because of me. Because of somethin' stupid I did. Because of my mistakes. Because of my no-good past," he fumed, pounding his chest for emphasis each time he indicted himself, knowing he deserved the sting of the blows and much more besides. "That's not gonna be on her. I won't let it be."
His shoulders flagged at the unpalatability of the decision he'd come to, but he only allowed it for the tiniest second before he corrected them, took a deep breath and added with gutted determination, "Even if she hates me."
"I know," he warned off Chewie a moment later when the Wook opened his mouth to speak. "I know there ain't no 'if'; she is gonna hate me…But she'll be hatin' me alive."
Han turned on his heel and left the medbay with one last request, spoken so softly Chewbacca had to strain to hear him: "Don't tell anyone how you found us."
