Han was starting to panic. He had returned from his latest mission about an hour ago, and had been expecting Leia to greet him on the loading docks.
And yet, an hour later, Leia - and their month old twins - were nowhere to be found. No one else seemed to have seen them recently, either.
And with all of the recent kidnapping attempts, one couldn't really blame Han for worrying.
He was getting ready to head back to their apartment to see if Leia had returned when he spotted a familiar white-blonde head in the crowd ahead of him.
"Winter!"
The woman turned around and looked relieved to see him. "Oh good, Han, you're here! Have you seen Leia and the twins?"
Han's face fell. "No, I was hoping you had."
Winter frowned. "Chewie and I have been looking all over for them. She'd said she was going to feed the babies, so we went into the other room. When we went back awhile later, she was gone."
Han must've looked really concerned, because a moment later, Winter was quickly assuring him, "She left a note. Said she was going for a stroll before she met you at the landing station."
"How do we know she wasn't forced to write that?" Han countered quickly.
"C'Baoth and Thrawn are both dead, and they're the ones that wanted her so badly," said Winter as though she was trying to convince herself, "And Chewie and I would've known if someone had come into the apartment."
Han frowned. That was almost certainly true. No kidnappers could've made it through the front door without running into Chewbacca, and it'd be obvious if someone broke in through a window. "Where have you looked?"
"Everywhere in this apartment building, the spaceport, and most of the shops in between. Chewie is walking around out here somewhere, too. I was on my way to the government building to see if she went there."
"Alright," said Han, "I'll come with you."
Winter nodded. "We can split up. I'll check the conference rooms and the war room. You go to the upper levels and check the office suites."
Han raced up the stairs and breathed a sigh of relief. The twins' double stroller was parked outside one of the doors down the hallway. He pulled out his comlink and sent a message to Winter telling her that he'd found them and she could stop looking.
He walked up to the door where the stroller was and glanced at the nameplate. His eyebrows shot up.
It read "Bail Organa, First Chairman and Viceroy of Alderaan."
At that point, Han considered walking away. He still didn't think that Leia had properly mourned for the loss of her home planet and its people, and maybe this was her private way of doing that.
In the end, he decided against it. If she was genuinely upset, she might need him.
He took a deep breath and entered the suite.
They weren't in the first room that he went into. The technology in the room was old, there were cobwebs in the corner, and Han could see dust floating up from the carpet with each step he took. He wondered vaguely why the room had been allowed to come to this state, having no occupant in nearly ten years.
Han gently opened the door to the adjoining room. His signature crooked smile appeared on his face as he took in the scene before him.
Leia was lying on the floor on her back with a twin on either side of her. They were directly underneath a Holo of Alderaan.
"Do you see that?" Leia was saying softly to the babies, who seemed to be totally captivated by the hologram and their mother's narrations of it. "Those are -were- the Castle Lands. The Killiks built them before any humans lived on Alderaan. I wonder if I can-" she paused, reaching out to touch the holographic mounds gently with one finger. It zoomed in on the castles, and Leia settled back onto the carpet between the twins. "See all the chambers inside? That's where the Killiks would lay their eggs. They put all of the colorful little pebbles around so that the babies have something nice to look at when they hatch."
Jaina cooed, and Leia turned to look at her. "Do you like that, Jaina? We can put some in your room, if you'd like. Then you and Jacen will have something nice to look at, if you ever wake up and Daddy and I aren't there."
The baby gurgled, and Leia laughed, stroking her cheek.
"Here," Leia said, sliding the Holo so that it showed the Alderaanian palace. "That's where Mommy grew up. Auntie Winter and I used to play in the orchards just there for hours and hours. And that's where your Granddad used to keep his Speeders." She laughed, "One time - and you two are never to do anything like this, understand? - one time, when I was seven, I took one of the Speeders and tried to race it around like I'd seen my dad and uncles doing. I crashed the thing right into my mother's garden. I've never seen her so angry in my life, although I think she was more angry at my father than at me. He's the one who left the key in the ignition, you see."
She paused a moment, and Han saw a sad sort of look cross her face.
"Your grandmother would've adored you," she said softly to the twins. "She always loved babies. She had six miscarriages before adopting me, you know. This sounds horrible, but in a way, I'm grateful. I don't know what would've happened to me if they hadn't taken me in. It's possible that they would've sent me to Tatooine with Uncle Luke. You know, I can't imagine separating the two of you. But I suppose if they hadn't separated us, everything would be different. I'd not have been a Princess, and probably wouldn't be involved with any of the Rebellions. I probably would've never met your Daddy, either, and then I wouldn't have you, my little prince and princess," she cooed to them.
Leia became silent and her eyes drifted shut, a little smile playing on her mouth as she recalled more fond memories of her home planet.
Han shifted his weight, causing the old board beneath him to creak, and in a split second Leia was on her feet between the twins and the door with her lightsaber pointed directly at Han's chest.
He put his hands up defensively.
"Oh my God, Han," she breathed. "You scared me half to death!" She quickly flicked her weapon off.
"Sorry," he said genuinely. "I didn't mean to startle you."
"What time is it? I wanted to meet you at the loading docks."
"I got back about an hour and a half ago. You shouldn't go sneaking off places," he scolded, "Winter and Chewie were looking all over for you."
"I really did just want to go for a walk," she said, biting her lip. "I just came across this place and wondered if it had been changed. And then I found the Holo, and I thought I'd just tell the twins about how it was before..." she let the rest of her sentence trail off; Han knew what she meant.
"Well," he said, plopping down on the ground beside Jacen. "I'd love to hear about it, too."
"Really?"
"Sure."
"Alright," she agreed after slight hesitation. She sat back down between the twins and started from the beginning, recalling to Han the history and legends of her little blue and green planet with a passion that made her eyes light up. And in that moment, Han knew that every single unfortunate circumstance that he'd suffered through over the past decade was completely worth it, because it had brought him to this precious moment with his beautiful little family.
