Chapter Three

Han raced into the medicenter's post-delivery unit with Leia close on his heels. As the hours of the trip to Naboo had stretched on, Leia had watched her husband becoming more and more anxious to get to his daughter and grandson's side. It was a good thing Chewie had gone home to Kashyyyk to spend a few weeks with his own family, or Han may have found himself with a gundark tranquilizer in his caf.

"Caia Solo," Han said to the droid at reception.

"Caia Solo Jarrid," Leia corrected. While Leia had taken Han's name almost immediately after their marriage, both to give herself some identity after a war in which all her previous identities had been taken away and to fire a warning shot toward the Alderaanian remnant (who nonetheless managed to cause her plenty of trouble about her marriage anyway), Caia had hung onto her family name. She'd reluctantly tagged on Dak's name only for convenience once the baby was on his way.

"Bay Fourteen," the droid replied. "She's about to be released."

Han and Leia hurried on as their children straggled in, having passed out, after an hours-long djarik tournament, in the bunk room Han built many years ago to accommodate the big family on long voyages. Only Jaina, who alternated with Leia as Han's co-pilot on these trips, seemed marginally awake.

Han peered through the window to Bay Fourteen and was met with a sight that made him smile wistfully. Caia was holding her son while both she and Dak looked down at the baby in gentle amazement. Han remembered those moments so well, when he and Leia looked down in wonderment at the new little humans they'd created. Now Caia and Dak had joined that tribe of awed, slightly intimidated, and completely unprepared people. Their little girl was a mother…

He reached for Leia's hand and entered the room. The reverie broken, Caia and Dak looked up from their son; Caia's smile lit up the room when she saw her parents.

"Dad, look at him! Isn't he perfect?" Caia said as Han enveloped her in an embrace, treading gently so as not to alarm the contented baby in her arms. Many years of experience with Leia and their own babies had taught him that maneuver.

Han leaned over and kissed his grandson softly. "He's beautiful, Little Princess."

Leia hugged Dak, then exchanged places with Han, embracing her daughter as Han reached out to his son-in-law. A knowing look crossed between mother and daughter as they saw the two men hug, with Han giving Dak a few congratulatory claps on the shoulder.

"I told you your father would come around," Leia whispered to Caia. "All it took was nine months of pregnancy and twenty hours of labor."

Caia laughed as Leia took a good look at her grandson. He was a beautiful baby, his skin a healthy pink and his little flower bud of a mouth pursing in his sleep. He waved a tiny hand and his mother gave him her pinky to cling to.

"You can tell he's Force-sensitive, right?" Caia asked.

Leia nodded. Yes, the baby was certainly Force-sensitive. Unlike Luke, who thought it wonderful whenever a Skywalker descendant was born Force-sensitive, Leia and Han felt that it was both a blessing and a curse.

"I was kind of hoping it was just a mother-child connection," Caia admitted. "And not the Force."

Leia's heart went out to her daughter. She knew exactly what Caia meant. Her own heart had leapt with joy when, pregnant with Jaina, she had realized that the baby she was carrying was not sensitive to the Force.

"He's perfect and he's healthy, and so are you, honey," Leia reminded Caia. "Everything else is for another day."

"I'm scared, Mom," Caia whispered.

"I'd be worried if you weren't," Leia replied, stroking her daughter's brown hair.

As Caia considered her mother's words, her rambunctious siblings made their inevitably noisy entrance into the ward. Bail had perked up, as he always did, at being around medics and healers. He walked straight over to Caia's bedside and inspected his nephew.

"Hey, Cai, he's not too wrinkled. Good pushing!"

"That's a bizarre way of saying congratulations, you know," she scowled.

"Oh, yeah, congrats, sis," Bail said as he surreptitiously picked up the datapad next to her bed that held the records of the labor and birth. Leia shook her head and removed the datapad from his hands. She knew he was obsessed with healing, but he really didn't need to read about how quickly his sister's cervix dilated.

Jaina and Jax then took their turns with the baby. Jaina declared him to be an acceptable addition to the Solo family while Jax, who by virtue of age and the trials of their early childhood was closest to Caia, acknowledged that the baby was almost as good looking as he was. Perfectly Solo responses, Leia thought as she looked at her family with exasperated affection. They would expect no less from each other than vaguely competitive banter.

"Dad, do you want to hold your grandson?" Caia held the baby out to Han, quickly giving a tiny nod to Dak. Leia was fairly sure she knew what was coming, but she was also certain that Han had no idea. So she shifted her position to get a better look at her husband. She wanted to remember his face at this moment.

"Sure!" said Han eagerly, leaning over Caia's bed. "Come here, little guy."

"Well, Dad, this is your grandson," Caia said as she handed the small bundle to her father. "Han Jarrid."

Han, the baby nestled in his practiced arms, froze mid-move. He looked from his smiling daughter to his son-in-law and then down at the baby. Leia saw his neck muscles working as he tried to swallow the lump in his throat. For her part, Leia hadn't even tried. She knew her own eyes were brimming over with tears, both because of what Caia and Dak's choice of their firstborn's name said to her and because even now, after so many years of knowing how much he was loved by his family, a little part of her husband would always be that orphaned boy who became quickly overwhelmed whenever anyone showed him that love so freely.

Han looked down at the baby in his arms, his grandson and his namesake. He was still trying to get a handle on all the emotions that had been flooding him for the past few days, but this moment put him over the top. His oldest thought enough of the job than he and Leia had done raising her to name her firstborn after him. He thought of all those years he and Leia had made it up as they went along, given that neither of them had a childhood anything like the one they had resolved to give their children, of all the time he spent wondering if he was being the father his Force-sensitive kids needed, given that he would never really be able to understand some of what they were going through. He'd relied on Leia a lot with that, just as she'd relied on him to have a bit of a better grasp on what was "normal" child behavior, since her own life had been so limned by duty from birth. Eventually, he'd decided that, with regard to his family and the Force, there was really only one thing he knew he could do: show up and love them, even when things didn't make a lot of sense. It was that simple. It was that difficult. And, apparently, he'd somehow done it right. As he felt the eyes of his wife, four children, son-in-law, and grandson upon him, he half laughed, half-choked back a sob as he realized how profoundly…relieved…he was. Relieved at the confirmation that he and Leia had done this ridiculously hard, painful, fun job right. Relieved that every time outsiders threatened to tear his family or his relationship with Leia apart, their dogged refusal to give up had made the Solo family unbreakable. Mostly, relieved that the risk they knew they were taking every time they had a child, and everything they'd given up to confront that risk and give their children an overabundance of love and security to see them through the perils of Force-sensitivity, had been worth it. In this, Han knew Leia's sacrifices had been far greater than his, and he was determined to make it up to her.

He looked at his wife and smiled through teary eyes. She, if no one else in the room, knew exactly what he was thinking.

"Do you think we would have named him anything else, Dad?" Caia said softly. "After everything you and Mom went through for us and with us – especially with me. I understand what that means more than ever now that I'm holding our son. If we had a girl, she was going to be Leia. If we had a boy, he was going to be Han."

She slipped out of the hospital cot as she saw a tear roll down her father's cheek, although he quickly tried to brush it away. Gathering both of her parents in a hug, she whispered, "I love you both so much."

"We love you too, Little Princess. We love all of you more than you can imagine," Han said quietly.

"Um…since we never even considered any other names…" Dak began, "don't tell my folks, ok?"

Leia laughed as she wiped her eyes. "Your secret's safe."

"But," said Jax as he joined the family embrace by putting an arm around his tiny mother, "Mom is going to have to wait for her namesake until me or Bail have a daughter, because having siblings named Han and Leia would just be weird, Cai."

"Agreed," she smiled as Bail and Jaina, rolling their teenage eyes, joined the family hug after Caia gave them the sharp look that she had inherited from her mother.

"My daughter could be a Leia, too," Jaina reminded them.

"Littlest Princess, you are not going to be a mother for a very, very long time," Han said. "I can't handle both my girls being completely grown up."

Jaina sighed. She'd hoped that with the new arrival, she could shed her status as baby of the family, but no luck there. On the plus side, she still had everyone but Bail wrapped around her finger.

Han noticed Dak standing a step or two away from the Solo family embrace. He reached out his free hand to his son-in-law. Dak eagerly accepted being dragged into the circle of Solos.

"It's not a family moment without the whole family," Han said has he transferred his grandson into his son-in-law's arms. "This little guy is going to be the best thing that ever happened to you, son. Enjoy it."

"Oh, man, Dad's choking up again," Bail groaned. "Dad, you're getting to be a sap in your old age."

"Maybe," Han allowed. "Maybe because I know how incredibly lucky I am." He caught Leia's eye. "And to think this all started out in a trash compactor…"