"My Mother"
By EsmeAmelia
Chapter 4
AN: Once again, thanks for the reviews! I'm amazed - I didn't think anyone would seriously like this story.
"All right, you can lie down here," Leia said to the woman as she sat her down on the bed that she shared with Han. "Just get some rest, you'll be fine."
The woman felt around the mattress she sat on until she located a pillow, which she immediately nestled her head on. "Thank you..." she said softly.
"No problem." Leia smiled at the woman, even though she knew the woman couldn't see her. "Believe me, I know that being carbon frozen isn't easy. My husband was once..." She stopped when she saw that the woman had fallen asleep.
Leia reached down and gently pulled a blanket over the woman's body, tucking her in with the tenderness of a mother tucking in her child. Whoever this woman was, there was something about her that felt so comforting. Leia ran her fingers through the woman's brown curls as she gazed at her slumbering face. Her face was so beautiful, and yet there was something sad about it. The face looked so familiar...
"What is going on here?"
Leia whipped her head up to find Han standing in the doorway, looking rather shocked to see a strange woman sleeping on his side of the bed. "Han, shh!" she hissed. "She needs her rest."
"She?" Han sneered without lowering his voice as he waved a finger at the bed. "Who the hell is she, and what is she doing in our bed - and on my side, no less?"
"Han!" Leia snapped in a fierce whisper. "You of all people should know that people need rest after being freed from carbonite."
"Yeah, and what a great rest I got on the cold, hard, unsanitary floor of the dungeon."
"Oh come on, Chewie said you slept like a baby."
"Well Chewie tends to exaggerate..." Han stopped in mid-sentence and his eyes suddenly widened, as though he was just now comprehending what Leia said. "...hold on a sec, did you say she was frozen in carbonite?"
"Something to that effect," said Leia. She walked up to the door and took her husband's hand. "Come on, I can explain out here." Before Han could protest, she led him out of the bedroom.
"...so let me get this straight. You found this woman frozen in carbonite in a room underneath the building site, and then you freed her and decided to take her home?"
Leia nodded.
"And you have no idea who she is?" Han continued.
Leia nodded again. "She wouldn't speak on the way home, but I'm sure she'll come around in time and tell us who she is."
Han still looked like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Um, no offence, but couldn't you have taken her to a hospital or something instead of dragging her home to steal my side of the bed?"
"Well...yes...probably..." Leia fumbled.
"Then why didn't you?"
Leia sighed. "I felt something. It was like..." She absentmindedly reached up to her braided hair and began twirling a loose strand around her finger. "...like she was meant to come here, like I was meant to find her."
"Oh, the Force told you that she was meant to steal my side of the bed?" Han rolled his eyes. "Do you think the Force would have minded terribly if you had put her on the sofa instead?"
Leia lowered her brows. "So you're more concerned about losing your side of the bed for one night than you are about this poor woman who was frozen for who knows how long?"
"Scoundrel's ways, ya know." Han briefly gave a cocky grin. "I ain't completely over 'em yet."
Leia considered giving Han a good slap in the face, but decided against it due to the fact that the racket he made afterward might wake up the woman. "Han," she said calmly, "it's all right for you to simply admit that the presence of someone else who was carbon frozen is making you uncomfortable."
Han didn't admit it per se, but he didn't give any wisecracks or outbursts either. He simply turned around and started walking away, which was enough to convince Leia that she had hit his nail right on the head, and hit it hard.
"Where are you going?" asked Leia.
"To set up the sofa," Han replied without looking back at her. "Looks like I'll be sleepin' there tonight."
Leia returned to the bedroom, where she sat down in a chair next to the bed. The woman had not woken or even changed her position, but her steady breathing showed Leia that she was recovering. She gazed again at the woman's face, which held so much mystique. She could feel that this woman had a secret, a secret that was relevant to her. What could it be? Leia was tempted to probe the woman's mind, but she would not invade the privacy of someone who was just freed from carbonite. She was confident that she would know this woman's secret soon enough. Soon enough, the reason for the strange connection she felt would be revealed.
