Rough Diamonds

(set in 17 ABY.)

"I – don't – wanna – go!"

Jaina Solo was an exceptionally cute eight-year-old, small and slim and pretty, but along with her mother's looks, she had also inherited a remarkable stubbornness. Han loved that about both of them, he really did, but there were definitely times when he wished that that particular trait were not quite that pronounced.

He sighed as his wife tried, once again, to cajole their daughter.

"But Jaina," Leia said. "It'll be fun. Remember how much you liked seeing the old machinery the last time?"

Jaina obstinately shook her head, chin tilted up, her rosy mouth making a stubborn line, her dark hair flying around her face. "Not this time."

"But everyone's going!" Jacen looked at his sister, trying to make her see reason.

Jaina just shook her head again. "Dad isn't."

"But sweetie – "

"Not going if Dad's not!" Jaina shouted, crossing her arms. It was an adult gesture, and one that Han swore she had picked up from her mother. There was no way that anything she got from him could look that adorable.

He was touched, despite himself. He had had to pull out of the planned outing today due to the fact that the Falcon was, again, throwing a fit and it needed to be back in shape before their flight back home – tomorrow. The trip was one they'd made before, about a year ago, to a derelict space cruiser from the Clone Wars era, in a stable orbit around Breduna. The cruiser had been transformed into a museum and offered breathtaking views of the nearby G'Densk nebula.

The two boys were rearing to go, Jacen because of the nebula, Anakin because of the exhibits of Clone Wars technology. Jaina had been eager, too, until Han had broken the news that he was not coming.

Han hunkered down in front of his daughter. "Sweetie, you'll enjoy it. I can't come, so you go and have enough fun for the two of us, okay?"

Jaina looked at him, tears still glistening in her eyes. "But Jacen and Anakin can do that," she reasoned, her tone pleading. "I wanna stay here with you!"

"But Daddy needs to fix the Falcon, honey," Leia broke in.

Jaina turned a teary face up at her mother. "I can help him fix it," she said. "I brought my multitool."

They were not going to convince her. Jaina was single-minded when she wanted something, and this was clearly not just a passing fancy, born from an impulse to throw a tantrum about something. She genuinely wanted to stay with him and the ship. Of course, she'd get in the way. At the very least, it would take him and Chewie a lot longer. At worst, she'd manage to press the wrong buttons or cross the wrong wires and it would take them even longer.

But maybe Jaina needed some time with her father. He hadn't been around that much lately, busy with one trader's meeting after the other, especially on Breduna.

Han quirked an eyebrow at Leia. She raised her eyebrows, surprised, and Han felt that odd surge of warmth that always wafted through him when she understood him without a word. He just shrugged and kept the same look on his face. She smiled. Then she nodded as if to say, "well, up to you."

"All right then, sweetie," Han said. "I'll make you a deal, okay?"

Jaina looked at him with the mixture of expectation and suspicion that she always wore when he – or one of the Rogues – offered her a deal.

"You can stay here with me," he said, "but it'll mean spending the whole day in the Falcon with me and Chewie. And we won't have time to play with you."

"That's all right," Jaina said quickly. "I'll help you guys."

Han grinned at her. "Right," he told her, offering his hand. "But no complaining when Jace and Anakin come back and tell you what a great time they had, 'kay?"

"'kay." Jaina placed her palm in his and he grasped it.

"It's a deal, then." He shook her hand and released it.

"You're gonna be so bored, Jaya," Jacen said. "But no complaining! Can we go now, Mom?"

Jaina stuck out her tongue at her brother, clearly in a much better mood. Leia hid a smile. "All right then," she said. "Are we ready? Anakin, where's your coat?"

"Don't need one," the boy said proudly.

"Yes you do, Junior," Han said, picking him up. "C'mon, let's go find it and latch a tractor beam onto it, yeah?"

Anakin giggled. It took a few more minutes, but then Leia shooed Jacen and Anakin out the door and Han and Jaina were left alone. He sent his daughter to change into the set of clothes that Leia had designated "Falcon wear", and Jaina returned in record time.

"Right then," Han said. "Got your multitool?"

She drew it out of her pocket and displayed it proudly.

He gave her a crooked grin, then grabbed her and set her up on his shoulders. Leia always insisted that the kids were too old for that now, but Han heard Jaina giggle in delight and knew that he'd keep doing it until his back gave out or they stopped enjoying it, whichever came first.

"C'mon then, Princess," he said, "let's get some repair fuel and go meet Chewie, yeah?"

"Mom says repair fuel is just jargon for whiskey!" Jaina crowed. "She says it makes you drunked."

Han tried not to laugh. He was pretty sure that his daughter had no idea what "jargon" even meant.

"Well, I'm not gonna get 'drunked'," he told her. "This is different repair fuel."

There was a moment's pause from Jaina while Han retrieved a flask of rubani juice and some food packets, making a point of showing them to her to prove that he really was innocent of any plots to use Leia's absence to get "drunked". He thought he'd convinced her, but after a few moments she asked ponderously, "Dad, what's 'innocent facade' mean?"

"Anger is of the Dark Side!" Jaina yelled as her father cursed a blue streak of Corellian curses. Thankfully, the girl didn't understand Corellian. Still, she evidently understood the gist of what Han was saying.

"Yeah, I'm not a Jedi!" Han shouted back, still upside down in the Falcon's main hold with his head in the wires. He squinted down into the semi-darkness and sighed. That was the third fuse gone. Something had gone really wrong with the alluvial dampers; there was far too much power going through this particular cable. He'd thought that fixing the portside degausser would be simple, but the Falcon had once again thrown him for a loop.

Of course, he might have expected it. Nothing in Han Solo's life was ever straightforward. He was still amazed by the ease with which he and Leia had managed to have three children. It should, by rights, have been a lot more complicated.

It had probably been one of those tricks that the universe liked playing on him. Lull him into a false sense of security, make him think that this, at least, had been easy, and then spring three Force-sensitive children on him. Two hyperactive twins, and a younger son who continually defied logic.

Han grinned to himself. Complicated and difficult they might be, but he loved his kids more than anything. In a way, it made him understand how Leia managed to love him.

"Dad!" Jaina yelled. "Computer says the subsystem's going to crash!"

Han slapped a mental restraining bolt on his mouth before the next string of curses could escape. "Reset it!" he called, before realising that he was talking to his eight-year-old daughter and not Chewbacca. Chewie was still outside on the Falcon's hull, mending the problem from the outside while Han sorted out the wiring.

Before he could cancel his order to Jaina and crawl up to do it himself, the bouncing patter of small feet came closer again, and Jaina's excited voice reached him.

"Done!" she said, and the pride was obvious. "Running fine again. As long as you don't trip another fuse."

Han righted himself and gave his girl a proud grin. "Well done." She would object to being called a "clever girl", he knew. Jaina Solo didn't like being treated like a kid.

He gestured at the device she was holding out to him. It was small, square, and had two severed wires dangling from it. "What's that?"

"Fuse," Jaina said, all business. "To replace the one you blew."

"I didn't blow it!" he exclaimed. "It was – " But he clamped down on the argument that had become second nature to him. This wasn't Chewie, it wasn't even Leia, it was his little girl and he didn't need to defend himself. "Never mind," he said. "Where'd you get it?"

She rolled her eyes. "Spare parts locker, where else?"

"Of course, where else?" he echoed. "Sorry, had to ask. It's become a habit ever since Lando used a cable from the navicomputer to replace the one on the microwave."

Jaina giggled. "Not good!"

"No," Han said. "Not good at all, considering that we had to get out of that system in a hurry and the navicomp wouldn't work. Chewie had to dismantle the microwave in record time."

Jaina laughed. "Bet he didn't like that."

Han shook his head. "No. Lando didn't, either, after Chewie was through with him." He chuckled at the memory, then turned on the light and prepared to dive back into the hold.

As he worked, soldering the new fuse in place, Jaina began to sing to herself. Han tried to be as quiet as possible in order to hear her. Jaina always got embarrassed if it got obvious that someone was listening to her; he'd learned that it was best not to even mention it afterwards if he wanted her to do it again, and he always enjoyed hearing her sing. He was getting soft and he knew it, but funnily enough, that thought didn't seem to merit contempt anymore.