Chapter 4 - Keep Your Helmet On

Han jerked awake, gasping and spluttering into the dark. He sucked in mouthfuls of cool air at a time, desperately stretching his chest as much as he could. The sand that had seemed to drown him only moments ago had vanished, but the sensation that it had created left his chest feeling raw and his heart pounding so fast he was surprised it didn't just burst straight through his ribs.

"Gods." He whispered to himself. "Oh Gods… Kreth."

The darkness around him seemed to pulsate, shapes and damp colors swam before his eyes as he fought to keep his consciousness. He covered his face with his hands in a vain attempt to control his thoughts.

"This isn't real. This isn't… I'm dead. I'm dead. I dead. I died… I'm dead."

He let his head fall backwards hitting it against the surprisingly cold metallic floor. Wherever he was: hell, heaven, the afterlife, purgatory… at least it had a semblance of gravity and basic infrastructure.

His eyes had begun to adjust to the blackness and he held his hands away from his face to confirm that he could indeed still see. His hands were shaking violently, but as he fought to control them, he noticed that the gash on his hand from the Falcon had stopped bleeding. In fact, there was no evidence that there had ever been a cut at all. And speaking of the Falcon…

As he looked around at his shadowy surroundings he began to recognise where he was. He was on the floor of his cabin in the Falcon. Except… something was off. There were shadows of things around him that had never been there before. A dresser he didn't recognise, things taped to the walls. A mirror next to the door. A mirror that confirmed he was wearing nothing but a pair of boxers he had never seen before.

"What the…"

"Han, are you okay?"

The surprise Han felt at realising he was not alone was doubled when the speaker flicked on a dim lamp that sat on top of the dresser. He looked back at the speaker and felt his heart jump into his throat, almost making him choke for air once again.

"Oh my Gods. Did you fall out of bed?" Leia teased, grinning down at him from his bunk.

Han continued to stare, hardly daring to believe what he was seeing. She was there. In his bed. Laying on her stomach. Wearing nothing but an old T-shirt. His old T-shirt. Her hair. Her face. Her voice. Her breath. She was there. In his bed. In his bed.

Leia's face contorted into a frown.

"You're weirding me out flyboy. Say something or I'm gonna have to use a Force trick on you again. So… unless you want to spend an hour trying to figure out how to unstick your tongue from the roof of your mouth…"

"Is that a threat?" Han didn't know why he said it, but it was clearly the right response. Leia's face split into a smile. She reached over the side of the bed and reached out her hand to help him up.

"That's more like it. Come back, I'm getting cold."

Completely bewildered and unable to make sense of the situation, Han accepted her hand. He ignored the goosebumps that shot up his harm when he realised he could, in fact, touch her. He let Leia pull him into the bed beside her. She pressed her body against his, wrapping her arms around his waist and buried her head in his chest. Without thinking, Han put his arms around her shoulders and drew her closer to him, as the thoughts that had been racing through in his head suddenly went silent.

"So what happened? Did you have a bad dream or something?" She mumbled, sighing softly against his skin.

"Er… yeah. You could say that." Han replied, his heart racing at what felt like a thousand beats a second.

Leia lifted her head.

"You okay?"

"Uh… I'm not sure." Han replied honestly.

"What was the dream about?"

"I… I crashed the Falcon. I think. In a desert. It was… completely wrecked. The old man Kenobi was there."

"Obi-Wan? That's strange. You should tell Luke about it tomorrow. Might mean something if a Jedi is appearing to you in your dreams."

Luke. Luke was alive. Han's head started to pound.

"Um… yeah. Okay. " He replied shakily, uncertain how much more of this his mind could take. He'd always been extremely good at adapting to strange and bizarre circumstances but this… this was beyond nuts.

Leia rested her head on his chest again. "All right. Well, the Falcon's still here, you didn't crash it. We're all safe, and we'll be back home tomorrow. Now lets get some sleep before the kids wake up."

"The kids?" Han asked as steadily as he could, ignoring the nausea that was beginning to churn in the pit of his stomach.

"Yeah, Han. To be honest, I'm surprised they didn't wake up when they heard you fall out of the—"

"Mommy?" A small voice asked nervously from the doorway.

Leia swore under her breath. Han stayed as stiff as a board, hardly daring to move a muscle. Leia lifted her head up and looked past Han.

"Hi baby. What's the matter?"

There was a soft padding sound as the child approached the bed. Han clenched the covers around him tighter; trying to hold on to something tangible. Something real.

"I heard a scary noise." The little voice continued.

Leia laughed reassuringly. "That was just daddy falling out of the bed."

The small voice giggled. Amidst his absolute bewilderment and increasing terror at the situation Han still felt a pang of annoyance.

"That's silly." The little twerp replied. "Did you really fall out of the bed daddy?" A small hand touched Han's bare shoulder and Han felt all of the nerves in his body spasm with a mild shock. He snapped his head around. A little boy, no older than three, stood there, looking at him with enormous brown eyes. Han leaped out of the bed faster than he thought humanly possible, hit the wall, caught his toe on one of the slightly open dresser drawers and swore loudly. The kid stepped back in complete confusion and began to cry.

"Han!" Leia scolded, picking the bawling kid up off the ground and lifted him into the bed with her. "What in the name of—"

"Mommy? What's happening?" A second child came around the corner into the room. She was clutching a stuffed animal of some kind. She looked up at Han with the same big brown eyes as the boy.

"Daddy?"

Han made a guttural sound from deep in his stomach but remained speechless. He pressed his back against the wall and looked at the little girl with wild, panicked eyes. This was not real. Could not be real. The girl backed away from him, looking from him, to her her mother, and back to him again; a tentative fear beginning to cross her tired face.

"Come here Jaina." Leia called from the bed. The little girl hurried over and crawled up next to her still sobbing brother. "Han. What is going on." Leia demanded, her posture protective and her eyes wide with shock and anger.

Han froze. His breath caught in his chest. "I… I…" he stammered, unable to tear his eyes away from hers. The same deep brown eyes he'd known so many years ago. "I'm sorry." he finally managed as he stumbled out of the room, head swimming, mouth dry, ears ringing, heart pounding, and lights flashing before his eyes as if his whole body had been flung out of the ship as they'd hurled into light speed.