Han Solo laid completely still in Leia's lap as he slept, unaware and unconscious from the torture he endured. She combed her fingers through his hair and smiled sadly at the man. It broke her heart as she remembered the melancholy on his face, "they didn't even ask any questions." The cries of pain and anguish that escaped his lips previously stung to her very own, a cold chill running down her spine, as if she were sharing the same pain he endured.

For now, the man was safe in her arms. This was the longest they had left them alone – draped in the dark, faced with cruel treatment and painful torture, caged like animals. Leia wondered if this was the end for them – were they to be given a public execution? Relentlessly tortured until they became puppets of the state? It bothered her that Darth Vader was so silent now that he captured them. She remembered how militant that brute was, how obsessive he was over her capture. Suddenly, it was as if she never existed. All the attention was on hurting Han.

Even more, it worried her now that she learned they were the bait to draw in their friend. "This doesn't make any sense," Leia whispered as she dabbed at a wound on Han's scalp. None of this was adding together – what was so special about Luke that the two of them became pawns? He was a Jedi, sure, but big enough of a deal to Vader to make a plot like this?

"Luke," Han struggled as his eyes opened. "They're after him. They don't want us, they want him. We can't let them get to him. I – I can't imagine what that Vader would do to him. It isn't safe. Not for us or for him. Leia," he pleaded, kissing her hand and burying his face against it. "This is all my fault. I shouldn't have brought you here, I didn't know-"

"Shh," Leia hushed as she held him up in her arms, squeezing him tightly in an embrace. "This isn't your fault. It's none of our fault; we didn't have any choice in this. We are survivors. We'll make it through this, like we always do. As long as we have each other," she said, holding up his head by the chin.

"Yeah," he struggled out, as they pecked each other on the lips. They both felt secure in the arms of the other, reunited as one, until Han pulled back. "Aside from the getting captured and tortured part, the past few weeks I've spent with you were some of the best times I've ever had."

Leia smiled as Han's energy had been spent, laying his head right back down on her lap. "Right back at you," she teased, though she couldn't help but sense everything was going terribly wrong. They were in grave danger and so, soon, would be their friend. She continued to hold him. That, for the time being, was assuring enough.