Jaina could sense from her brother that he was ready for them to leave. At the moment, she felt as though that wasn't such a bad idea, but since he was busy working on something with their father, she didn't want to interrupt. And now that she and Leia had been given a chance to take a bit of a break, she kind of liked the idea of getting to spend a bit more time with her mother as a young woman. Who else ever got such an opportunity?
Jaina emerged from a quick stop in the 'fresher and accidentally startled her mother who had been sitting quietly alone in the cockpit. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Is it okay if I join you up here?"
"Sure," Leia replied before she turned her head back to look out the viewport at nothing but darkness.
Jaina moved to sit down next to her. "So," she started, wondering again how in the universe to make small talk in this situation. "How much longer do you think we'll be stuck in here?"
"Hard to say," Leia said as she lifted her head that had been resting on her hand. "Last I checked he said he felt like we were getting pretty close. Maybe a few more hours?"
Jaina nodded. "Well that doesn't sound so bad." They sat in silence again and Jaina wished that her mother would maybe help take control of the conversation, but it appeared that would not be happening. "So, uh, Captain Solo seems pretty…" She paused intentionally, hoping that Leia would finish the sentence for her and answer a question she hadn't asked. She was so curious to know how her mother felt about her father during that period of time.
Leia turned to Jaina and her eyes widened questioningly as she waited for her to finish her thought, and it became apparent she realized she wasn't going to. "Pretty what?"
Jaina shrugged. "I don't know, just, like…" she was really struggling now, but this time Leia finally jumped in.
"Oh, no, aren't you a little young for that?" Leia rolled her eyes and seemed genuinely annoyed.
Jaina had no idea what she was talking about. "A little young for what?"
Leia shook her head and looked down, and her voice took on an exasperated tone. "I swear, every female we've come across…"
Suddenly Jaina became very aware of what she was talking about. "Oh! Oh, no, no, no. That's not what I mean!"
Leia turned and eyed the girl skeptically. "Are you sure about that?"
"Yes! Absolutely positive. No, like you said, I'm too young and he's way too old. I mean, he reminds me of my dad. So, ew, no."
"All right, all right. Sorry," Leia said with a little smirk.
After another few moments of silence, Jaina asked, "Well, what about you?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you're older than I am, and I bet he doesn't remind you of your dad, so…"
One thing Leia had never been able to hide was when she was embarrassed, and the redness that crept over her face told Jaina all she really needed to know. But after a few moments of silence, Leia spoke up. "I mean, he's been a… a good friend, I guess, for a couple of years now. But he'd be the first to tell you that as soon as he gets a chance he's going to leave. And he seems to enjoy antagonizing me more than anything, so it's hard to even think about him that way when most of the time I'm just angry with him, and doesn't even really act like he even likes me. And I don't have time for that sort of thing anyway."
Jaina could actually feel the hints of regret and sadness emanating from her mother. Even being here to witness it she still didn't think she would ever understand why it took her parents so long to admit their feelings for one another. The Mom and Dad she had grown up with had seemed more perfect for each other and more in love than she imagined anyone could possibly be. It just didn't make sense that people like that wouldn't have fallen for each other the moment they'd met.
Although what was it her father had said just recently at dinner? That he had fallen in love with her almost immediately. She had to admit he really didn't act like it at the moment.
"This is different for me," Leia said, turning to face Jaina with a little smile. "I mean, I don't usually have another girl to talk to. I'm always surrounded by men."
"Well, I'm glad I could help."
Out of the corner of her eye Jaina saw something outside the viewport, and Leia's eyes immediately turned toward it as she stood and squinted, moving forward to get a better look. Moments later some sort of creature pressed itself up against the window and made some sort of noise, startling both women and causing them to scream.
"What was-" Jaina started but Leia interrupted her.
"Stay here," the older woman said as she disappeared from the cockpit.
Jacen had been sitting at the holochess table watching his father weld for several minutes. He'd seen him do that dozens of times in his childhood, and while as a young boy it had seemed impressive to watch him work with this white-hot flame, it had long since just become boring. Where was Jaina, anyway?
"Sir, if I may venture an opinion."
"I'm not really interested in your opinion, Threepio," Han said, vaguely annoyed.
"There's something out there," he suddenly heard before he looked up to see his mother running from the cockpit.
Han immediately stopped what he was doing and pulled the protective goggles away from his eyes before he asked, "Where?"
"Outside in the cave." Immediately after she'd said it they could hear something making noise against the hull of the Falcon.
"There it is, listen! Listen!" Threepio's frantic overreactions had always been the same, apparently.
"I'm goin' out there," Han said.
"Are you crazy?"
"I just got this bucket back together, I'm not gonna let somethin' tear it apart." Han barely broke his stride as he grabbed a breathing mask and headed for the ramp.
"Then I'm going with you," Leia said in a worried tone, grabbing a mask to follow along, and Chewbacca went right behind them.
"I think it might be better if I stay behind and guard the ship," Threepio said to nobody in particular.
Suddenly finding himself alone in the lounge, Jacen saw their chance for escape and headed up to the cockpit, relieved to finally have a moment alone with his sister.
"All right, enough is enough. We need to get out of here," he said before he even fully entered the cockpit.
Jaina looked up at him, appearing a little dejected. But she did let out a little sigh and looked down. "I guess maybe you're right."
"Finally, she admits it. All we have to do is reach out for Anakin, right?"
Before the could respond the Falcon lurched violently, tossing Jacen to the ground and nearly sending Jaina right out of her seat.
After a few moments of bracing themselves for balance, the twins stopped to look at each other. "What's going on?" Jacen asked.
"I think this must be when Mom and Dad found out they were in a space slug and not an asteroid."
She barely got the sentence out when they heard some arguing outside the door before Han burst into the cockpit. "You two," Han shouted urgently. "Get back there and strap in, we're getting out of here!"
He grabbed them both by their arms and practically tossed them back toward the exit, barely missing Leia as she rushed in toward her seat. No time to argue at this point, they thought as they made it to the lounge just in time to strap into their seats at the holochess table.
The ship continued to jerk violently back and forth almost like an earthquake, but soon they felt the familiar hum of the engines as the Falcon lifted off and surged forward.
Jacen turned to his sister. "How about it, can we go now?"
Jaina appeared a bit disappointed but nodded in agreement. "All right, probably time to go. It feels weird to not even say goodbye."
Jacen shook his head. "You remember what Anakin said about it, they won't even remember we were here. In fact, it'd probably be a terrible idea if they remembered we were here. We don't need to say goodbye. They get to spend a whole lot of time with us not too far in their future."
"Okay, you're right. Let's reach out to Anakin."
The twins shut their eyes and reached for their younger brother through the Force. They weren't entirely sure how this worked, but he had told them it was pretty simple. The Solo siblings had never had any real trouble finding each other in the Force due to their close bond on top of their strong inherited Force sense. It was strange, Jacen could still sense his brother, but he felt oddly fuzzy. It was like he was more distant than he'd ever felt him, so different from the unmistakable bright beacon he'd always recognized whenever trying to reach out to really any of his family members.
But, sure enough, after a few moments, the twins felt themselves being pulled away so they were no longer strapped in and seated at the holochess table and suddenly were again enveloped back in the bubble that had brought them there.
"You guys having fun in there?" he heard his younger brother say before finally opening his eyes.
Jacen looked from Anakin and back to Jaina. "That was really… weird." Jacen said, feeling it was an understatement.
"Definitely, but pretty fun," Jaina agreed with a smile before Anakin interrupted them. He did not seem happy.
"You better be ready to have some more fun."
"What do you mean?" Jacen asked.
"I mean, something isn't right here," Anakin said as he looked around at the bubble surrounding them. "Everything in the future now is kind of… fuzzy. I don't know how else to describe it. Did you guys do something that changed what Mom and Dad did?"
"No, definitely not," Jaina said adamantly while shaking her head.
Jacen turned and eyed her skeptically. "You mean stowing away on the Falcon totally didn't change a thing?"
"How could it? I mean, all we did was talk a little with them and help with some repairs. Mostly we were just kind of… there."
"Wait a second," Anakin interrupted. "Wasn't it while they were on that trip that they kissed and fell in love and stuff?"
"Yeah," Jaina agreed.
"Did you see them kiss?" Anakin asked.
"I know I didn't," Jacen said. "You?"
"No," Jaina agreed. "I think they were barely alone while we were there, mostly one or the other was with one of us."
"Well, I hate to break it to you, but you're gonna have to go back and try to fix this," Anakin said.
"No way, I'm done with this game," Jacen protested.
"Well, if you guys don't go back there then we all might be done with any games, ever. Because if those two don't get married and have kids, then none of us exist."
Jacen's shoulders slumped in defeat. He knew this was going to be a terrible idea, but he had no idea that he and Jaina could possibly have jeopardized their own lives. "Fine," he relented with a sigh. "Come on, Jane. Let's go back and see if we can figure out how to make Mom and Dad kiss and fall in love."
"That's the spirit," Jaina replied, placing a reassuring hand on her twin's shoulder. "They managed to do it without our help before, I'm sure this won't be a problem, right?"
"You two seem awfully chipper for a couple of people who may never be born."
"We'll fix it, Anakin. I can tell Mom already likes Dad, she just needs a little push."
"Yeah," Jacen agreed. "Dad is already totally in love with Mom, too. You should've seen him when he told me to keep away from her."
The twins smiled at one another. "Right, so they're almost there, they just need a little help. And maybe a little more alone time."
"Okay, well then get back there and fix it," Anakin said.
"All right, we're ready," Jaina said as they all took each other's hands and prepared to head back to the past.