Chapter Ten

From politics, it was an easy step to silence. Leia, for once, didn't seem to mind the quiet, and she didn't kick Lucy out either - or let her leave. Lucy didn't mind.

She couldn't say she was less in awe of the princess. The realization that Leia was a seventeen-year-old girl who liked fancy clothes, voiced every thought that crossed her mind, and dreamed of more than the galaxy had seen fit to give her - a girl, that was, not unlike Lucy herself - only made her more extraordinary, not less so.

But it also made her more comfortable to be around. Lucy went from standing stiffly in a borrowed robe, staring at the mirror, to perched on the corner of Leia's bed, uncomfortable in a flowing white gown that caught the calluses on her fingers, to sprawled across the bed while Leia slouched in a small, uncomfortable-looking chair that still seemed like a throne when she sat in it.

For awhile, Lucy had been afraid that she'd overstayed her welcome. But now that they weren't busy with stormtroopers and bottomless abysses and so forth, Lucy had the distinct impression that Leia didn't just appreciate her help, but actually liked her, and enjoyed her company. In any case, the princess seemed to take a distinct pleasure in fussing over her, and Lucy could tell that she didn't really want to be alone.

Lucy understood that. She hadn't been alone since she'd buried her family, and she had no intentions of being so. And her grief could only be the tiniest fraction of Leia's. So she stayed, her chin on her hands, readily entering into conversation and just as readily falling into comfortable silence. Leia's meeting - well, everyone's - was still twenty minutes away.

Lucy was dozing, and Leia just about to talk her awake, when what sounded like an entire raiding party pounded on the door. Lucy instantly jerked upright, her eyes half-wild and her hand curling around her lightsaber even when she smacked her head on the bedpost. Leia sprang to her feet almost as quickly and considerably more smoothly.

The thing on the other side of the door gave a familiar low roar.

"Chewie?" said Lucy. Leia sighed and lowered her blaster.

"I think we have guests," she said, and opened the door. Han and Chewbacca stood there, the former scowling and the latter doing his best to loom over her. It was a very impressive loom, Lucy thought, sleepily hooking her sword back on her belt, but it hardly seemed like a seven-foot Wookiee needed to put that much effort into dwarfing a five-foot princess. She rubbed her head.

"Captain Solo," Leia said, her tone rich with disdain. Lucy wondered if she'd had to learn to do that, or if it just came naturally. "What do you want?"

"Nice to see you too," drawled Han, his grin wide and humourless. "Don't worry, your Wonderfulness, I'm not here to bother you."

"Then you've already failed," Leia said. "Amazing, even for you."

"Look, Princess, I didn't -"

Lucy yawned, and they both turned to look at her.

"Sorry," she said. "Keep going, it's terribly interesting. Isn't it, Chewie?"

The Wookiee grumbled.

"Oh, all right," said Leia. "You're here to see Lucy, aren't you? Fine, come in. Just keep that thing from shedding on my carpet."

Lucy winced, sitting on the foot of the bed, and Leia threw herself back in her chair.

"Nice digs," Han observed, leaning against the doorframe. "Really makes a man feel welcome."

Leia rolled her eyes. "So you came to tell me that my personal quarters don't meet your highly erudite standards of interior decorating? I'm devastated."

"Hey, don't look at me," said Han. "Chewie's the one who insisted. Wanted to make sure Lucy hadn't fallen into a well or something."

"I don't think there are any wells here," Lucy told him, then smiled at the Wookiee. "But thanks, Chewie. See, I'm all right. Leia's just been helping me settle in."

Han folded his arms. "Settle into what?" he demanded. "Giving rousing speeches? They've got her for that." He jerked his head at the princess.

"Excuse me?" said Leia, her voice freezing still further. Lucy hadn't known it was possible.

"What are you talking about?" she asked Han.

"You found your glorious Rebellion and turned over your plans and everything's going to be just fine, right? Is that what you think? Because -"

"There's a battle station with unlimited firepower headed straight for us," said Lucy, "so that'd be a no."

Han ignored this. "I've been taking a look around," he said. Leia's eyes narrowed. "Oh, don't worry, Highness. I'm not a rat. I just figured I should see what kind of mess Lucy's got herself into."

"How selfless," said Leia. "I'd never have thought it of you."

"I can take care of myself, Han," Lucy added crossly. She rubbed her throbbing head.

Han's slow, mocking smile was considerably more genuine this time. " 'Course you can. The two of you'd never rush into anything dangerous without thinking."

"You're hardly one to talk!" Lucy cried. "You're the one that just went around blasting everything in sight. We had to come up with all the plans!"

Chewbacca's roar contained a distinct note of amusement.

"Hey," Han snapped at his friend, "I was in a hurry. I didn't have time to come up with anything else." He turned back to Lucy. "Look, Lucy, the point is that I've been knocking around the galaxy as long as you've been alive. I get myself into trouble, I can get myself out again. I don't end up in cells waiting to be executed. And I didn't pick up my ideas about people from watching the damn HoloNet."

"We didn't get the HoloNet on the farm, actually," said Lucy. "I had to go all the way to Anchorhead just to hear the news."

Han's jaw twitched. Leia grinned.

"Well, that's just great. Forget everything I said! Who needs experience when you can learn everything you need to know from seventeen years cooped up on a moisture farm?"

"I wasn't -" Lucy began, then bit her lip. She tried again. "Han, you can call me little girl all you want, but that won't make it true. I'm not a child and you're not my father. You don't need to protect me."

Han sputtered. "To protect - I wasn't - I don't - your what? Believe me, Lucy, I don't . . . no. Just, no. I had some extra time, figured I'd see what you were getting yourself into. Friends do that kind of thing, okay? Watch each others' backs. Doesn't mean I'm some kind of white knight."

Lucy's face softened; even Leia's did, a little.

"Oh. Well, I -"

"And let me tell you," he went on, "you're right. These are nice people. Crazy, of course, but real, real nice. Not the kind of people who'd stick a girl behind the controls of an X-Wing and hope for the best, you know?"

Lucy's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"

"Yes, Captain Solo," said Leia, her fingers tight on the arms of her chair. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm a simple man," Han replied. "Haven't got much to say to the brass, but I went around, talked to the pilots. More my type - nice guys, but at least they talk like normal people." He looked over at Leia. "You don't need to worry, Princess. They're as suicidal as the rest of you. Just wish they ever saw any women. Apart from you, of course."

"Don't be ridiculous," said Leia impatiently. "Of course there are other women."

"At the computers? Pilots don't see them. It's a big day when they get to hear one over the intercom."

"Wait," Lucy said. "You mean, there aren't any women pilots? Any at all?"

Han shrugged. "See for yourself. I've got a reward to collect," he said, and nodded at them. "I'll see you around, Lucy. Princess."

As soon as he'd slouched out, trailed by the omnipresent Chewbacca, Leia turned to Lucy. "Don't worry," she said. "We'll find some use for your skills."

Lucy's eyes were still wide. "I don't have other skills," she said. "Unless you want vaporators repaired. Maybe if Ben had lived, it'd be different, but I hardly know anything about being a Jedi. Flying is what I do. I can't just waste my most useful ability because -"

Leia, for the first time since Lucy had met her, looked torn. She walked to the window on the other side of the room, hands clasped behind her back.

"I'm quite a good pilot myself, you know," she said, her voice oddly distant. "Almost as good as you and Han. Flying always came easily to me, but I didn't have many chances to practice. My father didn't like it, and there were so many more important things I had to learn. Not that it matters. I couldn't be risked in battle anyway - especially not now. But even if I were no one in particular, it wouldn't make any difference."

"I didn't know you could fly," said Lucy awkwardly.

"It's not a vocation," Leia said. "Just a skill I've never much honed. I have other things to do, important things. More important than anything I could do in an X-Wing."

"I don't," said Lucy, and felt almost as if she were falling back into her own life, caged in while restlessness ate at her. All the old furious resentment seemed to be sliding back into her veins.

No, I'm not - I won't live like that again, she thought, and looked at Leia a little wistfully. It didn't seem to matter that they'd only known each other for a few hours. From that first glimpse of the hologram, she'd felt a . . . a connection, a sense that their destinies were tied together, or should be. She wanted to stay, to be her friend.

It just wasn't enough.

"I know you don't," Leia was saying. "I can't endure mundane tedium, myself, or sitting around aimlessly. I need more than tasks delivered from on high. I need to have a purpose, to see that what I'm doing is important. You're like that too, I can tell." She took a deep breath, then released it. "It's funny, I hardly know you, but it seems - never mind. Just, I'd rather you stayed. But I understand if you can't."

"I have to think," said Lucy, distracted. "But you have your meeting with all the . . . everyone, don't you?"

"Yes. You can accompany me, if you'd like. General Dodonna is explaining our strategy to all the pilots."

"Sure," she said.


Afterwards, as the fighter pilots prepared for the attack, Lucy wandered over to a small isolated area, where Han and Chewbacca were loading boxes onto a speeder. She scowled.

"So . . . you got your reward and you're just leaving them?" she demanded.

"That's right," said Han, his air of insouciance almost as impenetrable as when they'd first met. "I got some old debts I've got to pay off with this stuff. Even if I didn't, you don't think I'd be fool enough to stick around here?"

"I guess not," she said, eyes narrowing. "You're not like me. I talked to them and - but you could do something. You're a great pilot and you could fly against the Death Star. You're just -"

"Sane? Yeah, I guess so." He dusted his hands off and turned to look at her, something odd in his expression. He seemed almost nervous. "Look, this place is doomed. You know that, I know that. Hell, even the princess knows that. They'll never survive and there's no place for you here anyway."

"Thanks," said Lucy. "That makes everything better."

"I didn't mean -" He cleared his throat. "Lucy, I . . . why don't you come with me?"

Lucy's mouth dropped open. Chewbacca, carrying one of the heavier boxes, dropped it on his foot. He howled in agony.

By the time he'd recovered enough that Lucy's soft voice would even be audible, she'd turned a deep red. She didn't seem able to meet his eyes.

"Han, I -" Her faltering voice sharpened. "Wait. Is that why you were going on about how there's no women in the Rebellion? You were just . . ." She gestured.

"Huh?" said Han brilliantly.

Chewbacca laughed.

"No!" he said. "I didn't mean - that is, I wasn't - unless - no, just, I wasn't - I'm not propositioning you! Hell, no."

He flinched as soon as the words left his mouth.

"Lucy, I don't - "

"If I am that repulsive," she said, in a tone which would have done Leia proud, "what exactly were you asking?"

"You're not -" Han rubbed his forehead, while Chewie snickered behind him. "You're very - you know, I'm not even going there. Just. It's not that you're repulsive, Lucy. It's that you're seventeen."

Her flush receded, though she seemed barely mollified. "Leia's seventeen," she said sulkily.

"Really?"

She gave him an impatient look. "Yes. Really. And I still have no idea what you were talking about."

"Well." Han stepped back, folding his arms. "You're pretty good in a fight, Lucy, and I trust you. I - we could use you. I'll teach you a few tricks of the trade, pay you a fair share of what we, ah, earn, the works."

Lucy watched wistfully as the pilots rushing back and forth, droids beeping and engines rumbling. Then she gazed up at him.

"Would I get to fly?"

Han laughed. "Sure. But you damage the Falcon and it comes out of your pay."

She looked back at Leia, small and proud. Lucy didn't like leaving her. But she wasn't going to hide behind her skirts either.

Leia seemed to understand what was happening. She waved her hand in a clear gesture of farewell.

Lucy blinked back tears.

"All right," she said, and held out her hand. "When do we leave?"

Han shook the hand, then slung his arm companionably about her shoulders. "As soon as we can. We'll deliver the load to Jabba, and then . . ."

Their voices trailed off as they walked away.

Princess Leia watched them leave, her heart thudding against her ribs, fierce and painful. Her limbs ached and her gut burned and her throat almost closed. It wasn't sentiment. Not mostly. She'd only felt this a few times in her life, but she knew exactly what it was.

Foreboding.

The End

(yes, there will be a sequel)


Jedi Master Misty Sman-Esay: Thanks! I rather enjoy playing up the different backgrounds. And heh, Lucy's knowledge of the backstory is a bit lacking.

azaneti: Yup! I wanted them to get some in before the this chapter. And yeah, poor Padmé - her firstborn didn't even know her name, and her secondborn just thinks she's some senator with cool hair.

Imperial Dragon: What passes for girl-talk in the world of Lucy and Leia, anyway! (Murder, genocide, politics - they're all about the light-hearted stuff. :P)

PadawanCassy: Thanks!

AllyrienDM: They have some clues - not really more than Luke and Leia, but I suspect it's a bit more glaring with sisters. Still, it's a major leap from "coincidentally we were born the same day and we both have big eyes" to "twin sisters separated at birth." Thank you!

wickedmetalviking1999: Thanks. I am more or less familiar with the EU, but I think of it as ... basically a bunch of professionally written fanfics, of varying quality, set in a single continuity. Definitely not film canon. Even the ones I like are very definitely not the films (thankfully, in the case of Splinter of the Mind's Eye). I definitely don't see any need to comply with their ideas and interpretations, which often make very little sense, IMO, when I'm perfectly capable of coming up with my own. So the EU is basically irrelevant for this story. That said, I did mean "at Massassi" to refer to arriving at the temple/base (the script calls it the Massassi Outpost), not on the moon (which would be a bit generic!).

sw1fan: Thank you. They deserved that much!

Akagi010: Thanks. I was a bit worried about the quasi-novelization beginning, but I didn't want to change anything that didn't follow from the genderswap, so there wasn't much choice. It's much funner now, though. :)

Gungan-Wife: Thank you. It's easy to update quickly when it's all written! Normally, I'm afraid I'm a bit sporadic. And I'm glad you like Lucy! I wasn't sure how likable she'd be, though Luke is my favourite so I really enjoyed her, myself. But I can't promise anything about the shipping, I'm afraid!

harlyn: Thanks! This story was basically setting up a situation where the divergences could happen naturally, but it is a lot more entertaining from here on. And Luke/Lucy and Leia are two of my three favourite SW characters, so it was definitely fun to consider their characterizations for this.