Chapter 11: Three Weeks without Han
Leia pushed her food around her plate.
"Leia," Luke warned, "you have to eat something…"
"I can't. I have no appetite," she said sourly.
"It doesn't matter," he told her. "It's unhealthy not to eat, and I know you've been skipping meals."
She frowned at him. "Just because you can read minds doesn't mean you are free to enter mine."
"I can read feelings, not minds, and I didn't read yours." Luke argued. He said softly, almost to himself, "For some reason I can't read yours anyway."
"Threepio told me you haven't eaten any of the meals he's brought you lately. Your baby needs you to eat," he whispered sharply.
"Every time I even think about eating, I throw up." They sat in silence, both knowing that nausea wasn't really the issue.
"It's been three weeks…" she said breathily. "Three weeks of waiting for Lando and Chewie to call… It gets more hopeless as the days go on."
"That's not true!" Luke tried to interject.
She crossed her arms. "Do you really think Jabba would ever let him go? He put a death mark on his head months ago."
"Lando and Chewie will find him." Luke got up from his seat and tried to wrap his arm around her shoulder. She shook him off, quickly got up from her chair, and headed to her room.
"Leia! Leia…" Luke called after her.
She began to run down the hallway. She just wanted to be alone.
Leia slammed the door shut and leaned against it. Her eyes closed, and she slinked to the floor. She pulled her knees close to her chest.
She sat for a few minutes, feeling sorry for herself, and then she decided enough was enough. We need to make a plan– Han or no Han, she thought.
She stood up quickly and became very dizzy. She steadied herself against the doorframe, but the room was spinning. She slowly sank back to the floor to be sure she wouldn't fall and called Luke on her wrist communicator. "Luke, I need you… now…" Her voice trailed off as she slowly passed out.
Leia awoke startled and tried to sit up rapidly. Luke grabbed her shoulders and made her lie back down.
"Leia, stay there. You passed out. Threepio is bringing some water and food."
Leia looked around and saw that she was in her bed. Luke must have picked me up and put me here. "Luke, I…" She didn't know what to say. Threepio entered with a cart and handed her some water.
"Your Highness… Some hydration should help."
"Thank you, Threepio." She chugged the water.
"Here," Luke said as he picked up a pitcher with the Force. "Have some more." He slowly poured the suspended water into her cup.
"Thank you," she said softly. She took another sip and watched Luke's trick with amazement. "You're getting better at that," she commented.
"I've been doing the exercises Yoda taught me every day. At first they were really hard and took a lot of concentration, but now they're much easier. It still takes a lot of concentration, but I feel like I can concentrate on more at once."
"You're going to make a great Jedi, Luke." Leia smiled at him and took a bite of a nutrition bar. She barely had swallowed when she clutched her stomach and leaned over the side of the bed to vomit.
"Oh my!" Threepio exclaimed.
"Leia, are you alright?!" Luke jumped up to rub her back while Threepio rushed to get cleaning supplies.
Once finished, she answered weakly, "I haven't been able to keep anything solid in me for weeks. Ever since we left Bespin– I don't know if it's the space travel or if there's something wrong. I didn't want to worry you. I feel… weak…" Leia's eyes shut as she sank into her pillow.
She woke up in a different bed– this one was hard and cold. She was in the medical ward.
"Good to see you awake," Luke smiled at her.
"Ah, your Highness. Welcome back," the robot nurse said to her. "I was just asking Luke here some questions about your recent habits. Have you been under any extra stress lately?"
"Do you mean almost getting captured by the Empire, commanding a rebellion, or the father of my unborn child being captured by a bounty hunter intent on delivering him to one of the most dangerous crime lords in the Galaxy?" she asked snidely.
The robot stared at her as it held her chart and a pen still– it was unable to compute exactly what to write down after that response.
She looked at the confused droid for a second then answered shortly, "Yes." The nurse nodded and checked a box on the chart.
"It seems that you are suffering from usual morning sickness and self-induced worry."
"She's worrying herself sick?" Luke questioned.
"For lack of a better term, that is correct. We will give you anti-nausea medication, and you need to eat. You must start gaining weight or you will put yourself and your child at great risk."
"I understand," she said sadly, absentmindedly placing a hand over the baby. "I will do my best."
Luke's communicator went off with a loud alert sound. "Excuse me," he told them.
The droid continued to talk to Leia, but all she heard was fuzz as she tried to listen to Luke's conversation in the hall.
He came back into the room with a wide grin, and she could tell what he was about to say. "They found him! Leia, Lando and Chewie found Han. Jabba's Palace is on Tatooine, and we're going to get him."
She shut her eyes in disbelief. Small, slow tears escaped down her cheeks as her heart welled up. "Luke, is he…" she couldn't bring herself to finish the question.
"We don't know for sure, but Lando said they have good reason to believe he's alive."
"Can I go?" she asked the robot nurse excitedly.
"You need to take this medicine and eat a meal. We need to be sure that it works and you can eat without vomiting. Then you may be discharged."
"You take care of yourself and that baby. I'm going to go meet Lando and Chewie and start making a plan. They should be back within the hour. We'll catch you up once you're out of here."
Luke ran down the hallway, and she sat on the hospital bed contentedly. We'll find him, she thought.
After eating and keeping it down, Leia was free to go back to their quarters. She couldn't help but smile like an idiot as she walked down the hallway. Things were looking up. She felt better, and they were about to get Han back, well, depending on how good of a plan they were able to come up with without her.
As she walked through the door, Lando ran over to give her a big hug. "Leia!" he shouted. "Looking lovely, as always." Chewie gave her a hug too.
"Hi Lando, hi Chewie! I am so glad to see you."
"How are you feeling?" Lando asked. "Luke told us you haven't been doing so great."
She shot Luke a disapproving look. "I'm fine. I got some medicine and am ready to kick some Hutt butt."
"Slow down," Luke tried to tell her.
"If you think you can hold me back, Luke, you're sadly mistaken. I want to be right in the middle of this plan."
"You will be, Princess," Lando laughed. "We've come up with a good one."
"Let me hear it," she said to them.
"Here's what we know," Luke started, "Lando and Chewie came across a bounty hunter named Boushh. They knocked him out and took his weapons and clothes. Disguised as him, Lando told some other bounty hunters that he wanted to search for Han Solo. They told him he was too late and that Boba Fett already turned him over to Jabba, and as they put it, he'll be there for a long time."
"That sounds promising," Leia said.
Luke continued, "To fool Jabba though, we'd need someone to speak Ubese like Boushh. Lando doesn't know how."
"I can," she said simply.
"Really?" Lando and Luke asked simultaneously.
"I speak tons of languages. It was part of my diplomatic training as a princess. It's much more effective to speak in someone's native tongue if you want to make a deal with them. They'll trust you more than if you make them work to translate. I'll just practice with Threepio before we go to make sure that I remember it well enough."
"That could work," Luke agreed.
"When do I go?" Leia asked anxiously.
"Well, if you're going to dress up as the Ubese, then you're Plan B. You'll only have to go if Plan A doesn't work."
"And what's plan A?"
"Don't worry about it. I have everything ready to go," Luke stated confidently.
"I hate to ask, but we don't have the best of luck as a group. What if A and B don't work?"
"Then we have Plan C and Plan Z."
"Plan Z?" she questioned.
"It's pretty crazy and will only happen if Jabba is totally unreasonable and everyone is his prisoner after Plans A, B, and C."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to crazy," she joked, "but it probably will…"