You didn't seriously think I would forget about all of you, did you? Hmph! I should think not! Had to deal with a bot more of Darth Real Life than I would've like recently, but I'm here now and I come bearing a chapter. Let's see what you think!

Leia was just about finished pinning up her hair when she heard a tap at the door. After seeing Han in next to nothing this morning, fresh out of bed, she was leery of answering it.

"Who is it?" Leia queried, her heart beginning to pound slightly in half-hope and half-fear it was the handsome erstwhile smuggler coming to tease her some more. He had been quite a sight and it wasn't something she could nor had any intention of erasing from her mind since it had first happened a few minutes ago.

"It's Anke."

Feeling more disappointed than she thought she should, Leia opened the door, "Good morning, Anke."

Anke stood with a satchel in each hand. "Good morning, Dear. I wasn't sure what you had with you on this trip, so I thought I would bring you a few things to help tide you over."

With a smile, the Princess graciously stepped aside to admit the elder woman taking one of the bags from her and leading her over to the bed where they deposited them. As Leia did so, the stone strung around her neck dropped forward to hang in midair catching the attention of her guest.

"Oh my-" Anke's eyes widened slightly.

"What's wrong?" Leia asked rather surprised at the woman's shock clearly displayed on her face.

"I'm sorry, Dear," Anke laid a hand to her chest as if to mollify her breach of etiquette. "That's an interesting stone you are wearing. May I ask where you acquired it?"

Leia subconsciously brought her hand up to her chest to cover the stone. "It was a gift."

"From Han?" Anke asked, obviously trying not to seem overly anxious.

Leia hesitated. The stone wasn't exactly supposed to be public knowledge. Of course, the Princess knew the stone was Corellian, so naturally Anke thought it was from Han. Leia supposed there was no harm in admitting the origin of the gift-giver.

"Actually, yes," Leia went with her gut. She picked up the stone and held it out a bit for Anke to see, making sure to cover the back with her thumb where the secret codes to the Falcon were inscribed. "I find it quite beautiful and unique."

"Indeed, it is on both counts, " Anke agreed now smiling and her mood having brightened considerably for some reason. "Have you had it long?"

"Maybe a little over a standard week." Watching Anke's smile grow even wider, Leia had to know. "Anke, is something going on?"

"Well, something may very well be going on, Dear. I'm just not entirely sure what. Han seemed up to something when we came in." Anke said vaguely.

"Oh, that! When the door chimed, we both came out of our rooms at the same time and Han was ….well, being Han." Leia said closing her eyes in exasperation as she shook her head.

"Oh, yes! He can be quite the scoundrel when he has a mind to," Anke agreed. "You mustn't take that too seriously, Dear. It's his way of covering up his feelings." She waved her hand in the air as if to dismiss it all as nonsense. "It's his defense, you see."

The Princess had only briefly considered this seemingly obvious reason once before now when Luke had mentioned it. It made a lot sense, but at the time, she had been far too frustrated with his antics. Afterwards, she was too busy going toe-to-toe with Solo on a regular basis to worry about his underlying motivations. Lately, she had been giving more and more thought of trying to understand why the man made a point to try to be difficult around her. However, that was a question for another time. Right now, it didn't answer any questions about the stone.

"Anke, I still don't understand. Why did you seem so surprised about the stone?"

The older woman smiled gently this time and took Leia's hand in both of her own. "It's an exceptionally unique stone, Dear. You are very special to him if he gave it to you."

"Special?" Leia's mind began to race.

"It's not for me to say anymore on it. Han will have to handle that," Anke explained. "Now, I brought fresh clothes for you to wear today since you didn't have any bags with you yesterday. Let's see if anything fits, shall we?"

"Han said he was going to take me to see where the stone came from today," Leia said a bit numbly as she followed Anke back over to the bed.

"Oh, how lovely, Dear. You'll need a coat of some sort then. Do you have anything on the ship?" Anke asked trying to sound nonchalant as she sorted through the small pile of clothes and began to hold things up to Leia as if to try them against her.

Regaining herself, Leia forced herself to focus on the question, "I – uh. No, actually I don't have much with me. We had to leave on short notice and I didn't have time to pack."

They were on their way to Kashyyyk to drop off Chewie on the way to Ord Mantell. It was such a classified mission that they had felt the need to have a dummy reason to even lift off base. Leia was supposedly accompanying Han and Chewie to Kashyyyk to re-enforce Alliance relations with the Wookiees and check in on them. It was supposedly a two day roundtrip then they would have 'engine trouble' that would supposedly delay them on Kashyyyk while they were actually on Ord Mantell.

"Well, then, I'll leave these things here for you. Feel free to keep whatever you like. These are my youngest daughter's, but she is off planet and she has a way of bringing home much more than she left with. She'll never miss any of it."

"Oh, thank you, I couldn't. Perhaps, I'll just borrow a few things for now," Leia was just now realizing how nice the clothing was and it appeared to be the perfect size as well.

"Nonsense, Dear. Not only is her closet overflowing, but if she was here, she would have brought double the amount for you, I'm sure. Luckily, not only is she a generous spirit, but she is just about your size." Anke laughed merrily. Having settled on a stylish ensemble, Anke eyed Leia once more. "You have such beautiful hair. Do you ever wear it down?"

"Oh, I'm not supposed-"

"Don't worry, I know, Dear." Anke eyed her sadly, understanding the reason behind Leia's objection all too well. "I just thought we might be able to try it halfway. It would look good with this outfit. How about I show you what I'm thinking of and then you can decide if it's comfortable?"

"You know, I would like that. Thank you," Leia smiled. It would feel nice to be fussed over a bit. She had been living underground military style for so long, she forgot what it was like to not dress like a soldier or a civilian blandly trying to blend in with the crowd.