Chapter 14 - Where All My Journeys End

"Mornin', Sweetheart," Han purred into Leia's ear. He was spooned gently around her, her back to his chest.

Leia moaned slightly and snuggled closer. He brushed a few strands of hair away from her face and placed gentle kisses in her hair.

"Lei-a," he sang softly in her ear, an amused smile curling across his face. She had risen early almost every day of her life for "princess stuff," Rebellion duty, senate meetings, hungry infants, diplomatic breakfasts, or Resistance briefings, but Leia still was a rather reluctant early riser.

"Mmmph," she mumbled, turning over and burying her head in his chest. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head, chuckling mildly. He could feel her smile against his chest.

He pulled back slightly and tipped her chin up to kiss her on the lips. After more than thirty years of marriage, he shouldn't have been surprised when she intensified their kiss and pressed her body closer to his—but he'd thought she was still mostly asleep.

Well. She definitely was not, although her voice still had that delicious languor in it that he loved, as if they had all the time in the world to be here in their bed, bodies entwined, sharing pleasure. No Resistance, no First Order, no lost son, no years of separation. Time was theirs, for a little while, at least.

It was safe to say that they knew each other better than anyone ever would; knew just what the other needed. Leia had also learned how to bring the Force into their joining, but as amazing as that was, it was pretty much just an extension of what they already had together. It was them—enhanced.

As they came down, Leia made a satisfied sigh, now lying on Han's chest. His lightsaber wound had healed as much as it was going to, and had left a scar that looked like a large buttonhole. Sometimes when they were lying in bed together, she would absentmindedly trace the scar with her fingertips. Not that they would have been able to forget anyway, but—that mark on his chest served as a constant reminder.

Han kissed the top of her head again, holding her gently. "Didn't make you late for Jedi practice, did I?"

Leia briefly lifted up and craned her head a bit to check out the chrono. "No, I'm good for a little bit yet," she said as she settled back down. "And it's not like Luke is that strict on time."

"Just tell 'em you were meditating," Han joked. Shortly after Endor, Luke had gone through a phase when he was almost constantly behind for every appointment—sometimes hours late—and it genuinely was because he had gone deep into meditation and had lost all concept of time.

Leia chuckled. "Luke would see right through that one," she said, "not to mention Jaina."

"Jaina would be scandalized," he grinned.

Leia tilted her head a bit. "Actually, I think Jaina's been around us too much to be scandalized. She just expects it. You know, Tatooine has two suns, her parents are disgusting."

Han laughed, then grew thoughtful. "How is it? Training with her?"

"It's good. It's a little weird sometimes, but it's good. It's funny," Leia reflected with a little laugh, "there are some things Jaina's still learning but I kind of knew already. And a lot of things she knows that I don't." She paused for a minute. "She's really good."

Han didn't want to say it, but he couldn't stop himself. "Like Ben?"

"Better. You remember Luke at Borleias?"

"Yeah—"

"It's like that," Leia said.

"Wow."

Leia got a slightly faraway look on her face. "It's interesting. When she's sparring, she's…fierce. But it's not angry. She just gets this really calm, focused energy around her. It's really powerful."

"Mmm," said Han. "She takes after you."

Leia looked up at him quizzically.

"You do that," he insisted. "Not Jedi moves, but when you're in a fight sometimes, you get super calm. And then— the other guy might as well give up." He grinned at her, and she leaned up to kiss him again.

Falling into the depths, Han's last thoughts had been of Leia, of how he had longed to hold her in his arms just one last time. Duty would call soon enough, but Han was grateful to have been granted this morning, this day, to be here with Leia, back where he belonged.

Luke was grateful to be with his newly extended family. Even if he had yet to win a hand.

"All right, Big Deal, show us what you got," Han encouraged.

Finn tentatively laid down the cards in his hand. "It's a—"

Wedge shook his head. "A Pure Sabacc. Lucky bastard."

Jaina leaned over to Finn. "That's a compliment," she shared conspiratorially. Finn relaxed a little, and seemed to be unable to stop the smile spreading across his face. This was the first hand he'd won since they'd started playing.

Wedge grinned back. "We'll make a sabacc player out of you yet," he said, shuffling the cards to deal another round.

Han, Jaina, and Wedge had learned that neither Rey nor Finn knew how to play, and had taken it upon themselves to teach them. "Can't be a Resistance fighter without knowing sabacc, right?" Jaina had said, and Wedge had added, "Or an honorary Corellian." Poe had been lured into the game by Finn and by the promise of playing sabacc on the actual Millennium Falcon. Chewie and Luke rounded out the group.

The next hand was down to Jaina, Han, Wedge, and Poe, and eventually down to Jaina and Poe. Both of them had excellent sabacc faces, but Jaina ultimately prevailed.

"Damn," Poe said as Jaina collected her chips. "And I thought you were a good pilot."

Jaina smiled broadly, obviously more flattered by the compliment on her flying than on her card playing. She still managed to sound somewhat breezy as she thanked Poe, but Luke could tell it was a struggle.

After several more hands, Poe looked at his chrono and stood up. "I'm on duty in twenty minutes. Thanks again for the game," he said to the group in general and Han in particular. He looked at Jaina. "Let your uncles win a couple, eh?" he teased.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "I'll see what I can do." He gave her a wink before heading out.

"He's too old for you, Jai," said Wedge from behind his cards.

"Wha—I didn't say anything!" Jaina was indignant.

"Didn't have to," Wedge returned. Luke stifled a laugh.

[You should listen to him,] Chewie growled, and got a glare from Jaina for his trouble.

Jaina rolled her eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about." She went back to looking at her cards. "Besides, he didn't look that old to me."

Wedge gave her a sideways look. "You're seventeen. Pretty much everyone on base is too old for you."

This was clearly new information to Finn. "You're seventeen?"

"Eighteen in three standard months," Jaina said, sitting up regally.

Han had been watching this entire exchange with some amusement, though Luke could tell that he was holding back the urge to step in. Smart move, thought Luke. Try to overprotect Jaina, and she would only hurt herself trying to break free. And it wasn't her fault that the Resistance was not exactly filled with other dateable teenagers.

"All right, kid," Han said, nodding at Luke, "your bet." He was clearly choosing to ignore the entire conversation about Jaina.

But of course Jaina couldn't let it go. "Dad, tell them. I'm very mature."

Han gave her a look that all but shouted, You do not want to go there with me, young lady. Drop it.

Luke could sense Rey stifling a giggle as he made his bet.

Finn stared at the small crystal General Organa had placed in his hand. Thanks to the small amount of training he'd already received, he knew what it was. But that was part of why he couldn't accept it.

He handed it back to Leia apologetically. "General, uh, Ma'am, I can't take this. This belongs to your family."

Leia smiled at Finn. "Not going to let us adopt you, too?" she asked with a wink, but immediately stopped herself and held up a hand as Finn started to try to explain. "No, no, I'm sorry, we understand. We're going to help you find them, however we can."

Finn had recently seen his parents in a Force vision. He'd never seen them before, but he knew them. They'd felt so close, so real…he'd hated waking up from that dream. He had no idea where they were, but somehow he knew that he was meant to find them, even after all this time. He'd been talking a lot with Luke about it.

Leia took Finn's hand, opening it up and placing the crystal in his palm again. "It belongs to you. It was you, Finn." She closed his fingers around the crystal.

Finn was really confused. "I'm sorry, what was me?"

"There was an awakening in the Force. I felt it, and that's what led us to this crystal. I know now what it was that I felt. The awakening was you."

This was an awfully heavy thing to hear. "But I'm not—I don't even know if I want to—"

"You don't have to build a lightsaber with it. You don't have to become a Jedi. There are a lot of ways to use the Force," Leia assured him. She clasped both his hands in hers. "You have a gift. That gift led me back to Jaina and Luke. It saved Poe's life. It brought us Rey. And it brought us you." She smiled gratefully at him, then hesitated, as if this next part was difficult to say.

"You chose the light," she said. "You had everything against you, but you chose the light." There were tears in her eyes. "Any mother would be proud to call you her son."

The sun was setting as Wedge climbed down from his X-wing. It was the kind of sky he'd always loved: the reds and pinks and oranges made multi-dimensional by the shelf of clouds on the horizon, each color sliding into the other until a sheen of gold, and the long shadows of day's end, were all you could see.

He gave a few brief words to each of the pilots he'd just led in their training exercises. It was a good group. They were getting more recruits these days in the wake of the Hosnian disaster, as well as taking over a number of the surviving squadrons from the New Republic fleet. Wedge was fairly sure he and Luke would be successful in coaxing a couple more Rogues out of retirement as well.

And then there were the two other pilots he was training. His niece, and—well, he'd started thinking of Rey as his niece too, seeing as how she'd been all but formally adopted at this point. Not to mention—

"You sure you two didn't have another kid?" he'd joked to Han and Leia, after they'd come back from Rey and Jaina's first X-wing flight.

"Pretty sure I would've noticed," Han had said.

"I know I would have noticed," Leia had agreed, her eyes twinkling. Despite everything she'd been through, and everything left to do, Leia smiled a lot more often these days.

Wedge had shrugged. "I can't decide whether she flies more like a Solo or a Skywalker," he'd said, and it was the truth. In some ways, Rey was like Luke had been at Yavin: a ton of raw talent and enough sense to figure out the rest in a pinch. But she had a bit of that Solo brashness and nerve as well. Jaina was almost the opposite—plenty of that Solo nerve and instinct, but also plenty of that discipline and skill she'd likely gotten from training with Han, Chewie, and Luke. And they both had that Force thing…

They were walking just ahead of him now, the two dark-haired Solo girls, laughing and excitedly comparing notes about the flight they'd just completed. Poe Dameron had just returned from some training exercises as well, and Wedge could see Finn up ahead, waiting for all three of them with that sweet smile on his face. Finn was clearly rather smitten with both Rey and Poe, which promised to be an interesting dynamic. "They'll figure it out," Luke had assured Wedge when he'd made a comment about it. "We did."

Then Wedge saw them, standing together in the waning sunlight: Luke, Leia, and Han. The sun made Luke's locks, blowing in the slight breeze, seem golden again; lit up Leia's braids; smoothed over the creases in Han's face. Han had just said something to them, and the three of them were laughing, with that easy joy they'd developed together over the years. In this moment, Wedge saw them again at Yavin, laughing and hugging, tiny Leia bookended by her two beloveds as they left the hangar, arms draped around each other.

As Wedge approached, Leia saw him and smiled warmly. Their circle opened up to receive him without missing a beat. The four of them were back in orbit, sharing hugs, laughing together, listening to the familiar music of each other's voices as they all reconnected at the end of a long day.

And just before Wedge turned to embrace his husband, his love, his farmboy and flyboy and Jedi, he caught sight of Han and Leia silhouetted against the sinking sun, rays of gold in the sky behind them. Their lips met in a passionate kiss straight out of a holofilm.

The whoops and cheers from the Resistance pilots could be heard for miles.

Together again
It would feel so good to be
In your arms
Where all my journeys end
If you can make a promise
If it's one that you can keep
I vow to come for you
If you wait for me….
-"The Promise," Tracy Chapman

a/n: This is our last full chapter of Epic Love; there will be a short Epilogue that will be posted on Tuesday, but our story has pretty much wrapped up. Thank you for reading along, for trusting me when things got a little scary there, for sharing your comments and thoughts, and for all the encouraging messages. Special shout-out to yunmin (drinkupthesunrise on Tumblr) for her amazing sketch of Wedge comforting Leia in Chapter 8. I never thought this little idea would expand into so much, but it has been incredibly fun writing this.

This fix-it owes a debt to all the other HanLeia writers who have inspired me, but especially to Erin Darroch, whose Remain in Light is a thing of beauty. There are a number of great fix-its in addition to Erin's; go to hanleiaarchive on Tumblr to check them out, too.