Leia stepped out of the spa building and into the sunshine, taking a deep breath of the moist Galadan air. It felt indescribably good to be clean! Clean body, clean hair, fresh clothes. She smiled tightly at Perron as he approached.

"Do I look like a student?" she asked. She had purchased a simple, lightweight dress that fell to mid-thigh, but was wearing it with her own boots. With the ungainly pack slung over one shoulder, Leia was pretty sure the combination was inelegant enough to help her fade into the student background.

Perron smiled and said, "If I were twenty years younger…"

She watched his eyes move over her hair, which she had dyed copper as well as left loose, and ran her hand through it self-consciously.

"I thought it might be wise if I wasn't so recognisable," she said.

Perron regarded her with a half smile and asked, "How long have you known my son?"

"Four months," she answered. "He and Luke rescued me from the Death Star."

"Do you like him?"

Leia eyed him carefully. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you like him?"

"He's a natural leader. A brilliant pilot-"

"But do you like him?" he pressed.

Leia frowned. "I… He's the most irritating person I know."

"Wasted potential," Perron clarified for her.

"Yes!" That was it exactly. "Is that why you haven't talked? Because he left the Imperial Navy? Or does he alienate everyone eventually?"

"Han didn't leave the Navy; he was thrown out."

"Because of Chewbacca, I know." Leia regarded him carefully. "Is that why you don't speak any more?"

"Han thinks I abandoned him when he was fourteen," Perron replied quietly. "He's never forgiven me."

….

"What the hell could they be doing?" Solo growled irritably. Tired of the inaction, he got to his feet, tapping Luke on the shoulder, "C'mon, kid."

Luke looked up at him, vaguely surprised, "Where are we going?"

"Buy a drink. Mind the table, Chewie."

Solo headed off through the crowd and Luke threw the Wookiee an apologetic look before hurrying after the Corellian.

The volume was deafening in the main room, what with the band and the number of people. And the smells! Luke had never smelt anything like it, but realised it was unavoidable with such crowded diversity in such a sticky climate, and was doubly grateful for Solo's choice of the open-air area.

For Solo it brought back countless memories. He dodged a sloppy missile aimed at another table, the recipient of which leapt up and howled abuse at the perpetrator. A shouting match ensued as insults were hurled back and forth and Solo smiled. Just like the Academy.

They approached the bar. At one end a serious sculling match was in progress and Luke had to force himself not to stare. Not since the cantina in Mos Eisley had he seen so much... riff-raff.

"Watch faces," Solo muttered in his ear, then turned and ordered drinks for both of them.

Luke thought it an unusual request but complied nonetheless, casually leaning his back against the bar and perusing the crowd.

As the barman returned with their drinks, Solo nonchalantly asked, "You know a kid called Lowmon?"

The barman regarded him a moment then nodded, "I knew him, yeah."

"Know where I might find him?"

"Belly of a lazech, last I heard," he said looking amused, then moved on down the bar, dismissing them.

Solo turned slightly to Luke and asked, "Anything?"

Luke casually turned and faced the bar also, taking a swig from his drink. "A couple," he said. "Two to my left, one directly behind."

"Startled? Wary?"

Luke frowned, trying to find the right words. "Two to the left, no. Just curious. The other one more of a... flinch."

Solo did a casual scan of the crowd, surreptitiously checking out the 'flinch', then turned back to the bar, "Looks half Kivvidan," he said quietly. "Might've been his girlfriend. Probably worth investigating..." he trailed off, distracted by something a little further down the bar.

Luke followed his gaze to a very attractive woman who was eyeing them, none too coyly, from three people away. She was wearing a figure-hugging suit that left little to the imagination and he started to look away, irritated by Solo's lack of timing. Then she moved. A sensuous, cat-like movement, and Luke was as mesmerised as the Corellian.

Solo smiled invitingly and, to Luke's horror, she started towards them.

"What are you doing?!" Luke hissed through clenched teeth, but it was too late. She sidled up close to Solo and, understandably, had his undivided attention.

She was as tall as Solo with shoulder-length, fair hair and legs that seemed to go forever. And, Luke noticed, her suit was a perfect match for her mauve eyes.

"So what's your field of study?" she asked Solo, her voice dripping with seduction. "Gynaecology?"

Solo grinned, lapping her up, "Xenobiology actually. Wookiees in particular. What's yours?"

"Primitive cultures," she breathed at him, moving sensuously. "Mating rituals in particular."

"Well now," said Solo, delightedly, "We've just come from one of those."

She was momentarily impressed out of her seductive persona and said with genuine surprise, "Kivvidan?" Solo nodded. "And they didn't kill you?"

"They tried," Luke muttered under his breath and Solo grinned, self-consciously scratching his still tender stomach.

"Do I look dead?" he reasoned.

She smiled and moved closer, running a finger delicately across the scar on his chin. "Not at all."

Solo didn't flinch, thoroughly enjoying her. "Maybe we could go somewhere and compare notes?"

Luke rolled his eyes and turned away.

"Sounds irresistible," she purred and Solo's ego swelled to twice its usual size. "You don't look like a xenobiologist," she added.

"No?"

"No. You look far too exciting. More like something from the latest holo-romance."

Luke groaned audibly and wondered if he would actually retch.

The woman glanced over Solo's shoulder at him. "Something wrong with your friend?"

"He's got a drinking problem," Solo said dismissively and Luke glared at him.

"Oh," she said.

Luke turned his back on them and noticed that Leia and Perron had found Chewie in the outside section. He hit Solo on the back, realising too late that he had interrupted what was promising to be the Corellian's crucial move.

"The others' are here," he said to Solo's filthy look.

"Perfect timing!" Solo said, glaring across to the garden area.

The tall, blonde retreated a step, smiling. "See you round, xenobiologist."

"I hope so," Solo muttered, and reluctantly followed Luke back into the crowd.

….

It was part of Solo's self-preserving nature to scan a crowd for enemy faces; a task he had mastered to the point of it being completely unconscious. Until the alarm bells went off.

He saw the two men watching their table and his blood turned to ice. And by the time he got to their table his unease was obvious.

Chewie barked his concern immediately and Solo scowled, "Farrouq." Chewbacca howled in alarm and Solo nodded, "Yep." Then turned to the others to explain the need for their immediate departure and found himself gawping at the princess.

Leia smirked and sat down beside Luke. "Close your mouth, Han, you look ridiculous."

Solo glared at his father. "Was this your idea?"

"No, it was mine," Leia told him, pushing some of her bright red hair behind one ear, then added candidly, "In honour of your daughter."

Luke and Chewbacca laughed and Solo frowned. "My what?" Then he remembered Luke's crazy dream. "Oh…"

Encouraged by Luke's appreciation of her joke, Leia leaned across the table towards the Corellian, showing more than a little cleavage, and teased, "I thought it'd be a good reminder. In case you forget yourself."

"Forget…?" Solo shook his head at her and growled, "Don't flatter yourself, Your Worship!"

Having just come from Solo's charming display by the bar, Luke decided the Corellian deserved to have his ego deflated a little and told him, "I saw you sizing her up before you realised it was Leia, Han."

"Mmm," Perron agreed. "All the blood rushed from his head."

Chewbacca hooted and Solo scowled at him then remembered what he'd wanted to tell them. "We have to leave," he said.

"But I just ordered lunch!" his father protested.

"Sorry, Dad, we've gotta to. There's a couple of unfriendlies watching this table very closely and I'm not about to face them with my blaster in Chewie's bag."

"Why? They can't shoot you here."

Solo shot his father an exasperated look. "They're not the sort of people who obey house rules - "

"Sit down and eat your lunch," Perron growled. "You all need to eat."

"Dad - "

"You think students obey house rules? The university has an automatic security system that stuns any person who draws a charged blaster. Now sit down and eat your dinner!"

Leia smiled grimly from her seat beside Perron and Luke sat beside her. Solo sat a little more reluctantly but neither he nor Chewie relaxed.

Luke was still stinging from Solo's earlier comment about drink and goaded, "Who are they? Old friends?" He was rewarded with a dark look from Solo and Chewie growled heatedly.

"Jaden Farrouq and Seragel Incontinence have, shall we say, a lethal reputation."

Leia frowned. "Incon-" She blanched. "Inconterza?" Solo nodded. "The same one who...?"

"Gizela. Yeah." He wagged a finger at her. "Case in point."

Luke frowned, totally lost at the reference to the princess' medic friend.

"I'm surprised she told you about it," Solo added.

"It was a little hard to conceal," Leia snapped.

"What are you talking about?" Luke interrupted and their meals arrived, brought by a student obviously waiting tables to help pay his way through university. Chewbacca greeted the arrival of their food with a bellow, which nearly caused the student carrying them to drop them. Solo berated the Wookiee and reassured the student, who hurried away without waiting to be tipped.

Perron snorted. "One way to get out of tipping, I suppose." Chewbacca and his son regarded him so innocently that he couldn't help smiling. He shoved the largest platter at the Wookiee and said, "Here."

Chewbacca growled a remark to Solo and they both glanced in the direction Solo had seen Farrouq. Solo shook his head and the Wookiee commenced eating.

Luke suddenly thought to ask Leia, "How's your hand?"

She held it up, showing the new pink skin. "Fine."

Overhead, the weathershields hummed to life, raising the temperature markedly and a moment later the afternoon rains started.

"Incontinence has a bad reputation with women," Solo continued, taking a mouthful of his meal. "He likes to mutilate them." Luke paused with his fork halfway to his mouth. "Giz found herself at his tender mercies a few years back."

Luke had known about Han and the medic's prior friendship, but had assumed it had been some sort of relationship. This suggested something far grimmer.

"Is that how you met?" he asked.

"I first saw her in Jabba's palace on Tatooine," Solo said through a mouthful of food. "Incontinence had beat her to within a millimetre of her life." He swallowed and added matter-of-factly, "No one deserves that son-of-a-sith. I gambled for ownership of her and won."

Luke almost dropped his fork. "Gizzy was a slave?" He looked to the princess for confirmation and got a grim nod. "How...?" he started lamely, not even knowing what questions to ask.

"Why the hell are they here?" Solo muttered, glancing nervously over his shoulder, expecting a vibroblade in his back at any moment.

"Probably the same reason as every other smuggler on the planet," Perron said between mouthfuls. "A shipload of drugs."

Solo shook his head, "Incontinence, maybe, but Farrouq works for higher stakes. Tell me, Dad, does the Empire know who discovered this thing with the lazechs?"

Perron shook his head, "I have an understanding with the university. They get credited with anything I-"

"But given the right persuasion they'd be bound to tell. Did they know exactly where you were?"

Perron shook his head again, perturbed, "No, I move with the Kivvies - "

"And no one who isn't welcome can find them."

"That's right."

"Did you know a kid named Treis Lowmon?"

Perron frowned, somewhat surprised. "Is he why you're here?" He looked at the princess and she nodded. "He contacted me three weeks ago about a field study. I told him to piss off."

"He's dead, Dad."

"Did you find him?" Leia asked quickly.

"No, but it's a good bet the Empire did," Solo replied. "He's listed as missing on a solo field trip, and I don't think they meant he was by himself. It's a good bet he never even left the campus."

"The last report we got from him suggested a breakthrough in his investigations," Leia said. "If he had traced the origin of this compound to you," she looked at Perron, "and was discovered..." Alarm filled her eyes. "You said the medic, Tevorac, was Imperial?" Perron nodded, looking perturbed. "And he knows you're back." Leia pushed her plate away. "Han's right; we have to get out of here."

"You're not going to believe this," Luke growled, "but look what just walked in."

They all looked at the entrance in time to see the last of a small squad of stormtroopers enter the main hall.

Solo looked at his father. "Did you pay for this?" he said, indicating the food and Perron nodded. "They're definitely on to you, Dad."

Suitably peeved, they were in the process of standing when Chewbacca barked a warning and Solo glanced over his shoulder and swore.

"Two men on their way over," Perron confirmed then asked, "Are you always this popular?"

Solo was going to point out to his father that the stormtroopers had actually come for Professor Solo when Chewie alerted him to the look that Inconterza was giving the princess as he approached. Memories of Gizela's suffering rushed to the fore and Solo felt his blood run cold. There was no way he was going to let Leia suffer something like that. Without thinking he moved to her side, ostensibly to help her out of her seat, and Leia frowned at him.

Luke it seemed had recognised the danger she was in also, because he moved closer to Solo and murmured under his breath, "Tell them she's your wife."

"What?" Solo hissed.

Leia looked equally startled.

"That way one of us can be with her at all times," Luke reasoned hastily.

"Tell them she's your wife!" Solo protested, but Luke shook his head.

"They'll just kill me and take her anyway," he said in a voice that brooked no argument. "You're here visiting your father."

Solo wanted to protest further, but Farrouq and Inconterza had reached their table.

The white-haired man smiled and said, "Hello Solo."

Solo didn't try to hide his displeasure. "Farrouq." He looked at the larger man who was busily leering at the princess. "Incontinence."

Inconterza's eyes flashed up from the princess and he glared at Solo.

"Now, Solo," Farrouq soothed. "Don't be like that." He smiled at the others. "Aren't you going to introduce us?"

"Why?" Solo asked. "These people don't need to know you and you don't need to know them-"

"Why are you here?" Farrouq snapped.

Solo acted put upon. "I might ask you the same question!"

Chewbacca growled deep in his throat and both newcomers eyed him carefully.

"You know there's a fine price on your head," Farrouq observed, and Luke and Leia shot Solo worried looks.

Solo sneered. "Is that why you're here?"

"No," Farrouq admitted, "but it would certainly add to my profit margin." He glanced pointedly at the princess.

Solo's look darkened and he growled threateningly, "Get out of here, Jaden!"

"And who does this delightful creature belong to?" Inconterza asked, moving closer to the princess.

Luke's hand dropped to his lightsabre and Leia went white with fury. Solo put a hand on her arm as she turned to have a go at Inconterza, drawing her close to his side before she could do something they'd all regret.

Seeking to defuse what was fast becoming a volatile situation, Perron smiled amiably at Farrouq and said, "Perron Solo, Professor of Genetics. My son and his wife are here visiting me."

"Wife?" Farrouq regarded Solo with amused disbelief.

"And we were just leaving," Solo said, taking Leia's hand and grinning hellishly at Farrouq. "Maybe next time?"

Solo threw Chewbacca a pointed look then led Leia into the main room without looking back. He knew what Inconterza was capable of and was leaving nothing to chance as far as the princess was concerned.

"Where are we going?" she shouted over the noise in the main dining hall.

"It's you and me they want," he said as low as possible. "Hopefully they won't follow the others!"

Glancing back at Farrouq and Inconterza, Leia saw he was quite right. They had left the others and were following Solo and herself into the main hall. Chewbacca was leading Luke and Perron out of the complex from the garden area.

"Me?" she yelled, "Why me?"

"Because you're with me!" he yelled back and veered suddenly, almost yanking her arm out of its socket. The arrival of the stormtroopers had stirred up student antipathy for authority in general and resentment for Imperials in particular and, as a result, the atmosphere was highly rebellious and antagonistic.

In their struggle through the crowd, Solo and Leia were challenged by almost every table for having the affront to walk past, and it was taking every ounce of control on Solo's part to stop himself from decking someone.

Then, from the corner of his eye, he saw what he had been hoping most to avoid.

Inconterza.

He was only three tables away and grinning at them. Solo swore, but it went unheard in the surrounding cacophony.

Leia was alerted when Solo's hand tightened around hers to an almost painful level and she guessed what had alarmed him before she had even picked Inconterza out of the crowd. She knew enough about the disgusting man to be very wary of him, but seeing him now... the way he was leering at her... It shocked Leia to realise that Solo's fear for her had been profoundly correct. Inconterza was not even interested in Solo. He wanted her.

Solo gauged the time it would take Inconterza to reach them against the time it would take them to reach the door and came up wanting. Risking the princess between them, he waited until the last possible moment then stopped dead. Leia looked at him, horrified and he yelled at her over the noise, "Duck!"

She did, without hesitation, and Solo slammed his fist into Inconterza's face. Inconterza dropped like a stone.

Ignoring the stabbing pain in his hand, Solo grabbed Leia's hand once more and tried to hurry through the crowd.

Across the room, Farrouq was pointing them out to a stormtrooper, who, a moment later, had his entire troop converging on them.

Solo saw the net closing and immediately let go of the princess, filled his hands with food from the nearest table and started throwing it. The owners of the stolen food protested angrily, leaping out of their seats and the princess looked mortified.

"What the hell are you doing?!" she shrieked.

The tables at the receiving end of Solo's fire hopped to the defensive immediately, hurling food at what they assumed to be the offending table.

Solo grabbed Leia's hand again and yelled at the top of his voice, "Food Fight!"

Instantly the air was full of flying food.

It spread through the entire dining room like wildfire, without respect or deference for race, creed or account balance. Stormtroopers, in particular, quickly vanished under a deluge of slop. Leia had never seen anything like it in her life and gawped at the melee, dumbfounded. Solo had to jerk her into action and they continued their struggle through the exuberant crowd, heads down, diverting from time to time to add to the ammunition in the air.

Despite her disapproval of the waste, mess and total lack of respect, Leia was finding the whole thing very funny. A woman at a nearby table was bleating pathetically, trying to protect an intricate hairdo, and at the table next to her a man was eating on regardless, completely ignoring the mayhem around him.

A young man beside her was hit with something that sprayed everyone within a metre of him with green goo. Leia jerked sideways to avoid it, but it splashed across her hip nonetheless.

Solo felt her jump sideways and glanced back, tightening his grip on her hand, but she was fine. He looked towards the entrance again and copped a fruity dessert full in the face.

Pausing to wipe the worst from his face, he staggered as Leia ran into the back of him, pushing him into a Sullustan who was trying to take refuge under a table. Unbalanced, Solo fell against the table, which flipped onto its side and catapulted more food and beverages into their immediate air space.

Leia couldn't help herself. She laughed. She struggled to control it as Solo got to his feet, shaking an unappetising mixture of savoury and sweet slop from his hands. But then he looked at her, and the limp piece of salad hanging from his nose obliterated her control.

She held her side and laughed.

Solo wiped his face with his shirt and she continued laughing. He shook his head at her and Leia tried to stop laughing as he took her hand again, but it bubbled up from the depths of her soul like a volcano that had been dormant too long. Solo chuckled, able to see the funny side, and her laugh was infectious. He dragged her on towards the entrance and still she laughed.

Leia was seeing the room through different eyes all of a sudden; not as Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. And it was truly the funniest thing she could ever remember seeing.

Solo took the opportunity to scoop up a handful of mashed vegetable from an abandoned plate as they passed it, and flung it at her. He laughed as it caught her unsuspecting, slap bang in the middle of her chest. Leia shrieked indignantly and threw it straight back at him. Solo ducked and it hit a woman who was running past behind him.

Solo laughed uproariously and Leia gasped, appalled with herself. Then she was laughing helplessly as he dragged her towards the entrance again.

The troopers at the doorway didn't give them a second glance as they ran through without pausing, down the steps to the street and around the corner. The heavy rain drenched them in seconds, washing off most of the muck.

Solo pulled her into a dark alcove and waited, peering into the street.

"That was great!" Leia laughed breathlessly. "Can we do it again?"

"Shh!" he said, stifling a smile.

"Do you do that sort of thing often?" Leia whispered, sobering. "It's just your style."

Solo indicated quiet and removed a small hold-out blaster from his boot, wincing before he could catch himself. Leia caught the wince and tried to feel the bones in his hand, but Solo jerked his hand out of reach and hissed, "Do you mind?"

"Shh!" she chided.

The sound of running footsteps, dull through the downpour, had them both anxiously watching the street and Solo pulled them deeper into shadow. The small space had them pressed up against one another and Leia, reliving images from the food fight, snickered. Solo shot her a fierce look and she put a hand over her mouth to hide her smirk.

The sounds got closer and finally Seragel Inconterza lumbered past. The sounds retreated and Leia made to leave. Solo stopped her with a firm hand on her arm and she looked questioningly at him.

"He'll be back," he mouthed, and Leia moved around behind him, trying to ignore their proximity.

Pressed up against his back and unable to see much without compromising their safety, Leia found herself staring at Solo's shoulders, watching the play of muscles through his soaked shirt and noticing how warm his skin felt. She wondered how much of her body was visible through her dress and wished she'd thought to grab her pack before they'd fled.

Solo moved his arm fractionally and Leia realised that the faintly blue lines she'd been staring at, absently assuming they were part of his shirt, were actually Kivvidan markings on his shoulder blade. She frowned, realising that, despite his claims to the contrary, like herself and Luke; Solo had been marked by the Shaman. She pushed his shirt aside to get a better look at it, and wondered what the strange Kivvidan thought Solo was or if Solo even knew it was there.

She was opening her mouth to tell him about it when he threw her an irritated glance over his shoulder and jerked his shoulder away from her hand before turning back to watch the street.

Stubbornly, Leia pushed his shirt aside again and proceeded to trace the pattern with her finger.

Solo was struggling to concentrate on their dilemma and not on the feel of the princess pressed up against him. And now, with her finger igniting the nerves in his shoulder, he found himself fighting an instinctive urge to turn around, pull her into a tight embrace and kiss her. He tried to dismiss it as a leftover effect from the nintwine and deliberately adjusted his hold on the small blaster in his hand. His hand ached abominably, and thinking about it only made it feel worse, but it was safer than thinking about kissing the princess.

Her finger hit an extra sensitive spot in its travels across his shoulder, causing him to flinch reflexively and ruin his aim for a fraction of a second.

"Will you stop doing that?!" he hissed irritably over his shoulder at her, once again adjusting his grip on the small blaster, but couldn't meet her eyes for fear that his own might betray his bizarre desire to kiss her. He looked back at the street and muttered, "You're a big distraction."

Leia frowned and decided that she didn't want to think about what Solo might mean by that. Refused to let herself, concentrating instead on listening for the approach of Inconterza. The footfalls were much quieter this time and Solo shrank further into the shadows, the small blaster he was holding aimed unswervingly at the street.

Solo, watching Inconterza's every move, caught sight of his face and realised he'd broken the man's nose. No wonder his hand hurt! He aimed the blaster but did not fire and Inconterza slowly moved out of sight.

Leia, peering past his shoulder, hissed in his ear, "Why didn't you shoot him?"

"Because I don't know where Farrouq is!" he hissed back.

Leia backed off. That made very good sense. A blaster bolt from Solo, while wiping out Inconterza, would pinpoint their position to an observer. And with only one way in or out of the tiny alcove, that was not exactly desirable. But Leia suspected that Farrouq was still looking for them in the dining room.

…

In fact Farrouq was already at the Spaceport looking for the Millennium Falcon. The fact that it wasn't listed by name did not deter him in the least; Solo was renowned for falsifying his own registration. But it left him with the time consuming task of visually checking each of the Corellian-type freighters in dock, of which there were over fifty.

But he would know it when he saw it, without a doubt, and launched himself into the task undaunted; full of anticipation at the thought of presenting Solo and the Wookiee to Jabba the Hutt.

The Millennium Falcon, he decided, he would keep for himself. And maybe give the female to Seragel.