Hola, amigos! It's my birthday on Friday! Yay!
Shout-outs this week go to: Jedi Everdeen, and Taboo22 - as ever, I am much obliged. :) Hope you enjoy this week's chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or any of its characters. Only Alice is mine.
When Alice woke up, it was to find her eyes sore and bleary, and her body uncomfortably cramped. For a moment she couldn't piece together why she wasn't in her bed. Then she remembered that, post Han and Luke going missing the night before and not wanting to leave the control room, she had slept in a chair, where she currently sat.
Leia had tried to talk her into going to bed, but she had flat-out refused, and eventually the princess had given up in disgust. Perhaps that was a little childish of me, Alice thought guiltily as she stretched. She rubbed her eyes, and blinked fiercely. As much as she would like to conceal it, she had cried a little before she fell asleep last night.
I'm so glad there aren't any mirrors around. I look like a rabbit with conjunctivitis when I cry.
"Alice." Leia's voice came from behind her, and was stiff and tense. Most of that could probably be attributed to the fact that Han and Luke weren't back yet. But Alice still felt she'd behaved badly last night – Leia already had enough to deal with without putting up with a stubborn history student as well. "Um, Leia…listen, I'm sorry if I seemed a little…a little immature last night. It wasn't really very fair to you…I know you're just as worried about Han and Luke as I am."
The princess seemed to consider her words. Then her face softened slightly. "Thank you, Alice. I understand. I'm sorry if I was sharp with you."
Alice laughed, and Leia raised an eyebrow at her quizzically. "What?"
"Nothing," she said, waving her hands around in an impression of a startled hamster, "that just sounded like something an old school teacher of mine would say."
Leia cracked a smile at this, and Alice felt quite proud that she had managed to lighten the mood even a little bit. The princess turned to Alice's friend Lana, who had been on shift overnight and had been the one responsible for eventually stomping over, covering Alice up in a blanket and telling her to shut the hell up. "Have you heard anything from them?"
"Nothing, your majesty," said Lana, typing away at her monitor, "but there is good news. Our engineers have been working through the night and we have managed to adapt the speeders to the climate at last. In the last hour we have sent out a full detachment of troops to search for them."
"So…" Alice stared at Leia, "what do we do now?"
"We wait," Leia replied with a shrug.
Alice huffed, "I hate waiting. Waiting's the worst."
"It's all we can do. Unless you have any better ideas?"
She opened her mouth to retort – then suddenly an idea sprung to mind, and she smiled. "Princess Leia. Your majesty. How would you like to see some gymnastics?"
Alice wasn't quite sure how she ended up putting on a gymnastics show for almost the entire Echo Base, but here she was, wearing the most leotard-esque outfit she could find, being cheered on by an entire platoon of soldiers. They were an excellent audience, shouting, whooping and gasping at appropriate moments, but still, they were a far cry from the normal gymnastics crowd.
She grinned, and raised her hands to quiet them, "Ladies and gentlemen-"
"And droids!" Someone yelled.
"And droids," Alice included, graciously. "For my next trick, a one-handed handstand, wait for it…on this little tiny platform thing!" They all oo-ed and ahh-ed, obviously very eager.
The little platform in question was part of the obstacle course Alice had completed on her second day here, and it was perfect for what Alice planned to do. 'Planned' being the operative word. A one handed handstand on a small circular platform about five feet off the ground wasn't exactly something she'd practiced.
She took a deep breath, and stepped up towards the platform, when suddenly, a single voice rose above the chatter of her audience. "We've found them! We've got them!"
Everyone froze. Then everyone unfroze very loudly and dramatically. In a similar scene of elation to the blowing up of the Death Star, all the rebels gave a massed cheer. They jumped up and down and thumped each other on the back and Alice, shoving her way through the crowd as quickly as possible, shouted to Leia, racing along at her side, "I didn't realise everyone liked Han and Luke so much!"
"Me neither," the princess replied, as they reached the corridor.
"Shall we go and meet them?"
"No time," said Leia, "they'll probably take them straight to the medical bay to check for injuries. Let's go there."
"Right you are."
Alice had to credit it to Leia, she knew the minds of her…employees? Butlers? Followers? Eh…let's call them troops. She's not exactly leading a cult. It turned out Luke and Han had just been brought in the second before they arrived.
They found Han relatively quickly, only two rooms down and undergoing a full check-out. He was wrapped in a foil blanket and looked twitchy. "Han! You're alright!"
"Just about, kid," he said tersely, shifting in his seat and jostling the doctor trying to treat him. "Stop fidgeting," Alice chided, stretching a hand out to still him.
"Have you seen Luke yet?" He demanded, pushing her away.
"Not yet," she said, anxiety building, "is it bad?"
"I don't know either, because this wonderful woman isn't letting me go and see him," he said through his teeth, glaring at the doctor. The woman looked unfazed as she pulled her gloves off with a snap, "There. Finished. Now you may go and see your friend."
Han was up and out of the room almost before she'd finished speaking, the blanket she'd given him dropping to the floor as he went. The doctor sighed, and went to pick it up. "Please, make sure he keeps this on?"
"I'll certainly try," said Leia, grimly.
They followed Han along the corridor and into a slightly larger room, dominated by a large, clear tube in the middle. Alice stared at it puzzled, then suddenly realised- "Oh my god!" She threw up her hands to shield her eyes, not sure whether to be more worried about the fact that Luke was floating in a glass tube of water, or embarrassed by the fact that he was wearing more or less nothing.
"Alice?" Leia asked curiously.
"He's…he's ah, scantily clad," Alice said, gulping.
"You are so strange," Leia said, shaking her head, "five minutes ago, you were worrying about his safety, and now you can't look at him because he's not wearing a shirt?"
"Yeah, well, that's me. A walking contradiction." Alice blinked, "Ooh. I think I might just have quoted a 'Panic! At The Disco' song in an everyday conversation. Winning!"
Han and Leia looked at each other. Alice gave them a thumbs up. "So besides the fact that he's nearly naked and underwater, Luke's okay, right?"
"He should make a full recovery," one of the doctors said.
"Great." Alice smiled brightly, "I'm going to shout at him when he wakes up."
She sat with Luke for the rest of the day, partly out of concern, though partly, if she was honest, from a lack of anything else useful to do. Leia and Han, both busy with other things, came and went, though each always posed the question, 'Any change?' every time they arrived. Eventually, she had to go to bed, but hurried back the next morning to check on him, gathering up Han and Leia as she went.
Leia seemed eager when Alice knocked on her door in the morning, but she took over an hour to get ready. Alice bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, and moaned to Han, "Why is she taking so long?"
"It'll be those ridiculous clothes she wears," Han grumbled, rolling his eyes and yawning like a lion. About ten minutes after this exchange, Leia finally appeared, and Alice dragged the two of them down to the medical centre. Luke was still in his healing tube when they got there, but Alice noticed that the bruises and cuts on the side of his face were much less pronounced than they'd been yesterday.
"Better," the medical droid said in its wheezy voice, "he should be ready to emerge today."
"Like a butterfly," Alice commented. Then she was suddenly attacked by dozens of mental images of Luke prancing around in a butterfly costume and had to stifle a giggle.
Suddenly, in the tube, Luke twitched. Alice jumped, and stared at him beadily. He's waking up! Yaaaay!
Luke flailed around a bit more, then suddenly his eyes snapped open. He stared around a bit, bleary-eyed under the water, then pushed off the floor of his tube and up to the surface.
This was apparently a cue for Alice, Han and Leia to be chivvied out of the room, post-haste. "We'll let you know when he's ready to see you."
"Hey, wait!" Alice called, indignant, as the doctors and medical droids swarmed around the tube, entirely blocking Luke from their view.
"Save it, kid," Han said, "you'll get your chance to tell him off."
"Speaking of which," she said, poking him in the chest as they left the medical centre and headed down the hallway – now that Luke was okay, it was acceptable for her to start picking on Han, "you aren't off the hook either, you know. What was with the disappearing act? I'll have you know, Leia was extremely distressed!"
Leia flushed instantly and glared fiercely at Alice, who realised too late that she'd made an error of judgement. "I mean, um…"
"Distressed, were you, princess?" Han asked, looking delighted, "Well, well, what do you know. I guess you do care about me after all."
Leia stuck her nose in the air, and swept off without replying. Alice bit her lip, "Oops. I guess I'm in trouble now."
"Hard to stay out of trouble with that one," Han said, still sounding distinctly pleased with himself.
"You know," said Alice, hesitantly, "you could try to be a little…sweeter to her. I mean, I know you've got the whole bad boy thing going for you, but…just a suggestion."
He eyed her suspiciously for a moment, then shook his head, "Come on. Let's get some breakfast; I'm starving."
"You go," she said, waving a hand, "I should probably try and make peace with Leia. If I can find her…"
Yeah, because it's a bad idea to have a princess for an enemy…
Han raised a hand and headed off in the direction of the canteen, while Alice tried to figure out which way Leia had gone. She retraced her steps as far as the medical bay, but got distracted as Tal suddenly popped up in front of her. He was halfway down the corridor, but when she called his name, he stopped, and turned around. "Tal!"
"Alice," he smiled, "how are you?"
"Fine, thanks. Did you hear? They found Luke and Han."
His face brightened, "Have you seen them yet?"
"Well, I've seen Han – no injuries or anything. But Luke was underwater…and wearing Speedos..."
"Huh?"
Alice shook her head, stifling a laugh, "Sorry. I mean, he was in this tube thing, with water in it? And then the doctors took him away. I don't know when I'm going to be allowed to see him. I don't suppose you need a hand with anything, do you? To pass the time?"
He seemed to take pity on her, and smiled, "Sure. Come on."
When they reached the stables, Alice was delighted to find Aleya there, brushing down one of the tauntauns again, which looked rather pleased by all the attention.
"Hey, Aleya."
"Alice," she said, surprised, "what are you doing here? I mean…Commander Skywalker?"
"I'm not allowed to see him yet," said Alice, raising one shoulder in a shrug, "so I came to help out. Need a hand?"
"Um, yes, of course." Aleya handed Alice a brush and directed her to simply mimic her actions. The tauntauns stank even worse up close, but brushing them felt strangely soothing. Alice could almost feel her eyelids drooping. So this is what people are talking about when they say looking after horses can be like therapy. Well, I am all for this, this is great.
"Alice?" Aleya had a really sweet, shy little voice – luckily, you could tell that it wasn't put on, so it wasn't annoying – and right now she sounded even shyer than normal.
"Yep?"
"Are you and Commander Skywalker…you know?"
Alice raised an eyebrow, "Are we…what?"
"Um…together?"
Alice stopped brushing, a light blush spreading across her cheeks, "No. We're not. At all. Ever. Why does everybody think that?"
"Maybe because you kissed him before he blew up the Death Star? And then you came to Hoth with him? And then you waited outside in the sub-zero temperatures when he went missing? And then-"
"Yes, thank you," Alice cut her off, perhaps a little more forcefully than necessary. Smart arse. "Luke's just my friend. That whole…kissing thing was entirely accidental." She coughed awkwardly, and went back to brushing.
"Oh. I see."
And then there was silence, apart from the odd, ducky-roaring sounds of the tauntauns. Alice split her attention between brushing her tauntaun and trying not think about Aleya's intimations about herself and Luke.
"Alice Miller?"
She glanced up to see a random member of the rebellion (she didn't have anything against him, she just didn't know who he was) standing in front of her, an anxious look on his face, "Yes?"
"Doctor Rannera sent me to find you – she says Luke Skywalker is clear for visitors now."
"Great," Alice said, jumping to her feet. She handed her brush to Aleya and said, "See you later."
The other woman didn't reply, just smiled and waved. Bless.
Alice hurried to the medical bay – at the moment she arrived, several doctors and a medical droid came streaming out of the main entrance and dispersed through the corridors. At least two of them, she was relatively certain, had been in the room when Luke was taken out of the tube.
Slipping past them, Alice made her way inside and found the same female doctor who'd been examining Han the day before. "Um, excuse me…Doctor Rannera?"
The woman looked up, "Yes?"
"Luke Skywalker? Is it okay for me to see him now?"
"Yes, he's just woken up. He's in that room just down there."
"Thank you. Oh, by the way? The way you dealt with Han yesterday? Awesome. Give me a high five." The woman clearly had no idea what Alice had just said, but gamely raised her hand as directed and allowed Alice to high-five her.
Her work spreading modern Earth customs done, Alice headed in the direction the doctor had pointed. She hesitated outside the door, then slammed her hand against the opening switch.
With a hiss, the door to the hospital room slid open, and Alice peered inside. It was a large white room, dominated by a narrow, uncomfortable-looking bed right in the middle.
Luke was stationed on it, facing away from her and thankfully fully clothed. From what she could see of his face, he looked slightly paler than normal, and more tired. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward, letting the door slide shut behind her.
Luke looked up abruptly, and everything she knew about how to talk to people simply fell out of her head. She opened her mouth, made an odd garbling noise that was half sigh, and shut it again. He stared at her. She stared back. Why…why am I so socially inept?
She tried again to speak and managed to get out, "How are you?"
He shrugged one shoulder, as if nearly dying of exposure was an everyday occurrence. "Tired. But not too sore. And you?"
"Um, alright, yeah. Well. A little annoyed actually."
"Annoyed?" He frowned, puzzled, "Why?"
"Because you went off and got yourself nearly frozen and now I can't really shout at you because you're still ill." He looked slightly worried, and she said, quickly, "I mean, I only want to shout at you because I thought you might be dead. It's all in good fun, um…anyway. Basically, I'm glad you're okay."
"Oh." He still looked slightly concerned, though whether for himself or for her, she couldn't tell. "Well, thanks. I'm glad you're okay too."
Another awkward silence fell. Why is it that our conversations are pretty much characterised by awkward silences?
She hesitated, then shuffled over and leaned against a cabinet opposite his bed, "Do you mind?"
"No, you go ahead."
"You're making quite a habit of this running off and getting yourself into trouble, you know," she said, shaking a finger disapprovingly at him, "it's not good."
"I suppose," he said, guiltily. "I'm sorry, Alice. I didn't mean to upset you…or Leia."
"Mm," she hummed, trying to ignore the way he sort of lingered on Leia's name. "What actually happened though?"
"I got attacked by a wampa. It knocked me out then killed and ate my tauntaun."
"Oh," she said, blinking, "wampas sounding a lot less funny all of a sudden…"
He cracked a smile at that, then winced as the motion tugged at the still-healing scars on his face. "Oh," Alice said, guiltily, "sorry. Is it…?" Before she could really think about what she was doing, she reached out her hand and sort of…brushed his jaw with her fingertips. What the…? Um…
He glanced down at her hand, now hovering about a centimetre from his face, then looked up and met her eyes with his blue ones, with an expression she couldn't quite read… Hold up. Wait. What?
"Master Luke! We were told that you were now well enough to receive visitors and we- oh…"
Alice snatched her hand away from Luke's face instantly, and felt a hot blush spread its way all over her face as though someone had just flung tea at her. I have got to learn to control that reaction.
"Hey guys," Luke said as if nothing had just happened, turning to Threepio and Artoo, who had apparently just walked (or rolled) stealthily into the room, "it's good to see you."
"I'm just so glad that you're once again fully functional," Threepio said, with typical tact. Artoo beeped, and the golden droid went on, "Artoo expresses his relief also."
"How're ya feeling, kid? You don't look so bad to me." Han came striding in, Chewie firmly in tow, and Alice instantly took it upon herself to avoid his gaze at all costs as she said, "Of course not. He looks fine."
"Thanks to you," Luke said, quite seriously to Han. She glanced up at them tentatively – Han crouched by Luke's bedside like a father with his son, and Luke gazing at the older man with respect and gratitude. Naaaw. Bromance!
"That's two you owe me, junior," Han said, teasingly. There was a rustle from the other side of the room, and Alice glanced up to see Leia standing quietly by the door, watching them. Immediately, she started sending Leia 'I'm really sorry for implying that you were upset about Han, I severely miscalculated' thought waves. Leia met her eyes and smiled in a warm, forgiving manner. Alice grinned. Female telepathy rocks.
"Well your worship," Han said loudly, "seems you managed to keep me around for a little while longer."
"I had nothing to do with it," Leia said, with a hint of superiority, "General Rieekan thinks it's too dangerous to let any ships leave the system until we activate the energy shield."
"Well, that's a good story," he said, mockingly, "but I think you just can't bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your sight."
"Han," Alice muttered, seeing Leia's lips tighten and sensing danger, "drop it."
"Thank you, Alice," Leia said, still glaring at Han, "but it's alright. It's obvious that laserbrain here is deluding himself."
Chewbacca snickered and Han raised his eyebrows at him, "That's right, laugh it up, fuzz ball. But none of you," he gestured to the three of them, "saw us in the South Passage, where she expressed her true feelings for me."
Alice snorted, "Han, trust me, you are seriously pushing your luck here."
"Ally," Han said, rolling his eyes, "come on, I think that-"
"No, no, she's absolutely right, you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder!"
Han's mouth dropped open in a pantomime of shock and outrage, "Who's scruffy-looking?" He leaned down next to Luke, who looked far from happy with the current topic of conversation. Desperate to stop Han's mad escapade to make everyone annoyed at him, Alice tried one last time, "Han, seriously. Shut up."
Ignoring her, Han cocked his thumb at Leia and said, "Wow, must have hit close to the mark to get her all riled up like that."
Alice glanced twitchily at Leia, who looked icily furious. "Well," she said, striding towards Luke's bed – it was getting quite crowded with all of them gathered round it like this. "I guess you don't know everything about women yet." And with that she leaned in and kissed Luke. Properly. On the mouth.
Alice stared, her own mouth dropping open. Han's expression was surprisingly similar. What? No! No, this is…so wrong! I don't even know where to start with this one!
"Uh…but…you…wha-?"
Leia broke the kiss, and straightened up a flush already spreading across her pale cheeks. Then without a word, the princess turned and left the room, leaving Alice with a stunned Han and a slightly smug Luke.
She shut her mouth with a snap, glanced between the two of them, and said, slowly, "I'm…I think I'm going to…go away now." She was halfway to the door when the PA system in the room crackled into life. Alice missed most of what it was saying, but across the room, Luke and Han stirred, apparently hearing something relevant to them.
"What?" She said at once, "What did it say? I didn't hear."
"Come on," Han said, beckoning her. "Take it easy," he directed at Luke. Alice glanced briefly at Luke as they left – and was pleased to see he had decency enough to look slightly guilty as their eyes met.
Thanks for reading and please review!