"I'm here, Luke."
Luke lay still in the medical bay, unconscious from surgery, as the droids tirelessly worked to reattach a new cybernetic prosthetic to his right arm. Though he only lost his hand, further amputation was needed to piece him back together. It broke her heart as she brushed cold sweat off his brow, holding his left hand tight. She knew it was likely he wouldn't remember – but the touch of another human, the contact of physical skin against her own, reassured her that she was still living.
The princess turned her head and looked out to vast window before her, the reflection of stars illuminating her pale skin. There was so much out there to discover – so much good, even among the bad. Somewhere nestled within those lost stars, Han Solo was waiting for her, and she was going to find him and bring him home. "I love you," she whispered absentmindedly, hoping he'd hear her plea.
"I love you too," croaked back a dazed voice to her side. Leia tilted her head and looked to her friend as a weak smile swept his lips, his eyes creasing open only to roll back into delirium. Their hands tightened together in embrace as Leia bit down on her own lip, guilt wrecking the remnants of her soul. The love she discovered she had for Han Solo was going to hurt her friend – and that was the last thing she wanted. The man was already in so much pain, she didn't need to add.
She stayed silent as she soothingly tossed her fingers through his shaggy hair, combing him and bringing him back to slumber. "This is all the Empire's fault," she hissed under her breath, making sure to take a look at where his flesh would soon meet prosthetic. "Vader's fault." The princess wondered just how much his physical agony compared to her emotional destitution, thinking of how she'd trade that pain in an instant if it would have kept the two men she loved safe.
"You're a survivor, Luke," she whispered as the droids were finishing up the attachment procedure. "Just like me. We've all been through so much. You won't remember of any of what I'm saying but those scars will stay with you - you can't escape them – they are a part of you now. But those scars," hushed Leia as her eyes began to well up with tears, "they remind you that you are human. They tell your journey and your struggles and the story of your survival."
There were numerous scars on Leia Organa – the light physical ones from surviving torture at the hands of Darth Vader, the emotional scars of losing an entire world of her own people, the spiritual scar of finding love only to have it ripped apart weeks after. There was much she had endured in these three years – but she still stood strong, her head held high, gaping at lost stars in search of a home.
She would survive.