A/N: So sorry for the delay in this chapter! I started a new job and I don't have as much time to write as I did. Also, FYI, a scene in this chapter was inspired by a scene in The Dark Knight. If you haven't seen it, be forewarned, but I think that it's inconspicuous enought that it doesn't give anything away. Bonus points if you catch the reference.

Thanks for being patient!

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Chapter Seventeen: Catching Angels

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"Are the angels coming too; I'm gonna catch them when they come; Catch them as they fall; Climb on top the tower, get me closer to the sky; I'll get the memories back; And save them all for you..."

O.A.R., "The Fallout"

--

Twelve days. It had been twelve days since the evacuation of Echo Base and the last of the surviving ships had finally limped their way to Sullust. Now, they were only missing six: Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca the Wookiee, See-Threepio, Artoo-Deeto, and his little Lelila. The last of the battle reports had come in, and two Green Squadron pilots had reported seeing three Star Destroyers, one of them being Vader's flagship, leave the Hoth system in hot pursuit of the Millennium Falcon. Bail felt his thoughts wander to Leia constantly; fear for her safety was consuming him. The normally stoic Viceroy of Alderaan was cracking under his daughter's absence. A father could only believe his daughter had died so many times before it broke him.

Mace Windu was there, still assuring him that Leia was fine, that she was with Han and she would return, that this was all part of the plan. But Bail, blessed with patience unlimited, but perhaps not as much patience as a Jedi master, was frustrated. He wanted to know why Leia hadn't commed to alert him of their position, why it had already taken them twelve days to get there, why Windu didn't know more about their current predicament. The Jedi had foreseen danger befall his daughter, but he would not reveal where or when or what type. Bail had the sinking suspicion that Leia was going to befall harm at the hands of that monster that fathered her, Vader, before his baby girl was returned to him.

The stress was evident in Bail, and though he possessed the same grace, the same ability to hide his pain that he had instilled in Leia, he could not hide his feelings from his oldest friend. Rieekan ventured to Bail's office daily, would greet him after the Viceroy's shifts ended, sat with him during meetings with High Command. Seven days after Leia's disappearance, Bail had revealed to Rieekan what had been predicted for Leia.

"She's Luke Skywalker's twin," Bail said without preamble, with a resigned sigh, staring out the viewport so he did not see the shock on his friend's face. "They're the children of Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker. Padmé died after giving birth to them, and we had to split them up because they are strong in the Force and Anakin fell to the Dark Side."

"Their father is Vader." It wasn't a question, and to his credit, Rieekan displayed none of the disgust Bail had expected. The other Alderaani, Bail realized, had cared for Leia in his absence as if she were his own daughter, and her genetics meant nothing to him.

Bail nodded, then gestured somewhere outside his office.

"The last of the Jedi have foreseen that Luke will conquer Vader and bring down the Emperor, who is himself a Sith Lord."

"Luke will have to kill his own father?"

"Luke doesn't know that Vader is his father, and neither does Leia. Mace believes it will be easier when the time comes for Luke to kill him if he doesn't know he's ending the life of the father he ever knew. Not that Vader has what I'd call a life," he spat.

"You don't think they deserve to know the truth?"

"I do," he said, "but Mace says that is not up to me."

"What about Leia? Why are they gone?"

Sighing again, Bail collapsed wearily into the chair behind his desk.

"Luke is on Dagobah, training with Master Yoda. And Leia is...gods know where she is, but she's with Han and Mace believes she's safe for now." He trailed off for a moment, studying Leia's baby nerf doll that sat on his desk, a reminder to fight every day for his daughter. "The Jedi," he said at last, "have foreseen a future for her, too. They believe she is going to conceive a child with Han Solo, and that child will restore the Jedi Order throughout the galaxy."

Rieekan grinned in spite of himself. He'd always liked that Solo. He also knew that meant there was big money to be won for some savvy gamblers in the Rogue's pools.

Bail shot his friend a look, but couldn't help the smile that spread over his face as well.

"Han's a good man," Rieekan offered, helpfully.

"That he is," Bail agreed, but then a shadow crossed over his face as he glanced at the nerf doll again. "Leia's just so young."

"She's strong, Bail. She's twenty-three now. If anyone in the galaxy can handle what is put in front of her, it's Leia."

"In a way," Bail mused quietly, feeling like a traitor to his people, "it will be easier for her now Alderaan's gone. She can't flout the marriage customs of a planet that no longer exists."

"She'd be married to Asher Forjd now," Rieekan reminded him. "You would have introduced them last year and she would be married right before her lifeday."

This was true. Alderaan's marriage customs demanded its princes and princesses were assigned a suitable spouse from a very young age and were wed before the bride reached her ruling age of twenty-three. Breha's marriage to Bail was arranged when she was four and he was six, a merger of royalty and one of the most influential families on Alderaan. They were introduced when she was twenty and allowed a period of courtship, and Bail was eternally grateful that he fell in love with Breha, that their arranged marriage was one of joy and not tense partnership as his own parents' had been. When Leia was seven, the Forjd family approached him, offering their eleven year-old son, Asher, and a majority stake in Alderaan's lucrative gem industry. Bail had accepted reluctantly. When he adopted Leia, he'd hoped to offer to her a life of freedom, not one bound to such rigid tradition. However, the Forjd family was powerful, and Asher would have been an excellent husband and Prince of Alderaan when Leia became Queen.

"Do you think she'll be happy with Han? Do you think he'll stay with her?"

Rieekan nodded.

"Han's in love with her. He's been in love with her maybe since he rescued her from the Death Star. You can him trust with Leia's heart, with her life. He would rather die than see her harmed."

Bail chuckled at that, relieved, though his fear for Leia's safety still tugged at the corners of his heart.

"Not much of a mercenary, is he, Carlist?"

The laugh they shared helped Bail's spirits, but now at twelve days without a word from Leia, he could barely stand the frustration. The Rebel Alliance had had the strange fortune to capture an Imperial Lambda-class shuttle that had accidently wandered into their airspace. It was piloted by a lone Lieutenant, whom they were now holding in the interrogation bay of Home One in hopes that he would reveal to them some shred of information as to the Emperor's next move. So far, the pilot wasn't talking, and since the Rebels were far above torturing their prisoners for information, he was content to remain mute every time a member of High Command entered his cell.

At this point, Bail had left the interrogations up to the military strategists, Rieekan, Dodonna, and Madine, of course, as an Imperial would be even less responsive to a non-human like Ackbar. But it slowly dawned on him that the pilot might have some knowledge of Leia's whereabouts and what Darth Vader was planning for her. What's more, he was a recognizable figure believed to be dead by the Empire, and his presence in the interrogation cell might just shock the pilot into talking.

The chrono read 0215 when Bail decided to take matters into his own hands and made his way, blaster concealed in his robes, down the deserted corridors of the Mon Calamari ship and into the detention bay. The two human guards on duty only nodded at him as he passed through the doors and keyed his access into the windowless cell. Bail stepped quietly into the dimly lit cell, and the sleeping Lieutenant quickly sat up on his cot, his eyes widening with shock that melted into a smirk as he realized Bail's identity.

"I thought we killed you."

"Clearly, Lieutenant-" Bail glanced at the Imperial's rank and insignia, "-Preiss, you need to try harder."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that, Viceroy." Lieutenant Preiss' voice dripped with disdain as Bail's title escaped his mouth. "Your days are numbered. The Emperor has big plans for you Rebel scum."

"That may be true," Bail said, cooly, "but I'm not here to talk about that. Tell me what you know about the Millennium Falcon."

The Lieutenant raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised by Bail's demand, but he only answered with a shrug.

"You know something. Two Imperial-class Star Destroyers and the Executor left the Hoth system in pursuit on the Millennium Falcon twelve days ago. Why is Vader following that ship?"

This time, Lieutenant Preiss sneered, an expression that only served to stoke Bail's ire.

"Are the rumors true, then, Viceroy? Has your virginal daughter really defiled herself with that criminal?"

The Viceroy felt his blood begin to boil, and he clenched his fists tightly in a poor effort to contain his rage.

"You will not speak of my daughter that way!"

Preiss began to laugh, a high-pitched, mocking sound, and Bail lunged forward and seized the lapels of the Lieutenant's jacket, shoving the other man roughly into the wall and pinning him there. Preiss had the audacity to look startled, but he stopped laughing.

"Your daughter is a whore," he hissed venomously.

Bail's fist suddenly connected with Preiss' nose with a sickening crack, and the other man dropped to the cot in pain, blood pouring from his nose. Without thinking, Bail grabbed the holdout blaster hidden in his robes and pressed it to Preiss' left temple. The Lieutenant scrambled backward on the cot into the corner of the room, the cold barrel still firmly against his head.

"What is Vader planning?" Bail was shouting now, and the guards outside the door were probably on high alert, but he didn't care. Preiss, bloodied and terrified, looked up at him and began to tremble.

"I-I don't k-know."

"Tell me! Tell me what he's going to do to Leia!"

"I don't know!"

Bail pressed the blaster further into Preiss' temple.

"I will shoot you. Tell me what Darth Vader is planning!"

"Bail!"

The voice behind him was commanding, and it startled both men. Bail turned from the cowering Imperial to see Mace Windu standing in the cell, arms crossed, looking as angry as the Viceroy had ever seen. Without another word or glance at Preiss, Bail tucked away his blaster and walked past Mace out of the cell. The Jedi followed, and together they made their way silently, stoically, from the detention bay to Bail's office. It wasn't until the door slid firmly shut behind them that turned to him and spoke.

"Are you out of your mind?" he demanded, angrily.

"Vader is after my daughter!" Bail's frustration with the entire situation was all-consuming. No one had answers for him.

"Vader won't kill Leia. He's too smart for that and she's too valuable."

"He almost killed her once. Why am I to think he won't try again?"

"The prophecy-"

"To hell with your prophecies!" Bail shouted, slamming his blaster down on his desk. "What truth is there? Didn't you believe Anakin was to be the savior of the Jedi?"

"No," Mace countered levelly. "We believed that he would restore balance to the Force."

"And where then, Mace, is your balance?"

The question hung in the air for a long moment, unanswered. Finally, Bail turned to the viewport, his eyes automatically finding the bright star that was once Alderaan.

"Leia will be returned to you safely, Bail," Mace said at last, his voice of little comfort to the distraught father. "I can say that much for certain. But you cannot ever threaten a prisoner that way again. What if someone had seen you? This war will end, Bail, and when it does, the galaxy will look to you as a leader. If it got out that this was how you treat your prisoners, all this fighting will have been for nothing. You'll be no better than Palpatine."

Bail was quiet for another long moment, but finally, Mace saw the tension in his shoulders relax and he turned from the viewport.

"You're right. I was out of line."

Mace nodded, satisfied.

"Get some rest," he said, and like that, he was gone.

--

Han found Leia in the dark cockpit, so small in Chewie's oversized chair. She was staring at the smooth prayer stone she clutched in her hands, but he got the feeling that she wasn't really seeing at all. He had felt her untangle herself from the sheets; she had put a delicate hand on his chest as she climbed over him and he felt the trembling in her fingers, and he had known immediately what was wrong.

It wasn't the first time Han had been alerted to her nightmares. He'd been traveling with her for three years and the walls on the Falcon weren't built to be soundproof. When she'd fallen ill on the return trip from Ryquin, he'd seen just how bad her terrors got, but he had since been unable to find an excuse to invade her privacy, to enter her cabin and calm her down when he heard her moans in the middle of the night.

He never said anything to her. She deserved at least that much.

But he had gone to sleep with Leia tucked securely in his arm and they had fit together so perfectly. So when he felt her disquiet and he felt her trembling hand and he felt her slip out of the cabin, leaving him suddenly cold, he knew he could no longer let it go. He could no longer let her suffer in silence, let her believe she was alone. So he followed her out of the cabin and watched as she picked up the prayer stone lying forgotten on the dejarik table. He saw her clutch the stone into her and close her eyes against the tears and watched as she crept to the cockpit and deactivated Threepio, sitting quietly behind the pilot's seat, before the droid noticed she'd entered. Han gave her a moment before he announced his himself to her with a quiet voice and the most caring tone he knew. She jumped as he spoke, startled both that he was awake and that he had followed her.

"One of my favorite things about you, Leia," Han said as he slid into his chair, "is the way the corners of your eyes crinkle up when you are really smiling."

Leia looked up at him, her deep brown eyes wide in surprise and confusion, as if that was the last thing in the galaxy she had expected him to say.

"What?" Even though her eyes were dry, her voice trembled as though she were choking on her own tears.

Han reached across the short distance between the seats and took Leia's hands in his owns, closing them around the prayer stone, and he stroked the milky white backs of her palms with calloused thumbs.

"I wish I could see you smile more." Green and gold swam in the wide pools of his imploring hazel eyes, and Leia had to look away.

"Stop it, Han," she whispered fiercely. She tried to pull her hands away, but he refused to let go and instead knelt before her so his arms rested on her legs, bare and cold because she was still wearing the shirtdress from their dinner a few hours before.

"None of this, Leia. I won't let you do this." He lifted her hands to his lips and kissed each one gently.

"I'm not doing anything." She couldn't look at him, so instead her gaze drifted out the viewport and into the stars.

"Yes," he said, his mouth still against the soft skin of her hands, "you are." He paused for a moment, studying the scarcely concealed agony in her face and the tension in her shoulders, then repeated quietly, "None of this."

"Why does it matter to you, Han?" He thought that maybe she intended to hurt him with her question, but he only felt his heart wrench with the pain in her voice. He squeezed her hands with gentle pressure, then moved to sit with her in Chewie's seat, drawing her tiny body into his lap. Leia stiffened, but let him circle her body with his strong arms, grateful for the warmth and security he provided.

With a steady hand, Han brushed his fingers along Leia's face, then lifted her chin, coaxing her gently to meet his gaze.

"It matters because I love you."

The words hung in the silence for a moment, Han's eyes gentle and honest, Leia's wide and questioning as she felt herself begin to tremble again, and then all at once the full force of what Han said slammed into Leia. The tears that she had been fighting since she was jarred awake by her nightmare finally began to fall, and she wrenched her head away from his hand even as he pulled her into him. Han kissed her shoulder as her trembling gave way to shuddering sobs, and Leia, despite herself, buried her face into his neck.

"Han," she choked, and she knew the attempt to calm her voice was futile before she said anything, "you can't. Please."

Leia's words were muffled against his skin, but Han understood. He kissed her hair and tightened his arms still, as if maybe he could make her melt into him and maybe that would take away her pain.

"I love you, Leia," he whispered against her. "Don't do this. Let it go."

"I can't let it go."

"Yes, you can. It wasn't your fault. You have to stop blaming yourself."

"They picked Alderaan because of me, Han."

"Leia-"

"They're going to hurt you," she interrupted, still buried into his neck, "because of me. They'll never stop taking away what I love."

The realization that she loved him, too, tugged at the edges of Han's thoughts, but he was more focused on quieting his princess' fears to feel anything but concern for her. He nuzzled her earlobe and kissed the base of her neck and silently willed her to look at him.

"They won't hurt me."

"They will, Han." Finally, she did look at him, and her eyes were tinged red and the tracks of her tears glistened in the starlight and he thought she was beautiful. "I...I can't..." Leia trailed off for a moment as she wiped away her tears. With a shuddering inhale, she calmed herself and met his eyes and for once she did not bother to conceal the depth of her pain. "It will break me."

Han felt himself gasp under the weight of her words, and he brought his hands up to cradle the sides of her face, leaning in so their foreheads were touching and he could see every emotion swimming in her wide brown eyes.

"I won't let it happen, Leia. I won't." His voice was a husky whisper and it caught in the back of his throat, but suddenly Leia's lips descended upon his in a desperate, punishing kiss. There was a love in the movement of her lips and in the way she raked her fingers across his chest and around his back and pulled him into her, but it was not a tender love. Her movements were passionate, furious, angry, and he answered her with equal fervor. Their tongues danced a frenzied step and his hands roamed her body. He tangled one hand into her unbound hair and the other traveled down her arm, her leg, and under the hem of his shirt until he was caressing the sweet, bare skin of her back. Leia's hands mimicked Han's, and the hand wrapped in his hair pushed his mouth closer to hers still.

Suddenly lightheaded, they broke apart, panting for air, foreheads still touching, and Leia searched Han's eyes in the starlight.

"You can't," she insisted between breaths. "I'm not that strong, Han."

"Yes, you are."

She studied him for a moment, then she shook her head.

"I need you."

"You don't, Leia-"

"No." She kissed him again, but she did not close her eyes. "I need you now, Han."

As Leia's words sunk in, Han felt his pulse quicken and vaguely recalled a few dreams he'd had that started out in a similar fashion. But he smiled and shook his head.

"I don't think you're thinking clearly."

It dawned on him that she should probably be offended by those words, but again Leia shook her head. She didn't speak. Instead, she protested with another sensual kiss, and Han felt his hands begin to roam her body again. He drank in the taste of her, the feel of her on his mouth, beneath his hands, the smell of her hair. She smelled like honey, somehow, after twelve days at sub-light with only his soap on board, and she tasted even better.

Leia was manna from the gods. She was nourishment for his soul. She was a breath of life, what he so desperately needed to survive. He felt at home with her because her name was Leia, peaceful and tranquil and ironic because it had been so long since he had known those and so had she. He loved her and it was right and suddenly it was only Them in the universe, Han and Leia, two souls, perfect in their imperfection. They were meant for each other, and he knew it more and more every time her name slipped off his tongue.