Hello again! I'm back. I'm sure you didn't miss me too much while I was gone, right? Regardless, I'm back to updating on a hopefully regular schedule. I've written three chapters ahead, so there shouldn't be any delays unless I physically cannot reach my computer.

My retelling of ESB is going to differ from the movie more than ANH did. It's not going to change canon too much (at least, as little as it can with an OC adition), but said OC does have her own story to tell. It'd be pretty boring if I just retold ESB as you know and love it, wouldn't it?

Chapter 21:

The icy walls of the Tauntaun pen seemed to sap the warmth from Holly's body as she stood in the middle, gazing upon the native creatures. Their stench permeated the room and the corridors beyond, but the comfort of her nose was the last of Holly's worries.

"You're going after him, right?" Holly questioned in a quiet, worried voice.

"I have to, don't I?" Han answered. He buttoned his parka and snatched a Tauntaun saddle from the frozen wall, heading over to the pen in which the native beasts slept. "He'd do the same for any of us."

"I know he would." It was difficult not to know that he'd be all right. "That's why I feel horrible for not doing anything to help."

Tightening one buckle on the saddle, Han turned to her. "It may be better that you didn't. You've never ridden one of these things; it would be more harm than good if I have to rescue the both of you."

Holly sighed. "I know," she admitted, kicking at a pile of snow. "But that's not much of a consolation. I don't like that you guys always go on dangerous missions."

"What, afraid you're being left out?" Han laughed.

Holly's brow crinkled irritably. "No," she snapped, "I just don't want any of you to get yourselves killed for this bloody rebellion!"

"Weren't you the one who tried to convince me to stay, though?" He patted the Tauntaun reassuringly, for its growing agitation showed that it was not happy with Holly's raised voice. "Quiet down, too; you're upsetting this beast."

Holly began to pace nervously. "I concede, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it. There's nothing else you could be doing—" Holly knew that much from her limited knowledge of the franchise. Everyone loves their rebels, don't they? It made sense for such a generic plotline to be in the most generic battle between good and evil there was. "Nonetheless, I was never an enthusiast for the military, no matter what military that happened to be. And I really don't want either of you killed."

Han crossed his arms and gave her a firm look. "Holly, believe me. I'm not going to let him die."

Although she wanted to argue that it wasn't always his choice, Holly kept her mouth firmly shut. She was afraid that if she tried to speak, she'd start shouting again.

"It'll be a short trip, I'm sure of it. I bet you anything that Luke's communicator is just jammed; he'll be back before you know it," Han assured.

"You bet me anything, huh?" Holly let out a short laugh. "Will you wager your precious Falcon?"

"Are you kidding me?" he retorted sarcastically. "Not even Luke is worth that."

She nodded. "Yeah? Not the ship, then." Holly trailed off, hearing 3PO arguing with R2 in the corridor outside, their indiscernible words hardly reaching her ears. "Wait a moment—Han, you have pockets, right?"

The smuggler raised a brow. "Pockets? Of course I have pockets."

Holly reached a hand in the pockets of her own parka. "Now, what have I got in my pocket?" she asked herself quietly, just for the sake of it. "Would you be willing to take Xenon with you?"

She pulled the small droid from his protective layer of cloth and held him out in one hand. He stretched his limbs slowly, as if he were a dog waking from an exceptionally long nap.

"What, are you that tired of him that you'd give him away to me?" Han smirked.

"I installed that transmitter—the one that you found in your cargo bay—in R2. The two of them can talk; they have conversations all the time. If you can take Xenon and just keep him activated in your pocket, he can transmit data to R2. I know you'd transmit data to Echo Base anyway, but I'll stay close to R2 and get my own updates."

Xenon turned to look at her, the unspoken question evident in his stance. "Don't worry, little guy. Mean old Han Solo won't try to smash you like he did at the Cantina. And if he tries to kill you, you try to kill him right back," she cooed. Schooling her voice, Holly told him, "You're going to be fine. I'll see you in no time, right?"

She extended her hand to Han. He glanced quickly from her to Xenon before accepting the droid, who made a warning click. "Hey, you can calm down," he snapped, pocketing the droid warily. "I'm not a fan of your droid," Han whispered.

"Deal with it," Holly dismissed. "His bark is worse than his bite."

"It better be." Han grabbed the reigns of the Tauntaun and lead it from the pen.

42.

The frigid air turned Holly's nose pink as it swept strands of hair and flakes of snow into her face. She had tucked her legs as close to her torso as she could, wrapping the oversized parka around her knees and shivering.

Next to her stood R2 and 3PO, discussing majorly amongst themselves. They had given up trying to talk sense into Holly, because she was behaving even more negatively than 3PO, which was a great feat.

"Has Xenon said anything?" Holly asked.

R2 bleeped a response. "I'm very sorry," his counterpart translated, "but your droid reports no sight of Luke."

Holly dropped her head into her hands. Where could they be? The sun was setting, and it had been nearly two hours since Han left to retrieve Luke. Should they not be back by now? Unless something went wrong….

Han Solo, I will destroy your precious Millennium Falcon if you come back dead.

42.

The doors were closing. Holly couldn't help but squint into the distance, searching for whatever spec in the distance may signal the arrival of Han and Luke. The unending white and grey of the mountains, however, bore no visible sign of either of them.

"I'm afraid that the signal between R2 and Xenon is dying, ma'am," 3PO informed her. "There are any number of things that could have gone wrong—either droid's matrix could be malfunctioning in dozens of different ways. I'm afraid that the probability of troubleshooting the problem before it may be too late, let alone without your droid here, is dangerously. Approximately seven—"

"All right, 3PO," Holly patted his shoulder with a grim look. "I get it. It's not working. Thanks for trying, though," she gave R2 a quick glance before retreating.

Unable to relay the stats to Holly, the bronze droid turned to Princess Leia, leaning against one of the ships. Her face was sullen, in a way that Holly had not seen on her before; was Leia not supposed to always be strong? Looking at her face made Holly's own sadness worsen.

"R2 says the chances of survival are seven hundred seventy-five to one," 3PO reported. Bless him, he thought he was helping. Holly knew that this wouldn't bring any consolation to the princess.

Retreating, the protocol droid added, "Actually, R2 has been known to make mistakes….from time to time." His voice faded away as he and R2 retreated.

Holly wondered what she could say to Leia to comfort her, to convince her that Luke and Han were all right, but she wasn't even sure of that herself. Lying about it certainly couldn't help.

"I'm sure they wouldn't die like this," Holly thought aloud. It was true; hypothermia was such an undignified death for the likes of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. Holly knew that it was ridiculous, basing most of her expectations on what makes a good story, but she hoped at it was true.

"'Like this?'" Leia turned to her, voice flat, quiet. "How would you expect them to die?"

"With a bang," Holly said, "if they had to die at all."

Holly's lack of pessimism didn't sit well with Leia, it seemed. She rounded on Holly, suddenly angry. "You're not taking this seriously!" she snarled. "You don't take anything seriously! Real life isn't one of your fictitious stories where everyone lives and the good guys always save the day!"

Leia had never liked it when Holly spoke to Han or Luke (or even the droids, for that matter) about the different stories back on Earth. Apparently, they were too 'unrealistic' because nobody made sacrifices. Holly had stared at her, agape, wondering exactly why she had wanted Captain Kirk to die Holly told of the adventures of the Enterprise.

Leia didn't know about Holly being from 'Earth'. When it was mentioned, Holly just called it 'home.' The princess didn't know anything about the true nature of Holly's homeworld, save for the fact that the storytellers born and raised there had forgiving imaginations, and she certainly didn't know that her own story was the product of someone's insane sci-fi dream.

Holly couldn't help it; the irony brought a smirk onto her face. Yes, she was scared to hell that Luke and Han wouldn't be perfectly fine, but her morbid sense of humor couldn't rest. If they died like this, the world (her world, that is) would be outraged—it would be like Frodo dying at Weathertop, letting the ring fall to the ground, never to be seen again. The entertainment industry wouldn't stand for that.

"Yes, yes," Holly said. "I'm sorry. But I'm sure they're going to be all right. They've got to be stronger than we give them credit for."

Holly wasn't just dismissing it as unimportant, making a joke out of everything. Instead, she just used humor to diffuse the situation. It was one thing for her to be all grouchy and sad, but the hypocritical and epithetical part of her couldn't stand to see another person so unhappy.

"I hope your faith in them isn't misplaced, or you won't be so nonchalant by the time morning comes," Leia warned, pointing a menacing finger at Holly before turning on her heel and storming out.

42.

That night, Holly couldn't rest. The few hours of sleep she did catch were filled with unsettling dreams of frostbite, the Abominable Snowman, and murderous, rioting fans.

42.

"O'Reilly," called the voice of Captain Russel from across the table. "You need to put down that compression coil and down to the main hangar bay. They've found Skywalker!"

Holly's head shot up, her mouth hanging open in surprise. It took a moment for the words to register in her mind; she'd been so deep in thought before. "What—what!" A vast grin broke out on her face and she was racing down the icy corridor.

She skidded to a stop when, at the entrance to the main hangar, she saw a shifting crowd of pilots and mechanics, quickly making way for someone or something that had to leave the hangar quickly. Could that be Luke?

It soon transpired that it was, in fact, Luke. Except he wasn't exactly how Holly would have liked to see him—laid out on his back on a stretcher, eyes closed shut. He wasn't moving. Three medics pushed the stretcher quickly to what Holly assumed was the med bay, flanked by Princess Leia and Han.

Holly rushed over to them. "What's wrong with him?" She demanded of Han, next to whom she walked. Luke wasn't moving. Why wasn't he moving?

They turned a corner and Leia stepped forward to open the doors. Suddenly, Holly saw Luke's face—and she paled.

It was covered in blood and scrapes, as though Luke had a particularly nasty run-in with a rogue Bludger. A rogue Bludger with spikes. Holly's insides squirmed as she took in the crimson blood that had begun to coagulate on the right side of his face.

She began to feel woozy.

"Okay, okay, Holly," Han said, putting a hand quickly on her shoulder. He must've seen the look on her face—and he knew how she was around wounds. "Luke's going to be fine, Holly. They're going to treat him with bacta for a couple of hours and then he'll be perfectly all right, got it?"

Holly looked from Han to Luke again, pressing her lips into a thin line. She felt something—her own worry, of course, but it was something that wasn't entirely hers. She could feel Luke's pain regardless of whether or not they had any type of empathy just because she was squeamish, but that wasn't it either. There was an old, familiar pain, reminiscent to that he had felt when Obi-Wan or his Aunt and Uncle died.

There was something else, too—sadness had been repressed by an unceasing curiosity. His mind was swimming in a lake of confusion that Holly couldn't possibly comprehend. Despite him being unconscious, Luke's emotions were anything but restful.

What happened to you, Luke?

42.

Holly sat next to a med droid, staring at one of their computer screens. She couldn't read anything on it, but it was all blue and black—nothing red, which she had come to associate as 'error' with these Rebel Alliance computers. She was familiar enough to medical instruments to know what the pulse reading was—his was steady, from what she gathered.

Next to her, Han and Leia stood silently, staring at the bacta tank in front of them. Holly had been adamantly not looking in Luke's direction….not only did she want to spare herself the sight of his injuries, but she felt that it was a testament to his privacy. He was basically floating in the tank with just a diaper; it was one thing to be seen like that by his own sister and his same-gendered friend, but as Holly was neither a man nor a blood relation, she felt that it would be wrong.

Han's jacket let out a strange clicking. More specifically, his pocket did. Before Han himself had time to react, Holly jumped out of her chair and snatched Xenon from Han's pocket. He gave her an incredulous look as she sent a reproachful glare his way.

"You didn't treat him well," she scolded.

"What?!" he asked, affronted. "Your droid just sat there! He didn't do anything to me, I didn't do anything to him!"

Holly cooed, "Han's just a big meany, Xenon, I know." Xenon must have seriously disliked Solo—he nudged his face into her hand affectionately. "All right, buddy, you weren't gone that long," she laughed.

Han huffed. "You better watch it, Xenon, or I'll just…happen to misplace your power cell," he threatened.

"You do that and I'll just happen to misplace the spatial catalyzer of your precious Falcon, Han," Holly retorted, "so that next time you want to make a hyperspace jump, you'll be dead in the water."

Han was about to bite back a reply when Leia cut them off. "Shut it with your childish bickering," she ordered. "They're taking Luke out of the bacta, but it'll be at least a half hour until he fully wakes."

Holly spared the bacta tank a hurried glance before quickly looking away. "Holly," Leia continued, "since you've already skipped enough work today—"

"I'll get back to it, yes," Holly finished.

Leia raised a brow. "I was going to suggest you stay in the med bay with Luke," she contradicted. "He'll need someone with him when he wakes up. Han and I have to meet with Rieekan in five."

"You and me, Princess?" Han wondered. "Why'd he need both of us?"

"Just come on," Leia urged as she turned to leave, shooting one last worried glance to Luke.

42.

Holly was, quite frankly, bored. She had nothing to do but sit in a chair and twiddle her thumbs.

Which, incidentally, is exactly what she was doing.

Of course, it was thumb twiddling with style; Xenon jumped from finger to finger, trying to hang on as best he could when Holly turned her thumbs. It was tricky for Holly because she was trying to make him lose his balance and fall into her lap—but he was surprisingly good at latching onto her fingers.

Holly focused on Xenon in her effort to ignore the figure on the bed beside her. She wanted to look at him, she really did; but whenever her gaze drifted his way, she had to snap her eyes shut. The bacta had worked wonders, but it physically pained her to see even the most minor of injuries on everyday strangers—to see Luke, someone she had known and cared about for three years, was much worse.

Would he think it rude, though, to try and ignore his injuries? Or maybe he'd think he was absolutely hideous—Holly couldn't imagine him being so vain, but something like that could happen to best of them.

He really wasn't ugly. Even with the scars….Holly made herself turn her head, eyes falling on his peacefully relaxed face. No, indeed not. He had changed, of course, since she'd first met him back on Tatooine—both physically and mentally. He'd aged, obviously, but so had she—everyone did.

But he'd also gotten….calmer. Holly could still tell that there were hints of the dreadfully naïve and impulsive kid still in him, but he had become more reasonable.

He was clever, too. Holly couldn't forget that; it was always fun to talk with him. About anything, really, and it wouldn't feel stupid. They could have a completely philosophical discussion about a greater controlling power, then a serious question about bees within the same conversation.

Though she hated seeing him injured, Holly had to smile. Not at the sight of him, of course, but at the thought; Luke was brilliant. The times that she got to spend with him were, most probably, the best parts of being here. After all, it had been him who convinced her to stay, rather than exhausting both of their efforts in the futile search for a way home.

There was a soft beeping from the console a few feet away from Holly's chair. Holly glanced at it, seeing a difference in the readings of his heart rate. Was this bad? Turning back to Luke, Holly saw his eyes flutter slowly open.

He was waking up!

Holly set Xenon down on her knee and leaned forward. "Luke?" she asked softly.

He slowly turned his head to her. Holly could tell that he wasn't entirely awake yet; his eyes were slightly out of focus as he tried to catch her gaze.

"Good morning," he said lazily. "What're you doing here?"

Raising an eyebrow in amusement, Holly leaned back and let him observe his surroundings. "What?" he demanded in confusion and alarm. "Holly, why…." He tried to climb out of his bed quickly, but in his state of disorientation, he very nearly fell from the bed.

"Woah, hold on a sec," Holly warned, catching his shoulders so he wouldn't have to take the life-threatening (or at least, ego-threatening) fall from the bed to the floor. "The med droids said you'd be a bit disoriented for few minutes after waking up. Do you remember what happened?"

"Now I do," he grunted, using her arms as support as he sat back onto the bed. Luke rubbed his eyes. "How bad was it?"

Holly bit her lip. "Not too bad," she said, though the way he flinched in pain when he felt the scars on his face didn't provide much supporting evidence. He shot her a questioning look. "Well, it was worse before," she amended.

"How was it before?" he scoffed.

"Honestly, Luke," Holly sighed. "You look fine. It's just a bit of scarring—I'm sure it'll go away in no time." He seemed to accept that answer. "What happened to you out there, anyway? Han said he just found you in the snow."

"There was a—a meteorite," yawned Luke, who raised his eyebrows in an effort to bring alertness to his sleep-addled mind. "I went to check it out—I know there're loads of meteors in this system, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't anything….dangerous, you know? A scanner or probe."

"Yeah?" Holly nodded, waiting for him to go on.

"But the Tauntaun I had with me, she started acting up," Luke retold. "She'd seen a Wampa behind us. You know what a Wampa is, right?"

"I heard some mechanics talking about one that was apparently spotted to the east," Holly said. "They're bipeds, right?"

Luke laughed grimly. "Don't worry about their feet—it's the claws you should look out for," he said, gesturing to his face.

Holly spared him a pitying glance. "I'm really sorry." Then she asked, "How did you get away from it? Wouldn't something like that have knocked you out?"

"It did," he affirmed. "He had me hanging from the ice. Upside-down!" He grinned at the thought. "But what happened next—Holly, you wouldn't believe what I did!"

"Let me guess, you sang it a lullaby and snuck away?"

"Not exactly. What it had forgotten to do was take away my weapon. Not the blaster—it got that—but the lightsaber. . It fell from my pocket into the snow a few feet away. I couldn't reach it."

"And that helped you, how….?"

He grinned and fixed her with an excited look. "Holly, I summoned it! With the Force!"

Holly's mind went blank. She knew that she was supposed to say something, but she couldn't come up with anything mildly intelligent to respond with. So, in the end, she just settled with, "Er, what?"

Luke showed no trace of residual weariness as he bolted forward to emphasize, "Don't you get it? It was a yard away—definitely out of my reach. I just calmed down, and I concentrated. I pictured it flying out of the snow into my hand—and it just came!"

She couldn't help but laugh at his wide smile. "It seriously worked, then?" He nodded. "Why didn't it work before when we tried it a couple of years ago?"

"Maybe you weren't there to tell me I couldn't do it," Luke smirked. "But seriously? I'm not sure. It might have had to do with that situation being….I don't know, life or death, I guess. If I didn't find a way down and out of there, the Wampa would kill me."

Holly considered this. It made sense; perhaps it was some sort of Jedi survival instinct. Or, it could have been because of the fact that, before, Luke wasn't trying to summon a Jedi weapon. Maybe it was a magnetic lightsaber and Luke had a magnetic hand.

Yeah, not so much. "What if I said that I'd kill you if you didn't….hmm, if you didn't summon that tricorder over there?" Holly pointed to a table of medical instruments.

"Tricorder?" Luke sent her a quizzical glance. Holly felt herself blush.

"Oh, you know! The scanner." Elementary mistake, really; it did look like a tricorder, after all.

Luke laughed good-naturedly. "You couldn't kill me," he dismissed.

"Couldn't, or wouldn't? Because I could and would very well do both if you continue to doubt me." Of course, it was a jest, but she was sure that she could kill anybody who was sitting in a hospital bed like a bump on a log, waiting for medication to wear off. The only issue is, Holly certainly wouldn't kill Luke, no matter what condition he was in.

Luke adopted a rather Han-like mannerism and stated confidently, "You wouldn't kill me because you like me too much."

Again, Holly blushed, but she played it off as laughing too much. Holly didn't blush, she laughed. There was a difference. "Don't get too cocky, Luke, or you may have to change your name to Han. And trust me, what this base doesn't need is two Solo's."

"Then wouldn't we be Han Duo?" he smirked cheekily.

This time, Holly genuinely did laugh, but only because Luke's joke was so bad that she pitied him. "I'm glad you're back, but you didn't have to pick up a bad sense of humor along the way."

"Like yours is any better," he retorted, and the two of them fell into a silence.

It was an uncomfortable silence. The conversation had reached the point where one had said there fill and they should now leave. But Holly couldn't exactly just return to work, not only because Leia had told her she oughtn't even return today, but because she had been obligated to watch over the Princess's injured brother.

Holly snuck a glance back at Luke. Unfortunately, she discovered that his face had contorted into a look of concentration. His gaze quickly shot from her, to the floor, and back again, as if he wanted to say something, but he wasn't sure how.

"What's wrong?" Holly asked, worried. "Do the scars hurt? I could call for the med droid, or the doctor."

"No, nothing's hurting," he replied, but his expression remained troubled. "It's just….I've had something on my mind, since after the Wampa attack," he began.

"You meant, all of the twenty minutes you've been conscious?"

He didn't laugh. "I dreamt about it, too. It's just….right before Han found me, I saw something. Someone."

"Who?" Did he see the great Hothian Hermit that wasn't actually fabled to stalk the snowy mountain tops?

"Ben."

"Who?" He just looked at her for a moment. "Oh, Old Ben! Obi-Wan! Sorry." He sighed exasperatedly. "Wait….what? Seriously?"

"Yeah. He….spoke to me." Luke furtively caught her gaze, as though he were afraid she'd think he was insane. Though what he said did sound ludicrous, he would hardly be the madder than Holly.

"And what did he say?" Holly wondered slowly. Obi-Wan hadn't come back to haunt him, did he? That would be unsettling.

Luke said, "He wanted me to resume my Jedi training."

"I wasn't aware you'd actually stopped."

"Well, I didn't, not really," he agreed, "but I never really progressed, either. We were both just doing the same old stuff, you know?"

She smirked. "You mean all that nothing that we were accomplishing?"

"Yep, and I'd say we were getting pretty good at it to." Luke shook his head and smiled. "But that's exactly the thing—I was getting better with a lightsaber for a while, but there's only so much I could do on my own." There wasn't exactly another lightsaber with which the two of them could fight, if Holly weren't scared to death of lightsabers already. As she hadn't really been much help to him when he practiced, Holly made herself scares, so as not to suffer another burn.

He continued, "And apparently, Ben knew that. He said to go to the Dagobah System—but I'd never even heard of the place. I've never seen it on any star charts. But then again, I didn't look. And when I get there, I'm supposed to find the last of the Jedi."

Holly quirked a brow in confusion. "There's more of them? I guess I thought you'd be the last."

"So did I. But, it's not exactly 'them'—there's only one." He hesitated a moment. "He told me to find the Jedi Master Yoda."

It was a terrible misfortune that Holly could not help but say aloud exactly what she thought. "Oh, Yoda! Yoda. Right." Thankfully, all she thought was a repeat of the name—but Luke eyed her oddly.

"You're familiar with the name?" he inquired skeptically.

Oh no—yes, it was one of the few names that she could actually recognize, because Yoda was quite famous, but she wasn't supposed to know anything about him. Dang it. "What? No. I just like the way it sounds. Yoda. Y-O-D-A, Yoda. It's funny."

Holly could tell by Luke's face that he suspected more to that. "You're sure you've never heard of him?"

Okay, so he wasn't buying the 'funny' thing. Holly wondered briefly if it would be easier in the long run to just come clean about the television thing—but that would bring up way too many immediate problems and, though she wasn't pleased with the fact, Holly shied away from the responsibility it would entail.

"Nobody I know would ever think of a name as ludicrous as Yoda, and even if they did, they'd have to really hate their kid to give it that name. I've never heard of Yoda before in my life."

He still looked disbelieving, but he let the subject drop. Or, rather, he was forced to drop it, because they hear the clanking of metal feet on the floors. They turned towards the door, and lo and behold, 3PO came through, R2 accompanying.

"Master Luke, sir, it's so good to see you fully functional again." Luke smiled wearily at him. "You had us all worried rather extremely last night, I'm afraid. Holly even parted with XE-742 in the hopes of getting more immediate news on yours and Captain Solo's well-being."

"You let Han take Xenon?" Luke shook his head. "That can't have worked out well."

"Neither party particularly enjoyed it," came a voice. Han strode through, with Chewbacca following closely behind. "How you feeling, kid? Don't look so bad to me. In fact, you look strong enough to pull the ears off a Gundark."

"Thanks to you. However, I don't think that Holly would agree," he shot the said engineer a glance. Holly only pondered what exactly he meant by this for a moment.

"So what, she's squeamish? She'll get over it," dismissed Han. Holly scoffed indignantly, though she wasn't sure which one of them to look at. In the end, she just ended up sharing a significant look with Chewie as she stood and let Xenon crawl from her arm to his. "Now that's two you owe me, junior," the arrogant smuggler directed to Luke.

Han grinned when Leia entered the room. Holly groaned; the two were most certainly going to start another argument.

"Well, your Worship, looks like you managed to keep me around for a little while longer." He crossed his arms and smirked the trademark Solo smirk that Holly had come to like just as much as she hated it.

Leia turns up her nose. "I had nothing to do with it. General Rieekan thinks it's dangerous for any ships to leave the system until we've activated the energy shields."

"That's a good story," said Han in a way that reminded her sharply of Tom Paris. "I think you just can't bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your sight."

Holly didn't want to continue to stand in the middle of their argument. She stood and crossed to the other side of the room, sighing exasperatedly.

"I don't know where you get your delusions, laser brain." What a clever insult, Holly thought sarcastically. Leia's really stepping up her game. Chewie seemed to genuinely agree as he let out a Wookiee chuckle.

"Laugh it up, fuzzball," Han insulted Chewbacca, who didn't take kindly to being compared to something so harmless. "But you didn't see us alone in the south passage."

Holly rolled her eyes, but she noticed that Luke looked between the two bickering rebels quickly. Holly passed it off as his protectiveness towards his sister as Han through a shoulder around the princess. "She expressed her true feelings for me."

Leia stared him down indignantly, trying to hide the blush rising in her cheeks. Holly couldn't help pitying her. "My….! Why, you stuck up….half-witted….scruffy-looking...nerf-herder!"

"Who's scruffy-looking?" demanded Han before turning to Luke, who just looked uncomfortable. "I must have hit pretty close to the mark to get her all riled up like that, huh, kid?"

Holly folded her arms and looked down, stepping back. She didn't want any part in their awkward love story. At least, it was awkward for an onlooker.

The princess took a deep breath and schooled her furious expression. She spared Holly the tiniest of glances. "Well, I guess you don't know everything about women yet."

Holly didn't know what to expect her to do—maybe storm out, make throw a punch (though that didn't seem like something Leia would do). Even kissing Han would be more probable than what Leia actually did.

Leia took a deep breath and kissed Luke—not on the cheek, like sisters might usually do, but on the lips.

Holly was sure her face went completely white as her eyes widened in mingled surprise and alarm.

42.

And it's done! Hope you enjoyed it. And to the reviews of the last chapter:

DinosaurImperialSoldier: I've written out the Imperial Attack, and it'll be posted soon. And the relationship between Holly and Luke is a bit slow, but I didn't want to rush into it, so I did the exact opposite. There will be some headway soon, though!

jinglepinglepie: Yeah, I'd guess that the amount of Star Trek trivia puts the Expanded Universe to shame (maybe). Thanks for understanding, though! And since you mentioned it, I love Quark. He's a great character. And we mainly share reasons for hanging around in the Star Wars fanfiction corner of the internet...

myharlequinromance321: It's fine! Your life gets in the way of things; I'm quite familiar with it. And I hope you continue to enjoy the rest of the fic the way you like it so far! Thank you for reviewing!

EGGS: Glad you liked those two chapters! I suppose you'll just have to wait and find out what Holly does when the Stormtroopers attack...and as for the characters, I have to say that Remus Lupin and Obi-Wan are my favorites. Yours is certainly a good choice, though!

TheFrenchGuest: Xenon's back in this chapter! Don't worry about him being absent; I love him just as much, so I'll try and write as many scenes with him as I can. Thank you for your review!

Sardhrantor: Thank you so much for catching my errors and letting me know about them. An extra pair of eyes always helps. Thanks for reading and reviewing!

bb4ever1000: Thank you! I'm personally really excited for the new events...and I hope they keep falling into place, instead of falling apart. I'll keep updating, though, and thanks for your support!

KiwiBird13: So glad you like it, and that you seem so enthused...It's really appreciated. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

Killergodzilla02: Sorry to keep you hanging for so long-but it's finally here! Thanks for reviewing.

See you next week with chap. 22!