It was a productive meeting. The Senator of Orinda was a respectful and quiet man, as was his entire delegation, and his request to move his assigned Senate seat away from the exuberant and argumentative Dorians was understandable and easy to approve. Leia escorted him out of her office and shared a bow, after which the gentlemen took a tiny step forward and took her hand with fatherly kindness.

"It is not my place, but I'd to share a thought," he offered.

Leia bowed her chin. That's what she was here for.

"Myself and all of Orinda is delighted to congratulate you on your forthcoming child as we are equally saddened by the loss of your husband."

Leia braced herself, and bowed her chin with respect.

"However, I implore you to consider the rules of the original Senate in the Old Republic on that matter. If you recall, those species whom culturally raised their own offspring were not permitted Senate seats for a distinctive reason. The Senate is like a room full of children," he grinned. "We are time-consuming and demanding of constant attention. And anyone needing to jungle that responsibility with one's own true offspring to raise..."

Leia gestured one hand and pulled her other away from his gentle grip. "I understand."

He angled his head. "My Lord, please understand, there is nothing I would rather more than have you on that spire until the end of time. But the deepest purpose of government is to better the galaxy for the next generation, and yet that project is never nearly as important as bettering the next generation themselves."

"Your words are very kind."

"I am simply ask you to consider whom you might endorse as your replacement when the time comes to for you to step down for higher and more important life-term aspirations."

Leia nodded once more, this time deeper in chin, this time with her dark eyes aimed at him to say this discussion is over. "I thank you for your council."

The senator took the hint, snapped his heels with an Imperial bow, and turned to go.

At the desk beside them, Winter heard the whole thing. She sat with hands in her lap and eyes up, waiting in silence in case of instruction or question.

Leia turned and pressed open palms on the desktop, as she did often to pause for thought between meetings. Move made her bend over at the waist, but this time the fast-growing weight of her belly added a level of discomfort-a reminder-to this particular moment of rest.

As much as she dismissed his advice the moment it came out of his mouth, the issue he was trying to make her address refused to be ignored.

Poke.

Leia put a palm on her belly. It felt like a bowl movement trying to shove its way through her pipes. It felt like gas, or a little rock trying to snake around her large intestine, like she had eaten something that-

Poooooooke... Poke. Poke.

A smile flashed across her face. Her hand could almost feel the kick all the way through the skin to her palm.

Winter's eyes went from Leia's face, to her palm, and back up. For once, Winter shattered her usually stoic demeanor and smiled too.

Leia considered this development. And considered the timing of the Senator's advice. One thing was for certain, if he was thinking about how much she needed to step down to raise Breha, hundreds of others were thinking about it too.

Poke.

And it seemed even tiny Breha had something to say about it as well.

If the Force was trying to tell her anything, it was telling her that it was high time to start rounding up help with the 'mother' part of her duties.

With one palm on her belly, staring at the air, she sat down in Winter's guest chair, thinking. She noticed how she instinctively sat down back first so she wouldn't have to bend forward, how she rested back in the chair instead of sitting up in prim and proper fashion, and how Breha continued to gently nudge at her bladder.

Now she had to pee.

After a moment of deep consideration, Leia pushed at the arm of the chair to return to her feet. Instead of saying the instruction aloud, she swiveled the text-comm on Winter's desk and typed the request. She didn't want anyone to hear it. And she watched Winter's expression as the white-haired woman read the idea.

Winter's face at first was a tiny shock, perhaps confusion, until she realized the connection, at which her mouth spread a secret, understanding smile. With a slow blink, she bowed her chin and moved to her contact list.

Leia went to the restroom as she thought hard about this. She returned to her empty office and sat down in the big chair feeling very small, hunched with the weight of responsibility, staring at the floor. This was either a great idea or a very, very bad one.

The comm screen lifted from the flat of her desk and a face flickered into full color. Leia easily recognized the bright sun and blonde background of a plant she knew more about than she spent time on.

They had met once, but it was during a stressful moment in which no connection could be possible. The pale face on the screen was gaunt with lack of sleep. Her trim cut dark hair a slight fray from the day. Brown eyes were bloodshot. But Gina Lendra looked at the screen with defiant strength as though she had expected this to be a prank call.

For a split second, Gina looked a little overwhelmed that she was wrong, but she then looked entirely displeased. for Gina must have assumed, as everyone else in the galaxy did, which side of certain debates Leia would land upon.

"Lord Chamberlain." It was a terse greeting.

Leia folded her elbows on the desktop and smiled warmly, "Call me Leia."

"Wel- I'm-" Gina cleared her throat and a heat of anger settled in her eyes. She aimed them directly at Leia. "What do you want?"

"I comm in peace," Leia assured. "The contents of this call, and the sheer fact that I'm making it, are completely confidential."

Gina flattened her mouth with disbelief and settled back in her chair with a tested sigh.

"From all the family members," Leia added.

Gina seemed torn to believe that. "What do you want?" Her thoughts were clear on her face. I don't need this complication right now!

"First of all, I thought you should know that Nik is on Coruscant. He's staying with Kess and Luke and they are helping him through whatever it is that he's needing help with." She lightened her tone to point out, "I do not know what that is. Nor is it any of my business. But from what little I did overhear, it sounded like you hadn't been informed of his whereabouts, so I thought you should know."

This seemed to ease a fraction of Gina's worries. "Um, thank you? I guess?"

Leia's eyes smiled to point out. "I did promise to keep you apprised of his whereabouts. I didn't assume that promise had expired."

Gina softened a little and nodded. "Well, thank you. He told me where he was going before he left. I'm... I'm glad they're helping him."

Leia sat up a little when she was ready to address the other issue. "There is another reason I commed."

Gina rolled her eyes and closed them with tension.

"Now, here me out," Leia insisted with a palm. "I have an offer for you. And it's not what you probably think. It's not any kind of command, or a request, or even a suggestion. All I'm asking is that you hear me out."

Gina gathered herself and settled. "Okay...?"

"I don't know the depth of the situation, nor do I presume to. So my offer may be entirely off in wild space, and I accept that. But it's an idea that I wanted to share with you in case it would provide a solution for you as well. If it can't, no problem, no one ever need know this comm call took place."

Eyes glared from under black brows.

"No one," Leia insisted with direct eyes.

Gina crossed her arms over her chest and held the outsides of her upper arms. "So, what is it?"

"Ben is seven?"

She nodded, huffing through her nose again.

"And he's had two cases of using the Force accidentally in as many months-

Gina sat up and already began shaking her head.

"Hear me out," Leia scolded, nearly lifting her voice to order it.

When Gina settled again, Leia settled too.

"There are ways to train a child to calm, understand, and avoid accidental Force use. This has nothing to do with Jedi training and does not commit a child for life. It is, I'll admit, the first set of lessons any Force-user gets, but nothing says they can't stop training once those first level methods of recognition and avoidance are in practice."

Gina sat up and argued immediately. "Do you really think you're going to convince me that Luke or Kess would let him go after that? That they're not going to try and persuade him to -

Leia lifted a new palm and gave the woman an impatient glare of her own. Once Gina shut up, Leia explained. "Clearly, you don't know Luke or Kess at all because of course they wouldn't, but that aside... The reason I'm calling you is because it doesn't have to be Luke or Kess that trains Ben these very simple techniques."

Gina's eyes began to search the air for a third Jedi somewhere, and just before she blurted a question, she realized again to whom she was speaking.

Her eyes shifted, and they narrowed. "But you're not a Jedi."

"My point exactly," Leia said, eyes and tone bright. "I don't own a lightsaber. I can't levitate things across the room. I'm not going to run out on some face-off somewhere. No dangerous missions for me. What I do have is years of practice in the basic coping skills. And since that's all Ben really needs to learn..."

To this, Gina's chin twisted on the insanity of this. "You're the Lord Chamberlain though."

"Yes. And, yes, I am very busy. And, yes, I have to stay on Coruscant. But that said, Kess is about to be my family, and no matter what happens between you and Nik, that means Ben is a about to be my family too."

Gina sobered to realize this connection.

" I don't know if you noticed, Gina, but we're running out of family around here."

"Yeah um." Gina looked at her lap. "My condolences on your husband."

"I thank you for your condolences, but..." she sighed slow and gathered her thoughts. "Truth is, my husband is gone. My brother and his fiancé are as busy as I am. My parents are gone, all my extended family... And none of my work friends here, political or otherwise, either never had any children, or don't raise them themselves anyway." Leia naturally sighed to calm the emotion welling up, but then she just let it well up so that Gina could see it. "Gina, I'm four months pregnant... I could really use someone around who has been through this... Someone who can help me keep it all in perspective."

Gina blinked over big brown eyes.

Leia shook her head and smiled through her own overwhelmed sadness. "As disconnected as you and I are, you are the only family I have that has been a mother."

Gina swallowed hard and dropped her mouth open. "Wow... Um..."

Leia tried to smile, "Like I said, it's just an idea. Stay with me on Coruscant for a few months or a year. Let me teach Ben what I know about how to handle what's happening to him, and in return you can teach me how to... face this. When you're comfortable Ben knows what he needs, then you can go home and take Ben with you." She flattened her mouth with the simplicity of it and shrugged.

"And the others?"

"Well, I have gleaned there are some marital issues going on. It's none of my business and I'm not going to pry. But I will make you two promises on that topic. One, if you do come, I am going to tell them you're here. But that's it. The other promise is that I will not deliberately or accidentally facilitate a meeting or comm call with anyone unless you expressly ask for it."

"Can you really make that promise?"

"What do you mean?"

"How can you keep secrets from Luke Skywalker?"

Leia blinked and smiled big, "Many years of practice."

Gina began to show a hint of humor.

"Yes, he is my brother and he's a Jedi Master, but he also knows I am not beholden to supply him with any information about anything, ever. Trust me-this is a non-issue."

Gina eyed the table top for a moment, and her eyes shifted to the screen with wavering distrust.

Leia smiled more and gestured in the air. "I have a huge suite at the top of this big tower and all I've got is a Wookiee, a protocol droid, and a bodyguard to keep me company up there. I'm going crazy in that big empty place. And I need some noise. I need some company. Especially with Han gone and Breha on the way."

"How are you going to prevent an accidental meeting if they decide to show up for dinner or something?"

Leia looked at her like she was nuts. "I'm the Lord Chamberlain. If you think the security around me and my house right now isn't three parsecs thick-

"No, what I meant was- "

Leia stressed it comically, "Gina, I'm the Lord Chamberlain! No one shows up unannounced! That's part of my problem!"

Gina seemed uncertain, but she wasn't angry or distrustful anymore. "I'll think about it."

"That's all I ask. And I'll say it again, unless you say yes, no one will know this offer ever happened."

"Thank you for that."

Leia nodded. "Thank you for hearing me out. May the Force be with you."

Gina started the rote response, and grinned with inward irony when she realized what she was going to say, yet she said it anyway, "May the Force be with you."

Click.

Leia fell back in her desk chair to think deeply. One hand fidgeted with the tips of her fingernails, the other patted her belly. The poking had settled, but Breha had made her opinions known. Leia felt a little guilty for expressing that much truth and emotion to a stranger, but by Gina's reaction to it, Leia was glad to know the tactic worked. It probably wouldn't have worked so well if it wasn't true, but that didn't make Leia fell any better about sharing such personal thoughts she so religiously hid from the galaxy.

In a way, this was a political move. Teaching young Ben some coping skills just may prevent another Empire from rising again in 30 years. Leia was devout in her promise to keep the rest of the family out of it, if that's what Gina chose, for if shielding the boy from the Jedi Academy and its cohorts was what it took for Gina to get Ben the help he needed, then the Jedi Academy and its cohorts could kiss her royal ass if they got upset about Leia's protection of the mother and son.

Leia pushed wearily to sit up to her desk, scratched the bridge of her nose, and tapped the intercom to Winter. "What's next."