It was a little surprising, to see Han emerge still in the grip of sleep. Leia didn't remember him like this from earlier; he always seemed to be awake. Maybe her sleep cycle had been different than his, since he was working the cockpit then. Maybe his night had been as restless as hers. Had he drunk all the whiskey? He was usually so alert, on.

That Han put her at ease, despite Luke's mention of dents and bounty hunters, because he anticipated something happening. That Han wouldn't get caught. This ain't real life, he had said of her skill with the training remote and spun a tale for her of being wanted and watched.

Surely, that level of vigilance was exhausting, and it took discipline. And the Alliance was patrolling around Home, over Buteral, identifying threats. She supposed he was entitled to a night off.

She studied him. He squinted at her from the soft light behind him in the corridor, grunted in response to her "good morning," and his hair was going in a few directions. It looked like he had slept in his clothes; the neck of his shirt was not centered properly. Either that, or he had just thrown them on. At least the gun holster was off, as were his boots. Gray socks covered his feet, and the big toe of one was developing a hole.

Sleepy Han had an appeal. He looked warm and touchable. But instead of wide awake he was wide open, vulnerable almost. This Han could get caught.

"Lights," he croaked. The galley did not brighten. Han scowled at Leia.

"I couldn't get them to work either," she answered his accusatory look.

He went over to where the warmer and cooler were installed into the wall, and slapped it with his palm. Lights flickered in response, then fell back into darkness. He slapped it once more, and they came on.

Han gave her a new look, one of self-congratulation.

Leia rolled her eyes. She was tempted to irritate him, because it seemed like it would be easy to do, and the charm of his appearance was working off quickly.

"I'll wait until you're human," she said instead, because it would also be easy for him to irritate her, and that's not how she liked to start the day. She left him to grope for a dispo cup.

Her comm had messages: a meeting request from General Rieekan, a reminder from Dr. Renzatl, and a farewell from Mon Mothma. Leia didn't know if she should be disappointed Mon hadn't asked to meet. She decided she didn't care.

Chewie was refreshingly the same. He went through the hatch to collect the other blankets Luke's Rogue team had borrowed, and also recovered a deck of cards. He waved them at Han with a comment.

Leia didn't ask for a translation; Han was too grumpy, and she wondered what he said. Almost forgot these, maybe. Or Those Rogues sure are slobs. It sounded a little resentful: you'd be blaming me when you couldn't find them. Any of them fit, and she wondered which one Luke would sense.

She was still answering messages when Han appeared a short time later, the one she was familiar with. The one who wouldn't get caught. He surprised her by announcing he would take the shuttle down with her.

"Captain Trillo said Buteral would see a lot of ship traffic today," he explained. "Lots of departures."

"Yes, everyone who came in for the welcoming ceremony will be leaving," she agreed. "But I don't need an escort."

"Who said I was escortin' you?"

"Oh, I forgot." Leia didn't know why his answer was so irritating. "Your job hunt."

"I'll be stuck dirtside all day," he said, "You'll have to entertain me."

His grin slanted upwards, Leia thought if he weren't so keen to pick up work it might be hope, so she told him, "You're a grown man."

"S'what I thought," he mumbled.

Chewie made to crawl through the hatch.

"No, you stay here," Han directed.

The Wookiee straightened, and his language sounded frustrated.

"Then," Han rejoined with sarcastic patience, "that's when you bring the Falcon down, right? Fuck, Chewie. Make sense."

On the shuttle, a few of the journalists recognized her and Leia leaned toward Han to engage him in conversation and hold them at bay. She didn't want to talk about anything they would want to, Alderaan or the war.

"Chewie wanted to come?"

He wasn't very helpful in assisting her. "Yeah," was all he said.

"He's been cooped up on the ship," Leia observed. "I can see why he'd want to come dirtside."

Han shrugged with his lips.

Leia persisted. "Why didn't you let him?"

"He doesn't need to."

"But, if he wanted to-"

"It's not what he wants," Han interrupted. "It's what he thinks. That he's got to follow me around, be my shadow."

"Shadow," Leia murmured, and in her mind Chewie was asking Han may I walk in your shadow just like Carlist Rieekan had asked her. "Maybe he's not following you. Maybe he actually likes you."

Han snorted. "There's nothin' else to him but the life debt."

"That's not true," Leia objected. Han had mentioned it last night, just introduced it. Leia had heard of life debts, but they generally weren't employed among humans- the species were far too flighty- and they weren't common. "I've never thought about the receiving end."

"It's a pain in the ass. Every time I cross the street wrong, he thinks he's got to be the one the speeder hits."

"But, he means it," Leia reasoned. "Because of your actions-" she kept her voice low and her vocabulary generalized, her eyes roving the shuttle's interior, mindful of spilling his history accidentally to a journalist when he'd been unwilling to speak it to Luke or Leia.

"It's a decision," Han argued. "I made one, once. Now he's got to make the same one over and over, when there's no need to make one?"

"You feel like it diminishes your decision?" Leia asked. She wasn't quite sure what Han found so irritating about owning a life debt.

"No." Han had to think about it. Apparently, he didn't let himself go past being irritated. "It diminishes him."

And Leia thought she was close to understanding. "That your life is more important than his. That does diminish your decision, in a way, right? because you-"

"Whatever." Han was still irritated. "It's a pain in the ass," he repeated.

The journey dirtside only took minutes. Leia turned her gaze out the porthole, but the moon was dark and she could make out only shadows that hinted at the topography. The lights erected by the Alliance were bright dots. When she looked not through the porthole but at it, the interior of the shuttle was mirrored. Leia's own face was there, small and pale.

"I had maidens. Twelve," she told her reflection. "As Princess. And that's exactly what they did, walk in my shadow."

Han looked at her. "For protection?"

"No," she shook her head, still looking down at the moon. "For-" and she found she couldn't answer the question. Not anymore. Twelve maidens for each goddess. To remind their Queen or Princess of her duty and origin, was supposed to be the answer. But how were they supposed to do that when they were in the background?

"Symbolism," she decided.

"Sounds crowded," Han said.

His observation was multi-faceted: ignorant, at times true, and funny. "It's the way it was," she said simply.

Back on Buteral's shoal, they walked the bridge up to the conference room together, and it was things she did on Buteral, only now there was this man at her side. It felt... remarkable, somehow. Others had walked beside her, Rieekan for one, but she was his Princess. And Luke- yes, she was still the Princess, even though he called her Leia. Because of the Death Star, she thought, or maybe even going back as far as the holomessage.

Han knew she was a princess. Of course he did. He gave her all sorts of titles, and at least twice he'd used her title properly.

Her pace was brisk, as it always was, and next to her he sauntered with a long-legged stride. The deference was not in him, she realized. Leia looked at him from the corners of her eyes. He was just walking, habitually vigilant again with hands free at his sides, eyes green from scanning the vines that grew up the high humps of land.

Because her planet was destroyed? And she wasn't rich anymore, with all the wealth he could imagine?

Maybe you'd like it back in your cell, Your Highness, was the first thing he ever said to her. The Princess in need of rescue, who had the audacity to complain about the methods her knights employed.

After that it was Your Worshipfulness or sister. You Heightness. It was another way of winking at her, wasn't it. Like they shared some insight together no one else knew about.

After many minutes of silence, he spoke suddenly. "So, are you married?"

Shocked, she turned her face to his. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

He shrugged. "Corellian royals were historically married off really young. I don't know much about you, if you think about it."

"I don't think about it." She faced forward again. "I've only recently turned twenty."

"Huh. Luke did too. Coupla weeks ago, I guess."

"No," she answered, "I'm not married."

"Rogues got him drunk."

"I don't know much about you."

"Okay, okay. I'll stop asking."

Leia smiled. "Are you married?"

Green eyes came down to hers, fighting a darkening. From all her brown, she supposed. "No," he said distinctly. "I'm not married."

He'd rescued a slave and rescued a Princess. One most pretended they didn't see, and one most had to lower their eyes to. One that cost him- probably almost everything- and for the other he had demanded a reward.

The reward gave her a bitter taste. But she almost had it, was almost able to explain him to herself, thinking why... the complexity, surprising as it was, and the reward was...

They reached the steps, and the thought shifted along with the terrain, and she was just hitting on... not respect for beings, not equality exactly, but a ... a leveling, and that the reward came from one bitterly disappointed...

She grabbed the rail, lifted her knee, he needed rescue the last whisper of her train of thought, and she didn't know how she'd gotten there, and it didn't seem to make sense, and she shook her head at herself.

He accompanied her up to the snack counter and she took one of the muffins he had brought yesterday on his load.

"Didn't you eat something on the Falcon?" he asked. He declined an offer of a muffin.

"Thank you for your delayed hospitality," she told him. "Chewie offered me a roll but it had a spot on it."

Han scowled a little. Evidently he thought her a food snob. "You know, yeast is an organism."

"So? In bread it's no longer alive."

"And medicines are made from molds."

"I'm not sick. Nor do I wish to become so."

"I know for a fact you don't get sick from eating a roll with a little bit of mold," he snapped.

She arched a brow, surprised at the spike in irritation. "For a fact?"

His eyes moved, from her own to the top of her head. Climbing out of the conversation, she said to herself.

"I'll eat later," he said. "Got things to do."

Her brow stayed up. "You do?"

"You're not the only one, sweetheart," he leered.

It was a bit dizzying, his range of defenses, and she refused to get caught up in him. "I wish you a successful day, then," she said frostily.

She was going to show him her office, the window she stood at, share what she was now, but when he was like this it was better to hold back. She swept with her muffin from the room and made her way to her office alone.


"I hope your evening was pleasant, Your Highness," General Rieekan stood at his desk as Leia entered.

"Very," she smiled at him. Her eye caught the small candle sitting on his deck, it's tiny flame swirling in reaction to the air she disturbed upon entering, like a warning. "How was yours?"

"Enjoyable," Rieekan answered tactfully. "Food was good, information was interesting."

"Mine was the same."

"Good." He grinned at her. "Different information, I'd wager."

She smile turned careful. "Different food, too. You lit your candle," she observed.

"Have you lit yours yet, Your Highness?" Carlist asked Leia.

"No," she sighed. "I did add one to the Graveyard. Of course there was no flame..."

The flame was to burn constantly, a beacon for the spirits. Leia remembered how she had lit the lumpy candle on the Falcon and then released it through the airlock, and how it was snuffed immediately.

That one was me.

She felt guilty, but everything Alderaan had a way of tearing her heart to pieces afresh. She wanted a break. "Later today I will. We're so off schedule."

"Yes, but it's the intention that forgives the timing."

"You sound like my father," she smiled gently at him.

He dipped his head. "Thank you."

Tradition held that stories of love and life were told around the candle. Here, in Rieekan's office, it might just be him talking to his candle.

"Did you... say anything-" Leia started to ask.

He ducked his head. "With the students. I told them how I courted my wife."

"Ah," Leia breathed.

"Some of them found me quite sappy, I'm sure." There was humor and sadness in his eyes. "You'll like this, Your Highness," and he told her the students had decided to group theirs together in the courtyard and how they had erected a protective shelter around them so the wind wouldn't blow the flames out. Major Klander had been very pleased to see their team building strategy. Then they had sat around the candle fort and talked about their early school experiences.

Leia watched the small flame flicker. For some reason, it was hard to feel positive about the tale, though she knew it was.

Rieekan sighed when she didn't respond. "Life is supposed to resume after thirty days. The dead are guided, led by the flame and our stories, to rest. But rest eludes us, doesn't it?"

Leia nodded painfully.

"Maybe someday," Rieekan said after a long pause. "Shall we, Princess?" and he opened the file for the civil suit.

Leia welcomed the change in subject. It was like a gift. "Yes," she said. "Let's."

Rieekan handed her a tablet. "I downloaded it here for you. You'll want to read through it. Twenty-eight screens."

"Twenty-eight?" Leia scanned it, her heart sinking a little. The second screen was a table of contents, at least.

"Yes. The lawyer drafted it and you'll sign it once you approve all the information. I gave him as much information as I know, but you may want to add to it. This is a draft; there are comment fields."

"What happens after I sign?"

"It will be filed in court. You see on screen one," from upside down, Rieekan used his stylus to scroll, "there. We're asking for an arbitration panel."

"Arbitration panel," Leia repeated thoughtfully. "It won't go anywhere, will it. On Imperial City! The judge will be loyal to the Emperor. He'll throw it out of court."

"You never know, Your Highness," Rieekan answered. "Maybe an Alderaani will be selected."

Leia muttered sarcastically, "And Darth Vader will be a witness for the prosecution."

She went over screen one thoroughly, reading the language of court without really absorbing it. Then she glanced up. Rieekan had returned to his own work, his gray eyes looking serious.

Documents of law weren't new to her. In the Senate the language was just as dense.

Leia reluctantly returned to the cover page of her suit. Leia Organa, Princess of Alderaan, individually and as heir to Bail Organa, Viceroy, deceased...

Her father. Leia's posture slumped. Her hand worked at her lips. "I thought- Alderaan," she said brokenly to Rieekan. "We're to sue for the planet-"

Rieekan looked at her a long while. "I think," he said slowly, "it's got to be done this way. The courts are set up to protect the lives of beings. A planet holds all those lives. It's beyond our scope of thinking is what it is, Your Highness."

She wrote 'Alderaan' in the comment field. It was much harder to do this reading her father's name.

plaintiff. - individually and - as heir or representative of estate.

"These dashes are for additional names? The plaintiffs?" Leia asked.

"Yes. Anyone of age can join the suit. The lawyer is going to approach Alderaani survivors-"

"I hate that term."

"I know, Your Highness. The lawyer will in effect advertise to Alderaani and get as many as he can to join the suit. In fact, I'll add my name now-"

"Do we have to wait to get them before we file?"

"We'll proceed with just our two if that's all he gets. If the verdict goes our way, a statute of limitations will be established. That will protect ones that aren't of age, like our orphans." Rieekan nodded his head upward, indicating the student group that came to Buteral.

Complaint for Damages: Negligence...

"I dislike the term 'negligence' too." Leia said, still reading. "It was murder."

"Civil suits are for monetary compensation," Rieekan explained. "I hope we see him tried for war crimes. Really you are doing something brand new. And of course Palpatine did something brand new when he created a weapon capable of destroying a planet."

Leia sighed and began the introduction. Unconstitutional acts or omissions by officers... battle station Death Star... set in motion events leading to the complete annihilation...

"Gods," Leia rubbed her forehead.

Parties: Bail Organa (Bail), deceased, ... spent his entire life in service to the House of Organa... loving father...

"It's an obituary," Leia observed. "We need millions of obituaries, Carlist. You had two sons and a wife. Three more pages."

Rieekan nodded sympathetically. "We'll get it done, Your Highness."

"They die over and over again," Leia despaired. "Some won't want to sign."

Rieekan had pushed his chair back. For a moment it looked like he wanted to rise, but got control. "Many will, Your Highness. It's not for money. I encourage you to hang in there, Princess. We get this done and we'll protect the galaxy from something like this happening again."

"Gods, I hope so. But I don't know, Carlist. It seems we've crossed a bridge that crumbled behind us. Once we've seen it, done it, what's going to stop anyone from thinking it can't be done again?"

Her words were terrible, she knew it, but she couldn't stop them. There's no cure, Luke had said, and he was so right.

Rieekan looked unhappy, but he said, "We've got to hope, Your Highness."

Leia nodded. Section four was a statement of relevant facts. The Death of Bail Organa... There followed more dots, names to add.

"Carlist," she said.

"Yes, Your Highness?"

She was going to tell him to forget the suit, forget it all, say I can't, but the flame was flickering and she thought of his sons, how his mournful grin introduced all he'd become. I once had a family, it seemed to apologize, but I don't anymore.

Leia cleared her throat. "Was there anything else I missed when I went up to Home?"

Rieekan considered, his mouth turned downwards. "Nothing that affects you directly, I think," he mused. "The Bavasuuti group will get medical screenings today."

"Oh, that's good."

"Yes. The CTC has been invaluable."

"Yes."

"And Captain Solo is meeting with them about taking on some of the shuttling, bring stranded Alderaani here a bit faster. But I'm sure you know that, Your Highness."

Leia's face remained composed. "I'm surprised you do."

"Just what Officer Massawawi told me," Rieekan's eyes watched the candle. "They are to work out the details today. He came dirtside?"

"Yes." Leia's pulse had started to hammer in her ears. "It's charity work," she heard herself object.

Rieekan lifted his hands. "Service is volunteer, yes. The doctors, the social workers, the pilots," he added the latter with a bit of emphasis. "But the CTC can't operate without a budget. There are costs. Supplies, fuel. Staff. I thought you'd be pleased, Your Highness."

"I had told you- are they aware he needs money? That there's even a bounty on him?"

"Shino-ak sent his file over," Rieekan nodded. "I shared it with Officer Massawawi. Actually, there are three bounties."

Leia's eyes popped a bit. "Three?"

"All from Jabba the Hutt. Placed at different times."

"I don't understand. Why not combine them into one?" Agitation started Leia's legs to bounce on the seat. She didn't know where it came from, or where to direct it.

"It is odd, I agree. Not that I am familiar with the system of bounty. I would expect, like you, Your Highness, that the original would be rewritten if more was to be added." Rieekan went back to his computer and opened a new screen. "Here it is. The oldest from two years ago is failure to deliver-"

"Spice," Leia interrupted.

Then failure to make repayment. The latest one is fresh, over a month ago, for the murder of an associate." Rieekan's eyes met Leia's. "That one is serious."

"An associate of Jabba the Hutt," Leia said. "Probably not a being the galaxy will miss."

"I meant the value of the bounty," Rieekan clarified. "But yes. I don't understand the Hutt's strategy. The most recent specifically states that it does not negate previous issues. I suppose he'd pay out all three so the value would be the same as one that would include all the offenses."

"Maybe it hints at how badly he wants the capture," Leia suggested. "The Hutt is like us- he can't expect the courts to take him seriously when he breaks Imperial law to the extent he does. But his underworld includes some culture of justice."

"It's more he operates outside the boundaries of Imperial law. The Hutt feels it's fine for him to take a life."

"Another version of our Emperor," Leia surmised.

Rieekan was struck by the thought. "That's true," he said.

The candle's flame was moving with more urgency now, caused by the motion of Leia's legs. She pictured the small flame jumping to Rieekan's desk, catching the contents on fire, turning the whole room to a blaze.


Happy Anniversary to the story! I throw confetti in the air and blow kisses to all those who have hung in there all this time. My sincere thanks.