It is Your Destiny…
Nar Shadaa
It didn't take her long to find someone who knew of Han or his devotion to one antique, temperamental starship. He owed money to almost every parts dealer in every sector of the small Smuggler's Moon. There were no bounties on his head, though. Most shopkeepers seemed happy to have helped and had more interest in seeing the Falcon fly again then collecting debts. She had creds enough to get the number of his maintenance hangar, the code to get in and a few parts that Han had on layaway.
She entered the small, dingy hangar and immediately spotted him. He was working on his ship, half his body was stuck in the innards of an opened hatch and the music playing, along with the soldering tool that he was wielding, was loud enough to mask the sound of her entrance.
She walked over to a large table against the wall and set down the few items she had picked up. Suddenly, Han shut off the power tool and the only sound left in the hangar was the sultry voice of a female Pa'lowick crooning in her native language over a boisterous, heavy beat.
Leia watched as, still buried inside of the hatch, Han's hand blindly reached for the valve wrench that was sitting on a workbench right next to him. She silently approached him, grabbed the wrench and placed it in his hand.
"Thanks," Han replied, seemingly out of sheer habit. But as realization dawned on him, he moved to extract himself from his precarious position, banging his head on his way out of the maintenance hatch and cursing.
His eyes landed right on her but his expression didn't change. "What're you doing?" He asked, while rubbing the red mark on his forehead and side stepping out of the way of some iridescent, viscous substance squirting out of the Falcon.
"Helping," she replied, and the Pa'lowick's backup singers emphasized her answer with a few ooh's and ah's that sounded the same in any language.
Han moved his foot, shaking off the oily substance that now covered it. "I don't need any help."
Leia smiled and folded her arms across her chest. "That's not what it looks like from where I'm standing."
He was wearing some maintenance coveralls; an all in one jumpsuit that he had unzipped with the top portion hanging around his waist. A, what may have once been white, tank top clung to his perspiration covered torso, and smears in the shape of his long fingers formed an abstract pattern across his chest.
"Maybe," he said, looking her up and down.
She was wearing indigo blue, form fitting denim pants with a still white tank top of her own. The sleeves of her khaki colored utility jacket were rolled up twice and she had a dark blue scarf wrapped around her neck because no matter the planet or the temperature, she was always cold.
Han then looked down at the tool in his hand for a long moment before he reached up and began fiddling inside of the leaky compartment again. "But, you are most definitely not what I need right now."
"Han-"
"What're you really doing here?" He asked, his face now obscured by the opened hatch. He tugged a few more times on something and the leaking stopped. And then he moved and his eyes were on her again. "What'd'ya want?"
She took a step closer. "I wanted to tell you something."
He threw his tool down into its box and wiped his hands on the towel that had been tucked into the waistline of his outfit. The music coming out of the speakers had switched to a song with a faster beat. "What?"
Leia smiled at him shaking her head and thinking of the absurdity of it all. There were many things she wanted to say. Had rehearsed about a half dozen of them on her way here. But the simple truth felt easiest. "That," she started, her gaze dropping down to the floor as she faltered. But then she gathered up her nerve and looked back up to Han. "I flew to Corellia once," she said. "To meet this man I was supposed to marry."
"Is that right?" He stared at her intently, his expression still not giving anything away. "And then what happened?"
"I don't know. I'm still trying to figure that out."
He looked at her for a long time; the quick beat of the music seemed to sync its rhythm with her heartbeat. And then he looked around the hangar, at the door she had come in, the table with the parts she had brought and the oil slick on the floor. When his gaze fell back on her, he asked, "You know how to work a hydospanner?"
She nodded.
He bent down, picked through the medley of tools in his toolbox and handed her a hydrospanner. "The rear deflectors need calibrating."
They worked in silence for a long time, the music pouring out of the overhead speakers and the sound of their tools clicking and clanging the only sound. She calibrated the rear deflectors while he finished welding the cracked seal flush line. Then she worked on painting sealant on a few hull fractures while Han worked on the sensor dish.
She was struggling with getting one particularly cantankerous hatch to close when he came up behind her and lent his assistance.
He was standing close behind her, close enough that when she turned around they were standing nearly toe-to-toe. The puckered, pink skin of a fresh scar on his chin caught her eye.
Han rubbed his finger across it. "The ground on Naboo was a little unforgiving," he explained.
"I'm sorry about that," she said. "But, I like it," she added, wanting very badly to run her own finger across it. "It adds character."
He looked different. Was different, she could tell. Though she was, too. Were they more like their future selves had been, she wondered. Wise and weary and acutely aware of what life was like without the other one in it?
"So," Han started. "You flew to Corellia once to meet this man you were supposed to marry."
He took a step closer to her, nearly nose-to-nose, or nose-to-chin in their case. And he looked down at her, waiting for her to say more. His hair was longer, left to grow without any attention, it twisted and fell in unruly directions and from where she stood she could see the hint of sweaty curls clinging to his neck. A sexy stubble was sprinkled across his jaw and she imagined the places it might feel rough against her delicate skin.
"There wasn't anything I could've told you," she replied. "You wouldn't have believed me anyway."
"Maybe not then. But later?"
"I tried. Maybe not too hard, but there were a few times."
Han looked up to the ceiling and blew out a deep breath. "I probably wouldn't have believed you, anyway."
"I guess, I always wondered what part of me was falling in love with you. The part that knew they were supposed to or the part that was my own."
He was studying her intently now and the lighting from the hangar teased the golden undertones out from his hazel eyes.
She continued, "After how you were on the Eclipse...and then after Naboo. I convinced myself that it was never me who had loved you."
Han raised his hand and scratched the back of his neck. "And what do you think now?"
"I think there was never a time in my life when I didn't love you. Somehow, through everything."
"Even now?"
"Especially now," she said, unwrapping the scarf from around her neck and tossing it onto the workbench beside her. "Remember when you offered to hide me in the compartments of your ship? Well, as I sat at my desk on Coruscant, all I could think about was flying through the skies with you."
"I probably should've put you in my compartments that day," he said, his voice hoarse with emotion as his gaze glanced over the newly exposed skin on her chest. "But you and me both know that wouldn't have changed anything." He cleared his throat. "So, one more try, huh?" He smiled at her, a warm, knowing smile like one shared between two people who know the punchline to an inside joke. "You know I, uh, I've been thinking alot of what I would do when I finally got this ship back up and running. And shacking up with you on Coruscant kept topping the list."
"A Jedi does not shack up."
"Is that what you are?"
"No," she said quickly. "Actually, yes. A part of it anyway."
"And the rest?"
"The rest," she said, pausing. "I think you can help me figure out."
"No more surprises?"
"I can never promise you a dull life."
"Dull is not what I'm looking for."
"Then what is it?" She asked, lifting her chin up to him expectantly. "We always talk about me, what is it that you're looking for?"
"I'm not too greedy. I just...wanted to do a good job," he said. "Be useful. Make a difference. But maybe not in that galaxy altering way that you want to do." He sighed. "I didn't find it with the Imperials on Corellia and I thought I would find it when I joined the Republic but it wasn't there either. Hell, working for that son-of-a-bitch Cracken was probably the closest I ever got to it."
She looked past him to the Falcon, the silent partner in this conversation. The music had slowed to an acoustic number with a raspy-voiced singer. "So, you're fixing up this ship."
He looked up, with a surprising amount of fondness, at the looming bulk of metal that was The Millennium Falcon. "Yeah. She's fast and tough. I'd like to fly her around the galaxy a few times over. Maybe right a few wrongs along the way."
"Sounds heroic," Leia said. "You know, most heroes have a sidekick."
"Yeah," he said, a wicked twinkle in his hazel eyes. "I was gonna swing by Kashyyyk and see what Chewie was up to. He followed some female wook there named Malla."
"And if he's unavailable?"
"I don't know." He hesitated. "It's a big seat to fill." He placed his hands on her shoulders and his touch felt warm and wonderful. "What do you want to do? Really."
"I have," she said. "A few planets I'd like to visit. Some wrongs to right of my own, I guess." She thought of Luke and Mara and what she had been doing with her life. "Mostly, I just want to live and be happy."
Han smiled and then slung his arm around her and began steering her toward the awaiting boarding ramp to the Falcon.
She leaned her head into his shoulder. Enjoying the feel, the smell, the warmth and all of him.
"I have a few other things in mind, too," he told her.
"Oh? Such as?"
"Have you ever heard of the Kessel Run?"
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter, it's not the last but it's getting us pretty darn close. The line Leia tells Han in this chapter: "I went to Corellia once to meet this man I was supposed to marry." That is the line that started this whole 100+ chapter story. That line came to me and I began writing the story that preceded it. It has been a long journey for my characters and for me (and for you readers, too). I enjoyed writing it and really enjoyed finally finishing it. And now we have just one (and a half) chapters to go.
As always: Thanks to Zyra for beta reading.