Motives

"Always look for the motives." ~Eliza Orakzai

Chapter 31

Corellia, the next morning

Han stood outside of his daughter's bedroom door. After arriving back from Abregado-Rae and then meeting with Leia the day before, he had not had sufficient time to speak to Eliza at length regarding what he had discovered and he wasn't entirely sure how he should frame the message. The bombshell Rutien had dropped on Han had been enough in itself. He had a father. He was Eliza's father. Watts wasn't an ass. But something else had occurred to him. Other pieces had fallen into place. Specifically about Sasha, Eliza's mother.

Orakzai, working with Rutien's false information, had forced Sasha to admit or accept that Watts was the father, which she knew was not true. He could imagine the crotchety, old president holding the damning DNA evidence and demanding that Sasha admit the "truth". How she had fallen to insanity was no longer a mystery to Han. They drove her crazy trying to make her absorb a fact that was not real.

So, standing in front of Eliza's bedroom door, Han once again practiced the right words and the right way to frame this news to his daughter. Although it was certainly wonderful news that he and Eliza were officially father and daughter, the rest of what had happened did not put her grandfather, and sole caregiver she had ever known, in an entirely good light.

A long, low growl startled him out of his thoughts and hesitation.

"Dad?" Eliza called as Dancer, her kath hound, began to growl and bark incessantly.

Han opened the door and caught Dancer by the collar. Although he had been against any pets, it was reassuring to know that Eliza would always have some sort of guardian watching over her.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Eliza asked, at first groggily but then more and more coherent. "Is it Mom?"

"No, no, sweetheart," Han reassured her as he walked over to her bed. Dancer jumped up, circled a few times and huddled at her feet. Han sat down beside her, running his hand over her mess of auburn hair. "Everything's fine."

"Then what is it?" she asked, scooting back in her bed until she was sitting up. "Another important meeting? Are you leaving again?"

Han smiled. "No, not another meeting but it is about the meeting that I went to yesterday."

"When you turned off your communicator to hide from me?"

He looked at her.

Eliza patted down the coverlet across her lap. "I'm not stupid, you know."

"I never said you were," Han replied, feeling as if he was already losing his grip on this conversation. "Look, there's something I need to tell you. Something that might not be easy to hear. At least parts of it."

"Okay," Eliza replied soberly, looking older than she had a few moments ago. "I'm ready."

It was times like these that Han was reminded of the kind of childhood his daughter had had. Strange conversations in the middle of the early morning. Shocking revelations. Intrigue. All a normal occurrence for her. "The man I met yesterday," Han started. "Your grandfather, his last words to me were to find him."

Eliza's eyes showed a hint of interest. "And? Who was he?"

"He was my old commanding officer. He had served under your grandfather. Back then," Han continued, laying his hand on top of hers. "Your grandfather was trying to find out who your father was and ordered this man to test my best friend and me."

"Watts Sartain," she supplied. "Yes, I know a little bit about that."

"Well," Han drew in a deep breath. "This man, Rutien, found out more than he had bargained for with those tests. He found out that I was his son. It was about the time that Watts and I had decided to escape and when Watts ended up...getting killed, this man - Rutien, he switched the tests so that your grandfather would no longer be looking for me."

"He switched the tests?" Eliza repeated in confirmation.

It wasn't entirely the way that it had happened but better for her to hate a grandfather that she would never know then the one that she had grown up with. "He was trying to protect me, sweetheart," Han explained.

Her expression hardened. "Grandfather wanted more than just to find you."

Han tried to put on a soothing smile. "He was protecting his little girl, your mother. I can only imagine the things I would do to protect anyone that harmed you."

"But you didn't harm my mother-"

"We hid our relationship from your grandfather," Han said, maybe for the first time fully realizing the hand he had played in all of this. "He probably didn't know what to think."

"Lies, upon lies, upon lies," she whispered.

Han felt a bit guilty that what he had told her just then wasn't exactly the entire truth.

"I told you," Eliza said. "Remember? Always look for the motives."

It was true. Eliza had told him that on the first day they had met. Orakzai's motive, in the end at least, was to try and set things right for his daughter and granddaughter. And his motives at the onset? They were skewed but still in the vain of trying to protect his child. Han could understand that better now, if not quite agree or condone his methods. And his father? Rutien? He was mostly a victim in all of this never having even known that he had a son. His mother? What had her motives been? Had it been to protect Rutien, like the old man had thought? Han's head was spinning with unanswered questions. As much as he had figured out, there was so much more that would forever remain a mystery.

"And Mother," Eliza whispered into Han's silence. "That's why she was always so upset and confused when she talked about my father."

Han nodded his head grimly. Sasha had been driven insane by being forced to accept a truth that she knew to be a lie. Speaking of victims, what had been done to her. He could see now, the absolute desperation behind Orakzai's final wishes to set things straight.

"So, I'm," she started. "I'm really yours?"

Han nodded again. "Yes, sweetheart." And as the young girl threw her arms around his neck, he added, "Although, you know you were mine already."

"I know, I know," she cried. "But, this...this is so much better."

The pair, truly father and daughter now, held each other for a long while. Then Eliza pulled away, sniffling and wiping her nose with the sleeve of her pajamas. She looked at Han and asked, "But, wouldn't've grandfather have wanted you to come back and marry mother?"

"I think," Han said. "And I can only guess from here. But, I think he knew I was your father, or at least strongly suspected, and, well, I wasn't the kind of man, back then, that a distinguished gentleman like your grandfather would want to marry his daughter. And, when Rutien told him it was Watts and Watts was dead."

"That was way easier than dealing with a miscreant son-in-law."

Han smiled sadly. "Probably so."

"And, mom," Eliza said, revisiting the entirety of what had probably happened to her mother. And he watched her beautiful, young face as she began to see it all very clearly.

Han pulled her to him again for another round of sobs, this time not of joy. His heart tightened into knots as he held his daughter in his arms. This might've been the only thing that could ever make Han understand Orakzai. This absolute inherent need to protect his baby and to never see her hurt or cry like this ever again. He thought of the lengths he would go to to make that happen. And he found no limit.

A few days later...

Valwyn K'ntarr sat in silence while Han poured over the papers in front of him. He had already reviewed the document in full and knew all the pertinent details necessary to negotiate the deal, but he wanted time to think about things. Things that were not included inside of this prospectus. Like what it meant for him and Leia. Like those personal and familial obligations that he had recently sworn to never, ever dismiss into the shadows.

Like everything else, though. It was easier said than done. In the end, Han had decided that he could not make any immediate difference in the situation that he and Leia were in. As frustrating as that was, he couldn't come out to any other truth. In the eyes of the universe he and Sasha were married and Eliza their child. And in light of recent events, there was no way that he would try and divorce Sasha now after all this time. He couldn't do that to Eliza, hell, he couldn't do that to Sasha. Hadn't she been damaged enough already? No, he was exactly back to square one.

"This deal is, uh," Han said absently, his mind spinning to other places. Places like, why Leia was linked romantically to this man and other ways he could start to try and make things right. The personal and the familial. Han looked up from the paperwork and eyed Valwyn directly. "It's very lucrative for you," Han said pointedly. Then, leaning back in his chair, he said, "I just don't see the upside for me."

Valwyn leaned forward, an obvious sign of his eagerness. "Our tech is superior, our workers bar-none. The proximity alone"-

Han held his hand up, cutting the man off. He had come to a conclusion. Something that might be a step in the right direction, so to speak. "I want you to sweeten the deal," he said, without apology.

The man's face fell. If Han were looking for more money, he would've known right there that Valwyn had nothing left to give. But it wasn't money that Han was looking for.

"I can assure you," Valwyn began, but once again Han cut him off.

"What's the deal on the table with the Alderaanians?"

K'ntarr looked shocked. "It's ah…a different set of circumstances."

"I'm all ears."

"It was more of a…non-monetary exchange. Connections," he said. "To deals such as this for…"

Han leaned forward, but with a different sort of eagerness. "For what?"

"It would've been under the pretense of a marriage between two houses, but in the end," Valwyn sat back in his chair. "It would've been for land."

"How much land? And don't lowball it, because I have ways of finding out."

Valwyn leveled his gaze to Han, seeming to sense that he had perhaps been had. "It'd amount to nearly seventy-five percent of a planet. All undeveloped."

Han steepled his fingers together thoughtfully. If Leia was asking Han to broker this deal, then that would mean that she was not inclined to marry this man, not even for a new planet for the Alderaanians. His mind began to filter through all of the facts. "And the remaining twenty-five?"

Valwyn shrugged his shoulders. "Farmers, day-laborers, workers. Mostly displaced citizens for one reason or another."

"Criminals?"

"No, not like that," he answered. And then giving it some thought, he said, "Our planet, unlike your current circumstances, has been suffering from overpopulation. In an effort to alleviate that issue, a few years ago, we recruited volunteers to colonize our last unpopulated world. Unfortunately, we didn't exactly have the resources necessary to wholly support the endeavor."

"You sent the unseemlys to fend for themselves?"

The man at least had the decency to look abashed. "They were volunteers," he reiterated. "But, they were pulled from a certain section of the population."

"Randomly, ofcourse?" Han supplied.

"They are not bad people. Pioneers, more like. Determined," Val said. "Ah...maybe one would call them...gritty."

"Hmm," Han sat back, rubbing his chin as he contemplated.

Valwyn shrugged his shoulders again. "I'm not sure how any of this is relevant to our deal," He said, eyeing the paperwork strewn across Han's desk. "But, all shrewd negotiations aside, you have the future of my people in your hands. I think this contract would be lucrative for Corellia, but it is absolutely imperative to us. With this contract, we would assist those that had been sent-"

"Fair enough," Han said, holding his hand up and cutting Valwyn off as he leaned back in his chair. "Give me a day or two to think this over and I think I'll have a proposition for you that...that'll benefit us both."