Motives

Chapter 35

The Intrepid, en route to New Alderaan

There were no more hesitations. No reasons not to. No need to wait. They had not been together in that way since she had flown to see him in Jenkin's X-wing before the Battle of Coruscant. And they felt every second of every hour of every day since that last time. Soft lips kissed away the seconds. Bold words erased the hours. Tender hands soothed away the days. And one beautiful act after another bridged the gap between that moment then and the two of them together now.

Afterwards, they lay naked beneath the covers of the large bed. Leia's head was resting in the crux of Han's arm and he was lazily drawing circles against the soft skin at her waist.

She had noticed earlier an unsightly crate tucked against the bulkhead near the door to the 'fresher. Otherwise unoccupied now, her curiosity and sneaky suspicions, had gotten the better of her. "What's in that crate?" She asked.

"Hmmm?" Han replied and when she looked up at him, he was opening his eyes.

"The big crate by the door over there," she repeated. "What's in it?"

She recognized the look that crossed his face. It was a feigned innocence that usually guaranteed some measure of guilt. She propped herself up on her elbow and craned her neck to peer over the top of the opened box. There were smaller boxes and large cellophane envelopes stashed haphazardly inside, but she still had no idea what she was looking at. When she looked back down at Han he was smiling at her wolfishly.

"Are you going to make me get up and look?" She asked.

Han's eyes grazed over her exposed breasts and down the plane of her stomach to where the covers fell over her hips. "I wouldn't exactly be opposed to the idea," he replied.

"Han," she said, pushing at his shoulder. "Please don't tell me that's The Repose's head gasket in that box."

"What?" He replied, once again with that feigned innocence as his eyes snapped up to meet hers. "No, absolutely not."

She raised her eyebrows at him, a clear challenge for him to come clean.

"It might be," he started, "every and any possible part that your pilot could've utilized to fix your ship's head gasket...maybe."

Leia shook her head. "And the head gasket itself? Mysteriously malfunctioning during pre-flight warm-ups? Do I even want to know?"

"Those things happen," he said noncommittally and Leia found that she didn't feel the need to press him any further on it. Could she really feign any real anger at him after what they had just done, and how many times they had done it?

She bit her lip, looking at him there lying next to her. It was such a novelty for them now to have this kind of time together. But that time was limited and there was more to be said and done than what they had been busy saying and doing.

"The committee's discussing whether or not I should be made Queen," she blurted out.

Han's eyes registered surprise for just the briefest of moments. "Is that something you want?" he asked, pushing a long piece of her hair behind her shoulder. His tone made it sound like it wouldn't be any problem whatsoever if she were to say yes.

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "But I may or may not be given a choice."

Han shrugged. "Then we'll deal with it, whichever way it goes."

She pulled the covers up and slid back against the headboard. "There's so much that goes with being the Royal Family. I don't think you have any idea."

"So, you'll clue me in," he returned, still unfazed. Or, at least doing a good job of pretending to be.

"You think four years is inconvenient," Leia continued, shaking her head. "This would be a lifetime commitment."

Han turned over onto his side and kissed the naked skin of her bicep. "Consider me committed, then."

She smiled at him and then quickly pressed her lips against his forehead. He pulled her face down to his for a real kiss and...the conversation was halted for several more timeparts.

They were back in the same position as earlier. Well, almost the same. This time she was snuggled in the crux of his opposite arm and she was lazily drawing circles against his chest.

"There'd be pressure on us to deliver an heir," she said, continuing their interrupted conversation.

"Well, it's a good thing we've been getting in some practice."

She tore her eyes away from the mesmerizing sight of her fingers on his naked chest and looked up at him. "I'm serious. And then that heir, that child, would have a predestined life that they may or may not want."

"If you don't want to be Queen, we'd find a way out of that together," he said, as if in answer to her dilemna.

She furrowed her brow. "I guess, but I wasn't talking about me, I was-"

"If you want to be Queen," he interrupted her, utilizing a slow patient drawl with his delivery. "And become Queen and then later we produce little princes and princesses and they don't want to be Kings or Queens - then we'll find a way of it for them...together."

Oh. She laid her head back down against the crux of his arm and watched her fingers play with his chest hairs again, thinking on his words and smiling. "How many princes and princesses are we talking about?"

She felt his arm shrug beneath her. "Details."

She sunk into his warmth, cuddling closer to him. They were quiet then, the hum of the hyperdrive and the ship's air handlers the only sound for a long while. Leia's eyelids were becoming heavy and she found herself drifting off to sleep when Han cleared his throat and squeezed her to him.

"You asleep?" He whispered.

She lifted her head and looked at him. His expression had turned gravely serious, a complete about face from just a few moments ago. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"Nothing's wrong," he replied. "Just…"

Propping herself up on an elbow again, she asked, "What is it?"

"Nothing bad," he stalled. "Something pretty darn good, actually."

A smile had spread across his face and Leia was more than curious to discover what put it there. "And?"

"Remember how I told you that before Orakzai died, he told me to look for my old commanding officer?"

"Yes," she replied. "I thought you had gone to see him right before I came to talk to you about Val."

The way she casually used Valwyn K'ntarr's familiar name while lying naked in bed with him somehow didn't sit well with him, but he didn't think now was the time to broach that subject. "Yeah," he agreed. "I wasn't able to tell you about it that day."

"What happened?"

"Well," Han replied. "A lot, actually. Turns out my old commander, Rutien, well, he's my father. And Eliza, she really is my daughter. Crazy, huh?"

"Crazy's one word for it." Leia shook her head and sat fully up, staring at him. "But I think I'm gonna need a little more information than that."

Han told her the whole story and they had talked, finally getting around to eating something and ending up tangled in the sheets again when the captain announced the alert that they were preparing to enter New Alderaan's atmosphere.

Leia scrambled out of the bed and ran into the 'fresher to quickly freshen up.

"So," Han said, rolling to his side in the large bed. The coverlet lying lazily over his slim hips. "I'll make an official visit to New Alderaan in a few weeks?" He called loudly, so that she could hear him over the water system.

"I'll start making the arrangements right away," she agreed.

He waited patiently in the bed, debating on whether or not he even felt like getting dressed before the captain turned the ship around and headed back to Corellia. It wasn't as if he were going to be able to walk her down the boarding ramp and give her a proper sendoff. Not yet, anyway.

Leia emerged from the opened door of the 'fresher with a towel wrapped around her. Her hair had been brushed and twisted into, what Han knew to be, one of her easier, go-to hairstyles. He watched as she opened her suitcase and rummaged around for an outfit. She dropped the towel and began slipping on her underclothes. The only thing he might enjoy as much as undressing her was to watch her dress. It was so intimate a thing, something only he got to see.

"Will you be able to arrange some unofficial meeting while I'm there?" He asked, going back to thinking of his visit and the next time he might have the privilege of watching her dress.

She was tucking her shirt in and pulling a blazer over her shoulders when she looked at him and said, "You've set the bar pretty high, flyboy. But I think I'll be able to manage."

"I've got no doubt," he replied and then patted the bed right in front of him.

She walked over and sat next to him. They kissed again, a slow, deep kiss laced with longing. It took all she had not to crawl back into the bed with him.

"We're so close," he whispered. "Thank you for waiting for me."

She pressed her forehead against his and shut her eyes. The role she had played in setting all of this into motion could not be forgotten. She had certainly not let herself forget it. "It's been a joint effort, I think."

Han looked at her, smiling. "A princess and a guy like me."

Leia shook her head. That line had been a long standing joke between Han and Luke and eventually, once they had clued her in, Leia. "Who would've ever thought back then," she whispered.

"Which part?" Han asked, laughing. That he would be president? That she would be considering becoming queen? That Luke would be some important Jedi? That he would have a daughter? That even through all of it, they might actually still end up together? He thought of it all, but didn't say anything.

It didn't seem to matter to Leia that he hadn't voiced any of his thoughts, because it seemed her mind had filled with all of the incredible twists and turns that they had lived through since Han had uttered those fateful words. "All of it," she whispered as she kissed him again on his lips, and then his cheeks, his chin and his forehead. Then she rested her forehead against his and shut her eyes. "Absolutely all of it."

A/N: So, some of you thought that the last chapter was the end. How could I leave them like that and not share some details with you? This chapter isn't quite the end yet, either. Just one or two (three max) chapters more.