A small sound caught in Luke Skywalker's throat that turned into a small cough, which coincided with his eyes opening and him jolting up in the med bay bed as he suddenly screamed, "HAN! HAAAAAAAAAAANNN!"
Han Solo hadn't left the room for six hours but he'd just been on the verge of falling asleep himself. At the sound of his name he sprang to his feet and looked around before realizing where it was coming from, and he ran over to the 20 year old who was sitting up in the bed shaking as he repeatedly called the smuggler's name.
Grabbing Luke by the shoulders, Han tried to get the kid to actually see him and calm down as he told him, firmly but calmly, barely audible over the kid's screaming, "I'm right here, kid, it's okay, you're safe, it's over, I'm here, you're okay." He couldn't reach the comm link and he wouldn't let go of the kid, so he turned towards the door and yelled at the top of his lungs, hoping somebody heard him, "WE NEED HELP IN HERE!", then turned back and tried to restrain Luke before he got himself hurt.
Word quickly spread through the base that Luke was now conscious and screaming, Leia and Chewie rushed to the med bay to find out what was going on. In the time it took them to arrive, Luke had apparently sapped all his strength screaming, and they arrived for the tail end of it as he started winding down, mentally and physically, as he seemed to lose any and all strength he had to even hold onto Han and slowly slumped down on the bed in a boneless heap, his long screams giving way to exhausted mumbling and rambling as he alternated between deliriously crying out for his dead aunt and uncle, to bringing himself to tell his friends about some of what had happened during his time on the slave ship. Han found himself seated on he edge of the bed as he watched Luke and listened to him trying weakly to carry on, Chewie stood beside him and Leia stood at the foot of the bed with a grim expression on her face.
"How long?" Luke looked practically asleep but still managed to talk, "how long was I there?"
Han cleared his throat and answered, "Three weeks."
Luke groaned as the skin around his eyes crinkled as he tried to squeeze them shut even tighter. "It felt like a year...I thought we'd never get out of there, what...what happens now?"
Leia answered diplomatically, "The rescue ship is making all efforts to get the others back to their families, they'll be fine."
"Not...not all."
The words that barely eked out of the commander's mouth caught both the princess and the smuggler off guard and they glanced at each other. Luke hadn't noticed it, and he continued, "They killed some of those kids...the ones that, tried to escape...the ones that resisted the most...they put those shock collars on them and turned them to the maximum setting...it was horrible."
The room filled with a disturbing noise as Chewbacca let out a rumbling growl.
Leia took the diplomatic route again and told him, "Most of them will make it home. That's really all we can ask for."
Luke forced his eyes open as he turned his head and looked up at the Corellian smuggler hovering over him, and said weakly, "I can't believe...you came for me."
"I had to," Han answered sarcastically, "the princess forced me."
A pained laugh choked out of Luke, even without catching the death glare Leia was sending Han, followed by another laugh, and another, until he was gasping for breath and clutching his ribs.
The moment passed, and Han inquired, "How're you feeling, Luke?"
"I..." his eyes were closed again, he sighed deeply as he answered, "so tired..."
"I can take a hint, we're boring you to death," Han said as he stood up, "we'll get out of here and let you get some rest, and we'll check on you later."
"Thank you," Luke murmured.
Leia sidestepped the smuggler and went over to Luke's bedside, leaned over and kissed him on the cheek and told him, "We're glad to have to back, Luke."
A tired sound rose up from Luke's throat as he barely got out, "Good t'b'back..." before he was out like a light.
"I bet I know what you're thinking," Han said to Leia after they left the med bay.
She looked at him with a slight roll of her eyes and responded dryly, "Oh really? You think you're that deep or that I'm that shallow?"
"Hey princess, as much as I would love to get you in a private game of strip sabacc, I know that ain't happening, for several reasons, a big one being it's obvious you don't gamble."
Leia couldn't even figure out how to respond to a comment like that and she wasn't sure which part to take the most offense at first, she settled for asking him, "And just what are you trying to imply?"
"I'm not implying anything, you got a face that anybody can tell what you're thinking just by looking at it," Han told her. "You're easier to read than an instruction manual."
"You really think so?" she defiantly folded her arms against her chest, "You want to take a guess what I'm thinking right now?"
"I can tell you what you were thinking back there," he replied. "'How easily it could've been me'."
Her shield of self assuredness dropped and she asked him, "What?"
"When the kid was telling us what happened on the ship," Han said. "I saw your face...if instead of Princess Leia Organa, you'd been born and christened Leia Skywalker, or just plain Leia anything, what would've stopped those goons from coming after you and selling you into the slave trade? Not exactly a lot of royalty kids sold and trafficked...which isn't to say it never happens, but not near as much as it does to these poor kids who don't have anyone to ransom them back."
She might've tried to deny that her thoughts had been anywhere in that vicinity, but once again the look on her face gave her away.
Han changed the subject by pointing out earnestly, "Leia, we got him back, it's over."
She inhaled a slightly shaky breath as she nodded, and asked the older man, "Do you think Luke will be alright?"
"Oh sure," Han replied, "the kid's a lot tougher than he looks."
"Hm, what a coincidence," Leia responded smugly, "sometimes you're actually smarter than you look."
"Hey!" he glared at her through the corner of one eye.
"Han," Leia interrupted his remark with a poignant question, "Why was Chewie so upset earlier?"
Han looked at her for a minute and told her simply, "Chewie has experience with shock collars."
Leia's eyes widened and her bottom jaw dropped slightly.
"Funny about those things," Han continued, "The only people who are fans of them are the ones operating them, not the people who have to wear them."
Han thought he heard something and shot up in his bed, his eyes half open, he was only half awake and trying to ask, "Wha's'it?" before he realized it had only been a dream. When he figured that out, he lay back against his pillow, but turned his head and was met with an unusual sight, Chewie's bunk was empty. Now where did that giant fuzzball go? Han threw back the covers and got out of his bunk and went to check around the base. He got as far as the hall outside their room and stopped in his tracks.
Chewbacca was seated against the wall with one giant arm wrapped around Luke, who for some reason was leaned against the wookiee either asleep or close to it.
After waking up, Luke had been kept in the med bay for a couple more days for observation, then had finally been cleared to leave but advised to take it easy the next few days as he continued to recover from his ordeal. As far as Han knew the kid was doing alright, so this definitely took him by surprise.
"What the hell's going on, Chewie?" Han wanted to know as they returned to their room, the wookiee carrying the sleeping commander.
Chewbacca rumbled in answer, which made the smuggler's eyes widen.
"He did? Aw geez, I thought he was doing better than this. Here," Han jerked back the covers and told Chewbacca, "put him in here."
Chewie snorted in disagreement.
"I know it's your bed, do it anyway," Han told him, "Maybe the scent will throw him off. Hell, he used you for a pillow, you didn't complain about that."
He happened to turn his back on Chewbacca at the exact same moment he got a large furry elbow to the ribs. "Hey!"