Thanks so much for reading and sharing your thoughts!
PSA: I work in child development and find ways to encourage families to read and talk with young children. Children's brains go though rapid development from the time they are born up until 5 years old. So what children experience during these first 5 years, actually effects the structural makeup of their brain. This is why childhood trauma can have such an effect on adults AND why positive interactions can help set up a child for success.
I try to incorporate this messaging into my stories, and this chapter especially focuses on that. PSA done! Enjoy!
It was still daylight when she arrived home. It was funny; she referred to their apartment as home. Home for Leia was where ever the Rebel base was. That was her story for three years now. Alderaan was the only other place she could truly call home. But this apartment was as close as it came to comfort to her right now.
The afternoon meeting ran long and she was oh so grateful to have an excuse to skip the dinner where there promised to be more conversations regarding Alderaan and lobbying going on from both sides. Something told her that future Leia would never have walked out on any event aimed at strengthening relationships, but present Leia didn't give a damn. She needed space and perspective, and she allowed herself the means to achieve that.
Chewie was there when she arrived. He had stationed himself in the kitchen with an evening meal almost prepped and smelling delicious.
[Good evening, Princess,] he welcomed as he put all preparations aside to come and give her a big hug.
"Chewie," she sighed and smiled into his furry embrace. This was another one of the positives from her time spent in this dimension. Her friendship with Chewbacca from Yavin to Hoth had always been warm, but she felt a special kind of appreciation for how familiar they had become over the years. Especially now that they were relying on him for so much.
She pulled back and stretched her chin up to met his face. "You really are the best friend a being could ask for."
The Wookie brushed off her compliment with something about Han and something else about happiness.
She looked around his large frame to see and smell something delicious coming from the monstrous pan on the warmer. And judging from the amount of stuff still out on the counters, she could tell this concoction required quite a process.
"This is completely unnecessary…" She began, feeling a burden and useless in the kitchen area.
Chewie interrupted. [If I didn't cook for you, I'm afraid you'd try it yourself and then someone would end up at the med center again.]
She was held in a momentary stupor. "You're not serious!" She hoped he wasn't but his tone was deadly somber. "Did that really happen?"
[No,] he admitted with humor at her reaction. [But Han was sick as an iced Jawa for two days after.]
That she could believe. She'd never tried to cook anything back on Alderaan, so she had no reason to believe she had any skills there. "Note to self, don't cook."
[The galaxy thanks you, Princess.]
She watched Chewie add some more stuff to his pan, nothing that she could identify. "Well, I doubt we starved."
[You order in a lot and Cub can cook.]
She kept that new fact in the forefront of her mind. Another thing about Han she had failed to either see or recognize. "Where is… Cub?" She asked using Chewie's name for his
[Out,] the Wookie shared, through he clearly had additional information he was not sharing. [He'll be back soon.]
"Where's Rayah?"
He glanced to his side where Leia finally saw the monitor she had left there that morning. The little blue figure was rocking back and forth as her legs jutted in the air. [Just waking up from her nap.]
"Another busy day on the Falcon?"
He grunted an affirmative. [Cub likes it there, that much never changed.]
If there was one thing she was sure of in regards to Han, that man loved his ship, maybe even more than people. She thought better of that last phrase. No, she suspected there were a few people Han love more.
[Go on, Princess,] Chewie nodded towards the monitor, whimpering sounds now coming through the speaker. [She'll want to see you.]
She followed his guidance, backing out through the kitchen and traveling through the hallway to where her daughter was just rising.
Palming the door open, she was met with a pair of eyes, practically clones of her own as the little girl stood in her crib with her hands on the upper lip.
"Hi Rayah."
Groggy didn't seem to be in the girl's vocabulary as her face lit up, wide awake and ready for her next adventure.
"Are you ready to get up?" The mother asked in sing-song voice as she playfully toed towards the girl.
Rayah lifted a hand, almost to point at the silly woman. "Mama," she declared with certainty.
"That's me," Leia proudly owned that title as she pressed her fingers against her daughter's. "I'm here."
When the girl reached out to her, she easily slipped her hands under her arms and lifted her over the bar, quickly settling her on her hip.
Rayah had other plans. No sooner had Leia drawn her near, but Rayah pushed off, bending her back to lift away and kicking her feet with a whine.
"It's okay, sweetie," Leia tried to soothe with a soft voice and a bounce.
But Rayah was having none of it as the one year old stretched with more force this time.
This wasn't what Leia needed. Not after her day of feeling out of place, off balance, and alone. "Why won't you let me hold you?" She practically pleaded with the wiggly limp noodle sliding from her arms.
Finally setting Rayah safely on her feet, Leia watched as she simply stood there, no more cries and no more wiggles. What did she want?
"Should we play with some toys?" Leia suggested, moving over to the toy bin and shelves on the far wall.
Rayah followed her with a waddle that highlighted her pudgy little legs sticking out from her aqua knit dress.
Leia opened the window cover to let in the last of the day's light as well as flicked on the other lights in the room.
The little girl seemed to know what the word 'toys' meant. She walked right over to her sizable stash and started touching the space ships and then picking up a porg.
"What should we play with?" Leia asked as she knelt on the floor beside the toys and their owner.
Apparently the answer was not the porg as she tossed it to the floor and reached in for something else.
Eventually, her little hands clasped around a model tauntaun. She held it proudly in both hands as she twisted to show it to her mother.
"Is that your tauntaun?" Leia's excited voice was full of dramatics. She reached into the same bin and pulled out another four legged creature she recognized. She placed the figure on the floor and made it 'walk' over towards Rayah's feet. "Can he say hi to the bantha?"
Leia knew enough about child development to know that constantly talking with young children helped to build the structural parts of their brains where all language and cognitive functions took place. So she continued her one sided conversation.
Rayah sat down on her bottom with her legs curled in front of her, the tauntaun still in her grasp.
"Say hi," Leia repeated shaking the bantha in a friendly waving gesture. Nothing from her look alike.
"Would you like to go to the ocean?" Her bantha asked.
There was another blanket nearby on the chair, this one patterned in gray and white. She sat up on her knees for a moment to grab the materials and then set it down between them in a scrunched up shape.
"Here's the ocean," she labeled the blanket and called on their imaginations. "Let's jump on the count of three."
Holding her bantha to the side of the blanket, she started the dramatic countdown.
"One… two… three!"
On the last count, the figurine bounced high in the air, as high as her arm could reach, and came back down into the blanket. She made a high pitched sound effect to go along with the motion and a splashing sound at the end.
Rayah, thank gods, was delighted by the entire spectacle. She copied the model jump with her own that landed in the blanket as well.
"Good job!" Leia giggled, thrilled to have this moment together and thrilled to see this modeling behavior.
They jumped again after a dramatic countdown and a few giggles along the way. Rayah's tauntaun jumped higher this time as she learned how to stretch her arm above her head like her mother did. Pretty soon, they were simply jumping from one part of the blanket to the other.
"Are we jumping?" Leia asked the little girl as she let out a toothy grin. "Jump, jump, jump…"
It started quiet, but Leia saw the little lips moving and heard the sounds coming from them. "Dump, dump, dump…"
She felt her heart swell with pride and joy.
"Good job, Rayah!" She praised triumphantly as she pressed a supportive hand onto the girl's leg. "Jump, jump!"
"Dump, dump, dump…" Rayah continued more loudly, reveling in the praise and enthusiasm that surrounded her.
A sound from the door behind her could not have been more perfectly timed. "Did you hear that Chewie? She's saying 'jump!'"
"I heard it!"
Han's voice rang through the room, his tone high as he marveled in the new word. She turned to meet his luminous face with her own.
"Hey, little princess!" He addressed the star of the moment as he walked in and knelt down beside Leia.
"Dada!" Rayah returned the reception by holding out her tauntaun to show him.
His hand ran over the back of her head for a moment until he removed it to better situate himself on the floor. "Are you jumpin'?" He asked, that same hand moving to run down her back.
She noticed all his shuffling with a single free hand and the other firmly behind his back. "What are you hiding?"
He turned from his daughter to meet her eyes, his expression half joyful and half embarrassed. "Just a little somethin' I picked up for you."
He held her in suspense for a moment as her head tilted in curiosity. With little fanfare, he twisted his arm from behind his back to present to her a bouquet of fresh, small blue flowers tied together at the stems with a royal blue ribbon.
He pressed the flowers into her hands before she could express anything other than surprise. With the stems in one hand, her other fingers moved to glide over the tiny blue petals and the green leaves, bringing back memories of yesteryear.
Her slacked jaw finally moved with words coming out. "Oh, Han…"
"They're starflowers…" He shared before caveating, "I think."
"Yes, they are." She knew the native Alderaanian blooms well. "They used to grow in our garden in Aldera."
"Well, you were having a bad day and I thought…"
She cut him off, first with her appreciative and shining eyes and then with her soft words. "They're lovely. Thank you." She pulled them towards her nose to get a good whiff of the familiar scent. "It means a lot."
She was almost more pleased by the satisfied look on his face as she was with the gesture. "You're welcome, Princess," he cooed.
His eyes drew her in, those soft brown eyes and captivating beam. He dropped his head before she was done looking at him. But she used the action to turn back to their girl who was contenting herself by picking at the tauntaun's tiny legs.
"Well…"
She moved her gaze back to the man who was groaning as he bent his legs to stand back up.
"I better go help the big fur ball with dinner. Apparently, I can cook. Who knew?"
She grinned at his cooking remark, but shook her head at the thought of Chewie again. "He's done too much."
Han left a pause as he stood above them with his hands pressed into his belt. "You think we can handle her tonight on our own?" He questioned. "Give him the night off."
She thought about it briefly, glancing again at the smiley girl in front of her. "I think we can handle her."
It was as if Rayah was listening as she raised her head and reached out her hand to grab the bantha from her own hand. With an animal in both hands, she knocked them both together and giggled at the clanking sound.
"We're getting the hang of all this." Leia was surprised that came out of her mouth. She was even more surprised that she actually meant it.
"Yeah," Han grinned with his own contentment. "Today, I updated the Falcon's navicomputer and learned what starflowers are. It was a good day."
She nodded her head. "For me too."
"You had a good day?"
"I did." She tilted her head up to meet his confused face with her confident one.
"She said jump."