Epilogue

"Then you'll take care of this?" Rabé leaned over the little droid. Artoo reached out with a claw to grab the hoversled and sounded a long stream of beeps and whistles. As Threepio was over with Chewbacca and couldn't interpret for her, Rabé took this answer as a yes. It'd be a nice surprise later when the princess and Skywalker opened the gifts to find the tapestry of Amidala and a portrait of she and Anakin from the cabin. Let Leia and Luke figure out which of them gets what gift.

She looked around the group ready to exit the palace. This was the informal gathering before the official send off outside. Luke was conspicuously absent, so was Faren. Rabé noted it, but she knew they needed to say their good-bye privately. They'd get here on time. Han Solo was, as expected, fidgeting, a cross between ready to go and thinking about the crowd from here to the Falcon. Chewbacca was deeply immersed with Boss Tarpals while Lando Calrissian conversed with some of the Nubian pilots.

"I hear we'll have neighbors soon," Pormet was saying excitedly to Leia.

The princess flashed a smile of thanks over at Rabé, noting to the Councilman how the former handmaiden brought the nearby system to her attention. Pormet said he hoped this meant a long alliance between the two systems and Leia impishly replied that she always strongly supported the word alliance.

Your daughter's a smart one, Amidala. She saw we were trying to turn her into you... and us into Alderaan. She made the tough choice to say no. Rabé grinned to herself. And the accolades go to me for getting her to be nearby.

A peripheral movement caught her attention; Luke walked in, but Faren wasn't with him. Rabé's inner amusement went up a few notches. Who do they think they're fooling? She intercepted him before he reached the others.

"I need to speak to you." He nodded, and she was sorry for causing the wary way he did it. She took a deep breath. "I was wrong for the way I treated you. I came here with the best intentions - to come home, to see if my friends would come home too, and to see you. But when Faren got involved... it stepped outside of an old friend of your mother's casually meeting her son, it became too personal. I judged you by your father's actions, his last actions," she corrected herself. "I didn't think you could avoid the mistakes he made. I was wrong. For good and for bad, no one will ever be Anakin Skywalker again. Nor will they be your mother. Having said that, I know Amidala would be very proud of you." His sudden intake of breath warmed her heart that his mother's approval meant so much. They dwelled in that moment, quietly in union for the eternity of a minute, before she spoke again. "Now, all this doesn't change certain facts. Faren is my child. She will always be so despite the fact she is an adult. She is going to Coruscant. I know you will see each other there. And if you ever hurt her, I will make Palpatine look as tame as a mouse droid as I hunt you down."

His lips twitched as he made himself reply seriously, "Understood."

"Good." Their mouths split into wide smiles. She leaned over to kiss his cheek. "Be well, Luke. Thank you for everything. I hope I will see you again, with or without my daughter - who just walked in and is staring openmouthed at us."

Faren shut her mouth on hearing this and obviously didn't know if she should be confused, concerned, or pleased. Her mother gave her no time to decide. "I think it's time." She moved away, allowing them one last moment together as they joined everyone. She thought she heard Luke whisper "One month", and Faren reply, "Less than that now".

Lando greeted her, bowing with an air that was both intentional charm and deep respect. "Meeting you has been the highlight of this experience." He lingered as he kissed her hand.

Faren's eyebrows shot up and Leia made it worse when she leaned over to confide, "I know how he is with women. Be afraid, be very afraid." Faren darted in between Calrissian and her mother, earning Rabé's utter amusement.

The Republic party took their place in front of the great doors. They opened, spilling sunlight to crown Leia's and Luke's heads, or so it looked to Rabé. The crowd outside cheered as they caught sight of them, but the former handmaiden heard and saw something else in her mind's eye even as she watched the princess and her brother step out into the day, framed by the semi-circle of friends who were family.

Rabé remembered being part of another such circle. Shoulder to shoulder with the other handmaidens, reflecting back Amidala's light, forming the group that were advisors, support, protection, friends, comrades, and sisters. She heard all the laughs and whispers, saw all the smiles, felt the strength of hands clasping hers when she needed it and the reaching out to the others when they needed her. She remembered the sense of her husband, the teasing of the women, and Faren's first stirrings inside her. She felt them as if they were there, as if she could turn to either side and find herself amongst them again. Sabé grinning at her as she pointed to Saché and Yané, their heads close together whispering and laughing quietly over some piece of court gossip. Eirtaé reaching across her and tweaking Saché's side and hurriedly returning to her place so Saché glared at Rabé for the affront. And her own laughter blending with Eirtaé's over the trick.

And the jubilant Amidala, bursting to tell someone, announced she was pregnant, and swore them to secrecy until she could tell the missing Anakin. She could feel Amidala's arms hugging her tightly as they joked that she and Rabé now faced the mysterious world of childbirth together. How the handmaidens had teased Amidala as they planned gifts of toy lightsabers and ships, tiny crowns and Senatorial robes, and how she had sworn, "I'm not pushing them into anything. They can make their own choices."

Sabé had said it first. "Them? They?"

And Rabé saw the ghost of the memory superimposed on top of Leia and Luke, centered by the great doors as Amidala had been within the doors of the sittingroom. "I'm having twins."

After the noise of another crowd, another slow crawl through Theed, and Leia once more taking her brother into the midst of the exuberant people, the quiet and closeness of the Falcon's cockpit made it a haven.

Lando was behind Chewbacca so he could comment on the piloting whenever he wanted, and Leia enjoyed this entertainment before looking up at Luke where he lounged in the cockpit doorway. "Happy?" she asked.

"Very."

"Me too," she said and sighed contentedly. She sat forward on the edge of her seat, catching Han before he could enter the coordinates for their jump to hyperspace. "Take us past my new system."

"Again?" he complained, and she kicked his chair. He grumped as he set the coordinates, but she knew he didn't meant it.

She watched as the blue and white world came into view and was glad that all the others were here to see it with her. And soon all the Alderaani will start heading here. In a little while, I can tell them we have a home again.

"So that's going to be Alderaan," Lando said.

"Once Leia's done walking all over the committee, it will," Han replied.

"I wouldn't say that," she complained. "I'm just calling in favors. Every favor I ever earned," she added under her breath.

The planet had scars caused by the Empire's mining, visible even from here, but we'll fix that, she thought. Thank the Force the Naboo never colonized it like they had planned, and that it became unimportant to the Empire.

"A lot of work," Luke commented.

She wondered if he meant what lay before her or him. She chose to take it at face value. "I know," she replied happily. "This, the new Senate -"

"But you haven't changed your mind about coming with me, right?"

Again, she looked up at him. "Of course not. I have to report to Mon Mothma and schedule things for while we're away. Then we can go."

He nodded, then smiled down at her as Lando asked, "Go? Go where? We're off again already?"

"Just us," Leia answered. "Luke and I," and she explained.

She saw Han tense in his seat and wondered what caused it. Han's early skepticism about the Jedi had turned to respect for what Luke had achieved. But she knew this wasn't the time to ask him, so she replied instead to Lando's and Chewie's enthusiasm.

"Where are you going?" asked Lando.

Luke's teeth flashed brightly as he looked again at Leia's new world. "If this is the bright center of the galaxy, we're going to the planet it's farthest from."

Everyone in the cockpit turned puzzled frowns on him, but behind him, Artoo whistled in strident tones and Threepio said nervously, "Oh no." He looked over and winked at his sister.

Some author notes:

What do you say when you finish a story you've worked on for over a year off and on?

Well, first off, I have to acknowledge that the line, "Even the sun has its spots", is actually a quote from Benjamin Franklin who made it when other countries said America would fail without a king.

Second, a few people pointed out that this story conflicts with Episode II and III. That's because I started writing way before we knew anything about the other movies, and because I avoid any articles and news on it. I like to be surprised. =)

Next, I have to thank all of you. "Homecoming" was originally a small story that I wrote for my own enjoyment and my friend, Sheyla's. I pictured the scene of Leia and Luke approaching Theed palace whenever I heard that parade music from the end of "Phantom Menace", so I wrote it, and once in awhile, Sheyla and I would talk about something like "Would Leia and Luke ever fight over their differing opinions of their father?", and Luke had to have a girlfriend so I took my Faren character from a fanfic I wrote in the 80s, made her Rab's daughter, and wrote a little more. But then people found the website and actually wrote me saying they liked it. Then I posted it here to see if it would work and couldn't believe you've been so great!

So what I most wanted to say is: Thank you! to everyone who stuck with the story for all your support!