Jeldo: Thank you!
Summers2004: As I enjoy reading your enjoyment! Thanks! And Pink Nails is slowly, slowly coming together. It's just irking me the way this debate is going . . . oh, right. I probably shouldn't say anything, lol. Thanks again!
GreatOne: Mmm, well, as I reviewed the third part yesterday, I started to think that I may need a fourth to actually get them off the planet. But, shh! Don't tell anyone!
HerHighness33: 10! Do you want me toleave Pink Nails to rot? Ha-ha, I'm totally kidding with you, you know. Once again, thanks for the lovely challenge - it's been a joy to write!
Trout: Fix and post the Hermoine one! Fix and post the Hermoine one! Pleeease . . .
Anonymous: Right now! And thank you for yournote - I really appreciate any comments anyone gives!
Okay, gang.Here we go!
Part II: Leia.
I hate boats.
We never had much time to spend out at the lake or ocean when I was growing up. It wasn't important. When most people need a vacation from life, they go to a sand beach or on a hydrocruise. We went to Coruscant.
To listen to the Senate hearings.
Needless to say, I've never been all that comfortable with the water, and my husband is not helping matters. His overnight traipse through the jungle river that deposited us through three sets of rapids and one small waterfall was the single most trying experience I've had in all of three days.
Being married to Han Solo assures a constant source of excitement.
Who knew he had such an affinity for hydrotransportation?
I am happy to say that we've finished with the river. We've landed our stolen boat at the mouth of the swirling cascade of death and are currently somewhere near our original crash site. Somewhere. That's the key word there. I don't know where we are and I really don't think Han does either.
"Leia, do you know where we are?"
Obviously not.
"We can't be far from the crash site. We were always near the river on our way up the trail."
"So I go and try to find it?"
The man is dense sometimes. "No, we go to find it. I'm not going to just wait here."
"Leia – "
"Don't 'Leia' me. I'm not helpless, I'm not incapable, and I'm not going to treat your little commandments like they're law. Do I look like I'm ready to explode?"
"No, but – "
"Good, then let's go."
I'm not being too hard on him, am I?
I should be easier, maybe. Most women would be ecstatic if their husband showed half the interest in their pregnancy that Han has in the entire five days that he's known about it. Who would have known that Han Solo, mercenary turned New Republic general turned husband, would be so excited to have children?
Well, me.
We'd talked about it quite a bit after we were married. I was unsure that having children was the appropriate step to take, taking my lineage into account and the curse I'd put upon any offspring of mine. But Han . . . well, Han had never had a proper childhood. He hit the ground running at such a young age that supporting a young child must seem like a way to make up for it. It's not for me to take that away from a man that is so genuinely good and deserving of that future.
Not that I'd ever tell him that.
We fought over the issue for nearly six months. I would never have guessed the ferocity with which Han would argue for children. He'd point out advertisements with fantastically-behaved five year olds or Senator Muleutto's toddler that I fell in love with at the Descartes annexation party. He'd look at me with that look.
Eventually, after many "discussions" with Han and debates with Luke, I gave in. Actually, that's the wrong way to phrase it. I began to love the idea of children. A baby to hold, to love, to care for. To give me insomnia, to make me worried sick, to watch grow.
And I got lucky.
Han had never looked so excited when I told him. His expression went beyond the normal bounds of Solo adorableness and into downright delight.
That made it final. I'd made the right decision. And even though I know I've sold my time, my sleep, my every waking moment to a being that is, at the moment, still living inside me, I feel confident that Han and I, together, can handle it.
Or them.
See, that's the part that Han doesn't know about. I got the original test done last week and, really, it's just a sneaking suspicion. Nothing with foundation, and probably just a nudge from the Force. I've had this nagging, this incessant whisper in the back of my brain that keeps telling me to take it easy, for my babies' sake.
Babies? Plural?
Well, that's my idea. Or my fantasy. I'm not sure which at this point.
He'll go nuts. He won't even let me stand up on my own.
Better not tell him until they're actually showing themselves, eh?
And, of course, I can't do it now. Han would go berserk if he knew I was pregnant with more than his one child and trudging through the wilderness of this fantastic deserted world that Lando discovered.
I have never wanted to kill a sentient creature more than I want to kill Lando Calrissian right now.
"Have you heard from Lando, Han?"
He's fumbling around his pockets, probably looking for that blasted tracking device he keeps fretting over. "I don't think his comm's working. I tried him in the village before the – ah, well. Before we left."
For the love of – "What did you do back there, Solo?"
"Nothing," comes the automated reply. The one I hate. He grins sheepishly. "The torches."
"What about them?"
"One just . . . fell."
Oh, now that's reassuring. "Fell? Like the wind blew it over? Or like you decided to redecorate?"
He grins but doesn't answer.
What a surprise.
"Of course. Of course it's raining." I sigh tiredly. "It's probably the only week in which any rain falls here. Ten credits its monsoon season and that we'll both die, swept up into that stupid river of yours, and Lando will be the only one of us to survive."
"You know, your optimism always was the guiding light of the Rebellion. I can really see it lifting my spirits." He nods his chin towards me. "I bet you don't even have ten credits to bet me."
"How much you want to bet?"
"Oh, ha, Princess. Real hilarious." He assesses our current situation as I scurry under a palm leaf big enough to wrap around Jabba a good three or four times. "Let's stick around here for awhile. I'm not sure you should be out here in this rain."
"And you should?"
He grins crookedly as he moves under another huge leaf, probably attempting to dispel some of the anger heading his way. "My wife keeps telling me that I should take more water showers, anyway, so – "
He is absolutely infuriating at times.
"The quicker we move, the quicker we at least find the crash site." Just try to fight me on this, Solo. I've got logic and I am in no way afraid to use it. "And what about Lando? We haven't heard from him in close to twenty-four hours. Does this sound like a good time to hole up because it's raining?"
"I don't like getting wet, Your Worship."
Scratch that. He is absolutely infuriating all the time.
"Deal with it." I shove the palm leave aside and begin to tramp through the already muddy ground, fully aware that Han is murmuring to himself but hurriedly following me.
Let him complain all he wants.
He's the one who claims to like strong women, after all.
"Oh, let's go steal the giant carnivore's egg while it's sleeping! What wonderful ideas you have, Sweetheart –"
I don't think I've ever run as fast as I have today.
Come to think of it, this is also the first time I've been chased by a sentient trying to kill me in –
Well, months, actually.
"Me? My idea? Which reality were you in, Most Amazing Pyromaniac?"
"The one where we live!"
"I'd really like to be in that one, too, Solo. How exactly will that happen?" I huff out a breath, see it in the biting cold of the rain. "Care to ignite anything?"
"Oh, how droll, Your Highnessness – ach!"
Before I can react, I'm reaching the same place where Han had apparently slipped, fallen, and begun a long slide down a hidden ravine, foliage and rock whipping past. If we weren't being chased by – whatever – and if I wasn't doing the exact same thing, I might have laughed. The mud at least cushioned our ride, straight on our backs, and the roars of the frustrated thing subsided as we careened much faster than our previous jog and left him, her, or it without food. I reach out to the low branches of the smaller trees, but the rainwater has either made their surfaces sticky or instigated the release of some sort of natural oil.
It doesn't really matter all that much.
The mud begins to fade, I notice, as smooth stone takes its place and Han and I slow to a halt, the traction a bit stronger here than in our past encounters in the mud. I feel justified in merely lying on my back for awhile, soaking up the still persistent rain and imagining that my back isn't killing me from the scratches the stones had made.
And I find that I don't really mind the scratches all that much. It could have been worse.
It could have been much worse.
I could have done some serious damage to our child.
"You okay, Leia?"
"Yeah."
"My baby okay?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, good." He paused. "That's another rescue for me, Princess. I'm up by at least three now."
"If you want to live to see your child born, you better drop the rescue tally, Solo."
"Fine." He pauses. "But at the time we dropped our long-standing tradition, I was ahead - "
I just sighed.
Reviews are marvelous! Thanks whether you do or not!
KR
