Author's Note: This chapter took so goddamn long to write.
GreatOne: I couldn't just let him leave, could I? (Actually, I could, and I was about to but I didn't feel like it. xD) Syrmé and Luke are leaving thm alone at this point -- but you'll see. :)
K'bish: xD Look - I updated the next day! So cliffhanger is resolved.
Dovasary: Oh, don't worry, I have something good in mind. I've been working on it since July, jotting down the tentative plot and such. I hope you'll like it, but I'm gonnah have practically no time to write next year. x.x And I'll read your new story -- but don't worry, my muse sometimes goes on strike, too. :) - head is currently four times larger than before - xDDD
KnightedRogue: :)) Thank you! And I think you were right. x.x - sigh - But oh well. :D
doreenthatshot: Thank you - and now here's a quick update. :D
Crazy1: Yes, that spelling's right. :) See? I didn't take too long, did I?
pip: Thanks - I liked that spot for the nick, too. :D
yellow-lily: Lol, thanks, what part of Maryland? Because I'm here as well to visit my mom.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Han stops threatening in mid-sentence, turning away from a much-relieved Luke. His eyes settle upon my mother, sitting weakly and defiantly in a porch chair. She's already got all of her defenses up, with a high chin, ruler-straight back, hard eyes, and a perked eyebrow.
Han turns fully toward her, with an eerily similar expression.
"Highnessness." he replies stiffly.
Luke takes these three syllables as his cue to leave – and to drag me inside with him.
"Wh – hey - " I stutter as he firmly grips my upper arm and pulls me inside, letting the door slide shut. "I wanted to see that!" I complain.
"This is their business, they don't have to hold a show for us."
"Why not?"
"Because." he answers uselessly. "Now, I'm going to my room. Don't disturb them – and remember – don't eavesdrop." I see a shadow of a grin appear on his face, along with the slightest trace of a wink. I watch him with wry amusement as he hurries his way back to his room, and I hear the door lock after him.
Well…
I make my way to the living room, settle myself on the couch, and close my eyes, falling into deep relaxation. In record time, I feel my mind slip into nothingness as the Force takes over every little crevice of my brain. Then an image bursts in clearly, just an image and sounds, nothing else. No words, no thoughts. Soon I focus and draw closer to two figures facing each other rather awkwardly, one staring up at the other on a chair in the porch. The image settles itself in a place near the chair, in full view of what was about to go on.
"You're awake," he says.
"Apparently." A pause. "And you haven't left."
"Only because your brother practic'ly got on his hands and knees to beg me to stay an extra week."
"I see. I'm surprised, Han, that you kept true to your word."
"Since when haven't I?" he asks, sneering.
"Oh, don't you get me started." she answers through clenched teeth. "I'm not in the mood for mind games with you, Solo."
"Oh, we're resortin' to Solo now, Princess?"
"Considering that it's been a while and I barely know you… yes."
At this he walks up three steps to confront her more closely, a scowl on his face as he moodily leans against the edge of a chair.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot that tiny part. Hey, while we're at it, let's catch up on what we missed - " he starts with mock enthusiasm. "Hmm, you first. What happened these past sixteen years? Married anybody? Have any babies?"
"Ha." she states with sarcasm. "Oh, yes, I've always loved your humor. Oh, for the record, I'm divorced."
"Ooh. Goody."
"Listen." If she could, she'd be standing. "You have no right whatsoever to walk in on my life - "
"Hey, whose daughter paid twenty-six hundred credits for a flight away from home?"
This stops her, dumbfounded. "You charged twenty-six hundred for a charter? I see that your greed remains."
"Hey – I got seventeen from your brother and Kenobi. The one with your daughter was a generous day."
"Of course, must have slipped my mind."
"Anyhow, Worship, we really have nothin' to say to each other. So I should just leave."
"Maybe you should."
"Then I will."
"Fine. But one question."
This stops him midstep away from her, and he turns to glare.
"What."
"Can you just tell me why you left?"
"I didn't godsdamn leave!" he yells, frustrated, causing her to lean backwards a few inches in surprise. But she quickly recovers.
"What do you mean, you didn't leave? You did leave! You… left! For sixteen years, you've been alive - "
"Oh, I see, now that I'm alive you're all worried."
"You – uugh!" she's at a loss for words, and her lips purse and she leans forward. "If I could slap you now, I so would."
He makes the dire mistake of leaning forward as well and whispering for effect. "There are many things you would do right now if you could." he leers, earning a hard slap.
"For three years, Han." she continues, otherwise ignoring his last comment. "Three years we searched endlessly. Don't you dare say a thing about me not worrying, because I was dying that whole time."
He simply snorts, as if he doesn't believe it or he's too stubborn to believe it.
"And where were you? Probably in some bottom-level whorehouse on Coruscant!" she spits nastily.
This seems to strike a nerve. "Oh yeah, because Han Solo is just some low ass that can't hold a commitment and runs away from every responsibility, isn't he? Gods forbid he has an actual legitimate reason for disappearin'!"
"Oh, I know, you visited your friends and got a little sidetracked, huh?"
"I didn't visit 'em at all!"
"That makes it better?"
"Look, you ask why I left, then you can't even let me finish a fuckin' sentence."
She immediately bristles, but invites him to continue by raising both of her eyebrows.
"Like I was saying, I never got to their place. The Falcon malfunctioned - " She snorts derisively, which stops him angrily. "Are you done?" he sneers. She does a little nod/shrug, and he invites himself to sit in the chair across from her. "Alright. It malfunctioned by Dantooine, so we stopped there to repair it. It's practically isolated there, so Chewie and I thought it was fine. 'Bout a day later, we were encountered by - " then he hesitates. She swallows then nods to tell him to keep going. This isn't what she'd expected. "By slavers. They took Chewie and I, eventually they sold us to - " he pauses as if trying to remember something. "Ge… Geonosis. Six years later, with others, we escaped." he stops for a second. "I forced Chewie to go back to Kashyyk." he snorted humorlessly. "That took a while, but he 'ventually agreed, on the term that I visit frequently."
"… But you still didn't come back."
He glances up at her angrily. "I did, but guess what? You were married with a kid. What would you've done?" she shrugs, then suddenly looks nervous, biting her lip and looking to the right, rubbing her hands on her knees. He was studying her with a small glare on his face. "And now you don't have a good reason for marrying him, do you?"
Her eyes snap back to him furiously. "I see, now I'm a slut?"
"I'm just goin' by what I saw. Awfully quick time after I was gone to get married and pregnant - "
"Listen to me, Han!" she almost shouts at him, jabbing a finger right under his throat. "I'm a political figurehead." She states more quietly. "The press would have chewed her out as a bastard and I as a slut if I wasn't married while pregnant with Syrmé. I did what I had to do."
"So you had sex with Carr then you got married. Oh. That makes it so much better."
"I didn't have sex with Leo at all!"
This shocks him, and she waits nervously for his revelation. The she's taken aback as he glares at her again. "Then who's the father?"
She groans, burying her head in her hands. Force, this man's thick when he wants to be. Then she looks again at him pointedly.
The comprehension dawns clearly on his face, and his mouth drops open a bit.
"… Me?" She gives the slightest nod. "Are you serious?" his face is not unlike the one he wore when Leia first told him Luke's her brother. Then he looks at her. "Does she…"
"Know? Yes. Luke told her. Rather, let slip."
He snorts. "She didn't take it too well." He mutters.
"She was surprised. She had no idea what to think of it. She was mad at me, above all else."
"Yeah, she didn't talk to me all week."
"She needed time."
"Hell…" he mutters, rubbing his forehead. He glances up at her, as if she might jump up and shout, 'JUST KIDDING!' But she doesn't.
"So you and Carr…"
"No. Never. We're just friends; he had a girlfriend, who he's marrying now." she answers, with a coy smile playing across her face.
"Oh." he grunts. "So… this was just a sixteen-year mix up?"
"Unfortunately." she leans forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "Come here."
He raises his eyebrows teasingly. "Why?"
"Flyboy," she growls. "Just do it."
"'S that an order, Your Worship?"
"Yes."
With his lopsided smile on, he leans forward a tiny bit. She reaches outward, still weak, with one hand, and they exchange glances one last time before their lips meet, and her fingers start to push through his hair. After several moments, they finally part, each breathing slightly heavier then before.
Then they smile.
So? Was that okay? - took a half hour writing the last five sentences - x.x