Disclaimer: If I owned Star Wars, I would be rich. I would also be dead, because my fans would kill me. I can't seem to resist alternate universe fics that don't fit in, even with my other alternate universe fics.

Author's Note: Anything not canon or just simply wrong is my fault, even though the lovely and talented KnightedRogue beta-ed most of it for me. I, unfortunately, edited and changed parts afterward. With that said, this is blatantly AU anyway, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Practice

Hold-Out Trout

Leia smoothed her hair—worn, for once, long and straight down her back. Her hands shook, but she ignored this and merely adjusted one final strand of hair. It was no longer the dark brown it had been the last time she wore her hair like this, that time on Endor. She considered how the strands of grey marked her extended reprieve and gave herself a weak smile in the mirror.

Luke had been so excited. "I've found her!" he practically shouted to her in his pre-recorded message.

Leia thought he had looked like the young farm boy he had been when he rescued her from the Death Star, just for a moment.

"It was a short underground news program that only aired here…I only watched enough to find out it was her—and Leia, she was beautiful, just like you said. I ran her name through the database here—can you believe it was almost completely intact? I came up with their marriage certificate of all things–and recovered everything else about her they had. I'm coming back to Coruscant as soon as I can."

Coming to Coruscant.

Leia knew why Luke was so happy; knew he wanted to share his happiness with her. In one sense she appreciated this consideration, but she knew Luke wouldn't find the story he was looking for—or if he did, it would be a false one.

Their mother.

It was the story of their mother's life, but it was also the story of Darth Vader, and Leia knew Luke had never completely understood his darkness. If he had, he never could have faced Vader and redeemed him. Leia never could have done it. She knew too much.

She left her and Han's apartment and headed for the palace. Luke would be arriving back from Naboo in just a few minutes, and she wanted to meet him before he went anywhere else. She wanted to be able to head him off, distract him, buy herself time.

Bail had never told her the whole story. He had never even told her her mother's name. But she had put pieces together, guessed from what Bail told Breha when he thought she wasn't listening. And she had found Padmé.

She found the accepted story—the master politician who had saved her people and who had—mistakenly—put her faith in Senator Palpatine. She even knew of her mother's early activities against the Empire, before there was an Empire. Winter had told her about those.

She pieced the entire story together over years, whenever she found another link, another slice of Padmé's life. She even traveled to Naboo and found the same information Luke had to be bringing back now. The marriage certificate, footage of Padmé's funeral, Even the underground newscast that suggested Anakin and Padmé had become more than Jedi protector and a protected senator. It was vicious gossip, except for the fact that it was true.

She put all these pieces together like a puzzle, and came out with a picture of a dark mask, a betrayal that ran so deep Padmé herself had not seen it until too late. Leia found this comforting, in a way, and knew where Luke got his innocence.

She had lost hers long ago during state functions and Imperial politics, even before she knew of Padmé and Anakin Skywalker. She only wished the information on Naboo had been destroyed, and she'd been able to keep Luke's innocence intact without it coming to this.

She reached the spaceport and then Luke's landing pad. As she neared the door, she hesitated, just a moment, then smiled and composed her mind in the way not even Luke knew she could. It was a lie not even Luke could detect through the Force, and Leia was ashamed she was using it against him now.

"Leia!" he shouted as the doors opened. He ran to her and caught her up in his arms.

She couldn't help remember how he had done the same thing after the first battle with the Death Star.

He put her down, but before he could exclaim over his findings, before he could even mention it, she spoke.

"Luke, I'm so sorry. I know you're excited, and if it were up to me…"

Luke's face fell. "What is it this time?"

"General Er'Lyt got wind that you were coming, and she insisted that you report to her immediately. I couldn't bring myself to mention what else you'd found…" Her tone was just the right mixture of exasperation and hesitation.

Luke sighed. "Oh well. We've waited this long, I suppose we can wait a few more hours." He gave her a smile. "Perhaps later tonight?" Seeing her sympathetic expression, he grimaced. "Or perhaps tomorrow."

Leia nodded, and suggested that Artoo be sent ahead to his quarters while they went directly to the meeting. She watched as Luke told the droid to be careful not to lose the data chips, and to leave them out for him, and then led Luke away to the row of meetings that awaited them.

Later that night, Leia excused herself from the last meeting by saying she needed to go home to wait for a message from Han. Luke stood and kissed her head, said, "Tomorrow, then," and Leia smiled tiredly at him.

She went quickly to Luke's apartments, letting herself in with the special, untraceable security code only she possessed, a favor from Winter, who knew she sometimes liked to access rooms in the palace in complete privacy.

Artoo was shut down and Leia had no trouble spotting the data chips on the small table by the door. She took them and inserted them into her hand-held computer, then erased them, taking care not to erase the footage Luke had already seen. Then she left, leaving no trace of herself behind.

The next day, Leia again brushed out her hair, not able to look her reflection in the eye. She hated what she had done—could not believe, in some ways, that she had done it at all. She caught her hair up today, reflexively twirling it back, and pinned it up.

She dreaded the expression she knew would fall over Luke's face at the damaged footage. She stood up, moved to the door and composed her expression, rehearsed her reactions. She knew exactly what to emphasize, what emotion to evoke.

Leia had a lot more practice lying than Luke knew.