First of all: It is official! Eleven reviews! Double Figures! Yay!

Bailey Martin: Thank you! And not enough people do call Luke Farmboy! (Cheers for favouriting me as well!)

Pitdroid: Yeah, I felt it was important for Leia to no about the whole Han/Bria fandango. You always seem to be right on the money with your reviews! How do you do it? (cookiemunster suspects some kind of Jedi Mind Trick or similar.)

KrazywithaK: Cheers, I thought 'banthas' would be more Star Warsesque than'elephants'. I'm sorry my review of your story wasn't more comprehensive.

Thank you! Love ya!

cookiemunster xoxox

Chapter 5

Chewbacca had never hated anyone in his long life. Not the slavers who had captured him and taken him away from Malla. Not the power mad imp who had attacked him. Not even the slime he and Han had to deal with during smuggling. It was not in his nature.

But Tharen. He could honestly he hated her with every ounce of his being. What she had done to Han……..

He had never seen his 'cub' look so dead inside. Even when Solo hid it and put on a brave face.

So when he heard from the Princess that Tharen had had the gall to talk to Han last night it had sent him into a quiet fury. Chewbacca had been secretly glad when Fett had told Han that the woman was dead. But now she was back.

Chewbacca had left the Falcon a few minutes before the Princess had arrived. He had gone to borrow a set of macro-fusers as the ones he had been using to fix a few surface panels had ceased to work. The techs in the maintenance had been only too happy to help the Wookiee.

Apparently there was some rumour flying about the base that the massive Wookiee could rip arms out of peoples' sockets. Or that's what Rouge Squadron had been saying, anyway.

Chewbacca reached the Falcon with the macro-fusers in hand. He stopped at the top of the ramp. He listened. He could hear laughter. A ,an and a woman were laughing aboard the ship. He recognized one of the laughs as Han's, but the other he could not identify. For a sickening moment, the Wookiee panicked that it was Bria Tharen. Had Han really been stupid enough to take the scheming gutter wench back?

But then he saw the comforting sight of a still giggling Han Solo and Princess Leia leaving the crew quarters.

Then they stopped giggling as the sound of vomiting filled the small passage way.

'He better have done that in the bucket.' said Han to Leia in a low whisper.

It set them both off in quiet, guilty, laughter that they tried desperately to conceal from Luke who was just beginning to recover from his first hangover.

'You know, I can hear you.' Luke's voice called weakly from the cabin.

'Poor kid.' Han observed, a little later.

'Still, it was quite funny wasn't it?' said Leia with a look of amusement in her eyes.

After they had calmed down, Han and the Princess had explained why they were laughing to Chewbacca. Apparently, Han had shaken the Jedi awake, only to be called 'Aunt Beru' by the still mildly drunk Luke.

Luke had hold of Han's arm and told his 'Aunt Beru' (Han) all about his amazing dream where he had rescued a pretty Princess and flown a really cool ship, that fired rockets and everything, and he blew up the Death Star and the Princess had kissed him and everyone had called him a hero and…. then it all went a bit hazy.

Then the younger man had let go of Han's arm and had fallen back to sleep. He was woken about thirty seconds later by the laughter of his new friends. Luke had been confused but felt that he wanted to be alone to 'have a little rest' (polite code for puking up, but Luke didn't want to say so in front of the Princess.)

Luke staggered into the small holding bay, where the others were sat over mugs of kaffe. His hair was sticking up all over the place and his tunic was grey with sweat. His face was pale green in colour and he was clutching his head in apparent agony.

'You O.K. Luke?' asked Han.

'Slightly better.' Luke conceded to the Correlian.

'That's the best thing about hangovers, once you've thrown up everything you've eaten in the past three months, you start to feel a whole lot better.' said Han a wry grin of recognition spreading across his face.

Han and Chewie had had their work cut out but they'd managed it. With a little help from the Princess (she had left after an hour to get ready for the Ceremony) they had managed to get Skywalker sober and sober and standing.

They had managed it with about two hundred cups of kaffe and a lot of moral encouragement.

Now Luke was standing beside Han, waiting to enter the great hall of Yavin. Luke was wearing a yellow jacket thing and some clean clothes. Han was wearing a different shirt. Han prided himself on not being high maintenance.

They had about five minutes to kill before going into the hall. Han had jokily suggested them grabbing a quick drink but Luke had only looked at him with disdain. Luke would never drink again.

About three minutes before they were due to go in Luke said; 'Hey, do you know that woman?'

He was looking at someone walking the corridor behind Han, heading towards them.

Han spun round to see Bria wearing a black dress. She also had her hair up and a pair of ridiculously high-heeled shoes on. She stopped when Han had turned round.

For some reason, seeing Bria dressed up just didn't excite the normal feelings inside Han. Sure, she looked nice but that was it. Nothing more. Nothing deeper.

'Oh, hi.' said Han.

'Hello' replied Bria.

Luke looked at them both in confusion. These two obviously knew each other but,

'I didn't know you were getting a medal thingy as well.' Han said to Bria

'Oh, yes. They are rewarding one to me for retrieving the Death Star plans.' Bria answered, trying not to make the pride in her voice too obvious.

On the inside she was bursting. She could see that she had a long way to go with Han, but she would win him back. And he was here on her special day! It was so perfect.

Han looked at Luke, who was still blatantly confused. Han put him out of his misery.

'Luke Skywalker, this is Bria Tharen an old, er, acquaintance of mine.' he said.

Luke and Bria shook hands.

Then the signal came for the trio to enter.

Princess Leia Organa watched as the three of them made their way up the long runway. All of the Rebels (some with severe hangovers) were assembled in massive rows along the length of the runway.

Leia suddenly felt a pang of guilt as she saw Bria and Han walking next to each other. Leia had wanted to tell Han about Bria receiving a medal, but the Princess had only known seconds before Solo had. Still, he seemed to bearing it well.

The reached the platform she was standing on. She hung a medal, first around Bria's head and the Han's (Han gave her a roguish wink, which, she couldn't deny, made her smile) and then Luke's. Then all three turned round and the Rebels began to cheer.

Luke was overcome with pride. He had respect. He was appreciated. He wished that feeling could last forever.
Han felt happy. He couldn't get over how beautiful the Princess was. She looked like an Angel. It was funny how, when he was stood in front of two thousand people, all screaming with appreciation, all he wanted to do was turn around and see her again.
Bria was seething on the inside. She had seen that wink. She tried to tell herself that it was simply Solo's way of making her jealous. But there was something in the way they had smiled at each other. And the fact Han was looking so handsome. And Bria thought that she looked good until she had seen the Princess. Leia Organa was something else in that white dress.

Bria wasn't about to lose out to some Princess. No, she would get her man. And she would use any means possible.

Well? Anyone else slightly scared of Bria? 'Cos I am! Please review. No flames!