Word Count: 1,508

Author's Note: - points - See? Its a bigger chapter! Wanna know why? Because I'm celebrating today. Today is my one-year-anniversary of seeing my first Original Trilogy movie - THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK! Yay!

(Please don't ask me how I remember that.)

GreatOne: Lol! Nope. Han's going to be forever cursed with lost spice shipments in every Star Wars story. :) Lol, nah, Han can't blast Leia. :) Although, I should have posted that as a Halloween trick. Haha. By the way, Artoo hasn't come in yet - that one astromech is just... some random astromech. xD
Estel la Rodeuse:Thank you! Don't worry, Luke and Obi-Wan will come in. :)
Dovasary... err, Skychaser: Lol, what would Han be if he wasn't an ass in the beginning of a Star Wars movie? But, yes, Chewie is still Chewie-like. :) And Leia has a backbone... you'll see that in this chapter, and as the story progresses, heh. Thank you! I always look forward to your reviews!
Damaris: Thank you so much! I'm assuming you're also Damaris350?
cookiemunster: Thanks! D Nah, Zach is imperial through and through. I think you may have misread that part - I said that Leia was a good liar, lol.
dancing naked: Aw, thanks. ) - blushes - Here's an update!
SkywalkerChild: LOL. I didn't know you liked threats of dismemberment so much, haha. Thanks! D


CHAPTER SEVEN: HYDROSPANNERS AND PLANS

"Are you gonna stay in there all day?"

Leia raised her eyes, turning her features into a fixed, loathing glare as she looked at the tall man leaning casually in the doorway of the room (or broom closet) that he had 'given' her to sleep in. (Made her sleep in, more like.)

She had more or less been sitting in the stupid room the entire week that she had been trapped with that man and his thing. She only went out for meals or to help - when she was threatened with discontinution of said meals. Otherwise, she'd lay on her back over the hard cot and the soft covers, watching the rays of light from the window make their way slowly across the room, illuminating the particles of dust floating through the air.

These long hours of her stubborn refusal had (tactfully, she thought) been used to help to formulate an escape plan. She had already tried to run once before - apparently, it hadn't gone too well. She wasn't counting on them being such light sleepers, and she had to admit that simply walking out in the dead of night and expecting progress was rather tactless.

Leia had had a brief, sudden, strange moment of curiosity that night, when they shoved her back into her room and locked the door. As she had watched the door close on their backs, dulling the sounds of loud arguing, she had wondered how such an odd pair came to be, and what hell they must have gone through to have the second nature of sleeping with one eye - both eyes open.

She squashed the curiosity, and made it a point to not speak with them the rest of her stay with them. She was going home soon.

A small smile spread across her lips at the thought of home, of her father. She didn't spend enough time with him - he was usually out on some top-secret mission from Palpatine, but she relished their moments together. They didn't have a conventional father-daughter thing going on, but she was comfortable and safe around him. She had never felt his touch, nor seen his face - only gloved fingertips and a mask came to mind when she thought of him.

Anakin Skywalker.

That was his name. Was his name.

Padmé Amidala Naberrie Skywalker.

Her mother's name. That was about all Leia knew of her mother. Some nights, when she thought really hard, she would get images of a young, brunette woman - but those dissapeered as quickly as they came.

"Hey."

The deep voice interrupted her from her thoughts.

"You want food? Or d'you wanna starve?"

Like he cares.

Begrudingly, she stood, straightening out her clothes, still charred and dirty from the night at Kessel. Carefully avoiding him, she stomped past him and made the short way to the cabin, stiffly lowering herself to an added stool to the counter and staring at the sink in front of her. The Wookiee walked in, settling next to her, and she automatically leaned away; Chewbacca (apparantly, that was his name) frightened her to no end, even though he's done nothing to hurt her.

The man walked in (she didn't even know his name), and scooped something that looked like stir-fry onto three plates, clattering hers in front of her, accompanied with a scowl. She wrinkled her nose at it, putting on a great show of reluctantly picking up her fork and stabbing some pieces of meat.

To tell the truth, it wasn't bad - not as good as what she got on Super Star Destroyers, but it was passable.

Slowly, Leia chewed it, casting a glance around the Wookiee at him. He was studying her with immense dislike, looking like he would like nothing better to dump her plate over her head. She gave him a coy smirk, then turned nonchalantly back to the food, putting a piece of vegetable into her mouth and starting to chew it with painstaking slowness. She missed the look of angry surprise coming from his eyes.

"I'm going to help you repair today," she stated suddenly.

It was so uncharacteristic and out of the blue that both the man and the Wookiee swiveled their heads around to stare at her.

"What?"

Chewbacca, simultaneously, let out a growl that went up in pitch at the end - she assumed it to be the Wookiee equivalent for, 'what?'

"I said, that I want to help you," she restated slowly, mockingly, like they were both three years old.

"Why?" asked the man immediatley, suspiciously.

This is where it has to work, she thought, her nerves dancing. "I have..." she put on a sly face. "Ulterior motives," she finished after a dramatic pause, perking a brow at them, struggling to keep her nerves under control.

They both look at her blankly for a second.

Then the man smirked and shook his head, as if she were joking. Leia suppressed a grin and yell of triumph, watching him finish his dinner with a great deal of self-conflict between restraint and the desire to start jumping up and down.

He finished, sliding his plate into the sink while Chewie howled something to him.

"Yeah, yeah, Chewie, I know..." he said, before meeting Leia in the eye. "Be out by the ramp in five minutes. You're gonna help rewire everythin' that was destroyed, got it?" he asked, seriously, pointing a finger at her. Leia just nodded cooly.

They left. She waited a few seconds for their footsteps to dissapper.

She hopped out of her chair, and did a twirl of delight.


"Hand me the hydrospanner!"

"This?"

"No!"

"What about this?"

"No!"

"This one?"

"Yeah!" he yelled, frusterated. Leia was smirking inwardly, sitting on the the edge of the gray slab of durasteel with her feet dangling off. The man, the captain of the ship, had taken off a whole piece of the bottom of the ship in the area that was burned, and she could see him lying on his back in hard dirt and prickly grass. It was such an awkward position that she had to be the one handing him the tools, from above.

They've been going at this for an hour. Leia was really clueless about everything. Within the first fifteen minutes, he had caught her trying to force a wire into the wrong socket, and banned her from working, and just made her become his assistant.

It was amusing, really.

She looked at the hydrospanner in her right hand, and the other tool thing in her left hand.

"What's the difference?" she asked.

"Whaddya mean, 'what's the difference'?"

"They appear to be the same thing," she remarked, tossing the hydrospanner down at him.

The captain sighed in frusteration. "There's a huge difference! See?" he pointed to something on the tool. "This one has a bolt right here. The other one doesn't."

Leia looked at the tool in her hand, slowly turning it over. "... So?"

He didn't answer, just grumbled something, starting to work again. Leia sighed, watching him work for a moment. The plan was going completely according to plan. Her eyes fell on the tool in her left hand once again. She turned it over in her fingers, studying the notches, lightly tossing it into the edge and catching it again.

A movement caught her eye, and Chewbacca the Wookiee made his way inside the ship, closing himself into the refresher.

Perfect.

Silently, she moved over to the refresher door, then, using the tool in her hand, bashed the controls to the side. Sparks flew, and she heard a roar from inside, then jumped back in surprise as the door banged and shuddered as an amazing force pounded on it.

But it stayed fast.

Leia's heart was beating unnaturally quickly. She heard the captain's voice. "What the hell is goin' on up there!"

Leia moved over the hole in the floor, looking down at him. Their eyes locked for a moment.

She suddenly brought her hand around, throwing the tool down at him. The position he was in was so awkward that he couldn't move out of the way quickly enough.

The heavy tool struck him in the forehead; he slumped, unconcious.

Unconcious? She leaned over, studying him, her heart's beat quickening. Then she saw the rise and fall of his chest from his deep breathing, and she straightened with relief.

Then it struck her: why did she care?

She pushed the thought aside, not wanting to believe that she actually was concerned - this man almost kidnapped her. Practically did.

A bang on the refresher door brought her to her senses. She had to get out.

Leia wheeled around, racing down the ramp and onto the ground, running as fast as her feet would carry her into the woods.


She had stopped in the nearby town, deciding to contact her father after she was on her way back to him.

But she had needed to get something.

She walked out of the store back to her speeder, pocketing her new sporting blaster pistol.