Chapter 21

Han and Leia returned to their hotel room, feeling somewhat strange to be coming back without Ty. They knew that it was all for the best, however, and decided to try to make the best of their time alone. When they approached the door Han unexpectedly scooped Leia into his arms and swept her over the threshold. She tried to wriggle herself free at first but then just laid back into his arms and let him carry her. He danced her into the bedroom and gently placed her in the center of the bed. She smiled as he joined her and kissed her neck, wrapping his arms around her.

"Well, it's tomorrow today," he said as he kissed her cheek. "And we didn't have to wait to get to the Falcon."

"No, and it's such a shame isn't it?"

"Oh, yes, such a shame," he said as he kissed her full on the lips.

"We've been waiting a long time, huh? For us, that is," Leia said with a wink.

"For us? Yeah, a really long time," he agreed, and then he turned his attention to Leia's belly. He kissed her stomach reverently, placing kisses where his son or daughter was growing. Leia gasped in response and caressed his back lovingly; joyous to see again that he was so happy about her pregnancy. She thought that she heard him whispering to their child, but she wasn't sure. She rather hoped not; he would be rather scary when she started showing if that was the case.

He caressed her belly with his hands one last time, and then returned to her mouth. She returned the kiss completely, and soon the two fell into a passionate, synchronous rhythm.

The next day the couple woke up and realized that they were going to leave Corellia today. They reluctantly got out of bed, dressed quickly, and packed their bags. They were surprisingly hesitant to leave the run-down hotel, but they were looking forward to returning back to New Alderaan; Leia couldn't wait to tell everyone about her pregnancy. Hopefully Luke would be back from his Jedi mission by then, and perhaps Chewie would want to bring his family back to New Alderaan for a while. They couldn't wait to ask him about his holofilm career. Leia even hoped that Lando would visit; she wanted everyone to be there when she made the announcement.

The flight back to New Alderaan was uneventful. Amazingly, they didn't run into any asteroid fields or bounty hunters on their voyage. Han and Leia enjoyed sharing plenty of time alone together, and by the time they arrived back on New Alderaan they were eager to see their friends and family again. They knew that the first thing they had to do was meet up with Ty, Helena, and Gerry, and they still needed to contact Luke, Chewie, and Lando, but they were excited all the same.

The Falcon entered the atmosphere of New Alderaan, and Han turned on the comlink to request permission to land. Once they were cleared for landing Han docked in his usual spot.

Han and Leia disembarked from the Falcon expecting to go straight to the senate building to wait for Ty and the Bengleys, but were met with the unexpected surprise of seeing Luke at the end of the boarding ramp.

"Luke!" Leia shouted as she ran down the ramp and into her brother's arms. "I missed you! How did you know that we'd be here?"

"Oh, just the Force," Luke said with a wink.

Han then walked down the ramp and hugged Luke as well, producing the 3-D glasses that he had taken from Corellia Land.

"Here, Kid, I got these for you," Han said with a smirk.

"Uh…thanks, Han. These will be really…useful."

"No problem, Kid. And Leia will say that they're stolen, but they really aren't. They only requested that we not take them, so I didn't break my promise."

"Oh, sure, Han. I'll believe that one," Luke said with a brotherly nudge into Han's side.

"It's the truth! Well, anyway, why don't you come with us to the senate building? There's someone there that we want to introduce you to."

"Sure," Luke responded with a shrug of his shoulders, and then followed the two toward the capital.

"Oh, Luke," Leia said, walking next to him. She was starting to change her mind about waiting for everyone to visit to tell her news. She could at least tell Luke; he was her twin brother after all. She decided to tell him after they had Ty settled. "There's so much to tell you about our trip. And you have to tell us about your trip, too. After we meet up with Ty we're all going to sit together and swap stories."