Every day Luke walked with Han to the med bay and he stayed while the droids did everything short of twisting Han's arm into a pretzel in the name of 'rehabilitating' it. He listened to his brothers screams and cries and threats to disassemble the droids if they didn't stop it. Even though Luke knew it was what Han needed, he couldn't help feeling guilty that there wasn't anything he could do to help. Then when it was finally over, Luke sat beside Han on the table as he lay in a heap with no strength, no energy, no ability to do anything except moan and softly sob until he was recovered enough just to stand on his feet. Luke held onto Han and helped him walk out of the bay, most times he headed straight for his room before anybody saw him and he'd lock himself in until the pain had finally subsided. It made Luke feel sick to see his brother in so much pain, he had to constantly remind himself of what the medics said, it was necessary for him to make a full recovery and get full use of his arm back. Watching it from where Luke stood, it hardly seemed worth it, and he knew experiencing it firsthand, Han was of the same mind.
One day during rehabilitation, the pain got worse than it had ever been and right after Han threw up, he passed out. When he finally came to, he was only aware of three sensations, tears slowly trailing down his face, a feeling of leather and armor under his head, and the sound of mechanized breathing. He slowly opened his eyes and realized wherever he was, he was resting against his father, with his face pressed into Vader's shoulder.
"I hate med droids," were the first words out of his mouth, each of them felt like a challenge in and of themselves.
"I know," Vader responded. "I don't particularly care for them either."
"Why do I have to keep doing this?" Han heard the pained whine in his voice and he simultaneously felt embarrassed by it, and couldn't have cared less.
He felt a leather-clad hand pat the back of his head, a little rougher than was probably expected. "It is necessary."
Han groaned as he pressed his face harder against Vader's shoulder. "I can't take much more of this."
"I know it hurts," Vader told him, "but you are doing well."
"I don't care," Han felt his eyes burning with a new batch of tears as he remembered how much it had hurt this time, "I just want it to be over."
"In time, my son."
Knowing what was ahead of him didn't make it any easier for Han to get to the med bay every day for his rehabilitation sessions. In time Luke wasn't able to get him there alone, so Vader had to accompany both sons. As they got close, the dreaded anticipation of what was coming proved overwhelming and the captain would break down crying and resist with all his strength and had to be pulled forward by the two men on either side of him. Luke would sit alongside him on the exam table while Vader stood in front of Han and let him squeeze his good hand around his father's durasteel one, knowing it could take the punishment, but Han's grip when the pain got unbearable would've crushed the bones in Luke's hand.
When it was all over for the day and Han flopped back against the table, Vader gathered him up in his arms and carried him out of the med bay, Luke walking alongside them.
"I don't want to do this anymore," Han weakly got out once Vader left the room and it was just he and his brother.
Luke was nothing if not sympathetic, but he was still surprised by his brother's attitude. "You can't quit now."
"Why not? Nothing is worth this, getting back on the fleet isn't worth this," Han shook his head.
"But you've already come so far," Luke told him, "it's not that much longer."
"I won't survive it at this rate," Han responded.
"Of course you will," Luke said. "You've survived everything else up till now, you're not a quitter."
"Watch me," Han replied.
"I won't let you, and you know Father won't either," Luke pointed out.
Han sighed. "True..." he groaned and added, "I wish I didn't have a family again."
"You do not," Luke replied.
Han managed a cynical look and weakly got out, "Oh you just have all the answers, don't you, Force boy?"
"I know you can do this, Han," Luke persisted. "You've never let anything stop you before."
"Nothing ever hurt as much as this does," Han remarked.
"I know," Luke said, "but you've already made so much progress, you've got to see it through."
"Why can't you or Pop just knock me out before it starts and wake me up when it's over?" Han wanted to know.
Luke laughed in spite of the situation and told his brother, "I'm not sure it works like that."
"Be worth a try anyway."
"You're not eating," Luke noted one morning as they sat in the palace dining room.
"What's the point?" Han asked. "In a couple hours I'll throw it all up anyway."
"That hasn't happened for a week," Luke replied.
"So maybe today will be my unlucky day."
Their conversation was interrupted by Vader's presence as he entered the room and observed the situation.
"Perhaps you'd like to go now and get it over with," the dark lord suggested.
The defeat was evident on Han's face as he pushed his chair back. "Might as well, this isn't going to get any better."
The three of them headed to the med bay, Han walking between his brother and his father, both of whom he knew would drag him along if he tried to make a break for it. He tried to put out of his mind what he knew was awaiting him but it didn't work. Until it was all over, all you thought about all morning was how much it was going to hurt, and when it was over, all you thought about was you'd have to do it again in 24 hours.
He took his place on the exam table, Luke sat beside him and put his arm around him where it wouldn't interfere with the rehabilitation exercises. Han closed his eyes in dread as he felt the droids grab his arm and work it through the warmup exercises before they did everything short of dislocate it. He groaned as he prepped himself for the excruciating pain he knew was coming. It felt like the droids were toying with him, drawing out the warmup stretches first. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter and buried his head in Luke's shoulder as he groaned, "Alright, let's just get this over with."
He felt his arm rotated a few more times before he heard the droids make a sound that signaled the end of the session.
"It's over now, Captain Solo," one of the droids said.
Han opened one eye cautiously, then the other as he lifted his head up from his brother's shoulder. "What?"
"The session is finished, you have recovered full range of motion again."
"What?" Han repeated. He looked at his arm, watched as he curled and uncurled his fingers, bent his arm at the elbow and back, rotated his shoulder a few times to test it. He reached behind him, then in front and touched his other shoulder. He could actually move it again, regularly, fully, it didn't hurt anymore.
"That's..." even seeing the evidence, he didn't dare hope, "that's it?"
"This was your final rehabilitation session," the droid answered.
Han looked to their father and asked, "You knew that?"
"I was informed," Vader answered.
Han looked at his brother, and the droids, and asked, "That's...that's really it? I don't have to come back here anymore?"
"Barring any future injuries, no," the droid said.
Han's eyes lit up, he jumped to his feet and let out a victorious howl, then his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell back in a dead faint, Luke catching him at the last second was the only reason he didn't hit the floor.
Han's vision was blurry when he opened his eyes but he was able to make out the figure of Darth Vader standing over him. His head slowly lolled from one side to the other and realized he was in his room, laying on his bed, with...
"What is this?" he asked as he picked up a stuffed ewok doll that was laying under his arm.
"It was Luke's when he was a baby," Darth Vader answered. "He thought you could get some use out of it."
Han took a minute to try and process that. He got to his feet and said, desperate to make sure it hadn't been a dream, "I'm finally done with that rehabilitation crap? I don't have to go back again?"
"No you don't," Vader answered.
"Hot damn!" Han jumped at that revelation. "I'm back, now I'm getting back on the fleet."
He was drawn out of his thoughts when his father gripped his gloved hands on Han's arms to get his attention.
"Pending the crash, the Navy decided you would fare better with a medical discharge," Vader told him.
Han blinked. "What? What? A...a medical discharge?" He pulled back and out of his father's grasp. "No way, I'm not accepting that, you heard the medics, I'm fully recovered. I can get back to work now."
"You don't have a choice in the matter, Han."
"Oh yes I do!" Han replied, subconsciously pacing back and forth. "They're not just gonna kick me out and shut me up, I'm the best damn pilot they ever had, I'm not taking this lying down!" Something changed in the Corellian's eyes as he stopped, looked up at his father and asked, accusingly, "Did you tell them to discharge me?"
Vader wouldn't answer that, he merely explained, "What happened to you, there was no way they'd let you back on the fleet."
"What? Why? I'm too much of a liability? They think I'm gonna crack up at the first sign of trouble?" Han demanded to know as he resumed pacing again.
"They can't take that chance," Vader said. "Nobody has survived what you did and lived to tell about it, let alone to reclaim rank in the fleet."
Han shook his head, "No, they can't do that!"
"They can, and they have," Vader told him.
Han blinked. "They...you already knew it? You knew, and you didn't tell me?"
"You couldn't have done anything about it in the condition you were in, you only would've proved their point you weren't capable," Vader said.
"But I'm capable now...Pop, look, you put me in any ship the Navy's got, I can handle it."
"I don't doubt that, my son," Vader told him. "But the fact remains you won't."
Han shook his head, unable to accept what he was hearing. "They can't do this to me, the fact I was the only survivor on that ship is all the more reason they can't. You said it yourself, I survived something nobody else did, it doesn't make any sense they'd just throw that away...just throw my whole career away, everything I ever worked for-"
Vader grabbed Han and forced him to stay in one spot, Han tried to pull loose again but Vader's durasteel grip immobilized him, and his mental process followed, and once everything finally sank in, he futilely flailed in his father's arms and let out a long, frustrated scream, which quickly subsided to howling sobs and tears of defeat as he went limp in Vader's grasp.
Vader kept one arm wrapped around his distraught son and pulled Han against him, and used his other hand to rub Han's back and lightly stroke over the back of his head.
"I know what this meant to you, Han, but it's not the end of the galaxy."
"It is to me," Han's voice broke with tears as he finally succumbed to the grief tearing through him and put his arms around his father to steady himself, and dropped his head on Vader's armored shoulder.
He felt as bad now as he had when he was 17 and his mom had died, he joined the Navy because there was nothing left for him. No, he felt worse, back then he was young and had nowhere to go but up and everything to look forward to in the Imperial Navy, and he was going to prove himself, and for 8 years that's exactly what he'd done, he'd proven himself at every turn. Now he didn't have anything. Youngest captain in the Navy, and just like that, at the age of 26 it was all gone. A damned medical discharge.
Han was only faintly aware of his whole body wracking as a long series of hiccuping sobs broke loose, he held tighter to his father as he felt himself hit rock bottom.