AN: Everyone knows I don't own Star Wars. I was doing a fic prompt exchange with a few friends, and by coincidence, one friend prompted me to write about Lando comforting Leia when Han was frozen and another prompted me to write about Lando and Han making amends after the Tatooine rescue, so I decided to combine both prompts into one fic.
"The Redemption of Lando Calrissian"
By EsmeAmelia
Chapter 1
Lando hadn't seen much of anyone since the Falcon entered hyperspace. Leia had coaxed the Skywalker guy back to bed and had presumably been taking care of him since, the astro droid had been off fixing the protocol droid, and Chewie was . . . somewhere. Probably avoiding him. In fact, they were probably all avoiding him.
He wandered into the cockpit, gazing out at the glowing streaks of hyperspace. How many years had it been since he'd last been in his old ship? There was once a time when he was determined to cheat that idiot Han Solo in as many Sabacc games as it would take to win his ship back.
Now he'd give anything just to see Han smirk about how he'd won the ship fair and square.
Lando ran his hand up and down the cockpit's back wall as if caressing it, letting out a small sigh even though his throat still hurt slightly from Chewie's attempt at strangling him. "Hey there, girl," he whispered. "I dunno if you can hear me, but I like to think you're still somewhere, you know?" Another sigh, this one longer. "I did something really shitty. If you were here you might've stopped me from doing it. Thought I had no choice – Vader gave me this ultimatum that if I didn't hand them over, he'd take over Cloud City, but he ended up doing that anyway." He pressed on the wall, closing his eyes. "You'd have steered me right and shown me Vader couldn't be trusted before he tortured Han and . . . and . . ." He couldn't bring himself to say the words – maybe saying the words would make it more real that Han was gone because of him.
"Talking to the Falcon?"
Lando opened his eyes and there was the princess, eyes puffy, face pale.
"Not the Falcon," said Lando. "Someone inside the Falcon."
"Who?"
Lando swallowed, sinking down into one of the back seats. "My old copilot, L3-37." It felt wrong to say "my old droid" after she'd spent her life – yes, she had a life – fighting for droid rights. "She was a champion for droid rights and she had the best navigation system in the galaxy . . . but she was killed when we were escaping from Kessel and then her brain was merged with the ship so she could find us the shortest route out of the Kessel Run before the unrefined coaxium we were smuggling exploded." Still another sigh escaped. "I once blamed Han for her death, but now . . ."
Leia's eyes bulged as she sat next to him. "I didn't know you were with him when he made the Kessel Run – but then again, he never told me the details about it . . ." She squeezed her eyes shut as if struggling to keep tears in. "Maybe he blamed himself for her death too and that was why he didn't like talking about the details."
"Maybe," said Lando, his heart ramming against his ribs. I love you, she'd told Han – the words he'd never had the courage to tell L3. "Look, Leia . . . I'm sorry."
Leia opened her eyes, taking a deep breath. "I know you are."
I know, Han had replied, but not in the same matter-of-fact manner Leia just used.
"So . . ." Lando began in an awkward voice, "you and Han, you're a thing?"
Leia blinked rapidly as if unwilling to look him in the eye. "Maybe."
"Really? I think it's more than maybe." He gave her a sad smile. "I saw how he looked at you – he had that same look years ago with his old girlfriend Qi'ra."
Leia didn't seem the least bit surprised that Han had another girlfriend before her. "Well, I'm sure he had many other girlfriends too."
"Not like Qi'ra," said Lando. "He was head-over-heels for her. He was a completely lovesick kid back then, but she broke his heart. I didn't think he'd ever let anyone back into his heart after that, but now here you are." He looked into her moist eyes. "Han may act like he's all rough and tough, but he's got a real fragile heart. When he loves, he loves completely." He gazed past her at the silent walls. "I was always terrified of loving like he does."
Leia stared ahead at the hyperspace lines, blinking rapidly, maybe trying to imagine Han as a lovesick kid who hadn't yet been jaded by the galaxy's harshness.
"We will get him back," Lando found himself saying, maybe to reassure her or maybe to reassure himself. "He survived the freezing and he'll be kept in hibernation for however long it takes for us to wake him up."
"If we're the ones who wake him up," Leia said in a harder voice. "If Jabba doesn't unfreeze him and then kill him."
Lando had no reassurances about that – he knew fully-well what Jabba was capable of. He looked down at his hands, feeling like he could see Han's blood on them – red, thick, sticky, a permanent stain on his being. "I wish I could take back what I did," he whispered, his voice thick with near-sobs. He looked up, again gazing past Leia at the silent wall, as if looking at it for long enough would summon L3 from whatever state of consciousness she was in now – damn, he could use her forceful advice right now.
"My parents would say dwelling on the past doesn't help the present," the princess said in a shaky voice. "I tried to take that advice after they died, live for the future, concentrate on fighting for tomorrow, accept that sometimes the galaxy just takes people."
"The galaxy hasn't taken Han yet." Lando struggled to keep his voice firm, but he didn't think he was succeeding. "And you know what, if Jabba does unfreeze him, he's gonna fight with all his might to stay alive cause he'll know you're coming to his rescue." He stared into her eyes. "He knows you love him, after all. He knows." A small smile tugged at his lips. "I don't think he ever knew with Qi'ra like he knows with you."
With a deep inhale, Leia gave him a tiny smile back. "I think . . . I think I know too." Another deep inhale. "So, you're going to help us get him back, then?"
"Of course," Lando said, surprising himself with how firm and confident he sounded. "This is all my fault and I got my friend in an awful scrap. I'll get him back if it kills me, I promise." He put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You and he are gonna be together again soon . . . by the way, how's that guy Luke doing? He seemed in pretty bad shape when we picked him up."
Leia's eyes lowered. "He's sleeping right now . . . but I think there's something he's not telling me. He keeps muttering about Vader – I mean, Vader cut off his hand and that's horrible, but I think there's something else, maybe something even worse."
Now Lando was lowering his eyes as well. "You guys are a tight-knit bunch, aren't you? You, Han, Chewie, Luke, even those droids, you all seem to care a lot about each other." He looked back up, seeing that she was nodding. "It'd be nice to be part of a bunch like that."
Leia let out a sigh. "I don't know if I can trust you enough to call you part of our bunch yet." She stared into his eyes, letting him see both her princess authority and her grief. "But if you help us get Han back, then maybe someday I will. Maybe."
