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Irreconcilable, Perhaps

Chapter IV: Perhaps


A far-off rustling sent Leia's lids a-flutter. She didn't know where she was at first. Her head was a little raised on something soft, warm, and when her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she saw the dark fabric of a jacket underneath her—she jerked her head up and looked straight into Han's sleeping face.

The memories of the last day came back immediately: that Han had repaired the speeder in the hangar, the reconnaissance flight, the northern lights, and that they had finally been stranded in the ice desert.

She started to straighten up and only now noticed that Han had an arm around her waist and was holding her in her sleep. If it were possible in the cold, her face colored even more. She squashed down thoughts of his shameless villainy in their current situation.

Yet if she moved now, she risked waking him up, not to mention risk dropping their body temperatures. After a moment's hesitation, she put her head back on his chest. A weak, pale, bluish light pierced the cave entrance, letting her know that it was still night; outside only the three Hoth moons illuminated the snowfields. The temperature count wouldn't be high enough for them to leave yet. So she ought to stay put a little longer.

A few meters away, the tauntauns stirred. One of them must have woken her up. Even if they had kept quiet, she would have no doubt that they were still there—the whole cave was filled with their strong smell. No, these critters certainly weren't her favorite pets.

Han's chest rose and fell under her with every regular breath. The feeling was strangely comforting. If the Corellian didn't say anything stupid, he could actually be pleasant company... With that incoherent thought, she drifted into sleep again.

_.:._

The next time she woke up to someone shining a flashlight in her face. As a reflex, her hand flew to the blaster pistol on her belt, but then she recognized the orange uniform. Next to be recognized was the man in it.

"Wedge!" She exclaimed. When she realized the uncompromising position in which Wedge found her, she hastily freed herself from Han's embrace and nudged him in the side. "Wake up, it seems we're saved."

"That's what I mean," said Wedge and couldn't help but grin. Obviously, the princess and Han hadn't exactly scratched each other's throats out, for once.

Han had woken up in the meantime and after a brief moment of confusion had grasped the situation. "Wedge, old boy!" he exclaimed, rising to clap the pilot on the shoulder. "I knew I could rely on you."

"We were worried a lot by you guys. 'Specially Luke. It's good that you're okay."

He glanced at the herd of tauntauns, who were curiously eyeing the reunion. "Wes and I should've got the same idea last time instead of bothering each other with the rescue tent. Keeps you warm. Although it seems you didn't really need it…"

In view of the princess, who had crossed her arms and looked at him challengingly, he must have decided not to prod the subject any further. "Tycho's waiting outside," Wedge explained quickly. "We found your speeder earlier and gave us a real scare. Lucky for you that there was no storm to cover your tracks. What happened?"

Leia busied herself in tying the blankets back together. Above all, however, she tried to hide her emerging embarrassment—that Wedge had to find her like that! If any details leaked out about this situation, she would personally kick his ass, she resolved.

In the meantime, Han said that once the speeder had failed, it had stopped making any noise. "The heating was dead, and nothing worked without it. It can't be impossible to make these things temp-proof!"

Wedge just shrugged. A member of the special season would have gotten well used to the constant speeder failures. "Why did you stop at all?" he asked instead.

Before Han had a chance to reply, Leia turned about. "We had something suspicious on the radar screen, but it ended up being just a Hoth pig. And it wasn't my idea to land," she added before she could stop herself.

If Han was surprised by her lying, he didn't show it. "Oh, but you had nothing against stopping, did you, dearest?"

"Because I didn't assume that the speeder would give up the ghost at the first opportunity after a certain someone had repaired it so wonderfully!"

When they stepped out of the cave, the two were already involved in another bicker. Wedge merely wore a grin. Somehow, the two weren't quite as averse as they usually were.

He waved to Tycho, who was also clambering out of his speeder. "You were right about the cave! Both of them, safe and sound."

"Good call then!" The other pilot gave a casual salute.

"None of them should have been so worried. I was... in good hands," Leia said pointedly as she climbed into the back seat of Tycho's speeder.

"Well, listen!" But Han didn't get another reply since the dome had already closed over his and Wedge's craft.

"Ready to go," the latter reported over the comm.

"Here also. —Go to the relay frequency, and clear Luke."

"Good idea."

Leia took little notice of the rest of the conversation. She stared out the side window and sank into her thoughts, which often grazed the dark-haired captain, arousing twitches of annoyance in her face.

It took them little more than a quarter of an hour to get back to Echo Base. As soon as Wedge and Tycho dropped them there, Wedge flew off again to pick up Luke, who was apparently stuck with his own speeder in a snowdrift. Han and Leia were greeted exuberantly.

"Han, you lunatic!" Wes Janson rushed over to him, hydraulic wrench still in hand, and hugged the Corellian roughly. "Did you think you could kidnap the princess?"

"Don't talk nonsense, Wes. I just took care of her a little," he replied with a grin.

"Oh yes, great job!" Leia exclaimed, placing her hands on her hips and tilting her head. "The question is who's more in need of supervision here."

"She's just a little hypothermic," Han muttered to the other pilot. Obviously not quietly enough; Leia's elbow connected with his side by accident.

General Rieekan, similarly informed of her rescue, entered Hangar 7. "Princess, Captain, I am really quite glad to see you safe and sound. I now wish I'd talked you out of the reconnaissance flight."

"Don't worry, General. Nothing happened. I was in competent company," she added, recovering a bit of the sardonic undertones she thought she'd lost earlier. Out of earshot, Han was already distracted by more greetings from other pilots.

The general smiled indulgently. "On the other hand, I appreciate you putting those diplomatic skills to use, Leia. I would not have expected anything else from you."

"The captain doesn't make it easy for me." But she grinned.

"Perhaps your differences are not so 'irreconcilable' after all...?" And with that ambiguous comment, the general turned to a passing officer to discuss the erection of further DF.9 turrets on the north side of the base.

Little by little, the crowd dispersed around them to return to their respective duties, until Han and Leia were the only two remaining. For a moment, there was an uncomfortable silence between them. Neither made a move to leave.

"Why didn't you say anything about the northern lights?" Han asked suddenly.

"It's not business of the whole," she said dismissively.

"Ohh, so you admit we had a romantic moment there!"

"Nonsense!" she snapped at him. "Besides, why didn't you say anything?" She raised her eyebrows meaningfully.

"What'd it look like if I said we'd gotten stranded in the ice because of a northern light?"

She nodded. "Well then," she said, as if that was the end of the discussion.

Han looked as though he wanted to say something else but, at that moment, a T47 flew in through the north entrance and touched down on the runway. Before the glider had come to a complete stop, the dome opened, and a blond jumped out from the hatch.

"Leia! Han!"

Leia ran up to meet him, Han close behind. "Hey Luke! Heard you fell into a snowdrift?"

"That doesn't matter now! Are you okay?" He fell around her neck first and then around Han's, though the atmosphere between the two had been more than stormy.

"I'm all clear! Even if it's not exactly thanks to prince charming here," Leia replied.

"I have to remind your Highness that I had the idea of the tauntaun cave?!"

"What, you slept in a tauntaun cave?" Luke interrupted their emerging dispute.

"Wasn't pleasant, kid, I can tell you that!"

"Not pleasant...?" Leia mumbled to herself.

"But as you can see, I brought your princess back safely," Han continued.

Leia scoffed. "Maybe we are irreconcilable," she muttered, turning her face away to smile.


A/N: Reply to reviewer "Guest": Hee hee, a must, of course!

A huge thank you to CherryPine6 for beta-ing (without you, all those silly typos would still be running more rampantly than baby mawkrens!). And once again, thank you to you, viewers. I hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I have writing.

Cheers,
+ KVP