Hello everyone! Greetings from the land of the stupidly busy person - I'm very glad that this entire story is already written, it means that I can keep giving you all regular updates! :)

This week's shout-outs go to: Sev, FireElemental159 and Taboo22- thanks very much for reviewing, it makes for a happy author. :)

Kay, so these last couple of chapters (basically, all the time spent on Hoth between the first and second films) are my least favourite parts, and the ones I've rewritten the most. Eventually I decided I should just stop fussing and post them, but...still not completely satisfied. Still, hope you enjoy them.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, or any of its characters. Only Alice is mine.


Two or three hours later, Alice emerged from her bedroom, clean and wrapped in all of her warmest clothes to protect against the chill of her still damp hair, and just about as excited as she could be for her dinner date with Han and Luke. She was planning on heading over to the cafeteria when she heard a high pitched squealing from the end of the corridor, which nearly caused her to have a heart attack and actually caused her to jump into the air and utter a very high-pitched squeal herself. Hang on…I know that screamy sound…

Alice spun, and to her delight (and relief – she didn't want to be the character that got eaten by an evil mutant pig), saw Artoo racing towards her at full speed, "Artoo!" He stopped just short of crashing into her knees and possibly incapacitating her, and stomped backwards and forwards at her feet, whistling eagerly.

"Calm down," she said, patting him fondly on the head, "I'm glad to see you too."

He beeped at her, and Threepio's voice, coming from nowhere, magically translated for him, "He is wondering if you know where Master Luke and Captain Solo are at present."

"Threepio!"

"Mistress Alice. Oh, I am so glad to see you are alright."

"Thanks, old bean. Likewise." She grinned and elbowed him lightly in the side (resulting in an instant bruise to the elbow that she thought was probably worth it). Artoo beeped again, and Alice knelt down, "I'm supposed to be meeting them in the cantina around about now. Want to come?"

Artoo bleeped eagerly, and Alice grinned, "Come on then, we'll check the cafeteria. Coming Threepio?"

"I shall certainly accompany you, Mistress Alice, thank you."

As she set off down the corridor with her two companions, she felt the distinct urge to start singing "We're Off to See the Wizard" but resisted because a random rebel would always appear around a corner every time she thought they'd reached a deserted enough corridor. The people that they did pass kept giving Alice little nods or smiles, probably recognising her as 'that friend of Luke Skywalker's'. It was frankly extremely weird and very lovely at the same time – she'd had no idea that just hanging out with Luke, Han and Leia would make her such a well-known figure among the rebels.

When they reached the canteen, Alice spotted Han and Luke almost immediately – they were surrounded by a large group of rebels, probably worshiping them or some such. Alice raised her eyes to the ceiling, and started wading through the crowd, chanting a litany of sorry's and excuse me's every time she bumped into someone. Eventually she reached the table that the two men were actually sitting at, and flopped down beside them, "Hey, guys. Busy, isn't it."

"You said it, kid," Han grumbled, looking far less pleased than Alice might have thought to have a crowd of admirers surrounding him, even though some of them, men and women, were doing their best to get his attention. They can all genuinely do so much better.

"Ah, lighten up, honey," she said sweetly, "it's just because they wuv you. You are their gun-toting, tight-trousered deity."

He glared at her, and she stuck her tongue out. Luke, it seemed, wasn't suffering at all. He was in his element, shaking hands, listening carefully to all the clamouring voices, and smiling at everyone. "Look at him go," she said fondly, forgetting all about their awkward conversation earlier, "little Mr Nice Guy."

"Is there anything he can't do?"

"I don't know," Alice said, musingly, "I've never seen him cook anything. Perhaps one day I'll ask him to make me a soufflé and see what he does."

He quirked an eyebrow at her, but otherwise ignored the reference to items of culinary excellence of which he had no comprehension, "So what's been going on here while we've been gone, hmm?"

"For me, endless training. As for the actual rebellion, I really couldn't say," Alice replied drily, "you'd have to ask Leia, but since you seem to be able to annoy her just by entering a room, I wouldn't recommend it."

"It's not my fault she's so stubborn," he muttered under his breath.

"And I suppose it's also not your fault that you're an arrogant sod who enjoys winding her up," said Alice, grinning, "no pity for you, flyboy."

"Ha," Han muttered for some reason. He looked around twitchily, then said, "I'm getting crushed here. Let's go."

Before she could protest, he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her away through the crowd. This, for some reason, prompted a cacophony of wolf-whistling and cat-calling. Alice blushed furiously and found herself searching for Luke's face in the crowd. She couldn't find him though before Han had yanked her out of the room altogether.

"Dude!" She complained as they reached the corridor, "Did you have to do that? The last thing I need is everyone thinking you and I are…involved."

"Of course they don't think that," Han said dismissively, dropping her hand at once, "you and Luke are practically a done deal."

"I'm sorry?" Alice said, raising her eyebrows, "What, pray tell, are you talking about?"

"Come on, kid," said Han, giving her a patronising look, "he rescued you in the desert. You followed him from Tatooine. You kissed him before the battle above Yavin and you're practically glowing after spending twenty seconds with him."

Alice stared, "…Glowing?"

Han sighed, grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her to a halt in front of a mirror-backed door. "Look."

Her own familiar face stared back at her: the same curly brown hair braided back (courtesy of Leia), the same hazel eyes, the same brown skin with the same freckles decorating the bridge of her nose…confused, Alice peered more closely at her reflection. She supposed her cheeks were a little more rosy than usual, but that was because of the chilly air, right? Right.

"See?" Han said, bending down so his face appeared in the glass beside hers, "Glowing."

"Yeah, well," she said, shoving him lightly with her shoulder, and walking past him, "I'll have you know that I'm always…glowing. I woke up like this."

"And I suppose that kiss didn't mean anything either?" He said, following her with a smirk.

Alice felt blood rushing to the surface of her face, neck, ears and…knees? I think my knees are blushing. How the hell do knees blush? Nevertheless, dignity must be maintained.

"That was the result of bad timing and nerves," she said, coolly, drawing herself up to her full (but still quite diminutive) height, "it was a complete accident. Furthermore, it wasn't what it looked like. And you weren't even there."

"Whatever you say," Han said, raising an eyebrow at her.

"I resent your doubtful tone, Solo."

"I'm just saying," he said, raising his hands.

"Wasn't even a proper kiss," Alice muttered under her breath.

Han heard, and grinned, "Count on it, sweetheart, one day soon you're going to wake up and realise what everyone else here already has: you like him – and he likes you."

"Sure," she said dismissively, "and the day I do he'll probably be out getting himself killed or some such, like an inconsiderate jerk…"

Too late, she saw Han's eyes light up, and she pointed at him desperately, "That means nothing! I was talking hypothetically! I don't fancy the missing fifth Beatle!"

"I think you've got something you need to talk to Commander Skywalker about, kid," he said knowingly, "my advice would be to get it over and done with."

"Hark who's talking!" Alice spluttered indignantly, "what about you and Leia? Hmm?"

"…Uh…"

"Ah, Chewie!" She turned to the wookiee, who had just appeared around the corner and was staring at her in what was possibly alarm, probably because she looked like she was about to evaporate out of sheer stress, "So good to see you. I'm going to leave Mr Solo here with you because I have a pressing engagement…elsewhere. Goodbye!"

"Nice try, sister!" Han called after her as she dashed away, "You're not fooling anybody!"

Douchebag…

The next day, Alice went to breakfast having thrown a blanket of forgetfulness over that little episode with Han, innocently expecting to sit with her little table of women rebels, only to find a wookiee, one smuggler and a boy that she may or may not have some kind of attraction to claiming her attention instead.

"Oh, hey, Alice!" Luke called, waving her over. Chewbacca looked up and growled encouragingly.

"Good morning," she said, carefully avoiding Han's eyes as she set her tray down.

Han gave her a distinctly grumpy look, "Yeah, that's exactly what this morning is, sweetheart. Good."

"Well," Alice said, raising her eyebrows, secretly relieved that he seemed in too bad a mood to tease her today, "pardon me for expressing pleasure in my environment. What's happened to put you in such a bad mood, oh infallible Captain Solo?"

"Alright," he said, rubbing his head, "I get it. Enough with the long words. It's too early."

She grinned, and listened as Luke said, in an undertone, "Leia's assigned Han to run reconnaissance missions all week."

Alice raised an eyebrow and scooped up some space porridge, "So?"

"So," Han exploded, "I've got to drag myself out into freezing temperatures every morning on those stinking tauntauns, just to plant a bunch of sensors in the snow, where they probably won't work anyway."

"And I can see you're already looking forward to the task," Alice said, prompting a stifled snort from Luke.

Han glared at them, and muttered, "I swear, that woman will be the death of me."

"Most likely," said Alice cheerfully, "we live in hope, anyway."

Han stared at her as she munched on porridge, looking like a grumpy owl, "What are you in such a good mood, anyway?"

"Well," she said, chirpily, "I have my last morning of training today – no more being beaten into a pulp by my charming instructors. Yay!"

"Doesn't that mean you're taking your assessment?" Luke said, curiously.

Alice spat out a mouthful of food, spluttering very attractively, "Say what?"

Han looked pleased, "Assessment, eh? I like the sound of that – now you'll be just as miserable as I am."

She glared at him and pointed at Luke threateningly with her spoon, "What assessment?"

Luke took Alice's glare in his stride and said, apologetically, "At the end of basic training, you have to be assessed, to make sure that you are eligible to be a member of the Army. It's the same one as the initial testing, I think."

Alice muttered a swear word under her breath, and Han cocked his head, amused, "What was that, Alice?"

"Nothing," she said, through gritted teeth, jabbing her porridge with rather more force than necessary, "Well. I'd better go and start getting ready to die through over-exertion and a healthy dose of humiliation."

Han snorted and Alice eyed him balefully, "I was about to say 'If I don't make it, I loved you', but I'm not going to now. I don't love you at all."

"His loss," Luke said, grinning. Alice and Han looked at him. Awks...

"Well," said Alice, feeling a warm flush creep across her cheeks, "thanks, Luke. I'll ah…be going now. Love you- I mean…see you later."

She got to her feet and hurried across the cafeteria, her face still distinctly hot. Suddenly, and quite inexplicably, the assessment didn't seem like such a bad thing after all. If you think about it, Alice reasoned, it can't be worse than the first one, can it?

She stepped tentatively into the training room to find Captain Starn waiting for her, a grim smile on his face. Not encouraging.

"Um, hi," she said, tentatively, shrugging off her overcoat and chucking it to one side.

"Good morning, Miller," Starn said, sounding extremely pleased with himself, "welcome to your final assessment."

"…Thank you…?"

The evil glint in Starn's eye suggested she'd be regretting that expression of gratitude soon enough.

First stop on the deadly assessment of doom was the assault course. Alice found, to her own surprise, that she completed this quite quickly – the weeks of training had apparently paid off, at least in terms of her brute physical strength and fitness.

The shooting session, on the other hand…questionable.

Alright…come on Miller. You can do this. You're Superman; you're Legolas – you have eyes like a hawk and a talent for stating the obvious.

She stepped up to the line and raised the special blaster she used with the simulator, wrapping her fingers tightly around the grip. Then she took a deep breath, and endeavouring to remember the helpful hints and tips that Starn had so tenderly beaten into her, carefully squeezed the trigger.

It wasn't that bad – it hit the target at least. The outside edge of it. The outer corner. By the very slimmest of margins. Alice grumbled under her breath and shot a glance at Starn, who was standing by and taking notes. His expression was completely unreadable. Alright. I've got four more shots. Come on, I know I can do better than that…

By pure determination and will power, she managed to make her next three shots hit the outer two rings of the target – and by the force of what could only be a miracle, the last one struck just outside the centre. Alice punched the air in silent victory, then suddenly remembered she was being assessed, and sheepishly lowered her arm.

Luckily, her examiner didn't seem to have noticed, he was too busy taking notes. As she watched, Starn finished scribbling something on his tablet, then gestured to a spot just in front of him, "Over here, Miss Miller."

Alice put the simulation goggles and blaster aside, and did as she was told, and waited. Starn scrolled back through the notes he'd made on his tablet, then glanced down his nose at her, making her stomach squirm.

"Well," he said, holding out his hand for her to shake, "congratulations, Private Miller, and welcome to the Army of the Rebel Alliance."

Alice gaped, and for a second it was like the whole world had frozen. Then, shaking his hand in a numb daze, she whispered tentatively, "I…passed?"

"Yes," Starn said, breaking into what was actually quite a proud smile, "when you first walked through those doors, I had my doubts, but…you've done well."

"But, don't I have to fight?" She asked, cocking her thumb at the sparring ring behind her, certain that Starn must have forgotten something – getting into the army couldn't be…well, this easy.

"Yes," he replied, "but given the success of your match against Lieutenant Threpe yesterday, I decided to count that as your hand-to-hand combat assessment."

The reality of what had happened washed over Alice – she had succeeded at something in this universe, by her own merits, not because Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie or the droids had helped her. She had joined an actual army.

"Yes!" She startled Starn with the ferocity of her screech, as she leapt into the air in the fashion of a certain video game plumber, with one fist raised high above her head.

"Of course, I will have to clear your assessment with General Rieekan," the captain hurried to tame the storm of Alice's excitement, "You will report to his office this evening, Private, to receive your first assignment."

"Oh," Alice said, fighting back her excitement and trying to look serious, "of course. Thank you. Sir." She threw in a salute for good measure.

He gave her a sharp nod before walking away, but Alice thought she could see a twinkle in his eyes. She grinned. This is ridiculous. Me? A soldier?

Still floating on a cloud of disbelief, she made her way out of the gym, with no clear idea of where she was going. Rounding a corner, she bumped into a large mass of muscle and looked up to see Lieutenant Grant.

"Sir," she chirruped, saluting happily.

"Well, hello, Miller," he replied, looking amused, "had some good news, have you?"

Alice beamed, "I passed my assessment."

He broke into a genuine smile, looking, oddly enough, unsurprised, "Congratulations. You've done well, one of the most dramatic improvements I've ever seen."

"Thank you." Embarrassed and flushed, she saluted again, because she didn't really know what else to do, "Excuse me, sir, I'm going to tell my friends, if that's okay."

"Of course, private," he said, stepping aside to let her pass and watching with a small smile as she skipped away.


"Leia! Leia! Leia!"

"Yes, Alice," Leia said sharply, shooting a glare at her.

Refusing to be chided, Alice threw her arms around her friend's neck, and cried, "I passed my assessment!"

Leia's eyebrows shot upwards, "Really?"

"Normally I'd be offended at your obvious surprise," Alice said, cheerfully, "but not today, José!"

"Well," Leia said, choking a little due to Alice's stranglehold on her, "that's fantastic…Alice…do you think you could…"

"Sorry," Alice chirruped, releasing Leia, but not before kissing her unceremoniously on the top of her head, "where are Luke and Han?"

"Han's on patrol," said Leia, trying to surreptitiously smooth down her hair, "and I sent Luke off to manage the teams setting up the base's long range defences."

Alice hopped towards the door, "Where's that?"

Leia turned back to her work, "North entrance. Threepio will show you."

"Threepio?" Alice peered around and jumped in surprise when she suddenly spotted the golden droid emerging from the shadows in the corner of the room, "Woah. Didn't see you there."

"This way, Miss Alice," he said, self-importantly, "and congratulations on your success! I daresay Master Luke will be very impressed."

Alice grinned, amused, "D'you think?"

"Oh, indeed."

Aww, bless. He is sweet, for a golden butler.

They hurried through Echo Base, Alice waving cheerily at everyone they passed. Nothing could dampen her good mood, not even the water that dripped on her head through the ceiling in one of the less-frequented areas of the base.

Eventually, Threepio, after leading them into three dead ends and an empty store room, managed to locate the north entrance. Luke was dead ahead of them as they entered the huge hangar, congratulating a group of men for their "excellent work" before dismissing them. Alice, who had been about to bound forward and yell his name, suddenly fell back a step, a rush of pride hitting her with unexpected strength.

Then Luke turned in her direction, running a hand through his hair, and Alice snapped out of her reverie at once. She hurried towards him, skipping every other step, "Luke!"

He saw her, and instantly his face lit up, as if seeing her was the best thing that had happened to him…since he'd seen her this morning. "Hi. How was your assessment?"

Alice put a hand to her heart, beaming and breathless, "You remembered!"

"Of course," he said, putting his hands in his pockets and stopping in front of her, "it was only this morning."

She made a dismissive noise (though inside she was still cooing with delight), "Yeah, I know. Anyway. I passed! Yay!"

"Oh, hey, that's great!" He said, and it sounded like he really meant it, "We should celebrate!"

Alice laughed, one eyebrow raised, "I didn't think there'd be much of an opportunity for celebrating in a military base."

"We can ask Leia," said Luke, reassuringly, "I'm sure she can sort something out."

He smiled at her, and the look of genuine pride and pleasure on his face moved Alice so much that she actually bypassed manic excitement and was left only with genuine emotion. "Thanks," she said, softly, "that's…really sweet of you, Luke."

He flushed and ducked his head, "It's nothing."

"Psh," she said, holding out her arms for a hug, "come here."

The lovely shade of pink in his cheeks stood out brightly against his white camo uniform as Luke stepped forward and wrapped her up in his arms. She'd invited the embrace without really thinking about it, so Alice was very surprised to feel her stomach break out into butterflies – she hadn't expected Luke to be quite as warmas he was.

"Well, well. What have we got here?"

Uh oh. The butterflies had disappeared to be replaced by a twisting knot of embarrassment and dread.

Clearing her throat slightly, Alice broke away from Luke and turned around to face Han with an expression of total composure. She hoped. "Oh. Hello, Han. How are you this evening?"

"Fine and dandy," he said, grinning slyly at her from beneath the huge fluffy hood he was wearing, "and yourselves?"

"Alice passed her assessment," Luke said cheerfully, completely oblivious to the silent war going on between the other two, and the role he played within it, "I was just saying we should do something to celebrate."

"Way to go, kid," Han said, raising his eyebrows in genuine surprise, "I'll admit, I didn't think you had it in you."

"Thanks," she said, eyebrow twitching, "by the way, how was your patrol?"

His smile dropped away, and he glared at her, "Freezing. I'm surprised my fingers haven't dropped off."

"You were wearing gloves, Han," Luke said, amused, "gloves specifically designed to protect you from frostbite."

Alice smirked at Han, "Yeah. Stop complaining."

Fuming, Han said abruptly, "You know, Luke, you're right, we should celebrate Alice passing her assessment. How about you sit down and eat dinner together? Just the two of you."

Alice narrowed her eyes at Han, while Luke frowned mildly and said, "Well, I kinda thought we'd all be there."

"Exactly," Alice said, defiantly, "it's my celebration, and I'll pick who's going to be there, thank you very much. You can sit next to Leia, Han. I'm sure the two of you will have a wonderful evening together."

"Ha!"

"What?" Luke said, apparently finally picking up on the not so subtle intimations of hostility between Alice and Han.

"Nothing," said Alice, acidly, not noticing the expression of surprised hurt that came across Luke's face as she turned and stalked away, "nothing at all."


Thanks for reading, and please review!