When he arrived home, he found Leia in the nursery, standing by the window looking out at Hanna city. She didn't turn around as he entered the room, and he slowly walked up to her and put his hand over hers on the windowsill, as he felt a soft breeze coming in from the ocean.

"You look like you're deep in thought" he said. "What were you thinking about?"

"Well… I was just thinking about how different my life turned out to be."

"Yeah?"

"You know, I was raised to be queen of Alderaan, and now that life is gone. I grieve for all that I have lost – but I do not grieve that I will never be queen."

"I can imagine that it's not a very free life" Han said.

"No. But it makes me feel guilty somehow."

"You feel guilty because there is something that you don't mind losing?"

"Yeah… And I know it's stupid, but…"

"You're not being stupid" Han murmured and took her hand.

"It's just… I was raised as a princess. And I want to carry on my parents' legacy."

"But you're doing that. You will have a future in politics, just like your father. And I'm sure your parents would have been proud of you."

"Although I'm not so sure what they would have said about you" she teased.

"You know, I've never asked – would your parents have picked a husband for you, or how did that work?"

"No. That choice would have been entirely up to me. Although, it wouldn't have been that simple, of course. The one I chose would have been become viceroy of Alderaan. That narrows the choice down a bit, to say the least. I would have had to choose someone suitable for that position."

"Someone like Dar Champion?"

She laughed.

"You still haven't forgotten about him?"

"Hm… Let's just say that I didn't enjoy meeting him very much. But considering what your father did when he heard about what his father had done, I can only imagine what he would have thought about me."

"Yeah… A princess and a smuggler. What a scandal. But that doesn't concern me now."

"You're a rebel, after all."

"You know, when I was a teenager, a friend of mine told me that children need to have conflicts with their parents in order to grow up, to go against them in some way to create their own identity in order to go on to procreate."

"Well, we've done that, all right" he said and nodded to the cradle where Ben was fast asleep – for now.

She laughed.

"I'm so glad I found you" she murmured.

"I'm glad I found you too" he answered, and he took her in his arms, thanking the Force or whatever it was that had brought them together.