AN: Thanks as always to all the readers and reviewers! Man, Leia and Han have been apart for fifteen chapters – I don't know if I've ever written about them being apart for so long.

"Without a Heart"

By EsmeAmelia

Chapter 16

She was looking at Han's corpse.

It certainly looked like a corpse. His pale, almost white head was the only thing that showed over the blanket, limply turned to the side, his hair slightly longer than it was the last time she saw him, his skin tightly clinging to his skull, his forehead lined with blue veins. He was dead after all . . . but wait, she could feel his life strand in the Force.

It was sharp now, not an imagined sensation.

Here he was in front of her, not a dream.

Alive, alive, alive.

But what was that mechanical breathing sound?

[Han . . .] Chewie whispered from in front of the doorway.

After a deep breath, Leia's hand inched towards her husband's face, her fingers waving under his nose.

Feeling nothing.

No air.

He wasn't breathing.

He wasn't breathing . . . yet Leia still felt life flowing from him.

The mechanical breath . . .

What was under the blanket?

She didn't want to look . . . she couldn't look . . . no . . .

But her hand was moving again, closer and closer to the blanket's edge. She remembered how in the dream Han hadn't wanted her to see whatever had been done to him, but she had to know what had kept him alive after his mortal wound . . . what damage their son had inflicted. Her dreams had already told her that he was missing a hand, but she could sense that there was more.

Finally she peeled back a bit of the blanket, revealing a tube plugged into a hole in his neck. Her mouth sucked in a gasp as she peeled the blanket back further. The tube snaked down into his open shirt, where the other end plugged into something else under the shirt. As for what it was, she couldn't tell. The hole in his shirt – that hole where Ben's lightsaber had stabbed him – through it she saw something gray and metallic that seemed to have replaced part of his chest.

Numbness swam through her body as she dropped the blanket. "Han . . ." Her voice came out in the smallest of whispers. ". . . what have they done to you?"

Chewie was howling softly behind her. They both stared down at Han for several lingering moments, that mechanical breathing sound sending a stupor of a mood through the cell. They had to get him out of here . . . they had to . . . so why couldn't Leia move? Why did she keep staring through that hole as if staring at it long enough would reveal what had happened? Her mind kept flashing to her visions of her husband being stabbed through the heart. What was that on his chest? What was in his chest?

In, out, in, out, in, out . . .

Then Han stirred.

Leia drew in her breath as her husband's eyes slowly fluttered open. "Han?" she asked, still in a hushed voice.

He didn't seem completely awake. He blinked up at her as if trying to bring her into focus, then he just stared up at her for several seconds, during which she could hardly breathe.

"Leia?" he finally said, his voice still that tiny rasp it had been in her dream. "A-am . . . am I . . . are we dreamin' again?"

Leia felt her eyes welling up. "No," she said, putting her hand on his cheek and stroking his tiny, prickly stubble. "I'm here . . . I'm here, Han . . . here for real."

"For real . . ." He sounded like he couldn't believe those words. After a few more seconds, his right hand came out from under the blanket and reached up to her, stroking her hairline. "Y-you . . . you shouldn't have come . . ."

"Oh stop," said Leia. "I told you I wasn't going to give up on you."

She leaned over and kissed his lips, a kiss that had been overdue for years, a kiss with the same longing passion as when she'd saved him from the carbonite so many years ago. His lips hungrily responded to hers as his hand caressed her head.

She tried not to think of how she only felt one hand caressing her.

After they pulled out of the kiss, Chewie apparently decided that it was all right to make his presence known – he rushed up to the bed, calling Han's name over and over.

"Hey, pal," Han responded as the Wookiee ruffled his hair.

[Han, what happened?] Chewie asked. [How did you survive?]

Han groaned slightly. "Long story short, Snoke decided I was valuable and had me reassembled. Thanks to Ben's lightsaber, I can't breathe without this machine's help and I don't have a heart anymore – that's a machine too."

Chewie roared in dismay as Leia concentrated on keeping herself from trembling. She could think about that later – right now there were more pressing matters. "Han, we have to get you out of here. Can you walk?"

Han glanced at the foot of the bed, a sudden worried look on his face. "Well . . ."

Before he could say anything else, Leia reached down and lifted the blanket off of Han's feet as if something were compelling her to do so.

There was Han's right foot, the skin as pale and vein-lined as his face, but otherwise it was the same foot she knew.

However, in the spot where the left foot should have been, there was only a poorly-knotted pants leg.

"Han!" she gasped.

Han's eyes lowered as if he were ashamed of what had happened to him. "Yeah . . . that's why I can't walk."

Chewie wailed.

"And your hand too?" Leia whispered.

Han's eyes lowered further – he looked like he wanted to sink back under the blanket. "You already know that from the dream."

Chewie wailed again while Leia gulped. Don't tremble, she told herself, don't tremble, you have to be strong for Han. "Well . . . do you think you can be moved?"

Han's mouth twisted a little. "Well . . . a couple of stormtroopers dragged me outta here to see Snoke once."

"Snoke?" Leia exclaimed. "Snoke's here?"

"He was . . ."

With that, Leia instantly flicked her commlink off her belt and punched in a call to Pooja. An eternity seemed to pass between every beep until her cousin finally answered.

"Hello?"

"Pooja, it's Leia. I've found Han."

"You have?"

"Yes," Leia said in a rapid voice, "he's alive and he says Snoke might be here. Alert the Resistance and send reinforcements to Teth."

"I will, I will!"

Once she hung up, Leia turned to Chewie. "Chewie, do you think you can carry him without disturbing that machine?"

"Wait," said Han, holding up his single hand. "Leia, have you seen Ben?"

"Ben?" The numbness returned to Leia's body. "No, but we have to get you out of here."

"Leia, please," said Han, "we have to at least try to get him to come with us."

"After what he did to you?" Leia exclaimed in a near-shout. "Han, the last time you tried to get him to come home he stabbed you! He . . . he caused all this."

Han blinked up at her. "Yeah . . . he did. But sweetheart . . . I dunno how to explain it . . . sometimes it seems like way way deep down he still wants to come home. I even . . ." His eyes widened as if a memory were just now returning to him. ". . . I even talked to him in a dream, like how I talked to you. There's still some of the old Ben in there."

"Han . . ."

"Didn't you think the same thing before I left?" Han pressed. "You wanted me to bring him home – well now I want that too."

Leia took a deep breath, then another, still seeing that moment on the bridge in her mind . . . but also seeing her living husband in front of her – crippled for the rest of his life, but still willing to see good in their son.

"All right," she finally whispered. "Now let's go."