Sitting upright in her bed, eyes closed and hands on her knees, Tess Naberrie urged the Force to help her regain her strength. Two months in a coma had left her muscles weak and slow to respond. Her body hovered steadily a few inches off the bed.

Suddenly, Han came in, breaking Tess' concentration. She rocked from one side to the other for a moment as if trying to regain her balance, then fell back on the mattress. The Corellian winced apologetically.

"Sorry…"

Tess adjusted herself on the bed, straightening her legs out in front of her. "It's fine," she assured him. Han couldn't help but grin. "What?"

"I've just never seen you meditate willingly," he said.

Tess laughed slightly. "Yeah, well, I've never been this desperate to get my strength back." She looked out the window longingly through the half-open dark blue curtains. "I used to go out in the Fields of Benir every day like clockwork."

Tess recalled her childhood here with a grin. Though she spent the first nine years of her life living on Alderaan, Dantooine was the place that truly felt like home. Han sat on the edge of the bed.

"The healing thing…" he brought up carefully. "Nothing too intense, right?"

"No, I promise," Tess assured him. She knew Han didn't care about her using the Force as much as Leia did. She missed Luke. Thinking about her brother, Tess began to wonder where exactly he was in all of this. "Is Luke still on Tatooine?"

"Yes," Han answered after a moment. Tess could tell that he didn't want her to inquire further, but she did anyway.

"Can I com him?"

"No."

Tess put on her most innocent smile. "Please?"

Han groaned and pushed himself to a stand. "One sec." He left the room for a moment and came back not with a comlink or portable holocom, but with a small rectangular box. "Your sixteenth birthday was two weeks ago. Luke sent this for you."

A wide grin on her face, Tess savagely tore the silver lid off the box. Slowly and with awe-filled eyes, she lifted out a brand new lightsaber.

"We never got your first one back on Teyr," Han explained. "I snagged it before Leia could see that it came for you. You may have some lightening issues, but for the most part you seem to handle yourself well with one of those things." The time where she murdered an innocent training remote seemed to slip his mind.

Tess didn't know what to say. She could feel the weapon's power in the tips of her fingers. It was constructed so much better than the first one that she made herself. She looked up at Han, beaming with anticipation.

"What color is it?"

"I don't know," he chuckled. "Why don't you check?" Tess hesitantly nodded towards the opposite room that Leia stayed in. "You can turn it on," Han assured her. "Leia is outside."

Tess let out a small squeal of anticipation, not wasting another second to ignite the device. A bright yellow glow that matched the Dantooine sun shot up from the hilt.

"The color…it looks just like Inny's did." Tess was absolutely in love. Her excitement transformed into awe. She swished the device back and forth a few times, listening to the familiar hum. The saber was a bit heavier that her last one, Tess noticed. The twenty-five centimeter hilt on this one was shorter and the blade seemed longer. The young Force-sensitive disengaged her weapon of choice and took more time to examine the Firebrand hilt, from the dark metallic color to the pommel cap at the base securing a back-up power cell.

"What do you think?" Han inquired, breaking her fixation on the birthday present.

Tess still couldn't take her eyes off the lightsaber.

"It's beautiful."

Suddenly, Tess sensed a familiar Force presence. She stuffed her new lightsaber behind her pillow just in time before Leia walked in.

Tess and Han's plastered grins of innocence were a dead giveaway that they had something to hide. She narrowed her eyes at Tess, then Han.

"What are you two up to?" she asked knowingly.

"Nothing," they answered in unison. Though Leia clearly wasn't fooled, she didn't seem in the mood to argue.

"I'm going to the Falcon to pick up some of Tess' clothes," she informed them. "You two going to be alright here?"

Their unshakable impish grins still keeping the princess suspicious, Han and Tess each gave her affirmative nods.

"You're sure Leia will be gone long enough?" Tess asked Han for the third time.

"Yes, kid," Han told her with exaggerated frustration. "Now just soak up the freedom and quit asking about your sister."

After being comatose for two months, Tess' legs still weren't strong enough to manage more than a stumble to the refresher, so Han carried her on his back. She was trying to direct him to a valley she remembered. Tess used to go there for picnics with Inny. With the rising yellow-green hills surrounding it like a wall, it was the perfect place to train with her new lightsaber once she was fully mobile again.

"It's over there," Tess instructed, pointing east. Han hoisted her a bit higher on his back and turned in the right direction.

"I'm not carrying you down a hill, you know. More importantly, I'm not carrying you back up."

"I know, I just want to see it again."

Finally, they made it to the valley. Han stood at the top of the steep incline and whistled at the sight. It was almost as if a small moon had bounced off the field, leaving a deep dent in the ground.

As Tess grinned from ear to ear, Han helped her get down and together they sat at the edge of the hill. Looking at Tess' smile, Han couldn't help but smile himself.

"You really loved it here, huh?"

Tess nodded, her fingers entwining with the blades of grass beneath her.

"Until I was nine, Uncle Bail had me on Alderaan," Tess explained. "I never knew why—maybe for my protection, or he didn't want me to feel my connection to Leia, or maybe it was just to keep a close eye on me—I don't know, but for whatever reason, I was almost never allowed to leave the house."

Han's eyebrows raised in surprise. He found it hard to imagine Tess cooped up inside for too long.

"When Inny took me to Dantooine," she continued, "At first I didn't want to be so far away from Uncle Bail, but I fell in love with this planet as soon as I first stepped foot on the Fields of Benir."

Han smiled. The planet did have a quaint, homey appeal to it. He could relate to the nostalgia. The taste of Corellian ale or the sight of a Corellian-made ship always gave him a sense of pride for his homeland. As Han seemed a bit lost in his thoughts for a moment, Tess felt compelled to mention something that had been on her mind.

"Can I ask you something personal?"

Han tensed noticeably as if he feared this, though he couldn't have known exactly what Tess would ask. Regardless, he nodded.

Tess continued. "Are you and Leia… are you two having a fight or something?"

The former smuggler avoided her glance, either ignoring her or trying to think of how to answer Tess' question.

"Is it…" Her voice trailed off anxiously for a moment. "Is it because of me?"

Han's hazel eyes darted in Tess' direction.

"What?" he exclaimed. "No, no, of course not."

Tess gulped. "So you're having a fight then?"

Han sighed. "I wouldn't call it that…" he confessed softly. "Kid…Tess… your sister and I aren't together anymore."

Tess' jaw dropped. Han and Leia bantered for years, but since their escape from Jabba's palace on Tatooine, the two were quite clearly together. It wouldn't seem that way to the casual observer, but really Han and Leia were perfect for eachother.

Seeing Tess was speechless, Han felt the need to elaborate.

"Luke told me not to land on Teyr," he muttered. "I didn't listen. Once Leia processed that if I would have listened to Luke…" His voice trailed off. "She blames me for everything we ran into there… but that's because I let her."

"Why?" Tess asked in a small voice. Han met her eyes.

"It's no one's fault... But if your sister didn't blame me for landing on Teyr, she would blame herself for being the reason I did it."

As the Dantooine sun began to set and the orange sky made the grass glow, Tess saw right through Han.

"You still love her," she pointed out matter-of-factly.

Han didn't need to answer for Tess to know it was true.