The front of the ceremony hall became a sudden flurry of activity when Leia Organa fell to the ground. The piece of flimsi she had been holding fluttered to the floor beside her. Luke picked it up and folded it, away from leering eyes. He knelt beside her and pulled her into his hug. The surrounding military officers stood their distance, giving her space. Abruptly she stood, running from the room and the thousands of pairs of eyes that were on her. Luke stared after her as she slowly vanished into the dim hallway. When he was sure she'd gotten far enough away, he went after her. She couldn't handle another loss, not the loss of his life. She would pile that on top of the list of the other deaths she blamed on herself. She would blame it on herself, she made him stay, or so she thought. She sent him on that mission. Luke knew he had to get through to her. Before it was too late. The story behind that letter was too important, she needed to know. Han had written that letter long before they had arrived at the drop off zone, long before he had disappeared. And he had told Luke to give that note to Leia if he didn't return.
"Leia! Wait! It's just me!" he called after her, catching sight of her white gown. He heard her footsteps slow and stop as she waited for him to catch up. She fell into his open and offered arms. "We don't know that he's dead."
"How? Han would've come back," she whispered, barely speaking his name.
"He may have been captured, or delayed. We just had to pull out at a set time, we couldn't wait any longer. I wanted to, Leia, I really did. Most of us wanted to wait for him. But they would've spotted us. We had to leave," he explained.
"Then how did he get this to you?" she asked, pulling the folded flimsi out of his hand. "If you weren't right there with him?"
""He wrote that letter before we reached the drop off zone. He told me to give it to you if he didn't come back home. Home, Leia, here is his home. If he didn't make it back, he wanted you to know," he told her.
"Know what? Did you read it?" Leia snapped softly.
"Everyone knew Leia, everyone but you."
Her tears came back and she tore away, running out into the jungles of Yavin IV.
As she ran the branches tore at her dress and skin, trickles of blood staining the white gown red and matting it to her body. Twigs and vegetation clung to her hair as it was falling out of it's braids. She threw herself down against the rock that she'd cried on so many times before, when he'd been there to comfort her and wipe away her tears. "I love you, Han," she cried softly, "I love you."