Leia left Isolder at the table, dumbstruck and quite incensed. She did not give the prince another thought. Moving as quickly as her short legs would take her, she went to find Han and explain everything. What's left to explain? You'll be lucky if he doesn't shoot first and ask questions later.

She couldn't find them on the street so she decided to head to the hangar and the Falcon. If he wasn't there already, she was quite certain he would be there eventually. You might have to stop him from leaving the planet.

As the Falcon came into view she slowed her pace, trying to allow her heart rate to decrease and catch her breath. The sight of him startled her, nearly causing her to freeze in her tracks. It was Chewie; his attitude and temperament reflected in his posture. He was angry. Livid, even. Standing in front of the Falcon's boarding ramp, it looked as though he was protecting it from someone. He is.

She looked him in the eyes as she greeted him, "Chewie." She knew better than to mince words with an angry Wookiee.

[Leia.] The single word reverberated through her entire psyche like a mynock trapped in a cage.

Chewie always called people by nicknames. For her he usually preferred "little one" or "the princess". He called Han "cub" and other nicknames to goad him. She had heard Chewie say Han's name on a handful of occasions. Those occasions had rooted a profound respect in Leia of a Wookiee's dangerous reputation. Leia had only heard Chewie use her name a couple of times. It was when she was in danger of something else, to get her attention, but never because she was in danger of him. This time was different and she recognized it immediately.

Not sure she was physically or mentally capable of battling an angry Wookiee, she tried to defer it with, "Is Han on board?"

[Yes.] He snarled back at her.

"Can I come aboard?"

[Where is your fiancée?] The Wookiee folded his arms and glared at her.

Alright, I guess I deserve this. I'll try to be diplomatic. "Chewie, you have to understand that this situation is complicated."

The Wookiee unfolded his arms and lowered himself to her as he responded pointedly with a low growl, [Too complex for me to comprehend?]

"That's not what I meant." Please don't kill me before I get to talk to Han.

[Our actions and our words always reflect what we really mean.] He straightened up and his voice was calmer.

Ouch! Leia tried to placate the Wookiee by saying, "Chewie, you know I would never hurt Han. You know that I love him."

[I only know what I see - what we both saw.]

"Please, Chewie, I have to speak to him." She was losing this battle horribly and she merely wanted to cut her losses and try her luck with someone who was more likely to undoubtedly forgive her. That's probably why the Wookiee doesn't want to let you in. He's protecting Han from you in more ways than one.

[When a male and a female Wookiee fall in love they make a pledge to each other. There is no comparable word for it in basic, but it would loosely translate to a personal commitment.] He stopped and looked at her.

Fairly certain that he was not finished, she stared back at him and remained silent. He continued, [This commitment is between the two of them. Many personal commitments do not last. This is not dishonorable. A Wookiee may have several personal commitments along his journey.] He stopped again and they stared at each other in silence.

Leia could only assume that he was following some internal Wookiee clock that told him when the pause had been sufficient enough to drive his point across. As Leia grew more uncomfortable under his disapproving sneer, he finally continued, [When two Wookiees, who have made a personal commitment to one another, decide that they have found their life's mate, there is a ceremony. This ceremony is similar to your weddings. This, the Wookiees call a life commitment. Similar to my life debt to cub, life commitments are meant to last a lifetime. It is neither easy nor honorable to break a life commitment.]

The pause this time was very short, so much so that when he began to speak again it had startled Leia. [Personal commitments are for the two Wookiees involved. Two Wookiees can be in a personal commitment for years without other Wookiees knowing about it. The life commitment is for the tribe. It is a proclamation to the gods and all living beings that they belong to one another. You have a personal commitment to cub. You refuse to honor him with a life commitment. This is not complicated.]

He stepped aside as he finished his words revealing the boarding ramp and dismissing her all at once. Leia wasn't insulted by the gesture. She was relieved, having no idea how to respond to him. Starting up the ramp she almost lost her footing as Chewie palmed the ramp shut causing it to rise while she was still ascending it. Why do I feel like I'm being led to the slaughter?

Walking through the Falcon she was not sure what she was going to say to Han. After quickly eliminating the lounge, galley and his bunk room, Leia headed to the cockpit only to find the door was shut. Standing before it she tried to picture the man on the other side of it. For all of his cockiness and bravado, Leia knew the man beneath it all. She knew his innermost secrets and fears. She had witnessed him cry, something she thought him incapable of when she first met him. He wasn't made of steel and she had hurt him. Realizing that her only other option was to stare at the door until it opened, Leia forced herself to palm the door controls and enter. If he hasn't already erased your profile.

When the door opened she immediately saw the back of his head. Sitting in his pilot's chair, he was apparently doing nothing more than staring out onto the hangar bay. She walked in and let the door slide closed behind her. Standing there for a moment she was unable to compel herself to speak.

He spoke without movement. She was unsure if he had really said anything at first. But she thought she had heard him say, "I'm sure it wasn't what it looked like."

Ashamed that that had probably been her first line of defense she cursed herself. Encouraged by the fact that he had spoken to her, she walked towards the co-pilot's seat and sat next to him. He looked indifferent, which scared her. She could deal with angry much better than indifference. Angry meant he still cared, indifferent was…much worse.

"Sweethear-"

He spun around to face her so quickly she nearly jumped out of her seat. He held his finger up to her face and said, "Don't! Don't call me that."

"Han, really -"

His face close to hers and his tone exasperated, he asked as his voice was rising, "Really what, Leia? You really love me? It was really not what it looked like? You really will tell the Hapans and the New Republic and the media the truth someday? What? What, really?"

"I can't talk to you when you're like this!" Her voice elevated to counter his.

"Then don't talk to me!" He stood up and left her as he palmed his way out of the cockpit door.

Later, when she looked back on it she would say that she felt helpless and distraught. However, just what emotions drove her to do what she did, she would never completely comprehend. She knew she had to do something and, like an epiphany, the idea came to her, impossible to ignore. It had worked on their way to Bespin all those years ago, just the two of them alone on the Falcon (well, Chewie was there then, but that's beside the point).

Before her brain had registered what the actions of her hands were doing, the cockpit door was locked and the Falcon was going through her pre-flight warm-ups. Leia had flown the Falcon by herself before but it had been years. She could only guess that it was the adrenaline in the heat of the moment that guided her.

As soon as the repulsorlifts engaged she heard him, banging on the door and cursing at her, "Leia, what the hell do you think you're doin'? Open this godsdamn door!" She was pretty sure he was kicking the door which she should have taken as a bad sign. Han would never hurt his ship without sufficient provocation. I was not myself, she would explain later.

The control tower did not begin to hail her until the Falcon rose off of the platform. Turning the volume down on their receiver she scoffed at them; she did not need the tower's permission or assistance. I'm just going to orbit the planet once or twice. I'm not going to penetrate the planetary shields.

After punching in the Falcon's orbital trajectory, Leia performed some last minute system checks and relaxed back in the pilot's chair. As she watched the planet stream along below her and the stars wax and wane above her, she shut her eyes and tried to calm herself.

Leia rose out of the pilot's chair in one fluid motion. She had taken control of the situation and now he had to talk to her. Having not heard him for a long while, she supposed he had retired to the lounge or his bunk room to stew and wait for her. She unlocked the cockpit door and jumped when the door opened to the sight of him, hands above his head on either side of the door way, his legs spread out below him. He looked like a spider web blocking her retreat. His expression was near maniacal as he gritted his teeth, lowered his hands and grabbed her at the shoulders, "What the fuck do you think you're doing, Leia?"

It was right about that time when she realized that it had probably not been such a good idea to hijack his ship. Her expression changed from one of anticipation to confusion and remorse as he man-handled her down into the nav chair directly behind his and lowered himself into the pilot's seat, all the while cursing at her. Watching him double-check all the controls and flight preps she had just completed, she began to snap out of her stupor. She rose out of her seat and prepared to talk to him.

At the moment she fixed her lips to say something to him, he found the volume control of the tower com and turned it up. The angry, frantic voice of the traffic controller reverberating through the cockpit made Leia bounce right back into shock as she heard words like: "breach of protocol", "revoke your license" and "impound your ship". Han shot her a perturbed glance at that last remark.

As she tried to comprehend the absurdity of it all she finally worked herself up to say, "Han, I'm sorry."

"I know. Sit down and buckle in, sweetheart."

He didn't look at her and his words were short and choppy. He called her sweetheart but it was different. She sat down in Chewie's chair. At the sound of her crash webbing clicking into place, Han spun the Falcon upside down and around on a straight shot back to the hangar.

Realizing they had precious little time before they arrived back at the hangar, she turned to him and said, "Please talk to me."

He exhaled heavily and responded, "What do you want me to say, Leia? You want me to tell you that I understand it's all part of your job? That I understand that I mean more to you than you sometimes show? That I love you more than anything so I put up with it all?"

She watched his demeanor soften but his words hit her like punches to her gut. She slowly released her crash webbing and leaned over to him, placing her hand on his knee as she said, "That would be a good start."

"Well I thought the fact that I'm still here says all of that." He turned to look at her; she thought that he looked as defeated as she felt. His eyes were pleading for it all to be over.

Encouraged by his demeanor and by that fact that he hadn't pushed her hand away when she touched him, she rose from her seat and turned to sit crossways in his lap. Placing her hand against his cheek she looked in his eyes as she said, "You do mean so much more to me than I sometimes show. You mean everything to me." Leaning into him she went to kiss him but he stopped her.

"I'm sorry; Leia, but I can't do this right now. I have to land the ship." Placing his hand on her lower back he nudged her off of his lap.

You can't do this right now because you have to land the ship, or because you're still mad at me? Leia slowly removed herself from his lap and secured herself into the co-pilot's seat. Han began fiddling with the control systems and they completed the rest of their journey in silence.

Below their landing platform Leia could only watch the madness in disbelief. During her short hijacking trip it seemed the entire Coruscant security fleet had been alerted and had responded en force. As soon as the Falcon touched down, Han shot out of his chair and headed for the exit. Leia followed him in silence as the ramp lowered. Chewie broke through the guards and began yelling at Han. He was speaking so quickly she couldn't quite catch all that he was saying¸ but the words "aft stabilizer" were being stressed repeatedly.

"I know. I know. Would ya lay off of me for one minute while I get arrested? Go shut 'er down, will ya?" Han's demeanor and tone was a mixture of anger, frustration and capitulation.

Chewie stormed past Leia and headed for the cockpit. With the angry Wookiee out of their way the guardsmen began to question Han who quickly referred them to Leia. As Leia embarrassingly explained herself, Han stood there leaning against one of the Falcon's boarding ramp struts looking uninterested.

There he goes with the indifference thing again. Realizing he was probably in the clear with the officials, Han responded to Chewie's yelping by straightening himself up and walking into his ship. When the last of the guards had left her, Leia turned up the ramp and went to find Han.

She found Chewie and Han in the circuitry bay. Wires were everywhere, reaching out like arms through a jail cell. Tools were scattered on the floor and curse words were flying through the air. Their conversation pausing upon her entrance, Leia asked softly, "Is there anything I can do?"

Chewie responded, but again, he spoke rapidly and almost every other word was a curse word so she had to piece together what he said. She was sure it was something along the lines of, [I think you've done quite enough.]

They went back to work, virtually ignoring her presence. Finally admitting defeat she turned and walked down the boarding ramp of the Falcon. She stopped at the bottom of the ramp as she caught sight of him. Leaning in a doorway at the far end of the hangar, he was smiling at her in a knowing sort of way. Of course he knows you've made a fool out of yourself. It was Luke. This day keeps getting better and better…