Han woke up, slightly disoriented. He thought he'd heard something, but wasn't sure. Maybe I dreamed it. He'd had some strange dreams since coming out of hibernation, that was for sure.

No, there it was again. A soft sniffling, whimpering sound. It's Lilya. He looked over at Leia, who thankfully was still asleep. He slipped on a pair of pants and crept over to the crib.

Lilya was fussing, still softly, but her scrunched up face told him she was gearing up for more. He picked her up gently. "Hey, sweetheart, what's the matter?" he asked her.

Better figure out what it is before she starts crying for real. He remembered the move he'd seen Leia do the previous night to check whether she was hungry, and ran his pinky along her cheek, near her little mouth. She immediately lunged for it. Okay, hungry. I've seen this, I can handle this one. Somehow he found and warmed up the bottle and got himself and the baby settled in one of the chairs in the sitting area without making the crying worse or waking up Leia.

He looked down at his daughter as she ate, and was met with those eyes again, locked on his face. So trusting, he almost wanted to cry. I'm sorry we have to leave you, sweetheart, he thought. I swear, we'll come back, if I have anything to say about it. He smiled at her. At least we had fun tonight, right? Well, eventually….

He and Leia had had probably the most uncomfortable conversation of his life earlier that evening, after most of the group had left the Falcon. She'd made him promise that he would raise Lilya if he made it back but she didn't. "Chewie will help you. Luke will help you," she'd said. If he was worried about High Command, he shouldn't; evidently she'd had Rieekan and Mothma witness a document laying out her specific wishes in the event of her death.

Of course, neither of those things were the issue. Han didn't want to—couldn't— think about a scenario where he lost Leia like that. But he'd promised.

Thank the stars they'd still been on the Falcon, and he had thought of an appropriate distraction.

"Hey, has Lilya been flying yet?"

It had been just the thing to break the tension. Chewie had gone to bed early, so Leia had served as co-pilot. Lilya adored flying. She cooed, giggled, and made "aaah!" noises as they did a series of loops and runs. They couldn't risk going far – being one of the more recognizable Alliance ships made them a target – but they were able to do quite a bit close to the system, and this time when he said "watch this" he was pretty sure Leia was actually impressed. Of course, it helps when the ship actually…works. It was like the best parts of their missions together, the joy of flight without the constant fear of what was on the horizon.

Lilya finished the bottle, and Han gently draped her over his shoulder to burp her, as Leia had showed him. See, I ain't so bad at this, he thought. We gotta make it back, I finally figured out what the hell I'm doing. He kissed her lightly, and was about to put her back in the crib when he realized that a diaper change was probably in order too.

"See, darlin', you're gonna get the full treatment," he told his daughter softly, stealing a look at the bunk where Leia still lay sleeping. He tried to think of an appropriate song as he headed toward the changing table. Yeah, he knew the kid had been pulling his leg about the singing, but it seemed like something was in order. Not sure my collection of cantina songs is going to do it, though, he thought, grinning wryly.

Wait, how did that one song go?

"Moon on the far side
Clear skies at dawn
Promise me, lovely
You'll always come home
Seeking your sunlight
Under the stars
Wherever my love goes
You'll never be far…"

Lilya watched him with those eyes again as he crooned to her the old Corellian melody. After he got her changed, he continued singing softly, rocking her gently until he saw her eyelids flutter shut, then lowering her into the crib.

"See, you think I'm all right," he said, lingering by the crib to watch her for a moment.

When he returned from the 'fresher, he'd intended to sneak quietly back into bed, but was greeted by Leia's version of those eyes, watching him. He slipped back under the covers as she smiled at him.

"I like that song," she said quietly.

He wrapped her in his arms and began humming the same melody, as they drifted back to sleep.

The next morning, they were ready for takeoff, but Han was still staring at the Falcon from his seat in the cockpit of the Imperial shuttle.

Leia nudged him. "Hey, you awake?"

"Yeah. I just got a funny feeling, like I'm never going to see her again." Leia knew he was talking about the Falcon, but she also knew he was likely thinking about Lilya, whom they'd left with Kara a couple of hours ago.

During their flight with Lilya last night, they'd talked about what a shame it was that the Falcon wasn't going to be in the battle, since they were running an undercover mission. "Fastest in the fleet. Can't believe she's going to sit this one out," Han had said. As much as Leia enjoyed insulting his bucket of bolts, the ship's speed was legendary, and the Falcon had gotten them through quite the number of scrapes in the past.

Later, they'd started joking about Lando, his penchant for flowy capes, and the lengths to which he must have gone to coordinate his latest cape with his new general's uniform. "Doesn't the cape get in the way of flying?" Leia had wondered. And Han had put two and two together and realized the best way for the Falcon to help the Alliance. Leia had seen him offering the ship to Lando that morning, and in the end insisting that he take it. He's come a long way from mercenary, she thought.

She touched his shoulder gently. "Come on, General. Let's move."

The flight to Endor wasn't long – only a few hours in hyperspace, then a slow approach once they hit the system – and it was good to have the group back together again, even if the ship wasn't familiar. Luke didn't seem to want to talk about his side trip after Tatooine, so Leia gently steered the conversation towards sabacc games and funny anecdotes from old briefings, both subjects that seemed to bring out some glimpses of Luke's old carefree demeanor.

Han found one anecdote particularly amusing. After seeing Luke practicing with his lightsaber, Janson had questioned whether Luke might be using the Force to cheat at sabacc and had threatened to ban him from the Rogues' game.

"But you're terrible at sabacc," Han said.

"I'm not that bad," Luke protested.

[No, not unless you get a really good hand. Then the whole table knows,] said Chewie. Luke's sabacc face had gotten better over time, but his Jedi training definitely had not translated to card games. Han and Leia were both much better at the bluffing that was pretty much a required part of winning at sabacc. Chewie also had a slight advantage in that Wookiees were a little harder for humans to read.

"So how'd you get back into the game?"

Luke grinned. "Wedge got them to let me back in provisionally. Then he let this one play—" he pointed at Leia—"and I think I still owe her some credits."'

The alert sounded, indicating that they were about to leave hyperspace and enter the system near Endor's moon. Luke's grin dropped and his expression immediately became more serious—understandable, now that the critical part of the mission had arrived. But Leia noticed that something was different. That thing that's troubling him—it's back, whatever it is, she thought.