A/N: I am going to do my damnedest to complete this story, folks. It's been two years; hold on tight.

The Fear

Minister of State Organa smiled softly, looking modest and a bit smitten.

"While I prefer to keep my private life private, it is with pleasure that I announce General Han Solo, hero of the Rebellion to Restore the Republic, and I have happily reunited and, hopefully, will soon be celebrating our bonding."

The reporters seated around Daardo gasped their surprise.

"Engaged?" he heard someone whisper behind him, "Unbelievable!"

Tono Ruu turned to the Rodian with what Daardo knew to be a human look of shock on his face, pink mouth curled open to reveal his teeth. He'd also gotten noticeably paler.

Organa continued, silencing the gallery, "Now, onto more important matters of policy, it is also my pleasure to follow Chief of State Mon Mothma's announcement about the current investigation with a new joint collaboration between the Chief of State, the Ministry of State and the Ministries of Commerce, Finance, Defense, and Admission, and the Galactic Senate: the Transparency Initiative. The Republic is committed to open, democratic governance, and the Transparency Initiative will serve to oversee the conduct of our Ministries. Full details will be available in a report to be issued tomorrow by the Chief of State's executive office."

Daardo stretched his snout in his species' version of a grin. Ruu, recovered from his earlier surprise, gave him a knowing slap on the back.

Victory, he thought.

The press secretary stepped to the podium at the conclusion of Leia's statement, "That's it, everyone. No questions. You can follow up with our office."

Luke leaned his shoulder blades against the back wall of the wide room, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I have a bad feeling about this."

"You, too, kid?" Han unfolded his arms to fish in a pocket for his comm and studied it a moment before continuing, "Think I need to change my frequency?"

"What do you think?"

Han thumbed off the comm, "Yeah. Yeah. This isn't what I wanted, you know."

Luke sighed, "I know. They're going to want holos of you two. Better get up there."

"Just what I want: more pictures of my face on the gossip netlogs."

The Jedi finally turned his sour expression on Han, "Get used to it. And hey, at least it's a better place to have your picture than the Empire's hit lists."

Han shot the younger man a wry lopsided grin, "We could run from Vader."

"Princess," Han whispered harshly near her ear as he pulled her closer to this side, "you said 'relationship.'"

She smiled at the the holorecorders and spoke through her exposed teeth, "Later."

Han was hot on Leia's heels entering her office. The handful of ministry staff still hanging around with their datapads quickly cleared out.

Once the door slid shut, the Minister of State turned on Han.

"Do you have any idea about what went on back there?"

"Yeah, you told the galaxy I'm marryin' you."

"No, Han, let me make this clear to you: Mon and I restructured the Galactic government to save yourass and myass."

"I didn't ask for any of this," he made a wide gesture and leaned toward her, "I can take care of my own ass just fine, Leia."

The rare use of her given name ruffled her further. The last thing she wanted was a protracted argument with him. Soon she would have Senators beating down the door to her office and the awful Minister of Admission on the comm grilling her about the new initiative.

"You agreed on the comm."

"Yeah, I agreed to something else entirely. A bonding is public, Your Worship; they'll be expecting plans, expecting a ceremony, what in the krethin' hells were you thinking? Huh?"

"My advisers agreed this was the best course of action," she walked to the transparisteel window and looked out over the city, "you think I wanted this?"

"I don't know what you want," he replied quietly.

Leia clasped her hands behind her back, pulling on the fingers of her right hand.

"I don't want our government to fall," she breathed.

He leaned up against the edge of her desk, looking at her looking out the window, "You think that'll happen?"

She shook her head vaguely and didn't answer. After several moments of silence, the comm station beeped and grabbed Leia's attention. She gave him a pointed look, and Han pushed slowly off of the desk.

He jerked a thumb toward the door, and she nodded as she slid into her chair and punched the comm.

"Yes?"

Leia watched Han punch the door open as her assistant's voice came through the speaker, "The President of the Senate is here."

Jas cut out for a moment, "He has, uh, seven other Senators with him."

"On what business?"

"Um, the investigation."

Her hands were already in her desk, "Jas, give me 90 seconds, then send them in."

The red comm light blinked out. Counting down from ninety in her head, she tore open the ration bar package and stuffed it in her mouth.

After two hours, seven interruptions from her colleagues, a distracting mental touch through the Force from Luke, twenty-three questions, and one warning that an official request for all her comm transcripts and datapad files from the past four days was coming soon, Leia laid her head on her desk and groaned loudly.

Transparency was overrated.

Everything had almost exploded in her face. She wasn't sure that resigning her position wouldn't have been easier than enduring an investigation by the Senate - innocent as she may be - and Han's anger at suddenly, and publicly, becoming her betrothed. Whatever truce they'd negotiated that morning was no longer valid. She couldn't even tell just how mad he was; Leia remembered being able to read him so easily, but he'd changed, she'd changed, and she feared more than anything he was just resigned to whatever fate she'd brought on him. Besides the one outburst, he'd been strikingly calm and acquiescent.

A Han Solo who didn't fight was a Han Solo she didn't know.

She leaned back, scrubbing her hands through her hair and over her eyes.

After a few weeks, the investigation would conclude, and the bonding could be called off. It would be easy enough to tell the press that the stress of the investigation took its toll on their relationship. Something about how he couldn't handle living in the public eye. Han would go back to his relatively anonymous life as a respectable businessman and member of the NTF, and she'd go back to the usual grind of the government, and the press would get interested in some other poor beings' personal affairs. The weeks in between would go by quickly.

The train of thought washed a warm wave of loneliness over her.

"You don't need him," she admonished herself aloud, "you don't need him, and you never did."