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Chapter 15: Is Han Solo Too Hard To Get Over?

Once in hyperspace, Leia left the cockpit in search of the medkit. Since liftoff, her headache had abated some, but the knot in her stomach had only become worse. Rummaging through the Falcon's medical supplies, she found what she was looking for and headed off to the galley for some water.

Water in hand, Leia sat down at the gametable in the main hold and opened the small box taken from the main supplies. She noted how pathetically low his supplies were and he was completely out of most of the basics. The least she could do was take it upon herself to see that the kit and the Falcon's medical bay was fully resupplied at her next opportunity. Force knows this was one ship that should always be fully stocked.

She washed the taste of the self-dissolving med strip out of her mouth with a quick gulp of the water, closing her eyes as she felt them enter her system.

Han sauntered in and checked the board at the navigator station. He was about to head back to the cockpit when he saw the open box of meds on the table next to Leia. He surmised that he hadn't noticed anything wrong before because he had been wrapped up in the fact that they were still bonded. Now that he looked at her, she did seem a little off-color. She shouldn't still be suffering any aftereffects of the night before.

"You alright?"

"I'm fine," Leia dismissed, putting the various supplies back and closed the gray metal box with a click. She was dreading the coming conversation, but she knew she had to get it over with. "We need to talk."

"What about?" Han asked, sitting down across from her.

"When we get back, I would appreciate it if no one found out about any of what happened on Uluruan - including Luke and Chewie."

Solo waved the idea away casually, "You don't have to worry about Chewie. He wouldn't say anything." Luke, Solo could understand. They had similar agreements about keeping things quiet from Skywalker in the past. The kid had a way of letting classified juicy bits escape without thinking half the time.

"That's not the point. You said yourself that it was important that word never gets out about this. The one way to ensure that is if we don't tell anyone," Leia reasoned and pleaded at the same time. Quickly, her irritation began to mount. She didn't see why he was so opposed to the idea.

"Since when is Chewie part of anyone?" Han's own irritation was rising. She had never had a problem with his first mate knowing anything. The Princess had astutely pointed out more than once that Chewbacca was the one being that knew all the nitty gritty details of all Solo's chaotic adventures and yet somehow still found the ability to be loyal to the Captain.

"What's the big problem? It wasn't a real bonding and I don't see the need to go around making announcements about it," she snapped. She hated this. She was being deliberately hurtful to a friend who had helped her out when she needed it – again. Even though that friend that drove her absolutely around the bend on an almost constant basis. Yet, their time on Uluruan had shown her other things that this particular friend could be to her. She had gone though with the biting comment though, because she felt she had no choice.

Hurt by her tone, Han was angrier than he would have liked. "You're right," he sneered. "It wasn't a real bonding. And if that's the way you want it, you got it, Your Worship." He got up and stalked off into the cockpit. What the hell was I thinking?

As the Princess watched him leave, her stomach twisted again. She decided to go find a bunk and lie down. Leia proved she had been right in the first place…

…Han Solo would be too hard to get over.

Rather than track down the aggravating Princess, Solo opened the ship's comlink so it could be heard throughout the ship. "Requesting Her Most Royal Immenseness to join me in the cockpit for duty if she can tear herself away from her regal lounging about. We have real work to do up here," he drawled as sarcastically as possible then slapped the comlink off. He settled back and waited for her to make her entrance.

The majority of his fuming over with had left Solo frustrated and confused. It was as if hardly anything had changed about their relationship, like they were back to square one. Well, maybe not square one. The more he thought about it, the more he believed they had never even seen square one. It was more like they had a running start off square three or something. There had never been any buildup to their relationship per se.

Fireworks had exploded instantly between them and the actual blaster bolts flying past them had surely enhanced that adrenaline. They had an immediate chemistry that was unmistakable from the get go. It may have involved more screaming than romance, but any fool knows there is a fine line between love and hate.

At any rate, he was having a hard time believing everything that happened on Uluruan was just the product of his sometime overactive imagination where the Princess was concerned. That evening stroll at the Garden Palace, Leia's less than sober – therefore, unguarded- antics and her relative amiability that was directed towards him for a change all added up.

In spite of that, it seemed as if she were determined to fight those feelings more than ever. Not only that, it confused him enough that he just couldn't be sure he had any kind of real shot with her at all.

Honestly, he agreed with her about keeping it quiet and he really didn't mind not spilling the story to Chewie. The overgrown hairball had been relentless lately, teasing about how he and Leia should stop fighting their feelings and get on with it already. Something like this would just play right into the tormenting Wookiee's furry hands and drive Solo over the edge of sanity.

The door swished open and the Princess wordlessly sat down in the co-pilot's seat without so much as an icy glance towards Solo.

He sighed inwardly at this predictable behavior. "Prepare to come out of hyperspace," the Captain announced, going through the checks for the resumption of sublight speed.

"Everything checks out here," Leia reported crisply, watching her readouts as the navicomputer began its final countdown.

They should end up just outside of the latest secret Rebel base for Leia's cell hidden within the mountainous terrain planetside. This current base was just a temporary place to hole up, of course. It was just another of several since Yavin IV. This particular system was just a little too close for comfort to the Inner Rim. It would do for the time being… hopefully.

A new base was beginning to be carved out of the orb of ice known as Hoth. Extreme temperatures there were causing a lot of delays, freezing the equipment needed to bore through the solid ice and erect the necessary power generator that the base would need to be fully operational.

Logistics reported it wouldn't be ready for the major move of people and equipment for at least four standard weeks, but Han already dreaded going to the new base. Being frozen wasn't his idea of fun, but he had to admit it was a great idea to hide out there. Hoth was practically unlivable and had next to nothing to offer anyone else besides the Rebels trying to hide from the Empire.

It would be the first 'permanent' base that Leia would head up without the others of High Command. She would have General Rieekan to help with the day-to-day of running a military operation, but the final call on things would be hers alone. It had been her decision to go to Hoth. Figures, Solo had thought when he first heard the idea.

Han checked the last set of readouts and while everything looked normal, there was an ever-so-slight flutter on his navicomputer gauge that bothered him. It was totally within acceptable levels, but all the same, he jumped out of the pilot's chair to watch it on the navigator's station behind him. He just wanted to see if the flutter was picked up there too, especially since it was the navicomputer's fault they had to land on Uluruan in the first place.

"Okay, on my mark… three… " he counted down for Leia to disengage the hyperdrive as he leaned closer to the board.

"…t- OWW!"

The ship lurched hard out of hyperspace causing her Captain to lose his footing and smash his face directly against the navicomputer's control board. "Hey, Your Worship! I give the orders on this ship!" he hollered, assuming she had disengaged the lever early on purpose.

"Then tell that to this hunk of scrap metal! It decided that move on its own!" Leia yelled back.