Ok, just a heads up, there is one last chapter after this one... Thanks to everyone still reading, favoriting, following, and reviewing. You all know I make a point to thank you for each review because they make my day! Here's some fun...

Chapter 26: He Remembered?

Leia winced inwardly when she saw the particular bottle he was offering. It launched a new volley of the confusing memories that had been vexing her just a few minutes ago. Seeing physical evidence staring her in the face held by the man whom headlined in that confusion was making it all the more difficult, especially today of all days.

"Some other time, perhaps. I have a lot of work to do." She opted for staying silent concerning her surprise he could find anything at all on that cluttered flying heap. After all, he wasn't antagonizing her outright, so why should she be the one to start? Besides, it might be the best course to make him leave before he had a chance to turn a frustrating day worse.

Strange. For a moment she thought there was honest hope in his inviting eyes. Actually, on further inspection, he looked a little… yes …uncomfortable. Oh, it wasn't exactly obvious, but she was positive she sensed something off in his usual demeanor. Suddenly, she felt that strange wave of indecision again. Leia could've sworn it was emanating from him somehow, but had no idea why. Indecisive was not a word she would normally apply to Solo.

Han stepped around her into the room, "Don't be so hard on yourself. You can take a break. You're not gonna take down the Empire alone, ya' know. No matter how much you want it."

Resignedly, she turned to face him and allowed the door to slip shut. Sure, he was acting confident on the outside, yet Leia was no longer buying it. She was curious to know what was making the unshakable Han Solo uneasy.

"Fine, Han, but no alcohol for me, thanks."

Maybe he had regrets over taking the liquor as a bribe and thought this was a good way to ease his conscience and gain added points of doing it on their 'one month anniversary'. Well, no matter how much a part of her wanted the latter to be true, it was a ridiculous thought. Odds were he didn't even realize what significance today held. Granted, the first part was also a stretch. Solo was never one for spending his time regretting things.

More than ever, Han was unsure he wanted to go through with what he was about to do. If Leia reacted badly, it might hurt him in a deeper way than he was willing to acknowledge. It was a big risk. As a rule, taking risks didn't concern Solo. But this… this was an emotional risk. Even the most hardened spacer knew those were the roughest kind. Hurt a man in the heart and you can wound him far worse than any physical blow. It was specifically why he made a point to steer clear of this sort of thing.

Slowly, he put the bottle on the table and silently wished himself luck …he was going to need it. "Well, there's something else I wanted to talk to you about anyway."

Aha, this could be interesting, Leia thought, noticing that he looked slightly paler than when he first walked in.

"What's that?"

"Ord Mantell. It can be pretty rough. You sure you wanna go there?" Han reached into his jacket pocket.

"You know I have to go there. If you've changed your mind about the mission, I can find someone else to get me there."

"No, I'm just sayin' there are a lot of things that could go wrong on this one." He knew she would insist on following through with the mission and his concern for her safety had been growing all week. This would be worth it, if it kept her alive and safe.

"Well, you are fully aware that - unlike your standard mode - we've been careful in our planning. Plus, as you so modestly pointed out, you're a qualified pilot quite familiar with the system. There's nothing else to do except hope for the best and be cautious."

"I knew you were gonna say that, so I brought you this…" He pulled his hand out of his pocket, placed the object in Leia's palm and closing her fingers around it.

Leia looked down quizzically as she opened her hand. A rounded, flat stone the size of her smallest fingernail lay in her palm. Feeling cool to the touch, fiery flashes of orange, red, blue, and purple blazed within the black surfaced stone as she shifted her hand slightly. It was attached to a clear gossamer strand meant to become invisible on the wearer. Leia was entranced as she held up the ends of the strand, allowing the stone to swing freely at face-level.

"It's beautiful," Leia whispered, still amazed at the erratic spectrum of light. She realized that the light in the room did not affect the stone. Its fire came from deep within. "I've never seen anything quite like it before." For a Princess from as rich a system as Alderaan had been this was saying something. Growing up dressing for formal palace affairs, she had been privy to many precious gems from many of the well-regarded mines in the galaxy.

Han was excited by her delight. He had been full of doubt ever since her first thought of giving it to her. It wasn't that he didn't want to give it to her. In fact, he knew we wanted to give her some kind of gift that would be personal to them both, something she could keep with her at all times. 'The Falcon's Eye' was perfect. It was one of the few things he owned and treasured from his past. The beauty of it was that Leia didn't have to know the true meaning behind it until the time was right - if ever. His original doubt stemmed from her possible reaction. Whether she knew the full meaning or not, this could go poorly and Han wasn't sure he was up to crashing and burning on this one.

Suddenly, it dawned on Leia that Han was presenting her with jewelry. It was bad enough that rumors about them rocketed throughout the base. Moreover, Solo seemed to do his level best at fueling those rumors with his incorrigible teasing and showing up at her quarters at all hours. She simply couldn't accept this. Still allowing it to dangle, she tried to give it back.

"Han, I can't –"

Having figured she might feel constrained by her royal sense of propriety, he was prepared. He held up his hand to stop her, "Relax, Sweetheart. It's a good luck talisman that symbolizes freedom in an old Corellian myth. Here, let me show you something." He spun the stone around and held it steady so she could see the writing inscribed there on the back. "These are the manual override access codes to the Falcon," he explained while trying to sound natural, yet feeling far from it.

Stunned, Leia stared at up at him hard. 'Han-I-trust-nobody-except-maybe-the-Wookiee-Solo' was entrusting her with the codes to the Falcon?

"What?!"

Refusing to look affected, a still rather uncomfortable Solo tried to appealing to her with logic, "Look, you never know when you may need the Falcon when Chewie or I can't get there first or something. I'm tellin' you, I have a bad feeling about Ord Mantell. At least, this way, you'll have a safe place if you need it." It was the truth. The best way he could think of keeping her safe barring his or Chewie's presence was to make sure that the virtual extension of himself, the Falcon, could be there to keep her protected.

Dubious, she raised her eyebrow and smirked under her breath to herself as she regarded the stone again, Like I would ever consider that bucket of bolts 'safe.'

Still, she knew that if she turned down the gift it would be very bad form, especially now that it was connected with that precious ship of his. Better to humor him and his overprotective ways – this time. Enclosing the necklace and stone within her hand, she nodded and smiled, "Well, I guess I could wear it for the mission… thank you."

Elated, Han slowly reached for her hand and opened her fingers. Electric sparks tingled everywhere their skin touched as he reclaimed the gift. With little difficulty, he unfastened the loop and held up the ends expectantly, "C'mere, I wanna see how it looks on you."

Leia felt her breath leave her seeing how attractive he looked standing there, smiling at her with one of his drop-dead-sexy-crooked smiles. Her weak knees had morphed her into a statue, rooting her to the spot. She dared make no move for fear of making a fool of herself by risking falling face first onto the floor.

Seeing no immediate movement, Han stepped closer to her. His advance prompted her to tip her head down and forward so that he could attach the ends around her neck. With her head almost resting on his chest and his arms encircling her, the closeness was overwhelming. Leia ached to reach out and embrace him.

Han placed his hands on her shoulders to hold her just far enough away to check her out. The gold flecks in his eyes danced as he admired her, "Perfect. Too bad you can't wear it like that all the time, but remember to wear it under your clothes from now on."

Leia smiled back, but broke the reverie, "It's lovely, but I only agreed to wear it during the mission."

"Oh no, it'll break the luck if you take it off," Han warned, attempting to sound ominous. He really wanted her to keep it close to her heart – where, by tradition, it belonged. He wagged his finger warningly, "Always leave it on. Besides, what if you need the codes?"

She wasn't sure how to feel about all of this. Again, it struck her funny that such a secretive smuggler would be willing to part with the codes like that. He never felt the urge to do it before when it seemed more needed. And, he was routinely threatening with his 'I'm not sticking around much longer' speech which made it even less likely he would want his codes out of his reach.

"Well, I don't see the point to keeping the codes if you're planning on leaving us before long," Leia argued with anger in her voice, trying to see if that would stir up any answers. "I'm sure you would have more a use for it than I could at that point."

Han had not only guessed that she would bring up this sore point of contention between them, he had counted on it. She always jumped on that subject any chance she got and made no bones about the fact she was not happy with his intent on leaving – all in the name of the Alliance, of course. As a matter of fact, it was a subject he had considered very carefully before he decided to release the access codes to her. Feeling his last real chance at changing his mind about the whole thing slipping away rapidly, he took a slow, deep breath.

"Yeah, well…" Solo tried to smile, "…about that…"