AN: Thanks for reading and reviewing! Ben's old toy Mr. Tookie was the creation of my great friend MasterOf4Elements.

"Meeting the Solos"

By EsmeAmelia

Chapter 3

Leia and Han always kept Ben's old room ready in case he ever wanted to drop by and spend the night - they said many times that even if he wanted to drop by in the middle of the night, he was always welcome. A couple of times he did come in the middle of the night, kept awake by nerves or panic attacks, desperate for the comfort of his parents' presence.

He sat on his old bed, having kicked off his shoes and now hugging his knees like a child, feeling like a child, feeling like he was shrinking back down into that terrified little boy who got into bed with his parents after nightmares. Why now? Why did those fleeting thoughts send him into one of those attacks? It wasn't like they had been thinking of anything lewd. Just a wedding.

Just a life-changing event that could go wrong and lead to devastation.

Ben hated the stereotype that men were afraid of commitment, especially since in his own family, Han had proposed to Leia immediately after the Battle of Endor. No, it wasn't commitment he was scared of - he couldn't say he'd never toyed with the idea of marrying Ara sometime in the future, but he always handled the thought delicately, like a baby animal that would die if he gripped it too hard.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. "Ben?" said Ara's voice. "Are you all right?"

Ben released a breath he didn't know he was holding. "The door's unlocked, you can come in."

The door slid open and in stepped Ara, who immediately sat on the bed next to her boyfriend. "Sweetheart, what's wrong?" she asked, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder.

Ben's legs were trembling despite his efforts to hold them in place. "I shouldn't be a doctor," he mumbled.

"What?" Ara exclaimed.

"If my patients knew I was prone to panic attacks, they'd never trust me. It's probably only a matter of time before this happens during a procedure and . . ."

"Ben!" Ara said in her stern voice. "Look at me, honey."

Ben hesitantly looked up, her sky-blue eyes blurred by the tears in his own eyes.

"Now listen," said Ara, putting her hand on his cheek much like Han had done during many a long, nightmare-filled night. "You went through something most people can't even imagine. Hell, I have trouble imagining what it must have been like to have this dark being invading your mind - and when you were a kid at that!" She wiped his tears with her thumb. "Besides, you have a routine to make sure this doesn't happen during a procedure, right?"

Ben nodded slightly. "I let the Force take me to a calm place in my mind . . . but why is that calm place so inaccessible when I'm not working?"

"Maybe because the Force knows you need times when you can be vulnerable. No one can be expected to be calm and emotionless all the time, no matter what the old Jedi Order said." She wrapped her arms around him, letting him rest her head on his shoulder and breathe in the flowery scent of her shampoo.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"There's nothing to apologize for."

"Except for how I ruined you meeting my parents. Meeting the great Leia Organa and Han Solo should have been fun, not . . ."

"They're not 'the great Leia Organa and Han Solo,'" Ara interrupted. "They're your mom and dad and they understand this better than anyone because they still remember being damn terrified of losing you to that dark thing."

Ben remembered it too - his parents taking turns during the long days and nights at the hospital, always making sure that at least one of them was with him at all times.

Ara ran her hand up and down his back. "I like your room," she said. "Especially all the lovies."

Ben pulled out of the embrace so he could gaze out at the toy box on which bunches of stuffed toys were stacked. "I didn't call them 'lovies' when I was a kid. I called them friends."

"Well, that's what lovies are. Which one was your best friend?"

"Hmm," said Ben. "It was either Mr. Tookie . . ." He pointed at a handmade tooka doll with button eyes and a stitched-on smile. ". . . or Chewie Junior." He pointed at a Wookiee doll sitting next to the tooka. "Mom made Mr. Tookie out of one of Dad's old shirts when I was a baby and Dad and Uncle Chewie gave me Chewie Junior for my first birthday. I took them both a lot of places when I was little."

"My favorite lovey when I was little was a toy taun-taun. I named her Tail because she had a long tail and we went on adventures together."

Ben let out a snicker. "Tail, that's so cute."

"I'll show her to you sometime," said Ara, once more wrapping her arm around Ben's back and leaning on his shoulder. "Mom and Dad still have her at their house."

The way she so casually mentioned her parents and her parents' house made Ben's stomach flip again. "Your parents," he mumbled, "what if this happens whenever I meet them?"

Ara gave him a reassuring squeeze. "You think you're the only one in the galaxy who suffers panic attacks? My sister may look all confident during her smashball games, but she's an absolute wreck before the games - she even breaks down if her lucky socks are in the laundry. I know, I know, it's nowhere close to what you went through - I'm just saying that my parents have some experience with nerves."

Ben squeezed Han's lucky dice in his pocket. "I know a thing or two about the comfort a lucky item brings."

"Yeah," said Ara, patting his shoulder. "Anyway, your parents said you could take all the time you need and they can reheat your lunch whenever you're ready."

Ben took a deep breath, running his hand through Ara's beautiful black curls. "I think I'm ready now."

. . .

After lunch, the two couples went to the holocinema, where they saw an action holofilm about a Jedi having to stop a terrorist from unleashing a deadly plague on the galaxy, which got more complicated when the Jedi learned that the terrorist was her own father-in-law. Given their own circumstances, that plot twist had them laughing over dinner in the food court after the holofilm.

"So, you two aren't secretly terrorists, are you?" Ara said in a light voice.

"Well, you don't expect us to tell you if we are, do ya?" Han said with that wide grin.

Leia gently swatted his shoulder. "Han!"

"Hey, c'mon, she knows I was kiddin'."

"Oh?" said Ara, brushing her black curls behind her shoulder. "Do I? Ben, if you read from their minds that they were secret terrorists, you would tell me, right?"

"Hmm, maybe," said Ben, taking her hand and kissing her cheek. "Perhaps true love would cause me to rebel against my terrorist parents like in the holofilm."

That caused everyone to burst out laughing, including Ben. Once everyone caught their breaths, Ara kissed his cheek back while seductively stroking his hand.

"True love?" she asked, her eyes sparkling. "Does that mean you want me to call your parents in-laws after all?"

Ben smiled at her. "Not yet," he said, glancing at his parents' hopeful faces. "But maybe someday."

THE END