Han's long fingers sure could shuffle a deck of cards deftly. Luke didn't have near enough the practice Han did and he knew it was the practice, not the length of the fingers that made a good shuffler, but still. There was something mesmerizing about it, watching those sure fingers arc and bend and slice the cards into one another.

"I had a weird dream last night," Luke announced, picking up the card that was dealt face down.

No one was talking. Han was serious about cards. Leia had dropped by on an errand and finished her task, but it seemed she was reluctant to leave. She was standing between the two men seated at a table, her body half-turned. Luke's dream wasn't terribly important, only interesting, and he thought it might add to the moment, get her to stay.

Han paused after dealing Luke. "You want in?" he asked Leia.

She considered it. "What are you playing for?"

Well, Luke thought, an outright invitation worked too.

"Nothing," Han said. "Just playing."

Leia might be glad for the invitation, Luke thought. Work was done, and so was mess, and it was that time of evening where it was still too early to go to bed.

Work was actually never done, but Echo Base divided itself up in chunks of time, where one worked and one didn't. Luke knew Leia needed to work, and applied herself with untiring energy. It was the free time that bothered her more. She didn't seem to like it. It made her grouchy.

Rieekan had probably chased her out of the command center, and Luke grinned at her. He knew she had volunteered for extra duties, then requested a larger workload, but General Rieekan had declined her petition. He told her it was important to step back.

Perhaps if the free time actually had something to offer other than being too early to turn in. And sometimes Luke knew she glimpsed that it did. For instance, spending time with him, and Han and Chewie. Luke had a lot of friends on base; they regarded him as folksy and unselfconscious and even funny, but he always chose Leia first. He liked to make her laugh.

Han included her in the deal while she pulled up a chair and sat, and when each held five cards he slapped the deck down by his right hand.

"I have the Force, you know," Luke said while arranging his cards. "I can be real patient until one of you asks about my dream."

He was looking between Han and Leia, his good nature displayed in his grin, and Leia smiled.

"I don't have the Force," Han answered, "but I can be real patient too about not asking."

"All I know about me," Leia put in, "is I don't care to watch either of you exercise your patience all night. So tell us your dream, Luke."

Luke put two cards from his hand back on the table and Han dealt him replacements. "I was on the Death Star," Luke began. "You guys ever dream about the Death Star?"

"Don't think so," Han frowned. "But I don't remember dreams often. Princess?"

"I'll take three. And no, I don't dream about it."

Han passed her three cards and took two for himself. "Get on with it, kid."

Luke looked at his friends before starting. "Really? I would think- the memory at least- would show up in your dreams." He waited for them to answer, but they held their silence and he pegged them as liars.

"Well, it started on Tatooine. I was home. I was going to start my chores. I had- I think it was my macrobinoculars, where I usually carry my lightsaber. But instead of going into the courtyard, I stepped through and it was the Death Star. You know how in dreams nothing is remarkable."

Leia nodded. "After you wake up you realize how illogical it was."

"If you remember it," Han said. "As soon as my eyes open," he snapped his fingers, "it's gone."

"I was walking down a corridor," Luke continued, "and it was really quiet. No one about. So I went into a room- I passed a lot of doors- and decided to enter one, and there was a playground!"

"A playground," Han said. "Maybe there was daycare for any Imp kids on board."

Leia murmured, "How odd." Then she turned to Han. "Why would there be children on a battle station?"

Han indicated Luke with a toss of the head. "It was his dream. You going again, kid?"

Luke nodded. "Three."

"Two," Leia said.

Han took two. "In case you're bluffing," he winked at her.

Leia gave him her secret smile, which usually drove Han crazy because at the same time she paid attention to someone else. "Did you play on the playground?" she asked Luke.

"I did," Luke said. "There was a slide, and swings and a seesaw, and I went down the slide but then everything required two to play."

"Two what?" Han displayed his hand. He had two pair.

"People." Luke knew he held a losing hand; there was not a card that went with another and he didn't bother showing the others.

But Han peeked at Luke's folded hand and he snorted.

"Were we there?" Leia asked, spreading her cards face up on the table. She had three threes. "Han and I?"

"I knew you had something good," Han grumbled and he collected the cards and was shuffling again.

Both Luke and Leia watched him. "I had a sense you were there, Leia, but you were, I don't know. Rumored. Busy. I don't think Han was there."

"Maybe I was your chore," Leia said dryly.

Luke closed one eye, thinking, and Han dealt a new round. "Maybe," he said without irony. "I knew you were there somehow, without anyone actually telling me. Maybe I heard- let me finishing telling it.

"So I went looking for a partner so I could go on the seesaw. I went out and really far away down a corridor- it was way in the distance- I saw orange flight suits. Only they weren't pilots; they were prison suits, and they were shackled together. I ran up to them and told them about the playground, and they were all excited and they went with me." Luke stared at his cards a moment. "I don't need any," he declared.

"I give up," Han said. He threw his cards on the table.

"You didn't shuffle enough," Leia put down her cards as well.

"You saw me. Whaddya got, kid?" Luke showed a straight flush. "Damn, maybe I shuffled too much." He gathered all the cards and left them in a neat pile. "Are all your Death Star dreams happy ones?" Han asked Luke.

"No, usually they're frustrating. I'm looking for something."

"Did a prisoner go on the seesaw with you?" Leia wanted to know.

"They came on the playground and sort of swarmed all over it," Luke described. "There were stormtroopers, too. I guess guarding. They didn't play but they let the prisoners."

"Kind of 'em."

"But they were all partnered, in twos, and none would take their shackles off to play with me."

"Oh," Leia sounded sad. "You are still looking for something, even in a happy setting."

Luke nodded at her. "So I left again, and wandered around. I went in this- office, I guess it was. A paneled room. It was round. Somehow I knew it was the Emperor's library. Even though," he was realizing it just now, "there were no flimsis or data files to read."

"Your Death Star is pretty friendly," Han said. "Libraries and play grounds."

"Then," Luke sat on his hands. It was growing colder in the hangar. "I walked. I have this sense I walked a lot, like the whole night, and I couldn't find my way back to the playground. And then all of a sudden I met Darth Vader."

"Of course," Han stated. "What's the Death Star without Darth Vader?"

"Did you throw your macrobinoculars at him?" Leia wanted to know.

"Huh?" Luke said.

"You were carrying that instead of your lightsaber," Leia pointed out.

Luke shook his head. "He wasn't really threatening. And he asked me what I was doing, and I said I just needed a partner for the seesaw. He said he could do that for me, but only now, because later he was supposed to kill me, and wanted to know if that was okay."

"Thoughtful of him," Han remarked. He was rubbing his thumb along the edge of the cards, sort of strumming them.

"Right?" Luke nodded at Han. "He said he knew the way, but he didn't really, because we kept passing the same place, this- this, panel or something. And I kept saying 'I think we're lost' but he wasn't listening to me."

"Was he breathing loud? You know, like he does?" Han said.

Luke cocked his head. "He wasn't," he realized. "It was quiet. Even on the playground, with the prisoners, it was quiet."

Leia rested her chin on her fist and raised her brows. "You remember a lot of detail in your dreams."

"We passed the panel again, and then the next thing- the dream changed, or maybe it was another- there was this huge wave of water coming for us."

"Oh no!" Leia said. "What a change in tone."

Luke appreciated her commentary and smiled at her. "And Vader- he kind of held me. Pinned me." Luke struggled to see the dream memory. "It was like a choke hold. But he was protecting me from the water."

"Because he had to kill you later," Han assumed. "Not let the water take credit."

"Maybe," Luke laughed. "He didn't say."

"Then what?" Leia asked.

"I don't know. I woke up."

"So you never fought Vader?" Han wanted to know.

"Or played on the seesaw," Leia added. "What do you make of it?"

"I don't know," Luke said. "My dreams are usually so crazy that I think my brain is just blowing off steam."

Leia was thoughtful. "A playground is such a powerful symbol of childhood."

"Yeah," Luke said. "You run around and have fun."

"But also," Leia leaned forward, warming to her interpretation, "it's a place where you can stretch your physical limitations." She lifted one brow. "Learn your power, as it were."

"You think I was dreaming about the Force?"

"Your training," Han clarified. "She might be right about that. How it's not going anywhere. And the war. Darth Vader."

"You go for that, Han?" Luke asked. "Dream interpretation?"

Han shrugged. "Not all that fortune telling stuff. Might as well pick any card from this deck and I can tell you it means Darth Vader is after you." He lifted a stack of the deck. "See? Three of hearts. Vader is after you."

Luke became subdued.

Leia was shaking her head at Han. "Minds have worries," she said. "And if you don't take time to make a solution for the worry while you're awake, or at least acknowledge it, it creeps into your subconscious and you dream about it."

"But the solution is not to invite Darth Vader to a playground," Luke said.

Leia smiled at him. "No, it isn't."

"He might come at that," Han said. "He's looking for you bad enough. Even wants you alive. How come in the dream he said he would kill you when in real life he just wants you captured?"

"He protected Luke from the water," Leia turned to Han.

"The killing is for later," Han emphasized.

"I do remember thinking that," Luke said slowly, his eyes unfocused. "I remember feeling... disappointed. Even a little sad."

"That'd he kill you later? As opposed to now?" Leia said.

"That... we could have a seesaw ride together, but it wouldn't change his mind about me later."

"Oh, Luke," Leia sympathized.

Han laughed. "Imagine him as a dad on the playground."

Luke laughed a little too, somewhat uncomfortably, but Leia was not listening to them.

"The prisoners were fellow kids," she mused, "and the stormtroopers were- the parents?" She looked her question at both Luke and Han.

"Standing off to the side," Han said.

"Faceless," Luke added. "But... permissive?" Leia nodded at him. "You make me sound so deep," Luke said.

"Everyone is deep," Leia said. "Your dream was ostensibly about play. But in that, there's frustration, and loneliness, and a sense of being directionless."

"Kriff," Luke said. "I thought dreaming about a playground was so fun."

"Sorry- I shouldn't have done that. If it was fun, then it was-"

"No, it's okay. Kind of interesting, really. 'Cause what you say is actually true."

"I used to have a recurring dream," Han was shuffling the deck again. "I had a ship before this baby," he jerked a thumb behind him at the Millennium Falcon. "She was a maintenance nightmare-"

Leia rolled her eyes at Luke. "I simply can't imagine."

Luke laughed.

"- and I was constantly in the yard fixin' her. And that's what I would dream."

"Oh, a work dream," Luke straightened in his chair. "I had those too, especially at harvest time. Everything goes wrong, right?"

"I would want to buy some part and couldn't find it, and the owner would say wait on the other customers. So while I'm tryin' to do my stuff, I'd have to find ten circuit boards, but there'd only be eight, so I'd think I'll just take one out of mine. Or I couldn't run the register, and there'd be a line of customers. Shit like that."

"You wake up tired," Luke said.

Han met his eyes, and Luke saw he understood. "Yeah."

"You don't dream those anymore?" Leia asked. Her eyes were teasing. "You put in a long list for parts last month..."

"Very funny," Han said.

"When I was a girl," Leia's mood changed quickly, "I used to have this dream. Only it was never the same. Not a recurring dream. But a recurring theme?"

"What was it?" Luke wanted to know.

"The end of the world."

"Kriff," Han said.

"Three times," Leia said. "Once it was from a war-"

"Wow," Luke said.

"Maybe twice, but I don't remember actually."

"And the other?" Han asked.

"The world just ended," Leia shrugged. "I happened to be alive when it was time for the sun to die."

"That's creepy," Luke said.

"In one I remember, the sun one, I had to give a speech to a women's group. And we all knew what was going to happen. Our scientists had estimated a time. When, precisely. We'd... run out of air or something. But we all went on about our normal lives. I remember being angry I couldn't be home with my parents."

Luke and Han exchanged a glance and Leia drew her shoulders up as high as she could and let them drop.

"It wasn't quite a nightmare," she said. "Deal, Han."

"Sure." Han separated the deck in two piles and put the bottom on the top. "How about a hand of Corellian rummy?"

"I don't know that one," Luke said.

"Thirteen is the deal, no discards."

"No discards?" Leia scoffed. "Forgive me, but that sounds-"

"Tatooine rummy is five."

"Alderaan is seven, and you play until one goes out."

"Hey, I know," Luke said. "Hoth rummy. Thirteen cards, and you keep playing until one goes out."

"Hoth rummy it is," Han declared. "Kid, get us something to drink, would ya?"

"Sure." Luke got up and headed for the ramp of the Falcon.

"Oh," Han's voice chased after him. "And be careful of the cooler. The hydraulic is out and the lid'll slam shut on your hand."

"Someone's due for a work dream," Luke laughed as he disappeared inside. "It isn't happening in real life!"

He wasn't through the lounge yet when he heard Han call out, "Don't knock my bird!" followed by Leia laughing.