"Here you go, Han." Luke casually threw a gift box at his brother-in-law.
Han, surprised by the small box flung his way, fumbled the catch. He examined the decorative flimsi covering the box, which featured pale green and yellow nerfs prancing in a field dotted with haystacks. "Oh, a baby gift? It got more mail than I did yesterday."
"It's not for the baby," Luke stated as he gave his sister a hug. "You look amazing," he told her.
Leia, feeling newly cumbersome and large at the start of her third trimester, took the compliment graciously. She used her belly as a shelf for her elbows. "Thanks. I think I've officially started waddling. We didn't expect you, Luke."
"Something told me to come," Luke said.
"Ran out of clean clothes?" Han asked. He opened a closet door where he and Leia had deposited other parcels they had received recently, all addressed to 'Baby Solo', and added Luke's to the pile. Luke spotted more nerfs in the packaging.
He smiled. "I did already hand off my dirty laundry to Threepio. But also, I suspect my uncledom is approaching."
"Your uncledom?" Leia smiled. "A few more weeks yet."
"Maybe," Luke said mysteriously. "How are you going to celebrate?"
Leia widened her eyes. She was not used to her brother being so direct, but also the closer her due date approached, the more nervous she was becoming. And overwhelmed. The thought of a baby in the house- small, helpless, and from what she heard, quite noisy- and how she was going to cope with the change loomed larger than arranging a press announcement.
"I plan on shouting out the window," Han said.
"That's one way," Luke allowed humorously. He went to the closet and fetched his box. "Open the present, Han. Go on."
Han indulged his brother-in-law. "Okay..." Standing, he pulled the wrapping off and lifted the lid. Then he looked up at Luke, and next at his wife, a puzzled expression on his face. He sat down to pull the item out.
Still looking somewhat large in his large hand, Han held up a pair of slippers. "Uh," he started to say.
The slippers were bright pink, with long, tapered ears that flopped. A sweet face was embroidered at each toe, and Han turned his wrist so that Leia could see the heel, where a fluffy white ball was attached on both.
"How did you know?" he said to Luke, and Leia laughed.
Luke was so pleased he could barely contain himself. "Put them on!"
"Seriously?" Han asked. "They're for me? It's a kid item. A giant-sized kid."
"Seriously. For you."
Han pulled off a boot. "I feel ridiculous."
"Just wait until you're wearing them," Leia teased.
"Have you gotten a lot of gifts?" Luke asked her.
"Well, the baby is getting mail, as you saw in the closet. But yes. Mon Mothma gave me a robe, Malla sent me some lotion, and Winter is arranging a tea."
"And what did Han get?" Luke asked her.
"Pink bunny slippers," Han said, standing and stamping his foot to arrange the foot better. "Just now. They're a little tight."
"You look adorable!" Leia clapped her hands together and smiled. "You look like a father."
"Your father ever wander around in pink bunny slippers?" Han wanted to know.
"No, but I bet if someone had given him a pair, he would have," Leia said firmly. "He would have done anything for me." She did her best to move gracefully across the room and stood on tiptoe to give her husband a kiss on the cheek. "Luke, this is so thoughtful."
"Too bad Darth Vader didn't get pink bunny slippers," Han said.
"Yeah." Luke was at the point where he could joke with Han about his and Leia's infamous biological father. "Might have changed the course of history. Who could turn to the dark side wearing pink bunny slippers? But this isn't about past fathers," he hastened to say. He didn't want the conversation to turn back to the war, and all the hurt they had experienced. "This is about the future, and you two."
"And your uncledom," Han reminded him.
"I'm going to tell a story," Luke warned.
Han held up a hand. "Before you start. If it's anything like your stories, it's gonna be long, and Leia's gonna get hungry."
"Han-" Leia started to object, but he had already headed off to the kitchen, still wearing the slippers. The little white tails at his feet directed her gaze from where she usually watched Han move, and her eyes twinkled with affection. "Thank you, Luke. I hadn't realized until just now, how much attention a pregnancy is directed at the woman and the baby. I don't think Han feels neglected; it's just the way it is."
"In humans," Luke agreed. "The baby. Another generation of human life assured. But not for all life forms. Isn't there one where the father sits on the eggs?"
He and Leia discussed variations in reproduction until Han returned with a pitcher of juice and a plate of cheese and crackers.
"I got blue milk," he told Luke. "Always keep some in case you turn up. But it's frozen."
"See, he is a provider," Luke teased Leia.
"What did you want to tell us?" she asked.
"OK." Luke settled in a chair and munched on a cracker while he looked at Han and Leia thoughtfully and they returned his gaze expectantly.
Han looked at his chrono. Leia, who had joined him on the sofa, playfully nudged his wrist down.
"Anytime you feel ready," Han encouraged.
Luke smiled and took a sip of juice. "You both know I was adopted." His audience nodded. "My aunt and uncle had no idea of me. None at all. They weren't in contact with my father at all. And one day, actually it was near the suns' set, when it's cooler to ride out, they had a visitor.
"The visitor brought them a baby. Me. Almost like the nerf on the packaging, that brings babies, and poof, you're a parent."
"I could be talked into that method next baby," Leia said, rubbing her belly.
Luke smiled. "For my aunt and uncle, well, they got thrown into parenthood. They had no crib, no diapers, nothing to feed me. I was asleep when I arrived, but in a few hours they say I was crying loud enough to wake the sand people.
"But word got out, and quickly. Within a few hours, I was asleep again, belly full of baby milk from someone. They made a bed for me in my aunt's clothing drawer. For the next few days, there was a steady stream of visitors. People came to see my aunt, and they had clothing, and toys, and blankets and baby furniture to pass on and share."
"Any pink bunny slippers?" Han asked.
"I should be so lucky," Luke answered. "It was always reinforced that Beru was the mother figure. And that Owen was somehow more... I don't know. Expendable? She hadn't given birth to me, yet the significance of my being there was assigned to her. Owen was supposed to provide for her and me. That's how fatherhood was on Tatooine. But it's something he told me I never forgot."
"What?" Leia asked as Luke took another cracker.
"He said, when the visitor came, and placed me in Beru's arms- Beru's, mind you- and they looked at each other, and looked at the suns, they weren't thinking how were they going to get things. They were thinking, they were parents. Uncle Owen said it hit him hard, how he was a father, and that, in a single moment, he was transcended. Into something different and better."
"A father," Leia concluded. She blinked rapidly. "That's lovely, Luke."
"Yeah," Han said, and cleared his throat.
"I never forgot it," Luke repeated.
Han scratched his cheek. "And somehow, pink bunny slippers is how you communicate that."
"You certainly are transcended," Leia smiled at him.
"The visitor was old Ben," Luke informed them.
"He forgot to bring the slippers," Han said.
"Do you know when I learned that? That night in the snow. Ben appeared."
"On Hoth?" Han looked impressed.
"Yeah."
"And there I thought you were delirious. Turns out you were talking to a ghost?"
"A Force spirit, yeah."
"Well, thanks for the gift, Luke. Don't know how much use I'll get out of them, but I appreciate the thought."
Seven Years Later...
It was cold in the apartment. Han had gotten up with the baby. He hadn't noticed the cold with the baby cradled in his arms, the small blanket offering just enough covering to keep a draft off his feet. But now the baby needed a change. She was squirming with discomfort, and Han sighed.
"Ok, little one. Tell ya what. Lemme get something on my feet and we'll go change your diaper. Your brother would say you made a stinky."
Han groaned to his feet, sleepy, and disliked the feeling of the cold tile on his soles. He found one under the coffee table, and by crouching down, keeping a careful hold on his daughter, he could see the ear of the other under the sofa. Prior experience had told him to feel inside the slipper before sliding his foot into it, and sure enough, there were two figurines of Jedis battling it out inside his old bunny slippers.
Uncle Luke couldn't keep his source to himself, and Han had added to the family collection over the years. The eldest had spaceship slippers, Leia had nerf with horns instead of ears, and the middle child had a pterichth, his favorite extinct reptile.
"You go back to sleep for me." Han placed a gentle kiss on the baby's hair. "See you in the morning, hopefully."