A/N: Yeah, I was planning on posting this other, much longer WIP for Han and Leia Appreciation Week (and I still might), but while I was trying to wrap a scene up in that story, this idea came to mind and I wanted to get it written down.
All direct quotes are yoinked straight from The Empire Strikes Back.
The Falcon was far from ready to go, and Han had begun to wonder if Chewie had been actively sabotaging the ship. The Wookiee had been incredibly vocal about his frustration with the plan to leave the Alliance to repay Jabba, but Han was unyielding in his decision. He had already caused the Rebels unnecessary trouble with that death mark hanging over his head; he didn't need to cause any more. He figured if Jabba killed him, Chewie could probably find his way back to the Alliance if he really wanted to. He wasn't on bad terms with Her Highness; she'd probably move entire solar systems to retrieve Chewie.
They needed to leave, though, and soon. They were being attacked, and while ground troops had been sent out to delay the Imperial walkers descending on Echo Base, it was only a matter of time before the entire structure was crawling with stormtroopers.
Han had turned the comm in the Falcon off while he and Chewie attempted a couple of last-minute repairs, needing to concentrate more than the constant updates from the command center would allow. He had listened long enough to know Leia's transport was being loaded before shutting it off so he could finish a few wiring replacements in the cockpit without getting distracted and electrocuting himself.
The aftershock of a distant explosion shook the hangar, and the Falcon's bulkhead shuttered a moment later. Han attempted to focus all of his attention on the task in front of him. Once the wiring had been replaced and the connections seems solid, he shoved a bulkhead panel back into place and returned to his seat. He turned the ship's comm back on so he could listen for a break in transmissions and get clearance to take off.
One of the communications officers, Toryn Farr, could be heard as soon as he turned the volume up. "—ships are waiting—"
Han heard another familiar voice in the background of the transmission, and felt his heart and stomach seize in dread. Leia was supposed to be on her transport, but he would know the sound of her voice anywhere, no matter how faint, and she was definitely speaking to someone else in the command center while Toryn gave updates.
Another explosion rocked the hangar and the Falcon, this one much closer than the last one.
A male voice — Chiffonage, maybe? — crackled over the comm. "The command center has been hit. Officer Farr's station is no longer operational—"
Panic replaced dread, and Han was off like a shot. He was vaguely aware that Chewie shouted something from the main hold as he passed by, but whatever his copilot said was drowned out by the sound of his own pulse pounding in his ears and his boots slamming against the Falcon's durasteel ramp as he ran toward the command center.
Running in Echo Base was tricky — ice covered damn near everything, even portions of the nonskid flooring that had been laid down to try to mitigate the inherent hazards of carving a base out of a glacier. Moving at a speed that would keep him from slipping and falling directly on his ass every ten meters felt too slow, but Han had few other choices. As he neared the command center, rubble from obliterated walls and caved-in ceilings littered his path, forcing him to slow down even more so he could find a way around the obstacles.
What am I doing? he wondered as he attempted to give a drooping, sparking, severed wire the widest berth possible. He and Chewie needed to take off while they still could, and Leia had made it pretty damn clear she didn't need him in any way beyond the services he could offer the Alliance as a contractor. She could take care of herself the same way he could take care of himself. After all, she had often made that exact claim over the past three years. Often right before she went off and nearly got herself killed, but that didn't concern him any more.
He had half a mind to turn around when he hit his third dead end. Most of the passages leading to the command center had collapsed at least partially, and every survival instinct he had screamed at him to make a hasty retreat. He could leave before he knew for sure that she was dead, and it wouldn't be any different than if he'd taken off days earlier, the way he had originally planned. The Alliance would be behind him, and he would just have live with not knowing what happened to Leia or Luke or any of the others, the same way he lived with not knowing the fate of every other friend and colleague who had disappeared over the years.
That ain't how we do things, though, some part of Han that he thought he'd buried for good reminded him. He and Leia had a sort of unspoken deal to not entertain each other's bantha shit. They didn't always call one another's bluff in words, but their actions more than made up for that. She'd let him talk big about being a lone agent, but had the most impeccable timing when it came to bailing him out and proving him wrong. He'd let her rail against being given back-up when she had requested to go on a solo mission, but would follow that up by saving her ass, and even kept his gloating afterward to a minimum.
Leia hadn't said she didn't need help, but the fact that she was in the command center so long after she should have boarded her transport told Han that those would probably be the first words out of her mouth the moment he saw her.
If she didn't die in that blast.
He felt nauseous at the thought as he turned a corner into a partially obstructed corridor. In his haste to get to the command center, he had left his personal comm off, and now he was almost afraid to turn it on. If he heard Leia's voice, he'd obviously feel relieved, but if he didn't…If she was incapacitated or just unable to be heard over the noise of the base collapsing around them or—or if she was gone—
If he didn't hear her, whatever the cause, he knew he'd probably panic again, and that wouldn't help the situation.
Chunks of ice and flurries of snow fell from above as he approached the command center. He could see the doorway ahead, through a heavy cloud of steam pouring from the side of a burst pipe. Han hurried forward, eyes glued to his destination.
He turned through the large doorway only to find the command center in shambles. Nearly every piece of equipment was in a new spot, flipped upside down, or crushed by massive boulders of ice. Han searched through the chaos for a short, commanding figure, a braid, big brown eyes, anything that would indicate Leia was at least still breathing.
A flash of gold drew his attention. Han took momentary comfort in the fact that Threepio wasn't flailing about or yelling. Surely, if Leia had been hurt in any way, the droid would be saying something about it; he never seemed to shut up.
There. Relief flooded over Han at the sight of her, just beyond Threepio, bent over a console and talking with Toryn Farr. She didn't appear injured, and she certainly wasn't dead. She also wasn't on her damn transport, but Han would make sure to do something about that before he left himself.
"You all right?" he called as he stepped over dented and destroyed consoles, shattered transparisteel crunching underfoot.
Leia's head whipped around, eyes wide, an expression Han had only seen a handful of times flitting across her face for the briefest of seconds. She was scared.
"Why are you still here?" she barked, anger doing a solid job of covering up anything else she might be feeling.
"Heard the command center had been hit," Han said, as if what he'd done had been logical, as if the done thing around militia bases was to run toward an explosion during an evacuation.
Leia turned back to Farr. "You've got your clearance to leave," she said, tilting her head emphatically toward Han.
He scowled. That ain't how we do things, Sweetheart. He had never, not once since he'd turned the Falcon around three years prior, left her for dead, and that wasn't changing just because he was on his way out.
"Don't worry; I'll leave," he said, climbing over an overturned console in an attempt to reach her. "First I'm gonna get you to your ship."
Threepio said something hysterical that Han didn't respond to; he was too focused on trying to reach Leia, on turning rapidly to follow her as soon as she brushed past him to give orders to Commander Chiffonage.
Another blast rocked the command center. Threepio lost his balance, falling on Han, who righted the droid as quickly as he could before focusing back on Leia. She seemed fine. A frantic voice announced the base's breach over comm, alerting all who could hear to the presence of Imperial troops in the building.
Han's relief at seeing her unharmed was drowned out by terror, understanding that she could be captured or killed at any moment making it difficult to think. He again picked his way across the command center until he reached Leia. He grabbed her arm, eyes meeting hers. Her fear wasn't hidden quite so well any more, though anyone just hearing her fire off orders wouldn't be able to tell.
She didn't seem inclined to leave; in fact, Han got the feeling that the fear he saw in her eyes was that of someone who had already resigned herself to death and was simply doing what she could while she awaited its arrival. She had sent nearly everyone on ahead of her, she hadn't boarded her intended transport, and now there remained one last ship she could escape on if Goldenrod was to be believed.
He gave her arm a slight squeeze. "C'mon, that's it," he said. Let me do this one last thing before we never see each other again, Sweetheart. Please.
Time seemed to freeze for a moment as Leia looked at him, their unspoken agreement weighing heavy between them. She didn't want to stay; Han could see the conflict in her eyes, and conflict meant she didn't really want to do what she was doing.
She didn't nod, didn't agree with words; instead, she ordered that the evacuation code be given for all, and didn't resist as Han pushed her away from Chiffonage and out of the command center. It was the closest thing to a full-on concession he could have hoped for.
Just this one last thing, and then we'll be done, Han told himself as they hurried through the crumbling base. He recognized the lie the moment he thought it, certain if he verbalized it, Leia would be able to see right through him. He didn't think he'd ever be done with her. He'd get her to her transport, maybe get out a goodbye without making things worse between them, and probably never see her again, but he didn't think he'd ever actually manage to be done with her.
He loved her.