While helping to establish a new government after the war, Leia reflects on her personal life.
It had been a very long day.
Leia had known early on that the meeting would not be over until late that night, so she had commed Han over her lunch break to tell him that he should go ahead to the lake house and not wait for her; she would get there as soon as she was done. The way things had been going, she wouldn’t have been surprised if sunrise the next day appeared before the meeting’s end.
Fortunately, it wasn’t quite that long, but it was still past midnight when she finally slipped out of the conference room, giving Chancellor Mon Mothma a quick nod goodnight as she did so. The older woman looked as tired as Leia felt, and she was reminded once more why she was doing this. She had a home, a husband, a son. The war was won. However, there was still so much to do, and Leia knew her expertise could assist in getting this New Republic up and running as quickly as possible. She had to help, at least for a short while longer.
Han often said he understood, and he never once complained about her long hours or the time she spent away from him and Ben, but Leia still worried. She worried that the Corellian’s wanderlust would surface and he would leave. She worried that her baby boy would forget what she looked like and treat her like a stranger. She worried she was being a bad mother and wife, that the happy family she had always envisioned for herself, reminiscent of her own family back on Alderaan, was never truly going to happen.
She let one of the droid taxis reserved for senate members take her to her apartment near downtown Republic City, but once there she went directly to her own private cruiser and jumped in, starting the pre-flight procedures without hesitation. The little starship would get her to the lake country much faster than a speeder, and she wasn’t willing to wait on a shuttle. Within moments, she was in the air and letting the Hosnian Prime Air Traffic Control know that she was not leaving atmo and what her destination was. In less than thirty minutes, she was there.
She set down on the cabin’s landing pad, hoping the noise of her small but powerful ship didn’t wake the baby. She disembarked and let her eyes adjust to the dark. There were very few areas of wilderness like this left on Hosnian Prime, but she and Han had purchased a small cottage here as soon as they settled on the planet, determined to spend as much time there as possible as they helped establish the new government; peace and quiet were rare gifts in their busy lives, so they needed to make their own private place.
Eventually, Leia could see well enough that she didn’t need to use her glowrod, and she made her way down the path toward the cabin. She could see one of Hosnia’s three moons rising over the lake off to her left, and this gave her added light as she walked. There was a dim glow from just inside the front window of the cottage as she neared it, and for a moment she was worried that maybe Han hadn’t done as she asked and he was not here; she hadn’t given a thought to going in the apartment before leaving. She pulled out her identicard and ran it over the scanner next to the door. The light turned green and the door slid silently open.
Leia stepped into the dimly lit room and glanced about. She closed her eyes and breathed deep, letting the Force flow through her as Luke had been teaching her to do. Almost immediately, she felt the presence of the two most important people in her life, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Locking the door behind her, she continued into the room, noting with some amusement the frozen golden protocol droid sitting silent off to the side; Han must have turned 3PO off again. It happened a lot when Leia wasn’t around. Carefully, she maneuvered through the darkened house, making her way to the smaller of the two bedrooms. The door was open, but as she entered, she could tell almost immediately that it was empty. Glancing at the unoccupied crib, she turned back toward the hall and the larger bedroom. This door was also open and a blue colored night-light glowed softly from the nightstand, allowing her to see the occupants of the bed clearly.
Her husband lay on his back, his mouth open in sleep, one arm thrown up above his head on the pillow, and the other arm wrapped protectively around the small but solid body of his son. Ben’s dark hair was mussed, and like his father his mouth was open, one hand holding tight to Han’s thumb as he slept. Leia felt her heart clench and tears formed in her eyes. Sniffling, she went to the dresser and pulled out one of Han’s old shirts, then quickly took off her robes and tunic and the split skirt, as well as her shoes and underthings. She pulled the pins out of her hair and let it fall loose and long around her shoulders, then pulled on the soft shirt, which came down almost to her knees.
Finally, she felt free, and she carefully climbed into the bed on Han’s other side, trying not to disturb the baby. “Han?” she whispered, not wanting to startle him awake.
He blinked drowsily, swallowing and licking his lips as his head turned toward her. “Leia?” he mumbled. “What time is it?”
“I don’t even know,” she answered as she slid under the blankets and snuggled up against his side, reaching her hand over him to gently touch Ben’s shoulder. “Not dawn, yet.”
“Good,” he whispered back, his eyes flashing in the dim light. “When do you have to be back?”
“Not for four days,” she told him. “I turned my comm off.”
His eyebrows rose. “Really?” he asked incredulously.
She nodded. “Really.”
He grinned and brought his arm down, putting it around her shoulders and pulling her closer. She smiled back and lay her head on his chest, watching her still sleeping son, Han now sandwiched between them.
They settled like this, Han’s arms around both his wife and his son, Leia’s head on Han’s chest, her hand still on her son’s tiny body. “Goodnight, Princess,” Han whispered. Even though she did not consider herself such anymore, she knew he would always call her that.
And she didn’t mind a bit.
******
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