Star Nomad Cast (starnomadnpc) wrote in starnomad, @ 2015-07-19 09:05:00 |
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In the hours since they had left the port there had been very little conversation given to the conversation that had happened slightly prior to the Falcon leaving atmosphere and heading back out into space. In fact, it might be safe to say that the conversation on a group level had dropped to the most uncomfortable of silences. Leia knew Han well enough to know that he was working through things by doing what he frequently tended to do - throw himself into work. The downside of this was that sometimes he tended to not work through things at all and that was the point at which she found herself with no knowledge of where her husband was or what he was doing while a war erupted and the galaxy fell to pieces around her. So she had told Han what they'd found out, and suggested that they check out the Corellian Run on their way. Jacen had practically disappeared. She had seen very little of him or of Lyric and Elix since the Falcon had gone to hyperspace. Whether they were together or whether they had found places to hole up elsewhere Leia wasn't quite strong enough in the Force to detect. And as she finished up cross checking the data that she and Elix had found she set the datapad down and placed her fingers against her forehead and rubbed it. There was a war, and a mission, and an attempt to help Luke set up something that was vital to benefiting so many, but at times it felt impossible. And right now, despite a typical ability to focus, her mind kept floating back to the look on her eldest son's face, the look on Han's face, and the very real knowledge that despite the fact that all of her children were teenagers now and teenagers that had been thrust into fighting and leading and if they were old enough for that then how could she not consider them old enough to fall in love? But she wasn't ready for this. She had never been ready to worry about their physical safety although it had been a constant in her life as a parent. But she was far less ready to worry about their emotional well-being and Lyric was such an unknown that she couldn't help but worry a bit. She took a breath and stood, wincing slightly at a sharp pain shot up from her leg. Frequently it was more of a dull ache, but she might have overdone the walking on the planet. It would go away - it usually did these days for all it was an annoyance that she would have loved to have gotten rid of. It was a reminder that she was not so young any longer. Neither she nor Han were. As she moved towards the cockpit - the place she suspected she would find Han - a slight noise from the upper gun turret made her glance up. She had apparently found Jacen, but he seemed to be lost a million lightyears away. Leia hesitated, but that conversation could wait until she had a better idea of what to say. What she wanted, perhaps needed, was Han right now. Their reactions might have been different but she had no doubt that they came from the same place of concern and love. "I've got some good data from our conversations at least," she said as she entered the cockpit and slid into the co-pilot's seat. The crash harness had been adjusted for her size, but the seat was still built for a co-pilot a good bit taller and larger than Leia. She looked over at him, the lines in his face were ones she knew so well, although there were lines that were newer, grey hairs she hadn't seen until after Duro, he was still a handsome man though and a good one. "But it's been a long day." The whole damn galaxy had stopped making sense. Or at the very least his family had. It was becoming increasingly clear that his kids had grown up in the year or so that he had been off on his own, they were recognizable in some ways and then complete mysteries in others. Leia was about the only anchor of sense he had, which wasn't much of an anchor at all when half the time they couldn't agree on if space was black. At least the Flacon still made sense, he still knew how she ran and how to keep her that way. Which meant throwing himself into working on the old girl helped sort his mind through everything that had just been dropped on them in addition to half the galaxy wanting them dead. At least it was Leia though. The co-pilot's chair didn't fit her, but she tried. Her there was better than the emptiness that had hung for far too long, the echo of his best friend who would just as soon start yelling at him for dwelling as he was like to do anything else. Still Chewie's shadow hung there, a reminder that faded but never entirely went away. "The kid stayed out of trouble?" Han looked over at Leia, knowing the answer given that there weren't blaster holes in anyone. "She's been a good crew member," Leia said easily. And Elix really had been. Enthusiastic, quick to help Leia with anything she was asked to help with, and interested and seemingly devoted to the Jedi and helping them. If there was a trick in it, Leia hadn't yet found one. "Honestly, it was good to have her along since I was talking with other rodians," she admitted. "For all we've done to try to undo the damage the Empire did with non-human species the breaks are still there and probably nothing but time will undo that - unfortunately time is one thing we are completely lacking - having her there at least helped give us that small edge in this one instance." She looked over at Han, her eyes warm as she reached over to rest her hand on his if he would allow it. She knew neither of them were really that focused on the information that Leia and Elix had uncovered - it would be helpful, useful, possibly even end up essential in some way - but it wasn't about their son. She knew Han might not say so, and might have even been avoiding thinking about it through his work on the Falcon and attempting to get them back on route, but she still knew her husband well enough to know whatever anger he might have had, covered worry. "Have you talked to Jacen?" Despite his misgivings about the older half of that duo, Elix had been a bright beam of light on this trip. The girl was clever, with fingers that were trained to pick pockets but seemed to be at home learning the workings to a ship. If the kid managed to survive this whole mess she might even make a hell of a pilot one day. Add in the fact that she seemed to get along just fine with Leia and easily fell into conversation with other species as they happened upon them and if the girl was as genuine as she seemed it almost seemed worth the inherent sketchy feeling he got around her bigger half. Han paused, allowing his hand to fall still as Leia's rested upon his. For a moment he felt like he could reach out to her, like he could find that rock that Leia always seemed to provide, a stubborn rock that drove him crazy but all the same she was his princess that always ended up getting him out of as much trouble as she got him in to. But the moment faded and he pulled away to fall back into the pattern of work. Talking to Jacen was exactly what he had been trying to do. "You already saw the end result of that." Han sighed, running a hand quickly through his hair. "What in the hells has he gotten himself into." Leia watched him turn his attention back to the Falcon and while the reaction was not unexpected it didn't mean that she didn't have to stifle a bit of a sigh. It felt as if for the past two years she had been trying desperately to keep her husband and her sons connected. Whether it was Anakin after Sernpidal or Jacen, whom admittedly Han had never quite understood as easily as Anakin or Jaina, she didn't know quite how to keep them all talking and trying. Anakin had tried so hard, Jacen on the other hand... At times she couldn't help but feel he'd just closed off. For the moment though she found herself pondering Han's question because truthfully she didn't know. If she had thought about Jacen falling for someone she wouldn't have expected Lyric. One of his fellow Jedi perhaps, maybe a politician... "I don't know, Han," she said softly. The truth was that what she had walked into the end of felt less like a conversation and more like an argument but that was not likely to help. "What happened? I know what Jacen said, but..." "Apparently what happened is I walked in on our son fooling around in an alleyway." Han snapped, pressing his fingers to his forehead before leaning back against his chair. He hadn't seen Jacen, so the least bit of credit he could give Lyric was that he had kept Jacen out of view. It was a small mercy that didn't really change much of what had transpired because of it. Jacen was always so cautious and yet something about this kid from the Undercity was making him reckless. Was it love? Hell if that made sense to him. Sure he'd done some crazy things for Leia and Luke but to be fair they had bribed him with money at the start of it. This kid, they had no idea what this kid wanted. Leia frowned slightly considering this. It was more or less what Jacen had admitted to. But what she couldn't quite figure was why. It wasn't as if Jacen and Lyric didn't have plenty of opportunity to fool around here on the Falcon if they do wanted and it really wasn't like Jacen to do something like that so public. To be honest she wouldn't have necessarily said that it seemed like Lyric despite not knowing him as well. "It doesn't seem like Jacen," she said finally. "I doubt they'll try that again." "This is the same kid that couldn't settle on being a Jedi, right? I wasn't imagining that." As much as he never really understood the Jedi part of his children's lives, or really even Leia's life, he hadn't understand Jacen's insistence on ignoring it either. He knew there were dark thoughts that haunted his son in some way, the same kind of worries over darkness that Luke could sometimes be preoccupied with. But if anything Jacen was paralyzed by inaction, not rash action. A stunt like this he'd expect from Anakin with some girl rather than Jacen. Granted apparently Han was off on the some girl part for at least one of his sons so what did he know these days. Frowning, he looked over at Leia to see a matching one on her own face. And really he could have expected it to be there. "You said Lyric told you he'd only known Jacen a few months? And Jacen's already going on about love?" "No you weren't imagining that," Leia said softly. "Luke said he's been struggling with how the peaceful ideals of the Jedi and the warrior reality of a Jedi can be reconciled." She hadn't had as much time to talk to Luke about this as she had hoped but that seemed to be about par for the course when it came to her kids something she really wished that life would allow her to change but right now as she considered Jacen she realised they were hardly children and they really hadn't been since the war started. She sighed and stared off into space for a moment. "He met him after Duro. They worked together with Rikki," Leia recounted pieces of what she knew about the two of them from Jacen and Lyric both. "Luke seemed to think they were trustworthy. I talked to him before we left. They're young. Jacen's had a mark on his head since Duro... I don't know Han. I do know that Jacen believes he loves Lyric and that trying to convince him otherwise is likely not going to keep him talking to us. What worries you the most? That he was kissing a boy in an alleyway? That he says he loves him? Or that it's Lyric?" Han couldn't help the quick sound of annoyance at Luke's observation. As much as he would follow Luke into the darkest parts of the universe there was still that kid who had grew up on a farm and seemed to always see a bright side buried underneath despite everything that they had seen together over the years. Some people might find that admirable, Han was just surprised Luke hadn't gotten himself killed yet. "Of course Luke did." The question wasn't so simple for Han to answer. There was so much about his son that Han didn't understand, might never understand, and this was just one more thing to add to the pile. But there was something that Han did understand and it was the mind of a kid who grew up with nothing who had a shot at something. He saw the quick looks in Lyric's eyes, he knew those thoughts better than he wanted to. And while Luke might see light, Han knew that the galaxy was still a darker place than it ought to be. "Can't it be all of them at once?" Han shook his head as he looked out at the hyperspace lines. "This kid comes from nowhere, seems to be telling Jacen all the things he wants to hear. He's a conman and I know it, and Jacen's falling for it." Leia bit back a sigh at Han's dismissal of Luke's observations. She should have thought better of bringing Luke up. She knew, and frankly even understood herself on some level, that Han felt Luke was taking his kids away. The further all of them moved into the world of the Jedi, the more Han struggled to understand them. Leia's was a different frustration, but she had just wished that she had more knowledge of them than she did, it was related after all. But persisting here was just likely to pull them into a fight over her brother and his intentions that would do nothing to solve the problem at hand. It would distract, and leave them both a little more fragile, and Jacen would still be in love with a boy no one knew. "He says he's been working with Rikki for a while," she offered. "Before he met Jacen..." She fell quiet considering the tall, dark haired boy, who was so quiet in comparison to Elix. The two of them had likely made an amazingly good team in the Undercity. She could talk and charm anyone, Lyric, Leia had been about to think he really wasn't that charming, just quiet, but the image of the first night she and Han had met him popped into her head, calm, soft words and an easy smile - if she was honest it was easier charm than anything she'd seen from him on this ship. She tapped a finger against the arm of the chair, thoughtful. Conman or no, Leia had to admit that she had no bad feeling off of him. She'd been reading people for decades, even without any practiced enhanced ability in the Force, and she'd been wrong before, she'd wanted to hope in places where there wasn't any real hope, but she had years of that skill behind her when she realized that she just didn't believe that Lyric intended them any harm and that she hadn't from the beginning. Whatever her love for her son, his words alone wouldn't have pressed her to work to advocate for the two if she'd felt as if he or Elix would endanger the mission in any way. She examined that belief and turned it over, trying to determine if it was simply that she wanted it to be all right because of Jacen or if it was a feeling that was stronger than hope. "I can't disagree with any of that," she said finally. "But I also don't get the feeling that he intends any harm to come to us. But even if I'm wrong, that's what Jacen believes whole-heartedly. He told me that he's seen how much Lyric cares about the people closest to him, about Elix, that he's been helping Rikki help people for months..." she sighed knowing Han was unlikely to come around on Jacen's words. "Whether he's right or wrong, he's still our son, and if he's wrong, then he's going to need his Dad." "Because Rikki isn't suspicious either." Han rolled his eyes as he looked back at Leia. "I run across the girl in the Undercity and then six months later she shows up as Mara's niece?" Shaking his head Han momentarily held his hands up in defeat. As much faith as he tried to have in Luke there was a lot that his friend and brother in law asked him to take on pure belief and Han never had been very good at that. Then again Mara in general at least had a better head on her shoulders when it came to at least not believing in everyone with a sob story. If the girl had managed to convince Mara somehow there might be some truth to it. But the coincidence wasn't something that Han could just shake. "You're not wrong." Han sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. What had Jacen managed to drag himself into? Even if Lyric wasn't as shady as Han had a gut feeling that he was the fact remained that this wasn't the kind of mess you brought up in the middle of a war. Not that he had any room to talk with the princess sitting by his side but Han was going to talk anyway. "But if it goes sideways it's more than likely going to end up with someone dead." Leia nodded her admission of Han's point. She had met Rikki fewer times than she had fingers on one hand, and while she didn't have any bad feeling about the girl, she certainly had to admit that it was odd that Mara had met Han, and not recognized him - or recognized him and not asked if he could get her a conversation with Mara. The entire thing seemed as if Luke was leaving out some piece of the story to her - but she couldn't have said what that piece was, and so she had decided to trust her brother's instinct on this. She didn't have a bad feeling about that either, but it wasn't something that was crucial to the conversation at hand. "Perhaps not," she offered softly and she glanced over at him with a smile her hand dangling within easy reach of his. "Once upon a time I fell in love with a scoundrel and that's turned out all right despite a few times when I thought I'd be pulverized by an asteroid before I reached my 25th birthday." How Han still managed to have Leia in his life he wasn't exactly sure. There wasn't a woman alive that could compare to the frustratingly wonderful woman that was beside him, even if they spent as much time at each others throats as anything else these days. And yet somehow she had still found it in herself to reach out to him, to pull him back into the family they had created together and that he didn't regret even for a moment, no matter what heart aches they had gone through together. Reaching out his hand found an easy home in hers. "Just because you were crazy too doesn't mean this'll end well." Leia squeezed Han's hand briefly and offered him a smile. She knew he was right. She also knew that she couldn't regret any part of the life she'd built with Han Solo. He had been worth it, even with all the ups and downs, and the knowing that she wasn't entirely certain how to bring her family together right now -- or if it would even be possible to do so in the future. And while this conversation had, somehow, seemed to bring the frustration level down to something manageable, and possibly even dormant, it could easily flare up again and she knew it. Han didn't trust Lyric, and he could be incredibly stubborn. Jacen too could be incredibly stubborn, which while she would love to blame Han for that, was truthfully something she could be as well. Even without the emotional complication of love, Leia believed Jacen was unlikely to change his view of Lyric and Elix without just cause to do so. And Han - Han would never be the same after Chewie's loss. She knew that at least part of this reaction was driven out of the fear that he would lose more of his family before this war was over. Neither of them wanted to see Jacen have to go through more of that - and particularly not because of someone he'd trusted. But with the deepest frustration seemingly inverted, she risked a small tease, affection underlying her tone. "Hm, it's probably all my fault for giving him unrealistic expectations about scoundrels." |