Work Text:
Nothing at All
“Princess!”
Leia kept walking.
“Leia.”
She walked faster.
“Please. I’m too old to chase you through headquarters.”
That stopped her.
Leia stood with her back to him, arms folded tightly across her chest.
Carlist Rieekan’s footsteps slowed behind her.
For several seconds neither spoke.
“It isn’t him,” she said.
“I don’t believe it is.”
Leia turned sharply.
“Then why are we investigating him?”
“Because believing something and proving it are two different things.”
“There are half a dozen better suspects.”
“And they’re being investigated too.”
Leia looked away.
Somewhere inside the base was an Imperial spy.
Someone had passed troop movements, supply schedules, locations.
And apparently someone had decided that the convenient outsider with questionable loyalties and a criminal record deserved particular attention.
Han Solo.
Of course.
“He’s saved this Alliance more than once.”
“I know.”
“He could have left after Yavin.”
“I know.”
“He’s risked his ship. Chewbacca. Himself.”
“I know.”
Leia turned back to him.
“Then you know what happens if he finds out.”
Rieekan was quiet.
Leia lowered her voice.
“He’ll leave.”
That certainty frightened her more than she wanted to admit.
Han complained constantly about the Rebellion.
The rules.
The officers.
The missions.
The lack of money.
He threatened to leave with such regularity that most people had stopped listening.
Leia hadn’t.
Because somewhere beneath all the boasting and bluster was a man who had spent most of his life expecting other people to assume the worst of him.
This would prove him right.
“He’ll think none of it mattered,” she said.
Rieekan’s expression softened.
Leia hated that.
“He’ll think we never trusted him.”
“We do trust him.”
“Then don’t treat him like a criminal.”
“Leia.”
She shut her eyes.
He was right.
She knew he was right.
That made it worse.
“If he finds out about this,” she said, quieter now, “we may never see him again.”
Rieekan said nothing.
Leia looked away. “He means something to me.”
The words hung between them, painfully exposed.
Rieekan's response was quiet. “I know.”
He studied her.
Then a faint smile touched his face.
Leia glared.
“This isn’t amusing.”
“No.”
He stepped closer and rested one hand briefly on her shoulder.
“I’ll handle it.”
Leia looked at him.
“Quietly?”
“Quietly.”
“And if there’s nothing?”
“Then Solo never needs to know there was a question.”
Leia exhaled.
“Thank you.”
Rieekan started to turn away.
“Carlist?”
He looked back.
Leia hesitated.
“Don’t underestimate what this would do to him.”
Rieekan’s expression became serious.
“I won’t.”
“Well, there she is.”
Leia nearly groaned.
Han lounged beside the entrance to the hangar, arms folded, wearing the particular expression he reserved for being intentionally irritating.
“Miss High and Mightiness herself.”
“Not now, Han.”
“How’re all the bigwigs?”
Leia kept walking.
“Productive meeting?”
“Yes.”
“Important Rebel business?”
“Yes.”
“Too important for the rest of us lowly types, I’m guessing.”
Leia stopped.
Han grinned.
That grin.
If only he knew.
That she had spent half the meeting defending him.
That she had reminded three senior officers exactly how many times Han Solo had saved their lives.
That she had argued over his motives, his loyalty, his character.
That she had put her own credibility behind the assertion that whatever else Han Solo might be, he was not a traitor.
That the thought of him discovering they suspected him frightened her because she knew exactly what he would do.
He would leave.
And she did not want him to leave.
Not anymore.
“Us minions probably aren’t worth your time,” Han continued. “You’ve got bigger things to worry about.”
Leia stared at him.
He raised his eyebrows.
“What?”
For one reckless second, she wanted to tell him.
Everything.
They think there’s a spy.
They looked at you.
I defended you.
I trust you.
I don’t want you to go.
The words crowded behind her teeth.
Han waited.
Leia swallowed them all.
“Nothing, Captain.”
Something in his expression shifted.
Only slightly.
Leia turned away.
“Nothing at all.”