Chapter 4

Leia placed her datapad on the counter, crossed her arms, and frowned. Forty-two minutes had passed since Han's departure. She huffed in frustration, wondering what in seven hells he could be doing to be gone for so long with such simple tasks of getting bedding and returning a luggage cart. A sliver of worry crept into her thoughts. Their lives had been inundated with chaos and destruction in the years immediately following the first Death Star. Although the Empire had been defeated on Endor, heralding a new era of peace and fair government, fresh dangers occasionally had threatened their new stability, and Han still had enemies from his former association with the criminal underbelly of society. And here they were, back on Ord Mantell, where fear and pain had shut down their joy and passion.

Trying to quell the growing tickle of anxiety in her gut, Leia reached for her comm and looked at the small data screen. One missed transmission, it read. From the time log, she realized that it had come through while she was getting the kids back in bed.

And then she saw the message. "Miss me yet?" His words were followed by a small symbol, a stylized winking cartoon face.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Leia's tension dissipated at his cheeky tone. "Han, where are you?" she typed.

His reply flashed across the screen almost immediately. "I knew it. You miss me!" A cartoon face again accompanied his message, but this time its mouth was an impossibly large smile.

She rolled her eyes, then chuckled as she sent her response. "No, really. Where are you?"

"Downstairs, but I'd rather be with you. Kids sleepin' yet?" The face had been replaced by a red heart of the same size.

Leia grinned and shook her head, not as an answer to his question, but in reaction to her husband's expressiveness. She looked at her chronometer, then typed, "No sounds from the bedroom in 27 minutes, so I think we're in the clear."

"Good. Figured it's best for me to sneak back in once they're out cold."

She raised her eyebrow and pecked out her reply. "Ah, so that's why you stayed away. The comfortable chairs and fireplace in the lobby had nothing to do with it."

"Nah, Sweetheart. Too busy for that. I'm gettin' something for you!" Another symbol followed his message. Leia looked carefully. It appeared to be a tiny cartoon image of a gift-wrapped box.

"Oh? And what might it be?" She smiled as she responded, then added little hearts at the end, simply because she knew he would like them. She shook her head. Who would guess that Han Solo, with all his outward bravado, was so enamoured with datamojis?

"You'll see. Back soon." [Winky face, heart]