Her outstretched hands wrapped about his right wrist and she braced, his entire bodyweight pulling her forward against the heavy stone balustrade as he fell, wrenching at her shoulders,knees bent, feet slipping, every muscle strained to maximum to hold onto him, only the height of the balustrade stopping her from toppling over with him.
She stared down at him, red hair blowing about her face in the high wind, "What the hell is wrong with you!?"
Body still swinging just slightly, he glanced out about him over the distant sprawl of the city, a slow smile spreading across his face. Then looked up to her, his hand clasping about her wrist, bare feet scrabbling against the smooth stone for purchase as his left hand found a hold on the balustrade. She yanked him up and he found footing on the outside of the carved stone railings, releasing her arm and standing upright still on its outer side, grinning.
"I should push you off this damn thing!" Mara shouted, relieved and terrified all at once, the buzz of adrenaline still pumping, making her heart pound.
He swung his legs over onto the inside of the balustrade, hopping down to solid ground of the balcony, hand to his right shoulder as he lifted his arm uneasily, his natural Rim-world accent winning out. "I think you put my arm out."
"I put...!" Mara stuttered to a stop, speechless.
"Yeah- it's my bad arm." The shoulder which had been so badly injured in the assassination attempt earlier that year still troubled him, though it wasn't common knowledge.
"What... you..." Mara finally pulled a stuttering sentence together, pointing at the drop. "What the hell was that!?
"Just testing." he shrugged casually, glancing behind him.
"What if I hadn't caught you!? What if I'd caught you but couldn't hold you?"
"Fate." He dismissed, still massaging his shoulder.
"Y...I..." Still livid, she stepped forward and raised her hands, shoving him bodily backwards for want of something better to do.
He staggered back a step, unconcerned, and she found her voice.
"You and your stupid, irresponsible... stupid..."
"You already said that." He said mildly.
"Well I think it deserves to be said twice!" She was almost shouting again, adrenaline turning fear to anger.
He glanced away as she heard Reece and Clem come rushing into the room behind her then pause at the balcony doors, seeing Luke stood safely on the balcony- probably the two servants had finally decided to tell them what they'd seen, Mara realised distantly.
Luke shook his head slightly and they backed away, leaving the room, but not without risking a curious glance at Mara, Luke probably appearing completely calm and rational to them. In another hour, neither of them having seen him at the balcony's edge, they'd have talked themselves into believing that the servants were wrong anyway. Another half-hour and one would mention to the other, 'Was it me, or did Jade seem to be swinging for him when we came in?'
Fantastic; great.
Just another day in the Skywalker household.
.
.
.
"Han." As leia sat down opposite him, Han jolted upright from the messroom table, eyes wide, and Leia was greeted by the comical sight of a half-awake Solo with a perfect imprint of the woven metal tabletop on his forehead.
"What!?" he jerked up so quickly that he almost overturned the mug of kia in his hand, its contents sloshing over the side and onto the table, where it immediately fell through the open metal weave, making him twitch back in his chair and twist to the side to avoid it wetting his blue flightsuit, the shoulders of which were shrugged off and tied about his waist.
Leia waited without a word until he settled back down, glancing sheepishly about him. He rubbed his eyes, though it seemed to do little to dispel his muzzyness. Six hour's sleep and he was out again in thirty minutes; great.
Leia set her head to one side, "You are sooo attractive right now."
"Hey, I'm not a morning person." Han defended, taking a graincake from her plate.
"It's eleven." Leia said pointedly.
"Believe me doll, that's early for me." He took a bite from the graincake before replacing the rest on her plate, pulling a disgusted face. "What the hell is that?"
"Good for you."
"Well there's sure as hell no other reason for eating it."
"Maybe if you ate a little more stuff like this you wouldn't feel like that right now." Leia teased gamely.
"Well maybe if you...." he trailed off, his tired brain having no end to the gibe his mouth had already begun, "Ah, hell, you know the routine. It's early- give me a break."
"I can't believe they're actually going to give you a fighter to fly in less than an hour." Leia's big brown eyes were an even mix of worry, doubt and dry humour.
Han rubbed his hand down his stubble-rough face, trying to come round a bit. "Yeah I know- suckers."
She glanced down, pulling a strip off her graincake, "What time are you back?"
"Uh, five hours, then five hours." He replied, the shift being broken in two, "Two sets of freighter escort. You?"
"Meetings." she dismissed, then glanced back at him with studied nonchalance. "I was speaking to Tag this morning- she... told me in confidence that she'd had Madine in her office again."
Han groaned, running his fingers through shower-wet hair, "Doesn't the guy have anything better to do? He should have my job."
Madine had approached Tag Massa, the Intel Chief, several times since the whole Bothawuii fiasco, voicing his suspicions that Han may be the spy onboard Home-One who had eluded them for so long. He was after all the only one who inexplicably escaped the disaster onboard the Fury - not only without a scratch but in the freighter that the Empire had empounded four years earlier.
Apparently that was damning evidence as far as Madine was concerned, and to make matters worse, hadn't Solo also magically managed to escape from the Imperial Palace four years ago? Just days before the Rebel cell on Coruscant - the one which had coincidentally helped him escape - was closed down by the Empire? He'd appeared out of no-where at Yavin - with Skywalker- and flown against the Death Star, one of only a handful of ships to return- another also coincidentally being the Imperial spy 'Skywalker'.
Yes, the station had been destroyed, but it was now widely accepted that it must have held some incorrectable flaw- in fact it had even been suggested that it had never truly been the reusable weapon it claimed, the whole incident created as an opportunity to flush out the far-ranging nest of Rebel spy networks who all worked to smuggle out the plans, as well as an opportunity to remove Alderaan as the supposed instigator and harbourer of the network, and long a thorn in the Emperor's side for its independent voice. It had also securely placed Skywalker in the Alliance stronghold at a senior level, setting him up as some kind of hero and placing him beyond suspicion for so long.
That was an awful lot of coincidences, and when Han didn't have explanations for his proximity to them all, people had started to listen to Madine.
Fortunately, just as many dismissed them as paranoia, and since Massa was one of the latter, it had melted away to a minor annoyance for Han; an ongoing friction between the two men.
"Well, your good friend has been singing you praises again." Leia said dryly of Madine, making Han roll his eyes, "He's asking for a meeting of the Chiefs of Staff and he's been down in Tag's office this morning suggesting that maybe someone else should attend as the Active Flight Commander."
"Great." Han said, "Tell him I'll gladly stay away from his little party."
Leia pulled a face, "I would, but I think he's up to something, and I could really do with you there. Tag also told me in confidence that he hinted that I'd been kept out of the loop with the DEMP's because of you - that's why they knew about the venue change."