#wellalrightthen

Except that eating wasn’t really an attractive prospect atthe moment. He cleared his scratchy throat with annoyance and turned instead tothe quarters he’d shared with Farmboy until the kid had run off on his stupidmission. Han didn’t bother to turn on the lights or remove his boots beforediving under the covers. He had thirty minutes before anyone would miss him, sowhat was the harm in resting his eyes?

He came to with a jolt. Several hours had passed, and nowsomeone was banging rudely at the door. Han’s body ached as he got up andstraightened his clothes before he answered it.

“Care to explain why you blew off our meeting with Command?”the Princess barked in his face.

“I didn’t,” Han croaked, nearly gagging at the pain. Histhroat was more swollen than before. “Didn’t mean to.”

“Oh,” said Leia softly as she took in his glassy eyes andsweaty hair. Then she began to snicker, “Oh, Solo.”

“What?” he rasped irritably. “Give ‘em my apologies, alright,I gotta go back to maintenance and—”

“I don’t think so,” Leia was still smirking at him. “Evenyou can’t be too stupid to see what this is.”

“It’s not—no, but either way it’d still be none of yourbusiness,”

“Don’t be obtuse. You obviously have the virus that’s beengoing around. I’ll tell Command, you just get your arse to Medbay.”

“Yeah and maybe Hoth will melt. Do not tell anyone anything!” Han growled, wincing as hespoke, brushing past her and marching down the hall.

The next morning, the chills still hadn’t subsided, and hefelt like he had swallowed broken glass. With breakfast out of the question, heretreated to a private corner of the mess, trying to sip at lukewarm caf justto get something down.

He pulled his coat tighter around himself and refused tolook up when two figures marched over to his table.

“Han, enough,” said Leia, leaning with both palms flatagainst the table. “Go to Medbay.”

“Leave me be,” Han croaked.

Chewie snarled.

“Hey,” Han snapped, pointing at his copilot. “I don’t needthose quacks up at Medbay any more than I need you two hanging on me like acouple‘a Mynocks.”

Chewie’s great paw came to rest on Han’s forehead. The Wookieewhined at the heat he felt radiating from Han’s skin. His retort was asurprisingly gentle rumble.

Han raised his eyebrows “Do you want to get into this rightnow, Fuzzball? She can understand you, you know.”

“Not perfectly,” Leia admitted. “But I know he said it’sokay to let people take care of you.” She took a step forward and reached forHan’s hand. “Come on, dummy. We’ll get you better.”

Han would not have been able to say what convinced him tocomply, just that Leia led the way, and he followed.

The medic who shined the light at the back of his throatsaid it was one of the worst cases they’d seen, and chastised him for lettingit get this bad. They took swabs to culture, but went ahead and gave him a shotof antivirals and a fever reducer without waiting for the results. The cause ofhis symptoms wasn’t exactly a mystery, with the medbay full of feverish,miserable rebels.

Leia was permitted to see him based on the fact that she’dalready had the virus, and was no longer susceptible. She brought him ice chipsto soothe his throat, which was nice and all, but he really wasn’t in the moodto chat, and told her so.

Leia rolled her eyes. “Alright, we can observe a moment ofsilence for your bruised ego,” she retorted.

“It’s not about that,” he huffed. He realized she took it forgranted—belonging to a group, people that didn’t see weakness as a liability,but who would have your back and probably bring you ice chips and sit with youwhen you didn’t feel well. Han and Chewbacca looked out for each other, ofcourse, but it hadn’t always been that way.

“The only thing that’s keeping you from becoming a permanentpart of the Alliance is you, Captain,”said Leia. It was eerie how well she could read him sometimes.

“Seems like a pretty risky proposition for me, Princess,” hedrawled, deflecting as usual. “Seeing as this Alliance doesn’t even currentlyhave a base.”

“Hey,” Leia snapped. “I was being serious.”

“Yeah, that’s what makes it fun to derail,” he pointed out,making Leia sigh. “Alright, my turn then,” Han said. “Thanks for your help.”

“Now I knowsomething’s the matter with you,” Leia snorted. “We’d better call a droid tohave a look at your head.”