[For Han, Backdated to after Rey's Debut]

[tobereckoned]

Putting the fires out had been the first step. As she'd extinguished the flames and smoke, she'd assessed the Falcon for damage. Unsurprisingly, much of the starboard side was physically damaged and internal components didn't give her reason to be optimistic. From what she'd gathered from Han, even on its best days, the ship had run on a delicate balance on wires, couplings, and bonding tape in exactly the right places.

On a newer ship, the Falcon might have survived the crash, but now she was left working from scratch. Walking up its tilted side, Rey now sat on the edge of the ship and looked over the notes she'd made on her datapad where she was making lists of parts needed, parts that could be salvaged, repairs needed, and on and on.

Comments

[scruffy_looking]

He'd heard about it through a text.

Not long ago, a ship had come crashing down from the sky, out in the countryside, and the second Han had gotten word about it, he'd hopped on the train to go see it for himself. After meeting Jim his first day, it'd become apparent to Han that if another captain with a passion for staying in the sky to match his own hadn't been able to come up with a way off this planet, there likely wouldn't be much hope for him, either. Sometimes, he's entertained the notion that the Falcon would show up one day, fully operational, aside from maybe the few kinks here and there that just add to her character. In these daydreams he allows himself, he boards the ship to find Chewie ready to give him a hug that nearly squeezes the life out of him, only to be subjected to another one right after, though it would come from Leia instead.

A little more than a month into being grounded here, Han's lost what insignificant semblance of hope he'd had to begin with, but that doesn't stop him from being eager to see what kind of ship's landed in Darrow.

It takes longer than he'd like to make his way out to the site of the crash and by the time he gets there, Han is convinced that he's just so irritated by the delay that his eyes are playing tricks on him. There's no way the Falcon could be out here, not a chance his ship had landed in Darrow, and he hadn't even noticed. But there she is, looking far worse for the wear than when he'd landed in Cloud City and it isn't until he's wandered from one end of it to the other, inspecting her from the ground, that he sees the girl.

For a moment, he just stares, unsure of what to make of the fact that someone's poking around his ship, until he realizes the girl might be scavenging for parts. That won't do, Han won't let it happen, and he lets out a shout before running for the Falcon. "Hey! Get off my ship!"

[tobereckoned]

At first, Rey didn't recognize that voice–the intervening decades had added gravel–and her head shot up. All she knew was that someone else was trying to make trouble and stick their nose in on the ship and she wasn't having it. In a second, her quarterstaff was off her back and she was skimming her way off the edge, ready to defend her ship. "It's not your–"

Rey stopped, pulled up short as if someone had bound her in place with the Force. He was decades younger but she could see it in his scruffy hair, the scar on his chin, and the disgruntled set to his face when he laid eyes on the Falcon. Rey's anger evaporated instantly, replaced with shock and tears that she couldn't quite suppress. Han Solo was here, young and whole, not yet betrayed.

"It is your ship," she said at last, lowering her staff. Rey wanted to run up to Han and throw her arms around him and hug him, the way she'd hugged tightly to Finn when it happened. He'd never have stood for it; Rey knew that she was still a stranger to him because here was proof of what others had told her. Time worked differently in this city.

"You're Han Solo," she said. "Your ship made the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs."

[scruffy_looking]

He's taken aback by the that, narrowing his eyes, though Han does nod. "Least someone remembers," he grumbles, cautiously side-stepping the girl as he makes his way closer to the Falcon. The second he's within arm's reach, he momentarily forgets about her presence, sighing to himself as he holds a hand out to brush his fingers against his ship, and he's struck by how much it already feels like coming home.

"It's really you," he murmurs, like he's greeting an old friend, and in many ways, that's exactly what he's doing. Aside from Chewie, the Falcon has been the only other constant in his life, a fixture he could always count on to help get him out of trouble, and Han's resented every second of being without her on this planet. Now that she's back, now that he knows Luke's here, and Padme and Dameron, Han can't help but feel like maybe things in Darrow aren't so bad. All he needs is for Leia and Chewie to arrive, and he'll feel like things really are right again. As right as they can be when he's stuck on the ground, anyway.

It's then that he remembers someone's sharing this moment with him, and he glances over his shoulder at the girl who's still staring, all wide-eyed with tear tracks running down her cheeks for reasons Han isn't sure he wants to identify. Frowning, he shifts to face her. "How'd you know all that, anyway? The Kessel Run and who I am?"

[tobereckoned]

"You let me pilot the ship. Offered me a job. Second mate," Rey said. It was almost the truth. "But you were older then." Quickly, she scrubbed her face off to clean the tears away. He wouldn't understand why she was doing that and she couldn't tell him that she'd had to watch him die. Digging deep, Rey took a breath and steadied herself.

He looked at his ship and Rey could hear it in his voice, the exact same love she'd heard the day they first met. Chewie. We're home. Growing up, making her home in an abandoned Walker, Rey could understand that and had had a very easy time of adapting to the relatively luxurious quarters aboard the Falcon. "I've been living on board for a few days," she explained, hoping that he wasn't so different that he'd kick her off the ship and she'd have to go to that apartment she'd heard about.

It really was true. The fact that time worked strangely here. Rey hadn't believe it but now the evidence was right in front of her.

"Chewbacca liked me."

[scruffy_looking]

There's a lot to unpack from what she's saying, and Han's trying to work through it in his mind before that last part. Before she mentions Chewie. That's what cuts into him deeper than anything else, than any of the confusion that might have come with the notion of an older version of him being willing to hand over the controls of the ship to this kid he's never met; but between the tears and the way she's looking at him and how it seems like she'd known saying Chewie liked her would strike a chord with him, Han can't help but will himself to give her a break.

"Yeah, well, I always thought that hairy lug had pretty poor judgment so don't go thinking that means anything special," Han tells her, though if she really does know him as well as she's implying, she'll see right through the jibe. After a brief pause, he sighs heavily, dramatically, and leans back against the surface of the ship, unwilling to break physical contact with it just yet. "But I guess sometimes he knew how to weed out the bad ones. What's your name, anyway?"

It occurs to him then to ask a question he thinks he already knows the answer to, if only because it would've been answered by now if what he'll always be hoping for was true. "He's not with you, is he? Chewie, I mean."

[tobereckoned]

"I could easily say that his poor judgment extends to you too," Rey pointed out. It was a calculated suggestion, the kind of sarcasm he'd turned on Finn and herself more than a few times with no real malice behind it. The Han Solo she'd known wouldn't have (openly) allowed for sentimentality. Too gruff and, she realized, too worn from loss.

She couldn't tell him.

"I'm Rey and I'm afraid not. He was co-piloting, but when I entered Darrow's atmosphere, he was gone. So were Threepio and Artoo." Rey wondered if Luke had already disappeared for this Han or if her next revelation would be just as difficult for him to swallow too. "We were on a mission, trying to find Luke Skywalker. For General Organa. Leia?" The use of the General's first name felt a little too bold, even though she'd treated Rey with real, maternal kindness.

[scruffy_looking]

That's a fair point, though Han won't tell her so, and he ducks his head to hide his smirk. The girl's sharp and judging by the way she'd greeted him, she's got some fight in her, too. He's always been fond of women like that, it seems, women don't have time for anyone who wants to try challenging their strengths--which is why it'd always been so entertaining to challenge Leia's, of course, if only because it'd been easier to give her a hard time than to admit he cared about her.

Cares, rather. His feelings haven't faded. A large part of him doubts they ever will.

So when Rey says Leia's name, it comes as a little bit of a shock because while he might have expected she'd know Leia if she knows Luke and Chewie and Threepio and Artoo, Han still hadn't expected to hear about her. With Luke, it'd seemed natural, they'd been a team; but he's never met Rey, and she clearly knows much more about him than he does her. The odds never seem to be too great for him when things turn out like that.

"Well, I guess you technically completed the mission," Han says, trying to sound as casual as possible so he doesn't give away how much he really just wants to ask more about Leia. "Luke's here, too. Why'd you need a whole mission for him, what'd he get himself into? This is why people are always so upset when I leave, you know, they're always getting into trouble without me."

[tobereckoned]

It really was him. Every word out of his mouth was closer and closer to the man she'd met and Rey might have been confused, thrown off by their sudden closeness in age, but she somehow felt so much better for seeing him. Strange and confusing was a thousand times better than dead, his body lost and probably never to be recovered from the base. The thought of it made Rey's heart clench, but she was able to keep the tears back this time, to maintain her composure.

"He went...away," Rey said. It wasn't a lie, just a very broad expansion on a strange and confusing truth. "Something went wrong and he–well you thought that he went to find the first Jedi temple. To start over."

Everything felt so heavy and strange but Rey didn't let herself sit, leaning heavily against the side of the Falcon instead for support. Luke Skywalker was here. Han Solo was here. "Luke...is he your age then?"

[scruffy_looking]

Luke had told him once, out of the kind of anger Han had grown awfully used to over the years, to take care of himself, that it's what he's good at, and Han has to wonder what could have gone so wrong that Luke would've disappeared long enough for Leia to send a search party out for him. That Han had thought Luke had gone to find the first Jedi temple makes even less sense, in part because he hadn't been entirely on board with the whole Jedi party trick thing in the first place, though he supposes things had probably changed in the years between the capture at Cloud City and whatever time Rey's come from.

"Start over," Han mutters, rolling his eyes, "start what over? Delusions of grandeur, that's what the kid's always had." He pauses at the question of Luke's age, realizing he'd never bothered to ask his friend upon meeting him again in Darrow.

Shrugging a shoulder, he continues, "I don't know. He was still a kid when I knew him, he'll always be a kid to me, but we come from different times. He's older, definitely older." There are lines on Luke's face that hadn't been there before, though Han isn't certain whether they're signs of aging or too much experience. "I'm hoping you can tell me I at least age better than he has."

[tobereckoned]

"I never met him," Rey admitted. Truthfully, she had a hard time picturing Luke at all. The Luke Skywalker of her imaginings was as anonymous and inscrutable as the cloaked, faceless man from her vision. Or, more comically, some male version of General Organa. They were twins after all, Leia had said.

"Well, you aged well enough to smuggle Rathtars. Three of them." Even now, Rey wasn't entirely sure she understood what a Rathtar was, despite having encountered one. There hadn't actually been time to take out her datapad and scrawl notes or a quick sketch in between running for her life and then Finn's. It was something she'd need to do, Rey thought, to fill up the time. "It was very successful until they tried to kill us."

[scruffy_looking]

Han huffs at that, rolling his eyes, though quietly pleased, before moving his gaze from Rey to the Falcon, resting his head back against the surface of the ship. He still remembers winning her, he remembers calling Lando's bluff in their game of Sabaac all those years ago, and he remembers the way he'd held his breath when Lando had turned over the last of his cards to reveal his losing hand. Lando been resistant to lose the Falcon, rightfully so, but Han had refused anything less. You said any ship on your lot. The Falcon's sitting on your lot. I claim her.

Without the Falcon, he and Chewie would never have become the smugglers they are--or had been, he supposes, back in their own galaxy. It'd made them unstoppable, unbeatable, valuable to anyone looking for someone to haul them a bounty yet enviable enough to become bounty themselves. Hell of a life they'd had in all their years together, Han and Chewie and this ship. It doesn't seem right that the Falcon's now crashed on its side out in the countryside of some unidentifiable planet.

"Rathtars, huh? Yeah, real ugly buggers, those things, can't be surprised they tried to kill us. You. Whoever." Finally pushing off from the side of the ship, Han turns and takes a few steps backwards to get a wider look at her. "Must've trusted you a whole hell of a lot if I put her in your hands. How was she treatin' you before you ended up here, were you keeping her in good shape?"

[tobereckoned]

"Better than I thought she could. Unkar Plutt had her under a tarp, collecting dust like garbage." Rey had thought the ship was garbage too, honestly. Still did, but now it was her garbage. Or Han Solo's. The thought of it made her stomach tighten a little as she wondered if Han would insist she leave, that she couldn't sleep aboard the Falcon the way she had been for the last few nights.

If she could prove her skill to him, maybe he'd let her stay. "He installed a compressor on the ignition line. I thought it was a mistake. Puts too much stress on the hyperdrive." She could hear the other Han Solo in her head, speaking the last part in unison with her, agreeing on her assessment. Pointing toward the cockpit, Rey added, "I bypassed it and fixed it."

Then, because she might as well come out with it, Rey also said, "I've been sleeping in the second crewman's bunk. No one's possessions were there and I haven't moved anything that belonged to you. Or Chewie." She wouldn't say it out loud but Rey hoped he understood that she meant that she wanted to stay.

[scruffy_looking]

Han doesn't know who this Unkar Plutt is but anyone who'd be stupid enough to install a compressor on the ignition line then just leave the Falcon grounded is someone he'd like to meet, if only to have the chance to give the guy a piece of his mind. More preferably, a piece of his fist. No matter how many times he's heard his ship referred to as a hunk of junk, Han's always known better than that. She's gotten him through some tough times, as reliable a friend as Chewie, and if Han had his way, he'd see her back up in the air right this second, even if there's nowhere she could possibly go.

"Compression on the ignition line," he mutters, shaking his head in disgust, "the hell was he thinking? You say you bypassed it? Not bad, kid, now it's just a shame you crashed her."

There's no ire in his tone at that last bit, Han can readily admit that he knows it's not Rey's fault the Falcon had ended up in the state she's in; but that doesn't make it any less hurtful to see his ship like this, and he nods for her to follow as he moves to inspect the inside.

"Come on. She's still mine, don't forget that, especially if you plan on staying here. You know they've got places for us, right?" Not that staying in the Falcon wouldn't be preferable. "Anyway, you want to stick around, it's not without a price." Glancing over his shoulder at Rey, he gives her a crooked smile. "You'd better be damn well willing to help me fix her back up."

[tobereckoned]

"You're going to let me stay," Rey said. The realization made her light up with a smile, even as she tried to be serious, to match Han's sleight of hand offer. There was no reason to comment on the crash, since she had been the one in the pilot's seat and he seemed perfectly aware that Darrow had more to do with it than her skills. "Of course I'm willing to work. I've been scavenging and repairing parts off wrecks my whole life."

Following, she glanced around, thinking she could see a little of what Han Saw in his ship. Maybe it wasn't the same as the Solo she'd met but the reverence he had, the love for the ship...That was all the same. "It'll be nice to work on something that still runs."

She hadn't worked on a salvage with the intent to make it fly since Devi and Strunk, when she'd known in her gut that they would fly away with it rather than trade it for portions. This would be different. Whether the Falcon took a week or a year, it would fly and she'd be flying away on it, not left behind.

[scruffy_looking]

Her entire face changes, brightening with a wide smile that would be infectious if Han wasn't already turning away from her just so he doesn't risk smiling back so readily in return. It's not that Han needs her to think he's a tough guy or anything (and anyway, if she's met him, even the future him, she'd already know that), but he's never been especially quick to trust. Taking everything she says at face value, assuming she wouldn't just as soon make off with the Falcon if ever there was a chance to fly her off this planet, these are things Han is trying to convince himself he doesn't have to struggle with. He'd let his guard down with Luke and Leia, that much is true, but it'd landed him in a hell of a tough spot.

Maybe there's no chance of ending up in a carbonite freezing chamber again just for allowing Rey to stay onboard the Falcon but attachment almost always equates to liability. He'd learned that the hard way with Bria, which only makes the fact that he'd volunteered to stick around for the Rebellion that much crazier.

Still, it's different here and risk of attachment be damned, Han likes Rey's spirit. There's pride and defiance in her, just the right amount of stubbornness, and she's smart. Having her around doesn't seem like it would be such a bad thing.

"Alright, well, show me what you've been working on since you got here. Gotta see how she held up all those years into the future."

[tobereckoned]

He barely had to ask before Rey was hurrying toward the cockpit and waving him along to follow. Probably presumptuous but she was eager to prove her knowledge, her value. It was easy enough to point out all the modifications that Unkar Plutt had added and how many Rey had been working to undo as she encountered them. She'd known about most of them from her time sneaking around the Niima yard and getting specs on all the ships–everyone had known she wouldn't leave with one–but hadn't been in a rush to undo them all at once.

The Falcon was a delicate ecosystem of tangled wires and bonding tape and it seemed best to do repairs that kept her flying, rather than repairs that undid other modifications.

"Careful there," she said, pointing to a floor panel. She and Finn had been ready to open up its pipes and flood the ship with gas. "Finn and I weren't able to finish fixing that. A lot happened, starting with the rathtars and it only got crazier from there. It's first on my list now that I have time."

[scruffy_looking]

"Who the hell is Finn?"

Han doesn't particularly care, actually, not right now, not when he's back on board the ship that'd acted as his home for so long. Everything feels familiar yet different all at once, and he traces along the walls with his fingertips as he gazes around him with a respectful sense of awe. It's like seeing her for the first time all over again, reveling in the beauty so few others could see, and once his gaze lands back on Rey, he can't help but feel a wave of fondness for the girl because she gets it. Even if she doesn't have the same history with the Falcon, she gets it, and that matters to Han.

"I'm trying to get a job," he admits, unsure of why, "the money here's free every month, but it's not enough." Not enough for the habit he makes of going out to drink, anyway. "You can stay, obviously, I'll leave you be when it comes to livin', but I'll be out here often for the fixin' up and what not so if you aren't making good use of that communicator this place gives you, you'd better start."

Han pauses, letting out a short sigh before he speaks again, his voice softened. "Thanks for taking care of her. I mean it."

[tobereckoned]

"My friend," Rey said, a bit sad about it. If Han–this Han–were to ever meet him, Rey thought he would understand. "He used to be a Stormtrooper."

She wasn't sure if it was the Force or just a sense of watchfulness long developed out of necessity but the hairs on her neck prickled. Turning, she realized that Han was looking at her again with an expression that she couldn't read. It had the same weight as the significant but unreadable look that he'd given her on Takodana and Rey felt a fierce tug of loyalty for him, no matter how old.

"I saw it. The one that looks like a datapad but smaller." It was more sleek than any communicator she'd ever seen on Jakku but the controls were intuitive enough. Rey took it out of her pack to show him, thought it was powered off.

Then he thanked her and Rey's heart clenched. A new, real wave of grief hit her for what she'd seen before and she nodded, putting a hand on the back of the copilot's seat to steady herself. "She's home," Rey said.