Leia woke early with no thoughts other than those of the investigation. They had disturbed her dream time and now urged her out of bed. She slid deftly out from underneath Han's arm and went to the refresher, gathering up clothes that were strewn on the floor from the previous night's urgency.

The fire pit had spent itself and the cold air in the stone room chilled her. When she had showered and redone her hair a short time later, Han was still asleep. He had had more Narcolethes the previous night than she had had spice wine and could probably use some time to sleep it off.

She watched him breathing as she pulled on her leggings, his arm stretched across her side of the bed, one leg wrapped round the rugs, his head buried in the pillow. His clothes, much like hers, had been abandoned.  In fact, they had both made quite a mess of the room. Sofa cushions littered the floor and a side table, she half remembered them bumping into in the throws of passion, had it's ornaments still in disarray. She picked them up and rearranged them. Rugs on the steps to the sleeping area reminded her they'd been there too.

She smiled to herself and bit her bottom lip. A night in Han's company was ten times more pleasurable than spending it catching up on Senate committee reports on her data pad. Eugh! Committees. She needed adventure. Tucking her blaster into her waistband and covering the whole thing with a tunic, she grabbed a bag and made her way downstairs.

Maz let her borrow the speeder. It hadn't taken much persuasion, just a kind but resolute look that precluded discussion. She pushed the throttle of the speeder fully forward, wanting to feel the wind in her hair.

#

A mouthful of Wookie fur was not how Han liked to be woken up, especially when the Wookie was loudly vocalising his annoyance at his sleepiness and was roughly grappling his head.

"What, Chewie?" He shoved Chewbacca's furry arms away. "I'm awake. I'm awake. Quit it will ya?" He swung his legs over the side of the bed, rubbing his hand over his face to brush away imaginary cobwebs. Chewbacca gesticulated towards the little balcony and threw the doors open, still vocalising.

"She did what?" Han exclaimed, rushing to the window. Leia's speeder was leaving the complex and heading out in the direction of Al-Adreen. He whirled round, throwing his arms up in exasperation. "Wait for back up, I said. She didn't even wait for me!" He threw his clothes on quickly and gathered his blaster and gun belt in his arms. "Come on, Chewie," he called angrily over his shoulder.

Chewbacca watched him walk quickly down the corridor, struggling to put his belt on as he went, hearing him mutter something about "head-strong woman" and "death of me." Chewbacca growled more gently and lumbered after him.

"You let her have a speeder? You know she's gone back to Al-Adreen by herself?" Han asked the last rhetorical question crossly as he passed Maz cleaning glasses at the bar. Maz shrugged.

"She's a big girl. I can't stop her." She was indifferent.

Han kept walking, pointing a warning finger at her as if to say they would be talking about this later. Maz simply leant on the bar and watched him go.

#

Reminded suddenly of riding the speeder bikes with Luke on Endor, Leia tutted at herself. That was another time when she had impetuously dashed off on her own, headlong into danger. Han would probably have plenty to say about her doing it again, once he woke up. Still, if she hadn't done what she did on Endor, they would never have met the Ewoks and the whole mission might have ended very differently. Looking back, she was grateful that the Ewoks had accepted her so readily, making clean clothes for her, caring for her like one of their own. Perhaps her fondness for Wicket had helped. Anyway, she was just going to explore, maybe see what she could find out. Nothing more. Han could moan all he liked. She appreciated the sentiment, but letting people do everything for her all the time while she remained at a safe distance made her feel stifled. Right now, she needed to let off some steam, and waiting around for everyone else while the kidnapped children were in trouble nagged at her.

Little over an hour's travel brought her to the outskirts of Al-Adreen. She slowed the speeder and negotiated the main streets until she neared the central square and pulled in to the side, jumping out and grabbing her bag. Pulling the strap across her body, she looked around.

The town looked different in the daylight. It's low, mud and plaster buildings were not unlike many others she'd seen on other, dryer planets during her travels, but had an altogether contrasting influence literally creeping in as the landscape of rocks and lush vegetation had been incorporated into the architecture. Some buildings were almost completely covered with foliage, others built using huge boulders as walls. It was hard to tell which had come first the buildings or the organisms. Both seemed established and melded together.

The inhabitants were, thankfully, a little less colourful than they had been the previous evening. The intoxicant influenced pirate element had diminished with the sunrise and a more civilised crowd were going about their daily business.

The best strategy, she decided, was to explore the trading areas first and she began with the nearest narrow street, tightly packed with cloth covered stands and open fronted establishments. She stopped at the occasional stall when something caught her eye, examining the faces of the merchants and passers by alike. If she could get into a friendly conversation with someone, she might get more information out of them than they had out of the more guarded smugglers.

Stopping at a fruit stand, she became suddenly acutely aware of eyes on her and glanced round to see a dirt-smeared little girl of about seven or eight, eyes intently fixed on her. The little girl looked extremely underfed and the look in her eye was one of sharp watchfulness that only came with living on the streets. Leia's heart melted a little.

"Hello," she ventured. The girl didn't answer. "Are you hungry?" She didn't need an answer to that, it was obvious the girl was starving. Reaching into her bag for credits, she bought the largest and most appetising fruit she could find and crouched down to hand it to her, smiling encouragingly. If no-one else did something for the little girl today, she would at least have had something to eat.

Leia didn't have time to do more. Other children were still in dire trouble. Her pitifully small good deed done, she rose and continued down the street, a cool breeze causing her to shiver. Perhaps the pretext of buying a warm wrap of some kind might open up a conversation with a merchant and she saw just the stall up ahead, a very round, personable looking woman in attendance.

Leia smiled at her, running her fingers over the cloth garments on display.

"This one would suit your eyes," the merchant offered, noting her feigned interest and passing her a reddish-brown jacket.

"Thank you. It is a lovely colour," Leia flattered. It was actually a lovely colour but she wasn't seriously in the market for more clothes. Still showing interest in the garment, she let her eyes wander round the other shoppers. "It must be tourist season." She made polite conversation. "There are so many people here today. I expect you get a lot of tourist trade with your beautiful clothes. They are such good quality." Leia was trying to win her over and it seemed to be working.

"I get some tourist trade," the merchant replied. "It's hard these days. Too many pirates in the area scaring off decent folk. You're the first new person I've seen recently."

"I have friends here." Leia didn't really lie. Maz was a friend now. "I like to visit every so often. Is there no security to protect merchants like yourself from the criminal elements?" She was fishing a little.

"Not on a large enough scale," the merchant complained. "Although they seem to be having a purge on shoplifters and beggars at the moment. 'Bout time too. Lose most of my revenue if one of 'em manages to get something off my stall. Been roundin' 'em up and clearin' 'em out." She was more enthusiastic about this.

"Oh?" Leia decided to push her luck a little further. "I expect that's a local law enforcement initiative then. Enterprising of them to look after their local trade."

"Don't know about that," the woman chatted. "Not seen these ones before. Don't think they're local but I don't pay much attention to who's who so long as they do something." The merchant turned her attention to another customer.

So there were strangers in the area, possibly rounding up children like the one she had met earlier, tapping into the local pirate trade to get extras, if their information from last night could be relied upon. The law enforcement could be the same group mentioned by the Devaronian. The little girl would fit the profile, and under the guise of cleaning up the streets of undesirables, they were taking children who wouldn't be missed. Clever.

Leia felt she ought to pay the merchant for her conversation by buying the jacket, even though she had no use for it. She opened her bag to find credits.

"Oh, please. Let me get that for you," a familiar and sarcastic voice made her jump. Han handed over some money, took her elbow and steered her away from the stall so they could talk.

"What are you doing here by yourself?" he scolded. "I said we needed to wait for backup before we came back here. You could have at least waited for me or Chewie." Leia didn't like his tone.

"Han, you don't get to make decisions for me. I can take care of myself. I don't need you to constantly babysit me." He was irritating her and she turned and walked away to blank his reply. Han looked up at Chewbacca in disbelief before following after her. If Chewbacca could have raised his eyebrows, he would have done. Instead, he grumbled a little and followed them, wearily dragging his feet.

Han caught up with Leia and stepped into her path. He realised he had made a wrong move when her all too familiar look of challenging defiance parked itself on her face, but, as usual, he didn't care.

"Listen to me, will ya?" Leia folded her arms and shifted her weight to one hip, jacket still clutched in one hand. "I'm not babysitting you. But what happens if you walk into one of our friends from last night?"

"I have a weapon and you know I can use it," she retorted.

"I know that, but you can't take on everyone." Although he knew she would give it a good go. "If your little expedition had gone wrong, you could have been kidnapped and sold before any of us knew you were missing." Han listened to himself. When had he become the sensible one? Maybe it was when he'd seen how many pirates there were here the previous night. Smugglers were one thing but pirates were lowlifes even by his standards and the thought of scouring the galaxy searching for her for the next couple of years - well, he didn't want to think about it.

"You're being ridiculous," she snapped.

"Ridiculous? Am I?" He raised his eyebrows incredulously. "Hey. Don't get me wrong, I know you like looking for trouble." He gave her a crooked smile "and I love looking for it with you but, if we're going to start blowing stuff up together, it would be nice to have a little extra back up, that's all."

"It hasn't come to that. I've only been gathering information. I found out how the children are being removed unchallenged. I just need to find out where they're being taken." She paused and raised her eyebrows. "Then you might get to blow stuff up." Han's smile broadened.

The piercing sound of a child screaming snapped Leia out of her irritability. Her senses heightened, she shoved the jacket she was holding at Han and began running towards the square and the direction of the noise, noticing just in time to stop herself, the uniforms of the officers at the centre of the disturbance; blue, smart, Alderaanian. She ducked quickly behind the cloth covering of the last trade stand on the street and peered round it. She recognised the screaming child as the one she had met at the fruit stand and one of the six officers she had counted was man-handling the little girl towards an enclosed vehicle.

Han and Chewbacca, caught up with her. She turned to Han about to say something but he pre-empted her.

"Yeah, I see them." He had noticed the uniforms too. Leia was riled. She had always had great pride in the security forces her family had founded on Alderaan. This wasn't at all the intention for them. They were peacekeepers not oppressors. The more she watched, the more incensed she became.

The little girl began struggling and kicking and Leia heard the officer accuse her of theft – of the fruit Leia had bought for her. The officer raised a hand to strike the child. That was the last straw. Han spotted Leia's breaking point and grabbed for her arm to stop her, just too late. She stepped out from her hiding place, shaking off his hand and walked determinedly out into the square.

"Stop!" she ordered.