Playlist:

❶ "Maz' Counsel"—The Force Awakens OST

Four long years of teaching Ben had taken their toll on Leia. Her activity in the Senate had decreased to a few sessions per week as she labored to hold onto her son, guiding him to the light side while holding him back from the dark.

Han sent money every once in a while, and he had even come back once a few years ago, struggling to take an interest in his son's life—taking him camping, teaching him how to fly, playing sports with him. But he and Ben never seemed to hit it off.

The freighter captain had missed his wife all the time he was away—even the bickering. Contrary to his pre-marital womanizing, he did not play the field while he was away. He loved her too much to hurt her any more than he already had. Wish we could go back to the way we were on Endor.

As he and Chewbacca padded down the long path from the landing pad to the Senatorial Residential Complex, the Wookiee grumbled.

"Hey, don't complain to me. You're the one that started this whole thing." Han's footsteps echoed on the marble as the duo passed through the sliding doors into the lobby.

They stopped in front of the identity scanner. The panel lights started with a retinal scan and slid down the wall to take biometrics. Within seconds, the door to the corridor slid open.

When they reached the penthouse door, cheers emanated from the other side. Han pressed his hand over the scanner, and the door revealed the opulent suite. 

Leia and C-3PO crowded Ben who sat at the head of the long table in the dining area to the left. The ten-year-old boy with dark hair obscuring his eyes and covering his collar hovered over a three-tiered cake with ten sparklers melting wax onto the fondant icing.

The boy narrowed his eyes and glared at Han. "Well, look what the Wookiee dragged in."

Leia looked up. "Han." She readjusted the plates in front of her. "Why are you here?"

C-3PO piped up. "Oh, General Solo." 

"Cut it, Threepio," Ben said, his eyes wary. 

Chewbacca roared a greeting and stepped aside from Han.

"What? I thought you wanted me home more often."

Ben looked around, at his Uncle Chewie, at his mother, at his father.  "Nobody invited you, Father."

"I don't need an invitation. I live here."

The boy snorted. "Whatever. If that's what you want to call it—" Ben's eyes changed, sharper, more intense, with the flecks of yellow overwhelming his brown irises. "Wait—you didn't even know."

"Know what?"

Leia said, "It's his birthday, Han."

Han scanned the empty suite. "Could have fooled me. Not what I'd call a party."

The tiny senator straightened her back. "I can't believe you."

The smuggler stepped next to his wife and pulled her into an embrace. "Come on, you missed me."

Leia struggled against his loose grip for a moment before relaxing. 

"Ah, yeah, you missed me."

"Maybe. Occasionally."

Han lifted her chin and pressed his lips to hers as his hand slid down to her backside. 

"Stop it! Stop it!" Ben wailed. "Leave her alone!"

When the boy thrust out his arms, his father flew backward and landed on the floor.

"Don't touch her! You think you can fly in here any time you want and pretend you're my father. But you're gone the next day. You don't hear her tears. You don't know what you're doing to her. Well, I'm not going to let you hurt her again." He advanced on the man and laid his hand on his head. "Never ... again."

"Ben. No!" Leia screamed.

❶ Chewbacca rushed behind Ben and grabbed him from behind, pulling his hands back. Han struggled on the floor. Leia knelt beside Ben and pulled out a hypospray from a hidden pocket in her blue dress. After she pressed it to the back of his neck, the boy fell limp to the floor. 

Leia knelt beside Han and shook his shoulders. "Han, snap out of it."

"What happened?" he asked, dazed.

Leia bit her lip.

Seeing his son crumpled on the floor, Han asked through clenched teeth, "What's wrong with Ben?" He shook the fog out of his head and stood, advancing on her petite frame. "Are you going to answer me, Leia? What's going on here?"

"Nothing's wrong with Ben. He'll be fine. I just tranquilized him." Leia laid the empty hypospray beside the birthday cake on the table as the sparklers fizzled out.

"What was he doing? Are you gonna tell me?" Han leaned over his wife.

She turned her head and raised the back of her hand to her mouth. "You're not going to like it."

"I like it a whole bunch less that I don't know. What was he doing, Leia?" With his long arm, he pointed at the comatose boy.

"C-C-Controlling you." She crouched back from him.

Han waved his arms. "My own son? Leia, what type of monster has he become?" Then he snatched the hypospray from the table. "And why did you have a hypospray ready? Has he done this to others?"

Leia bit back the tears that threatened to fall. Her voice cracked as she said, "He's too strong for trances now, Han. He's stronger than I am. The medical team has created these hyposprays to control him."

"The medical team? How many people know that Ben is ... this monster, Leia? I was only here a few months ago. How could this have gotten so far out of control in so little time?"

Leia's eyes welled up with tears. "Oh, Han, I thought I could guide him to the light side, but he's so strong. He's so full of anger, and fear."

"There's too much of Vader in him." Han's voice hit his lower registers as the truth of that statement resounded throughout the suite.

Leia nodded and embraced Han. Her tears streaked his muslin shirt. 

He held her, like he had so many years ago on Endor, consoling her when he didn't know how to fix what was wrong.

I can't do this. I should have been here. I shouldn't have run away. What have I done to her? Leaving her alone like this? How did this go so wrong? He stroked her hair, undoing her braids, running his fingers through her tresses. He glanced at Ben and nodded at Chewbacca, who picked up the boy and carried him to the divan in the lounge.

Vader. The power. He has that power, too. Oh, and he delights in overpowering me. 

Leia sobbed now, gasping for breath every few seconds.

I can't make this decision. She has to. But it's too late now. Only one person can help him, can save him. If Luke could save Vader, I know he can save Ben.

"Leia." She looked with swollen eyes at him. "It's time. We need to send Ben to Luke."

Leia pulled away from the embrace. "No. I can train him."

Han waved his arm. "You're barely trained yourself. Leia, listen to me." He pointed to her. "Do you want him to become another Vader? 'Cause that's where he's headed right now." He pointed at his chest and then hers. "I can't train him. You can't train him." He pointed beyond the door. "The only one who can is Luke."

"I can't lose my son. He's all that I have."

Han grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to look at the still form of her son on the divan. "You're losing him right now, right here, right in front of you."

Leia's nostrils flared. "How would you know? You're hardly ever here!"

"When I am here, he's using the Force against me ... Leia, I've never once seen him use the Force for good. Have you?"

Leia closed her eyes. More tears leaked from her eyes. "No, not for others, only for himself."

"Not even for you?"

Leia dropped her head and whispered, "No." She remained quite for a moment and shrugged his hands off her shoulders as she turned her back to Han. "Take him to Luke, but I never want to see you again."

As Han lifted his sedated ten-year-old son, she withdrew to the terrace and stared at the distant mountains. After the hatch shut, she crossed her arms over her stomach.

As the sun dipped on the horizon, she tried to determine if the tears that streamed down her face were for her son she would never see again, for her husband she never wanted to see again, or for their unborn daughter whom Han would never know.

Did you know ...

● When judging the timeline in this story, you can base it on Ben's age. Naluma became a Padawan about six months before Ben's birth. The Battle of Jakku was one month after Ben's birth. Rey is ten years younger than Ben. For this timeline, Ben just turned ten. Rey will be born before he is eleven.

● I believe without a doubt that Rey is Han and Leia's daughter. I know many people have many other thoughts. If you are one of those readers, suspend your disbelief and enjoy the story.

● Bloodline indicates that Han and Leia were still a couple that talked together and helped each other out, but they were not necessarily together all the time six years before The Force Awakens. I find this interpretation to be in direct conflict with some of the lines in The Force Awakens.

  ►Han to Maz on Takodana: "Leia doesn't want to see me."
  ►Leia to Han on D'Qar: "I just never should have sent him away. That's when I lost him. That's when I lost you both."
  ►Han to Leia on D'Qar in response to last statement: "We both had to deal with it in our own way. I went back to the only thing I was ever good at."

● Much of Ben's background, including how his parents brought him up and were torn apart, I took from clues in the screenplay to The Force Awakens. "Too much Vader in him," "I know every time you ... every time you look at me, you're reminded of him," "You think I want to forget him? I want him back!"

Tell me what you think ...

● What are your thoughts on Rey's parentage and why?

● Why did Leia send Han away? Couldn't he have come back and tried to make it work with her?