[Black Fleet Crisis(10)

But Han had a harder time with the realization that Jacen was becoming, well, a

bit pudgy.

Han

remembered childhood

as long

days

of rough-and-tumble play, as a time when he had a lean, strong body that never tired for long. Not so for Jacen.

Though the children had the run of the grounds, Han never saw his elder son come in from the courtyard having run himself to a sweaty exhaustion, or emerge from the gardens as dirty and happy as a worm.

And Han worried over it.

Still harder to accept was seeing Jacen always playing alone, with no friends outside the family and less interest all the time in playing with Jaina or Anakin. Han blamed the lack of friends on himself and Leia. The children had been whisked from one place to another, sent away with bodyguards and hidden away with nannies, all in the name of protecting them. In the process, they had been “protected” from having anything remotely like a normal childhood. And for all that, they had still been kidnapped by Hethrir, and nearly lost.

There was nothing to be done about it now except to try not to compound the mistake. On the first night the family was reunited, with Leia crying tears of relief as they held each other, Han had silently vowed never to leave the children without the care and protection of a parent again.

There was no disentangling Leia from the business of the government, but Han saw his own position differently.

On their return to Coruscant, he had tried to resign his commission. Admiral Ackbar had pointed out that he would lose his security clearances and Class 1 pass and Leia would lose his counsel and companionship on sensitive matters.

“Finding you indispensable to the defense of the New Republic, I must refuse your resignation, ” Ackbar said.

“Now, just a blasted moment-“

“However, I also find that your current assignment does not make the best use of your experience and abilities, ” Ackbar went on. “Effective immediately, I order you placed on detached duty, assigned to the president of the Senate as liaison for domestic defense. You are to assist her in whatever way she sees fit. Do you understand? ” If the big-eyed Calamarian had been capable of a wink, he would have sent a sly one in Han’s direction at that moment.

So Hans days were now spent at the president’s residence, which he shared with Leia, trying to make up for lost time. But he was discovering that children made the Millennium Falcon’s hyperdrive look dependable and predictable by comparison. Little Anakin was Han’s loyal ally, but the twins tested him early and often.

They had their own ideas about the proper order of things, and their place in it.

“But, Dad, Winter let us-“

“But, Dad, Chewie always-“

“But, Dad Threepio never” Sentences beginning with those constructions were banned from the household by the end of the first month. “It’s not fair! ” followed soon thereafter. With Leia backing up his edicts down the line (discreetly negotiating her dissents with him in private), all three children eventually acknowledged Dad as boss of the house.

But he worried about the day he thought must inevitably come-the day a disagreement would turn into a fight he would lose. Raising Jedi children, he decided, was like raising Ralltiir tigers-cute as they were when young and much as they might love you, they still grew long, deadly claws. Han would never forget the afternoon Anakin had an hourlong, Force-assisted tantrum. Every object in the playroom was shoved or thrown against the wall, leaving the youngster alone in the middle of a bare floor, kicking his heels and pounding his fists.

One mercy was that all the three children were basically good-hearted.

Another was that playing with the Force seemed to make them sleep longer and more deeply. Unfortunately, Anakin and Jacen both had their mother’s stubbornness-neither could be readily compelled to do anything they didn’t want to. And Jaina and Jacen both had a streak of irrepressible mischief, which Leia blamed on Han-both could be regularly counted on to do something you didn’t want them to.

They had established a new family ritual that seemed to please everyone When Leia came home, they would all climb into the vortex pool in the garden and spend half an hour or more being carried around by its currents. The kids could play-Anakin had suddenly begun to love the water so much that Ackbar proudly called him “my little fish”-or just cling to Mom and Dad, while for Leia and Han it was therapy, a sigh of relief at the end of a long day.

Then, while the children were off with the valet droid, dressing for dinner, Han and Leia retreated to their own bedroom for what they jokingly called “the daily briefing. ” It was as much a part of the ritual as the pool-a chance for them to rail, complain, or simply entertain while swapping stories about their day.