Star Crossed

VII

6 MONTHS LATER

Jo woke up from her nightmare with a start. She had dreamt she was suffocating under the weight of Darth Vader's grasp. The air was getting impossibly thin right before she woke up. 

As she sucked in a breath and sat up, she smacked her forehead on an invisible force above her. 

She fell back down as she let out a hiss of pain, then lifted her hands to feel what was stopping her from sitting up. 

Her hands touched the cool surface of the glass, as they did she noticed the wires wrapped around her fingers. 

"Help!" She banged her fists on the glass. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Just like her dream, the air felt incredibly thin. "HELP ME!" Her screams fogged the glass. 

Jo's chest heaved as she turned her head to look around her. The room she was in was empty, and the only door to the room was closed. 

"HELP!" She screamed as she wiggled under all the wires. They were attached to every part of her, and the more she moved the more they tangled around her limbs. "SOMEBODY PLEASE! HELP ME!" She begged as she smacked the glass. Her breaths felt numbered as she was trapped in the glass tomb. If no one heard her soon, she would surely suffocate. 

The med door opened as an officer walked in. The young officer saw Jo's withering form and rushed over to her. "Princess!"

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" She screamed at the young woman. "Hurry!" She begged. 

The officer  pressed a series of buttons that released the pressurized glass dome. As the glass lifted and moved back, Jo rolled off the bed and fell three feet to the cold, hard ground. The harsh contact made her knees ache but at least she was free of the glass case.  

"Oh my-" The officer dropped to her knees as she reached for Jo. "Are you okay?" She asked. 

Jo sucked in several long breaths of the fresh air as she gave a curt nod. The officer tucked her arms under Jo's armpits and pulled her up to sit her back on the bed. She tried to get Jo to lay back down, but Jo pushed her arms away and stayed sitting. 

"Where- am I?" Jo asked as she looked up at the officer. All the lights around her were blindingly bright. She had to squint just so she could make out the officer's tan face. 

"You're on a rebel cruiser." The officer kept one hand on Jo's shoulder to steady her as she turned to press a button to the room's commlink. "The Princess is awake." Her voice echoed throughout the cruiser. When she turned back to Jo, she noticed the green tint to her skin. "Are you okay? Are you going to be sick?" The officer panicked as she looked for a garbage bin or anything for the Princess to throw up in. 

"Where's Han?" Jo asked the question she wanted to ask first. When the officer didn't respond she asked again, "Where is Han Solo?" She watched the way the officer's eyes skirted around the room, not staying on her for more than a second. 

"Princess..." She let out a breath. "Han Solo was captured the day you were harmed... He's been sent to Jabba the Hutt for his debts." The officer looked between Jo's colored eyes. 

"How-" Jo tried to remember everything, but it was all fuzzy. "When? Why hasn't he come back yet?" She squeezed her eyes shut as a headache pounded behind her eyes. 

"Princess... I'm so sorry..."

"How long have I been out?" She asked a very specific question so the officer couldn't skirt around it. Her head pounded even more now as she waited for the answer. Each thump of her heart made her wince, but she kept her gaze steady on the officer despite it all. "How long?" She asked again. 

"Six months..." 

Jo lost her breath. 

"No-" She shook her head, but that only increased the thumping in her brain. "No- That's not- that doesn't make sense."

"Princess..." 

Jo opened her eyes to see a breathless Luke in the doorway. Somehow, in the time it took her to sleep and heal, he had grown. His hair was longer than before, and more tame. Even his outfit choice had matured. He wore clothes similar to a Jedi instead of a farm boy or pilot. He had abandoned the tans and whites in place of a dark gray vest and black pants. Overall he looked darker, moodier, more sure of himself. 

Even as he looked at Jo, there was wisdom in his eyes that was never there before. 

"Leave us-" Jo waved at the officer as she kept her gaze on Luke. 

The young girl nodded and left the med bay. Luke stepped in right as she left, and the door closed to give them some privacy. 

"Luke... what happened?" Jo watched Luke closely as he took a step towards her. "I... the last thing I remember is-" She strained to try and think back. She remembered pain, so much pain it hurt even when she slept. "I remember Vader coming to Bespin. I remember him asking me what the decoy's name was then... it's in shambles." She hated not being able to remember. "I... I remember being turned over to Boba Fett with-" The image of Han frozen in carbonite came to mind. "Oh no..." She looked at Luke. "What happened to Han?"

Luke moved to sit on the table next to Jo. "Vader... he froze Han in carbonite and gave him to Boba Fett." He spoke hesitantly as he looked over her weak, fatigued form. "Lando and Chewie have been out looking for him, but they haven't had any luck so far." 

"I need to go-" Jo stood, but her weak legs gave out from under her. She would have fallen to the ground if Luke hadn't reached out to grab her. 

"You can't-" He helped her sit back down. "You need to finish healing."

"I am." Jo determined as she started to pull the wires from her arms and legs. They all came off relatively easy, but left little red circles from where they had suctioned to her skin. "I'm fine, Luke." She told him sternly as she met his gaze. "But Han isn't." 

"They said your brain was fried." 

Luke and Jo turned to see Leia in the doorway. She gave Jo a grave look as she entered the med bay. "You lost twenty percent of your brain function before they tended to you, and if we had been any later getting you here, you would have lost motor function... permanently." Her tone was severe. "You are not okay, and you are not finished healing." 

Jo pulled the rest of the wires from her exposed skin. "I don't think you are in the right position to tell me how I feel." Jo stood to her feet to prove her strength. This time she didn't fall. "Things may be a bit fuzzy, but I remember exactly how we left things." 

Leia's façade cracked, just for a second, before she built her walls back up. "I don't care how we left things. You still listen to me, and I am telling you that you are in no position to go off looking for Han."

"Leia!" Luke looked at his friend. 

"She's not ready." Leia kept her eyes on Jo as she said it. "That's the end of it." Leia turned and left the room without so much as a word of appreciation for Jo's conscious state. 

When the closed again, Jo dropped back to the bed. 

"I don't know why she's like this. She stayed by your side every day. She prayed for you to wake up. She talked to you." Luke told Jo. He wanted her to understand that Leia was happy she was awake, no matter how she seemed. 

"She's right." Jo admitted as she kept her eyes on the door. "I'm not ready." She turned her head to look at Luke. "But I will be. And when I am... we are finding Han, and we're bringing him Home."