To Be a Solo

When Leia is pregnant with Ben, Han is having doubts about passing his last name on to his son.

To Be a Solo

The baby was a boy.

All day long, ever since the sonogram results, Han had been in a daze. There was a little _boy_ growing in Leia’s womb, not just a little nameless _thing._ Names, they could make a list of boys’ names now, and . . . they also knew what the baby’s _last_ name would be.

He swallowed as he sat up in bed while Leia emerged from the refresher in her light green maternity nightgown that seemed to highlight her ever-growing stomach that housed their son. She let out a long, tired exhale as she climbed into bed next to her husband, but once she was settled in, Han leaned over and kissed her abdomen for what might have been the twentieth time that day.

“Hey, little guy,” Han murmured. “We had a big day finding out something new about you.”

“Yes,” said Leia, patting her stomach. “You’re gonna be a little Solo, yes you are.”

Han’s stomach suddenly flipped. “Or . . . you _could_ be an Organa if you want.”

Suddenly Leia raised an eyebrow at him. “I thought we agreed that the baby would be a Solo if it was a boy and an Organa if it was a girl.”

“Well, yeah, but . . . you know, he doesn’t _have_ to be named Solo. I mean, you’ve got the whole royal lineage name and a name that honors Alderaan, and what’ve I got? I wasn’t even _born_ with the name Solo – it was just given to me cause I needed a last name for the Imperial Flight Academy application. Far as I know, I wasn’t born with _any_ last name.” He let out a long sigh, running his hand over his wife’s abdomen and feeling the silky texture of her nightgown. “Yeah kiddo, do you really want the name Daddy got given just cause he was _alone?_ ”

Leia’s fingers gently climbed on top of her husband’s. “It’s still your legal name.”

“Doesn’t mean it has to be _his,”_ Han mumbled. _“I don’t have people. I’m alone.”_ Those long-ago words that had given him a new identity pushed their way into his mind. Solo. Alone. If he were superstitious he might worry that giving their son the name Solo would curse him to a life alone, but he wasn’t superstitious.

Was he?

“Han,” Leia said gently, “you may not have been born with it, but it’s still _your_ name. So what if it hasn’t been handed down for generations? Our son will still share a name with someone who’s brave, caring, funny, fascinating, and can be irritating at times, but in a good way.” She ran her finger up and down his hand, pushing between his knuckles. “And he’ll be so proud to have you as his father.”

“Proud,” Han repeated in an unconvinced voice. When the Imperial at the checkpoint had given him that name, he’d actually been kind of happy about it. Not only because he was finally getting off of Corellia (though he hadn’t wanted to get off of Corellia alone), but also because he’d been given a last name. A last name meant he was finally _somebody._ Even if the somebody was just another Imperial cadet, his name still meant something. For Lady Proxima’s scumrats, names served only as identifiers and nothing more, so why would you need more than one?

Also, Han Solo _sounded_ neat.

But now, when faced with the prospect of giving his child that name, it suddenly sounded as meaningless as the single moniker “Han” had when he was a scumrat. He let out a long sigh as he rested his head on his wife’s belly. “You know, I had to take remedial reading and math courses at the Academy.”

“Really?” Leia sounded genuinely surprised, as if she couldn’t imagine Han being bad at such basic subjects.

“Yeah. I’d stopped goin’ to school when my dad died and Proxima . . . well, you know, so I was way behind on the academic stuff. Then to add to the humiliation, most of my classmates in the remedial courses were younger than me.”

Leia gave a small snicker as she started running her soft fingers through his hair.

“Oh, you think that’s _funny?”_

“A little,” Leia admitted, rubbing her fingertips over his scalp.

Han sighed again, his breath creating tiny ripples in her nightgown. “And since I was older than the others, the teachers were always expectin’ me to know all the answers. It was ‘Solo this’ and ‘Solo that,’ all the damn time. Once I’d gotten a new name, it almost seemed to replace my old one.”

Leia didn’t answer; she just kept rubbing his head as if that was the only thing she could think of. Han didn’t blame her – he wouldn’t have known what to say in her situation either. He swallowed as the baby nudged his cheek. Maybe one day the kid would resent having a name that was given to a scumrat who could barely even _read_ when he entered the Academy and had to take classes with kids several years his juniors just to catch up.

“Well what about _General_ Solo?” Leia finally said. “You know, General Solo who led the attack on Endor?”

“General Solo,” Han said with a humorless snicker. “General Solo who led _one_ battle and then resigned the military cause he was sick of the whole damn thing.”

“He also resigned because his wife was pregnant,” Leia argued. “So he could go from being General Solo to being Daddy Solo.” She rubbed his head again. “I think our son will be happy about that.”