Tears fell from Leia Organa's eye as she watched the Ugnaughts bind Han Solo's arms and legs tightly to the hydraulic deck of the carbonite chamber. He stood stoically looking at her and Chewbacca in turn, and Leia struggled to get her emotions under control. She didn't want Han's last thoughts of her to be troubled ones. After all, it wasn't she who was about to face imminent death as he was frozen in carbonite, but him.

She and Han locked eyes and anguished swept through her again at the thought she might never see him alive again. Words she had hesitated to say before now, flowed freely from her mouth.

"I love you." She choked out past the lump in her throat.

Han rewarded her with a cocky smile. "I know."

Barely were the words out of Han's mouth than he disappeared from sight. Chewbacca let out a baleful farewell, as Leia turned to hide her face against his chest, and wept.

Mere seconds passed before huge metal tongs lifted the smoldering figure from the pit. Leia and Chewie both waited with bated breath as Lando dropped to his knees beside the carbonite statue, turning knobs, and checking gauges.

"Just say them," Leia murmured under her breath, praying that Lando would tell her and Chewie that Han was alive.

"He's alive." Lando said, "And in perfect hibernation."

Leia breathed a sigh of relief in reaction to Lando's words. Han was alive and that was all that mattered to her. No matter what it took to rescue him from Jabba the Hutt, she and Chewbacca would do it. As long as Han lived, there was hope that someday they would be reunited.