October, 1941

Aldera, Minnesota, United States of America

This land was almost a place of its own. One could pretend that it was a part of another world, apart from the continental United States. Apart from the war. It was easy to make believe that the land of 10,000 lakes had no part in the real world and its twisted workings. But that was just a dream, a fanciful illusion. Even the small towns and the farms surrounding Lake Aldera were part of the war just as everything else in this nation was. All of it, surrendered and auctioned off to opposing voices. Home was no longer seemed like home. None of it was the home that Leia Organa remembered.

It had been seized from her hands, hidden from her view. Stolen by radio announcements and newspaper clippings, the voice of Edward Murrow drifting across the airwaves, the innocence of the world then denounced. No more false peace or even cold stares traded across oceans and borders. Enough years had passed for the world to grow another generation. Another army. Another war.

No one else she knew feared the turmoils of Europe escaping across the mediating oceans, but Leia thought she could see something coming, or sense it, as her danger sense would send a cold spike up her back. No one else saw it, but she couldn't see how it could be avoided. Something about Europe's troubles, she thought, was determined to blow over. Then, this home she treasured would be further disrupted and soiled. She could hardly fathom the thought of losing anything of her home on Lake Aldera. And to the spoils of war . . .

A war, of course, nobody else feared. Americans watched the news of Europe's affairs with a certain disdained interest. With a measure of mockery, they stuck up their noses and merely raised a brow at Europe's troubles. Leia didn't understand the arrogance in this, but was always shot down when she proposed that the Americas be more concerned. A few minor run-ins with the Germans were of no concern, everyone else always insisted. Besides, they were too busy with their war. Their war, Leia would then repeat to herself with a silent laugh. They called her paranoid, but she preferred the term 'cautious'. She had a favorite news clipping which she kept tucked away in a drawer- a front-page story from the Washington New Dealer from a year ago bearing the headline 'War? American People Say No!' Still, Leia waited for it. So far, she'd been waiting a year. Well, just over two years now since September was a month past.
Leia remembered September 2nd like yesterday. Her father had entered the kitchen while she and her mother were already eating breakfast and, with a heavy sigh, he dropped the morning's New York Times by the milk pitcher. "It's finally come," Bail Organa announced ominously. Ignoring her mother's frantic glance, Leia quickly reached for the paper and read the headline. 'GERMANY ATTACKS POLAND; CITIES BOMBED, PORT BLOCKADED; DANZIG IS ACCEPTED INTO REICH'.

"The war's back," her father explained tersely to Breha who wore a permanent expression of dismay.

Leia frowned, dropping the paper back to the table. "Why is it back, Papa?"

"It's a matter of unfinished business, Lelila," he said, shaking his head and taking his seat at the breakfast table. "Europe can't seem to straighten out their problems."

Breha shook her head over her glass, purposefully turning her gaze from the item which was disrupting her family dinner. "Maybe, if they'd just listened to Wilson …"

"Well!" Bail raised his brows and proudly dropped the paper into the nearby trash. "Enough of that. I'm sure they'll be able to sort out their problems soon enough."

She shook the memory away, but persistent fear remained. Everyone told her that she was paranoid for no reason at all. She worried too much. The war was far away and the United States had no dealings with Europe's troubles. But war, Leia thought, was big and ugly and she didn't dare underestimate it. Maybe her home remained untouched by Germany's blitzkrieg and the ever-changing ways of the Russia, but she didn't think the world was all that small. Besides, she didn't need to be concerned for her home. There was the rest of the world for even a citizen of the largely isolationist U.S. to worry over.

Pursing her lips, Leia looked to the telegram folded in her lap. Already opened, already read. One more look out across the lake where she could see a small flock of common loons, swimming leisurely across the lake's murky surface. This was her home as much as it was theirs. Though, they had been here longer and she respected that. Leia threw her last bits of bread out into the lake before she decided she'd had her break and it was time to head back into town. She slowly pulled her feet out of the water, scooting back along the wood deck and reaching for her stockings and shoes. It was unusually warm for the fall month; the sun was hanging high and mighty, beating down. Leia thought she could walk on bare feet to the gravel road, then her feet would be dry enough for her to don her shoes.

Town wasn't far away, less than a few miles, and she walked down the back roads until she heard the familiar clamor of Chryslers and Ford convertibles on the street. Kresge's, the local five-and-dime, stood on the corner of Main Street and Broadway, pointing Leia in the direction of her family's neighborhood.

'Town' was small. Just like Audubon, Glyndon, and the handful of other towns sprinkled around it, Aldera was small. All their stores were littered across a couple streets while the farm houses were scattered across by the acres. Leia's family lived just behind "Store Street", as she called this small area. Her parents had no wealth to their names, but managed on the support of their tightly-knit community. They lived with their meager possessions in a modest home with white shutters on the canvas of a light, pastel green. It was close to the lake, but nestled safely in the middle of town. Outside their block neighborhood, farmland spanned for miles before the next town. From the edge of the block, anyone could see the rich fields, smell the nurtured soil. And Leia liked the comfort of simplicity, of her quiet small town life, but the lake kept her anchored, which was invaluable to her.

Leia followed the street- which hardly bustled with cars but people- and hopped onto the raised platform that carried all the stores on its firm planks. She loved the sound it made when her boots clapped gently against the wood, producing a full, deep sound. Something about it was oddly satisfying, so she focused her straying attention to the mild plop as she went along, still trying to figure out what she would say to her parents. Leia walked around the street corner and strode straight home, tucking her telegram discreetly behind the waistband of her skirt. She pulled her sleeves back over her elbows, redoing the tiny button at the hem of her blouse sleeves. She cinched her belt again- just to be sure her letter wasn't going anywhere.

She skipped up the steps to the front door of the Organa home and opened the screen door with a whine. Awkwardly designed, the kitchen was the first area people stepped into once crossing the threshold of the front door. Breha Organa sat in her chair, looked up at Leia and the door, and sighed. "Bail! You really need to look at that door soon." She rose to her feet, tossing aside the day's paper and coming to meet her daughter at the door. "Where have you been, Lelila? A letter came in for you but I couldn't find you."

"I was at the lake, Mama," Leia told her with no guilt in her tone. She left her shoes at the door and continued to the refrigerator without stopping. "I always go to the lake."

"It's September, dear. It's getting cold and winter's coming." Breha sighed again, peering out the window as if she could see flurries of snow already drifting through the air. "You'll catch a cold like that."

"Mama! You're a teacher! You should know we still get fall before winter!"

Breha looked at her sharply, clearly disapproving of her sarcasm. "You've lived here as long as I. You should know that fall doesn't last long."

Leia threw her shoulders into an animated shrug, ducking behind the fridge door for cover. "I wasn't very cold, Mama. It was just breezy."

"Nonsense! It's getting cold! I don't think you should be going out to the lake anymore."

"Yes, Mama," she responded obediently. She found the milk pitcher and set it out on the table, but stopped short when she noticed her mother's warming gaze as it followed her. She simply raised her brows.

"You have a letter," Breha told her again, waving an envelope above her head. "Don't you want to see it?"

A rush of dread swept into her awareness, but Leia forced a curious smile and nodded, reaching for the letter. "Who is it from?"

Breha shook her head. "Not a who. A where?"

Leia felt queasy. "Well, where, then?"

Breha beamed with delight, her olive-toned cheeks illuminating with a pink blush. She hurried to the other door and called, "Bail! B, our little Lelila has another letter! Bail, come!"

Leia stifled a groan, trying to cut the pomp and ceremony as she quickly and haphazardly ripped through the envelope. It's no big deal! Leia could have laughed to herself if each and every tidily sealed letter delivered to her parents' home didn't drive her mad with anxiety. No big deal. It doesn't matter.
"Who is it from?" Bail Organa asked as he hurried into the kitchen to join the scene.

"Good grief," Leia muttered. She ripped past the last section and dug out the letter. "Concordia!" she announced roughly, tossing the letter at the table. "It's just Concordia, Mama and Papa. Nothing special."

"Nothing special?" Breha spat and swept the letter from the table. "Leia, that's another college to add to the list!" She stared at the wrinkled paper, holding it firmly with both hands. "About time they sent theirs," she complained. "Took them long enough."

Leia pantomimed a headache, holding a hand to her forehead. "Mama."

"And it's not that far away either! Just a couple hours! You'd still be close enough to home to visit every few weeks maybe."

"Mom, I'm not going to Concordia."

"Goodness, it's minutes away from that school in North Dakota! You might as well go there!"

"I'm not going to North Dakota, Mom."

"Oh, Bail! What's the name of that one in ? The one we both like so much?"

"Mom! I'm not going to !" she finally blew, but laughed with a manic grin more than shouted or scorned her parents. "I'm not going to Moorhead or Fargo- or anywhere!"

Finally losing it, Breha threw the letter and stomped her foot. "Why not? Why won't you go, Leia? It's a waste! It's a waste of that big brain of yours and it's a waste of all that money you've been saving up! Leia, I wish you would go! I don't care which one you chose; I just wish you would take advantage of it! They want you! And that's everything we could ever want for you! You deserve this! You deserve to go and I really wish you would!"

"I'm not going, Mom." Leia forced herself to relax. She slipped around the table, picking up the envelope and dropping it into the garbage without a thought. But she saved the letter itself. "I don't need to. I don't want to." She took her mother by her shoulders and gripped firmly, holding her undivided attention. "I don't want to go, Mama, because I love it here. I would miss you too much." She left a delicate kiss on Breha's cheek and slid away.

She'd left her radio on earlier, so Leia entered her small bedroom greeted by a feather breeze drifting through her window and Jimmy Dorsey's "Blue Champagne" drifting from her Firestone Air Chief. Her bed was neat and made, her nightstand and accoutrements straightened out. She was a tidy person and she kept her space meticulously kept. Everything had its place. Even her brush and makeup tools all had their specific spots on her vanity. And she had a spot for the letters, too. A box for all the letters sat in a drawer, an unorganized, glorified pile from a dozen or so different schools. Now, she added two more to the stack- one of which being her second letter from Concordia. Though, it didn't matter where it was from, which school, because she wasn't going. She pulled her telegram from behind her waistband and added that one too. Then, "Rhumboogie" replaced Jimmy and Leia's foot happily tapped to the swing melody of the sisters.

She stocked the box away, moving it to her panties drawer and burying it under a mound. Sauntering across her room to her bed, she resigned herself to lie down and rest her eyes. A subtle, oncoming headache was beginning to gnaw at the top of her forehead from the inside. Maybe, if she'd spent just another hour by the lake's shore, she might have been able to truly chase away her numbing anxiety. She should have lied, she cursed herself. Just another hour at the library as her excuse. There was a mess- in the children's section. Half the books belonged on other shelves and it took me an hour to straighten it out! No, that sounded poor. Whatever excuse she could muddle her mind for, just another hour at the lake, on the dock, her feet dipping into the greenish-looking laps would surely have put her at ease. Home. She was still home and that was where she wanted to stay.

A.N.

Mind me while I go through my traditional long and thought-out intro note. First and foremost, I need to thank swimmergirl71 for being a wonderful beta who had to suffer through my lack of understanding 'sentence structure'- it's a real issue as I'm sure most of you are aware. Also, thanks to her for all the research help. It's only thanks to her that this fic will even be semi-historically accurate.

More props are also due to those who are helping me learn patience. Obviously, I'm still learning- but progress!

Lastly, thanks all for reading and I hope you enjoy this story and the idea I came up with! While I'm still writing, this is so much fun and I'm so excited to share this with you all!