Note: This story was mostly inspired by BluJeanBaby526's Life as a Smuggler's Sister (If you haven't read it yet, do so. I highly recommend it. It's in my favorites.) Hope you enjoy!

Edit: Yes, I fixed some of the embarrassing typos in this chapter and the terrible descriptions. Hope this is a little better, but I didn't change as much in this chapter as I did in the second one :P

Disclaimer: George Lucas owns Star Wars. I own Serena.

Chapter 1: Just Another Job

Tatooine, a blazing hot world filled with scum... or at least that was what Serena Solo thought as she walked through Mos Eisley, with sweat trickling down her face.

Why did Han want to come here again? She thought bitterly, wiping the irritating sweat from her brow once again. That seemed to be the only thing she was doing as she waited for her brother.

She glanced around, never pausing to stare at any of the locals. She had learned her lesson the hard way, when one of them pinned her to the wall with a blaster to her head and then accused her of staring. She attempted to fight back but the man was much stronger than she. Only through the intervention of her brother was she able to escape unscathed. She learned quickly from the incident, and was determined not to make the same foolish mistake again.

The eighteen year old pushed pieces of her brown hair out of her face that had fallen loose out of her pony tail and continued to watch the cantina door. Han really was too paranoid. He had expected Jabba to send someone after them for losing the cargo on their last smuggling run. Serena had scoffed at that and said that slimy Hutt couldn't care less about one little incident. Han was usually good with keeping his shipments. He couldn't control the Imperial patrol routes. If he could, then Jabba would have had the right to be upset. Besides, the greedy gangster had other smugglers who would be certain to deliver him their cargo. He'd barely lost any money with them anyway; it was only a small shipment. There couldn't have been anything of importance in the cargo, and she was determined to forget the whole issue.

She watched for what seemed like hours. Nobody of any significance had entered the cantina, though the most interesting group so far was an old man, a boy around her age, and two droids. She watched them enter the cantina and listened to their conversation. They needed a ship and Han would be quite excited to hear that. He was anxious to pay back the Hutt and get the gangster off his back, and transportation would be a quick and easy job. The group entered the cantina, but the two droids returned outside, and she realized the owner must have had a non-droid policy.

She watched the golden droid with amusement. He was a bit of a whiner, and complained about the simplest of things. She had to admit he was entertaining, even though she was certain he wasn't trying to be. The smaller droid whom the golden one called R2-D2 beeped, whirred, and buzzed. Serena couldn't understand a word of it, and eventually tuned them out when she lost interest. The conversation between the droids didn't stay interesting for long, because the golden one started to complain that the heat was going to damage his circuitry. This was where Serena lost interest; she was terrible with repairs and didn't even have any desire to learn about it, and so she ignored the rest of their conversation. She didn't even notice when they both left the area until she looked once more only to find they had disappeared.

It remained peaceful, and Serena sighed. It really wasn't fair that Han got to sit in the comfortable cantina while she sweated out here under Tatooine's blazing suns, "Though this wouldn't be the first time I got the raw end of the deal," she muttered bitterly, wiping her forehead with her hand. She loved her brother, really, but sometimes he was so frustrating. She opened her canteen and pressed it to her lips, savoring the taste of the water replenishing her energy. She almost whined when the last of her water trickled down her throat. Han had better hurry up, or she'd just get up and leave. Han could handle the little threats, and Serena wasn't about to dehydrate while she waited for - what she believed, at least - to be nothing.

I'd kill for some water.She thought after about ten minutes had gone by. She'd attempted to retreat in the shade to escape some of the sweltering heat, but even in the shade she still felt the heat. Nothing's happening. I guess I'll just go back to -

While she was lost in her thoughts, she caught sight of a familiar-looking Rodian enter the cantina. She felt her heart skip a beat and she grabbed her blaster.

"Damn it," She hissed when she realized Greedo had already entered the cantina.

Greedo was one of Jabba's 'bounty hunters', though he wasn't a very good one. Still, if Han was caught unprepared then Greedo might get lucky and take him out. She couldn't let that happen; Serena contacted him on her portable comm unit, "Han, Greedo's comin' your way."

"Right. I'll be ready. Go and help Chewie prep the ship." Her brother responded, and ended the communication. She tried to object, but Han refused to answer her.

I didn't even get a 'thank you'.

She huffed, and, just as she was about to sit back down, she saw Chewbacca leaving the cantina, presumably to go prep the Falcon for launch. She ran up to him.

"Chewie!" She called, and the wookiee roared at her in acknowledgment, "Y'know, Greedo just walked in. Han might be in trouble."

"Greedo is weak. Your brother should have no trouble defeating him." He responded. Chewbacca had a very high opinion of Han, though anyone who had a wookiee owe them a life-debt was a pretty significant person. Life-debts weren't given out easily. She hoped he was right, though if Jabba sent Greedo of all people, Han would most likely make it out without so much as a scratch.

They walked in companionable silence and finally arrived at Han's pride and joy The Millennium Falcon. Her brother worshipped the ship, he never let anyone who he didn't trust so much as look at her without watching them carefully.

She rolled her eyes at the memory. Han was so strange sometimes.

Chewbacca dutifully prepped the ship and fixed a few things up. Serena tried to help, but she was pretty inept when it came to understanding ships. She couldn't fly them well, and she couldn't repair them to save her life, no matter how much Han tried to teach her; she just couldn't grasp the concept. She left that to Han and Chewie. So, because Chewie was understanding of her ineptitude, he just had her grab some tools for him, or hand him something he couldn't reach while he worked on the ship. The arrangement suited them just fine.

"Wait here, Serena. I should check on Han." Chewbacca said after he had finished with his repairs. She just nodded and watched the wookiee walk away.

She sat in her seat in the cockpit, drank a bit of water, and waited. She was grateful to get out of sun and into the cool ship; Serena stretched out her legs, and waited for either Chewie or her brother to return. As she stretched out her legs, she debated whether it would be worth it to hop into the 'fresher for a quick shower. She would love to wash off all the sweat, but figured that - if Han was going to bring guests over - it would be a little embarrassing to just be getting out of the refresher as people she didn't know entered the ship.

She at least would try to make herself presentable, and tried to wash her face and cool off. She took the time to examine her reflection. She was pretty with brown eyes and brown hair that extended to her mid back, when it wasn't pulled up into a pony tail. Her skin, usually mildly pale, had tanned, and even slightly burned under the harsh twin sun's glare.

"Solo!" The call startled her and she glanced out the window to see who was calling. She saw Jabba the Hutt, standing outside the Falcon with an entourage of bounty hunters. Boba Fett was among them, and Serena knew the Hutt meant business since he brought the most fearsome bounty hunter in the galaxy with him. Fett's price was never cheap.

So I was wrong. Jabba does care we dropped the cargo. He doesn't seem happy. She frowned, and prepared herself to go and talk with the slimy Hutt.

As she walked down the ramp she spoke, "Han's not here, Jabba, so if you're looking for him, you're wasting your time."

The gangster turned towards her and chuckled, "I know your brother is here. He fried one of my bounty hunters."

"Well, he's not in the Falcon. Believe me or not, that's the truth." She scoffed, backing away and Jabba moved a bit closer. The Hutt disgusted her, and she was never happy that Han had decided to smuggle for him. There were surely some criminal bosses who wouldn't make Serena want to gag each time she looked at them.

"There are ways to make you talk..." The Hutt said menacingly, and was about to signal the bounty hunters when a voice cried out.

"I'm right here Jabba, so step away from my sister." Selena smirked as Han stepped up to the Hutt, with Chewbacca behind him, "I've been waiting for you."

"Oh, have you?" The slug-like gangster responded.

"I wasn't going to run out on you, you know."

"Han, my boy, you're disappointing me. Why haven't you paid me? Why did you fry poor Greedo?"

"Listen Jabba, next time you wanna talk to me, come yourself. Don't sent one of these twerps."

"Han, Han, I can't afford to make exceptions. What if everyone who worked for me dropped their cargo at the first sign of an Imperial starship? It's just not good for business." The Hutt said, and Serena had to keep herself from scoffing. The cargo wasn't important, and Han had probably saved the Hutt from some trouble with the Imperials, since he played it safe. Apparently, that wasn't what Jabba was looking for.

"Look, Jabba , even I get boarded sometimes. You think I had a choice? But I got a nice easy charter now, I'll pay you back plus a little extra. I just need a little more time..."Han said after stomping on Jabba's tail, which caused Serena to have to restrain her laughter. The Hutt glared at Han, but chose to ignore her brother's arrogance...for now.

"Han, my boy, you're the best. So for an extra twenty percent -" Jabba responded greedily.

"Twenty percent? That's crazy! Don't tell me you're gonna accept that, Han!" Serena argued. She was getting tired of this fat slug stealing all their hard-earned credits.

"You heard my sis. Fifteen, Jabba - don't push it," Han said, with a note of finality in his voice.

"Fine, fifteen. But if you fail me again, I'll put a price on your head so big, you won't be able to go near a civilized system!" Jabba called as Han started to walk away.

"You're a wonderful human being, Jabba." Han said sarcastically, and the sibling's watched the Hutt order his men away, and leave the area.

"Well...that was pleasant." Serena said, attempting to lighten the somewhat tense mood Han seemed to be in. Though he hid it well, she knew him too well for him to hide anything.

"Sure was. Listen sis, we've got to get goin' as soon as possible. These people are paying us a fortune for a flight to Alderaan, and I wanna get the job done as fast as possible so Jabba'll get off my back."

"Right. As long as it gets me off this planet, I'm in." She smirked.

A little while later the boy and old man walked towards the Falcon, along with the two droids she was watching earlier. She wasn't ecstatic to be stuck in a confined ship with the golden droid, because from what she saw he complained about pretty much everything. The astromech, however, seemed to be quiet enough - though that might have had to do with Serena's lack of understanding when the droid spoke.

When they approached the ship, she got a good look at the two humans for the first time. The old man had white facial hair and a gentle demeanor, yet he seemed more than willing to defend himself if necessary. The other boy had blonde, wind-blown hair and wore clothing a farmer on Tatooine typically wore. He's not bad at all. He's actually pretty cute, she thought quickly, before discarding that thought completely, Please, he's just a passenger for a quick flight to Alderaan, nothing special.

However, when he smiled at her she couldn't help blushing a bit. The boy introduced himself, "I haven't met you yet. Luke Skywalker."

"Serena Solo." She nodded, smiling back. She noticed the old man standing behind Luke and smiled, "And you are...?"

"Ben Kenobi. A pleasure to meet you." He smiled kindly at her, but seemed to be staring at her oddly. She wasn't sure what he wanted, "Is something wrong?"

"No. No, nothing at all. My apologies" Ben responded, breaking off his stare and walking away.

That was a little odd. She thought, before returning her attention towards Luke.

"So, why are you heading to Alderaan?" She asked. She liked to know a little about what they were doing.

He seemed hesitant to answer, but before he could say anything Han spoke up, "Sis, they don't want any questions asked. So, keep your mouth shut."

"I will if you will." She retorted, and Han grinned.

Luke seemed to have noticed the Falcon for the first time, "That's the ship we're flying in? What a piece of junk!"

"Ouch, Han's not gonna like you insulting his baby," She teased her brother.

He glared at both of them before responding, "I've made a lot of special modifications myself. She's the fastest ship you're gonna get, so quit your whinin' and get in."

"Touchy, touchy." She smirked before heading towards the entrance ramp. Just as she was about to enter, she heard Han shout something.

She grabbed her blaster and turned around, noticing the stormtroopers pouring through towards the Millennium Falcon. She heard Han swear and start firing at them, successfully hitting a few before most of them could react. She was about to help him, when he shouted at her, "No - I'm fine! Get them into the Falcon! NOW!"

She hesitated for a moment, before leading Ben and Luke into the ship, with Chewie following her close behind.

Chewbacca raced to the cockpit and started the ship, while she watched Han shoot down a few more troopers before climbing into the Falcon at the last moment. He ran into the cockpit, crying out, "Chewie, get us out of here!"

Chewbacca obliged, and, with the stormtroopers still shooting at them, he flew away from Docking Bay 94 into space.

What did you think? Good? Bad? Alright? I appreciate feedback! :D Thanks for reading!