He was standoffish as he watch her hold her son for the first time. The child, a mere hour out of the womb, looked like his mother. This was something both she and he were thankful for. She wouldn't see the face of the creature that had violated her; he wouldn't be externally reminded of how badly he failed her.
The boy was not his.
----
It was simple; they had gotten word of alien activity in La Soladad and had went back out to the abandoned military base. They had found a human; it turned out to be a race of alien that had followed the same evolutionary path as mankind. The being attacked, and after an epic battle it teleported with an unconscious Gwen to god knows where to do only god knew what to her.
As it turned out, they learned this after rescuing her several long month later after desperately searching countless galaxies, that their sister race from the from a distant planet was slowly dying out because most of their women weren't fertile and had been searching for the mythological twin race and had found it on a planet called Earth. They had chosen Gwen to be experimented on and had taken her. They had treated her kindly but she was repeatedly artificially inseminated. None of the fertilized eggs took so she thought she was in the clear. But before she was rescued they had tried once more.
She had kept this knowledge, thinking that the egg hadn't taken like all the rest, from her friends and family until a couple months later when she became ill.
Then and only then she had let one person in on the truth, Kevin, and had taken the test. She had bought ten of them actually, just to be absolutely sure. They were all positive. She had crumpled to the tiled floor of his bathroom and sobbed herself to sleep.
The next few months were hard, seeing as Kevin was the only support she had. Her parents had shunned her after she decided to keep the baby. Her aunt and uncle were no better and Verdona hadn't stopped by. Ben was also supportive but didn't know what to help with.
The other young man had surprised her though. He held her hair back during the morning sickness, went to the store in the middle of the night because of her weird cravings (sardines covered in chocolate to name one), and as her weight increased he even massaged her swollen feet without complaint and without her asking him to.
For him it was living hell; helping her prepare for the arrival of a child that wasn't his too. But he wasn't going to abandon her to go through this alone. Not when he had failed her so miserably.
So he detached himself from his task, this wasn't about his feelings. So when her water broke he had been calm and aloof even though he held her hand.
But as he watched them he couldn't help but feel a rush of emotions; despair for his lost of control over his life, anger at the creature who had caused the situation, pride for the redheaded Adonite for having made it through the ordeal and above all love. Love for the redhead and, surprisingly, love for the little boy she held.
He couldn't deny it anymore, he realized, he was emotionally invested in the two of them. Damn.
Sighing internally in resignation to the above fact, he walked to her side. "How're ya doing?"
"Fine, pain killers are kicking in finally." She grinned a small, kind of loopy, grin.
He grinned back, "Maybe you'll be nicer when you're high."
"You're lucky we're in a public hospital or I would—" she yawned, blinking slowly.
His grin widened, "Yeah, yeah. I know, I woulda met the wall. Here, let me take him, and you rest."
"I can't yet *another yawn* I've got to fill out the paperwork *yawn*" she told him even as she handed over the boy.
"No worries, if they bring it I'll fill it out."
"I can't ask *yawn* you to do that…"
"It's okay, just sleep. Benji'll be here soon."
"Fine, but his *yawn* name, his *yawn* name is Devlin." She was dozing now.
"Of course it rhymes." he teased.
"Shut… *snore*."
His grin slipped away as he looked down at the newborn, he moved to take a seat in the armchair, "You know, you're really lucky you've her for a mom." He began talking to the boy seriously, even though the boy just stared up at him with big emerald eyes, "you've already caused her enough trouble so you better behave yourself as you grow up, ya hear?"
The boy, Devlin, just blinked as if he actually understood.
He grinned, again, "but that doesn't mean you can't have fun with her."
"Mr. Levin," a voice said, and he looked up to find a nurse with some paperwork.
"Just leave it here." She nodded and left the pages on the nearby table.
He sighed, placed Devlin in the plastic hospital crib, and started on the papers.
When he came to the blank that was labeled "Last Name" he paused. Thinking.
Even in today's world a bastard child is looked down upon, and the mother suffers even worse treatment. He watched the boy out of the corner of his eye, "You wouldn't mind your names rhyming would you?"
Devlin obviously didn't answer but Kevin had made his mind up. No turning back now. Carefully, kind of twitchily really, he placed the surname of Levin into the last name box and went back up to inscribe his own name into the place where a father should.
He stood up and went to turn in the pages before returning and reclining in the armchair, dozing lightly, He would find out tomorrow what Gwen thought of his decision, but he doubted she would be vexed by it. But for that night, probably the last night for awhile, all three slept peacefully and deeply.
