The Christmas Present

Disclaimer: Not mine. Written for fun.

September 30, 2006.

Greg Stillson was not a happy man. He was increasingly troubled by worries that he was falling into a hole that he could not get out of. He had taken to watching Babylon 5 in his free time, and poring over every episode featuring Londo Mollari.

God, he felt like Londo sometimes. Destined for the Empire, destined to be Emperor, but with all power and no freedom.

And yet, he loved power too much to let go, or to abandon his new friends, as scary as they and their vision for the future of America was.

Lord Refa - excuse me, Malcolm Janus scared the Hell out of Stillson. And yet, he was Stillson's meal ticket. And he knew way, way too much about Stillson for Stillson to ever dare cross him.

And here he was, at his first political event since being shot, shaking hands with all of the people around him, when suddenly he saw something that absolutely creeped him out.

There was a lovely young blonde woman in front of him, obviously pregnant and probably due any moment. Normally this would be something any politician could welcome; a chance for a photo op with a bright young mother-to-be, promising a wonderful future if only he kept getting elected. And she was pretty, too, in a very cute and non-threatening way.

But there was something odd about her. She kept looking just to his right, as if she saw an invisible man coming up to his side. He kept glancing over his shoulder, but he saw nothing.

Finally, he got to her. She put out her hand uncertainly, and, deciding to just jump in, Greg clasped hers firmly in his and shook vigorously.

She just stared, her pupils suddenly growing small. Then she let out a shriek and collapsed on the ground, convulsing.

"What was that?" she cried. "What the Hell did I..." and then - Oh, no! The baby's coming! The baby's coming!"

Greg Stillson couldn't shake the idea out of his head that the baby coming was not what she had initially screamed about.

Johnny sighed to himself. It was a relief, really it was. Sarah having Walt's baby would cement their relationship and reduce the tension he always felt when near Sarah, and when around Walt and JJ. Walt, Johnny had recently realized, had always felt a little like an outsider in his family, and was terrified that at any moment, Sarah and JJ would leave him in order to be with Sarah's "one true love" and JJ's biological father.

Having a child of their own together would form a biological connection, he felt, that would make the marriage stronger and would finally let him see himself as something other than a third wheel who was always threatening to get in the way. Although sometimes he wondered if Sarah hadn't briefly considered polyandry, particularly after that one time they had -

Best not to remember that. It was years ago, and had been a mistake that had now been rectified. All in the past, he told himself. All in the past.

All the same, this reinforced John's feelings of loneliness and isolation. It was as if every potential mate were somehow fated to end up - he fought for a word and decided to use not with - not with him. Sarah, of course, he lost to The Coma. Dana was an early rebound relationship, and she decided that nothing could come of it. Rebecca had gone away after almost killing Greg Stillson for something that his father had done, realizing that she needed time to sort out what had happened to her life.

Everyone, he sighed. All of these fishes, but none for him.

He was jolted out of his reverie by the phone ringing.

He picked it up. "Hello, Walt."

"Lucky you, saving money on caller ID by having it in your head," said Walt. "Johnny, I think you need to come to the hospital. Now."

"Why, what's wrong?" asked Johnny.

Walt paused, and then continued carefully. "I think you need to see this in person, Johnny. Don't worry. It has nothing to do with Sarah or JJ. It's not someone dying or anything like that."

Johnny rushed to the hospital as fast as he could. On the way in, he saw Sarah and Walt and JJ sanding there, looking concerned.

"Why didn't you tell us, Johnny?" asked Walt.

"About what?" Johnny was obviously confused.

"Maybe he didn't know," suggested Sarah. "She didn't say that he knew."

Walt smiled for a second. "You know, maybe he does know. Maybe he had a vision of you ahead of time" - he looked at Sarah's midsection - "and wanted to beat us to the punch."

"What the Hell are we talking about?" asked Johnny angrily, suddenly noticing that he had been moving all of this time, and was being pushed along towards the maternity ward.

Suddenly they came to room, and into it. Johnny stared with disbelief at the sight before his eyes.

"Sorry I didn't tell you about it, but your Christmas present to me has finally arrived," said Alex Sinclair, lying in the bed, looking at the little bundle in her arms. "John, meet your daughter Noelle."