Title: Dawn

Summary: He had been through the end of the world, and yet he still did not know what to say now.

Genre: Family

Type: Oneshot

I tried out new writing techniques gathered from a writer's handbook. Hopefully they worked, and this was a good story. I focused on trying to make the characters' actions depict their feelings a couple of times. Review and tell me how I did, or just leave me a note agreeing with me on how cheesy the movie Romeo + Juliet with DiCaprio and Danes is. Enjoy!

***

The half metal man was getting dizzy from watching his green friend pace the clean waiting room's tiled floor. He had been at it for over an hour now, ever since they had come in the dead of night. He sighed and spoke once again to the shape shifter, "Gar, are you sure you don't wanna talk about it?"

The green man known as the Changeling to most only spared his friend a fleeting glare before continuing his routine movement. "Of course I'm sure, Vic! What's there to talk about? I mean, it's not like something important is happening, like, I don't know, I'M GONNA BE A DAD!" His voice escalated to a shout, bringing attention upon himself from the other families of the patients once more. Victor held up his hands to get the man to calm down.

"Look, Gar, I can't possibly know what you're going through, so tell me, alright? I'm a pretty good listener," he said comfortingly. To prove his point, he activated his sonic scanner, and a little radar-like device began to swivel around. Sighing, Garfield Mark Logan sat down beside him.

"It's just… I feel so helpless right now! And I'm not used to that, y'know? I'm usually able to do something to help, ANYTHING to help, but now I'm stuck down here because they're not sure if the procedure will go normally since Raven's not completely human and neither am I and if she died or the baby died I'm not sure how I'd get by and what if it were my fault and she died because I wasn't there or I could've done something or-"

"WOAH. Gar, overload there, slow it down," Victor interjected, holding up his hands. "So you're afraid you'll blame yourself if anything happens, and you don't like sitting down here where it seems you can't do anything."

Garfield nodded and opened his mouth. "Yeah, I-" Vic shushed him before he could continue.

"I don't think you realize, man, that you're doing her a great favor even now. Just being here for the birth and all is going to mean a lot to her, I swear. And just think about the baby; you'll be one of the first people he or she gets to see. How amazing will it be?" the metal man spoke to his friend. Garfield's eyebrows were still knit together, though his body seemed to relax in the slightest bit.

"Yeah… Yeah. That'll be…" He looked on the verge of tears now as he stared off into space, imagining his wife and child's face when he went to go see them. He quickly got his mind off of it, vowing not to cry in front of his best friend. "What do you think he or she'll look like?" he asked his friend quietly.

After a short silence, Victor replied, "Well, at this point, the only thing I'd be worried about is if he slash she gets the nickname Barney," This brought a grin to two sets of mouths. "And what about you, Mr. Father? What do you imagine your spawn to look like?"

The grin faded, and the space-staring began once more. "Green eyes. Purple hair, all soft and downy like baby hair is supposed to be. Grey skin, but with fangs and the ears, so that she looks mostly like her mother." A warm smile graced his lips.

"Oh, so a girl, huh?" Vic Stone stated. Changeling nodded.

"A girl."

"What do you want to name her?"

"Something… special. I want her name to mean something. To mean something to both of us…" he replied, grinning, "… aka, I have absolutely no idea." Victor grinned along with him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Well, I'm sure you'll think of something you'll all like," the cyborg told him, and there was light silence.

A couple of hours later, a familiar lullaby chimed over the intercom. Garfield and Victor looked up at the nurse approaching, and suddenly, Mr. Logan could only focus on one thing. She smiled with warmth and pride as she said, "Mr. Garfield, sir, your wife is waiting for you."

The rest of his teammates watched as he followed her half-consciously through the door.

Suddenly, he found himself in front of the door to a room. All was quiet around him; Garfield was afraid to enter. He turned to the nurse and asked, "Any advice for a new father?" She chuckled quietly.

"Go to them and never let them go."

He felt himself be gently shoved into the room as the nurse left, and, for an entirely novel reason, Garfield felt at a loss for words.

To say she seemed the same would be a lie; no, his wife glowed with maternal affection. Her violet eyes were alight with her, her skin radiated it, and it flowed through her body with the same importance as her lifeblood. All of it was directed at the bundle in her arms which he could not view from here. The bundle that was their child. Their child.

He froze to take in the scene as she looked up. The rarity that was her smile graced her face subtly, but it contained all the emotion that she still felt within the smallest of mouth movements. She jerked her head a bit, signaling him to come over, but Garfield was no longer so certain that his legs and feet worked.

It took him a moment, but he registered feeling in them and moved over to his wife and the bundle that she was cradling so preciously and carefully to her chest.

"She's asleep for now. I didn't want to wake her," Raven whispered in the lowest breath, so quietly that only Garfield's sharp senses could pick up what she had uttered. He didn't hear it, however; he was much too busy taking in the sight of his daughter.

His daughter.

How strange it was to think that. How strange to look down at this child, this infant, and say that she was his. That he and his wife had created her out of nothing. That she was his to love and cosset and cherish until death took its toll.

He smiled gently down at her and reached out a hand to barely brush the tips of her downy green hair. He was wrong about that, at least. Droplets began to throw themselves occasionally upon the black sleeve of his costume. His fingertips left her hair to stroke her grey skin, which was the softest skin he had ever felt. Her face was chubby with baby fat, but it would eventually dwindle when she grew older. When she grew to be his age.

He stopped the thought there. He could hardly handle this situation right now. Thoughts of a more difficult yet satisfying future were out of the question for him right now.

She seemed to sense his distress, his daughter did, as she opened her big eyes at that moment to stare directly at him.

Garfield's breath hitched in his throat as he stared at her, convinced he was seeing her for the first time once more. The trust that he saw in her big, violet orbs was overwhelming. Not only the trust, but also the happiness of being there, wrapped up and in her mother's arms, staring at her father. He wondered absently if she knew who he was. He glanced at Raven, who was looking at him happily and yet expectantly.

"Go on, Garfield. Talk to her. Tell her who you are," she urged, her face encouraging and warm. Garfield's mouth felt like a desert now as he turned to their daughter who was flailing her chubby arms a bit but still watching him, waiting. He swallowed and began.

"Hey there, sunshine. How are you?" He got a gentle gurgle that sounded fairly happy. Looking to Raven, she merely nodded at him to continue. "I've been waiting to see you for a while, and I'm glad you're finally here, safe and sound." More gurgling. He smiled his fang-revealing smile, causing more joyous gurgling. He wondered if she would have fangs like him, too.

"I just wanted to say that as long as I can, I won't let anything bad happen to you…" He looked to Raven, "… or your mother." They looked at each other with shining eyes and shining memories dancing in their minds.

"What do you want to name her?" he asked softly as their daughter gurgled happily in the background.

"Well, I wasn't sure, really," she said and blushed, "I want it to mean something to us."

Garfield pulled up a chair next to the hospital cot and looked out the wide window. Dawn was breaking, spilling soft light over the half-awake city. It was beautiful and awe-inspiring, and it made him feel like he could do anything. Realization came as softly and quietly as the morning had.

"Dawn," he said, grinning at the name, "We can call her Dawn because she's the start of our new life." Garfield rarely said such cheesy things aloud, but this time it felt right. Dawn was a beautiful name for a beautiful girl. Raven looked at him skeptically for a moment before looking down at the child in her arms with a look of consideration.

"I have seen this much cheese since we watched Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes…" she commented, getting a small chuckle out of her husband, "… But I will admit that it makes… sense. And, I don't know about you, but she does kind of look like a Dawn…"

Garfield had stars in his green eyes.

"Dawn, then. Dawn… You choose her middle name, love."

The empath stared out the window a moment before sighing, "Arella. My mother."

"Alright. Dawn Arella Logan," he said for emphasis, grinning at himself and then at the infant. She looked up at him curiously and wide-eyed. "Did you hear, sunshine? Your name is Dawn. Yes it is," she gurgled lightly and began to close her eyes slowly. Within minutes, she was sleeping happily once more.

Both parents watched, filled with pride, as Dawn slept on happily in peaceful silence.

***