A/N: I DO NOT own Watchmen. It is property of Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and DC Comics. SEQUELLLLL! You guys really couldn't keep me away any longer soooooooo....I decided to start this after finishing up the first chapter of my other new story (an Inglourious Basterds fanfic if anyone is interested)and I could really wait no longer so here it is......the sequel to Blue Sparks :). This chapter is VERY short, but that's only because it's one in the morning and I have to get up at 5:30 for school tomorrow. All these stories just take over my life.

Aftershock

November 4th, 1985 1:18 P.M.

I opened my eyes to surprisingly bright light streaming through my window. The first day after the bomb went off, the sky was pure black. Smoke covered the entire city. The next...it lightened, but it was still dark. This was the first time I could actually really see it.

I heard the door to my room open and looked up to find Adrian walking in.

"What the hell do you want?" I asked as pure hatred ran through my veins. He was responsible for this. He was the reason that Jon had left her. He was the reason that thousands of people had died.

"Just checking to see if you were awake yet." he smiled, ignoring my anger.

"Yes I'm awake. Now if you don't mind." I growled before getting up to go to the restroom. In the past few days, the only things I had done were eaten, showered, and peed. 95% of my time was spent in bed, the remaining in the bathroom.

I slammed the door behind me before grabbing the counter just as the sobs began to rack my body. I fell to the ground, unable to stand. My whole world was gone. Adriana hadn't even moved since Jon had left. Everything I had was gone.

"Are you alright?" Adrian asked, knocking on the door.

I opened the door before rushing towards Adrian, blindly punching him with my fists. I was satisfied as I heard several crunches.

"Stefani!" he grunted, trying to grab my arms.

"Bastard!" I screamed furiously. I wanted nothing more than to kill him right now. Kill him like he had killed all these people.

There was a loud splatter as I continued to hit him and we both stopped struggling and looked at each other. I looked down to find a small pool of water on the ground.

"I think your water just broke." Adrian grabbed my arms.

"No shit Sherlock!" I snapped before looking around as panic began to blossom in my chest. I was about to go into labor. I was about to give birth to this child....and her father wasn't even here, nor would he ever be.

"Come on." Adrian grabbed my arm before pulling me out of the room. A long day ahead of me.

****************

6:13 P.M.

I woke up in my hospital bed to a painfully-familiar feeling. It was as though I had the worst menstrul cramps times about.....infinity. I looked around. Adrian was asleep in the corner. There was nary a doctor in sight.

A painful jolt from my uterus caused me to whimper loudly in pain. I automatically slapped my hand over my mouth but it was loud enough for Adrian to hear me. He had always been a light sleeper after all.

"Stefani what's wrong?" he asked.

I moaned loudly and closed my eyes as I struggled to hold in the pain.

"Oh god." I groaned, feeling as though I was in the worst pain of my life.

"I'm getting the nurse." Adrian stood up before rushing out of the room. As soon as he left I let out the compressed scream I had been holding in. Contractions. I felt like my uterus was in its own personal hell.

"Jon!" I screamed, foolishly hoping that if I screamed his name he would possibly reappear.

Adrian burst through the door with three people in tow.

"Stefani I hear you're going into labor." the doctor smiled handsomely before setting his stuff down on the table next to me.

I nodded, caught between undeniable happiness for the fact that I was soon to have a child and incredible pain.

"Okay. I'm going to put your legs up in the stirrups then we're going to see if you're dilated okay?" he smiled.

I nodded before throwing my head back again as another wave of contractions even worse than the ones before.

I could barely even feel him moving my legs or lifting up my hospital gown before looking down at me.

"Well....you're at the first stage. Three centimeters....you're doing good but....we've got a ways to go. It takes about eight hours to give birth." the doctor let me know before patting her knee.

"Isn't there anything you can give me for the pain?" I asked, knowing that it was only going to get increasingly worse.

"Well....we can give you an epidural but I'll warn you...the needle itself will cause about half the pain of childbirth. It's your decision."

"Will it hurt the baby?"

"In extremely rare cases."

"....I'll just go natural then." I shrugged.

"Stefani don't be dumb why don't you think this out clearly." Adrian looked over at me.

"Excuse me?" I raised an eyebrow. He back off, realizing the error in his words.

"What the hell are you even doing here?" I snapped before turning back to my fixed gaze on the ceiling. Deep down inside, I actually was kind of grateful that he was there. After all, I wouldn't want to have to do this alone. At the same time, I wanted nothing more than to get as far away from him as possible.

"Well, looks like you in for a long night then." the doctor smiled. "But by the end...you'll be a mother. I think that's a win for all the suffering you have to go through first."

I smiled before putting a hand on my stomach. A mother. I really liked the sound of that.

1:57 A.M.

"Come one Stefani!" several voices all screamed at once. I was oblivious to all of them except the one in my ear. The one who's body wasn't there. It was when I started going into delivery that I heard his voice. At first I thought it was a hallucination, but then I realized by the things he was saying it couldn't have been.

"Push Stefani. A little harder. I can see the head now." the doctor coached me. I dug my nails into the metal railing of my hospital bed, pushing as hard as I possibly could. It was agonizing. Beyond agonizing. One of the nurses wiped my head as sweat dripped down from my face to my neck.

"A little harder." Adrian put a hand on my forhead.

"If you fucking touch me one more time I swear to god I WILL KILL YOU!!!!!" I screamed. Adrian jumped back with his hands up before walking to the other end. It was that which got me laughing for the first time in days. The look on his face when he looked down into the part of my body he had spent so much time viewing, only to find in my opinon one of the most horrid sights. Childbirth.

"I am glad to see that gave you some humor." Jon's voice sounded in my ear.

"We've got shoulders down here. Okay Stefani, keep pushing. You're doing very well." my doctor said.

I continued to on the thought of my daughter. Our daughter. The moments went by. The only thing I could hear were my screaming and pain that seemed to penetrate every single nerve in my body.

Her cry broke my imaginary silence. I looked down to see her, small and precious as anything I had ever seen before. Tears streamed down my face and I felt a feeling I had never felt before. A rush of love. My child. It was unlike any emotion I had ever felt or heard of.

"Congratulations. You have a beautiful baby girl." the doctor smiled before handing her to me.

"Adriana." I whimpered, holding her to my chest. She was scrawny. Covered in blood and amniotic fluid. Her hair was matted....but she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life.

She opened her eyes as I froze. Her irises were an electric blue color. The same color as....Jon. She closed them again as she continued to cry.

"We're going to wash her off. She'll be back soon though." one of the nurses prayed her from me (not without me putting up a fight). When she was gone, I laid back against my pillow, feeling as though I had just died.

"Adriana?" Adrian asked looking at me. I looked up at him before shrugging bashfully. I still hadn't told him I had named her that.

"Have you chosen a middle name yet?" he asked.

".....Joan." I decided, thinking about it for the first time. "Adriana Joan Osterman-Vedit."

The last part had just slipped out of my mouth without me even thinking of it. Why the hell had I said that?!

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing." I looked away and closed my eyes.

"Congratulations Stefani." he said awkwardly before leaning over and kissing me on the forehead.

The first chapter of new beginnings.