Elizabeth Force was everything her name lived up to – a force of nature. She was an able-bodied child, always wanting to be hands-on and striving to win, with a competitive streak a mile wide. She was often recognized for accomplishments, both on and off-planet. Athletics, debate, chess. Nobody knew how she'd done it, and she would always smile and say, "With a little luck." At sixteen, she had graduated with honours ahead of most of her class. She had the brain of a genius and the body of a goddess, with long dark hair and brilliant blue eyes. She excelled in all her endeavours, military and otherwise, and when she was twenty, she met the man of her dreams. Of all her achievements – her career, her home, her marriage – her son was the thing of which she was the most proud. John.
He came into the world in a wash of blood and screaming, and yet he himself did not scream. Elizabeth had chosen not to take any painkillers, however ill-advised her decision was, and she knew that as soon as she saw her child that all of her pain would be forgotten. She was right.
"He has your eyes," the nurse said, swaddling him in a cloth after they had cleaned both he and Elizabeth. Elizabeth took him in her arms and felt a buzz of happiness that she had never experienced before. They told her it was just a rush of hormones, but she knew better.
"He'd better have her looks, too," her husband joked. Shane stole a glance down at his wife and smirked a little, knowing she'd understand the tease of his comment even in the midst of the chaos that was the hospital.
"Shut up," she said, unable to stop the smile on her face. "I'd have never married you if you weren't good looking." It was a lie, of course, because for those two, it had been love at first sight, and everyone around them knew it. They'd only been married a year, and already they had a child. Elizabeth squirmed in the bed, unable to stop twitching her feet. She was too excited to think straight.
"I'm the luckiest guy in the world," Shane said absently, mesmerized by his son. The child seemed to have a sharp interest in everything around him; only minutes had passed since he had been awoken into the world and already he wanted to reach and grab and examine. He started with a tendril of Elizabeth's dark hair, wrapping it up in his first that was easily the size of two of Shane's fingers, then attempting to thrust it into his mouth.
"Have you decided on a name?" the nurse prompted, unwilling to interrupt their moment any sooner. She smiled at the couple, thinking that she remembered a time when she felt that way about her own husband, and prepared to make the necessary entry onto the tablet for the birth certificate.
"John," the couple said in unison. They looked at eachother and laughed, and Elizabeth shook her head. "Jonathan Andrew." Her smile wavered a little, and Shane rested a comforting hand on her shoulder. They had never discussed a middle name, knowing that as soon as she'd discovered she was pregnant (and long before she knew the sex of the baby), she'd taken to calling it John. But even her husband knew that the middle name slot would go to his brother, a Marine who had been killed during an off-planet skirmish right before they'd discovered she was pregnant.
He couldn't help that his eyes watered up, and he ignored how un-masculine it looked. "I think it's perfect," he said. He made an effort to clear his throat, then sighed, unable to stop a few tears from rolling down his cheeks.
"Oh, honey," Elizabeth whispered, leaning into his hand with her head. She rested her lips upon his knuckles and pressed them against his skin softly, then looked into her arms at her child. He had a big name to live up to, but she felt like he could do it. After all, luck was on his side, because it had always been on hers.
