The woman cautiously detached herself from the shadows in Downbelow and slid along the wall as carefully as she could at her size. She slipped down the hallway as quietly as possible, head down and mentally signaling people not to notice her. As soon as she was safely hidden in the shadows again, Talia Winters slumped against the wall and slid down it until she was sitting on the ground. She knew it would be almost impossible for her to get back up again but her feet and legs hurt so much. She had to rest for a bit and figure out what she was going to do next.

She let out a muffled moan as she rubbed her aching back with one hand while pressing the other against her swollen stomach. Despite the pain, she smiled for a moment as she felt the gentle movements beneath her fingers before turning her mind to how she was going to get out of the fix she was in.

Thanks to the alternate personality Psi Corps had implanted in her, if any of her friends, her only true friends, she realized now, saw her they would most likely want to boot her right back off the station again. At least there was one good thing about her condition. It pretty much rendered her un-bootable. Anyone trying to move her would most likely give themselves a hernia, although she wasn't quiet willing to test that out by dropping in on Susan Ivanova. After what the alternate personality had done, she was sure Susan would ignore the pain of a hernia easily for the pleasure of tossing her out the nearest airlock.

She wished that Andrew, the Ranger who had escorted her to the station, had told her what plans there were to continue her journey to Mimbar. It would make things so much easier if she knew who she could turn to for help. But by the time it became obvious that a stop at Babylon 5 for medical care would be necessary, all she could think about was her babies, and trying to keep them safe. And now she was alone, with no idea who to trust or ask for help.

"As if anyone would come close enough for me to ask them anyway," she muttered as she pulled herself to her feet again by getting onto her hands and knees and using her arms as leverage to get herself up. For some reason, everyone seemed to flee at the sight of her. Maybe they were afraid she would fall and crush them or something. It had made Downbelow much safer though. Even the most dangerous criminals were frightened at the sight of her condition.

Going to Doctor Franklin was out, even if he was the reason that she was on the station in the first place. The intent when Andrew brought her there was for him just to take a look at her, and do whatever had to be done to keep her babies safely inside long enough for her to get to Mimbar. There had been no thought of having to ask him to hide her, and in her condition she didn't see any way that hiding would be possible for any real length of time.

If she could just go to Susan or Michael. Maybe it made her weak or maybe it was just hormones and exhaustion talking, but she would give anything to find her two friends, throw herself into their arms and know that she would be safe, that they would protect her and her babies. If this had happened months ago, she knew what would have happened. They would have been horrified, they would have wanted the head of whoever had hurt her, and had done this to her. Bester would have probably had a very painful encounter with the station reactor. And then she would have had nine months of the pair of them hovering over her, fussing and not wanting to let her lift a finger, and then running around like chickens with their heads cut off at the first labor pain. She was barely able to blink back tears as she thought of it. They would have loved her. They would have loved her and wanted her and her babies no matter what just a few months ago and now because of what had happened, because of what that thing that had been put in her head had done... She wanted to believe that they would understand if they saw her, that they would somehow be able to tell that it was really her, but she couldn't push away the fear that she would be rejected and her babies... The pain of rejection would be bad enough for her, but for two innocent, open, unprotected minds... Could she honestly expect them to see her babies as hers, babies that were loved and wanted, and not as an unpleasant reminder of what had happened? No, no matter what she wanted, she couldn't take that sort of risk with her children. She had to protect them.

Talia forced herself away from the wall, and blinked again to clear away the unshed tears. She knew she couldn't stay there any longer. She didn't have much time left. Psi-Corps was getting closer all the time, and the babies weren't going to wait much longer to come. She absolutely had to get to Mimbar. She slowly moved down the corridor again, a decision made about where to go. Ambassador Delenn made the most sense no matter how much she wished she could go to Susan or Michael. Andrew had spoken of her with the highest respect and Delenn... She had been there when that thing had taken over, of course, and she knew what had happened, but she hadn't been emotionally involved. That would make things easier. She hadn't been one of the people she had hurt, so maybe she would be willing to actually listen to her and help, if she didn't already know about the situation. It was the only possible option she could think of that had any hope of working. Now if she could just reach her quarters without being seen and convince Delenn to help her.