Disclaimer: I do not own Babylon 5, its many incarnations, or its numerous characters…

Author's note: Someone asked for more, or at least was somewhat encouraging. And since I had already written more, I figured it would be rude to deny you it. My facts are not spot on (I stretched the artificial gravity-shuttle thing to meet my needs) and situations are probably a little overdramatic. But it was just for fun…

"We also kill for the One," a confident and familiar voice announced. "But it doesn't sound quite as heroic, does it?"

"But it is the adage you should heed," another familiar voice added.

The creatures turned their attention away from Sarah, who was too shocked to collapse as she so badly wanted to do. A mêlée broke out before her eyes, but there was too much confusion for her to immediately ascertain who was involved. From the voices, she was fairly certain she knew, but perhaps she just wanted it so badly to be them that her mind had made up the connection.

When the dust settled (it took them a little longer to dispense with the creatures, for they had not her experience and knowledge of them), she was jubilant to realize her mind hadn't played tricks with her. That was, until the pain of labor surfaced in her attention once more.

Her saviors went to her immediately, looking as happy to see her as she had felt upon seeing them.

"Why didn't you help us finish those guys off?" David Martell asked ironically, a broad grin lighting his face and eyes. At his side, Dulann mirrored his friend's joy with a more reserved smile of his own.

"Sorry!" Sara barked at the pair. "Sort of in labor here!"

"I can see that," David responded a little less facetiously, and looking a lot more concerned. "Do you think you can make it to the Liandra?"

"The Liandra's here?" she asked between controlled breaths. Never had she thought she was that attached to the crappy old piece of junk, but she had missed the ship more than almost anything else, including David.

"Yes. Well, it's in this system. We took a shuttle," Dulann answered. "But we should get you to the Liandra as soon as possible, so Firell can attend to you."

She smiled. It was sweet. Dulann was obviously a bit overwhelmed by his concern for her. Looking to David, she found herself frustrated. Sometimes, but not all the time, she found it impossible to tell what he was feeling. Unfortunately, this was one of those times. Why did he have to be this way now, when she needed him so badly?

No matter, she had other problems to worry about, like walking across the city.

Surprisingly, it was not that difficult at all for her to make it to the small ship David and Dulann had taken to the planet, especially with their help. They sat her down in the back, and David stood up, heading for the controls. Grabbing his hand, Sarah stopped him.

"Please stay with me," she said quietly and earnestly. These were the people she had run away from, and yet, she had never felt more attached to anyone. She needed them. She needed him.

"Alright," David conceded after a moment in which he searched her eyes. He turned to the only other person presently capable of flying the shuttle. "Dulann, would you…"

"Certainly," the Minbari replied in his usual, complying tone. With a nod of his head he left the pair of humans and slipped into the pilot's seat.

David opted to sit down beside Sarah as Dulann announced their take-off. The human Ranger took her hand, but shyly looked away, as if he were studying something in the distance. How could he be so calm about all of this? Shouldn't he have a hundred things to say, to ask her? Hadn't he had months to think about this reunion?

Or was it just her who had dwelt on the past?

Then again, she hadn't said much of anything either. But she had the excuse of being in labor. Speaking of which, why had the pain gone? Maybe the endorphins had kicked in? Or perhaps, the shock of seeing her old friends had distracted her? Had it been false labor?

No, her water had definitely broken.

Oh! And there it was! The pain returned and forced her to take in a sharp breath, as well as squeeze David's hand, alerting him to her discomfort. Releasing the breath with a hiss, she tried to relax her body, which had begun to squirm in an attempt to escape the pain.

Now, he was staring at her with concern. She tried to concentrate on his face instead of the contraction as she desperately attempted to control her breathing. He gently touched her cheek with his free hand, and it soothed her beyond anything she thought possible.

It also brought back memories.

She wanted to pull him close, to hold him, to feel his warmth, to smell his scent again. But at the same time, she wanted to push him away, to scream, to smash things. Discomfort made her angry. And she knew whose fault it was for her current suffering.

"How are you doing?" he asked her. She glared at him with such loathing that had he not known her, he probably would've recoiled. But he was not swayed by her aggression and remained close by her side. She was grateful for his fortitude; grateful and so very angry.

Maybe it wasn't the best way to bring a child into the universe, but it was how she dealt with situations that threatened to overwhelm her. Often, her temper was the only thing which allowed her to survive.

Somehow, David remained sweet and attentive to her. She wanted to strangle him for the smile that lingered upon his lips and thrived in his eyes.

"Everything will be fine," he reassured her as she voiced her discontent with a sustained growl. "We're almost to the Liandra where Firell will take good care of you."

"Oh!" Sara cried out her disagreement. "What would a Minbari know about delivering a human baby?!"

"Anla'Shok healers study all the member species of the Interstellar Alliance," David replied calmly, irritating her further. Damn him for even being able to understand the words she grunted between anguished breaths. And damn him for responding with such stable serenity!

"That doesn't mean she knows anything about…" Sara grasped for an insult, for a description of what she was experiencing…and failed. Instead, she let herself trail off, temporarily relieved from the subsidence of agony. There was just a knife in her stomach. It was no longer being twisted about.

"I have every confidence in Firell's abilities," David asserted as she concentrated on catching her breath. Something was fishy in his confidence, in his tranquility throughout the situation. He should have at least been somewhat shocked about this ordeal, if not completely surprised by her condition. But he hadn't once even batted an eye, done a double-take. She scrutinized his placid face, hating his emotional control which she could never come close to matching.

"You knew," she said quietly, realization sparking a new fury within her. Her head shook in disbelief. "Oh my god, you knew?!"

"I have read that human females are entirely capable of giving birth without any assistance whatsoever," Dulann interjected from the cockpit, several seconds removed from the conversation.

"SHUT UP!" Sarah shouted at him, feeling the knife twisting again. Turning back to her would-be comforter, she grabbed him by his smug collar and pulled him down close.

"And you," she hissed at him. "When did you…How did you know?!"

"Sarah, can't we talk about this later?" he pleaded, his cool demeanor finally broken. The satisfaction derived from breaking the man did little to assuage her temper, especially considering that her body was beginning to send her messages she really didn't want to receive.

She shoved him away to be dealt with later. And, oh boy, was she going to make him pay. But what was currently more important was not hyperventilating. Controlling her breathing took all of her concentration, but she noticed that David was at her side again within seconds of her tossing him away. There was a persistence about him that she both envied and detested.

No longer could she withstand sitting half-leaning against the bulkhead and half-sprawled out on the floor. It was unbearably excruciating as she felt the baby shifting inside of her. She could swear that the poor thing was stuck, causing her body's futile efforts to expel the offspring solely to augment the agony setting her nerves aflame.

"Help me up!" she managed to bark between moans and rapid breaths. Apparently, this request was unfathomable to David, who gave her a look that said as much. "I want to stand up!"

Grabbing his arm, she began the struggle. Eventually he caught on, lest he be pulled over on top of her, not something to which she was likely to react well. He tried to help her up, but even with artificial gravity, the shuttle's flight was anything but smooth, and he ended up catching her instead.

At least, she had made it off her back and onto her knees, Sarah conceded as David's arms wrapped around her as much as they could with her round belly between them. Hugging him close, she was compelled to cuddle into his embrace. She buried her face in his shoulder and took in a deep draught of his scent. His presence released her from her physical turmoil, if however momentarily. She hadn't realized how much she missed him. He was her everything.

If only she could stay wrapped up in his arms, in him, again…

"No," she barked. No! That was what got her into this mess. Shrugging David off from her, she turned away from him, but found it impossible to walk away on her knees. Instead, she collapsed onto all fours. The shift in position did once again ease the agonizing tension of her insides briefly. But within moments she was back to panting like it was the most trying exertion of her life. And she was quite sure that it was the closest she had ever been pushed to her physical limits.

Somehow she managed to get to her feet, clawing her way up the wall, ultimately resting her forehead against the cool metal-hybrid material Minbari engineers employed. Stupid Bastard! Despite the fury she had thrown his way, David was still trying to help her, not that he could do much. He had come up behind her and was reaching a hand out to stroke her arm. Next the placations would come, the assurances that everything was going to be okay.

She slapped his hand away before it could touch her, continuing to study the flat color of the wall directly in front of her face. Inhaling and exhaling became the center of her consciousness, an attempt to drive away the thoughts of her ex-lover and what she'd like to do to him. Whimpers and moans began to force their way out of her throat.

"Oh god," Sarah moaned, her knees growing weak. "It's really happening."

"What clue tipped you off?" David asked sarcastically. A man could really only take so much and still be sincerely pleasant. The glare made him bite his acerbic tongue.

"I mean the baby's not going to wait any longer, idiot!" she managed to growl as her breathing returned to an uncontrollably rapid pace.

"Dulann!" David shouted over the din of Sarah's strained cries. "What's our ETA?"

"We are approaching the rendezvous coordinates and should be docked in a matter of hours," the Minbari responded calmly albeit loudly.

"Hear that, Sarah?" David asked, brushing some stray locks of hair away from where they had stuck to her sweat-soaked cheeks. "Just a few more minutes."

"No!" she managed to contradict his reassurance. Flipping her back to the wall, she aimed her concern directly to him. "No time!"

"Just breathe," he soothed. "And try to relax."

"You don't…oh… seem to…to understand," she said, her voice sounding visceral and beyond strained as she struggled for air. "I can't…stop...this…unh…from happening."

He finally appeared to get the message and gave her a serious look.

"Okay," he conceded. "But what can I…?"

"Unh!" Panting prevented her from giving an immediate response. "My-my pants…get them off…oh…underwear, too."

"Alright." Sarah noticed David swallowing hard. The gravity of the situation had finally hit him. Up to ten seconds ago, it was something that was happening to someone else. Even if he had cared about her, still did, she could tell that he hadn't actually believed he had an active role of involvement in her labor.

His hands at her waist brought back memories that had no right to surface at a time like this. How could her mind think of those things when her body was acutely paying for the consequences?

"See if-unh-if I'm...oh…dilated enough," Sarah requested, feeling the incredible urge to push. The best way to describe the look she received from David was that of someone being asked to face a particularly nasty monster armed with nothing but a spoon. It begged for confirmation of what he had heard.

"NOW!" she screamed, and then upon seeing his frightened look, added in as politely a manner she was currently capable, "if you'd please…"

Hesitantly, he nodded his head, still looking as if this was one of the last things he ever wanted to experience. He touched the hem of her dress like it would explode if he moved too quickly.

"You were…oh god… all too eager to... to get in there before!" She berated his hesitancy to aide her. He succumbed to the pressure and lifted the skirt of her dress.

"Well?!" she inquired desperately as she studied the ceiling.

"Uh…" David sounded the most uncertain she had ever heard him. Of course, this was outside of his expertise. "There's definitely something going on down here."

"I know!" she shouted. There was no real justification for it. Hell, she had no clue why the reason was. But she just knew, no felt that it was time to push. The problem was that she had no one to reassure her of this with sound advice. "But…ah! Am I going to tear?"

If it was bad enough, she might bleed to death before they got her to the Liandra. But she really had no more choice in the matter.

"You-you're going to ha-ah-ve to deli-ver the baby, David," she informed him. Thankfully, he gave her a look of determined acceptance rather than uncertainty. It was the support she so badly needed.

"She's beautiful," David whispered as he cradled the newborn in his arms. He tenderly cleaned the blood and tissue from her tiny face with his vest that he used to swaddle her. She finally began to cry.

It was a small and lonely sound that reminded David of his other concern. In his adoration of the new life, he had momentarily forgotten about the woman who had created it.

"Sarah?" he probed, sidling up to where she had collapsed onto the floor in exhaustion. It was beyond messy. Blood and tissue stuck to her naked thighs and pooled on the surface beneath her. There was a heavy sheen of sweat glistening on her exposed flesh, and the lightweight fabric of her dress clung to her drenched skin.

Her eyes were closed and the color was draining from her already pale skin, but her chest was rising and falling in an encouraging manner. He nudged her with his knee, afraid to upset the fragile gift wrapped in his arms.

Sarah's pallid lips parted ever so slightly and she whimpered. David knew that she was exhausted beyond anything he could ever understand, but if only she would come around enough to hold her baby, he knew it'd perk her up.

This wasn't good. She was tougher than this. Cradling the baby girl in one arm, he placed his hand against Sarah's cheek. By now, her body should've been cooling down after its immense physical exertion. Instead, he found her skin feverish. This really wasn't good.

"Dulann?" he called, still careful as not to disturb the infant that was somewhat settling into his arms.

"Yes, David?" His friend's voice was always so calm and such a comfort in distressing situations.

"How much longer?" he asked, knowing his own voice, edged with worry, was quite the opposite of his friend's.

"I see her now." That was all that was required for a response that lent confidence. Procedures immediately began for docking, and David returned his attention to the woman fading away before his eyes.

He found the discarded black leggings nearby and bundled them up, sticking them between her thighs in attempt to stem the flow of blood there. And then he resumed stroking her cheek, saying her name in desperation for her to wake.

A/N: There will be plot. If I ever get to it…