A/N: Alright I felt bad for slacking on the updates lately so I decided to update twice today! Just to clarify some things that might be confusing. Gaara became sexually active shortly after the first chunnin exam. After Naruto knocked some sense into him (literally) Gaara found that killing no longer filled the whole in his life so like many teens he turned to sex to fill that gap. For all intents and purposes Gaara is 23 and Sakura 22 when my story takes place. I know that doesn't exactly match up with the time-line but bear with me. That being said Mae was conceived when Gaara was 17. Mae's mother was a civilian who was in her late 20's, but you will find out more about that later. Anyways, hope you enjoyed that last chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Here you go!

Chapter 9

"Gaara, how can you have a child?" Sakura was almost shaking.

"Sakura I didn't know. Do you think I would have hidden something like this from you? Do you think I would have idly sat by while someone beat my daughter?" Gaara was a little angry at the accusation. He valued Sakura's trust but her words showed that she had doubted him.

"Who was her mother? Did you love her." Sakura wanted to believe that she was the first woman who had ever had the affection of the man she had come to care a great deal about. Her heart was breaking and she wasn't quite sure why. Did she love him? Was that why thinking about him fathering a child with another woman cut her so?

"No Sakura. I don't know who she was but I didn't love her. I was 17 years old and to be honest I was with a lot of women."

Sakura wasn't quite sure how to process that information. Sure she figured that he had been with women before but to have been with so many that you wouldn't know when one of them got pregnant? "How many women has he been with?"

Gaara could see the wheels turning in Sakura's head. "A lot Sakura. Not that I'm proud of it, but it's the truth that I had no idea." Gaara could feel his pace quicken. "Of course she will decided that whatever it is that we have isn't worth all of this." Having a child would be a tremendous amount of baggage for her to carry when he didn't even know the extent of their feelings for one another.

"Sakura I understand if your feelings about our relationship have changed. I don't blame you at all, but I have to focus on my daughter and I wont rest until whoever did this to her breathes their last breath. I don't know why this is happening and I'm sorry that you and I never got the chance to see where our attraction took us." He could feel his heart breaking at the thought of letting her go. The one woman who had made him question weather or not he could love someone.

"Gaara I'm not going to lie this is a lot to handle, but what kind of woman would I be if I backed out now? You might not like it, but you need my help. I would be willing to bet you don't know the first thing about children. I don't know what this will mean for our relationship, but I am not leaving you at the first rough patch."

Her words completely stunned him. "Sakura, this is more than a rough patch. This is a child that I am responsible for. I wasn't there for her when she obviously needed me but I wont make that mistake again. Think carefully before you make you decision."

"Gaara do you think I take this lightly? I have made my decision and I am not going anywhere." She turned to look him in the eyes and kissed him solely on the mouth before returning to her work. "Now healing Mae is going to take several hours so I will need you to stay in case I need something."

Sitting down on the couch in his room he smiled at the woman who worked on his child. My daughter. Mae. "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere."

Several hours later Sakura slumped forward and the chakra surrounding her hand flickered out. Gaara reached out for her before her head hit the bed. He picked her up gently and brought her to lay on the couch. He layed her head in his lap and started to stroke her hair. She had used almost all of her chakra to heal Mae and she would probably be sleeping for a long time.

Temari peaked her head in to ask if they needed anything but stopped short when she saw her brother loving caressing Sakura. "I hope they make it through this. I can't believe Gaara had a child. I am an aunt! Oh man that little girl is going to be spoiled rotten from now on, but if anyone deserves it it's her. I hope Gaara kills whoever did this to her."

She decided not to bother them. "They sure do look like a family already Kankuro"

"If Sakura doesn't leave him because of this then he should know that she is the one." Kankuro said to his sister.

Temari agreed, but something told her it wouldn't be so simple.

Mae woke up feeling much better than she had in a long time. She didn't hurt much and she felt like she had actually gotten some rest. Living the way she had for the last year or so had meant that more often than not she had slept on the floor. She looked over to the other side of the room and noticed the Kazekage (it was still to odd to think of him as her father) sitting on the couch with the beautiful doctor laying with him. The doctor was asleep. The way the Kazekage was looking at her was the way her mother use to look at her. With love in his eyes as he touched her face while she slept.

"Kazekage-sama is that my new mother?" Mae was not sure how she felt about having a new family, but if the beautiful pink haired doctor was going to be part of it she thought she might like it after all.

"Mae I am your father, you do not have to address me by my title. If calling me father bothers you then you may call me Gaara. This woman's name is Sakura and no she will not be your mother. Her and I care about each other, but our relationship is not like that."

"Are you sure? I can tell you love her by the way you are looking at her." Mae could see the surprise I his eyes and she knew that he was unaware of how he was looking at his companion.

Gaara sat there for a moment and thought back to the last few weeks with Sakura. It was true that he felt things for her that he had never felt before, he had even asked himself if he loved her more than once, but felt that it was too soon to make that assumption. Now he realized that he had fallen in love with her. When he saw her pour all of her chakra into healing his child he had been pushed over the edge and he hadn't even known he was that close. And instead of this news making him happy he felt himself sinking into despair.

He could not have picked a worse time to fall in love, nor with a worse candidate. He was in the middle of some life changing developments and he wasn't sure he would be able to handle that and a budding relationship, not to mention he was sure that she could never feel the same way about him. And to top it all off she only had a few months left before she would return to her home.

This woman who would give every ounce of herself to take away the pain of a child had captured his heart at a time when it was no longer his to give. He had to give it to his daughter.

"I think you might be right, but let keep that between the two of us okay Mae?"

She shook her head. "Gaara, I am hungry." and with that her stomach grumbled loud enough to be heard all the way across the room to where Gaara was sitting.

"All right little one, lets get you some food." He smiled at the child he never knew he had and realized that it might be easy to fall in love after all. "Very easy indeed."

A/N: It took the eyes of a child for Gaara to realize his feelings for Sakura, but with the responsibilities of parenthood will Gaara be able to be with Sakura in the way that they both want? The next chapter will reveal more about Mae's childhood and the reason for her being kept from Gaara.