(AN: I'm glad that you've managed to hang in there while I've struggled with, well, you know, the usual computer issues. But I decided to plow through and finish this story, so here we are. And when I first started, I never thought that I'd have come to like and empathize Mary Tudor as much as I do. I'm even gonna write a song about her [but that's a whole different issue all together, lol].)

(As far as what Mary might name the baby, that's important because, all-though she might hate what her father did, I would imagine that she still loves him. It's importance will be revealed later on, so don't worry. And Sindarin belongs to Tolkien, not to me.)

A Bad Miracle

Minutes later, a certain car was on its way back into the city. Will and Roger were happily chatting away, discussing their plans for the move. Sarah held Noel in her arms, dreading the inevitable day when she would be parted from her for who knows how long. Suddenly her cell-phone rang. It was Joseph, he was now at the hospital.

It was time.

Hours upon hours must have gone by, the time now being somewhere between 3 and 4 o'clock in the morning. In the waiting room, Will, Roger, Sarah and Noel waited for any sign of...well, anything. As per hospital procedure, the doctors couldn't mention anything about the patients. The room they were in was off-limits, with a bunch of screaming and shouting coming from inside.

Thank God I opted for the sedatives, Sarah thought as the three of them returned once more to the waiting room.

So once again, they were back in the waiting room. Sarah's phone went off again, this time from Kyle.

"Hey, I'm at the hospital. What's up?" Sarah asked.

"Wait, hospital? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, it's Mary. She's gone into labor."

"Well, that's the least of our problems," he replied. "I think the secret's got out."

"Wait, what secret?"

"You know, the BIG one! I'm monitoring the Mother-ship and there was an unauthorized access made at least a day ago. I traced it back to you-know-who from ESU."

"Come off it, Kyle! Professor Hawkins is not out to get you!"

"I've already made preparations for that," Kyle said. "Maddie and I are moving to Taiwan. We'll come back once this has blown over. What you need to make sure is that nobody, and I mean nobody, finds out that Mary's not from around here."

"Why?" she asked, still not entirely convinced.

"Why? She's a historical figure, the scholastic world will be clawing at her door, trying to get interviews, autographs, sit-downs, anything! You remember the movie Splash? What happened to the mermaid when the government found out what she was? Is that what you want Mary to become, a test subject locked away in some laboratory?"

Sarah never really thought about this. She had always assumed that Kyle was joking or playing along, for some reason she could never understand, with Mary's delusions about her past. It seemed like a lot to throw on her, especially that they'd be moving out to Taiwan, Will and Roger would be relocating to California and she'd be separated from her "daughter" (surrogacy be damned, Noel still came from her body, that made her in some way 'her' child).

"Have they decided on any names?"

"What?"

"For the baby!"

"Uh, I think they're gonna call it Henry-Joseph, or something, if it's a boy."

"Why? Mary has more reason than anyone to hate her father!"

"I don't know what's going on in her head half the time!"

"Listen, I gotta go. I don't have time to say a proper good-bye. Thank you for...I don't know, everything."

"We'll miss you, kiddo." she smiled. "Bye."

"Namarie, wing-man."

"Wing-girl, Kyle." she laughed, choking back tears. The line was ended.

Minutes later, the door was opened and the nurse ushered them into the room.

Inside the delivery room stood a very nervous Joseph. He looked as though he hadn't slept in ages, with dark circles the size of quarters under his eyes. Lying on the bed was Mary, her face pale and glistening with sweat. The doctors were busy with something regarding what had just happened.

In Mary's arms, all the blood and fluids cleaned up, was a tiny baby girl with eyes sealed tightly shut.

"Aww," Sarah gushed. "She's so beautiful." She looked down and saw tears in Mary's eyes. "What's wrong, Mary? This is a happy occasion!"

"I know!" she returned. "The happiest moment of my life!"

"Then why are you crying?"

"I never thought this would happen," Mary admitted. "That I would be mother to a child of my own!"

Just then, after a rather heated discussion with one of the orderlies about whether it was crowded in here or not, Will and Roger poked their faces in to see the newborn baby.

"He has Mary's nose," Roger said.

"'She'," Sarah replied.

"They all look the same at that age," he retorted, which earned him a scathing look from Sarah.

"Look, Noel!" Will said, kneeling down and presenting Noel to the baby. "Say hi to the newborn baby!" Noel reached out her arm curiously and gently petted the newborn with a tiny curled-up hand. Joseph knelt down at Mary's side and kissed his daughter on her little forehead.

"So, what's the baby's name gonna be again?" Roger inquired.

"Katherine," Mary said with a smile. "Katherine Sarah Wright."

"After her mother." Joseph said, indicating to Mary.

"And after you." Mary turned to Sarah, who was trying hard to keep herself from sobbing with joy.

Mere minutes later, Joseph, Sarah, Will, Roger and a wheelchair-bound Mary stood outside the nursery, where baby Katherine was under observation. Unfortunately, the doctors had discovered something wrong with her blood, and decided to keep her there for further testing. Though they told the young couple that everything was fine and that they could go on home, neither Joseph nor Mary were going home until they brought baby Katherine back with them.

Sarah and Mary were entwined in each other, the one sobbing into the other's shoulders. Mary still knew so little about this century, and about genetics, or how her maternal ancestors had befouled their DNA by intermarriage upon intermarriage and had passed it on to her.

"I'm really sorry about this," Roger said. "Really." He wanted to say more, but then again, he wasn't very good at being sentimental.

"She's gonna pull through, I know she it," Will said with conviction. "She's got her father's strength and her mother's will."

"How can you tell what she's got?" Roger asked. "She's a few hours old, for Pete's sake!"

"I can tell," Will smiled. "I saw a glimmer of it in her eyes."

"She hasn't even opened her eyes!"

"She did, for a brief moment," he said. "I saw it, just then."

Roger sighed at his lover's overt poetic sentimentality. "Come on, let's get something to eat." He turned to Joe. "You want anything from the cafeteria?"

Joseph shook his head.

"How about you?" he asked Sarah.

She made an uneasy look on her face, but Mary simply nodded, whispering a quiet 'Go' to her. Sarah, looking very guilty, pulled out of her embrace, hugged Mary again, then got up and left with Will and Roger: Noel was in Will's arms.

"I have to use the ladies room." Sarah said, as they were on their way.

"Just make sure you wash your hands." Roger said, not picking anything up from what she said and going off to the cafeteria. Will, however, pulled himself and Noel to a stop and joined her.

"Hey, you okay?"

"I just wish I could do more for her, though," Sarah admitted.

"You've done more than enough," he returned. "If you have to go, then go! I don't think they'll hold it against you if you have to answer Mother Nature's call."

She nodded, then waved and smiled at Noel and they walked off and she entered the women's restroom.

Inside, she found an unoccupied stall, closed the door and did her business. Nobody else, however, was in the restroom for several moments after she had entered. Which made the entrance of the next person even louder than it was; the door slammed open, and the loud yet unsteady clack of high-heeled shoes echoed on the tiled floor. Someone swore loudly, lost balance and then grabbed onto the side of one of the stalls very roughly.

Pulling her pants back on and flushing the toilet, Sarah walked out to see what was the trouble. It was her inquisitive nature that was kicking in, the same one that had caused her to rescue a young woman from a dark, rainy drain-off gutter a little over a year ago.

Staggering there, in the women's restroom of the hospital, was Sasha Hawkins. She looked positively smashed, swaying and belching unlady-like, profanity spewing after each burp.

"Sarah!" she belched. "You little tramp. Haven't seen you around since..." She waved her arms about, trying to think of something, but her memory failed her, just as her balance did. Sarah came and helped her up.

"Easy, now," Sarah said, helping Sasha regain her balance. "What happened to you?"

"That b*tch Lilian must have drugged me," she slurred. "It's okay, I've got that 'independent film' she made, if you know what I mean." She made a circle with her hand and then made a rude gesture over her mouth, then laughed.

Sarah felt very nasty, just watching this display.

"By the way," Sasha said at last. "Where is that fat, pasty little do-gooder you brought to my party all those months ago?"

"Who?"

"The one I tracked down here to find, oh, what is that little piglet's name?" She shook her head. "Oh, it doesn't matter. The point is, I got the scoop of the century on her!" She laughed, snorted, belched then said something very profane that made Sarah cringe.

"It's all, X-Files, Twilight Zone crazy kind of BS, eh?" she slurred. "I don't know. My dad got obsessed with her back at ESU. Said he couldn't understand..." Belch, and another foul oath. "...why some naive little child, who acted like she knew nothing, be smarter than everyone else in his class!"

She swayed around, swatting off Sarah's attempts to help her.

"So he does a little digging," she soldiered on. "And turns out that she's been getting help from some cyber-punk hacker-cell, to cover up that she's a five hundred year old British queen or some crock like that!" She snorted. "My dad thinks it'll change the face of the history of the English Renaissance or something, while getting back at some point-dexter punk he's had it out against. Me? I want that fat little pimple to worship me." She laughed. "Maybe she'll be Lilian's replacement. It's all thanks to you, you know."

Sarah, who had been listening intently to what Sasha had been mouthing off about, suddenly felt her heart fall into the pit of her stomach. If it went any lower, it felt like it would surely fall out of her nether-regions.

"See, that time when we were together, one of the girls taped the whole thing. So I got to hear what you said about that pigl...Mary! That's her name! Stupid church-girl name. You told me what I wanted to hear, and then I found my dad's briefcase in the car when I asked to borrow it for the night..." She held up her purse, presenting a few papers. "...and, lo and behold..." She tripped. "It had everything there is to know about your little freak!"

Minutes passed by. Will and Roger returned from the cafeteria to Mary and Joseph's quiet vigil. Still no word yet on baby Katherine's condition. Sarah had not yet appeared, but Roger didn't take much stock to this.

"Women," he sighed. "They always take forever in the..."

There was a loud scream, followed by an angry shout. Several of the nurses and orderlies made their way past them toward the sound, and before anyone could make a move, an angry drunk woman staggered out of the women's bathroom and out towards the lobby. After her came Sarah, scratch-marks across her face and her hair uneven and messy.

"Stop her!" Sarah cried out, heedless of the hospital's "all quiet" policy. "Don't let her get away!"

"Hey, what's going on?" Roger asked, as the orderlies were attempting to restrain Sarah.

"It's Sasha!" Sarah bolted out in seemingly one breath. "She's got something that's gonna hurt Mary. You have to stop her!"

Without another thought, Joseph followed Roger as they ran off down the hospital hallway after Sasha. Will, with Noel in his arms, looked at Mary, who was trying, with as much strength as she had, to push herself out of her wheel-chair.

"Wait, wait, wait!" he said, coming to her side. "You're in no condition to be..."

"I have to go," she said. "This is what Kyle meant."

"What did who mean? Please, just take a moment!"

"I don't have a moment!" she shouted, sounding almost as aggressive as wee Elizabeth. It was surprising, considering how she was never 'lauded' for her father's aggressiveness. Now she was up on her feet, walking as quickly as she could on unsteady feet. Will brought up the rear.

Outside, all hell was quite literally breaking loose. A yellow-brown Sedan was crashing haphazardly into everything and anything near it, casualty of a drunk driver behind the wheel. Sasha was shouting angrily, cursing up a storm every time she hit something, while Joseph and Roger circled around the vehicle, trying in vain to jump in and pull her out before someone got hurt.

Mary stepped outside, felt the cold November wind against her forehead, and became light-headed for a tiny moment. She didn't see the lights coming toward her until it was too late.

(AN: What just happened?)

(Nothing against Europeans, but the nobility of Europe intermarried so much [especially the ones on Mary's mother's side], that their DNA got messed up badly [it happened with the Czar's son from the story of Rasputin].)

(As for what Sasha's problem is, she's...well, she's pretty much been left to her own wiles, and has a very controlling personality. She controls her cronies through blackmail or plain old fashion coercion, just because nobody's told her "No!" and she thinks, because she's rich and pretty, she can have whatever she wants. It's her way of "making her own meaning in life", which is pretty much to get whatever she wants. She is, after all, human.)