Hiya. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this fiction. I really appreciate the input. This chapter takes place during the nine months of Hoshi's pregnancy.

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Day 250

"Well" Malcolm said turning off the scanner that he had just used to scan Hoshi "Everything looks normal. Our baby is progressing nicely according to the scanner. No abnormalities detected."

Hoshi smiled and rubbed her still-flat stomach. "Our baby! I still can't believe there's a baby in there" she breathed.

"I know" Malcolm agreed. "We're going to be parents."

"Scary thought."

"I know. Every decision we make will shape who this person is."

"Are we doing the right thing?"

"How do you mean?"

"We, we're alone here. And we don't know if we'll ever get off here. I mean, it's been almost a year and there hasn't been a sign of another ship landing."

"Hoshi." Malcolm looked deeply into her eyes. "I promise you, whatever happens, we'll be together. We'll weather whatever storms are thrown at us, and we'll teach our kids to do the same. Someone will come. We'll get off this planet. Trust me. Do you?"

"I trust you."

"Good. Now, get some rest."

"Again with the nagging!!"

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Day 280

"Wait until I tell you about the time that your Daddy and I and our friend T'Pol were trapped on a Klingon ship in a gas giant. We were ordered by..."

Hoshi was lying on the bed with her hands rubbing her stomach that was starting to get bigger. Malcolm stood at the doorway, surveying the scene. A wave of love swept over him and he felt himself begin to smile.

"Hoshi. What are you doing?"

She looked up, embarrassed. "Um, nothing."

"Really?"

"Uh huh."

"Oh, cos it looks like you were talking to your stomach."

"Well, I wasn't. I was talking to our son."

Malcolm was surprised. She knew the sex of the baby?

"We have a son?" he asked, limping over to the bed. He now got around without his cane for the most part, only using it when he was very tired, but he had been right all those months ago. He would have a limp for the rest of his life.

"Well, I don't know, per say." Hoshi answered, scooting over to make room for Malcolm on the bed. "But, I feel it."

"Really? I think we'll have a girl. One as beautiful, smart and witty as her mother."

"Ok, I'll make you a bet."

"Really?"

"Uh, huh. I bet you the next sixty years that it'll be a boy."

"You're on."

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Day 300

Hoshi woke up suddenly, and didn't understand why. She had been in a deep, dreamless sleep, but something had woken her. What was it? A sudden cry beside her reminded her.

Malcolm had cried out in his sleep. He was tossing and turning, and crying out "No! Come back!" Hoshi shook him awake, avoiding his flailing arms. After an eternity, he snapped out of it, jolting awake and staring around wildly in confusion. Hoshi was getting really worried now.

"Malcolm, what is it? What's wrong?" Malcolm looked at her, and the expression in his eyes nearly broke her heart. He looked so lost, vulnerable and hurt. He reached over, and pulled her into his arms.

"You're safe. You're here" Malcolm kept mumbling to himself, and hugged her tighter as if to affirm that fact. Hoshi gladly went into his embrace, but was still worried.

"Bad dream?" she asked. She could think of nothing else to say.

"The worst." Malcolm replied. He kissed the top of her head, and breathed in the wonderfully fresh scent of her hair. "I dreamt that a Vulcan ship landed, and took us away from here." He paused.

"But, that's a good thing, right?" Hoshi asked confused.

"Yeah, until Starfleet told us that because of the differences of our rank, they were separating us. Permanently."

"Oh."

"I tried to get to you and the baby. I tried! I fought them every inch of the way! I kicked and punched and bit, but they dragged me away from you. Then, my leg collapsed out from under me. I tried to get to you, I swear, but... you just walked away... and..." Malcolm could no longer speak. The horror and the pain of the dream held him once again in its thrall. Hoshi just held him as he cried out his fear.

She marveled at how much this man had changed in the months that they had been stranded on Terra. He became more open, less up-tight and he laughed a lot more. Hoshi had changed too. She became more open with her feelings, and less timid.

Malcolm got control of himself, and sat up.

"I'm sorry love" he told her. "My greatest fear used to be of water. Now, it's loosing either one of you. It's just, you and the baby mean more to me than anything. If I lost you..."

"Don't" Hoshi pressed her fingers to his lips to silence him. "You never will. We will always be together. Even past death. I promise you."

They lay back down, and Hoshi nestled into the curve of his arm, but she was unable to sleep.

"What do you think would have happened if we hadn't crash landed here? Do you think we would have gotten together?" she asked Malcolm.

"I'd stake my life on it. One of us would have made a move, and we would have realized that we're perfect together. We're soul mates Hosh. It may have taken a bit longer for us to get together, but we would have." Malcolm assured her. "We're meant, Hoshi."

Comforted, Hoshi settled down to sleep. Malcolm's hand drifted down to cover her stomach. Her pregnancy was obvious now, and his heart skipped a few beats when he felt the baby kick. His child. His son or daughter.

"I'll never let anything happen to you." He promised the baby in a whisper, and he fell once again into a deep sleep.

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Day 365 – One Year.

Malcolm was late, and Hoshi hated that. She had prepared a special meal for their one year anniversary if their arrival on Terra, and in honour of Jack Martins, and he was late! Hoshi stretched and rubbed her back. She was six months pregnant, and her back constantly ached. Malcolm was usually good for giving her a back massage, but for the past few weeks, he had been... distracted.

Distracted was the only word for it. He left the house in the morning and didn't come back for hours. Hoshi was worried that he was having second thoughts about fatherhood, and was getting nervous.

Well, tough! She was determined to have this baby, with his support or not. And now, he was half an hour late for their anniversary dinner. Malcolm Reed was a dead man.

Hoshi was working up a good anger, and had progressed to the pacing stage when Malcolm walked in the door.

"Where the hell have you been!?!" she screamed at him. Malcolm looked up in surprise, just in time to avoid the cup that was thrown at him.

"What do you mean?" he asked, walking backwards away from an advancing Hoshi. The pregnancy had made her moody, and outbursts were common. But he had never seen her this angry. So he was a little late. It was understandable, considering what he was doing.

"Now Hosh ..."

"Don't you dare 'Now Hosh' me Malcolm Reed!! For the last few weeks you've been distant and you've been avoiding me. What the hell is going on? If you're having second thoughts about the baby, well then..."

"What? You think I don't want this?" Malcolm asked, incredulous. He stepped forward, pulling a trembling Hoshi into his arms. "This" he spread his hands over her swollen stomach "and you are all I ever wanted. I've been waiting for this forever, love."

"Then what's going on? Where were you just now? Why have you been so distant lately? Talk to me?"

"Sit here. I'll be back in a few minutes, and then you'll see what I've been doing. Trust me."

Hoshi nodded weakly and sank into the chair. Malcolm observed her for a moment, before nodding to himself and leaving the house. Hoshi got control of her emotions while he was gone, again cursing the pregnancy for her tearfulness and irritability. It was one of the down sides of having Malcolm's kid. She was shaken out of her musings by Malcolm's return.

He was carrying several panels of wood, smoothed and sanded down. Malcolm knelt, and slotted them together to make a child's cot. It was made with typical Reed precision and attention to detail. It was perfect.

"I didn't know you could work with wood" she breathed.

"I took woodwork in school. Turns out I have a flair for it." he told her. "The weather has been so good lately I knew it wouldn't rain and destroy it. I've been working for weeks on it. I wanted it to be a surprise for our anniversary." Malcolm looked into Hoshi's tear stained eyes. "Surprise, love" he told her.

Hoshi got up from her chair, and stretched a tentative hand towards the crib. She ran her hands down the sides, marveling at the emotion a simple cot could evoke in her. She stood and wrapped Malcolm into as tight a hug as her pregnancy bump would allow.

It was amazing how much she loved this man. It was things like this that made her realize why she loved him, and she told him so. He grinned his trademark half-grin, and kissed her nose.

"It's nothing love, really" he told her, and kissed her again.

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Day 427

Hoshi resisted the urge to scream in frustration, and pushed the blankets off her over-heated body. It was the middle of the night, and she couldn't sleep. The baby was moving around inside her and her liver felt like a bloody soccer ball. And she was certain that the kid was using her womb as a trampoline! (A/N Babies in the womb actually do that. I saw it on a documentary once.)

Malcolm was snoring lightly beside her, and she resisted the urge to hit him with her pillow. It was well for him, sleeping through the night. Hoshi hadn't gotten a full nights' sleep in the last five months! Well, she decided, he was having the next one!

Slightly comforted by that thought, Hoshi rolled over and tried again to sleep, but a sharp twinge of pain in her back startled her. She tried to settle down to sleep, but another twinge, stronger this time brought her arms protectively over her stomach. She couldn't be in labour! She was only eight months along.

The pains got steadily worse and spread across to her stomach. Hoshi willed herself to be silent, and prayed that it was a false alarm, but the pains continued. She cried out at a particularly vicious pain, and Malcolm was instantly awake and kneeling at her side.

"Hoshi! What is it?" he asked, sweat beading his brow. What scared him the most was that she didn't answer him. She just lay there, clutching her stomach, emitting cries of pain at regular intervals. Malcolm scrambled frantically for the medical scanner which they had placed by the bed, all the time praying that she wasn't in full labour.

But she was. The scanner confirmed it. Malcolm cursed long and fluently. He always knew he'd have to deliver the baby, but now that the time came, he was scared shitless. Hoshi managed to come out of the pain long enough to reprimand him for cursing in front of the baby. Malcolm had to grin at that as he tried to make her more comfortable, and got ready for a long night.

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Fourteen hours and thirty two minutes later.

"Hoshi! Swearing in Klingon is still swearing!" Malcolm reminded his fiancée as she finished her tirade against him, his libido, her libido and her threats of enforced celibacy.

"I don't care" she snapped. "The kid doesn't understand!!" She broke off as another contraction hit, and she put all her strength into pushing. But she was tired. The labour had been long, and she was tiring fast. Malcolm was starting to get really worried about her. As far as he could tell, the baby was fine, just taking it's time in coming. It was Hoshi he was worried about.

Hoshi gave one last scream of pain, and suddenly, a tiny baby slipped out into Malcolm's waiting hands. It was a girl! As soon as she reached the open air, she started crying... loudly. Malcolm could do nothing but stare. This was real! This was his daughter. He was a father!

"Malcolm?" Hoshi's tired voice interrupted his thoughts. "Is everything ok?"

"F... Fine" he stammered as he cut the cord and wrapped the baby in a tiny blanket. "It's a girl" he told Hoshi, awestruck. He moved up the bed, placing the child into her mother's waiting arms. Tears of joy ran down both their faces as they looked at their child. She was so perfect! Ten fingers and ten toes. And she had a pair of lungs on her too! Their ringing ears were testament to that!

Malcolm ran the scanner over both of them, mother and daughter. Both were doing nicely. He breathed a sigh of relief at that, then went back to looking at his daughter, as the suns rays lit the room in a cheery yellow glow.

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Day 428

"I have to tell you that you are the most beautiful, adorable and lovable child that ever was."

Hoshi smothered a laugh as she lay in her bed. She had woken up to the sight of Malcolm with their child in his arms, standing at the window, staring out at the night sky and rubbing her tiny nose. The baby yawned and blinked at her father, who was entranced by every move she made.

Hoshi laughed softly to herself as she thought about how he used to be. Aloof. Standoffish at times. Tough as nails. These words and more floated into her head as she surveyed the domestic scene before her. If only they could se him now!!

She must have made a sound, because Malcolm turned from the window, and smiled at her.

"How are we feeling?" he asked her.

"I'm fine. I'm just a little tired." she told him, holding her arms out for the baby. The wave of love that swept over her as she held her daughter was incomparable to anything she had ever felt before. Malcolm settled beside her on the bed, and put his arm around her.

"You know" he began "we're going to have to think of a name."

"I know. We can't keep calling her 'The Baby' or 'her'. You got anything?"

"Well, I was just looking at the stars, and I thought it'd be appropriate if we named her something like Star."

"We can't call her Star! Star Reed? I don't think so."

"We could try it in a different language. After all, Hoshi is Japanese for star."

"True. Let me think... Wait. I've got it. We can call her Celeste."

"Celeste?"

"Yeah, you know. Celeste. Celestial? Of the Heavens? Of the Stars?"

"It's perfect" Malcolm agreed. He looked down at his daughter. "Hello Celeste" he whispered.

"She's so beautiful" Hoshi whispered, tracing the curve of one delicate ear with the tip of her finger. Celeste had a head of dark hair, and beautifully copper coloured skin. Her eyes at the moment were black, and fathomless.

"I know" Malcolm agreed. "Just think what her brothers and sisters are going to be like!"

Hoshi looked at him. "Honey" she informed him. "after fourteen, almost fifteen hours of labour, I can tell you know that Celeste is going to be an only child."

Malcolm looked set to argue, but a dangerous look came into his eyes.

"Ok" he agreed with her. "But I guess, since we have no contraceptives, that it'll be abstinence all round then."

Hoshi narrowed her eyes at his innocent expression, and the coolly informed him

"Well, I guess fourteen hours isn't so bad" and went back to cooing over the baby, thereby missing Malcolm's look of triumph. She could guess it was there though.

She knew him so well.

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