"Delenn, are you still sure you want to go through with this?" Verrenn asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. Let us do this." Delenn reached up for Lennier's hand. Lennier had asked that he be there to support her when she told him of her plans. She smiled at him. In Valen's name, he looked more nervous than she felt!

"Alright." Verrenn had reviewed the files from the Whitestar several times. He was as ready as he would ever be. So, he inserted the IV tube into her arm.
-----

John slowly regained consciousness. He opened his eyes, but shut them again quickly. The room was far too bright. A massive headache pounded in his head. Slowly, he opened his eyes again, getting use to the light. He was in the infirmary aboard the Whitestar. Then his memory started coming back to him. Michael, he thought, you son of a bitch! You sold me out, you bastard!

"I'll kill him," he said to himself. He was so full of fury that Michael would do something like that. Granted, over the past few months his behavior had grown more erratic, but John had never thought that Michael would go as far as to sell him out to the enemy.

"That's probably not the best idea right now. Haven't you ever heard the lovely expression that 'Revenge is a dish best served cold'?" Marcus strode into the infirmary. "Glad to see that you're awake, Captain. You'll forgive me for following Ivanova's orders, and following you down to the planet?"

To Sheridan, Marcus' loud and annoyingly chipper voice only made his headache worse. "Geez, Marcus, can you talk a little quieter, please?" He whispered.

Marcus realized what was wrong, and sheepishly lowered his voice. "Sorry. So, are you feeling better?"

"No. I think I much prefer the unconscious state than this headache. What happened down there? Last thing I remember was being pummeled into oblivion."

"Commander Ivanova told us to follow you, and make sure nothing happened. We called her when we got you back here. She said for me to tell you that she told you so." Marcus said with a smile.

"Ah yes." Susan had suggested that he take Marcus with him, but he had refused. "Well it's good to know then whenever I have the stupid notion to play the hero, Susan will be there to pull my head out of my ass." He grinned ruefully for a moment, but then his expression turned somber again. "What about my dad?"

Marcus paused. This was the bit he had been hoping to avoid. But he couldn't hold that information back from John. "We haven't been able to get him back yet, but we're working on it. I have all the Ranger stations on Mars on alert. We'll find him for you Captain. Now, you need to finish this fight."

John was about to protest, but then realized that Marcus was right. The Rangers had a better chance of getting his Dad out than he did. And Marcus was right about something else too; he had to finish the fight. He swung his legs gingerly over the edge of the bed, and hopped off. "Alright," he said, "find me some aspirin, and then we'll get to the bridge."

And God help Clark when I get my hands on him...
-----

"Push, Delenn, push!" Verrenn encouraged her. Delenn replied with an inarticulate cry as a contraction came on.

The reproductive systems of Humans and Minbari were more similar than the healer had thought at first. That was little consolation to Delenn, who had been in labor for nearly twelve hours. She was almost at the end though, and Verrenn could almost...

"There Delenn! I can see the baby's head. Just a little longer." He looked up. He felt a twinge of sympathy for Delenn's aide; he could imagine the pain his hand was feeling as Delenn held on to it for everything she had.

A minute more, and an angry scream lit through the room. The baby had arrived. Delenn fell back onto the bed, exhausted. Verrenn hurried to clean the infant, and wrapped it in a blanket he had managed to find earlier. Quickly he checked the baby for any signs of illness. There were none. Then, with extreme reverence, he handed the baby to its mother.

"Congratulations, Delenn. You have a beautiful son."