Elizabeth was asleep beside him, laid out half on her stomach, curled around the pillow she clutched in her arms. John watched her sleep, tracing the still healing tattoos that trailed down her spine with his eyes. It was amazing how much she'd learned in only a year, things that had taken him a lifetime to learn. She didn't have as much crammed into her head as he, but she hadn't had to make the same mistakes, face the same trial and error he had.

He reached over and traced the tattoo that was in the center of her spine. It was the second Pentacle of Venus, flanked by two above and below it. The ink flared with internal magic light. Constantine continued to trace it as it acknowledged his powers and returned to its normal green color. Mentally he spoke the words that invoked its activation and it flared yet again, waiting for his command.

Elizabeth moved a bit in her sleep. Constantine checked through their bond to make sure she was still deep in dreams before continuing. He thought his questions to the seal, tracing it still, letting its magic light drift around his finger and disappear.

There had been a time, not so long ago, that he wouldn't have welcomed the news and wouldn't have ever wanted children. He hadn't even wanted to share his life with someone either, had never thought it possible. Now here he was, married, in the deepest love he'd ever known. He didn't want that to change. Constantine knew love could change. His own parents had loved him, yet reserved their full love because they could never understand what he lived with, what he'd been cursed with.

John wanted the baby. But he was afraid. Afraid his own child wouldn't understand, wouldn't love him, and would know something was very different about him. That he wasn't like all the other dads. That his child would resent his parents, that Elizabeth too would feel the resentment at her gifts. Of course, what if the baby had gifts or powers? Would he be able to help his own child instead of making it suffer through the same pain and humiliations he had?

The pentacle flashed, signifying it could give him what he wanted: a child who would love him no matter what. But that was playing with fate, playing with the cosmos in ways Constantine had no desire to. He shook his head sharply and broke the spell. The symbol winked out like an extinguished flame.

John's fingers moved down to the base of his wife's spine and traced the last pentacle, invoking its powers. It awoke with silvery light.

"Let me sleep." He spoke his words aloud softly. Within moments he was spooned behind Elizabeth, his arms wrapped tightly around her, fast asleep.