Disclaimer: I don't own the show, characters, etc., I'm not making anything off this, it's just for fun, yada yada yada

I Know You

CHAPTER 1

14 year old Beka Valentine sat outside the Meghan Harper's room in the maternity ward of a hospital drift. They had come here as a last resort, they could hardly afford it, but 19 yr. old Meghan had been in so much pain, and the baby just wouldn't be born, so, after nearly 40 hrs of frightening, difficult labor, they came here.

Meghan and Damien Harper had joined the Eureka Maru, her father's ship, about five years ago. Damien had done some 'favors' for her father and, in exchange, her father gave the two newlyweds a free off some hell-hole slave planet called Earth. They eventually joined the crew, and, after her father died, leaving the Maru to her at only 12 yrs. old, they stayed to help out, to look after her. Meghan was nice, Beka really liked her: she had even temperament, was a great cook, very intelligent, a woman of infinite patience, but of course she had to be with a husband like hers. Damien Harper loved Meghan with a passion, more than he could ever care for any other creature, he was also, however, short- tempered, inconsiderate, unsociable. but a fine engineer, and he took care of the Maru.

'Beka, you can come in now,' Meghan called softly, cradling her newborn on her chest as she lay. They were at a hospital drift. She had experienced unspecified complications during labor, and remained in a great deal of pain, but, she considered, looking down at the sleeping infant in her arms, it was worth it.

Beka approached mother and child cautiously. In truth, she really didn't want to see the baby, didn't care. She had watched Meghan's bell grow over the past 9 months, hating the baby that grew inside. She didn't want a drooling, crying, smelly brat in her life, she never asked for one, but, then again, she'd never asked for many things that she got anyways. And she just knew that she would be the one to have to change its diapers, feed it, and all that crap when Meghan couldn't. She certainly knew the father wasn't good for it. Hell, even now, Damien Harper was in a bar 'celebrating' the birth of his first child.

'So, did you pick a name yet?' Beka said with little actual interest.

'Seamus, Seamus Zelazny Harper." The mother proclaimed with pride.

Beka might've gagged at that, Why in the name of the Vedran Empress would anyone. her thoughts stalled as she saw him for the first time, the tiny baby sleeping so peacefully in his mother's arms.

'Do you want to hold him?'

"No, I.' She was caught off guard and overcome suddenly with a nervousness at the thought of holding something so fragile; it was a nervousness she didn't quite understand.

'It's okay; here you go, take him, that's right, remember to support the head.'

Beka, normally so 'in control,' didn't quite know what she felt as she took the newborn into her arms.

Meghan smiled to herself. She knew that Beka had been ill at ease with the thought of a baby coming on board. The poor girl had lost so much in the past few years, she knew how hard life could be, and she knew a new baby would be an enormous challenge, for them all, but she did hope that Beka would come to like the idea. Still, she had been nervous. But as she watched Beka holding Seamus in her arms, she could see a shift happening within the young girl, and was content, satisfied now that everything would be alright.

Beka looked down for a long while at the infant in her arms, barely a few hours old. Then, he stirred, and looked up at her with what seemed the brightest blue eyes she had ever seen. He cooed, and seemed to study her for a moment, then, with an indifferent yawn, closed his eyes and went back to sleep again. In that moment everything Beka had been feeling about the child for the past nine months changed. He wasn't some monster who had come to make her life miserable, maybe he would, but, that wasn't everything, she realized. He was just this totally defenseless little person, brand new to the universe, entirely without malice. And she loved him just then, cradling him close to her chest.

TBC.