Shayera was in a relatively good mood despite being on monitor duty. This was mainly due to Mari also having the same monitor shift as her. Shayera was relieved she was with Mari and not any of the other female Justice League members. Even if she was with Diana it would have been better than the others. They just suffocated her. Mari and Diana understood that Shayera liked her space and wasn't one for frilly things. They also understood that Shayera didn't necessarily want to discuss her pregnancy during every waking hour of the day; unlike the others who just bombarded her with question after question whenever they saw her. Shayera's main issue was that they also tended to ask questions that she didn't have an answer for or knew how to answer.

"That is a nice ring," Mari said to Shayera as she looked it over. "It suits you perfectly. John does know you well."

Shayera lightly smirked as she typed on the computer in front of her, "That's what I told him. Even though I love the ring he didn't need to get me one."

"Remember what I told you a few years ago, men have fragile egos. The whole ring thing makes them feel better. It's a bit of a status symbol for them even though we end up wearing the ring."

Shayera glanced over to Mari with an amused look as she raised an eyebrow, "I thought you also said that I needed to know how to talk to them. What happened to that?"

"Not your style Shayera, your approach surprisingly works well for you. Though considering it is John you're dealing with," Mari let out a small laugh. "We both know how stubborn he can be."

Shayera laughed, "That I do know very well. I don't know who's more stubborn, me or him."

"You might be coming to a very close draw there," Mari quipped as she looked down at the ring again. "That's definitely platinum."

Shayera tilted her head, "You're able to tell just by looking at it?"

"Hon, you're forgetting, I'm a fashion model. I live and breathe clothes and jewelry," she waved a dismissive hand at the Thanagarian. "Princess cut diamond that is either .5 or .7 carat. Which is a good size for you since I can tell you're not one to wear jewelry all that much so you wouldn't want anything that stands out and grabs attention. The style of the ring is called a solitaire twist. Elegant yet simple. You better be careful with that ring. They tend to be delicate. You could easily knock the diamond out if you're not careful."

Shayera playfully rolled her eyes, "I don't plan on punching anyone in the face with it on. John told me the same though. He doesn't want me losing or damaging it."

"I can see why. It's a very nice ring and it would be a shame if he had to replace it."

"Nothing would be able to replace it, even if it was an exact replica," Shayera stated as she looked down at the ring. She lightly smiled as she ran her thumb over the diamond, "You know it's a bit funny. I never would have guessed this is how my life would turn out when I first came to Earth."

"I can imagine. You said before that all you viewed yourself as back then was just a soldier with a mission. You probably thought you'd only be here a few years and then go back to Thanagar right?"

Shayera shrugged, "More or less, I didn't see myself learning to care for the humans here. Let alone I would fall deeply in love with one. For some time, even after we formed the Justice League, I still believed that I'd be forced to return to Thanagar eventually and I'd be forced to leave this planet behind. As much as I wanted to stay on Earth, I did want to return to Thanagar as well. Honestly I wanted to have both back then."

"Do you miss Thanagar at all now?" Mari sincerely asked her.

"At times I do but I still find it odd that I now view Earth more as my home than I ever did with Thanagar. Considering I've only been on this planet for ten years compared to all of the decades living on Thanagar."

"Well we have a saying here on Earth for that," Mari mentioned as she folded her hands and rested her chin on top of them. "Home is where the heart is."

"You humans seem to have a saying for just about everything." Shayera then softly smiled, "It's very true though. I suppose we really do choose our homes rather than it being where we're from."

"That it is." Mari was silent for a moment before she continued, "I was going to get a drink after this but, considering you wouldn't be able to drink, I wasn't sure if you'd want to tag along. Though I'm sure we can find you some apple juice to sip on."

Shayera snorted back a laugh as she rolled her eyes, "Smartass but I could drink if I wanted to. Thanagarians metabolize things differently than humans so it would be perfectly safe for me to drink alcohol whether I'm pregnant or not. I just haven't drank at all to make John feel better. Trust me I've been heavily tempted to down a bottle of Jack Daniel's recently."

Mari lightly nodded, "I can imagine. Still nervous about tomorrow?"

"Somewhat," Shayera admitted. "My nerves are starting to get to me. Even though I can recite every president in order of both term and alphabetically, I know the U.S. Constitution front and back, and I can lecture you about American history until the pigs come home."

"Cows," Mari corrected her.

"Whatever, you know what I meant. I'll tag along but I can't stay out too late though."

Mari chuckled, "You're going to be saying that for quite some time. You do realize that right?"

"Yeah, I know. I'm guessing that's going to be one of the joys of motherhood I'll have to look forward to," Shayera stated with a light eyeroll.

Mari smirked as she nudged the Thanagarian next to her, "Better you than me."

Shayera rolled from laying on her stomach to her side, pulling back the covers. She sat up slightly and repositioned her pillow in an attempt to make it more comfortable as she flopped back down. The bright red numbers on her clock glared at her and seemed to light up the entire room. She let out a deep sigh. It was already past three in the morning. She was never going to fall asleep at this rate. She was exhausted but she just couldn't sleep.

She had never taken notice, until now, of how loud the ticking from John's small clock was. Now she couldn't help but listen to it. It should have helped her fall back to sleep but it didn't. Plus John was also snoring which was hardly helpful. Everything was getting on her nerves it seemed that night. That and she was beginning to feel nauseous.

Shayera sighed and resisted the urge to look at the time again. It would only make things worse. She glanced over to John on the other side of the bed and she almost felt jealous of his deep sleep. Running her hand through her hair to brush it away from her face, she decided to get up.

She carefully slid out of bed and stood up as silently as she could. Not wanting to make more noise than necessary, she quietly moved to the door. It was quite dark, save for the moonlight coming in from the windows. Her eyes easily adjusted to the lack of light though. Shayera took a quick look around and frowned. None of this was fair.

Shayera let out an exasperated sigh as she sat on the couch. Maybe a little bit of TV would help her. The television's bright light contrasted the darkness of the room. Currently some ridiculous drama show was starting up; she quickly changed the channel and settled on some cartoon channel. Not wanting to wake John, she had muted the TV and the captions were on. However, she was far too tired to even care. Tonight marked the third sleepless eve in a row for her. Worries over this civics test were starting to overtake her. If John knew that she hadn't slept in three days, he would start with that annoying fussing again.

After over an hour, Shayera turned off the TV and scowled; it hadn't helped her in the least at all. She got up and sat at the kitchen table, massaging her temples. A thought popped into her head. She just had to simply bore herself. She looked up at the kitchen clock and then dropped her gaze with a groan. The question was on how she was going to do so.

Shayera dropped her head into her hands with a sigh. She slowly looked up. Her eyes roamed towards the discarded pile of books sitting on the table. She honestly didn't know if this was Wally's sick idea of a joke or if he honestly was trying to help. Shayera cast the books a glare; she didn't need or want a book to tell her how to be a mother or what to expect during pregnancy. Though she knew this was also her only source of knowledge at this point.

Nonetheless, she begrudgingly reached over and picked one of them up. All of the information in there pertained to humans, not her. Her body was different as a Thanagarian. Though she still opened the book and began flipping through the chapters.

Shayera was only a few sentences in and she rolled her eyes at how condescending the book sounded already. The section of the book she had to open to was about anxiety over parenthood. As soon as the book began to dictate how to manage anxiety, she immediately flipped to another random section. She didn't need a book to tell her what to do.

Shayera was slightly more interested when the section she went to was about the development and size of a baby during the first trimester. She truly did wonder how this was all going to play out. Especially since she didn't know how human babies developed in comparison to Thanagarian ones. This was going to be an intricate cocktail of Thanagarian and human DNA. Shayera looked down at her stomach and tilted her head slightly. This wasn't something anyone had experienced before. Not including the wings, Thanagarians had much thicker muscle masses than humans. Between that and their enhanced senses, Shayera figured that's what caused Thanagarian pregnancies to last longer than human ones.

Shayera moved on to another section. She stifled a laugh as she realized it was on healthy snacking and what to eat. John would have a field day with this section. He was constantly nagging her already about it and now a book was about to do the same. She then raised an eyebrow when she saw the book delved into morning sickness and how to stop it.

"Yeah I figured soda and potato chips weren't the best idea I've ever had," Shayera quietly said to herself. "Neither were those tacos earlier now that I think of it. This book is nothing but bullshit. It's just regurgitating information that I already know. Why did I even bother with this?"

"Shayera?" She turned to see John standing there, squinting through the darkness and rubbing his eyes. "Why are you up and reading? It's quarter to five. You should be asleep."

"I'm reading about world domination. I've decided to be a supervillain," she sarcastically replied before sighing. "I just can't sleep John. I've been trying to distract myself but it hasn't helped. I've tried everything. I watched TV and I'm even reading parts of one of those books Wally got me."

"You're reading those books?" John asked with a raised eyebrow as she lightly blushed. "You really must be desperate, especially since you said that you didn't need a book to-"

"I don't need a book to tell me how to be a mother or what to expect while pregnant," she vehemently insisted with a frown. "Those books are degrading. I don't know how human women read these books so willingly." John let her continue to rant. He watched as her eyes began to slightly droop and she began lightly yawning. "And half of the books are written by men. What do they know? You don't go through this, I do. Furthermore," she paused as she yawned, "Furthermore I...I forgot what I was going to say but I'm sure it was important."

John held back a chuckle but smirked "Alright how about we go back to bed and you try again to fall asleep?" His response was a yawn as she brushed past him.

Hardly two hours had passed before Shayera sat up in bed with a start. Her heart was pounding as she pushed off the bed and raced to the bathroom. She made it just in time to vomit into the toilet.

She noticed that the lights flicked on not long after and felt her hair being held back. She flushed the toilet and turned her head. John was kneeling right next to her.

John put his hands under her arm and helped pull her up. He slowly ran his hand up and down her back, "You okay Shayera?"

Shayera closed her eyes and slowly inhaled before nodding, "Yeah I'm fine."

Shayera didn't know if she actually liked the easiness of this routine they picked up. Whenever she got sick throughout the night or morning from her accursed morning sickness he would be there right next to her, each and every time. She loved that John was there with her; she just didn't like the whole ordeal surrounding it.

"I have that stupid test in three hours and I barely got one hour of sleep. I hate this," she mumbled as she grabbed her toothbrush. "You're never touching me again after this."

John leaned up against the counter, watching her with an amused expression, "Somehow I don't think you'll follow through with that Shay."

She rolled her eyes as she spit the toothpaste out before continuing to scrub her mouth. She finished quickly and rinsed her mouth out. She then looked over at him and lightly glared, "Watch me Lantern."

John smirked at her, "I'd like to see you try." He kissed her on the lips, "You taste minty."

"Thanks, I brush often. Morning sickness and all that," she kissed him in return and stepped back as she placed her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow. "You're going to lecture me about what I ate for dinner, aren't you?"

He merely shrugged, "I told you having those tacos would be a bad idea. You know they give you heartburn so you should have figured you'd get sick from them." John then smirked as he watched her playfully roll her eyes at him. He leaned over, wrapped an arm around her waist, and kissed her forehead, "Maybe you'll learn to listen to me for once."

Shayera lightly smirked and let out a small chuckle, "As if Lantern."

A/N: For those curious about the ring: www . purelydiamonds . co . uk/ engagement-ring-single-stone-princess-platinum-pd372pl

And it is the very same ring I used as a basis for the initial version of this story. I'm more amazed it's still being sold to this day.