In a rare moment of calm Joker looked back at the last five months of his life. The interview with Melora Ri'An had landed with the force of an atomic bomb. In the following months it had become known as The Shepard Revelations. The galactic community, hungry for any detail about their hero's life, had suddenly gotten an invaluable source of information – and the information had blown people's minds. Talk shows still held discussions, taking apart every word, every gesture, every voice change, every little show of emotion, or even lack thereof. Analysts and psychologists from all over the galaxy talked and wrote and wrote and talked about everything that could be learned from the interview.

In short: people loved it. They loved this new Jo, softer and more emotional in front of the cameras. They loved her openness and willingness to answer questions. Wild debates still continued to erupt across all media about her 'categories' and her 'two hands approach', about first contact protocol and possible sexual positions for someone with brittle bones. Teary-eyed supporters imagined what it would be like to have every life in the galaxy depend on you. Fans created extranet platforms with witness reports about Jo's past exploits. People who had worked with her, who had known her or simply had seen her in passing, were speaking up everywhere with their own take on her revelations. None of these were members of the Academy – the family kept its secrets well – except for one.

The elderly human man, Shiv Thakur, came as a surprise. He had nearly twenty PhDs, MDs, Professors, Honorary Chancellors and other titles standing before and after his name. A highly respected scholar of many fields, his main passion was psychology. For the last seventeen years before the final battle he had been a freelance consultant for the Interplanetary Combative Academy and helped the in-house psychologists to assess the Ns in training and in the field. The reporters digging into the Academy's business had found him still alive after running for his life during the Reaper War. However, he strictly refused to answer any questions about the Academy or about Jo without permission. Joker found out about him from a report and a request for such a permission, which had landed in his inbox one day soon after The Revelations. As the Academy's vice-leader, Joker had full right to handle such a request even without consulting Jo. Still, he had asked her before making a decision.

The request was granted, a non-disclosure agreement was signed, and Mr Thakur became a regular guest at several serious debate shows that concentrated heavily on The Shepard Revelations and a million of topics which the interview had opened. Joker personally watched his vids with interest. Mr Thakur was a marvel to listen to. A man of strong opinions, highly educated, he could make his analysis moving and entertaining. Most importantly, he was on the Academy's side. Only a consultant before the war, he didn't claim to know all the secrets. He'd never even met Jo in person and wasn't about to meet her now. But he had tremendous experience analyzing vids, and the reporters ate up his every word about The Revelations. The most popular was the debate show where he talked about Jo's and Joker's relationship as he saw it from the interview.

Joker still couldn't help an appreciative smile when he remembered the man's words: "You can see that their trust in each other is absolute. The two of them are one unit. Not only because they say so, but mostly because each one always speaks for them both. If one of them had stayed silent, the interview would still have been the same. Do you see the serene smile on her face when he talks about owning her? There is no hint of a differing opinion. He speaks what she feels, it's obvious." Screenshots from the interview were used to prove Mr Thakur's point. One of the most important questions he had to answer over and over again was whether the Moreaus had shown their real selves before the camera or whether it was a deliberate show put on for publicity. This was where Joker's admiration for the man rose even more:

"Mrs Moreau is a great actress, I have seen the vids of her training days. Had she been alone, I couldn't have told you with any certainty if she were acting or not. Nobody could tell that with an N7 Field Agent of her experience. But Mr Moreau is a different story. He is not an actor. He has no training, I know that because I have researched him, but I could tell you this much from simply looking at him. He is not acting and yet they are in perfect synch. The careless banter, the ease with which they go back and forth, speaking out of turn – it all speaks of a close intimate relationship. Years of it. I do not doubt that what we see on the screen is exactly how they act when they make breakfast at home or when they're having drinks with their friends."

Joker was truly grateful to the psychologist. The man wasn't paid by the Academy, nor influenced in any other way. What he said was what he thought. It was fantastic to hear something good about themselves from the vids for a change. In the past the reporters had poured too much filth over Jo and the Normandy for Joker to ever trust them, but Mr Thakur was a supporter and his educated opinion couldn't be dismissed by the public.

During the second half of the pregnancy, despite being perfectly healthy and fit, it became increasingly difficult for Jo to deal with… everything. Joker, as her newly appointed second-in-command, had the power to restrict the pressure of the outside world on her, and he shamelessly used it. The announcement of his new position had earned him a few knowing smiles from the recruits at first. But Joker took Matt's words to heart: Jo was carrying their baby, going through all the physical discomfort and the hormone-induced emotional turmoil. The least he could do was to be a man and make it as easy for her as he possibly could. This attitude helped him with the public opinion: since his priority was Jo and only Jo, he utterly ignored all the teasing. In his desire to ease Jo's workload he instantly became deeply involved in the academy's business. His misanthropic nature made him a ruthless boss, who, with the sudden full authority to make day-to-day decisions, showed no mercy for weaknesses and insisted on perfect efficiency. Jo told him that he was acting in the true spirit of the academy and should continue just so. After all, he'd always demanded perfection from his navigators and techies while flying the Normandy – and the results spoke for themselves. After only a week the recruits forgot all the teasing and learned that in some ways he was even more fastidious and harder to please than Jo. To their credit, they didn't repine, they only started working harder.

Jo was not helping anyone in need, nor saving anyone's life, nor doing anyone any favours until the baby was born. That was what he said to the Prime Minister Akiyama, to Primarch Victus, and to Multistars when the vid company wanted to talk about details of the epic vid they were making. Joker also had to say the same to the newly formed Council. A month after the First Annual Victory Ball the new Council, which consisted of every species' representatives, began its first term. Of course they wanted Jo's cooperation, but Joker had put his foot down. Both he and Jo had enough on their plates already. Countless requests for help from private parties and all things concerning the Aurora Foundation were decisively redirected to the other instructors of the Academy to deal with. Alice told Joker that as Jo's personal assistant she would probably soon need her own assistant. Therefore, when Dex mentioned that he had located Gianna Parasini, an old acquaintance with great administrative skills whom Jo had liked a lot when they had worked together, the woman had been pulled off a small research planet, delivered to the academy and given so much work that she forgot how to complain. Both Jo and Alice were tremendously happy with this development and Gianna admitted that she loved the challenge.

In the meantime, Joker still had to regularly pinch himself because he could hardly believe that he was going to be a father. That word alone, and the drunken feeling it created, were worth everything he privately went through with Jo with the patience of an angel. Justine helped a lot, spending time with Jo regularly and taking some of the brunt, for which Joker was grateful, but he never wanted to hide from his responsibility. He regularly handled her head-spinning mood swings and wild outbursts of temper. He dealt with outlandish food cravings in the middle of the night, when he had to get dressed and fly across the planet to the only store that had whatever she wanted. He dealt with her threats to murder him if he didn't let her have coffee, and afterwards with her teary-eyed regret for yelling at him. He'd dealt with having to change his clothes several times a day because she hated the smell of the stale, conditioned air on him. That one still puzzled him, since she breathed the same air at the station all day long, but she'd developed an over-sensitivity to smells that had curious selectivity and it became worse the closer the birth date came.

The entire academy took part in this particular challenge, mostly willingly. Everyone stopped using any kinds of perfumes, aftershaves and colognes. The station had been cleared of strong smelling flowers and scented cleaning supplies, and they made sure Jo had no contact with machine oil. The whole academy had to drink only water and eat unscented food from specially made scent-free MRE packages for the last two and a half weeks. Joker felt immense gratitude as he watched the academy's population follow any request and find it in themselves to see it as additional training that would do them good and make them stronger. Jo tried to be reasonable and never demanded anything, but some things she simply couldn't help. Joker doubted that every pregnant woman on the station would enjoy the same level of devotion and attention in the future, but everyone here loved Jo and was ready to do anything for her.

It didn't always go smoothly. When Jo's belly began growing really large, one of the salarian recruits compared her to a dirigible, after learning about the aircraft in his research into human history. The remark sent Jo crying to the bathroom. Vega gathered everyone for an emergency meeting, tore the recruits a new one and educated them on how to treat an emotionally sensitive pregnant human woman. Things went smoother after that and Joker was grateful to the man, who obviously hadn't become the leader of the Survival branch for nothing.

And now the wait was almost over. Any minute now Jo could go into labour. Joker had barely slept the last four nights and every little sound Jo made sent him into a mild panic attack. He wasn't the only one. Since last week the entire station was in a permanent state of feverish expectation. Jo was never left alone and a medical team was on standby at all times. Jo was taking this constant supervision with due humour, even though it wasn't easy. Joker tried very, very hard not to be overbearing. He truly did. But he could see better than anyone that the usually fiercely independent woman had difficulty finding her balance quite often, that she felt helpless and exposed, bloated and leaky, and not happy about any of it. These days she needed him to help her shower, to put on the shoes on her swollen feet, and to get in and out of the car. This morning was no different. He'd helped her with her clothes, put her in the Kodiak and enjoyed the rare moment of peace and quiet on their way to work. His heart jumped once more at the realization that any minute now… Any second...


After sending Joker off to his flight simulator Jo walked into her classroom. She moved slowly, carefully, even deliberately. All her recruits were seated and were having many small conversations, but everyone fell silent when she walked in. They sat up straight, sensing her tension.

"Here's a question for you," she said, leaning heavily on her desk and taking a deep breath. "How many of you actually have the guts to deliver a baby?"

The class froze.

"Why, Commander?" A salarian girl asked. "Are you in labour?"

Jo slowly and heavily lowered herself into her chair.

"First of all: sit tight. Nobody knows yet. If anyone here sends a message about it to the Flight class, you're dead. Secondly: yes, I went into labour two hours ago. Thirdly: don't piss your pants, nobody will be delivering my baby except Dr Chakwas. I just asked you to find out if anyone here could actually imagine themselves handling such a situation."

The class watched her with huge eyes on frozen faces. They had no idea how to react. The salarian girl, Taruhe, had a background in medicine, Jo remembered. Maybe she could deal with a delivery, but how would the others react?

"We all know I'm tough, but right now I can't have a real lesson with you. So, why don't you all talk among yourselves about our last topic and I'll just sit here and have my contractions? Don't worry, the monitoring VI will tell me when it's time to seek out medical help." She pointed at the thick bracelet on her right wrist. Their last topic had been the psychology of terrorists. They were working through well known cases of hostage situations, analysing and discussing possible outcomes. Some of them had been Shepard's cases.

"Why don't you want your husband to know that it's started?" One of the humans asked carefully.

"A birth takes hours," Jo shrugged. "There is nothing he can do to help right now, he'll only worry. And panic. Probably even hyperventilate. I'd like to spare him a few hours of needless anxiety. Plus, I don't want to be fussed over just yet."

The recruits dutifully discussed cases among themselves in an orderly fashion, while Jo was quietly having contractions. Despite all the research into the matter, all the preparations and fear of the unknown, the reality almost disappointed her: the pain really wasn't that bad. Being shot was more painful, and she'd been shot too many times to count in her life. She was certain that all the implants in her body made this easier for her than it would be for a civilian woman. She did the breathing and relaxation exercises when needed and got up to walk around the classroom now and then to relieve some pressure, but this birth felt nothing like the frantic mess vids would have everyone believe. A small, snarky part of her almost wished for more drama.

Despite the discussion, everyone in the room was firmly focused on her. About ninety minutes later, when the contractions finally brought some sweat onto her forehead, Jo started moving around more, seeking a better position. The recruits slowly fell silent and simply watched her with worry.

"Commander, you really should get to the med wing," Taruhe insisted. "Your contractions are only six minutes apart."

"I'm fine," Jo said, but found only scared and worried faces. "People, it's just a baby. Women have been doing this for as long as life exists, and this one will be no different. Relax."

"How can you expect us to relax when you're about to pop out a kid right in front of us?" A krogan said.

"I heard human females scream on top of their lungs when they're in labour," another salarian woman said.

"Only if they can't stand a little pain," Jo shrugged. "It's not that bad. I've died twice, so I can safely say I've had worse." The class was staring at her and she snapped: "Come on, people, it's a baby, it's not a Reaper!"

That was when another contraction gripped her and the VI bracelet lit up. "Your water will break soon," the screen read. "Seek out medical attention."

"All right," Jo wiped the sweat from her face and waved Taruhe closer. "Now is the time. Slowly and calmly call the med wing and tell them to bring a gurney. I don't feel like walking all the way there. And you may also call my husband."

The classroom erupted in hurried activity. Taruhe ran closer and began checking her vitals. Someone was calling the med wing, and someone else actually tapped into the intercom system meant only for staff and instructors. A deadly serious recruit's voice carried across the entire station:

"Mr. Moreau, quickly come to the classroom 1.015. You are about to become a father."

Jo groaned. Were they trying to give Joker a heart attack? Not only would he be beside himself when he arrived here, the whole academy would be in uproar. She saw a few of her recruits laugh as they made bets about how long it would take him to get here. Oh, having a boss like Joker started to bring out the joker in every recruit. Wonderful. And right now there was nothing she could do about it. Leader of the academy or not, she was suddenly vulnerable, cramping up and completely unable to defend herself, like any other woman in history who was giving birth. She was now at the mercy of other people.

Her recruits, however, were not school children. They saw a crisis and they stepped up to deal with it. Unceremoniously, they surrounded her, lifted her onto her desk, and tucked their own folded uniform jackets under her back, sides and legs to make her comfortable. They got her some water to drink and held her hands in comfort while Taruhe ran her omnitool over her lower body. They were her people and with them she was safer than any other woman in history had ever been.

As Jo predicted, two minutes later Joker almost skidded into the room. No one had ever seen him running before, not even Jo. He was pale and breathless, but he fought his way through the crowd to get to her.

"How, what, when… why didn't you tell me earlier?" He accused her, when he realised how far along the process already was.

"So that you wouldn't be a nervous wreck all this time. It takes hours, you know."

"Stupid woman," he shook his head, running his hands above her but too afraid to really touch. "Are the medics on the way?"

"Yes, they'll be here with a gurney in two, it's perfectly fine," she smiled at him, but then another contraction hit and she grabbed onto his biceps. She squeezed so hard that when the pain released her, she knew he would have bad bruises on his arm. He didn't say anything.

The medics arrived and from then on Jo was not her own boss anymore. Everyone knew better what to do and felt free to cart her around like luggage. She was lifted onto the gurney and hurried across the station to the med wing. All the instructors were already there, waiting for her with worried faces. On the way she saw recruits crowding the corridors, trying to get a glimpse. Uproar, just like she thought.

After that it didn't take very long. Karin monitored everything and offered Jo epidural anesthesia, but Jo didn't feel that she needed it. Sure, the sensations were far from pleasant, but she truly had had worse before. This birth proceeded much calmer than she'd ever dared to imagine. The military upgrades and implants inside her were certainly helping.

Joker was panicking, she could see it in his wild, crazed eyes. But in the moment of truth, when the time came to finally push, he showed what he was really made of: he stood beside her bed, made her grip his upper arms and with each push he worked his muscles against her grip to give her more leverage and to prevent his arms from breaking under her fingers. All that time he held her gaze, breathing with her, holding his breath when she did, tensing and relaxing with her according to Karin's instructions. He wiped away a few escaped tears off her face. Those were not tears of pain, she informed him with a chuckle in the heat of all the activity. She cried because she loved him so much, she said. He didn't know it, but in that moment she knew that after today's shared experience he truly became a part of her, like her blood, and could not be removed without killing her in the process.

These thoughts distracted her from her ordeal up until Karin said that the next push would be the last, and then it was all over. Joker's attention switched to the tiny pink body in Karin's hands. Spent and dizzy, Jo simply lay there as the other two dealt with the umbilical cord and wrapped the baby in a soft blanket.

"Jeff," Jo called, when the wait became too long for her. He just stood still with the bundle in his arms, unable to look away from his baby's face.

"It's a girl," Karin took mercy on Jo, smiling and wiping a wayward tear of her own, as she doctored Jo back to health with medigel. Even if not short, this birth had been comparatively easy on both the mother and the baby.

Jo looked at her husband and acknowledged that she'd lost him forever. He didn't care that the baby's mother needed to hold her, too. He was not letting go of his daughter.

"She looks just like you," he finally whispered, utterly in awe. Just when Jo thought she would have to get out of bed and beat him to get to hold her own child, he finally came closer. " Blond, like you. Same lips, same nose... Even the eyebrows... Oh." The baby opened her eyes.

His last, startled remark made Jo sit up in panic:

"What? What?! What's wrong with her?!"

"Nothing," Joker exhaled, unable to do more than whisper. "She... she has my eyes. Green." He finally looked up at Jo and there was no word to describe the emotion she saw there. Part of it was gratitude, as if Jo had personally formed that kid with a spatula and those eyes were her private gift to him. "She has my eyes." He repeated, completely dazed.

"Gimme!" Jo finally demanded with a laugh. What did a woman have to do to hold her own baby around here?!

Joker relinquished the tiny girl, but remained close by, running his fingers over every accessible patch of soft, pink skin. Jo held the warm bundle against her chest and finally looked into the little face that had her daddy mesmerised. He was right: their daughter looked just like Jo, one could tell even now. Same shape of the face, same chin and nose, same lips and even the form of her eyes. Only the colour wasn't Jo's. The pale green Jo saw when her baby looked at her was not exactly like Joker's darker shade, but research showed that the eyes and the hair often changed somewhat as the baby grew older. Right now the soft tuft of hair was completely white instead of Jo's pale gold. Still, Joker's contribution to the baby's DNA was unmistakable.

"What are you going to name her?" Karin asked them, thereby distracting Jo from kissing the baby's fingers and Joker from cooing at the tiny eh-sounds the girl made. They suddenly became aware that they were not alone in the room. Karin stood nearby, barely holding back her own tears of joy. Both Jo and Joker could see in her face that she wanted to hold the baby more than anything right now, but they were not releasing their tiny miracle anytime soon. Even to her own grandmother.

"She's Josephina," Jo said, looking down again. The girl eh-ed again, careless about the matter.

"She always was, I think," Joker agreed. "Before we even really thought of having her."

"Josephina Moreau," Karin tasted the name and seemingly liked it. "What about a middle name? Are you going to give her one?"

Jo and Joker exchanged a lost look.

"I don't know," Jo admitted. "Never thought about that. What if we call her Hope?"

"Nah," Joker wrinkled his nose. "I don't like that name. Besides, Josephina Hope Moreau doesn't sound nice."

"You could always make something like Esperanza out of Hope," Karin suggested.

"Josephina Esperanza Moreau," Joker took his own term to taste the name. "Hey, I like it. It sounds pretentious."

"What's with you and pretentious names?" Jo laughed. "You always said you liked Johanna because it sounded pretentious. I sometimes wonder why you don't call me Johanna instead of Jo on daily basis."

"There is nothing pretentious about Jeffrey. It's common and boring, like everything else about me. So what if I like pretentious names for other people?"

"She's gonna hate us for it when she grows older, you know."

"Or we could teach her to be proud of her name."

"You take care of that," Jo declared. Karin, rightfully thinking the matter dealt with, opened her omnitool and got busy with a birth certificate for one Josephina Esperanza Moreau.

"I should let the other know," Joker suddenly remembered that there were hundreds of people outside the med bay, waiting for the news. He tried to take the baby but Jo resisted:

"I'll keep her. She doesn't need that crowd right now, they'll tear her apart in their eagerness to cuddle. And deafen her with their squeals. And probably blind her taking pictures and vids."

"Apropos," Joker took a few pictures of Jo with the baby, then had Karin take some of him with the baby, and then of all three of them. Only then, and barely able to let his newborn out of his sight, he left the room to share the joy with all their friends.

"You did good," Karin said once the two women were alone with little Josephina.

"So did he," Jo said. She knew perfectly well that she wouldn't have made it this far without Joker by her side.

"He was always a good boy," Karin agreed. "And he matured into a good man."

"A very good man," It was Jo's turn to agree. "Did you see his face when she opened her eyes at him? Killed him with one glance, pierced his heart right through."

"Fathers and daughters," Karin smiled knowingly. "I've seen many a soldier turn gooey when they held their daughters or vid-talked to them while on a mission across the galaxy."

"And female soldiers?"

"In my observation, mothers rather turn gooey around sons. Wait until you have a son and see for yourself if that's true for you."

Jo looked up in surprise. A son? Hmmm...

Joker returned, sniggering into his fist.

"They were all pacing up and down. All of them!" He explained. "Even the geth! Have you ever seen a nervous geth juggernaut?"

Jo agreed that the sight of gigantic geth units pacing nervously had to be crazy. Meanwhile Joker was just about to grab the baby again, but stopped, rubbing his cheek. Then he wordlessly turned around and left the room. When he returned, he was cleanly shaven. Jo was too surprised to see him like this to protest when he grabbed the baby and completely lost himself in playing with her, rubbing her face with his now cleanly shaven chin.

"I lost him," Jo sighed. "And my baby."

"There's a good cure for that," Karin laughed. "Have another baby soon. Then you'll at least get to hold one of them at some point. And perhaps he'll find his way back to you now and then, when he'll want to escape the chaos."

"Good idea, I'll keep that in mind!"

Since their friends outside couldn't decide who got to visit the baby first, Karin decided for them: no visitors on the first day, and later only two at a time after a thorough decontamination sequence. With that the young family was left alone in the med bay, where a nursery had been built especially for this day. There was a big bed and a crib and everything they could possibly need in the first few days before taking the baby home. Joker and Jo spent the rest of the evening and the night relaxing on the bed together, the baby between them. It finally started to sink in that they had just become parents and therefore responsible for the tiny human being, the person lying between them.

My own, Jo thought. I finally have a child that is all my own. Cute and blond, with her father's eyes, just like I wanted. She'd already promised to do anything for this child, but now, looking at her baby, she knew that she would do even more than that, if needed. The thought of anyone harming her baby sent a fierce wave of protective instinct through her.

The academy was celebrating somewhere outside, probably across The Bar, the atrium and the cafeteria all at once. Jo, Joker and Josi enjoyed a private peaceful moment. At some point, though, Joker left and surprised Jo upon his return by giving her a square box of blue velvet.

"Before you open it," he said, taking the baby again and hiding his face in her soft fluffy hair. He was blushing a little, Jo realised. "I want you to know that I thought long and hard about how to thank you for this gift. There is no way to really repay you for what you've just given me. No riches in the galaxy can compare to her." He kissed Josi's forehead. "But I still wanted to try. It's not a weapon, because what you did here was not a warrior's heroism. You did something for me that only a woman can do, and I wanted to give you a gift that is… more typical for women. Go ahead."

Intrigued, Jo opened the lid and blinked a few times. Inside, fixed on a bed of blue velvet, lay a necklace. The clasp, the chain and the middle piece, formed like an abstract, artistic swirl, were all made of some strange silvery metal that shimmered in red and blue hues, depending on the angle of light shining on it. Attached to the swirl, so that it dangled right under it, was a stone.

Jo took the piece of jewellery out of the box and inspected the stone closer. Suddenly it dawned on her what she was looking at.

"Jeff," she exhaled. "This is a blue diamond."

"I know," he said, still not looking at her.

"A nineteen carat blue diamond, cushion-shaped."

"Nineteen point seven, to be exact."

"Jeff, they are the rarest diamonds on Earth!" Jo whispered. What she held in her hands was worth many, many millions, but that was not the reason for her awe. Money meant nothing to her and he knew it. But blue diamonds were indeed extremely rare, and one as gigantic as this was probably unique. In the last eighty years hardly any rough blue diamonds had been found anywhere on Earth. Jo, in her sleepless times after her first resurrection, had read up on gemology after Kasumi had told her some interesting stories. She knew a lot about precious stones, but she couldn't remember a diamond quite like the one she was holding making its entrance anywhere in the history. Just holding a rare stone like this was a huge honour in the right circles.

"I know. It was found two years ago, I had it cut and shaped for you, just for this occasion. I know, it's only a trinket compared to what you gave me, but I still wanted you to have something, a sign that I appreciate you."

Cut and shaped just for her. Had he given her a river rock, cut and shaped just for her, Jo would still have felt the same. However, being treated like a queen and presented with a queen's gift - that was an especially nice touch.

"This is stunning. Thank you."

"Now, to make it an official gift, there is proof of purchase and provenance in a chit at the bottom of the box. I don't want you to even look at the receipt, because actually the diamond isn't the most interesting part of the necklace."

"Oh?" Jo cocked her head, trying to look her husband in the eye, but he was hiding his gaze.

"The metal. It's a compound made of several things of… sentimental value. The main part is a piece of metal scrap from our home, back when we just bought it and were rebuilding it."

"Oh." Was all Jo could say.

"Also, there are some metal shavings from the old Normandy, from the new one, from the armour you wore during the Reaper battle and from my leg braces. Then there is a needle from my mum's sewing kit. A piece from Garrus' old visor, and one of Jack's piercings. The victory ring that EDI gave you. One of Mordin's tools. The scalpel you broke while disarming Cyco's bomb. Some bullets that have been pulled out of Vega and out of Justine at one point or another. And finally a scrap piece of this very station from the times of the retrofit."

"Wow. I don't know what to say, my love. How long did it take for you to collect all this stuff, or get people to get it for you?"

"Actually, the only piece I asked for was Jack's earring. The rest I collected quite quickly, nearly in one go."

"You should have it patented. Fans would love to know. But really, thank you, Jeff. I'm really touched. Though, it's not like the baby was my personal gift to you, I'm her mother, too, and without you I couldn't have made her. But still, thank you. I love this. Put it on, please?"

Joker had to hand over the baby in order to put the necklace around his wife's neck.

"Did you know," he remembered something with a grin. "That there is a pink diamond named 'Sweet Josephine' back on earth, which belongs to some rich family?"

"I knew that!" Jo lit up. "I'm glad you didn't get me that diamond. That was someone else's sweet Josephine. I like it that my diamond is new, just mine, with no history attached. Though, now that you mentioned it… Diamonds of this size have the right to be named. Can we name it?"

"We could, yes. We'll just have to file the official request. What do you want to name it?"

"No idea." Jo confessed. They both looked at Jo's chest, where the diamond sparkled in the light of the room just beneath her suprasternal notch. After a while Jo slumped down: "No, still no idea."

"Personally, I'd name it after you. After what you really are."

"What?"

"The Real Woman."

"Not 'lady'?" Jo teased.

"No, a lady is not what I mean. You're only sometimes a lady, but you're always a woman, the best, the most real kind. Especially now that you're a mum."

Jo smiled a Mona Lisa smile. Joker got her the best gifts, but this one was the most thoughtful and beautiful yet. The part that gave her the most pleasure was that it wasn't a soldier's gift, but a woman's. He'd put real thought into it, collected what he needed and ordered a custom piece from an artist. It was that, and not the price he'd paid for the diamond, that meant the most to her. Jo decided that she didn't want to ever wear any other jewellery for the rest of her life.