The reporter started by typing his notes. He would write down his impressions, descriptions of where the interview took place, and the mood before getting to the content of the interview

He would try to use his interviewee's own words for the introduction. It got the reader more excited and who could describe Lin Bei Fong better than herself.

From Police Chief to Expectant Mother: A Conversation with Lin Bei Fong

"I wasn't sure if I had it (motherhood) in me. I didn't know my father at all, and I had supportive adults in my life, but it's not the same as having parents. I wasn't really sure what to do."

Once he decided on how to introduce the subject, he would go to the description of the house.

It's a lovely estate with a garden in front. Right away, it seems like a charming place to raise a family. Inside were stone floors, a bit unusual if you don't know that Lin's mother sees with her feet, pristine everything, and surprisingly comfortable furniture.

After that, he went to his description of Lin.

Most people see Chief Bei Fong in her armor and uniform or perhaps in an evening dress if she's at a formal event. This day, however, she wore a t-shirt and sweatpants, no shell or frills, just Lin.

Lin was candid, not excited to answer every question, but she had honesty in her voice. She didn't just say what happened, but her tone would reveal how she felt about it. There was sadness when she talked about her mother, and how she had longed for closeness that she never with her and a similar sadness, mixed in with some anger, about her estranged sister Suyin.

There was excitement when she talked about her expected child and the father to be, Kuzon. There was annoyance when she was speaking with her best friend Kya, who crashed the interview, but you could tell the two women were very fond of each other.

Enough of what I saw when I was there. Let me get to what she had to say.

Then he got to her story. It was fun to tell but difficult at the same time. Lin was a strong and courageous woman, everyone knew that, but she also had wounds beyond the physical, ones she hid from the rest of her world. From her troubled relationships with her mother and sister to the turbulent one with her ex-lover Councilman Tenzin, she had been knocked around in more places than just the streets.

It's one thing for your ex to leave you. It's one thing for him to leave you for a girl you've known almost all her life. It's a whole other story to get constantly reminded about it by the media, to get alerted every time Tenzin says or does anything, just so your reaction can get photographed, to change your work schedule just so you can avoid people who want to ask you about him. The world gave him a new start with Pema. The world expected her to be his jilted ex forever.

Her story was just as much about gender roles and how the working woman is pitted against the stay at home mother than anything else. Can a woman truly have it all? If she has children, her career suffers. If she has a career, then any children she has miss out on her. Mothers are expected to be there in a way that fathers aren't.

Lin Bei Fong knows this better than most people, having had both a working mother and an absent father. Even thought they both made her, it was her mother that she hoped would be there, and she didn't miss her father at all.

She doesn't even know who her father is, but she didn't seem bothered by it. Her reluctance to have children with Tenzin was more than just her own stubbornness. It was the realization that she would have to give up a part of herself, a part that Tenzin could keep, or her children would have the same frustrations that she did growing up. There seemed to be no way to win.

By the time he finished his first draft, he realized it was 3 times as long as it was supposed to be, but it all seemed too good to cut out. When he went to his boss, she loved the piece and thought he should expand it to a serial. He sent the first section to Lin to get her comments.

Her changes were mostly grammatical, which made him laugh since it was a rough copy, but she approved the content, and thought it was the most unbiased story on her she had ever seen. He disagreed. It was biased. He thought Tenzin was a jackass, but he tried to show restraint when he wrote about him.

The story hit the papers on Friday. Part 1 was about her past, her mother, her sister and Tenzin. Part 2 would get into more of Kuzon and what her plans were for the baby. Part 3 would be about her friends and the other people in her life right now.

The newspaper was everywhere. Lin knew the story would be big, but she didn't realize how people would take it so personally. Women wrote in talking about how hard it was to try and work and be at home for the kids or how it sucked being home all day sometimes. They didn't see Lin Bei Fong as the jilted ex anymore. They saw her as a representative for the struggles that working mothers have everywhere.

Of course, everyone bothered Tenzin about the article. The media asked him, "Are you bitter that your ex-girlfriend is having another man's child after refusing to have yours?"

"Do you wish you had tried to be more agreeable to her concerns as a working woman?"

"Do you think a woman's job is to stay home with the children?"

If he wasn't dodging politically charged questions, he was getting it from the people he worked with.

Everyone wanted to hear his reaction. He wanted them to work, but they had to know about the doctor's office and how hard did she slap him across the face.

Even his brother got in on his case when he stopped by. "Man, you made a scene in front of your wife. I'm surprised she didn't slap you in the face too."

"Bumi, not you too!"

"Of course me too. You gotta get your head out of your rear end. You can't move on with Pema and chastise Lin about her new life. You gotta let it go bro."

When Tenzin saw his sister, he confronted her. "You said I don't respect other people's responsibilities."

"You never had before. I moved in with mother because she was so upset after Dad died and you couldn't even take a week off work to see her because you had the council."

"She needed to settle down anyway!"

"She needed her family, you asshole!"

They yelled so loudly they both got kicked out of the coffee shop.

"At least I got my coffee," Kya told him as she left, even if it was now cold.

Tenzin had to go somewhere else.