Fiona had always walked a thin line with Michael. A thin line between loving him and being there for him unconditionally, and attempting not to let him treat her however he pleased. He could ignore, put off, placate or dismiss her one moment, only to rely on her, without question, in the next.

Loving Fiona was never something Michael had asked her permission to do. She belonged to him. A lot like Sam, the Charger or any yogurt with in a mile radius.

So when she didn't.. belong to him.. conform to his idea of who she was... he was understandably confused. But then again he was a 'covert operative' a master of behavior and disguise. How was it that he couldn't understand the motives of the person closest to him in the world?

Well, what ever the reason. Madelyn Westen had decided she'd seen enough.

"Where's Fiona?" She demanded.

"In the garage."

"She must be working on building us a dog fighting ring." Sam clapped his hands together and rubbed, Michael tried not to ask. "I'm gonna go fill her in."

She and Sam had just gotten home from their job. The one that apparently involved fighting dogs. Sam reached out his hand to his mother opening and closing his palm. Michael hadn't looked pleased when she'd handed his best friend the machine pistol from hand bag.

"Sam!"

"She knows how to use it!" Sam promised, shaking his head at Michael like he was insulted. "How was the appointment? Everything okay?"

"Yeah except the baby's apparently coming any minute now." He stared at Sam like he should be panicking.

"Whatever. They've been saying that for four weeks." He snorted before heading towards the weapons shed with the armor from the job. "She's a Westen. She'll come out when she's damn good and ready." He pulled the door back, grumbling before he shut it. "Probably at the most inopportune moment possible."

Michael couldn't make out what he said to Fi before it clicked closed.

"Do you know what your father said when he found out I was pregnant with you?" She asked, gushing smoke out the side of her lips as he resumed his slumped position on the couch.

"I'm not really up to a Dad story right now." He told her flatly.

"Tough." She snapped. "He told me he didn't want to hear me use it as an excuse for anything." She looked out into the room like she was addressing an audience. "Like getting all weepy or eating like a pig or not keeping up with the house work."

"What's the point of this little antic dote? Michael made a face.

"I'm just pointing out that pregnancy isn't just a physical thing. It's emotionally exhausting as well. It's frightening Michael! And you need someone. You need someone who's understanding and compassionate even when you've done things that seem irrational."

"Mom.. this is kind of beyond irrational. I just found out six weeks ago that Fiona.. Fi-on-a!" He squinted his eyes shut opening them again and looking at her wildly. "Fiona lied to me. She tricked me into getting her pregnant."

"Did you even think for just one second that it could have been an accident?" She hollered.

"Did you?" He balked, his eyes widening even further almost challenging her to try and convince him otherwise.

"No!" Maddy shouted back. "But I know what it's like to be left behind Michael! I know what it's like to be disregarded by someone you love. It's scary. She was scared! And even I didn't see how scared she really was." Michael swallowed hard and his mother lowered her voice. "You take for granted that Fiona is strong. That Fiona can take care of herself. We all did."

"Mom." He sighed. Maddy wondered why he always treated emotional truths like something he didn't have time for.

"I'm sorry Michael, but you haven't been here. You haven't seen her go through this. She's not as strong as you think she is Michael." His mother dropped her cigarette into the ashtray, waving away the smoke and looking towards the door sympathetically. "She's scared. And you're sitting out here on the couch feeling sorry for yourself."

…...

He found Sam and Fiona in the garage apartment surrounded by pictures of scary looking dogs and sketchy looking people.

"Do I want to know?" He asked softly.

"No." Sam shook his head. "Probably not."

Fiona just smiled, picking up another photo and paper clipping it to an official looking paper.

Michael sat down at the table across from her.

"It's an animal rescue group your mom's got us all wrapped up in. Long story. Anyway. Chuck Finley's gotta have a pretty impressive selection of fightin' dogs if he's gonna get this job done."

"And he will." Fiona hummed, handing him a file full of dogs.

"My mom's job?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Her's are always the worst, Mikey. I gotta tell you." He blew air out of his lips.

"When exactly did you guys teach my mom how to lock and load?" He asked Fiona with a pointed look.

"That was Sam. And I think it was.." She looked at him with a tilt of her head. "May?"

"Right after we finished the nursery." Sam nodded. "She's good Mike. Quick study."

"She went from assembling baby furniture to assembling-." She stopped taking a sharp breath, Sam pressed his lips together for a fraction of a second before flipping though the folder absently.

"Champion? Really? Sounds a little too much for me. How 'bout Rex or something."

"Fi?" He whispered, pressing his hand over hers. She yanked hers back like he had burned her.

"I'm fine Michael." She forced the words out before turning to Sam. "Champion is an arrogant name. It's perfect and if you change anything I'm going to put you to sleep." She pressed up from the table, swallowing hard. "I'm going to go check the warehouse blueprints again."

He watched her leave before turning to glare at Sam.

"She's okay. They're just the fake ones." He sighed. "Not the bad ones like last night. She's just tired."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah.." He tapped his watch absently. "Those were regular.. these are all over the place."

"Sam.." He sighed. "I'm out in the cold here."

"I'm not getting involved in this Mike." He looked down at the folder seriously. "I can't."

"Can't?"

"Won't." He clarified. "You're my best friend, no matter what. But I'm gonna be here for Fi and that baby, no matter what. I'm gonna be on her side, Mike." He tapped the folder against the table. "Someone should be."

"I'm on her side, Sam." He muttered softly, Sam just kept looking at his file.

"I'm gonna go meet Jesse for a beer."

"I thought you were doing something here?"

"She's done." He told Michael, the other man looked at him questioningly. "The blueprints are the table." He pointed to the spot where Fi was sitting. "She's done."

…...

"Fi?" She was standing in front of the sink trying to compose herself. "You okay?"

"Yeah.. just tired." She shook her head. "Of being pregnant."

"The doctor said soon."

"She's been saying that for months." Fiona quipped. "Soon apparently means something different for her then it does for me."

He put his hand out slowly touching the curve of her back. She didn't look at him like she was going to hurt him, so he let himself move closer, smoothing the other hand over the gray and blue dress where it stretched to compensate for her belly. She let her body sag against him for a second and he jumped at it, pulling her into him and wrapping his arms around her.

"Sam left. Something about a meeting with Jesse?" She huffed a little.

"That was supposed to be my meeting." She pouted. "I haven't seen him in a week."

He hadn't intended to feel the jealousy that made it's way up his spine but he did.

"You guys see Jesse a lot?"

"Not as much as I'd like." She admitted honestly, pulling back from him and leaving the bathroom.

"Here." His mother said softly, handing her a glass of ice tea.

"Thank you." Fi whispered before gulping down half the glass.

"You can't let yourself get dehydrated Fiona." She scolded. "It makes those damn fake labor pains worse."

"Ha." She snorted. "I'll take them if they get this damn baby out any faster!"

Madelyn patted her shoulder before casting a sideways glance at Michael.

"You know what they say." She told Fiona flatly. "What gets them in gets them out." She raised a quick eyebrow at each of them before grabbing her purse. "I'm going with Sam."

They both stared at her as she hurried through the door.

"You're mother wants us to have sex." She snickered, shaking her head. Michael grinned at her.

"How 'bout we just start with dinner?" He raised a cautious eyebrow. "You can catch me up on the last nine months?

…...

"So Sam's diving behind the shrubbery and your mom's just 'firing at will' like a crazy person. I swear Michael I almost wet my pants!" She stopped laughing long enough to snort. He shook his head at her. "You should have been there!"

His face freezes for a second when he realizes she's right. He should have been there. He keeps laughing but his eyes aren't in it and she notices right away.

"I shouldn't have said that." She shook her head. "I didn't mean it like-."

"I know Fi." He whispers, leaning forward over the coffee table between them for a second before standing up and wandering into the solarium nursery. She watched him pick up and set down a few stuffed animals, tracing a snow globe of Ireland before picking up the one from Miami that he'd given her so long ago. It had been a thank you. It had been a promise. A promise he'd broken.

"We did a good job didn't we?" She beamed. "It's lovely."

"It is." He touched the sage green walls.

"Bright and sunny." She sniffed a little. "Our baby deserves to be surrounded by bright sunshine." He closed his eyes and let her words sink in. "I'm going to be a good mother Michael. I promise you. I'm going to do all the stupid things mothers are supposed to do. You're mom's going to bake disgusting cookies and make lopsided Halloween costumes and Sam would sooner face a firing squad before he'd let anything happen to this baby."

"I know Fi." He told her again with heartbreaking gentleness. She sounded like she was trying to convince him of something. Her worthiness? Her commitment? He couldn't tell, but her eagerness made him feel like an ass. He looked over at her, watching her encircle her stomach soothingly with soft strokes that she had once reserved for him. He got it then maybe, why she'd done what she'd done.

She looked up when he sat down beside her and covered his hands with hers. "It's a very lucky baby."

Her lower lip trembled and he pressed his forehead to hers.

"I can't say that I'm sorry Michael." She whispered. "But I can say that I'm sorry it had to be this way."

"Me too." He gulped as she lifted her hand and stroked the side of his face, her fingers drifting into his hair. He thought about the last time he'd been touched with loving fingers. It had been.. well it had been just before he'd disappeared into the airport she'd touched him, just like this. He leaned further into her, his eyelids tightening when he realized how badly he needed her touch. "Fi.."

She answered his plea by pressing her mouth to his. He whimpered, wrapping his palms around her face. She put her hands on his chest pushing her fingers between the buttons of his shirt and digging into the skin until he gasped.

"Fiona, Fiona, Fiona." He breathed quickly into her ear. She stilled, pulling back just a fraction of an inch, but not pulling away.

"Michael." He made an uncomfortable noise and dropped his head to her shoulder. "I'm sorry." She kept stroking his hair. "It's.. I just." She pulled his head up to face her. "I need you to need this as much as I do."

He exhaled quickly, with a slow shake of his head.

"You have no idea." He snickered, before he carefully picked her up and carried her back into the bedroom.

...

If her body had looked bizarrely unbalanced fully clothed, when he pulled the straps of her small dress off, her profile made him wonder how she managed to stay upright at all. He cupped his palms against her abdomen and moved his hands around her it was a crystal ball. She unsnapped the front clasp of her bra and wisked it away.

"Wow." He muttered with wide eyes.

"Like?" She asked. "They've doubled in size."

"I see that." He blinked.

"They leak." She announced bluntly.

"Leak what?" He raised his eyes at her.

"Milk I guess." She shrugged. "I just thought you should know."

"Good to know." He decided, looking her over for a second before daring to touch her.

"How we gonna do this?"She sighed, he chewed on his lip for a second before raising his hands.

"I don't know. We were doing okay out there." He chucked his thumb towards the door.

"That was.. passion.. this is.." Fi looked from side to side before deciding on a word. "Logistics." He shook his head in confusion before rolling his eyes and dropping his hands to the buttons of his pants and giving her a questioning glance. "That would probably help yes." He huffed dropping down on to the mattress to pull off his shoes and fling his pants towards the door before she raised her finger as if in triumph before shutting and locking it.

He reached out and guided her back towards him, settling her between his knees. All he could see was the massive hill of stomach at the end of his nose. He sighed loudly before turning her by the hips and leaning her back against the pillows at the head of her bed. He kissed her before running his tongue along her nipples, slipping his eyes up to hers in surprise.

"I warned you." She told him, smiling wryly until he took the whole swollen thing into his mouth. "Oh my.." Her high pitched voice made him smile until she made her move, finding the tip of his penis with her fingertips and carefully sliding her palm down to the base and cupping his testicles. "He-llo."

"Fi." His eyes closed, turning his cheek and resting against the curve of her body. This was a dangerous position and he knew it. Fiona Glenanne had him by the balls.

She giggled, tugging slightly before gripping his organ and thrusting her hand up ward. He inhaled pulling back from her enough to move his mouth lower. Her breath hitched and her spine straightened when he did.

"Hello." He breathed at her before getting back to buisness as her fingers weaved in and out of his hair.

"Oh.. Michael." She breathed over in over until she shuddered violently arching up. "Now."

"Now." He nodded in agreement crawling up to his knees and sitting before her. She wrapped her hand around him and stroked him a few times until he was panting against her. "Now Fi." He said sharply, gripping her upper arms. She chuckled breathlessly at him before moving herself to a more accessible point.

He took another slow shaky breath before meeting her eyes and kissing her as soft as he knew how.

She smiled at him, a shy innocent smile that he rarely saw on her face. He loved that smile.

Michael tugged carefully on her hips and she moved to him before stopping quickly.

"Michael.." She bit her lip. "I.." She needed to know. For the safety of their baby she needed to know. "You haven't been.. with anyone.. while you were away?"

"What?" He looked at her like she was crazy.

"I'd understand." She shook her head, tracing his face with her thumbs. "I just I need to know." She bit her lip. "If we need to use protection.. for the baby."

He stared at her, lips apart and eyes wide, before shaking his head. She smiled at him then, before capturing each lip individually before sealing her mouth over his. He didn't really register how close she was to him until she slipped herself around him, gasping a little at the impact before relaxing against him.

"Hi." She said again, he smiled at her, letting his eyes drift shut and pressing on her lower back in a futile attempt to get deeper. She laughed a little when he ran his hand over the obstacle between them. "Lie back." She coaxed, he did as he was told before taking her hands.

"Have you?" He asked calmly.

"No Michael." She told him, rocking forward and then back. "You're the only one for me."

…...