Michael was waiting for Susan to answer his com signal when he heard Talia screaming. He turned and rushed back into the bedroom, the companel forgotten. Talia was laying on her side in the bed softly moaning as she clutched at her stomach. He had a bad feeling about that, a real bad feeling. "Talia?" He moved to her side, reaching out and placing a hand on her arm. Her muscles were tense as if she was struggling under some incredible strain. "You're in labor, aren't you?"

She nodded and then suddenly moaned as another contraction hit. They were much too close and strong with a steady pressure building in her lower body. "Michael, do you know anything about delivering babies?" she asked him as she fought to focus, wincing with the pain and the confused thoughts of her children that battered her mind. They had no idea what was happening. They just knew that the walls of their nice safe home were closing in on them forcing them to venture out into the much too cruel world.

"Why do I have a feeling that I suddenly don't know as much as I need to," he muttered as he looked at her. All security personnel were required to take some classes in first aid and that had covered childbirth. Unfortunately, there hadn't been much real information offered. The instructor had insisted there was always enough time for trained personnel to arrive so they wouldn't need to know very much. Apparently, that instructor was an idiot.

"It's be okay," he tried to reassure her as he saw the frightened look in her eyes. "Do you have any idea of how much time we have?" He didn't think there would be enough time for someone to find Stephen and get him up there to help but maybe there was someone else who could lend a hand.

Talia started to respond but then suddenly screamed in pain as another contraction hit and her lower body suddenly felt as if it was on fire.

"I'll take it that that means we don't have time to call someone else," Garibaldi said as he frantically wracked his brain to remember what that class had said about childbirth. "I'll be right back. Just need to get a few things." he quickly darted out of the bedroom and into kitchen, digging through the drawers in search of some cooking string and a sharp knife. He thought he heard a voice coming from somewhere but he was distracted as Talia screamed again, sending him rushing back to her side.

She had somehow pulled herself up into a semi-sitting position in the minute he had been out of the room, reaching up and digging her fingers into her knees as her stomach churned and forced her children down, quickly moving out of her body.

"Here," he said as he adjusted the pillows behind her so that they supported her back a bit before pulling the blankets free of the foot of the bed and adjusting them so that he could see what was going on.

"So, want to tell me how you got back here?" he asked as he quickly looked under the blankets, his eyes widening when he saw how fast things were moving. The top of the baby's head was already visible, with more steadily appearing with each contraction.

"Activists found me on Mars, arranged to get me off the planet. This man, this Ranger, his name was Andrew...." Talia suddenly stopped talking as a contraction hit and she felt her body beginning to bear down. Her fingers dug into her knees as she struggled to push with the pain, to bring her children into the world.

"That's good. That's really good. Won't be long now," Michael said as he reached down, arranging his hands so he could support the head as it eased out. "So, what happened to this Ranger?"

"He saw something, told me to run. I didn't even sense the psi cop," Talia whispered. "He saved all three of us."

"Three?" he murmured. Why did he think things were about to get very complicated?

"Twins," Talia told him as another contraction begin. She reached out to her babies, trying to reassure them as she pushed. They were both so frightened, one of the cold outside that it could feel touching its head and the other of being alone.

"Why is nothing ever simple around here?" Michael asked as he watched the baby's head emerging, first little eyes clinched tightly shut and then suddenly the entire head was free. He reached out in a panic even though he had positioned his hands in readiness for this, carefully supporting the baby's head, terrified that he would harm it somehow.

He looked up into Talia's eyes. "You're doing real good. Baby's almost here," he reassured her. "So, should we expect a husband to show up anytime soon?"

"If one does, I certainly don't know about it and you have my permission to kill him!" Talia cried as her body forced her to push again.

"You don't know who...." Michael said as she adjusted his grip as the baby's shoulders started to emerge.

"No idea. The last thing I remember was walking in and seeing Lyta Alexander and then I was waking up six months pregnant." Talia shut her eyes as she pushed. Her strength was fading rapidly. She didn't know how much longer she could do this.

"Talia, stay with me, okay?" Michael said as she reached up with one hand while supporting the baby with the other and pinched her arm, forcing her to open her eyes. "One more push. Can you do that?"

She slowly nodded, gathering her strength and bearing down. As the baby emerged, he lifted its body, easing it onto her stomach as soon as it was fully out. Talia reached out, touching the baby with her hands and her mind, reassuring her new son that mother was there while Michael quickly dried the baby and then tied and cut the cord. As soon as that was done, he helped her to lift the baby and settled him into her arms. To his surprise, the baby hadn't screamed as he thought most did at birth. He merely blinked and looked up at Talia's touch before sneezing a bit of fluid out and starting to steadily breathe.

"Talia?" Michael called. He really didn't like that look in her eyes, like she was about to pass out or something. "There's another baby here that needs to be born. Are you doing okay?"

"Very, very tired," she murmured as she reached out, undoing the top buttons of the shirt she was wearing and pressing her son to her breast.

"Who can blame you after what you've gone through today. Just stay with me for a little while longer and then you can sleep as long as you like, okay?" Michael said as he checked again and was relieved to see that the second baby's head was now visible. At least this was going fast. That might make it a bit easier on her. "So, do you know if the psi cop who was after you was alone or do I need to send security out on a manhunt?"

"I don't know if he was alone. They usually aren't, though." Talia suddenly screamed as the contractions begin again. She clung to her son as she bore down, struggling to bring his sibling into the world as well.

""Okay. We'll just figure that there are more of them. You're doing really good," He said as he looked up at her. The top of the baby's head was visible to the forehead now. "Did that psi cop hurt you?"

"No. He just showed me what they were going to do when they got ahold of me, how they were going to cut my babies out and leave me there to die." Another contraction forced her to stop talking in order to bear down again. When would this end?

Head's out now," Garibaldi told her as the tiny head slowly emerged into his waiting hands. He figured that she needed to know that this wasn't going to go on much longer. "I always knew the Corps was evil but threatening to take babies from their mom like that...."

"They did worse. Wouldn't let me forget that no one was going to come looking for me, that I would never be free again," Talia whispered as she breathed deeply gathering her strength before pushing again. That had been the worst thing that the Corps had done to her. Bester had taken great delight in telling her what the alternate personality had done and how her friends believed that she was dead. How she had no hope of rescue.

Michael didn't know what to say to her. What the Corps had told her was true, they had never thought of trying to save her. They had just taken Lyta's word that the old Talia was dead and then when Bester had slipped with that remark about dissection.... He was suspicious of everything else! Why hadn't he thought to look into her fate?

"Don't blame yourself," Talia murmured. "You couldn't have known. No one could have known."

"We should have looked," he murmured as she reached down, supporting the baby as it slowly emerged and then lifting it up onto her stomach before gently covering it with a blanket and tying and cutting the cord.

Talia's lips twitched in a weak smile as she reached down and gathered her daughter up, pressing her against her other breast as she leaned back against the pillows. She was so tired but she had done what she had wanted so badly. Her babies were safe and free. "Promise me something," she whispered.

"Anything."

"Don't let the Corps take my babies. Protect them and find my daughter." Her eyelids were becoming so heavy. She didn't know how much longer she could stay awake.

"Your daughter? You mean...."

"Not the baby. Older. The Psi Corps took her from me when she was three. She's on Syria Planum. I saw her." Talia's one regret about her escape from Mars was the fact that she had been forced to leave her firstborn child behind. "Allie. Find her. Protect her."

"We'll get her back for you. Just rest now," Michael said as Talia drifted off, even in sleep maintaining a firm grip on her babies, as if she feared they would be snatched from her arms. Snatched like her first child had been.