Anna smiled at the touch of John's lips to her forehead. She opened her eyes, blinking at him, "What's that for?"

"I promised I wouldn't leave again without telling you goodbye in person." John places his lips on hers, sneaking a lick at her bottom lip, "So I'm waking you up to say goodbye."

"Maybe I'm still dreaming and you're not leaving." Anna wrapped her arms over his shoulders. "Maybe you're just waking me up to leave me satisfied."

"I could do that." John started laying a trail of kisses down her neck. "I have a little time."

Anna mocked a gasp, "Did you plan this so you could be satisfied as well Mr. Bates?"

He grinned at her, running his hand over her belly, "Maybe."

"Well," Anna shifted to straddle him, farther back that she wanted but the expansion of her abdomen to accommodate their growing boy made it a necessity. "I guess I can't be too angry with you."

"Can't you?" John slipped his fingers lower, running over her slippery folds.

"No," Anna sighed, shifting her hips closer to his fingers. "Not when you'd know I was lying."

"You are already wet."

"That's from last night." Anna replied, losing her voice to a whimper when his fingers ran deeper inside her. "And maybe the promise of this morning."

"I aim to please." John added another finger and curled them inside Anna as her hips started to respond more frantically. "Are you ready?"

"Yes."

John flicked his thumb over her nerves and Anna keened with the clutch of her walls around his fingers. He withdrew slowly, focusing the attentions of his mouth on her breasts. She whined when his fingers removed and grabbed for them. With a suck she John bucking under her and Anna grinned at his response until he took a nipple in his mouth.

"You're more sensitive now Anna."

"I know." She held at the back of his head, pulling him to her, "Please don't stop."

Instead of responding with words John used his actions. Taking her hips in his hands he lifted her, sliding her down his ready erection, and bit lightly at her breast. Anna cried out, her nails digging into the hair at the back of his neck before scratching over his shoulders.

John's hips pumped into her slowly, trying to draw out the experience to drive them both mad with pleasure. Anna pulled his lips to hers, writhing her chest against him, and moaning into his kiss as he increased speed. With her belly growing the way it was John snuck his fingers to her core, massaging there in time with the piston of his hips and sending her over the edge again.

In the haze Anna felt John find his release. They slowed, stuttering to a stop, and Anna kissed him again. She pulled away, putting her forehead to his, "That's not a goodbye is it?"

"No," John assured her, "It's a promise of more when I come back."

"A promise?"

"Yes and I never want to break a promise." John laughed, "Like how I wake you up before I leave every time. Even if it is too early for you to be awake."

"What time is it now?" Anna shifted off him, moving to check the time as John moved out of bed.

"The small hours." He kissed her, "I'll send word when I can, I promise."

"How long?"

"It depends how much the Federation wants the people of the Greater British Planets to know about what's happening to them but I think a week. Two at most."

Anna nodded, sitting up to hug him. Her belly made it a little challenging but the feel of John's hands rubbing over the skin there comforted her. He dipped down, kissing the top of it before whispering to the life inside.

"Your father's coming back as soon as he can. He'll bring you stories so you'll fall asleep and stop trying to jump around while your Mummy's sleeping. And, if you're good, I'll even bring Mummy back something delicious for you to share with her."

"I hope you're bringing that anyway." Anna kissed him again, her fingers slowly moving in his hair as if releasing the strands there would bring the realization he was really leaving.

"I'll bring you whatever you want if I can." John kissed her hand, "I love you."

"I love you." Anna watched him move to the shower stall.

He was only there a few minutes before he turned off the stream. Dressing quickly he risked another kiss to her lips before ducking out the window. He smiled at her, closing the window, and sliding down to the neighboring rooftop to make his way toward the smugglers' platform.

Anna laid back on the bed. She buried her head in his pillow, pulling the blankets from his side to wrap around herself and try to drift back to sleep under the illusion he was still there to hold her. The feeling comforted her to a doze and she floated on the dream of John's return.

When she did wake up again, Anna felt the baby kicking just under her ribs. She winced, rubbing at the spot to feel the little foot pressing upward. "I know, I know, you're hungry. But now you're pressing on Mummy's bladder and making life uncomfortable."

Anna worked herself toward the toilet and then the shower. With John there so often she'd brought Branson up specifically to manage the hot water. Since her pregnancy showed more now, the hot water soothed the movements of the boy inside her while cold water sent him leaping into a frenzy. Even so, Anna only allowed herself to bask in the warmth for a few minutes before finishing getting ready for the day.

William looked up as Anna came to the bar, struggling to get her pistol where it usually sat near the small of her back since her body could no longer bend like it used to. He stepped over, repositioning it for her, and smiled. "Daisy had some troubles with that when she was pregnant."

"How is Daisy?" Anna clicked the machine to dispense her tea and breathed the fragrance deep into her lungs. "She still wants to come back I assume?"

"Of course she does." William reached a high shelf and handed Anna a mug. "She thinks little Beryl'll be ready for people in about another month. Right now she's a little terror."

"I can imagine." Anna filled the mug and took a sip, "This one's practicing to be a footballer between his acrobatics routines."

"But life is so precious." Both Anna and William turned their heads to the door to see the androids, Barrow and O'Brien, flanking another woman. "We wouldn't want to complain that we've been gifted something denied so many now would we?"

"I guess not." Anna set her mug on the bar, "We're not officially open yet, as I'm sure your androids there could tell you from their last visit here, so I'll kindly ask you to step back outside until we are."

"I'm not here for your fare or your futons." The woman took a seat at the bar and Anna tried not to flinch at the cold look in her blue eyes. Eyes she was sure were the models for those of the Barrow android to her right. "I'm here for information."

"What kind of information?"

"The kind you wouldn't share with my agents here," The woman pointed to Barrow and O'Brien. "The last time they visited your dumpy bar they were treated rather rudely."

"I don't usually respond well to threats."

"So you refuse to give them answers?"

"Because I'd nothing to share with them." Anna risked a dart of her eyes in William's direction but he moved to clear tables, disappearing to the back. "If we ever served a Mr. Bates here then it was months ago."

"I can tell." The woman eyed Anna's body, "Must've been some service. Did he pay you well for it?"

"Excuse me?"

The woman pointed, "Did Mr. Bates pay you well to spread your legs for him? That couldn't been cheap considering the time it would've taken him to get it up for you and how quick the release would've been."

Anna ground her teeth until her jaw throbbed, "If I had any kind of relations with Mr. Bates that's my business, not yours, and I wouldn't need to take payment for it. It's paid in pleasure… for most anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I can't imagine you get your rocks off cheaply. Must take a fortune just to get them to look twice at you." Anna risked it, noting how the woman's flared nostrils and her quivering finger when she pointed it at Anna's face.

"You can't imagine the hell I can rain down on you here Ms. Smith."

"Just as I'm sure you can't imagine how tired I am of the accusations tossed around by you and your little tin minions here." Anna crossed her arms over her chest, "I've done nothing to deserve this level of harassment from the government about a man I barely met except to serve him a drink and hear a mournful war story."

"So you do remember him?"

"After all the attentions from you, and your cronies here, he's hard to bury at the back of my mind with the rest of the sobbing saps that roll through." Anna sighed, "Are you done Miss?"

"It's 'Madame'. Madame Boron."

"Madame Boron? That's not a suggestion of the state you leave people in is it?"

A muscle in Madame Boron's cheek twitched, "It's a title."

"All the good ones already given out eh?"

"In a manner of speaking." Madame Boron withdrew a badge and Anna read the name there. "It's what happens when you prove yourself worthy of Level Five clearances."

"How fun for you Mrs. Bates." Anna shrugged, "Means nothing to me."

"It'll mean something to my ex-husband when I take his other leg this time." Madame Boron pushed from the counter, "If he happens to skulk through here again, you tell John Bates and Vera's looking for him and she's a score to settle."

"Why don't you find him somewhere else and tell him yourself? I've got better things to do than act as your messaging service. I don't get paid enough for that." Anna went to leave as Vera called to her.

"If that child is his, it's property of the government as payment for his crimes and you seditious behavior."

"I thought the government outlawed slavery." Anna stood straighter, "Or is that another lie your lot tells the ignorant and unaware before you bleed them dry of hope and dreams?"

"You make us sound like monsters," Vera sneered, "We're much worse."

"If you're done," Anna pointed to the door, "The exit's that way. Don't let it slap your ass on the way out. Even if that's the most action you get these days."

"They were right," Vera gathered her things, "You are subversive. Perhaps we ought to keep a closer eye on you."

"Perhaps you ought to keep a closer eye on the planets and people who don't belong to you so you can keep your grubby hands off them."

Vera snorted, "I can see why he'd like you."

"Who?"

"John, he always did like a little fire. That's how we got together. It was always fire and passion for us."

"Was it?" Anna lifted a hand, "Congratulations, I hope it helped train you for the heat you'll endure when you inevitably burn in hell. May that day come sooner rather than later, for all our sakes."

"You've got a tongue on you." Vera chuckled, "I'm sure he liked that."

"Never had a man complain yet when I used it."

"And what'll the father of that bastard in your belly think when he finds out you're pregnant? Or that you risked the life of the baby with a man doomed for the government prisons… or the death chambers?"

"That's between me and the father of the baby, isn't it?" Anna waited but Vera said nothing more. "I think there're other people waiting for you to oppress them somewhere else and I'd hate for you to miss the chance to spoil their day."

"Yes, I'm sure you would." Vera snapped her fingers and Barrow and O'Brien joined her at the door, "I'm sure we'll meet again Ms. Smith. People like you always circle the bowl before we flush you."

"At least I'm in better company there than in your company."

Vera and her androids left the bar and Anna let out a breath. She rubbed a hand over her abdomen, feeling the reassuring shift of the boy there, and tried to steady her shaking hands. Reaching for her mug only had her greeting cold tea. Anna dumped it and went for a refill as William returned.

"They seem convinced that Mr. Bates is still around."

Anna kept her back to William, ignoring the implied accusation in the statement as she waited for her new mug of tea. "Yes they do."

"It wouldn't be because Mr. Bates is still around, would it?"

Anna turned to face William, "If he is, it's none of your concern."

"We discussed this months ago boss," William's hand through his hair betrayed his agitation the quiver in his voice could not quite hide either. "If you're harboring him then it's all of us on the line."

"No, it's not." Anna set her mug down, "The illusion the government wants to give, especially to people like yourself, is that they're watching us. That everyone'll suffer if one person steps out of line. That they're always listening. That we need to betray one another to survive. It's a lie, William. They have you living in fear of what might happen so you don't actually live."

"I want to keep living."

"What life William?" Anna pointed around them, "As my second here? As Daisy's husband? As a father? What kind of life?"

"I like all of them."

"No," Anna shook her head, "You've satisfied yourself with all of them because you've been told that's all you're allowed to have. But William you're entitled to so much more. More happiness for you and Daisy and your beautiful little girl. Doesn't she deserve more?"

"And if the government takes that away because they're worried I colluded with the Mr. Bates they're still looking for?"

"First, they've been trying to find him for a year now and they've had no luck so I'm not overly worried about that. Second, they've no proof and while the stories of squads secreting subversive people away on Londinium paint horrible pictures in the penny holograms they're not the reality here William. We're more likely to be left outside for the Wuthering or spaced so don't worry, you won't just vanish."

"That's not better."

"None of it's better," Anna almost shouted, biting back to control herself. "We're trapped, William. Trapped by them to believe we should skulk along as we are, grateful to even breathe air, and petrified of pressing for more. We think the sum total of our existence is to live meaningless lives until we die but it's so much more. We're entitled to so much more if we're just willing to expend enough nerve to grab it for ourselves."

"Enough nerve that you'd risk all our lives for a quick shag with a man on the run from the government?"

Anna felt it like a punch to the gut, "That was low William."

"What's low is you risking everything for someone who keeps bringing trouble to our door." William kept going, ignoring Anna's attempt to interject, "No matter if it's the threats or the real thing they're waiting for you to make a mistake and I'm not willing to wait around to see it all come to pieces around our ears."

He snapped off his apron, 'I'm finished with this. If you want to risk it all with some war satirist who only stops in for a few nights at a time to leave again, you be my guest. I'll have none of it."

Anna said nothing, watching William go through the back door and hearing him slam the one in the rear. She put a hand around her mug, sipping at the tea there, and then pouring it down the sink again when the lukewarm mixture hit her tongue. Shaking her head she walked to the back, determined to start her day. It would be harder to do it all alone but between a rock and a hard place, people needed the Rock to stay steady for them.

She stayed steady for them. Putting a hand on her belly she smiled. Anna stayed steady for him.