Shayera never knew or had even considered before just how invasive a prenatal exam could be. Though she also figured that if she had done this earlier than Becky probably wouldn't have needed to go so in-depth while examining her. Her only saving grace was that it seemed that Becky was now getting into the much less invasive side of the exam. Even with how much she trusted Becky, Shayera still found herself feeling apprehensive the entire time. Each poke and prod over her body reminded the Thanagarian of the fact that she absolutely loathed anything related to the medical field. That and lying on her back for over an hour now was not easy for her. Her lower back was killing her and the base of her wings felt like pins and needles. Shayera's lack of sleep had already made her feel irritated and now combined with the pain in her back it did not help improve her mood in the least. It was taking a lot of restraint on the Thanagarian's end to not snap at Becky or just storm out of the hospital.

Becky then pressed down on the bottom of her stomach which caused Shayera to shift uncomfortably. Shayera let out a light growl as she slightly sat up and frowned, "Do you have to press down right there?"

Becky rolled her eyes and lightly shook her head as she let out a sigh, "Maybe if you wouldn't complain every five seconds than I could do my job and this would have been all over with at this point. Now lay back down before I make you."

Shayera begrudgingly complied as she muttered, "I'd like to see you try."

"Don't tempt me," Becky replied as a faint smirk ghosted her lips. "Don't forget I managed to sedate you once. I can do it again if I wanted to. I know it'd make my job a hell of a lot easier right now if I did."

Shayera's frown deepened at the memory. It had happened well over a year before the Justice League had been formed. Shayera had been in the middle of attempting to stop a bank robbery when one of the robbers had managed to fire off a shot during the scuffle and had struck the Thanagarian in the ribcage at close range. She wouldn't have thought anything of it except it hadn't been a through and through shot. The bullet had managed to lodge itself into the bottom of her right lung. On that day Becky had learned that the combination of herself and six other nurses could not hold down the bleeding Thanagarian no matter how hard they tried. Prior to that incident, Becky had also learned that Shayera's metabolism broke down medications faster than they could become effective. In order to sedate Shayera enough for her to be able to extract the bullet, Becky had been forced to administer what would have been considered a lethal dose of anesthesia for a human. The dosage hadn't been enough to knock Shayera out completely but it had managed to tranquilize her for a few hours.

"Look," Becky began in a somewhat sympathetic voice. "I know how uncomfortable these exams can be and I'm not talking from my experience as a doctor. They're not the funnest thing to go through for any woman, human or alien."

Shayera tilted her head slightly, "I didn't know you had kids."

"Well you never asked me before," Becky simply replied with a shrug. "I only have one though and that's enough for me."

Shayera paused as she glanced at Becky. It suddenly dawned on Shayera that Becky was correct. She never once asked about her private life over the years she had been in Midway City. Even with George she had never asked about his life. Whatever she knew about him came from any information he had willingly offered her; normally this occurred when they used to drink together. It also made Shayera realize how much she kept everyone at arm's length, especially during her Hawkgirl days.

"So," Shayera began with a small smile. "I'm assuming you're married then, right? Honestly I thought you'd be too grouchy to have a kid or a husband."

"I was married," Becky mumbled with a light frown. Seeing the curious look on the Thanagarian's face, Becky sighed before she continued, "He said I spent too much time at work and not enough time with him at home. On the other hand, I saw it as him trying to hold me back in my career. When I had our daughter things progressively got worse between us. Eventually we both called it quits and we had an amicable divorce despite everything."

Shayera swallowed as she looked away, "I'm sorry. If I had known I wouldn't have asked about it."

"Don't be, it's the way life is sometimes," Becky shrugged once more. "Not everyone gets a happy, fairytale ending like in a book or movie. At least I get to see Elena on my days off and during the holidays."

"Your daughter doesn't live you?" Shayera asked as she raised an eyebrow. "I thought all children lived with their mothers on this planet."

"I could have had primary custody but I agreed with Austin that he should have her. My work schedule is too chaotic anyways. I would have been dumping Elena off either on a babysitter or him most of the time. It was for her best interest in the end." Becky then deeply sighed, "Sometimes I regret it and think about what could have been but everything happens for a reason I guess."

"If you don't mind me asking," Shayera tentatively began. "How old is your daughter?"

"Twelve, she'll be thirteen in August." Becky then snorted back a small laugh, "Good luck if you end up having a girl. Let me tell you, my daughter is barely a teenager and she's already driving me up a wall. Teen girls can be the worst sometimes with how moody they get."

"And here I was told teen boys were the worst with their hormones," Shayera rolled her eyes. "Now you're telling me girls are just as bad."

Becky waved her off, "They're both bad, trust me. My little brothers were horrible. They must have hit on every single girl in our school at least twice if not more. Me on the other hand, I was just a straight up bitch as a teen."

Shayera chuckled, "I can imagine by knowing you now."

Becky lightly backhanded the Thanagarian's shoulder with a smirk, "That wasn't very nice."

Shayera likewise smirked, "I never once said that I was nice."

"That certainly is true," Becky stated with an amused look. She then went back to pressing down on the bottom of Shayera's stomach, causing the Thanagarian's eyes to faintly twitch in annoyance. Noticing this, Becky let out a sigh before she spoke, "Look I'll be done with this in less than two minutes. You just need to endure it a little bit longer and stay still."

"Easier said than done," Shayera murmured. She was highly tempted to complain but was stopped when she felt that subtle poking sensation come from within her stomach. At this point Shayera couldn't count the number of times she had felt it over the past hour. She noticed it occurred more often whenever Becky, in Shayera's point of view, was manhandling her.

"You definitely have a very active baby which is a good sign," Becky commented as she moved to pressing against the side of her stomach. "I'm surprised you haven't complained about that considering this is annoying you. Unless you just got used to it by now."

Shayera tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, "How can you even tell how active a baby is? It's not like you can see it. Unless you have x-ray vision or something that you didn't tell me about."

Becky let out a sigh and then slowly shook her head, "I don't have any special, freaky powers and I don't need them in order to feel a baby moving."

Shayera continued to keep her eyebrow raised in utter confusion, "I still don't see how you can tell any of that."

"You seriously didn't feel that a moment ago?" Becky incredulously asked. "You are really clueless after all."

"Feel what? All I felt was that annoying muscle twitch," Shayera grumbled with an eyeroll. "I've had that going on for a few weeks now. I did want to ask you if that was normal at all."

"You thought it was..." Becky voice trailed off for a moment before she began to laugh.

Shayera's eyes widened a bit in surprise. She had never seen or heard Becky laugh before. She also didn't know how Becky found any of this humorous in the least. Shayera lightly glared at the physician, "What's so damn funny?"

"Nothing...it's just..." Becky tried to bite back her laughter. It took her well over a minute to get herself composed to the point that she could form a proper sentence. "You thought those were muscle twitches. It should have been obvious what those were."

Shayera gave her an unamused look, "Well maybe enlighten some of us that don't know about medical stuff like you do."

Becky shook her head in amusement, "You are so dense sometimes. Those muscle twitches are the baby moving. Haven't you read at least one book about pregnancy yet?"

Shayera felt her jaw involuntarily drop as she sat up straight. She tried to speak but found her mouth moved with no noise coming forth. Shayera was relieved to now know that what she had been experiencing wasn't in any form life threatening but it also did make her feel guilty all the same for thinking it had been something stupid...for thinking her baby was something stupid. She as well was now feeling incredibly foolish that she hadn't known such a simple fact and was now contemplating reading through some of the books Wally had gotten her. Shayera blinked a few times before shaking her head to come to her senses.

"Are you sure that's what it is?" Becky simply nodded her head and the Thanagarian cleared her throat before she spoke in a hesitant tone, "You mean this entire time...so that...I guess swishing feeling was also...I didn't even know it could move around in there."

"What? You think the baby just stays still the entire time until it's born?" Becky crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow. "Unless it's sleeping it'll be moving around in there. Sometimes you'll feel something like you just did and other times you won't since the movement won't be that pronounced. I'm honestly surprised you didn't realize what it was. Hell I'm surprised that you haven't felt it like I did."

Shayera rolled her eyes, "I don't exactly go and press down on my stomach like you were doing. To me that still doesn't seem like a healthy thing to do."

"You don't have to press down to feel the baby moving. From what I experienced first hand, the baby's big enough that you can feel it from the outside. We'll see just how-"

Shayera held up her hand to cut Becky off, "Excuse me but hold on for just one minute. Did you just say feel it from the outside?"

"That is what I meant." Seeing the shocked expression on the Thanagarian's face caused Becky to snort back a laugh before she patted Shayera's shoulder, "You're just getting a ton of surprises tonight. Aren't you?"

"I think I'm going to have a brain aneurysm," the Thanagarian mumbled before she silently slumped back down onto the medical exam table.

Shayera felt an involuntary shiver travel down her spine as soon as the gel was placed on her stomach, "Why is that so cold?"

Becky let out an exasperated sigh, "Look it's not like I knew you were going to coming flying here tonight for an ultrasound. If I had than I would have warmed it up for you. Now stay still."

Shayera took a deep breath before sighing. She tried to relax her body the best she could. She then bit and began to chew on her bottom lip. With each passing second Shayera was getting closer and closer to backing out of this ultrasound. As soon as the ultrasound wand had made contact with her skin, Shayera's body immediately stiffened. Shayera inhaled sharply through her nose and tightly closed her eyes.

"Don't worry, you're not going to die," Becky humorously stated. "We haven't lost a patient yet to this ultrasound machine. You're not going to be the first."

Shayera opened her eyes to glare at her, "I know that you smartass."

Becky lightly rolled her eyes, "Funny since you're acting like I'm about to slice you open with a meat cleaver. Try to relax a little."

Shayera didn't respond as she tried to keep her gaze fixed up at the ceiling. Shayera's stomach lurked as she felt Becky move the wand over her skin. She could still see the ultrasound screen in her peripheral vision and that bothered her even more. Part of her still didn't want to know and another part was scared to know. She let out a deep sigh and turned her head so that she instead looked at the wall opposite of the screen. She wanted to do nothing more than just fly out of that hospital at that very second.

"You might not look almost seven months," Becky stated, breaking the Thanagarian out of her train of thought. "But that baby definitely is the average size of one at this point in the pregnancy." Becky then lightly frowned when she saw that Shayera was purposely averting her gaze. "Aren't you going to look at all? What was the point of you having me do this if you aren't even going to look?"

Shayera swallowed but did not move her head or eyes in the slightest, "I need you to answer me a question first."

Becky sighed, "What is it?"

"It looks human right?" Shayera hesitantly asked before she momentarily paused. "I mean...it doesn't look like me right?"

"If you're talking about the kid having wings at all than no. Looks like a normal human baby to me," Becky replied as she briefly looked at the screen before looking back at the Thanagarian. "Is that what you're so worried about?"

Shayera didn't reply as she closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh of relief. She felt her shoulders relax and her restless energy from before was now noticeably absent. Perhaps it was Rex after all and she was wrong about it being a girl. From what John had told her, Rex didn't have wings. Regardless, Shayera was utterly relieved that she could pass off her child as a human at the very least. A soft smile appeared on her lips as she reopened her eyes and turned her head towards the screen.

Shayera didn't know what to concentrate on at first. There was the rapid galloping of the heartbeat on the screen which said it was beating 155 beats a minute. Oddly it felt like her own heart was currently beating at double of that speed. She could not tear her eyes away from the screen even if she wanted to. Then was the image on the screen itself. It was a mix of gray, black, and white that reminded Shayera of inkblots. The Thanagarian knew in that moment that she was not mentally prepared for this but there on the screen Shayera saw their baby. Her baby.

Shayera sat up slightly to get a better look. She immediately felt her heart swell and her breath catch in her throat at the sight. She knew her heart had never felt as full as it did just now. It was so endearing and Shayera could not believe she could love a person so much that she hadn't even met yet. All of a sudden Shayera found that her fears of being a mother had momentarily vanished and that she now couldn't wait for the rest of the pregnancy to quickly pass by so that she could finally meet this baby in person.

Becky was telling her about the baby but Shayera didn't hear anything beyond the word healthy. Her ears were ringing. She was going to be a mother. It felt so much more real to her now that she physically saw the baby. The thought reverberated around in her mind and instead of feeling dread Shayera felt something else for the first time. She instead felt hope.

A/N: Only one more chapter with Shayera and friends. Then we won't be seeing them for quite some time as we'll be spending quite a bit of quality time with John and the GLs.