A/N: I'd sort of forgotten that I didn't finish posting this. So... here's a bit more. Getting close to the end!

--

Jackson didn't go into detail when he told Augustine and Hediyeh that Matthias Poulain was dead. Augustine, being the more mature of the two, just let the issue go, but Hediyeh pestered him until she fell asleep that night. Three days after arriving in Geneva, the three of them were catching a train to Paris, tracing back Hediyeh's journey across the European country. They spent one night at an airport hotel, then early the next morning, they caught a plane straight from Paris to New York City. Their seating arrangement was a carbon copy of the Rippners' departure from Germany a few years earlier, Hediyeh sitting across the aisle from Jackson and Augustine staring out the window beside him.

Although he was never very fond of her or her family, Jackson found himself holding Augustine's hand as she squeezed his reassuringly. Just that little contact between the two told him that he could sleep, that Augustine would assure nothing was going to happen, so he slept, only waking up when she shook him at the gate at LaGuardia.

Apparently at some time during the flight, Augustine had airphoned Lisa's parents to let them know where and when to pick them up, because once they stepped out into the sloshy snow around the airport, Carol ran up to them and gave them all tight hugs before pointing to the car. None of them had luggage, so it was very simple to just pack everyone in.

'Gisa, dear,' said Carol with a smile. 'You look absolutely gorgeous with that pregnancy outfit on. I'm sure you would look even more beautiful with that glow.'

Augustine blushed, shifting uncomfortably. 'Um... thanks?'

'I know you're young, but you should start thinking about these things,' said Carol, and Jackson began to realise that she was speaking more for his benefit that to give Augustine advice. 'Lisa waited forever to get pregnant, and I think it would have been a lot easier for her to have her babies. Of course, it would be easy for you to have babies because you have such good, strong, child-bearing hips.'

Augustine squeezed her eyes shut with embarrassment. 'Dr Bellamy...'

'I just think you should propose such a thing to your boyfriend.'

'He's not my boyfriend; he's Bosco's doctor,' said Augustine, suddenly realising that she hadn't made any arrangements for her cat to be taken care of when she was out of town. 'And besides, he's nine years older than me! He's already a doctor and I'm still in college.'

'I'm five years older than Lisa's father,' said Carol. 'The important thing is to have the mother be healthy and young so that she is better at both childbirth and in the genetics of the baby.'

'Augh, Grandma,' Hediyeh said, smacking a hand against her face. 'Enough already. We already have too many babies and we don't need more.'

'I appreciate the advice,' said Augustine, rubbing her hands on the fake stomach. 'Perhaps one day I'll have kids, or perhaps I'll help you with the new babies and get so sick of children that I never want to see one ever again.'

'Either way sounds good to me as long as you just stop talking about this right now,' replied Hediyeh, slumping against the car door.

The rest of the ride home was completely uneventful, and considering the time of day, it was actually not all that trafficy. They made good time, pulling into their underground parking garage about thirty minutes after leaving the airport in Queens. Both Augustine and Hediyeh claimed first dibs on showers, so Jackson just went into the living room and sat across the floor from his son. For all he could tell, Jonathan didn't really comprehend that his father had been gone for a certain amount of time and rather just smoothly returned to what he felt was normal. By the time Augustine called down to tell him the shower was open, the two of them were building a Lego Tower of Babel. Giving his son a kiss, Jackson walked past his father-in-law and up the stairs. Joe followed a few steps behind him.

'Once you shower, it would probably be a good idea to go update Lisa on what happened,' Joe said as Jackson changed into his robe. 'I have a feeling that within the next few days, they're going to have to induce labour. Lisa's just not doing well. She's developed hypertension over the last couple of days and they're watching her carefully to assure they won't have to do an emergency c-section.'

'I'll be quick,' Jackson replied from in the shower. 'Can you stay here with the kids and Augustine?'

'Of course, I figured you'd want to go visit alone,' Joe said with a smile. 'Dr Masterson will be at Bellevue, so he can check you over and then take care of your discharge sheets.'

'Two birds with one stone,' said Jackson.

--

When Jackson walked into the maternity ward, he felt like he'd been jettisoned into the past. He wore a navy pinstripe suit, a new one without the bullet holes and blood on it; a sea green shirt, also replaced; and a normal t-shirt undershirt. The maternity ward made him very uncomfortable, seeing all the pained women screaming their doubts and problems to aching husbands. Lisa's maternity suite, however, was completely silent. From the door, he could see that she was propped up in a double bed. To his left, there was an entire living area with a television, chairs and a table. He walked in a little further and almost immediately, Lisa looked up from the book she was reading.

'I figured if I'm going to be here for awhile, I should probably be a little more comfortable,' she said, and Jackson crossed over to her, leaning over to give her a deep kiss.

Besides the beeping of the monitors attached to Lisa, the room was very quiet, which stunned Jackson considering the sheer number of women squalling down the hall. When their kiss broke, Jackson pulled a chair up beside her and relaxed, reaching out to rub her hair and stomach before just leaning forward more and lying on the bed next to her. For the first time in months, he felt as one with his wife. In the last week, he'd managed to get the okay from his adoptive father regarding being married to Lisa, he watched the World Society completely dissolve on paper and was able to come home to love on his wife, never having to worry about Societal dangers ever again.

'Everything's taken care of.'

'Good,' she said moderately sharply before picking up the book from her chest. 'Let's discuss names.'

He raised his eyebrows at the segue. 'Aren't you going to ask what I did, how I know that everything's going to be all right, if I—'

'Could not care less,' she replied dryly. 'I'm going to assume for the time being that you really did take care of everything, but right now, I don't care about anything besides stopping calling the babies Baby One and Baby Two.'

Jackson tipped his head, having to suppress the remnants of alter one in the sheer absurdity of the moment. 'All right, names it is.'

'That's a good husband,' she said with a smile, reaching down to put her hand atop the one he had pressed to her abdomen.

Feeling her hand atop his gave him something to focus on, and he could feel the narcissistic rage slipping back to the depths of his psyche. 'Have any ideas?'

'We already have Jonathan Noah and Hediyeh Mahdis,' Lisa murmured, stream of conscious. 'So no J names or H names.'

'Or L names,' he continued. 'It's bad enough that we have two J's already.'

'And we can't have any lame connected twin names,' Lisa said darkly as she looked over at him.

'You actually think I would fight you on that?'

She grinned. 'And nothing outlandish.'

'But nothing too common,' he replied importantly. 'Especially not the popular girl names. Madison? Ava? Isabella?'

Looking at her husband, Lisa carefully ran a line through something on the page.

'Oh God, Lisa, what the hell name were you going to use?'

'Isabella?' she said uncomfortably.

'We're not Italian,' he replied with raised eyebrows. 'Try to keep it in the nationality of your ancestors. Does your sneaky little list there have anything German?'

'Annaliese.'

'No "Leesa," Lisa.'

'Hedy,' she said before looking at the word. 'Right, already have a daughter named that... and then you said no Ls...'

She crossed off some names before turning the page and shrugging.

'Adalia?'

Jackson opened his mouth to say something but instead became very pensive. 'Adalia.'

'Adalia,' Lisa repeated with a smile, putting a check mark next to the name. 'And now the boy.'

He was probably going to hate himself later for the recommendation, but he risked it anyway. 'Matthew.'

'Difficulty choosing a girl's name, but not a boy's name,' replied Lisa, obviously none the wiser.

'Naming girls is a woman's job,' he replied snarkily before smiling at her.

She flipped a few pages, finding the name and marking it. 'Adalia and Matthew.'

Silence came over them again and Jackson quickly began to realise what a toll the last couple of weeks had had on him emotionally and physically. Scooting forward, he pressed his face to her shoulder and sighed as Lisa set down her book and looked down at him. Slipping her hand off her stomach, she raised it to his hair and carefully combed her fingers through the still damp strands.

'They'd like to induce as soon as possible,' she said in a soft voice. 'Both of them are positioned correctly, so I think we'll try for a vaginal birth, and if there are problems, then maybe do a c-section.'

Jackson sighed again. 'Isn't it still too early?'

Lisa laughed a little. 'Twins are basically always early.'

'But this is very early,' he murmured into the sheets.

'Only five weeks,' she said with a shrug. 'I think we did pretty good.'

'I fucked up things a lot,' he responded.

'Yeah, you did,' Lisa said plainly, and he turned his head to look at her. 'But I forgive you. We have our little, funky happy ending just like we always seem to.'

He smiled at her.

--

Jackson had never really noticed Trump Parc before. He'd visited the Museum of Natural History a handful of times with the kids, gone to Central Park on dozens of occasions, and sat around for long periods of time at the Borders just a couple of blocks down the road. He must have walked by the building at least three or four times, but nothing about it ever caught his attention—he normally just ignored overly showy things, and the entrance to Trump Parc was no exception with its huge golden awning.

Inside, he breezed past the mirrors and marble and straight to the reception desk. The woman on duty looked up at him with a smile.

'May I help you?'

'Yes, I'm here to see Lyna Ruzicka.'

'Of course,' the woman replied, pulling something out of a drawer in front of her. 'Miss Ruzicka left a key for you. Her apartment number is on the key, and the elevators are straight behind you.'

'Thank you,' he said almost sarcastically, as he could see the elevators in the massive mirror behind her.

He walked away from the receptionist and to the already-open lift, punching the button for the twenty-eighth floor before looking down at the key until the elevator chimed and the doors opened. Turning to his right and then immediately to his left, he went to the door of Lyna's apartment and stuck in the key, slowly turning the lock and peering in.

'Lyna?'

'I am in the kitchen,' she replied in a slightly harried voice. 'You are early.'

Jackson looked down the length of the studio apartment. 'I decided to come from my house to here, then to the hospital.'

Stepping in, he closed the door as quietly as possible before setting down the rucksack full of day-to-day things he'd gathered from home. He raised his eyebrows as he looked at the utter chaos of Lyna's apartment—he'd always assumed she was as fastidious about her living arrangements as she was about her arsenal of assault weapons. He took a couple of steps toward the kitchen as Lyna walked out with a dishcloth held to her face.

'Christ, are you sick?' he asked, immediately pulling out his handkerchief and putting it over his own mouth. 'I swear to God, Lyna, if you get me sick and I can't be with Lisa during—'

'I am not ill!' came her muffled voice from behind the cloth. 'I do not have my makeup on!'

Jackson didn't seem convinced. 'That's stupid.'

She groaned before dropping the cloth onto the floor. 'There, are you happy?'

'Holy shit,' he said, looking taken aback. 'You're... you're... a human?'

She gaped at him only a moment before shoving him. 'Ass.'

'Come on, let's just sit down and discuss,' he said as he pointed to the messy living area.

Lyna hesitated, looking toward her bathroom before following him with resignation. He took a seat in the exact same spot his wife had months earlier and she once again rolled over her computer chair to face the other person in the apartment.

'So how is Lisa?' Lyna asked, picking up a mug of tepid coffee and taking a cautious sip from it.

'Her blood pressure lowered when Hediyeh and I got home, but over the last few days, it's started going up again,' Jackson replied, leaning on the arm of the couch with his hand holding his head up. 'If they can't get it under control by tomorrow, they want to induce as soon as possible.'

Lyna looked at him blankly as she took another sip. 'I am confused by all of this pregnancy terminology. What do you mean by "induce?"'

Whenever Lyna didn't know a word in English, it made him feel like the dominant one between them. He could tell her any meaning, any nuance that he wanted to, and just see how she'd later use it for his amusement. Now, however, did not seem the time for mind games despite how much he loved them.

'It means they'll give her medication that will force her body to begin the labour process,' Jackson explained. 'After they give it to her, it could be anywhere from two to eighteen hours before she actually gives birth.'

'This I find to be far too much work,' said Lyna, setting down the now empty cup. 'I do not approve.'

'And that's why you're—' he began, but could feel the bile-like personality rising, so he just closed his eyes and concentrated.

Unlike in the past, Lyna just sat quietly until he calmed himself down. 'Would you tell me about Geneva?'

'If you promise not to discuss it with my family,' Jackson replied as he opened his eyes. 'This is purely business.'

'Purely,' she said with a nod.

'I'm sure you've already heard that Poulain is dead.'

'I was told by Augustine,' Lyna responded. 'She also told me that Poulain's pneumonia had not subsided, but rather had become much worse.'

Jackson swallowed, pressing his lips together uncomfortably. 'He was in pretty bad shape. His granddaughter was giving him injections of amoxicillin and had him on tanks of oxygen, but talk about delaying the inevitable.'

'So he miraculously died of pneumonia when you were there,' she said with nary a questioning tone as she stretched her legs out and placed them atop Jackson's thigh. Crossing her arms, she spoke once again. 'That was very boring. What is it... "I hope you found twenty dollars?"'

'No,' Jackson said sullenly as he lifted his hand to play with Lyna's manicured toes. 'I wish that had been how he died, but he had to go down in a blaze of glory.'

'Are you serious? How did he do it?' Lyna asked, but before he could respond, she continued. 'Did he light a bottle of his oxygen on fire? What was the explosion like?'

'Not a literal blaze,' Jackson said, giving her a smile. 'No, he had me take care of it.'

There was palpable silence as he rubbed each of her toes in succession, focusing carefully on the shiny lacquer that mirrored a tiny image of Lyna looking past him.

'How?' she asked, unsure.

'Hediyeh had a gun with her in Geneva; I don't know how she got it. Some unimportant story points, then Poulain asked for his granddaughter to leave the room. Once she did, he... well, he asked me to shoot him.'

'And you did?'

'And I did.'

Again, the silence. Lyna watched carefully as Jackson played with her toes some more, then frowned at him. 'You are not doing well.'

'I'm doing fine,' he replied in a half voice before reconsidering. 'It's a lot to deal with.'

'Have you remembered anything from being gone?'

'I remember killing Chaiyasan, and then a few things about the flight to kill Valencia. I also remember Eleni telling me that Crome and Osikowicz committed suicide,' he replied in an almost dreamy tone. 'I know I have to have gone to Africa at some point because Machogu and Oshodi are dead.'

Slowly, she pulled her legs from him and placed her feet on the floor. 'Would you like some tea?'

'You're nicer without makeup on,' he replied dryly, and she stretched her leg up to jam him in the shin before standing and walking to the kitchen. He heard her putting a coffee pot on to boil. 'Lyna?'

She peered around the corner.

'Phoebe said that by accepting your help back when Hezbollah was after us, I voided my resignation contract,' he said. 'Did you know that was going to happen?'

'Yes, but you never asked,' she stated quite matter of factly. 'It was like a game. Did Lisa not tell you?'

'About what?'

'The contest,' she replied, walking out enough to stand in the hallway and lean against the wall. 'Anaïs versus Nitsa. Anaïs said that after the accident, you should be allowed to live, but Nitsa thought you were a threat to the Society. To make it a fair fight to determine fate, Poulain let the two of them do what they wanted, the victor was whoever managed to do whatever to you.'

'That's horrible.'

'Why?' Lyna said as she made a face. 'You did the same thing for years.'