Alison breathed through the latest contraction. The good news was that they weren't getting any closer together. The bad news was that ever since her water broke, the pain level had risen considerably.

As the contraction eased, Alison looked over to where Flint was in an animated conversation with Hawk and Beachhead. While Flint appeared to be relatively calm, Alison knew her husband well enough to know that he was extremely stressed. She didn't blame him. Knowing that their daughter was on her way while they were a captive audience in the Pentagon was distressing. But since he was still only a spectator, and she the active participant, she didn't have the energy to feel that bad for him.

The conversation ended, and with a nod Flint walked her way. He plastered such a large and fake smile on his face, that she nearly burst out laughing. He reached her side and asked, "How are you doing?"

"I'm hanging in there," she replied.

"Can I get you anything? Water? Juice? Something to eat?"

She glared at him. "If you had bothered to attend any of the childbirth classes, you would know that I'm not supposed to have anything other than ice chips until I get to the hospital."

Flint looked horrified. "Okay. I'm sure I can find you a cup of ice."

Alison reached out and grabbed his arm. She felt the initial twinges of a rising contraction. She looked at her watch to confirm that they were holding steady. "No, wait," she said through gritted teeth as she bore down against the pain.

Once it was over, Alison noticed that Hawk had joined them. "Sir, please tell me you have good news."

"In a way, yes," Hawk answered. "Getting out of here is not going to be a problem. Technically, we are in lockdown, but there are ways to exit the building in an emergency, which this obviously is."

Flint relaxed considerably. "Great. Let's get out of here."

Hawk raised his hand. "I wouldn't rush to do that just yet. With the walkie-talkies we were able to speak to a few people on the outside, and it's pretty chaotic. We hear the streets are basically impassable at the moment. Your best plan of attack is to just sit tight for a while longer and see if the power comes back."

"We can't just sit here. She needs to get to a hospital," Flint said.

Alison weighed the various options in her head. She wasn't thrilled about the idea of staying where she was, but she liked the idea of being stuck in the car in traffic even less. She squeezed Flint's hand. "Hawk is right. My contractions aren't getting any closer, so I still have time."

"I put out an all-hands call for any medics in-house that have birthing experience to come here. Two responded and are on their way. Stalker's in the process of setting up a cot in the neighboring office to give you some privacy and a semi-comfortable place to lay down."

Alison thanked Hawk and then she gingerly rose to her feet. She walked next door and was met by one of the medics that Hawk called. The medic, who appeared to be no older than a recent college graduate, looked nervously between Flint and Alison. "I have to be honest with you two, the only experience I have with this is that one time during my residency I was called into the ER during a premature delivery. The baby was fine," he added hastily.

He checked out Alison's vitals and announced that other than a slightly elevated blood pressure which was normal due to the pain she was experiencing, she seemed fine. Then he blushed. "I can give you a further examination if you want."

"Do you even know what you're looking for?" Flint asked with exasperation.

"Theoretically, yes."

Alison balked at the idea. Luckily the second medic arrived who had more experience. He introduced himself as Carl Brown, and then asked Alison if she would like for him to perform the internal exam. Flint cleared his throat and made an excuse about wanting to get a bottled water but Alison stopped him. "No you, don't. You're not getting off that easy." She then grabbed his hand as support while the medic examined her.

"It's still very early in your labor. I believe you have a few hours at least."

Flint noticeably relaxed. "Okay, good. That gives us some time."

The medic nodded. "Unfortunately, I can't help you with your pain. The prescriptions I have access to right now may be harmful to the child."

Alison barely heard him as she was in the midst of a contraction. Once the pain eased she said. "It's okay. The contractions aren't that long and are far enough apart that it's manageable."

"Reach out to me if that changes. I've got some bumps and bruises I'm taking care of in the clinic. You can come back there with me, but I think you'll be more comfortable in here." Alison agreed with him so he continued. "I'll check back in with you in an hour. In the meantime, continue to try and contact your doctor. Hopefully the network gets back on line."

Once they were alone, Flint squeezed her hand and asked, "Are you sure you're okay?"

The absurdity of the question made Alison laugh. "Obviously this isn't the beginning of an ideal birth scenario, but I guess it could be worse."

Flint stood up and began to pace. Alison tolerated it for a few minutes, but after her next contraction she told him to leave. "I don't want to leave you alone."

"I'll be fine. Besides, I want to try and nap if possible."

Flint vigorously nodded. "I think that's a good idea. I'll be back in a little while."

Once the door closed behind him, Alison tried to relax. But she couldn't help running through various bad and worse case scenarios of her current predicament. Eventually, she must have dozed off because when she opened her eyes she saw Flint staring at her. She looked at her watch and was surprised to see nearly an hour had passed. "What's going on?"

"We talked to Falcon, who basically abandoned the exercise to lend a hand to the local police. He wasn't the only one, so while the exercise hasn't been officially halted, for all intents and purposes it is on hold. I did though put Beachhead in charge of my team for when it does start up again."

Alison nodded. "Any word on the outage?"

Flint shook his head. "We're still having a hard time getting concrete information. We've heard rumors that it extends as far as the entire east coast."

"Wow," Alison said. The magnitude of the outage gave her a bad feeling. "What do you think caused it?

"That's been the conversation of the last hour. The consensus is either a catastrophic equipment failure or terrorism."

"That's what I'm afraid of," she said as she rose from the cot. Flint went to stop her, but she waved him off. "I have to talk to Hawk and give him a list of potential candidates."

"Now?" Flint asked incredulously.

"Since I'm guessing that I'm going to be sidetracked for the foreseeable future, now's my best chance. Plus, I'm either getting used to the pains, or they've died down somewhat, so I'm okay."

As Flint followed her into the hallway he pointed out the obvious. "The computers are all down."

Alison scoffed. "I don't need a computer," she said as she tapped her head.

She entered her office, which was empty except for Hawk and Mainframe who were deep in conversation over a paper map of the city. As she sat down at her desk and rummaged through the drawers for a pad of paper and a pen, Hawk come over and asked how she was doing.

"Hanging in there. Flint told me you suspect terrorism is behind this, so I wanted to give you a list of the most likely suspects."

"Alison, once again I admire your dedication. But you have more important things to worry about right now. Besides, this might be a moot point if we find out it was all due to faulty equipment."

Alison stared at him a moment. "Do you really believe this is an accident?"

Hawk hesitated before answering. "No. It's too reminiscent of Cobra."

"Exactly. Right now I'm a captive audience in here, so let me do some good with my time." She then, as politely as possible, asked both men to leave her alone.

It took her more than a half hour to compile her list. Most of it she did from memory, but she still wanted to check her hand-written notes, and the dim lighting in the room made them difficult to read. And even though her contractions were not as painful as when they first started, she still had to pause every five minutes to breathe through them.

Satisfied that she was done, she rose from her chair with the intent to bring the information to Hawk. But Flint saw her move, and he was at her side in an instant, insisting she sit back down. Reining in her aggravation with him, she complied.

Once Hawk joined them, she gave him her notes. "I'm sure one or two have slipped through the cracks, but I think this is a good start."

Hawk skimmed through the pages. "I agree. Good job. Now I'm ordering you to go lie down. I'll call the medic back to check you out again."

The medic entered the room shortly after she resumed her position on the cot. Alison was happy to see it was Medic Brown, and not the nervous young kid who first looked her over. He gave Alison a quick check and confirmed that she hadn't progressed. "I'm sure that's frustrating to hear, but at the moment I think that's good news."

"I agree," both Flint and Alison said at the same time.

The rest of the morning passed without incident. Alison started to wonder if her labor was going to progress, when six hours after she had felt the first pain, the intensity and frequency picked up. After an hour she knew it was time to make a decision.

"If you decide to stay here, I have every confidence that I can help you deliver this baby," Medic Brown said. "However, we would be very limited in our ability to handle any complications that can arise. I don't want to scare you, but I do want you to be fully aware of the situation."

Alison looked at Flint, whose stress level had risen dramatically. He took his beret off and ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't want to take the chance of being completely helpless if something should go wrong."

Alison didn't like that idea, but she liked the alternate option even less. "And what if we don't make it to the hospital? I don't exactly like the idea of having her in my car while we're stuck in traffic."

"If it makes you feel better we won't be in your car. The underground is locked down due to the power outage, so we would need to use one of the more accessible vehicles that are outside the building."

Alison quickly clued in to what Flint was hinting at as she thought back to her drive into work. "You mean one of the cargo transports being used for the roadblock?"

"They're also used to transport personnel," Flint said.

"We can set the cot up in the back, so that you are comfortable on the ride to the hospital," Medic Brown added.

Alison hated the idea of being strapped down to the cot in the back of the cargo truck like she was an invalid. But as another more painful contraction hit, she knew she had no choice. "Fine, let's go."

However, before they could leave they were faced with another decision, which hospital to go to. The one she had chosen near their home was on the outskirts of the city, which was too risky to drive to. They walked back into her office to utilize Hawk's map.

While Alison sat at her desk, Flint, Hawk, Beachhead, and Stalker launched into a planning strategy like they were plotting a major offensive. Medic Brown listed the nearby hospitals according to distance and rated them by quality of care. Mainframe then gave them the most up to date traffic information that he was able to gather by his primitive means. Using all of that information, they argued over what was the best choice. After the third contraction Alison snapped at them to make a decision.

They chose a hospital that was seven miles away. There were a couple facilities closer, but Medic Brown felt that Alison had the time to go to one that had better maternity care.

She turned to the medic. "Are you going to come with us?"

He shook his head. "I'm needed here. But if you think that you need me, I will come."

"No, we should be okay."

Flint gave her hand a squeeze. "Give me a few minutes to set things up and then we'll go."

After receiving the well-wishes of Hawk and the other Joes, and Flint promising to call once the baby arrived, they made their way outside. Alison got settled, and Flint climbed out to get into the driver's seat when Stalker stopped him. "Stay in the back. I'm going to be your chauffer this afternoon."

"Are you sure?" Flint asked.

"Already cleared it with Hawk. Since this isn't my first trip to a hospital with a woman in labor, I figured I was the best man for the job."

They pulled off of the Pentagon property and were met by a wall of cars. Stalker turned his head to the back of the transport. "My game plan right now is to place nice and to follow the basic laws of driving and decency. But let me know if your situation becomes more critical and I will take advantage of this bad boy's strengths."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Flint said.

Alison settled down and tried to focus on her breathing and the other tips she had learned during her childbirth class. But the contractions grew steadily stronger, and after an hour she began to regret telling the medic to stay behind. They had finally made it to the exit for the hospital, but the local traffic seemed even worse. She had two contractions before they had even made it off the exit ramp. "Dash, I hope you're prepared to help me deliver the baby."

Flint's jaw tightened. "That's not going to happen. We're going to get you there in time."

"Hey, Flint, check it out," Stalker called from the front. "The lights are back on."

It was a huge relief seeing that the electricity was restored. However, it wasn't exactly the miracle to resolve their traffic situation. But inch by inch they moved and an hour later, Stalker pulled in front of the emergency entrance of the hospital.

Stalker and Flint helped her out of the transport and into the emergency room. The woman seated at the check-in desk eyed the trio and then looked behind them to the cargo transport. "I hope you don't want to valet park that."

"No, Ma'am," Stalker replied. "I'm just dropping them off." Before leaving, he wished the two of them luck.

An orderly helped Alison into a wheelchair and brought her to one of the empty beds in a curtained off area. A nurse stopped by briefly to apologize for the chaos caused by the power outage, and then she told her that someone would be with her shortly. She then asked Flint to come with her to fill out paperwork. He hesitated for a moment, before Alison told him to go. Flint returned and smiled. "See, I told you I would get you here in time."

A different nurse finally came to her side while she was in the midst of another contraction. Oblivious to her pain, the nurse tried to ask her questions about her contractions. Alison ignored her until the pain passed. Then she answered all of the questions regarding the state of her labor. The nurse made several notations in her chart. "The OB on call will come and give you an internal exam. Then we'll decide the next step."

Flint scoffed once she walked out. "She's not exactly the epitome of bedside manner."

"I think everything is extra hectic with the power outage."

"I know. And while I know all of this is making for a really great story to tell Marissa one day, I'd feel a lot better once someone qualified takes a look at you."

Alison just nodded. She had been so wrapped up in the worry of getting to the hospital, she didn't give herself a chance to really comprehend the fact that her baby girl was going to be arriving in a matter of hours. The idea started to send her into a round of panic that was luckily disrupted by the arrival of the doctor.

"Good evening Mrs. Faireborn. From what I understand you've had contractions for a number of hours and your water broke?" Alison confirmed that was true so he continued. "Excellent. It sounds like you should be meeting your baby shortly. But let me take a quick look and see if I can get a better idea of where we stand."

Even with all of the poking and prodding she had already received, Alison was looking forward to the doctor's exam. Medic Brown had only given her a vague idea of her progress, and she wanted a more official report.

"I estimate you're about five centimeters dilated."

"Five?" Alison shouted out. "All of that time and pain for five measly centimeters?"

"I know it must not seem like a lot, but that is a lot farther along than most first time moms. The good news is that this gives us some time to get you settled in a room upstairs. It was a little chaotic earlier, so it's a good thing to get things settled down before we move you. I'll page the anesthesiologist to come talk to you about your pain management."

The Ob-Gyn left, but was replaced with a nurse. As she took Alison's vitals, Alison turned towards Flint. "I guess we didn't actually need the army transport."

The nurse chuckled. "Let me guess. It's your first baby?"

"Yes," Alison said as she squeezed Flint's hand.

"Well, don't worry, you are in good hands. Doctor Auerbach is one of the best on-call OB-Gyns we have on staff."

Flint waited out in the hallway for the anesthesiologist to finish. He was having a hard time finding a place to stand where he didn't feel like he was in the way. Even though they had been there nearly an hour, Alison was still in the emergency room triage section waiting on her room.

Flint noticed Alison's nurse hovering by the monitoring station, and he walked over to her. He had reacted badly when she had passed along the news a few minutes earlier that Alison's room still wasn't ready.

"Nurse Austin?"

She looked up from her paperwork and frowned when she saw Flint. "Mr. Faireborn, like I told you I have no control over what goes on in L & D."

"No, I understand, now. I just wanted to apologize for the way I acted."

"Don't worry about it. You're not the first father-to-be that has bitten my head off."

"It still doesn't make it right." Flint exhaled sharply. "It's no excuse but all of the stress of today has gotten to me. I thought I would feel better once we arrived, but I went from worrying about how to get her here to everything else that could go wrong."

Nurse Austin gave him a genuine smile. She patted his arm. "It's hard not to be scared about the birth, but the chances of something going tragically wrong are really quite small."

"I actually looked up the stats," Flint admitted with a smile. "I know I've been way too overprotective of Alison the last nine months, but this is literally a life changing event." Flint paused and let out a sigh. "Which scares the hell out of me."

Once again the nurse smiled. "I can tell you're going to be a good dad. I know there is not much I can say to ease that stress other than to tell you she's in good hands," Nurse Austin said. She looked at her watch. "My break is coming up. Do you want a cup of coffee?"

"That would be great. It's probably going to be a long night."

The nurse motioned towards Alison's area. "The anesthesiologist should be done in the next few minutes. How about you get some fresh air, and I'll bring the coffee to you."

Flint took her up on the offer. He walked down the hallway and found a small garden area. Once outside, he decided to call his parents to tell them the news. He had tried a couple of times earlier in the day, but the phone lines had been down. He was happy to see that with the restoration of power, the phone service had also returned.

"Isn't she early?" Marie Faireborn asked once Flint told her that Alison was in labor.

"Yes, a couple of weeks," Flint confirmed.

"But the baby isn't considered premature, right?" Marie asked.

Before Flint could answer, he heard his father interrupt, who must have been on one of the other extensions in the house. "Marie, why do you have to do that? I'm sure everything is fine, so why worry Dashiell?"

"I'm only asking the question. I'm just concerned about my granddaughter's welfare."

"From what I understand, both Alison and the baby are looking good," Flint replied although he added the item premature birth to the long list of things he was worrying about.

"Okay, that's such a relief." His mother paused and then said, "Your dad and I were looking at flights. Tomorrow is pretty booked up, but we should be able to fly in the day or two after."

The door to the gardens opened, and Flint recognized the anesthesiologist. "That sounds great," he replied automatically, barely hearing what his mother said. He then hurried off the phone and made his way back to the triage area.

Flint walked behind the curtain and saw Alison lying in bed with a goofy smile on her face. She turned towards him. "If we weren't already married, I would have proposed to that man."

Flint laughed. "I guess the pain is gone?"

"It is. The women who do this totally natural are the real heroes in my book."

Nurse Austin returned with the promised coffee, and the news that a room had finally opened up. It took some time to make the transfer, but once they were settled into their new room, Flint relaxed even more. Plus, he was highly amused by the pain-free slightly drug version of Alison.

"Tax Day!" She suddenly blurted out.

With a laugh, Flint asked her what she was talking about. "Today's April fifteenth. I just realized her birth date is going to be on Tax Day," she explained.

"That will make it easy to remember," Flint said. Although, he knew for a fact that he was never going to forget the events of the day.

However, as the hours went on, it became clear that Marissa's birth was not going to happen on the fifteenth. Just before One AM, Doctor Auerbach entered the room. After checking her charts, he did another examination and then took a seat by her bed. "It looks like your labor has stalled at 9 centimeters. That's not unusual, especially for first babies that tend to be pretty stubborn about coming out. But the fact that your membranes ruptured so early on is cause for concern.

"You're far from any critical point, but I like to avoid getting anywhere close to there. So I'm going to make a couple of recommendations. First, I want to discontinue your epidural. Sometimes the pain medication causes the labor to stall. That of course means that the contraction pains are going to return. The epidural should wear off gradually so you'll get a chance to adjust to the pain levels. However, if you don't start progressing in the next hour or two, I think it would be beneficial to introduce Pitocin."

"Is that dangerous?" Flint asked.

"No. Ideally with every birth we'd like it to progress as naturally as possible. But when that is not possible, Pitocin has proven to be a safe and effective way to stimulate the birth process. You don't need to decide anything right now about the Pitocin, but I do want to make sure you are on board regarding your epidural."

Alison nodded. "This has been nice, but I want to do what's best for the baby right now."

As the doctor had predicted, Alison's pains came back. They seemed to be coming much more frequently, which Flint hoped was a good sign. But when the doctor checked her an hour late he shook his head. "You've made some progress, but not enough, so I would like to introduce the Pitocin."

Alison nodded her head. "I'm ready for this to be over."

"Okay. I want to warn you that this may increase the frequency and the intensity of the contractions."

Alison looked towards Flint, but for once he kept his opinions to himself. The idea of getting the baby out sooner seemed to be the right cause of action, but he wasn't the one that was going to be suffering through the extra pain to make it happen. He just squeezed her hand in support. "I can handle it," she replied.

It took a few minutes for the Pitocin to kick in, but once it did things progressed dramatically. Flint did his best to try and soothe Alison, but he knew his words and actions were having little effect. When he had thought about this moment, he had wondered if Alison was going to be a stereotypical woman in labor. One that cursed and screamed and threatened him. But she wasn't. She continued to grit through the pain. Flint had always known that Alison was a tough woman, it was part of what attracted him to her in the first place. But he gained a whole new appreciation for her toughness.

"I want to push," she announced after a particularly long contraction.

"And you're ready," Doctor Auerbach announced with a smile.

The nurse led Flint away from the bed and handed him a gown. "Now's the time to put all that you learned in childbirth class to good use."

Flint looked sheepish. "I never got a chance to go to one."

"That's okay. Your daughter shouldn't hold that against you. What you need to do now is stay calm, encourage Alison and most importantly listen to anything the doctor or I tell you."

Flint nodded, put the gown on and rejoined Alison's side. He assumed that the baby would arrive after a few pushes, but once again, she was proving to be stubborn.

Flint didn't miss the worried look the nurse gave the monitor. He squeezed Alison's hand, and tried to eavesdrop in on the comment the nurse made to the doctor, but he couldn't hear her. Doctor Auerbach nodded. "Okay, Alison, I really need you to push. Everything is still fine, but your daughter's heart rate is falling slightly. The sooner we get her out the better."

Flint wiped the sweat soaked hair off of Alison's forehead. "Babe, you can do this."

Alison turned towards him. She opened her eyes for a moment, but then shut them again. "I want to. I'm just so tired."

Flint began a pep talk but a beeping alarm cut him off. He turned towards the monitor. "Is it the baby?" he asked in a panic.

The doctor jumped up, and began to bark a series of orders, one of which was to tell Flint he needed to leave the room. Flint didn't know what was going on, but the one thing he knew was that he wasn't leaving. The nurse went to his side, and pulled on his arm, but Flint resisted. "No. What's going on? What's wrong with the baby?"

"It's not the baby, it's actually Alison. Her blood pressure bottomed out. This sometimes happens with labors that last a long time. She's going to be okay, but we need you to leave the room for a few minutes."

"No, I'm not leaving them."

"Please, it's for the best. I know you're worried, but to get them the best help, we just need you to step outside for a few moments. Once the danger has passed, I'll come and get you, I promise."

Flint reluctantly nodded. He kissed Alison on the forehead, and he noticed with dismay she was barely conscious. He again balked at the idea at leaving, but he whispered a quick "I love you" before the nurse gently led him out into the hallway.

The door closed behind her, and Flint was hit with the realization that his wife and unborn child were going to be fighting for their lives while he stood helpless in the hallway. His thoughts began to spiral into a dark place, but a vibration in his pocket brought him back into the present. He had been dimly aware of his phone ringing fairly often while he had been in the labor and delivery room, but he had ignored it. Now he needed the distraction. Pulling the phone out of his pocket he saw that it was his mother.

"Dashiell, honey, I've been calling for hours."

"You've been up all night?"

"I never sleep when my grandchildren are entering the world. Your father, though, is out cold."

Flint couldn't help but laugh, but since his emotions were so out of control, the laugh nearly turned to a sob.

"Honey, what's wrong? Is the baby here?"

"No, mom," Flint answered. He tried to remain calm, but the last image of Alison was threatening to unhinge him. "There was some kind of complication. They said everything will be okay, but they threw me out of the room."

His mother didn't respond at first, and Flint initially regretted baring his soul. But then she did speak. "Dashiell, listen to me. I know you're probably worried half to death, but you have to stay positive. Sometimes they just need to do things that they don't want the new dad to watch."

"I know, and I'm trying to stay calm. But they said it would only be a few moments, but it's been longer than that. It's just that…mom, I can't lose them."

"I know, honey, and you're not. I really believe that."

The door to Alison's room opened, and the nurse came out. "The nurse is back, I have to go. I'll call you as soon as I can."

"Mister Faireborn, it's time," the nurse told him with a smile.

Flint raced in the room. He only half paid attention to the explanation the nurse said about what had happened to Alison. All he cared about at the moment was that she was okay, and his daughter was about to be born.

He went to her side. She still looked exhausted, but at least she was showing more signs of life. He replaced the nurse that was at her side helping her push through the latest contraction. "Mr. and Mrs. Faireborn, this is it. One more push and your daughter will be here."

Flint locked eyes with Alison and grinned at her. "Babe, you got this." She gave him a tired smile in return, and then she grimaced and bore down. Seconds later, he heard a faint cry.