Owner	Pose
Guardian	The trip to New York had been eye opening. Firstly, Mac had been blown away by the trust the UN had put in Alpha Flight, second, by how quickly SHIELD and the Fantastic Four had jumped on board. Truthfully, he expected help from Reed. He'd been a good friend an mentor through a lot of what had gone on with Alpha Flight, but SHIELD, that was a coup. However the third thing, it had nothing to do with business, it had been Franklin and Valeria, the Richards' children. They were something else, and just a little bit scary, in a way that made him smile. It was morning now and Mac is sitting up in bed looking thoughtful. He's wearing the Alchohol shirt Franklin had given him, and a pair of grey sweat pants. "So, I was thinking about the Discussion. Maybe we should have it sooner rather than later." The Discussion is what Mac had come to call that pending talk about children, since that limo ride home.
Vindicator	Heather was still luxuriating under the blankets. Awake, but drifting in that half-awake half-asleep state where the blankets are sooo warm, and the body is sooo cofortable and you just don't want to get up and do anything. And since it was a day off (if they really got those anymore) she was taking advantage of it. The trip to New York had been an unmitigated success. She was pleased with the results and how they had comported themselves. SHIELD. The Fantastic Four. Plus some personal offers of help on the side, including Shulkie. It was good. Heather was proud of them. All that remained was moving forward. "Mmm?" Heather looks over with a smile when Mac mentions 'the Discussion'. "Let me guess, the Reed children?" Her lips pursing over a smile as she stretches and sits up. "Should I get dressed for this, or are we casual?"
Guardian	Mac smiles fondly watching while heather stretches and sits, "Exactly," he says of his reasons. "Though I doubt Sue would want you to call her kids the Reed children, I'm no biologist, but I think she may have helped as well." He shifts over to her, putting his arm around her shoulders and making room for her to snuggle against him. "Their kids were amazing, and I felt, a little like I was looking at our future," he begins. "But at the same time, the talk with Reed, about the hyperspace ships and all the rest, brought home just how much is on our plates now. We have a whole world of children we need to protect, and I am wondering if maybe it's selfish to want to add one more," he says, gnawing on his bottom lip as he says so. "At the same time, I really want to meet our child."
Vindicator	Heather laughs softly, "True. Well, their children were delightful, regardless." She takes the offered space and snuggles into it, curling an arm about him and using his chest for a pillow. "It's a lot to think about, isn't it?" Heather sighs softly. "I keep thinking about all the same things. How busy we're going to be. And how big this project is. And the team. And the UN. And.. it doesn't stop, Mac. It keeps growing, and growing, and growing.. and I don't see an end to it." Heather is silent for some moments before speaking again, quietly, "Watching their children was like a little window into what it could be like for us. I kept thinking, they could be ours. That could be us. I wondered who our baby would be.. I don't know."
Guardian	"Delightful and scary," Mac says, grinning softly, as Heather makes herself comfortable against his side. He always loved that, being close to her. He slides his arm around her. "Did you hear Valeria when she was rattling off how she came up with my gift?" he says. "I hope our child will be bright, but I'd be okay if they weren't /that/ bright." He gives his head a shake at the thought. "I guess that's bad of me to say, isn't it? We should want the best for them, all the time." Nodding, Mac agrees, "Yes, I don't see us hitting a time where things won't be this hectic for four maybe five years with how things are going, and that's only if there's no attacks and none of our projects have any problems," he snorts at the notion. May as well ask for water not to be wet. Heather's words hit him in his heart. He'd felt the same way, he was curious, no, excited to meet their child, this part of both of them made something of its own. He runs his free hand through his head again. "We could run away to a cabin in the north," he offers, it was a deflection, a way to lighten the mood while their minds chewed over the big questions. "I'd throw in elope but we already took care of that."
Vindicator	A kiss is pressed to his chest, Heather turning her head for a moment to leave her love there. "She was terrifying. Though not infallible. My gift.." There's a soft chuckle from the woman. "I'll give it to Jen. She seems more the type who would appreciate it." There's a soft sigh, then. "It's never going to slow down, Mac. As long as we're who we are, this is our lives. We either have to accept that maybe children aren't our future, or we have to accept that there isn't a good time, or a better time, and just have them anyway. I don't want to be fifty wondering why we didn't make a decision. Wondering how time got away with us and this thing we were always going to do some day when the timing was right suddenly became the thing we couldn't do because there wasn't any more time. I'd be happier to know now if that's the path we're taking, then be wondering if today was the day we decided to try. Or if today was. Or today." Her head is lifted to give him the full of her green gaze. "Do we want children?"
Guardian	Mac mms softly at the kiss pressed to his chest. He kisses her head in return, smiling faintly even though the questions still turn in his head. "Yes, definitely more of Jen thing," he says of Heather's gift. "Maybe she'll trade for the briefcase?" he suggests lightly, glad of the distraction. Then it is back to the matter at hand. What Heather says makes sense to the rational parts of his brain, they would never stop being them and if they did not choose a time, they would soon find themselves without any to choose from. In that way, the question was simple, yes or no. Though, Mac had learned no choice ever happened in a vacuum. In this case along with the yes or no was the memory of his father, or rather the memory of him not being there, first by choice then because his choices had led to an early and ignoble end. He hugs Heather a little bit closer a clear sign of where his mind might be going. "I think we do," Mac says finally. "But help me with something first. Am I going to be any different from my father, do you think? Really. I mean so I am busy in a lab or some meeting instead of seated in some bar, and that I might get taken out fighting a supervillain, instead of getting stabbed in that same bar. In the end though, is that going to be any different to our child than what he gave me?" he asks as he turns to meet Heather's gaze with his own.
Vindicator	Heather's gaze is gentled by his question. "Of course you're going to be different. And yes, our children will hate us too. Just in different ways and about different things." She offers a small laugh, and moves up more so that she's lying beside him and can watch his face as she speaks now. "My parents were always there for me, Mac. There are still things that I wasn't happy about. Like why couldn't we have been like other people. Just normal. Why was it always money, or putting on faces for the public, or all sorts of other things. We give our children the best we can, and love them, and hope for the best. I don't think we can do more than that."
Guardian	It never ceased to amaze Mac, how much a few words from Heather could calm his troubled heart. It was uncanny, and even before she'd lured him in and made him hers, he'd always loved that about her. The calming of his mental waters show in his face, the disgust and embarrassment that usually comes when his father is mentioned beginning to fade from view. He joins her in that laugh then, "Well, that's a cheery thought," he says. "Them hating us. I mean are you sure there isn't a fix for that yet?" he teases playing the part of the engineer again. Heather's tales of her own childhood made him smile. They'd come from very different places, but he was glad they'd found a way to meet in the middle and make that ground your own. "Sounds like they'll have more of your family's problems then mine then," he says. "But Moom, do we need to hang out with Prime Minster again? And hopefully by he time they're old enough to whine, they'll be looking at going to space like just another road trip," he says smiling at that last idea. It was part of the world he was trying to build. That struck him too, he was always building the future for all mankind, but maybe he could find the time to build one for their children as well. He smiles then, looking over at Heather, remarking, "You know, we've been using plurals a lot," he says. The humour in his eyes tell the story clearly, the quibbling over yes or no was over for him and now it was about discovering what yes would look like.
Vindicator	She hadn't noticed until he said it, and then she did. "Wow. I guess that was easier than we thought. We having kids." Heather exhales slowly and nods. "We'll be okay. Figuring it out as we go along, like every other parent in the world. And if we're lucky, maybe we can convince Sue and Reed to babysit for us and let us get away."
Guardian	Mac lets out a slow breath of his own. "Yeah, it was," he says with a smile, and a slightly dazed expression on his face, like the one he wore when she first kissed him and he'd felt his life shift as dramatically as it had just now those words. "Kids," he says, like the taste of the word would give him a glimpse of the future. No glimpses came, but he laughed when she mentioned Reed and Sue as babysitters. "I think Reed is more likely to babysit my lab than our kids, but it'd be nice to have them around for moral support if nothing else," he agrees. He settles back, smiling as he does. "So, how many kids are we talking about here?" he asks, always the one eager to know all the details and make plans for each of them. "And the stop trying not to try, still beginning on the first?" It wasn't worry that drove these questions, just Mac being Mac.
Vindicator	Heather settles in against him again, though still that she can watch his face. It was good to see their future play out over his features. All the things that they didn't know when she'd invited him to her place and kissed him, leading him to her bed. Things that seemed such a distant future then, but were all becoming a reality, one by one. "Two," she murmurs quietly, smiling. It had been she who'd kept saying 'our children' not 'our child'. "Maybe three if we like how it goes. Two seems a nice number, though? One of each?" Totally teasing, as you get what you get. It's not a fast food order. Nodding after a pause, "We can ceremoniously throw out the rest of the pack if you want?"
Guardian	The future does seem to play out across Mac's face, he was an easy read. She can see all the little joys, fears and concerns that take their moment before his mind's eye, showing on his face as little quirks of his lips and furrows of his brow. In the end though, they smooth, and he smiles, peace had been struck. He was going to be a father. "Two?" he asks, trying out the word and all it meant. "Reed and Sue won't think we're copying?" he teases lightly before nodding. "Two is a nice number, there's balance in two. " The one of each joke earns a laugh and swat. "I know the tech is almost ready, but I'm a traditionalist, let biology do its thing. Though if we got one of each, I wouldn't complain," he says before breaking into a chuckle about a ceremony to mark the end of birth control. "We have enough ceremonies to attend," he says with an easy smile. "Let's toss the things and be done them." The words make him smile. "And be done with this part of our life as well. Think we'll get used to the new part?" he asks.
Vindicator	There's a bit of a laughing squeal as she's swatted. "I wondered what you'd say about that. And traditional seems a good way to decide." Nodding. "Two is nice number. And if they think we're copying, then of of the pairs of us can have another. It seems the fair way to decide." Heather's smile is soft as she watches his concerns play out then smooth away. He's not alone in them. But she's willing to take the chance. His answer to if she's ready, or if they'll get used to this new part of their lives? "Ask me in fifty years how I feel about it?" Adding with a smile, "Though we still have to get pregnant first. Are you as terrified as I am?" Terrified and excited all at once.
Guardian	Mac grins when Heather squeals and he hugs her close kissing the top of her head again. "Well you don't have to worry, not planning to science up the kids, picking their gender, or trying some of the crazier enhancements the Department has cooked up over the years. I'll just fill their heads with science when they're born." The rest earns a chuckle. "We can flip them for it, provided Reed or Valeria haven't got some fool proof statistical method to figure out how it lands." They probably did. It made him smile, even if he didn't want exactly that for his kids. His kids. He speaks his thoughts allow. "Have they started becoming real for you? When we talk about them?" he asks. He nods, "I guess it's hard to say until you've lived it," he agrees. The question about being terrified gets him to pause and think, "A little, right now excitement's up by a couple of goals, but I am sure that'll even out closer we get to it being really, real," he says while he turns over to draw more fully into his arms.
Vindicator	"A little girl with your smile," Heather offers as an answer. "We'll see." But even she has to laugh at the thought of the Richard's children having it all down to a science. His shift in position answered with a long, drawn out kiss that tells him she's thinking what he's thinking.