“So, which one of you is it?” was Miranda’s emotional greeting to the three E-children standing before her.

“Which one of us is what...?” Jared stammered as the three looked between each other.

“The father of my grandchild. You know, the grandchild none of you even told me I had. Ring a bell?”

Jared and Kyle both went even paler than Miranda then, while Will just looked on with a slight confusion. Trying to think as quickly as he could, Jared responded, “Lili wanted to be the one to tell you” he answered, not sure it was that far off from the truth, honestly. “That’s why we couldn’t really say much, ourselves” he attempted to add for weight.

“So which one of you is it” Miranda didn’t back down, though she did try to force a calm into her tone.

“None of us” Kyle gave into the pressure of the question and was the first to provide the answer.

Jared cringed slightly at how quickly Kyle gave that answer even though it was technically true. But before any of the men could say more, Miranda turned away in obvious agitation and upset, “fucking Ian” she almost spit his name. “I guess that’s why he never had the balls to come here himself, huh?” she asked them as she turned back.

“Um” Jared stammered again, as Will’s face was blank and Kyle was trying his best to melt into the wall behind him, “Ian stayed behind to look after Lili, and Hope” Jared replied softly, hoping it would take at least some of the edge of off Miranda’s anger.

“Hope” Miranda whispered the name, obviously trying to calm herself, as difficult as that was. After another few deep breaths, she finally looked back at them again, “why am I surprised, really? Ian has been trying to sleep with my little girl since, forever” she admitted knowingly, “just never thought Lili would fall for it, ya know?”

“It was technically the end of the world, as far as we knew” Kyle attempted to joke, before looking away as he saw that she remained unamused.

Miranda took another breath before managing to continue, “at least tell me that being a dad made him fucking grow up already.”

Jared just looked down a moment before answering, “he actually treats her really well, Miranda. You’d be surprised” he finished, trying to ignore the slight look of victory Kyle seemed to allow into his eyes as Jared continued to uphold the story that Kyle had actually wanted to tell her about the last year.

Miranda just shook her head again, “Lili’s father was just as much of a dog as Ian too; and I fell for it too. It’s a curse in our family I think” she offered that slight bit of insight into her own past, her anger seeming to have at least calmed somewhat after the shock had passed.

Jared awkwardly looked back at Kyle then, where the younger man couldn’t help mouthing “told you” to which Jared just glared back at him before looking away once more.

After another long moment of silence, Miranda turned back to them again, “well, now that this huge secret is out of the way, can I please see my daughter?”

Will then stepped forward with a smile, “I can take you.”

“So, you’re gonna be ok with this, right?” Lili called after Ian warily as he had started away from the shack on another hunting trip that afternoon.

“This?” he smiled back at her, though with the ever so foreign tinge of nervousness, “believe me, I’m in no hurry to see Miranda again. Sorry hon” he apologized with a shrug, “making myself scarce for an hour or two while you try to explain...” he looked around, “any of this to grandma-ma?....that I’m fine with” he smirked as he went on his way, leaving Lili alone behind with more than a bit of her own nervousness; but it had been her suggestion for him to let her speak to her mother by herself in the first place. And they didn’t have a lot of time according to the mental warning she had gotten from Kyle only minutes earlier.

Lili swallowed hard as Ian moved off toward the tree line. She then went back inside to cast one more anxious look down at Hope before the reunion began, terrifying as that thought was becoming with each passing moment.

Will had decided that he and Miranda’s first stop back on ‘Planet One’ as the others had begun to call it, would be at the original pod from their ship. That way they could take a moment for their lungs to adjust and also safely store the suits in the pod before Will’s next jaunt through the atmosphere. After that was taken care of, he would then, finally, blink her back to her daughter; a prospect that Will seemed to be the only one not on pins and needles about.

When Will did make them at last appear in front of the shack, Miranda was still quite disoriented by the reality of Will’s ability at all. But she had bigger concerns right then than getting her head around another of the E-children abilities.

Seeing that Miranda seemed as nervous as all his other new friends, Will sympathetically smiled as he glanced at the older woman, then the shack, “Lili, we’re here” he called toward the open doorway, his smile still remaining present as he actually relished the opportunity to reunite mother and daughter.

Lili took a deep, startled breath at the sound of his voice, before forcing her feet to shakily carry her to the doorway, “mom?” her voice broke, the tears immediate in both sets of turquoise eyes as the women moved to embrace each other with a flood of emotions.

When the hug finally ended, Miranda’s voice was still shaky as she continued to stand close, her hands on her daughter’s shoulders, “so this your new place?” she teased as she smiled at the haphazardly put together shack.

“Livin large” Lili teased back as she glanced over at where Will still stood nearby, happily smiling down at the two women.

“Um, Ian went to grab us some dinner at that clearing. I’m sure he’d be glad to see you too” she urged Will on his way before even attempting that day’s conversation with Miranda.

Will simply smiled again with a little nod before disappearing before their eyes once more. Pushing away the urge to comment on the mention of Ian’s name right then, Miranda just shook her head and turned back to Lili, “well, that definitely takes some getting used to.”

Lili couldn’t help a small smile as she gestured for her mother to take a seat near the fire-pit with her, “so, how are Kyle and Jared?” Lili asked awkwardly as they sat.

“They’re Kyle and Jared” her mother teased back with another smile, “what about you? I’m sure I’ve missed some stuff, obviously” she added as she looked around again.

Lili took another breath to steel herself, “so, what have you heard?” she asked, attempting to sound jokingly conversational, though her voice still seemed to break with each word she tried to form.

Miranda then allowed her own knowing breath as she also tried to decide where to begin, “well, they did let a little something slip about me suddenly being...”another deep breath, “a grandma, apparently” she finished, seeming to choke on her own words then as well.

Lili felt her throat tighten, but she had tried to brace herself for that question at least, even if none of the others, “oh yeah, so, nothing big then?” she attempted to joke again.

Miranda couldn’t help a small laugh, “how...” she just shook her head before trying to continue, “how did you ever manage to bring a little girl into this world, safely, I mean? I just....” she then looked around once more to accent her question.

“Believe me, it was...difficult” Lili decided on, pushing back tears at those particularly new, and still rather fresh memories of laying on the ground only a few feet away, bleeding to death, and sure she actually had been dead even.

“God I could kill Ian” Miranda muttered, more to herself.

Lili cringed a bit as she realized her mother did know at least one more little bit of the story, “mom” she scolded her as she placed a hand over the older woman’s hand.

“No, I’m serious baby. Mothers die in childbirth, even in perfect conditions. How could he do that to you? Jeopardize your life that way?” she asked, a bit of her upset returning easily.

“Come on, mom. It’s not like he did it deliberately” she attempted to defend, regardless of her own feelings of terror she experienced herself, at the prospect of having a child in that place.

“Oh, he accidentally had sex with you? Is that it?” Miranda scoffed, not able to stop the question before it left her lips.

“I meant, the pregnancy wasn’t deliberate, mom” she shook her head, already feeling her cheeks redden. Especially since the fact of having Ian’s child was really only a portion of the whole story, still.

“Your IUD was gone, and you guys didn’t exactly have access to birth control here. I know you may want to defend him, but think about it Lili. He should have known better.”

Lili scoffed as she pulled her hand away, sad eyes cast down, “actually, mom, Ian thought I still had the IUD when we...” she just shook her head.

Miranda was a little caught by that, “but you knew it was gone, right?”

That was when Lili closed her eyes tightly, trying to regain some composure. Finally, after a few more deep breaths, “do you at least wanna see her?” she finally offered, figuring any way she could distract Miranda from their previous conversation was welcomed right then.

Miranda couldn’t help a slight scowl at Lili quickly trying to re-direct the conversation, but she did want to meet her granddaughter, so she allowed it, for now, “of course I do” she answered with an attempt at a smile.

Fawning over the tiny baby did do well to distract Miranda from their prior conversation, or any other, for the rest of the afternoon at least. But as evening approached, the stress of that looming discussion returned like a tidal wave as Ian finally made his way out of the woods and back to the shack once more, Will tagging along with him, of course.

As the men approached, the smiled discussion between he and Will was quickly forgotten when he saw Lili and Miranda sitting in the doorway of the shack. Miranda was cradling the baby in her arms still, as Lili looked on, trying to hold her smile as she just waited for the newness of the child to wear off, and the tension to begin anew.

The two women looked up from said child as wary footsteps approached, Ian wondering if he would need his gun again, the moment Miranda laid eyes on him. Miranda’s eyes darkened, but only slightly, as the two women stood, Lili’s nervousness tangible.

“I’ll take her back inside” Miranda offered, her voice unreadable as she moved through the door behind them. Lili herself only took a step or two from the door, nervously looping her fingers in the waist-band of her jeans as Ian and Will dared to come nearer now that Miranda had gone inside again.

Ian’s eyes had a million questions in them as he and Will reached Lili’s side. However, the only answer she could provide while her mother stood just out of sight inside the shack behind her, was a biting of her lip as she shook her head up at Ian in silent warning to keep him from asking all the questions he had about their ‘warm’ reunion just then.