One Thing for Our Baby

A/N: Ok so this is my first fic for the Gifted fandom! Eclaris is my new love and obsession so of course I had to put them in the middle of some angst and fluff lol Enjoy!

And a special thank you to Sarai (aka countryole) for editing this for me!

Lorna was seated on the edge of her and Marcos's bed, her boyfriend in front of her pacing the floor, his voice rising with every word.

"You could have gotten killed! You know that right?" Marcos chastised.

"I had it handled Marcos," she replied back, knowing it was a lie. Her voice was still strong, as if she was even fooling herself into believing she had everything handled back at the store.

Marcos couldn't contain himself. There wasn't a time in his mind that he remembered being so angry at Lorna. He never really got angry at her, maybe frustrated, but he tried not to show it. But in this moment, god he was so angry. "Lorna you did not have that under control! Your powers malfunctioned again!"

Lorna was more than 5 months pregnant now and she was feeling the effects of mutant pregnancy. Thankfully, her morning sickness no longer affected her. The mood swings though, those were exhausting, even to her. She could tell even Marcos was getting annoyed by how often her mood or state of mind seemed to change, even though he would never say it. This was different than what either of them were used to. Lorna's bipolar disorder was something they got used to, Marcos knew how to help her through her lows. Her lows didn't even come too often, at least her lowest lows didn't. But with the pregnancy it was something else.

But the part of Lorna's pregnancy that was the most confusing was the effect the baby had on Lorna's powers. They would malfunction, not working when she tried to use them and going haywire when she wasn't trying to use them. It was downright terrifying to Marcos, who had this horrific thought that eventually Lorna would have to use her powers to protect herself… and they just wouldn't work. That was a fear he saw come to life today.

There was a stabbing realization poking around in the back of Lorna's head that she couldn't get away from, one that forced her to face the fact that Marcos was completely right. As much as she hates to admit it, Sonia and she were sitting ducks in that store today, maybe only 2 minutes away from getting caught by Sentinel Services. And Lorna was positive that if she was caught again, they wouldn't let her slip through their fingers so easily this time; her or her baby.

When they were trapped, she kept trying to do something to get them out of there, and nothing would happen. She would try to lift an object, only to have a different metal object across the room lift up out of its place instead, causing her to curse under her breath. There couldn't have been a worse time for the baby to mess with her powers. Quickly, thinking of what would have happened, Lorna raised one of her hands to sit on the little bump that rose out of her stomach. That little bump had caused everything.

…Earlier that same morning…

It was early. Probably too early. The way the sunlight was dewy as it lit up Marcos and Lorna's room gave away just how early it was. Lorna couldn't even open her eyes. Another fantastic side effect of pregnancy, she was just so tired all the time. There wasn't a moment that went by the past couple of weeks where she didn't feel like she could take a 5 hour long nap, or at least lay down for an unreasonable amount of time. For someone who was one of the leaders of an illegal mutant underground alliance, it didn't seem quite right.

Just as Lorna was about to turn over, she reached her arm across her body to wrap it around her boyfriend who was sound asleep next to her. But she found something that felt a lot like a hill blocking her path. Her eyes burst open, ignoring the sudden ray of bright light that shot directly into them. Sitting there, where just yesterday her flat stomach was, sat a bump. It was small, protruding out no more than a couple inches, maybe even a little less. Lorna laid still, shocked at what she was seeing. Her pale fingers hovered over the bump for what seemed like minutes, not wanting to reach down and touch it, afraid this was all some vivid dream. Finally, she made contact, her fingers running gracefully over her swelling belly. She didn't even notice the smile growing on her lips.

"Marcos," she whispered to her boyfriend. He didn't move, knocked out completely, tired from his late night watch shift. Normally, she would let him sleep, but she couldn't wait to see the look of elation on his face when he saw their growing baby. "Marcos!" she said a little louder, nudging his arm repeatedly like an excited child.

"Hm?" he breathed out. His eyes were trying to flutter open and adjust to the light that filtered in from the window next to the bed.

Lorna's eyes hadn't moved from the bump that her hand still sat on top of. "Look!" she smiled into her words.

Figuring he wasn't going to get much from his girlfriend besides a vague order, Marcos turned slightly to face her. His eye lids finally lifted open to see Lorna smiling. He took a mere second to admire it, as he loved to see the fear or concerned stoic look that was on her face most of the time be replaced by any form of joy. But after, he let his eyes follow down to Lorna's line of sight to see what she was beaming at; and he couldn't help but freeze when he saw it too.

"Shit!" he cursed, propping his body up on his elbow to get a better view. "Where did that come from?" he asked.

"I don't know!" Lorna laughed. Cait had told Lorna when she hit 5 months that she could start showing at any time now. When she said it could happen over-night, Lorna didn't think she was serious. But the night before she went to sleep with the flat, toned stomach, the same one she had always had, for as long as she could remember. And now… well, now it was clear she was pregnant, which both excited and terrified her. "But it's our baby, Marcos."

His eyes, which were just locked on the baby bump moments ago, went up to stare into the gleaming light of Lorna's. Both of their hands sat on top of the tiny bulge, their fingers overlapping, almost entangling. This was a sign for them, that their baby was growing and healthy. Over the past few months since they've known she was pregnant, they both had this nagging fear that there might be something wrong with the baby. Even though Lorna had had a seemingly normal pregnancy, it was impossible for them to be sure. It's not like they had access to an ultrasound machine or anything of that nature. Sometimes the two thought about hiding their powers and Lorna even dying her hair black again, so they could go see a normal doctor even once. They were desperate to know if the baby was okay, see their baby like normal parents could. But it wasn't worth it to possibly get caught by Sentinel Services. So they relied on Cait, whatever she could do here at HQ and her knowledge of her past pregnancies.

It wasn't much, but Cait was studying up. She knew, as well as the couple knew, that she wasn't a doctor or someone who was specialized in babies or pregnancy at all. But when there wasn't much else to do around HQ, she would be sitting in the common area, her head buried in books about child birth. Some of them were a little old, ones that Marcos had been able to swipe from one of those book stores that carry all the college textbooks. But they figured the general ideas were the same.

But now they could see their baby in a way they hadn't been able to before. He or she was growing and that's all they could ask for right now. "I love you so damn much," Marcos's hushed voice rang out.

Lorna looked at him with a look that rivaled the one she gave him right after she got out of jail, when he told her he wanted to be a father. Those honest eyes of his, the ones she always found peace in, looked back at her.

"I love you."

Their hands connected, still content on top of the bump on her belly. Soon after the purples and greens of their own natural phenomenon swirled around them, around their baby. Marcos tangled his hand in the dark green strands of hair that still suffered from bed head and presses his lips against his girlfriend's. Everything else didn't matter. Not right now anyway. In this moment of peace, the two forgot about the war that was around them and the dangers that waited outside their closed bedroom door. All the ways life could go wrong for them and people of their kind were shoved to the back their heads, to only be remembered later, but not now. Right now, they were just two people in love with the person next to them and the product of that love sitting underneath the colorful spectrum that they created.

The colors faded off into the air and Marcos and Lorna's lips separated when a sharp, strong knock came at the door. They easily identified John's voice as he announced they had to head out on a rescue mission quick before the Sentinels got wind of the group of refugees a couple hours away.

It took Marcos a full 30 minutes to convince Lorna to stay back at HQ on this one. He used the excuse of wanting some type of leader there, someone to help Sage search through files they stole from the Sentinels database. It was starting to seem like no matter how many files or insight they got on the Sentinels, they could never quite be one step ahead. And if they were, it didn't stay that way long. Lorna finally gave in to staying behind, seeing the desperate look Marcos was trying to hide on his face. Unknown to her, Marcos was being hit with an unnerving worry. Almost like with this little bump that grew overnight, Marcos couldn't shake the realization that Lorna was really pregnant. There was a real baby growing inside of her and it was his job to protect them both. He knew he couldn't keep her back at the HQ all the time, probably not even most of the time knowing Lorna. But just this once, with the sensation of impending fatherhood hanging on him, he needed her, both of them, safe at the HQ.

Lorna did help pack up the truck for the rescue before kissing Marcos goodbye, their hands overlapping again on her bump. 'Please be careful.' Similar to what Marcos was feeling now that the baby was showing itself to be a real entity, in need of both its parents, Lorna couldn't stand the thought of losing Marcos. She was terrified to raise this kid with him, she couldn't even imagine trying to do it without him.

Walking through the HQ, Lorna's eyes scanned for a flash of red hair that could be identified as her best friend, Sonia. By this point all the other mutants knew about the baby that would be joining them in a few short months. Everyone was excited, especially all the other kids at the Underground. As she passed down each hallway, everyone in her path smiled after seeing the new bump her grey t-shirt couldn't hide. It was nice to have everyone be so thrilled for her and Marcos, even if she could see the worry being held in the corner of their eyes. After being told that Sonia was in the kitchen area, Lorna headed that way, her hand resting on her belly with her fingers absent-mindedly stroking. She came upon Sonia, counting boxes of food trying to figure out rations knowing the next supply run wouldn't be for a couple of days.

"Hey," Lorna said casually, walking to stand beside her best friend.

Without words, just a smile on her face not wanting to lose track in her counting, Sonia just turned her head slightly to look at Lorna. She almost missed the obvious bump sitting under Lorna's hand, but with a double take of her head, she suddenly didn't care about losing track of the food ration count.

"Oh my god! What is that?" she exclaimed, tossing the clipboard she was holding on the rickety old table that sat against the wall. Lorna moved her hand so the red head could place her hands on either side of the swell. She looked at it in awe, almost as if she thought it was fake. It made Lorna laugh to see Sonia's eyes as wide as they were.

"It just kind of popped up this morning," Lorna laughed.

"Yeah tell me about it! I saw you last night and this wasn't here!" Sonia gushed. "There's really a baby in there."

She had no idea that she was basically reading Lorna's mind. The settling realization that she was definitely pregnant and visibly so was starting to weigh on Lorna, no matter how happy she was. "Yeah. It's there inside me," she whispered in a hushed tone. She couldn't stop her mind from shifting from one thing to the next, playing a never ending slide show of things that could go wrong. "Babies need a lot of stuff huh?" she thought out loud.

"Oh yeah! All the clothes and toys and diapers and food. They eat like 5 times a day and poop twice that much," Sonia rambled casually, not noticing the corners of Lorna's mouth turn down. There was a playfulness in her voice, but Lorna wasn't taking anything she was saying lightly. She knew that her friend was right. She hadn't considered it before, what with everything going on around them, but babies did need a lot, and they didn't really have anything. Sonia took note of the silence and turned back to Lorna, only to see the devastated look on her face. She shook her head, mentally cursing herself for putting those impending thoughts in her friend's fragile head. "But… we still have so much time to get everything the baby needs."

It was too late. Lorna was already spiraling out a little bit in her head.

"I thought I had tons of time before I even started to show, but here it is," she mumbled looking down at her stomach.

She looked up at the boxes of food rations surrounding her in the kitchen area. There was nothing for babies in those boxes, no formula and only a few jars of baby food, if any. And those were for the few babies they had at the HQ. Lorna knew there wasn't much to go around. Only a few toys hanging out in little corners of the HQ, and families with babies usually brought their own baby clothes, so there were no spares. And there had never been a newborn there. The youngest they ever had was probably almost 1, maybe 9 or 10 months. Lorna didn't feel ready. They didn't even have a place for the kid to sleep. Where was it going to sleep?

Sleep. A crib.

Lorna felt her brain moving a mile a minute. She heard Sonia's voice in the background but the words were fuzzy and she couldn't make any of them out over the frantic thoughts running amuck in her head. But a crib, she latched onto that.

"We have to get a crib," she said plainly.

"And we will, but Lorna we have time! I didn't mean to freak you out. Just wait for Marcos and Johnny to get back and then-"

"Sonia I'm getting this kid a crib today! And I'm going with or without you so are you coming with me or not?" Lorna said, mind obviously completely made up. Sonia knew it was kind of pointless to argue with her when she had this much conviction in her voice. And she could imagine the ear-full she would get from Marcos if he knew Sonia let Lorna go on her own. An ear-full was probably coming either way, but she knew she probably couldn't live with herself if something happened to Lorna, especially when she knew the pregnant mutant's powers had been going a bit haywire lately due to the baby.

So she had no choice. A deep sigh was released from Sonia's mouth and a frustrated hand ran through her long red hair. "So what's the plan?"

…..

"Lorna you have to focus!" Sonia yelled over the loud sound of trucks pulling up outside, the blaring of sirens.

"You think I'm not trying?" Lorna shouted back with strain in her voice. Her dark brows furrowed deeper as she tried like hell to curve the metal hinges on the door so it couldn't open. But it wouldn't work.

After a long time of convincing Clarice earlier that morning to blink them into a baby shop in downtown Atlanta, she finally opened the portal, her too seeing the wildly fierce determination on Lorna's face. She had this patented look that said 'don't come between me and my kid' that would probably get anyone to do anything for her. But if Clarice saw the position they were in now, then she wouldn't have opened that portal. It didn't take long for the shop owner to figure out they were mutants. One call later, Sentinel Services were on their way. It didn't help that every motion Lorna made seemed to make any metal object rise and fly across the room.

Now the shop owner had locked himself in the back room out of ill contrived fear and the Sentinels had begun pulling up outside. Every phone call Sonia made to Clarice on the burner phone to get another portal open went unanswered, each time causing Sonia to cuss loudly, only making Lorna's mind more unclear and shaky.

The green haired mutant was focusing on every happy thing, every positive memory that she had; everything a mutant is supposed to focus on to get their powers to cooperate, Lorna was focused on. Her eyes closed, she saw Marcos first. The curve of his jaw line and the crisp stubble that tickled her face when their lips were on each other. The gaps of his fingers that she would slide hers into for comfort when the whole world got a little too loud for her head. She focused on her safe place. She focused on the baby her stomach currently housed and how she hoped it would be born with curly tufts of hair that mirrored Marcos's. All the things she always focused on and had been focusing on for years, suddenly failed her. A frustrated scream, hoarse and strained, fell out of Lorna. Green sparks exploded out of Lorna's finger tips and a loud sound of crushing metal took over the air. Sonia threw her hands over her ears. The window sills, clearly made of metal, all dented one by one causing the glass they held to shatter to the ground.

"Lorna!" Sonia screamed. They both felt like goners. Marcos flashed through Lorna's mind again. She felt like she had failed him in her desperate attempt to at least feel like she was doing something right for her kid. Tears appeared in the corners of her eyes. This was it, she thought. She didn't know what to do, and the effect the pregnancy had on her powers were too complicated and powerful to control, especially now when her mind was in 100 different places. They heard shouting outside, loud voices carrying demands to others around them. Only minutes, maybe seconds remained. Lorna closed her eyes, letting the green light of her powers illuminate over her fingers again.

The walls radiated with the green glow of her powers. But they soon mixed with purples. She barely noticed it at first but then a voice, loud and terrified, echoed to her. "Lorna!" That voice was the easiest one to identify, especially when it was calling her name. Whipping around, hair hitting her face, she saw a portal with Marcos standing right at the entrance on the other side. Clarice was struggling to hold the large threshold open, and John was visible next to her. "Come on!" Marcos yelled when he saw neither of the girls moving.

With a loud bang at the front door of the shop as their cue, Lorna and Sonia jumped forward. Another bang came, much louder, with a crash to follow it. Mixed with the increased concern on everyone on the other side of the portal's faces, it was clear Sentinel Services had managed to knock down the door. With one hand on top of her belly, Lorna reached out with her other hand to grab at Sonia's arm and push her through the portal. Mere milliseconds before Lorna leaped across the bright purple light, a gunshot sounded through the air. Lorna could practically feel it whizz past her head as she felt Marcos's arms wrap around her, pulling her aside to safety. The next sound was a heart stopping scream from Clarice as John pushed her to the ground, shoving her out of the direct line of the bullet that managed to make its way through the tear in space before it closed and ricocheted through HQ.

Lorna took a second to gain her footing and process the now deathly quiet room around her. John and Clarice laid on the ground, John on top of the much smaller Asian protectively. Sonia was leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the room, hands on her knees to catch her breath. Her eyes turned up to Marcos. Where she expected him to look angry, he just looked relieved. He pushed the green strands of hair out of her face so he could gaze at her clearer.

"Are you ok?" he asked with a frantic voice. Lorna couldn't do much besides nod her head.

"Everyone's ok?" John's voice asked. Lorna knew he was talking to everyone in the room. Lorna let out another nod, looking over between Clarice and Sonia to see both of them nodding as well. Knowing everyone was alright, she let herself fall back into Marcos's chest, pulling her arms around him. She felt his lips land on the top of her head and settle there for a long kiss.

Marcos settled on relief and comfort for a long time, just being happy that Lorna was here in front of him. But then he felt it, the anger. It creeped up on him and it was a feeling he never felt before. Unadulterated anger that seeped out of his skin like light seeped out of his fingertips. He knew Lorna was impulsive, he loved that about her. She didn't overthink, she just did a lot of the time. But this was just dangerous and stupid. Everyone dispersed from the room after a little while and Lorna and Marcos went up to the top floor of the HQ, and into their room.

Lorna sat on the bed, but Marcos had too much adrenaline in him to sit down. Instead he paced.

"If you're mad Marcos you could just say it," Lorna deadpanned.

"Of course I'm mad, Lorna!" Marcos burst. It's like he couldn't stop the words from coming out. He couldn't control them, they just fell out. More and more words, until he was just yelling. Yelling and pacing, yelling and pacing. It felt like he had been yelling for an hour by the time she stopped him.

"Marcos!" Lorna cut him off from a long string of words he was shouting at her. Looking at her, he immediately felt remorse. She looked so small. His eyes moved down to hover on her stomach. They were both so small. And he had come so close to losing both of them again today.

"I'm sorry alright?" Lorna sighed. "But… I don't know, I just started thinking about the baby and… I don't know how to raise a baby. It's not like I ever had a real mom, not a good one anyway. And we're going to bring this kid into this shit situation and I'm terrified I'm going to make a billion and one mistakes!" It broke Marcos's heart to hear Lorna so afraid. She wasn't scared of much, but as happy as she was, he knew she was scared to be a mom. Her fears mirrored so many of his own. They talked about it sometimes and knew the other was rightfully scared. Cait told them not to worry a lot. She said all parents are terrified when they're expecting their first child. But the mutant couple felt like they had so many odds stacked against them, odds normal parents didn't have to go through.

"I don't know what I'm doing," Lorna's hands hovered instinctively over her belly, "I just figured the least I could do was get the kid a crib to sleep in."

Marcos eyes are trained on Lorna, softened by her emotional outpour. He wanted so badly to wrap her in his arms and hold her, to tell her everything was going to be ok. Would she even believe him? Did he believe himself? All he knew was that there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for her and that baby. Little steps brought him closer to the end of the bed where his girlfriend sat. He reached out his hand like he had done the night they had their first kiss.

"Come with me," he said simply.

"What?"

"I want to show you something," Marcos answered. Lorna looked suspicious, unsure of what was happening, when two minutes ago he seemed furious.

Despite her hesitation, Lorna took hold of his hand.

"And right now seems like a good time?" she asked, standing from the bed.

"Right now is the perfect time."

Marcos led Lorna downstairs to the bottom floor of the Underground and then, much to Lorna's surprise, out the side door. There was a large shed in the back of the HQ that wasn't used a lot, except as a lookout if someone had watch in the backwoods, since the shed had plenty of view spots in the back. Lorna was more than confused walking into it, but she remained quiet since Marcos seemed to know exactly where he was going and what he was doing. Just past the entrance to the shed, their hands dropped, and Marcos walked over to stand next to an object. It was large and sat on the side of the shed, covered in a dingy white sheet. Lorna almost didn't notice it at first, but now with Marcos standing next to it, she was curious as to what it was.

"Babe what are-" Her words were cut off by her own awe. In the middle of her sentence, Marcos ripped the sheet off the mystery item, only to reveal what had been the object of Lorna's affection all day. There sat a small crib made of mismatched wood. She gaped, open mouthed. "What is this?"

Marcos smiled, both at the slightly dumb question and the stars that were in his love's eyes. "It's a crib for the baby," he answered, backing away until he was standing behind Lorna. He watched her hover around the crib with her fingers lightly grazing the wood it was made out of.

"Where did you get this?" Lorna's eyes didn't move from the little crib in front of her. Her vision started to blur, quickly becoming compromised by rogue tears.

"I made it. John helped."

Lorna spun around, eyes wide, to look at Marcos. She didn't even know he knew anything about making things out of wood. Metal sure, he'd made the art above their bed for her, but wood?

"You made this?" she questioned. He answered her with a nod before she turned her head, wanting to admire the crib again.

The truth was Marcos knew nothing about wood work. Both he and John were completely in the dark about how to make the crib. But Marcos knew there was nothing that could keep him from trying. John knew a tiny bit more than he did, but still not much. They were able to get wood from what looked like an abandoned lumber yard on the way back from a supply run maybe a month ago. It was hard to find wood that matched, especially in big enough amounts to make a crib out of. So they got what they could. Any time they could manage to sneak away, even for a small amount of time, they would go down to the shed and work on the furniture piece.

Many, many mistakes and a half built, shoddy crib later, they were lucky that a rescue mission brought a mutant named Peter to the Underground. He did happen to know a lot about wood work and offered to help with the crib, saying it was the least he could do after they basically saved his life. They ended up having to make another trip to the lumber yard since most of the wood they had had been used up in John and Marcos's failed attempt to build the crib themselves without help. But all the work was worth it to Marcos now seeing Lorna look at it like she was.

"It's not finished you know," he reminded her. He knew it wasn't the most attractive crib, with its mismatched wood and not completely even bars, since they didn't have all the necessary tools. "I still have to paint it and I didn't want you to see it until it was done but-"

"I love it." Lorna shot around, facing Marcos and holding her baby bump with both hands.

Suddenly the whole world disappeared around them. Lorna's head wasn't spinning anymore, at least for the moment, and Marcos felt like all of his anger from earlier washed away. Caught in a parallel of this morning, nothing mattered except the good. Nothing mattered except their little family. One of Lorna's little hands grabbed onto her boyfriend's shirt while the other rested still in its place. He got her a crib. The one thing she really wanted for their kid, a little place of its own to sleep. He got one for her; he made one for her, for the baby.

"You really made that crib?" she asked, half joking about his wood work skills and half still in awe that it was really there.

Pushing a strand of green hair behind her ear, Marcos smiled that charming smile of his. "I just figured the least I could do was get the kid a crib," he answered, using her own words from earlier.

"I love you." No hesitation. No uncertainty. No wavering. Just pure, honest love for the man she got to call her baby's father.

"I love you. I love both of you," Marcos said, strong and sure. His hand moved to lay on top of Lorna's as it sat on her belly.

It was too much to take without kissing him. So Lorna did. It was the only thing she felt like she could do; kissing Marcos when she felt so happy she could burst. This was the happiest she thought a human could be without physically bursting at the seams, sunbeams exploding from the inside out. There, in the dim light of the shed that shown through the cracks and gaps of the wood panels, the couple kissed until more light radiated from them. Lorna pulled Marcos closer to her, the baby in the middle being the only space Lorna would ever willingly allow between them.

She was sure she would have another manic moment like she did today, where the whole world seemed to be against her—the baby was coming too fast, and they weren't ready, and didn't have anything they needed. But maybe if she could just have a moment even half as good as this, maybe if she could just slide her hand into Marcos's hand and catch her breath, it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe as long as she had Marcos by her side, this parenting thing wouldn't be impossible.

A/N: Too angsty? Not angsty enough? Too fluffy? Not fluffy enough? Let me know what kind of fics you guys want for this show/ship! Thanks for reading and be sure to comment. Love you babes