Aaaaw!    What a sweet ending!  'Lucky man' indeed! 

Great job, Matt!  This is a really enjoyable story, with lots of tension, science, and romance.  Can't get a better combo than that! 

I wondered if you had kids! Because usually they get mentioned sooner or later, and you never did mention any.  See how great a detective I am?  :

Anyway, you did really well with the whole birthing thing.  The only lack I saw was that new parents really bond with their babies, and you skimmed over that.  But the rest was very well done.  And I'm glad you stepped up the crankiness of your lady to an appropriate level!    A very diverting read! 

I had the same critique when I read it Denise, I didn't think I covered that aspect well enough, that is one of the things that I need to tweek before it gets put up.

Louise, I'm glad you liked it, yes doing research for a story is fun!

MACHOs and WIMPs as in quarks? Sounds like fun! 

An acronym for STRAKER might be tough, lots of letters, but I know you will think of something!

Awesome!!!

Expecting

My thoughts on the story:

As a man who has never been in a delivery room, I picked a humdinger of a subject to write about.

“Expecting” came about as my response to the July writer’s guild challenge. We had to do a story of kids in HQ and I wanted to stay in my “Soul Mates” story arc. Thus “Expecting” was born.

I had already planned for Virginia and Ed to have children at some point in the saga, in fact they discover that she is pregnant in the planned story “Dark SHADO” while trapped in the mirror universe portrayed in my version of “The Bodyguard”. I always figured that Ginny would make a great Mom, and I loved the way Denise portrayed her in “Kid Stuff”.

“I had to do a lot of research to get this story done properly. That can be quite a bit of fun, as you get to learn new things and expand your horizons.

One of the big things I was able to explore was how HQ would run in a crisis without Straker or his second at the helm. This story leaves Paul Foster in command something that would be scary to some folks. In my story arc Paul has grown considerably over the past year. He has come to realize that he’s not as experienced as Ed and can’t just step in and put his feet up.

Paul really got to shine in this story by becoming a team player. He knew he needed help and he was wise enough to ask for it. Way to go Paul!

I was able to give Lt. Colonel Jennifer Wallace a larger role in this story. As Ginny’s protégé she is quite an interesting character. I introduced her in the story “Mission of Mercy” and finally have her appearance in my head. Long red hair, green eyes, attractive, I’m considering a follow on to “Matters of the Heart” where she hooks up with Ed!

I really wanted Ed to have the honor of delivering his own children, without having to deal with other problems. Trapping them together was the perfect way to do it. Ed was able to capture some of the happiness he had been denied in the series. I knew that a woman in labor could get a bit testy, thanks to Louise and Denise for the guidance there. I hope Ginny gave him enough of the what for!

This was a learning experience for Ed as well; he got to see firsthand that SHADO can survive without him there, all the time and he can share the load with others. This is something that I see Ginny teaching him. As Alec told him in “Soul Mates” being in love suits him.

This was an all around fun story to write and I hope everyone enjoyed it.