Gone Kiting (Brody, Marcus?)

"Do that. I could repay a favor for once."

It wasn't entirely untrue. If Brody was the type to keep a tally (he wasn't), technically Matthew owed him his life three times over: once for saving him from drowning, twice for silencing Eiten Ruze when he found about Kyanite's pregnancy, and if he really wanted to stretch it, thrice for taking that bullet for Kyanite and the baby.

But keeping a ledger of who owed him favors outside of the Peacekeeper Corps had never really been his style; Nolan and McKenna had raised him better than that.

Matthew seemed more than eager to talk about his daughter on the way, and oddly enough it was the first time it occurred to Brody that, probably, the group of people that even knew he was about to be a father probably hadn't changed in the past few months.

"I might hit Nolan up for that. If she's only half as beautiful as her mom I'm going out today to buy a baseball bat." Matthew replied, to which Brody snorted in amusement at the thought of his friend, many years older sitting on the front porch of his house menacing some poor teenage boy. "Who did your dad give those talks to? Do you have a secret sister or are you a little sissy boy?"

The grin on his face was smarmy as hell, and normally Brody might've had a suggestive remark to wipe it off Matthew's face... But the morphling in his system had dulled his wits, and was slowly beginning to drag him back into unconsciousness again; sleep tugged at the corners of his eyes.

"You don't remember turning chickenshit on me when you found out I was bi?" He teased mildly, "Dad was civil to the girls, but he terrorized the boys I brought home."

That was an understatement... Brody had indignantly confronted his father a couple of times as a teenager demanding to know why Nolan had run his new beau off; to which Nolan always simply replied, "I told him what I would do if he hurt you. Apparently his intentions weren't so good".

His eyebrows went up, reaction slowed by drowsiness, at Matthew asking his middle name. They weren't gonna name Mira after him, at least not in a way that was glaringly obvious; it seemed odd to him, but Brody wasn't about to deny Matthew and Kyanite a little closure if that was what they were aiming for.

"It's Casey." He replied, "Prolly don't wanna name your daughter that, though; it's a guy's name."

Brody considered for a second, before snapping his fingers as a thought occurred to him.

"Dad thought I was gonna be a girl, when Mom was pregnant. He was gonna call me Aisling." He shrugged, "I don't remember what it means, but it sounds better than Mira Casey."

Nolan, of course, would be absolutely flattered that they'd choose any O'Rourke family name at all; it was a point of pride for both of them, choosing their names from their family roots. Much of the history was lost, unfortunately, but what they did know they did their best to preserve.

"Who's the guy who came in here with me?" Matthew asked, looking towards the door, "Maybe I should let him get his turn with you."

Brody's head rolled heavily towards the door; Marcus's shoulder was just visible in the doorway from where he was standing guard.

"That's Marcus; he's been my best friend since Academy." And as much as Brody wanted to stay awake to talk to his best friend, the drugs were slowly dragging him under.

He still had the wherewithal to wrinkle his nose when Matthew ruffled his hair, like a kid.

"I'll be back in a few days. Check that you're being a good boy and don't cause any havoc here, Corporal."

Brody grinned sleepily, settling back into the pillows and closing his eyes.

"Fine, no havoc, just some mayhem and hellraising." He replied, shooing Matthew off with one hand, "Go have fun with your girl."