Duskfire Glacier [m] grace, this is fucking birmingham

His words cut through the haze of hormones and panic that had engulfed Lane, and she brought her eyes up to hold the man in her empathetic gaze. Because of his experiences, he had come to think of grief as an inevitable conclusion to mateship, and that was.. well, it was really fucking sad. He didn't speak with an overabundance of emotion, but then again, neither did Lane very often. She understood that what took place inside the leader's heart might not be visible on the hardened, scarred exterior. 

As he continued, it occurred to Lane that Wintersbane might also view parenthood as a preemptive to a different kind of loss. However, he had not yet given up on it completely- not in the way he had given up one mateship. One more bad experience though, and who knows? 

Wintersbane had drawn Lane out of the depths of her own self-pity, for the time being at least. She inhaled, steeling her resolve. 

"Okay," she murmured her assent. Wintersbane would be a father, even if she couldn't find it in herself to be a mother. It was some comfort, to know that the hypothetical kids might make it out of this with at least one real parent. 

"I'll let you know if, if I'm.." She trailed off hesitantly, and then spoke again a bit more firmly. "If you're expecting any new Duskfires." Duskfire. Hopefully with a name like that, her children would belong here, even though their mother did not. Lane was increasingly beginning to realize just how important it was to belong somewhere.. to have a place to return to. A place to call home.