Emollient

A/n: I'd like to clarify that this is, indeed, a challenge and not a war. (however if it was a war? You'd all be on Team Rena, right?) Also, I think it was decided that this round is dedicated to Snowy for putting up with us. We love you. Soooo, here's my E!

Ulrich Stern was a warrior. He had fought in great battles- the fate of the world resting in the balance. He had stared death in the face; loss in the face. He had triumphed over evil and saved the world from the clutches of a deranged computer virus, hell bent on destroying everyone and everything he ever loved.

But the war was in the past. He was victorious. Hardened and strengthened, he moved on to right more wrongs. He became his father's dream- a lawyer. And a good one at that. He help put away criminals; killers. He stood up for innocents. And once again he was strengthened.

He felt that nothing would ever budge him. That he was a beacon of strength and stability. But, as Ulrich Stern had learned in his years, where ever in his life he was sure about something, there was always the chance he could be wrong.

And how wrong he was.

He didn't think it could happen, honestly. His partner, his wife, his lifeline had nearly, and almost literally, brought him to his knees with two small words.

"I'm pregnant."

But he stood his ground. He was elated, exuberant. He stood by her side through every doctor's appointment, endless hours of nursery decorating, a baby shower that was far too pink for either of their liking, and midnight ice cream runs. He held her hand through delivery, even as she screamed and cursed and threatened his life- with promises of slow and painful dead. But he was strong, because he was a warrior, and so was his beautiful, very angry wife.

And before he knew it, she had stopped. She had stopped screaming and telling him how much she hated him and she had melted into a puddle of new mother with her baby girl wrapped in her arm.

Nell Alexandra Stern was welcomed into the world on a perfect winter's night.

Ulrich was a very excited new father and never more excited than when he brought home the baby girl with his eyes and her mother's dark hair. She cried quite a bit and when she wasn't crying she was sleeping and when she was sleeping so were they.

What Ulrich Stern did not know was that Nell would do something to him no one but her mother had ever done before. She would ruin him. Break him down. Melt his heart and soften that tough, warrior's heart until is was so very much a putty in her tiny, tiny little hands that he cried with joy.

So while his wife was asleep he crept into the too-pink nursery without so much as a cringe and gently lifted the barely fussing infant girl up into his arms. And as he sat down in the white rocking chair next to her window, Nell bundled against his strong chest, Ulrich Stern understood.

He understood why he spent almost five years battling to save the planet. He knew why day in and day out he battled criminals in the court room to keep them off the streets. He knew why he defended the innocent.

Without a shadow of a doubt he understood, looking down at Nell asleep in his arms, that he would never stop making the world safer for the little girl with his eyes.