Chapter 1: Lost In Your Arms

When those two fateful words passed from her baby sister's lips, Queen Elsa sat a little straighter in her throne. Even as, simultaneously, the resting regal facade she maintained dipped just a bit in surprise. When her sister, Princess Anna, and brother-in-law, Sir Kristoff, had requested an audience with her, she had been more than a little shocked. Specific requests for an audience with the Queen, from her subjects anyway, was a rarity, especially when Elsa maintained an open door policy to receive her people in the palace once a week. For her family to ask for it... Elsa felt they didn't need to - they had earned the right, through blood and marriage, to address her as a sister, and not as their ruler. Anna took more liberties with this; though he had married into the royal family several years before, Kristoff still took a more cautious approach, out of deference. Getting him to simply call her Elsa had been a small victory. And he did that now more often than not. Except when the royal family was in this room - the throne room - together.

But Elsa was letting her mind swirl faster than snow flurries. It was all she could do from fainting dead away off her throne. "You're pregnant?" Her baby sister, about to become a mommy... it was too abstract to process. Her eyes flitting to Kristoff, Elsa decided to focus on the more concrete ideas surrounding this new development and work her way up from there. She knew her sister was no longer innocent in the ways of the world - a wife could not afford to be. Married people did... what married people did. But all the same, she felt the need to ask, with more than a little warning in her voice, "Were you good to her, reindeer man?"

Kristoff's face went to war with itself, flipping and flopping from an amused smile to a wince. Normally, "reindeer man" was an affectionate nickname from his sister-in-law. Neither of them could remember exactly when the practice started, and unfortunately for Kristoff, the moniker stuck. He put up with it largely because it made Anna laugh; Sven, even more so. He certainly much rather preferred Olaf's calling him "Sven," which the magical snowman still sometimes did, out of habit. But in this case... he couldn't remember the last time Elsa had called him reindeer man in anything less than a loving manner. There was that time when Anna had toddled off on that ill-advised trip to Mist Haven, but that was before they were married. And back when Elsa was not nearly as affectionate as she was now - certainly not with him, anyway. Kristoff gulped. "I was a gentleman with her... Your Majesty."

Elsa sat back, silently acknowledging Kristoff's formalities, even within the informal context of this family summit. It was a wise move on his part, and though she didn't feel it was entirely necessary, she accepted it for what it was. She turned her neck. "Anna?"

Anna took Kristoff's hand. "He was really kind and gentle..." she began. She blushed furiously. "Of course, he always is, even when we're not..." Her voice trailed off and she too winced.

Elsa looked between the couple. It had not been hard to give them her blessing for their marriage - Kristoff had ingratiated himself far too much for any of them to turn back at that point. But this... this was (or would be) a new member of the family. A human member of the family. Having three adults, a talking snowman, and a reindeer who thought he could talk in the royal family Christmas cards was fun for a while - for the sheer absurdity of it alone. But after some time, the subjects would find it boring, and clamor for proof of a little prince or princess.

Elsa's breath caught, and tiny little snowflakes suddenly floated gently down around her head, like a halo. If Anna was going to be a mommy, and Kristoff a daddy, then that meant...

"I'm going to be an aunt! Ohhhhhh..." she wept. Her tears quickly froze on her face, which only made her cry harder. She flew from the throne and into their arms, hugging each of them in turn.

Kristoff rumblingly chuckled, "Oh, don't cry now, you'll freeze so dreadfully!"

"I'm... s-sorry!" Elsa hiccuped. "I can't help it!"

"You cry your eyes out," Anna encouraged, staring over the top of her sister's head to look at her husband. The silent message was clear: No conflicting messages. Let me handle it. I know you're trying to be a dear and help, but let me handle it. To his credit, Kristoff acquiesced. He still had trouble responding to Elsa's see-sawing emotions. He never avoided them, and for someone who had always strived to make the best peace, soothing encouragement/defusion was more his forte. But Anna would always know Elsa better than anyone, so sometimes it was best to just let her take the reins, so to speak.

Elsa was still sobbing, but growing calmer. "Thank you," she trembled, taking hands and anything else in reach and holding it close. "Thank you. I always dreamed of this..."

Kristoff and Anna shared another look over her head, the former smiling encouragingly. It was always nice to hear Elsa reveal more and more about herself to them. The fact that to have a niece or nephew was one of her dearest wishes left the heirs to the Arendelle throne happier than they could possibly say.

It had been hours upon hours of Elsa pacing back and forth outside the princess's private residence. She wasn't allowed in yet, and the only thing that had restrained her from knocking Kristoff to the ground with a well-placed icicle and charging in herself was that Anna did not wish her sister to see her in such a state. Around her, the walls were coating with a thin layer of frost, some slushy snow ruining the carpet, even as Elsa tried to keep this physical manifestation of her worry at bay.

"Get it together... control it... conceal, don't feel, conceal, don't feel... Anna is alive... the baby will be healthy... Kristoff will take care of them... conceal, don't feel, conceal, don't feel..."

It was advice she turned to less and less since the Great Thaw. But for every dark mantra, there is always a silver lining, when it is applied in the right way and context. In this case, reciting conceal, don't feel was all that was battling Elsa's worry for her family. Even if it brought up some painful memories along the way.

The flashbacks caught her unawares:

Conceal it, don't feel it, in her father's voice. Don't let it show.

Just take care of my sister...

I'm such a fool, I can't be free... Goodbye Anna...

ANNA!

ELSA! ELSA! ELSAAAAA!

"Elsa... Elsa..." a distinctly masculine voice cut through the white noise... and white landscape. "Elsa!"

Elsa came back to Earth to see that she was no longer alone in the hallway. Kristoff was by her side, taking off his cap, and she was still focusing in on him and asking, "What?" -

When a bundle was thrust into her arms.

Elsa froze as she seemed to by instinct cradle whatever Kristoff had given her. A memory long suppressed rose to the surface, from decades before, when she had held...

Her baby sister...

Elsa nearly dropped the bundle in terror. The little thing was probably stiff from cold already! Touching people without fear was still new to her.

But then, Elsa glanced down wide-eyed at the little bundle. Ice blue eyes met shimmering green ones...

And the world faded away.

For it was her niece - healthy and whole and distinctly warm and unfrozen - who sent something resembling a smile in her direction. A noise followed - a murmur that sounded like the coo of a dove.

And then the most amazing thing happened. The baby actually turned itself into Elsa, little fingers grasping for her icy dress, her face nuzzling inherently towards her breast... even if Elsa could give nothing of herself, no sustenance, to it. Nursing was to be Anna's job.

"This is your niece. Her name is Elsabeth."

Kristoff's voice nearly made Elsa drop the baby this time. Tears pricked her eyes. "Elsa...beth?"

Kristoff chuckled. "We bantered about Elsabelle, but it didn't roll off the tongue quite right..."

"Kristoff... no..." Elsa pleaded, though touched, but her brother-in-law could only smile.

"There was no arguing with her. She wanted to name a child of hers after you. Needless to say, I agreed - with no fuss, I might add." He craned his eyes up to see over the little mass of swaddling clothes. "Well, call me a troll - you put her to sleep! She likes you."

Elsabeth oofed in response and burrowed herself deeper into her aunt. Her namesake almost staggered into a plush bench and began to rock the baby gently. Not once did the Queen look up, for many, many minutes. She was in a trance, clutching the baby covetously. Anyone else might have minded, but not Kristoff. It had been agreed upon, between himself and Anna, that Elsa would be involved in the child rearing to a certain extent. Quite a bit, actually.

But once Elsa had sat there, unmoving, for a solid ten minutes, Kristoff finally needed to smirk, "We'll need her back, you know."

Elsa shook her head of her reverie, and passed her niece back to Kristoff. Then, she did something she had never done before, and kissed the mountain man on the cheek. "Thanks, Kristoff."

Her brother-in-law's smile and voice was as warm as honey. "You're welcome."

"Can I see Anna?"

"She's asleep. Quite tired," Kristoff reported. "I'll let you in, but she might not wake up for the rest of the day, the doctors said. Maybe not even tomorrow. The birth was... difficult." He held up his hands in a sign of peace. "Anna and I apologize in advance for keeping you out here. I know we don't do shut-outs anymore in this family. But if what I saw out here fifteen minutes ago was any indication, you were worried enough as it was."

Elsa looked around, and gaped to find that any sign of winter or her powers was gone. Love really did thaw.

Just then, the door at the end of the hall banged open and in came Olaf and Sven. Olaf's almost shrieky gasp signaled he had seen the new arrival.

"It's her! It's her, Sven!" And they soon resorted to pushing each other out of the way to get a better look. "What is it?"

Elsa chuckled, taking Elsabeth again from Kristoff and holding her out to the snowman. "It's a baby," she crooned. Olaf touched one of his stick fingers to the baby's face... but promptly drew it back when she began to stir and whimper from its prickliness.

"Ohhhhh..." Elsa moaned with love, and she bounced the infant until she fell back to sleep. Olaf turned to Kristoff. "Can we see Anna?"

Kristoff thought for a moment before giving a jerk of his head. "Go on, you numbnuts, get in there. But tread lightly - she's asleep." Olaf and Sven tiptoed inside. Kristoff made to follow, then turned back. "Coming, Elsa?"

Though she was tempted, Elsa shook her head. "I trust you. To keep her safe." She started to hand the baby back, blushing, but Kristoff stepped back.

"You never want to mess up a good thing. Besides, I held her quite a bit before even coming to get you. I think my daughter will be fine in the arms of a Queen." And he left Elsa with her niece.

It was deep night the next evening when Elsa was in her study by the fireplace, in an old rocking chair of her mother's, cuddling the baby close. She still had the same adoring grin on her face that she had had when Kristoff had first handed her over yesterday.

Elsa felt delirious, dizzy and sick with love. She thought there was no one else who could compare with the love she felt for Anna. But... her... Her niece had trusted and loved her from first moment on like no one else had. The feeling nearly crippled the Queen.

"I don't know just how it happened. I wish I knew. I can't believe that it happened, but still it's true... I got lost in your arms, and I had to stay... It was light in your arms, and I lost my way... And I heard a voice, and it seemed to say, There you go... There you go... How I felt when I fell, I just can't recall, but your arms held me fast and it broke the fall, and I said to my heart, as it foolishly kept jumping all around... I got lost... but look what I found..."

As Elsa sang the lullaby, she began to waltz gently around the study with the baby in her arms. She hummed to herself, until she was snapped out of her reverie by catching sight of Kristoff, leaning against the wall with a knowing smile.

"How long have you been standing there?" Elsa flushed.

"Long enough. You love her like you're practically her mother. You sure you didn't give birth to her?"

Elsa laughed. "I think my body would know if I had. What news?"

"Anna's woken up, if you want to see her."

Elsa didn't need to be told twice. She rushed after Kristoff to Anna's bedroom, where her sister was sitting up in bed, weary but happy.

Finally, Elsa got to watch Anna hold her child, and then Kristoff. The sight was adorable for about twenty minutes before she got jittery for another hit. Beaming, she clasped her hands together and approached her brother-in-law. "My turn."

Kristoff passed Elsabeth back to Elsa, who rocked her like a natural.

"Where does she sleep?" Anna nearly moaned the question, overcome by the touching sight.

"In my arms," Elsa sighed. "Or Kristoff's or Gerda's." Gliding regally over to a royal crib in the corner of the room, Elsa gingerly placed Elsabeth into it.

"Good night, Elphaba!" Olaf whispered, waving.

"Elsabeth," Kristoff corrected him.

"Elsabeth!"

Elsa kissed her niece's forehead. "Sweet dreams, my darling. You're absolutely perfect."