Summary: Gwen is in labor and Arthur is away. Luckily Gwaine's around.
Disclaimer: I disclaim everything
AN: Post season 4 AU, season 5 never happened. I've wanted to write a Gwen/Gwaine friendship fic for the longest while. This thought popped into my head. I feel Gwen is kind of OOC, you guys tell me what you think on that front.
MERLIN MERLIN MERLIN MERLIN MERLIN MERLIN MERLIN
On his travels during his stint as a wanderer, Gwaine had stayed many places. He had been a resident in taverns, barns, houses, huts and even castles. He had encountered a lot of people during his escapades including pregnant women. He met widowed ones, single ones, married ones, young ones, older ones, seasoned mothers and first timers and he had assisted in more than one delivery. All women went through it differently: most screamed at the top of their lungs, some were quiet and chose to grit their teeth and grunt through it, some cried, some raged and yelled and got angry. Gwaine loved the angry ones. In fact, he encouraged them to get as angry as they needed to get if it meant they delivered the baby. He also witnessed the hard births, the ones that took hours and were bloody and horrible and the result was a motherless child, a childless mother or both having departed this realm of living. Gwaine hated those ones with a passion because it was like a whole world of possibilities and what ifs just shut right in front of his face. This was why when he learned that Queen Guinevere was in labor and refusing to push, he knew he had to do something. He knew the risk to the child and Gwen.
She was a stubborn woman, his Esmeralda, and pregnancy made her even more headstrong which entertained him greatly. She usually left both Arthur and the entire council floundering after she spoke up in a way that was way less Guinevere and way more no holds barred. Now her stubbornness was working against them all and he was determined to get to the bottom of it.
Gwaine knocked on the door of the birthing suite tentatively.
"Who is it?" A maid asked.
"Sir Gwaine."
"Men aren't allowed." Another female voice said.
"Let him in." Gwen said. The door opened ten seconds later and Gwaine stepped through to see Gwen on the other side of the bed leaning over it and holding her back.
"What's this hold up I'm hearing about, Esme?" Gwaine asked.
"If I were you, I'd want that thing out of me as soon as possible." He said with a joking edge to his voice. Gwen smiled a bit before biting her lip as another wave of pain hit her.
"I'm waiting for Arthur." Gwaine briefly noted the four women in the room moving to give them a bit of privacy.
"You most certainly are not." Gwen's head snapped up with narrowed eyes.
"Gwaine—"
"Did they explain that the baby could die if you wait too long? That you could die? What's the point in waiting for Arthur to come home to a dead baby or possibly a dead wife?" He questioned in his rarely used serious voice.
"You don't understand." Gwen replied as tears pricked her eyes.
"Explain to me then." Gwen shook her head and looked away from him. He lifted her head back up.
"I'm trying to help here Queenie, but I can't if I don't know what's wrong."
"I… I'm afraid."
"Of what?" He asked.
"I think something's wrong with the baby." She replied wiping a tear away.
"What do you mean?" Gwaine asked with concern.
"I don't know but something isn't right. I don't want my baby to die or be hurt or—"
"I know you don't but they will be hurt if you don't give birth to them now."
"I can't do it alone." She replied tearfully.
"You're not alone, I'm right here and you and I are going to do this together. Yeah?" Gwen nodded her head after a moment. Gwaine nodded to the women as he helped her onto the bed. He jumped up behind her and propped her up before grabbing her hand. The women busied themselves situating Gwen's legs in the stirrups attached to the bed and getting ready for the baby's arrival.
"Now you listen to me: you're going to keep hold of my hand and squeeze it as hard as you need to. You can scream as loud as you need to and curse Arthur to the depths of Tartarus. You know why? Because it's your right. Say it."
"It's my right."
"Again."
"It's my right!" She repeated as another contraction hit her.
"Push, your grace!" Gwen braced against Gwaine's back and used him as leverage to push down. It hurt like hell, especially because she had halted progress, but she let the pressure of Gwaine's hand in hers give her strength. She stopped pushing when the midwife told her to.
"I can see the head. Just one more big one."
"You can do it, Esmeralda." Gwaine said in encouragement. Gwen braced against Gwaine once again and screamed as loud as her lungs allowed before another scream accompanied her own. She looked up as the midwife was cutting the umbilical cord.
"It's a boy." She announced, passing the baby to one of her assistants to be cleaned and taken care of. Gwen was flooded with relief, he seemed healthy. Perhaps she worried for nothing.
"One more push for the placenta. It shouldn't hurt nearly as much." The midwife said as her workers moved to help force the placenta out but Gwen felt like another contraction hit her and she felt like something was moving inside of her. This was the source, this was the thing that she had felt was wrong.
"Your grace?" The midwife asked with confusion.
"Something's wrong." Gwen said before looking up at the knight behind her.
"I told you something is not right, Gwaine." Gwaine looked at the midwife for answers. She inspected Gwen before coming up with a haunted look. Both Gwen and Gwaine looked at her with fear.
"There's another one." She announced in a shaky voice.
"Another what?" Gwen practically hissed though she already had a pretty good idea of what she meant.
"There's a second baby, my queen. I need you to push… hard." Gwen looked to Gwaine in disbelief and fear. He didn't show his surprise or worry, he just kissed her forehead and nodded in reassurance. Gwen felt him transferring his strength to her and she didn't overthink it, she simply gritted her teeth and pushed as hard as she could. Another wail filled the air and Gwen didn't hesitate to push out the placenta as soon as the cord was cut. She fell back exhausted against Gwaine and passed out before she could even hear the gender of the second baby.
When Gwen finally did wake up again, she was slowly brought back to awareness. Her mouth felt like wool was inside of it and her head felt light. She couldn't remember where she was until the events came rushing back to her. She gave birth... to twins. She slowly cracked her eyes open and noted that it was nighttime. It was midday when she gave birth. She looked around the room and noted that it was cleaned and she was wearing different clothing with a robe. The maids must've cleaned up and changed her clothes. She looked further around, wanting to meet her children. She didn't even know she was pregnant with a second child or said child's gender.
"Gwaine?" She called, propping up on her elbows.
"Not quite." She heard her husband say. She looked to her left where Arthur turned away from the window holding two bundles in each arm.
"Imagine my surprise when I came home to find out that you'd already given birth to not one but two babies with Gwaine's help." Arthur commented walking over to her with a joking edge but also some disappointment.
"I know you wanted to be here." Gwen said sitting up all the way, despite the stinging pain between her legs.
"Gwaine was very good with me. He really did give me the strength I needed to do... this." She said gesturing around the room. She smiled down at the children as Arthur sat on the edge of the bed.
"I passed out, I don't even know what the second baby is." Gwen commented, holding her arms out for a child.
"She..." Arthur said, holding out their daughter to Guinevere.
"... is beautiful and clever. Gaius says she was probably hiding behind her brother which is why they didn't realize it was twins and why she's smaller. She got less nutrients and food and such but she's healthy." Gwen took their daughter in her arms and studied both children. The girl was smaller than the boy for obvious reasons. They both had curly wisps of dark-hair with Arthur's blue eyes peering up at their parents. They had a light dusting of freckles across their small button noses. Their daughter opened her tiny mouth emitting a big yawn. Gwen giggled at that while looking at their son whose tanned hand gripped Arthur's finger.
"What about names? We said we'd name our son Amhar." Arthur said. Gwen looked at Arthur and their son indecisively before making her decision.
"I think we should name him Gwaine." Arthur's head snapped up in disbelief.
"Excuse me?"
"Our son: we should name him Gwaine."
"Why?"
"Because I wouldn't have been able to do it without him. I was refusing to push because you weren't here and Gwaine came and supported me and got me through it. He reassured me. If not for him, me and our children might have died and it would've been my fault."
"Gwen—"
"I want to do this. Please." Arthur stared at Gwen before sighing and looking down at their daughter.
"We could use the female version of Amhar, Amhara, for our daughter and our son could be... little Gwaine Pendragon." Arthur compromised. Gwen looked at him happily before leaning over to kiss him. They were still kissing when they heard exclamations of disgust.
"Ugh."
"Nasty."
"There are children present."
Arthur and Gwen pulled away from each other laughing. They looked over to see Merlin, Percival, Leon, Gwaine and Elyan standing by the door with ridiculous grins on their faces.
"Can we come in?" Merlin asked, bouncing around excitedly like a rabbit. Gwen laughed as Arthur bid them entry and Merlin practically materialized beside the bed and peered into the children's faces.
"Hi." Merlin said in an awestruck voice staring at the twins with wide, innocent, curious eyes that made him look more childlike than anything else. It warmed Gwen up, but annoyed Arthur.
"Give them room to breathe, Merlin." Merlin rolled his eyes but backed up. Elyan peered at them curiously as well.
"What's their names?"
"This is Amhara Pendragon..." Gwen said indicating their daughter.
"And this is Gwaine Pendragon." Arthur finished, indicating their son.
All the other men looked surprised at that, none more than Gwaine.
"Gwen's choice, not mine." Arthur explained, the men looked to Gwen now.
"You sure you want to do that? It's not too late to change to a different name."
"You helped me more than you could ever comprehend, Gwaine. I want my son to know that. You really were my hero today and I won't regret this decision at all." Gwen reassured.
"In that case you have no idea the things I'll teach you, little man." Gwaine said towards little Gwaine.
"The hell you will. You're not going to be alone with my children for one second." Arthur commented. Gwaine looked indignant whilst the other men and Gwen laughed. She felt more content than ever being locked away from the world with her children, her husband, her best friends and her hero.