Yay! Birth chapter! :)
There was a MAJOR mistake in this chapter which has been pointed out to me and in which I have promptly fixed ;)
The pain was intense.
Gabrielle had never in her short life experienced anything like it and she never wanted to again. She screamed with all her might as the pain overcame her again; drowning her mind with nothing but pain, and her hands squeezed and grabbed at the hands of her Ladies until her knuckles grew white. Two of her Ladies, Eveline and Melitta clung to her hands as she sobbed and screamed with the rising and falling of the pain.
Eveline stroked her mistress's forehead with a cool cloth as Melitta whispered encouragement and soothing words to her. Jon himself paced worriedly outside the bedchamber with his father and Robb at his side, who spoke soothing words to him the entire time. He had got an ear-full of nagging from Maharet earlier to stay outside the room when he begged to be in there with her when the baby came. Maharet argued that the birth was woman's work, a place where a man was not welcomed until the babe was finally born, and Jon found that he could not disagree with the midwife, especially with one who was spitting hellfire and brimstone because her patient had been in birth for a day now with no crowning of the baby.
"I cannot . . . I cannot do this . . ." Gabrielle shook her head and looked to her Maharet kneeling by the foot of the bed. She was tired . . . so tired. She had been in labor for a day now, with no sign from the baby that told them that it was soon to be bored. She was exhausted and tired of the pain.
Maharet smiled, merely smiled at her mistress as Gabrielle held fast to Eveline and Melitta's hands. "You must hold on, my Lady! Your child depends on you most in this moment, Gabrielle!" She did not need to speak any more. Gabrielle's child had become her life in those short nine months during which she carried him, and she would die for him, this she was completely sure of.
The sun had finally begun to set on the second day as a second, tinier scream came from the bedchamber. Jon stopped his pacing and looked to the door, staring at it for a few moments with an anxious look to the eye. The scream came again and tears burst to his eyes as he beamed.
"I am a father! I'm finally a father!"
Ned grinned broadly and embraced his son. The pair rejoiced with Robb joining them a few minutes later, the two men grinning and congratulating Jon after every other word that came out of their mouth.
Within the room, Gabrielle breathed in deeply and looked to Maharet as she held her child, cleaning him of the unneeded filth from the birth. She finished with the procedure and gently wrapped him in a soft blanket before she brought the child to Gabrielle. She placed the child gently in its mother's arms and smiled kindly at her mistress.
"You indeed have a son, my Lady Snow." She smiled at her as Melitta and Eveline immediately began fawning over the newborn baby boy. Gabrielle could only cry as she looked into her baby son's now calm face, which was now so content that he was in her arms. She then looked to the beaming Maharet who commented on how his eyes were as blue as the sky.
"Can you go get Jon, Maharet?" Maharet smiled at her and nodded before she went out to the presence chamber, ushering him in like a clucking mother hen, Ned and Robb trailing in behind Maharet. Jon approached the bed slowly, his eyes upon Gabrielle and the swaddle of blankets struggling in her arms, begging for attention from its mother. As he neared the bed, Gabrielle gently pushed his son into his arms, where she smiled weakly.
"He is yours completely, Jon . . ." She looked to him and saw a tear finally fall down his cheek as he looked into his son's face. He shook his head in wonderment before Jon looked into Gabrielle's eyes and then nodded his head, a joyful, adoring look replacing the look of wonderment. "You have done well, my love." He told her quietly as he pressed a tender kiss to her forehead. He placed their son back into her arms, a smile still on his face.
"Come Jon, we'll take you down for a drink! We'll both rejoice in the good birth of your son and in the good health of Gabrielle! Hell, the whole of Winterfell will rejoice!" Ned's voice carried loudly around the room as he wrapped an arm around Jon's shoulders, Robb smiling tightly from over by the door. The Ladies couldn't help but giggle at the excitement of their Lord, although they could see that Jon and Gabrielle were merely content to just be together in their son's presence. Jon smiled an apologetic smile and shook his head.
"Sorry da, but can I stay with Gabrielle?" Ned nodded understandably as he clapped him on the back.
"Of course you can, Jon! I'll save you a pint, and I expect that baby to be in my arms tomorrow morning so I can show him off to the court!" Gabrielle smiled indulgently and nodded.
"Of course, Ned, I would expect nothing different!" She assured him, and Ned smiled kindly and nodded as he bowed to them. He then put a hand on Robb's shoulder, where he swept him from the room, the door shutting closed behind him.
"He is a very beautiful child, Gabrielle." Jon spoke when his father and half-brother left the room, leaving them relatively alone. He sat at her side, still gazing into his son's face and Gabrielle turned her face to smile up at her husband. Actually, beamed was more like it.
"He is, is he not, Jon? Look at those blue eyes! He has my father's eyes, and that hair!" She sighed then in contentment. There had never been more love in her heart then in those moments, and she could tell Jon felt the same. Those long nine months of morning sickness, back pain and sore joints had been more than worth it.
Melitta and Eveline, who it was now their job to start cleaning up the room, noticed it first. Melitta turned her head to look at Gabrielle's stomach, her delicate brows immediately knitting together in confusion. Eveline, who had clean white sheets in her arms, fallowed her fellow Lady's gaze down to Gabrielle's stomach, which had still not went down to its normal size after the birth.
"Why is her stomach not down?" Melitta asked Eveline quietly. "Should her stomach not be down? She has had the baby . . ."
Eveline looked at her friend and fellow Lady for a moment, their brows knitted in confusion before one of dawning recognition appeared on Eveline's. She dropped the sheets on the floor and ran over to Maharet, who was busy filling the nearby basin with the warm water that they would use to clean Gabrielle when they were ready, and Eveline pulled the aging woman back over to Gabrielle.
"There is another baby! Gabrielle, Jon, Maharet, there is another baby!"
Gabrielle and Jon looked at her in confusion for a moment before Gabrielle suddenly squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth to keep from screaming out as even more contractions came. Maharet quickly shoved the pitcher of warm water into Eveline's hands and Gabrielle latched onto Jon's hand and screamed as Maharet skillfully guided the second crying baby out of the mother's womb.
Jon smoothed back his wife's brow and kissed her on the forehead when the baby immediately started crying again. Maharet beamed for a second time as she held up another crying, fiercely struggling baby. Gabrielle had tears in her eyes and held out her arms whilst Jon looked stunned. Sure, they had joked about her having twins when they would play around with baby names, but never, in a million years, would Jon actually believe that she would have them!
Maharet carefully cleaned the second baby before handing it off to the mother. Jon took ahold of his son and rocked him gently as he leaned back down to gaze at his second child. The child's eyes were blue too, and its hair was as black as its parents' and brother's. They were identical twins.
"Congratulations, Lady Gabrielle . . . you have indeed delivered your husband twins! You have a beautiful little girl and a handsome baby boy." Jon and Gabrielle laughed then and couldn't stop laughing, long after their son and daughter had moved into a restless, fitful sleep after feeding. They had them . . . their Lark and Nathaniel, two beautiful and strong names for their children that seemed a testament towards anyone who dared to question the paternity of Jon's children.
"I hear that the Lady Snow has delivered a set of twins . . . a boy and a girl, is this true?" Ned Stark nodded and glanced at his wife, who was sitting by the fire doing needlepoint.
"Yes, fraternall twins although they look remarkably alike. They are beautiful, Catelyn . . . simply beautiful. Both of them have eyes as blue as the ocean and with hair as black as midnight." Catelyn sighed.
"Every baby is born with blue eyes, Ned, you know that." Ned sighed and pursed his lips as he gazed pointedly at his wife.
"When is this going to end?" He demanded of her shortly and Catelyn turned her eyes onto her husband, a look on innocence on her face.
"When is what going to end, Ned?" He laughed a little and glanced away before turning his eyes back onto her.
"This vendetta you have against him! The vendetta you have acquired for Gabrielle and the vendetta I know you will acquire for Nathaniel and Lark. When is this going to end?" Catelyn sighed as she went back to her needlepoint.
"I simply have no idea what you are talking about, Ned." Ned groaned loudly as he stood and moved over to his desk, where slammed his fist on the face. Catelyn jumped at the rare show of irritation coming from her husband and gazed at him, her eyes slightly wide with fear as he rounded on her.
"I demand to know what game you are playing with them, Catelyn! Jon is happy, why can you not allow him to be!" He demanded of her, and Catelyn pursed her lips and gazed at him angrily.
"You want to know why, Ned? Here's why . . . you spend more time with that bastard son of Whylla's, than you do with your own, legitimate children. I am getting sick of it Ned! What did Whylla have that I did – do – not!" Ned pursed his lips as well as he held Catelyn's steely gaze. "Were you just sowing your wild oats, which I can fully understand, or was there something more between you two? Was there something else that I could not perceive?" Ned shook his head as he turned back to his desk, his back towards her so that she could not see his hand slipping into his pocket to clutch at the golden cameo of Whylla in his pocket.
"There was a reason, Catelyn . . . a reason that for the life of you, you will never understand nor learn of. The only one I will ever tell, is Jon, and I will tell him when he is ready." Catelyn scoffed.
"Tell him what? That his mother was a whore?" Ned gritted his teeth.
"Whylla was not a whore, Catelyn, you know that well!"
"Then what was she, Ned? She had to be something in order to keep you from my bed for a year!" Catelyn was getting angry now, which reflected clearly in her voice tone. Ned shook his head.
"For the love of the Gods, Catelyn, I love you, and Whylla is in my past. Why can't you leave it there!" Catelyn sighed.
"Because every day that, that boy lives and breathes and breeds, is another voice in my head telling me that I will never be free of Whylla . . . that our marriage will never be free of her, and as long as her memory lives on within you, you will never love me as you have once loved her. As you still love her."
