Sarah stood in stunned silence, taking in the sight of her sister in law's body lying there, on the bed Sarah and Jareth shared. The room was heavy with the scent of blood and death, and it made Sarah retch a little. Her womb tightened, and she could no longer ignore the fact she was in labour.

"Jareth, we need to go Above now. Please. The babies are going to be born tonight, I can't have them here." She begged him, pulling him away from his thoughts.

"Alright. Mother, we have to go. Sarah's in labour." He said slowly, knowing his mother was in a state of total shock. He walked over to her and touched her, and the older woman flinched. She looked up at him, and it was as though she couldn't see him at all.

"Mother?

"Your amulet." Arethusa said in a daze, removing it from Juturna's chest and handing it back to Jareth. "Don't forget it."

"Thank you." Jareth placed the chain over his head, letting it fall back to where it belonged. "Mother, let me take you home."

"No. I need to clean her, to get her ready for burial." His mother said, her voice distant and small. She was lost, confused, and he didn't want to leave her alone.

"And you can. I think you need Father here, he'll help you." Jareth said softly, trying not to look at Juturna's body. It was funny, he had been prepared to execute her, but seeing her here, like this, was something he couldn't even look at.

"I can do it." Arethusa snapped, and Jareth took her hands. She looked up at him guiltily. "Take her Above, waste no time. I need to see Alaric, to hold him in my arms."

"Of course. Mother, she did a good thing before she died. You did a good thing." Jareth said softly, kneeling beside her. His mother pressed a kiss to his cheek, holding him close to her for a few seconds. Jareth returned the hug, grateful that his mother had helped Juturna to do the right thing in her last moments of living.

"Go." Arethusa could hardly speak, tears began to fall from her eyes once more. "You have my blessings. May Mother Nature guide you, Sarah, and keep you."

"Thank you, Arethusa. Thank you for everything. Jareth, let's go through the mirror, please." She said, trying not to yell out as another contraction gripped her.

"Goodbye Mother." Jareth said, standing up and touching his mother on the shoulder. She nodded, once again staring at Juturna's body. Jareth felt awful for leaving her, and summoned a crystal and made it vanish again - sending it to his father.

He took Sarah's hand and walked her to the mirror, waving a hand. The glass vanished, and the pair stepped through with one last look at Arethusa, now weeping over her daughter's body.

Standing in their London bedroom, which was dark and cold, Sarah let out a shaky breath. Another contraction hit her; they were becoming more frequent, and Sarah wondered if she was meant to time them. She hadn't even been to a birthing class yet.

"I need to shower." She said when the pain had passed. "I'm covered in blood. So are you."

Jareth waved a hand and he was clean. He went to do the same for her, and she shook her head.

"No, let me shower. I'll be really fast, but I just need a minute, okay? Your sister just died in front of us." She explained, her voice shaking, and Jareth held her hand.

"Sarah, I know it was an awful thing to see, but the babies could still be in trouble, it's not as if her energy was particularly strong when she cut the bond." He said; for all they knew, the babies could already have died - they would be so much more vulnerable than an adult.

"Alright." Sarah said reluctantly, and Jareth waved a hand. The blood vanished. "I'll change into something clean and then we can go."

"You're stalling, precious." Jareth said quietly. "I know you're scared, but not going to the hospital won't change anything."

"I know. I know it won't." She quickly changed into a baggy shirt and sweatpants. "I don't even have a hospital bag ready."

"Just grab an empty bag to keep up appearances, anything you need I can get for you. We need to go. It will be okay, I won't leave your side for a second." He told her solemnly, and she looked up at him with scared eyes.

"You promise?" She asked him quietly, and he leaned down and kissed her gently, stroking her face.

"I promise. Come on darling, let's go get our babies."

"Hello Sarah, I'll be your midwife for tonight. My name's Amanda." A short blonde woman wearing a blue uniform told them. She looked friendly enough, and Jareth just hoped she would give them good news.

"Hi." Sarah said, sitting up in the hospital bed. She shifted uncomfortably, her back aching. She had already been examined once, and it had been determined that she was definitely in labour and given a hospital gown to change into. She hoped that meant there wouldn't be long to go; fear filled her, and she wouldn't believe her babies were safe until they were in her arms.

"So, according to what you told us, you've had some heavy bleeding tonight and your waters broke around an hour ago, is that correct?"

"Yeah, that's right. And the contractions are every five minutes or so and they last about a minute each time." Sarah said in a hurry, just wanting to hear the sound of her babies' hearts beating.

"Right." Amanda said, looking down at her notes. "We're going to check babies' heartbeats first, just to make sure that bleeding isn't anything to worry about. We'll hook you up to a few monitors too, and we'll see how everything's going. Does that sound alright?"

"Yes, fine." Sarah said, wishing English doctors would just do things instead of telling you exactly what they had planned first. "I haven't felt the babies move for a few hours."

"Okay, well the heartbeat monitoring will give us a good picture of what's going on." Sarah waited impatiently as Amanda fixed sensors on her stomach.

Jareth had no idea at all what the technology was, and watched in anxious bemusement, just waiting to hear their heartbeats. When everything was finally in place, Amanda fiddled with a few things and suddenly the room was filled with the loud whirring sound that Sarah recognized as her babies' heartbeats.

"Oh thank God for that." Sarah said, her head falling back against the pillows in relief. Jareth squeezed her hand, and he smiled reassuringly at her. "Do they sound okay?"

"They're a little faster than we'd like." Amanda said, making notes. "We'll monitor you constantly, and we'll see how you go after a few contractions.

"But they're both alive right?" Sarah asked anxiously.

"Yes, they are."

"Thank you. Thank you, thank you." Sarah said to nobody in particular.

There was silence as the midwife hooked her up to blood pressure monitors and other things Sarah didn't really understand. When she was wired in, Amanda stepped back.

"I'll be back in a while, okay? Settle in, there's a little while to wait yet."

"Thank you." Jareth told the woman, who left the room. "How are you feeling, darling?"

"Like a lab rat." Sarah said, looking down at all the sensors stuck to her. "I can't get my head around everything."

"I know. There's time to absorb later, right now we need to focus on you. When the next contraction comes, I want you to use your magic to ease it, alright? You don't need to be in as much pain as you have been, Sarah."

"Okay. Am I allowed drugs?" She asked, feeling so tired she could hardly speak. "I want drugs."

"No. No drugs." Jareth said firmly. "They will just make you sick. Magic is more powerful than any drug, if you use it correctly. You're already in advanced labour and you can talk and move around; your magic is looking after you already, you just need to give it a little help."

"I wish I'd paid more attention to what Magred told me." Sarah sighed, and she squeezed Jareth's hand hard. "Another one's coming."

"Just breathe through it precious." He told her, watching as she screwed her face up with pain. "Keep breathing." He counted in his head, and watched as the equipment writing on the piece of paper beneath the monitor spiked. "Another deep breath." After twenty seconds, Sarah let out a gutteral, low pitched moan that lasted thirty seconds, and then it began to subside.

"One minute, five seconds." Jareth told her, and she looked at him through narrowed eyes.

"You were counting?" She asked, closing her eyes and wishing she could sleep. Th adrenalin she had felt in the Underground was wearing off now, and her body was beginning to feel exhausted by the mammoth task it was undertaking.

"I thought I'd make myself useful." Jareth shrugged, rubbing her back.

"Oh. Thanks." She shifted on the bed, rubbing the patch of her stomach that wasn't covered in medical paraphernalia. "I tried using my magic that time."

"How was it?"

"It didn't work. If you give me any more BS about breathing, I swear I will kick you in the nuts and tell you to breathe through that, alright?"

"Understood." Jareth said, crossing his legs unconsciously. "I was just trying to relax you, I'm sorry."

"I know you were, I appreciate it. I just want them here." She groaned. "I'm so tired."

"Sarah, you haven't been in labour very long. This could last for days." Jareth told her, pressing a kiss to her forehead. She moaned miserably.

"Days? No way. I'm getting them out as soon as I can, I need them where I can see them." Jareth stopped himself from laughing. "I'm serious, Jareth. I feel like I can't protect them inside me, I need them here."

"You've done a great job of keeping them safe, darling. Never think otherwise." Jareth told her firmly. It was him who had let her down, him who had the psychopath sister.

"They'll be okay now, won't they?" Sarah asked nervously. "They're alive, and Juturna isn't. She really did cut the thread didn't she?"

"Yes, darling. She did. Just don't think anymore."

"Are you sad?" Sarah asked, looking up at him with heavy lidded eyes.

"I don't know what I am. I'm angry, I'm confused, I'm concerned." Jareth admitted. "I hate to think what the weather's like in the Labyrinth right now."

"I hope we can take the children to see it one day." She sighed, her eyes closing again. She was trying to rest in between contractions, but talking to Jareth distracted and soothed her panicked mind.

"So do I, precious. We'll see." He didn't want to draw her into yet another conversation about where their children would live, what they would be able to do. Now wasn't the time for all that.

"Have you thought about any names yet?" Sarah asked. "I've looked in some baby name books."

"You have?" Jareth asked her, sitting down in the chair beside the bed. He stroked her hand gently. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I only started a couple days ago, it wasn't anything serious. I was going to talk to you about it tonight, but it all went a bit wrong. I saw one I liked for the girl though, it's stuck in my head." She told him, her voice sounding far away and dreamy.

"You did?" He asked her softly, stroking her hair fondly.

"Hermione."

"Hermione." He mulled the name over, wondering if it sounded familiar to him. "Like Helen of Troy's daughter?"

"I was thinking like the Hermione in Shakespeare. I always liked The Winter's Tale, back in my dramatic days." Sarah told him, remembering with a smile how she had practiced standing still like a statue for hours.

"I think it's a lovely name. And the boy?" Jareth asked, and Sarah looked up at him.

"Do you want to call him Jareth?" She asked him sincerely, and he shook his head.

"No, no he needs his own name." Jareth said firmly; once upon a time, he had been tempted to rename Toby after himself, but now it just seemed vain. His son needed his own identity, to be his own person.

"Hold on." Sarah said, gritting her teeth. The contraction gripped her, and though she tried to focus her magic, it wouldn't work. She screamed in pain, squeezing Jareth's hand so hard he felt a bone break in two.

"Oh fucking hell Sarah!" He howled, trying unsuccessfully to yank his hand from her grasp. Her strength was instinctive and uncontrolled, there was no restraint to hold her back.

Jareth swore so rarely that it sounded funny to her, and despite the pain she was in she started laughing hysterically. The contraction subsided after a minute or so, and she was still laughing.

"I'm glad you find the maiming of my hand so amusing, love." He grumbled, trying to heal it before his hand swelled to the size of a balloon.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry." She said, still laughing. "Are you alright?"

"Aside from the fact you quite literally broke my hand, yes, I'm alright. How was that one?"

"By the end I could hardly feel it. Laughter really is the best medicine." She said happily, and he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well, at least I could be of service to you. You let your magic do the work then, I could sense it. You should feel no pain at all if you do it properly, that's what Magred said anyway." Jareth told her, still rubbing at his hand.

"Okay. Okay, I'll concentrate on the next one I promise."

"Just try not to break anymore of my bones this time, alright? I know it amuses you but I'd like to be able to hold our children tonight."

Hours passed, and Sarah stopped talking. The contractions had stayed the same, but were becoming more and more intense. Her magic worked to a point, but she was unable to stop the pain entirely. She was in a trance, focused entirely on delivering their children. Jareth watched in awe; he had never seen a woman give birth, and the sheer determination of his wife astounded him.

As dawn began to break, something amazing happened.

His children were born.

The boy came first, purple and screaming. Jareth watched as they cleaned him, unable to believe that he had a son. He had a son that was crying and breathing and living.

"Is he okay?" Sarah panted, and he nodded wordlessly, any sound he tried to make getting lost. "Jareth!" She couldn't see him, her eyes screwed shut, and he cleared his throat and tried to speak.

"He's perfect. Utterly perfect."

"Good." She fell silent again, and as someone told her to push, Jareth watched as his daughter followed her brother into the world.

This time, there was no crying, only hushed conversation between the medical professionals in the room and Jareth felt fear grip his heart.

"Is she okay?" Sarah said, trying to sit up and look at her. "I can't hear her."

Jareth watched as the doctor rubbed at the baby with a towel, and he tried to make sure Sarah didn't look over there. He held her hand and tried to distract her, but she watched with fierce eyes at her baby girl.

"Some babies' lungs just need a little help to get going. Your babies are premature, their lungs aren't as strong as full term babies. It's going to be alright." The midwife hovering somewhere near Sarah's ankles explained in a cheery voice, but Jareth hardly heard her.

Finally, a reedy, angry cry filled the room, and Sarah sobbed with relief.

"You did it, darling. I am so, so proud of you." Jareth kissed the top of her head, not taking his eyes off the two babies being cleaned in the corner of the room. His children. Their children.

There was a lull for a while as they waited for the placenta to emerge, something Jareth didn't really want to know the details of. He was mesmerised by his children, but he wanted Sarah to hold them first, so allowed the doctors to take their time cleaning and swaddling them until she was ready. Sarah lay there in a daze, unable to speak or even really think. After a few minutes, she felt her mind begin to work again, and she smiled at Jareth happily.

"Can I hold them?" Sarah asked when everything was finished, an exhausted smile on her face. Jareth watched as the midwife pulled Sarah's gown down a little, exposing her shoulders and chest. After a moment, the boy, wrapped up in a bundle, was placed on her chest.

"Baby girl will be over in a minute, we're just measuring her."

"Our son." Sarah said, holding out a finger to her child. "Hello, buddy."

Jareth stood beside them, watching Sarah speak to their son. He stood there, stroking the little boy's damp hair fondly with one finger. His downy hair was almost white, just like his father's. His eyes were shut, his lips plump and pouty beneath a little button nose. He was perfection.

"Tomas."

"What?" Sarah said in confusion, smiling as the baby wrapped his hand around her finger.

"I want to call him Tomas." Jareth told her, looking at her. She looked exhausted, and he realised for the first time that her markings were hidden, but not with makeup - she had managed to create and maintain a glamour through the trauma of labour. She really was a remarkable woman.

"Tomas. I like that. Does it mean anything?" She asked, not taking her eyes off the baby.

"Twin."

"You want to call our son 'twin'?" Sarah frowned, and Jareth shrugged.

"I want to make sure he values his sister a lot more than I valued mine." He told her simply, running a finger delicately down his nose. "What do you think? If you don't like it, we don't have to use it."

"Tomas and Hermione." She said in a daze. "Tomas and Hermione. I like it."

"And here's baby girl." The doctor said, carrying the second baby and placing her on Sarah's chest next to her brother.

"Hermione." Sarah said, testing the name out. She looked at her daughter's face, so similar to her brother's. She was smaller than he was, a delicate little thing with a smattering of dark brown hair on her head, though not nearly as much as her brother had. She moved a little, her arms seeming as fragile as twigs.

"Hello my darlings." Jareth whispered, unable to believe these two tiny things would depend on him and Sarah for their very survival. "This is your mummy."

"And this is your daddy." Sarah smiled. She ran her finger down Hermione's face, and gasped. She leaned over to her husband, and whispered in his ear. "Jareth, feel near her eye. Careful."

Jareth frowned at her, and she nodded encouragingly. He did as he was told, and just by her eyebrow he could feel a very definite line. He looked down at his daughter, and traced it again. It was a triangular line, going from by her eyebrow, up to near her forehead, and back down to the corner of her eye.

"Check Tomas." Sarah commanded him under her breath, shifting a little so the boy was easier to access. Jareth did the same, and almost wept when he felt the same.

"Their markings have started to grow." He whispered in disbelief, not wanting anyone else to hear. "They're going to have markings."

"They could be from before Juturna cast the spell." Sarah said, trying not to get her hopes up.

"We'll see soon enough."

A/N: So the babies have been born! I got some messages and stuff asking if I would call one of the children "Bowie"..I didn't think that would fit, but I had already planned some David Bowie themed names for them. I hope you like them.

Please review!