A/N: It's been a long week. Hope you guys are doing well. Thanks for the reads, reviews, favorites, and follows! This story has reached 100 reviews! Thanks for all the feedback! Now, it's time for the babies to come...

.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

Kanda was off the bed in a flash. While I struggled to get my heavily pregnant body into a seated position, he had gotten dressed and situated my wheelchair next to the bed. He helped me to my feet, but as I stood, one of the babies shifted lower inside me, causing me to lose my footing and collapse. Yuu caught me before my knees hit the ground, and he maneuvered me into the chair just in time for my next contraction to hit. I cried out, aware of nothing but the pain in my belly and the feeling of calm flowing from my husband's hand as I squeezed it.

When I returned to my senses, Kanda released my hand and kissed my forehead. "That one hurt, didn't it, Moyashi?"

His teasing was unamusing. "No shit, Bakanda. And they're only going to be getting worse from here on out. Do yourself a favor and hurt the doctors if they refuse to give me painkillers, ok?"

Yuu snorted as he started pushing my chair towards the door; it was only the knowledge that I was going to need all of my strength to give birth to my babies that silenced my pride and let him push me. "Your stubborn ass isn't ever going to ask for painkillers, so it's a moot point. Even if they offer the meds, you're going to refuse the help."

"Hey!" That was definitely an insult, and I wasn't going to take it lying down. Of course, my attempt to insult him back was interrupted by a contraction, and it didn't come out anywhere near as scathing as I had intended it to be. It was disappointing, but Yuu scoffed and acted insulted anyway, and I appreciated that he was acting like everything was normal, even if it did mean that he was throwing yet another insult back at me. Taking his insults was usually no big deal - after all, it was something I had done on a daily basis for years - but the jabs at my stubbornness and stupidity were hard to let go when I was also trying to recover from the increasingly intense pains in my belly.

My arrival at the infirmary was once again met with panic. It was getting annoying that these people weren't prepared for me to be in labor, yet they'd known for several months now that this day was coming, and it was even more irritating given the fact that I was overdue and they'd actually had more time than normal to get ready for this. The doctor was calmer than the nurses, but not by much, and I had to suffer through a half dozen more contractions before the head nurse finally arrived and took control of the situation.

They finally checked my progress, and I was incredibly disappointed to learn that, although my water had already broken, I was only four centimeters dilated. I still had quite a ways to go before the babies would be ready to come out of me. The thought of enduring several more hours of labor was terrifying. With how painful my contractions currently were compared to what they were like the day before when my labor started, I was going to be in complete agony by the time my body was ready to give birth.

Immediately after my next contraction ended, the head nurse began questioning me about my labor. "How far apart are your contractions?"

The question was embarrassing, mostly because I knew that it was something that I was supposed to have been keeping track of and I wasn't about to tell anyone that trying to time my contractions had nearly given me a panic attack. So I tried to blow it off. "I don't know. I've only been awake for like an hour. And I've had more important things to do than pay attention to the clock."

But the doctor did not give up so easily. "Allen. We told you when you came in yesterday that it was necessary for you to keep track of that."

His tone implied that he thought I was stupid, and while that was insulting, it was preferable to the truth, so I played along. "Timing my contractions was too hard, so I gave up."

That answer clearly upset the head nurse, but before she could start lecturing me, like she obviously wanted to, Kanda was cutting in. "Che. His contractions are just under seven minutes apart. They last for about forty-five seconds."

I wanted to ask how he knew that, but my next contraction took my breath away, and by the time I'd recovered enough to speak, which wasn't until after another contraction had wracked its way through my belly, the conversation had moved on to a different topic. I tried to figure out what was happening, but before I could, I'd had several more contractions and every single one of the doctors and nurses had left the room.

Yuu laughed as he sat beside me and brushed a hand through my hair. His fingers felt nice and cool against my overheated skin. "I asked them to give us some privacy. Someone will be back periodically to check your progress, but we should mostly be alone until it's time for the babies to come."

"Thanks." I was incredibly grateful for how well he knew me.

The next several hours passed slowly, but they were a lot less stressful without the medical staff trying to examine my every move. Yuu tried to keep me focused on lighthearted things to distract me, but my contractions steadily grew more intense, and it wasn't long at all before I was in so much pain that just remembering to breathe felt impossible. It definitely didn't help that the babies inside me were being incredibly active; when my belly wasn't contracting like a steel vice, it was being kicked and punched from the inside.

The doctors did, eventually, give me something for the pain, but it did a grand total of nothing. They blamed its ineffectiveness on my parasitic Innocence, but I knew that was bullshit; the pain meds had worked just fine back when I broke my ankle. The truth was that they didn't want to harm the babies by giving me something stronger, and there was going to be hell to pay for that later.

In the meantime, I was much too distracted by the announcement that I was fully dilated. It was finally time to start pushing.

But as relieving as that was to hear, it really meant that now was when the hard part started. My body may have changed a lot over the last nine months, but I was still a man, and the male pelvis wasn't designed for childbirth. I hadn't worried about that prior to this point, but then, I also hadn't thought that the contractions would hurt as badly as everyone said, and I was dead wrong about that, so this was going to suck.

I did my best to bear down with the contractions, but I was already exhausted from the ridiculous number of hours that I'd been in labor so far, and it was really hard to focus on anything that wasn't the horrendous amount of pain I was in. The voices telling me to push and breathe were little more than a slight buzzing over my pulse roaring in my ears. My only anchor was the calm strength that flowed off my husband's hand from where it was entwined with mine.

It didn't feel like I was making any progress at all, but that thought was proven wrong when the first baby's head started to crown.

I didn't think it was possible for the pain to get any worse, but it definitely had. I felt like I was about to rip open as the baby's head forced the opening of my birth canal to stretch even further. This truly was the worst pain I had ever experienced. "I don't know that I can do this."

The words were met with laughter, but not from anyone in the room. One of the nurses was saying something that was meant to be encouraging, and while everyone else looked somewhat amused, no one was actually voicing that amusement. Even Kanda was silent. No, the laughter was coming from inside my head. And given the dream I'd had last night, that could only mean that it was Crowned Clown who was laughing at me.

The laughter let up when he noticed that I was aware of him, and that was when he spoke to me. "Don't be stupid, Allen. Of course you can do this. You've survived far worse things than this. This pain is nothing compared to what you felt back when the Fourteenth Noah was trying to take over. Stop being overdramatic."

I was not amused by his attempt to make me feel better, though I did, slightly, appreciate the distraction from the pain I was in. "That is not helping, Crowned Clown."

My next contraction told me that I should let the conversation die there so that I could return my focus to trying to give birth, but my curiosity won out. It was just too strange that I could actually hear Crowned Clown's voice outside of my dreams. "And since when can you talk like that anyway?"

The question was met with a derisive snort. "Since always. You just couldn't hear me before today."

I was less than thrilled to learn that this was because of my new level of synchronization. "Great. So now I get your snide, snarky voice in my head all the time, telling me what to do."

Crowned Clown let out a weary sigh. "Don't be like that, Allen. It's not like we're connected twenty-four seven. You can only hear me when I want you to hear me, and I'm not going to be bossing you around. Oh, and for the record, I don't want to boss you around either. You're doing perfectly fine on your own."

"I don't believe you."

He snorted again. "Tough. Now, stop arguing with me and focus. Your first child is about to be born, and you don't want to miss it."

The strongest contraction yet hit me immediately after those words. I pushed as hard as I could with how exhausted I was, and as the pain reached its peak, the baby inside me moved, filling me with a sense of relief as she slipped out of me. That relief was short lived though. Something even wider than my baby's head was stopping her from coming all the way out of me, and it hurt worse than her head had.

Yet, as I prepared myself to push out the baby's shoulders, the head nurse was suddenly shouting at me. "Allen! Stop!"

The fear in her voice caught my attention immediately. Something was very wrong. I looked down as best I could to try to see what was happening, but I couldn't see much around my large belly. The head nurse was focused on whatever was happening between my spread legs, but she still took the time to explain it to me. "Don't push for a bit. The umbilical cord is wrapped around her neck. If you keep going, she'll strangle."

Horror completely overwhelmed the pain I was in. My precious daughter was moments away from dying while she was still inside me. I didn't know what to do or how I was supposed to help her, and my growing panic was not helped by the contractions that continued to assault my body.

It felt like hours passed before the head nurse spoke again, but I knew that only a minute or two had passed. "Alright, Allen, I've got her untangled. You can start pushing again."

I wanted to question her and make sure that my baby really was okay, but my next contraction hit hard and the urge to push was overwhelming after having to hold it back. Just a few seconds later, and it was all over. The baby was no longer inside me.

I collapsed back against the mattress, completely exhausted and filled with relief, but then I recalled what had just happened. My worry for my newborn daughter spiked higher as I wondered if she was even still alive, and I almost felt like crying. Before I could catch my breath enough to speak, the sound of a baby wailing filled the air.

It was easily the most beautiful sound that I had ever heard. My baby was alive.

Filled with relief, my tears finally fell, and they only got stronger when one of the nurses placed my newborn daughter on my chest. The crying baby immediately fell silent, and I marveled at the sight of my beautiful baby girl. She was red and splotchy, but she was also perfect and precious, but most importantly, she was finally in my arms. How could something that tiny have caused me so much pain?

The moment was shot completely to hell when my belly suddenly contracted once more.

I swore at the pain that suddenly seized my tired body, but the feeling of something moving into my birth canal that followed the contraction just made me feel stupid. I had been carrying twins. There was a second baby in my womb. I was only halfway done.

The contraction made everyone in the room snap back to attention. The medical staff stopped watching me and went back to their tasks, one of which was apparently taking the baby away from me, which did nothing to help the emotional turmoil I was feeling. Yuu's hand, which had been gently tracing our daughter's skin, returned to mine and gave it a reassuring squeeze; he was still at my side and was going to stay there. And the head nurse was moving my limp legs back into the position they'd been in for giving birth.

I braced myself for the next contraction, but it didn't come, at least, not as quickly as they'd been coming when I birthed the last baby. Several minutes passed before the pain wracked through my middle again.

When the contraction was over, the head nurse let my legs fall back to the mattress. She smiled gently at me as she adjusted the sheet that was draped over my lower body. "Allen, try to rest for as long as you can. Your water hasn't broken yet, and your contractions are still pretty far apart. It looks like your second daughter is going to take her time coming out of you."

I was going to question her, but that was when the baby was placed back into my arms, and I got distracted. My daughter had been cleaned up and wrapped in a simple white blanket, and she looked even more beautiful now that she was no longer covered with blood. That tiny little baby was gorgeous. And she was mine.

Over an hour passed while I fawned over my first baby and waited for the second one to finish getting ready to be born. My contractions got increasingly worse, but the baby in my arms was a great distraction from the pain. She was also a reminder that I really could do this; it may hurt like hell, but I was going to deliver my second child.

By the time my body was ready to start pushing again, I was even more exhausted than I was the first time around. It was a struggle just to stay conscious; the pain was literally the only thing keeping me awake. That and the fear that my second daughter would also almost be strangled by her umbilical cord.

The first baby was taken from me so that I could focus on pushing out the second one, and it was a huge relief that, unlike her sister, she was not tangled up in her umbilical cord.

Unfortunately, just moments after she finally slipped completely out of me, I lost my battle with consciousness. I heard the sound of my newborn baby crying, and then there was nothing but black.