[Note: Warning: traumatic flashbacks.]

-begin chapter-

Kristoff rode out on Sven with Karl to a favorite spot in the woods. Karl loved finding new roots to crawl through and rocks to jump off. Kristoff knew the spot well, and knew it was perfectly safe, and more importantly, away from well meaning people watching and worrying that the child was climbing too high, or that he shouldn't be running around without clothes.

He had packed a few of the pastries from breakfast, and some bread, and they had a nice light lunch. After that, they washed up a bit in the nearby stream, and packed and dressed to return home. They were in no hurry.

"You need to see your daughter."

"I can't leave Anna, not yet."

"I'll stay with her in here, don't worry. She's sleeping. Your daughter has been waiting outside that door for entirely too long."

He slowed down at the edge of the woods looking over the city while a messenger and one of the council members rode past, not noticing them.

"Papa! Do you want to see the babies? Let's go see the babies! Come on!"

She grabbed his hand. He had no choice, and it wasn't their fault. He needed to see them, he knew that.

By the time Kristoff and Sven returned to town, little Karl had fallen asleep. Kristoff carried him carefully up to the nursery, and gave a silent cheer to himself when the boy stayed asleep after being set down in his crib. He went back to the stables to check on how Sven was doing, and the twins and Olaf had decided to take the other reindeer out to the garden to play.

He decided to come along, since Sven was going with them anyway. They were attempting a game of deathball, which was rather difficult when most of the players lacked hands for throwing or holding a bat. Sofia soon ran outside and joined them, as she enjoyed playing ball much more than whatever they had been playing the day before. At some point after having lunch, Inga came outside and insisted on joining in, but was bothered by not having the correct number of players per team. This led to some arguments with her brothers. Kristoff had been pitching for them, and decided to take a break sitting by a nearby tree.

"Where's Frederick, Papa? We could really use him to even out the teams," Inga shouted across the field in his general direction.

"He went out riding with that new guy from Corona," Anton called back, "and who knows how far they were going, he didn't say."

"Oh, right! Papa!" Peder yelled, "We were supposed to tell you that if you got back! Fred went out with what's his name?"

"Lars," Inga said.

Then they got back into discussing whether they had enough players, and whether they needed different pitchers for each team, or whether their father could pitch for both sides, and whether they should wait and see if Frederick got back soon, and if maybe that Lars person would know how to play. Sofia began climbing one of the other trees.

Kristoff gradually tuned it all out, and Sven came and sat down beside him. The game would happen or it wouldn't. They could figure that out. The weather was too nice to be inside, even if he felt guilty about it. He started to doze off. He couldn't relax, even when he was asleep, knowing that the next child could come any day.

The first two births, aside from the usual messy, hectic affairs, had gone easily. They were both fairly relaxed the third time. They had the usual midwife and her assistants to check in on things, and the baby nurse was ready to switch her attention from two-year-old Freddie to the new baby, who was now old enough for Nanny to take him around with his older sister and keep them out of the way when the time came.

Anna had written Elsa just that morning that, perhaps, in a few weeks would be a good time to visit, but there was no rush. She had heard that subsequent children sometimes arrived faster, but she wasn't expecting that afternoon. The midwife was sent for, and arrived with her retinue in short order. She was calm; the queen had two children already from two easy births. It wasn't a fast birth, but a few hours later, the happy parents were sitting together adoring the newborn. The assistants were helping clean up, trying not to get in the way. The midwife was starting to get impatient for the afterbirth. Anna let out a pained cry.

Kristoff called over the nurse and handed her the baby. Anna's face was distressed and confused. It wasn't supposed to feel like this now. The midwife went in for an inspection.

"There's another one!" She exclaimed, trying to feel and see more.

"What?" They said together. But the midwife didn't have time for a reply.

"Breech! Girls, be ready! Ingrid, you've never seen one before, just follow my instructions!"

Kristoff could see Anna in more distress. He tried to focus on her face, but her pain plus the flurry of activity caused him to look over. He immediately regretted it. He was used to some blood, but not this much. He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to her, holding her through her cries of pain. He couldn't do anything else.

He wasn't sure if it was five minutes or five hours. The voices of the midwives faded into the background. The baby nurse had long since taken the first of the twins to the nursery. At some point, he heard a new cry over all the other noise. He looked up. The baby was small, but loud and angry. The baby nurse had returned at some point, saying the nanny was watching the other baby, and Gerda was watching over the older children. Was she talking to him? Anna was calm. Too calm. Her face was drained of any color, and her breathing was shallow. The doctor came in, asking the midwife details, and told her to continue what she was doing.

He must have fallen asleep at some point. Someone said they had found two wetnurses. They had never hired one before. He felt the sheets starting to move, and a maid's voice saying "excuse me, your highness" as he groggily sat up. Where was Anna? They were moving her.

"No!" He shouted.

"Please, your majesty, we need to change the sheets."

"What are you doing with her?"

"We're getting her into some clean clothes. You should do the same. She's very weak, but you need your rest, too. Just wash up and come back."

He washed his face. Someone had brought another set of pajamas. He changed into them. He turned around and walked back to the bed. The sheets were clean, and Anna was there, groggy and almost asleep again. She was pale and looked smaller than usual, except for the belly that still looked pregnant. He got on the bed next to her and gave a kiss on her forehead. He buried his face in her hair that was spread next to the pillow and fell asleep on top of the fresh sheets.

"Papa!" Inga shouted, "Frederick is back! Lars says he'll try playing, but we'll need you to pitch again."

Kristoff groaned a little as he stood up.

He pitched the ball to Inga, who was at bat. Peder and Sofia tried to catch the ball, but couldn't agree on which of them should run after the ball and who should guard the base. Inga had made it all the way to fourth base before Sofia had run over with the ball ready to tag her if she moved. Lars was next. He had no idea how to hold the bat, so Anton tried to demonstrate, and he started to figure it out his grip, but still never managed to hit the ball. Kristoff's first pitch had been the same as he'd thrown to Inga, but after that, he tried gently lobbing the ball the way he did for the younger children, but it didn't help, and Sven ended up catching all the balls in his mouth.

"I'm sorry, Lars," Fred called from the other side of the field, "I should have asked if you've played any games like this before!"

"I'll figure it out soon enough," Lars said, walking back to the end of the line.

Anton was next, and hit the ball easily. One of the reindeer caught it on a bounce, and Inga made it in to score a run before Anton stopped on second.

It was Inga's turn at bat once again, and this time she only bunted the ball and made it to first base. On his second time at bat, Lars hit the ball easily, and Frederick and Peder were battling the bushes along the wall looking for it while three runs were scored.

"It's not fair!" Sofia shouted, "we haven't even had a chance to score yet, and they're already ahead by four!"

She began to cry, and Kristoff discovered she had rejected lunch in the nursery, and hadn't eaten since breakfast, so they stopped the game again, and the older four began tossing the ball amongst themselves and Lars, helping him practice some more.

Kristoff took Sofia down to the kitchen and sat her on the table in the middle of the room while he grabbed a loaf of bread and sliced off two pieces, then found some meats and some lettuce for it.

She quickly ate it, and wanted another, which he got her.

"Are you ready to go back out now?"

"It's too hot, and I'm tired," she said, still a little grumpy, "can I see Mama?"

"Let's go check on her."

Anna was happy to see them. Olaf had come up to visit during the earlier break in the game, and he had gone off to find them again a few minutes earlier. Kristoff sat next to Anna on the bed, and Sofia squeezed between them to relay her version of the events of the morning.

"And then everyone else had lunch already!" Sofia concluded.

"Did nobody get you lunch?" Anna asked her.

"I wasn't hungry when Nanny served lunch. And I didn't want soup."

After a minute, Sofia hopped back off the bed.

"I think I'm going to go play with Marie. She always plays by my rules," she said as she ran toward the door, slamming it behind her.

They sat for a few minutes. Kristoff placed his hand on her belly to feel the baby kicking and turning. Somehow that never got old. Anna played with his hair.

"Was there anything in the game she didn't tell me about?" Anna asked, smiling and raising an eyebrow.

"They were arguing over rules, or players, or substitutions, or something... they can handle that. Well, obviously Sofia got upset, but that was really just not eating. It's fine."

"What's bothering you?" she pressed.

"Nothing new. It's getting so close now, you know I think about it."

"I've been fine every other time, and I know that doesn't change being afraid," she reminded him. She held her hand over his, but she looked out the window.

"You're still here, I know."