Chapter Twenty-Four

Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin.

Hayden's dogs were prowling around the ground floor and barking up a storm when Gwaine burst through the front door. "Elen! Where are you?"

He must've showed up at the exact wrong time, because the noise his sister made from her bedroom upstairs was not recognizable as words.

She was on her feet, but clinging onto the baseboard of her bed when he got to her. "It took so much longer to get to this point with the twins!"

"Is that a bad or good thing?" Gwaine demanded as he rushed to her side. "Aren't you early or something?"

"Yes? No? Maybe? I don't know and I do not care!" Elen groaned and gripped his arm with bruising force. "I forgot how much this hurt."

"Are you sure no one else is available to...help?"

"You think you're my first choice for a midwife? Of course no one else is available! That I know of! Damn it!" Her fingers dug into his arm again. "I wish Mum were here."

Me, too. "Okay, sis," he said, trying very hard not to show his internal panic. "I wasn't allowed in the room when Caldwell and Holly were born. I have no idea what to do. Just tell me how to help and I will. Though I'm pretty sure you'll be doing most of the work, yeah?"

"You got that last bit right, you dolt." But he didn't miss the relief on her face. "Okay, first get some of the bedding off this bed. No need to ruin it all...Then you have to…"

Approximately two hours later, the sky outside was dark and the blowing sleet had turned into more gentle snow. And Elen was still in labor.

She says nothing seems to be wrong. That isn't helping.

The one time Gwaine had attempted to reach out telepathically to Merlin...mostly with the intent of locating Gaius...he felt like he'd run headlong into a wall. He took that to mean that the warlock was busy. Well, he's probably fighting a battle. Makes sense. Directly reaching out to Gaius didn't work, either; whether that was due to something on the physician's end or Gwaine's he couldn't tell.

His sister alternated between loudly cursing during contractions and very calmly explaining his expected role in this situation in between. Mostly his role involved letting her almost break all his fingers.

Mostly.

"Wait, you want me to catch it when it pops out of you?"

"I would prefer if you grabbed it before it flies through the air, but yes, Gwaine! Just because you clearly suffered brain damage at birth does not mean your niece or nephew needs to!"

Before he could respond, he heard the front door slam open and the dogs' barking change tone. Could that be…"Hello?!"

"Gwaine!" Hayden's voice sounded from the base of the stairs. "We defeated the wyverns, but I had a feeling...Where's Elen?"

"Having your damn baby, that's where I am!" Elen shrieked, then dissolved into curses again.

Hayden made it up the staircase in record time. As he appeared in the doorway, Gwaine turned to him and said, "Better come hold her hand so I can grab your kid as it comes out of a part of my sister that I never wanted to see."

Fortunately, with his focus on doing just that, he didn't get distracted by the blazing way Elen looked at Hayden as she mustered herself for a final push, or the way Hayden whispered tearful praise to Elen as their baby released her first lungful of air in a loud wail.

Thankfully he was too exhausted and overwhelmed to let it hurt.

Gwaine let Hayden get both mother and child sorted, stopping only briefly to clean up before heading back out into the icy weather. Got to figure out what happened with the battle, after all…and maybe find someone from medical to check Elen and baby out...

Hertha, Mary, and Mary's kids arrived as he was leaving, and it didn't take long for him to run into Everard and Elwin, both uninjured but fatigued from the fight. "Edwin's dead," Everard explained. "Merlin and Gaius got him."

After confirmation that they had, in fact, won, Gwaine found his way to wherever he could be useful in post-battle cleanup, only returning home just after sunrise and falling into an exhausted slumber. Several hours later, Harlada arrived and woke him up to tell him that he was wanted at Arthur's house for a meeting.

He went, finding Arthur, Gwen, Elyan...arm in a sling but looking well enough...Lancelot, Leon, Gaius, Morgana, and Merlin waiting. All looked just as exhausted as he felt, yet triumphant. As soon as he had received a round of congratulations and inquires into the welfare of his sister and niece, Merlin asked him excitedly, "Did you hear how we defeated Edwin?"

Gwaine had not, but soon did. It was a glorious tale, at least as told by Merlin with dramatic metaphors and voice imitations. Gaius just sat and listened with a well-deserved smug expression.

While Arthur and his warriors had gone up against Edwin's forces in Menai Bridge, Merlin had confronted Edwin. Despite going up against the mighty power of Emrys, the sorcerer had had more than a few tricks up his sleeve. One of his more explosive spells sent Merlin reeling long enough for Edwin to slip away, to escape or cause havoc among Arthur's knights or both.

Or so he had apparently planned. Unbeknownst to anyone, Gaius had found his way to the battle site and launched his own attack involving mostly extra archaic spells that weren't necessarily invented for direct attacks.

He succeeded regardless. Merlin hadn't even needed to finish Edwin off.

"Best of all, we caught a couple of his minions...We know where Nimueh is now!" Arthur dragged a hand through his hair, making it stand on end. That and his delighted grin made made him look years younger. "The madwoman's holed herself up near what remains of my castle. Making good use of camouflage spells and the powers of some of the artifacts she got there, Merlin…"

"Oh, hush, you." Gwen lightly smacked his shoulder as Merlin rolled his eyes and grumbled something about Nimueh abandoning her modus operandi of using islands. "Point is, we can plan now. The sooner the better."

"We can't wait out the winter," Leon said.

Lancelot nodded. "No, she'll just take that time to move and hide again."

A chorus of agreement went around the room, excitement palatable in the air.

Maybe this time we'll actually end this.

Hours of discussion and planning with various leaders later, Gwaine arrived home to a mostly dark and quiet house. Almost everyone had gone to bed, and he wanted nothing more than to do the same.

He did stop by Elen and Hayden's room to find them both awake, sitting in bed and murmuring over their baby. They looked pleased to see him. "Don't know if you heard, but we named her Branwen," Hayden said, rocking the gurgling newborn in his arms.

"That's a lovely name." Gwaine went over to take a closer look, trying to look at his niece without seeing Caldwell or Holly right after they were born. He felt conflicted, almost nervous, when Hayden stood up and asked if he'd like to hold her.

But this sister and her husband looked so content that he accepted, taking the baby and cradling her with more ease than he'd given himself credit for. Been a long time since I had much practice holding babies…

He couldn't help but smile as she blinked up at him, shiny brown eyes looking solemn despite her her red, wrinkly face. "She's beautiful."

"Yes, she is." Elen leaned back on her pillows. "She's perfect."

Hayden smiled at her, then looked back to Gwaine. "How did all the meetings go? Everard and Elwin said it was a lot, and they were only there for part of it…"

"Oh, right. We're going to attack Nimueh within the next couple weeks." Gwaine felt bad seeing how Elen and Hayden's happiness drained away into concern, and looked back down at Branwen. "We're going in prepared, with the full might of Anglesey and Arthur Pendragon and Emrys on our side. And we're going to win. For you, if nothing else, little one."

She only burbled up at him, but somehow, that made him feel a lot more hopeful than anything else had in a while.

We're going to win this. We have to.