It's during the birth of their second son that Mal flatlines and passes on. But Ben's just not ready to let her go...

Don't You Leave

It was awful. Horrible. Excruciating. Hands-down the worst experience of his life, and he still couldn't bring himself to say it was a mistake.

Her screams were echoing in his ears and overlapping with the echoes of the last screams that still hadn't faded and Ben felt like screaming himself because everything about this situation was wrong.

She hadn't cried with Zach. Grit her teeth, yeah. Gasped in pain a couple of times, of course. She had definitely snapped at him about how 'We are never doing this again' and 'this is all your fault', but her voice had been level and she had been in control and there had been no screaming. Now, she couldn't stop.

And there was so much blood.

"Something is ruptured," The doctor shook his head. "This isn't normal. She needs an emergency interveinal." And Ben could agree because, yeah, this wasn't anything like his first son. Mal had never needed a doctor with their first son. He'd begged her to let him call one but she'd rolled her eyes and said she'd rather not and so he'd kept the number to the hospital open on his phone so he could call them with a single tap and then just held her hand while they waited. Now, for the first time in her life, Mal had requested a doctor. Because something was wrong. This wasn't normal.

He wiped her forehead with a cool cloth as he listened to the doctors and nurses debate back and forth, wondering if she could hear them over her own screams. Every scream was like a nail being shoved into his skin. And then removed slowly, millimeter by millimeter. She'd never screamed before. Not once. And now her voice was going hoarse with every breath and every pain wave.

"I can't even tell how close she is! There's too much blood!" A nurse declared, and Ben squeezed his eyes shut and leaned down to kiss Mal's forehead, squeeze her hand a little tighter than she was squeezing his.

"We'll get through this," He whispered. "You're going to be alright."

It was the first time he'd ever had to assure her of that.

The first time it came up, it wasn't their anniversary party – it was Jay and Lonnie's. Their first one. An important one. The party was loud. People were celebrating. People who knew Lonnie from swords and shields and Jay from tourney. Jay was challenging Lonnie and the two were playing darts with Lonnie swaying from the two drinks she'd had while Jay smirked as he raised a sixth to his mouth.

Evie was outside, trying to quell her crying two-year-old when Mal stomped back over and dropped into Ben's side, shifting the entire couch in her direction before she let out a dramatic sigh.

Jane, Doug, and Ben all laughed. "What Auradon thing are you cursing now?" Jane asked, reaching over and pulling on the edge of Mal's sleeve, which was decorated with lots of long, black fringe.

"Children!" Mal snapped. "Ugh! They're revolting!"

The three laughed again because they all knew Mal secretly loved Evie's little boy. Maybe not as much as she loved his mother's face when she'd drop him off covered in mud, but he was still okay in her book because he was Evie's and Evie loved him. So Mal loved him through extension of Evie and also through the extension of Ben and Carlos, who adored their nephew equally. However, their laughter quickly fizzled out as Mal continued her rant.

"They're so small you trip over them and they smell like public restrooms and when they want your attention they yank on your clothes and – ugh!" Mal pressed the base of her palms into her eyes in frustration. "Who even thought of children? Who even wants children? Sticky hands and then they get hyper and they scream and cry and you have to teach them how to reuse the bathroom every other minute…"

Doug closed his mouth and turned his head to the side, examining her. Jane's smile dropped and she turned her head to see how Doug and Ben were reacting to this. Ben put an elbow up on the back of the couch and covered his mouth with his hand as he watched Mal – who he'd been married to for almost four years – complain.

"And then you have to argue with them to get them to eat and buckle up and go where you need them to go… they're just so frustrating! I don't understand why anyone would want children!" Mal finally finished her spiel and dropped her hands onto her legs in frustration, staring blankly at the wall ahead of her.

"Hmm," Ben acknowledged her points wordlessly. The half of his face that was uncovered barely showed any emotion, but something about his tone made Mal turn. She took in his face, the slouch of his spine, his elbow up over the back of the couch, and the way he was examining her, and her shoulders dropped.

"No," She told him.

"No?" Doug asked.

"No," Mal shook his head. "No, Ben, don't tell me…"

Ben dropped his hand and removed his arm, straightening out his button-down shirt as he looked away with the tiniest hint of amusement over to where Carlos was dangling a dog toy over Dude's head while Jay's friends laughed. "Actually, I want children," He told her, only half facing her before he crossed his arms and tilted his head to watch her expression out of the corner of his eye.

"No!" Mal moaned, shoulders slumped as she looked at him. Her expression was reminiscent of someone who had just watched a kitten die. She was acting as if he had decided to reenact the Isle of the Lost so he could send her back. "Why? They're not fun!"

"Ah-huh," Ben nodded, not protesting in the slightest.

"Ben, they're messy and irritable and they wake you up in the middle of the night to climb into your bed. They leave toys everywhere and they haul stuff out and leave it…" She pressed her fingertips to her forehead. "Why would you want children?"

"Yes," Ben agreed simply, as if she wasn't protesting a dream of his. Mal's shoulders sank lower. He looked at her, tracing her features, and a smile slid across his mouth. "They'd probably have your hair and your pout, and you'd give in every time they asked for candy because the secret would be you try and steal some just as much as they would. You'd go absolutely insane if they had either your magic or my big words, and you'd hate when they cried and you'd scream at everyone after they kept you up. And if they sing in the shower like you do when they get older, you'll plug your ears every time."

Mal sank further into the couch, groaning. Doug and Jane exchanged an impressed look. Everyone knew Mal had Ben wrapped around her little finger, but it wasn't often they stopped to consider that it was the exact same thing the other way around.

"But," Ben sighed, looking away from Mal with a smirk as he popped the first button on his shirt open and leaned back, "I'd probably have to remind you of all that. I mean, I always have to remind you of the things you don't like about me. I bet that you'd be the kind of person to cry the first time you hear them call you mom."

Mal wrinkled her lips up like she'd been given something that was exceptionally sour. She crossed her arms and sank so far into the couch that the cushions tickled her cheeks when she huffed. "I hate you," she scowled.

Ben snorted and picked up her hand to squeeze it. "Sure," he agreed, and somehow that was a victory.

It wasn't now. Now the sounds of her screams were hammering in his ears and his skin had turned to spiders that walked on little pins they were driving into his flesh. He leaned towards her, squeezing her hand even tighter while the doctors worked frantically.

They were bringing out a heart monitor and a scalpel. An IV with painkillers. They were asking him if he wanted to leave. Mal looked up, terrified. No, no.

He kissed her knuckles and didn't budge.

Ben pretended to be listening as he glanced behind Chad's head at the clock on the wall. Forty seconds. Forty seconds and then he could snap his binder closed and call the meeting to a halt until tomorrow.

"This system could put more raw lumber into Dun Broch, yes, but we also have to consider Oceania's forests are already unhealthy from the ocean wall they had," Chad explained. "I think we should continue pulling from Charmington for another two years while we finish healing that ecosystem. After that, we can begin restoration there."

"And go back and forth?" Tiancum asked. "I think it'd be better to begin pulling from Oceania now and then ease the burden on Charmington so we can have both restoration processes going at the same time."

Melody shook her head. "I don't think there's enough land for both the loggers and the conservation efforts to coincide." She looked down the table to Ben. "King Ben, what do you think?"

Ben hummed, drummed his fingers on the table, and then watched the hour hand of the clock shift to five. "I think," he sighed, leaning forward and not bothering to hide the smile that crossed his face, "That it's five o'clock and time for you all to go home. I'll look at whatever we did last time this was an issue and get back to you all tomorrow."

Everyone simultaneously turned to look at the clock and sighed in exasperation, relief, and exhaustion. Only Melody wrinkled her nose. "I see," she began flatly. "And so we're going to push this issue back to the end of our meeting tomorrow?"

"No, it'll be addressed right after the opening remarks," Ben decided, pushing his chair back. "But right now, it is five o'clock, and all of you are released. I am officially out of office." He waved. "Goodbye."

Audrey snorted. She was sat to Ben's immediate left, in the place the queen would be if she were sitting in on this meeting. "Someone's eager to get out," she commented. "Hot date tonight?"

"Nope," Ben shook his head with a bright smile. "I'm just looking forward to family time. Just me, my son, and my sunshine."

"Ah, I see," Audrey chuckled. "Because 'sun' and 'son' sound similar. Aren't you clever?"

The doors opened. People began to leave, chattering amicably about plans for the weekend and their recent lives. Someone yelped in surprise as someone pushed past them, rushing into the room. It was a person about three feet tall with sandy blonde hair, who giggled as he dashed around the table. Ben faked a gasp of shock and put his hands down to sweep the child off the floor and into his arms. "Ah! It's a monster!" He yelled as he pinned the child's arms to his sides and danced his fingers up and down his belly.

"No it's not!" the boy yelled as he laughed and writhed in Ben's arms. "It's me, dad!"

"Ah, I see," Ben nodded. "It's a Zach Monster!" He continued mercilessly tickling the child as the last few remaining advisors rolled their eyes and looked on with amused smiles. Zach managed to catch his father's face in between his hands and then sat on his legs to squish Ben's face. Ben complied, pursing his lips into a fish face that Zach immediately tried to mimic. He and Audrey both began to laugh as they watched Zach try to make his lips look the way Ben had.

"How much do I love you?" Ben asked Zach, and Zach flung his arms out on both sides.

"This much!" He whispered, like it was a secret between him and Ben.

"Nope, more than that!" Ben laughed and caught a glimpse of purple in the side of his vision. His smile broadened even more. "You know, dad loves you a lot, but there's one person he loves a lot more. Do you know who?"

"Me!" Zach whispered.

"Nope!" Ben shook his head and turned his son around to point at the person in the now-empty doorway. "Who's that?"

"Mommy!" Zach exclaimed, waving as Mal blushed, chuckled, and then made her way over to stand with a hand on Ben's chair as Zach squished Ben's face up to see the fish face again.

"Hello, beautiful," Ben paused long enough to stick his tongue out at Zach. "How was your day?"

"Busy," Mal shrugged with a little smile. "This one keeps me on my toes." She brushed off something on Zach's sleeve with a sigh. "He's got enough energy for the both of us."

"Did you wear mom out?" Ben asked Zach seriously. The little boy broke off into giggles and curled into his chest. Ben kissed the top of his head and squeezed him tightly in response.

Mal's hand moved from the back of the chair to Ben's shoulder. He glanced up at her as she nodded down at Zach. "How does another one of him sound?" she mumbled.

Audrey's eyes went a little wide as she glanced over to see Ben tilt his head, processing. "Eventually?" he asked. "Or nine months from now?"

"Eight, actually," Mal corrected softly. "But getting close to seven."

Ben looked down as Zach as Zach looked up and put his hands softly to Ben's cheeks. Ben's face broke out into an even wider grin. "Okay," he nodded and laughed. "Alright."

They never ended up getting the IV into her. Or the scalpel. Because about twenty seconds after the heart monitor was hooked up, The baby's head managed to turn enough for one of the nurses to use her hands to literally reach into Mal and help him get unstuck. Ben could tell the pain was blinding, but then one arm and one leg came out, and then-

There was a very loud, shrill noise coming from his right. Mal had stopped screaming. Or maybe he'd gone deaf and that was what the ringing was. He glanced over – what was that sound?

The heart monitor was screaming at them. The line across it was flat.

Ben reached forward and cupped Mal's cheek in his hand. He expected her to look up at him, but her head lolled. And it was then that Ben realized the doctors were all rushing around, shouting. From the emergency equipment that had come with them came a pair of defibrillators. He was wrenched back and made to stand by the door. One of the nurses hurried by and pressed the newborn into his hands before returning to the bedside to try and revive his mother.

A boy. It was a boy. But Ben could hardly see anything through the shock.

What had happened? What was happening?

It seemed like eternities of noise and rush before everything stopped. The doctor flipped off the monitor and turned around to stare at him forlornly. And that was when the reality began to crash down on Ben.

"I'm sorry, your majesty," he whispered. "The pain was just… too much for her."

What? For Mal? Powerful Mal? Fae Mal?

Ben handed the baby, who he hadn't even taken a proper look at yet, back to the nurse. "Please," He mumbled. "Clean him off."

The other nurse, whose eyes were brimming with tears as she hobbled to the door, didn't say a word to him. He heard the door unlock before she squealed: "She's gone!" to the whole world.

The doctor pulled a sheet over Mal's body. The sweat across her brow had frozen.

Ben stumbled back to her side, where he'd spent ages trying to support her, and squeezed her cold, increasingly hard hand. Oh gods, she couldn't be dead. How could she be dead? How had this happened?

He could hear his mother crying out in the hall. What was he going to tell Zach? How was he going to get on without his fairy? What was he going to do?

"Your majesty," the nurse who'd taken the new baby mumbled. She passed him the child back, cleaned off, and Ben felt tears coming on as he looked down and realized the child had a head full of purple hair. Her hair.

"Time of death," the doctor began to say, but Ben cut him off.

"Everyone out, please," he commanded. He rose to his feet and began to escort everyone to the door. "Out, now," he called.

His mother was hovering in the doorway, trying to see her daughter-in-law. Ben handed her the new baby, who was still sniffling, and guided her back out. "I need some time alone with her," he told everyone.

Zach was waiting behind his grandfather, glancing around cautiously as nurses and grandma all began to cry. "Mom?" He called, craning his head into the room. "Mom?"

Ben turned him back around gently and shut the door. He locked it for good measure.

Everything felt so empty. Their room, their space, their lives had been violated. Ben tripped over the sheets which had been stripped from the bed earlier and then gathered them up. He could hardly bear to see them. He kicked the door to the bathroom open and dumped everything into the tub before returning to the bedroom and doing the same with anything else he could find. Even the scalpel was dumped into the sink and the IV pushed behind the door before Ben shut the door tightly on anything hospital and returned to his seat beside the bed.

He pushed the chair right up against Mal's bedside.

He pulled the sheet down that was covering her grey face and cool flesh.

When he took her hand to cup it tightly, it was hard and not warm or soft at all. Tears did brim in his eyes then as his stomach turned. They burned his cheeks as he bowed his head and began to sob over her. Sobbing for lost memories and all their hard work and the fact he didn't have another half anymore.

His fingertips ached towards the switch of the heart monitor, which had been left untouched in his rampage. He flipped it on and listened to the soft whining.

Then, he removed his coat and set it over the back of the chair. He rolled up his white sleeves up to his elbows and squeezed Mal's hand even tighter. Then, the words started spilling out of his throat before he could stop them. "I know you're still here," he snapped. And as he spoke, they were true. He could feel the magic in her presence. He could still feel her love.

"I know you wouldn't have left me that fast. Because you love me too much. You wouldn't have died without me."

Ben hiccupped and scrubbed at his eyes before reaching for her other hand too.

"I still need you," he announced. "You promised you would be here. From those first moments we were together until the last time we fall asleep together, you promised you would be here. And I, Mal Bertha, am holding you to that promise."

Mal remained still. Nothing moved. Still, he set his jaw and kept talking.

"How am I supposed to raise them without you, Mal?" he asked. "How could I ever be King without you as my Queen? How am I ever going to love anything ever again?" He let go of her hands and cupped her cheeks. "Don't you remember me? Don't you remember everything we've done. No one has ever fought for you like I have. We have something. We're real. I know these last months have been purgatory for you. I know there were moments you wished you could go back to the Isle instead. You know I wished it could be me instead. For whatever the weight of these words are, I will gladly pay three times my punishment for this ordeal if you'll just come back to me."

He was pleading with a body. The dead body of his marvelous wife. But it wasn't as if he had any other options left. "Faeries don't break promises," he whispered to her. "I know it's been hard and I know you've been hurt. But you promised me, Mal. Please, don't leave me." Then, with every ounce of strength he could conjure behind his words, he made his final imploration. "I'm begging you."

Nothing happened, which was a bit insulting because Ben had always heard that there was power in the begging of a king. His words must already be true – he was no king without a queen. Tears clouded his vision again and he collapsed onto Mal's chest, sobbing uncontrollably. She was gone, she was gone, she was gone.

He was crying so hard that he almost missed the first beep. It caught him so off guard that he sat, gasping for breath, before the second one reached his ears. Then, he jumped back up.

The heart monitor had come back to life and, while it had started out slow, was beginning to pick up a steady rhythm. Ben stared down at Mal as her cheeks began to take color again and she took a long, deep breath. How? How could this be? Already, she'd been gone for almost twenty minutes.

Ben leaned forward and cupped her cheeks. Her eyes fluttered open and she gasped for breath. He kept his hands on her face, combing through her hair with his fingertips, as her eyes sought out something to focus on. What they found him, he watched her mouth fall slack with shock.

"How did you do that?" she mumbled.

Ben just cupped her cheek and began to cry again as he sobbed in relief. "Let's call it True Love's Fatal Fight," he suggested, then practically threw himself into her embrace. Shaky hands tangled into his hair and traced down his back as he cried himself to pieces atop her. He should be comforting her right now, but he couldn't get over the fact he'd almost lost her, and then she'd come back.

"It's okay now," she mumbled in his ear. "I… can't believe that happened."

"Don't you leave me," Ben hiccupped, scrubbing at his eyes. "Don't you dare do that again."

"Ben?" Mal gasped and then tried to sit up, looking frantically around the room. "The baby. Where are they? Are they-" she broke off with tears of her own forming.

"No, no," Ben shook his head and squeezed her hands. "They're outside. A boy. Mom has him." He kissed both of her cheeks. "Do you – I mean – do you want to see him?"

Mal relaxed, giving his hands a last squeeze, and nodded. "Okay," she mumbled softly.

It took a lot of courage to pry himself off of her and to detach himself from her side, but he managed to struggle away and stumble to the door before unlocking it and revealing the scene behind the door.

Evie, Jay, Carlos, and Hades had all arrived. They were slumped in a huddle with Belle and Adam. Evie was holding onto Zach, who looked bewildered but very solemn as everyone around him cried. Everyone else was huddled over Belle's shoulder, crying over the new baby.

It had been a very long eight months and now, to them, they'd lost one of the closest members of their family.

"Ben," Hades murmured upon seeing him appear in the doorway. "Ben. Are you alright?"

The question was said with some hesitation, as if his father-in-law was aware of how ridiculous the question was. Ben didn't respond. He only held out his hand at a child's level and cleared his throat. "Zach?" He called. "Do you want to come see Mom?"

Evie gave him a look that said, quite clearly, "Are you insane?"

Zach wrestled out of her stunned grip and hurried into the room. Ben stepped forward to take the baby from Belle. "Sorry," he mumbled. "She wants to see him now."

"What?" Jay demanded in a bewildered tone. Ben ignored them all and re-entered the room. Zach had climbed up on the bed beside his mom, ignoring all the sweat and filth covering her. Mal was hugging him tightly, kissing his forehead and petting her hands down his back. When she saw Ben with the Newborn, she outstretched a hand but kept Zach pinned tightly to her other side. Ben nestled the new boy into her other arm, pressed up against her ribs, and watched the newborn stop crying at her familiar heartbeat. Zach glanced curiously at the new baby while Ben laid down beside Mal and curled into her side, emotionally exhausted. Mal seemed beyond happy and content now that all three of her boys were nestled against her skin.

Everyone followed him in. He heard delighted and bewildered and shocked gasps as the family crowded in. The heart monitor was still beeping along silently. Ben couldn't be bothered to explain anything to anyone or flip off the machine as he wrapped his arms around every member of his tiny family and began kissing Mal's cheek intermittently.

"You're alive!" Belle exclaimed as Hades stepped to the side of the bed opposite Ben and ran his thumb down his daughter's cheek to wipe away tears. "We thought – the maid told us you had flatlined."

Mal blushed and briefly unwrapped one of her arms to catch her tears before they could drop onto either Zach or the newborn. "I did," she affirmed. "It was really weird. One moment there was a lot of pain and then the next I was walking around my bed trying to figure out what had happened."

"You died," Hades muttered, swallowing. "I felt it. But you didn't leave or anything."

"I was starting to," Mal blushed. "But Ben threw everyone out and, well, brought me back."

At this, Ben turned his face further into her shoulder. He didn't want to think about it right now. His reluctance to speak didn't stop everyone else(especially his father-in-law) from wanting answers.

"What? How?"

"He brought you back?"

Mal shifted her hand to comb through Ben's hair. "I think it was a lot of things," she mumbled. "But the last thing was when he asked me to come back. I just… melted straight back into my body."

"He asked you to come back and so you jumped back into your body?"

"He also said I'd promised him and I couldn't break that promise because I'm-"

"Mal," Ben cut her off by mumbling her name into her neck. "Don't tell them."

"Why not?" Adam demanded, miffed. But Mal nodded.

"You're right," she mumbled, leaning her head onto Ben's. "It's our story. Ours."

"Please," Ben looked up then and skimmed his eyes around the group. "Can you leave us for a while? We've been through a lot. One of us just died." He nuzzled closer to Mal's neck. "We'll come out in a while. Just let our family be alone for a while."

Belle was the first person to comply and move back to the door. Mal started kissing Zach's and the new baby's heads, occasionally reaching up to touch Ben's face and neck. Hades was the last person to leave. He hesitated, examining Ben with a newfound respect. Ben had always sensed a little… distance in between him and Hades but couldn't feel any of that now. Apparently straying through the rules regarding the realm of death – Hades's Realm – was enough to finally earn equal standing with Mal's dad.

The door shut softly. Zach twisted and put his arms around Mal's neck. Her skin was still sticky with sweat, but none of the three people piled on her minded. "Mommy?' he mumbled. "Did you go away?'

"Only for a little while," Mal whispered. "But it's okay. I'm back now and Daddy and I are going to stay together with you boys."

Zach nodded and set the side of his head against her collarbone. The new baby let out a sigh, yawned, and closed their eyes to fall asleep on her. Ben moved his arms to better hug all three people, kissed Mal's head, and closed his eyes again. "You promise you aren't going anywhere?" He mumbled against her skin.

"I promise," she replied.

"Good," he whispered. "I love you."

"I love you too."