One night, Elsa laid awake, terrified for her child's life.
The days had turned into months. When she had first discovered her pregnancy, she had felt terror grip her. Every bad experience had flashed in front of her eyes, and she had been consumed by that fear.
Two gloves- Elsa had fought to reinstate herself and her sister into the common life of the people of Arrendelle. Now that she had technically been married to prince Hans, she, her child, and her sister were legally safe under the laws of the International Consortium, that had finally recognized the signatures of her council, a council that had gone behind her back in order to try and negotiate with the Black Spot pirates.
Three girls- it was now just the three of them; Elsa, Anna, and now Hansa. Nights were harder than days. Her little one had been growing and growing in her stomach. Elsa had freed herself of Hans, and Baragor in one night, but, after the initial relief, she had found herself feeling more afraid than ever. Her babe would have no father.
Four women had all fought for control of Hans' life- his mother, Elaina, who had doomed him to a life of servitude as a pirate hunter, Anna, his former fiancee' who had tried to bring him into the castle, Ilyanna, who had tried to make him her master, and Elsa, the mother of his child. All had fought. All had lost.
The five fingers clenched in her right hand as Elsa tried to steady her breathing. Tonight, just like every night for the last six nights, Hansa was active. It was so painful. Elsa felt bloated, like she could barely contain the child within her. Elsa spent each day, seven days a week, fearing for her child. What would life be like when she finally arrived? What would her world be?
Eight months had passed since Elsa had first felt that drop of fear wrap around her heart. She had been late, and every moment since then, she had felt her fear grow and grow. Getting rid of Hans- the destroyer, her protector, her lover- it had been a mistake. nine months since they had first been together, and, of course, it had just been her luck that the night that she lost her virginity had been the night she had been impregnated. The following months, Elsa had no fear of messing around with Hans. She was already pregnant. She gripped her left hand as well, ten digits digging into the pale flesh of her palms.
What of the world outside of the Southern Isles port of Arrendelle? There were Eleven brothers left. Would they try and control her, destroy the life she had built for herself? Would her daughter grow up, safe and happy, or would she be forced into servitude as well? Elsa's heart had sunk at the thought. She could not let herself even bear to think what would happen to the innocent.
Each night, during twelve long hours of darkness, Elsa was almost completely alone in her thoughts. Anna was TECHNICALLY still a prisoner who had killed a prince. So, as darkness rose, and the sun fell over the horizon, the young mother spent the whole time worrying over her child. Would her daughter be a victim? Were the thirteen sons of Queen Elaina victims of their country as well? Was it all her fault?
The pain in her stomach increased. Immense shooting pains, punctuated by a throbbing she could not get under control.
"Fourteen... fifteen... sixteen... Seventeen...!" Elsa tried counting to calm herself. The past week, she had been in steady denial over what was happening to her body. Soon, her baby would come, and she could no longer keep her safe from the outside world. Like a prisoner bursting free, her child would erupt into the world, "Eigh-eight-eighteen! Nineteen! TWENTY! AH!"
Elsa clutched her stomach. No more. She could not do this anymore. No sister, no one was there for her "PLEASE! HANSA! I'm not ready! AAAAAaaaaaaAAAAH!"
She doubled over, scrambling out of the bed. Her eyes began to water with pain. She grabbed the first thing available, and shoved it into her mouth, quenching her screams. Hans' silk shirt muffled her cry as she begged her child to wait, "It's not safe! It's not safe! It'll never be safe!" She panted and yelled. Looking up, through teary eyes, the ex-queen said dumbly, "...Hans?"
Her lover morphed out of the shadows, livid with hate.
"...my water just broke."
He stared at her, "What?" This... WOMAN... had destroyed his life. She had thrown him into prison, drove him insane, used him, lied to him, abandoned him, and, most damning of all, made him love her. And now, she had the gall to... "You're actually pregnant?"
Elsa stared at him, then began screaming in pain.
Hans stared at her in shock. His heart and mind were inundated with a flood of emotions. Nothing could have prepared him for this; the hatred, love, fear, hope, and endless tragedies of his life. But, in the end, bitterness won out. His hands skimmed along her scalp, past the scar. Grasping her dark mane, he pulled her head back to look into her teary eyes, "What will you do to my son?!"
Her eyes opened, "...it's a girl."
"Hm?"
Elsa started to breath deeply, feeling the contractions catch up to her, "What will you... let them do... to your daughter?!"
Hans' eyes flashed angrily, "Liar! If it's a man, you'll force him into the army, he'll be dead by the age of twenty-one!"
"And if it's..." She gasped, "A girl, she'll be raped by the time that she's twenty-two."
Hans and Elsa stopped talking, and looked down. Although their right hands were battling for control of her scalp, their left hands were intertwined.
"...when will you let go of your hatred?" She whispered, "When will you let go of your control over me? You hate me, my sister, and our daughter...!"
"NO!" He hissed, "I love you. Loved you."
She grabbed his right hand with her left, coupling her strength and she squeezed, "What about your daughter? Will you spare her? After you kill me?"
"...no," He whispered, "I'm here to save my son... from you, from my mother, from anyone that will plunge him into blood, and ash, and fire."
"But what if it's a girl?"
"It's a boy."
"It's a girl."
"...it's boy."
"it's..." Elsa curled into herself as the contractions silenced her, "...if it's a girl... will you spare her."
Hans clutched her hands, and unknowingly letting his hand slip down to her shoulder, "Elsa, I love you, every day I've known that I've loved you, I wished I didn't. But I do. I am here to save my child. From you."
Elsa clutched her stomach protectively, "You won't... hurt the baby? You aren't here to kill me?"
"No, of course not. I let go of my hate a long time ago," Hans looked down at his lover in pity, "Okay?"
"...okay."
He ran his hands through her hair.
"Hans?"
"Hm?"
"I," She swallowed, "I don't hate you either. I just hate that..." her lip trembled. She didn't want to admit it. After everything he had done to her, to her nation, "I... do..."
"I know."
She nodded her head. The her stomach convulsed, "It's time."
"Okay, I want you to count with me, 23, 24, 25, 26..."
"27, 28, 29..."
"Good, good, thirty, thirty-one..."
"Thirty-t-t-t-two! AH!"
Hans rubbed her back and she clutched onto him, "Come on, keep counting...! Come on, Queen, you must."
"I can't, I can't," Elsa sobbed. The pain was unbearable. Nothing, not the scalping, the hunger on the mountain, the only pain that even came close to this one was the pain of losing Anna, "It's too hard. I'm too weak," She collapsed backward, "I need... I need Anna..."
Hans quietly nodded, "Okay, we're going to see Anna now, okay?" It was like talking to a small child, "Anna will see you, and you'll feel better."
Hans rose to leave.
"No!" Elsa grabbed his arm, "You can't leave me! You can't leave us!"
Hans bent down and scooped up what was, legally, his wife, "Okay, we're going to see Anna now..."
Elsa nodded. The ride seemed to take forever, although it was only a few minutes from her room to the dungeon. Anna was pacing her cell, worried. She immediately left through the still-unrepaired hole.
"Elsa!"
"Help MEEEEEEeeeeeeeEEEE!"
"Okay, okay, you can do this!"
"I can't! I can't!"
Hans set his wife down gently, not interfering.
"You can do anything Elsa. You're the strongest, bravest, greatest girl I've ever known! I know you can do this, and I'm going to help you do it, okay?"
Elsa nodded. The tears were running down her face, unbidden.
"Okay," She knelt between her sister's legs, "...whenever you're ready."
Elsa screamed and screamed and screamed.
Hans ran his hair through her sweaty forehead. She looked like she was dying. Her blue eyes locked onto his, "Swear it to me, Hans."
"What?"
"Sweat my child will be okay."
"Of course," He said, "I promise that everything is gonna be just fine. You just concentrate on... you know... counting..."
Elsa laughed bitterly, "You're a terrible liar, Hans Westerguard."
"Great Protector, Westerguard," He quietly corrected, "Now, let's do this together. 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39..."
"FOURTY! AAaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Good! Good! Fourty-one, Fourty-two, fourty-three. Come on, you're almost halfway there! Fourty four!"
"Sixty!" Hans ignored that she had skipped a bunch of numbers, "Sixty-six! Seventy!"
"You're doing great, come on, Elsa, come on, you can do it!"
"I can't, I can't!"
"I can see the head! Oh my gosh!" Anna's eyes went wild, "This is like, the grossest thing I've ever seen, and I'm completely unprepared!"
"ANNA!" Both Elsa and Hans shouted.
"Right! Fourty-five!"
"What?" Screamed Elsa, "We're going backwards!? What number are we even on?!"
"Eeeeeh, let's just go with ninety," lied Hans, "Ninety-one... ninety-two, ninety-three..."
He was the only one counting.
"Oh! You're almost done! Elsa! Elsa?"
Elsa said nothing. She swallowed, and quietly kept working. She could hear her lover quietly whispering in her ear, like the moon slowly circling the earth.
"Ninety-four, ninety-five, ninety-six, ninety-seven," Her world started going black, and Anna began laughing hysterically.
"I'm an aunt! Oh my goodness! Hello, little one!"
"Ninety-eight, ninety-nine..."
100. She whispered in her head, fully believing that Hans would take her child. She let herself slip into unconsciousness, thinking about how hard this must have been on her mother. She didn't hear Hans and Anna together embracing the child. She did not feel Hans bearing her back up to her room, or Watch Anna run about the castle like a madwoman, telling everyone that she was an aunt to the most beautiful baby ever born, and that this was no time to sleep.
But she could smell. She could smell Hans- just him. Not the dank smell of his cell, or the blood, or ash, or fire. He smelled like home.
And so, Hans laid her down on her bed. At last, his hatred and frustration was gone. He had a wife. He had a child and a sister-in-law. He was home. He was at peace. Laying next to Elsa, he allowed himself just that; to be at peace.
100%.
The end.
A.N. Thanks for reading. I had thought about making this all a dream, and that Elsa would miscarry, and Hans was actually dead. Then I realized how very little I would want that to happen. Have a great day!