Disclaimer: Don't own Vampire Knight, don't really want to anymore. Just wanna own Zero and Yuuki. Oh snap that did not sound right AT ALL.

Dangling

Memories of the next hour were jumbled and vague, swirling and pulsing in her mind as rapids, tossing her around and pulling her under.

Zero's limp body in her lap. Screaming till her vocal cords were frayed. "Save him! Dear God, help me save him!"

Lying in Kaname's lap, tears soaking her cheeks. Begging him to ignore her and care for Zero.

Familiar, glowing red eyes, staring into hers, their owner lifting her upper half off the floor and telling her to breathe. Something about an Osaka hospital with a medical team composed entirely of vampires.

Kaname wringing his blood into Zero's wounds and pumping his chest. The mumbled words, "Come on, you bastard. Don't you dare, don't you do that to her…"

EMTs rushing in and lifting Zero onto a stretcher. Waiting another ten minutes before they returned for her. The Chairman waiting with the helicopter in the soccer field. A hot and turbulent ride with Zero and a medic in a cramped little cabin.

White sheets, white lights, white world. Strangers stripping her, spreading her legs, pushing gloved fingers inside her and announcing measurements. A doctor screaming "blood this, blood that." A brunette nurse holding her hand, stroking hair off her sweaty face and speaking in a silky voice.

"Ichi ni san shi. Ichi ni san shi. Shh, sweetie, shh."

And, through it all, searing, sadistic abdominal pain.

--

In the end, Yuuki would be grateful Zero was asleep in the ICU when she gave birth three hours later. She would be glad he wasn't in with her to see her scream, to see the agonized tears stream down her face as she struggled to bring their baby girl to life. Their boy was much easier and followed his sister within a half hour, but Yuuki was glad Zero wasn't there to see the OB/GYNs mutter urgently, to feel the terror as the doctors whisked the little child to neonatal intensive care when they could not get him breathing. She would be glad he was gone as she screamed and bawled for her baby, as Kaname, who had only just arrived with the Chairman, had to hold her back to keep her from leaping from the bed and tearing away from all the tubes and devices to which she was hooked up. She would be glad he didn't have to see her in such dreadful agony, and that he was spared the trauma of learning his son left her womb shivering, blue, hanging on his life by a rapidly fraying thread.

In the end, she would be glad, but at the time he was the only person she wanted, and the Chairman would tell him later the entire birthing she'd been screaming his name, begging anyone who would listen to take her to him so he could hold her and comfort her and soften the impact of the whole ghastly experience.

But he was drugged out in the ICU, and she had to gather enough strength to face this one on her own.

--

The first thing he was aware of was the incessant beeping of a heart monitor permeating the soothing velvety blackness. The dark padded his eyes for a brief moment as he slowly came to consciousness, then he opened them, each lid carrying the weight of a cinder block. White. White, everywhere, everything was white. Why?

He stared at the wall for a moment, dazed, as the morning's events oozed back to him as thick, lethargic molasses. He was in a disinfectant-reeking white world, hooked up to an IV full of dilated blood…he was in a hospital, as a vampire? The Senate's hospital, he guessed. The morning's events…a fight, gunshots, a biting pain in his hip and throat…Yuuki…Yuuki!

Zero whipped over and frantically hit the call button about fifteen times. He waited around twenty seconds and was on the verge of ripping off his monitors and charging from the room when a young nurse passed through the door, clipboard in hand.

"Ah, Kiryuu-san, you're awake," she said cheerfully. "I called the doctor and when he gets here we can have you moved to general care and—"

"Where is she?" he demanded, clenching a fist. "Tell me where she is. Tell me she's okay!"

"Calm down, Kiryuu-san! I talked to your father ten minutes ago. She's fine. He told me to tell you her wounds are healing and she's awake and talking."

"Has she had the baby?"

"I don't know anything more about it. That's all he told me, and she's not in this ward."

The Chairman chose that moment to wobble in on crutches, his left leg trapped in a humongous cast. "Zero-kun! Thank God you're awake. We need to talk, right now."

The nurse turned to him. "Cross-san, I called the doctor. He should be coming as soon as he can."

"Thank you very much, Mako-san. Could you, uh, give us a minute, please?"

"Yeah, Actually, I can go check and see how long it'll take the doctor to get here."

"That'd be great. Thanks, Mako-san."

Once the nurse had left the room, the Chairman hobbled over to Zero's bedside and clumsily sat in the armchair, where he was machine-gunned with frantic questions and demands.

"Your eyes are red. Why are your eyes red? What happened?"

"Zero, Zero." The Chairman held up a silencing hand. "I need you to listen to me. First and most importantly, Yuuki is perfectly fine. Because you dug out that bullet and fed her, her wounds healed back at home. The only thing she was here for was her childbirth…she had the children three hours ago."

Zero froze. "Ch-children?"

The Chairman smiled sadly. "You have twins, Zero. A girl and a boy. The girl is doing wonderfully; she's in the nursery right now and you can go see her after the doctor moves you. But the boy…"

Any joy Zero felt at having twins—one a healthy baby girl—turned to ice in his veins.

"What? He's dead?"

"No, no, he's not dead. He's very sick, Zero. He's in the OR right now. We don't know much yet, except that he is very tiny and very weak—when he was born, they couldn't get him breathing. They swiped him away before Yuuki even had the chance to hold him. The doctor said he's underdeveloped, which can sometimes happen with vampire births, and…and we really…don't know anything else right now."

Zero shuddered wretchedly and buried his face in his hands.

"They're doing everything they can, Zero. Everything they possibly can."

"Take me to her," he demanded, his agonized voice muffled by his palms.

"To whom? Yuuki or your daughter?"

"To Yuuki! Take me to Yuuki, right now!"

"They're moving you in with her soon, but we have to wait for the doctor's okay—"

Zero's head snapped up savagely. "I don't give a shit about the doctor! I need to see my wife!"

"Calm down, Kiryuu-san," a deep male voice sounded from the doorway. "We should be able to get you over there in ten minutes or so."

Zero's head whipped in the direction of the sound. A tall, middle-aged man with curly black hair came through the tiny hallway, far too graceful and handsome to possibly be human. So they were at the Senate's hospital. But then why were doctors working so hard to save his and Yuuki's child?

"Hello, Kiryuu-san. My name is Shimane-sensei. I just have to go over a few things with you and then we can move you in with your wife, okay?"

"How's my son?" Zero demanded.

"I'm not in charge of your son's procedure, Kiryuu-san, so I really can't tell you. You'll have to see Mizuno-sensei for that." Shimane-sensei looked at his chart and nodded as though in affirmation.

"When we got you here we had to take you into surgery to get the bullets out of your wounds," he explained, "and then you had a blood transfusion to replace what you'd lost and help your wounds heal more quickly."

Zero felt his neck where the bullet had gone in—all he found was a small scar. "Who provided the blood?"

The doctor frowned and raised a paper on his clipboard. "A…Kuran Kaname-san?"

Zero's eyes bulged. Kuran…Kaname? Kaname? The Chairman placed a hand over Zero's to keep him from spouting something he'd regret.

"Let me give you a quick examination before we transfer you to general care," the doctor said. "Can you take off your gown?"

Zero reached around and pulled the three ties in the back of his dress, which fell limp around his waist. "Why are you guys trying so hard to save my son?" he asked as the doctor probed his neck and then—"Lie back"—his hip and chest. "You told us the Senate doesn't assist with things like this."

Shimane-sensei checked the machines and wrote a few notes on his chart. "You aren't at the Senate hospital, Kiryuu-san. This is [SOME RANOM OSAKA HOSPITAL]. Everyone on my medical team is of noble blood."

"D-do you ordinarily help people like us?" Zero asked, imagining the Association coming, killing everyone, and shutting down the entire medical complex.

"Not ordinarily, Kiryuu-san. But Yuuki is a Kuran, and I was a close friend of her parents. I couldn't just leave her when I found out she was in such risky childbirth." He retied Zero's gown and took a few notes. "Believe me, though, I was fairly stunned when I found out you were the father."

Zero rolled his eyes to the point of it being painful. He was done dignifying that sort of comment with a response.

"I'm really very sorry about your son. They are doing everything they can possibly think of to save his life. At this point, all you can really do is pray."

Vampires? Praying? Zero's face twisted in a sardonic frown.

He could have walked easily to his new room in general care, but Shimane-sensei insisted he lie in a moving bed to prevent suspicion from the human staff. The transfer took the better part of an eternity; Zero stared at the moving tiles of the ceiling listlessly, the only thoughts racing through his mind those of the morning, his son, and his Yuuki.

God, how he wished he could have been there for her during the births.

Yuuki's room seemed as small as legally possible for two injured people; two beds sat behind their own curtains, and there was one bathroom, one TV. Once they'd wheeled his transfer bed into the room and replaced his IV sack no a moving pole, he stood and slowly approached the tiny form the blankets hugged, topped with a small pinkish face and a mass of messy brown hair. He reached out and gently stroked it out of her face, staring at he red, puffy eyes, the tearstains on her cheeks, the ragged pulse of her breath. Yet her sickness and grief only made her more beautiful than ever, so tender and vulnerable, and he wanted to hold her, wrap himself around her the way he always did at home…

"Let her rest, Kiryuu-san," the doctor whispered, pulling him aside. "She's going to need that IV for another few hours, and we're keeping you both here at least one night so we can monitor your conditions. Okay?"

Zero nodded curtly, glancing back at the girl dwarfed by the gigantic bed and machinery. "Okay."

"When do you want to see your daughter?"

"Now."

The doctor smiled and motioned to the empty bed. "Make yourself comfortable. Oh, and the nurses who will be taking care of you now think your surgery was a month back, and you've been transferred from general care in another hospital. That's how long it would have taken a human in your position to get to your point of health. Stick to that story, please?"

Zero stared at him a moment before realizing he expected an answer. "Oh. Yeah."

This seemed to satisfy him. As soon as he was out the door, Zero pointed the Chairman after him and gave one quick nod. "Please, Chairman, leave us for a moment."

"Sensei told you she needed to rest—"

"Seriously. Awake or otherwise, I need to be alone with her."

The Chairman sighed, nodded, and reluctantly followed Shimane-sensei out. Zero turned and looked at her for a moment, then carefully lay down next to her, draping an arm over her blanketed form. She stirred, turned over, and pulled an arm out from under the covers. His heart skipped when he saw the protective blue tape forming around a familiar ring on her finger.

She didn't take it off. Even for this, she refused to stop wearing it.

Groaning, she opened her tired eyes, tearing up upon seeing the crystalline lavender irises staring back at her.

"Zero!" Her weak voice cracked on the syllables. "Oh, Zero…" She shuddered wretchedly and wriggled up against him, too exhausted even to give him a kiss. So he wrapped his arms tightly around her and embraced her lips between his for only a fraction of a second, then let her collapse against him. He imagined all the crying, all the pain he'd have to face once she was strong enough to deal with it.

They stayed that way until the nurse returned with their daughter. "Here she is, Kiryuu-san," she beamed, gently passing the baby to her father. "She's only four hours old."

"Oh, my God…" Zero breathed as he settled his child into his arms, pulling the soft pink fabric away from her face. The baby opened her eyes and stared at him, that pink little face framed with small brown curls, meshing beautifully with huge eyes like violet bath beads and a tiny nose that looked just like Yuuki's. He thought of his previous opinion of all newborns looking creepy and messy, but the only word he could think of to describe this little girl was perfect. Joy and astonishment gripping at his heart, he kissed her forehead lightly and hugged her to his shoulder.

"Her name is…Juuri…" Yuuki mumbled against her pillow.

Zero smiled and pulled the half-asleep mother into a one-armed hug. He was having trouble believing the two of them had created this precious being they held. It seemed beyond impossible, to make such a permanent piece of heaven with just their earthly bodies.

But then, wasn't that what their love was?

--

Yuuki had gone back into her deep sleep when Mizuno-sensei came to their room. Zero was holding Yuuki gently and stroking her hair, but when he heard the doctor come in, he looked up.

Mizuno-sensei didn't have to say a word. Her expression told Zero everything.

"No," he choked, hands already beginning to shake. "No!"

Yuuki started awake. "Zero? What is it?" She turned over groggily, spied Mizuno-sensei. "What is it?"

The doctor clutched her chart at her waist, gazing at her feet. Zero watched, horrified, as all the life drained from Yuuki's face.

"Wh-what's happening to him? What's happening to my baby?"

"Kiryuu-san, Kuran-san, I-I'm so sorry, we did everything we possibly could, but—"

As the dreadful, familiar phrase pierced her ears, Yuuki let out a strangled cry, a sound that turned Zero's organs to glaciers. More devastating, more nauseating than the world of death, like razor-sharp icicles growing from a barren wasteland and pointing into sky as cold and lifeless as absolute zero.

And she fainted, and Zero was shoved unceremoniously out of the way as her pulse skyrocketed.

--