So.. Baby time! The moment we've all been waiting for, I believe.

I apologise for my mistakes, I'm not a doctor and I have absolutely no idea about this stuff. So if there's any inaccuracies, sorry.

Also - I love you all for reviewing but please stop trying to guess what's going to happen :P And for those of you who were unsure, Cassie's definitely dead.

Own sod all.

'Oh my God.. Okay.. Frost, grab Maura's bag from under my desk and meet us by the elevator. Korsak, go find Frankie and tell him to call my mother. She wants to be there for this apparently.'

The two men rushed off to do as Jane asked. Maura, on the other hand, was rooted to the spot. She was still bent over, one hand on her vast stomach and the other holding onto Jane's shirt.

'It's okay Maura, come on. Just hold onto me. Come on.' Jane hated to have to force Maura but unless she wanted to give birth in the office, she didn't have much of a choice. Eventually, she guided Maura out to the elevator where Frost was waiting, bag in hand.

'Ready?'

'I think so. She'll be fine, I'll make sure of that.'

Jane had never been so anxious for the lift to arrive since she started working there. Then again, it was the first time she had waited for it with a woman in labour in her arms. She breathed a huge sigh of relief as the doors slid open and the three stepped in, Frost placing himself as far way from them as possible. Jane was stressed and Maura was both crying and covered in amniotic fluid. For him, that really wasn't a good combination. The doors closed in front of them and the elevator began to travel down to the lobby.

Until, between the second and first floor, the lights dimmed and it came to a shuddering halt.

'Jane.. Jane, why have we stopped?'

'Calm down, I'm sure it'll start up again soon.' Jane wished she could convince herself that what she was saying was true. 'Just be patient.'

'I don't have time to be patient. They're not exactly going to hang around in here. I need to be in a hospital, Jane. I can't do this here.'

'Well, it looks like you're going to have to. Sit down, sweetie, come on. Frost, see if you can get through to Korsak or someone. We need to be out of here, now.'

'Jane, there's no signal in here.'

'Crap. The speaker, Frost. Use the button over there to call down. I have to help Maura. Give me her bag, now.'

She practically snatched the bag from his hand and knelt down beside Maura, who was now sitting against the wall of the lift. Her legs were bent up and spread and her dress was hitched up around her waist.

'How you doing there, Maur? You okay?'

The blonde nodded slowly. 'Yeah.. At the moment I am, anyway.'

'Alright sweetie, just hold tight. Everything's going to be fine.'

'Okay, okay. I.. Oww..' Maura winced and rubbed her stomach. 'Contraction.'

'How big?'

'Only a little one. It's okay.'

'Jane,' Frost's voice was tinged with panic. 'I spoke to the operator, they said they're waiting for the engineer but he's been doing a job somewhere else and traffic's really bad. Could take him an hour to get here.'

'An hour? Well, we don't have an hour. I don't know how long these babies intend to hang around in there.'

'Not long,' Maura said, taking a deep breath. 'Judging by the rate and intensity of the contractions, I'd say an hour, maybe two at the maximum. It's highly unusual, particularly for a woman's first child, for the labour to last less than ten hours but they seem to be working pretty quickly.'

'Well, they say it's quicker by tube..'

The two women snapped their heads up to glare at Frost, who was biting his lip.

'Sorry, I lived in London for six months. You kind of have to have experienced their train system to understand that. And, you know, the way the baby was..' He cleared his throat. 'So.. Everything okay down there?'

'Yeah Frost, everything's peachy. Come take a look if you like.'

The man went pale. 'Uh.. No thanks.. I'm good..'

'He's not going to puke, is he?' Maura looked concerned. 'This isn't exactly hygienic anyway, but-'

'Honey, Frost is the least of your problems. Right now, you need to focus on you and the babies.'

Maura nodded and balled her hand into a fist as another contraction rippled through her. This was like a nightmare for her. Usually, everything in her life was perfectly organised. Even when chaos struck her hectic life, there was always some kind of order to it. She made sure of that. Now, the logical, sophisticated Maura Isles was sitting on the floor of an elevator, her legs spread and her body damp with sweat. It had been a while since she had been in that position..

And her friends were dead. Cassandra and James were dead. What would happen to the babies now? Would they go into care? Would they be adopted? God forbid, they would ever go through what she did.

Her trail of thought was broken by another contraction, more painful this time. This wasn't good.

'Jane, I need you to check how dilated I am.'

'Right.. And, uh.. How do I do that?'

'Fingers.'

'You what?' Now it was Jane's turn to go pale. 'You want me to stick my fingers.. Up there?'

'Well, I don't want you to do but I don't think we have any other choice. It's either you or Frost.'

'What a choice.'

'Please Jane, just do it.'

'Okay, okay.' Jane crawled round and placed herself in front of Maura's open legs. 'I can't believe I'm doing this.'

'I really wish you didn't have to. '

'Not more than me. What do the fingers mean?'

'One finger is one centimetre.'

'Then you're about.. Eww… Uh.. Four centimetres..'

'Four?!' Maura couldn't believe what she was hearing. 'No, no, no! I can't be four centimetres already, my waters only broke twenty minutes ago.'

'I take it this is bad?' Frost asked without opening his eyes.

'It's bad. It means that if the engineer doesn't get here in the next half an hour, I'm having these babies right here.'

'Oh.. Yeah, that's bad.'

'Damn right it's bad, Frost. Isn't there anything you can do, Maura?'

'Like what, Jane?'

'I don't know, can't you just cross your legs or something?'

'Yeah, or I could use your hand to plug it up.' Maura retorted sarcastically. 'If you can't say anything useful, then please shut up.'

'Sorry.'

They sat, or in Frost's case, stood, in near silence for nearly two minutes. The only sound was Frost's heavy breathing. He looked like he was about to have a panic attack at any moment. This was clearly not a comfortable situation for him. Jane glanced over at Maura. She couldn't quite determine if the expression on her face was anger, pain or worry. She figured it must be a bit of each. Suddenly, she felt Maura grab her hand and squeeze slightly. It wasn't hard but she could tell by the look on Maura's face that it was more painful than she was letting on.

'Maura, listen to me. I'm going to be right here, okay? If you need to squeeze, hit something, scream, swear, whatever you need to do, I'm right here next to you.'

Maura nodded, catching her breath. 'Thanks.'

'No problem.'

Jane sighed and leant against the opposite wall. They really weren't having a good day.

Twenty five minutes later, they were still in the same position. The only difference now that Maura was much redder in the face and in a lot more pain. Plus Frost felt a little more sick.

'Frost, do you actually intend on doing something useful?' Jane asked, exasperated, as Maura groaned loudly with pain. Frost had spent the past half an hour standing flat to the wall, staring at the metal. He hadn't even dared look at the scene behind him; he didn't want to make matters worse by throwing up or fainting. The most useful thing he had done was to call downstairs three more times to check on the progress of the engineer.

'Not if you want me to stay conscious.'

'Well, you might as well not be, the amount of use you are.'

'Jane, it hurts.'

'I know honey, but you're doing so well. You're fully dilated and everything.'

'No, I can't be. I'm not ready. I can't do it here.' Maura looked ready to burst into tears.

'You can, of course you can.'

'Not now. God, I want to push..'

'Then push.'

'I can't, I'm not..'

'Just one. Do it for me honey. Do it for Cassie and James. Do it for those two little angels in there. Come on, you can do this.'

Maura nodded and, with a very unladylike grunt, pushed hard and squeezed Jane's hand tightly.

'That's it, well done. Can you do that again?'

'Not.. Now.. Need someone else..'

'For what?'

'Someone has to.. Catch the babies.. Need blankets.. Please Jane..'

'Okay honey, hang in there. Frost, you have to help me.'

'I.. I can't, I..'

'You can. Please..'

She looked up at the trembling man, who was still stood facing the wall. Not now, not when she really needed him. She stood up, turned him around, slammed him against the cold metal and slapped him smartly across the face.

'My best friend is about to give birth to twins, twins who now don't have a mother or father. There's no pain relief, no medical equipment and the only person here who knows what to do is trying to push two human beings out of her vagina. Now you get your ass on this floor with us and do something fricking useful. Understand?'

Frost nodded once, his eyes wide, and they both dropped back to the floor.

'Okay Maura, we've got a second pair of hands now. What do we do?'

'I.. Get two blankets..'

Jane grabbed the overnight bag from the corner and rummaged through. 'There isn't a blanket, just your stuff.'

'My pyjama top.. It's way too big for me, it'll work.. One more..'

'Uh..' Jane looked around. 'I don't know.. Frost, take off your jacket..'

'Huh?'

'Your jacket, now!' Jane practically ripped the jacket from his back and folded it roughly. 'This okay?'

Maura nodded. 'Yeah.'

'Good. Now what?'

'Someone.. Someone needs to support the first baby..'

'Frost, you do it.' Jane ordered. The look in her eye took him not to even try to argue and he scrambled round to position himself, kneeling between Maura's legs.

'What do I do?'

'When I.. Push.. You need to wait until you see the head…'

'I think I can do that..'

'Hold the blanket in both hands.. And put your hands out.. You need to support the head and shoulders.. Then when the rest comes out.. Use one hand to support the hips and legs..'

'You sure?'

'Sure?' Maura finally lost the ounce of patience she had left. 'I'm a fricking doctor!'

'Okay, you're sure. Sorry. Whenever you're ready.'

Maura took a deep breath and pushed again; Jane felt every tiny dose of Maura's pain.

'Good girl. One more, honey. One more.'

'I can't,' A tear rolled down Maura's cheek. 'I can't do it. I won't.'

Jane felt tears fill her own eyes but she had to stay calm for Maura. 'Yes, you can. Listen Maura, we're going to get these babies out of you one way or another. If you give up now, fine. I'll just find something to perform a caesarean with. It'll hurt even more, I'll have even less idea what I'm doing and you'll have a big ugly scar to go with your stretch marks but hey ho. Your choice.'

Maura went white, still panting hard as she deliberated. 'I hate you sometimes, you know that?'

'Yeah I know, that's absolutely fine. Now take my hand and squeeze as hard as you need to, okay?'

'Okay..' Maura said between rapid breaths. 'On my next.. Contraction.. I'm going to push..'

'Good girl. You can do this Maura, just keep breathing.'

The blonde nodded and did as she was told, pushing as hard as she could.

'Crap.. Crap, I can see the head.. It's coming..'

Jane grinned at Maura. 'See? You're doing great. One more.'

'God, it's coming.. The head's out..'

'Cord..' Maura panted, not having the energy to finish her sentence.

'Cord?'

'You need to check and see if the cord is round the baby's neck.' Jane amended. Their birthing classes had taught them that.

'Right.. No, it's fine. Keep going.'

'You heard the man, Maur, keep going.'

'I don't want to.'

'Tough. Come on. Just breathe.'

Maura let out a huge scream, which was followed shortly by a tiny crying sound.

'Maura.. Oh sweetie.. It's a girl.. Oh God.. Frost, wrap her up and come over here. I'll take over there. '

The pair swapped places, Frost being careful not to hurt Maura or the baby as he moved. He wrapped her gently in his jacket, not caring so much anymore about the state of it. If anyone had told him a couple of hours ago that by the end of the day he would have helped deliver a baby in an elevator and wrapped it in his $350 jacket, he would have laughed them out of the room.

Jane squatted where Frost had been moments before. 'Well done honey, that was amazing. Just need to get the other one out. You ready?'

A small nod from Maura told her she was and she did exactly as Frost had done. 'If you need to hold something sweetie, grab my shoulder or my hair or something. Just do whatever you need to do, okay?'

'Okay.'

Jane immediately regretted saying that Maura could pull on her hair but she didn't really have much choice. Even if she had, she wasn't going to point out that she had a headache whilst her best friend was screaming in agony.

'That's it Maura, well done. I can feel his head. One last push, sweetie. We just need a really big one, give it all you've got.'

Maura regained her breath and, with one , excruciating push, delivered a little boy into the world.

'Oh.. Wow.. He's here, Maur, they're both here.. You did it..' Jane blinked away a tear as she held the tiny boy close to her chest. 'Hang on..'

'Hang on what?' Frost was immediately concerned. 'What's wrong?'

'Frost, he's not breathing.'

'Rub him..' Maura managed to force out, despite her exhaustion. 'Rub him dry.. Make him warm..'

Jane nodded and did as Maura said, doing everything she could to make him warm. After the tensest thirty seconds of her life, another small cry filled the room.

'Yes.. He's breathing, Maur, he's crying.. It's okay.. He's okay.. You want to hold him?'

Maura was about to reply when the lift juddered again. The lights snapped back on and, without warning, they began to move down. No one said a word, just simply smiled with relief. Eventually, the doors slid open to reveal Korsak, Angela, two maintenance men, a couple of paramedics, and several officers including Frankie. All of them gaped at the sight before them.

'Wow..' Korsak said quietly. 'I'm definitely taking the stairs from now on..'