A/N - Hello everybody! I see I have a couple of lurkers. Welcome, come on in! Leave me some reviews, I'll love ya forever. -A/N

If Spot or Declan didn't leave I was going to kill one of them. They stood on either side of the bed, casting hard looks at each other while holding on to either of my hands and giving me advice that didn't help.

Finally, after five hours, I ripped my hands away after a contraction and bit both of their heads off. Spot just smiled and pushed a lock of sweaty hair out of my face while Declan looked affronted and excused himself.

Heaving out a huge breath, I lay back on the pile of pillows behind me and closed my eyes. Spot laced his fingers with mine, and I opened my eyes and looked down at our hands to see the nail marks I had left on his.

"Spot I'm sorry, the midwife can tie a sheet to the bedpost and I can yank on that..."

"No, it's nothing. What's a little discomfort compared to what you're going through?" I blinked and looked hard at him. This was a new Spot I hadn't seen before. True, he had always had his moments where he could be sweet but he was actually being considerate and kind instead of his normal abrasive nature.

"What's the big idea? You're acting funny." Spot let out a half-laugh and rubbed a bruised hand over his bruised face. Leaning close, he put his head next to mine and looked me in the eyes.

"All I've ever wanted since I was a kid was a family of my own. When I joined the Brooklyn newsies and then became their leader, it was like having a family. I thought I was going to start one with Cinder. But then you came along and planted your stubborn ass right in my way and wouldn't let me go around you. Now I'm getting what I've always wanted. My own family."

I felt my eyes well up with tears and bit my lower lip as one escaped and slid down my cheek. Spot caught it and wiped it away with his thumb and then kissed me.

"I love you Riot. There's no Pixie, there never was any Pixie, it's always been you."

"Ye have a funny way of showing that, lad." Declan came back in, his face stormy. Taking his seat back at my other side, he crossed his arms and glared at Spot.

"Fuck you Irishman. None of this would have happened if I hadn't taken your deal." Declan laughed and spread his arms wide, as if he was challenging Spot.

"She already knows I facilitated the whole thing laddie, so yap away it makes no difference. I've been here these past two months and where have you been? In Brooklyn with your whore."

"She was just a front..."

"So you didn't sleep with her?"

My eyes shot to over to Spot, who had risen, his fists clenched, jaw a rock. He looked down at me and I stared into those ice blue depths trying to catch the lie but if he did than he was a master liar indeed.

"I slept in the same bed as her, but I never touched her." Declan let out a short bark of incredulous laughter.

"You're a liar."

"It's the truth."

"I don't believe it, and neither does she." Spot looked at me again and I looked away, still not sure if I believed him or not. He took my chin in his hand and made me look at him.

"Riot it's the truth." I stared at him than nodded minutely. He must have felt it because he let my chin go and relaxed. Declan looked down at me, a wounded expression on his face.

"Don't tell me you believe the wee pup?"

"Declan now is really not the TIME!" I screeched as another contraction hit. Writhing on the bed in pain I wished to be in the modern world where there were magical things like epidurals. I had clutched onto Declan for that one, and he eased me back when it was through, stroking my hair and murmuring to me in Gaelic.

"Anois, anois beag amháin calma síos mo ghrá" he said softly into my ear which eased me somewhat. I didn't know what it was but hearing Gaelic was so soothing. Spot smoothed hair away from my face.

"Tá mé ag fanacht, beidh mé leat i gcónaí. Is breá liom tú." Then he leaned forward and kissed my tensed lips. I watched the two men square off over me then Spot stuck out his hand.

"This isn't the place to have our fight Declan. We can settle this later. Right now she needs us and it's only going to get worse. Can you put it aside for now?" Declan's eyes were dark blue flinty sparks in his face but he nodded shortly and shook Spot's hand briefly. I let out a sigh of relief and fell into a fitful sleep that I kept being awoken from by contractions. I slipped under one more blessed time, exhausted.

I was awoken not long after by an excruciating pain that had me hollering and the midwife between my legs, clucking with her lips pursed.

"You're not quite ready to start pushing my dear, but you're close enough. This is one of the quickest births I've been to."

"What time is it?" I rasped out, my throat screaming for some water. A glass was thrust into my hand and Spot was there, his eyes showing the first signs of panic as he watched me gulp down the water and collapse back onto the bed, drenched in sweat.

"You've been at it for ten hours now. Aren't they going to come soon?" Spot demanded of the midwife. She gave him a disapproving frown and dismissed him like one would an insect.

"This is why I don't like the father's to be present at the birth. You should really go wait in the other room. Once she starts to push she's not going to want to see your face anyways." I blinked then cast back through my memories of stories I had heard of my mother's friends giving birth. They had all laughed about how they had hurled abuse at their husbands and told them awful things right before the baby was born. Did that mean the pain was going to get worse?

I was answered by a contraction that had my spine bending, a scream ripping through the air. I had never felt pain like this. Spot still stood at my side, I had no idea where Declan was but Spot was actually standing there wringing his hands. For once there was nothing he could do to help the situation.

My contractions started coming harder and closer together. The midwife checked me again and pronounced me ready to start pushing. She instructed me to bend my knees and pull them back to my chest as far as I could.

"I'll do whatever you want, just get these kids out of me!" I yelled at her. She just calmly smiled and when the next contraction came, she told me to push for all I was worth. I pushed until I saw black spots swimming past my closed eyes.

"You're doing great mo ghrá, keep it up!" I shot Spot a look of such malevolence that he stepped back and made the sign of the Cross.

"You are never touching me AGAIN!" I shrieked as another contraction came and I pushed again. The midwife told me she could see a head, and that gave me an extra boost of energy to fight through the pain and push harder and she suddenly held up a wailing baby covered in whitish goo. Handing the baby over to her apprentice, the midwife spoke calmly and lowly to me telling me that my job wasn't over.

A couple more marathon pushes and a smaller goo covered baby emerged, followed by the after birth. Both babies cried lustily as they were bathed and cleaned then swaddled and brought over to where I lay in a stupor. I had done it. I had given birth to two babies in nineteenth century New York City and lived.

"You have a boy and a girl," the midwife told me proudly. I gave her a weak smile, and then beamed up at Spot who seemed to be in shock.

"Spot come say hello to Maureen Rose and Liam Brendan." I saw Spot give a start, then he was at the bed in an instant, slanting his mouth over mine despite the squawks of the babies and my sweaty disheveled appearance.

"You remembered what I wanted to name them," He said roughly when he pulled away. Then he looked down at the two bundles and held a finger out to Maureen who grasped onto it weakly. I thought I saw tears in his eyes as he swallowed hard and looked at me.

"You and the babies are going to stay here in the Points until I get Paternelli his money. Declan will watch over you. I'll have a guy watching you all the time as well. I'll see you as much as I can but it's going to take another month or two." I felt my heart sink and I pulled the babies closer.

They had whorls of dark hair that would probably turn reddish like mine and the blue eyes most babies were born with, but I bet that they would have their father's eyes. So Spot was abandoning me again.

"What happened to I love you, and I'm never leaving you?"

"I do love you and I'm only leaving you to get the money so we can live without fear. If I don't do this we'll always be looking over our shoulder's. I don't want that for you, and for them."

"Fine Spot go. Declan will watch out for me, like he has been. We'll be fine." Spot's mouth thinned and I saw fire leap in his blue eyes. He took my chin and kissed me hard enough to leave a bruise or two.

"You are not Declan's, and you are NEVER going to be Declan's. Don't forget that Riot. Don't even try to play that game. Not with me. I know it was wrong for me to do it to you and for that I'm sorry but it was for your own good. This...this isn't for anyone's good except to protect you. That's the ONLY reason I'm leaving you here with HIM."

I wanted to fight. If I had been able, I would have leapt up and gotten into his face but as it was I was fairly certain I couldn't even stand.

Spot turned to go, then came back and kissed each baby on their foreheads and inhaled their scent before sliding a hand behind my neck and kissing me again quite thoroughly.

"You're mine mo ghrá, don't you ever forget it." Then he was gone, limping out the door still hurting from his injuries gained from the fighting at the docks for money.

Declan reappeared from wherever he had been during the birth the moment Spot was gone. He looked down at me and gave me a gentle smile.

"Ye have two beautiful babes there lass. What did ye name them?"

"Maureen and Liam."

"Ah good Irish names too! Excellent. Now we need to be doing something about changing the bed sheets." I looked at him and nodded. I was still upset about Spot. Declan deftly took each baby from me and put them in one of two cradles we had acquired then helped me stand up.

Sitting me down on a chair, he took the sheets and with a grimace just threw them into the fire. Then he put fresh ones down and left the room. When he came back in he had a wash basin filled with water and some cloths along with a fresh nightgown over one arm. When I blinked back tears at him, he laughed.

"I have six sisters, Lily. I've seen a birth or two. I'm sure the babes will be fine while you wash yourself and get changed." Then he respectfully left the room. I took my time for I hurt like a bastard but I was finally clean, resolving to wash my hair the next day. Then I looked down at my two babies and finally did cry. Picking them up out of their cradles I unwound the swaddling cloths and examined them.

Maureen was smaller, but they both looked happy and healthy. I wrapped them back up and fed them, sitting on the floor crooning a wordless lullaby. That was how Declan found me when he came back into the room.

Sitting in a chair, he watched me until I was done then helped me back into the bed. When he yanked off his shirt and boots and got into the bed next to me, I didn't say anything, just rolled onto my side and blew out the candle on my end table. Thus began my first night with not one but two newborns.

I was not prepared for the fact that they would wake up almost every hour on the hour. I found myself stumbling from the bed like a zombie fumbling with the laces at my throat to bare a breast for first one then the other more times than I could count.

But there was one time when I awoke to crying when I sighed deeply and was about to mindlessly get up when I heard the crying stop. Peering through the darkness, I felt tears gather in my eyes when I saw one of the babies tiny bodies being cradled against Declan's solid chest.

He was whispering to it in Gaelic, and humming a tune that I knew but just couldn't put my finger on. Wiping a tear away, I slid back into bed slowly not wanting to break the moment between man and infant.

I felt when he got back into bed, and I felt him tenatively curl an arm around my side and pull me towards him I pretended to be asleep and let it happen. I lay awake so confused about these feelings I was having. I still didn't know why Declan hadn't been there for the birth but seeing him with one of the infants right now made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside towards him.

Shit. I couldn't like both Declan AND Spot. That would end badly. And who would I choose? The man who was getting beaten every night for money so that his family could live in safety or the man who was watching over this other man's family and inserting himself into the role of protector and provider.

So I lay against Declan's side, feeling him breathe in and out and didn't sleep at all. The next morning he left on 'IRA' business and gave me a kiss on the cheek after kissing the babies and told me Old Maggie would be helping me around the house today. I barely heard him. I had to choose and I had to choose soon.

IRISH TRANSLATIONS (I use an online translator so if it's wrong, I apologize in advance)

mo ghrá - My love

Tá mé ag fanacht, beidh mé leat i gcónaí. Is breá liom tú. - I'm staying and I always will. I love you.

Anois, anois beag amháin calma síos mo ghrá - Now, now just calm down a little my love

SHOUT OUTS

LvSingWrite - Yay here are the babies! Yeah Spot can be stupid, but hey he's a guy. *grin* I hope you had fun on your Newsie weekend!