The royal wedding was the biggest event in almost 20 years, at least to the general population of Arendelle. It was a once in a lifetime event that would make up for decades of waiting, and it would be a landmark day in the kingdom's history.

For those actually participating in it, however, it was merely the quickest and most expensive vow renewal of all time.

But after months of keeping the early start of their marriage – and their family – a secret, Elsa and Robert got married all over again, with all but five other people none the wiser. If anything else, giving Arendelle, its people and its decorators a wedding for their troubles – no matter how pointless it was – eased their consciences a little bit.

Elsa could wear the snow white and blue dress she couldn't sneak away with during the secret wedding. Robert would be officially recognized as the new King Consort of Arendelle, after actually warming up at the job. Anna and Kristoff could give the couple away in front of everyone, while Joan and Christian would get a second crack at being ring bearers, and the bishop would say his lovely words to more than six people.

Elsa and Robert probably should have changed their vows, but they felt lazy for once. Besides, saying those lovely words again for all of Arendelle to hear – with the fresh and private new context of having a baby on the way this time – was a good excuse for laziness. Besides, Anna cried just as much hearing them the second time.

They still had to endure a day-long ball and party afterward, instead of going back to sleep privately. But at least when they woke up the next morning, they could go on a honeymoon instead of right back to work. That was long overdue.

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Since they had two weddings, the royal couple figured it was okay to hold the honeymoon in two locations. First, they would spend four days at Elsa's ice palace – which now had the utilities and supplies for people to actually live in for more than a day.

Elsa still wasn't sure if Robert could stand the cold for that long. So Robert compromised from the original six-day plan, just to ease her worries. It seemed like as good a start and a sign for their marriage as any – other than the secret baby.

The second leg of the honeymoon wasn't on a palace, a mountain or anything else on land. It was more like a cruise, as the royal couple took the biggest boat in the kingdom and were taken through the ocean for a week. In that case, Elsa's ability to survive the conditions was the big concern.

When she made the arrangements, she figured having part of the honeymoon at sea would be the ultimate way to erase….other things the sea did. That was before she knew she'd be out to sea for two, though. But it was too late and they were too distracted to make other plans by then, so they were stuck in the ocean.

After two days, however, Elsa stopped worrying they'd never come back. At least as much.

On the third night, when she and Robert laid together on the deck and saw how wide awake the sky was, the worrying was down to 10 percent.

By the fourth night, they even blocked out that there were other people on the boat. And when the fifth night finally brought an actual storm, Elsa only let out a few accidental flurries, and no icicles. The sixth day was just one of pure celebration.

And on the seventh day, the Queen and her husband returned home to the rest of their family. They were on a honeymoon high, Robert was rested enough to officially begin his new duties, and Elsa could still get away with 'just finding out' she was pregnant in two weeks.

As far as the beginning of marriages that really started months ago went, this one had to be among the best.

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The announcement of the royal baby came 10 days after the honeymoon ended. Ironically, everyone was too pleased by how fast the news came to question….whether it happened any earlier. Nevertheless, it wouldn't be long until Elsa started showing earlier than most expected.

Luckily, the strategy the royal family had used so far still held up. Elsa kept standing behind every shoulder high item she could, although people were taking more looks at her stomach now. When Elsa had morning sickness and other symptoms, she didn't have to lie about it. When she finally started showing, she got away with taking a few days off first.

Since Elsa was four months pregnant when she started showing – when everyone else thought she was two months pregnant – the task got a might harder. Nevertheless, Elsa's history of reclusive behavior was finally good for something.

On the tougher days, Elsa stayed in bed and behind the covers when she had to take very important meetings. Robert was allowed to conduct business, since he had to start learning anyway. On the days Elsa couldn't show herself, Anna was actually the one showing Robert the ropes in meetings.

Not seeing that was one of the biggest regrets in Elsa's life.

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Five months into the pregnancy – three months to the rest of Arendelle – Elsa saw the only physician they could trust with the truth. Anna waited outside his office, in wait to gossip and squeal over whatever new information came out.

There were at least two big questions she hoped Elsa would be brave enough to ask soon. Of course, modern human doctors likely had no way to answer one of them.

But soon enough, the door opened and Anna got up, ready to cheer for whatever Elsa did find out. However, one look at Elsa wiped the pre-emptive cheer from Anna's face.

Elsa wasn't sad or angry. She was just blank faced. Like she would be at a regular old ball. Like she would be when a meeting was taking too long. Like she was in the brief moments Anna saw her during the isolation. Not one of those memories boded well.

"Elsa?" Anna asked carefully.

"Get Robert and get a sled ready. We're going to see the trolls," Elsa said plainly.

"What?!" Anna asked less carefully. "You're doing that now? Are you telling me you want to know….you want to know now?" she repeated. "What did the human doctor tell you?"

"We hired him to keep secrets. If he told one to you, that would discredit him, wouldn't it?" Elsa pointed out. "We don't need that right now."

"Why does he have to keep secrets from me? Why bring Robert along? Does he get to know more things?" Anna wondered.

"You'll both know everything in time. But I can't deal with you knowing on the way there," Elsa stressed. "I need to see them before I say or do anything. And I know I can't get away with doing it without you two. So just meet me halfway, get Robert and come with me in peace. Please."

Elsa's voice didn't break until the very last word. If this was just an ordinary thing Elsa wanted to hide, it wouldn't have broken at all. And she certainly wouldn't have invited anyone else to come with her. But maybe it was just because she couldn't walk miles on end to mountains and trolls at her age.

Yet Anna wasn't comfortable taking that chance.

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As requested, Anna got Robert, got a sled set up and rode it with him and Elsa to the trolls. She only had to make Robert stop asking Elsa what was wrong twice during the ride. She only stopped herself from asking eight times.

When they got to the edge of the Valley, Elsa insisted she had to go on alone. She quickly promised her husband and sister she would explain it all after she got back and "knew everything." She said it before Anna and Robert could object, then left right before they could work out their next questions – clearly having planned this out perfectly and quietly in the sled ride.

Resigned to staying on pins and needles, Anna and Robert sat on the sled, waiting around for their loved one to come back. They tired listening in for the troll's usual loud greetings and songs, but they couldn't even hear that. They were certainly close enough, so if Elsa didn't even let them do that….

"Ice powers. This is about ice powers, right?" Robert guessed. "Human doctors can't tell her if the baby has…..so she's going to them. Right?"

"That would make sense," Anna agreed. "But I thought she was more okay with it now. Plus she could have asked the trolls about it any time! Why do it now after seeing the doctor? Why not after the other times she saw him?"

"Maybe she got new information," Robert offered.

"But what information would make her do this? Does it sound like good news to you so far?" Anna asked.

"Not particularly," Robert answered. "But maybe she doesn't want to get our hopes up. Not until the trolls confirm it."

"Why does she need them to confirm good news? We've only seen them to learn about magic stuff! And when Kristoff needs troll family time, and to get tips on how to bathe Christian! He's not due to bathe for two more days, so what does that tell you?" Anna wondered.

"Little that's relevant," Robert said. "Maybe she's having twins. Maybe she needs them to double check. That could make her worried enough, wouldn't it? Or she wouldn't want to get our hopes up that high before making sure!"

"She wouldn't want to get my hopes up like that, that's for sure," Anna conceded. "But she couldn't hide it from me that well. She never hides anything good when she does it that well. I have decades of proof for that!"

"And I just have three years with her. Message received," Robert let out.

"No, no, I just screwed up the translation, that's all!" Anna backtracked. "Sorry, being cynical really doesn't suit me! Just trying to get ready for the worst this time, that's all! That usually happens when we come here. At least when Kristoff's not here."

"You're right, it doesn't suit you well," Robert cut her off out of necessity.

"Yeah, so don't listen to me! I don't know how you did it at the meetings, really!" Anna laughed off with too much effort. "The one time someone listens to me in there, huh?"

Playfully bashing herself could only go so far, though. When that ran its course, Anna sat down and sighed, trying not to think about the trolls giving very bad news again. News Elsa might be expecting and praying not to hear, for all she knew.

Robert could only sit next to her, since looking on the bright side didn't work. Worrying himself to death wasn't worth Anna balancing it out by being cheery again. The most stable way he could lift his sister-in-law's spirits was to take her hand, and let her rest her head on his shoulder.

Anna didn't trust herself to ramble, whether it cheered herself up or bummed her out. It was times like this where she'd go to her sister, or her husband, to save her from her own thoughts. She was still getting used to having a brother – in law or not - as an option.

It was a real nice option to have right now, though.

Anna had no family for longer than she cared to reflect on – especially at this moment, for many reasons. She liked welcoming new members into her family, including the person next to her now.

She really didn't want him to be the last new member for a while. For Elsa's sake even more than her own. If that was even a possibility….

Yeah, being negative really didn't work for her.

Anna turned her brain off, which was harder than some snarky people would think. She and Robert waited and waited for Elsa to come back, hating the silence but not having any good ideas on how to break it.

At long last, Elsa bailed them out from trying.

Once Robert saw her coming, she and Anna dashed out of the sled before they could get a good look at her. "So? Do we have a Snow Prince or Princess?" Anna asked in a hurry.

At that point, she saw what Robert now saw. An Elsa with a few more cracks in her blank face. Yet she spoke up quicker than before.

"They don't know if it's….inherited anything yet. They think it's 'very likely' right now. But they can't be 100 percent sure," Elsa said. "They were 100 percent sure about something. Just like the doctor."

"What did they all tell you?" Robert asked, not willing to take silence for an answer now.

"At my age, with my powers, the doctor….warned me things might get rough. So I need to be extra careful delivering this baby. Especially…." Elsa bit her lip and closed her eyes. "That's the other thing I needed the trolls to confirm. And they did."

"How did they scare you this time?" Anna said more bitterly than she wanted to. Before she could apologize, Elsa answered her.

"They said I could never have another baby."

Even a cynical Anna didn't think of that one.

A more hopeful Robert tried to think of better things to say. "Well….that doctor's never treated a pregnant woman with ice powers, right? And the trolls don't have a medical license, right? So what do they know? And shouldn't you know better than to trust them and their cryptic words?"

"That's why I saw the doctor first. And why I made sure the trolls said very clear words," Elsa informed. "And they did."

"Why didn't they say good clear words?" Anna spoke up. "What did they say, exactly?"

"The doctor said delivering my first baby, at my age, could be complicated. Combine it with my powers…." Elsa left hanging. "He did say we should make it if we're careful. But if I tried again after that, I probably wouldn't make it. The trolls took the probably out of it."

"But the baby you have now is fine? And you're fine?" Robert had to be sure.

"Physically, we are for now. The rest of it…." Elsa sighed. "I can't let it matter now. This has to go perfectly. It's the only chance I have."

"You don't know that!" Anna tried to encourage.

"What I knew was that it'd take me a year or two to be a real mother," Elsa started. "When I had it figured out, I knew I'd be ready to try again. If I was going to be a mother, then I only wanted to do it twice. Not once. Twice was perfect."

"Why?" Anna wondered.

"Anna, look at us. Us and our husbands have our royal duties. Joan's starting a whole new life soon. Christian's going to grow up before we know it. If we're not around as much as we want to be….who will be there for the baby when it's older? I mean, really there for it? Who will follow it and play with it and love it unconditionally, when we can't? Like…."

Once Anna read between the lines, she instantly knew everything. And it hurt her to know, albeit not as much as it must hurt Elsa.

"You wanted the baby to have a sibling. Like you have," Robert said out loud. "So now…."

"I can never give my baby an Anna," Elsa began to cry. "Or a Joan. Or a Christian. I can't give it a best friend."

"Then we'll get one from the orphanage! When you're ready!" Anna offered.

"It's not the same," Elsa discounted.

"So you can't love an adopted baby the same? We've spent too much time visiting orphans for you to say that," Anna warned.

"If you couldn't give birth to another baby after Joan, and Christian was adopted, how would you feel?" Elsa proposed. "You'd still love him just the same, I know. But he and Joan wouldn't be blood. They'd have to work on having a connection. As strong as it might become, it just wouldn't be the same. Not in that….special way that you and I know. That your children know."

"I guess I can see that," Anna conceded.

"I wanted to give that to my children. I wanted my first baby to have everything I had. Including someone like you. Only he or she would never lose that for any reason," Elsa vowed. "And now I can't do it. Even adopting can't fix that."

"We have more than enough love left over for one baby," Robert assured her. But it wasn't enough.

"They said if I had my first child 10 or 15 years ago, I could stand having a second by now," Elsa revealed. "I waited too long. That's how it went wrong."

"How should we interpret that?" Robert asked very carefully.

"I put off finding a suitor time and again. I put off hoping for a child time and again. I thought it didn't make a difference in the end. But it did. It really did," Elsa admitted. "I'm going to make another innocent child grow up without a sibling. Without a best friend to play with all the time. All because of me…."

She looked down at her growing stomach and told it, "You're not even born yet and I already failed you. I've already failed you for years. I'm so sorry, baby…."

"Don't you say that to your child."

That wasn't her stomach talking like Anna. Anna made that clear when she marched up and made Elsa look at her.

"You're not going to fail it. That's just not you. And why are you acting like we're gonna leave it alone?" Anna questioned. "And for the record? Just because you're blood, it doesn't automatically make you family. It didn't for us for a while. And just because you aren't blood, it doesn't mean you can't be family. If I'm wrong, Robert and Kristoff wouldn't be with us, would they?"

Robert put his arm around Elsa to back her up, knowing it'd be useless to get actual words in over Anna.

"If having two kids is that important to you, we'll deal with it when we have to. Right now, let's just get this baby here so you can give it all the love in the world," Anna stated.

"What if it's not enough? What if I'm too old, too busy and too…." Elsa trailed off.

"In the really impossible event that you're right? That's when you stop feeling sorry for yourself and ask for help. I thought you figured that out by now," Anna pointed out. "And if it means that much to you, I can be its big big big sister and its aunt too! It'd be a nice change of pace, really."

"Anna…." was all Elsa had.

"Elsa. You're not going to let your child be alone. We won't let you. You won't let you. No matter what your body can or can't do," Anna explained. "And do you really think I'd let that happen to my niece or nephew? What do you take me for?"

Now it was Anna's turn to pause and feel emotional. "I'm going to be that baby's perfect big sister/aunt. I have to be. I'm going to do….what you've done for my daughter every day of her life. What you've done for my son," she wiped a tear. "What you've done to show me how to be a mother."

Elsa couldn't help but feel it was already the other way around.

"I've waited 17 years to repay you for that. It's longer than I waited at your door, and that paid off eventually! So this will too!" Anna promised. "Sorry to get selfish, but that's how I feel. I'm gonna be great Aunt Anna, you're gonna be perfect Mama Elsa, Robert will get being a papa right at some point, and that's just how it's going to be. The rest will work itself out then."

"You believe that?" Elsa asked with more curiosity than despair.

"Belief got us this far, didn't it?" Anna reminded. "We didn't have enough of it for about 20 years. But we've done pretty good with it in the last 20, so we're even." She perceptively glared at Elsa and asked, "So how do you wanna handle the next 20?"

In lue of letting Elsa answer it now, Anna took her hand, laid her other one on Elsa's stomach and said, "Why don't we get everyone home for starters?"

Elsa silently agreed, climbing back into the sled with her sister and husband. Her husband sat next to her, making her comfortable while looking back at his sister-in-law.

Being royalty was far from the biggest thing Robert could learn from Anna. Others might think that in terms of mocking Anna's style of royalty. But not Robert – now or ever.

It wasn't just for his or Elsa's sake that he hoped to see great Aunt Anna soon.

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That night, Elsa had some quality alone time with her baby in her bedroom, once her husband got to sleep.

She stared at her stomach, thinking of what it already had, and what it might never have. What she couldn't give it, what she could have given it years ago and didn't, and what it cost her to wait so long for this.

Waiting long enough to find the right man. Not just to find the right political alliance.

Waiting long enough to see what raising and caring for a child – two of them – was really all about.

Waiting long enough that she barely thought about having a "very likely" magical child. She could have never imagined that back in the day.

Waiting long enough to be ready and willing to put up a fight for her loved ones, instead of locking herself away. She'd probably have to stay in her room soon anyway – but out of comfort and with family, not out of fear and isolation.

Waiting long enough to be rid of any fear that would come between her and her baby. And get rid of any impulse that would keep its other loved ones away too.

"You will never, ever be alone," Elsa whispered to her son or daughter.

But even then, Elsa couldn't stop thinking about how part of it was a lie.

She would never give birth to someone who would follow her first baby around like a tornado. Who would beg and plead to play until it finally got its way. Who made her first baby feel like more than just a title, or a freak, or an outsider to humanity. Who taught it everything it would know about pure, unconditional, logic defying love.

Who still kept doing it 38 years later.

Elsa's mother didn't do everything right, but she still gave Elsa the greatest gift anyone could ever give her. A gift that would save a kingdom and Elsa's own soul, and give her a new family of her own.

Yet for all she didn't do right then, and wouldn't do right later…..Elsa could never give her child that same gift. Not in the same way – and she couldn't even try.

In that case, there was only one option. She'd just have to give the kid everything else in the world.

Most of what it would need was sleeping in various bedrooms around here anyway. Including this one.

"You will never be alone," Elsa repeated. This time, it soothed her enough to make her kiss her hand, put it on her stomach and close her eyes.

That night, Elsa dreamed of her future family. In there, having only one little member wasn't bad at all.