Matthew was happy he wouldn't ever know what it was like to give birth. The whole process just seemed painful as hell and he didn't like the idea of c-sections any better. He wasn't sure why he was allowed into the delivery room this time and not when the twins were born, but he assumed it had something to do with the medical complications he'd been told about. He'd left Selene and Brittany with Alfred, Francis, Lovino, Severus and Abelia. As always, Severus was more worried about his mother than anything else. He didn't care that he was about to get another younger sibling. Well, he did, but his concern for his mother overshadowed that excitement.

Maybe he had a reason to be concerned.

"Something's wrong. We need to do a C-section."

His eyes widened and he pulled himself out of his train of thought, staring at the doctors. "Seriously?"

The doctor barely kept himself from rolling his eyes. "Yes sir, seriously. The problem is much more serious than we thought before-"

"Do whatever you have to do, just get the damn child out of me." Maddy hissed. "This hurts."

Matthew sighed. Apparently childbirth didn't count as a reason for her to tone down the sass for once. Although, from what he'd gathered from her previous pregnancies, childbirth hurt. A lot, even when you had medication. The doctor didn't seem to mind the interruption, maybe he got that a lot from pregnant women. He nodded. "Bring the spinal block and the-" Matthew tuned the rest out. He tried to move his hand, but he was pretty sure the woman in front of him had cut off circulation. They'd let him in and he'd immediately come over to her, slipping his hand into hers. She hadn't fought it like he'd thought she would, she'd just started squeezing it like she was glad he was there. He hoped that's what it had meant anyway.

"Sir, we're about to inject the spinal block and the numbing agent. You're aware that this will make her extremely… loopy?"

He looked up. He'd been lost in thought again. "Alright."

The solutions were injected and they began making the incision. Matthew looked away. It wasn't that he couldn't handle blood, he could, but somehow this felt different. Probably because the person they were cutting open had a more personal connection to him. "What are they doing?" He looked back. Apparently, even being injected with things that were supposed to make her loopy didn't dampen Maddy's morbid curiosity. He steeled himself and looked again. "They're cutting you open and pulling your guts out." It reminded him of a zombie show.

"Cool!"

He shook his head even though she wasn't paying attention to him. "No, not cool. Gross and reminiscent of a zombie mob eating someone alive."

The drugs started to take affect. She leaned back and stared at the ceiling, muttering something about it being rainbow-y. He looked over again, blood and guts were everywhere. Where was this child? They needed to get it out so they could put everything back in soon. Cries and screams filled the air and the child was lifted out, covered in blood. They cut the umbilical cord and a nurse carried the child away. The doctor and other nurses began shoving everything back in and for a second, Matthew thought he was going to puke. "Ma'am, can you wiggle your toes?"

She wasn't paying attention. "Hey." He gently nudged her shoulder. She looked at him questioningly. "They want you to wiggle your toes."

Her jaw dropped, her eyes widened and she stared at him like he'd just revealed the purpose of life. "I have toes?" She asked quietly. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yes, you have toes."

"Sir, you need to leave now. We have to finish getting everything back into place and sew her up. We'll send someone to get you when you can see her."

"Okay." He turned to walk out of the room, but a hand had latched onto his own.

"Noo! Don't leave me!"

He turned and stared at her. Even when they'd been together, she'd not once begged him not to leave her alone. His heart broke a little. "I have to."

She shook her head stubbornly. "No. Stay."

"Ma'am, he can't be in here right now."

"I'm not a 'ma'am.' I'm not old enough to be a 'ma'am.'"

He crouched down and patted her hand gently. "I'll be back soon, okay?"

Her eyes narrowed at him, as if she didn't believe him. "Promise?"

His heart broke even more, but he nodded. "Promise."

She released her hold on him and he stood up again, blinking back tears. In the waiting room, he wiped at his face, hoping he wasn't crying. Severus noticed him first and ran up to him. "What happened? Is mom okay?" Apparently, he didn't look quite as nonchalant as he'd hoped he did. "She's fine. Don't worry."

Alfred came over, Brittany latched onto one of his legs. "Are you okay bro?"

He nodded. "I'm fine. Just some stuff got said."

Al gave him an apprehensive look. "Like.. bad stuff?"

Matthew shook his head. "Just some stuff. I'll tell you later." Selene had scurried up to her father, staring at him imploringly with her red eyes. "Are you okay, daddy?" He sniffed and ruffled her hair. "I'm fine. Let's sit down, okay? The doctors won't let any of us see your mom yet." They crossed the waiting room and sat down, some of the tension went out of the group, but not quite enough to make the wait enjoyable.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Hm?" He raised his head and looked to who had spoken.

Lovino raised an eyebrow at him before repeating himself, "Are you sure you're okay?"

Matthew sent him a small smile and nodded. "I'm fine." They'd become something that almost resembled friends since this whole thing had started. "Watching the c-section was awful though. It was gross."

The italian smiled, just slightly. "I imagine so." He bounced Abelia on his knee and she grasped at the front of his shirt. Much like her older siblings, she was developing faster than a normal child, due to being half immortal. It wasn't fast enough to create a huge difference between her and her peers, but it was enough.

"Dad!" Matthew's head snapped to the right, worried that one of his children had gotten hurt. Selene ran up to him. "Did you really have to watch mom get cut open?"

He frowned. "Who told you about that?"

Her eyes lit up. "Uncle Alfred! I heard you talk about a c-section, but I didn't know what that was so I asked him and he told that the doctors had to cut mom open to get the baby out!" Matthew sent his brother an annoyed look over his daughter's head. "Wouldn't that kill mom? Is mom dead!?"

He sighed. He was already getting a headache. "No, your mother's not dead. The doctors are specially trained to cut open women and take babies out of them if medical issues determine that they need to."

Most of the concern vanished from Selene's face. "So... she's just.. Tired? Hurt? Does she have a nifty looking scar?"

"Yes, she's tired and hurt. She'll definitely have a scar because they had to cut deep enough to pull her intestines and things out."

Selene turned and ran back to her older brother and uncle. "Don't worry Sev, dad says mom's fine!"

"Alfred, stop scaring the children!"

"I wasn't trying to! I was just answering their questions!"

"Well.. stop." Matthew muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose again. "Next time, I'll make you explain to them that their mother isn't dead." He cursed softly in french, his patience wearing thin and his fatigue finally catching up with him.

A very horrified, very french gasp sounded from a couple feet in front of him. "Mathieu! Not in front of the children!"

He looked up at his father and scowled. "They can't understand me." He was teaching his children french, of course he was, but he wasn't stupid. He hadn't taught them curses and he didn't plan to. Knowing who their mother was though, they'd learn them at some point when they were older. Suddenly, a doctor appeared and ushered them into the hospital room. A nurse had just handed the tiny baby to Maddy and she was looking at him lovingly. Matthew's heart constricted just a bit. He remembered when she'd looked at him like that. He walked to the side of the bed. "You okay?" She nodded and handed the child to him. She yawned. "The doctor says it's a boy." Brittany had pushed her way to the bedside and was watching the tiny bundle carefully. Abelia followed her. "He looks kinda funny." The brunette girl stated. Brittany sent her a dirty look. "He's a baby! I'm sure you looked funny when you were a baby!"

"Hey, don't fight around your baby brother. It'll upset him." Maddy chided them gently, her eyelids drooping. She yawned again. "I will say one thing about c-sections and that is that they feel extremely weird. I never want to have my guts shoved back into my body ever again."

"Momma, can I see your scar?" Severus asked, carefully climbing onto the bed.

"Me too! I wanna see it too!" Selene chanted, climbing up after her brother.

"Well, it's not a scar yet, but you can see where they stitched me up." She showed them the wound, which was still red around the edges. "See? When they take the stitches out, we'll be able to see where the holes were."

"Oooh!" The two children were soon enamored with the wound. Matthew sighed. That just meant their mother's morbidness had been passed down to them. He wondered how long it would be before he heard about being eaten alive again. "Hey." He snapped himself out of his train of thought and sent his ex a questioning look. "What name were you thinking?"

"You're not deciding the name together?" Francis asked, sending both of them a confused and slightly disapproving look.

They both shook their heads. "I was thinking Christopher." Matthew mumbled, looking at the floor. For some reason, he had a very bad feeling about suggesting the name. "I like it." Came the quiet reply. He looked up and found Maddy smiling softly at thier son. He suddenly felt like someone was squeezing his heart in a fist. Keep it together.

"The doctor says you're going to have to stay here for a few days, Ragazza." Lovino commented, Abelia clinging to his leg like a koala. "To recover."

Another yawn. "I figured."

"We should go." Matthew said suddenly, hoping it sounded like he was talking about leaving for her sake, when he was really just trying not to die internally. Luckily, she nodded in agreement and they all filed out. He'd gotten the twins out into the parking lot, into the car and was driving before Brittany spoke up. "Dad?"

"Hm?"

"When will mom and Chris be coming home?"

He flinched and sighed. "Christopher needs to stay at the hospital for a few days so the doctors can make sure he's healthy. When they let us know he can come home, we'll go get him."

"What about mom?"

"She's still going to live alone."

"Why?"

"Because she wants to, Brittany."

"Why doesn't she want to live with us?"

"It's not that she doesn't want to, she's just dealing with some things right now."

"What kind of things?"

"Grown up things. You'll understand when you're older." Normally, he wouldn't have given that type of answer, but right now, he just wanted to get home. Maybe when you're older, I'll be able to tell you without feeling like the world is ending.