Summary: The time for Eowyn to have her baby has finally come. Rated T by Savanah (Eowyn & Aragorn)

Year 3020

The room was dark even through the day outside was bright and the air smelled of spring. Eowyn lay alone in her and Aragorn's large bed, wrapped in sheets with her hair laying in tangled around her. Her eyes were red with tears. She heard the door click open but she didn't move. Aragorn's footsteps were quiet on the carpets. Eowyn felt the bed dip as Aragorn sat down beside her, brushing the hair away from her face. Eowyn flinched when his fingers brushed her face, her eyes squeezed shut as pain rippled through her.

Aragorn drew his hand away like he had been bitten. He looked down at the woman he had once known and balled his hands into fists. He wanted to shake her, to scream, "where are you?" He stood up from the bed, anger washing over him, and walked over to the windows. Throwing open the heavy drapes, he let the harsh sun flood into the room. He had worked so hard for the peace they had now, given everything to be able to have the life they had wanted so badly, and now all his wife could do was lay in bed. She should be filled with joy, he thought. They were together, they were having a child, everything was right in the world. But even as he thought that guilt washed over him. He saw Legolas and Arwen in his mind and his heart swelled with pity for the woman he loved more than life. He felt tears spring into his eyes as he pictured her laughing and hold the twins, her stomach swollen with their first child. Aragorn walked to the bed again and lay his hand on her arm. It was smaller than he remembered, and had lost the outlines where before hard muscles had been.

It had been eight months since she had told him she was pregnant again, eight months since she had left the white city. He saw her again, this time sitting on a horses back, a sword at her side and her face full of color and life. When he blinked he saw a broken thing, a bird trapped in a cage of his own making. A tear slipped down his cheeks as he wondered if her mind could ever heal in the same way her body did.

As if she could hear his thoughts, Eowyn's eyes slid open and she looked up at him. "Eowyn," Aragorn breathed, picking her up so that she lay in his lap. Her head pressed into his shoulders and tucked under his chin. He pulled her body up into him and let the tears run down his cheeks. "I'm sorry," he breathed, holding her as tightly as he could, his back hunching over her.

Eowyn moved her head so she could look up at him. "What are you talking about?" she asked, raising a trembling hand to his cheek. Aragorn looked at her hand as it moved toward him, his brow knitting together as he turned to look back at her face, questions in his eyes. Her back arched and she groaned. Her eyes squeezed shut and her hand fell from his face to his shoulder, gripping on her shirt.

"Eowyn," Aragorn said as she gasped for air. "How long have you been having pains?" he asked.

"It's too early." Eowyn began to sob, hiding her face in his chest. "I can't lose another one, Aragorn," she said into his shirt, her body shaking with sobs. "I'll die, I can't." She kept saying.

Aragorn's hand ran over the back of her head soothingly, trying to coax her out of his side. "How long, Eowyn?" he asked again, but pain gripped her again and she grew completely silent, her body tense in his arms. As Aragorn waited for her contraction to end he felt warmth spread over his legs. He looked down to see a pink water seeping through Eowyn's white dress from between her legs.

"No!" she almost screamed, lifting her head weakly to look down at her broken water.

"Eowyn," Aragorn said again. "How long have you been having pains?"

Her blue eyes met his grey ones. "I woke up at midnight," she answered. "I didn't want it to be true." Tears rolled down her face.

Aragorn looked up at the windows and the sun beginning to set orange in the sky. Without a word, he slipped his arm under her legs and lifted her out of the bed.

..::..

"Please!" she screamed, lying in the middle of the bed, her voice raw and hot tears streaming down her face. "It's too early." She pleaded, as if reasoning could stop the birth of her child. "He's going to die!" She screamed.

Aragorn looked down at her, trying to comprehend what she had said. He wanted to comfort her, but all that came out of his mouth was, "He?"

"We see the head," a woman said from the foot of the bed. "Push, my lady."

Aragorn leaned down and pressed his lips to the top of Eowyn's head, pulling her body closer to his. She was shaking and wet with sweat. "Aragorn," she gasped between breaths then screamed again, her small body clenched in pain.

"Push," the woman coached, reaching down to hold the baby's head.

Eowyn lay her head down on Aragorn's chest, gripping onto his shirt. "You can do this, Eowyn," he whispered in her ear. Eowyn sobbed into his chest, groaning with the effort. Aragorn held her tight, stroking her hair, her back and her arms, whispering words of encouragement as she labored.

"The cord is wrapped around the baby's neck," the healer whispered to the other woman standing beside her. "We must get the baby out of her or it will suffocate."

Aragorn looked up at their words, his eyes full of panic, then back down to Eowyn. "You need to push hard now," he said, but she had also heard their words and she was staring at nothing. Aragorn saw the pain in her eyes and watched as breath passed out of her lips, but her lungs did not fill again and he realized she had given up. He lifted her body off his chest and lay her down on the bed, his eyes fixed on where her legs, once tense with pain, now hung limply spread open on the bed. He moved closer to the end of the bed and watched as one woman took hold of Eowyn's knees and the other reached down and pulled the child from inside of her. He watched the limp body of the baby as the woman worked; he felt bile rush into his mouth at the sight of the purple airless child. "Is the child dead?" he asked, but the woman didn't reply, she just met his eyes for second then returned to her work.

Aragorn turned back to Eowyn and felt his heart breaking, both for their lost child and for her. He moved to the head of the bed, and leaning on the pillows he lifted her into his arms. He cradled her in his arms, her head resting in his elbow. He leaned down over her and pressed their foreheads together, breathing in the familiar smell of her skin. "I long for death," she breathed.

Aragorn held her tighter. "No," he replied through new tears.

"Aragorn," she said, her voice pleading. "I don't want to live, I can't live in this world of pain and death any longer.

Aragorn lifted his head. "I can't do this without you," he said.

"Please let me be with them," she said, staring into his grey eyes. "With our children, with my family, with our friends."

Aragorn brushed the tears from her cheek and felt waves of love for her wash over him. He forgot, for a moment, his own pain and his own loss and thought only of her and what she asked of him. He ran his hands over her hair and wanted her to feel peace again.

Eowyn moved her hand up and wrapped her fingers around his wrist lovingly. "I know you could make it painless for me," she said, pressing her cheek into his palm. Aragorn nodded, leaning down to brush their lips. His hand glided over her skin, down her neck and to the delicate "v" at the base of her neck. All he had to do was press his fingers down and her airway would collapse; she would drift into death like sleep. He squeezed his eyes shut, pushing the sobs back down into the painful ache in his chest. But just as his fingers found the spot he head the piercing sound of a newborns cry.

Aragorn didn't believe it at first and left his eyes shut, but his fingers fell from her neck. He heard Eowyn begin to sob, but it was different from before because there was laughter mixed into her cries. He opened his eyes as the woman lay the crying child on Eowyn's chest. He looked down at the red-faced infant and felt a smile creep onto his face. He looked up at the midwife, his eyes asking "How?"

All she said was, "You have a son, my King." Then walked away, leaving the small family alone in the room.

Eowyn moved to hold the child in her arms. Aragorn used his free hand to stroke the baby's tiny face. The baby quieted and opened brilliant blue eyes to look up at his parents. Aragorn felt his heart swell until it felt as if it would burst. Eowyn looked up at him and smiled through the tears streaming down her face, all thoughts of despair and death gone from her eyes. Aragorn took her face in his hands and kissed her long and hard, as if breathing life back into her lungs. When they parted Eowyn looked down at her child. "He's so beautiful," she said.