Prologue
Sweat beaded on Dr. Clarkson's brow and his moustache twitched as he frowned.
"Something's wrong," he told the nurse attending him.
The nurse looked down at the woman on the bed; Lady Grantham lay pale and unmoving, a sheen of sweat coating her beautiful face.
"I think a Caesarian section is in order," Clarkson told the nurse.
The woman's eyes widened, "But Doctor! That could kill her if we do it here!"
"If we don't do it now," Clarkson replied, "She will certainly die. Her and the baby."
Dr. Clarkson straightened, his gloved hands slick with blood.
"I'm sure Lord Grantham will understand," he told her.
The nurse hurried to grab his surgical bag and opened it for him, taking out a scalpel, sutures, needle and iodine.
"Watch that she's still breathing," Dr. Clarkson instructed his nurse, "and keep an eye on her pulse."
The nurse nodded and moved to the head of the bed, taking Lady Grantham's limp wrist between her fingers.
DA
"How long is this meant to take?" Robert Crawley, Lord Grantham, asked Charlie Carson but the other man only could shake his head.
"I've heard it sometimes takes only minutes," he commented, unhelpfully, "Other times very long indeed."
"What if something's wrong?" Robert asked, "There's no sound at all."
At first his wife had cried out with each contraction but now she was eerily silent. He couldn't even hear the doctor and nurse through the closed bedroom door.
"Lady Grantham is in capable hands," Carson assured his lord.
Sighing, Robert nodded, "I hope you're right."
DA
"Oh my God," Dr. Clarkson breathed as he lifted the newborn from his mother's womb.
"It's a monster!" the nurse gasped and backed away.
"Where are you going?" the doctor asked but the woman turned and flung the door open, hurrying into the hallway, past a surprised Carson and Lord Grantham.
The infant began to cry, flailing in the doctor's grip and he quickly grabbed a blanket to wrap the baby in.
The worried father and his servant stepped into the room, where Lord Grantham immediately turned green at the sight of his wife.
Carson took hold of Robert's arm and steered him to a chair.
"I need someone to hold the baby," Dr. Clarkson said, "I need to stitch Lady Grantham back up."
"Er, right" Carson hesitated but a moment before calling through the open doorway, "Mrs. Hughes!"
As though magically summoned, Mrs. Hughes hurried down the hallway and stood in the doorway. Even though they had tried to be inconspicuous, Carson knew the other servants had been nearby, waiting with bated breath as much as he had, for Lady Grantham's baby to be born.
"Please hold him," Dr. Clarkson held the squalling infant out to Mrs. Hughes.
"Him?" Robert Crawley looked up, "It's a boy? I have a son?"
Dr. Clarkson ignored him as he thrust the newborn at the housekeeper.
Mrs. Hughes hardly had a chance to register that the blanket the baby was wrapped in stuck out from the child's back in a point, before he was bundled into her arms.
Carefully, she cradled the infant, a strange shape pressing on her arms from the blanket behind the baby but she ignored it.
"Let me see my son," Lord Grantham requested and Mrs. Hughes brought the child over to his father while Dr. Clarkson worked on his mother.
DA
"There is something you need to know about your son," Dr. Clarkson told Lord and Lady Grantham.
It was early morning, the day after the birth of the Crawley's son, and Lady Grantham was recovering nicely, wanting to see her baby.
"What is it?" Cora asked, fear suddenly etched in her tired face.
"I saw the boy," Robert commented, "He looked fine."
Dr. Clarkson took a deep breath, "The reason an emergency Caesarian section was required."
"Yes?" Cora reached out and gripped her husband's hand.
"A second fetus was preventing the infant from exiting the birth canal," the doctor explained.
Lord and Lady Grantham looked confused.
"But there's only one baby," Robert said, "Did the other child…die?"
Clarkson shook his head, "No, both were born. Unfortunately, one was parasitic."
"What do you mean, Doctor?" Cora asked her breath coming in short gasps.
Dr. Clarkson spoke again, lifting the baby from his cradle at the foot of the bed so his parents could see him.
Cora gasped and Robert's face suddenly drained of colour.
"Sometimes when there are twins, the embryo do not split completely and so you get a parasitic twin."
From the baby's back grew a smaller, yet fully formed torso with arms, a head and facial features. Although the larger twin was crying loudly, the smaller twin remained silent, eyes and mouth closed.
Cora and Robert stared in shock at their son. Tears welled up in Lady Grantham's eyes and suddenly she let out a loud cry, drowning out the wailing of her own son.
Author's Note:
I am not a medical professional at all and any mistakes are all mine.