Companion Fic to Can You Hear Me.

Ben had never particularly liked being deaf. In fact, the whole experience was rather unfavorable. It had been awful in the beginning, bearable when he learned to read lips, and a daily inconvenience once he met Mal, who had the incredible ability to give him short tastes of sound every so often. Mal, his lovely fairy wife and the current Queen of Auradon.

Ben had always known he was going to miss out on things. He was going to miss conversations and voices and songs and sounds. All he'd ever be able to communicate with were hands and the movements of other's lips. That's why it had been a miracle when Mal had discovered an old spell in the back of her mother's book that gave her the ability to share thoughts with him for five minutes. This was five minutes where Mal would pack every sound she could think of into his head, knowing beforehand the things he wished he could hear.

Like the fanfare when they announced them on television.

Or his mom's laughter as she came over to put her arms around Mal.

Or Mal's hushed whisper as she covered her mouth and told her friends a treasured secret.

One he hadn't known for a while after that night.

It had been during a Christmas party as they sat together, hands entwined and her head on his shoulder, that she had confided the secret to him near the end of the five minutes of sound. He remembered the moment in perfect clarity. Her hair was slung over the back of the couch. The sequins on her red shirt were getting caught in his ugly sweater. The secret had been so sudden, so jarring that he'd jumped straight out of his chair to stare at her in growing shock. The buzzing of the crowd that she'd shared with him was still filling his ears, as was Jay's loud, boisterous laugh, as her own words echoed off the inside of his skull.

Ben had always known he was going to miss out on things. He'd never hated that fact more than at this moment.

Mal dug her nails into the armrests of the hospital bed and screamed so loudly that all of the nurses flinched, even though they continued running around. Ben couldn't hear a thing. Sweat was pouring down her brow and veins were pulsating in her neck. She writhed a little and let out another scream, and Ben felt his heart twist as he squeezed her forearm. She absolutely refused to give him her hand, knowing she'd break it.

When Mal had told Ben he'd be a father, all of the old curiosities he'd had about his future when he was a kid suddenly came to life, and it had scared him out of his mind. There'd be someone new. Someone who would have to learn their dad couldn't hear them the normal way. Someone who would learn they could take advantage of his lack of 360-degree vision and hearing to sneak around his back. Someone who might resent him for not being able to listen to them like he should be able to.

Mal had accepted him. From the moment she'd learned, she'd been courteous and patient and on nights when they were alone she would perform that little spell over and over, teaching him the way he sounded and she sounded and his parents sounded and how everything sounded. She'd picked him despite his ailments. What about their baby?

Ben pulled Mal's hair back from around her head as tears forced themselves out from underneath her eyelids. Her hands were trembling despite holding onto the armrests with a grip of steel. He leaned into her ear and began to mumble sweet nothings to her as she heaved for breath and fought to keep the tears back. His poor fairy was in pain, and there was nothing he could do.

Despite all the commotion of the doctors running around and Mal screaming (And Ben was pretty sure he was crying a little too because Gosh-Darnit this was stressful and sickening!), he couldn't hear a thing. Couldn't hear if Mal was cursing his name or begging to be done already. Couldn't hear what instructions the doctors were calling. Couldn't hear. Couldn't hear.

Things like this weren't meant to be silent.

Things like all the times she'd gotten up in the mornings to be sick in the bathroom and he'd never known and never gotten up to hold her hand or pull her hair up until it was too late because the World Was Silent.

Things like at their first appointment together when the doctor had flipped a switch to let them hear the baby's heartbeat and Mal had sobbed while Ben had simply sat there in Deafening Silence.

Things like her water breaking last night, except he'd gotten up to get a glass of water and then turned around to find everyone yelling, scrambling to their feet, grabbing her hands, and he found out twenty seconds after everyone else because He Couldn't Hear And The World Was Silent.

And now, with the glass window panes breaking in the wall and Mal bending the plastic of the armrest into a new shape and her face going red as she cried in pain, and he might as well not even be here because he can't make out a word she's saying and he's absolutely no help and the world is Silent and he's still missing out, no matter what he does.

The sun is coming up and Ben assumes that they have to be almost done with this ordeal. He squeezes Mal's forearm again and closes his eyes, bows his head, and prays.

He's done a lot of praying these last few months. He's probably prayed for lots of things he shouldn't have and he's probably prayed way too vocally for Mal to be unaware.

"Oh God, I'm missing everything. I'm going to miss everything. I'm going to miss them crying, their first words, everything. Mal's going to have to be the one to get up every night and I'll never be able to beat her to our baby because I can't hear.

"Why would you do this to me? What could I have possibly done to deserve this? Why would you hurt the people I love by doing this to me? Why, God?"

A hand takes his jaw and pulls his head upwards. Mal's mouth is closed as she focuses all her energy on reaching out to Ben. He glances down to the nurses, but the baby hasn't been born yet. She's just withstanding the pain to try and reach out to him. Her fingertips are shaking as she folds down her middle and ring fingers in an 'I love you'.

He takes her hand and squeezes it, but she doesn't dare squeeze back because, again, she doesn't want to break his hand.

There are a few more long minutes of him squeezing her hand and her trying to take deep breaths as tears fall from her eyes like drips being wrung out of a rag. The other armrest Mal is squeezing snaps off into a piece of jarred plastic and part of Ben is glad she's trying not to squeeze his hand while the other part wishes she'd indulge him with a little pain because then he'd be able to share this moment with her a little better. For him, there is no pain and there is no sound.

Then Mal's face breaks out in relief and a cool, flushed color seeps into her cheeks and neck as she slumps back into the hospital chair. He almost panics, because he wonders if she's passed out or died, but then she squeezes his hand softly and looks up at him. She mouths something that's a little hard to understand since her lips are cracked and she's breathing heavy, but still recognizable. "A boy, they say," She whispers.

Ben's head snaps down the table and he watches the nurses wrap a loose bundle up, all with gentle, relieved smiles. Mal nudges him a little for his attention, then makes a motion almost like finger guns, gesturing towards the baby with both hands. She follows this with a motion almost like 'I'm watching you', but without the connotation and also gesturing towards the baby. 'Go See'.

He gets up, kissing her cheek a little, and goes to hover behind the nurses as they rinse the baby – his son – off, put a diaper on him, and wrap him up in a new blanket. Then, one of them turns with the baby in her hands and holds him out to Ben, and Ben's hands shake as she puts his new son into his arms and guides his hands on where to support the small person.

Ben, once he has the baby in his arms, turns and takes him straight to Mal. She tries to push herself up into a more righted position, smile bright as she watches his traverse the room. She reaches up to take her son – their son – and Ben lets the baby go into his mom's arms without a fight. Then, he sits back and watches her.

Mal's smile is bright and her eyes are still full of tears, but now for a happier reason. She examines the new prince's face while cradling him close to her chest. Her hair is sticking to her face and there's a cut on her hand from the broken plastic and she looks absolutely perfect. The sight makes tears stab into Ben's eyes because this is his little family. Him and his wife and their son, and it is perfect.

Mal starts talking to their baby then, and a stab of bitterness shoots through Ben's chest. He can only see half of her mouth with the way her head is turned. Their son is still crying. His mouth is open aloud and he's writhing a little, but quickly calming down as Mal murmurs to him. It's devastating.

Moments like these are not meant to be silent.

Mal looks up at him and her expression falls a little upon glimpsing his. She holds her hand out and he sees the words "You've had too much silence, huh?" appear on her mouth. Before he can even stop himself, his hand is in hers. Because she's right; he's sick of silence. He doesn't want to miss out on this with her.

Mal mumbles her spell; words he knows by heart but could never pronounce, and immediately his head is full of noise. The noise of the nurses rushing back and forth and of the car thrumming on the way here and Evie, Jay, and Carlos panicking. The noise of him murmuring to her and then the noise of Ben's cell phone ringing and, really, just the noises he's missed out on the last twelve hours.

"Show me a few minutes ago," He begs. "What did you sound like? What did it sound like when you heard him for the first time?"

Mal frowns a little, embarrassed, and shows him a high-pitched yell that he immediately knows is hers. She's toning it down though, obviously embarrassed, but it's Mal and he's used to her not wanting to show pain.

He has time to squeeze her hand before a different peal of sound echoes through his ears, loud and shrill, and Ben jumps a little at it. This is their son. This is their son crying.

He actually has the opportunity to hear their son cry.

Mal replays that four or five times as his eyes drift from her to their baby, and his shoulders shake. The newborn has calmed down in the crook of Mal's arm and his eyes are drifting closed already.

"He looks like you," She announces after reapplying the spell. She doesn't often cast it in multiples since it wears her out and Ben understands it's her gift, not his privilege, but he's grateful she has. Especially for a conversation. Usually, they converse in signs and this time with the spell is for exchanging sounds only, but it's refreshing to talk with her normally. He could close his eyes and still hear her, and he likes that idea a lot.

"I think he might have your eyes," Ben replies. "We'll have to wait and see."

"But just look at the way he is," Mal stresses. "He's you. Just like you. No one will ever mistake him for anyone other than your son."

Ben runs his fingertips down the baby's cheek with a smile. "Thank you," He whispers.

"For the baby or the spell?" Mal asks, raising an eyebrow. "It seems a little odd to thank me for a baby you helped with."

Except he didn't. He didn't help because he couldn't. He missed every bout of morning sickness and every wince of pain and even the moment her water broke because his world is silent and they only time he gets to experience the metaphysical color of sound is in times like this.

Mal's thoughts break through his like centurions forcing opponents to break formation. She maintains an indifferent look as she replays a string of sounds to him. His footsteps the night she asked him to run out and get her food at three a.m., Chad Charming complaining as he left a meeting early to accompany her to an appointment, him singing slowly(He's been trying it out in small amounts, repeating snippets of songs Mal shows him, and going slow and gauging other people's face to see if he's doing okay) in the middle of the night to her, and countless other sounds that have happened the last nine months.

"You forget, but I don't," She tells him. "You've been around exactly as much as I've needed you."

Ben wipes the tears out of his eyes, leans down, and kisses her cheek. "Thank you," He thinks as the spell ends. Mal doesn't even have time to say anything before his world goes silent again.

Silence. Deafening Silence. But there's comfort in that phrase at the moment. Ben sits on the side of the chair, wraps an arm around Mal to rest on the baby's head, and puts the other on her hand as she smiles down and coos at their new baby boy.

And for once, he doesn't feel like he's missing anything.