They were too early, but her midwife assured her that this was normal when there were multiples. It scared her greatly, more than she was willing to admit but for those around her Aurore kept on a brave face. She was in no mood to die this day, nor was she ready to leave behind her family. However, it felt so very strange and so…peaceful to be in the comforts of her own home and in her own bed. 

Lucian was delivered at the hands of a blacksmith and a lady pirate in the West Indies, and Magdalen under the black skies of Prague. Both were born out of survival and Aurore was never given the chance to even take a moment and enjoy her pregnancy with either. This time around, everything felt different. 

Throughout the day when one of the children moved she would take a moment to stop and think of how stunning the whole thing was. In their bed at night she would reach out for Fintan’s hand and place it on her stomach so that he could feel. And in the earlier months of their movements it as easy enough to go about her life, but when the pain in her spine began she had most of her work sent to her so that she could do it from her bed. By the spring she was unable to do more than to leave her bed for a walk in the gardens. 

They came like lions in the predawn morning of the 5th of April. 

The labor lasted only the span of the afternoon and evening, but she delivered them both without much fuss. The blood however, was hard to stop and once the physician was finished he came out weary and with a dire warning. 

“Captain McKenna, congratulations two beautiful and healthy girls,” the doctor smiled a little to the young boy who was also waiting and whose face fell the disappointment there wasn’t a brother.

“I would say not to look so forlorn, young master, but Captain…this should be her last.”