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Water dripped down harshly past her shoulders, through flaxen hair, and continuing over Claire's large stomach. It expanded out to prove that there could be more than one being resided within her. Three heartbeats within one slender body. Her back ached as her entire weight relied upon it. She looked down at the stretched skin with red vein-like tendrils seeping across the side, reminding her of an eyeball. Soft white skin, red lines are drawn along it. Her heart bangs loudly against her chest, the water from the head of the shower screaming louder, trying to overpower all other noise.
Her right hand gently touched her stomach, softly stroking it as she could only think of one thing. She wanted the babies out of her, into her arms. She hated the state of silent lethargy, this waiting, she felt trapped. And it worsens when she thought of Niklaus, knowing that he would never know that about them, that he'll never be there and that their children will never know a father's love. Claire wanted to tell him, of course, she did but Niklaus was busy proclaiming himself King of New Orleans and trying to rebuild a new home there. A home that didn't include her or her children, but it did include the woman he had slept with and their daughter.
Claire knew that life wasn't fair, of course, she did. She's six months pregnant with supernatural babies, knowing that her children were going to kill her at the end of the pregnancy all while dealing with vampires and witches trying to kill her and her friends. But that didn't matter because even if she did die, she knew that her children would be well taken care of. They were going to have a whole group of powerful vampires and witches to help look out of them. And who knows. . . perhaps in the end or right, before she gives birth, she would write a letter to Niklaus and tell him about the twins. Let him know that Theo and Charlotte were his and maybe just maybe he'll finally come home back to her, where she'll always wait for him.
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She could hear a voice calling out for her. The voice was begging her to do something, but her mind couldn't concentrate on the words that came out of that person's mouth because she was in pain. Her stomach tightened, Claire heard her own scream without being aware of making it. She lays still as the liquid that Bonnie made went down her throat, waiting for the agony to subside. "Claire," again that voice. Claire was trying to figure out where she had heard it from, "sweetheart, you gotta stop pushing." Although it sounded scared, it somehow calmed her.
Claire felt someone squeezing her hand or perhaps it was the opposite. Perhaps she was squeezing them, who knows. The pain that labor brought was more intense than anything Claire had ever imagined. Nothing could be more brutal, not whips or chains or any of Niklaus enemies' tortures.
Finally, her glossy crystal blue eyes cleared and she could see what was going on. She was inside a small cottage, the same one where she hide herself during her pregnancy. Elena and Alaric were standing on the side while Bonnie and Caroline were helping with the labor. Claire could see Stefan on her right, one of his hands holding her while the other was wiping away her sweat. On her left was Damon and just like his little brother, he too was holding her hands while crying and looking terrified. If she wasn't in so much pain or was dying, Claire would have told Damon that she was right, her babies would make him cry.
Claire moved her eyes forward, though her belly is large she's still skinny really, undernourished. Her babies were taking everything from her, Claire didn't mind at all, as long her babies were healthy and growing they could take anything they needed and/or wanted. Her body was theirs to take.
With each contraction came a pain that dominated Claire's entire being. In those moments, for those seconds that stretched into infinity, there was nothing else. She could hear more screams, well more like her screams. When the pain passed it was only for a minute or so and she breathed with closed eyes, unwilling to re-engaged with life outside of her own body. The room might as well have been empty for all the awareness she had, and when they did talk, touch, gain her attention she found it so hard. She didn't even realize that she was calling out for Nik. "I'm scared, Nik" Claire would often say, she cried out for him, begging them to call him. "P-please," she sobbed, "I can't do this without him," Claire screamed out, but no one would move. Stefan would just wipe away her tears and silently calm her down, telling her she was strong and that she could handle. "You're not alone, Claire. I'm with you," Stefan whispered, tightly holding her hand.
The pain was a prison for her mind. In that jail cell of fear and confusion, the time passed without her being able to keep track. Bonnie was telling her that it was time, time to push once again. With a loud guttural grunt she did so and was told to stop, one was enough. Claire felt the baby crowning, the hot stretching of flesh and held her breath. She repeated the same thing again and again; push, stop, breathe, cry, push, stop, cry, cry, push, cry, stop, breathe, cry, and so on. Claire felt exhausted, both physically and mentally, nothing was happening. Her babies weren't coming out. Why weren't they coming out?
"Shit," Claire heard Bonnie say. "This is bad," Caroline broken whispered filled the room.
"What?" followed by Salvatore's brother's voices.
Bonnie held back a choke, "one of the babies is breeched and stuck... and I think she has placenta previa." Caroline closed her eyes tightly, preventing more tears from falling. "What the hell does that mean?" Damon yelled out in angry and worried.
"It . . ." everyone turned to Claire surprised that she was still talking or even conscious. Claire was fighting hard to regulate her breathing, "i-it means I won't make it." Suddenly, she felt more pain on both sides of her hands, Alaric held a sobbing Elena, Caroline covered her mouth while looking at her twin with scared teary eyes and Bonnie shook her head. "No, I'll save you and your babies." It was a promise, one that Bonnie would make sure of.
When Bonnie mumbled words and suddenly Claire was screaming like her guts were being ripped out with a blunt instrument even against this terrible wind that threatens to rip the limbs from the trees, especially the young ones. In five minutes she and the babies will die. Claire was begging Bonnie to just take out her babies and leave her to die. She screamed out that her babies needed to live. Claire begged Caroline to tear open her stomach and take them. Claire Forbes had begged, cried, screamed for her babies to be taken and finally. . . it was Damon who did it.
Damon Salvatore had torn opened the stomach of the young woman, who had surprisedly made him feel more human than anyone could have ever done, taken the two tiny creatures that she was willingly giving up her life for, put them safely aside while Bonnie was trying to save their mother's life.
Claire watched with heavy, barely conscious eyes as her babies were being looked after and even if she hadn't fully seen them, in that instant she knew she would do anything to protect them, that her love was vast as the universe yet solid as a rock. Claire was a mother and would always be.
The last thing that Claire Forbes had seen and heard that night was the tender, sweet smile of her once fiancee and his silky voice, "well done, love."
