Ask any woman. She spends all her life trying to look at the very least presentable to strangers and friends alike, hoping that she will feel as beautiful as they say she looks. Only a very few people get to see her stripped down to the barest of bare bones, the real face behind the mask. Until she gets pregnant and goes into labor. There is nothing else in the whole world quite like the crash back to reality that spending hours bearing down can do for any woman, and yet when you look at the pictures taken a few minutes afterward, she looks beautiful. Flushed, sweaty, completely exhausted, sometimes weepy, but unequivocally beautiful.

Six hours into her second stage, and Gabrielle felt anything but beautiful. She was wishing she'd never met Ennis, never had sex, never got pregnant, never been born. Equally, she was wishing she'd agreed to have the damned epidural when the doctor had suggested it hours before. She'd been to all those classes, spoken to all those other mothers, and still nothing had prepared her for this. It was no comfort to know that she would have been in more pain had her labor had been artificially induced; right now, she couldn't imagine it being possible to feel more pain than this. Her waters had broken unexpectedly on the tenth, her due date, and despite Cian and Gordon and Leilani hovering around her, she had insisted on waiting for Caroline to give her a lift to the hospital. She loved her brother and father desperately, but she didn't want either of them in the delivery suite with her. That was just one step too far along the scale of embarrassment for the shyest of the Grangers.

Caroline had dropped everything at the Guild and been with her constantly for the last seven hours, through the milder contractions and now supporting her through these hellfire and brimstone contractions that she had been pushing through for what felt like an age. And despite being more than a little ratty with her cousin for being so bloody calm and unruffled, Gabi knew she'd made the right decision in asking Caroline to be her birth partner. Caroline had done all this herself, and even better, she was a completely neutral choice. She'd even called Ennis' cell phone and left him a message at Gabi's request, to let him know that his sons were on their way. Gabi had no idea if he would come or not; part of her was hoping that, if he did, he waited until tomorrow. She didn't think she'd be able to cope with everyone trying to coo over her at once.

The doctor and midwife were close at hand, as supportive and encouraging as Caroline, making sure she had the pain relief she needed, that she remembered to breathe through the pain, that she took the miniscule rests between contractions that her body was giving her. Between them, they made sure she knew that both her baby boys were fine, that their hearts were beating strong, that there was no undue stress or anxiety affecting them. She felt in good hands, and at the same time, couldn't help wishing there was a quicker way to get this over and done with.

When, finally, she felt the burning they had promised her was coming, Gabi actually cried out in relief, gripping Caroline's hand tighter. It couldn't be long now, surely. But she was so tired, she felt as though she could barely hold her head up. Yet, when she managed to mention this to her cousin, Caroline just smiled and kissed her sweaty forehead, hugging her arm about the struggling new mom, promising her she could do anything she set her mind to right now. More pushing, more pain, something sharper the doctor assured her was just a minor tear and not to worry about, and suddenly Gabi heard her firstborn wailing indignantly at being presented to the outside world.

Relieved tears started to spill from her eyes as she lifted her head to watch as the first of her twin boys was weighed and measured, wiped clean, cut from his cord, and wrapped up warm in one of the two blankets set aside. She even laughed a little as one of the tiny fingernails was marked with bright green nail polish, to make certain no one mistook the elder for the younger when he arrived. Healthy, strong baby boy, she heard them all saying, letting herself sag back against the pillows to take advantage of her short respite between births. As the contractions began again, strong and insistent, she gripped Caroline's hand, but the pain she had expected to be worse was milder now. Within minutes, a second wail had joined the first, and both her boys were out, wrapped up warm, laid down beside one another in their shared basket by her side.

Minutes later, whatever else had needed doing had been done, and with gentle hands, Gabi had her clothing and bedding changed around her. What were their names, Caroline was asking, but Gabi didn't have an answer for her. There were names she was hoping to use, but one, at least, required permission from a cousin who would have to be tracked down first. She couldn't take her eyes off her handsome boys, noting with surprise the paleness of their skin. She had been expecting them to be black, like their father, despite everyone's warnings that they had a fifty-fifty chance of being either or. Identical boys, with wriggling, inquisitive hands that gripped at one another and her as she leaned over the basket to stare in amazement. Yes, she was flushed, sweaty, completely exhausted, and definitely weepy ....but in that moment, the mother of two fine, healthy twin boys, Gabrielle Granger felt beautiful.