Two days.

And no progress.

Elrond felt like fainting from exhaustion as Celebrían continued to draw strength from him during the labor pains. It had been lasting long enough that he had to step aside and let the others help his wife. Even then, something was wrong: Celebrían was in intense pain that was not normal.

Elrond felt needles prick his brain as she let out a hoarse scream, tired just as he was.

"Nothing!" one of the midwives said despairingly. "What could possibly be wrong?"

"I do not bloody know, but this cannot go on forever!" Elrond said angrily as he held onto Celebrian.

"Please…anything," the lady of the vale sobbed. "Cut them out for all I care!"

The other women in the room hesitated and looked at Elrond.

"Get Brúnwen, now," Elrond ordered through gritted teeth.

One of the elf-maids darted from the room and Elrond brushed a cloth against Celebrian's sweaty face. "This ordeal will soon be over," the elf-lord tried reassuring desperately. He gave a sad smile. "At the very least we know our sons are stubborn, yes?"

Celebrían moaned. "Oh yes, that is for sure. And when they are old enough to understand I will give them a piece of my mind for what they made me go through!" She ended in another anguished yell.

The surgeon came into the room with the scalpel and the midwife who retrieved her had herbs in her arms. Brúnwen was the most composed out of everyone in the room but regarded her lady with great concern. "I was hoping it would not come to this, lady, but it has happened before among mortals."

"How lucky am I," Celebrían commented in a tired whisper.

Elrond took the soothing herbs and the soaked cloth. He fed the plants first before he covered Celebrían's nose and mouth with the rag. "This will be over soon."

It did not take long for Celebrían to start relaxing.

Brúnwen applied a numbing ointment on Celebrían's tummy before she looked at Elrond.

"If I were not drained of my reserves I would do it myself," Elrond muttered absently.

The maiden bit her lip and pressed the sharp edge of the knife into the skin. Celebrían cringed but otherwise did not move much. Brúnwen cut deeper and deeper, the other midwives helping her with keeping the wound open. The surgeon grinned. "There you troublemakers are." She was going to say something but then horror flashed across her face. "Spread out a towel and help me grab this one." She ordered hastily to two of the maidens.

Elrond was too focused on his wife to pay attention to the faint gasps coming from the others in the room. What broke him out of his trance was when the sounds of two babies crying filled the air, and relief swarmed his being as he face planted into the mattress.

It was oddly silent, and the smell of blood was prominent in the air. Elrond got his resolve and looked at Celebrían. She was peaceful finally and she breathed softly, and the father did not expect her to wake anytime soon after the ordeal they both went through.

The elf-lord frowned when he saw the midwives looking worried and a little bit haunted from across the bed: Celebrían's body shielding their sons from his view. Brúnwen was finishing up stitching the skin, her face wan and pale as she purposely focused on her task.

"My sons?" Elrond inquired, and he proceeded to stand. He could hear them crying loudly enough, so that must mean things were alright.

"Y-you should stay still, my lord. You are weary." Brúnwen said quickly.

Elrond's heart began to pound and it only served to make him move faster. "What is wrong?" He said with newly implanted parental anxiety.

"My lord-" one of the maidens began, but Elrond promptly ignored her and moved her aside.

Elrond stared aghast at the little bundles sprawled on the towel: dried and cleaned and they blindly sought out some sort of contact. But Elrond found it hard to acknowledge anything else other than the fact that they were conjoined at the waist up to their midsections.

A/N So...before any flames happen, this is Alternate Universe and I wanted to do something with this idea. Simply another thing that does not seem to have been done before, and if you know me...this is normal. :p This will be a short story (maybe 10k at the rate I'm going), I won't go too into depth like my other works. In fact, the only reason why I posted this is because this is almost done. I actually nearly wrote everything down in one night, but it was too late so I had to cut short.

What I have now, maybe just a couple more chapters before it's finished, and that shouldn't be too hard (hopefully). Might update once a week like normal, or sooner depending on the reception of this.

Yes, I know...this happening to elves is extremely unlikely, a 100% chance of it never happening. But, I wanted to do this, because another plot-idea I have would take forever and I'm not posting something that I can't guarantee I can update on a regular basis when I have two others I need to focus on.