Well, here it is: the very final instalment. As I said in the previous chapter, I cannot express enough how thankful I am to those of you who have stayed with the story the whole way through and to those of you who are still leaving reviews or hitting the favourite button after all this time.

I am currently working on a Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts story but am toying with the idea of another Middle Earth fic set during The Hobbit so I may get round to doing that this summer.

In the meantime, please enjoy the conclusion of Faelwen's story and excuse any inaccuracies re childbirth: I haven't had children of my own yet so am only working from imagination and what I've seen on TV.

5 Months Later

Groaning quietly, Faelwen shifted wearily in bed. No matter what position she lay in, she was still uncomfortable. Her distended belly was enormous now and so seriously limited her movements; lying on her front was impossible and lying on her back made her feel like her abdomen was being squashed. She had spent the night turning wearily from side to side. Sleep was not a necessity for elves in the way it was for mortals but it had been over a month since she had slept properly now and she was worn down.

A gentle arm was wrapped around her from behind and a warm hand came to rest on her massive stomach.

"Are they giving you trouble, Faelwen?" Haldir asked.

"They are certainly very active this morning," Faelwen said, rolling onto her back so she could look at Haldir.

They. She could still hardly believe it; remembering the matching looks of stunned amazement she and Haldir had turned upon Elrond when he listened for the baby's heartbeat and then told them there were two! It was not unusual, he said, for a twin to have twins of their own – Elrond himself being a perfect example. And while Faelwen and Haldir had been overjoyed with the news, now that she was in her eighth month of pregnancy, Faelwen's small frame was struggling.

Not only was it weeks since she had slept, but now she could not even get out of the bath on her own – she had to be helped out by either Haldir or her mother. Thankfully it had been agreed that they would dwell with Elrond and Celebrian until the babies were born before building a dwelling place of their own, so she was never without someone to aid her.

"Behave, little ones," Haldir chided her bump gently, placing a gentle kiss against her skin. "Your Naneth needs to sleep." He grinned delightedly as a small kick answered his words.

Faelwen smiled sleepily at the sight of Haldir talking to their unborn children – it made her feel warm and content every time he did that. He was not the only one having conversations with her stomach either – ever since Elrond had mentioned that he believed elflings could hear voices in the womb and might recognise them once they were born, half their family were now talking to the unborn twins. Celebrian took to singing gently to them when Faelwen sat with her to sew, and Orophin, Rumil, Elladan and Elrohir - much to Faelwen's amusement - all separately introduced themselves as 'your favourite uncle'.

"Have you slept at all?" Haldir asked anxiously, prompting her out of her reminiscences. Faelwen shook her head tiredly. "I can stay with you today, I will tell my brothers…"

"No," Faelwen said softly, shaking her head. "Haldir, I am merely tired, nothing more. And at any rate, I had my brothers with me the whole time we stayed behind on Arda. I know how much you missed Orophin and Rumil – I do not begrudge your time with them!"

Since arriving, Haldir and his brothers had been exploring their new home with Legolas and Gimli; once a week they rode far and wide and Faelwen loved to hear their stories of what they had seen and the elves they had met. They had returned one day with Feredir and Voronwë in tow and Faelwen had been happy to learn that her family from Mirkwood dwelt only a short distance away. She had been to see Calanon and the others since then for a happy reunion but she could only walk for a short distance now and so they had been coming to visit her instead. She knew that Haldir adored spending time with Orophin and Rumil and she would not have him sacrifice that merely because she was tired and frustrated.

Once they had dressed – she needed his help with that too now; it had been weeks since she had last seen her feet – Haldir kissed her goodbye after promising she only need send for him if she needed him and Faelwen went in search of somewhere quiet to sit; feeling too weary and short tempered for conversation.

She went to Elrond's study, always the quietest room in the house, and sat down at her father's writing table, which was the perfect height, allowing her belly to slide underneath the surface. Then she folded her arms and let her head fall forward with a soft thud.

"Another sleepless night, Faelwen?" Celebrian asked sympathetically, coming into the room after her.

"I am so tired, Nana!" she groaned into the table surface.

"You know, you do not have to rise with the others, my dear," her mother advised. "You have every reason to stay abed – perhaps you may yet be able to get a small nap."

"I would love to, Nana, but no matter how I lie, I simply cannot get comfortable!" Faelwen said wearily before her face softened and she rubbed her stomach tenderly. "And they are certainly going to be active little souls from the way they keep wriggling around."

"Elladan and Elrohir were the same," Celebrian said fondly. "Not that they have changed very much!"

"Did I hear our names?" Faelwen's brothers were the next to enter the room. In hindsight, she had picked a rotten place for a bit of peace and quiet.

"You look terrible!" said Elrohir sympathetically.

"Thank you!" Faelwen sighed wearily. "Not sleeping for weeks does rather tend to spoil one's looks."

"We were on our way down to the shore," Elrohir returned. "We thought to read there awhile. If you want to join us, you could find a spot to rest down there. You really do look exhausted."

"Perhaps a walk down to the beach would be welcome," Faelwen nodded. "The sound of the waves used to help me to sleep before, when we first arrived."

"Well it is less of a walk really, more of a waddle," Elladan grinned and then, seeing the expression on Faelwen's face, decided rather wisely to move out of range of anything she might be inclined to throw at him. His usually sweet-tempered sister had developed a decided grumpy streak as her pregnancy progressed!

It was not a great distance down to the beach and the twins, for all their teasing, were of course thoroughly considerate of Faelwen's condition; each lending her an arm and slowing their pace so as not to overtax her. They kept up a constant stream of light chatter which, even frustrated as she was, could not help but make her smile.

When they reached the beach they had arrived at a few months before, they found a quiet spot down by where the turf met the sands, where Faelwen could rest with her back against a young tree. Thus situated, and more comfortable than she had been in bed, she quickly fell asleep and the twins alternately read and talked quietly to each other.

They had been sat there for a few hours when Faelwen's slumber was sharply ended by a monstrous pain shooting through her abdomen. She started awake and groaned in alarm, hands automatically going to clutch her stomach.

"What is it? What is wrong?" Elrohir was at her side in an instant. "Are you all right?"

Another ripple of pain robbed her of her breath for a moment, making her hiss through her teeth and clutch at Elrohir's arm. "That was no mere kick. Elrohir, I…I think the babies are coming!" she gasped, heart starting to thud.

Had Sauron himself marched up the beach, Faelwen suspected Elladan and Elrohir would have looked less horrified than they did now.

"But Ada said you still had a month to go!" Elladan said.

"Well, they have obviously decided otherwise!" Faelwen ground out, then curled over her stomach in pain again with a loud moan.

"What do we do?" Elrohir asked his twin helplessly.

"We need to get her back to the house, find Nana and find Haldir," Elladan said with an obvious effort to be calm. "Yes, that is it – get her to the house, find Nana and then go to find Haldir!"

They took an arm each and gently pulled Faelwen to her feet and began to slowly make their way back up the beach towards Elrond's house, stopping every few metres as Faelwen wailed loudly in pain, squeezing tightly at their hands.

They had made it about a quarter of the way there when a voice called out from the trees: "Ho there! Who cries out in pain?" It was soon followed by the appearance Thranduil, whose face filled with concern at the sight of Faelwen almost doubled over with tears running down her face.

Elladan and Elrohir looked as though they had never been gladder to see Thranduil in all the years they had known him.

"Faelwen's babies are coming early!" gabbled Elladan in a panic. "We need to find my mother and Haldir."

"I will go to your mother and make sure she is ready," Thranduil said at once, seeming marvellously calm to the twins. "Then I will ride out after Haldir; Legolas mentioned where they were heading. You help your sister home." Then, in a flash, he was gone.

"Come on, Faelwen, not much further," Elladan prompted encouragingly, getting Faelwen to walk forward again, wincing with every groan she made. "It will be all right. Thranduil will soon find Haldir."

They eventually made it back to the house and sent one of Celebrian's maids in search of their mother while they got Faelwen through to her and Haldir's bedroom, thanking every Valar they could think of that it was on the ground floor and so they did not have to get her up the stairs.

Faelwen gripped the end of bedframe with every ounce of strength she had, half-screaming her pain to the rafters as she bent over in agony.

"Should she perhaps walk up and down or something?" asked Elrohir worriedly. "Might that help the pain?"

"I am not a horse!" Faelwen shrieked.

"No, no of course you are not," Elladan said soothingly, with the air of someone placating a lunatic, shooting Elrohir a frown. "Elrohir, shut up!"

"Out you go now, my sons," Celebrian prompted them, arriving with an armful of towels and linen. Galadriel was a few steps behind. "The birthing chamber is no place for males."

Elladan and Elrohir fled gladly, though each paused to kiss Faelwen and wish her luck.

Celebrian and Galadriel helped Faelwen out of her dress and into a voluminous birthing smock while one of the maids changed the bed.

"There we are, iel-nin," Celebrian soothed her, helping her over to the bed and rubbing her back all the while. "Let's try to get you as comfortable as we can."

Faelwen was propped up on numerous pillows while Galadriel gently examined her.

"We have a little wait yet before us," the Lady of Lorien informed her. Faelwen groaned despairingly at such news. She was already in agony; how long was it to last?

They had been there an hour, Celebrian and Galadriel holding Faelwen's hand as the pains came and went, closer together now, when they heard the sound of someone pelting through the house. Haldir burst into the room, breathless and flushed, looking as though he'd run the whole way back.

He was at Faelwen's side in an instant. "Are you all right? Are the babies all right?" he asked urgently. "Is the birth imminent?"

"Peace Haldir," Galadriel placed a hand on his shoulder soothingly. "All is progressing as it should, but there is yet a while to go. Faelwen's body is not yet prepared."

The next two hours seemed to take an eternity to pass. Faelwen sweated and groaned and clutched Haldir's hand when the pains came to wrack her abdomen. Haldir soothed her as best he could, bathing her face and neck with cool water, feeling utterly helpless in the face of a pain he could not take away from her.

As the third hour began, Faelwen's waters broke and Galadriel announced that it was time.

A chalk-coloured Haldir was turned over to Celeborn's care in the adjoining chamber. The former Marchwarden sank numbly down onto a chair by his father's side and stared unseeingly at the opposite wall.

They were joined by Orophin, Rumil, Elladan and Elrohir; the latter of whom had sufficiently recovered from their earlier panic to tease Haldir about the pallor of his cheeks. Orophin and Rumil soon added to the joking in attempt to distract their brother, but all they managed to do was to make him more anxious.

"Out! Go on, get ouside!" Celeborn eventually ordered the four of them sternly, shooing them out of the room as though they were misbehaving elflings instead of adults. "You are buzzing like an overturned beehive and only worrying your brother further!"

For a moment, Orophin and Elrohir looked as though they might protest, but none of them quite dared argue with Celeborn when he had that expression on his face. Meekly, they hurried out of the room.

"Thank you, Ada," Haldir mumbled tensely, wringing his hands. "I was starting to long to strangle them!"

Celeborn chuckled quietly then placed a comforting hand on his son's shoulder. "It is going to be all right," he promised him reassuringly.

"Ada, her mother died in childbed bearing twins!" Haldir croaked hoarsely, pressing his fingers against his eyes. "How could I live if I lost her?"

"Haldir!" Celeborn gave him a little shake, but his voice was gentle as he knelt beside his son and caused Haldir to look up. "Ion-nin, Faelwen's mother was bitten and poisoned by a spider. The circumstances are entirely different. Faelwen is in full health and could not be in safer hands. She is going to be fine."

Faelwen's cries rose in volume and intensity, and Haldir got paler and paler.

In the birthing chamber, things were starting to progress quickly. Galadriel knelt on the end of the bed between Faelwen's feet, while Celebrian sat on the edge next to Faelwen, one arm around her daughter and the other holding her hand.

When she had sat down beside her, Celebrian had noted with concern that Faelwen was clutching something so hard she had made her hand bleed a little. Further inspection, when she had moved to hold her daughter's hand revealed a silver-coloured comb; the one which had belonged to Faelwen's mother, who had died in childbed.

"Not so hard, my darling," she had said gently, turning the comb over in Faelwen's hand so she was pressing against the smoother edges rather than the teeth. Not for all the world would she have taken it away from Faelwen now. "There we are, deep breaths. In and out. In and out. Like that."

"You are going to feel the need to push very soon, Faelwen," Galadriel told her calmly. "When that urge comes, I want you to act on it."

Faelwen pushed, face scarlet with effort, as she yelled her pain out at the top of her lungs. She pushed when instructed, stopped for breath when instructed and gave her trust wholeheartedly to her mother and grandmother.

"Good, very good!" Galadriel assured her. "The baby's head is born. You are doing so very well! One more push should do it now. One more!"

Gritting her teeth and shrieking through one last enormous push, Faelwen felt a warm, wet form slip from her and into the Lady of Lorien's capable hands.

"It is a boy – you have a son, Faelwen!" Galadriel called delightedly, as Faelwen sat back on her elbows, panting heavily, tears of pain mingling with sweat on her cheeks.

"He is not crying!" she said urgently, turning a terrified face to Celebrian. "Nana, why is he not crying?"

There was a beat of silence and then the thin, high cries of a new born filled the air. Faelwen burst into sobs of relief and collapsed back on the bed.

Then Galadriel placed a small bundle on her chest and Faelwen looked down at a tiny, red little soul with blue eyes the very image of his father's. Her son. Her son.

"He is so beautiful!" Faelwen sobbed happily, cradling the messy little bundle to her heart. She kissed his brow gently and smiled tiredly at the baby as he continued to mewl, rocking him gently. "I know, I know, little one. We are having a hard day are we not? But I am very glad you have come to meet us."

"I will get him cleaned up and take him to meet his Ada," Galadriel smiled when Faelwen had held the baby for a little while. "You must have a little rest before his brother or sister arrives. The second child will not wait long, I feel."

While Galadriel tended to the baby, Celebrian wiped Faelwen's sweaty face with a damp flannel and helped her drink some water.

"Rest a short while now, my dear," she soothed her gently. "We're halfway through."

Shaking all over, Haldir shot up like a scalded cat as the door opened and radiantly-smiling Galadriel came into the room with a bundle in her arms.

She anticipated her son's questions before he had finished opening his mouth to talk. "Faelwen is very well; she is doing wonderfully. The second baby will soon be here. Now, would you like to meet your son, ion-nin?" she asked him.

"A son?" Haldir repeated dazedly, feeling his breathing become faster and faster. "Yes! Yes, let me see him, Nana."

"Maybe you should sit down first, there we are," Celeborn cautioned wisely, guiding his still-shaking son back down into the seat.

Galadriel placed the baby gently in his arms and Haldir felt fierce, fierce love roar through his chest the moment he set eyes upon his son's face. Tears of joy brimmed in his eyes. "He's perfect!"

"He is a beautiful child, ion-nin," Celeborn said proudly, running a gentle finger over one of the baby's hands.

"I shall leave the little one with you a short while," Galadriel said gently, running a loving hand through Haldir's hair. "I do not think his brother or sister shall keep us waiting long."

"And I will go and give the news to your brothers," Celeborn told him. "I know they will just be sitting outside the door."

Returning to the chamber to examine Faelwen again, Galadriel found that her statement was absolutely accurate. The second child was ready to be born. They heard a series of cheers in the chamber outside, signalling that both sets of uncles had been told they had a nephew.

"All right, Faelwen, this one is ready to join their brother now," she said encouragingly. "We need you to push for us again."

Faelwen pushed, groaning gutturally in pain as she did so. Once again, she stopped and started when instructed, but her strength was starting to fade.

"Deep breaths, iel-nin," Celebrian prompted. "In and out. In and out. There we are."

Faelwen's cries reached their peak and she felt her second child slide into the world. As the cries of the baby filled the room, somewhat louder than their brother, she fell back upon the pillows, utterly exhausted.

"Well done, Faelwen!" Celebrian said fervently, stroking her sodden hair. "You have done marvellously, darling! What is it, Nana?"

"This one is a girl," Galadriel smiled. "You have a daughter too!"

"A daughter," Faelwen repeated with an exhausted smile.

"Yes, iel-nin, a beautiful daughter," Celebrian announced through tears of happiness as the second twin was placed in Faelwen's arms. "You have two perfect little elflings."

Faelwen barely heard, so enraptured was she with the bundle in her arms and the thought of the child next door in Haldir's. Both their babies had arrived safely. They were well and whole and would be surrounded by all the love any child could possibly wish for.

When she had held the child a while, she passed her daughter to Galadriel to be cleaned up and taken to meet Haldir.

"I am going to ask Ada to come in now, my dear," Celebrian told her reassuringly. "You need to pass the afterbirth and that can sometimes be complicated with twins. We are almost done now and then you can rest as much as you wish." Faelwen was too spent to do anything but nod.

Through a bleary haze, she felt Elrond's capable hands brush her hair back from her forehead and then gently feel her stomach.

"I know you are tired, Faelwen," he said gently. "I need you to find strength for one last effort. We need to get the afterbirths out safely."

Practically held up by Celebrian, Faelwen exhaustedly did as she was bid and thankfully both afterbirths were passed with no real problems. Elrond quickly examined them and declared he was happy that everything was there that should be. Finally, she would be able to rest as soon as she was cleaned up.

Celebrian and Galadriel were paragons of efficiency. Before she was even quite aware of what was happening, Faelwen was helped out of bed and washed, her hair was brushed and she was dressed in a clean nightgown. While this was going on, the bed was stripped and remade with fresh linen.

"Can you let Haldir in now?" she asked weakly as she was helped back into bed. "I want to see Haldir."

"Then so you shall," Celebrian promised her and dashed out of the room. She was back a few seconds later with Haldir at her side and the babies in her arms.

Haldir rushed to his wife in joy and showered her face in gentle kisses. Then Celebrian settled the babies into Faelwen's arms and then quietly withdrew with the others to let the new parents bask in their joy in private for a moment.

"They are perfect!" Haldir said, his voice thick with tears. "They are perfect and you are perfect and I do not have the words to explain how happy I am."

Faelwen was so exhausted that her brain could not supply the words either. Her eyes however, as she kissed her son, then her daughter and then her husband, showed joy that was beyond speech.

They named their son Erynion and their daughter Eleniel; son of the forest and star maiden.

Over the next two days, it seemed they were visited by practically every single elf they knew. Their parents and siblings were in an out all the time, but so also came Thranduil and Legolas – and of course, by extension, Gimli. Also visiting were Glorfindel, Erestor, Lindir, Melapomen and Faelwen's family from Mirkwood. Erynion and Eleniel were thoroughly spoiled and doted upon as each new visitor held them.

"Our children are going to be so loved and happy," Faelwen said blissfully, her head on Haldir's shoulder, watching as Elrond rocked one twin and Celebrian the other. Her parents were smitten and among their most frequent visitors.

"They will," Haldir gave her an adoring kiss. "And so will we. Let us make it our business, Faelwen, to be happy always."

And Faelwen agreed.

The end. If you feel inclined to one last review, it would be so very much appreciated.

Thanks once again for reading!

Very best wishes,

DOT