Disclaimer: Don't own and never will.

AN: This one was inspired by Lexvan's story Unexpected things. Enjoy.

The hardest thing, Eric thought to himself as he paced the cream-white and far too bright hospital corridor again and again, was the fact that he could do absolutely nothing about what was happening. He could fiddle with his fingers, wring his hands and pace all he liked, but there was nothing he could do about the fact that his wife was in the next room giving birth to their first child. He wrung his hands once more. He was tempted to tell the hospital precisely what it could do with its medical staff only policy in the emergency room.

"Eric dude, calm down. You're making the place look untidy. And you pacing up and down isn't going to make the baby come any sooner," Matt told him and Eric glared at him. Matt had three children by his childhood friend and now wife Mandy. He knew this process inside out. HE had nothing to worry about. Eric on the other hand, was about to become a father for the first time.

"It's easy for you to say. You've got three children. You've done this m-"

"It never gets any easier," Matt cut in before Eric could continue, before giving a small chuckle. "It's funny. Who'd have thought that we'd actually end up here?"

Yeah," Eric said with a smile. He recognised what the older man was trying to do and he appreciated it. "When I first came to Heatherfield and you thought I was going to steal Will from you?"

"Yeah, when especially as it turned out I had to worry about Caleb and not you at all," Matt replied with a rueful expression on his face. "You liked Hay Lin back then, didn't you?"

"Yeah I was," Erich said with a smile. "Funny, if I hadn't been interested in Hay Lin, I wouldn't have met my wife either."

"Yeah, I never would have twigged you two as a couple," Matt replied with a smile. "You two really do have it though," he added. "It's funny, when you're a teenager and you think you're in love forever and ever. Those were more carefree times."

"Do you ever miss them?" Eric asked and Matt shook his head with a smile.

"Fighting the forces of evil, trying to live a double life, math…" Matt's voice trailed off and he shook his head. "Not in the slightest."

"There's something reassuringly simple about having something solid and fixed to hit. This is what needs to be done, this is who needs to be rescued, this is who needs to be beaten."

"Yeah, and then you have to explain how you managed to acquire your latest set of bruises and cuts and hope your parents buy your latest lie," Matt pointed out. "Trying to keep it under drove me up the wall. I reckon it aged me fifty years every time my mom saw my arms."

"Yeah, I never had to worry about that," Eric chuckled. "I didn't know anything about this stuff until-" Eric paused as a couple of nurses walked past them. As soon as they dropped out of earshot, he continued. "It wasn't until I followed Hay Lin through a portal that I had any idea." He paused and chuckled. "You know, I can't even remember what we were arguing about."

"Yeah." Matt replied thoughtfully as he stroked his goatee. There were distinct advantages to being a music teacher and having the ability to get away with having a goatee was one of them. "Have you heard from little Hay-Hay lately and Erich shrugged.

"She's enjoying her honeymoon in South Africa. Apparently she and Angelo are having a good time." Eric said. "She flies back in a couple of days."

"Didn't he have a thing for Cornelia when he first came here?" Matt asked and Eric chuckled.

"Yeah, but she wasn't interested in him," he said with a smile. "He was crushed at first, he really liked her."

A nurse with a small round face walked up to them and cleared her throat.

"Excuse me," she said. "are either of you men named Eric Lyndon?"

"I am!" Erich replied excitedly, practically jumping out of his shoes in excitement and not surprising, he could hardly contain his excitement and nerves. The nurse looked at him sternly.

"You can see your wife now," she told him in a stiff, unfriendly voice, but Eric barely noticed. In fact, she probably could have bellowed it at him and he wouldn't have noticed. Instead, he charged towards the maternity ward and charged in.

The first thing he saw was a newborn baby staring up at her mother and she was the most adorable baby in the entire world, with a thick layer of dark black hair. Her mother, Queen Elyon was staring back with a look of pure adoration.

"She's amazing Eic," Elyon said in pure admiration, even though she was still a bit pale and Eric smiled at her.

"I love you," he told her and he gently took their newborn daughter in his arms. "And I love you too."