11. The cycle of life and death

In the end, everything happened as it was supposed to. Claudia married the man she had agreed to and dutifully suffered her way through the wedding night. This ordeal was shortly followed by the next one: a short but nevertheless infuriating bridal tour on which she met dozens of relatives she didn't even know existed. All the while she just wanted to go home to London, not back to the manor or the summerhouse, but to the dark funeral parlour she had grown to love.

Promptly on her day of return, the Queen had mercifully flooded her with work and thereby Claudia had found a good excuse to avoid her newly gained 'family life'.

She had used the first opportunity to escape the manor and took a carriage to London to see Cedric, if only for half an hour. That day had been the first time she had ever found him standing in the middle of the room when she had entered the parlour, as if he had been waiting in exactly this spot for hours or days. There had been no smile on his lips, his expression one of concern and poorly concealed distress, perfectly mirroring her own feelings. There had not been much to say or do so she had just stepped into his arms and held onto him as they had sought comfort in each other's presence.

In the end, life continued like before – just that now she was no longer living only with her servants but also with a husband at her side. Fortunately, he was just as busy as she was and he didn't force any more family life or couple activities on her than the bare minimum. They politely talked to each other at mealtimes or when they met somewhere in the manor and afterwards they both merrily walked their separate ways. They had agreed on separate bedrooms for both of them were busy and seldom went to bed or got up at the same time. She made sure of that.

Claudia tried to meet Cedric as often as possible, but even though he was an important informant she could not always find excuses for running off to his place. Especially because it was deepest autumn by now and recently her duty had forced her to spend hours at Lady Doyle's mansion and Scotland Yard's office.

But today she had finally found some time. On her way to his shop she silently noted that it had been two weeks since she had last been able to visit him and not just met him at the manor during one of the meetings of the Evil Noblemen. Her wedding was already more than a month in the past.

She knocked on the door and entered the parlour. Cedric was nowhere to be seen.

Just as usual. Claudia smiled to herself and strolled through the room, playing the game that had become a habit at this point. She knocked on a coffin and by the noise it made she could tell it was empty. She listened into the silence of the room, but this time, there was no cackling, no laughing. He usually showed himself when she had guessed wrong.

She crooked her head. Did we change the rules of the game?

Casually, she walked up to the next coffin and knocked, listening closely: most definitely empty. She frowned and began to wonder if he was in the back rooms, or maybe not even here? But the door had been open. She could not imagine him leaving without locking up the shop. It was not like there was much to steal in here, but still…

She shook her head and decided to just continue. It took her a few more tries until she finally heard that he was standing inside the up-right coffin she had just knocked against. As Cedric didn't make any movement to open the lid himself, she pulled it open – only to have a skeleton fall on her. She yelped in surprise and caught it instinctively. Only moments later, Undertaker burst into laughter behind her.

She turned around - the skeleton limply slumped against her - to find him lying on one of the coffins as if he had been there all along. She knew better: he hadn't. But she had no idea where he had come from either.

"Your face!" He held his stomach, tears streaming down his cheeks. "That was priceless!"

She had meant to at least act a bit offended, but seeing him lying there laughing she couldn't help but chuckle herself. She had missed him – had missed this. She always did when she couldn't see him for more than a week and she almost never had the time to meet him this often.

With as much grace as she could muster she pushed the skeleton back into the coffin and threw the lid shut before it fell out again. She shook her head as she walked up to Cedric, who was still laughing.

"I thought we agreed on no surprise attacks." She said, eyeing him with a smirk on her lips.

He giggled, wiping his cheeks. "You only said you were afraid to hurt me. But my friend is long since dead, you see~." He grinned at her and sat up. "Cannot hurt him anymore, even if you pull a knife on him."

"I did say that, didn't I?" She shook her head in defeat. Of course he would think of a way to jump her without going against their agreement.

"You~ did." He confirmed grinning and reached for the cookie urn next to him. It hadn't been there earlier either.

She kept silent for a moment and when she continued, a small smile was tugging at her lips. Spending time with him hadn't been the only reason she had come here today. "I've got news."

"Oh?" He curiously crooked his head and stood up, circling around her. "And what would that be, my dear? Did the Queen assign you another impossible task?"

She smiled, waiting until he was in front of her again.

"Or is it-"

"I'm pregnant."

That shut him up for good. He stopped dead in his tracks, the expression on his face one of utter surprise, almost confusion. This time, she couldn't help giggling while he just stood there flabbergasted, blinking at her.

"I'm pregnant." She repeated, smirking.

He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came to him. His gaze wandered down to her womb where the unborn child was growing. Of course, there was nothing to be seen yet.

"How… did you notice?" He asked slowly.

"I didn't start bleeding and saw a doctor," She answered truthfully and shrugged. "He congratulated me on conceiving on my wedding night." She rested her hand on her womb, gently caressing the spot where her unborn child grew. "It might have not been the wedding night though."

She looked into his eyes and he looked back, realization slowly dawning on him. He had been the first after all. If she had been fertile during these days – and apparently she had been - and if her own will, her own emotional and physical state meant anything at all, then maybe…

He lowered his gaze once more, inspecting her body and then her face, as if he was looking for any signs of discomfort. "How are you feeling?"

She smiled. "I'm fine, no worries. I'm not feeling sick or anything. I was a bit dizzy earlier, but I've had worse."

He nodded, falling silent once again. She had always found it unsettling when he hadn't smiled for a while and it was the same today. The situation was difficult and awkward and Claudia was beginning to feel bad for her earlier cheerfulness. She could not tell whose child she was bearing. Maybe she could tell once it was born, but even then there might be no guarantee. It was strange and she was not sure if she wanted to be happy about the new life growing inside her or cry about the uncertainty of the child's father.

"I am sorry." She said when the silence began to stretch, looking down at her belly. Whatever happened, she would not let it affect her love for the child – it didn't have any more choice in this than she did -, but she still felt awful for not being able to tell Cedric if he was the father or not. But there was no way she could know. Nobody did.

"No." He shook his head, as if to cast off his hesitation. "It's not that." He stepped closer, his fingertips carefully touching the fabric of her coat, just above her womb, as if it was something sacred. "I just…" He hesitated – how odd for him – and then shook his head once more before lifting his head to smile at her. "I wasn't expecting this, is all."

Relieved by the warm and gentle expression in his green yellowish eyes, she smiled back and wrapped her arms around him, absorbing his distinct scent and the warmth his body was emitting. Even though he held her close as well, his touch was much lighter than she was used to.

When she pulled back she raised an eyebrow at him and poked her fingertip into his chest. "Don't you dare start treating me like a glass figurine now, too. My servants are already driving me mad with this constant 'how are you' and 'don't you want to take a break'. I'm fine."

Cedric laughed in response and took a brief bow, a wide toothy grin plastered on his lips. "I deeply apologize, my fragile lady, but I feared you'd fall apart at a touch."

He yelped when she pinched him on the waist and she laughed when he caught her in his arms and swirled her around, his embrace much tighter than before. He chuckled at her burying her face into his neck and as they pulled apart they both grinned stupidly.

Yes, that was more like it. It was not like she had caught a deadly disease. She was just with a child. And even though she had never bothered much with thinking about having children, she found that she was happy. Even more so if she could share this happiness with Cedric.

It was only when she stepped back from him and turned around a bit that she noticed something that looked like a huge selection of sweets sitting on his desk.

Claudia crooked her head in curiosity. "Did you stock up on sweets?"

He turned his head to look at the desk and chuckled. "No, that'd be a bit too much, wouldn't it~?"

She followed him when he walked up to the dark wooden desk. As she stepped closer it became obvious that the pile of sweets had been a present. She could tell with only one glance that they were of good quality and had probably cost quite a bit of money.

She smirked as her gaze wandered over the chocolate and candy. "Someone knows your taste in food."

Cedric laughed at her comment. "It's not hard to figure out, is it?" He paused for a moment and let his finger glide over the thin transparent film the candy was wrapped in. "Alex gave it to me."

Claudia blinked in surprise. She remembered the one time she had seen Alex as he had left the funeral parlour right when she had arrived. Back then, Undertaker had said he was an acquaintance. She had hoped to meet him sometime, but as she could seldom visit they always missed each other.

"I remember him. I saw him on the street a few months ago." She crooked her head curiously. "It looks expensive. Was there a special occasion?"

Cedric shook his head. "Sometimes he just does these things for no reason." He grinned at her. "You did the same once, remember?"

She started to laugh at his comment. "Touché."

A few months ago, she had indeed brought a cake for no reason too. When she thought back now, she had probably already been falling in love with him then.

She kept silent for a few seconds. Before she continued, the expression on her face grew more serious. "How… did you get to know each other?"

It was hard to imagine they had just met somewhere on the street or in a pub as Undertaker scarcely left the parlour for any other reason than attending a funeral or picking up corpses. So…

There was no pause before he answered, as if he had already expected her to ask. The smile on his lips had faded. "I first met him two, almost three years ago. His new-born son had died only five days after birth."

Claudia nodded silently. Yes, she had expected something like that. She felt bad for this man, who had appeared so nice and gentle when she saw him in front of the parlour.

"He's a very unlucky man," Cedric continued, the expression in his eyes difficult to place. Almost one of nostalgia. "After the death of his son, I met him on the graveyard a few times. He would always politely greet me and ask me how I am. He passed by at the parlour at least once a week, even though his home is nowhere nearby. Maybe he was trying to come to terms with himself, tried to process his son's death by coming to the places that reminded him of it." Cedric paused for a moment, a frown building on his forehead. "A year later, he was standing before me again, reduced to tears. His wife had become the victim of a violent crime. I buried her just like their son before her."

Claudia pressed her lips together in sympathy. First his son, then his wife… As she looked up to Cedric she noticed the subtle expression of distress in his bright eyes. She suspected that others wouldn't even have noticed, but she did. He had seen death and grief many times – not only because he was a mortician, but also because he had been working as a Grim Reaper - and she knew that usually, he didn't get himself emotionally involved with the fate of his clients. It might seem cruel and heartless to outsiders, but she knew that if he did it would just break him apart. But this man, Alex, had been different. She saw it on his face.

"A few months ago…" He breathed in before he finished the sentence and took his gaze of the candy on his desk. "His eight year old daughter became ill and died. She was the only one left in his family."

Everyone…?

"He looked so calm when I saw him back then. He even smiled at me." She mumbled in disbelief. To lose every single person you loved in the matter of two years… "I would have never thought that he had just lost his last family member."

"It's curious." Cedric agreed. "He grieved miserably every single time, but he never lost the ability to laugh, joke and believe in a brighter future." He shook his head, as if to shake off the thoughts and put a smile on his face. "That's how I got to know him. He's good at telling jokes and making light of anything."

Claudia chuckled. "I'm not surprised you get along so well. I really do want to meet him."

"I'm sure you will someday." Cedric responded with a grin.

She smiled at him before her gaze wandered to the candy once more. Her expression turned serious as she thought her next words over.

"Don't you think it's curious?" She asked after a while. "For a man who lost so many loved ones to become friends with a mortician? You would think he'd shy away from everything related to death."

"It's not that uncommon." Undertaker responded, his gaze lost in the distance. "For people who have suffered loss to surround themselves with even more death, loss and grief. To feel connected to those they lost or to come to terms with their grief someday."

There was a pause that felt too severe to just dismiss it, but before Claudia could think further, the expression on Cedric's face shifted from seriousness to carelessness in the blink of an eye.

"Well, I guess with these sweets I've got my next meals aaall planed out~" He exclaimed cheerfully.

Claudia blinked. This shift in mood and topic had been a bit too forceful, even for him. But he just strolled through the room and headed for his cookie urn like nothing had happened. So she decided to let it go as well. It obviously wasn't a topic he wanted to linger on.

As he turned towards her once more, she crooked her head and raised her eyebrows. "Meal?" she repeated and pointed her finger at the sweets. "This is no meal. It's dessert."

Cedric grinned toothily. "It's food."

Claudia shook her head, but couldn't help laughing. "You're impossible, you know that?"

He giggled at her remark, very amused by her persistent tries to convince him of eating anything else but sweets.

Again, she found herself shaking her head. "I give up..." She sighed in feigned exasperation, but then lifted her gaze to smirk at him. "For now, that is."

He grinned back and she slowly walked up to him. When he was close enough, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. Their lips met half way and Claudia let her hand slide over his chest as he gradually deepened the kiss. She caught herself missing the feeling of his bare skin underneath her fingertips just like the touch of his warm hands and soft lips on hers.

After a while they had to break apart for air and she smirked cheekily. "I just noticed that there is a good side-effect to the news I brought earlier."

He crooked his head questioningly. "And what would that be, my dear?"

Claudia shrugged in playful indifference, waltzing back a few steps. The smirk never left her face. "I cannot become any more pregnant than I am, can I?"

It took a second for him to catch the cue. When he did, he laughed and tilted his head to the side, a charming smirk gracing his lips. "No. Indeed, you can't."