HI All! Looks like everyone is happy to have met Baby Matthew and Jenna & Erik did pretty good with him. And hopefully Nadir will show up soon to clean up all the confetti on the floor. But not EVERYONE has met baby Matthew. Let's see what our good Doctor Chris thinks, about this whole situation, shall we?

CH 13

"You look fantastic, Jenna!" her obstetrician told her, after she completed her physical exam. "And Matthew is perfect. Absolutely, perfect."

Jenna gazed over at Erik with love in her eyes. "I know he is. Just like his father."

"No," the father disagreed, shaking his head with a smile. "He is exceptional because of his mother."

The doctor glanced at the father, who was standing across the room, to allow the doctor to do her job, holding a sleeping Matthew in his arms. With his face half hidden by a stark white mask, and the guarded way he carried himself, he struck the doctor as a little strange. He had also been absent for the entirety of the pregnancy, causing Jenna's best friend, Chris, to serve as moral support. But the absolute adoration on Jenna's face when she looked at her fiancé—Erik, she thought his name was—was quite a thing to behold. There must be something wonderful about him, because she had never seen Jenna look so happy. And it was plain to see the great love he had for her and the baby as well.

"Well," the doctor smiled and patted Jenna's leg, before standing. "I'm going to give you two a little quiet time while Matthew is sleeping so that you can relax. My advice is to enjoy it. Babies don't stay quiet for long!"

"Thank you, doctor." Jenna smiled and Erik nodded politely as the physician left the room.

"I don't know what she's talking about," Erik commented, walking over to sit in the chair next to the bed. "Our little Matthew is, and will always be, the perfect angel."

Jenna laughed out loud, as she took the baby into her arms. "Erik, he's your son! I'm sure there's a little mischief in there somewhere!"

"Oh," Erik smirked, while trying to feign innocence. "And his mother is not at all mischievous? Who caught the spiders for the diva's wig?"

"Who hid toads in her dressing room?" she responded with a giggle.

"Who bit me?" Erik continued, pretending to be scandalized. "—Causing a rather painful flesh wound in the process, I might add."

"Guilty as charged," Jenna smiled. "But I simply couldn't resist you," she added, tilting her head upward a bit to indicate that she would like a kiss.

Erik was only too happy to oblige, as he leaned forward and joined his lips with hers for a gentle kiss. "Just another thing I love about you." He murmured, before kissing her again, their lips lingering a little longer this time, as their offspring slept peacefully on Jenna's chest.

A cleared throat and the crack of a cane hitting the floor broke Erik and Jenna from their kiss, as the door opened and the Parisians walked into the room.

"Are couples in love always this openly affectionate?" Meg asked, charmed by the show of love in front of them.

"They should be," answered Nadir, who had finally finished cleaning up the mess in the hotel room. He put his arm around Antoinette's waist and pulled her closer to him for a quick kiss, earning him a shy smile, and a gentle swat on the shoulder.

"Nadir!" she scolded, with an embarrassed giggle.

"They started it," he retorted, gesturing toward Erik and Jenna. "I was simply following their lead."

When Matthew started making some quiet cooing noises, indicating that he was about to wake, Meg hurried over to the bed. "Hello, Baby Matthew!" she said softly, taking him from Jenna, and holding him carefully in her arms. Looking him over from head to toe, she took pride in the child she helped deliver. "We did good work, Mother," she said, with a satisfied smile.

"To be fair, Darling," Antoinette countered, walking over to peer over her daughter's shoulder. "It was Erik and Jenna that did the work of creating this little angel. We were simply there to help welcome him to the world."

"So, are you sick of him yet?" Nadir asked Jenna, gesturing to Erik, and leaving the women to tend to the child.

Erik rolled his eyes, but Jenna simply smiled and shook her head. "Never! I will never be tired of my Erik," at which point, Erik leaned forward to place another loving kiss on her forehead.

"That's what I thought you'd say," Nadir smiled approvingly, knowing that Erik and Jenna were finally both exactly where they belonged—together.

"I got here as soon as I heard!" came another frantic voice as the door to their room opened once more and Chris came rushing in. "Jenna, I…" his voice trailed off as he noticed the happy couple cuddled together on the bed.

"Chris," Jenna looked up, happy to see her friend, but a bit worried about his reaction.

"Chris?" Meg turned, still holding the baby to see the man who had so recently captured her heart. His blue eyes gazed from the hospital bed to Meg, wide with confusion.

"Meg?" He asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I found her for you," Jenna answered his question, with a crooked grin.

Chris looked back toward the bed, at the strange masked man who sat so close to Jenna, one arm curled around her, the fingers of his other hand entwined with hers. His eyes met Jenna's again, and the confusion in them was joined with pain. "Jenna?" he said again, his voice hollow, with a lack of understanding.

"Chris," Jenna swallowed hard and smiled, realizing that her next words were going to be very hard for her friend to hear. "This is Erik, Matthew's father and my…fiancé."

Chris tilted his head to one side, his eyes narrowing. Matthew's father? Her fiancé? What was she talking about? How could any of this be true?

"Erik," Jenna turned to the man who was sitting beside her. "I think I need a moment alone with Chris."

Erik looked at Jenna quietly for a moment longer, and then over at the handsome young man standing in the doorway who looked so heartbroken. It was against everything in his nature to leave Jenna alone with another man—especially one who obviously had feelings for her. But when Jenna squeezed his hand again in a silent plea, Erik rose from the bed and walked toward the door. Despite the turmoil he was feeling at the moment, there was a great deal for which he knew he had to be grateful to this young man. Therefore, he met Chris's eyes at the door, and nodded politely, as he walked past him, out of the room.

The others followed, Meg first placing Matthew back into his mother's loving arms. When she walked by Chris, she touched his arm and told him, "I'll be right outside." He nodded at her gratefully as she walked past. And then they were alone.

When Chris made no move toward her, nor any attempt to speak, Jenna said, "So, as you can see, I finally figured out a name. Would you like to meet Matthew?"

Swallowing hard and taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he walked over to the bed, and gazed at the baby who was lying contentedly in his mother's arms. Without a doubt, the child was perfect in every way. With his thick black hair and unique two-tone eyes, it was also clear to see that the man who had just exited the room really was the baby's father. They looked so much alike.

Forcing himself to smile, Chris said, "He's beautiful, Jenna," without looking at her, afraid that his emotions would be too easy to read.

"Chris," Jenna said, knowing that her friend was confused and hurting, and hoping so much that she could make him understand. "Look at me."

"So that's him?" he finally asked, in a quavering voice, the question that weighed on both of their minds. But still, he could not look at her. "The man you were in love with? The reason you couldn't…" he trailed off a bit once more, taking a deep breath to regain his composure, "love me?"

Hearing his voice so fragile and seeing his face so sad, hurt Jenna's heart, and she had to fight to keep another one of her crying jags away. "I'm sorry, Chris," was the only response she could think to make.

"I thought it was Jake, you know?" he said, smiling tightly, finally glancing at her quickly, before letting baby Matthew steal his gaze again. It was easier to be calm when staring at the child, then when looking at the woman who had broken his heart. "I thought he was never coming back."

"I know you thought it was Jake, and it was easier for me to let you think that," she began, trying with all her might to stay calm. "But the truth is, I never thought there was any chance I would see Erik again."

"Because he was in love with another woman, right? That's what you said." Chris chuckled darkly to himself. "W…w…what was he—some kind of one-night-stand? You broke up with Jake right before your accident and found out you were pregnant shortly after you woke up from the coma. W…was he just some guy you hooked up with? And that was enough to fall in love, even though he was with somebody else?"

"No, Chris." Jenna shook her head, trying so hard not to become upset. "That's not how it was at all."

"Well, why don't you tell me how it was, Jenna?" Chris spat in a sharp whisper, finally meeting her gaze. "Because nothing you're telling me now makes any kind of sense!"

Jenna took a deep breath, before muttering, "Don't expect for this to make any sense either."

"What are you saying?" he spat.

"What I'm saying," Jenna began, "Is that it all started with my accident. Chris, I never knew I was in a coma. Not until I woke up."

Chris shook his head and scrunched his face, "What has that got to do with …"

"I was living in another world."

Chris looked at her a moment, but the look of betrayal was replaced with a look of concern. "Jenna, you were right here the whole time."

Jenna shook her head, "Only part of me was here. But part of me was somewhere else entirely. Somewhere strange—somewhere wonderful. I was beneath the Paris Opera house. With Erik."

"W…w…wait a minute!" he stopped her, his mind reeling with confusion. "The Paris Opera House? Isn't that where The Phantom of the Opera…"

"Yes, Chris,"

"But that's not real, Jenna. It's a fictional story."

"But I think Erik is the not so fictional kernel of truth at the heart of the story, Chris." When he just shook his head in confusion, Jenna quickly continued. "After my accident, I found myself in a tunnel—at the end of which was a door. When I opened it, I was in Paris in the year 1864. I didn't know it at the time. I thought I was just lost, and I tried to get home. But little by little the pieces fell into place, and I realized I couldn't get home—because I was lost in time."

Chris's eyes narrowed even more, and he turned his head to the side. "Jenna, this is crazy."

"Yes," she agreed. "It is. And at first I thought I was crazy. And so did Erik," she smiled despite herself, remembering some of the arguments they'd had when Erik thought she was a mental patient, before they discovered the truth. "But, none-the-less, he took care of me. He tended to my wounds, and he gave me a place to stay. And he worked really hard to help me find my way home—but in the process," she shrugged, "We fell in love."

Chris looked down at the mention of her falling in love with him. Though he'd already seen the evidence of the fact, it was still difficult to hear, so he simply let Jenna continue her impossible tale.

"I had decided, in fact, that I wasn't coming home. I was so in love with him, that I was fine being stuck in the 19th century, as long as it meant being with Erik. But my health started to fail. I was having headaches, fainting spells…on the night we conceived Matthew, I had a massive Grand Mal Seizure. Erik really thought I was going to die."

Chris's jaw tightened as he recalled the night he too thought Jenna might die because of the seizure. To think that was the night Matthew was conceived…

"After that night, Erik really increased his efforts to figure out how I got back to the 1800s in the first place. He somehow—again, please don't ask me how, because I don't understand—figured out that the door I walked through was a liminal one, which connected two realities. I was existing in two realities, Chris, and Erik realized that I had to choose one. But he was also afraid that if I chose to stay with him—which I had already chosen, in my heart—that I would die. So he lied to me, telling me he was in love with another woman, to make me want to leave him—to make me want to come back. He's the reason I came out of the coma that morning, Chris. I walked away from him, through the door, and it sent me back home.

"When I was first back, I really questioned my sanity—you know I did. I thought everything was some elaborate dream. But then I found out about the baby. It could only have been Erik's—that's when I finally knew it had all been real. And I could never stop loving him, Chris.

"But there was an explosion at the opera house, and, miraculously, the door opened again for Erik and Meg and her family."

"Meg?" Chris asked her incredulously.

"Yes. She's from the opera house too. And they all came through and wound up here. I just found out today Chris. I'm so sorry I never told you the truth about everything, but now that you know, you can see why I never thought I would have the need. I didn't think I would ever see Erik again. I didn't think it was possible, and even if it had been, I didn't think he would want me. But he's here, Chris, and now I know he never stopped loving me either. He asked me to marry him, and I said yes. And I am happier about that than I ever thought I would be again in my life. I'm just so sorry that it hurt you."

Chris closed his eyes as she finished her tale. For so long—ever since he'd seen Jenna for the first time—a part of him had been in love with her. When she was lying there in the coma, his feelings for her had made him fight so hard to bring her back. And then, when she was back, he stood by her side every single step of the way—even though she made it clear again and again that she could never love him. It didn't stop him from loving her. He tried so hard not to pressure her—not to push too hard, because he wanted to be what she needed him to be, even if it wasn't what he wanted. Through it all, his hope was that one day, if he waited long enough, if he showed enough patience, and kindness and care, she would wake up and realize she did love him. But now he knew—with irrevocable certainty—that that dream was shattered. And it did hurt. It took his breath away.

"I'm happy it all worked out for you, Jenna," he said quickly, as he stood and turned to go.

"Chris, wait," she called after him.

"What should I wait for, Jenna?" he asked in frustration, turning back to face her. "Should I wait for your boyfriend to come back in and kiss you right in front of me? Should I wait for him to hurt you again, with lies and with betrayals? Maybe I should wait around to be the shoulder you cry on, leaving you feeling better and me with nothing but a wet shirt? Should I wait to help with the baby, like we've been planning for the last nine months? No, I don't think I'll be needed for that now that Daddy's back. I have waited, Jenna!" he shouted, his voice cracking. "I have waited and waited for the day to come when you would realize how much I loved you—how much I have always loved you. I waited, hoping that maybe one day you could find it in your heart to love me too. But that day is never going to come!"

Chris stopped his tirade with the sound of little Matthew crying, woken by the noise and tension in the room. Looking one last agonizing time at Jenna as she tried to soothe her child, he added, "Wait over, Jenna. It's time for me to go." And with that, he walked out of her room, brushing past Meg and the others, on his way into the night.

Oh dear. Chris didn't take that very well at all. So what does this mean for Chris and Jenna. And what could it mean for Chris and Meg? Please review and let me know-and tune in tomorrow to find out.