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I do not own POTO, or its characters.
Erik ran his fingers gently through Christine´s hair after their lovemaking; his weight pressed down on her, but she enjoyed the continued intimacy of the contact, and he knew it.
"Where have you been, Christine?" he murmured, rolling onto his back with her so that she now rested atop him.
"Been?" asked Christine, sleepily.
"You left me, in your way, you know. You did not leave me in a physical sense, but you left me in spirit. Why?"
Christine awakened somewhat. "Didn´t you overhear my little talk with Meg?" she asked.
"Only the end of it. You seem to be under the impression that I intended to eavesdrop on your entire conversation."
"But you did eavesdrop!" said Christine.
Erik sighed.
"When I brought Miss Geary upstairs to visit you," he said, "I waited for her outside the bedroom door, hoping that she would report to me afterwards. I could discern only the sound of two people conversing, until she raised her voice – she was clearly distressed. I listened to the rest of the conversation – I simply moved close enough to the door to do so.
"You are aware that June Geary is a very good friend, and her daughter´s welfare has always been a concern of mine. I naturally telephoned Mr. LeBlanc as soon as I overheard Miss Geary´s suspicions regarding his behavior. I felt, from what little I had observed of Mr. LeBlanc´s character, that he was incapable of such a betrayal – still, I needed to verify my conclusions, and I did so. I took the liberty of informing him of what you planned to do to his new car. He laughed when I told him, Christine, and there was no trace of anger or spite in his reaction. I decided then and there that he is the perfect husband for your friend. She will do as she pleases with him, whenever she pleases, and however she pleases, and he will enjoy it! Thus, I helped him to formulate a plan designed to capture the unwary Miss Geary and bring her to the altar at last."
Christine rolled to her side, unable to suppress a smile. The entire evening she had regarded Meg as the hapless victim of an ambush. Erik´s explanation cast things in an entirely different light.
"I am happy for them," Christine said. She had hoped that Joe and Meg would marry someday.
"You still have not explained why you kept yourself from me," said Erik, taking Christine off guard with the sudden shift of subject.
"Kept myself from you," repeated Christine slowly, gathering her thoughts. Erik waited, vigilant, for her answer, and his fear was palpable to her. How can a man be so powerful and vulnerable, both at the same time?
She kept her answer soft and diplomatic, frightened of hurting him. It would be the truth, however, or he would sense the lie immediately.
"I´ve been exhausted lately, Erik," she said. "We have James, and now another baby is on the way, and I´ve been worried about how I can attend to the children and work and still have enough time and energy to dedicate to…to your needs."
He looked relieved. "So it´s nothing I´ve done?" he asked, watching her carefully.
"You mean, besides getting me pregnant?" she asked, careful to smile as she spoke. "I´ve been blue, that´s all. I wonder how I´m going to do all this…?"
"You have been working too much," he muttered, reflecting. "I think I have been asking too much of you. Perhaps you should work fewer hours downstairs, and we should ask Mrs. Donovan to help with James – a promotion, of sorts, to professional grandmother…"
"She might not mind," conceded Christine. "She seems to prefer James to cooking. And James adores her. We´ll need another cook, though. I wonder how she´ll take to being usurped in the kitchen?"
"She won´t mind if I offer her an attractive enough contract. She was all too happy to sit with James tonight while we were otherwise engaged."
Well, that solves at least part of the problem.
"Erik," asked Christine quietly, "What happened to this side of your face?" She indicated the injuries on the flesh his mask normally covered – four long, scabbed lines raking its surface.
He looked down. "You must understand that I blamed myself," he said. "I blamed myself when you cut me off as you did."
Tears filled Christine´s eyes as she traced his injuries with a gentle fingertip.
"Erik, please, don´t do things like this! We can´t always be perfect together, and I can´t have you falling apart at the same time I do! Think of James!"
"You fill my mind, Christine. I cannot help it, and I cannot change."
…and another part of my problem has no solution. We´re at an impasse.
Sunday afternoon found both Christine and Meg at the Greene Street Soup Kitchen.
"Hey, Meg! How´s the honeymoon?" Christine asked, half-surprised to see that her friend had shown up.
"Just…glorious!" said Meg, with theatrical dreaminess. "Joe is incredible. He cooks for me, he´s cleaned the oven, he´s already changed the oil in my Honda… and he makes perfect coffee…"
"Meg! How could you exploit the poor man so? Can´t you see he´s about half crazy?" scolded Christine.
"The other half isn´t too bad, either!" replied Meg, doing her best Mae West. She became herself again at once, though, as frank and open as ever. "Seriously, Christine, we´re very happy. You know, we´re even talking about buying a house in your neighborhood! The Vasco is doing really well, and I´ve been saving money – but, mostly, my new hubby turns out to be pretty well-heeled himself. I didn´t know how much money he has!"
Christine´s eyes widened and she paused over the potato she was peeling. "It would be GREAT if you could live close to us!" she said, ecstatic.
Meg smiled at her. "I think so. By the way, thanks again for the honeymoon package. We´ll be flying out to Fiji just as soon as we make sure the Vasco can work for a couple of weeks without us."
Christine nodded. Erik had arranged the honeymoon package for Joe and Meg personally, with some input from his wife, as a wedding gift.
"Oh, I just remembered, too," added Meg, "Dave says thanks for the job on his Harley. He´s just thrilled!"
"Job on his Harley?" asked Christine, confused.
"Yeah! You didn´t know? Your hubby´s minions returned the Sportster, all cleaned and polished, complete with an engine conversion. It´s a lot more powerful now. The only reason Dave let me borrow that bike was that it was the tamest of his three motorbikes. Now I´m not sure he´ll ever let me borrow it again!"
Later in their shift, Meg and Christine stood in front of the soup kitchen, prepared to run an errand to a grocer´s.
Christine was thrilled. "I haven´t been inside a supermarket in three years!" she said.
Meg rolled her eyes. "To think of all the fun you´re missing!" she said, looking absently off to the side.
Christine noticed that Meg kept glancing at the window of a café across the street. She strained to look through the window, and she felt a sudden shock as she saw a man looking back at her through the glass. It was Raoul. As she froze, he came even closer to the window to assure himself that she had seen him. Christine realized that he was not in breach of his contract with Erik – he was far away enough from her so that he kept an adequate distance. She shook her head instinctively as she looked at Raoul and tried not to notice the expression on his face.
"I´m sorry," said Meg, gently, watching her. "I know how you feel, but there´s no helping the situation. He´s been there every week. I tried to chase him off just last weekend. You hadn´t shown up, you know, and I lied and told him you weren´t ever coming back, but he hasn´t given up, so far."
"Meg, it´s been three years," Christine half-whispered, tears of frustration welling in her eyes. Not this!
"I think we´d better get going," muttered Meg. From a distance, Jake trailed them.
The months passed, and Christine´s pregnancy advanced accordingly. She passed as much time with James as she could, knowing how soon things were about to change for them. Erik watched her, fascinated. He was spending much less time attending to his businesses now, and he had delegated much of his work to Nadir – who, in turn, selected choice Meade Street employees to whom to delegate much of his work.
Erik was much more relaxed now that Christine was pregnant for the second time than he had been during her pregnancy with James. Fatherhood suited him, much to Christine´s surprise – and to his own, evidently. He never tired of dandling James and took enormous pride in seeing how he grew. Christine stifled a smile every time Erik would speak to James, because he refused to simplify his vocabulary for his son.
She observed them once, for example, when James threw a toy train across the room. It crashed to the floor away from his play space, and she smiled as she saw James look at his father silently, measuring his reaction. Erik folded his arms.
"Young man," he declared, "You will march over there, collect your toy and put it back where it belongs immediately. You are not a savage!"
James looked up at his father, a finger in his mouth, and smiled slowly. He toddled over to pick up the train, but instead of putting it back in its place, he presented it to Erik.
"Choo!" he said, earnestly. Erik accepted the train, doing his utmost to contain his amusement.
Christine had to admit that James was a very good baby. He was extremely easygoing and even-tempered, and he reminded her very much of her own father. If only he could be here!
Christine´s pregnancy was an easy one, and she kept up her volunteer work at Greene Street. Raoul continued to haunt the café across the street from the soup kitchen, but she learned to ignore him and she gradually relaxed, knowing he would never dare approach her. She was certain that he would become tired and give up eventually. She made sure that her pregnancy was obvious to all onlookers, making it a point to go swaybacked whenever she could be seen in front of the kitchen. If that doesn´t chase him off, nothing will!
She spent her nights in Erik´s arms, as ever. His words of love and happiness were the last sounds she heard before drifting off to sleep at night. Through the shroud of unconsciousness, she could often feel her husband´s hands as they eagerly searched for what he seemed shy to explore when she was awake: the baby´s kicking. This child moved more restlessly within his mother than James had, and Christine would often awaken after a particularly enthusiastic kick or punch.
The baby arrived in late October, just as the leaves were beginning to fall, and he was christened Miles William.