Chapter 24

One Big Happy Family

Christine's POV

There are certain moments in life that one never forgets, one of them being the birth of one's children. I certainly now, looking down at the bundles in my arms there was no way I could ever forget. The morning they were born I was five months pregnant with them and Erik was out job hunting. My belly was swollen beyond belief, I had no idea I could get this big in my life. Multiples or not, this was just ridiculous! Mattie was my constant companion and rapidly becoming my dearest companion. There was no way to describe how grateful I was for her care in my condition, I was swollen and heavy and tired almost to the point I was in an almost continuous state of either listless waking or dead slumber.

I preferred the second one, the first one was true misery at its best. I got migraines, light and sound hurt me and I just wanted it to be night again so I could sleep. In the second state I was known to black out in middle of the day and wake only in the late, late hours of the evening to Erik sitting by my bed to feed me. All I could stomach was bread and water, I desperately wanted to eat but I couldn't stomach it. It was, to be frank, miserable and I hated it. The only thing I could do was remember the reason I was like this was because I was going to be a mother soon and so I had to endure. I was glad I was having multiples so that I would never have to go through this again. I had always wanted two children, one son one daughter to make the perfect family complete and my life with Erik finally begin. I remember the day they were born and it was nothing like I expected, for now it was a beautiful day.

Bright and warm, the sun glowing so bright that it might have made me go blind if I opened my eyes. The date was the 1st of June and exactly seven months to the time I had left Raoul to be with Erik, six months since we had married. It was, to be truthful the most beautiful summer day I had seen in years and it made me sad that I could not be outside to enjoy it. But on the bright side of things, I had a window where if I looked out I could see the beach and hear the waves sloshing and crashing about in all its pristine blueness reminding me that my babies would be born in the summertime to this golden weather and I would be able to enjoy the end of it with them. I imagined my children, sons or daughters or both walking along that beach with Erik the way father and I used to do. Barefoot with the grainy sand tickling in-between our toes while we sucked sweet frozen cream and munched on strawberries and biscuits and tuna fish sandwiches while slurping lemonade.

The children would climb into my lap and Erik would tell them stories of the far-off lands he had visited while they made sandcastles in the golden earth. It was indeed a most wonderful dream, and I could just see it when I watched the surf out my window and heard the gulls cawing to one another in conversation. I wondered what they were discussing so intently for they are very noisy indeed. I suppose it was the beauty of this day they flew about in and a smile spread across my face at the thought that the first morning my family had together might be just as lovely as this one. My babies kicked and I ran a soothing hand over my huge belly to calm them, wondering what they would look like when they arrived. The more I thought of it the more anxious I became to see them but I had to be patient as impatient as I felt.

I just had to keep telling myself that it would be time sooner than I knew and then Erik and I would have a home of our own. A little home with our little family to start the rest of our lives. We were currently living in the apartment above the candy shop with Mattie and the giant who she called Fabious. Erik and I had offered to leave after the two of us found some form of gainful employment but they wouldn't hear of it. In fact the idea of us leaving was insulting to them. If she had been taller Mattie would have slapped me, but of course being so short she just whacked my knee in protest for the very idea of going away from her while the giant man had chocked on his own spit and looked as if he had just been punched in the gut by a ten-pound fist made of cement or steel whichever was heavier at the moment. The hurt looks on their face made me feel awful but to be fair this house was quite small and we were due to have children any day now. Still I wanted to apologize for any offence I had caused to them, not wanting to appear ungrateful when my feelings were just the opposite.

"No, no!" Mattie cried out, "You mustn't leave it would be far too lonely after all this time!"

"But," I started and was immediately cut off by the giant.

"No 'buts'," he said gruffly, "Even if you were bothering us, which you aren't it's far too dangerous for someone like you out there besides."

Now it was Erik's turn to get annoyed; "Now see here, we appreciate everything you have done for us but we are about to have children and it'd be too crowded with all of us here."

Mattie smiled, undeterred by Erik's temper, "but of course it would be." She agreed happily.

"Exactly so I really think it best if as soon as the children are born Christine and I would be on our way."

"Yes on your way upstairs." Mattie smiled at us.

"I beg your pardon?" I stammered, blinking rapidly.

"There is a three bedroom loft above our house," Fabious explained. "It's our guest house but under the circumstances and seeing as you are friends of Mattie we are prepared to move you in there."

They took our stunned silence as gratitude and helping me to my feet (for my belly made it impossible to stand on let alone see them) they guided us up to the loft where they intended for us to stay. It was cozy enough, and cheerful with a small kitchen and washroom and three large bedrooms taking up most of the space. The walls were painted a plain kind of light brown only slightly darker than the ecru of my own pale skin. There was a sofa on one end and an old and no doubt out of tune piano on the other that looked as though it hadn't been played in ages and the carpet on the floors was an ugly mossy green that reminded me of Erik's tonics. There were no paintings on the wall and save for a floral vase and the tattered 'welcome' mat the whole home was devoid of decoration. Simple plain and bare, most people would have found it ugly but I simply adored it! I waddled around the room, imaging what it would be like to be in my little home with the man I loved. Our little ones playing with me in the kitchen and perhaps a cat or dog or some sort of fuzzy companion lying in wait by the door for Erik to come home and scratch its head. The couch seated four people and I imagined myself serving tea to guests on Sundays while my children.

"I know it's not your room at the opera, but…" Mattie trailed off.

"You're right…" I told her, "it's better."

Mattie's eyes lit up, "Really?"

"Oh yes!" I exclaimed happily and she beamed.

They would still be in their finery read the bible before we went to the park and have our picnic play with our little ones and go home to tuck them in. Erik doing the girls me the boy for as the saying goes, 'mama's boy' and 'daddy's girl.' When we had both sung them to sleep, we would be alone for some private time where we would make love and so to bed. I could already see portraits of my family and me on every inch of the walls and pots and pans in the sink soaking the remains of a family dinner away for Sunday brunch. I could hear our children's laughter and myself singing as my little ones and I listened to Erik play the old piano. There was a small fireplace in the loft with 'home is where the heart is' engraved on its white mantle. I couldn't have agreed more and I felt my eyes well up at all the memories we could have in this place. I turned to Erik who had turned and was accepting a big hug from the giant obviously relieved to have one burden taken off his shoulders.

I turned to thank them when I felt my knees give way underneath me and I collapsed on the carpet. I heard my husband cry out and then I knew nothing else until I opened my eyes again and was in the only room that had a double bed. It would be my room with Erik I suppose when the children arrived. I remembered after a moment that my friends had given me a place to stay. This thought would make me feel better until I had to vomit again and be reminded of my misery. I was so sick and achy and the cool darkness of the room made me shiver and I longed for the heat of the summer son and it was so bright just outside the closed drapes of my window. My stomach hurt badly and had been all that day. Laying in the bed I had no idea what was in store for me, in the not so distant future. It was on that same day that my little ones were born I had thrown up for what must have been the tenth time that day and Mattie came in to wipe it up. She stood me to my feet and changed the urine-soaked bedsheets again before taking me out of my sopping clothes and pulling me to the bathroom.

After settling me in the tub she left me to my own devices and called up for more bedclothes while I broke down and cried. Hearing my sobs, my little friend came in and seeing my distress began to pat my shoulder with her child-sized hand in an awkward attempt at comfort. I felt so bad and there was something wet ooze out from between my legs and then a sharp ache in the pit of my belly worse than anything I had ever felt before. It was a dull, but steadily intensifying pain that seemed to be progressing slowly to an unbearable level. The pain was so sharp, so harsh that I squeezed my eyes shut groaning. Rubbing my belly did no good and only made it worse, the slightest movement felt like someone was twisting my insides with a bottle-opener and driving a nail through me with a pounding hammer. Like a physical beating from the hulking lumberjack, coming home to his busty, plump cow of a wife. Father used to tell me of the yodeling lumberjacks of Sweden who scaled the mighty mountains to chop down huge trees, so tall and thick that one could see the whole country from the high point.

Then they would haul the huge logs home on their lumpy soldiers looking like Victor Hugo's hunchback down to their little wooden cabins with white steam from the flaming stove billowing out in white puffs of smoke. The man would kick open the door, now missing a chunk of wood from slamming into the wall one too many times and he slugged the heavy load down and kissed his fat bearded wife, nibbling on her facial hair. Before discovering that his horror that his dinner was not made, and flying into a rage, punching her in the face with his calloused boulder-sized fists. I shuddered thinking about how much that would hurt, which was why Daddy had told me never to marry a hulking man with too much muscle and too little brain. Not only would he hurt me but the babies would be just as huge and brutish as their father. Being a child I told him that men were yucky anyways but I had always taken his advice to heart, even now when I'm a married woman I'd listened to my father.

I had married the opposite although Erik was indeed finely built as well as a brilliant man but to look at him you would never know. His skin was so thinly stretched and pale that he looked scrawny as a wood-shaving. But when I touched him underneath that thin membrane of skin, stretched too far over his poor bones was a wall of solid muscle corded and rippling with every movement. He was tall and long and skeletal and I assumed the birth of our children would be easier with the size of the lover I had chosen to father them with. It was a fallacy in every way! The pain was so great that my sobs grew louder, I realized what was happening but instead of feeling my anticipated joy I felt agony. A great pulsing throb between my legs as if it were stretching and then I saw white liquid coming out which meant that my children were coming whether I was ready or not.

"Shush Christine…" she whispered patting me heavily so that her hand made a light slapping nose.

"Mattie something is wrong it hurts…" I fretted leaning forward to ease the pressure on my body, it did help a little.

"Hold on I'll get the doctor." She said eyes widening.

"No… don't leave me like this." I pleaded, terrified to be alone.

"I will get your husband." She told me gently, then hollered down the stairs, "Hey Daddy it's time!"

I heard Erik running up the stairs, asking in short breaths where I was and he and ran in to the lavatory his mask falling off, dangling from only the right ear till it flopped to the ground where he left it in his panic. He grabbed me out of the tub, not even bothering to dress me he yanked the covers off the bed and laid me down on the sheets naked, dripping and weepy. The pain nigh-on unbearable by this point I began to scream. The door creaked open and I knew that Mattie had run for the doctor, I could only hope he'd get there soon but it was several hours before the man would arrive and by that time I had lost the ability to fight the pain. When the ghoulish doctor arrived I was no longer screaming, but I was curled up in a fetal position with streaks of leftover tears and I was gasping for breath. Clutching my breast close to me and leaning on my aching belly while Erik tried to soothe me by massaging my back, but it was no use my back felt like it was throbbing, pulsing with the pain every movement as if my whole body was contracting.

I heard a high pitched nasally voice saying, "Turn her over the child is coming now." Erik obeyed shushing me as he rolled me over.

I was met with the sight of a man who was pale as the moon and far skinnier than was healthy. He had pointy ears, coal black eyes that glinted with mischief in a sort of boyish way that I might have found charming were I not splitting in half. His hands had long Ebony nails that looked pointy and sharp as he pulled my legs apart exposing my privates to the four people in the room in a most immodest way which made me feel uncomfortable but no one was concerned about that at the moment as Erik wrapped his freezing hand around mine and held on like a shackle. I looked into his eyes, and seeing his very real terror made the mistake of looking down. What I saw was disgusting to be honest, it looked like a slimy bubble was coming out of my center and the man, this doctor what's-his-name was grinning with fang-like teeth reminiscent of a vampire. I looked at Erik's face and saw his fear and felt my own panic rising.

"What's going on?" I asked the man with the pale face.

Pale Face smiled at me, "It's time," he said and pulled my legs apart saying, "Time to push." He said.

"No…" I pleaded not wanting the pain to get any worse.

"Shush," Fabious told me, "relax…"

"That's right, your body will do all the work." Mattie told me.

How right she was, whether I wanted to or not the female body was designed for this and so my womb started to open and close, the pain splitting me in half and I moaned as I gripped Erik's hand. Pushing, pulsing, throbbing and heaving as a small round, dark covered head came out of me and was lifted away from my body to leave me a moment's peace as the doctor sent for a basin of warm water and towels. He lifted my baby, and washing the child handed Erik the baby who looked at him through eyes of moonlight and he stroked the black fuzz on the baby's head. Before handing them to the doctor, when all I wanted to do was hold my baby but seemed to not be allowed to because the other would be coming at any time now. All I could do was watch helplessly as everyone else cared for my child. The still naked baby whimpered and squirmed as it was taken from Erik to be cut loose from my body and handed off to Mattie who washed the child and then, to my horror slapped my firstborn child on its rump.

"What are you doing?" I cried in shock as the child admitted a loud wail.

"Do not worry angel that is a procedure to cause the baby to expand the lungs." Erik explained and I calmed down a little.

"What is—ahhh!"

"Not now dear the second one is coming," Pale Face told me and it started all over again.

By the time the second one was over I was so exhausted that I just wanted to rest, during it Erik and Pale Face had to keep rousing me from the sleep that made me feel like lead. I wanted to snore, to have a good long sleep it was the hardest thing I had ever done trying to keep my eyes open. The pain was tiring and my arms felt like they weighed a ton on either side, my legs were tight and numb from being spread so long and the parts of them I could feel stung with horrid cramps. My body still did all the work the baby crowned naturally and then came into the world just like the first and was cleaned the same way while I barely kept my eyes open. I fell asleep without meaning to, snoring for what felt like a few seconds before the pain started again and my v eyes snapped awake again. Hearing voices downstairs it registered with me that Dr. Pale Face was in the living room having tea with Fabious while Mattie and Erik looked after the two babies in the dresser drawers laid on the floor to substitute for bassinets. I moaned and Erik looked to me, smiling that gorgeous smile of his, the one part of his face (besides his eyes) that was an indicator of how handsome he would have been had he been a normal man.

"Angel I was wondering when you were going to wake…" he said gently.

"Mmm, Erik…pain…" I moaned.

"What pain?"' he asked smoothing my hair, "you're all right it's probably just residual."

"No…hurts…doctor… please." I panted.

Erik nodded and sent Fleck down the stairs where the vampire man reappeared with Squelch who lit lamps as he rushed to my side and opened my legs going paler (if that was humanly possible) as he turned to Erik with wide eyes. I did not hear what they said, the words gargled from my tiredness and the pain but then again I didn't need to because I knew what was going on after the night I had and I knew my body had given me a brief reprieve before pushing forward another child into the world and this time I was having trouble my exhausted muscles would not do the work and I had to force them to do what they needed to. It only made them hurt worse and then the child turned and the worst thing that could have happened did. The baby got stuck in my opening and could not go out even with my pushing, I began to panic. I had heard of children dying from this and if that happened…if I knew the grief of the childless mother I would surely take my own life. I would not be childless but even to lose one baby would be too much for nothing can replace the loss of a child. No matter how many other children you have that one you lost leaves you with a thousand what-ifs that I just couldn't handle. Not something I wanted to bear and not something Erik could handle after the death of his first born when he already believed he could not have healthy children.

The child turned sideways and my heart thudded to a stop in my chest for a moment, but then Mathilde reached in between my legs and pulled my third child an hour younger than the pair out. I was panting as the child was washed and cleaned and then I felt something coming and I couldn't believe what was happening to me. I had heard of other women having four children at once but I never thought it would be happening to me. I didn't want this I was too tired I just wanted it to be over I had three children that was already more than I had hoped for but when Erik did something he did it to the fullest even get me pregnant. My body did the work as slowly as it could because I had no strength to help it along but this child was good to me. Their birth was as easy as drifting into peaceful sleep and though I was aware of my birthing it was so gentle that I slept through it almost. My wakefulness lasting enough to weakly help the child out of me and the moment I felt the peace of the afterbirth I fell dead asleep for a moment before Dr. Pale Face's voice roused me.

"Congratulations Mrs. Mansart, you are finally done!" The doctor told me.

"Mmm… gender…" I mumbled.

"Two of each…" Mattie told me while Squelch hugged me.

"Erik… want them…" I mumbled, and he brought them to me looking at the girls I cried they had their fathers hair and eyes,

"Aria Melody…" I named the first and Erik smiled as I said to him, "Your turn… what's her sister's name?"

Erik looked down at the black-haired silver-eyed child and with tears in his eyes said, "Luna Ebony…" I smiled softly as Fleck and Squelch brought the boys to us. This time Erik went first, looking at the strawberry blond little boy, said, "Alexander René."

I looked into my own eyes of the second child and as I had done with the others I kissed him and despite having my eyes he looked at me with the seriousness of his father. But then he smiled with the same dimples as my late father and the name came out without a second thought. "Gustave Erik." With that I closed my eyes unable to fight the sleep tearing at me.

The last thing I heard was Squelch's voice in a soft rumble, "Thank you Doctor Gangle." Before the lights went out for me and my life really began.

A/N sorry I haven't updated in like EVER my inspiration was gone but its back now tell me what you think?