Hey everyone, thanks for the reviews! Enjoy! Just so you know I'll be taking the story seven years further after this chapter….. This is supposed to be a diary about Erik and Lauralye's life together, and well…. I'll be making sure it's just that.
After that wonderful night with Erik, my dreams had come true….. Over the next few days, Erik and I began working at the opera house. He gave me a simple job of cleaning the costume department out and washing the dresses…. This kept me busy while Erik built and restored every loose end within the opera house. We did this for days, weeks, and even months. I was ever so happy when I found out I was with child….. It was one of the happiest days I had ever experienced. I knew the chances of dying were great, but I kept my mind positive. For the first month of my pregnancy everything was fine, and it didn't even pain me…… it was as if I were beating the odds. After a hard day of work, I lay there in bed, as Erik sat at his desk, looking over the blueprints for the following day. It was getting late, and I wondered when he was going to join me.
"Erik, are you almost ready to go to sleep?"
Erik placed down his blueprints, and blew out the candles that were on his desk… He then crawled into bed with me, and kissed my lips.
"Of course…."
"What were you working on over there?" I asked.
"Just looking over some blueprints for tomorrow. Some of the stone work near the mezzanine needs to be redone."
"You've been working too hard."
Erik smiled, and kissed my pregnant stomach…
"Never too hard for our baby…."
"Just promise me you'll be careful up there…. Seeing you working high up scares me…."
"Well, you can watch me….."
Before I could say another word, Erik crawled in beside me, and we both fell asleep. The months flew by like leaves in the wind….. My life was perfect, our life was perfect…… A pregnancy that was supposed to be painful hardly seemed like that at all. Of course I had my days where I couldn't do anything because I was feeling terrible, but most days I was fine. Erik had become nicer to our housekeeper, and she no longer feared him. Most days Gustave would come along to the opera house with us, and stayed by my side as I cleaned out certain rooms. Erik was a true mason, who places that seemed better off torn down into places more beautiful than the eye could see. After eight months of pregnancy, Erik had lightened my work. It was easier to sit and work rather than to stand up. There were some dresses that needed mending, and so he sat me down in a room he had completely refurbished, and let me mend what needed to be mended. As I was sewing up a red skirt, Gustave sat beside me, drawing a picture with some crayons Erik had given him.
"When is papa going to be done fixing this place up?" he asked.
"Not sure…. He is doing it alone you know. Rome wasn't built in a day."
"He sure is making it beautiful though….."
"Yes, as everything he does."
"What are you going to name the baby?"
I wasn't sure about this. Erik and I really hadn't discussed it, because we didn't want to ward on bad luck. We had decided to just let things play out, and decide upon a name when the baby was born.
"I don't know….. We'll see when it's born."
"I hope it's a boy…. I want a brother."
"Really?"
"I'm sure papa thinks the same."
I laughed.
"No, papa actually wants a girl."
"Yuck…"
"Be nice Gustave."
It was then, that Erik came walking in. He had a blue print in his hand, and a hammer in the other.
"Are you ok?" he asked, placing a kiss on my lips.
"Fine…."
"Are you ready to go home?"
"When ever you are…."
Each night that we would arrive home, Mr. Fleck would have dinner on the table. Erik had strict rules with her, and he made sure that she obeyed everyone…having dinner on the table by five being one of them. When my eighth month turned into the ninth, Erik had wrote Nadir and asked him to come out and stay with us for a while. I knew Erik wasn't going to be taking any chances with this pregnancy. All had gone well so far, and I hoped it would end well as well. I'll never forget the day I went into labor….. Erik was off working at the opera house, and I was home in bed. It got to a point where I couldn't be on my feet any longer, and mostly spent the remainder of my pregnant days in bed. My water broke when I was laying in bed, and I quickly called Nadir to my aid. After examining me, he called Gustave to fetch Erik…….
I lay there cringing each contraction, waiting for Erik to come rushing in. When he arrived, he came in, his tools still in hand. I could also tell that he was sculpting stones because of how dusty his clothes were. Before approaching me, he threw on a clean shirt, and trousers. Afterwards, he sat at my side, gripping my hand to take away the pain.
"You're going to be fine…." he cooed. "I promise you."
I had never experienced such pain in all my life. Tempe's birth was less painful than this one…… Erik stayed by my side throughout the whole birth….. He never rose to leave me. When it was time for the delivery, Nadir set himself down at the end of the bed, while Erik squeezed my arm.
"We need to take great care now…." instructed Nadir. "It could be serious…."
This scared me….. I only wanted a healthy baby, and to still be alive.
"Ok, push…."
I did as Nadir told me, and gave my first push. It was painful, and I could already feel myself wanting to slip away.
"Alright, stop….." he instructed. "You're bleeding."
I could feel the blood seeping from my body, and I felt disgusting……. All I wanted was a bath and to be able to sleep….. Erik placed a small kiss to my cheek, and encouraged me to continue.
"Come, my love…… you must stay awake…."
I could feel Nadir sopping the blood up with a towel in order to continue….
"Alright, push, again…."
I did as I was told, and gave a second push, this time feeling the life within me breaking away at my barrier.
"Push…."
I was getting tired, and found myself starting to slip away. I tried to close my eyes, but Erik wouldn't let me….
"Lauralye, don't sleep….. Not now…. Please don't leave me."
"I'm tired…"
"We must get the child out first."
Once again I pushed, and felt my insides crushing with pain….. I knew once this whole ordeal was over, I would never be able to conceive a child ever again….
"Almost there….. Come on…"
Once again I pushed, and this time I felt the whole child come out of me….. The horrible pain afterwards was excruciating, so excruciating, that Nadir had to give me something to help with it.
"How's my child?" I asked in a tired agonizing tone.
"Fine, just fine…. We have to stop this bleeding before we continue…."
I was still bleeding, and in agonizing pain. Erik sat there squeezing my arm as Nadir worked on me. I could feel him cutting me, and sopping up blood….. I wasn't sure what he was doing, but in the end I was still alive. Moments after my bleeding had stopped, he placed the small wrapped bundle into my arms, and for the first time both Erik and I stared down at our new beautiful baby girl….. She looked exactly like Erik…. Without the deformity….. She was flawless, and ever so beautiful… She had his blue eyes, and light hair…. She was perfect….
"Oh, my love, she's beautiful….." he cried.
"Yes, just like you…."
I felt a kiss on my cheek, and his tears soaking into my skin….. He was crying tears of joy….
"Name her, my love…." he cried. "Name our daughter…"
"No, you name her…." I said.
"I named our last daughter…… just please name her."
I thought for a moment, and then smiled….
"Adalene….."
Erik seemed to like this as well…
"It's beautiful…. My little Addie…."
My child was beautiful, and now my family was complete. I had a son, and a daughter…. I would have had more, but Nadir told me that in order to stop me from bleeding, he had to cut a part of me that would help conceive a child. This broke my heart, but I knew my little Addie would survive…. She was perfect in everyway, and Erik loved her just as much as I did. On the night of Addie's birth, something else happened, something ever so wonderful….. Erik had bought the opera house. What was supposed to happen was Erik had signed on to fix it up, but after fixing it up, the man who owned it put it up for sale, and Erik wound up buying it…… And in the honor of Gustave's mother, he named it
"De christine casei" (Christine's house)
I knew that as much as Erik loved me, there would always be a special place in his heart for Christine…… He ran the opera house, wrote all the music that was to be preformed, and hired the actors…… De christine casei had become so famous, that everyone from everywhere came from all over just to see a show…. Erik had become one of the richest men living within Rome….. I had everything, a loving husband, a son, and a daughter…. Life just couldn't be any sweeter…..and we lived that perfect life for seven whole uninterrupted years…….I had thought our adventures to be over and to live happily ever after, but our troubles were just beginning….
Ok, I know, a little short, but this chapter was just a shorty to get you ready to flip the story seven years into the future…. That's right kids, Gustave will now be ten years old…. Or as Ramin likes to sing it "TEN YEARS OLLLLLD!" lol ok… please review…….
