09-02-04

Takes place 9 months after "An End"

A Beginning

by LeoniaKat

The labor had gone surprisingly smoothly, though the gentle mental push Lacroix had given her certainly hadn't hurt. Natalie had decided not to have drugs administered since she wasn't sure of the child's true nature and she didn't want to take any risks. Now, the nurse was handing her a cleaned-up baby girl.

Staring down at the miracle in her hands, she couldn't help but smile at the lock of golden brown hair topping the baby's head. She glanced up at the man – vampire – standing beside her. "She has her father's hair," she said quietly, wistfully.

"Yes, and his blue eyes," Lacroix replied, reaching down a hand to finger that small curl of hair. "Have you decided upon a name yet?" They had discussed this matter more and more often lately.

"Yes, Diana de Brabant."

"The goddess of the hunt," he said quietly, his voice carrying a trace of humor. "I see you decided to give her her father's name."

"It's the only thing of his I can really give to her," she replied.

He nodded, feeling the loss of his son more keenly at this moment than he had in the past nine months.

Natalie glanced up at him, having a good feeling what he was thinking. She'd grown better at reading the subtle changes in his face over the past few months. "Would you like to hold her?" she asked quietly, trusting him completely with her daughter. She knew he would keep his word to protect her family. She saw a flicker of surprise in his eyes, "I trust you, Lucien," she said, using his first name which was a privilege he had granted her but which she rarely took advantage of. "If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't be living in your home."

He nodded, knowing it to be the truth. He carefully accepted the tiny bundle which she lifted up for him. He automatically fell into the position in which he had held his mortal daughter, Divia, when she was a new infant. As he gently cradled her, he mindlessly hummed a tune which he'd hummed to his own daughter.

"That's beautiful," Natalie said quietly. "What is it?"

Surprised, he realized he'd been humming, "Just an old tune I used to sing to Divia."

She smiled softly as she watched the vampire rocking her baby to sleep. Silently, she wished her husband were here to see his daughter.

They arrived home two days later. Natalie had carried Diana inside and Lacroix led them to the newly remodeled baby's room. There was every essential item – changing table, crib, a comfortable rocking chair – along with some non-essential but welcome additions – like the automatic bottle warmer and the hi-tech diaper disposal unit. She swore he was going to spoil her daughter rotten. Not that she was going to complain, mind you. He was taking his role as 'uncle' very seriously.

She had decided she wanted to have her daughter baptized, a decision Lacroix had scoffed at. She had informed him that she was going to ask Nick's old partner, Don Schanke, and his wife, Myra, to be Diana's godparents. Natalie knew Nick would have wanted her to ask them.

At the time of Nick's death, she knew that they would have to find some way to let the mortal world know that he was dead. One of Lacroix' contacts had designed an 'accidental' explosion in their home which would have left nothing but ashes of any mortal living there. It was officially declared an accident – Natalie having been at a supermarket buying food at the time. They went through the ceremony of a funeral, though there was no priest or religious icons.

That was the last time she had seen the Schankes, though they remained in contact through letters and phone calls. At the funeral, she had told them she was pregnant. Two weeks ago they had sent her a package of baby supplies. Now, she picked up the phone to invite them to Diana's baptism.

Two weeks later…

A little past noon, the limo pulled up in front of the house she shared with Lacroix. She had made all of the arrangements for the Schankes, including first class plane tickets and the limo to pick them up at the airport. They would be staying at the house in the two guest bedrooms instead of a hotel.

It had taken a bit of arguing with Lacroix to arrange that, but he had finally allowed it. At the funeral they had been forced to explain his relation to Nick. They had decided to say that they were step-brothers – Lucien being the elder of the two – and they had public records created to that effect. In that way, they were now able to say that Lucien was in fact Diana's uncle.

Natalie opened the door and watched Myra, Don, and their daughter Jenny exit the limo as the driver unloaded their bags. She hurried down the driveway and was immediately engulfed by Don in a hug.

"Nat! It's great to see you again! You look fantastic!"

"So do you, Don," she replied, grinning from ear to ear.

Myra took her husband's place, "He's right, you do look fantastic."

"It must be all of those beauty products you sent me," Natalie replied with a smile. She knew Myra took pride in the Skin Pretty products she sold. "Hello, Jenny," she said to the pretty 12 year old standing next to her father. "You're growing up so fast!"

"Where's Diana?" Jenny asked.

"She's inside sleeping," Nat said with a big smile. "Let me help you with your bags."

They all lugged their bags into the large house and Natalie led them to their rooms on the second floor. The house was larger than any place Nat had ever lived before. It actually had two wings. When she'd first seen it, she'd groaned, imagining her infant daughter running and hiding in the house's many rooms.

"You guys will have these two rooms. They each have their own bathroom. The room between them is a shared sitting room," Nat explained. "My room is in the other wing on this floor."

Myra placed her bags on the bed and turned to face Nat, "Is your… brother-in-law… still living here?"

Nat remembered the Schankes' reaction to the news that Nick was related to the infamous NightCrawler. "Yes, he is," she replied. "He's taking his role as uncle very seriously. I swear he's going to spoil Diana rotten."

"Speaking of Diana, we still haven't seen our soon-to-be-godchild," Don prodded, not wanting to discuss Lucien Lacroix.

Nat laughed, "Right this way, then." She led them down the hall to an identical set of three rooms – two bedrooms separated by a sitting room. They entered a room which was obviously the baby's room. Nat moved to the crib and realized it was empty. She opened the door to the adjacent sitting room and found Lucien seated in one of the leather chairs, cradling Diana.

She smiled as she watched him, remembering the first time he had held his 'niece'. "Did she wake you?" she asked. Before the baby had even been born, he had had the house's speaker system in Diana's room changed so it could be used as a baby monitor anywhere in the house.

"No, I was having trouble sleeping, but I heard her fussing so I came down and changed her," he replied as he gracefully stood and faced their house guests. He handed the sleeping baby to her mother. "If you'll excuse me," he said, addressing the Schankes, "I'll try to get some more sleep." Without waiting for a response, he left the room for his own bedroom on the third floor.

Don gave an exaggerated shudder, "That man gives me the creeps."

"Don!" Myra scolded quickly. "Sorry, Nat," she said, apologizing for her husband's behavior.

"It's okay," Nat replied. "I have to admit that when I first met him I had the same reaction. He's a huge help with Diana, though." She offered the baby in her arms to Myra, "Would you like to hold her?"

Myra nodded and carefully took the baby from her, "She has Nick's hair," she commented quietly.

Don studied the baby before looking up at Nat, "I have a question for you, Nat…"

"Shoot," she said, smiling.

"Diana's last name…" he trailed off, not sure how to tactfully ask the question he wanted to ask.

"I was wondering when you were going to ask that," Nat replied, having already considered an answer for that. "If you're wondering if she's really Nick's daughter, she is. Knight wasn't his real last name." She raised a hand to forestall the question she could see him preparing to ask. "Nick was the honorary Duke of Brabant. His ancestors were the rulers of that small country in what is now Belgium and France. He has land there which has been passed on for generations. The de Brabant Foundation was in fact run by him."

"But why didn't he tell anyone?" Don asked, completely flabbergasted.

"Do you actually think the Toronto PD would have hired a titular Duke as a homicide detective?" Nat asked. "He also didn't want the notoriety."

"Wow," Don responded. "Why was he working at all, then? That charity is worth a ton of money."

Natalie had considered a response to that one as well, "The money the charity was built upon was passed down by his family. It was obtained through some not-so-nice means and when the money fell to Nick, he decided to put it to a good use. He couldn't change the past, but he could try to change the future for some people."

"All that time and I never knew… What happened to the charity?" Don asked.

"Nick's will passed control of it to Lucien. I help him run it now."

"And the lands in Brabant?" Myra asked, still rocking the baby.

"Those he left to me, but his will was written before we even got married. Now that Diana is here, the lands will belong to her, as will the title."

"So she's a Duchess?" Jenny asked with a sparkle in her brown eyes.

"Yes, she is, but she won't know about any of that until she's much older," Nat said. 'Nor will she know about her family's heritage,' she added silently, determined that her daughter never know that vampires exist.

The rest of Nat's week with the Schankes was fantastic. Lacroix grudgingly, and somewhat painfully, attended the baptism. With her friends gone, her life slid back into the boring routine that had begun to develop shortly after Diana had been born.

She itched to return to a job, any job, to break up the monotony. Unfortunately, although Lacroix was willing to help out, she refused to burden him with watching over the baby for more than a couple of hours while she ran out to the store. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, but he hadn't asked to be saddled down with a mortal child.

Finally, she asked Lacroix to give her more work to do with the charity. At least that way she could feel useful again. To her surprise, he signed over control of it to her. As he'd said, "You care about it far more than I."

Natalie found her life almost complete. She had a beautiful, healthy, and more importantly fully mortal, daughter. She had a job where she felt she was making a difference. The only thing she was missing was her husband.

To be continued…