Hello! Apologies that it's been a while since an update, but I'm back and committed to finishing this story! There's only a few more chapters after this one. I hope you enjoy, and thank you for reading!

Chapter 26: Welcome to the Family

[featuring "The Time Has Come" and "Blessings Realized"]

~ Autumn 1911 ~

Christine was thrilled whenever Meg and Madame Giry visited her in the Louis-Philippe room. If it hadn't been for her dear old friends, she would've spent a great deal of time alone when Erik was working or tutoring Gustave on music and academic subjects. As Christine neared the end of her child bearing months, it was even more important she wasn't left alone for too long.

Madame Giry knocked on Erik's study door, but did not wait for a reply before she barged into the room with her usual austereness.

"Yes?" Erik said without looking up from the documents he was reviewing.

"I was just with Christine, and I believe it's time you send for the doctor," Madame Giry replied.

Erik's face shot up in shock. "Like right now?"

"Yes, right now," Madame Giry snapped. Erik stood up from his desk and sprinted into the foyer and up the grand staircase in the direction of Christine's room. Madame Giry rolled her eyes. "I guess I'll send for the doctor then," she muttered to herself, adding something about "useless men'' as she walked out of Erik's study.

Christine lay in bed chatting with Meg. Though she was visibly uncomfortable, she was calm, unlike her husband who announced his arrival with a loud bang when the door swung open and hit the wall.

"I'm here, my love!" Erik shouted as he barrelled into the room and collapsed at Christine's bedside with panting breath. The two women stared at him.

"Erik, did you send for the doctor?" Christine asked, knowing full well her husband did no such thing.

"Oh, no." Erik smacked his forehead. "I forgot. I'll do it now." He rose from the floor, but Meg stopped him.

"I'll do it," she said as she exited the room. Christine thanked Meg before gesturing to Erik to get off the ground and join her in bed.

"You seem worried, my love," said Christine as she pulled Erik close.

"Of course I'm worried!" he wailed. "Aren't you? You know, I've been reading all about this, and it's terribly dangerous even if the woman hadn't been shot-" Christine quieted his rambling with a kiss.

"Erik, dear, please don't start quoting statistics at me," she pleaded. "I'm in enough pain already." Christine clutched her husband's hands; when she spoke again her tone was grave. "Erik, if I do…die. Promise me you'll take care of the children?"

"Of course, Christine," Erik replied. He tried not to cry, but he was unsuccessful. He only had limited paternal experience with a pre-teen boy. How was he supposed to care for a baby? What if he ruined the kid and it turned out like him? Gustave used to be a normal boy, but he was becoming weirder under his eccentric father's influence.

While Erik cried, Christine silently cradled him in her arms until the Girys returned to the room with the doctor in tow.

"Alright, sir," the doctor said to Erik. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Leave?" Erik squeaked. His eyes widened, and he clutched Christine tighter, shaking his head in defiance.

"Sir, it's proper practice," the doctor explained. Erik was about to protest further when Christine spoke up.

"Erik, dear, do as the doctor says, please."

Christine pressed a kiss to Erik's lips and the man reluctantly rose from the bed and left the room. His wife could die, and he was being banished to his study!

Erik paced nervously back and forth across his study floor, stopping every so often to collapse to his knees and pound the floor with his fists. He was in the middle of such an episode when Madame Giry entered the room without knocking.

"Erik, stand up and come meet your new son," said the stern woman with one of her rare smiles.

"My son…" Erik's face lit up. "And Christine? Is she alright?" Erik asked as he sprung to his feet.

"She needs rest, but she's alive."

Madame Giry led Erik upstairs into Christine's chambers. She walked calmly, but Erik's gait was unsteady, constantly wanting to charge ahead, but he held himself back and stuck to Madame Giry's side. In Christine's boudoir, Meg and the doctor sat on a sofa waiting for them.

"Ah, Mr. Y. Your wife is doing well, but I suppose I ought to tell you, sir-" the doctor cut off his speech after he received a murderous glare from Madame Giry. Erik didn't care enough about the doctor's words to inquire further before bursting into Christine's bedroom. His exhausted wife was laying in bed with a baby at her breast.

"Oh, Erik!" she gushed. "Come see him! He looks just like you!"

Erik froze. Certainly, the baby couldn't look just like him. Christine had spoken the phrase so proudly, as if her newborn son were the most beautiful baby in the world. Perhaps the baby had some of his traits, but she wouldn't have spoken so lovingly if the baby looked just like him…

Erik peered into the bundle in Christine's arms and saw his face staring back at him, deformity and all. He'd cursed a perfectly good baby with his monstrous visage.

"He's such a beautiful baby. An absolute angel!" Christine cooed as she ran the tip of her finger over the baby's tiny nose.

Erik stared blankly at her. He stormed out of the bedroom into the boudoir where the Girys and the doctor were anxiously waiting for Erik's reaction.

"What the hell did you drug my wife up on?" Erik hissed at the doctor.

"Sir?" the doctor replied in confusion.

"Erik?" Christine called out weakly from the bedroom. "Erik dear, please come back and hold your son!"

Erik pursed his lips and returned to his wife's bedside. Her pleading blue eyes were tearing up at the corners.

"Aren't you proud?" Christine whimpered sadly.

Erik sighed and forced himself to smile. "Yes, I'm very proud. Of you and our son." He placed a kiss on Christine's cheek and grazed his hand across his son's marred cheek. The baby's face was the elephant in the room, but they had to talk about it. Christine couldn't just pretend her new son was perfectly normal. "I'm just worried Christine…what if he ends up like me?"

"He won't," she said adamantly. "We're going to raise him properly."

"Hey, are you saying I wasn't raised properly?" Erik teased.

"Yes, but it wasn't your fault." Christine placed her hand on her husband's. "Erik, I never met your mother, but do you think I'm like her in any way?"

"No, you're very different from her," he replied. "You have such a kind heart, Christine. And you're so loving and gentle..."

Erik leant forward and kissed Christine's lips. She smiled up at her husband and placed their baby in his arms. Erik shook nervously as he held his son, petrified that he'd drop the little bundle of joy, but Christine offered her arm as extra support.

"Have we decided on a name?" Erik asked as Christine dozed against his shoulder. His wife had spent a great deal of time picking out the perfect baby name, and although Erik had heard many suggestions, he'd yet to hear the final decision.

"I was thinking about Alexandre," Christine replied sleepily. "What do you think of that?"

"I like that very much," Erik said, appreciating the nod to his French ancestry.

Erik sang a lullaby to the baby in his arms, and Christine smiled at her gruff husband's soft side. By the time someone knocked quietly at the door, she'd fallen asleep to her husband's humming, a faint smile on her lips, but Erik looked up to identify the visitor.

"May I come in?" Gustave asked. The boy had been absorbing his father's anxiety and was worried sick about his mother and the baby.

"Of course, you may. Come you meet your brother Alexandre," Erik replied.

Gustave smiled and tiptoed to his mother's bedside to see his new baby brother. He was also surprised to see his little brother's face, but his parents were elated, so Gustave made no comment on the subject. Gustave leant his cheek on his father's shoulder to observe the baby in the man's arms. From the doorway, Meg and Madame Giry spied on the family, both women beaming ear to ear. When Erik noticed them, he teared up and reached over to pat his older son's head. How lucky he was to have an adoring wife and two sons! How lucky he was to have friends who stood by his side through every trial and tribulation! Erik once thought it impossible, but now he had what his younger self had always dreamt of: a family.