This is the last chapter for Goddess Noir, but Erik and Corinna will have a new story in a few weeks. I don't have a title for it just yet, so watch for a new story popping up probably in late December or early January 2006. This is a LONG chapter! Thanks everyone!

Noir59

Autumn 1871

With his hands shoved in his pockets, Erik walked through the darkened New York streets, a newspaper tucked beneath his arm.

For two months he had made the same nightly journey per Corinna's request, as she swore that the only decent chocolate was made in the candy shop three streets away from where they had settled.

At first Erik had been skeptical about residing in New York. The thought of crowded city streets frightened him and he feared that someone would recognize him from the disaster at the Opera Populaire. However, it had been nearly a year and there were too many new stories for people to dwell on something as old as the opera house fire.

Still, he couldn't imagine laboring with others. He had grown far too accustomed to living in solitude to feel comfortable around strangers. With Corinna's encouragement he submitted his work to the Academy of Music, but because he was an unknown composer he knew his concertos and symphonies would not be accepted.

Not yet.

The Academy of Music had rejected him, but a small theater owner had requested to meet him and discuss his work at the end of the week. All Erik knew about the man was that his name was James Ephant and that he thought the idea of a French composer was very exotic and enticing to his theater.

Music, however, was far from Erik's mind. The only thing he wanted at the moment was to return home to Corinna.

"Any day now," she had panted before he left for the night, "any day now and I won't ask you to bring me ice cream any more."

By the way she looked and acted Erik wasn't sure if she was sending him out of the house for sweets, or if she was planning to call for the midwife while he was away. He had watched with trepidation as she reclined in her favorite chair and slowed her breaths. Despite her noiselessness he knew she was in pain. He could see it on her face, in her tightly closed lips and her eyes that were squeezed shut. Her large belly made her uncomfortable no matter where she sat, and regardless if she was by the fireplace or holding a rag to her forehead, she was never comfortable.

He glanced down at the small bag in his hand and his pace quickened. Even though Pamela was with Corinna, he didn't want to be away from his wife when she was so close to giving birth. He needed to be in the house even if he was forbidden from being in the room. That was what she wanted. Corinna had told him repeatedly that she felt safer when he was home. He was her only comfort since they had fled their home across the ocean. The sudden departure was bad enough, but Corinna worried about their servants, both of whom had eventually followed them to New York. Corinna worried about her beautiful birds, but Erik assured her that they were fine. Ursula had taken them and sold them, he told her, however Pamela had confided that all the birds had probably starved to death. Abandoned in their cages, it would be weeks before anyone found them abandoned at their country home.

Erik was walking so swiftly that he almost forgot about the figure that had followed him from his doorstep to the ice cream shop and back. Quiet as a shadow, the man who had trailed him had been careful to blend with the evening crowd, but no one was entirely invisible, at least not to Erik.

Short and lithe, the man wove a distinct path through the city streets, dodging women and children as he followed along behind Erik. At first Erik had thought little of it. The streets were always busy and the weather was nice. It was the perfect time to take a walk.

But now that Corinna was close to birthing their child, everything was a threat in his mind. No place was far enough away or safe enough for his wife and child, especially since he had found the container of kerosene and paintbrush the day after they were married.

The moment he reached the front steps of his home he was in a panic, his hands trembling so severely that he couldn't fit the key into the lock.

"Mr. Levesque, is that you?" he heard a woman's voice from within.

It was Eleanor, the young American girl who served in the house and provided companionship to Corinna when Erik was busy composing and playing.

"Yes, it's me. Hurry, please," he said, glancing behind.

The figure had disappeared, which did nothing to calm Erik's nerves. The moment Eleanor opened the door Erik rushed inside and bolted it shut, handing the young girl the bag of candy.

"How is she?" he asked as she followed him up the stairs.

"Sleeping," Eleanor answered.

"I thought she was…close."

Eleanor half-smiled when Erik turned to face her. He stepped aside, allowing her to walk ahead of him down the hall to the bedroom.

"She thought so as well, sir, but sometimes symptoms come and go for days." This time she stopped and returned his bag of candy. "I will bring her some tea, sir. A cup for you as well?"

Erik nodded. He dug into the bag and handed her two pieces of chocolate. "For you and Pamela. And yes, I will take tea, thank you," he said before he disappeared into the bedroom.

There was no light in the room, but Erik had memorized its layout and his eyes adjusted swiftly. He could hear Corinna turn over in bed and softly moan.

"Who is it? Erik, are you home?" she asked, her voice husky from sleep.

He sat beside her and grasped her swollen hand. She could no longer wear her wedding ring because her hands had grown painfully swollen around the same time her condition became obvious. "Yes, it's me. How are you feeling?"

She groaned and inhaled deeply, drawing him nearer. "Would you like me to sit with you for a while?"

"No, I want you to rest," he said. "You need your strength."

Corinna decided to sit up anyway. "What's wrong? You sound as though there is something wrong."

"Nothing is wrong. I'm tired as well."

"Did you see that man? The Elephant?"

"James Ephant," he corrected. "And no, I didn't see Mr. Ephant. In my letter I explained to him that we were expecting a baby. He wrote back and said he and his wife have three of their own and that he would wait until after you were feeling better."

Corinna settled back into bed and Erik rose to turn up the lamp that was across the room.

"You've seen someone, haven't you?" Corinna said as Erik turned to face her.

He frowned when he looked at her and set his mask on the service table. When he looked into her eyes he knew there was no reason to lie to her. She would see through it and become angry with him.

As he scratched his forehead he nodded. "I thought I saw someone."

"Where?"

"Everywhere," he said under his breath. He walked to the wardrobe and rummaged through boxes set on the floor.

"What do you mean by 'everywhere'?"

"On the way to the candy store, through the windows, on my way home. Everywhere. I saw him everywhere."

"A man?"

He looked at her sharply, anger making his cheeks flush. "I would imagine."

Corinna made no reply. She massaged her own hands and rolled her tongue through her mouth.

"I apologize," he said softly, abandoning his search. Like a timid dog he sat beside her and reached for her hand but she drew away.

"You would use too much pressure," she said quietly. "You always do when you're angry."

"It's not my intention to harm you," he whispered. Her words made his chest ache. He had brought so much suffering upon her and now she couldn't trust him to do something as simple as massage her hands.

Eleanor knocked on the bedroom door, momentarily ending their awkward silence. Without a second thought she pushed the mask aside and set the tray on the service table, careful to not raise her eyes and look directly at Erik. All she had been told was that he had been burned in a fire. Out of respect she always looked away when she saw the mask sitting out.

"Anything else, Mrs. Levesque?" she inquired.

"No, darling. I will see you in the morning."

"Would you like me to read to you later?" Eleanor offered.

Corinna smiled and Erik felt his wife's hand cover his. "I believe my husband will read to me tonight."

With a nod Eleanor exited the room. She paused in the doorway and glanced back. "I drew the curtains, Mr. Levesque. All of them."

"Thank you, Eleanor," he replied before she went on her way.

For a long while they sat in silence, Corinna with her eyes closed and Erik growing sick with worry. He hadn't told Corinna how he had been waking in the middle of the night and spitting out blood. The pending birth coupled with the stress of writing music he wasn't sure he could sell was enough to give him an ulcer, and now after seeing the same individual for the last month, he was surprised his intestines hadn't revolted completely.

"What do you think she wants with you?" Corinna asked at last.

"She wants to kill me," he said.

"But why go through so much trouble for one man?"

"I don't know."

Corinna gripped his hand hard, her eyes remaining shut. "I don't want to run away for the rest of my life."

"I know."

"And I don't want our child to run away for the rest of his or her life."

"I know. I don't want that either."

"And you," she said, her eyes slitting open. "I love you. I don't want you to worry."

He exhaled and inched closer. "I don't know what to do," he said as he stared at the floor. "And God, Corinna, it's a terrible feeling to look at you and think that I have no idea how to keep you safe, truly safe, from something I've done."

"I feel safe," she said. "When you're with me I feel safe."

"But what if—"

Corinna grabbed his shoulder and struggled to sit upright. "Don't ask questions, Erik," she said. She gave him a devilish smile. "Men should not think. It's simply dangerous."

Her playfulness did nothing to improve his mood. Shoulders slumped, he shook his head.

"I've been thinking," he started slowly, "that perhaps I should send you somewhere…somewhere safer than here."

Her mouth dropped open and her eyes grew big. "No, Erik, no I'm not going anywhere without you."

"They won't follow you."

"You don't know that for sure."

"Corinna, I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you."

She grimaced slightly and Erik knew she was having another contraction. He wrapped his arm around her back and touched her gently, massaging her tight lower back.

He wasn't sure if she cried because of the pain or because of his words, but when she started to sob he couldn't think of anything to say to her. He felt poisonous, as though he were killing her slowly by asking to be away from her, though at the same time knowing his presence only put her in harm's way.

"Don't you ever think of leaving me," Corinna said at last. "Don't you ever, ever think of leaving me."

Erik put his chin on her shoulder and kissed her ear. "I want to keep you safe."

"And I want to keep my husband."

Erik felt her body tighten again and encouraged her to squeeze his hands if she felt the need to hold onto something. With a groan she gripped his fingers and grunted, attempting to hold back her pain.

"They're happening more frequently, aren't they?" Erik asked once she rested again.

She nodded weakly. "I don't know if I can tolerate many more," she said, forcing a laugh.

"Do you want someone here with you? I mean to say, do you want Eleanor to fetch the midwife?"

Corinna started to shake her head in reply but stopped herself and gasped, gripping Erik's hand tighter than he thought possible.

"I—I think," she stammered. She stared at him, a look of utter surprise on her face as she turned her gaze to her legs hidden beneath the blankets. "I think, yes. But first help me stand."

"Wh-why? Why do you want to stand?" he asked, alarmed by her sudden desire to move from bed.

"Because. Please, Erik, just help me stand."

"Should you be standing?"

Corinna rolled her eyes. "Don't be ridiculous," she scolded, placing her hands in his. "Quickly now, before another one comes."

Erik pulled her to her feet and watched as she began yanking the sheets from the bed.

"What are you doing?"

"My bag of waters broke," she murmured.

Erik scooped her into his arms and placed her on the opposite side of the bed. "Don't move," he ordered, pointing a finger at her as he walked around the bed and left their room.

From that moment on the night became a blur. Pamela was sent to boil water while Eleanor stayed with Corinna and the midwife in the bedroom.

Erik spent his evening in his study with a glass of scotch sitting untouched at his fingertips. He heard Corinna voicing her pain in the bedroom, and with each groan or scream of pain he felt more and more helpless, more incompetent and unsure of how he could care for her or their child.

He wondered if his own father had felt so insignificant the night he sat and waited for his wife to give him a son.

The taste of blood in the back of his mouth forced him to stand. He checked his pocket watch and saw that it was past two in the morning. Feeling exhausted himself, he couldn't imagine how tired Corinna must be after several hours of labor.

As if knowing his feelings, Eleanor knocked on the door.

"Mrs. Levesque would like to see you," she said.

"Is she..?"

"Not yet, but the midwife says it will be soon."

The midwife was correct. Erik had just entered the room when the midwife told him to wait outside. He only had time to press a kiss to her sweat-dampened brow and stroke her hair. She looked pale, sallow, and it worried him that she was struggling too much.

"Don't you ever think of leaving me," he whispered to her in French as he held her tightly and felt her tremble through another contraction.

"I'm scared," she replied. "And I'm tired, Erik, I don't know if I can do this."

"You're going to be fine," he assured her before he left again, his hands in his pockets and the haunting image of his wife and best friend in unimaginable agony.

Erik walked out the back door and sat on the stairs, unable to think of anything but Corinna's face. He could hear everything through the open bedroom window. Corinna's grunts were getting louder, the midwife's voice more urgent.

He hoped he was right and that she would be fine, as he couldn't imagine living a day without her. Accompanied by the thought of losing her was their child not surviving, which was something unfathomable. Or losing Corinna and needing to raise a child on his own. He was certain he would never marry again, and alone he could not provide for an infant.

His throat tightened, and as he held his hand to his face he heard a cry from the room above.

Immediately he froze, his heart pausing as he waited for another cry to distinguish what he heard.

"Oh thank God," Corinna sighed.

The same mewing cry filled the air and Erik leapt to his feet, his mouth gaping open in complete shock. It was the sound of a baby. His baby. Their baby.

"What is it? What is it?" he heard Corinna pant.

He didn't wait for her to answer. Relief flooded over him as he raced up the stairs and entered the bedroom, startling the midwife and Eleanor.

His eyes locked on Corinna, her face flushed and hair plastered to her forehead. She smiled as she rested against her pillows.

"Where?" he asked, seeing her arms empty.

Corinna motioned him forward. "There," she said, her eyes turning toward the midwife. "It's a girl, Erik. We have a girl."

The midwife cleaned the baby while Erik kissed Corinna's face and neck and even her hands.

"You did well," he said.

"Did you want a son?" she asked as she closed her eyes.

"I wanted whatever you gave me," he answered.

At last the midwife handed Corinna their daughter and asked Eleanor to take the soiled sheets from the room while the new mother rested and nursed her new baby. With the others gone, Erik removed his mask and settled in beside his wife and daughter, completely fascinated by Corinna's instincts to nurture. He immediately felt more in love with her than he had ever been in his life.

Once the baby was asleep Corinna handed her to Erik and smiled.

"She looks like you," Corinna whispered. "Fair-skinned. Well, right now she's more red, but she's going to be fair-skinned."

Erik couldn't take his eyes off the little person in his arms. Dreams of a family had disappeared days after he saw the burns to his face and the scars along his back and chest.

"She has your hair. I didn't think babies had hair when they were born."

"She's beautiful, don't you think?"

Erik nodded. "She's your daughter. Of course she's beautiful."

"Ours," Corinna sighed. She rested her head against Erik's arm and chuckled. "It will be a very, very long time before I allow you in my bed again."

He kissed her forehead, finding he wasn't concerned with his own pleasures while they were all together. "Have you thought of a name?"

"I was thinking Sorinji. It was my mother's name. People called her Sori."

All of Erik's anxiety gave way to serenity, and as he watched his wife and new daughter sleep he felt his own eyes grow heavy. Curling up beside Corinna with the baby in between them, he drifted off to sleep just as the sun began to rise.

The only thing that woke him was Eleanor, who came into the room and apologized. She didn't look at him when she said there was someone at the door to see him.

"Who?" he asked sleepily.

"A woman."

Startled, Erik sat up and grabbed his mask. "What does she look like? What color are her eyes?"

"Pale green."