Chapter VI:

Two months later

Kane Residence, Pine Valley, PA

Bianca Montgomery sat on the couch snacking on popcorn, as she watched her mother put the finishing touches on her make-up.

"Well, how do I look?" Erica Kane asked her.

It was a question to which her mother already knew the answer. "You look fabulous mom. You always do."

And it was the truth, she did. Erica Kane had a well-honed eye for fashion and aesthetics, and she looked better than most women did half her age. It was a fact that her mother was well aware of.

Bianca sighed, and wondered whether she would ever possess that kind of self-confidence.

"Are you going out with Dimitri again?" Bianca asked her in turn, her lips curling into a mischievous smile.

"He invited me for dinner at Wildwind," Erica answered with a smile that mirrored her daughter's. The truth was Edmund was the one who had invited her, but Erica knew Dimitri would be more than pleased to see her there this evening.

"So, umm…is there something going on that you should tell me about Mom?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Erica replied sheepishly.

"Of course, you do Mom. Are you and Dimitri getting back together?" The prospect excited her. Dimitri Marick had never failed to show both her and mother how much he cared for them, and she couldn't think of anyone better suited to match her mother's temperament. As long as he was ready for her. While her mother might have doubted the depth of love Dimitri had for his late wife, Bianca didn't. Bianca knew that her mother had never liked Alexandra, and that the feeling was probably mutual, but that wouldn't change how Dimitri felt about her.

Erica sat down on the couch next to Bianca, carefully folding her dress under her legs so as not to crease it. She looked at her daughter, "If Dimitri and I were to find our way back to one another, how would you feel about it?"

"Dimitri's great. You know I love him, Mom. But it's been less than a year since Alex died…doesn't he still miss her?"

Erica frowned at the question. "Of course, he still misses her, and it's not as though I'm dating him, sweetheart. But I can't bear to see him miserable either, and Lord knows Alex gave him enough grief while he was married to her. He doesn't need to wallow in grief now."

Bianca looked at her mother's serious face, "So you elected yourself to cheer him up?"

"Well, someone had to. Dimitri has so much vitality. I have never met anyone else in my life that did everything with such passion. But lately he's been a shell of his former self. I want to help him become the old Dimitri again."

"You mean the Dimitri that was in love with you?"

"Bianca!"

"I just don't want to see you get hurt Mom. Whenever I saw him and Alex together I could tell how much in love they were. Maybe he's not ready to be with anyone else yet."

Bianca had always been frank with her opinions and this time she felt particularly strongly that it was what her mother needed to hear. Even if it wasn't what she wanted to hear.

"Alex is dead, darling. Nothing is going to bring her back. Dimitri may be grieving now but nobody mourns forever, and when he does decide to go back to the land of the living, I will be there for him."

Bianca said nothing; instead she looked at her mother pensively.

Erica moved to hug her, "Don't worry, sweetheart. I'm not going to get hurt. I know Dimitri like no one else in this world does. He is the most wonderful, loving man I have ever known. He would never hurt me, he wouldn't know how."

Bianca hoped that was the truth and returned the hug. "Have a good time at Wildwind, Mom, and give Dimitri my love."

"I will, sweetheart, I will."

Brynn Wydd, Wales

"Open your eyes my newborn son,
See your world has just begun.
Hush-a-bye, taste the sweetness of your years.
By and by, we'll all learn the taste of tears''

"Push!"

"I can't…I can't anymore."

"Yes you can, push!"

Charlotte's physician, the one that had cared for Alex during the pregnancy, was now obligated to help her through the labor, and it was obvious that is was a task he hated. It had been a long and difficult labor, and he seemed to hate every minute spent in her room.

"Come on, I can see the head. You have to push really hard now."

Alex wanted to kill him. What did he think she had been doing the last 2 hours? She didn't think it was possible for any human being to endure such pain and go on living. She was convinced that everything she knew about human anatomy was false.

"Do I have to do this all by myself or what?" the doctor goaded her.

Alex was soaked in perspiration and delirious with pain but his words renewed both her anger and her strength. In spite of it all, she kept pushing. She pushed until at long last she heard a loud, clear baby's cry.

And when she heard the cry the unbearable exhaustion was suddenly gone, and she wanted nothing else but to hold the baby. Holding the baby was all that mattered. It was the only thing in the world that meant anything.

'Finally', the physician mumbled. Alex saw him clean the baby and cut the umbilical cord. He did it quickly, with his usual clinical efficiency.

Then he set the baby down in the crib and picked up the phone.

"It's done. They're both fine."

"Let me see the baby," Alex demanded.

"Not yet. Be patient." She watched him examine the baby and finally, at long last, handed the child over to her.

"Is it a boy, or a girl?" she asked. The crib was too far away for her to have seen for herself.

"Oh, it's a boy," he said, as though it was an afterthought. "I think I deserve a stiff drink after this mess."

A boy. My son. Our son.

Alex looked at the baby cradled next to her in awe.

He was tiny. His eyes were darker than her own and he had a small patch of black hair on his head.

"You look like your father," she told him.

Alex kissed his forehead and closed her eyes.

In that instant her world was perfect. She had never felt as whole and as content as she did in that one moment, holding her son for the very first time.

Alex only vaguely saw Heidi enter the room. She barely felt her take the baby from her arms, before she fell into an exhausted sleep.

When she woke, Charlotte Devane was in the room with her.

"Well, well Sasha. It looks like I have a grandson. I suppose some congratulations are in order. What are you going to call the latest little Devane?"

"He's not a Devane, he's a Marick. And his name is Max. Maximilian Dimitri Marick."

Wildwind, Pine Valley, PA

After dinner, Erica and Dimitri left the main house to go for a stroll around the grounds.

Dimitri lit a Monte Cristo cigar and watched the smoke go upward, to the starlit sky.

Erica had draped a mauve pashmina shawl around her shoulders. It was a perfect match for the color of her dress. "It's a gorgeous evening Dimitri, isn't it?"

Dimitri agreed, "It is, and I'm glad you joined us for dinner."

Dimitri vaguely noticed the crescent moon above them, when all of a sudden he stopped dead in his tracks. He moved his hands to his chest.

"Dimitri what is it?" Erica asked him, concerned. "Are you alright?"

He was smiling broadly. He couldn't explain what he felt. His chest was tight and he barely breathe, but the sensation that coursed through his body wasn't alarming. It was exhilarating. It was the feeling of life. "Yes…yes, I'm fine."

Erica wasn't convinced. "What is going on?"

"I can't explain it. I just felt the strangest sensation," he admitted, staring upward into the night sky.

"But what kind of sensation?"

Would Erica understand? Would anyone? What he was feeling was madness.

"Promise me you won't laugh."

"Of course not."

Dimitri took his eyes off the darkness above him and looked at her, "I felt that somehow, right now, my life changed. Something happened…somewhere. I don't know how to say this, but I feel like a part of me is alive somewhere else in the world. Somewhere far away."

"Dimitri…is it because you're feeling what I'm feeling?" Her expression wasn't one of concern anymore, but one of hope.

Dimitri was so wrapped up in the incredible sensation; he barely noticed when Erica moved up to kiss him.

('Open your Eyes', Bergman, 1972)