1CHARLES
"Charles?" Maddie cried in late August, she was entering the last month of her pregnancy. It had been fairly easy for her except now she was extremely exhausted and hot since it was late summer. She'd first felt the baby in the middle of the night the last week of April about two weeks after our wedding and she'd woken me up to feel too. Of course I was out of it and practically had fallen back to sleep with my hand on her stomach until the faintest twitch had made my eyes pop open. It was the strangest thing I had ever felt. We'd laughed hysterically as she'd described it as something was poking her on the inside. In May, the movements became visible if you watched long enough. After our wedding, she began to expand remarkably, it seemed at the end of each week, her clothes fit a bit tighter. She hadn't worn a corset since Don Juan Triumphant. Her feet and face hadn't swelled like many girls' do.
I found her sitting on the back porch with Erik and Dad...her legs propped up. She put her arms up for me to help her up and I shot both of them a look. Dad shrugged.
"You couldn't pull her up?" I asked, taking her hands and easily lifting her to her feet. As round as she was, she was still little enough for me to pick up put my arms around.
"She's your wife!" Dad laughed, glancing at Erik who sipped at his tea nonchalantly. It was one of the most casual times I had ever seen him. He didn't have a suit jacket on today and the crisp white sleeves of his dress shirt were rolled to his elbows. He'd just returned from Italy and was planning to open an office of C & E Associates in Paris next winter, which I would be helping to run. Maddie and I were retiring temporarily from performing, at least until the baby was a year old and old enough to have a nanny while we were at the opera. Erik had come back and was staying for the next few months, wanting to be here when the baby was born.
It was so strange. It hadn't seemed real until the day Maddie had emerged from the bathroom in her open robe shaking her head.
"What's the matter?" I asked her and she'd smiled.
"Nothing really...I really am pregnant, aren't I?" She'd still had trouble getting used to the idea, but as it had settled, she became more excited about it. Especially when we decorated her old room into the nursery. We'd gone with a lot of white and decided we would paint the nursery a definitive color when the baby was born and we knew if it was a boy or girl. I was indifferent to what I wanted it to be, although I admit, the idea of having a daughter scared the hell out of me because I knew next to nothing about girls. Not to mention, I didn't even want to think about the day she'd become a teenager and begin to take an interest in romance. No...one day at a time Charles...she isn't even born yet. She might not even be a girl!
I helped Maddie to the bathroom for what seemed like the tenth time she had to go in an hour.
"Thank you sweetheart." She said, every single time with that mischievous gleam in those hazel eyes. I simply shook my head and kissed her curls.
"You're welcome dumpling." I said mockingly and she pretended to pout, so I kissed her and soon our breathing was heavy. Her pregnancy had not changed the fact that we loved to make love with each other...not one bit, although it was understandably a bit more difficult now. I felt the baby jerk as her stomach was pressed against my own. I sighed, setting her down.
"I got the message!" I said touching it as she laughed.
"Oh you're so stupid Charles!" She cried, caressing my hair which was again getting long and curly as I was long overdue for a haircut. I had regained all of the weight I'd lost earlier in the year and then some sympathy weight, which was quickly burned off when we decorated the nursery.
Madeleine was fiercely protective of me for some reason and whenever I left the house, she'd kiss me passionately and greeted me eagerly when I came home. Erik had told us about his parents and how his father had died before he was born. Funny enough, we had the exact same names as his parents, and I think it spooked Maddie to the point where she was afraid the same thing would happen to me. I reassured her every night that I would be careful and I would always come home to her. As tough as her exterior was, she was so delicate at heart and I reveled in the fact that she needed me as desperately as I needed her, though she was loathe to admit it.
Two days before he due date, September twenty-second, she went into labor while I was out. I came home to find the house in chaos. Deirdre and Dan had stopped by and her water had broken about an hour before. I instantly fell into a panic and dashed up the stairs without saying hello to anyone. I found her sitting calmly between Dad and Erik, talking and laughing. Out of breath and unsure of myself I said confused,
"Did I miss it?" She giggled.
"No silly, it will be a while...sit." She said, motioning to the spot beside her. I did gladly, kissing her and touching her stomach, feeling the baby still very much in her. She laughed.
"Oh you are such a dolt but I love you anyway." She said and Dad chuckled.
"Maddie...give him a break...he's never seen any of this." He said and Erik laughed too.
"Well neither have I, but you don't see me running around like a chicken with its head cut off."
I glared at him.
"Good analogy Father." I said, always using the sentiment to get to him. He just chuckled, satisfied with himself and kissed Maddie's forehead.
"We shall be downstairs...call us when something happens." He said walking out with Dad. They were the strangest pair I had ever seen, but they were friends and for that I was thankful. Maddie sucked in a breath in pain.
"Contraction...ugh." She said and I scooted closer to her.
"I'm sorry." I said and she laughed through the pain.
"You should be, you're the one who got me drunk and seduced me!" I laughed out loud.
"Me? The twenty-five year old virgin! Seduced you? I believe you were the little enchantress that night Madeleine de Chagny." She huffed.
"Ha!" She said and winced again. "Ugh...it hurts worse than I thought it would." She said.
Two hours later, she was ready to push and I was the only person besides the midwife allowed in the room, and Maddie had had to plead for me to be allowed. The woman was old and set in her ways, but she finally relented. I knew Dad was pacing furiously downstairs as Erik probably sat calmly in a chair, either sipping his tea or reading the paper. I could picture it in perfect detail and almost laughed, but Maddie crying out in pain stopped me. After what seemed like hours, but couldn't have been more than twenty minutes, the midwife said she could see the head and asked me if I wanted to have a look. I looked at Maddie who nodded and terrified I said yes and peeked around her knee nearly fainting at the sight. It just didn't seem possible for something that big to come out of someone so small.
"Oh God Charles! Is something wrong with it?" Maddie asked and I looked again. Other than being completely covered in birth there was nothing I could tell. There was a mass of black hair on top of it's head.
"No...it's just...good God." Was all I could say, unable to tear my eyes away in disbelief.
She actually laughed, before pushing again and grunting.
"This is ridiculous!" She said falling back in exhaustion as the shoulders emerged.
"Madeleine, again." The midwife instructed patiently as Maddie looked at her as if she were batty.
"You've got to be..." She shut up then and pushed, tears from pushing so hard coming out of the corners of her eyes.
"You're doing great..." I said dumbly, really unsure of what I should say. She just looked at me helplessly. The midwife nodded.
"Your husband is right, now one more push and you will have your child." She said and Maddie bore down with everything she had and practically screamed until the baby fell naturally into the midwife's waiting hands.
"What is it?" I asked holding Maddie's hand as she gasped to regain her breath.
"You have a son Monsieur." She said and I breathed in relief.
"Oh thank God." I said and Maddie smacked my arm.
"Charles!" She scolded, but I shrugged. I had been having nightmares about raising a girl and having to beat off the young men when she was of age to court.
"I just mean I am happy." I corrected and she let herself relax as the midwife dealt with afterbirth. She cleaned him off first and wrapped him in the blanket she'd prepared for him. Just a simple white blanket.
"What does he look like?" Maddie asked me as the midwife was cleaning him up after cutting the cord and I thought a moment.
"He looks a bit like an old man..." I teased and she cried out.
"Charles!" She said again and I laughed, kissing her cheek.
"Well forgive me my love, but I saw him covered in slime. It was a bit hard to tell, but he has a mop of black hair just like mine."
"Hopefully he doesn't get your foul attitude..." She scowled as the midwife finally produced him for us to see. I must say, he looked much better without the slime, cute even. Actually he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, besides Madeleine and although I will never admit this to Madeleine, I had to swallow the lump in my throat as she took him from the old woman before the midwife left.
"Oh, this is the strangest thing I have ever felt..." She said, looking at him. He was not crying as he had when he'd first emerged, but he had a determined look in his eyes as if he were trying to figure out who she was. He was enthralled with her, wrapping the tiny fingers around her index finger. That was when she began to cry. "I told myself I wasn't going to do this and look at me, crying like the little woman I am." She said, looking up at me with tears running down her cheeks. I touched her face gently.
"You're allowed to cry Madeleine...this is your son, our son." I added, as she placed him into my arms, his tiny body fitting easily into the crook between my elbow and forearm.
"He's bigger than I thought he would be." I said and she laughed.
"I like him much better from the outside." she said."He's going to look just like you, you know." She said and I nodded.
"I can see that."Dad's voice came from the other side of the door.
"Can we see the baby yet?" He asked and I covered Maddie up gently, setting the baby back in her arms.
"Yes Dad, Erik, come in." I said and the door flew open.
"What do we have?" Dad asked, looking at Maddie expectantly and she giggled.
"It's a boy." She said, looking up at a silent Erik.
"How was he?" She asked him referring to Dad, who laughed.
"How was I? He was the one tearing through the halls furiously grumbling about it taking so long and every time we could hear you grunt he began to chew his nail." Erik glared at Dad.
"You always were a liar Raoul de Chagny." He grumbled and Dad laughed, patting his back.
"Oh come off it you crazy old man and look at your grandson." He said as Erik looked at the baby hesitantly, sighing when he saw the baby yawn.
"Is this what Charles looked like?" He asked and I looked up, surprised. He'd never seemed to care before but when Dad nodded, grinning from ear to ear as he looked at the baby Erik gave a slight nod, hiding his face a bit. I knew he was fighting his emotions. It was the exact same look I got on my face when I felt that way.
"Have you named him yet?" Dad asked and I looked at Maddie, remembering our talk so long ago. She nodded mischievously. I grinned down at her, kissing her cheek. Both men looked at me expectantly as I touched the baby's thick hair before chuckling to myself.
"His name is Erik Raoul Destler de Chagny." I said, as Maddie and I exchanged satisfied looks and Erik nearly fell over Dad.