The pregnancy seemed to pass far too quickly for Erik, but not fast enough for his wife. She spent all of the time she wasn't caring for her husband preparing for the baby, anything to keep her mind of the aches and pains of pregnancy. She never did get the morning sickness her sisters had told her about, but once she started showing her body began to ache wildly. She had been developing little aches and pains ever since her father's death, but they had always been something she could ignore until recently.
"Do you think it's normal for my back to hurt so much?" Gaia asked her husband one morning late into her pregnancy. She guessed she was only two or three weeks away from giving birth by now, and was busy stitching a quilt for the baby on the floor.
"I'm sure it is, you're carrying an awful lot of weight," Erik promised, though he couldn't hide his upset that his child was being so hard on her. She rarely complained, but it was painfully clear she was struggling. "Maybe if you sat up on the sofa you would feel better?"
"That's a thought," she conceded before trying to pull herself to her feet. Just as she was about to fall back onto her rear, Erik caught her by the wrist and pulled her effortlessly to her feet. Gaia smiled and leaned over her belly to kiss him. "My big, strong husband to the rescue once more," she praised, playfully. "Thank you."
Erik gave a little mocking bow which to his delight made Gaia laugh. He picked up her sewing to bring it to her as she sat on the sofa, putting a pillow behind her back to help support her weight. "How is that?"
"Much better, thank you Love," Gaia smiled, pecking her husband's lips before returning to her stitching. "I need to start making clothes soon."
"Do you think it's going to be a boy or a girl? I've heard sometimes women have a knack for guessing," he pried, honestly curious. He hadn't much liked the idea of having a child at first, not while they were so young and robust. Erik had figured they would have two or three more years before they would have children, time to enjoy each other's company thoroughly before welcoming in a new member to their family. But the baby was on its way in spite of his plans, and he was intent to make the best of it. In his heart he hoped, maybe even quietly prayed a happy, welcoming home would mean their child would not be cursed with Erik's face.
Gaia was quiet for a moment, stroking the hard drum of her belly thoughtfully until there was a tiny kick from the other side of her flesh, causing her to smile. "A boy, I think. I'm almost certain, actually. Though now I'll feel like a real fool if it's a girl."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Oh, I don't know really. Just a feeling. Like you said, it feels like just a knack, women's intuition," she smiled. "Besides, he's already a bit like you I've noticed."
Erik raised a brow at her, not hidden by a mask. "Oh? And how is he like me? His fascination with your breasts won't come for another three weeks or so," he teased, causing Gaia to smack his leg teasingly.
"I certainly hope he has a different fascination with them then you do, you cad!" she scolded half-heartedly. "He loves music, and poetry. It's adorable, really; whenever I sit and listen to you play the piano or read, he moves around a bit, almost like he's trying to get comfortable, and then is perfectly still the rest of the time."
"That makes him more like you than like me," Erik pointed out, for she had a habit of seeking him out whenever he played the piano or read, bundling up in preparation of the enchantment that was to come. Erik's voice was simply remarkable. She had read Arabian Nights before in school, but when Erik read it she found herself on the edge of her seat for three straight hours, never really knowing where the time had gone. When he sang some Opera or madrigal or another, even if it was in a language Gaia had never learned she somehow understood every phrase. When he sang of sadness and cruelty, she wept. When he sang of love her breasts ached to be touched. When he sang masses she felt closer to God than she ever had attending a sermon. Even when Erik did not sing and only played, Gaia could still feel these as emotions powerfully as if there were words attached.
She shook her head gently. "It's different somehow. More like he's studying you than just enjoying it like I do," she was quiet for a moment, trying to find the words to describe it but coming short. "I really can't explain it. But I feel as if he's very bright, and he certainly didn't get that from me."
"You are brighter than nearly any woman I've met, that is part of what I love about you," Erik promised with a kiss, and Gaia couldn't help but raise her brow some.
"'Nearly any woman'? Who else do you know brighter than me?" She pried, a little jealous; she didn't fancy herself intelligent, especially with how early she left school, but she was bright enough, and had certainly retained more of her schooling than any of her sisters or the twits on her street.
Erik laughed gently. "Nobody you need to be jealous of. There was this old medicine woman I used to study under, when I traveled with the gypsies. She couldn't read or write, but she knew the human anatomy and how to remedy its ails better than any physician I've met before or since. Really a remarkable woman."
Gaia felt foolish for having been jealous, and drew the subject away from her jealous remark. "I never knew you studied medicine."
"She was my first master, before your father," Erik explained. "Though I ran from the gypsies before I could finish learning her art. I don't know that I ever would have learned everything she knew, even if I stayed until she died."
"…Do you know anything to make birthing not so painful?" Gaia ventured nervously, and Erik frowned.
"I don't know of any numbing agent that I would trust giving you, no. Are you nervous, Gaia?"
She nodded but didn't speak. Erik quietly pulled her stitching from her hands and urged her to lay on his lap so he could stroke her hair. "I'm nervous too," he admitted quietly. "I hear so many horrible things about childbirth, I can't deny one of my biggest fears about the baby is losing you in the process. Especially since you're ill…"
"I had a nightmare about it the other night," she confessed, resting her head on his lap and playing with one of the buttons on his vest absently. "Marco was in it, delivering the baby. I'm not sure why… but the baby came out and it hurt so much I fainted and never woke up…"
Erik leaned over her and kissed her gently. "Perhaps it is your mind associating him with the uncontrollable," Erik suggested, playing with her hair. "But I didn't let him get to you, and if I can help it I won't let anything happen to you when the baby comes. I swear."
Gaia sighed some, moderately contented by this promise before sitting up clumsily from his lap. "Where are you going?" He asked as Gaia made her slow way away from the sofa.
"To the bathroom, I'll be back in a moment," she promised, and Erik couldn't help but raise a brow in amusion.
"Again?"
"Your son keeps kicking my bladder," she told him, smiling over her shoulder to him to let him know she was being playful. The amusion left her face as it contorted suddenly into a sharp wince. "Owowowow!"
Erik was on his feet in an instant, moving to her. "What is it? Your back?"
"No, the baby," she hissed through gritted teeth before furrowing her brow some. "Erik, I think I'm going into labor."
"Nonsense. We did the math, you're not due for half a month or more."
"The math was wrong, Erik. Maybe that feeling I had was off by a few weeks, it's not like we weren't having sex almost every night," she pointed out, straightening out now as the pain was easing up. "My sisters warned me about this. I've had other signs too. Blood when I go to the bathroom, the long boughts of back pain…"
"Why didn't you tell me?" Erik demanded, nervously; he was confident in his math, and Gaia's belly had been growing according to his predictions.
"Because those signs come sometimes weeks before the baby is born, I never thoug-ow!" She groaned, clutching her belly again. When the pain eased, Gaia noticed a wetness between her legs and blushed deeply. "Oh, damn," she cursed, tears of embarrassment welling in her eyes. "I've wet myself…"
"…I don't think you wet yourself, My Love," Erik told her, urging her back to the sofa. "I think the water sack is broken."
"The what?"
"The bag the baby is kept in has water in it, it tears and lets out the water so the baby can be born," Erik explained quickly, helping her back onto the sofa before moving to grab his cloak.
"Erik? Erik where are you going? Erik don't leave!" Gaia begged, trying to get off the sofa but finding it difficult with the bulge of her belly in the way. Erik moved back to her and kissed her soundly before putting the black leather mask on his face, wasting no time with the false nose today.
"I won't be gone long, I'm only taking one of the horses to fetch the midwife," he explained. "I need to go now before your pains get any worse. Don't get up," he commanded so firmly Gaia felt like she had no choice but to obey. She stopped struggling as Erik left, sobbing quietly in fear instead. She had been so impatient for the baby to be born only minutes before, why was it she was suddenly so terrified?
It was early spring, and the roads to Modena were crowded with merchants. A ride that should have taken only an hour took two, and to Erik's disappointment the midwife was not to be found. No small wonder; they had told the woman the baby was due in the next two to three weeks! Erik must have frightened half of Modena out of its wits, asking young women if they knew where he might find a midwife. He looked frantically for nearly an hour, knocking on door after door only to be told the woman was out on business, or on vacation, or dead. Finally though Erik found a midwife in her home, and while she was reluctant to deliver a child for a mother she had not met, Erik offered her such an extensive sum of money she had no choice but to take the job.
Four hours after Erik left for Modena he returned, bursting into the house so suddenly Gaia yelped from where she stood leaning against the mantle of the fireplace. "Dear God Erik, you scared me-"
"What are you doing up, Gaia?" He demanded. "I told you to stay put!"
"Signore, please be gentle with her. It's her first child, the baby won't come for quiet some time. It's good for her to walk, it will help move the baby," explained the midwife, and Gaia gave her husband a little "so there" glare. Erik pursed his lips and sat while the midwife went to work. "How long have you been having the pains, Signora Renard?"
"Signora…" Gaia shook off the strange name, figuring Erik must have told the woman something to content her enough to come with him. This was not the same midwife they had chosen early in the pregnancy, and Gaia was a little surprised any woman had agreed to come with him; he was rather intimidating, especially with his mask on. "About four or five hours? I haven't been checking the clock."
"Get in bed and let me have a look at you," the woman commanded, and Gaia waddled into the bedroom to lay down, feeling like this was an awful invasion of her privacy. Erik tried to follow, but was quickly stopped by the midwife.
He gritted his teeth sharply at being ordered around in his own house. "I've seen between her legs more often than you have," he snapped at the woman, who brushed off his comment.
"If you want my help, you'll do as I say. It's terribly inappropriate for a man to watch."
"It's also terribly inappropriate to fuck in the nude, which is how she came to be in this condition in the first place," Erik pointed out, and Gaia gave him a little glare; their bedroom matters were not any of this woman's business.
"Please Signora, I'd feel better if my husband were with me…" Gaia tried, but the woman shook her head.
"He can join you when I'm through having a look at you, until the baby comes. Open your legs, Signora," the woman commanded, finally succeeding in shooing Erik from the room. Gaia gave him an apologetic look as he left bitterly, just before the door closed behind him. Doing as she was told, the midwife gave her a brief once-over before closing Gaia's legs abruptly and patting her knees. "I have a feeling it's going to be a long night, Signora."