The birth of Cadence was somehow both easier and more nerve racking for Erik and Giada than was the birth of their son. Due to midwife's reaction to Adrian's birth, they had had trouble finding a midwife close enough to them to assist with the delivery. Erik was resistant to look at all after the last midwife had completely neglected her duty to Adrian the moment she saw how hideous the child was, but agreed to look solely for Gaia's safety during the birthing process. When months of looking proved futile, the pair decided they would simply prepare for the birth themselves. After all, Gaia now knew what to expect from the ordeal.

The baby came the day she predicted, and Gaia was able to immediately recognize the signs of her labor. While no less painful a process, the birth took a mere eight hours, no time at all in comparison to the long labor she had endured giving birth to Adrian. This time Erik was by her side the entire eight hours, except when left briefly to make Adrian food and to give him piano exercises to distract the boy from the happenings upstairs. With a final push, the life that had been inside Gaia was free, a squirming, bloody pink mass of flesh that cried as soon as Erik coaxed her to take her first breath.

Erik was silent while the newborn cried, too awestruck to even clean the girl and pass her off to Gaia. She was perfect. Certainly she was as bizarre as any newborn… but in her bizarreness she was flawless. Her skin was supple and smooth, pink in its newness but clear and perfect. Her small nose suited her face perfectly, as did her full cupid-bow lips which were open in a melodic cry. Erik finally came to his senses and wiped the newborn clean with a warm cloth, drying the girl and moving to Gaia's side once again.

Gaia sat upright with an exhausted smile, fixing the pillows behind her back. Erik sat on the bedside and transferred the girl into her mother's arms. "Oh, wow," Gaia breathed stroking the newborn's supple pink cheek. "Hello, Cadence," she greeted softly as Erik moved to change the sheets and clean before Adrian came in.

When Adrian's curiosity about the crying upstairs finally overtook him, he moved away from the piano and ventured up to his parents' bedroom. When Gaia saw him standing in the doorway, she smiled broadly and opened her free arm to her son, who climbed up onto the bed next to his mother and stared at the sleeping mass wrapped in a soft brown blanket. "That's the baby?" he asked curiously, inspecting the full-lipped, round cheeked newborn. At eight years old he knew plenty about the concept of babies, but had never before seen one. "She's so small! And why are her cheeks so big?"

"Babies are portly for the first few years, to keep them warm," Erik explained, squeezing his son's shoulder and smiling down at him. "She is a little small though."

"We were surprised at how small Adrian was too, though," Gaia pointed out. "And look how big he's gotten."

"True enough," Erik conceded, kissing his wife's forehead.

"Mama you look sick," frowned Adrian, and Gaia chuckled.

"I'm just tired is all, my darling. It was a lot of working bringing Baby Cadence out to see us," she explained.

"Cadence?"

"Your mother and I picked it just yesterday, or we would have told you sooner," Erik explained, sitting at the foot of the bed and watching his little family.

"It's a lovely name. Papa, why don't I look like her?"

This innocent questioned caused Erik to frown. "Well. I don't think anyone can really say, mon fils. Perhaps it is fate."

"I didn't think you believed in fate, Papa?" Adrian asked with a quirked brow.

"I don't know what I believe in Adrian. But I know that without my face looking as it does I would never have met your mother, and you and lovely Cadence would have another man as your father."

"Or worse, you wouldn't be here at all," Gaia added. "Your father may not be certain of fate, but I am. I've never known anything to happen for no reason at all. Your father's face may seem like a misfortune, but his past saved my virtue and quite possibly my life when we were younger, brought me the love of my life. The death of my mother so young contributed as well, no doubt. Sometimes the things we view as grave misfortunes are what bring us the great successes in our lives," The woman smiled down to her daughter before smiling back to her son, who seemed pleased with her answer.

The infant fussed in Gaia's arms, and the woman hushed the girl gently. Erik clasped his son's shoulder and nodded to the door. "I believe Cadence is hungry. Why don't I make us some supper while she eats?"

"You don't have to do that, Erik, I'll be down in a moment," insisted Gaia, and Erik chuckled.

"Nonsense. We can fend for ourselves for one night. You've had a long day, and our daughter to care for. I'll bring you up a plate in a while," Erik promised his wife with a kiss, eliciting a smile as she held the girl to her breast to feed her.

Erik returned before long with a large plate of food, setting it on the bedside table to wrap his arms around his wife as she stood over the crib that had once been Adrian's that now cradled their darling daughter. Gaia smiled and turned in his arms to wrap her arms around his neck.

"Thank you for another wonderful child, Erik," she smiled and was met with a kiss.

"The thanks belongs to you. She is stunning. A work of art, truly. If I didn't know better I would have thought she was a cherub. How did you and I make something so… perfect?"

"Adrian is no less perfect," Gaia pointed out. "I suppose it is because we are lucky enough to be young and in love. Or perhaps we are more blessed than we can imagine. Perhaps every parent feels their children are perfection. I cannot say."

"Adrian cannot stop asking questions. He wants to know where babies come from, what they eat, how they grow. He's going to be a wonderful brother."

"You're not worried he's jealous?" Frowned Gaia, and Erik shook his head.

"Maybe a little, but no more than I imagine any sibling would be of a new child taking the attention of their mother. I'm certain your sisters were jealous of you, when you were born."

Gaia nodded some. "Yes I suppose they were… what do you think of her, Erik? Truly? I know you were nervous of what might happen if she were born so beaut-"

The woman was silenced with a kiss. "I think she is as radiant as her mother is," he promised, "and it does not make me love her any less. My fear was always for how you might treat Adrian in the light of such an angel, but you were wonderful to him and I am increasingly certain that will not change. How you do it, I haven't the slightest idea," Erik remarked quietly.

"Erik, I love you, but for the love of God we've been married for nearly ten years. Ten years, Erik! Would you please put away these thoughts? Whoever or whatever taught you that you do not deserve to be loved because of your face was wrong, in so many ways. And whoever dares say that about my son is just as wrong."

Erik frowned and hung his head. "I did not mean to offend you, Gaia."

"I am not offended, Erik. I love you. I simply worry about you, and your health. You're still so… dark, sometimes. I've never told you this, but you talk in your sleep sometimes, did you know?

"No, I didn't," he admitted with a brow furrow. "What is it I say?"

"It's not… really what you say that worries me, but the context in which I think you might be saying it. You've begged me not to go until you wept at times. There have been dreams in which you've thrashed so violently you frightened me… I think in those dreams you found me with another man, judging by what you have said," she confided, unsure of whether to tell him these things at all. "I never told you because you never seemed to remember them in the morning. You never treated me differently anyways, not that I noticed."

"You're right, I don't remember them," frowned Erik thoughtfully. "I have on occasion woken up feeling an incredible sense of loneliness. I wonder if it was after those nights…"

"I couldn't say. All I know is the things that go on in your wonderful, brilliant mind worry me at times. I haven't had that nightmare about Marco in years, but just last week you mentioned him in your sleep-"

"That dream I do remember. It was exactly the events of the night I threw him from the window, that's all," Erik promised, and Gaia kissed him.

"Why do such things still come to your mind, Erik? That is why I worry. We have a beautiful, happy family, but I worry in private you're not… happy. Or not as happy as I am, anyway."

Erik rested his chin on the top of his wife's head as he held her tightly. "I promise you I am happy. This… our life is more than I ever imagined was possible for me. It was more than anyone I've met has imagined for me. After I proposed to you I dreamed of things like this but I don't think I honestly believed that nearly ten years after marriage we would not only still be in love, but have two children, a dog, a cat, horses, a business… this our life, and I adore it, I swear. My only concern is what happens to our life when you leave it. Maybe it won't happen now," he added quickly, not wishing to cause an argument they had had a hundred times before. "But eventually it will. And just… what am I suppose to do with all of it without you. God forbid you die before the children are grown, what do I do with them? I can't raise a child on my own, you're the one holding this family together. When you go… I'm afraid there won't be any thing left."

"First of all, I am not going to leave you before the children are grown. I would never do that to you, my love. But even if something happened and I did, you could certainly care for them! You're a wonderful cook and you know it, not to mention a brilliant teacher."

"That's just it, Gaia. My role in Adrian's life has been mostly as his teacher. He needs the love and affection he gets from his mother. So will Cadence," he added with a glance into the crib. "I love them both, but I just… can't show it the same way you do. I don't know why. Your father was perfectly affectionate."

"If you want to be, or needed to be, you will be. I know you, Erik. You can do absolutely anything you want to do. I've been affectionate enough to Adrian for the both of us, but if something happens I know you would raise them both in a loving home. Please for my sake, stop worrying. I know it's difficult; I spent years fussing over my father the way you fuss over me, but really it isn't worth the stress my love. Now would you be a dear and massage my back? It's been stiff all afternoon; hours and hours of labor takes its toll."

Erik chuckled some, deciding to put aside his worries for the time being to see to his wife as she moved into bed stiffly, laying down on her stomach to give her husband access to her back. He loved how open Gaia was with him, he reflected as he warmed a small amount of oil in his hands while she undressed. He knew other couples were not like them just by watching them move around the marketplace; on the rare occasion a man accompanied his wife, they stood well apart and hardly spoke. Erik and Gaia were nearly inseperable. On the days one went to the market without the other, the trips were brief and rushed. On days they went together, they walked arm in arm and chatted animatedly about their prospective purchases, or even completely unrelated topics such as their son's mastery of a new piano piece or the eccentricity of a guest at the inn.

That was one of the things that worried Erik; he feared he was simply too in love, too attached to his wife to survive losing her. There was a species of dove he had studied once, that mated for life. Once he had seen a cat eat one of a pair of birds, and the other one became so depressed it simply lost the will to live and died within hours of its partner. Erik knew in his heart he would be similarly grieved by his wife's death, but dared not mention it. Gaia would think him melodramatic and foolish… but he knew in his heart it was true. Even if his body did not die, his soul would without a doubt. Could he raise children as a shell of a man?