Roses || durm

.neun.

.neun.

"Your father and I started secretly spending time together." Arabella explained to the children in the room. "Well, secretly from my father because he absolutely hated Erik." She clarified. 

-

After their conversation in which Erik met Maximilian, in her mother's belly, for the first time, he begged her to let him be a part of everything. He wanted to go to her doctor's appointments, went overboard buying presents for the child, and visited Arabella whenever her father was out of the house. Each time he would visit her, he would get several calls from Ursula, but he would click the ignore button. Eventually, he would just turn off his phone and ignore Ursula altogether.

Erik was very excited for the arrival of their first child.

It was on a normal Monday morning that Arabella was cleaning around the house when she felt her water break. Soon after came the first contractions that made her feel like she wanted to double over in pain. 

Instead, she reached for her cellphone and called her father who was at the BVB training grounds.

Jurgen felt his cellphone vibrate in his pocket, looked at the caller ID and answered almost instantly. "Sweetie, are you okay?" He asked his daughter. He knew the day was coming and he wanted to be as ready as possible for it. When he heard her pained breaths and her words, he said, "I'll be right there." And hung up the phone.

The players were just getting done with some of their exercises and were gathering around their team manager for their next indication. But Jurgen handed his assistant coach the lipboard and said to the players, "Sitniski is taking over for the rest of this session. My daughter is having contractions and I have to get her to the hospital."

Erik, who was looking down at his cellphone screen, wondering why Arabella hadn't called or texted him yet, looked up quickly when he heard the news. "What? You have to let me go with you." He said.

Jurgen shook his head. "You're staying here, Durm."

He was about to rush off to his office to get the keys to his car when Erik stopped him. He was faster and got his own car keys out of his pocket, showing them to his team manager. "Jurgen, lets not waste time arguing, and lets go. I'll drive."

Arabella's father sighed in frustration and followed Erik out of the training grounds.

They arrived at Jurgen's house and took only minutes to prepare everything to get her to the hospital. Jurgen was surprised that Erik knew where everything was, and that he knew exactly which hospital to go to. But he always suspected the two were still keeping in contact, even after what Erik did to Arabella.

At the hospital, Arabella was allowed to have two people with her in the hospital room, she gave her permission to have her father and Erik there. Her mother was on her way from Berlin and would be arriving later. 

And when Erik offered his hand for her to hold, she took it.

The birth of their first son, Maximilian Erik Durm, made Erik and Arabella cry with excitement. They both loved their son and were anxious to meet him. The first one to hold him after his mother, was his father Erik, who was an inexperienced one, and was hesitant. He was afraid he could hurt the child, but once he had him in his arms, he didn't want to let him go.

According to the nurses, they were to remain at the hospital for a few days, until Arabella could recover. And Erik never left their side. 

When they were finally released from the hospital, Erik showed up to pick up his [ still ] wife and their son. In his arm was a large bouquet of red roses and on his face an apologetic look. Still tired from everything, Erik was surprised when she smiled at him. Their son was in her arms and he was fast asleep. Her footsteps dragged on the linoleum floor as she walked closer to him. "Erik," The way she said his name sent a chill down his spine, just like it used to. It sounded beautiful to his ears. "What are you doing here?" When she asked that, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

He sighed. "I might be too late for this, but..." Offering the roses to her, he continued, "I want to give you these roses, one for each hour that you're on my mind. And I hope you can forgive me for being such a terrible husband. For letting myself fall into her hands. She's a bad woman, Bella. But I wasn't any better to you."

The blue eyed new mother raised an eyebrow at him. "You left her?"

He nodded, and looked down when his eyes welled up with tears. "It was something already coming. All the time we had been spending together made me remember why I love you so much. And she didn't want to let me see my son. I couldn't let her do that."

"Erik, you hurt me."

"I know." He said, and he sounded genuinely bad about it. "I just want to show you that I still love you. And I want to get back together."

'We're still married." She pointed out.

He looked up at her, a glint of hope in his eyes.

"But I need time." Arabella said to him, her own eyes glazing up with tears. "I can't just accept you back into my life, as my husband, so easily. You need to earn it, to show me you really love me. You already know I absolutely love you. But I need to know you will be committed to this forever because I'm not going through this hell again."

"I'll do anything you ask me to do." He swore.

"I suggest that we just start over. Not as husband and wife yet, but a regular relationship." She gave him her conditions. She wanted him to visit her properly, and go out the way they did when they were dating, but he would also have to share the responsibilities of taking care of Maximilian. Later they would decide if they wanted to take the next step into returning to their married life. Erik accepted all her conditions.

He wanted nothing more than to have her, and their son, in his life.

-

"I really just wanted to forgive him easily and move back in with him and be a happy family, we were still married after all. But I made him work  for it." Arabella finished another bit of the story for the night.

"Why didn't you?" Erik asked her.

She gave a small shrug of her shoulders, her blue eyes meeting Erik's, "You made me suffer for nine months while you were with that woman, and on top of that while I was bearing your child. I thought making you work extra hard for my forgiveness was the least you could do." Looking at her children now, she added, "Your papa had to almost literally shed blood, sweat, and tears before I allowed him the privilege of living with Max and I."

"Sweat and tears, indeed there was." Erik pointed out. "Maybe not blood though." 

"Okay," Arabella smiled, "Just sweat and tears. But the effort was big."

-

finally another update. okay there will be two more posts and then this story ends. sorry i took kind of long to post a new chapter on here. i dont know much about giving birth, thus why the scene is quite vague. but i tried my best and i hope you like it ^.^

blessings, clary xx