Must Be Fate's Design

Chapter 5 [part 2]

"How does it feel?" I asked. I was almost done putting on the prosthetics to Erik's right side of his face.

"Uncomfortable."

I rolled my eyes, "Well, I'm sure it's not supposed to feel good. This way you can talk to Caroline. Then if she warms up to you, maybe then you can take all this crap off, and show her the real you." I smiled.

He scoffed, making my smile fall, "Christine would be too horrified. If I am lucky enough to have her here for a second chance, she will not see my true face."

I thought for a moment, "What if she doesn't have you? Then what would you do?"

He didn't answer. He only stared ahead as I finished up.

"I think I did it." I said, standing up, "Go look." I pointed to the small mirror hanging on the wall next to my front door.

"This is foolish." He said while standing up, "it's not possible for my face to actually...look..." he trailed off once he reached the mirror.

I couldn't help but laugh a little as he stared at his reflection. He was staring for a long time, maybe a total of five minutes before he started to poke at the work I did.

"You okay over there, bud?"

He didn't answer. But I swear, I watched him wipe his eyes.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

He turned around and took my hand. Then suddenly, he kissed it, "Thank you, Car—Operetta...I can't thank you enough for this." He looked back in the mirror, "I thought I would have never been able to see myself look in the mirror and not see a monster look back at me."

I let out a small laugh before turning around, "It was nothing, really."

"When can we see Christine?" he asked eagerly, more eager than normal.

"Damn, you're really stoked about this girl..." I muttered.

"If 'stoked' means devotedly in love with her, then yes."

I sighed, "Erik...I've been warning you before, and I'll warn you again...Caroline is probably nothing like your Christine..."

"Yes, yes." He nodded, waving me off, "Let's go see her."

"Do you...want to change your clothes?" I asked, "How long have you been wearing that?" I pointed at his dress clothes. It was totally normal to wear it in his time, and given it looks like a suit it didn't cause many people to take a second look, but I'm sure it wasn't as comfortable to move in.

He played with his collar, "Maybe a change of clothes would be wise."

I sighed, realizing I would have to go and dig through cardboard boxes, "Here, I'm going to go look and see what I can find...why don't you go eat something. Help yourself, I don't think you've eaten at all, have you?"

He shook his head, "I'm quite all right."

He was more stubborn than Andrew. "Erik, go eat something." I rolled my eyes and headed into the spare room. I started to dig through cardboard boxes.

I hadn't cleaned out this room in a long time. I couldn't even find the right box, I ended up shuffling through so many. I was afraid I threw it out.

But I did find it, a box labeled 'Danny's Crap'.

I started pulling out shirts, finding a lot of nicer dress shirts since Danny never seemed to wear them. I don't think Erik would be the same pants size, given that he's extremely tall and Danny was only a few inches taller than me. So he would have to keep on the pants he's wearing.