I own nothing. All characters belong to Andrew Lloyd Webber, Warner Brothers, and others.
Raoul, the Comte de Chagny sat tiredly by the fire. He hated reliving the past, but the rose with the black ribbon at Christine's grave demanded his attention. He idly turned the ring in his fingers. Raoul knew what it meant. The ring had been returned. He was gone. Erik would never return. Raoul believed he had possibly committed suicide. Christine had been his world for over 50 years. There was nothing left for him.
Raoul looked back over the years to the end of that fateful opera season in 1870.
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The Opera House was a total loss. The fire had gained hold quickly with all the wood and fabric. It was left a shell. What wasn't burnt was damaged by smoke and the water used once the firemen arrived.
Christine was traumatized. The tension of that whole season had finally hit her once they were away from the Opera House. She had collapsed.
Madam Giry and Meg had nowhere to go. The Opera House had been their home. Raoul had invited them to stay at the family's summer home with Christine. They were of tremendous help in nursing her back to health. Once Christine recovered, the Girys looked for jobs with some of the ballet companies around Paris. Luckily, one of them was looking for a new ballet mistress. Madame Giry's reputation was well-known in Paris, and she had no trouble gaining the position, with Meg getting a place in the corps.
Msrs. Andre and Firman were devastated. Their fortune had gone up in smoke, literally. Msr. Firman committed suicide not long after. Msr. Andre was a broken man.
Raoul also became ill. The wound on his arm from the sword of the Phantom had reopened during the rescue, and become infected from the water in the underground caverns. It took several months for him to recover, and he was weaker than normal for months after that.
Raoul and Christine married in the spring of the following year. His parents weren't happy about it, but they could tell Raoul was deeply in love. They remembered Christine from her childhood when she would stay in the area with her father. Eventually, they gave their blessing to the marriage. Christine and Raoul were happy for a few years, and were ecstatic when their first child was born.
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However, things didn't remain happy.
Raoul came to the realization that he didn't understand Christine, and couldn't make her happy. He loved her, but he didn't understand her. Christine's emotional stability had never fully recovered from that time. Raoul was naturally easy-going, and her constant mood swings, especially after the birth of their son, baffled him. He didn't understand why she couldn't simply get over it and go on. Her fragility made him impatient with her. He started spending more time in Paris, rather than at the country estate where they lived.
While in Paris, Raoul would go to visit the ballet where the Girys worked. He met Meg and Madame Giry after performances sometimes, as they wanted to know how Christine was doing. Once in a while, Madame Giry would be unable to go with Meg, as there would be an issue with one of the dancers arising from the performance that night.
After a few years, one evening Raoul and Meg were laughing about something she had told him about an incident during rehearsal. He found himself close to her, and without really thinking about it, kissed her. After a moment, she returned the kiss. They pulled back, looked at each other, then ignored the incident and went on.
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Raoul and Christine had been married for ten years. They had two children, a boy and a girl. Raoul spent most of his time in Paris, taking care of the family affairs. His father had died the year before, and Raoul was now the Comte. His mother had retired to another family estate.
One day, Raoul came home and found a bouquet of red roses in a vase in Christine's sitting room. He wouldn't have thought anything of it, but the roses all had black velvet ribbons tied around their stems. He looked at Christine.
"He has bought the neighboring estate."
"Has he visited you?"
"He tried but I sent him away. He sent the roses and a note."
"What name is he using?"
"Erik Poto."
"Clever."
Raoul left that night and returned to Paris. Christine began wearing a distinctive ring on her right hand.
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Meg and Raoul became lovers shortly after his visit to Christine. They both realized that no one must know, so they kept it very discreet. Raoul realized he had married the wrong woman. He would never be able to truly connect with Christine. Her emotional fragility was more than he could handle. Meg, with her common sense and robustness, was more the type of woman he felt at home with. He knew, though, that his parents would have disowned him if he had brought Meg home.
Madame Giry disapproved, but understood her daughter was an adult. She simply made sure that things didn't get known outside of the three of them. She also made sure Meg had the appropriate items so she didn't get pregnant. Cosette didn't want that history repeating itself!
Meg herself was torn. She loved Raoul, but felt guilty for betraying Christine in this way. She decided to go see Christine during the off-season.
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Christine was looking better than she had for some time. Meg noticed the ring immediately.
"Is that a present from Raoul?"
"No."
"Christine, who gave you the ring?"
"Erik."
"What? He's back?!"
"Yes. He lives on the neighboring estate."
"Does Raoul know? Of course he knows. How could he not? Does he approve of the two of you being back in contact?"
"Yes, he knows. He didn't forbid me to be in contact with him."
"Christine, not forbidding is not the same as approving."
"Meg, Erik understands me. He knows how to deal with my moods. Raoul expects me to simply get over things. I can't! I know on some levels it is wrong. Erik and I are not … together, but he gives me the emotional support I simply cannot get from Raoul. I am not betraying my wedding vows, even though I suspect Raoul has. He needs more than I can give him and I need more than I can get from him. I love him, but we should not have married."
"Do you think Raoul feels the same way?"
"I think so. He spends very little time here anymore. When he does come, he spends most of his time with the children. It hurts us both to spend time together. We sit in silence, because we have nothing to talk about anymore, aside from the children. He feels a failure because he cannot understand me, and I feel a failure because I cannot make him happy."
"Does Erik make you happy?"
"I don't know that happy is the right word. I think content is more accurate. He works with me on my voice, even now. He has changed from what he was. I think he is more … sane now than he was then. He comes at night, to my sitting room French doors. He doesn't allow anyone else in the house to see him, but he comes without a mask. He is comfortable with me seeing his face."
"I don't begin to understand how you can let him near you after what happened."
"At first, when he started sending me roses, I destroyed them. But, one night he came to my rooms, knocking on the French door. I told him to go away, to never come back. He left, but he gave me a letter before he did."
"What did he have to say that could allow you to forgive him?"
"You know he had accumulated a lot of money from the Opera?"
"I am not surprised."
"He said he made reparations to the families of those he killed, or who died because of what happened. I checked into it, and it's true. Signora Carlotta received money in memory of Signor Piangi. Buquet's sister received money in his memory. Msr. Andre received money in memory of Msr. Firman. All were done anonymously, but in an amount that allowed them to live more comfortably."
"He's still a murderer, Christine!"
"I know, but … my soul still responds to him, Meg. More than six years of being under his … teaching, mentoring … spell if you want to call it that, cannot be totally undone. I still hear him when he isn't present. I knew when he moved in nearby. I know when he is coming to see me. We share a connection, and I think we always will."
"I don't understand, but I'm not the one you have to convince." Meg got up to leave. When she had hugged Christine, and given her a kiss on the cheek, she turned to go.
"Meg, tell Raoul when you see him that I understand. And I don't hold it against either of you."
Meg was in shock. She turned to Christine and looked at her, white-faced.
"Erik told me. He doesn't approve, but he is very protective of me. I can't give Raoul what he needs, but you can. Tell him to simply keep it discreet."
Meg left in a daze.
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Over the years, the two relationships grew. There was never a hint in any of the papers that something strange was going on, either with the Comte or the Comtess. The children never knew. Raoul's mother never knew.
After 35 years of marriage, Christine began to sicken. She would be bedridden for a few weeks, but then would be okay for a while, although she was weaker than before. Her children had their own families now, but would come to visit when she was ill. Erik wrote Raoul in Paris to let him know when she first became bedridden. Raoul brought Meg with him.
This went on for ten years, with Christine slowly becoming weaker and weaker. Erik took to staying in the house, hidden, to take care of Christine.
Then, Raoul had a stroke. He couldn't walk for months afterward. He had to retire to the country estate with a nurse to take care of him. Meg couldn't be with him, so they ended their relationship. It had been a close, loving one, but they knew it was time for it to stop. Raoul had to follow a more retiring lifestyle.
Meg had her own life. She had become ballet mistress after her mother retired. Her mother had died about five years before Raoul got sick.
Raoul and Christine managed to reconnect while they spent time recovering together. They made their peace with each other, and with what had happened. Erik had moved back to his own house, and never came to see Christine while Raoul was with her, something Raoul appreciated.
Christine passed away quietly, in her sleep. Raoul was told by his nurse. He had never fully recovered from his stroke, and used a wheelchair more often than not. He went to see her. She looked younger, as if death had restored her youth, had erased the last ten years of poor health. Raoul noticed the ring Erik gave Christine was missing.
She was buried in the graveyard in Paris, near where her father was buried. Raoul stayed at the house in Paris, but he didn't get back in contact with Meg. That part of his life was over, and Meg agreed.
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Two years after Christine's death, he heard that the Opera Populaire was to be torn down to make way for new buildings. It had never reopened. The new owners had bought it from Msr. Andre's estate.
An auction was announced. The crews had gone through the Opera house, and found some things that they thought might fetch a few francs, so they decided to sell them rather than simply throw them away.
The auction brought all the memories back for Raoul. He saw Meg, and treated her as a casual acquaintance as they were in public. It hurt. As he was driven from the Opera house to the graveyard with the music box in his lap, he remembered all that went on that season back in 1870. What might have been?
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Raoul noticed the rose with the black ribbon after he placed the music box in front of Christine's headstone. He picked it up and saw the ring attached to the ribbon.
As he sat, turning the ring over, he knew what it meant. The Opera house, too, would be gone. It's over now, the music of the night.