A/N: I'm so close to finishing the Susan Kay novel that it's killing me! I have to finish it and yet I don't want to be done with it. That and I'm on the last part where it's in Raoul's POV. : grumble : Ah well. This story has absolutely nothing to do with my story "Angel of the Opera," but I did have another idea of how Christine could make her way back to her Phantom. So here it is. Have fun, kiddos

A/N2: as I said before, I haven't finished Susan Kay's novel as of yet, and so if something happens to our wonderful Persian Nadir, please ignore that for my story. He and Erik still have a friendship, even if it ends in the book (I doubt it will… hopefully… I like Nadir!)

Chapter One

"Christine, Christine… Why?"

Christine Daaè looked around her, feeling him all around her, just as she always had when she sung. "Erik?"

"It's over now, the music of the night! Christine… I love you…"

Christine shot up suddenly, finding herself in bed. She looked around to see the room Raoul had given her when she had come to live in his home as his fiancé. That had been nearly a year ago and they were still only engaged. She had put it off and put it off, never knowing quite why.

The knock on the door made her jump slightly and she pulled the bed sheets up around her slender shoulders. "Yes? Who's there?"

"Christine? Are you all right? I thought I heard you call out."

"I'm all right," she managed. "I'll be out in a few minutes."

Christine did not hear his reply as she stood and ran a hand through her ruffled curls. She brought her hand down across her face, noticing the wetness that was there. Tears. "Erik… I'm so sorry," she whispered as she sank slowly to the floor, burring her face in her hands and sobbing quietly. "My Angel… My Erik… Poor Erik! Why do you still haunt me? You told us to go. You told us to leave!" She dried her eyes as she stood and peered out the window. "Angel of Music… Hear my cry. Forgive me…"

It had been a year since the opera house had burned and a year since Christine had left with Raoul de Chagny. Certainly she had married him by this point. What a shame…

"You're moping again."

Erik looked up from where he had been staring at the sheets of music. "I'm not moping. I'm thinking."

"Brooding," his foreign friend said as took his place standing next to the former Phantom.

"Nadir…"

"I know, Erik, stay out of your business, is that it? I only wish you would-"

"I'm working, old friend, not brooding. I just can't recall… Oh hang it all! It took me years to write this opera and now I'm trying to put it all down at once. It's not humanly possible."

Nadir shrugged. "And it took you and Garnier years to build this opera house, but these people have repaired it within a year. Is that humanly possible? It's been built, it's been written. Now you must simply put together the pieces which have been burned."

Erik leaned heavily against the organ and ran one hand through his dark hair. "She was my insparation…"

"See? You were brooding," Nadir said with a bit of triumph in his voice.

Erik's eyes turned upward, blazing. He pulled the music sheets from their place, flinging them as far as they would go. "Do you come here as a friend or to torment me!" he demanded, his voice booming through the otherwise empty house.

Nadir sighed, kneeling down to pick the pieces of paper up.

"Leave it," Erik growled irritably. "Leave it and answer me."

"I come here as a friend, and…"

"Ah, here it comes. The true reason for this sudden visit."

Nadir frowned. "I came here to ask you, as a friend, for your help."

"In what?"

The Persian sighed as he took a seat on Erik's couch. "They're here. The Shah and his mother."

"And that concerns me how?"

Nadir gave his old friend a patient smile. "There have been… deaths. Unexplained to the police, but they're wavering towards the believing that the Shah is behind the deaths. Erik, they've come to me, asking what I might be able to do to help them. I told them I had an old friend… one that once worked for the Shah and knew what he might do, how he would do it. Erik, they've agreed that any crimes that might ever be linked to you will be dropped if you help them. It's a compromise that you will never get the chance to make again."

"They want me to go after the Shah of Persia?"

"It must be very… under the table, if you understand me."

Erik gave Nadir a sly look. "What happened to the promise of no more killing?"

Nadir let out a chuckle. "And you've kept to that?"

"A bit. And in the past year, completely."

The Persian man sighed and let his shoulders drop. "Erik, you might not even have to kill him, only run him out of the country. They're asking you for help. If you say no, you will always be looking over your shoulder."

"And if I say yes and the Shah finds that I did not die backing Persia, you and I both will be looking over our shoulders the rest of our lives."

"No. We will live in peace at last."

Erik stood from his seat and paced slowly. "Tell them I will meet them promptly at ten o'clock tomorrow evening on the grand staircase. No one will be there. There is no opera playing. If they are late, I will not wait. Let them know they should be punctual, if not early." That said, Erik turned, his cape swirling behind him, and walked briskly out of the room.

A/N: Well well well. A new fanfic. Heaven help us, ne? Let us hope I can see it through. I really plan to work on a couple of my other fics soon… Well, let me know how you liked it. I need a 100 percentsolution of review intake to feed my very needy addiction.