I own nothing. All characters belong to Andrew Lloyd Webber, Warner Brothers, and others.
Madame Giry sat tiredly by the fire. She hated reliving the past, but the Vicomte had been insistent. She hated even more acknowledging that the playmate of her youth had become a madman. What no one knew, and no one other than her would ever know, was that that playmate was also the father of her child, her Mignon.
***********
When Cosette Giry joined the ballet at the Opera Populaire, she was young, only six. Her parents had seen something in the way she moved, and felt she would do well as a dancer. It was certainly better than the future she would face as the daughter of a tavern keeper.
Even as a child, she was different from the other girls. She was a thinker. She liked to read when she wasn't practicing. The other girls endured the schooling they were given. Cosette enjoyed it. The teachers noticed her interest, and gave her additional lessons to be done on her own. The other girls were sometimes spiteful, so Cosette looked for a hiding place for her books, her treasures. She found a little chapel that no one seemed to use, preferring to go to the big cathedral a few squares over for Mass. The stained glass windows were beautiful, and she loved to sit on the window seat in front of one and read. As Cosette grew, she became closer to some of the others, but was always a little different.
One day, when she was about 12, the circus came to the part of Paris where the Opera was located. As a treat, the young dancers were allowed to go to the circus with the Ballet mistress and some of the older dancers as chaperones. Cosette enjoyed most of the circus, but one particular sight made her uncomfortable. There was a man who had a "freak" on display. He called him the "Devil's Child". The boy, for it was obvious that he was not much older than Cosette, had a sack over his head. The man went into the cage with the boy, and took the sack of his head. His face was deformed, with warts and blisters all over the right side. The man used a whip to make the boy turn around and act crazy.
The other dancers screamed and backed away from the cage. Cosette stayed close. Her heart was hurt by the situation the boy was in. She could see he wasn't an animal. He was hurt and desperate. The Ballet mistress called the girls away. As Cosette moved away, she lagged behind the others. She looked back, and saw the boy attack the man. Even though the man was much larger, the boy got the whip away from him and strangled the man with it. Others heard the shouting and started coming toward the place where the cage was.
Without even really thinking, Cosette released the latch on the cage and called to the boy. "Come with me! We must hide you!"
The boy followed Cosette without hesitation. They ran through the alleys toward the Opera house. Cosette knew a back way into the basement below the stage. She led him to a storage room that no one knew about. There she told the boy to stay until she could come back with food for him.
**********
As time went by, Cosette would sneak away as often as she could to be with the boy. She named him Erik, since he told her he didn't know if he had a name. He had always been "Boy" to the man. She taught him to read and write, sharing her love of learning with him. She found a secret door into the chapel, and would leave books there for him to read. Erik started asking her for books on various subjects, and she would buy them for him, and leave them for him to retrieve.
Erik explored the underground part of the Opera house, and found a cavern that had been abandoned long ago. He found discarded props and furniture and furnished the cavern as his home. He explored the upper parts of the Opera at night when everyone was asleep. He found all the secret passages, and created others. After several years, he had a way into just about any area of the Opera.
Cosette moved up through the ranks of the ballet. She became one of the corps de ballet, then a lead dancer. As Cosette became an adult, men began to take an interest in her. She was attractive, and could talk intelligently on almost any subject. She was courted by some of the well-to-do patrons of the Opera. However, Cosette was not interested. She didn't want to become someone's mistress, to be discarded when they grew tired of her. She had seen some of the other dancers go through that, and she wasn't going to degrade herself in that way. Besides, Cosette loved someone. She loved totally, deeply, and forever, but knew he could never be hers. Erik wasn't cut out to love. His upbringing, and the torture and abuse he had suffered throughout the first part of his life, had left him unable to trust and truly open up to anyone.
**********
Cosette knew that Erik hated mirrors. He tried to hide his face, even from her. Paradoxically, perhaps, he collected them. If a mirror's frame became too damaged for the mirror to be used in the diva's dressing room, it would be placed into storage. Erik would find it, bring it down to his cavern, and restore the frame. He would put it somewhere in his quarters, and then cover the mirror with a piece of fabric. If one of the pieces of fabric came loose, he would explode. He would break the mirror, and would keep on hitting it with something until it was nothing but slivers. Erik would then fall to his knees and sob, then stagger to his bed and fall asleep for a day or so. When he awoke, he would remove the mirror frame and the mirror fragments, and then go on as if nothing had happened.
One day, Cosette was visiting Erik on her day off. Most of the others thought she had gone to visit her parents, but her parents had died years before. She was staying with Erik in his cavern. He had set up an area she could use as a bedroom. Cosette was reading in her room before bed when she heard Erik cry out. She raced out to see what had happened and saw Erik destroying a mirror. Cosette knew not to try and stop him. As he staggered back from the destroyed mirror, she saw him hit his head on an outcropping of rock, and knock himself out.
Cosette ran to him, to see how hurt he was. He had a lump that was bleeding, but didn't seem seriously injured. She found a rag and soaked in the cold water within the cavern. She bathed the lump, and then left it on to reduce the swelling. Erik regained consciousness a few minutes later. He seemed mostly okay, although he was dazed. She helped him up and led him to his bed. He lay down and dozed off.
Cosette woke him every so often to make sure he was okay. She had seen the doctor do this when one of the stagehands had been hit in the head by some scenery that fell. Each time she woke him, Erik seemed a little disoriented, but coherent. After a while, Cosette was so tired, she simply climbed into bed with Erik. She lay on top of the covers, and put her arm on him so she would feel if he stirred.
Cosette woke up to feel someone stroking her hair. She opened her eyes to see Erik leaning over her.
"I always wondered if your hair was as soft as it looked. It's softer." His voice was simply a whisper. Then he leaned down and kissed her. Cosette felt as if fireworks were going off in her chest. She had dreamed of this so many times. She lifted her arms and put them around him. Thoughts of stopping him never entered her head.
Cosette woke in the morning to find the bed empty except for her. She sat up and looked for Erik. He was sitting at a table, writing. She knew he like to compose music, and would listen to the music coming from upstairs for inspiration. She climbed out of bed, wrapping her dressing gown around her. It had come untied during their loving.
Erik looked around to see her coming toward him. "Why were you in bed with me?"
"You hit your head and knocked yourself out. I was checking you every so often, but I was so tired I thought I would just stay with you in case you needed me." Cosette was uncomfortable, but didn't know exactly why. "Don't you remember?"
"I remember talking to you, then you went to your room, and I started to go to mine, then . . . I don't remember anything else until I woke up to see you in bed next to me."
Cosette was frozen. He didn't remember! She had given him her heart and her body and he didn't remember! As she tried to think, she looked around his space. Her gaze landed on the clock, and she realized the time. If she didn't move quickly, she would be late, and even though she was a principal dancer, lateness was not tolerated well by the aging Ballet mistress.
"I need to get going. I'll be late, and Madame Lefay will use her cane on me. I'll come see how you are doing tonight." That would also give her time to figure out what to say and do about the previous night.
**********
Cosette never found a good time to talk to Erik about what had happened. They were getting ready for a new season, so rehearsals were long and many. When she finished rehearsals, she would fall into her bed in the dormitories, and be out like a light. Her days off were spent working on her costumes, adjusting them with the dressmakers. Time seemed to slip by.
About a month after her night with Erik, Cosette got sick. She seemed to have a stomach virus, which caused her to throw up every morning. Eventually, she realized she hadn't had her monthly yet. Cosette was frantic. What would she do? The Opera management wasn't very pleasant to dancers who got pregnant, because they couldn't perform for at least six months, then had a baby to take care of. Many dancers were let go when they became pregnant. First, Cosette had to go to the midwife to make sure she was with child.
The midwife confirmed her suspicions. Cosette didn't know what to do. Erik still didn't know he had made love to her that night. They couldn't marry, anyway, because he was in hiding. She knew he didn't love her in the way a man should love his wife. He thought of her like a sister, even though she didn't think of him as a brother.
Before Cosette started showing and had to tell the manager, Madame Lefay decided to retire. She had been with the Opera many years, and could no longer demonstrate the moves the way she used to. Cosette had become her unofficial assistant. Madame Lefay recommended that Cosette take her place. Madame Lefay would begin training her, and she would take over full time in a year. Cosette was ecstatic! She would have a position, and her pregnancy wouldn't be an issue. She told the manager she was pregnant, but would be back in time to take over for Madame Lefay. While he was unhappy with her, he simply expressed his disappointment, and told her she would have leave from one month before her baby was due to one month after the birth.
***********
As she went about her duties at the Opera, helping Madame Lefay and learning all the tricks of keeping the dancers in line, some asked her who the father was. They knew she didn't associate with most of the patrons of the Opera. She simply told them it was none of their business, and kept going.
Erik asked her as well, concerned that he would have to defend her honor. She told him she was not forced, and that she had no regrets. He didn't like it, but accepted it after she emphatically told him to drop the subject, or she would not come back down to see him.
Her daughter was born with no sign of the defects that marred her father's face. She was so perfect and so dainty, Cosette couldn't help but call her Mignon. Erik met her when Cosette came back to the Opera, but told Cosette not to let Mignon know that he existed. He didn't want a child to cry at the sight of him. He didn't want to face possible rejection. Cosette tried to argue with him about it, but Erik was adamant. Some scars went too deep to heal. About this time, he began wearing a white half-mask over the disfigured half of his face, and a wig to hide the wispy hair on his head.
**********
Cosette took over as Ballet Mistress, and was as strict as Madame Lefay. Mignon, or Meg as Cosette called her, was a happy child, with no lack of "aunts" and "uncles" willing to watch her when her mother was busy. Meg also made friends with the children of various employees. Her best friend, though, was Christine Daae, the daughter of the first violinist, Serge Daae. She wasn't always around, as during the off-season, the Daaes lived in the country, at her father's family home. He was the second son, so didn't inherit the title, but did inherit a house, even though his father was very unhappy that he became a musician. Christine's mother had died in childbirth, so it was just the two of them. Cosette treated Christine as a second daughter, as she and Meg were close to the same age.
When Meg and Christine were six, they began to train with the ballet, as Cosette had. Those early years of Meg's childhood were good. Cosette and Erik remained close, and Cosette had even more available time, as she didn't have to practice as much.
When Christine was seven, tragedy struck. Her father became ill, and finally died. Cosette took her into the dormitories, as she had nowhere else to go. Her grandparents were very elderly, and her uncle didn't want her.
When Christine was ten, Erik heard her singing as she wandered around the Opera house. He was enchanted with her voice. He had listened in on all the vocal lessons that were given to the chorus, and decided to train her himself. He came to her in the shadows at night. She never saw him, but heard him. He instructed her in proper technique, breath control, and expression. He made her practice whenever she wasn't dancing. Erik had started writing letters to the manager of the Opera, demanding a "salary", and letting him know that if he wasn't paid, "accidents" would happen. After one or two "accidents", the manager began paying him.
As Christine matured, her beauty became more apparent. When Christine was 16, Cosette realized Erik had fallen in love with her. She couldn't do anything about it. Christine was her daughter in all but name. Trying to talk to Erik about it was like talking to a wall. He refused to listen. He had become more erratic as he became older.
When Christine was 18, the Opera changed managers. That started the whole cascade of events that had culminated in the confrontation with the Vicomte. He realized Cosette knew more about the "Phantom" than people realized. He was very perceptive. She always seemed to know when the Phantom was around, and how he thought. The Vicomte didn't know the story, but he had been determined to find out.
Cosette sat in front of her fire. She had lost Erik, and if things didn't change, she stood to lose Christine as well. She knew she would have to help the Vicomte in his efforts to stop Erik, but for now, she would rest. She was tired.