Raoul sighed as he stepped out of the secret passage, gazing up at his wife's portrait longingly. "Lotte...I'm filthy..." he whispered sadly. "I'm so sorry..."

"Raoul de Chagny, come to my office at once," Erik's voice bleated from his wrist. Raoul ignored it, climbing the stairs to the children's room. Erik could wait another five minutes. He unlocked the door and smiled softly at Charlotte's soft brown curls gleaming subtly in the fluorescent light.
"Kids, you awake?" Neither of them replied, save a tiny snore from Gustave. He smiled sadly and closed the door. Sleeping like angels, the both of them...
XxXxX
'Don't break my heart... Don't walk away... Don't leave me lonely...' Erik stopped writing for a moment, smiling dryly. He wondered if Charlotte remembered what she'd said to him ten years ago... The elevator doors opened, and Raoul walked in, wearing his usual moping expression.
Giovanni caught the candlelight on the blade of his knife and flashed it in Raoul's face, grinning evilly. "Well, who ordered pizza? I could sure go for a slice!"
"Giovanni," Erik hissed in a warning tone.
"Ooh, never too pressed for l'dramatico entrance!" Petrie laughed. Erik silenced his middle child with a glare.
"You wanted to see me?" Raoul asked quietly.
Erik didn't know what annoyed him about his former rival more, his submissive attitude, or the fact that, despite all evidence to the contrary, Christine had deemed this IDIOT the better man. He merely smiled the slow, eerie smile that had been dubbed 'the vampire's grin' by the press. "Thank you for coming. I have your new assignment."

"Hot off the meat truck!" Giovanni said, still joking around.

Raoul's knuckles were turning white around the handle of the organ transport unit. He was getting scared. Good. "Is there a reason why you couldn't phone me this target?"

"This is a job of special importance. It is involving a GeneCo employee. An artist we all know." Erik switched from his composing software to the GeneCo files, bringing up Meg's page. Those damned eyes...

"That blonde has-been alto! " Amber shrieked, callously throwing Meg's secret out in the open.

"A traitor to GeneCo."
"Tonight is her last show!" Amber clapped her hands in petty delight.
"I can't afford a scandal here!"
"Please handle Meg's face with care!" Petrie crooned. Erik rolled his eyes at his son's disgusting hobby. If he had to burn Meg's corpse, he would, but he refused to look at Meg's sweet little face for an instance more than was absolutely necessary.
"And take her down!"
"But Meg's eyes are -"
"Are GeneCo's," Erik finished coldly. "I know this may seem hard."
"Meg was Christine's best friend…" Raoul whispered, his voice almost a whimper. The fool.
"You break my friggin' heart!" Giovanni scoffed.
"You can reunite them!" Petrie joked. Erik silenced him with a scowl. However fun tormenting Raoul might be, they had to remember they were still speaking of the woman Erik loved.
"I cannot do this job…" Raoul turned to leave. Erik smirked, and flipped the switch, sealing all the exits. "Erik! Stop! I can't!"
"Of course you can. Remember who you are... Remember what you did to Christine!" The mere mention of his beloved wife's name was enough to make Raoul lose all remaining color in his face. "Must I take you back there?"
"Please don't take me back there. "
"Why relive that moment?"
"I can't relive it…"
That dark, fateful night when you murdered your wife! It's too painful? Christine was past helping." Indeed, that had been one of his better mixtures. It was only a pity that he'd had to use it on Christine.
"Christine was past helping…" Raoul repeated miserably.
"Your kids' lives were slipping." Oh, that had been his best touch. Of course the children would be key pieces in orchestrating their dear father's ruin. And there was still one more part for them to play.
"Children…. Both slipping…"
"They needed their dad and I needed skilled hands, so I fixed things. We made an agreement." He changed the screen to show Raoul's contract.
"I will honor that agreement…"
"You'll do as you're told so the kids never know… about that dark and fateful night."
"Or my secret repo life…"
"Don't deny your repo life…" Erik whispered menacingly into Raoul's ear.
Raoul grimaced. "Dear Christine, I am so sorry... Can you forgive me for this…?" Erik snapped his fingers, and Reza and Darius threw Raoul to the floor of the training room.
"Not the Debt Doctor with the hungry scalpel! Here's my prognosis, will they live?"
"Doubtful," the two Persians said in emotionless unison.
XxXxX
"Alright, Erik, let's see if you've still got the same password," Meg murmured, looking over her shoulder as she hacked into the GeneCo security system.
Raoul was curled into the fetal position on the floor of the training room, whimpering like a baby, "I remember every dying whisper, every desperate murmur… I remember when I gaze upon her… She looks just like you…I remember, I remember!"
"Now!" Erik yelled.
The needle sank into Raoul's wrist, his eyes grew vacant, and his voice grew husky and guttural. "I remember working every victim with acute precision... I remember every time I hold you, my warm companion... I remember, I dismember! 'Cause the Claims Medic gives no anesthetic! 90 days delinquent gets you Repo Treatment! I'm the masked horror on your street corner! Make your momma mourn you! I'm a Night Surgeon!" The scalpel suddenly clattered to the ground. Raoul's fingers moved to his wrist and he let out a strangled gasp as he pulled out the serum. "I remember…" he panted.
"Raoul." Erik said the single word with such venom, such intense warning of danger. Raoul turned back to him.
"No. I cannot do this job. I will not. Find someone else."
"No one walks away from me! Raoul!"
"Go to hell," Raoul said quietly, vanishing through the door.
"He wants out, does he? Then I WILL TAKE HIM OUT!" Meg let out a gasp. It was true. If she was going die, she would die knowing she had helped her godchildren.
"You want the eye, Erik?" she whispered. "Take them. Daroga." Her 'bodyguard' looked up at her from the steering wheel as she closed her laptop. "To the Chagny house. And make it fast. I've got to visit a friend... or two."

Hahaha! Yes! Update! BTW, call me lazy, but Night Surgeon is a nightmare to try to type. Next time: CHASE THE MORNING! The song is Emmy Rossum's 'Don't Break My Heart.'