You are not My Diva and Other Marriage Matters

I am posting early as work calls me tomorrow.

I do not own any of the characters from The Phantom of the Opera, those belong to the Family and Estate of Gaston Leroux and to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Susan Kay respectively. All other Characters that are mentioned in this story that are not from the above works are my own creation.

A loud noise ensured Nadir awoke suddenly the following morning, looking around the sitting room he noticed Darius blearily staring around, Jean rose from the floor by the front door his clothes rumpled from falling asleep. All three men were jarred further by the bellow of a pipe organ in full flow. Nadir looked at his pocket watch,

"That does it!" Nadir yelled snapping his watch shut, as he stormed into the music room and up to Erik who was lost in his music playing Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor fortissimo. "ERIK! IT IS FIVE OCLOCK IN THE DAMNED MORNING!" Nadir shouted, Erik abruptly stopped playing and turned around, even with his mask on Nadir could see the fear in Erik's eyes.

"Nadir, I am scared, what if she is not at the chapel?" Erik looked like he was going to cry. Nadir had never seen his friend in this state and it alarmed him.

"Erik, she will be there, she loves you far too much to leave you now." Nadir comforted him. Then Nadir remembered Christine's gift that she had asked him to purchase for her to give to Erik, "Erik I suggest you open the gift from Christine, it is the morning of your wedding after all," Erik rose from the organ bench and ran into his room.

Nadir walked out into the sitting room and looked at Jean and Darius, "Wedding day nerves," Nadir explained. Erik came out of his room like a shot picked up Nadir and spun him around, "Put me down right now!" Nadir yelled, Erik put him back on the floor,

"Nadir she still loves me, she… oh, the note she has written Erik the gift she has given him… Erik never thought someone would love him let alone write the note she has written him!" Erik squealed,

"Calm down, you are speaking in the third person again for the first time in months!" Nadir ordered,

"Tea for four then," Darius said as he ambled into the kitchen, As Erik hugged the note Christine had written him,

Nadir yelled into the kitchen, "Whatever you do Darius, do not give Erik coffee or anything sugary, we will have to peel him off the inside of the roof of the opera house if you do!" Erik started to calm down,

"Thank you Daroga," Erik said to Nadir as he sat slowly down in his reading chair, placing the note from Christine in the pocket of his coat next to his heart.

ooo

Upstairs in Madame Giry's apartment the mood was just as frenzied, Madame Giry gave up telling Meg and Christine to get some sleep at three o'clock that morning, it was worse than Christmas. In Meg's room Christine and Meg chatted, laughed cried and carried on in a manner that clearly said no sleep would be had that night, by six o'clock in the morning Madame Giry had enough, she got up and went to make tea. In Megs room, Meg was helping Christine put her hair into a half up style, ringlets curled down her back and the rest of Christine's hair was braided up at the front and was fixed at the top of her head with pins. Christine then help Meg put her hair up in a braided bun at the nape of her neck. By nine o'clock, Madame Giry called the ladies to the parlour for a light breakfast,

"I do not think I can eat," Christine told her nervously,

"Nonsense, I will not have you fainting at the altar," Madame Giry told her. "Can you imagine what that would do to Erik? He would think you did not want to marry him! Which reminds me," Madam Giry continued, "I have to go out at one o'clock I will be back in plenty of time for the carriage to the chapel, but I must see to some things, Christine I expect you to eat, Meg make sure she does," Christine reluctantly, could see her point, and picked up a croissant and nibbled it, whilst Meg tucked in with gusto.

"I wonder what Erik is doing?" Christine asked no one in particular,

"probably playing music or annoying Nadir," Meg answered.

ooo

In fact, Erik was doing both, during the morning Jean had returned home to wash and change ready for the wedding, so that left Nadir and Darius to put up with Erik playing his pipe organ, the latest piece he was playing was Widor's Toccata, from his fifth symphony, again fortissimo. Nadir was getting to the point where he needed something to plug his ears since he felt he would be deaf before the wedding. Darius was trying to sort out some light lunch before Jean came back to the house ready for the groom's party to depart for the chapel.

Whilst Erik was deafening Nadir and Darius, Meg and Christine were starting to put on their under clothes and lacing up their corsets, whilst talking about the flowers, in the chapel, and the beautiful bouquets they would carry. Madame Giry was in her room, now ready to depart for her errand, she was thinking about her own wedding so long ago to her dear Jules; Madame had been a widow for many years, shortly after she became pregnant with Meg due to Jules being involved in an accident in the building site where he worked. She recalled becoming the ballet mistress at the newly opened opera house and how she met Erik, a young man barely in his early twenties at a guess since he was not sure of his date of birth, He was already settled in his house at the opera and had just started his 'haunting' when she came across him late one night as she walked around the opera house trying to calm a sleepless baby Meg, how, she had four years later brought a young orphan girl into the opera to train her as a ballerina for the corps de ballet and how she asked Erik to keep an eye on her, unaware that once Christine came of age, Erik would fall in love with the girl and take on the role of her voice tutor and pretend to be an angel to hide who he really was or how that lie would change the world around her in so many ways. Then Madame Giry brought herself back to the present and the wedding that was due to occur at three o'clock that very day, Erik would finally get to be the man he had always longed to be for the angel he had sworn to protect from the day he first laid eyes on her, forever legally and morally.

ooo

Madame Giry looked into her jewellery box and picked up a silver ring with a single pearl set on the top, her engagement ring from Jules, this would be the something borrowed, Madame had intended it to be for Meg first so thinking about it, she leant out of her room and called for Meg. Meg came out of her room and in a quiet but quick discussion with her mother agreed with her, then went to get Christine,

"Christine," Madame Giry started, "I would like you to wear this as your something old, something borrowed, I would very much like my engagement ring back please, once you are married,"

"What about Meg?" Christine asked,

"Christine, you are my sister, I want you to share the ring with me, please say yes?" Meg asked.

"Thank you both so much," Christine said as she took the ring from Madame Giry and placed it on her right ring finger next to her engagement ring.

"Ladies," Madame Giry said, "You do not have that much time before the carriage arrives, I have to go now I shall be back later," Meg and Christine returned to Meg's room to complete dressing ready for the carriage that was to take all three of them to the chapel later that day and Madame Giry departed on her mysterious errand.

ooo

In the country side at the De Changy chateau another wedding guest was putting his own plans together for the big day. Putting on his best clothes Raoul was already feeling the sensation of triumph, Christine belonged to him and he was going to get her back. Meg had given him all he needed to know, he just hoped she could act well enough to feign surprise when he walked through the door of the chapel, since until Christine was settled into his world Meg would be the only friend she would have, not that he planned for Meg to have any contact with Christine once they left the chapel. One final check, travel plans, tickets, luggage all was ready since Raoul doubted that the creature he was rescuing her from would rest from trying to get her back until it was killed, Raoul had already booked passage to England and to his cousin's home to ensure that the memories of Paris and opera houses were long behind them both. The final coup de grace was that once his carriage had left the chapel, Raoul had requested the Surete were ready to storm the place and kill the creature, before it had time to come after the carriage.

ooo

At the same moment, in his office Rene Mifroid, the Commissioner of the Surete, was checking the details of the wedding that the Vicomte had given him with the details the chapel had given him. It was the correct chapel and correct time of service that the Vicomte had requested their attendance at, but according to the chapel, other details were different, He looked up from the paperwork on his desk to his secretary,

"Is the Vicomte quite sure this is the wedding he wants our attendance at?" he asked,

"Sir the Vicomte was adamant that the groom was the former opera ghost," His secretary responded,"

"Well, I have spent more than enough time chasing the wretched opera ghost, and I for one did not think that the now most certainly dead opera ghost was Italian and after all the problems he caused the Bride, I am amazed that she has agreed to marry him," the chief of Police paused, "I am sure the Vicomte is actually rather unwell and muddled, since his episode with the opera ghost who we know is dead, and I am not sending men to capture this groom, his reputation from Italy is quite assured and I will do nothing to cause embarrassment to this force."

"Very well sir," the secretary replied, "We shall ignore the request and pretend it never arrived."

"Good," Commissioner Mifroid responded, "Carry on with your duties."

With that the secretary returned to his own office. The Commissioner sighed, going back to the paperwork on his desk, Aristocracy; they really were nothing but trouble and yet he still had to curry favour with them, but the request from the young Vicomte, was going too far.

ooo

Raoul however was unaware of this turn of events and was heading towards the carriage when his driver came up to him.

"Sir, are you sure this is a wise thing to do?" he asked,

"Are you sure you wish to remain employed?" Raoul asked him back, "If so get to the front of the carriage and drive since I do not pay you to be my advisor!"

"Very good sir," His driver replied. He had been a driver for this family for many years for Raoul's father before Raoul was even born, the young Vicomte was doing everything he could to tarnish the families good name, and his driver was getting fed up with it, alas jobs were hard to come by, so sighing he did what he was told. "Where are we going sir?" He asked,

"I told you once already, Saint Bernard de la Chappel." Raoul told him in a huff as he took his seat inside the carriage, "Now hurry up I want to be there just before the vows are taken, I have to stop that wedding." With this the carriage started to move, Raoul stared out at the country side the taste of victory on his lips.

ooo

The carriage pulled up outside the gate of the Rue Scribe at half past twelve, and into it climbed Erik, Nadir and Jean, Darius remained behind to ready the house for the newlyweds. Nadir was wearing traditional robes from Persia, Jean wore a morning suit complete with top hat and Erik his best evening suit, opera cloak and fedora.

"Driver take us to the Eglise Saint Pierre de Montmartre with all haste," Erik instructed. As the carriage lurched off into the Parisian streets.

"Erik," Nadir started, "Why this chapel? It is right by the Sacre Coeur, it is in Montmartre for heaven's sake!"

Erik smiled, the smile clearly visible under his mask. "I have discovered a very long lost old friend there when I was looking for a chapel to accept my request for granting marriage. You might say he was my first friend in this world, he knows me and still has agreed to perform the ceremony. Erik explained,

"Who is it?" Nadir pressed,

"The priest who named me, Father Erik Morin, the man who taught me music and how to read and write. That is why we are arriving early, he says there are a few things he wishes to discuss with me before the Ceremony." Erik said now looking slightly nervous.

"If he plans to do confession before you marry, we should have left for the chapel the day before yesterday!" Nadir remarked sarcastically, however the look on Erik's face at that remark was not one of amusement. Jean stared out of the window and Nadir suddenly decided to shut up and look at the floor.

The journey was not long and on arriving at the chapel the men quickly disembarked and entered, an elderly priest was waiting for them.

"Erik!" the old priest said, as he came towards the masked man, "I truly did not think you would come back," the priest then beckoned for Erik to follow him, "Please, bring your best men with you." The priest told him as Erik was encouraged to go into the priest's office.

Once in the office, the priest indicated for the three men to sit down as he sat behind his desk.

"Father Morin, you wanted us here before the ceremony, why?" Erik asked, "Is there a problem with me getting married?"

"Yes and no," Father Morin replied, sensing Erik's agitation he held his hands up appeasingly and continued, to be married you need to be Baptized and to do that you need a record of birth,"

"Father Morin!" Erik said feeling somewhere between anger and desolation, "I have no birth records you know that, my mother would have killed me and buried my body in the garden and denied I ever existed, if it was not for you."

"Ahh, that is what I wanted to talk to you about, your mother may not have registered your birth, but I did!" Father Morin explained

"What?" exclaimed Erik,

"Yes," Father Morin continued, "You are registered and recorded as being born, I was present the night of your birth, how do you think I knew of your existence?"

"I had never thought of it before," Erik told him,

"Well now you know, I have carried your papers with me since the day I registered your birth, since I knew your mother would never allow you to be acknowledged I prayed that we would cross paths again once again, so that I could give you your papers, however since you want to be married in the catholic church you need to be baptized. It is not something that is normally done for adults, however, I will make an exception in your case let us call this a very shortened baptism, if my monsignor finds out I will be for the high jump, not that I am worried as God will forgive me when I later seek penance. Apart from me, do you have any friends who are practising Catholics?" Father Morin asked, as all three men stood up and followed Father Morin out of his office and into the chapel

"Err," Erik started,

"I am and I would be proud to stand as Erik's godfather," Jean stated, "I thought since Erik said that he was not catholic that this could be a problem and the early appointment to the chapel gave me a clue that Erik had to be baptised, so I took the liberty of requesting assistance from a lady who is also a practising catholic to attend this part of the day," Jean informed everyone present. At that moment, the chapel door opened and Madame Giry came hurrying towards the font and stopped for a moment to catch her breath.

"Father I am here and I am ready to vouch for Erik's soul," Madame Giry told Father Morin, "Let us begin," Farther Morin stated as he gathered his stole and placed it around his neck.

At the completion of the baptism, Erik looked at his papers of identification and baptism with absolute fascination, "Erik Jardinier?"

"I thought that since your mother did not want you connected to her that I had to register you with a different surname and so I thought that since you liked being outdoors, Jardinier was a suitable surname for you. So, forty four years ago, that is what I registered your birth name as." Father Morin told Erik,

"Father, I have a family name I can give my wife!" Erik exclaimed happily grinning at Nadir who smiled back

"You also now have a birth date, and you are not that much younger than me," Nadir grinned,

"Well Monsieur Jardinier, I have your Bride to be, back at my home waiting nervously for me to be with her on her journey to your side, I need to get home. We will see you later." Madame Giry informed Erik as she left the chapel.

"We have some final paperwork to do and then Erik I will go through the wedding mass for you then shortly we take our positions ready to receive the bride. Gentlemen please." Father Morin beckoned the three men back into his office.

ooo

Christine was dressed and ready when Madame Giry arrived back from her errand and nervously waiting in the parlour along with Meg. Madame Giry walked into the parlour and picked up Christine's veil placing it upon her head and after a final check that everything was in place, the three ladies walked out of the opera house via the back route into the carriage house where a brougham was waiting for them and once inside; the brougham took them to the Eglise Saint Pierre de Montmartre, and the next stage of Christine's life. When the brougham arrived at the chapel, Madame Giry got out followed by Meg, Christine followed, Madame Giry walked into the portico and collected the bouquets, returning to Meg and Christine, she handing the small posy of burgundy roses to Meg and the waterfall cascade of lilies and burgundy roses to Christine,

"Remember, Meg will walk in front of you, walk straight to the alter and stand next to Erik, hand Meg your bouquet and turn to face him the priest will guide you from there," Madame Giry told a now very nervous Christine.

"Thank you Madame Giry for everything," Christine told her as she embraced Madame Giry and taking a deep breath, Christine followed Meg into the portico of the chapel.

ooo

In a different location, the Vicomte's carriage pulled into the side of the road near Saint Bernard de la Chappell, Raoul looked at his watch and checked the note Meg sent him, it was five past three and nearly time for his 'rescue'; His driver tried one more time to talk him out of it but Raoul was not in the mood to listen, Christine was going to be saved, she belonged to him and no one was going to stop him.

"Make sure you and the horses are ready, we will not stop until we reach the port, do you understand me?" the Vicomte barked at his driver,

"Sir, surely if Mademoiselle Daae, wished to be with you she would have left the opera house with you that night?" His driver asked,

"No, no that monster it still had a hold over her and I intend to break that today." Raoul declared vehemently, as he climbed out of his carriage and headed towards the chapel.

"Sir do you wish me to come with you?" His driver tried one last plea,

"No!" Raoul commanded, "Stay with the carriage and wait for my return!"

With this the Vicomte strode to the chapel. As Raoul stalked silently through the door, he heard the priest asking the Groom if he took the bride for his legal wife. Raoul panicked and racing up the aisle he shouted, "I object! She is marrying this man under false pretences!"

The chapel went silent until the bride turned around and Raoul realised something was horribly amiss finally looking properly at the bride as she spoke. "Signore Vicomte, what is this?"

Raoul realised that Christine and Carlotta did not look anything alike, this was the famous La Carlotta getting married to a man Raoul had never met.

"Ah, Err, Wrong wedding," Raoul stammered as he blushed, "Err carry on, sorry!" with that Raoul turned and ran as fast as he could out of the chapel, the congregation watched in shock as he raced out of the door. Landing back inside his carriage Raoul encouraged his driver to take him away as fast as possible and as far as possible. The driver decided that the trip and time in England for the Vicomte, with his cousin, would be a wise choice and headed for the port, leaving Paris and embarrassment behind.

ooo

As Raoul's Driver took the embarrassed Vicomte away from the scene of utter humiliation, Christine stood in the portico of her chapel, looked at Meg and dropped the front of her veil over her face, as Meg opened the chapel door, and both ladies stepped inside. There was no music as Meg shut the chapel door and took her place in front of Christine. Silently both women walked up the aisle to the alter where Erik stood in awe of the beautiful bride in front of him. Her dress looked so much more wonderful, her beauty shone through and she was more mesmerising than Erik could have ever imagined when he placed the request with the dress maker. In the sunlight streaming through the stained glass, Christine looked like a mirage, her dress glimmered as the light caught the pearls sewn on to it and made the silver work on her tiara sparkle. She walked to the alter and turned to face him.

"Erik!" Nadir whispered, "Stop catching flies." In the awed shock of watching Christine walk down the aisle, Erik's jaw had dropped open, still lost in shock Erik misheard Nadir and looked quickly, his mouth still open, down at the front of his trousers, puzzled. "Erik not your flies!" Nadir whispered in disbelief as he placed his forehead in his hands, he had never seen Erik so dazed before ever, "Close your mouth!" Nadir whispered urgently Erik shut his mouth his eyes now wide circles behind his mask as he continued to stare at Christine, who seemed equally as lost staring at Erik.

Meg had to elbow Christine to get her to hand her bouquet over so she could join hands with Erik. Father Morin just about held back giggles as he gave the couple a few moments to recover. Madame Giry looked at Jean, Jean looked back at her and they shrugged their shoulders at one another. Christine was glad she had her veil, her cheeks felt like they were on fire, Erik looked dashing his white porcelain mask looked regal above his black swallow tail coat which was in fine silk diamond jacquard weave which glinted in the light cuffs and collar in blackest velvet, the trousers matched with a satin strip down the outside seam. His crisp white shirt decorated with a deep burgundy cravat and matching waistcoat both in plain silk. In his button hole, he wore a rose the same colour as the ones in her bouquet, she felt hot and flustered all over, just looking at him. Father Morin gently cleared his throat and the bride and groom came back from their thoughts as Father Morin began to ask for their vows.

After the vows and exchange of the rings came the Mass Erik and Christine then signed the register, it felt strange signing as Christine Jardinier instead of Daae but Christine was proud, it meant that she now belonged with her angel. Erik grinned at her as he signed his name, and with a final blessing and after removing his mask and lifting Christine's veil, a magical kiss from his bride. Erik replaced his mask and he, Christine and the entire wedding party left the chapel and returned to the clergy house, where they all enjoyed a splendid feast, after which Erik and Christine with shared looks decided it was time to leave. So, after many hugs, congratulations and kisses, Erik and Christine took a brougham back to the opera house. The rest of the wedding party remained with Father Morin celebrating their friend's wedding and talking long into the evening.

Back at the opera house, Erik wasted little time sweeping an eager Christine into his arms and carrying her to his, now their bedroom and with a swing of his foot he closed the bedroom door, to finally enjoy his angel's charms.