Hey! Thanks for waiting for Chapter 7! I'm SOOOOOOOO sorry for the long wait! I was at theatre camp for a week and was so busy that I had no time to update and then when I got home my laptop broke, so obviously I couldn't update then either. But, my birthday was on Friday, and my parents (Being the best parents in the world) got me a MacBook Pro! So now I am up and running again and I promise there will not be another three-week wait for a chapter again! I wanna give a shout out to all my international readers! It's really cool to have people from other countries reading my work! Let me know what you think of the chapter and leave reviews as always! Thank you and enjoy!

A/N: I do not own Phantom, Wicked, or Love Never Dies, all belong to their respected owners.

Chapter 7

Jenny woke up around 7 am the next morning because she wanted to look nice for her day out shopping with her two best friends and her new friend, Meg. Jenny rarely did her makeup, she liked to save it for special occasions, or if she was going out. She never overdid her makeup either; she liked to do just eye liner, eye shadow, mascara, and sometimes a little blush if she needed it. Jenny found a light pink sundress in the pile of clothes the Giry's brought over from her apartment the night she was kidnapped and threw that on with a pair of nude Steve Madden ballet flats. Jenny grabbed her purse and slung it over her shoulder as she walked out of her bedroom toward the kitchen.

As she walked into the kitchen to grab a quick bite to eat, she saw Erik pouring Elphie her kibble. "Good morning Erik." Jenny said quietly to Erik. He looked up from pouring Elphie's breakfast and stared at Jenny wide-eyed for almost a full thirty seconds until he heard the dog food spilling out onto the floor.

Jenny went over to help him clean up the mess and got on the floor next to him, the both of the picking up kibble piece by piece. Erik finally broke the silence and said "You look very...nice." Jenny could tell he was hesitant in his choice of words, but thought it was sweet that he was complimenting her for once instead of screaming at her.

Jenny wanted to have a bit of fun with him, so in response she said "What, I don't look nice all the time?" Sarcasm was one of Jenny's specialties; she couldn't resist giving the infamous Phantom of the Opera a hard time.

Erik looked like a deer caught in headlights as he scrambled to respond, "No…I just meant that…"

Jenny laughed and put him out of his misery as she said "If I am to spend the rest of my life with you, you'll need to know that I am extremely sarcastic and I like to mess around with people sometimes." She looked to Erik who seemed to have calmed down and a less flustered than he had before.

He got up off the floor and was going to help Jenny too, but she was on her feet just as quick as he was. "Enjoy your day today." Erik said as he walked out of the room with Elphie following his every step. Just as soon as he was gone, she could hear soft organ music begin to play.

Jenny was beginning to be hypnotized by the sweet music, but Meg broke her trance as she bounced in all ready for their day of shopping. "Are you ready to go?" the bubbly blonde asked.

Jenny smiled and said, "Yes! Let's go!" They weren't taking the car today; instead they were taking the subway. The walked through the Phantasma theatre and out to the boardwalk, which was relatively quiet for 8 am; normally the dedicated beachgoers are already in their spots tanning away. It was a little hotter than normal, but nothing they couldn't handle.

After what seemed like forever on the hot and smelly subway car, they made it to Jenny's apartment on the Upper East Side. She was on the 5th floor of a 15-story luxury apartment building; Jenny grabbed her mail from her mailbox and the pair took the elevator up to her floor.

They walked in to the apartment and Jenny heard a small "Wow" slip from Meg's mouth. Jenny assumed she hasn't seen many living spaces other than the lair so she showed her around her humble abode. It was on the larger side for one-bedroom apartments in New York City and Jenny had it very tastefully decorated. She finished showing her around and went to check her answering machine; there were a ton of messages and after checking her Caller ID, she saw they were all from her mother. She was worried about Jenny because she hadn't heard from her in a while and she thought something bad might have happened to her. Well as usual, her "mother's intuition" was right, but Jenny gave her a call to tell her that she was fine and nothing was wrong whatsoever, she had just been really busy lately. Jenny didn't normally lie to her mom, but she was in the position where she just kind of had to do it.

Just as Jenny hung up the phone, her doorbell rang to let up Kevin and Allison. No more than two minutes later were they in her apartment saying they're good mornings. Jenny hadn't seen them since Sunday, which felt like an eternity to her. Kevin hugged Jenny and said "Where did you disappear to at the party on Sunday? You do realize it was to honor you right?"

Jenny laughed and used a version of the excuse she had given to Hadley the day before "Oh well, you know me, I don't like to be in the spotlight for too long. Plus I was exhausted from the first day back!" Kevin and Allison laughed in agreement and during their little conversation, Meg wandered over to the trio. Jenny saw her and introduced her to her two friends "Guys, this is my friend Meg Grant; she is in the swing for Wicked."

Meg looked thankfully at Jenny for not using her real last name and warmly greeted Kevin and Allison. After the introductions the group left the apartment and headed for 5th Avenue.

Kevin found a tuxedo right away in Giorgio Armani and surprisingly enough, Armani had a mask collection hidden away in the back of the store, so Kevin was able to get a mask there too. Next, Allison and Meg both found ball gowns and matching masks in Alexander McQueen and Jenny still had found nothing after looking in many high end stores. She was starting to give up, but Meg took them further down 5th Avenue to a small little boutique that sold hand made dresses for all occasions. The store was called "Un Petit Goût de Paris", which meant "A Little Taste of Paris" in French and it was on 5th and 21st street.

Meg pulled the trio into the small boutique and went to talk to the little old woman behind the counter. Jenny began to look at the dresses; they were all beautiful, delicate, handmade dresses that were way out of her price range. After ten minutes of looking, Jenny was beginning to wonder why Meg had brought them in here in the first place, Meg must have known how expensive it was if she had brought them in here in the first place.

Just as Jenny was about to grab her friends and leave, the little old French woman appeared out of nowhere with a dress bag and said in a very heavy French accent "Mademoiselle O'Hara, your dress order is ready," and motioned for Jenny to follow her to a changing room.

Jenny knew she hadn't ordered anything, so she was quite confused and said to Meg "I didn't order anything, I don't even know this woman! What's going on?"

Meg did her little giggle and motioned for Jenny to follow the woman and said, "You'll see! Go follow her."

Jenny regretfully obeyed and found the old woman in a changing room with a beautiful sapphire and black beaded gown hanging on a hook in the small room. The woman motioned for her to try the dress on as she stepped out of the room. Jenny looked the gown over; it was just what she had been looking for. It had a vintage feel to it with the beading and the large poof at the bottom, but it had a modern twist being strapless with a tight bodice. She slipped the gown on and it fit like a glove; she couldn't have felt more like a princess. Jenny walked out of the changing room to go show Kevin, Allison, and Meg. As soon as they saw her, their jaws dropped and they were speechless. Finally Allison broke the silence, "Jenny, that dress is gorgeous on you. It's as if it was made for you, it literally could not be more perfect."

Jenny blushed and said "Oh stop, thank you! Do you think I should get it?"

The trio stared back at her and in unison said, "Yes!"

The old French woman walked over to them and Jenny said, "I'll take it! How much is it?"

"Oh Mademoiselle O'Hara, I thought you knew, it's already been paid for along with the mask that goes with it" she said quickly in her heavy accent as she escorted Jenny back to the changing room.

Jenny had no idea who could have paid for the dress, but as soon as she saw the matching mask, she knew where she had seen the dress and mask before. She had seen a sketch of the two in the lair just the other day when Elphie knocked it off the desk. But who would pay for the dress? Jenny was so confused, but accepted the generous gift anyway.

The group left the small boutique and headed out for a nice lunch at John's Pizzeria in Times Square. They talked about how excited they all were for the masquerade on Saturday and how everyone's jobs had been going. Kevin was interning with Dr. Phillip Zimbardo , one of the greatest psychologists of all time, at NYU for the summer to get credit for his doctorate in Abnormal Psychology. Jenny loved psychology, so she was excited to hear all of Kevin's stories about Dr. Zimbardo and his work.

Before they knew it, they all had to part their separate ways; Kevin was due back at NYU for the afternoon, Allison had to go to an appointment, and Jenny and Meg were due back at the theatre soon, so they had to stop back at the apartment to pick up Jenny's extra things for staying over at the lair.

Jenny and Meg took a cab back to her place so they wouldn't be late to the theatre; Jenny always liked to be the first one there. The entire ride there, they rode in silence; they were both exhausted and were trying to conserve their energy for the night's performance. When they arrived at her building, they rode the elevator up to her apartment once again and still neither of them said a word.

Jenny opened her the door to her apartment, walked in, and immediately knew something was off. It was if someone had been in her apartment and had moved something, but she couldn't figure out exactly what was off. Jenny went into her bedroom to go grab her overnight bag to bring back to the lair that she had packed before her day out with her friends. As she bent down to grab her sneakers, she was forcefully grabbed from behind and was thrown into her chair and tied up. It all happened so quickly that she barley had anytime to react. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her attacker; he was a large, burly, masked man with a mission and he wasn't going to stop until he had done what he had come here to do; take anything of value and kill anyone in his way.

When Jenny slightly turned her head, she saw a similar looking man do the same to Meg in the living room. Jenny was about to attempt to get a better look at her attacker, but before she could, she felt a sharp blade press up against her carotid artery. As his accomplice tossed the apartment, her attacker said in a gruff voice "Tell me where your valuables are and I might let you live."

Jenny knew they wouldn't find anything because everything that was of value to her was back at the lair where, as of now, it was safe. Quickly, Jenny said, "I'm in the process of moving apartments, I have nothing of value here." She knew he wouldn't believe it, but she needed to say something so he wouldn't kill her on the spot.

The blade was pressed harder against her neck and her attacker got angrier "LIAR! There's something here, I know it!" Suddenly, Jenny heard something heavy drop, similar to the sound of a body dropping; she prayed that Meg was okay. Her attacker was curious as to what the noise was in the other room, so he left Jenny to go see what it was.

Not a minute later, Jenny heard a similar noise and then footsteps came toward her; she prepared herself for the worst. Someone walked around her side and place a hand on her shoulder; Jenny looked up and saw none other than Erik Destler. She couldn't believe her eyes; the man who had taken her as his prisoner three nights ago had come to her rescue.

"How did you know we were in trouble?" she asked incredulously, "And how did you get here so fast, that's go to be some kind of record from Coney Island to here." She started at Erik for a moment as he untied her ankles.

He stood and walked around behind her, began to untie her wrists and said slyly "I have my ways." When Jenny's wrists were free, Erik walked around to her front and grabbed her hands to help her up from the chair. He must have overestimated how heavy she was because when he pulled her to her feet she came flying into him with such a force that she accidentally pushed him on the bed. Jenny landed on top of Erik and their lips came dangerously close together; they hesitated for a moment and looked into each other's eyes.

In the process of their awkward fall, Erik's mask had gotten pushed up so you could start to see the scarring on his face. Jenny hadn't noticed, but Erik sure did because as he was gazing into her eyes he felt something was off and pushed Jenny off of him.

Jenny was pushed unexpectedly and fell hard on the floor. For a minute she thought she had heard the same snap in her arm that she had heard almost twelve years ago, but was able to move it without any pain.

Meg ran in to see if everything was all right. Jenny was on the floor and Erik had his back to the two girls. "Yeah I'm fine, are you alright? Did they hurt you?" Jenny asked.

Meg rubbed her wrists and said, "No, I'm alright, just a little rope burn." She helped Jenny to her feet and they were just about to leave the room until Erik stopped them.

"I'm sorry for pushing you on the floor, I really didn't mean to," he said apologetically. Jenny looked at him with an accepting look that spoke more than words could. "I'll take care of those two later, they won't be up for a while." Erik said referring to the two intruders on her living room floor.

Erik looked down at his watch and said "Come we must get you to work, as you know, those fools who run the show when you're not there will be missing you." Erik was starting to leave the apartment, but Jenny stopped him.

"Don't worry, we can take the subway, it's not a long ride." Jenny said to him, but he didn't want to hear it.

"I can't risk you two getting hurt again, I will personally escort you to the Gershwin; after all you are my prisoner and can't go anywhere without my permission." Erik did have a point, so the girls complied and followed him down the stairwell into the basement of the building, then through another door that led to one of Erik's old subway tunnels where his black Ferrari was waiting for them.

Erik and the girls got into the car and were at the Gershwin in a matter of five minutes. Meg and Jenny got out of the car and Erik followed.

"You don't have to walk us in, I'm sure we'll be safe," Jenny said and Meg nodded her head in agreement.

Erik smirked and said "I think I'll stay for the show tonight, I want to see how your cousin is doing. I'd also love to see how you're settling in as Production Stage Manager. Plus I'd like to meet this Hadley Whatever-His-Last-Name-Is."

Jenny retorted, "You mean Fraser? Fine, I guess that's alright with me, but where will you watch from?"

Once again Erik smiled slyly and said "Oh I have a special spot where no one will see me, don't worry." And just like that the Phantom disappeared and Meg went off to get ready.

Jenny should have known that the curtain call wasn't going to go as planned being Erik was here, even though she was very mature for her age, she was still a naïve 22 year old in some respects. But what was about to happen was going to be a first for not only her, but for the entire world of professional theatre.

And yet another cliffhanger! I'm sorry I couldn't resist that one! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and thank you for waiting so long for an update, but it won't be as long next time! I love to know what you guys think of the story, so please post a review and try to add the story on your alerts or favorites! Hopefully a new update will be up by midweek! You guys are the best!