I was working the day shift for once, yawning and trying to keep myself from falling asleep. I didn't have to fight for consciousness long. And not for the reason you think either. There was a buzz from the front door. Someone had come to visit their relative or friend in the asylum. I answered the phone.

"Hello, how may I help you?" I asked warmly despite being drowsy.

"Leamera, it's me, Margie." I nearly dropped the phone.

"M-margie?" I squeaked. I heard her laugh; that kind, old laugh that rang through my childhood and to the present day.

"Yes, baby." She said simply.

"What are you doing here? When did you get here? Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, firing off questions like a machine gun.

"I wanted it to be a surprise. I thought it would be nice to see you in person after so long. Can I come in?" She asked. It seemed the universe was out for drama today, because Erik strode into the day room and sent me a loving smile, making my knees turn to jelly and me to panic.

"Oh…um… well… It's not time for my break or anything… I just got here a few hours ago. I have at least an hour before lunch. Maybe you should come back then?" I asked hopefully.

"Oh. Silly me I should've known. What time do you want me to come back?" She asked.

"Twelve forty-five good for you?" I asked, breaking out in a sweat as Erik approached the glass. God he would think I was talking to a terrorist.

"Oh that sounds lovely. And don't be all melodramatic and keep that fact that I'm here from Erik. He'll want to see me I think. Ok? I'll see you later, Lee." She told me, the intercom went off and I hung up the phone. I sat up and slid open the glass of the cubicle thingy we sat in.

"Is everything all right?" Erik asked, leaning against the counter.

"Margie is here." I told him outright. Erik gave me a surprised glance.

"Your mother is here?" He asked his voice tightening a little uncomfortably, (for the both of us) apparently astonished that she was here. It sounded strange to hear someone address her as my mother.

"Yes. That was just her. I was just talking to her. She came to visit, but I can't right now. We're having lunch together when I go on break." I told him. Erik was silent, seeming lost.

"Can I add her to my list of visitors?" He asked. Margie called it.

"Sure. You need to fill out the paper work though. I'm not going to give you any special treatment when it comes to stuff like this." I told him. He smiled.

"Of course. I would never expect you to do something that doesn't follow protocol." He told me. I laughed.

"Yeah right! Are you kidding? The whole thing that is going on between us is against protocol." I replied and gave him the paper work and a pen.

"I'm trusting you with that. Don't give it to any other of the patients." I told him.

"I won't be leaving the counter, I can stand and write." He said.

"If you keep hanging around me like this the system will have to do something about it." I replied my voice lowering, Erik gave me a look.

"You'll be fine. Honey could hang around you all the time and you didn't get in trouble for that." He said, clicking the pen and starting to fill out the forms.

"That's because Honey was a six year old girl. You're a fully grown male patient. Its automatically assumed we're doing something we're not supposed to." I told him quietly.

"They're right about that." He replied like a smart ass. I rolled my eyes.

"I just don't want my reputation damaged." I said. Erik gave me a soft look.

"I'll go fill this out in the library then." He announced sotto voce and departed the day room. I almost felt bad, like I had just put my rep in front of him. Which was quite atrocious. I didn't have the time to talk to him today and he knew that, he was just trying to make the best of a few precious moments. I looked to the desk as my co-worker came into the cubicle.

"I just saw that masked fellow going down to the library." She told me, sitting down.

"What about him?" I asked, turning to look at her. I think her name was Asher.

"Just… he's weird." She told me, propping her chin on the heel of her hand. I shrugged.

"Don't you usually work night-shift?" The supposed Asher continued.

"Yeah." I said simply.

"Oh so you work with Peyton? Isn't he just the cutest guy you've seen?" She asked.

"He is." I agreed. I never said I didn't think my co-worker wasn't pretty.

"His eyes are just gorgeous. I've never seen eyes as gray as his." She continued.

"You're a chatty little thing aren't you?" I asked innocently. She smiled, blue eyes twinkling.

"I get that a lot. Only a little bit ruder. You don't mind do you?" She asked. I frowned. Somewhere along the line someone she knew had to of told her the shut the hell up to ask a question like that.

"No I don't mind. I actually kind of like it. It's usually really quiet when I'm here on night-shift. I bet you and Nautia get along pretty well though." Asher shrugged.

"She's alright. Kind of snooty sometimes. Others she can be cool." She replied.

"She's like that with everyone. You should've seen her in high school. Whew she was bad. But she's gotten a lot better." I told her. Asher smiled gently.

"I like you." She said simply.

"Awesome."

"Now… what's your name again. It's something weird and made up right?" She asked, pointing at me with a perfectly manicured nail painted with little daisies. I laughed.

"All names were weird and made up at some point in time, Asher, and it's Leamera, call me Lee." I told her. She laughed.

"I guess you've got me on that." She replied.

Erik eventually returned with the papers. I smiled at him as he handed them to me.

"These will get processed soon, she'll probably be able to come see you within the next week." I told him as I put the 'to be processed' stamp on the top of the first place and stapled the whole thing together.

"I don't know her phone number, could you perhaps?" Erik asked me with a low voice, Asher was still there. I nodded.

"Of course. " I told him and grabbed a pen and filled in Aunt Margie's number and then put the forms away. I sent him an apologetic look. He nodded with a gentle smile.

"I'll go now. Thank you Miss Archer." He told me and retreated from the counter.

"Have you noticed the way he looks at you?" Asher asked. I knit my brows and looked at her.

"No…. doesn't he look at me like he does any other person?" I asked. Asher shook her head, her curly platinum blond hair bouncing.

"Nope. He's so gentlemanly with the women. But with you… it's weird. Something more." She told me. I frowned, looking back out to the day room.

"Sometimes I wonder what's wrong with him. He seems so sane. I don't even know his name. None of the workers do, except you, I think Nautia knows. What about you two that's so special?" She asked inquisitively.

"Maybe he just likes us more. And I'm not really sure what's wrong with him." I told her. I didn't really like lying, but turns out I'm actually pretty good at it. The phone that connected to the main entrance rang. We both looked at it. I answered it.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Lee?" It was Margie. I looked at my watch it was twelve fifty.

"Oh, I'll be right out. I just need to tell my supervisor." I told her.

"No, I brought lunch, just let me in, I'll meet you at the break room." Margie said.

"Okay, fine, but they rearranged, you kind of have to go through the day room. Are you ready to see Erik? I ask because he's in here." I told her. There was silence on the other end of the line.

"I can handle it." Margie said.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes Lee, now let me in." She demanded.

"Okay." I said submissively and hit the button that unlocked the door and hung up.

"I'm going on break." I told Asher and stood up, leaving the cubicle. I tried to meet Margie before she got in but she strode into the day room right as I got around the corner. She slowed quite a bit, her eyes landing on who I assumed was Erik. I turned and followed her gaze. Assumption right, he stood without noticing Margie's entrance, speaking with a young girl about eighteen that had been checked in by her parents when she tried to commit suicide a few weeks ago. I turned back to Margie and grabbed her hand, taking her to the break room.

"He was out. He was really out of his room. How did you manage that?" Margie hissed, sitting down across from me and put the bag of food on the table.

"I didn't. He was the one that decided he wanted to come out of his room." I told her, getting a sense of being attacked by my aunt/biological mother.

"That's it, he just decided to leave his room? Nothing else? We always met in his room…" Margie told me, opening the bag of food and gave me a Styrofoam container

"You still like Reuben sandwiches right?" She asked.

"Of course." I told her enthusiastically, opening the container, the smell of hot salty French fries greeted me lovingly. I nearly groaned.

"So what have you been up to?" I asked her. She smiled.

"Getting situated in my hotel room, not much else, haven't had the time." Margie told me. I frowned after taking a biting a French fry in half.

"You should come stay with me. You don't need to live in a hotel; as a matter of fact I won't allow it." I told her. Margie laughed.

"Alright. I didn't want to impose. I knew dropping in like this was bad enough, so I didn't want to show up on your doorstep expecting you to let me stay with you." Margie told me as I took a bite of the amazing salty gooey sandwich. I nodded and wiped my mouth.

"I understand that. Thanks." I replied after swallowing. She smiled charmingly.

~~~STPH~~~~

Erik approached the cubicle, Asher had gone on break.

"Was that… did I see Margie a few hours ago?" He asked. I nodded.

"Why didn't she come say anything?" Erik asked me, gripping the counter with a torn look on his face. I wanted to take his hand but I didn't reminding myself I was on day shift and people were watching.

"She was just surprised. Kind of mad actually. At me." I said simply. Erik smiled, laughing knowingly. Dear God, Heaven have mercy on little ol' me.

"That sounds like her." Erik replied.

"She said something about you never coming out of your room. She always had to meet you in your room." I told him.

"Well when we started out you had to do the same. She's aware of this, yes?" Erik asked. I could tell he wanted to touch me, but he had to hold back too. I didn't like day shift anymore. We had to hold back. Asher came back into the room and entered the cubicle.

"I don't know." I told him. He nodded.

"Thanks anyway, Miss Archer. Have a nice day." He told me gentlemanly and almost aloofly. Asher sat down beside me.

"See? His eyes basically glow when he looks at you." Asher told me. I shrugged.

"I have a thing for eyes, in case you hadn't noticed. I make eye contact a lot, so I notice them. His eyes are real nice too. I've never seen eyes like his before they're so… icy." She told me. I laughed a little. Asher was a charming little thing, being very tiny, only about 4'11 with big blue eyes. She reminded me of a Barbie, except not unrealistically thin with big boobs. I liked her. She was quite nice, not very judgmental, and sweet.

"You know what's weird?" I asked her a few minutes before our shift ended.

"What?" Asher replied.

"The amount of young women working in this asylum." I said, getting my stuff together. She started to laugh, which sounded like bells.

"You are freaking precious, you know that, right? You're like a fairy." I told her with a good spirited smile. She blushed.

"Thanks. Maybe we should hang out sometime. Today was fun. And I never work the night shift. I can't believe you actually work night shift alone. I'm scared just to run it during the day alone." She told me.

"That sounds good. And I always feel safe. Kind of like I have an angel watching over me you know." I answered her. I looked up to see Erik gazing at me from across the room, his eyes smoldering, his face set like stone. I looked down.

"You see him too? The way he looks over here, it sends chills down your spine doesn't it? He seems nice enough but then he goes around with that look in his eyes. I think he may be one of those that maybe killed someone and pleaded out with insanity." She told me. I shook my head. Even though she was pretty much right. That was when I remembered. The Phantom of the Opera killed a man, hung him, during the middle of an opera. I stared at Erik with a look of poorly disguised fear. He now had his arms crossed over his chest, leaning against the window sill. He met my eyes with an apologetic glaze.

"Are you okay?" Asher asked, touching my arm in concern. I looked at her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I looked back to Erik; he was at the crafts table, writing instead of drawing. I found that strange. He had writing with a crayon, which also made this comical. Our shift was over but we couldn't leave until Nautia or Peyton showed up.

Peyton eventually showed up. I smiled at him as Asher and I headed out of the day room. But unexpectedly I bumped into Erik. His hand dipped into my jacket pocket and disappeared as he muttered a quick apology and scurried off. I watched him, putting my hand in my pocket. I felt a piece of paper. How cliché.

Asher took my hand and wrote her number down on the back, bringing me out of my tiny funk.

"Just text me and tell me who you are and we can arrange something." She told me. I nodded, studying the digits.

"Wait, you're American. Do you have a French number or will it be long distance?" She asked.

"Oh, don't worry. I have a French number. I had to get one when I first got here because my phone bill was insanely high from calling my mom." I told her with a smile. Asher nodded and left ahead of me with a 'bye' tossed over her shoulder. I took the note out of my pocket as I got into the parking lot. The handwriting was very elegant, a little messy, but nice to read.

Leamera,

I've seen that look before. You've realized the fact that I am a murderer. This is what I wanted to talk to you about. I don't know what to say and I have no excuse for my past actions. I just hope that you can find it you to turn a blind eye to my bloody past.

Truly Yours, Erik

I just stared at the paper. He didn't have the time to actually talk to me, so he wrote me a letter. I leaned against my car in a confused state. I didn't know what to think. He was Erik. He was kind and sweet and passionate. He loved me, or he was starting to love me. I was starting to love him. He was a murderer but I knew that was in his past and that over 100 years being alone in the basement of an asylum made him change. He wasn't volatile like that anymore. Or at least I hoped. I hadn't seen it. I had never seen him once lose his temper. I think I knew what I was going to do, but I was just making things a lot more complicated than what they really were.

A/N: The proofreading thing on Fanfiction was being buggy so if there is something wrong or different its because I was working with what I had at the moment.