A/N: Well, here we go. The big one. The reunion.

XxXxXxX

CHRISTINE

"Christine Daaé! Over here!"

"Christine de Chagny!"

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Gustave yells, shoving a camera away from us. "All of you, get away!"

"Madame de Chagny?"

"I said go away!"

"Meg sent me."

"Meg?" I turn to see Thomas Winterfield standing by a carriage, his face as somber as the black suit he's wearing. "Thomas!"

"I'm so sorry about all this."

"Did...did he send you?" Gustave asks.

"Yes, he did."

"Mother—"

"Gustave, how can I….after everything I've done to him?"

"Can we talk about this privately on the train? People are staring." Tom interrupts gently.

"Yes, I think so." I climb into the waiting carriage and pull Gustave up after me. Tom shuts the door behind us, and the carriage starts. For better or worse, we're on our way to Erik.

ERIK

"And...they…. lived…. happily… ever… after…" Sorina reads haltingly. "The… end."

"Very good. You've picked it up quite well, Sorina. Stela…"

"Hmph!" Stela crosses her arms and turns away, stroking Ayesha. The cat purrs smugly in her arms.

"How you got that menace to warm up to you is beyond me. But aren't you going to read anything?"

"No."

"Don't tell me you're waiting for Tom."

"And what if I am?"

"You'll be waiting for a long time."

"No, she won't," Sorina says simply.

"Careful. I don't want you to collapse again."

"Yes, Erik. I understand. Not too much."

"Good girl. Now," I bend down to lock eyes with her. "Tell me where Thomas went."

"I can't."

"Sorina, tell me."

"No!"

"I'm trying not to get angry."

"I can't, Erik! He made me promise!"

"Sorina." I say more forcefully. "Now."

"He went to get Christine and Gustave," Stela says simply.

"STELA!" Sorina shrieks. "We were supposed to keep it secret!"

"You were getting boring."

"Boring!"

"Both of you, enough!" The two of them shut their mouth automatically, fear in Sorina's dark eyes and disdain in Stela's light ones. "Is it true?" Both of them nod solemnly. Christine...coming here... "Girls...I need you to go to your room."

"But—"

"Now." I need to find her.

GUSTAVE

Mother continues pacing the floor, running her fingers through her loose hair. "What do we do now, Erik?" she asks the empty air, reaching out desperately. Her hands meet nothing and fall to her side. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"Mother, please, stop it."

"Let me talk to her." I turn to see…

"Father."

"Hello, Gustave." He sits on the balcony, dressed simply in all black, his mask illuminated in the moonlight. His face is solemn, not at all the gloating smirk I would have expected him to be wearing at the death of his rival. "May we have a moment?"

"Take as many as you need," I say, going into my room and closing the door. Once it clicks, I press my ear to the keyhole.

"I'm sorry, ma cherie."

"He did it for us. So we could be together. Oh, Erik, I'm horrible!" she sobs. "I'm an awful person, and—"

"No." His voice is equally somber. "Christine, you are not horrible. Please… don't cry. I can't bear to see you crying."

"I brought this on myself!"

"I won't argue that you had some part in this. We both did. We did this to ourselves. But now…."

"There's no now, Erik!"

"Yes, there is! You said it yourself, he did this for you. He wanted you to be happy."

"Erik—"

"Christine, I've waited ten years and I will wait another ten years if I have to. Is a little human happiness really so much to want? Is love too much to ask?"

"No…But…"

"But nothing. He realized what we couldn't. He did what he had to in order to make the woman he loved happy. As I tried to do that night…"

"Everything went wrong that night…. I never should have…"

"I manipulated you. I knew what you would do and I used it to my advantage. And I thought I could do it again."

"Was it worth it, Erik? To see me again, only to watch me walk away from you?"

"I keep hoping there will be a time when you'll stay."

"There was that one time—"

"Christine, please! You think I don't regret it, knowing everything I do now?" There's the familiar sound of a glass slamming down on a table.

"Then don't act as though I'm the only one who's walked out!"

"I never said you were!" Both of their voices are rising now, and my grip tightens on the doorknob.

"You implied it!"

"Always jumping to conclusions, aren't you?"

"Based on past precedence, aren't I justified?" I hear my father take a deep, hissing breath through his teeth.

"You are. I am the one who is wrong in this. I am sorry, ma rossignol. Now, I think someone needs to get his head away from that keyhole before he falls flat on his face." I pull away just as he opens the door. "You seem to have inherited my eavesdropping tendencies, haven't you?"

"Er…" I smile sheepishly. "I guess so."

"Gustave, shame on you," Mother sighs, setting down her own glass down beside the other on the coffee table. "We've talked about this before."

"Raoul's death was an accident. Captain Legard said so. Don't you believe him?" I give Mother a very pointed look. Her eyes travel down to her growing stomach. "Don't you?"

"Gustave, enough. Go to bed."

"But it's only half past seven!"

"Bed."

"Yes, mother." I grumble, heading back into the bedroom.

CHRISTINE

Erik checks the door. "He's in bed. Now, then—"

"Not now, Erik."

"Then when? I told you, I'm willing to wait. Tell me how long I have to wait, and I will!" He clenches his fist tightly. "I will wait!" A tense silence hangs in the air for a few moments as I contemplate this.

"A year," I say finally. "A year, Erik. Time for me to deliver the baby and to… recover. Can you—" Before I can finish, he gently takes me in his arms and kisses me. This is not the desperate kiss meant to soothe a madman, nor is it the passionate, urgent kisses we shared the night that Gustave was conceived. It's simply a kiss between a man finally being united with the woman he has always loved. As for me, I feel only the pure joy of knowing that I'm finally where I ought to be.

XxXxXxX

A/N: Hello, everyone. I realize this was a short chapter, but this seemed the best place to stop. Obviously, Erik and Christine will not be renewing their passion, given the baby on the way, so it's not like I could attempt a full-out lemon, which I have gotten a little more practice with, but I'm not so confident about that I can post one. I'm also in a major dilemma about how Gustave's going to react upon meeting the twins, and also what to name the baby, as I plan on skimming over the next four months (It's late January at this point, and the baby is due in May/June). If you have a suggested name for the baby (whose gender has yet to be decided), please feel free to leave it in a review. Additionally, because it is request dependent, I intend to put When Epic Musical Characters Meet on hold for the time being. Peace to all of you.

~Caelia