Cake and cookies to my awesomely phexy reviewers!

The story is beggining to move now, and excuse the...um...short chapter. It is perhaps a little rushed, but, oh well.

Don't lose hope in our favorite lovers!

Blood.

It soaked through Christine's pristine clothing, turning the light blues and whites of the fabric to an ugly, brown hue. The bottom of the coach was not yet wet with it, but at the rate she bled, it soon would be. She cried out in pain as another spasm attacked her body, and she grasped for something, anything, wildly groping for something to hold her.

Erik kissed her forehead desperately. They could not retreat all the way to the country…it was simply out of the question. Christine would not survive the trip. Christine…could die? The thought hit him with force and feeling he had not ever felt before. He held her against him, and tried to stifle the pain she felt with his caress.

Anxiously, he removed his jacket, though it was still early spring, and night in Paris. Erik created for Christine a small nest, hoping it would provide enough comfort to last as the much shorter voyage they would have to make.

Erik then promptly closed the carriage door, and leapt to the driver's seat again, and whipped the horses to breakneck speed. Through the dark alleys of the city they clamored against cobblestone pavement. Erik occasionally believed he heard the sounds of the police still stalking them, but he did not falter in the least in his wild escapade through they desolate streets.

They coach came to an abrupt halt at the foot of a dark, dingy, but homey townhouse. Erik gently removed Christine from her place, sprawled in the carriage, feeling the sickly warm blood, which was seeping through her garments. She moaned in pain, and clutched his shirt as she pained. Erik, so nervous and unsteady, was not at all furtive as he knocked upon the black door of the tenement.

A girl with blond hair answered, and nearly screamed had her mother not come to the door right behind her.

"Meg, my dear, please be calm. I am sure nothing is wrong." Madame Giry glanced to Christine, struggling in Erik's arms, and hastily pulled the door open wide, and led him back to a bed within the house.

"Meg, start boiling some water, and fetch some blankets." Meg glanced at Erik once more, unsure and frightened, but did as she was told. Once she had left, the ballet mistress turned to Erik. "What happened? Just tell me quickly. Why did you not take her to a hospital?"

Erik, flustered and frightened for the first time in his life, laid his wife into the bed with utmost care. His answered was hurried, and nearly incoherent, as he attempted to explain what had happened to one of his oldest of friends.

"We were to leave town tonight, and I had hired a coachman to take us to a home I had purchased in the south, out in the country. I found out quite quickly that we were followed by the police, and I had no intention of going to prison, and leaving Christine a widow, or a simply single mother. I killed the man who had taken charge of the coach, and we ran. When I stopped, she was gasping on the floor, and she had begun to bleed. I couldn't just go to a hospital! I cannot afford to be captured!"

Christine thrashed and cried. Madame Giry began to dab her forehead. Meg gingerly brought in supplies, and though hundreds of questions could be written on her face, not a word was uttered from her mouth. Both women worked in silence as Christine held out in pain. After a few moments, Erik could take the silence no more.

"What is happening to her, Madame? What is wrong? Tell me!"

"Erik." She sighed. "I am afraid you are not a father. Christine is having a miscarriage."

"A what? Will she survive?"

After a pause the Madame opened her mouth to reply, but Meg came to the door panting and her face struck with worry.

"Mother! The police have come, looking for…" She couldn't bring herself to say his name.

"Erik, you must leave. I promise I will do my best to care for her. Come back tomorrow."

Erik held Christine's hand, trembling. "How can I leave her like this?" He looked to savoir with pleading eyes. "Don't make me leave her!"

"Erik. You must go. She will live, I promise. Just try to stay safe for her. "

He glanced about the room desperately. A shout from the floor below from the officer disturbed him.

"Erik. I love her too. I will care for her. Go!"

Erik said not another word, and placed a kiss on Christine's forehead, and promptly disappeared. Christine stirred.

"Erik!"