Hey guys! Guess what! Happy chapter! Time for Shelby and Natalie to really reunite and for a whole spew of moderness to confuse the heck out of the original Phantom characters! So in other words, it's kind of told from everyone's point of view, but mostly Natalie's. If you can name the stuff I quote, then you have excellent taste in movies and you deserve a digital high-five. Anyway, you know the drill. Read and Review!

~nibblesfan

Natalie wasn't sure what was going on. Her head was hurting badly and she was pretty sure she had lost her mind. Somehow she was in Erik's arms with Shelby hanging over her. This wasn't possible. Shelby and Erik couldn't exist in the same place. One or both of them had to be a hallucination. Erik's embrace tightened as he murmured, "It's okay Natalie," into her ear.

Shelby waved her hand in front of Natalie's stunned face. "I think you broke her."

"I didn't do anything!" he protested. "This was your fault!"

"Holy hell," Natalie whispered. "Is this really happening?"

Her husband kissed her neck gently. "Yes, this is really happening. I know it's hard to believe, but she's really here, and so am I. And I don't plan on that ever changing again."

"Oh my God!" she cried. "Shelby?!" Natalie threw her arms around her friend. "Is this a dream?"

Shelby gave her a mischievous grin. "Of course not. If this were a dream, there'd be rum in it."

Natalie screamed. "Oh my God! It's you! I've missed you so much! Do you know how long I've gone without someone who actually understands Johnny Depp?!"

"Too long, I'm guessing," Shelby replied with a smirk. "How does it feel to go from the comfy 21st Century to the Stone Age that is the 19th Century?"

"It takes a lot of getting used to," Natalie admitted. "It is nuts here. For instance, if I say 'Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?' they think you need to be locked away!"

"No way! That's an easy one! You poor girl!" Shelby looked her injuries over. "No offense and I know it's not your fault, but you look freaking awful."

She just waved it off. "Tis a flesh wound."

"A flesh wound? You're whole arm's off!"

Natalie crossed her arms and pouted. "No it isn't."

"Look!"

"I've had worse!" she protested with a smile.

"You lie!" Shelby shouted.

"C'mon ya pansy!" Natalie and Shelby both dissolved into giggle fits like children and hugged each other tightly.

Raoul, Christine, and Erik all exchanged glances. "What on earth are they saying?" the Vicomte asked.

Erik shrugged. "I don't have the foggiest clue. Get used to it."

"Well they're certainly happy to see each other," Christine said. "And I suppose as long Natalie's happy then it is okay."

"So tell me you aren't really married to this dude," Shelby was saying, gesturing towards Erik. "Because despite what he says, I still have a really hard time buying it."

"It's true," Natalie confirmed as Erik walked behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Seven whole years and two kids ago, we said 'I do'."

"And you didn't bother to invite me?!" Shelby cried. "No invite, no letter, no announcement, not even a note saying 'Oh by the way, I went and got married the other day'! How utterly and incredibly rude! I thought I was your best friend!"

"Well I'm sorry, but I haven't figured out how to send letters across dimensions!" Natalie laughed. "Hell, I don't even know how to send a letter into the future on the off chance we're even in the same universe!"

"Why wouldn't you be in the same universe?" Raoul asked, interrupting their conversation.

"Because in our universe you don't exist!" Shelby replied cheerfully. "You're just characters in movies…"

"Moving pictures," Natalie clarified, seeing their confused expressions.

"Plays and books!" Shelby continued without missing a beat. "But you aren't real! Actually I think I have the Phantom soundtrack on my phone."

She pulled out her phone and began going through her playlist, Natalie looking over her shoulder, commenting on nearly every song Shelby went past. "That's a good song…why on earth would you buy that…hey I forgot about that one…what the heck is that one…I don't remember that person…"

"Nope, I don't have Phantom of the Opera on here. I guess I need to add that when I get home. I suppose I could play Love Never Dies…"

"NO!" Natalie and Erik shouted simultaneously.

The couple exchanged looks. "You did not how him that. Why the hell would you show him that?!" Natalie asked.

"He kept breaking my stuff," Shelby explained. "It kept him occupied. He also saw Lerik and Gerik and Rerik."

"Oh my God," Natalie moaned. "Why would you do that?"

"Because he kept breaking my stuff!"

"What's so bad about this Love Never Dies?" Christine asked curiosity in her voice.

"You don't want to know!" Natalie and Erik cried.

"Okay, okay, then I won't ask again."

Shelby rolled her eyes. "Speaking of Ramin, they've made a Les Mis movie."

"No way!" Natalie cried. "Is Ramin in it? Please tell me he's in it!"

"Actually, no he's not. Just the live anniversary version. Him and Hadley," Shelby admitted. "But Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, and Hugh Jackman are all in the movie."

"Nice!"

"Speaking of tragic musicals," Shelby started. "Is there any chance I might be able to find a Johnny Depp lookalike? I mean you married freaking Gerard Butler. I want Johnny!"

Natalie shrugged. "Not a clue. Haven't been to London looking."

"We should go!" her friend squealed. "How much fun would that be?!"

"Listen Shelby," she began, putting an arm around her friend's shoulders. "As fantastic as Sweeney Todd is, I really have no desire to trek all the way to London. For all we know, it's not Johnny Depp, and even if it was, I don't want to be viciously murdered by a cannibalistic serial killing barber."

"He's not cannibalistic personally!" Shelby protested. "He just has other people unknowingly become cannibals."

"Either way, I have no grand desire to wind up as a meat pie."

"What on earth is wrong with them?" Raoul asked, horrified at the thought of women discussing cannibals and serial-killing barbers as casually as they would the weather.

"We're still trying to figure that out!" Natalie replied nonchalantly.

"It's one of the great unsolved mysteries of the world," Shelby added with a grin. "Like how Natalie managed to marry the Phantom of the Opera or why did Fred have to die or why did Kim Kardashian bother having a ten million dollar wedding if she was going to get divorced seventy-two days later?"

"She made it a whole seventy-two days?" Natalie exclaimed. "Didn't Brittney Spears have like a three week marriage?"

"I think so, but it didn't cost her ten million dollars."

Raoul sighed in exasperation. "I give up trying to follow this."

Erik laughed at the Vicomte "I never bothered trying."