A/N: Thank you for the reviews! I appreciate them as always. I will reply personally to each of them as soon as I get a minute.

Again as I am not writing this at work, it goes up unedited. Forgive me,

Read, enjoy, review x

Chapter 25- Confrontation.

Erik sat in the music room alone, the dark settling over the earth as night closed in around England's inhabitants. He was leaning back in the largest chair in the room with his feet propped up on the table in front of him. On the corner of the table sat the score to the opera, next to it a bottle of sharp whisky that he often had to talk himself into drinking.

Not tonight.

The glass, half empty, rested in his right hand, which was leaning on the arm of the chair as he let his gaze wander back to the slightly open window. Sometimes it was the case that he missed the cold dampness of the cellar, of his real home, and he would leave the windows open and his shirt half undone to feel the wrath of Mother Nature's cold. He glanced back at the glass before closing his eyes and resting his head back against the top of the chair.

He sighed.

'Are you always so lacklustre in protecting yourself these days, Erik?' Came the male voice from the doorway.

'I heard you,' Erik said, honestly. 'I knew it was you…. Are you suggesting that you are some sort of threat to me now, Daroga?'

Nadir closed the door behind him and walked over to the piano, leaning on it casually.

'So there I am…' Nadir said slowly, causing Erik to finally open his eyes and frown at him. Nadir's eyes seemed darker than usual, perhaps just a shade, but Erik saw it.

'I'm not feeling very patient tonight,' Erik snapped and placed his feet on the floor, sitting upright and glaring at the Persian.

Nadir seemed to ignore him and continued leisurely. 'So there I am…' he repeated, Erik groaned inwardly. 'Just… minding my own business…'

Erik lowered his tone. 'Daroga…' He warned. He knew that he didn't need to say anymore than that.

'… in the corridor…' Nadir continued. 'And who should I happen upon…'

'Christine,' Erik said quietly. 'I was going to tell you earlier,'

'And here I was thinking that you were the ghost,' Nadir said, and Erik rolled his eyes. 'Yet one appears in your very home…'

Erik simply nodded. What was the point in arguing an inarguable fact? Christine had reappeared in his life, in his house and seemingly from the dead. Perhaps Nadir was right, maybe she was the ghost.

'How does your own medicine taste?' Nadir said and Erik leapt to his feet.

'Do you think that's funny?' Erik growled, eyes glowing under the gas lanterns.

'No,' Nadir said calmly, if he felt fear then he certainly was not showing it. 'I think it's true.'

'I don't see how I deserve that,' Erik said, relaxing his shoulders.

'Perhaps you don't,' Nadir shrugged. 'But God has a funny…'

'Don't speak to me about your God, Persian,' Erik spat, glaring at the shorter man. 'If God is here then he gave me this face… he lent me the evil of the devil, he put me in the arms of death before I knew life! There is no God, there never was… don't speak to me about your God!'

'Well,' Nadir said, seemingly unfazed. 'Something has certainly evened the field.'

Erik looked at the man's eyes, he expected to find malice but there was none. They were just as round and dark as always, just as soft and earnest and Erik wondered why it surprised him that Nadir was not deliberately torturing him. He slumped back into his seat, sipping his whisky at first and then taking a longer, more satisfying gulp. It burned his throat and he welcomed the painful relief.

'Do you think I treated her badly?' Erik said, letting his own blue eyes settle back upon his friend.

'Do you need me to answer that?' Nadir asked, pulling a stool out from the table and sitting on it.

'I didn't mean to,' Erik said and felt the pity in his mouth. He hated the way it tasted.

Nadir nodded slowly. 'I know,' he said, grabbing the bottle and extra glass and pouring himself a tot of the whisky. 'Erik… you killed people…'

'I know,' he attempted a firm answer but somehow it was lost in his throat.

'People she knew,'

'People who hurt her!' Erik barked.

'Maybe so…' he said, neither agreeing nor refuting Erik's statement. 'It's still murder, Erik, she was still frightened,'

'So frightened that she left the boy with me,' Erik said, lifting his eyebrows.

'Are we back to calling him boy?' Nadir asked.

Erik shook his head.

'Glad to hear it,' the Persian said, half smiling. 'Yes… she left him with you… she was so frightened of you that she realised that his safest place was with you.'

'Would you leave your child with the man you were most frightened of?'

'I work for him,' Nadir said, his smile reappearing. 'It's similar.'

Erik couldn't help but show a rare smile. 'Not even close, Daroga,'

'I'm not saying she didn't care for you, Erik…'

'She didn't love me,' he said simply, feeling the burning pain in his chest as he said he words. Too much whisky.

'I don't see how we could say either way…' Nadir said and Erik let his eyes fall back down to his own hands. He and Nadir had only ever spoken about this properly once, years ago, when they first left Paris for Egypt. It was painful then, now it seemed so inconvenient but there was something else… something he didn't recognise. Nadir continued. 'She was scared… young… even you have to admit that you took advantage of her…'

'I…' Erik began to protest, the anger rising within him.

'I don't mean like that…' Nadir said. 'Not exactly like that… I mean that she had no one, she had lost her father, her mother, her friends and you capitalised on her weaknesses… as you do with everyone.'

'If you are you going to sit here and criticise me, Daroga,' Erik said quietly. 'I must warn you that I don't take very kindly to it, not even after all of these years.'

Erik looked back at the Persian who nodded in understanding.

'I'm not criticising,' he said, leaning forward. 'I'm simply telling you that you are so intelligent that whether you know it or not… you manipulate people,'

'Who needs enemies…' Erik sighed and rested his head back against the chair.

'I am your friend Erik, you should know that by now…' he said. 'I have kept your secret for so many years and not even on my death bed will I give you up.'

Erik knew it.

'I'm just being honest,'

Erik frowned, darkening his eyes. 'Then get it over with, I could do without this kind of honesty.'

'Never mind,' Nadir shrugged. 'How did she end up here anyway?'

'I suppose only your God knows that,'

This time it was Nadir who rolled his eyes and Erik tried to summon anger to his body but found nothing but weariness now.

'She came here by chance…' Erik said quietly, thinking about Fiona beaming as she told him about their new maid, who would get their home back into shape, who would clean and help with the chores without batting an eyelid. The new maid who would make their lives easier. 'My wife took a shine to her.'

'Don't you check your staff first?'

Erik shook his head. 'I leave it up to Fiona.'

'I can understand that,'

'Yes,' Erik nodded. 'Her judgement is usually so good.'

'It was good this time, Erik,' Nadir said and Erik once again closed his eyes.

'I suppose it was,' Erik conceded. 'How was she to know…' hepaused. 'All she knows is thatmy first wife is dead…'

Nadir sighed. 'What about Joshua?' he said and Erik knew that he had been waiting for the moment to introduce the subject.

Yes… what about Joshua, he thought?

'Nothing,' Erik stated, simply, as he leaned forward, placing his glass on the table top.

'Does she know?'

'Yes,'

'This is cruel, Erik,' Nadir said simply. 'Fire her…'

'I … can't,' Erik stood up and paced over to the window, leaning against the sill and staring out to the blinking eyes of the night sky. They sparkled so brightly.

'Why not?' Nadir asked, Erik could feel his eyes follow him around the room.

'I need her,' Erik said as he turned his back to the window so that he was facing the Persian.

He looked confused. 'I know this happens a lot between the two of us, friend, but I don't understand you.'

Somehow Erik felt a smile form on his lips as the words played out in his mind. He wondered if anyone would ever understand him when not even his closest friends could.

'She is playing lead in my opera,'

Nadir stared at first and then he blinked.

Then he shook his head, as if trying to shake away an air of disbelief. Apparently he didn't succeed.

'Would you mind repeating that? I do believe my ears deceive me,' Nadir said taking a deep breath. 'Either that or you are more insane than anyone gave you credit for, Phantom,'

'No,' Erik said simply. 'You heard me correctly. I convinced her to be the diva for my opera.'

'Oh boy does this feel like history repeating itself…'

Erik glared. 'It isn't,'

'Then she knows what she is getting herself into?'

'I don't see how she couldn't,' Erik shrugged, feeling somehow that he had regained the upper hand in this conversation. 'She knows that I am here, she knows that I am married, she knows that Joshua is here and that he doesn't know she is alive… and I'm more than sure she knows the consequences of what will happen is he finds out that she is.'

Nadir looked as wide eyed as Erik had ever seen him and inside Erik had a sick sense of satisfaction crawling through his veins.

'She is informed,' Erik said. 'I told her that she was free to go anytime… she declined.'

'That simple, was it?' Nadir asked, the scepticism almost tangible in his tone.

'Entirely,' Erik said and flashed him a wicked grin.

'And how informed are you?' Nadir asked, standing to leave. 'Do you know what you're getting yourself into?'

'I always do,' Erik said simply and turned his back on his small friend for the last time that day.