Disclaimer: Nope, don't own anything from Charmed or Phantom. (makes sure invisibility spell on Erik is working) Nope, not at all…
AN: Sorry I didn't post this Wednesday; I had to finish up my Pirates of the Caribbean story, and then work got crazy-busy, so that's my excuse. Also, there are just a few more chapters left, and then this fic is over! Oh, and the spell used in this chapter is from the actual show whenever the sisters try and raise a dead family member's spirit. Please be kind and leave a review! Thanks a bunch!
Chapter 24: Help of an Unworldly Sort:
I woke to someone pressing light kisses to my forehead before trailing down to my cheek. I giggled when they finally reached the corner of my mouth, and opened my eyes to the welcoming sight of Erik smiling down at me.
"Bon jour," he said, leaning in to kiss my lips.
I instantly cupped my left hand over my mouth. "Morning breath," I mumbled through my fingers to Erik's confused and pouting face.
He merely smiled and pulled my hand down to press his lips to mine, soft and gentle, like a 'good morning' kiss should be. Erik's warm hand cupped my cheek, which I knew was turning red from the blush that was settling there. As he slowly pulled back, I heard him chuckle as his hand drifted down to pull me into an embrace, my cheek resting on his body as he rolled onto his back, taking me with him. The bare skin of his chest was warm, and the dusting of dark hair there tickled my face as I closed my eyes in contentment. Was this what it would be like to wake up beside him forever?
A hand slipped into my sleep-mussed hair, and the feel of Erik's fingers gently entangled in the strands was soothing. His breathing is now deep and even, and I wondered if he was asleep. Well, it doesn't matter; I don't think we will be moving anytime soon.
Of course, it was that exact moment that the door burst open, causing both Erik and I to jump awake in surprise and just a little bit of panic. There was Olivia, and I could tell that, if I could speak and understand French, I would be in for a huge tongue-lashing.
Meanwhile, Erik was sitting up straight in bed, his body blocking mine from Olivia's view, though I was now craning my head around to see what was happening; however, I had no problem hearing it. Olivia was delivering a sound lecture, and despite the fact that I couldn't see Erik's expression, I could tell he was amused. Not that I was psychic or anything –I just knew because his shoulders were shaking slightly, and since I doubted that he was crying, I automatically assumed that he was trying not to laugh at his housekeeper.
A few minutes later, I, too, was holding back laughter, and Erik wasn't doing much better. Finally, when Olivia stopped for a breath, Erik interrupted her. He said a few sentences in French, and when he was done, Olivia snorted like an angry bull and stalked off, slamming the door behind her.
"Oh, dear," I said, sitting up in the bed, clutching the covers to my chest as he turned to face me. "I hope you didn't upset her too much. I'd hate for you to get food poisoning or something because of a misunderstanding."
To my relief, Erik merely sighed and pressed a hand to my cheek. "I merely told her that you had stayed the night, and that nothing happened between the two of us. She obviously does not believe me, and had probably gone downstairs to prepare breakfast for us." He laughed. "I doubt she will attempt to kill me with bad food while you are here, as I am sure she is too fond of you to risk your stomach."
"Oh." There was nothing I could say to that. "Well, if that's the case, I'll go change and meet you downstairs when I'm done."
I paused just long enough to give him another kiss before vanishing into the bathroom with my pile of clothes.
It didn't take Erik very long to change and head out into the hall to wait for Arianna. He did it all in a sort of daze, as he still could not believe that he had spent an entire night sleeping with his love in his arms. It was incredible waking in the morning to see her lovely face on the pillow beside him. Would all of their mornings be just as perfect?
Pacing in front of his bedroom door, Erik heard water running faintly in his bathroom, and wondered if Arianna would be alright wearing the same clothes from the night before. It was a lovely dress, of course, but not something a woman would want to wear first thing in the morning. He mentally cursed himself for not having provided some alternate clothing, but he had nothing that would fit her, and asking Olivia for anything was out of the question.
Arianna finally emerged from the room in her dress, though her shoes dangled from her fingers. "I'm ready," she said, flushing slightly. "I think I'll leave before breakfast, in case Olivia decides to poison us both."
Erik chuckled and offered her his arm. He had no intention of letting her leave the house hungry, and knew that Olivia felt the same way. His friend and housekeeper might be angry at him, but she still liked Arianna, and would not let her annoyance at them both get in the way of making sure that Arianna, at least, got a decent meal before going back to her nanny duties.
They both headed downstairs, and when they reached the dining room, the table was set for two, with several plates of steaming food waiting for them. Arianna looked surprised, but sat down when Erik pulled out a chair for her. Olivia came out with coffee, milk and juice before walking off in a huff. Shaking his head, Erik smiled in amusement and ate his breakfast.
Once the plates were cleared away and the last of the beverages had been drunk, Erik reluctantly showed his love to the door. To his surprise, she pressed a soft kiss to his lips before leaving.
"I'll talk to Piper tonight when she gets home from work," she promised. "When we've got something that can help, I'll come over and let you know what we've found out."
"Take as long as you need," he replied, grasping both her hands in his. "Working magic must take time, and we have it." 'Even though I long to be with you now,' was what he was thinking.
They kissed again, and then she was gone, leaving an achingly empty spot in his heart.
I knew I was in trouble the moment I stepped through the door. There stood Piper, arms crossed over her chest and a look on her face that had me feeling like a teenager home late from the high school dance.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" my employer asked with a small frown.
Looking at the clock on the wall, I could see that it was time for Wyatt to be off to preschool and for me to take care of Chris, which meant that Piper had been forced to stay home until I'd gotten back. Swallowing nervously, I tried to think up an excuse, but came up empty.
"It's not that I mind taking the day off to be with the boys, because I think we need more quality time together," Piper continued, letting her anger and frustration show, "but when you didn't come home last night, you can imagine how worried I was. Where were you?"
Fortunately, another voice saved my butt. "Oh, Piper, stop it," Phoebe said, walking into the room from the kitchen.
I blinked in surprise and confusion. When, or how, did she get here when her car wasn't in the driveway? Then Paige walked in, and I knew my question was answered; they'd orbed.
"Yeah, leave the poor girl alone," the youngest of the sisters said, coming over to put an arm around my shoulders. "Don't those maternal instincts of yours have an 'off'' switch or something?"
Phoebe grinned and came over to join me. "You do realize that Paige and I will want details, right? Not too much, but gossip is something we both live for."
Piper threw her arms up in the air. "Fine, plot against me, why don't you?" she sarcastically retorted. "Ari, go upstairs and change while I put coffee and cocoa on."
Feeling much like a chastened child, I went upstairs and changed into jeans and a red sweater-top, slipped on some sneakers, and was downstairs in ten minutes. The interior of the kitchen still smelled like breakfast, but since Phoebe and Paige were here, it was the smell of an adult breakfast, namely that of scrambled eggs, bacon, coffee, and toast. I took a seat between my two allies and tried not to make eye contact with Piper while she served everyone their drinks. When we were all holding our cups, I heaved a silent sigh and waited.
"So, what was the night like?" Phoebe asked innocently before taking a sip of coffee.
Oh, man, how was I supposed to tell them about Erik? Would they even believe me when I told them about him being the legendary Phantom of the Opera? Well, first things first: I had to get their attention.
"Uh…what do you guys know about…curses?" I said, looking into my mug of hot chocolate as though it held all of the answers I needed.
The sisters were quiet for a minute, and without looking up, I knew that they were all trading looks with each other. I instinctively knew this because they went silent the same way my mom and aunts did whenever one of my cousins asked a question that they didn't want to answer. When the moment passed, I heard the three women shift in their chairs, and dared to lift my head. They were all giving me a look of suspicion.
"Why do you ask?" Piper asked slowly and carefully.
I proceeded to tell them exactly what Erik had told me, and with each detail I gave, looks of wonder, confusion, disbelief and thoughtfulness followed, showing clearly on all of their faces. When I mentioned Phyllis Baxter, however, their expressions were so stunned that I nearly interrupted myself to ask what was wrong, but decided to do so later, when they had calmed down. Finally, when I finished, the three Halliwell sisters sat there and looked between one another and me.
"Ari," Piper said, her eyes turning to focus on me. "Do you really believe what Erik told you, about the whole thing of being cursed and the Phantom and all?"
"Yes," I said, not pausing for an instant. "I feel that there's some sort of…connection between me and Erik. I know it sounds strange, but it's there. Besides, if he were evil or something dark and nasty, would he have a witch like Olivia working for him?"
Phoebe reached out and took my hand. "We're just trying to be sure, Ari," she said. "We've been tricked by evil beings before, so we have to be careful."
"Yeah, especially when it concerns curses," Paige chimed in. "But since Olivia and Erik managed so pass through the barrier we've had in place since they moved in, I'm going to vote on us helping the guy. Or, at least, that we check out the Book of Shadows for information on Erik."
"Why would Erik be in the Book of Shadows?" I asked, pushing aside my cup. "I thought only demons and spells and stuff were in there."
Piper hesitated. "Well, it is, but it also has information on magical creatures and beings that our family has encountered since the Witch Trials, when the Warren line began," she explained.
"But Erik hasn't been out of Paris for over a century," I said, feeling more and more confused. "And from what I can guess, the Warren family has never been out of the United States. So why would Erik be in the Book?"
"Because Phyllis Baxter was our great-grandmother," Phoebe said, causing me to sit back in my chair in shock. "That's why we're heading up to the attic right now to see what she has to say about this."
Paige plopped her palms down on the table and pushed her chair back in order to stand up. "To the Book, then." I moved to get up, but she stopped me. "No, you'd better stay here and let us check first. We'll let you know if we find anything."
I sighed and got up. "Okay, fine. If you need me, I'll be in my room, getting dirty clothes together for laundry. Lord knows I need to!"
The sisters nodded and we all headed upstairs, the three of them going on up to the attic while I went into my room, wondering what they would find out.
Piper was incredibly glad when she and her sisters managed to find the information they were looking for, sitting right there in their attic.
"Looks like Great-Grandma knew our nanny's lover," Phoebe said while trying to read over her sister's shoulder.
They had entered the room like they always did, and headed straight for the large stand that held their family's greatest heirloom. The Book of Shadows was already open, which was no surprise, since they usually kept it that way in case of emergencies. The darn thing was too big and thick to open each and every time they needed it, so to save time (and to keep from pulling a muscle), they just left it open at a random page, making the whole thing easier to flip through.
Once at the stand, Piper took a place on the right side of the book while Paige took the left, and Phoebe stood in the center. The three then focused on who or what they needed to look up, and waited for the pages to flip. As though caught in an invisible breeze, the pages turned until they stopped at exactly what they were looking for.
"The Opera Ghost," Phoebe said, reading aloud the information written there. "The spirit of a desperate and lonely man, who while suffering great anger, bitterness and hopelessness, cursed himself into an eternal invisible state, must like that of a ghost."
Paige picked up the narrative. "The only way to break the curse is for him to find his true love, if not in this century, then the next." She flipped around, trying to see if there was more. "That's it."
"Yeah, not helpful," Piper said to the ceiling. Huffing, she turned to her sisters. "I think its time we had a little chat with our ancestor."
In minutes, five white candles were arranged in a circle, their lit wicks flickering as the sisters stood nearby. Piper invoked the spell, concentrating not on her Grams, Penny Halliwell, as she usually did, but instead her Grams' mother, Phyllis.
"Hear these words, hear my cry, spirit from the other side. Come to me, I summon thee. Cross now the great divide."
A swirl of white lights and the chime of bells followed, and an instant later, there stood a transparent Phyllis Baxter, great-grandmother of the Charmed Ones. She looked at them in confusion, and for a moment, the sisters could see a bit of themselves in the face of this older, blonde-haired, brown-eyed woman. Her outfit was a simple, but elegant, brown dress of expensive material, and her blonde hair was pulled up into a bun at the back of her head. She was small, but petite, and quite pretty.
Phyllis smiled. "I'm not sure if being summoned by you is a good thing or a bad thing," she said, looking from one woman to the other. "Is it my descendants who called, wanting to talk to their great-grandmother, or The Charmed Ones needing help with something only I can assist with?"
"That would be the second option," Phoebe replied with a smile.
"We need help with someone known as Erik, the Opera Ghost," Paige put in.
"Ah," Phyllis said in an understanding tone. "I'm afraid I wasn't very specific in my description in the Book of Shadows."
"No kidding," Piper muttered, which seemed to amuse the spirit.
"I was vague because I did not know the solution to Erik's problem," Phyllis said, looking somewhat sad and exasperated. "I only had the information given to me by a vision that I had, and so that was all I could tell him when I visited him in Paris. I also wrote it down in the Book, in case one of my descendants encountered him and wanted to help him."
"When I returned to America, I felt terrible about not being more useful, and so, after many years, I began looking for a fellow witch that I could send to help him. I found one in the form of a young orphaned French girl here in San Francisco named Olivia, and even though she was far younger than me, I felt that she would be useful. She was not very powerful, but she was quite well-trained for one so young, and was willing to do this for me, if only for the money I would give her to go back to her homeland. What happened to her after she left, I know not."
"Well, I'm sure you'll be happy to know that she lives next door with dear Erik, and that he is dating our nanny," Piper told her in a sarcastic tone.
Phyllis gave them a large smile. "Is he really?" she asked, looking excited. "Then she must be his true love! Oh, how wonderful!"
"Uh huh, but there's still one problem," Piper said, holding up her finger. "It seems that, after finding his true love, Erik doesn't know how to completely break the curse, even though he's the one who invoked it in the first place."
Their great-grandmother frowned. "From what I now understand, and from my talks with the spirits of the deceased witches in our family, it is like this: while he was dying, Erik was desperate to be loved and to find a woman to share his life with," she said. "My guess is the moment Erik and his true love say their marriage vows before the altar, the spell will be broken forever."
Silence followed. It was broken a moment later by Phoebe. "So we have to get Erik to propose to Arianna, and after they say 'I do,' the curse is broken?"
"No," Phyllis said firmly. "Erik's love…Arianna, did you say?" They nodded. "Arianna has to accept his proposal and say her vows while meaning them with all her heart in order for Erik to be free. If she does not, then he will remain cursed until Arianna is certain of her love for him and confesses it with all of her very being."
Piper sighed. "Okay," she said, shaking her head. "Why are these things never easy?"
"Because if everything were easy, anyone could do them?" Paige replied in a playful and sarcastic tone, dodging out of Piper's reach to avoid a playful smack.
"It might not take much," Phyllis told them, much to their surprise. "Does she feel a connection to him, something that she cannot explain to the three of you?" The sisters nodded. "Then it will not be difficult to get her to accept his proposal, should he make one at just the right time and in just the right place."
Phoebe grinned. "So all we need is a perfect, secluded setting, a ring, and a romantic meal together. I think we can arrange that."
"As do I," Phyllis said, her form fading a bit. "Good luck, my daughters, and Blessed Be."
With that, she vanished, leaving the sisters alone in the attic once more.
Piper sighed and began gathering up the candles, muttering things under her breath. She wasn't even sure that they should help Erik Garnier (if that was his real name, which she doubted), but since he had the support of Phyllis (who was not only a witch, but also their ancestor), and of Olivia, who was also a good witch, then perhaps she'd better get onboard for this.
'Besides, Phoebe has that glimmer in her eye, the one she always gets whenever she's trying to bring two loves together.'
Well, if this was going to make Arianna happy and break a poor guy's curse, it was all in a day's work for her and her sisters. One thing was for sure: she was really going to miss having such a great nanny around.
AN: Oh, my, the Charmed Ones are going to help Erik! Prepare for another romantic date and perhaps (gasp!) a proposal? Stay tuned and find out!