By Seraina.

Not mine. Alexei and Caroline are mine, but everyone else belongs to others.

Sins of the Father

"Every day a new deception
Pick your scene and take direction
And all in all I search to connect
But I don't wear a mask and I have no regrets"
"Fly from the Inside" Shinedown

2 - Meeting of Minds

Moncharmin heard the counter-balance hit against the set pieces. He watched the boy swing dangerously on the rope. He held his breath as the boy fell at least five feet to the floor. He wasted no time in rushing to Alexei's side. Pushing young Caroline out of the way, he checked Alexei's breathing. Moncharmin felt the fear rise in him. If Alexei should die, then Erik would, no doubt, hurt himself and others. But this is the fear that comes whenever the young man had one of his attacks. When the boy had his first serious attack, Erik had been quite adamant about his staying underground, but Alexei loved wandering around the opera house and pestering the ballet girls.

"Alexei, come on. Stop scaring me like this," Moncharmin muttered to the unconscious young man as he picked up the very thin young man. "He will kill me if anything should happen to you."

"Monsieur?" came a timid feminine voice.

"Yes, Caroline?" he asked, absently stroking the raven hair from the young man's brow.

"Who is he?" the young woman asked, gazing down at Alexei's handsome features.

"He is my godson."

*

Christine was frozen with horror. She thought that the fallen man might be Erik. No! Erik is dead, she thought to herself as she approached the stage cautiously. She took a deep breath as she leaned over Meg Giry's shoulders and peered at the young man's face. He was a handsome man of around twenty years. His eyes were closed, but his long dark hair framed his pale face, as it had come undone when he fell.

Christine felt horrible for being happy that this young man was laying on the stage instead of Erik. But she heard her daughter ask, "Who is he?"

"He is my godson," M Moncharmin replied, concern in his eyes.

Christine thought back to when Erik had his attack. It was similar, but she supposed that the young man had it worse because he happened to fall onto the stage below. She was lost in her thoughts and almost didn't notice M Moncharmin pick up the thin man and carry him to his office.

The manager laid the young man on the couch in his office. He then motioned the two women out of the office. Christine caught her daughter looking back at the sleeping man. M Moncharmin also noticed, because he said quietly, "Could you sit with him, while I speak to your mother?"

Caroline smiled and sat down in the chair facing Moncharmin's desk.

*

Alexei woke to a major headache, a dull pain in his chest and faint singing. He groaned, pulled his makeshift blanket around his head and rolled onto his side. The singing stopped, but the pain in his head and chest didn't.

"Are you awake?" a distinctly feminine voice said close to his ear.

"No," he said, trying to bury himself and his headache in the darkness of the old black couch. He wished that she wasn't there, and then he could leave and go sleep in his own bed.

"If you can answer, then you must be awake," she said. He could hear the smile in her voice.

"Can't a man die in peace?" Alexei said into the couch cushion.

"You are not dying. If you were, I doubt that M Moncharmin would leave you alone to speak with my mother," she said, sitting on the end of the couch.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"My name is Caroline du Chagney. I was auditioning when you fell," she said the last part as if he were embarrassed.

"I didn't ask for your name. I asked what you were doing down there on the other end of the couch," he said, finally sitting up and looking at her with his amber eyes.

She looked down and found that she was tapping the couch with her foot. "Sorry."

"This was probably the most sleep that I've ever gotten in this opera house," Alexei said stretching as he got off the old couch. His head and chest still hurt, but at least he could stand without getting dizzy. "So, you were the one," he said, turning back to Caroline.

"The one?"

"The one singing. You're very good, if untrained," he said, idly glancing at the opera's account books.

"Untrained?" she said more than questioned. "I'll have you know Monsieur, that I was trained by my mother and she was trained by the best in all of Paris!"

Alexei casually looked up at her with playful amber eyes. "And I'm sure that second-hand lessons are very prestigious these days, Mademoiselle," Alexei said sarcastically. He was about to say something more when the manager came back with Caroline's mother.

"Ah, Alexei, it's good to see you awake. I see you've met Mlle du Chagney," he said nodding at the young woman. She was doing a good job at hiding her anger.

"Yes, we were discussing her audition. She is very good," he said, sitting down behind the desk. Alexei didn't mean to be rude to his onclé; he just didn't think his legs would hold him, so he fished in the drawers for a contract for Caroline. "I think that, with some training, Mlle du Chagney will be a star."

"So you're hiring her?" Moncharmin said, not a little shocked with the young man's display.

"Only with your permission, Monsieur. I can't seem to find the contracts," Alexei said, trying to hide the tremble in his hands. Moncharmin saw this and waved in dismissal.

"We do not have any more, but I will have Rémy draw up another one for Mlle du Chagney," the manager said, distracting the women. "Can you stop by in three days? M Rémy is out of town on business and won't be back until then," he said, leading the two out of the office.

Alexei let out a sigh and thanked Moncharmin for his skill at diverting. He stood up on shaky legs and exited the office quickly and silently. He thanked his father for the ingenious alterations to the opera house.

*

It was two days before Alexei set foot in the opera house again. He felt better, having slept in his own bed, played his violin and relaxed in the home that his father built over thirty years ago. He wouldn't admit it, but he was hoping to see Caroline du Chagney again, but he promised himself that he would only speak with her if she saw him first.

Alexei walked past some chorus members and mumbled greetings and smiled as he passed. Whenever he was "visible" in the opera house, he affected a sort of wheeze around the employees. Everyone thought that he didn't have the stamina for dancing, the lung capacity for singing, or the strength for stage work. He did this so that the employees of the opera wouldn't think that he would take their jobs. Alexei was the "favorite" of the manager, but he didn't want to be hated for it. He wanted the others to leave him be, and they did, with minimal gossip. Everyone assumed that he was the unfortunate child of Moncharmin's mistress. They spoke of his "affliction" in vague terms, like everyone knew what was wrong with him.

Alexei ambled past a few of the male dancers. Unfortunately, it was Bastien Grenmort and his lackeys. Bastien was the kind of ass to look down on his inferiors. If Alexei were his father, Bastien would have been dead shortly after he was hired. But he had a conscience that was inside his own head and he refrained from breaking the bastard's legs.

"If it isn't the godson, Alexei," Bastien sneered.

"Good morning, Bastien, how is rehearsal going? Still in the back row?" Alexei said, pushing past one of the mindless ballet goons.

"Why don't you dance for us, Alexei? I'm sure you can do much better, with you're gypsy roots," Bastien called.

Alexei stopped. It was true that a gypsy caravan held his father captive for years; the insult was enough. Though Alexei himself had no ill towards the Romany. He even had a friend or two among them. But Bastien was questioning his parentage, and Alexei would defend his father to the ends of the Earth.

"Dance for some coins, Alexei!"

"Enough!" Alexei shouted as his fist came within centimeters of Bastien's arrogant nose. None of the dancers had ever seen anyone move so fast. But Alexei restrained himself from hitting the ass. He was being watched but a certain ballet mistress and he did not want to make any more trouble for himself.

"Alexei, M Moncharmin wishes to speak with you in his office," Meg Giry said, gesturing in the direction of the manager's office. "And you," she said to the dancers, "you should be on stage. Rehearsal has already begun." Meg marched the dancers into the studio and watched Alexei fume all the way to the office.