Thirty Minutes After the Appointment

Christine Daaé stepped out of the taxi in front of Raoul Chagny's house. It was more like a mansion than a house, really. All of the houses in this part of the city were like that. It had belonged to his family, but now he was really the only family member left living there. She had been living there with him since the night Erik had let them go. The days had been dark since then. The housekeepers only came during the daytime and Christine and Raoul generally had the huge, empty place all to themselves. Such a very huge empty place.

She took her time to pay the driver all the while hating the anticipation of not knowing whether Raoul was in there or not. As she entered the front doors, she kept her eyes downcast and focused on her feet. She hoped he wouldn't ask too many questions...It wasn't that she was afraid of him. Not at all...But she dreaded his disappointment when he found out that she had gone behind his back. She took off her coat and put it in the closet. She took her time.

Raoul had come home while Christine was out and had been waiting for her to come back ever since. He was definitely not happy to have found out that she went against his advice. From the living room, he heard her come in and immediately went out to where she was.

"I thought I told you not to go to that meeting, Chris."

She didn't look at him. She didn't have to. She could already clearly see the look of disparagement on his face. "It was something I had to do, Raoul..." She closed the closet door and looked for something else to keep herself occupied.

"You didn't tell them anything, I hope?" He didn't want to assume bad things about her. He would have liked to expect that she would support him in this.

"I didn't tell them much."

Raoul was rather aggravated. They had been through this how many times before? He went over to her and began to explain his whole standpoint once again. "Christine, they're fighting against us in this...Does that make sense to you? We don't want to help them."

"I'm not against them..."

He stared at her a moment, shocked by her words. She wasn't starting to change her mind, was she? He took her shoulders and turned her so that he could see her face. "Chris, we've already been over this...If you don't want to testify, that's all right, I won't make you go through that. But running over to the other side isn't going to help our case! They'll wheedle you into telling them something we don't want them to know. It would be best if you didn't have anything to do with them at all."

She bit her lip. It was a habit that she'd always employed when not quite sure of herself. Or, rather, when she was sure of herself, but not quite sure that she should be sure of herself, and wondering if, perhaps, she shouldn't be so sure after all. "It's too late for that, Raoul...I have already committed to helping them...I am to be in the office again on Friday afternoon..."

Raoul couldn't believe this! He let go of her shoulders and backed off a step. "Christine, I don't understand...What do you think you're doing? We barely escaped with our lives and now you're going to try and help them?"

She stayed exactly where she was. "I do want to help them. If you knew Erik as I did...You'd know that it is impossible to imagine him behind bars for the rest of his life." Impossible to imagine, and terrifying to conceive. She then added the imminent foreboding, "Or worse, killed. I am his only hope, Raoul...I want him to be free."

Why did she want him to be set free? Was it because she truly cared for his well-being? Or because of the guilt? It would be her fault if the worse came to Erik. She wasn't at fault for his crimes, of course, but if it weren't for her, he would not have been caught. But then, didn't he deserve to be caught? Did all this even cross Christine's mind? Surely it did at some point.

Raoul gaped at her. He was utterly shocked that she would turn on him like this. "Free, Christine? Do you think that...Even with your help, he could be set free? He's a proven murderer! He threatened to blow up the whole theatre and kill thousands of people! He killed my brother!" He shook his head, unable to continue for a moment. His initial anger for this betrayal of hers was now turning into self-pity. He was so terribly hurt that she would do this to him. "How do you think your word would save him? They aren't going to let him off just because he taught you how to sing."

Christine stared at Raoul for a moment. None of the things he'd said seemed to exist in her memory of Erik. But then...How could she have forgotten? She answered him quietly, "It's different, Raoul...I don't know how to explain it...He...He doesn't kill without reason, as awful as it sounds..." She immediately regretted her words. She would never mean to say a sin such a murder was a good thing. "Not...Not saying that anyone...deserves to die..." She had lost herself and the pained look in Raoul's usually so loving blue eyes did not help her find any sort of concentration. "Oh, Raoul! I don't know how to explain! My word will probably not help, but I'm the only person he has, Raoul!"

"Without a reason?" Raoul echoed in stunned horror. "His reason was to keep you and control you, Christine! To take away your free will and force you to stay with him! There's a reason that he doesn't have anybody else! Because he kills them all!" He threw up his hands in an overly dramatic display of exasperation; all of the recently repressed memories of their terrible experiences were crashing back on him. "God, he nearly cooked me alive and would have if you hadn't given in! And you're saying that's justifiable because he had a reason...? Well thank you, Christine. I love you too."

She immediately rushed to him, and wrapping her arms around him tightly, looked up at his reddened face, regretting every word she had spoken. "No, Raoul! I'm sorry!" she pleaded as she kept her eyes locked on his in sincerity. "I do love you! I just have...so much pity and sympathy for Erik...Because he's never had anyone...If you don't want me to testify for him, I won't!"

Raoul sighed in resignation, put his arms around her, and returned the embrace. Then he just held her close to him. "I know you pity him..." he said softly while his fingers stroked the golden hair that fell down her back in charming curls. "You always have...No matter how scared you were...You have such a good heart...It's one of the things I love so much about you..." He squeezed her just the slightest bit more tightly. "But I also know you want this just to be over as much as I do so that we can finally get on with our lives."

"Yes, I do..." she answered, her words slightly muffled against his shoulder. "But I'm just worried about his life, Raoul..."

He kissed the top of head in a tender expression of affection. "Don't be. It's been taken out of our hands now...He will receive what the law deems that he deserves...All we need to do is tell the truth."

She lowered her eyes and wished she could only be as indifferent as he was. "So you don't want me to go on Friday afternoon..." It wasn't really a question.

He pulled back a little to look at her, surprised she was still even asking. Of course he didn't want her to go! He'd thought he'd made that quite plain. He just looked at her for a couple more moments while he tried to fathom the look in her eyes. "Why don't we drive out to the country on Friday..." he offered comfortingly. "We can stay in a nice inn for the weekend and not think about any of this."

She nodded a little. "Alright...I guess I'll go call them..." She didn't sound happy.

He took her chin in his hand, gazing down at her lovely face. "You can call them later."

She looked back up at him then and couldn't keep a look of concern from her eyes, but agreed nonetheless. Of course she agreed. "Whatever you say..."

He just studied her eyes for a bit. "Won't you smile for me?"

She really didn't feel like smiling, but did so for his sake and tried very hard to make it sincere. "Just for you."

Smiles like that were simple, free joys in Raoul's life that he could never have enough of. He smiled back down at her without having to put any effort into the gesture at all. And then he kissed her.