Chapter 20

I worked at the nursery between 9 and 3. At 2:30 the manager asked me to take a group of children outside to the playground. The nursery was surrounded by a fence and she assured me that I was ready to handle 8 children by myself.

I wasn't quite so convinced but was so preoccupied with thoughts of what I was going to do that afternoon I couldn't be bothered to argue. Four-years-olds were OK. Young enough that they needed some supervision but old enough to keep themselves occupied. I sat nearby watching them play until a little girl called Natalie tumbled of the monkey bars and instantly started to wail. I hurried across to her and checked her. Scraped knees and elbows and a bruise or two but she'd live.

Apparently Natalie didn't think so because she continued to scream. I scooped her up and hugged her.

"Come on, you're OK. It's just a scrape." I said comfortingly. She sniffled and I dug into my pocket.

"Would… a lollipop make it better, do you think?" I said, waving the sweet in front of her. She considered for a moment and then her tear stained face cracked into a smile and she hiccupped.

"OK, have a lollipop." I said, handing it to her. She looked at the yellow sweet and tugged my sleeve.

"Is there a red one? Red ones are my favourites."

"I'm sure we can dig a red one out." I said with a smile, feeling in my pocket.

Lollipops – the cure to all of life's problems according to four year olds.

I handed Natalie a red one and she gave me back the yellow one. I sat back on the bench to watch the children play and Natalie climbed up onto my lap, sucking her sweet thoughtfully, watching me with wide eyes.

"Feeling better?" I asked, as I took a wipe out of my medical pack and started to clean the scrapes. She nodded without speaking, too absorbed in her lollipop. I cleaned the dirt away and stuck a plaster on each knee.

"There. All better." I said cheerfully. Natalie wasn't listening. She pointed to something behind me. Still holding her, I got up and turned around.

Erik was standing a little way off, watching me.

"Whossat?" Natalie asked around her sweet. I couldn't answer. Erik walked over to the fence, looking as nervous as I felt. I held Natalie tightly and she squirmed slightly.

"Hi…" I said in little more than a whisper.

"Hello…" he said in the same quiet tone. Natalie tugged on my hair sharply.

"Whossat?" She asked again.

"Oh… Natalie, this is my friend, Erik." I said. Natalie waved at Erik who looked rather bemused. I put Natalie down.

"Go and play with Jessica, Natalie."

"'K, Christy." She mumbled, back to being fascinated by her lollipop.

Erik looked amused.

"Christy?"

"They're four. They can't really handle long names. Apparently Christine is harder to spell." I explained. Erik smirked slightly and then said in a serious voice,

"Can we talk?"

"…sure. I finish in fifteen minutes." I said, checking my watch.

"I'll wait here for you." he said. I turned to the children but Erik asked quickly,

"Did you get the CD?"

I smiled gently and said,

"Yes. I did."

And then I turned to the children, clapping my hands to get their attention.

"Come on, time to go inside now." They groaned and Natalie waved happily at Erik.

"Bye bye!" I had to smile at the look on Erik's face as I ushered them back inside the nursery.

When I stepped through the front door to the nursery, Erik was waiting nearby. He looked at me and said,

"Is there somewhere we could go to talk?"

"I'm staying with Meg and Marie. Their place is about ten minutes away." I said. He nodded and then looked hesitant as I headed for my motorbike. I threw him the spare helmet and he caught it.

"We're… riding?"

"Sure. Unless you'd rather walk. How did you get here anyway?"

"I drove." He said, gesturing to his car. I took the helmet back.

"Then follow me and I'll meet you there."

Fifteen minutes later we were sat in the kitchen with cups of tea. Meg and Marie were both out somewhere. Erik said hesitantly,

"About what happened…"

"What did happen? I heard what Dad said but… you agreed with him." I said quietly. Erik looked down at the mug in his hands.

"Christine, I agreed with your father because what he said was true. What sort of life can I offer you?"

I stared at him.

"Erik, you remember that night when I came to you in the music room? Did ask for anything except you? You don't need to offer me anything. I don't want anything. Anything except you."

"Christine, it's not enough. We both know that. The age difference alone-"

"Erik, I don't care about the age difference. If I thought was a problem I wouldn't have gone to you in the first place." I pointed out.

Erik considered me.

"What about the fact that your father has strictly forbidden this relationship to go any further?" I snorted.

"Erik, my dad doesn't know what he's going on about half of the time. I mean, he still thinks that I'm an innocent, pre-motorbike little girl."

"He also thinks that I'm using you as a shield."

"Are you?" He seemed surprised at the bluntness of the question.

"I… I don't know. Maybe I am."

"Well, I'm OK with that. If you need protection from the world, I'll protect you." I said frankly.

He leant back in his chair, folding his arms and surveying me. I sighed and ran my hands through my hair in irritation.

"Erik, I know as I say this that I sound like a petulant child begging for a toy, but why can't I have you? Why are you fighting so hard against this? I thought you loved me."

"It's because I love you that-"

"Don't give me that crap, Erik. We both know its rubbish." I said tiredly. Erik sighed and said,

"Christine, I have gone through many hard times. But this past week has been unbearable."

"It's not exactly been a barrel of laughs for me either. God, Erik, I just want to be with you. I don't see why we can't have that. Yes, Dad is a slight problem and you have some reservations about it but… it just makes sense. Doesn't it?"

He didn't reply. I got to my feet and went to stare out of the kitchen window. For some time there was nothing but silence. Eventually Erik said,

"No. It doesn't make sense. None of it does."

I closed my eyes tightly, willing the tears not to spill over. Erik got to his feet but didn't walk over to me.

"But I don't think love needs to make sense. I have no idea why someone like you could ever love me. It's illogical and nonsensical. You said that all you wanted is to be with me."

He paused and then carried on, in a slightly choked voice.

"All I want is to know that when I wake up in the morning you'll be there next to me. And that when I reached out at night you'll reach back for me. And when I look around you'll be somewhere near. It's all I ever wanted. If I thought for a moment that I could have that…"

He couldn't carry on. I couldn't stop the tear from trickling down my cheek. But I didn't turn to him. There was a slight noise as he put something on the table.

"I'm going to go now. If you'll take me back, if you truly do believe that we can work this out then I'll be waiting for you. I don't know if we can, but if you say we can then I'll put everything I have into it."

He hesitated as though he wanted to say something more. But instead I heard him leave the room. Slowly I turned to see what he had put on the table.

The promise ring he had given me for Christmas. Slowly I walked to the table and picked it up. It was warm, as though he had been holding it in his hand. I held it to my chest tightly, feeling my throat constrict. I carefully slipped it back onto my right hand and gazed down at it.

And then I darted for the door.

Erik was walking slowly down the street to his car.

"Erik!" I shouted, running down the road. I shouted his name again and he turned quickly just as I threw myself into his arms and pressed my mouth to his.

At first he seemed too shocked to respond and then kissed me back, rather passionately. I pulled back and looked up at him.

"We'll be OK. We'll get through it, OK?"

"OK." He whispered back.

"Because there's no way in hell that we're screwing this up again."

"Fair enough." He smiled and kissed me again.

There was a loud whistling noise on the other side of the road. We glanced across and to my utmost embarrassment I saw a large group of people from my college class whistling and waving.

"Go Christine!" Someone shouted. I looked up at Erik and he looked back with an entertained expression.

"Um… friends from college."

"Really?"

"Well, not so much anymore." I grinned. Erik smiled and then frowned.

"Do you know you're not wearing shoes?"

"Yeah… kinda." I admitted.

He bent down and pulled my legs out from under me, lifting me up in his arms. The crowd across the road cheered loudly and I buried my face in Erik's shoulder as he carried me back to Meg and Marie's house. They stood at the front door, watching in amusement.

"You made up then?" Meg asked. I shrugged.

"I guess so. What do you think?" I asked Erik. He smirked.

"I think that you weigh a lot."

I punched his shoulder and he put me down. I composed myself and smiled at Marie.

"Have a nice day?"

Erik and I sat down to talk again. We decided that I would move back home for the time being, to give each other a little space but I would have my job back and my singing lesson would continue. We tried our best to avoid the obvious subject of Dad.

"We'll have to tell him, you know." Erik said. I wrinkled my nose.

"I know. That's not going to be fun. But hey, if he doesn't like it I'll just ignore everything he says and carry on anyway."

"What a caring daughter." He said solemnly and I smiled.

I can't say that it wasn't a little awkward. But the fact that we had gotten through our first major fight was a big plus. However, both of us felt the crack in our relationship, and knew that it could never be fully mended. That knowledge would probably stay with us for the rest of our lives, knowing that we both had doubts about the relationship, knowing that my father would never fully accept our being together.

But for that day we chose to ignore the facts. I agreed to come to the Manor the next day so we could talk some more, and play some music. And the day after that we would go and see my father. Talk about black clouds on the horizon.

As we said goodbye at the door Erik said,

"I…. I booked the studio again, for the end of the month. I wanted you to be with me when I made this CD but obviously… well. I want you to come and sing with me. These are just instrumentalist parts and I want them with the words as well."

"That sounds great." I smiled. We kissed one last time and then I closed the door. I leant against it, a dopey smile on my face and closed my eyes happily.

I heard the noise of someone clearing their throat and looked up. Meg was standing in the doorway, eating ice-cream straight from the carton. She waved her spoon at me and said casually,

"You know I'm going need every single detail right this second?"

"I know." I smiled.

"Good. Just so you're away. Ben and Jerry's?" She said, offering me the ice-cream.

Before I could reply Marie stepped out and said,

"Everything sorted?"

"Yeah."

"Marguerite Giry, is that the ice-cream I bought this morning?" Marie said, eyeing the ice-cream with a beady eye. Meg gave an apologetic smile.

"Sort of. Christine was about to share the juicy details and it's a law against humanity to not have ice-cream when you do that."

"I see. Well, before you and Christine being your gossiping you can clean the kitchen and unpack the shopping. Go!" She said, swatting at us. We ran for the safety of the kitchen and then started to laugh as we carried out our chores.

A/N: Hope you liked! Obviously, it's not going to be all better straight away for Erik and Christine, because let's face it, life just isn't like that. Unfortunately. Stupid life. Anyway, please leave a review.

Also – I may be posting a new story soon. You see, when I decide to write in a new category I get a vague idea and begin to write it, getting the feel of the characters. Most of the time I end up not bothering to finish these stories because they don't usually turn out very well. The one I originally began doing for POTO however I carried on writing when I was bored or stuck on this story. It's based loosely on the ALW 2004 film and all I want to know is if anyone is at all interested. Or, even better, if someone would read through it for me first and beta it, that would be great! I've never had a beta before and I'd like to see how it works out. It won't be posted straight away but if anyone's interested, tell me so in a review!

…See the subtlety? That's an example of how not to be. Lol, anyway, please review, love you loads, next chapter soon. Bye!