Finally another chapter! It took me forever to write this one. I've been sidetracked lately with my play and all. Bleh on the play! Anyhoot. To the person who said my story was corny and DUMB (not "dumb" but "DUMB") 1-Corny, its a fanfic, its supposed to be corny. Besides, its a musical, we don't worry about realism. 2- if "DUMB" is the only word you can come up with to describe my fanfic, you aren't worth my time. I'd like to see you do a fanfic and do as much research as I have on a single story. Well, that was that. Now on to chapter 7!

It had seemingly been forever since Elsa's encounter on the catwalk with the phantom, and she hadn't seen him again. Nicole had said nothing of seeing him stalking her anymore. Had Erik disappeared?

In the months that had passed, Danielle was taught to reach notes higher than she thought she ever would, moving up to a first soprano. Elsa had been given a gift for Christmas from Raoul, which was a violin, so she was performing with the orchestra now. Nicole, instead of being taught, had taught the singers the ways of jazz and rhythm and blues, and also, she taught Raoul some new fighting techniques with nin-jitsu, tae kwan do, kung fu, and karate.

Danielle was proud of her new found flexibility that she had due to all the ballet practice she was having as a chorus girl. She was beginning to become quite a star herself, with many of the young boys in Paris that had seen the shows where she had played side parts and sometimes an understudy for Christine. She was still not getting as many flowers and gifts at the prima donna, of course, but she was getting generous amounts of carnations and daisies in her room.

Elsa was extremely proud of her skills with the violin. With her slender hands, she held the bow and fingerboard perfectly, giving her great amounts of speed. She had excelled to nearly the best player in the orchestra, having the third chair. Among other things, she had learned quite a bit from watching the fencing between her friend and Raoul. She had even come down from the catwalks a few times to join them.

Speaking of Nicole and fencing, she received a very nice rapier for Christmas from her partner. The blade was strong steel and the hilt was inlayed with black stone and silver, very stylish.

There was one down fall with Nicole though. She had fallen sick, but it was more than just sniffles. She had a fever, burning up so much that her bed sheets were drenched in sweat. Horrible headaches forced her to be bed ridden as she purged any amount of any type of food that she tried to digest in a bucket beside of her. The medicine of the nineteenth century was not as advanced as people would have hoped. The most a person could do to get rid of a fever was wait it out. They either died or got better, and Elsa, Danielle, and Raoul were hoping for the latter, to say the least. Nicole's immunity system was never really that strong anyway. Her mother had… done some things while pregnant with her, which caused for several complications. Diagnosed with chronic migraines, breathing problems and being lactose intolerant made it extremely hard for her growing up.

No one was let near her for a long while, until the stubborn Vicomte demanded to be let in along with Elsa and Danielle. After he had threatened to shut the opera house down (even though he would never do that) they finally let them in. Nicole was awake, sketching on a spread out paper bag with charcoal. Her lips were chapped, and her face was pale and had a greenish tint to it, her eyes had dark circles around them from lack of sleep. She had lost probably at least 25 pounds so her face was thinner than it used to be.

Once they entered the room, her head popped up and the first smile that anyone had seen on her in weeks crossed her lips as she spoke, "Hey! I haven't seen you guys in ages… or at least it seems like ages." Her voice was very stuffed up and was cracking with every breath.

Danielle ran over to her and hugged her friend around the neck. She felt the heat generating from Nicole's body. It was nearly unbearable to touch her for a while, but neither of the girls cared as Elsa joined into the hug. Tears were streaming down Danielle's face. She was the emotional one after all. Raoul was sort of just standing there, smiling a bit at the girls. He wasn't going to dare interrupt their hug fest a bit.

"We were wondering if you were dead or not since we hadn't seen you in forever," Danielle said, wiping her tear stained face with her sleeve.

Elsa sat down on the edge of her friend's bed as she spoke, "Yeah, Danny was worried about you, and so was I. A little stressed than normal."

Raoul didn't say anything. He just sat himself on the edge of the bed as well, watching the three girls converse. Eventually, after being silent for so long, Nicole punched him in the arm. It was a weak punch, one that normally would have been strong and full of force, but that was about as much force as she could put into anything. Her hands were shaky, and she was weak. Raoul could tell it, and so could everyone else. He knew she wasn't going to get any better unless by some miracle. Even the physicians that had been tending to her seemed to have no hope in it anymore.

"Why so silent, good monsieur?" Nicole asked, chuckling a little at her use of a line from the masquerade.

Soon enough, Raoul snapped out of his trance and smiled slightly, looking over to Nicole. "Ow," was his only reply to that. He had come up to see the condition of his fencing partner and he had seen the condition. He wasn't very happy with it either. "I've been dreadfully missing our fencing sessions," he spoke in a final attempt at conversation. He really had been missing them… a lot, but now he knew that they would never continue.

"So have I," she let out a sigh, "Raoul, you don't have to hide it. I know I'm going to die. I know how these things work. Tylenol and Nyquill weren't invented yet to get rid of fevers and bad sicknesses. Not to mention that the physicians here are a little un-experienced in my book."

Elsa thought on this for a moment, remembering to when she had read The Phantom of the Opera. It told of how Erik was a genius in nearly every field, including the medical field. "I can talk to Erik and ask him if he can help," she said after a minute or two.

"Yes! Can I go with you? Please, please, please?" Danielle pleaded. She thought the phantom was strikingly handsome.

"No, I'm going to go down and talk to him about Nicole, and not drooling and gaping over him," Elsa sternly replied to her friend before she exited the room. Raoul and Danielle stayed behind with Nicole, talking and comforting their friend as much as possible.

Poor little me, all sick and stuff. About to die too! No one ever gets sick in these fanfics... at least not anyone that the author knows. Please review! Don't make me start bribing you! And Jack: NO NOT THE LAKE! 3 Fizz