A/N hooray! Finals are finally over and summer is here. Now I don't have to study anymore hehe. Thank goodness. Forgive me for taking forever to do this, but here it is. I made it extra long to make up for lost time so…enjoy!

Chapter 4- A Name

Christine looked up quickly. She had heard him knock over a candle stick when he pulled away into the darkness. She sighed and went back to poking at the key.

A few minutes later Erik returned from the room. The white mask covered half of his face to conceal his deep secrets. The secrets he never wanted Christine to know. He looked at her with fear in his eyes. He hoped she hadn't caught him with it off. He knew any slight glance she got of his hideousness would bring her to never love him. How could she love someone like him anyways he thought to himself. He was never really worthy of her love even though he had worked almost all his life to earn it.

Christine continued to look at the old worn out keys. She didn't see him when he was without his mask. Curiosity began to take its toll in Christine. She wondered many things. She wondered what he was hiding, was he an honest person, why does a mask cover only half his face, and why must he wear it? Her thoughts were quickly interrupted when Erik spoke up from the shadows.

"Interested in my organ I see." He said smiling slightly in the darkness.

She quickly jumped at the sound of his deep voice and looked at him. "I just was waiting for you."

He smiled and stepped out of the shadows. "Well here I am. Dry as you advised, even though I'm sure I would have lasted the cold."

"Well I didn't want you to get sick." She looked at him, he was beautiful. He was half coated in shadows and candlelight flooded over the other half of his figure.

Erik laughed slightly at the thought. "I assure you that I don't catch cold easily. You forget I live here." He slowly started to move closer to the organ where she was sitting.

"It's freezing down here." She wrapped her arms around her self. It really was cold down there, but somehow she felt a strange warmth that kissed at her skin now and then. She tried to focus on that warmth.

"There are blankets near the bed." He pointed towards the swan shaped bed he had. There were bright red velvet sheet. As soon as Christine saw them her eyes burned to wrap them around her. "Forgive me. It seems that my soul has grown used to the cold."

She looked at him surprised. "I bet your soul isn't cold I bet it just doesn't know how to love."

He stared at her blankly. He was surprised she would say such a thing considering how he felt towards her. If it wasn't love it must have been madness. On the contrary, I know love so much it burns me from my insides out. Why else would I write my music?"

"Well if you know love so much, then why do you wear that…thing?" She pointed to the mask covering half his face. "People will love you for you and not what's on your face."

He looked away from her pained by the thought. "It's my only comfort. You wouldn't understand." He caressed her cheek. He was captured by the beauty and softness of her skin. He grew sad knowing his face could never be worthy to touch such beauty. His lips could never touch hers. "I will wear this mask till the day I die."

She looked up at him and held her hands out to her face. "Let me see what's under there, please."

"NO!" He jumped back with his hand pressed to the masked side of his face. He grew nervous and a look of fright was all across the unmasked side of his face.

She sighed and looked away. "Alright then." She looked down at the floor and saw a black leather binder. She bent over and picked it up and ran her fingers across the gold letters. It spelt out the words Don Juan Triumphant. "Can I read it?" She ran her hand over the cover in curiosity.

He looked at her still tense from before. "I-It's not finished. I-I don't think you should. Especially some parts, they are not right."

She nodded and put down the score sighing. "What am I supposed to do now?"

"I do not know. Do you want me to take you back?" Erik had become so caught up in concealing his face from her eyes that he had forgotten why he really wanted to bring her down there.

She looked down at the ground. "What ever your hearts content with."

"I'm sorry for scowling at you. I'm just a sensitive man I suppose. I did promise to help you with that though." He pointed to her ankle.

She nodded and looked down at her ankle. "Yeah its staring to feel better." She winced slightly.

"I think wrapping it would be best." He held out his hand to help her get up.

"I got it. It's ok." She stood up and hopped slightly over to the bed.

Erik walked over in the other direction to a small drawer and he pulled out a roll of bandages. He closed the drawer and walked back over to her. He knelt down taking her foot in one hand and rested it on his knee. "I apologize for before."

"For what?" She asked.

"For hurting you, I have never taken care of anyone's injuries other than my own." He started to unravel the bandage so he could wrap her.

"It's alright." She watched him as he started wrapping the soft bandages around her tender foot.

"I didn't know massaging it would cause you pain." He continued to wrap her foot carefully.

"Some ballet girl did it in the corridors. She tripped me." She said remembering he had wanted to know who had caused her this pain.

He looked up at her quickly and anger flashed in his eyes. "What! What did she look like, tell me." He said eagerly to find out who it was. Anger built up inside him as it easily would. Erik always had the tendency to over react to everything. It was one of the things that made him so difficult to be around.

"I don't know, I was running. I was trying to get to the stage because I was late. I didn't see what she looked like." She said looking into his eyes once again.

He growled in frustration as he grasped her shoulders. "You must remember something. Don't let this person get away with what they have done. No one should harm you Christine." She winced as her ankle hit the side of his bed.

She was completely ignoring him ramble on about how horrible I sprained ankle was, which wasn't really that terrible at all. She laughed slightly at his persistence. Her thoughts then started to travel to other matters, like his name. What should she call him, Phantom, sir, Opera Ghost? She had no idea. She sighed and leaned back on the bed.

He looked away and glared out at nothing realizing she wasn't listening to anything he was saying out of care. He finished wrapping her leg and tied the bandage. He stood up and stormed towards his organ in anger. He then began to play music filled with such anger, passion, and emotion that it beamed through the lair. Once again Erik over reacted.

"Don't worry about it please. It probably was an accident anyways." She said rubbing the bandage on her ankle.

He stopped playing and sighed. He looked over in her direction and spoke calmly. "Why would you let them walk over you like that? They are dirt while you are capable of better. You are so much more than them Christine. You always deserve more." His own words began to bring him pain. He looked down at the ground and closed his eyes in sadness. He knew what he was really trying to say was he didn't deserve her.

She sighed and looked around. "I'm thirsty. Do you have anything to drink?"

He got up saying nothing and he walked towards a cabinet and turned a key in the lock. "What do you prefer?"

"What do you have?" She was glad to have changed the subject.

"Well, I am a man of solitude. I can not offer you fine wines or mixes. All I have is some brandy, water, and some scotch. Don't get me wrong I'm not a drinker. It's just that there just isn't much to come by."

"I'm too young to drink. I will just have water." she replied.

He poured a glass from the porcelain pitcher and took it over to her. "Good choice." He gave her a small smile.

She reached out for the glass in Erik's hand and took a sip. "If you're not a drinker then why do you have Brandy and Scotch?"

Erik laughed lightly at the question. "Everyone has their days where they need a drink or two. I more so than most people." He paused for a moment and gazed back at the old dusty organ. He spoke softly and slowly in a deep rich voice. "What the music cannot cure, the liquor will." He sat back down locking his gaze back on her as she drank.

Christine took another long sip of the water and she smiled. "This is better water than they serve up there. This water is actually cold which is hard to find. It's so much more refreshing." She held the glass up to her face inspecting the water in the glass. Her smile brightened with satisfaction. "And it's clear."

"That's another good reason for the cold down here." He smiled happy to have given her something worthy of impressing her. Even if it was just water, it had still made her happy. Christine began to gulp the water instead of sipping it like a lady.

Erik hadn't been the only one that evening who was trying to impress. Christine too wanted to leave him with intriguing thoughts. She had tried many different methods to catch his interest. As much as she tried though she began to feel it was hopeless. She didn't seem to catch his interest she thought to herself. She had tried to be close to him when they fell in the water, and she had tried to understand him and show compassion towards the mask on his face even though she had no idea why he wore it.

Erik took out the silver pocket watch in his coat. He had stolen it years ago from a crew member in the opera house. He glanced at the small beating hand. "You'll still have time to make your performance." He closed the watch and slid it back into his pocket. "I'd hate to see Carlotta in your light." He gave her a gentle wink. "That's if you can handle it of course." His gaze fell back to her ankle.

"I'll be fine." She stood up quickly. She wanted to seem strong in his eyes and capable. After all he was her mentor and Angel. She did not want to disappoint him, especially now.

As she stood up her ankle gave away sending Christine to the floor. She dropped Erik's glass in the process. She gasped and looked at the shattered glass infront of her "Oh! I am so terribly sorry!" She quickly started picking up the pieces of glass. A small cut was earned from picking up the jagged glass.

He glanced down at the glass around his feet. He didn't care. The only thing that kept beating in his head was that she wanted to perform and was willing to. The thought was enough too keep him satisfied. "It's ok Christine. I will clean it up and you can get ready to go."

She looked up at him and smiled slightly ignoring the small cut in her palm. "How will I get back?"

"I will take you. I don't want you falling in the water again. I wouldn't ever forgive myself if you couldn't make it with that leg of yours." He pointed at her ankle. Christine gave him a small smile and she stood up wobbling over to the gondola.

Erik continued to pick up the pieces of glass. He had done this so many times in his life. He had often picked up glass of things he broke in his rages of anger, or just of things he had broke to give himself some relief from his torment. Never once in all of this did he receive a cut.

As soon as he had finished cleaning the area of all the sharp pieces of glass that blanketed the floor, he grabbed his cape and made his way to the gondola. Christine sat in the boat ready to leave. She watched him as he climbed in and realized he had not been hurt from the glass. He wasn't even wearing his gloves and still his hands were just as they had always been. "You seem so…" she was silent for several moments just trying to find the right words. "Immune…what I mean is nothing ever seems to hurt you."

Several moments of silence passed between them. Erik sighed in thought and finally gave her an answer. It was not one she had expected to hear. "I do hurt my dear. More than I can endure."

"But you hide it so well." She gazed up at him.

Erik pushed off the shore and sighed. "It doesn't show right now. I can't bring myself to cloud you with my grief, you deserve a life of happiness and light." He let out a long deep sighed. "Not my life of darkness."

Christine felt awkward. She didn't like to see him so low and depressed. It was funny how he could give her the most intoxicating and seductive smile one moment, and then the next he would be beating himself in his own despair. "I'll give you the dress back." She was eager to change the subject once more.

He shook his head. "No please don't. I made it for you. You should have it, besides I have no use for it."

She looked down at the dress she wore and then back up at him. She smiled brightly. "You made this?"

"Yes." He spoke warmly as he looked down upon her. A smile spread upon his lips as he thought, it was just how he had imagined her in it when he had been sewing it together for her.

She smiled brightly and impressed. "It's lovely and it fits me perfectly. Although…" she looked down at the chest part of the dress and frowned at it slightly." it's a little bit too big in the chest area, but I would rather have that then it be too tight." She smiled and looked back up at him. "I love it."

"Your welcome." He smiled as he pushed further from his lair. He was reaching closer to the shore. There was a small hint of pint to his cheeks. He was embarrassed by his miss calculation on her chest size.

Christine saw them approaching the shore and she sighed in sadness. She didn't want to leave him. She wanted to stay down there the whole night with him and learn more about him, but she knew she couldn't. She just didn't belong there. "You may keep the other dress as a token of my appreciation." She spoke of the dress she had worn previously before she had fallen in the lake. "I don't know how you will make use to it, but keep it." She smiled

"Oh, I shall. Who knows when an encounter might happen such as this one." He gave her a quick wink. They were not much further from the shore.

She smiled slightly and stood up. She stumbled for a moment trying to maintain her balance. As soon as she was sure she had control, she turned and faced him. "I want to try to move the boat."

He stared at her puzzled. "But, we are only a few feet from the shore Christine."

"Let me try it, please." She looked at him with sad pleading eyes. A look she hoped he couldn't resist.

He looked at her debating whether he should trust her to take control. He sighed. Who was he trying to fool? He was lost for her in every way imaginable. He just couldn't bring himself to deny her. "Alright, be careful." He handed her the staff.

She smiled and took it. She started to push towards the shore. A small giggle fell off her lips. "It's hard!" She looked back at him and smiled as he placed his hands upon her shoulders. He gave her a warm affectionate smile. "We are here." He informed.

They both got out and faced each other. Moments of silence passed between them again. Christine tried to find something to say to him before he would slink away back into the shadows. "Do you have a name, or does everyone just call you Phantom?"

He was silent for a few moments. He didn't want her to call him Phantom or Opera Ghost. He wanted her to know him as who he was. "My name is Erik."

"I like it." She smiled and held her gaze locked in his eyes.

He shrugged not wanting to think much more of his past or his name. "I have something for you…"

"What is it…Erik?" She loved being allowed to call him by his name. It was really a beautiful name after all. It wisped out of her mouth so easily. She could almost say it breathlessly every time. It warmed her heart at the thought of his name. He really did look like an Erik.

He reached into his coat and he pulled out a blood red rose with a black ribbon tightly tied to the stem. He placed it into her small hands. "Don't disappoint me."

She lifted it to her nose taking in its beautiful fresh sent. Never did anything smell as lovely. "I won't, I promise."

"Now go." He motioned her to the mirror down the hall. He wasn't trying to be rid of her. In fact he only wished she would stay, but he knew how much this meant to her. Not to mention how much it meant to him to see her shine on stage.

He watched her start to walk down the hallway and a thought struck him. He called after her. "Oh, and Christine…tell no one of this."

"I won't Erik, I promise." She smiled and continued to head back to her room.

A grin fell across Erik's face. He sighed happily and he turned on his heel to head back to the boat. He glanced off to the right at a passage way he had made years ago. He smiled as a new and intriguing thought came to him. He glanced back to make sure she was gone, as she was. He made a quick decision and headed towards the passage way, forgetting the boat.