Inkie pinkie I have no clue when this story is going to end. I found a phantom of the opera story that was 101 chapters long. I don't know if mine will get that far, but who's to say it won't. I'm enjoying Phantom of the Opera in French as I type this, because I'm studying for my French exam and by using a movie I know by heart it can help me with my vocabulary and verbs. 40 reviews away from 600 I feel faint.

Chapter 68: Family Rivalries

Joshua was a favorite among the ballet girls just like Jacqueline had been when she was born. Everyone said how much Joshua resembled his father and wondered if he would begin to show signs of following in his father's footsteps. Erik reassured them the reign of the Phantom was over and that he would make sure his son didn't go down the path of evil like he had.

Even though Joshua was a big hit amongst the employees; he had one individual that loathed him as he started needing more attention. Christine did her best to continue giving Jacqueline and Erik there after dinner talks, but on a number of occasions he'd be called away to help put Joshua to bed. Jacqueline would say it was okay that he go and help, even though inside she felt hurt.

One such night as her grandfather was called away Jacqueline went to the mirror and looked into it with sadness and disappointment on her face. She didn't understand why the baby needed so much attention. "I hate him," she whispered. "I wish he would just go away and give me back my grandfather."

She tucked her book under her arm and went to her room. Her grandparents were busy with Joshua in the music room, but neither of them looked up to acknowledge her. With a broken heart she closed the door to her room and went over to her desk where she placed the book down with utmost care.

It surprised her that no one noticed that she was hurting as she pulled out a music box; Erik had given her for her last birthday, and placed it next to her book. As she opened it a beautiful sound filled the room drawing her into the enchantment of her grandfather's music. She picked up her violin and upon placing it under her chin she began to play along with the music box.

She had no idea how long she was in there alone before there was a knock at the door. She lowered the violin. "Come in."

Lotte came into the room and smiled sweetly. "Getting in some practice darling?"

"Yes, mother. Seeing as grandfather was called away to help with Joshua again," Jacqueline said her anger rising.

Lotte could tell her daughter was upset and she calmly sat upon the bed. "What was your conversation about this evening?"

"Angels."

"Sounds like a beautiful topic. Was there something he didn't get to answer? I may be able to help."

Jacqueline gulped and hesitated. "Who is the Angel of Music?"

Lotte gasped and placed a hand on her heart. "Where did you hear that name?"

"I overheard Grandmother and Meg talking about it last week. The name has popped up now and again, but I never paid much attention. Then as grandmother was putting Joshua to sleep I heard her sing a song that called for the Angel of Music. Who is this angel?"

"This may be a little hard for you to understand, but your grandfather is the Angel of Music. My mother called him that, because he was the comforting voice that helped her to sing after her father died. The story her father used to tell her was of a little girl named Lotte, who was visited by the angel who taught her to sing."

"But that's your name. Does that mean they…?"

"Yes, Jacqueline they named me after Little Lotte, because I was a gift from the angel of music. Until I came to live here he was my guardian angel waiting outside my window keeping me safe till the morning light. Ever since I was born he has been there for me protecting and guiding me."

"Does he still love me?"

Lotte pulled Jacqueline into her arms and smoothed back her hair. "Of course he does. I didn't see it, but when he held you for the first time he was so relieved to see you alive that he was afraid to put you down again or give you away to anyone else. You were a miracle to all of us, because you survived the terror of that night. Jacqueline he will always love you."

"Mama, don't cry," Jacqueline said as two of Lotte's tears fell onto her head.

"I'm just happy to have my baby here in my arms. To see you succeed and grow. I don't know what I would do if you had never made it."

Jacqueline stood and held her mother's face in her tiny hands. "Don't worry, Mama; I would have waited for you in heaven."

Lotte pulled Jacqueline into her embrace again as Jacqueline wrapped her arms around her mother's neck and cried into her shoulder. Lotte gently rubbed Jacqueline's back trying to calm her. She loved her so much and would do anything in order to see this tiny miracle grow up into an inspiring young woman ready to take on the world with her head high.

They remained like that till the clock in the music hall chimed nine. "Time for bed my love," Lotte said pushing Jacqueline back a bit.

"I love you Mama."

"And I love you, my little angel."

xxxxx

Jacqueline felt better for the rest of the year going about her practices and performances with a new sense of energy that surprised her family. She was pouring a lot of her time into the music breathing into it a new life.

Yet, Joshua proved to be the one thing she still disliked. Due to the fact that he wasn't gifted with her genius at his age he needed to be watched constantly. Usually during the off season Christine and Erik were around to help, but during the season when the normal rehearsals were going on Christine and Jacqueline would stay down below with him.

Christine would usually be tidying up or cooking dinner leaving Jacqueline alone with Joshua, but she would check in from time to time making sure everything was all right. She never sensed any tension between the two of them and would go about her work in a rather good mood.

One afternoon as Christine started dinner. Jacqueline was left with babysitting again. She thought the idea of having to baby sit her uncle was rather odd, but she never complained. She curled up in her favorite chair and pulled open her novel intent on reading some more before dinner.

For awhile she sat upright leaning her chin in her hand as she read, but after awhile she donned her favorite position with her feet dangling over one arm and her hair dangling over the other with her book propped open on the stomach.

Joshua was next to her playing with his blocks when he saw Jacqueline's long golden hair dangling over the arm. Seeing as he was only a year old the strangest things seemed to interest him. He looked at Jacqueline, but she was too absorbed in her book to notice him. He crawled over and reached up his tiny fingers to feel the hair.

It was so soft and he giggled happily. He batted his hands through it a few times seeing as Jacqueline was trying rather hard to ignore him. Suddenly his hand closed into a fist and grabbing a few hairs he gave a sharp tug causing Jacqueline to let out a blood curdling scream as her book went flying. She jumped up so fast that Joshua lost his grip on her hair after pulling out a few of them and fell back onto the stone floor.

He let out a painful cry and with all the noise Christine ran into the music room to find both children in tears. She picked Joshua up in her arms and rocked him gently as Jacqueline held onto the root of her ponytail as her head throbbed with pain.

"What happened in here? I turn my back for just a few minutes and I hear screaming."

"He pulled my hair!" Jacqueline snapped her tone becoming bitter.

Christine looked to Joshua's fist to see a number of golden strands stuck between his fingers. "He's only a baby dear. He doesn't know any better. Plus I asked you to watch him while I made supper."

"I was. But I took a second to read something in my book and he goes and pulls my hair."

"That's the problem right there. When you watch him you're not supposed to read your book. You're supposed to be watching him and making sure he doesn't get into any trouble."

Jacqueline was going to regret this later on, but she was too angry to care. "You guys always side with him! What happened to my side of the story or how I feel? Last night he broke the music box grandpa made for me and you said he didn't mean it. I loved that music box."

"Jacqueline, watch your tone. Your grandfather said he would fix it for you. You need to be patient."

"I don't want to be patient. I want my music box back. Joshua ruins everything. Because of him I can't even have my nighttime talks with grandfather anymore. I miss those," Jacqueline shouted as she started to cry, her face red from shouting.

Christine had no idea what to do. She wished Erik was here to calm Jacqueline down. He always seemed to understand her and could easily put his explanation into words she could understand. Joshua squirmed in her arms and she realized it was about time to feed him. "Jacqueline I have to feed Joshua, do you want to help?"

"No!" Jacqueline shouted. "I never want to see that hair pulling uncle of mine again." And with that said she went off to her room and slammed the door behind her causing Joshua to break out in tears again.

Christine cradled him and sang a song to him as she carried him into the kitchen and sat him in his high chair. She looked back towards Jacqueline's door and felt awful that she hadn't been able to handle it better. The only problem involving jealousy she ever had to endure was when Erik and Raoul were fighting over her and that had been hard enough to endure.

Then there was Lotte's incident of being jealous of Erik, but that had been resolved. This however was much different. She never had to deal with a child being jealous of an even younger child before. She knew Jacqueline hated the idea of her own uncle being younger than her, but to say that she never wanted to see him again was going a little too far.

She mashed up some potatoes and carrots for Joshua and feed it to him as she waited for Erik and the others to come home.

xxxxx

Now Erik was usually very observant and on days that he knew Christine would be in the lair with Jacqueline and Joshua for the day; it was typical to find dinner made and waiting for Lotte, Pierre, and him; when they got home. But the absence of dinner cooking alerted him to the fact that something was wrong.

Lotte and Pierre were also aware as Erik rowed them across the lake. By now they would have seen Jacqueline curled up with a book and Joshua playing beside her will Christine worked in the kitchen, but all they saw was the music room empty and Jacqueline's door shut. Something had happened.

Erik brought the boat ashore and threw his cloak to the side. "Christine, where are you?"

"I'm in the kitchen, darling."

Erik went into the kitchen to find Christine cleaning off some dishes and Joshua smearing the remains of his dinner across the top of the high chair tray. Joshua looked up as his father entered the room and pointed up as "Da!" escaped his lips.

"Christine I have a feeling something happened due to the fact that dinner isn't ready." Erik personally didn't mind seeing as he rarely ate much at dinner, but would eat what Christine placed in front of him for her sake.

"I made a horrible mistake," she said her voice quivering.

"What happened?" he asked.

She went over to the table and picked up the strands of hair Joshua had pulled from Jacqueline's head and explained to him what had gone on. She told him she had tried to explain to Jacqueline that Joshua didn't know any better and that she had been clearly asked to watch him as she made dinner instead of reading a book.

"And she hates him for what he did to her music box even though I told her you were going to fix it for her. I didn't know what else to say, so I asked her if she would like to help me feed him and she stormed off to her room. I didn't mean to upset her."

Erik rubbed her shoulders gently. "I know you didn't. I'll go and see if I can talk to her."

"Oh, could you? You always seem to get her to understand and she always seems to listen to you. She misses you Erik."

"You and Lotte get dinner started and I'll see what I can do. Hopefully I can get her to change her mind about a few things." He gently kissed her forehead and stroked her cheek. "Everything will be all right, you'll see."

She nodded and kissed him back before going over and cleaning up Joshua's mess. Erik went into the music room where Lotte and Pierre were trying to coax Jacqueline out of her room, but it wasn't working. "Leave me alone!" Came muffled cries from inside.

"Lotte will you go help your mother in the kitchen? I think Jacqueline and I need to have a talk," Erik said coming up to them.

"Don't be to harsh with her. I think she's still pretty upset about her music box."

"I know. Don't worry I'll sort this out."

Lotte smiled and headed toward the kitchen while Pierre went to get cleaned up. Erik went to the bedroom door and knocked on it. The same shout came from within. "Jacqueline, please just allow me to talk with you for a moment," Erik pleaded. He heard the lock come undone and he pushed the door open.

Jacqueline was sitting on her bed with Monk clutched tightly to her chest. Big tears fell down her cheeks as she stared at the remains of the music box that now sat in pieces upon the bed. She looked up as Erik came to stand next to her.

"Your grandmother told me what happened. Do you care to tell me your side of the story?"

She moved over so he could sit next to her as she told him about ignoring Joshua on purpose, because of the fact that he broke her music box and interrupted her reading time. "I hate him," she said sternly.

"Calm down. There's no need to be so harsh."

"Yes there is. He ruins everything. We didn't even get to finish our talk about angels. Mama was the one to explain the Angel of Music to me."

"Was she now?"

Jacqueline nodded. "She said the Angel of Music is you."

"Well she's right. I was that angel to your grandmother a long time ago and I still am. But I'll tell you what. How about you come into my workshop with me and we'll fix your music box?"

"You mean you can fix it even though it's in a bunch of tiny pieces?"

"I can fix anything as long as I was the one to build it. Now come on I'll tell your grandmother we're eating dinner in the workshop and finish our talk as well."

Erik collected the pieces of the music box inside a small box and walked out of the room. Jacqueline waited at the door as he went into the kitchen and told Lotte and Christine about his plan.

"I'll bring dinner into you when it's ready then," Christine said as she began boiling some eggs to make egg salad sandwiches, which had become one of Erik's favorite meals.

He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "I love your cooking; especially your egg salad sandwiches. I will never hesitate to eat one of those."

"All right enough. Out of my kitchen," Christine said playfully. "It's so hard to get anything done when you linger around."

"I can't help it. You're just so beautiful," Erik said as he leaned forward again for another kiss, his eyes closed. Christine took this as the perfect opportunity and picked up one of the cod fish she had picked up earlier and pressed it to his lips. Erik's eyes flew open and he jumped back wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

Christine and Lotte broke into waves of laughter as he growled at them. "Mother, that was cruel, but so hilarious," Lotte exclaimed holding the table for support.

"I'm sorry dear I couldn't resist," Christine said wrapping her arms around his neck. "Is there anyway you can forgive me?"

"Can I kiss you this time instead of the fish?" Erik asked her.

"Yes, you may."

She pressed her lips against his and gave him a long kiss. However it was interrupted by a thud as Lotte fell to the floor still laughing. Her chuckles were now so soft they could barely hear her, but it was evident that she was.

"How about you take care of her and dinner and I'll take Jacqueline into the workshop?"

"Deal," Christine said as she went over and helped Lotte off the floor. "Come on now Lotte it wasn't that funny."

Erik left the kitchen and nodded for Jacqueline to exit her room and follow him down the back hallway. A large mirror covered by a velvet red curtain stood at the end of the hallway and Jacqueline watched as her grandfather pushed the curtain aside and slid the mirror open. He reached inside and pulled out a torch, which he lit using a collection of candles next to them.

"It's dark till I light some candles, but it will only be dark for a little while."

Jacqueline stepped through the frame standing as close to him as she could without tripping. The room they entered was black as night save for the torch Erik held over his head. He brought her over to a pile of pillows and handed her the box telling her to sit there until he had lit the candles.

She watched as he carried the torch around the room lighting a candle now and again. Slowly the room filled with light allowing Jacqueline to see all that was contained it what was a rather large space. Now that she could see what was around her she stood up and began to explore.

There was a large work bench along one wall with boxes of mechanisms and other pieces Erik used in his creations, bent pieces of glass from a stage in Erik's life that he had been fascinated with the magic of mirrors, some other music box designs, and the tiny model theatre. It had been moved back here when Erik knew of the soon arrival of his granddaughter, so that it was safe. Now with Joshua he thought it best to keep it back here.

As Erik sat down at the work bench and began looking through the box and separating the broken and intact pieces Jacqueline took a closer look at the model theatre. It looked like a doll house only it was a stage. The stage was set for the song "Think of Me" from Hannibal and a wax doll of her grandmother was on center stage in a beautiful white dress.

She picked it up gently and turned it in her hands. It was like looking at a tiny person due to the exquisite detail put into the wax. She looked around and on the floor under the table was a box. She opened it and found a bunch of wax figures inside done up in costume for other shows. One that caught her attention was the one Erik had made for himself when he was to perform Don Juan.

Then she saw the one of Christine as the pageboy, but when she picked it up the head fell off and rolled away across the floor. She chased after it, but Erik stopped it with his foot and reached over to pick it up. "So you found my models I see?"

"Did you really make all of these?" Jacqueline asked lifting up one of Cesar and Le Noir she had found in the box.

"When you have a lot of time to yourself you need to find something to occupy yourself."

"They're so beautiful. Is there one of me?"

"There should be. Go check the orchestra pit."

Jacqueline ran back to the model and looked into the orchestra pit. There was a model of the conductor and sitting in the first chair for the violins was her with the violin rested under her chin. She picked it up and looked in awe at the detail of her blonde hair, blue eyes, and the smile upon her rosy red lips. It was perfect.

With another glance over the model she noticed something standing in Box 5. She reached in and her hand touched against another doll. When she pulled it out of the shadows she saw she was holding in her hand an exact replica of her grandfather in his black formal suit, the white mask upon his face, and the black cloak resting upon his shoulders.

She looked back to where Erik was working on the music box. Why would he create a doll of himself? She didn't get long to think as the mirror slid open and Christine came in carrying two plates. Jacqueline watched as her grandmother placed the plates on an empty spot of the work bench and then went out; returning with a glass of wine for Erik and a glass of milk for her.

"Thank you my love," Erik said sweetly to Christine as she came over to him and rubbed his shoulders.

"Don't stay up too long all right?"

"It shouldn't take too long. Luckily the gears weren't dented to terribly bad and can be replaced."

Christine was going to reply when a cry came from the music. "It seems my attention is wanted. I'll leave you two alone then." She kissed Erik's cheek and then headed through the mirror again.

"Come get your dinner," Erik called to Jacqueline, who came over to retrieve her plate and milk.

She sat down on the pile of pillows and began eating her sandwich. She watched her grandfather work as he took a bite from his own sandwich now and again, but his eyes never seemed to move from his work. He could get a tool without a problem and return it to the proper spot without looking up.

"Grandpa?" she asked after awhile.

He turned around and looked down at her as he finished his wine. "What do you need sweetheart?"

She set down her own empty dishes and came over to him. "Do you still love me?"

TBC…

This chapter will be split into two parts, because 1.) It is getting long already, 2.) I'm running out of ideas for this chapter, and 3.) I made you all wait long enough for this one. So I won't make you wait any longer. A big part of it was I was moving out of my college dorm and my computer with this file on it got packed away and I finally got it up the other day. So I hope you guys like this half of the chapter and await the next half.