AN - Just a little author's note. Not that ANYONE has ever given me this impression... but I wanna clear up that I'm canadian and I spell things alot 're' instead of 'er' and 'ou' instead of just 'o'. Sometimes I do it right! Somtimes, I'm just a poor speller period and through extra vowels in! I'm a blot on Canadian spelling! I'm a blot on spelling period! the grammar police are after me! OMG!

Anyways, if you see me spelling with the 'er' and the 'o' 's that probably because I was too tired to argue with spell check.

Chapter Nine: Father Figure

Think of their cry
of undying
support!

Raoul thought about how he had found out about Christine and the baby as he sat there too terrified to move, to terrified to cry. He had been with the managers of his winery, and about to tell them that they were no longer needed, and that the winery, was to be closed down. He was to relieve them of their services immediately, which he knew he should have done at least 8 months prior. His reasoning had been that he wanted to protect his workers, but his brother informed him that his allowance was beginning to dwindle.

"Gentlemen, I'm sorry, I just cannot have myself throwing good money after bad now... I have a wife and child to think about now..."

As the word now came out, he heard rampant footsteps behind him and a soft voice curse violently. He grew curious and turned to see Charlotte run through the management door.
How had she gotten here? It was more than 50 miles from the house! A trip that certainly took him three hours, and kept him for an over night stay.

"Monsieur! It is your wife! She has had an accident!" Charlotte said looking at him with her terrified green eyes. Raoul did not have enough time to let this information process. An accident? What about the child? Why now, what had they done to deserve this?

He was out the door without saying goodbye to either of the men, and running towards the carriage that he had arrived in.

"Charlotte, come with me in my carriage so you can tell me what happened!" He called to her, as she was trying to enter the one she took.

"It was three hours ago monsieur! We heard a crash! Michelle and I went to go inspect what had happened, and when we found her she was on the floor..." Charlotte said and finally, on completing her task, let go to her brave exterior and broke into sobbing.

"There was blood and water everywhere, Michelle said she was going to fetched the doctor and I did not stay to see what was going to happen, I came as soon as I could..." She said looking up at her master. Normally this was a bold move, but at times like these those two riding in that carriage were equal, for both were fearful and were thinking the same thing, and that was to let nothing happen to Christine...

Raoul looked over to the woman beside him who was quietly sobbing.

"Poor small child, little child..." She whispered under her breath, and Raoul pulled her into a strong embrace. It was against his nature, and his status to even allow this servant in his carriage, but she was showing the utmost love and respect for his wife and unborn babe. Therefore, he felt the need to quell her fears.

( ' ) '
-

But every hope
and every prayer
rests on you now...

Erik heard screams.

He had been reading lazily on his sofa Wuthering Heights, empathizing with Heathcliffe over Cathy's betrayal, when the faint high-pitched feminine screams echoed through his little cabin. There were two, he realized in sheer panic. One was from Charlotte, and one from Michelle. Both were Christine's favorite servants, as he had grown to realize over the year. Panic seared through him. If both servants were screaming, that meant something was wrong with Christine, something devastatingly wrong, by the sound of their blind fear.

Running over to where he had laid his opera glasses, he quickly picked them up and ran out his door without remembering to close it. As fast as he could, he ran down the hill, trying his best not to trip over the fallen leaves and twigs.

It was now fall, and his hiding places were becoming scarcer in the rapid decline of life in his only confidants, the trees.

As he approached Angel's Cove, he saw the young Michelle hovering around the ground, but no Christine.

Where the HELL is CHRISTINE? Erik thought panicking. He felt his heart race and he knew he would surely have a heart attack.

He could not find his angel; he could not see where she was in the room. Before he realized what he was doing, he was on the Vicomte and Vicomtess property, before he could stop himself; he was climbing up that drainpipe to the balcony to see what Michelle was hovering over so cautiously.

The sight he saw, made him give away his presence, when he cried out in horror.

There was his angel, lying there in a heap on the floor, her dress tangled about her body and her large stomach. Blood and other fluids stained the carpet and dress leaving a large mess indeed.

Michelle looked up at him standing on the balcony. Even in her terror, it was when she let his name slip, he knew that Christine had told her maid about her past. "Erik!" she squealed and ran to him. "Erik, I thought you were…. We heard her shriek and a loud thud. I found her here like this, Charlotte has gone to get the Vicomte!" She explained.
There was no need for them to make formalities, or for him to explain to her that he would not hurt her, it was obvious she already knew this when she ran to him.

"Quickly, I will need a basin of water, some rags and towels, and then you must fetch the midwife and doctor." He said shrugging off the large black cloak he was wearing and wrapping it around the small woman at his feet. He had rushed out the door of his cabin only in his shirtsleeves and trousers. As he had left the cabin, he had quickly grabbed the cloak beside the door, out of habit, he was glad he had now.

He felt the bitter rage he had kept down for a whole year, come sweeping back. A rage that normally brought out the side of him he was most ashamed of, his urge to kill. This was the strongest he had ever felt it, for he was terrified, something he hadn't felt since he was a small child traveling with the Gypsies.

Yes, he was terrified because for the first time since he was younger, he was not in control.
When he murdered he had always been in control, had always tried to keep himself emotionally unattached to his victims. For a whole year now, he had had his emotions in utter control; he had kept his distance from her, his true love. Now, he was so use to being in it, control that is, that now there was nothing he could do, and he was terrified. She was still, even now, the only one who could make him loose it.

Make him loose his inhibitions.

And mind.

If he could kill right now to keep her from dying, he would of killed thousands, and paid for it dearly in the afterlife. Not that he wasn't already going to pay...

As he picked her up, he saw Michelle depart without a question and return with towels, and water basin.

"You will stay with her until I return with them?" Michelle asked, knowing it was not a question but more a statement.

Erik had placed Christine on the bed and stroked a curl out from her head. She was to be in labor soon, he just prayed that she would be able to keep the baby.

"I wont tell anyone what has taken place." Michelle said to the masked man who was rolling up his sleeves and preparing himself for the aid of the woman on the bed.

Surprised, Erik looked up at Michelle with a small, smile of gratitude.

"Hurry child, we need them soon." he said to her, having her depart right away.

(' ) '
-

Say you love me
every
waking moment,
turn my head
with talk of summertime

"Do you love me?" Erik asked her as they walked through the park.

The question took her by surprise. She looked up at his form, his dark form that she had never seen out of the shadows was now being bathed in sunlight as children play around them and young lovers walked by hand in hand. She remembered her terrified dreams of doing this, and how Erik would always be killed in the process.

Oh, how naïve she had been…

"Why what a silly question! I will not even dignify it with an answer." She said slyly and started to walk away.

"Oh really Mlle. Daaé, it was that silly?" he said to her, playing along with her game. She looked over to him again, taking in him dressed in his best black attire, she wondered if he would ever find something other than black to suit him. He looked so out of place in this park of light and love, and yet, it felt so right for him to be there.

"Yes, It was THAT silly, incredibly silly. I would think that any other woman with lower patience then I, would of had felt it insult their integrity." She said as the white dress she wore swooped in front of her, her natural voluptuous form making a slim shadow from the afternoon's sun.

"Oh then I beg pardon Mlle Daaé, I beg your pardon! It was never my intentions to insult a woman of your stature..." he commented slyly into her ear. She felt his breath graze her neck and goose bumps ran up her spine.

"Oh and what is my stature monsieur?" She asked curious, turning again to look him in the face.

"The princess of all Prima Donna's of course!" He said bowing in front of her.

She laughed heartily, and remembered in the back of her mind somewhere, that she had not done this in ages.

Slowly she step towards him and wrapped the edges of his black cloak around herself. She looked into the deep black material that framed his chest, the sound of birds chirping around them and children laughing. She was so cold, so very cold in the warmth of this sun, but she could not tell why. She only wanted to prolong this moment, this happy bliss with her angel, which is why she did not tell him.

"And, what was your intentions?" She said looking up into his eyes, His beautiful amber eyes that when they were soft with love, could hold her lost in a trance forever and more.

Slowly he lowered his head gently brushing her lips with his showing her the simple and devoted love she knew that for a long time she had been lacking. He smelt of candle smoke and parchment, just as she remembered.

When she opened her, eyes she saw he had still not open his own, from the elegant and ever so brief showing of affection in the public place.

"Yes..." She whispered.

"Yes?" He asked confused.

"Yes, I do love you..." She said answering the question that had been plaguing his mind, for now she knew, no matter what she did, even if he was gone, he needed to hear her say it. He needed to hear the words before he believed.

Again, those amber eyes turned soft and he leaned back down to kiss her.

She closed her eyes in anticipation when a wave of excruciating pain swept through her body like a wave.

"Christine? What's wrong?" Erik asked her as she began to crumple before him, He went to pull her close but her stomach got in the way, within those small seconds it had grown.

"What is... what's wrong?" She asked and was pulled back to reality before she had a chance to say goodbye to her love.