(A/N: Hey, I'm on a roll here. Or maybe, I'm just bored now. Anyway, this is just a filler before the Point of No Return... cackle. Talks about Boston's past and family and sets the scene for the whole 'climax' part of the production. No, we're not near the end of the story yet, just the end of the play.)

Once again, Boston stood backstage listening to her friend sing a solo.

"You were once a friend and father ... then my world was shattered ..." Poor Christine… Boston thought wryly. She just can't see that she'd got something better than a father waiting for her. She still managed to see the Phantom in the story as the one Christine should have chosen, despite her own phantoms.

"Wishing you were somehow here again ... wishing you were somehow near ... Sometimes it seemed, if I just dreamed, somehow you would be here ..." She couldn't see Rio, but she knew that she was standing center stage in the graveyard set.

"Wishing I could hear your voice again ...knowing that I never would ... Dreaming of you won't help me to do all that you dreamed I could ... Passing bells and sculpted angels, cold and monumental, seem, for you, the wrong companions - you were warm and gentle ..." Boston sighed. Her own father simply didn't care, and as long as she became a doctor or something, he would put her in his will. But, unfortunately, she had turned herself to acting and singing, causing her father to disown her and her mother to weep and wail for a few days, then forget.

"Too many years fighting back tears ... Why can't the past just die ... ?" Rio was the one who'd helped Boston fight back her tears – she'd given her loyalty, constant presence (which sometimes was less than a good thing), and a lot of humor to take her mind off her family problems.

"Wishing you were somehow here again ... knowing we must say goodbye ..." Rio's family loved her and supported her, so she couldn't really sympathize with Boston's situation. But Boston had told herself she'd moved on, and that she'd pursue her own desires whether her family wanted her to or not.

"Try to forgive ... teach me to live ... give me the strength to try ... No more memories, no more silent tears ... No more gazing across the wasted years ..."

Boston grinned when Jess and Dori joined her, both dressed in their Don Juan Triumphant costumes. They were her family now, despite their oddities.

Rio finished her song with heart-rending bravado. "Help me say goodbye. Help me say goodbye!"

Aaron's voice cut in on her musings. "Wandering child, so lost, so helpless, yearning for my guidance…"

Jess giggled to herself, earning questioning looks from her companions. "His voice turns me on." She said, by way of explanation. Dori mimed puking, and Boston nearly joined her in this before considering that fact that she shared mutual feelings.

"Angel or father… friend or phantom? Who is it there, staring…?" She's so confused, Boston thought.

"Have you forgotten your Angel?" Aaron inquired sadly.

"Angel, oh speak…" Rio's voice echoed Jess's earlier sentiment. "What endless longings echo in this whisper…!"

Aaron's tone turned fatherly. "Too long you've wandered in winter, far from my far-reaching gaze…"

Jess frowned. "Far from my far-reaching gaze? That's confusing."

"You resist…" Aaron was saying when the stifled laughter subsided.

Rio joined him, singing, "Yet the soul obeys!"

"Angel of Music! You denied me, turning from true beauty … Angel of Music! Do not shun me ... Come to your strange Angel!" Boston sighed. Beautiful though the prospect was, she couldn't pull herself away from the idea that she was simply insane.

"Angel of Music! I denied you, turning from true beauty… Angel of Music! My protector… come to me, strange Angel!" Rio echoed his words.

Another voice came over Aaron's in Boston's mind. "I am your Angel of Music… Come to me: Angel of Music…" Jess and Dori didn't seem to hear the voice that made their friend tremble and gasp aloud.

Eric's presence broke the trance. "Leave her! You have no claim on her… leave her! Your words are wasted – can't you see she'll never be yours? Christine! Christine!" Boston could see Rio turning from her father's tomb in her mind's eye.

"Raoul!" she cried.

"Bravo, monsieur, such spirited words!" Aaron sounded cocky, very sure of himself.

"More tricks, monsieur?" Eric asked warily.

"Let's see, monsieur, how far you dare go…" the Phantom taunted.

"More deception, more violence?"

"That's right, that's right, keep walking this way!"

"You can't win her love by making her your prisoner."

"I'm here, I'm here, monsieur, the Angel of Death!" Angel of Death wouldn't register in Boston's mind. Angel of Death? No, never that. "Come on, come on, don't stop, don't stop!"

"Raoul!" Rio's voice saved Raoul. On stage, he turned and went to her. They went backstage, and as Aaron's voice said "Don't go!" Rio passed by on her way to the dressing room, giving her friends a breathless smile.

"So be it! Let it be war upon you both!"

Boston followed Rio while the short pre-Don-Juan-performance scene took place on stage.

"That was wonderful, as always." Boston assured her. She shrugged and began to change in a rapid, practiced manner.

"I screwed the 'Angel of Music' lines, but that's okay. Aaron covered up for me."

"Does he ever mess up?" Boston asked in all seriousness.

Rio laughed. "Not that I've heard."

Boston flopped down in one of the chairs. "Rio, I hearing voices."

"By that you mean mind, Aaron's, and Eric's, right? Help."

Boston stood and took down Rio's hair, helping her re-do it. "No, I'm hearing voices. Voice. A voice."

"Just randomly?"

"No." They turned to leave the dressing room. "I hear it instead of Aaron's lines sometimes. Like during 'Music of the Night' last week. And today during 'am am your Angel of Music, come to me: Angel of Music'."

"It's just your imagination." She opened the door and headed down the hall. "Unless, of course, it's the Phantom's ghost." She winked and took her place by curtain.

Boston wanted to scream at her, but her microphone turned on. She sighed and went on stage just as the curtain rose.

"Here the sire may serve the dam, here the master takes the meat!" She sang with the chorus, dancing along with the others. "Here the sacrificial lamb utters one despairing bleat!"

Jess took the lead over the chorus. "Poor young maiden! For the thrill on your tongue of stolen sweets you will have to pay the bill - tangled in the winding sheets! Serve the meal and serve the maid! Serve the master so that, when tables, plans and maids are laid, Don Juan triumphs once again!"

The Phantom's, or at least, Andrew Lloyd Webber's interpretation of it, music was strange and hypnotic as Gustav, as Piangi playing Don Juan, began the vocals. "Passarino, faithful friend, once again recite the plan…"

Passarino smiled twistedly near where Boston stood. "Your young guest believes I'm you – I, the master, you the man."

"When you met you wore my cloak, with my scarf you hid your face. She believes she dines with me, in her master's borrowed place! Furtively, we'll scoff and quaff, stealing what, in truth, is mine. When it's late and modesty starts to mellow, with the wine . . ." Boston smiled inwardly; Rio herself wouldn't have minded being caught up in such a plan.

Passarino continued. "You come home! I use your voice – slam the door like the crack of doom!"

"I shall say – 'come, hide with me! Where, oh where? Of course! My room!'" Gustav cracked a convincing evil smile.

"Poor thing hasn't got a chance!" Passarino agreed with his master.

"Here's my hat, my cloak, and sword. Conquest is assured, if I do not forget myself and laugh…" They disappeared behind the curtain at the back of the stage, where Aaron 'punjabbed' Gustav. Boston and the chorus were offstage by then, watching from behind the curtain.

Rio, as Christine playing Aminta, appeared across the stage, sang, " 'No thoughts within her head, but thoughts of joy… No dreams within her heart, but dreams of love!"

Passarino, in the corner, murmured, "Master?"

It was Aaron, not Gustav, that appeared, cloaked and mysterious. "Passarino – go away for the trap is set and waits for its prey…"

The last line repeated itself in Boston's mind. Go away for the trap is set and waits for its prey…