"What!" I was bewildered, what the hell was he talking about, and why did Dumas and Fillips look so grim?

"I am afraid we have to come in, Erik," Dumas said heavily, and I knew it would be useless to shut the door in their faces so I was given no choice but to back up and let them in,

"I am sorry about this CJ," Dumas said as he saw her standing behind me "Is there anywhere we can sit down? We need to talk,"

CJ directed everyone to the dinning room where she lit more candles and everyone sat down except for de Chagny,

"Where is he?" He demanded of me the moment everyone else sat down, "What the hell did you do to my son!" he was yelling and I was sure he would wake Marie and Bernadette,

"I don't know what you are talking about," I hissed through clenched teeth, "I didn't even know you had a son!"

"Don't lie!" he yelled frantically, and Dumas rose from the table, "You know exactly what I am talking about!"

"Viscomte, please allow me to speak for a moment," Dumas said, coming over and laying a hand on his shoulder,

de Chagny threw his hand off of him, "Ask him," he said in a trembling voice, "ask him about how he is obsessed with my wife and how he would do anything to get her back, how he is stalking her! Ask him!" he was yelling again,

CJ moved quickly and hit him so hard across the face he stumbled backwards and held his cheek,

"Stop yelling," she hissed coldly, "You will wake our daughter you stupid fool," she turned to Dumas, "what is this madman talking about?"

"It seemed that Viscomte and Vicomtess de Chagny returned home from the celebration tonight to find their son missing; the Vicomtess began weeping that the Angel would know where he was; so of course he went straight to Fillips, who went straight to me, and now…"

"And now you are here?" I said, and I shook my head, "You cannot possibly think I actually kidnapped their son," I said heatedly to Dumas, "I was with you practically the whole night!"

"And he was with me the whole night," CJ said angrily, "So how could he possibly have done this?"

"You two left the party early! Dumas told us!" de Chagny cried, "You could have gone and done it then! I want this man arrested!"

"You have no proof whatsoever that he had done anything to your child!" CJ cried, infuriated, and I moved to put my hand on her shoulder,

"Christine told me, she told me he knows where our son is!" de Chagny shouted,

"And how the hell does she know that?" CJ turned to Christine, who was the only one still sitting at the table,

She was still crying uncontrollably, "No…" she stuttered through her tears, "I mean that…" but then her husband cut in,

"You see how upset she is?" he moved to her side, "Just tell them what you told me,"

"Erik…Erik will know where he is," Christine sobbed,

"There you see?" de Chagny snapped, "Now, I am going to take my wife back out to our carriage, this is too much for her; and when I come back I had better see this thing," and he pointed at me, "in handcuffs!"

He ushered Christine out of the room; but not before she threw one last, pleading look and me which I did not understand,

"You are not going to arrest him, are you?" CJ's voice was shaking,

"They don't have any real proof against him," Fillips answered her, "But I am afraid we are in a bed position here…"

"Father?" a little voice spoke all of a sudden and I saw the Bernadette had woken up and now she was walking toward me; rubbing her little eyes, "Why is everyone awake? Is this a party?" her face brightened and it almost killed me,

"No, it's not," I said, and she reached my side and tugged on my robe, I picked her up,

"Why don't you go back to bed, darling?" CJ came over and addressed our daughter,

"I'm not sleepy," she said, smiling wickedly and hiding her face in my shoulder; everything was a game for her,

"I know, but we all need to talk about some very important things," CJ said a bit sternly,

"Did I hear people yelling?" Marie had come into the room, wearing a ridiculous looking nightgown,

"Marie, would you take Bernadette back up to her room, please?" CJ asked, and Marie nodded, but Bernadette gripped me harder,

"I don't want to go," she said stubbornly; but then there was no more time for argument, because de Chagny walked back into the room,

"I thought I said I wanted him arrested!" he bellowed, "And what unfortunate family did he take that child from?" he said once he saw Bernadette,

"This is my daughter," I growled,

"Prove it," he snapped,

"My wife delivered the baby," Dumas cut in, glaring at de Chagny, "Unless you think she is a liar, than I guess you have your proof,"

He glared at Dumas, "This man should be dead!" He shouted,

"My daughter is right here!" I shouted, trying to stop him from saying what I believed he was about to say,

"And my son is missing and it is because of you! Even without that you should be dead, do you remember what he did?" He cried at Dumas, "He kidnapped my wife and tried to force her to marry him!"

"Stop!" I cried and I covered my daughter's ears,

"He locked me and one man who was supposed to be his friend in a torture chamber and left us to die! If Christine had not appeased him then we both would have drowned! He threatened to blow up the entire opera house! He belongs in jail, not living in some house!" de Chagny was yelling at the top of his lungs,

Dumas and Fillips were looking uncomfortably at each other, "He was supposed to be executed," de Chagny continued, "you were supposed to punish him for what he had done to me; my wife told me she saw him and she begged me not to do anything about it and I didn't! and look were it has gotten me! My son is gone! I want to see some retribution, you owe me that!"

Neither Dumas nor Fillips moved, "You set the man who wanted to kill me free," de Chagny said, "You need to arrest him and punish him; if you don't I swear to God everyone will know what you have done and you can consider your careers over; arrest him and make him tell you where he has put my son,"

Fillips made a motion to Dumas, who sighed and stepped toward me, "I am so sorry Erik," he said tragically, and I felt my whole body shake as I handed Bernadette to CJ,

"You can't do this!" CJ cried, taking our daughter and glaring at Dumas, "You can't treat us like this! You gave us a second chance and look at all we have done for you! You can't give us back our lives and then take them away again like this!" there were tears in her eyes which begun to roll down her cheeks, "Erik did not kidnap anyone and you know it!"

"I know," Dumas said, and he could not look CJ in the face,

"It is what he did before that is condemning him now," Fillips said sadly, "I am afraid we have to arrest him,"

I nodded; I had know that it would end this way the minute de Chagny had started his rant about what I had done under the opera. However, this knowledge did not make life any easier,

I turned to CJ; she was shaking now and Bernadette looked upset and confused; I put my arms around them both and I pressed my lips to CJ's, cherishing for one last time the feel of her against me,

"I love you," I whispered to her, and I felt hot tears in my eyes,

"I love you to," she hardly managed to speak and I could feel her trembling as I held her for one last time,

"Where are you going Father?" Bernadette asked me, she looked so innocent and so confused,

"I have to go with these men for awhile," I said to her, and I knew there were tears on my cheeks; both of which were exposed as I had forgotten to put on my mask when I had come to answer the door,

"Why are you crying?" Bernadette asked, and her voice sounded a bit panicked,

"I am not crying darling," I reach out and took her face in my hands, "I am just tired,"

"I will wait up for you Father; I won't go to bed until you come home," She said, and she was starting to cry along with everyone else,

"No, you will have to sleep; please be a good girl for your mother while I am gone," I could barely speak as I said these words and kissed Bernadette on her little forehead,

"Come along, Erik," Dumas said softly and he put a hand on my shoulder,

We all walked sullenly toward the door,

"Can I go change out of this robe?" I asked Dumas,

"No," He said, "No time," I thought this was very strange but now we were at the door and I turned and kissed CJ one last time. We walked out into the night and I heard a burst of tears behind me and I saw CJ had fallen to her knees on the floor and was weeping; holding desperately on to Bernadette, and then Marie shut the door.

I wanted to lash out and kill that foppish little brat who had destroyed my family, but I knew that if I did it would only land me in prison faster. There was only one cab waiting outside,

"I sent my wife home in our cab," de Chagny said, "She was too upset to stay,"

No one responded to this. We road silently back to the police station,

"Shouldn't we be taking him to prison?" de Chagny asked; that little fop never knew when to keep his mouth shut,

"We are going to question him and hold him here overnight," Fillips said as the cab stopped and he quickly ushered me out, Dumas right behind me, leaving de Chagny in the cab alone, "Now you should go home," Fillips said to him, "Let us do our job and find your son,"

Before de Chagny could say anything else Fillips shut the cab door and yelled at the driver to take de Chagny home, then we made for the station. They put me in the interrogation room,

"This was a really low thing to do to me," I said angrily at Fillips and Dumas, "You ripped apart my family and for what? You know I had nothing to do with the de Chagny's child,"

"I know Erik," Dumas said heavily,

"So why the hell did you do this!" I pounded my fist on the table, "After all we have done for you! May I remind you that but for CJ and I your grand experiment would have been a massive failure! We have always done exactly what you asked of us, we always come through and this is what you do to us? We may have just been criminals once but you gave us our lives back and you cannot jerk us around like this!" I was fuming,

"I know Erik," Dumas said, "Go home,"

"What?" I stared at him,

"He said go home," Fillips answered me, "We only brought you in here because de Chagny was raving so badly about this and you did leave the party early; he and his wife left early too, and they came back into the party before it was over and de Chagny was making a scene,"

"So what about his threat to expose what I did at the opera?" I asked, and I was not sure if I should feel relieved or just angrier that they had put my family through all of this,

"He can say whatever he likes; the Phantom of the Opera was executed year ago and all the paperwork proves it; we did our jobs well when we took you out of prison," Dumas explained,

"So all of this was for show?" I said slowly,

"Yes,"

"Did you see what you put us through!" I yelled, standing, "He was raving about me in front of my daughter! My wife was upset,"

"Heartbroken, was more like," Dumas interrupted,

"Yes she was," I growled, "And so was I! I thought I was never going to see her again! Her or my daughter! And all because you had to cater to the whim of a rich man,"

"I said you could go home Erik," Dumas said, "And that is more than I have to do, much more,"

"You did a rotten thing tonight," I said, shaking my head, "A really rotten thing,"

"Go home, Erik," Fillips said to me, and I glared at both of them as I left the room and walked back out of the station house.

Those bastards, I thought. All of them were bastards; Dumas, Fillips, and de Chagny; they had come into my home and hurt my family, all because they thought their lives were more important then my wife's and my daughter's. I walked quickly down the road, but then I heard footsteps behind me,

"Erik wait," Dumas came up behind me,

"What?" I growled, freezing in my robe,

"Apologize to your family from me," and he turned and walked off,

I had to walk all the way back to my house; but as I got closer I began to forget my anger and I simply wanted to see CJ and Bernadette again. I ran the rest of the way home and I finally got to the front door and tried to open it; but it was locked. I did not have my key with me so I had to knock,

The door did not open for some time, but finally I heard footsteps coming toward me,

"Who ever you are go away! We have had enough for tonight!" CJ yelled at me through the shut door,

"Candice Joselyn Phann open this door at once!" I yelled back to her and a moment later it swung wide,

She was staring at me, and for a moment she didn't say anything, and then she rushed at me; throwing her arms around me and crying with relief, I was teary eyed as well,

"How…did they let you go?" she asked but before I could answer her she pressed her lips to mine in a desperate fashion, clinging to me tightly,

"They did," I told her as our lips broke apart, "They said not to worry and that de Chagny could not prove I was who he said I was,"

"So all that was for show?" she asked, her voice suddenly furious,

I nodded at her grimly,

"Father! I told you I would wait up for you!" Bernadette ran toward us and I scooped her up off the ground,

"Were you good for your Mother while I was gone?" I asked her and she smiled,

"I was very good, but Mother cried a lot," She wrapped her arms around my neck and rested her little head against mine,

"Oh thank God!" Marie came out into the hallway and saw me, "is everything going to be alright?"

"It should be," I said, thankful to be standing in the hallway in my own house again,

"Good, then you need rest!" Marie herded us upstairs and after some time we got Bernadette to sleep; she had been wide awake and wanted to play. Normally we would have told her no and that she had to go to sleep, but after the night we had just had we wanted to spend time together.

There was a gray light in the sky before CJ and I went to our room. We tumbled down beside each other,

"I really thought I was never going to see you again," CJ told me as she lay her head on my chest, "I have never been scared in my life,"

"I would have come back to you somehow," I said, knowing I would have broke out of prison if I had had to bite my way out,

"It has been some night," CJ sighed, "I was so worried, I kept thinking about what I was going to tell Bernadette, and what it would be like to sleep in this bed alone," she choked,

I hushed her, holding her close, "It's alright now," she sighed and finally fell asleep. As I held her in my arms I wonder when I had become the man I was; I used to loath the touch of other human beings, I used to not care about anyone or anything. Now somehow I was gladly holding this woman in my arms and I cared about her more than anything else.

We slept late into the morning; I slept like the dead and it was not until Marie knocked on our door and opened it wide enough for Bernadette, the ever energized, to run to our bed that I woke up.

"Mother! Father we have a visitor!" she said excitedly as she bounded up on our bed and shook us both,

"What?" I looked up sharply at Marie who was standing in the doorway,

"It's Christine," Marie said heavily, "She came alone, and she seems very upset,"