OMG! Shoot me now! I feel horrible for not posting in such a long time. I was busy all weekend and lately have been a bit too obsessed with doing my homework and projects perfectly - I'm really feeling the unnecessary lack of sleep. But any ways, thanks all for being so patient and hope you enjoy the last chapter in "The Nightingale's Journey."
Important! Many of you have asked me to write another fan fiction. Currently I have no idea of another story to write, so if people would be kind enough to give me some ideas of a PotO story in the reviews or by e-mailing me at I'd love you forever even if I didn't use your idea. I'm thinking more of a Erik/Christine one this time or a sequel to this story, I just need ideas, inspiration, and more sleep. Thanks sooooo much!
PhantomLover05: A lot of people have been saying that - I'm so happy!
Ethalas Tuath'an: Well, they're not married yet, but I'll just say VERY soon! Oh, and silly me: The song from the last chapter is "Come What May" from the movie Moulin Rouge. I just think it's a very pretty love duet.
Erik'sLittleLotte: Ah! Not the ending yet! Read on!
Phantoms' Lobo: Ooh! Thanks for the chicken. I haven't had chicken nuggets in a long time and absolutely love them! Yum! Here's the last chapter.
LittleMollysheart: Yeah! Another sucker for romantic stories! Even though I wrote this story, I still love that chapter.
AngelOfMusic: Yes, I agree. It was sad having Vincent die. He was so heroic and saved Erik! And thanks for giving me loads of inspiration for thinking of writing another story!
FFAMasquerade2005: Thanks so much! I love it when people think my story amazing - and my, do I sound arrogant right now. Anyway, thanks so much!
Epilogue
The wedding day had arrived.
Erik was now standing up by the alter, fiddling with his cuffs and constantly shifting his weight from one leg to the other. His best man, Nadir (who he found and became great friends with again a little bit after proposing to Loralee), put a steady hand on Erik's twitching shoulder.
"Calm down, Erik. You love her, don't you?"
"Yes!" he said, getting agitated at nothing.
"She loves you?"
"She's says so multiple times a day."
"So there, you've made a great choice and it's going to work out perfectly."
Erik just glared at Nadir but calmed down a small fraction. Instead of looking at his cuffs, he managed to sweep his eyes over the seats of the church.
Erik and Loralee had decided to make it a small wedding. Only close friends from the Opera Populaire, the small bit of family Loralee could locate in Ireland, Christine and Raoul and their new baby Charles, and what ever other friends they both had.
The only problem was that living in the Opera House meant everybody knew when and where the wedding was going to be, so almost half of the buildings population arrived uninvited. Seeing them all crowded into the small church in a town outside of Paris made Erik even more nervous.
The priest was a rather small fellow who was going bald. He was extremely kind, though, even though Erik didn't have the fondest thoughts for God.
Finally, after what seemed a lifetime, the traditional organ music came on, and Erik was at least glad that the musician playing it, Monsieur Reyer, was good at the loud instrument.
Then the doors opened and Meg, Loralee's best maid, came through dressed in a pale purple dress with a large purple rose pinned in her hair. Finally Loralee came through and it took Erik a lot of strength to keep from bursting with glee.
Her dress was a dazzling white with a top that fitted around her tightly. The sleeves were off the shoulder and made of a soft lacy material, crystals sewed in at random. The bodice was embroidered all over with swirls and roses, the silver thread shinning in the light. The bottom poofed out around her. The bottom layer was a shimmery silk and the top was the same lacy material as the sleeves. The lacy layer, how ever, was split in the front and went back to make a train a few feet behind her. The face was yet again covered by the same lacy material.
And for once, he noticed, she wasn't hiding her scars out in public and didn't seem to care.
Her father, who was in a crisp suit besides Loralee, was giving her off to Erik. They found him in Ireland after a bit of searching, and it was quite a shock to finally find out what happened to his long lost daughter. Getting beaten by her fiancé, becoming ballet mistress at the Opera Populaire, almost getting killed but instead seeing two men get shot, and then marrying the legendary Phantom of the Opera. It's not exactly the story every father wants to hear his child is experiencing.
None the less, Conall Donoghue agreed to give off his daughter.
Loralee's little sister, Nessa, was also there, acting as flower girl and throwing petals from the blood red roses Erik bought onto the walk way before Loralee. She was a little beauty and almost a young adult, her fair black hair and sparkling blue eyes giving her much beloved attention from the Opera Populaire. Erik preferred the Donoghue's dusky blue eyes these days, though, and he was now staring at a pair intensely as they made their way up to stand besides him.
The service went by in a blur. Erik could care less to what the priest was saying and could only look into Loralee's eye. Nadir had to nudge him out of his trance when it was time for him to put the ring on Loralee's finger. He could barely see her through the veil but could tell that she was smiling brightly.
"I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."
Erik, who had waited for this moment all his life, now lifted up his shaking hands and lifted her veil from her pale face. They just looked at each other for a few moments before Erik cupped Loralee's head in his hands and leaned in for a gentle yet passionate kiss.
Their first kiss as a married couple.
Cheers went out from the crowd as Loralee and Erik raced down the isle, getting into the carriage and waving to a few people while driving off. Once everybody was out of sight Erik and Loralee laid back against the seat.
"So, Madame Donoghue, how does it feel to be a married women?"
While marrying, they had just kept Loralee's last name and used it as Erik's sir name, seeing that he never was given one as a child.
"It feels like heaven, Monsieur Donoghue."
She giggled at the name when she finally was able to say it.
"Monsieur Donoghue," Erik said, testing out his new name. "Hmm. . . I'll have to get used to it."
"Sorry it couldn't have been french, but you'll just have to stick with the Irish name."
"I've taken a liking to Irish people, you know?" Erik said, wrapping his hands around her and kissing her neck. Loralee giggled and leaned her head sideways so he had better access to her pale skin. "And thank you for wearing your hair down today."
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"Calm down, Erik!"
Christine and Madame Giry were trying to keep Erik from running to the door when another agonizing scream echoed out from the next room and into the place where he was waiting.
"I have to go to her!" Erik said, eyes fixed on the door.
"No you don't!" Madame Giry said, shoving Erik down into a chair where he finally sat still, listening with all his might.
Another minutes went by when there was another scream and Erik was out and to the door before Raoul, Nadir, Christine, Meg, or Madame Giry could stop him. Erik pounded on the door when he found out it was locked.
"Let me in! I need to see Loralee!" he said out loud. Nadir came over and stopped Erik's infernal pounding. Erik did calm down a bit when a voice drifted over from the other room.
"Just a moment, Monsieur!"
Erik leaned against the wall near the door, eyes clenched shut and hands fidgeting with his marriage ring band. It had been a year since their splendid marriage and they still loved each other unconditionally.
Right now Loralee was even giving birth to a sign of their love and it was driving Erik mad.
When the door opened, Erik hurried over as quick as lightening, staring at the doctor intently.
"Did everything go all right? Is my wife fine? Is it a boy or a girl?"
The doctor held up his hand to silence Erik's questions.
"All I can say is congratulations, Monsieur, it's a girl."
Erik nearly sang out for joy as he was beckoned in by the doctor. Looking over, Erik saw Loralee propped up in the bed, clearly exhausted, holding a bundle of white blankets.
"She's so pretty," Loralee said, as Erik walked over, tears threatening to spill over any second. She held the bundle out to him and Erik took it with the gentle hands.
Looking inside he promptly let out a sob, sinking down onto the bed next to Loralee.
She was adorable. No scar, no deformation, just pure beauty.
The baby was rather small for a new born with the palest skin much like his mother. The face was almost all Loralee's also except for the sparkling green eyes and full lips of Erik. It even had a tuft of raven hair showing faintly.
Erik smiled down at it, tracing his finger down it's chin.
"Hello, my daughter," he said. As if the child understood, she reached out her small hand with long fingers like Erik's and grasped his finger, her grasp soft and loving. Then she broke out in a smile, giggling.
Her giggle was just as musical as Erik's. With training in the future Loralee and Erik could see their little baby singing the rest of Paris to shame. Erik handed her back to Loralee only when she started crying to be fed.
While Loralee nursed her, Erik kissed her softly on the lips.
"Congratulations, Madame Donoghue. You're a mother now!"
"What should we name her?" Loralee asked as they both smiled down at the beautiful girl.
"How about Aimeé Donoghue."
"And for a middle name, how about Belle after Belle from Beauty and the Beast."
"Perfect. Aimeé Belle Donoghue."
The others now came in, being lectured by the doctor to only stay for a little while because Loralee needed her rest.
"May I see her?" Meg asked, holding out her hands. Loralee nodded, giving her to Erik. Erik got up and went over to the others, reluctantly placing the now sleep Aimeé in Meg's arms. Everybody obsessed over her beautiful sleeping form, Madame Giry almost in tears.
"She has most of her mothers features," Raoul commented, as he picked up Aimeé.
"What's her the little angel's name?" Nadir asked, now getting to hold her.
"Aimeé Belle Donoghue," Loralee and Erik said simultaneously.
Next, Madame Giry held Aimeé.
"Oh, Erik! She has your hands and mouth!"
Christine was the last one to hold her.
"Such a beauty. I imagine her voice is magical." Erik nodded and smiled back at Loralee, who looked at him, too. They looked back when their came a yelp from Christine.
"Her eyes! She has your eyes too, Erik! Such a beauty!"
The rest crowded around and stared at Aimeé's newly opened eyes, gasping and saying "Hello!" to her as she just stared at them in confusion. When she started to cry, Christine handed her back to Erik.
As soon as little Aimeé was in Erik's arms and saw his face, she stopped crying, smiling and giggling again, batting at his mask.
"You know, whenever you're around her you're going to have to take off that damn mask," Loralee yawned, taking back Aimeé.
"Why?" Erik asked.
"She'll have to grow up with it, used to the sight of the real you. And besides, it must get hot and itchy behind that bloody piece of porcelain."
Erik waited until everybody, including the doctor, was out of the room before sitting down besides Loralee and taking off his mask. Loralee kissed his deformed face before positioning Aimeé so that she was looking exactly at Erik's face.
Aimeé looked like she could care less and just smiled at him again. This made Erik start crying over again and he wiped away the tears, kissing Aimeé's little forehead before settling back to sing a song he heard Loralee sing a while ago.
"Nightingale
Sing us a song
Of a love that once belonged
Nightingale
Tell me your tale
Was your journey far too long?
Does it seem like I'm looking for an answer
To a question I can't ask
I don't know which way the feather falls
Or if I should blow it to the left
Nightingale
Sing us a song
Of a love that once belonged
Nightingale
Tell me your tale
Was your journey far too long?
All the voices that are spinning' around me
Trying to tell me what to say
So can I fly right behind you
And you can take me away
All the voices that are spinning' around me
Trying to tell me what to say
So can I fly right behind you
And you can take me away
You can take me away"
Loralee recognized it as the song she'd sang as her addition into the Opera House Chorus and also the song she sang throughout their honey moon in Italy. She smiled at him and they kissed. The doctor walked in during the kiss and cleared his throat, making Loralee and Erik jump apart.
"Celebration should be held later and not in front of the baby. You're parents now so you'll have a few things in life to change. If you could leave please, Monsieur Donoghue. You're wife is in need of some sleep along with. . . ?"
"Aimeé Belle Donoghue," Erik said, getting up. The doctor nodded and wrote the name down on what must be the birth certificate. Erik went over to the door, turning around to Loralee when he got to it.
"I love you," he said.
"I love you, too," she said, smiling, a tear slipping out of the corner of her eye.
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And so Loralee and Erik finally started a family. They lived beneath the Opera House in Erik's lair most of the time but also bought a house in the country house which they went to when not active with the Operas. Erik became a well known, respected, and favored singer in Paris and became the highlight of many Opera with his ethereal and enchanting voice. Loralee continued to be ballet mistress, but hired Meg as a helper while she raised Aimeé.
Aimeé was now the biggest hit in the Opera Populaire. People Loralee and Erik didn't even know came to give gifts to the growing girl. They even pronounced her the future prima donna and they hadn't even heard her sing.
Aimeé's ramblings and cries were enough to show Erik and Loralee that she would have an amazing voice, and it brought both to the brink of tears when one rainy morning Aimeé said her first word in an enchanting voice like Erik's. Both were also amused that the first word happened to be "phantom."
She started singing when she was four and playing the organ in Erik's lair when she was five. She had his same musical genius for both and a little of Loralee's ballet talent. Aimeé was in her first Opera when she was seven even though it was a minor role. She still managed to get more bouquets of flowers than most of the other members. Sometimes Erik and Loralee were afraid they were spoiling her too much, but at least they knew Amieé would have a thriving life in the Opera Populaire when she grew up.
Erik wrote some more Operas which he sold anonymously. He didn't want too much attention from the public which Loralee understood perfectly. Loralee didn't have a well known career but didn't mind the least. She'd even sometimes go back to her "Freedom Room" in the Opera House and dance for Erik or teach Aimeé.
But together, now a family, Loralee, Erik, and Aimeé Donoghue lived on in the Paris Opera House safely.
THE END