A/N: Please excuse typos in this chapter and the next. I wrote this at work.

Ahomelesspirate: I'm working hard on Emily. Where she goes nobody knows… the next chapter has Emily stuff in it… warning it is very un EC.

Kaledena: Thank you for your review. It's always nice to have new reviewers and know that you're not just reaching your regular and very faithful readers. We will learn more about Emily as things progress.

UnderMyangels: Thanks for your review, again, great to have a new reviewer. Madame Giry is a love or hate character in my opinion. In all the books and in the play. I don't want her to be anything but. If you don't like her then I'm doing well and if you do then I am doing well. I'm trying to write her with as much intrigue as possible still trying to stay with her in 'character'.

Modesty: Burn… lol yes, he has the best one liners. And so he should, he's the most intelligent character in it! Thanks for the review, when will you be updating?

Mystery Guest: Welcome back and may I say wow and what a review and thank you very much for taking the time!

My plots are usually a lot quicker but I have deliberately tried to slow this one down. I don't want to rush that or my character development. I was hoping to really get inside the characters in this fic.

I don't want to spoil it by saying whether this will be EC or not, I have an idea where it will go but I'm toying with the idea of two different endings (as I did with my last fic) I suppose I will see. Although I believe that whatever ending it is there are should always be EC undertones.

Also, my Raoul has more to him than you think ;)

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and please continue to leave your comments!

I hope you like these chapters.

Chapter 36- Meg

Meg's dress flowed to the floor from her shoulders, clinging to her hips and waist as it hung from her body. The colour was a blue and the dress made of an expensive silk, so beautiful and so smooth it was like liquid dripping off her skin. She enjoyed the opera when she wasn't performing in it and today she wasn't and was therefore afforded Box five free of charge by an over eager Philippe. Philippe made acid burn in Meg's stomach, he made her feel ill but she was intelligent enough to know that to open her mouth would have devastating consequences for both she and her mother.

Lately her mother had seemed a tortured soul, often choosing her living room over the opera, she seemed distant when she taught the ballet and she was worse at home. Tonight, however, Henry had made the effort to talk her mother into attending the opera with them and she had, for once, agreed. Henry had made his mother feel as though she was an important part of their crowd that night and for that Meg was grateful. This was one of the reasons Meg loved him so.

They were now sitting comfortably in Box five which they had at first refused to take because Meg knew it always made her mother think of the events of the past. She also knew that her mother still saw the Box as something of a sacred part of the theatre. She never understood her mother's relationship with the opera ghost and she never asked. After all, what business was it of hers? Her mother obviously knew him and Meg was convinced that her mother knew where Christine was. She also figured that if her mother knew, and if Christine was anything like the girl that she had grown up with, then she was safe, and well, somewhere with the Phantom.

Henry agreed with Meg that her mother knew where Christine was, of course, she had not mentioned the part about the Phantom. Christine had entrusted the fact that he was still alive to her and not even Henry could get this out of her. She glanced to look at him and her mother, forcing her eyes to leave the wonder on the stage. He was handsome and tall, built as a gentleman should be, strong and masterful. Her mother looked elegant as always but for some reason Meg sensed that something wasn't right. What it was though, Meg didn't know.

At the end of the magnificent performance all of the patrons shuffled out of the theatre and into the social area, where they talked and drank and poured over the voices of the performers. Meg was drinking water, as she so often did, when she glanced up to see Philippe deep in conversation with Henry, Tomas and Jacques. Tomas was an old family friend, usually a quiet man who tended not to socialise. Meg had known him since they were children and it was a well known fact that Tomas had always had a soft spot for Meg. Nothing had ever happened though and Meg was happy with him being her friend. He had recently come out of his shell a little due to meeting a nice young lady from just outside of town. Her name escaped Meg at that time and she made a mental note to ask him about her later.

Jacques was an unusual character who worked the reception at the opera house. He was in his early fifties and had always got on well with her mother. However, he was quiet, kept himself to himself and so she was surprised to
see him remain talking to Philippe as both Henry and Tomas wandered away. She watched his face, full of concentration in what Philippe was saying and then abruptly Philippe smiled and turned away to talk to an elderly gentleman behind him. Henry walked over and handed Meg a small Gin and water, which she accepted gratefully. As she glanced back over his shoulder she realised that both Jacques and Philippe had gone.

Le Comte de Chagny had been most clear in his instructions earlier in the
day.

Christine must be found.

The only instructions he gave were that it was of utmost importance, strictly confidential and worth a lot of money.

'Find her by any means.' He had said and when questions to which what any means meant Philippe de Chagny had replied 'ANY means, she doesn't need to be found alive

Still, it was an important and confidential job, which would bring in enough money to be able to sustain anybody for a very long period of time. Comte de Chagny had made it perfectly clear that neither questions to motive nor any weakness would be forgiven.

It was simple.

So very simply.

Find her.

Now.