Disclaimer: Don't own Phantom.

Notes: before we start Chapter Twelve I want to address a question/statement I've received via reviews:

Hard as Lighting, Soft as Candlelight: I'm sorry that you think this story is so horrible. Perhaps if you want your Erik to be completely in line with the book/movie/whatever, you should stay away from AU stories. You must realize that the Erik you find in the cannon literature/media has been shaped by his experiences, as all people in the world are. If you take away the experiences that someone has, their personality is undoubtedly going to be altered. Erik in this story has never lived in the world as he did in Leroux, Kay, ALW or even Y/K (not to mention to other mediums that PotO has been incorporated into). Because he went from a childhood with psycho-mommy directly into over 30 years of being a circus freak, he never really even became a man.
So, for the experiences that he has had, my Erik is quite in character. In fact, if I were to make him behave as he does in stories that follow cannon to some point, he would actually be incredibly out of character for this piece of fiction.
Common sense, please.

Chapter Tweleve

XXX

He'd been in bed for days, and Christine didn't know what to do. He wasn't sick, but he acted as if he was too weak to even stand. Christine had taken time off of the opera to care for him, and spent her days at his bedside, dabbing at his face with a cool cloth, feeding him and holding him close when he'd suddenly burst into grieved tears that seemed to have no trigger. It was as if he was existing only in his own mind.

She didn't understand. The ordeal had been horrible, yes, and she knew that his times in the circus had been brought roughly to his mind because of it, but she didn't know why he was so depressed. Surely he was happy now?

Looking down at Erik, she watched him sleep and stroked her fingers through his thin hair, sighing softly and leaning down to kiss his forehead.

"Oh Erik…" she murmured, and she gasped when his hand grabbed hers tightly. She thought he'd been asleep.

"Christine…" he whispered, and his eyes fluttered open.

"Do you need anything?" she looked down at their entwined fingers and squeezed his hand lovingly, tears springing to her eyes when he sat up and flung his arms around her, clinging tightly and sobbing against her chest.

"Shhh… oh Erik, it's okay… no one will ever hurt you again, I'll keep you safe here…"

He only sobbed harder. "I'm supposed to protect you! How can I keep you safe from any harm if a group of children can reduce me to this!"

So that's what this was about. He felt weak now; thought Christine was ashamed of him.

"Erik, hush. That's completely silly. I love you, and you don't have to be an emotionless rock for me to feel that way. You don't have to protect me to make me happy." She cooed, and he sniffled, pushing his face into her neck.

"Oh Christine… all I want is to make you happy… make you proud to be with me. Why must I look this way, what have I done to deserve such punishment? Nothing, except being born!" he sniffed and Christine smiled, drawing back to look into his eyes.

"I am happy, Erik, and being with you makes me the most proud woman on earth. I don't think your face was a punishment from God, or a curse… maybe it was God's way of marking you for me… his way of bringing us together? If you didn't have this face, Erik… we would have never met. And I'm so glad we did meet, Erik. I wouldn't change a thing about you, were I given the chance, except perhaps to make you understand how handsome I find you, and how… desirable you are to me. To make you see yourself how I see you." Her cheeks were a becoming shade of pink from her words, but she boldly held his gaze.

He blushed a bit himself, and she kissed him gently, before helping him to lay back down. Adjusting the blankets, she smoothed his hair and began to sing softly to him, a melody her father sang to her, one that he said her mother sang when Christine was in the womb…

Erik's eyes fluttered closed as a look of complete rapture came over his features. He'd never heard her sing before, and it was beautiful! The most beautiful thing he'd ever heard.

"An angel…" he whispered, before slowly falling asleep.