A/N: Hey hey hey. I'm back! YAY! Hope you guys all liked the last chapter. Who knows what'll happen between the Phantom and Christine? We'll just have to wait and see…Disclaimer: Do not own POTO. Erik lives in my closet, however.
Giry, in the lonely hours of the dawn, left the two girls sleeping in their private rooms. Meg was sleeping fitfully, but she and Giry had forgiven each other long before. Giry, however, knew that Meg utterly despised Erik, and silent tears ran down her cheeks. Maybe she shouldn't have married Armand. Maybe things would have been better.
She scurried down into the catacombs, and into Erik's bedroom. He was writing a short piece by his ebony piano, at times sounding out the chords so he could hear what his passion truly sounded like. Giry said nothing, but came up to him and planted a kiss on the back of his neck.
"Erik." She murmured. "I am so sorry. I thought that Meg would react differently."
"She reacted according to her personal beliefs." He said. "I cannot blame her for that. I myself never accepted my mother, and thus her reaction to me was understandable."
"And yet I was trying to do her some good." Said Giry sadly.
"It may not seem good now." Admitted Erik. "But it could change for the better."
"Meg will open her heart to you." Assured Giry. "All in time."
"Maybe this will heal you." He whispered, and pushed a black velvet box into Giry's hands.
"Erik…" she said. "Mon beau ange. What is it?"
She opened the box and found inside a ring of pure gold with a sapphire that matched the same hue as Erik's eyes.
"Dear God." She whispered.
"Antoinette," he said calmly. "I wish you to be my wife."
Her heart went into her throat, and she hugged him.
"Erik." She whispered, and tears began to spill from her eyes. "I do. Ever since I was young I had wanted to be your wife."
She kissed him innocently and sat down beside him.
"I used to pray.'' She admitted. "That God would grant me a union with you."
"You have no idea how long I have delayed in asking you." He explained. "Even before our first, soiree, so to speak." He winked coyly at Giry and she laughed. "I had wanted you to be mine."
"Then why didn't you ask?" she said, exasperated.
"Rejection has always pained me." He replied. "Since my birth I was an outcast."
"You shall be an outcast no longer." Giry whispered. "I love you."
"I love you." Murmured Erik, and caressed her hair.
"But what about Meg?" Giry mused. "How will she cope?"
"We shall have to break the news to her." Said Erik. "Gently, though. She need not attend the ceremony."
"Ceremony?" stuttered Giry.
"Private." Said Erik. "The two of us."
Giry nodded, happy that the two would not be married in front of everybody.
"How will you disguise your identity?" she asked plainly.
"The marriage shall not be a matter of public record."
"Then who shall perform the ceremony?"
"That I leave to you."
Giry smiled, and gave a slight, inward laugh. Erik was so meticulous in many things, and so hasty and unprepared with others. She gave him another kiss, this time deeper and more passionate. Erik sighed and wrapped his arms delicately around her waist. She was so beautiful. Giry broke away, and retreated from the catacombs.
"Goodbye, mon ange ." she whispered.
Erik watched her form as she made the way up the stairs, and let out an exultant sigh.
Meg and Christine, meanwhile, were playing upstairs.
"Is there an Opera Ghost?" asked Christine curiously. "The ballet girls think there is."
"I think so." Said Meg good-naturedly, pushing the recent events behind her.
"They say he kills." Said Christine. "Is that true?"
"Yes. Mama says there have been terrible deaths. Most people end up hanged."
"Oh!" shrieked Christine in a paroxysm of terror. "How dreadful!"
"But they say the Ghost doesn't hurt you as long as you are good-natured and talented. Myself, I know I will soon be prima ballerina."
Christine said nothing. She was having terrible difficulty performing in the ballet, as she had such little training.
"Maybe I will be prima donna." Said Christine wistfully. "Father taught me how to sing back by the sea."
"Well, let's hear it then." Said Meg.
Christine let out one lone note that wavered in the air. It was neither pretty nor ugly; her voice was still untrained. But, Meg seemed pleased, and applauded Christine with a satisfied air.
"Bravissima!" she cried. "You have a pretty voice. No doubt you could be prima donna one day."
Giry then entered the room, and came and knelt beside Meg.
"Meg," she whispered. "I need to speak with you."
Meg obediently followed after her mother and listened to her explanation.
"Meg, your father has proposed marriage to me." She said. "You have no obligation to come to the ceremony."
"I will honor my father's name." she said coolly. "And come, but no more."
"That will do, Marguerite." Said Giry equally as coldly. "But you must accept your father."
"I accept him." She said. "To be the foul man who ruined my innocence."
"Marguerite Erika Giry!" Giry hissed. "How dare you speak like that about your father!"
"I feel no shame." She said huffily, and walked away from Giry. Then she turned and spat back to her: "That bastard ruined your own life, mother, do not try to deny it."
Giry trembled in abject humiliation.
"I am the get of a man with no name." Meg continued on. "A murdering traitor who seduced you into loving him."
"That is wrong." Said Giry sternly, shaking from rage. "I was the seductress. I should be blamed. Go ahead, Marguerite, and place your scorn on my back! God knows I deserve it!"
Meg stood in silence for awhile. Giry continued with her narrative:
"You do not, will not, ever know what it is like!" she screamed at her, and threw the ring down at her feet so that it escaped from the box and bounced across the floor. "I raise you, the fruit of my womb, I hide it so that you will not be disgraced, I love you Marguerite. And this is how you repay me? And then my lover, Erik, he threatened me Marguerite, with death! Oh, you do not understand, to see a dreadful noose hanging in front of those eyes, those eyes full of hatred and love. And then, then he kisses you, and you make love to him out of fright! Pure, sheer fright! And yet you love him still, for he is the tender angel of your childhood dreams. But he remains a murderer, who killed the one girl who was kind to you. Who will kill again. You have no idea Marguerite, no idea."
Giry then collapsed to the floor and began to weep. Meg hurriedly picked up the ring and brought it to her, allowing her to clasp it in her hand.
"Mama," she whispered. "I am sorry. For everything. "
"Leave me." She said slowly. "I want to find some peace."
Meg hesitated.
"Go!" screamed Giry through her tears. She watched Meg leave, and then sat silently on the floor. "And yet I love you both." She murmured. "And would give my life for you."
A/N: See that small button? Use it. And also, welcome and thanks to Snarky.Kitty. Pleasure to have you aboard.