A/N: I do not own the Phantom of the Opera or its characters; but I might buy them if they were on sale.

Ahh! New chapter! Slightly fluffy, slightly creepy. I am trying to expand this sudden friendship between the four and... Okay, maybe more creepy. I don't think I much like this new phantom meself.

I loved my reviews for the lastchapter and have to thank Surf with music, sillylovesongs1, Princess Persephone, and Veritasa. Reviews like that are the reasons I write. You guys are awesome. And this chapter is just for you.

Raoul sat comfortably in the small study watching the summer breeze toy with the curtains. The women upstairs had gone quiet with only the occasional burst of laughter. It was a wonderful respite from Katerina's nervous voice that had echoed through the flat all evening.

Erik was resting now although Raoul had expressed his concerns that the ladies should no longer continue to twitter around in the man's room. They had ignored him of course. Like usual, although he had noticed that Christine had begun to frown like Katerina did when she dismissed something. Only one day and they were off giggling like childhood friends.

Women.

"I'll look like a peasant!"

"You'll look fine."

Erik was very suddenly aware that he was no longer in that nightmarish cage. He could hear Katerina, she sounded upset, but playful. Christine was giggling, her crystalline voice lighting up the room.

"Perhaps you will start a new fashion."

"I don't want to start a damn fashion, I want my hair back."

He heard a deep sigh from Christine, "Perhaps if you wear a hat…"

Erik opened his eyes a slit until they adjusted to the light. He was in a bed, but it wasn't his. The gilded pattern on the ceiling wasn't there. He was propped up in a pile of pillows and could feel the softness of bandages wound around him without looking. His body ached, as did his face, but he could feel the familiar shape of his mask once again.

"Stop moving, I'll have to cut it shorter if I make a mistake."

He blinked and looked at the two women whom he was facing. Then he blinked again. Katerina was sitting in a chair facing profile to him as Christine knelt with a pair of scissors behind her. Katerina's hair fell in a black wave no farther than the line of her jaw. She looked very nervous as Christine hummed to herself and cut locks of Katerina's hair off.

"There, all finished. You look fine," Christine stood.

"You're just saying that."

"Non, you look lovely," Christine turned and saw him. She smiled, "Tell her she looks lovely, Erik."

"You look lovely," he whispered as she turned quickly in the chair.

The look of relief on her face was beautiful. Katerina jumped up so quickly, she almost knocked over the chair.

"I think I shall take my leave now," Christine bowed with a smile on her face as she left the scissors on the vanity and slid silently out the door.

Katerina came and sat on the bed next to him. Gently he reached up and brushed the ends of her hair next to her cheek.

"What on earth happened to you?"

She blushed furiously, "That idiot phantom got a hold of it and I decided it was easier to cut my hair than his damned wrist."

Erik blinked as the days events came back to him and he noticed the pale bruise under her left eye, "Are you all right?"

Katerina nodded, "You should see what we did to him."

"Is he dead?"

Her face grew dark, "I do not think we are that lucky. W-we weren't trying to kill him. We were just trying to find you."

She was running her fingers over his hands, gently and quickly, she was quiet again and she wouldn't look him in the face.

"Erik, do you know where we found you?"

Slowly, he nodded and she visibly flinched. He could see anger smoldering in her dove gray eyes.

"He is a monster…"

Erik saw the tear fall from her face and felt it strike the back of his hand.

"Katerina…"

"Don't! Don't say it! Don't say you're a monster too." She leaned over him and shook her head, dropping glittering tears onto the bed, "I know what you've done, but you didn't deserve that. No one deserved that…"

He saw her façade crumble away until he was left with his little mouse once again. Erik smiled and pulled her to him despite her murmurings that she would hurt him.

"Hush, Mon petite, dry your tears. We are all safe."

Katerina sniffed, "Safe, for how long?"

"I cannot say my love. I cannot say."

Christine sighed and more prodded the pot of oatmeal she was cooking than stirred it. The little flat had been silent for two days. Katerina had been storming around the entire time, Raoul along with her, and Erik would only get out of bed after dark.

Now it was quiet again. Raoul had gone out to see his banker and take care of a few personal things. It had taken him almost an hour to leave because she was afraid that the phantom would find him alone. Katerina had told her to stop acting like a child and let the grown man go. Sometimes Katerina was right, but Christine wished that the woman would find kinder words. Christine peeked out of the kitchen at Katerina who was resting on the divan with books and papers all around her.

The woman had begun reading and when that wasn't enough she started drawing on every blank bit of paper she could get her hands on. It seemed that she would go mad if she just sat idle.

Christine hummed an aria as she cooked. She had tried yesterday to show Katerina how to make breakfast but Katerina didn't have the patience for it. Christine didn't know if she had the patience to teach her. Frayed nerves were taking their toll. She wondered if they could just go off together. Just go back to Orleans and take Katerina and Erik with them. But that was a silly notion; Erik would never leave his theater. Of course he had changed since Katerina; Christine sighed again and smiled to herself.

She had actually seen Raoul and Erik talking last night.

Civilly.

Erik paused in the doorway to the sitting room. Katerina was sprawled out on a divan in a mess of papers. He smiled, made herself right at home, didn't she? He noticed that she was wearing one of Christine's dresses. Christine had gotten her to try on one of the frocks yesterday and she had walked about like a dog that someone had put a skirt on. At least until he had told her she looked beautiful. Of course, he could care less what she was wearing, but he had been informed that she was going to be particularly touchy about her hair for awhile.

He hadn't a damned idea why it was such a big fuss but Raoul had just nodded wisely at him. He supposed the man had more experience with these things.

Erik paused as he heard singing coming from the kitchen. He smiled as he recognized the aria from Hannibal. Quietly he slipped around Katerina and made his was into the kitchen.

"That is a familiar sound."

"Oh!" Christine jumped and then smiled, "Your silence is familiar as well."

Erik nodded and looked over her shoulder, "Ah, so you've been doing the cooking."

"Who did you expect?"

"Well I knew it was not Katerina."

"You tease her too much."

Erik leaned against the doorway, ignoring the still smarting bruises on his shoulder, "You, Madame, have never actually tasted anything she has produced in the kitchen. So you cannot judge."

Christine blushed and then silence fell between them.

Erik ran his eyes over her. In the last three days he had never really looked at her. Not in the studying way that he used to. He did recall her grace and the way her hair moved when she did. What he didn't recall was that she looked so young. Perhaps it was because Katerina tried to act so old all the time. After a moment he blinked when he realized that she had turned, very slightly, to look at him as well.

"There are many things left unsaid between us," her slight voice whispered.

Erik nodded as he heard papers move in the other room, "Perhaps some things should be just left as they are."

Slowly a smile spread onto her face and she nodded.

"Breakfast…" Katerina muttered as she entered the room.

She didn't make it too far because Erik grabbed her and caught her in his arms.

Raoul banged on the front door until Christine opened it.

"Forgot my damned key."

She smiled and he heard the cheery tones of piano music echoing through the flat.

He had remembered a piano in the study but it hadn't much use, save as a desk, to him. Now he could hear laugher and music. The cloud that had taken over the flat was gone. Christine seemed glowing with excitement.

"I take it he's stopped sulking around his room."

She nodded and shut the door behind him and then looked at the papers in his hands.

"Did you find something?"

"Maybe."

He swept into the study as Katerina laughed from the pile of papers she was sitting in and Erik's fingers plucked random notes from the piano.

"Blast it woman, you're always going on about neo-classical architecture, you aren't even stopping to consider the features of pre-modernization… Oh, hello, Raoul."

Raoul blinked as Erik glanced up and the conversation ceased.

"Don't let me interrupt," Raoul said dropping the papers onto the desk.

"You aren't," Katerina said quickly, and Raoul pretended not to notice her blush.

Christine smiled as she entered the room, "Don't mind them, they've been going on all morning, I haven't the slightest idea what they've been talking about."

"Art," Katerina said.

"Science," Erik said.

"You should have heard them going off in Farsi," Christine said sitting down on the divan.

"We were only practicing. Katerina's accent is terrible," Erik said rather offhandedly as he frowned and wrote something down on the sheet of paper in front of him.

"I see, I think I may have found some... Information."

"Let's see," Katerina said.

Raoul handed her the paper, "It's today's edition."

Katerina frowned and Erik looked at her pointedly, "Katerina, read it out loud."

"Oh, sorry, um… Two women were found strangled in alley behind the closed theater. The ghost strikes again. Raoul, what is this?"

"Didn't you keep up on the news surrounding the opera house before you bought it?"

Katerina shook her head and Erik took the paper from her, "We knew nothing until Katerina heardthat it wasbeing torn down."

"I saw that this morning and asked the paper seller, apparently it's happened before. The bodies of strangled women have been found right above your heads."

Katerina gasped and turned to Erik.

He shook his head and studied the paper, "What else did you find out?"

"Well, the murders had been going on sporadically for the last seven years with bodies being found in the slums of Paris. After the incident at the opera house they blamed the ghost. Oddly enough bodies started to be found in the ruins of the theater."

Christine shook her head, "You don't think that whoever killed these women…"

"Is our phantom. The murders ceased as soon as the theater was purchased. These are the first since then."

Erik twisted the paper in his hands, "I do not like this at all. If the murders had ceased then…"

"Perhaps he had found something else to occupy his time," Katerina said.

"Like us," Erik hissed.

Christine shook her head, "But why does he do this? Why does he haunt the theater?"

Katerina sighed, "Maybe he is a copycat, he wants to be the opera ghost. So he pretends."

The piano made a jarring noise as Erik stood.

"Erik?" Christine sat up straighter as the papers hit the floor and Erik slammed the door behind him.

Katerina scrambled to her feet.

Katerina hovered in the doorway as she watched Erik pace in the bedroom. She had seen him this angry before and it wasn't a pretty sight.

"Filthy bastard…" he spat as he knocked bottles from the vanity.

"Erik…"

Katerina slid out of the room long enough to avoid the crash. She heard footsteps on the stairs and waved Raoul away as he came running up.

"What the hell is he doing?"

"He's angry, he'll calm down in a bit, maybe."

"He'll destroy that room."

"It's nothing I haven't seen before."

Raoul paused and looked at her, debating his wisdom. Finally he nodded and slowly turned as two more loud crashes came from the room. Katerina smiled nervously and shooed him away as Christine appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

Katerina waited, more crashes sounded and then something akin to breaking glass. She sighed and closed her eyes. After a few minutes it was silent. Katerina took a deep breath and nudged open the door.

There was broken glass and splintered furniture around the room, the sheets had been torn from the bed and Erik sat on the end of it. He was glaring at a broken vase and seemed to be ignoring the fact that the knuckles on his right hand were smeared with blood. After a moment Katerina yanked a handkerchief from her pocket and walked through the room. Her borrowed shoes crunched on broken glass and bits of wood. Gently she lifted his hand and examined it.

They were silent as she wrapped the cloth around his hand and held it between hers.

"Are you finished?" she asked.

"For today."

"You scared off the Vicomte."

"Good."

"They are our only allies."

"Then they will get killed. They should go back to Orleans."

"Erik…"

"I never murdered without cause Katerina. I never murdered for fun! This man is dangerous and unpredictable and…"

Katerina saw the anger lessen in his eyes.

"Katerina, he would murder you without blinking," His voice wavered and he looked at his hand between hers, "he would destroy us on a whim."

"Which is all the more reason to stay together," she brushed his hair from his face, "I know it's hard to trust people…"

"It isn't that…"

"You don't trust us to take care of ourselves. You must have faith in us."

"Katerina, I have nothing but fear right now."

The words echoed in the silent room and Katerina gently ran her fingers through his hair.

Erik swallowed, "You should leave Paris."

Katerina gently kissed the top of his head, "Erik Destler, you are not the master of me."

"Katerina…"

"I am with you until the end, now shush and help me pick up the bedroom. I will not sleep on the divan in the study."

"I could not bear it if he hurt you."

"Then you know how I feel."

Christine listened to the house grow quiet once again. She sighed and looked at her husband, "I supposed it's fortunate that we do not have close neighbors."

"Not with the way that pair carry on," Raoul muttered and scooped up the paper from the floor.

"It is much more dangerous this time around," Christine breathed.

"It was dangerous six years ago."

Christine shook her head, "Non, Erik never looked like this man. You saw his eyes. Erik never looked like that."

Raoul paused and then slowly sat down on the piano bench. She was right. This man had a different air around him. Six years ago Raoul knew that despite everything that happened the phantom would not allow Christine to be harmed. This man had a look of madness in his eyes beyond what Raoul had ever seen. Then there was what he had done to Erik. The cage and the lash… Raoul squeezed his eyes shut, they were lost in the dark this time and all bets were off.

Dun dun duuuun!