A/N - This is it! Boohoo. You know that delicate line that authors walk, between giving away too much information and finding the needed amount of closure? I hope I found a good balance in this. This is more of a tease for what is to come. I hope you will continue with this series in the next story and again I appreciate all of your input. You have been wonderful!

Three Years Later

"Oswald would be a splendid name," Nicholas teased.

Elizabeth crinkled her nose in disgust and shook her head abruptly. "How horrid, Nicholas, really! Statements like those make me wonder if I really know you at all."

Nicholas laughed at his wife, then quipped quickly. "Well, my love, we have plenty of time to think about it."

Elizabeth's features darkened, and the laughter Nicholas intended to instill did not surface. Instead, she seemed saddened and Nicholas immediately regretted his words.

They had been married three years, and still did not have a child. It was not from lack of trying, that much was certain. Nicholas felt hardly concerned about the matter, rather enjoying their prolonged honeymoon. He enjoyed being the primary focus of Elizabeth's affections and was in no real rush to change the matter. Elizabeth, however, felt as though she were failing to give her husband a child. For some reason, she had internalized the guilt and blamed herself entirely.

Nicholas crossed the distance between them, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"Please, sweet Beth, do not leave me again. Those dark thoughts plague you and it is of no use! If we never had a child, I would be endlessly delighted to coddle you forever."

A small smile emerged on her lips, urging Nichols on with his talk.

"Besides, how would we travel the world if you were heavy with child?"

In the short time they had been married, Nicholas had used the fortune his father had bestowed upon him to attempt to make every dream of his lovely wife's come true. They had visited Rome, nearly all of Europe, and even Asia. The Middle East had been most intriguing and they had spent more time there than anywhere else, and it seemed as though the Americas were all that lingered on the horizon for them.

"Africa, or America?" He probed, rubbing her arms lightly.

Elizabeth pondered, shrugging her brooding thoughts off.

"Africa! Within two months we shall have to move to America anyway, will we not? You've been flirting with those railroad tycoons for months!"

Nicholas smiled, nuzzling into the column of her throat.

"Yes, I suppose I shall have to work like a normal man again. Will you mind it terribly?"

"Of course not," Elizabeth encouraged him. "I am quite excited to see this new land. But Nicholas, will he be happy there?"

"Who, my love?"

"Your father."

"Yes, I believe so. They are erecting opera houses as quickly as any other building there, he will find his niche, I am sure. Are you terribly certain you do not mind his accompaniment? After all, he will live with us for several years at least."

Elizabeth nodded sagely. Such an odd encounter had introduced her to his father initially, and they both had been loathe to overcome it. Three years had melted the lines of indifference and softened the grudges, and they were now at ease in one another's company. Erik had finally offered a strained apology, which Elizabeth was inclined to accept. Since that time, he visited often, and she was able to begin to enjoy the genius that he was.

"I am certain," she affirmed at last. "It will make it quite difficult for mother and father to visit, but I am sure we can arrange it."

"Yes, I am sure he will be cooperative."

They both laughed lightly at the hidden humor in his words.

Erik scratched furiously at the parchment before him. A new song was birthed in his mind, and he simply had to express it upon the paper, his only lover.

The melody was intricate and no less spectacular than anything the opera ghost had ever composed, but it was missing a great deal of the familiar angst. This piece was to be a gift, and it expressed a simple and true love. He had only ever observed such pure affection between his son and his new wife, their company at first being strange and awkward. Now he secretly thrilled to be in their company, to bathe in the warmth of their obvious affection for him. For the first time in his life, he felt accepted. It prompted him to repay this debt in the only way he knew how, through music.

Erik was too busy to ponder all that had occurred since the wedding. He did not think of Christine, or of the bitterness he still horded toward her. Each day he attempted to bleed his dark heart of a bit of the hatred, and decided he was doing quite well in this endeavor. If her profile came into view upon the streets, such anguish did not fill him as before. He had stumbled upon the Vicomte and his wife laughing merrily, a genuine happiness reflected in their eyes. Though he was loathe to admit it, he was pleased that Christine had finally found the freedom he had attempted to give to her twenty years before. Even more reluctantly, he was glad that she had such a gentle man to care for her. She was much too delicate to withstand his passion, his love.

Erik did not dwell upon the drama that had followed, either. The DeGent family had feigned indifference at the sudden breaking of Elizabeth and William's engagement. Only when social pressures began to prod and attempt to find out what debacle surely lay beneath, did they come out with cries of complaint about the honor of the de Chagny estate. Raoul was decisive, however, and quick to squelch such an uprising with the truth of Monsieur DeGent's horrid gambling habits, as well as imbezzlement and a handful of other crimes. The entire situation had quieted, eventually, and Nicholas nor Elizabeth had ever heard about it. They had been off exploring some ancient ruin for the weeks it lasted.

Erik, also, had no way of knowing that William DeGent had taken personal offense to the slight and, being a scrupulous and cruel man, planned to find his vengeance somehow. Shamed in Parisian society, he had taken what little his parents had left him and moved to the Americas soon after.

For now the only thing that existed in this dark cavern was music, and his beloved organ. Erik would miss it terribly, but the idea of starting afresh in a new society was appealing. Nicholas and Elizabeth had domesticated him somewhat, and he had decided that instead of haunting a theatre in the new world, he would simply live in a house like a normal person. Though the concept had once been laughable, it seemed quite manageable now. Erik was even, a bit, excited at the prospect.

The gift would be ready by then, he was certain. He would share it with them then, once they arrived in the new world. A new start for them all.

The anticipation was sure to kill him.