Thank you for the overwhelming response to Ruby. She is a character dear to my heart, and I can see that she was dear to yours, also. Erik needs an older persons unique vision on life, as they have been through a great deal and have so much wisdom to offer...

Thank you to all who keep reading and keep reviewing.

Just to refresh your memories, there will be NO consummation of this relationship outside the bonds of marriage. Remember, patience is a virtue.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Erik or Christine. They are the wonderful creation of Mr. Leroux – but ALW gave them depth and humanity – as did Kay. I do not own any lyrics that are used; they will be credited at the end of the chapter in which they appear.

I do however; own the plot and any original characters, which appear from the dark caverns of my mind.

Character portraits:

Erik – Gerard Butler (There is no other – not for me!)

Christine - Scarlett Johansson (with violet eyes, and a little more of a mature look)

Meckenzie - Emma Karwandy (from Butterfly on a Wheel)

Vince - Pierce Brosnan (slightly shorter)

Karen - Bette Midler (only about ten year's younger, seven inches taller, and long,brown hair)

Ms. Jennison- Samantha Bond (Miss Moneypenny from the latest Bond movies)

Mr. Lynch - Bruce Davison (Senator Kelly from the first X-Men movie)

All other original characters, you can use your imagination.

Enjoy.

CHAPTER 28

Her eyes took in every gold fleck in his eyes, every sculptured centimeter of his face, the dimple in his cheek and the cleft in his chin. She adored him openly, and yet he still had a look of complete wonder on his face.

"What do you think, Erik?" She coaxed hypnotically.

The first shadow to cross his eyes was doubt, but he quickly buried it when he looked into her eyes. Then came the shadows of the past, where his insecurities and lack of experience had caused him to misread women and their intent toward him.

Christine smiled through the darkness that those shadows had cast and they had no choice but to flee, leaving behind a vulnerable and lonely man reaching out for what all human beings long for….the love of another.

Erik knew his time had come…they each stood on forked sides of a bridge and they could not come together until he crossed over his and burned the rotted and decaying foundation upon which he stood.

His eyes took in everything there was about her; her radiant smile, her keen intelligence, her eagerness to make life all that it could be, and her breathtaking beauty. He committed all these things to memory…knowing, should things go wrong from here, that she had been his for a moment in time.

He reached down and took her hand in his. He slowly raised it to his lips and placed a kiss upon her knuckles; then, he rested her hand upon his mask.

"Before you answer…" He indicated in a subdued tone.

She knew what he intended for her to do and, although she knew it would not change the depth of her love for him, she knew that his delicate heart rested on her reaction to his scars.

She gently smiled down at him and ran her fingers along the rim, which molded perfectly to his cheek. The substance he used to adhere it to his skin gave way, and the mask lifted from him with ease.

She kept her eyes focused on his eyes, as she rested the mask on the coffee table. She took the hand that had removed the mask and put it to his hairline on the right side of his face.

Her fingers breathed along his skin with deliberate slowness. She noted that his forehead remained almost untouched. The only evidence of what was to come, was some discoloration in a few areas.

She caressed the bridge of his eye socket where his eyebrow should have been and felt only marred, hairless skin. She replaced her thumb with her lips and then caressed the area with her cheek.

Erik had closed his eyes, expecting her to jump from her position atop him as though he had burned her, and disappear from his life.But instead, he felt her hand upon his wretched face and then the tickle of her soft lips; he hesitantly opened his eyes and watched her with childlike wonder.

She continued her exploring with the conformed shape of his nose. She brought her other hand up and placed it on the smooth perfection of his left side while her other hand gently touched the right side. Her fingertips memorized every different curve and angle, noting the shape that his nose had been before the accident forever changed him. His nose had been the perfect size and shape; that much she could tell. She bent and kissed the tip and again, caressed the area with her cheek.

The ruined cheek was her next stop and the crevices embedded in the once porcelain exterior were deep and ragged. Vince had warned her about the numerous shards of glass that had penetrated his face and almost obliterated his muscles and tendons; but had only left horrible canyons in his cheek.

The skin was thick and leathery in some areas, and thin and almost translucent in others. It was like nothing Christine had ever seen or felt, but that didn't make it horrible, just different. The scars ended at his hairline and did not touch his ear. They extended to just beneath the cheek bone, leaving the bottom part of his cheek and entire jawbone untouched.

His face was like to sides of the same coin, with one side representing all that was perfect about the world and the other side representing the pain and suffering that mold us into human beings ready to cope with whatever life throws at us.

She lowered her lips to his cheek and tasted the tears he was silently shedding. She wiped them away with her cheek and then gently moved her mouth over his.

She felt him yield to her, giving her all his reservations, all his self-hatred and self-denial; she felt him lower his defenses against the onslaught of her unspoken love…and in that moment, Christine promised God she would cherish this man for the rest of the days He had commissioned for her.

She coaxed his tongue with gentle passion and heard the soft moan he allowed to escape. His hand embraced the back of her head, cradling her against him for fuller access to her mouth.

The kiss was maddeningly slow and deliciously gratifying. His desire was under control, for the time being; curbed by the intensity of the moment. He drank in the knowledge that she was willingly engaging in this passionate act with him, despite his face.

She lifted up from the kiss, licked her lips with prolonged satisfaction, and ended the action with a loving smile.

"Erik, you're very handsome, regardless of these scars that have robbed you of your self-worth...I'm not just saying this to make you feel better...I mean it." Christine assured him. "The first time I saw you, I was staggered by your beauty...the mask and what's beneath cannot hide or hinder who you really are...and you can't let them hold any power over you."

For the first time in seventeen years, Erik wept with all the pent up anger, fear, resentment, and longing that had been building in him since the loss of his family. He knew she meant what she said and he accepted it with eagarness.

"You see me as a man…" He stated with wonder and awe.

She put her fingers to his mouth to quiet him, "Not just any man...my man."

"You think I'm handsome?" He stated with surprise, making it sound like a question.

"Oh darling, I am not the only woman who sees you this way…you have never opened your eyes to world around you." Christine enlightened. "You shut it out and made it see you the way you saw yourself." She smiled again, noticing how he shook his head in agreement. "You're still a lost little boy who's angry at his parents for abandoning him; and you're still angry at your brother for leaving you to fight the demons of childhood and adolesence on your own…"

Her own tears stopped her from going on, and she felt his hands cradle her face, "I can't believe, that at the age of 33, I still grieve for them." He finally admitted. "I would have thought, being a psychologist, I would have been able to avoid this human reaction to an event that every person experiences in some form or another."

"Psychologist or not, you're still human…and there is so very much to being human…" she smiled through her tears, "…you can't control it all with textbook knowledge and common sense…" Christine stated, "…sometimes, you just have to let it run its course."

Erik was going to respond to that, when his phone rang. He groaned loudly and rolled his eyes. He realized he actually felt comfortable in her presence without his mask.

"Hello…" He drawled.

Christine didn't move from atop him as he talked on the phone; instead, she found the curve of his ear and suckled on it, causing an influx in his voice and his eyes to close from the sensation.

She was feeling incredibly playful, so she started unbuttoning the buttons on his shirt, one at a time.

Erik became aware of what she was doing about the time she slipped her warm, exploratory hands into the material and parted it…exposing his broad chest to her smoldering eyes.

She ran her hands down his hardened muscles and played with the dark spattering of hairs that disappeared under the waist of his slacks.

She had never seen a man built as unpretentiously powerful as Erik was; he wasn't overbearingly muscular like a body builder, but toned and masculine with defined abs and perfect pectorals – he was built like an athlete.

Erik couldn't keep his mind on the conversation, so he just decided to cut it short and give his full attention to Christine and the wonderful way she made him feel.

"Look Sam, I have to go…but I'll see you on Wednesday…Okay." He flipped his phone shut and lifted a brow at Christine's uplifted eyes.

"You have a great body, Erik." She murmured, seductively.

"I do?" He moaned.

Her answer was a nod as she lowered her lips to the curve of his neck and suckled on the flesh with gentle prodding.

Her hands kneaded his pectoral muscles and she could feel him react to her touch. His soft moans told her he was enjoying the attention.

She grazed each male nipple with her tongue and brazenly suckled each one. Erik hissed at the contact and she felt him buck beneath her.

"Christine…" He moaned.

She was testing her resolve and found herself lacking…she wanted more from this relationship than she should at this point…and knew she had to stop.

She placed her mouth back on his and sealed their night with another overwhelming kiss.

She pulled away from himand smiled, running another admiring glance up his chest and landing at his eyes.

"We have to stop or I may lose control." She whispered. "You hold such power over me...I almost lose who I am when I am around you...and when you kiss me...I can't think right."

Erik smiled up at her and gently lifted herfrom him, he sat up and began buttoning his shirt back up, noting the longing that still rested in Christine's eyes.

"Erik, I want nothing more than to be able to make love to you, right here – right now." She said, honestly. "But my faith won't allow me to just give into the these passions..."

He turned and regarded her with searching eyes.

He smiled and hugged her to him, "I respect that…I'm just glad you don't regret kissing me."

"Never." She stated, simply.

Erik grinned and looked down into her eyes. "The ballet, ' Swan Lake', is being performed at The Majestic Theater, would you like to go with me tomorrow night?"

Christine gasped at the prospect of seeing the ballet she had longed to see since she was a child.

"Erik, I would love to…" She grinned at first, then gave Erik a wicked wink, "…and I have just the dress."

OOOOOOOOOO

He drove her back to the hospital and promised to be there tomorrow to pick them both up – at around 1:00 pm.

That night, Erik lay in bed thinking about all the ways his life had changed in three short months.

The minute Christine had stepped into his life, a cycle had started that was slowly turning him into the man he had always wanted to be.

'What if I asked her to marry me?' Erik thought. 'What would her reaction be?'

Some part of him was petrified at the prospect of asking her, but the words she had spoken and the look in her eyes, indicated that her feelings for him were certainly very deep, possibly love; but who was he to know such things.

He gave his reflection one last glance and slid in to bed. He didn't even realize that the familiar self-hatred he always felt when he saw himself was no longer there…healing had begun.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Erik stayed at the school all morning and rearranged his schedule to do his lessons in the morning and allow the children their regular classes in the afternoon.

By noon, he was walking out to the parking lot and slipping into his car. He stopped by the toy store and picked up a very fuzzy, very soft stuffed kitten for Meckenzie. She loved stuffed animals, and ever since she had met Indigo, she loved cats.

Tonight he knew Christine would be listening to his show, and all would be laid open and bare…she would have to decide to heal his heart or break it…nothing more – nothing less.

He had taken an hour after dropping Christine off last night, to dig through his belongings and he had found a picture of his grandfather after Erik's grandmother, Isabel, had passed away. The picture was of Alan Trudeau, scars and all, sitting with his grandchildren around his feet.

On his face was a smile. When Erik had first found the picture, he had stared at theright side of his grandfather's face, the side that was flawless and untouched by the travesty of war. He had given his features to Erik...funny how he had never realized that until Ruby pointed it out.

The left side, was scarred and marked with the hatred of the enemy. His enemy had made sure he suffered greatly for being an adopted American, but also for loving an American woman. Erik had thought that woman was his grandmamma Isabel for years, but he know knew thatthe woman had been Ruby.

As Erik had looked into the eyes of Alan Trudeau, he felt a kindred spirit staring back. Erik saw the darkness in his eyes and soul and behind the smile was a pained heart. His grandfather had loved Ruby Collins, but had felt himself unworthy of her in his scarred condition; both externally and internally.

He wrapped the picture in a box and attached a note. He would give it to Ruby Collins as a momentum of the man she had loved all those years ago, and whose child, Erik's aunt, she had given birth to on July 14th, 1942 and had buried on July 15th, 1942.

He had never had an aunt, not until Karen had entered his life, he wondered what Analee would have been like…and he found himself wishing he would have had the chance to know her.

The elevator was empty this time, so Erik rode up to the third floor in relative peace. He smiled as the doors opened and headed down the hall toward Meckenzie's room. He decided he would check in with her first and then go see Rudy.

TBC