Et Velle Et Perficere

Disclaimer: Don't own POTO or lovely Jaffa cakes… but I do own Jeremy. Please read and review…

Chapter 13: Mr. and Mrs. Blue Eyes…

"You are so beautiful…" Erik whispered to Christine as they stood in the courtyard of St. Joseph's with everyone else, waiting for the Guy Fawkes celebrations to start. A lot of the part-time boarders and day students had come back that Saturday to join in, so it was rather crowded… but Erik was not unhappy as it was dark now and they blended in amongst the rest of people quite easily. They were just waiting for one of the caretakers to start the bonfire and then they would all go over to the Mac – a large tarmac pitch across from St. Joe's – to watch as they burned the Guy and started the fireworks.

Very soon, the large bonfire was completely consumed in flame and everyone was allowed onto the Mac a safe distance away. The upper-sixths had been each given a drink for helping make the Guy that now sat slightly away from the bonfire, wearing an old P.E. uniform and propped against a sign saying 'Penny for the Guy'. They were all aware that they'd only be getting one though, so nobody was drinking theirs too quickly… something which Carlotta and Raoul were particularly pleased about as they would not be putting their plan into action until after most of the celebrations had finished.

Raoul was rather reluctant to go along with what Carlotta had suggested but he wanted to get Christine away from that nutter before he did something to hurt her. He was on edge the whole time as everyone else enjoyed the fireworks… even Carlotta seemed not to be fazed by the fact that she would soon be responsible for spiking someone's drink… Raoul could not help being jittery, though, as he never had any intention of drugging a woman and he was scared he would do her some sort of harm. Raoul was not a bad man, after all… he was just concerned.

Not three feet in front of him, Erik had his arm around Christine's back as they watched a particularly bright, pink Catherine wheel spinning around. They were blissfully unaware that two of their fellow classmates had been conspiring against them and were just waiting for the right time to put their relatively simple plan into action. Both Christine and Erik could think of little else than the wonderful night they were sharing together… and their mutual hope that they might have more like it. He pulled her closer to him gently, resting her head on his chest, and placed his discarded coat over her shoulders as his arms moved up around her waist… they were perfectly happy as they were.

A long while later, Erik slowly started to lead Christine away from the noisy crowd of people watching the burning of the Guy, as he wished for them to have some time alone. They slipped, unnoticed, away from the throng and back towards the deserted courtyard of St. Joseph's where they could still see the fireworks but remain unseen, themselves.

"What's this?" Christine asked, looking around, confused.

"Shh," he whispered, pressing his index finger over her lips to quiet her. "I only wish to spend some time with my angel without three hundred other people eavesdropping on our conversation…" He smiled but grew more serious again. "I think there's something we need to discuss…"

"Have I done something wrong?" she asked timidly.

"Why should you think you've done something wrong?"

"Invariably, when someone says that 'we need to talk', it means that the other person has done something wrong… or that you're dumping me – but we aren't even going out…" she trailed off.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about…"

Christine looked suddenly worried and that, in itself, perplexed Erik enough to make him hesitate. "I've upset you haven't I?" Christine asked him with tears in her eyes. "I've been making you uncomfortable with all the time I spend with you… with our closeness. I promise I'll stop, Erik… I had no idea I was making you feel like that…"

As the first tear fell suddenly down her cheek, Erik drew forward and brought their lips together fiercely, backing her into one of the courtyard walls. "Tell me you don't mean that…" he said when they parted. "Tell me you don't really believe that… I never want our intimacy to end. In fact…" he paused, needing to kiss her again as he took notice of her perfect, slightly swollen, lips. "In fact… I would like it to develop."

"Develop?"

"Mmm…" He nipped her lips again, totally obsessed with the taste of her. "Yes… I want us to start a proper relationship, Christine. Neither of us is attached and I certainly do not want to be with anyone else. We can't seem to keep our lips apart for long, either…"

"You want to go out with me?"

"What do you find so hard to believe about that?" he asked.

"I just… I didn't think you'd want me…" she whispered, lowering her gaze.

He immediately lifted her chin up again and added another kiss to their total. "Where did you get such a silly idea as that from…? We spend all of our time together – you said it yourself… I can't seem to stop myself from kissing you… I hold you all the time… and I tell you things I've never told anyone… You can't possibly think I'd do those things with just anyone… you must know you're special – perfect, in fact – you must know… I love you…"

"You love me?" she asked, disbelieving.

"How could I not? I've loved you forever and more – I loved you before I met you and I will love you long after I have departed this world… I do not expect you to tell me the same… perhaps one day, when we have been together for years…" he said hopefully, getting a faraway look in his eyes. "Perhaps then, you will be able to look upon me in love… but I will not pressurise you."

How Christine longed to be able to tell Erik those words now as he had done for her… but she was not ready and she could not force herself. "Yes," she said, pressing a hand against his chest, "I want to have a relationship with you… I want us to be together." She found it oddly right that she had been able to accept Erik's 'proposal', if you will, for them to be together, when she had previously been putting Raoul off for months… It said so much of how right Erik was for her and she was glad. "But… are you sure this time? Every other time we've kissed, you've regretted it and run off…"

"I've never regretted any of our kisses – I apologise if my actions have led you to believe otherwise… I cherish every memory of you in my heart and I know I have some issues with my self-esteem and my anger… but I promise I will try to resolve them now that you have agreed to be with me. You cannot begin to understand how happy you have made me…"

After a short while of them just revelling in each other, Christine left Erik's embrace to stretch appealingly and walk back towards the huge gates out of St. Joseph's. "They'll wonder where we are…" she stated, holding her hand out for him. "Come on…"

"So, I'll be calling you Mr. Blue Eyes from now on, Erik…" Jeremy said, smiling. "To be honest, I didn't think it would take you quite this long to figure that out, though… in fact, I now owe Mr. Close twenty quid."

"You bet on us?" Christine asked crossly.

"I wouldn't exactly call it a bet… more of a flutter between some of the masters… totally harmless, I assure you."

"Jeremy Harper-Matthews… you old berk, you're lucky I don't–"

"Steady on," he cut her off. "I had no idea you knew such language," he mocked, pretending to look appalled. "Oh, lighten up… why don't I make it up to you, hmm? I've been saving a box of Jaffa cakes just for you…" He placed his arm around her shoulders and led her off to St. Patrick's as Erik stood, contemplating what he was supposed to do, now, without her.

Carlotta and Raoul were standing amongst the crowd, watching as Erik and Christine were split up for the first time that evening…

"Come on… it's time we got this started," Carlotta said. "You go after Christine and Harper-Matthews and wait until you can get her on her own. Remember to put the whole lot in her drink and you can do what you like when she's drunk it… but first of all you have to make sure she sees me kissing Erik. So, give me about twenty minutes before you bring her back… then she's all yours for good."

Raoul contemplated one last moment of indecision before he went off towards the boarding houses in search of Christine. Carlotta, however, felt no such indecision as she walked up to Erik and touched the back of his shoulder. She was slightly shocked as he recoiled and turned upon her as though she were some kind of attacker… thinking about it, she supposed she was really.

"What do you want, Miss Sinclair?" Erik asked, bored.

"Nothing more than your conversation's worth…"

"Ah… conversation… And yet, the price of mine is more than your wit – or lack thereof – can procure. Do you enjoy being insulted?"

"By you…"

Erik was disgusted… what sort of sick creature was this girl who had been pursuing him for no other reason than he was not interested in her and, more importantly, was extremely interested in Christine. He was aware that Carlotta only wanted to hurt his love and he would not allow that to happen – he did not even find Carlotta bearable… she left his senses utterly debased. "Well then, I shan't deprive you…"

Just as he was about to say something more, Carlotta suddenly reached her hands up in front of him and laid them on his upper chest. Erik was so concerned with getting her to stop touching him that he did not notice as she slipped the powder right into his drink… He recoiled again in disgust and moved a safe distance away from her as he collected himself and started heading back to his room. All he wanted to do was lie down and wait for his angel to come and find him when she was done with Jeremy.

Carlotta, though, would not be left behind as she ran to catch up to him. "Where are you rushing off to?"

Erik turned his head to look at the woman who sickened him so. "You turn the atmosphere wild with currents of vitriol when you smile at the passing insects… I would appreciate it if you would keep your noxious depravity away from my person."

"Oh, Erik," she laughed, "you can be so funny when you joke like that…"

"I'm not joking… and if you don't remove yourself from my presence, I'll make bloody sure you regret it."

"I know something about Christine that will interest you," she called out suddenly.

That caught Erik's attention and he stopped in his tracks. Much as he knew it would all be lies… he could not prevent his curiosity from stilling his movements. "Tell me…" he said as he downed his drink in one and placed the glass on the low wall next to him.

Meanwhile, Christine had just come out of the boys' halls with her drink in one hand and a half-eaten packet of Jaffa cakes in the other, when she turned the corner and bumped straight into Raoul. So caught up in trying not to spill her drink or drop the box was she, that she did not even notice when Raoul took the opportunity to spike her drink.

"Oh, Raoul, I am so sorry," she laughed, "I almost got this all over you…"

"I'm sorry… please, don't think anything of it… no harm done," he replied, brushing his coat off as though to prove it. Then, seeing how sweet and kind she was, as though he could somehow forget, he tried to take back what he had already done, reaching his hand out to try to get her glass off of her.

"Oh, here," she said, noticing that he had dropped his lapel pin. She was about to pick it up but both of her hands were full so she quickly drank the last of her drink to free up one of her hands. But when she bent over to pick up the shiny object, she felt extremely light-headed…

"Raoul, I think I drank that too quickly… I'm not used to it," she explained as he helped keep her steady.

He was suddenly very worried… why had he listened to Carlotta? Why? This wasn't like him at all – he didn't do this sort of thing – certainly not to Christine. "Why don't I take you back to your room… you'll feel better once you've rested."

"Raoul… Raoul, this isn't right," she cried, suddenly worried. She started trying to walk back into St. Patrick's but was having some difficulty with her legs. "This doesn't feel right… I'm… It's too fast to be the drink itself… I think someone must've put something in my drink, Raoul."

Raoul realised now that Carlotta had lied when she'd said that the drug would not knock Christine out and that it would only make her a bit more pliant. He felt stupid to have believed her in the first place and hoped to God that it would not have any drastic effects on Christine. He grabbed hold of her to keep her up and helped her inside, not before hurriedly picking up his lapel pin, though. "Alright, I'll take you to my room," he told her.

"No… no…" she mumbled, struggling against him. "Let… go."

As he tried to pull her towards the lift, regardless, she fought him to the best of her ability and succeeded in sending him backwards on to his rear end on the floor. She ended up stumbling into the lift similarly, falling just as the doors closed behind her and separated her from Raoul. She immediately struggled to lift herself enough to hit the button for the top floor so that Raoul would not be able to open the doors again from the other side. Feeling progressively groggier, she could not get up and she found herself strangely worried over the now broken strap on the dress Erik had given her.

She realised vaguely that she could not even move her legs anymore… but she was far too dazed to really take that information in. And she was only distantly aware of seeing the lift doors open again and a tall blurry figure standing above her…

"What have you done?" Erik hissed at Carlotta as his knees started to give out beneath him. He had absolutely no idea what she could have done to him but he knew it must have been her from the way she was smirking at his sudden loss of awareness.

He was no longer resisting as she placed her hands on his chest and pressed herself up against him. He couldn't think straight and had to focus intensely just to stay conscious. It was much to her liking that he had become so compliant so quickly and she wondered how long it'd be until Raoul showed up with Christine in tow. She couldn't wait to see her face when she saw Erik with her…

He had just enough presence of mind left to stagger blindly away from her as she tried to get him to be still. Thankfully for him, though, he had been just round the back entrance of St. Patrick's at the time… he was not yet terribly aware of the building he entered but was just following the lights and the warmth out of instinct. Even half out of his skull on some kind of drugs that she had put in his drink, he was still too strong for her to be able to detain him… She tried desperately to stop him from getting away – after all, if he were to separate himself from her then she would not be able to use him to hurt Christine.

Just as she was pulling on his arm, managing little more than slowing him down as he distraughtly pulled himself along the banister and up the back stairs, Carlotta realised that her plan was falling to pieces and that she could not stop him from getting away from her. So, she tried to distance herself as much as she could from the situation, running back down the stairs and out of the building, towards the fireworks to try to get people to notice that she was there and, therefore, could not have been anywhere else.

Erik, meanwhile, was finding it even harder to pull himself up the stairs… but he found comfort in the fact that Carlotta had given up and that he now recognised the building he was in. He also took comfort from the thought of his angel's beautiful face… if she were still with Jeremy then perhaps he could see her again before the drugs took full effect and he passed out. Christine and Jeremy were the only two people in the whole school he would trust to be around in his current state and, out of instinct, he was hurrying his way towards the room at least one of them was sure to be in.

He was only distantly aware as he heard the sound of the lift doors opening and saw a tall blurry figure standing in the doorway just as he collapsed upon the top landing of the stairs in a dead faint…

© Copyright of CrawfordsBiscuits, October 2005