A/N Thanks to my reviewers. You all make writing and posting my stuff so worth it. I wouldn't have any drive if it weren't for you. So enjoy and please review. Your feedback really make a difference when I write. So please review!

Ch. 12

"Christine, Christine. Wake up Christine." A voice called out as my body began to shake. "It's time to wake up."

I forced my eyes open to see who was waking me up. I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes

"Meg is that you?" I yawned.

"Of course, who else would it be silly?" She asked teasingly.

"I don't know, maybe Erik." I said wishing it had been him.

"Well its not, its only little old me. Besides how would he ever manage to get in here? Every door and window is locked at night." Meg murmured.

I laughed in her face. "Meg, please. I married the Phantom of the Opera. I think that a few locked doors and windows would be easy enough for Erik to overcome without being noticed." I said moving the covers off my body.

"Good point." Meg replied as she walked over to my wardrobe. "But I came because I was hoping that you and your gut would be willing enough to go on a little outing."

I noticed she was actually picking out an outfit for me. It looked like I had no choice.

"Meg, you know I will and please do not call my baby a gut. It's not exactly charming." I teased.

"Please Christine, when you pop that kid out its going to be a little stinker. Just like its parents." She laughed.

"Hey you have to admit, you were the one would got us in trouble most of the time." I replied.

"Yes, but I knew I would be getting into trouble, you just followed along behind me." She said over her shoulder.

"Erik did say you were a wild one. Even back when we were younger." I told her.

"He said that to you?" She asked as she walked over with a dress.

"Yes, but I never listened to him when it came to who I was friends with." I said. "Is that what I am to wear?" I asked.

"Yes, the royal blue will make you look even more aglow." She smiled.

"Well then, thank you my dear." I said as I went to change in the adjoining bathroom my room had.

"So are things still tense between Raoul and you?" Meg yelled from my room.

"Incredibly so." I yelled back to her. "I think they will always be bad."

"Well he is becoming a bit eccentric if you ask me." Meg replied.

I walked out from the bathroom dressed and only needing to fix my hair and add a touch of make up.

"I don't know what I'd feel had Erik let me go that night." I said as I began to pin a few curls.

"What?" Meg said her face suddenly curious. "You never said he was going to let you go Christine."

"He never said the words but when I kissed him that night I could see it in his eyes. He was going to let me go. That was why I kissed him again, to show him that I wanted to stay with him." I told her as I thought back to that night.

"But I thought that he had tried to kill Raoul to make you stay." Meg questioned further. "My goodness how did you find the strength to stay?"

I turned to face her, her eyes held such disbelief at my words. "I stayed because I truly love Erik. I love him more than I have loved anyone in my life save my father of course." I began to explain. "I do know he did terrible things, he ruined our only home. The only home we had ever known. But now when I look at it, I know now that he didn't know any better. No one taught him that certain things weren't acceptable. Slowly he is learning and I think that now that we are married he is content with himself."

Meg smiled at me. "Boy are you head over heals in love with him."

"Well what can I say?" I replied. "Meg, the baby is moving."

Meg put her hand on my stomach and I redirected it to the action.

"Oh my, I can feel it Christine." Meg squealed out in delight. "Has Erik felt the baby?"

"No, the first time I felt a kick, it was too soon for anyone else to feel it." I said sadly as my head dropped.

"Christine." Meg said as she lifted my chin up. "It will all work it self out."

"I know, it's just at times I can't help but think it wont." I replied.

"Be happy Christine, you are going to be a mother." Meg reminded me.

"See, that is why I love Erik. For all the things he has given me."

Raoul's POV

I was walking down the hall when I heard a bunch of giggles. That was Christine's laugh, oh how long had it been since I had heard such beauty?

"So are things still tense between Raoul and you?" I heard Meg yell to Christine.

"Incredibly so." Christine had replied. "I think they will always be bad."

Her words stung. I was trying so hard to figure a way out for us to be happy together. It just seemed like nothing was working. I wished so much that I could talk to someone. I needed a bit of perspective.

Erik POV

I had been back in Paris for a month already; I greatly missed the home I had created for Christine and myself. I missed seeing her every minuet of the day and I missed hearing her voice and touching her face. I also missed not having to worry if people were glaring at me. In conclusion, I missed every aspect of my life.

"Erik did you hear a knock at the door?" Giry asked as she walked into the room.

I looked up to acknowledge her presence. "No!" I answered simply.

"Oh well I thought I heard a knock. I will check the window." She told me as she strided over to the front window.

"Okay." I replied showing no concern for her absence.

A second later she ran back into the room with a look of terror on her face. "Oh no Erik, the Vicomte, Raoul is here. Erik if he knows that you are staying here he will go mad." She shrieked as she pulled on my arm to get up from my seat.

"Where do you suggest I go?... What the hell am I to do?" I asked as she kept trying to push me towards the corner closet.

"Just get into the closet and shut up." She commanded as she closed the door. "He should be gone shortly hopefully, so just don't make any noise."

"Okay." I said as the darkness surrounded me.

"Good morning Raoul." Giry muffled voice said. "How wonderful it is to see you. You look well."

I had to restrain my laughter. It was beyond obvious that she was lying through her teeth. Although the boy was never a bright one, he probably took her compliments to heart.

"Don't lie to me Madam Giry, we all know I look like shit." He replied.

Never mind, I guess he did know she was lying.

"Don't be silly dear." She said as a nervous laugh escaped her lips. "So, what is it that brings you here uh… today?"

"Things are not working like I had expected them to." He said as he began to pace. "She hardly ever speaks to me and when she does, she is extremely hostile."

"I told you that this wouldn't work." Giry said, her previous nerves no where to be found. "But you refused to listen. Why can't you see that she no longer loves you? Her heart lies elsewhere."

"Yes she does." Raoul screamed. "Christine will always love me. How could she possibly love that monster? I just don't understand it."

As I stood in the closet, I had to fight ever nerve in me to not run out and strangle his pretty blue blood neck.

"Maybe you should hold your tongue and leave Raoul. I have learned that in the past, those who speak of what they do not know find to late that prude and silence is wise." She replied her voice and icy chill.

"Where is he Madam Giry? Christine has told me that he was been watching over her. He has to be in Paris somewhere. Is he here?" Raoul asked Giry, his voice low and dangerous.

"You need to leave." Giry replied as she tried to lead him to the door.

"I'm sorry but I do now believe that I am ready to leave. So if you will Madam, show me the oh so infamous Opera Ghost." He told her as he grabbed her arm and began twisting it.

"Raoul let go, you are hurting me." She cried.

His laugh was one of pure evil. Even Erik could hear the madness that rested within him.

"Come out M. le Phantom. Come out from where ever you are hiding if this woman, Christine or your child for that matter means anything to you." He threatened.

That was the final straw, threatening Christine was enough to get my engine running, but to threaten our unborn child was a whole different story. I gently pushed open the door so as not to make a sound. Silently I made him way behind Raoul. I would not give this man the satisfactory of being face to face with me, at least not right now.

"Is this what you really want?" I asked him. "To gaze into the eyes of the man you lost Christine to? To see who you failed to."

When he heard my voice I could see the muscles in his back tense up. I also saw the pleading cries in Giry's eyes.

"Let her go." I commanded of him. "Or if you prefer, I can make you unimaginably sorry that you ever came here. You do remember what happened to Joseph Buquet don't you or Piange, we can't forget him now can we." My voice was a cruel unusual sound. It only ever got like that when I was being threatened. I could see that the scene before her was starting to take its toll on Giry's emotions.

Instantly Raoul let go and made his way to face me.

"You are a murder and Christine wouldn't forgive you for it." He replied.

I laughed at him. "My God man, have you not realized? She has already forgiven me, forgiven me of everything I had ever done to you or to her. She has forgiven me because she loves me. But I know for a fact that if you kill me or anyone that she dearly loves, well she could never forgive you for that. She would probably end up killing you herself." I told him.

"She'd never dare." He responded, his eyes trying to show me he knew the truth to his words.

"She didn't dare do a lot of things before I came along." I replied, a menacing amusement lighted my voice.

"You have ruined her life you monster. How can you not see it?" He cried.

"Not anymore than you would have." I hissed.

"What is that supposed to mean?" He asked, quite shocked that I would say such a thing.

"What would she have accomplished being your wife? She would have lived a boring life as your trophy, something for you friends and colleagues to look upon and smile. She would not have been given her mind, her whit, not even her angelic voice. You would have only cared about the beauty that shined on the outside. Not the beauty on the inside." I snarled, my emotions getting the better of me.

"But it seems it's her beauty that made you love her. But I think it's what you like, isn't it. What with you disfigurement." He quipped.

"Pity isn't it." I began again. "I doesn't bother me to have you insult my ugliness. But just to clue you in, half of what I love about her is her voice and mind. Without one another, the other isn't whole. Sort of like her and I. Without her I am not whole and without me she is not whole." I said smiling.

"You will be so sorry Phantom." He said as he headed to the door. "You will live to regret the day you stole Christine away from me." At last the door slammed.

The house was filled with and eerie silence for a bit. Then Giry's voice broke in.

"Erik, you have to go find Christine. What the hell are you doing?" She screamed as I had sat down to finish me tea."

"Let me finish my tea Giry." I scowled at her. "Besides, he is the one who will need the heard start." I told her as I sipped. "Any who, he will be dead before morning."