Chapter 8: Forgiven

"I quit! I cannot work like this! Where is she? Missing again?" Oliver shouted, "I am supposed to be rehearsing my love scene right now! I was hired to play Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera, not to stand around waiting for Elizabeth to show up for a rehearsal!"

"Sorry, I'm here, I just had to… well, I had to take care of something." Elizabeth walked in.

"Well, we'll discuss this later. For now, can we get back to our rehearsal?" the maestro shouted up to Elizabeth and Oliver.

Elizabeth nodded, and they began the roof scene. The side door opened slowly, and Christine walked in. Arm in arm with Raoul. Elizabeth fought the urge to give him a nasty look, as it would be very obvious. They quietly made their way to two seats in the audience and watched the entire scene of the rehearsal. After they finished, Christine asked if she could have a word with Elizabeth. Elizabeth resisted, but she knew she had no choice. She sighed and walked off the stage, over to where Christine and Raoul were sitting.

The rehersal continued with Notes and Prima Donna, two songs that Christine, or Elizabeth, was not involved in.

"Did you… did you hear us last night?" Christine asked once they were both sitting down.

"No, well… yes… well, I'm not really sure. I heard from the part about…" Elizabeth chose her words carefully as she knew Raoul could hear them, "the part about jealousy."

"Oh…"

"Look, I understand that you're trying to help. Or you think you owe us something… But either way, we're fine. Okay? We don't need you help. Then she stood up quickly, and left.

Christine sighed. Now Elizabeth was mad at her too. Her own daughter.

"What was that all about?" Raoul said suddenly. Christine jumped slightly, having forgotten that Raoul was sitting next to her.

She sighed.

"It's… it's just… oh, it's nothing." She sighed again, and decided she would try talking to Elizabeth later, in private.

"More emotion! You are in love! You both look like this is some kind of cruel and unusual punishment!" the maestro shouted up to Elizabeth and Oliver, who were practicing the roof scene, again.

"Sorry." Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

The maestro to face the almost empty audience, "Christine, Monsieur le Vicomte, would you mind coming up here and showing some true emotion?"

Christine made an attempt to refuse, or at least answer, but Raoul was too quick, "We do not mind at all! Come along Christine." She inhaled deeply, but stood.

They walked onto the stage, stood in the marked places, and began to sing.

Raoul's loud, and somewhat off-key voice filled the auditorium.

Christine I love you.

Christine's face showed happiness and love, but she felt awful. If she wasn't such a good actress this would have been evident. She didn't love Raoul, she loved Erik. Which was probably why she and Raoul had no children, and still slept in separate bedrooms.

Order your fine horses

Be with them at the door.

Elizabeth knew. She knew Christine did not want to be singing with Raoul. It was apparent in her voice. It was then that she knew the truth. Christine really did care about Erik. She did honestly care what happened to them. She had to so something, she couldn't bear to watch Christine suffer anymore.

With a sharp, high pitched scream, Elizabeth sank to the floor in a, very well faked, faint.

Christine gasped, quickly pulled away from Raoul, and dashed to Elizabeth's side, "Are you all right? Somebody call a doctor! What happened? Elizabeth, wake up!"

Elizabeth smiled, opened one eye, and winked at her mother before returning to her original position. Christine realized what she had done, and was about to stand when Meg Giry cane running over with a rather large bucket of water and dumped it on Elizabeth's face, which was conveniently resting on Christine's lap.

Elizabeth sat up abruptly gasping for breath.

"Well, I think we've all had enough excitement for one day. I'll walk Elizabeth to her room." Christine said, holding back laughter, once Elizabeth had calmed down.

Christine and Elizabeth walked arm in arm down the hall, giggling furiously.

"Well, that was interesting, wasn't it?" Christine joked.

"Did you see the look on Raoul's face when you pulled away from him at about six hundred miles per hour!" Elizabeth said, laughing hysterically.

"You nearly gave me heart attack!"

"Well, I had to do something."

"And for that, I am grateful, but don't you ever do that again!"

They laughed some more as they walked and eventually reached Elizabeth's room. They went inside, and sat down.

All of a sudden, Christine felt two strong arms wrap around her small waist. At first she thought it must be Raoul, and this is why she did not scream. Then she remembered Raoul was still in the auditorium. She turned around slowly, and found herself face-to-face with the Phantom of the Opera.

"Erik!" Christine cried upon realizing who he was.

He pulled her into a kiss and spoke softly in his usually hypnotic tone, "Now, you are forgiven."

"Well, as lovely as this is for me, I'm just going to change and go get some fresh air… or something." Elizabeth interrupted.

She left Erik and Christine to kiss and catch up. Erik was shocked to learn that Christine and Raoul did not even share a bedroom. They chatted quietly, Christine sitting on Erik's lap, and telling him of everything that had happened during the past sixteen years. Excluding a few… small details… there were some things she didn't think even Erik should know.

Then, with a loud bang, the door burst open!

"I hate to break up the reunion, but Christine needs to be getting somewhere."

Christine gasped.

TBC…