A/N: OMG, I'm so happy with everyone's comments, thank you all so much for not being mad at me for delaying. Regarding Meg and Nadir: This should be interesting, and about Erik tutoring Christine: This should be interesting. Let's see where the story goes! 3...2...1...:

Disclaimer: I do not own the Phantom of the Opera, or any of it's characters, but I tell you all my dear readers, some day I will own Gerard Butler! lol.

Chapter 32

Darkness seemed to fall over the opera house through the eyes of young Meg. Had there been any kind of expression in Christine's empty eyes, she perhaps would not have worried as much as she worried the moment she saw her friend's manner. It was only a small kiss, not even on the lips, but enough to send Christine into a nightmarish daze. She stared at them.

"Meg" was all she said, in a startled and bewildered tone.

"Christine," Meg replied, removing herself from Nadir and towards the young diva. "Are you alright?" She asked, obviously thinking this had something to do with Christine's sudden loss, Raoul. "Is there anything I can do?"

Christine stood there, and looked at Meg with the same eyes Meg had once seen her show during her 'phantom' scare.

"Christine?"

"I'm going downstairs." Christine quietly announced, and turned, and left. Meg considered following her, but thought it best not to. Was this small happening all due to Raoul's death? Or did this have something to do with Nadir. She didn't know, and she was afraid to find out. She turned back to Nadir,

"I'm worried about her," She said, "I've never seen her look at me that way." She leaned over the rail to watch Christine on the first floor, eyeing the stained glass as if remembering something horrific.

"Go talk to her" was all he said, and she saw him walking away. Meg's heart pumped furiously.

"Christine?" she shouted, and raced down the staircase. "Christine, what was that? What's wrong?"

Christine turned to look at her young friend. "What are you doing with him Meg?" She asked. Meg froze. Was her question meant to bare such negativity?

"He… I… we're kind of."

"He is the last man you want to marry, Meg." Christine told her. Marry? Meg thought. Who said anything about marriage? Even though she had been thinking about it from the moment he carried her from the dungeons of the opera house to her bedroom. She couldn't find a better way to respond than to ask

"Why?"

"Meg, you know nothing about him! He's strange to this place, and to you. Why are you with him? What do you feel for him?"

"Why are you asking me this Christine?" Meg asked, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. She never would have guessed that the first bit of happiness she would find would be looked down upon in the eyes of her best friend.

"Because Meg, that man is half as good as you think he is, if not less than half. He lured my Raoul into the dungeons after Don Juan Triumphant, knowing what kind of dangers awaited him! That man was part responsible for everything! I'm not trying to hurt you Meg, I'm trying to warn you. You don't know him."

"He lured Raoul into the dungeons so that he could rescue you." Meg corrected coldly, "He saved me from fatality, and sadness. Do not tell me what is best for me Christine, you are a far cry from being my mother."

"If your mother knew about this she would never approve."

And then there was silence. A long silence. Meg just starred Christine in the eye, "Never tell her." Meg said, her voice the very portrait of fear, "She would never approve."

"Meg, I'm just worried about you. You are young. You still have so many years left to find happiness. Do not give yourself away to the first man who is willing to touch you."

With that comment lingering in her mind, Meg turned and walked away from the girl who stood in the rotunda. A girl Meg did not even know any more. The word 'willing' flooded her thoughts. Willing?…… Willing? Every possible meaning of the word crowded her thoughts, and why did Nadir keep walking away like that? Perhaps he thought the girls needed some time alone. Just as she turned herself towards the west wing of the opera house, she found herself face to face with her mother, who stood over her like a cat prepared to strike for it's prey.

"Meg, why are you out of bed, and why are you crying?" Madam Giry asked her daughter. Meg stood there speechless. "What is going on with you? You are hiding something from me and I will not rest until I know what it is."

"Mother, I was…" She broke down. Right there in the middle of the hallway, she fell to her knees, hid her face within her hands, and let the world fade away in her tears. Antoinette looked beyond her crying daughter to see Christine in the rotunda. She would not talk to the 'soon to be' leading lady right now, but when the time came, she would get her answers from Meg's best friend.


Kristen walked slowly through their darkened domain. How was she going to tell Erik about Christine? This was the hardest moment of her life since talking to him about marriage. She turned around to watch him sitting at the organ, writing something down on paper, no doubt plans for his next masterpiece. Suddenly the urge to pen her own feelings filled her soul, but right now she knew that writing down these thoughts would not get her any further in her dilemma.

With both hands to her stomach, where her beloved son or daughter grew, she looked into the water and tried to gather the courage to talk to Erik about the one thing that now scared her most.

Minutes must have passed as she starred at her reflection in the misty lake. Like a ghost, she saw Erik's mirrored image creep up from behind her, and his face appear over her shoulder.

"Something has you troubled." He whispered into her right ear. Her heart secretly pounded to feel his breath on her. She turned around to face him,

"Yes, I know" she spoke softly as he gently placed his right hand on her cheek. Despite that his hands were cold, she fell into his touch as if he were the warmest being on earth. "There is something which needs bringing up." She said, "about the Opera." He waited a long while before she could finally tell him, but he would not push her to speak. "Madam Giry has not yet found a cast for the upcoming performance, but she has found her leading lady."

By now Kristen figured that Erik already knew who this lady was, but nonetheless she could not delay this news. "Christine Daae is to return to the stage."

"No doubt she is the only woman brave enough to sing on this stage after everything I've caused here in the past." At his words Kristen smiled, but not for long.

"No doubt," she answered, 'But that's not all. She wants you to continue teaching her. Kristen let the words flow from her like water, not even thinking about them as they came, for the anticipation would have prevented her from finishing her sentence. Erik's eyes widened, as Kristen had expected.

"That's impossible" he said, and turned from her to walk back to his organ, "That cannot happen." Kristen nearly fainted. She both wanted this answer, and dreaded this answer. He would not come into contact with her again. That was good. But the fact that something stopped him from that contact, scared her. He still felt something, and was afraid of it. She suddenly felt herself wishing that he would be fine with it. Now she truly understood what it was to never be satisfied.

"Why Erik?" she asked, following him up the carpeted hill. "Why is it impossible." She placed her hands on his shoulders from behind, only to have him turn to face her once more.

"Because of us." he said. "I would not have her come into our relationship. I will not have her influence your security here, I know that will happen. Christine is more of a child than she is a woman, the sound of my voice dazes her. I cannot teach her."

He was right about one thing, he did have the single most beautiful voice she had ever heard, but…

"Would you really have the Populaire fail in it's last attempt to shine?" she asked, "This beloved place, your home? Our home? I am not worried Erik, I will always be here. But I really think that the Populaire's success wrests solely on you now. She can't sing without your help. We have a child coming, and we'll need money. The only way for that to happen, is for Christine to sing. Please teach her." She couldn't believe the words coming from her mouth.

"You are asking me to teach her?" he asked.

Kristen nodded, "Yes," she closed her eyes and placed her head against his chest. She felt his arms move around her, her eyes still closed. "She will not harm our relationship, she mourns over Raoul right now, she-"

"Don't you see though?" he interrupted, "She's vulnerable, she's alone and frightened. Can she handle this?"

"I believe she can" Kristen hoped, and then there were no more words between the two, just the comfort of a long lasting embrace.


The next morning greeted the Populaire with a calm silence. The sky was clouded, the walkways wet, the rain accompanying the unease within the opera house. Kristen awoke to a silent patting coming from somewhere outside the bedroom. She slowly sat up and looked to Erik, who lay beside her asleep. She could not tell what dreams he was having, and she would have rested closer to him had the noise not played on her mind the way it did. Someone was coming their way, she couldn't let that go. She stood from the sheets, wrapped her silk robe around her, and left the bedroom careful all the while not to wake him.

By now she could tell just by listening to the girl breathing that Meg was on her way. Why would she visit this early in the morning? She asked herself. She rushed to the curtain and opened it before Meg could reach it.

"What are you doing here?" Kristen asked.

"Everything will fall apart before it even has a chance to materialize."

"What's wrong Meg?" Kristen asked, mildly concerned, nothing that terrible could be happening, the girl was still in one piece.

"Christine, she knows about me and Nadir, and she doesn't approve, and if she tells my mother…"

Kristen frowned, "Christine doesn't approve? Why?"

"I don't know, she thinks he's a bad man."

"Come in Meg, we'll talk this over, but you must maintain your silence, Erik is still asleep."

The young ballerina nodded, and entered.

"I shouldn't even be coming here, but I don't know what to do."

"It's ok Meg, everything will be fine" Kristen tried to comfort the girl, but the worry in her eyes mirrored everything she had once felt herself in her trials with blindness and love.


"Christine, it's time." The voice of Madam Giry woke the sleeping diva.

"Time for what?" Christine asked, soflty rubbing her eyes.

"It's time to go back to the dungeons."

Christine rose to a sitting position faster than light. "What!" She inquired nervously. Was this any way to awaken a sleeping woman?

"Erik will be your teacher." She answered.

"He has agreed?"

"Not yet, you must ask him."

Christine closed her eyes, and sighed unevenly, "this cannot be happening." She said. "He will never agree, not after everything. You know as well as I do that this match will be one made in Hell."

"Get out of bed, now." Giry ordered her as if she were her own daughter. There was nothing left for Christine to do but get out of bed as was instructed. She herself knew this was the last chance for the opera, even though she would much rather have moved back out into the country side, alone or not. She loved the Populaire, but this pressure and unease was not amusing.

As they left her bedroom, Christine was reminded of Meg's little secret. Nadir. This was something that Antoinette would have to know, but just as she was about to mouth the words, she felt a fear in the pit of her stomach that she had not felt since the night she was made to choose between Erik and Raoul. She stopped walking. Madam Giry turned around, "What is going through your head child?" she asked.

"I'm scared." Christine said.

"Of what?" Giry asked, trying to find some compassion for the girl, but right now it was the theatre's best interest that she was worried about, not the emotions of a young woman.

"Of him." she answered. Christine knew he was just a man, but he could be a frightening man. Was he still obsessed with her? Would he try once more to turn her into his own or had Kristen yet changed him into her own? Less importantly but still significant, did he still wear the mask?

"Oh, Christine, listen to me. He is not the monster you, or anyone else, may think he is. He will not hurt you."

"But…"

"Even when he kidnapped you, did he hurt you?"

"No" Christine replied quietly, as they walked through the darkened hallway towards the all familiar stair case.


"Meg, do you love Nadir?" Kristen asked, as they sat on the lovely Victorian sofa near the organ.

She sighed, "I don't know." she said. "I've never been in love before, but I know I feel something for him, something that I don't want to end."

Kristen's head turned towards the bedroom, Erik was waking up. Kristen's expression transformed into something of an accidental nature, "Uh oh," She whispered, "He won't be mad, will he?" Meg asked,

"No," she replied, "but I wouldn't condemn the possibility entirely."

Kristen lightly smirked as she saw him come out of the room in formal black, hidden behind that ugly mask. He must have heard Meg's voice. She immediately lifted herself from the sofa, and just as she was about to bid good morning to her future husband, the curtained passage flew open, and there stood Madam Giry, and Christine. Giry's eyes went angrily towards her daughter, as Christine's eyes moved frightened away from Erik.