A/N:

You guys...after years of not updating I reread this story and I'm so mad. Why would I leave a cliffhanger like this? Kill me now. Anyways, you all deserve an extra-long chapter so...here we go! PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW!

Christine

The pain was excruciating, Christine has never felt pain in her whole life. The invisible knife was cutting into the very soul Christine had possessed. Roman held her up but she heard Erik in the background trying to grab her.

"Hey, man," Roman said, "Let me take her to the hospital! Get your hands away from her!" Between her eyelids closing and her eyes rolling to the back of her head, she could see Erik's distraught face.

"Please, Dr..." Christine coughed, the pain slightly leaving her body, "I think... I think I'm okay to walk. Roman," Christine grabbed Roman around the neck, "Take me, I don't know what that bitch did, but something doesn't feel right."

"You got it, babe," Roman said as he helped her walk to the front where his car was parked. Walking away from Erik, the pain surged again. It wasn't as bad, but Christine felt it was a sort of warning. She wondered if this was part of the curse or if Tiffany really did mess something up in her insides.

Erik POV

Erik had to remember that he couldn't be too hands-on with Christine as he didn't want the rumors to spread and tarnish her name. He could care less about himself, he wanted her to be happy. If he was his original self, those girls would be dead right now, and so would Roman for that matter. Erik straightened out as he watched that peasant take his angel to the hospital and it pained him not to be the one to take care of her. That was when he heard his name being called.

"Dr. Mulheim, Dr. Mulheim," was the sweet voice of the best friend.

Meg finally reached him, "What happened, some girls were talking about how they were beating up Christine. Where is she? Is she okay?"

"Roman took her to the hospital," Erik responded, in a defeated voice, "there was nothing I would have been able to do. I'm still her teacher."

"You know you are doing the right thing," Meg said as Erik side-eyed her, "You need to let her finish out the school year and then, do whatever you want."

"She regressed, you know," Erik said as he smirked and looked down at the floor.

"What do you mean regressed," Meg questioned. Erik couldn't finish his sentence because there on the ground, he saw her tiger-eye necklace. Horror filled Erik's heart and he bent down to pick this up.

"I need to get this back to her at once," Erik stated as he started walking towards the entrance of the school with a mission to get to whichever hospital she was at.

"You can't go!" Meg grabbed his arm, knowing full well that was inappropriate, "It'll be suspicious."

Erik sighed, she was right. What would it look like if a high school music teacher would visit a student in the hospital?

"You go," he stated, "she can't be without this. It's a sort of protection, it'll keep her strong."

Meg didn't question Erik and grabbed at the necklace and started running.

Erik looked after her and hoped that she would get there on time.

Christine

Christine was surrounded by machines when she woke up. The pain started again when she was in the car getting to the hospital. it shot up straight through her ribcage into my throat. From what Christine gathered, she must have passed out from the pain. Christine reached for her necklace with her tiger-eye pendant and realized that it was gone. As panic started to creep up, she looked around and saw Roman with his hand holding up his head, slowly waking up, which was probably a nap from waiting for Christine to wake up.

"Roman?" Christine questioned as she sat up.

"Chris," Roman's eyes shot up and he rushed by her side. He took her face and kissed her softly on the lips. She didn't have the strength to fight what was going on, but thankfully a voice interrupted them.

"Christine?"

Christine and Roman both turned to face the door and saw Meg standing there, with a pissed expression on her face.

"Really, Roman," she said sternly as she walked into the room and closed the door behind her, "Always trying to look for a way to win Christine back."

"I'm just happy she's alive, that's all," Roman said as he started to gather his belongings, "Since you're here, Meg, I'll leave you girls to it."

Before he left, Roman kissed the top of Christine's forehead, "If you need anything, let me know."

Once Roman left, Meg shut and locked the door behind them just so if someone was to come and interrupt them, they would have to knock first.

"Girl," Meg said as she handed Christine the tiger eye pendant, "What the hell happened?"

Christine straightened up and sat crisis crossed on the bed. "Tiffany and Mayra, they were trying to have me admit that I was with Erik," Christine sighed, " I obviously kept my mouth shut and here we are."

"Dang, I'm sorry."

"Thanks for getting this back to me, Meg," Christine put the necklace back on, "It's supposed to protect me."

"Erik was crazy enough to actually come here to give it to you, but I stopped him, "You know, he told me you regressed."

"Regressed?"

"Yes, do you know what that means?"

"I'm assuming it's because I keep going back and forth on believing him," Christine said as she played with her pendant.

"You know, I'm sorta over you going back and forth as well." Meg huffed.

Christine's eyes looked back up at Meg, "What?"

Meg got up from the bed and started pacing the room.

"I said I'm over it. You gotta pick, you love him or you don't. Literally, you need to get out of your head. He cares so much for you, he's risking his job!" Meg's voice started getting louder. "Like the last few months I see him pining over you and I can't stand it anymore. Just give it up, you both love each other. Once you graduate, he better bang your brains out."

"Meg!" Christine yelled, a laugh escaping her.

"Seriously, Christine," Meg said, frustrated, " You have no idea how great it is. With Michael, it's just..." Meg was interrupted by a knock at the door. Meg quickly motioned to open the door and the nurse came in.

"Young lady, you are not allowed to lock the doors here."

"Sorry, sorry," Meg said, holding her hands together in a prayer motion.

"It's okay, I'm just here to say that visit hours are over," the nurse said and motioned Meg to leave. "She will be released tomorrow morning if you would like to pick her up." Meg nodded, mouthed "see you tomorrow" and left.

A Few Hours Later

Christine was woken up by the door of her room creaking open and shutting behind her. She heard the lock as well. "Meg is really trying the system," Christine thought as she turned meeting glowing amber eyes.

"Erik," Christine started but Erik cut her off by pressing his lips against hers. Her heart did the usual exploding through her body like it was their first kiss. His lips moved against hers so fluidly and passionately, that Christine forgot that she was in a hospital room. Her heart rate went higher and higher as he deepened the kiss she started hearing the beeping sound go faster on the heart monitor, so she had to stop as to not alert the overnight staff.

"How..."

He put his fingers to her lips to keep her from speaking, "I know a few people on duty," he pecked her on the lips again.

"I was terrified, you know," Erik said in a low whisper, "I thought I might lose you, for good this time."

"I know," Christine said, her heart rate finally slowing down a bit, "You did the right thing by seeing me after hours."

"Trust me," he said, "it was so hard not being there for you in a time of pain. Did the doctors figure out what happened?"

"Just a major cramp and an internal bruising from the girls," Christine shrugged. I'm contemplating getting my GED and just not going back."

"Not coming back to school," Erik muttered, "You should finish school. It's important."

Christine rolls her eyes, "Oh, yea, so important."

Erik grabbed her by the chin and brought her face to meet his eyes, "If you don't complete school, you may regret it for the rest of your life."

"Fine," Christine answered, "But I won't enjoy it."

Day of the Showcase

Christine woke up for her last day of school, graduation would be this Sunday. It wasn't particularly a beautiful day outside, but Christine didn't care. It would be a beautiful day regardless because she had finally felt that she found her purpose in life. Erik has been keeping his distance from her which helped the rumors stop around the school as well as she stopped sneaking out at night for visits just in case someone would see. Meg has been such a great friend with stopping all this talk about their relationship just in case there were prying ears.

Charlotte had been added to the showcase tonight as well and will most likely steal the show, which Christine was fine with. She just wanted to get this showcase over with and finally be able to live a normal life with Erik. She knew that it would be hard at first to convince her godmother that it was the right thing, but with Meg's mom maybe able to help, Christine thought that everything would end up okay.

"Christine," Bella shouted from downstairs, "Meg is here to pick you up for your last day!"

Christine quickly grabbed her bag and flew down the stairs. There were no classes today except for electives, which means it was a 6 hour stretch with Erik and him pretending to be a teacher that was not interested in me whatsoever. Sometimes Christine actually liked it, it was sort of exciting.

"Hey Meg," Christine said as she grabbed more burned toast, "Let's go!"

Meg grabbed Christine's arm and pulled her towards her body, "Cool it, Chris, do you want to make it any more obvious?"

Christine took a deep breath and remembered herself, "Right, I got it." Christine gave her godmother a hug goodbye and reminded her that the showcase was at 2:30pm today.

"Yes, Christine, you know I will be there. I'll be going with Meg's mom," Bella smiled.

With that, Christine picked up her dress bag that was hanging on the couch, her bag, the toast, and walked out the door with Meg on her trail.

Everyone, it seems, came early to the workshop, including Charlotte, who was surrounded by her groupies. She was wearing something glamorous, even though it was just rehearsal. She wore a two piece outfit that included a plaid skirt and a crop top that were both white, pink, and neon yellow. She actually looked quite cute, but Christine almost felt a tinge of jealously with Meg and Christine coming with a sweat shirt, sweat pants and buns on their head.

"We are so under dressed," Christine whispered to Meg, "Look at Charlotte."

"Pfft," Meg scoffed, "Dr. Mulheim specifically said to come with no makeup and comfortable outfits so we can get ready for the show later. Carlotta's makeup is going to look all cakey by the time she has to perform."

Speaking of, Christine heard footsteps coming from down the hall and quickly looked over to her Phantom. Erik looked as dashing as ever with his all black get up, finishing off with a black blazer. His eyes caught hers for a split second, but then looked over at Charlotte.

"Mademoiselle Guidicelli," Erik said, in a stern voice, "Why are you already in your get up? We won't be getting ready for the show for hours."

Charlotte straightened up and swept her long red hair over her shoulder, almost like she was trying to impress Erik. "Oh, Dr. Mulheim, you know, I always look my best, especially our last day with you."

Christine felt Meg's hand touch hers and that's when Christine looked down and noticed her hand was fisted tight, her nails digging into her palms. She relaxed her hands and stretched them out.

"Charming," Dr. Mulheim responded as he passed the group, not looking at Christine, and unlocked the auditorium.

This was going to be a long workshop.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! My goal is to have more chapters coming to you this weekend because I want to make sure to give you all a great ending! PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW so I'm motivated to write!