A/N: Thank you so much to those of you who have decided to continue on with this story. Just to give you a head's up, there will be an alternate ending to this story. I wasn't going to, but I kept going back and forth and finally decided to post my original ending first because it's longer and happier, but I'll post the one chapter alternate ending last because it's beautiful, if I do say so myself. I say that now because after this the chapters are going to get sad really fast. Please hang in there with me though. You won't be sorry.

Also, as I am posting this, I already have the rest of the story practically written. It needs a little editing and maybe a chapter or two more, but other than that, it's all set, so I will be continuing to post a new chapter every to every other week. If it takes me longer, it's probably just because I'm swamped with work and school.

Please please please review! I'm dying not knowing what you all are thinking of this so far!

Chapter 2

The day started out as nothing special. It had not even registered that it was three months ago the last time I had seen another living creature outside of Erik. I had reluctantly started becoming used to the idea. In some ways it was even comforting. I would never have to worry about impressing anyone again. Neither would I worry about losing friendships, for now I had none. That sad realization hit me as I walked out of my out-of-place ornate bedroom. In fact, I was so caught up in the overwhelming sadness that suddenly overtook me that I did not notice the boat. It made a scraping sound as it hit the ground and caused me to glance up. At first I thought I was hallucinating, but after I blinked a few times I began to register that I was not.

There was Erik, in all his tantalizingly dangerous glory, but there was a girl in the boat with him, looking absolutely terrified. There was also another woman, sitting further back, looking statuesque. As the girl saw me, she smiled and waved, it took me a little while to realize that I was mimicking her with my own smile and wave. I ran to the boat feeling the happiest I had felt in a long time.

"Christine!" The girl shrieked as she jumped uncharacteristically ungracefully from the boat, catching her feet on the edge in her excitement before running to me, seeming to temporarily forget about the man in the mask just a few feet from her.

"Meg!" I practically screeched her name in my shock as I raced to her like a starving man to food.

Meg and I embraced fiercely and I found that tears were running down my face. It was a long moment before we pulled away and I realized that Meg's face was also wet with her own tears of joy.

I looked to the woman and though she was also wearing a smile, it was not the ear-to-ear one that Meg and I both had.

"Christine, dear, how are you?" Her words were warm and calming, just like what I imagined my mother's sounding like.

"Madame Giry!" I soon found myself in Madame Giry's arms and hugged her as well. She pulled away and held me at an arm's distance with her hands on my shoulders and surveyed me from head to toe.

"I am . . . doing well." I managed to say. Interesting choice of words, now that I look back on it, but what was I supposed to say? Well, after being kidnapped, Erik made me choose between Raoul and him. I wasn't sure what to do because I didn't want to live here but Erik was going to kill Raoul if I didn't and now that I'm living here I really want to make Erik happy but he won't even smile, oh and by the way, my cooking is horrendous, how have you been doing?

She gave me one last hard look and nodded her head. It seemed that though she wasn't pleased with the answer I had given, at least she was content with it. We were interrupted, thankfully, by Meg who shoved a small bag into my hands. I looked from the bag to Meg quizzically, not comprehending the meaning.

"Happy birthday!" She beamed back at me.

My mind went blank. Birthday? I searched my brain and let out a small laugh as I realized that it was indeed my birthday. How could I have forgotten? I looked in the bag, a hand me down from a previous gift, but I didn't mind. I let out a gasp as the tears began to flow anew. There in my hand was the picture of my father that I had kept by my bedside every day since I first came to the Paris Opera House when I was seven.

"Oh, Meg. Thank you so much." My voice was no more than a whisper as I wiped my tears that had fallen onto the picture of the person I missed more than even my freedom. I hugged her again and turned to look at Madam Giry so I could tell her thank you as well, but she had gone. I glanced around until I saw her returning from the boat with another bag that she handed to me. I pulled out a velvet-covered box the size of my hand. When I opened it I was speechless. Thankfully, Madam Giry took away my need to inquire why I was staring at an exquisite, antique, diamond necklace with matching chandelier earrings.

"They were your mother's. Your father asked me to hold on to them for you. I thought that this was the perfect chance to give them back to you."

I nodded before managing a very weak and creaky thanks.

Erik watched me from a safe distance, so still that I could have believed he was carved into the foreground, but for his intensely scrutinizing gaze. He looked ready to step in and shoo the guests out at the first sign of my unhappiness, but Meg and Madame Giry were my family. I could never be unhappy at seeing them.

Eventually, after apparently convincing himself that I would not wish them gone, he stole away without a sound as I gestured to some chairs the sat on a raised part of the cellar, close to the lake edge as a proper hostess would do. I laughed inwardly. The proper hostess of Hades.

The three of us sat talking for hours while Erik remained absent most of the day. We talked about everything I had missed since my 'disappearance'. I couldn't help the stabbing pain in my heart as I was told of Piangi's death. I hated death of any kind, it did not matter if it be human or animal, though in Piangi's case, both might have applied. Thankfully neither Meg nor Madame Giry felt it necessary to admit what I already knew. Piangi had not died due to the fire, but because of the one who started the fire. The man I now shared a dark and lonely world with.

The mood was lightened considerably by Meg's telling of Carlotta's inability to keep a job in the theater. No one would turn away a name like La Carlotta, but no one could stand her incessant whining and complaining.

"Maybe she should try children's theater," Meg commented. "then she could tell them the story of when her voice changed to a toad's."

There was a rather loud crash of pans that came from the direction of the kitchen and a stifled grunt that might have even passed for laughter had it been from any other person. Apparently Erik had been listening to our talk and had been caught off-guard by the comment and had dropped something that sounded rather heavy. Served him right for eavesdropping, but even so I could not help laughing along.

Meg and I spoke of our childhood adventures and the trouble we used to get into. We had just finished telling Madam Giry of the time we had been climbing trees and I had fallen and we had to explain why I had a twisted ankle. We had tried to pass it off that we had been practicing extra hard and Madame Giry had said that since we enjoyed extra practices that she would be obliged to have us practice an extra two hours a day for a full week. Meg and I were shocked but then could not contain her laughter when Madame Giry confessed that she had known the entire time how I had truly twisted my ankle. We were all laughing, caught up in the past, that at first we did not see Erik standing there watching us.

"Dinner is ready," he said with a graceful and elegant bow of the head that would put any French gentleman to shame.

We all rose to walk to the kitchen. I was too busy whispering with Meg to notice Madame Giry and Erik exchange knowing glances.

"Christine, dear, perhaps you would like to change into something a little nicer for your birthday dinner?" Madame Giry said in that motherly tone of hers.

I had completely forgotten I was still wearing my plain, and unflattering, cleaning clothes. I turned to head to my room and Meg turned to follow as I knew she would. It was that sisterly connection we had that always had us picking out each other's birthday dresses, but we were halted by Madam Giry once again.

"Meg, would you please help me with something?"

"But I was going to help Christine."

"I know, but I think Christine is big enough to pick out her own clothing."

There were more words of protest, but I ultimately walked to my room alone. As I opened the door, my attention was immediately drawn to the bed. There, spread with delicate care was the most beautiful dress I had ever seen in my life, on stage or off. The rich, deep blue of the material reminded me of something that a queen would wear, despite the relatively simple design of the pattern. There was a silver ribbon trimmed on the bottom hem and around the waist which after being tied, fell nearly to the floor. Silver lace formed a corset top and the sleeves, intentionally longer than my arms would actually reach, and on top of the dress, lain with great care, was a single red rose with a black satin ribbon tied around it. Tears welled in my eyes at the thoughtfulness. Erik was truly a remarkable, albeit mysterious, man. I changed rapidly and after fastening the diamond necklace Madame Giry had said was my mother's around my neck and putting on the earrings, I hastily pinned my hair up. I walked from the room feeling like royalty.

The weight of the jewelry was much more than I was used to, clearly not made of plaster and sequins like the stage jewelry I had previously worn.

I would never know how Erik came by the dress. It was just another mysterious layer to a very complicated man. Sometimes I wondered if he didn't simply conjure up whatever he wished, but I knew that wasn't true and I could appreciate how much attention he had put into finding one perfect for me.

There was a collective gasp as I walked into the room. The gown fell gracefully around my feet as I walked, making me feel like I was walking on air.

There were exclamations from both women, but Erik remained silent. He turned his head away, but not before I caught the same agonized expression on his face that I had seen before on the night of our kiss. I felt a moment of utter despair as I took his turn away from me as rejection. Perhaps he felt that someone as simple as myself did not do such a dress justice, I couldn't have agreed more, but my cheeks still burned in shame until Meg's gushing about how she wished she had a dress half as lovely to wear finally distracted me sufficiently to temporarily forget Erik's reaction, or at lease to push it as far back in my thoughts as possible that I again did not notice when he left - without eating.

After the, most spectacular dinner anyone ever tasted, which included every single one of my most favorite dishes, we talked for a while longer before Madame Giry broke the happy mood with the most ill news I had heard all day.

"Meg, I am afraid we must be going. It is very late."

Both Meg and I objected vehemently, but when Madame Giry said something, it was done and nothing anyone said could change that, and it was exceedingly unwise to try. She left to fetch Erik while Meg and I said our tearful good-byes.

"You'll come to see me again, won't you?" I asked hopefully.

"I'm not sure. I didn't think we would be coming here today but maman woke me up and said that Erik was here to escort us to see you." Her voice lowered to a whisper, it seemed like she was speaking with the hopes that Madame Giry wouldn't hear. "And there's been talk, maman says she thinks something is coming. She said not to worry about it, but I caught her writing a letter to her cousin in London. I think she plans for us to visit her."

I nodded, feeling very sad about not knowing when I would see my surrogate sister and mother again.

We hugged and cried for several minutes, not wasting a single moment while Madame Giry was gone, thankful that she took a little longer than necessary to tell Erik she was ready to leave, but eventually she did return, all too soon in my opinion and Meg went to wait in the boat as Madame Giry took her turn at saying goodbye to me.

"Thank you for coming, and for the wonderful gifts, Madame Giry. They mean so much to me."

"Don't thank me, child, thank Erik. If it hadn't been for him, we wouldn't have been able to come. He cares about you very much. He only wants you to be safe." She said this looking very intently into my eyes, as though she were trying to convey something of the utmost importance to me.

I didn't feel the need to mention that if it hadn't been for Erik, I wouldn't be there in first place and therefore wouldn't need his protecting, so I simply nodded. It wasn't the reaction Madame Giry was hoping for, I could tell by the look she gave me, but she sighed and pulled me into one last embrace before joining Meg and Erik, who seemed to materialize out of thin air by the boat. I waved a tearful good by and watched them sail away, taking a little piece of my heart with them.

I curled up in the same chair I had sat in just a short while before when I had been laughing and talking and thought about the day, trying to press every moment into my memory so that I could look back on it with clarity, but it already seemed to slipping away. The silence was profound in the absence of the unusual sound of laughter. Tears of happiness and sadness were both coursing down my cheeks. I was still there when Erik came back. For a moment he just stood at the bank of the lake looking at me and I at him. He seemed to be fighting an inward struggle as to stay or go. Apparently one side of him was winning because he turned to leave.

Before I could stop to reason with myself, I had risen from the chair and ran to him, absently holding the length of the skirt out of the way with one hand. I wasn't thinking. I ran right off the small platform the chairs were resting on to where he still stood by the water's edge. He was so much taller than I was and so much more graceful, that the thought of falling never entered my mind, I just threw my arms around his neck. He caught me with amazing ease, but it caught him by obvious surprise and because of the speed of my leap at him, he spun nearly fully around, causing my dress to swish beautifully in the air. Well, at least I am sure it did, but as I had buried my face into the crook of his neck I didn't see it. His pristine white shirt was soon soaked with my tears.

He wasn't quite sure what to do with me. He put me down, but I still held on to him. He just stood there as I clung to him as his mind must have been processing what had just happened. I think he must have realized that I did not plan on letting go right away because his arms tightened around me and I felt his body relax.

"Happy birthday, Christine."

He whispered my name with a reverence that made my heart ache. I pulled away just enough to be able to whisper, "Thank you, Erik. Thank you for the most wonderful birthday I've ever had."

He didn't say anything else. He didn't need to.