Authors note: Guess who is updating to celebrate no more school for the summer? And guess who has decided to elect Friday to be writing spree day?

Thank you, thank you to reviewers:

Twinkle22

Timeflies

Erik'sTrueAngel

Skoteinos Metamfiezomai

Lady Wen

Nyasia A. Marie

This chapter is for you guys!

The Things I'll Never Hear

"Christine I love you."

It took a moment for those words to really sink in. Four simple words and yet they couldn't really register correctly. Erik had fallen off the bed and landed hard on the ground, hell he had even knocked his head on the nightstand on the way down. And now he was saying this. .

"Erik. . I. ."

Christine thought her gut wrenched in two when she saw her friend look up at her, his eyes half opened but with all the hope in the world which could shatter with one small word. His face looked so relaxed like he had finally gotten the weight of the world off his shoulders as he was helped to slowly lay back down- his head in her lap; and Christine could not help but run her fingers tenderly through his hair, slicking his dark locks back and out of his relaxed face. His eyes languidly closed and he titled his head slightly, like a cat who finally got the attention of his owner to be shown a bit of attention.

In all honesty, Christine didn't know what to do.

For a few minutes she just stayed silent, her fingers gently threading themselves in Erik's hair. And after those few minutes, she stopped. Well, she had to say something, as much as Erik wasn't pushing her to say anything.

"Erik, there's something I-" she looked down at him, he had not opened his eyes. "Erik?" she asked again and put a hand to his chest. Feeling the steady heartbeat and the slight rise and fall of his breathing she knew he had fallen asleep.

"Oh Erik." She whispered sadly and turned to look away from his face. Her arm stretched out and she grabbed a pillow off the bed, folding it over on itself to slide under Erik's head which she had before rested on her lap. With the pillow under Erik's head she stood up and retrieved the blanket from the bed, covering her good friend with it.

Christine sat down on the bed, watching over Erik as he slept. How long had he been holding that in? Just like his past relations with his mother and his childhood. And she had not heard a lot to really cover how much pain he really had been dealing with. But, why had he never told her before? What held him back? It's not like she could drop everything she had made now and just to say yes. She had Jack. . .

"I'm sorry, Erik." She whispered and rose to her feet, walking a few paces before she turned back and looked at his sleeping form, her eyes to his back. "I'm sorry Erik, I'm. . I-" it was ridiculous, she could not even say anything and Erik was sleeping! What was she to do when he woke up?

"I have Jack."

Christine turned and headed into the bathroom that was a room off to the right of Erik's. She sighed as she ran some cold water and splashed her face. After a bit of that she just gazed at her reflection in the mirror, wondering what she was supposed to do to break it to him. At least, she could allow him one last moment of feeling good, and in sleep with the thoughts from before, it had to be a decent one. But, what Christine didn't know, was that back in the bedroom, Erik lay slumped on his side, his eyes opened and sullen.

So, that was what it felt like. To have hopes and to have them shot so abruptly down, and not even to his face! She had mumbled it to herself! It took a lot. A lot. Of self control to pretend as though he was still asleep, but it was hard.

When Christine came back into the room, she found Erik back in bed, his head tucked tightly in between two pillows and the blanket pulled up to his chin.

'Oh dear. Had he heard me?'

Christine slowly approached the bed, laying a hand on Erik's shoulder. She felt no response, but she knew he had to have been awake to move, unless he could do such things while trapped in sleep.

"Erik?" she whispered.

No response.

The bed shifted as she sat down next to him and she laid down, shifting over until she lay beside Erik. Her arms hesitantly reached out and wrapped themselves around him, but they soon tightened and she pressed her face into his back, breathing in his all too familiar scent. She remembered a time when she could run to Erik, and he would cradle her sadness away. How she wished he would open his eyes, turn and just reassure her that it was alright. But no, it was not her who must have been feeling down in the dumps, but Erik; who remained as unresponsive as ever.

"Erik, please. . a lot has changed." She whispered, "and. . you were always my very best friend, I still think that, so much like the brother I never h-" her mouth clamped shut. Brother was probably very far away from what Erik wanted to hear.

"Erik! Please say something!" Christine sat up and wrenched the pillow off his face and from under his limp arm. She couldn't help but gasp, half choked in her throat. Of course she had seen Erik without his mask on from time to time, but she had not been expecting it and. .well, it was startling when you weren't expecting it. She sighed and skimmed her hand along the bed before looking about, spotting his mask on the ground she bent and picked it up.

"We both. . wear masks." She whispered as her finger traced the side of it before he set it on the pillow next to his face. Or at least she meant to. More or less she dropped it in shock and looked away quickly.

After a few moments she looked back down at her friend, but he looked the same, nothing had changed. .

Christine swore though, that when she went and put down to mask that she had seen one blazingly sad eye gazing at her through the dark. Such a gut wrenching look that she just had to look away from it in her haste. Maybe she had simply imagined it though.

"I'll. .I'll check on you tomorrow, Erik." She whispered.

The woman took a few step towards the door, stopped, and took the few paces back towards the bed- closing the space between them both. Erik most certainly wouldn't like waking up without his mask up. Carefully she slipped it back on his face, but not without planting a weak kiss to his disfigured forehead.

"Good night, Erik."

Then she was gone.

"Close your eyes. . don't say a word. Sleep is a rest. . from things unsure. . so dream your precious dreams and live how you want. Whatever you want. .

until morning."

Until morning. Maybe it was all just a dream? Maybe he never spoke to Christine, maybe he never even saw her! Maybe he was still on the plane traveling to America or something of that sort?

Oh Christine.

Erik could feel himself being pulled from sleep, but his head was throbbing so much that he didn't even want to open his eyes to see if it was morning or not! Slowly one eye cracked open, and then the other only to find that. . it was still dark! He could feel the bed underneath himself and that was reassuring. Perhaps it all was a dream! He gave it a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, only they never did, not even in the slightest. Maybe it was because he was on his back and staring at a ceiling with nothing on it. But he didn't want to move.

Well, tough luck for his raging skull. He needed to get up, get some Advil so he wouldn't be facing the problem of a headache when he went go to work- whatever Jacquelyn had planned for him, he didn't want a headache to be distracting him.

Erik gave a groan and move to sit up. He hadn't gotten half way up when he felt something cold and slimy wet sliding down his face. How could he have not felt anything before? He moved a bit more upright and the mystery thing continued to slide down his face. It took a moment to realize that it was a damp washcloth and that he had frightened himself for nothing. He gave a weak laugh to himself and went to remove it when something pushed him until he was flat on his back once more.

"What the hell?" the harder he pushed to sit up, the harder the other force pushed back.

"Mr. Destler, if you would wish for me to refrain from binding you down, I suggest you stay down!"

That voice. . who? No. It couldn't be.

Erik raised a hand and removed the washcloth from over his eyes when the blinding light of day hit his still sensitive eyes. With a wince and a gasp the washcloth was replaced over his eyes, inviting back the cold and the dark once more.

"Thank you. Now, even if it is wished that you remain in bed we can still conduct business, now I do believe tha-"

"Madam- err. . Ms. Sabor?" Erik asked uncertainly, trying to peak out from under the washcloth to see if it was really her.

"I know I'm not a sight for sore eyes, Mr. Destler." She spoke, and he had to wonder if that was a pun. "Please leave it. I'll go and shut the blinds, I had thought it better to get some sunlight in the room." Erik felt a dip in the bed raise slightly and he could hear the shutting of the blinds.

"Ms. Sabor. . not to sound rude. . but why are you-"

"here? Your friend Christine seemed worried and asked. She had things to do so I sent her along with Zero and I came here." Jacquelyn spoke calmly and shook her head. "You didn't look so good when I came in, and if you're wondering I had someone else let me in after you didn't respond to the first ten minutes of knocking. You were pale even asleep, though I have reason to believe that you might not have been sleeping, but knocked out. And like Ms. Daae warned, you did have a large bump on the back of your head. But we can waste no time if we want your production to get started on the pre-schedule. Does that answer your question?"

"I do believe that Grover would have my head if anything happened to you so soon. He spoke rather highly of you, almost overprotective actually." She mused to herself.

Erik reached up and grabbed a corner of the wash cloth, slowly beginning to let it slide off so that it left a wet trail across his forehead until it gave a wet slosh as it swung off and hit his arm. It felt as though a percussionist was having a field day in his deformed skull.

Deformed? Erik's eyes cracked open and he raised a hand to his forehead. His mask! It wasn't there! And Jacquelyn was staring straight at him.

"Wonderful, wonderful! Just do that in front of a bunch of stuffy critics who just so happen to have employment opportunities in their hands and you'll do fine!" Jack gave a few claps and walked over to Christine before giving her a hug.

"It wasn't my best." Christine muttered, not even attempting to return his embrace. She just weakly leaned into it. "You know that too."

Jack frowned and brought his hand down and tilted her chin up just so she would look at him. He let go and her chin pressed into his chest, continuing to gaze up at him. "Why do you figure that?" he asked.

"Because you used the word 'wonderful', you aren't the type of person to use it, Jackson."

His frown turned into a scowl. "You know I hate it when you use my full name." he muttered, "And I can use whatever word I like. You're just being a angsty child, now what is wrong?" he asked, his arms criss crossing over one another and Zero laced his fingers with his hands, holding her closer.

"I'm worried about him. . Ms. Sabor didn't call your or anything has she?" Christine asked.

"You can call her Jacquelyn, you know. She's not evil or so strict about it. And no, I haven't. If you keep thinking about him, it'll just hinder your auditions." He stated, crossly. "Buck up, Missy."

Christine gazed up at him, her eyes locking with his. She raised one eyebrow. "'Buck up, Missy.'?" She asked, and broke his gaze, burying his face into his shirt and giving a few sporfled and choked off laughs. "Alright, now what has happened to my Jackson?"

"Jack." He corrected and rolled his eyes. "You don't listen to anything I have to say, and the one day you do. . ."

"You're being pouty."

"Am not."

"Are you. . mad at Erik? Even after what I told you?" Christine whispered.

"No, unless what you said to him and told me what you said to him was a lie." Jack muttered and let go of her, his hands dropping to his sides.

Christine shook her head a few times and took a half step back. "I didn't lie. And I never took you to be the jealous type, Jack."

"There we go. Nope, not jealous anymore. Maybe mad, don't tease me. I don't like it."

"Boo-frickety-hoo." Christine mumbled, hiding a smile.

"You can take that boo-frickety-hoo with you back to Jacquelyn yourself if you don't sing your best and get a job dear. I do think she is starting to think of me as loose baggage. Your last job, after all was-"

"You're trying to get me angry."

"Just to get your mind off of him, it worked, did it not?"

"Yes, and now I want nothing more then to punch you in the face!" Christine huffed and swung a fist at him. Of course, it would never hit, just all for fun. But Jack grabbed her fist, the impact making a nice smack as it made contact with his palm. In a heartbeat, Jack spun her and pulled her into his chest, her back to it. He gave a small smile as she let out a annoyed breath and squirmed before relaxing once more.

"I believe in you, Christine. I believe in you so much more then anyone else could, but you have to prove it to those who don't believe."

He felt her lay a hand on his two which met around her stomach and he kissed the back of her head. Two brown eyes looked up at him from the view out the window and a small smile made it's way on to her lips.

"I love you, Jack."

"I love you too, Christine."

He bent down and kissed her, and he knew, that there was no way any friend, or anyone could take her away from him. Not Erik, not anyone. Unlike the masked man, Jack was not a friend to Christine, and he intended to keep it that way. Jealousy is a devil, yes, but he was not jealous. Jack just had a over-protective side, just like everyone else. Hearing another man tell Christine that he loved her, not like a friend, but a lover was a bit to trigger that sense in him; even if he had not heard Erik say it directly, he had been told by Christine, and that was enough. Particularly with how she was acting.

Jack gave a small smile and a slight exhale though his nose as he felt Christine's hand caress his cheek before turning back around in his arms.

"I'm ready, Jack. Thank you. Lets get this audition over with."

Her lips met his and Jack couldn't help but think of how stupid he had been acting and thinking. Christine wasn't going anywhere, she wasn't going to leave.

Erik was better off elsewhere any ways.

"Let's go, Christine."

He and Christine were better off without Erik.

"Alright, Jack." she tugged him towards the door.

Things wouldn't change. Jack could just tell.

Ending note: Not all endings are happy. Thank god it's not the end right? See you all in the next chapter, which I hope will be up Sunday or Monday. It all depends. But I promise, it won't be a month. . or two. . sorry. .

Man. . I really missed this story. Review!

TheDragonEye