Unworthy...
A\N: Well here it is, a bit longer than the last let me know what you think!
Oh and on a sidenote to Elssiana: I love reviews like yours, I find them extremely helpful! There are just some people who leave rude reviews, but yours was the complete opposite, thanks love!
Enjoy!
Lucy waited impatiently outside of the Opera House tapping her foot impatiently; Jack should have been back a while ago. What if he blew his cover? What if the Phantom caught him? She growled lowly and pushed the thoughts away, her plan could not fail. Even if he did get caught, Monica wouldn't stand to see him die at the hands of the Opera Ghost.
She sighed once more and pulled her coat around her small form trying to warm her body up. The freezing air seemed to increase its force blowing her straightened blond hair back. She huffed in agitation and ran her gloved fingers through it trying to tame it back into place.
She had sent Jack in to find out where the Phantom's infamous lair lay; surely he wasn't that incompetent to fail such a simple task. After a while however she grew restless, her lips were starting to chap and her fingers were going numb.
To top it all off it started to snow, large snowflakes fell from the clouded sky getting caught in her hair increasing her frustration. Her straightened hair started to turn into more wild curls that she tried to hide constantly. She hated her natural hair, it was so common now a days.
"Come on, Jack," she whispered worriedly expecting the biker to step through the large wooden doors of the entrance. Her blue eyes were locked intently on the Opera Populair, waiting for him to come out.
A hand grasped her shoulder causing her to jump and cry out in surprise before she turned around. Jack stood before her, soaking wet and bleeding everywhere. His chest heaved despite the broken ribs that made it difficult to breathe. His unharmed hand held the other broken one while his nose still oozed out blood.
"Oh god, what happened to you," Lucy asked caressing his cheek before he grimaced and coughed out blood staining her glove. She frowned upon seeing him in such a beat up state before she remembered they were in the middle of winter and he was standing out in the open with drenched clothes.
"The Phantom," Jack told her weakly as she took his arm and draped it over her shoulders acting as his support as she lead him towards her car. Every step she took was slow, fearing that she would only hurt him further. His body shook uncontrollably; his hair was starting to freeze over by the time they reached the warmth of her car.
"He did this to you?" she asked incredulously helping him into the car before closing the door; she rushed to get inside as well. She closed the door after her and turned the heat up as high as it could go before heading over to the hospital.
"I knocked over a damn bottle in one of the tunnels, it didn't help that I'd had a couple of drinks before I went in, he tracked me down quite easily," he hissed through gritted teeth squirming in the seat unable to find relief from the constant pain his body was in.
"But, how did you get out?" Lucy asked stepping on the gas as she passed a red light in her rush to get Jack medical help. She kept glancing at him constantly to make sure he was still conscious, blood ran down the side of his lips and dripped down to stain his clothes.
"He threw me into the river," Jack laughed before cutting off the laugh with a pained groan upon feeling his broken ribs protest, "that was his mistake, the river ran through the city so I swam out of it with a little bit of difficulty," he explained as she nodded. She couldn't even begin to understand the pain he must have been going through when he swam out of the river. She merely thanked god that it wasn't frozen over or else he wouldn't even be in the car with her.
"Did you find out where his lair was?" Lucy asked impatiently, if he hadn't found the location then the whole escapade would have been in vain. Jack turned his head to look at her with a grin that could have made the devil proud.
"Of course I did, and Kiri was there," he replied before coughing up more blood. She frowned once more upon seeing all of the blood that he was losing and stepped on the gas pedal with more force.
Good.
Her plan was going according to plan, now all they needed was to catch not only Monica but the Phantom off guard and take the child. That shouldn't be too difficult, after all Jack had been through it would be absurd to call it off now.
She would wait for the right moment to strike; in the meantime Jack could recover. With that thought a smile formed on her ruby lips, tonight had been worth the wait.
OoOoOoOoOoO
Laughter filled the room causing Monica to wake suddenly. She paused to listen and realized it was Kiri who was producing the noise. She rubbed her aching head and swung her legs over the bed carefully avoiding to further damage her ankle she stood slowly. The door to the room in which she found herself in had been left open just a crack to let the light from the lair illuminate it.
She silently thanked the Phantom for that and proceeded to limp to the doorway slowly. She opened the large door and stopped to look at the sight before her.
Kiri stood near the organ with the Phantom's cloak draped over her small shoulders as her small arms attempted to swish it like the Opera Ghost had done so many times before. The Phantom sat in his armchair watching the child intently, he was impressed that she could even pick up the heavy cloak let alone swish it.
"Monsieur I can't do it!" Kiri cried desperately attempting to swing the cloak once more but failing none the less. The Phantom stood from his chair and walked behind Kiri, had Monica not known him as she did she would have panicked upon seeing such a large man behind her brother's only child. She remained quiet however and resisted the urge to laugh at the sight, the Phantom's frame made Kiri look like a small porcelain doll that children used to play with.
"You have to twist your wrist when you do it," the Phantom whispered to her crouching behind her and taking her small hand into his large gloved one. He nodded to her when she looked back questioningly and attempted to swish the large cloak once more.
The Phantom had it all timed and flicked his wrist while holding her arm earing the desired effect she had wished for as the cloak danced in the air. She beamed at the achievement and turned to look at the masked man who watched her proudly.
"Now I'm like you!" she exclaimed happily running around with his cloak still on swishing it from time to time. The Phantom sighed and shook his head, what had he gotten himself into, now she would never quit swishing the cloak.
"How come I never got to do that?" Monica asked limping over to a table for support as he stood stiffly unaware that she had been watching the whole time. He turned to look at her before raising one of his brows questioningly.
"You got to play my organ, that is far better than learning how to swish a cloak," he replied calmly bringing a blush to her cheeks when she recalled the brief lesson he had taught her. Her eyes followed him as he walked towards her and only to stop a few feet away.
"How do you feel?" he asked motioning over to her ankle as she looked down briefly before returning her gaze to his haunting orbs.
"I'm fine, it's just hard to walk," she confessed sitting at the table tiredly. She continued to watch Kiri as she searched for something before the Phantom crouched in front of her. He stretched out his hand expectantly like before. She stared at him bewildered before understanding and moving her leg so that her foot rested on his knee. He took her ankle carefully and started to undo the bandage to check on the wound and change the bandages.
He made sure he had his gloves on this time however. The first time he had been forced to treat her wound he had done it with his bare hands, the feeling of her skin under his touch was far too tempting, and he wasn't sure he could continue to restrain himself when she landed herself in such predicaments.
Monica watched as he hesitantly put his hand on her ankle, she hissed in pain causing him to stop before continuing. He reined himself in; he wouldn't lose his self-control now. He bandaged her up as quick as he possibly could and removed his hands from her slowly fearing to lose himself to her at the moment.
He could still feel his flesh burning from the previous contact he had with he own skin, it had taken all of his will to let her go then, and it was getting harder each day when he had her so close.
"Something wrong? You're not going to have to cut it off…right?" she asked horrified upon seeing his straight face. He glanced at her blankly before he was brought back down to earth when she removed her leg form his knee brushing it against his own accidentally.
"No, unless you would like me to," he told her as a smile stretched across her lips. She was going to kill him one of these days, that much he was sure of. He wanted to feel her skin once more, he wanted to feel the burning sensation she caused whenever she had any sort of contact with him.
He was sure that she didn't love the boy anymore, so what was holding him back? He couldn't bring himself to do anything; he was horrified of how she might react. He was still a monster no matter what she said to comfort him, and she was still an angel no matter what she said to deny it.
Such a union was bound for disaster from the beginning; Christine had been a fine example of that. He didn't want to risk it all, only to lose her once more.
Monica stared back at him, she could see the internal turmoil he was going through, and much like him she was thinking of the same thing. She wanted to feel his hands on her again, she had to restrain herself form begging it of him when he stopped bandaging her ankle. She had denied Jack for his sake, why couldn't he see that she needed him just as he needed her.
She needed to feel his protective hold, and yet he restrained himself every time. He turned away every time she got to close, and drew away whenever she made contact with him. It made her think that she wasn't enough for him, that she wasn't worthy of his attention.
He could do better, oh so much better than her. Perhaps he didn't want her like she wanted him, after all she didn't have any special features to her, she had the most common eye color in the world and the most common hair. She wasn't special in any way, and she could understand him when he shunned her.
It was always one step forward and two steps back with the Phantom, she could never get far enough to see what he really thought of her. She couldn't give him what he deserved, and it was killing her. He deserved a better woman; someone beautiful, with blond hair and blue eyes with a model's body, her own frame was the same as Christine's which was also common.
"Fraulein, Monsieur Phantom, look!" Kiri called catching both of them off guard as they turned to look at her. She had the Red Death mask on, god only knew how she had found it amongst the piles of sheet music, fastened to her small head and a black fedora to top the look off.
Monica laughed lightly upon seeing the Phantom's large mask on her small face; she held it up with her hand every time it started to slip as she did the cloak swish again. The Phantom couldn't even believe his eyes; this child had so much in common with him that it was unearthly.
"Fraulein, are we still going to the circus?" she asked innocently removing the mask causing her chocolate curls to fall out of place. Monica turned to look at the Phantom questioningly. He nodded back to her before she turned to look at Kiri.
"Yes, but you aren't going anywhere dressed like that," Monica laughed pointing to the cloak and hat. Kiri frowned before removing the pieces of her newly made costume and handing them over to the Phantom sadly.
The Phantom took them back gratefully since he would be needing them tonight if they were to go anywhere before Kiri's face lit up again. She stared at him expectantly as Monica looked at her in a confused manner.
"Monsieur, can you do the cloak swish?" Kiri asked excitedly nearly bursting at the seams with anticipation. The Phantom looked at her before glancing over at Monica who in turn looked at him expectantly as well.
He sighed before he got a hold of the side of his cloak and flicked his wrist, his cloak cut through the air gracefully leaving both women amazed before Kiri clapped at him followed by Monica. He waited till they were done to look around for the tunnel he had his mind on.
He led the two women through the lair till they reached then entrance of a tunnel that led under the city to where he currently had the circus performing. Kiri raced past them before Monica paused before entering.
"You seize to amaze me," she told him shaking her head at him before he replied.
"May I never lose my charm then," he told her taking her hand and kissing it lightly before he let the curtain fall behind him surrounding them in darkness. Monica took a hold of his arm to avoid losing her balance as he led them through the dark tunnels slowly.
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