I'm going on vacation starting tomorrow (26th) and I won't be back until the 5th so hopefully I can have an update by the 7th I'm sorry guys but hopefully this can hold you over...and hey it isn't a cliffie! Oh and I promise I'll give you guys responses to your reviews soon.

Margo

Chapter 18 –

The next morning, Erik and Elizabeth walked to work since the rain had let up and the sun was finally out. They talked about the upcoming show, and both were happy with the progress. Elizabeth felt much more relieved this year because Erik was such a help, but on the other hand she had seven times the work for costumes and sets. Erik offered to help her, but she refused and said that that was entirely her business and he was needed to work with the students.

Andrew greeted Erik happily when they arrived at class. He fit in very well with all of Erik's students, and they were sad that he was going to leave. No one was more devastated though, than Andrew. He loved his parents very much and Erik knew that, but he hated the decision they made in sending him to the dreadful school in London.

Elizabeth's message was sent out right away. She assumed it had reached London by then and that the de Changys would be here within the next few days. She decided around nine o'clock that morning that she would visit Erik after she went to oversee the ballet class work on some of the solos.

When she got to the class, Erik was the only one who noticed her enter. Everyone was working on parts for Hansel and Gretel. Andrew was reading the narrator parts for the story that Elizabeth was going to read. She decided that the little boy would do a much better job. She only wished his parents would give Erik the chance. She decided she would try as hard as could to get them to listen to reason.

As they went through it, some of the students finally realized the presence of Elizabeth, and they were soon too disruptive to continue.

"Apparently, Miss Bennet, you are too much of a nuisance to come into my class anymore."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Erik. I did not realize I was so popular. I would like to say though that everything sounds very good, and Andrew, you do a much better job as narrator than I do, good job." He smiled, but only for a second. Then a small frown came across his face.

In the next three days, Elizabeth stressed over what she would say to the de Changys. Her messenger arrived back the day before and she assumed that the couple would be there today. It made both her and Erik very tense.

Before class, Elizabeth met Erik in the hallway and asked him to talk to her in her office.

"What's wrong?" he asked, figuring it had something to do with the so-called visitors coming later that day.

"Do you want him to stay?" she asked right away, knowing that stalling was not going to help. "Andrew, I mean. Do you want him to stay, even though it would cause quite a bit of drama between us and well, you know what I mean."

Erik sat silently for a second; then he slowly nodded. "I do want him to stay, I don't want them to be here, but I want him to stay."

"Me too."

During lunch Elizabeth headed to the lunchroom to help out. She was very restless and she wanted to pass the time before the couple got here.

She was approached by one of the staff while she was talking to one of the ballerinas, and was told that Vicomte and the Vicomtess de Changy had arrived.

She walked over to Andrew, who was sitting with Fredrick and Emily. They were talking to Erik about the upcoming show.

"Andrew, sweetie?" Elizabeth asked. He looked to her and smiled. "You parents are here to get you." His face fell.

"I want to see my Mother and Father, but I don't want to leave. Will you two come with me and convince them that I should stay?"

"I am not sure we're the ones to do that." Erik said quickly.

"But they don't listen to me." He pleaded with his big round eyes and Erik wanted to grab him and hide him forever, just so he could stay with them. "Will you at least come to say goodbye?"

Elizabeth looked between the two, and she knew at that moment that the two of them had more of a connection than just the one of Christine, and parting would break both of their hearts.

"Of course I will, Andrew." Erik replied.

Before leaving the cafeteria, Elizabeth asked Meg to spread the word that the students were not to leave the room until she told them it was all right. She did not want anyone to hear the conversation that was bound to happen moments from now. The three walked slowly down the hall, the little boy sobbing. He reached up and grabbed Erik's hand.

In the front foyer stood the de Changys. As soon as they saw the three walk down the hall, Christine ran to her little boy, and Raoul was right behind her, his hand on his sword. Christine didn't have the vibrant features she usually had. She looked tired, and you could see the obvious effects of crying for days. When Christine reached Andrew, she pulled him into a hug, but he still held onto his teacher's hand.

"Let go of my son!" the Vicomte commanded of Erik, and drew his sword.

"Sir, if you do not put that away now, I will have you personally thrown out of my establishment." Elizabeth commanded just as forcefully as the man in front of her. "You will not cause harm to a single creature in my school."

He withdrew his sword, but kept one hand near it and his eyes locked on Erik, who had finally let go of Andrew.

"Momma, I don't want to go." Andrew said into his mom's shoulder.

"We must. Andrew. You need to return to school."

"I want to go to school here." he screamed as he got out of his mothers grip. "I hate my other school. I want to stay here with Miss Bennet and Mr. Erik."

Immediately, the sword was out again and Raoul had it pressed to the throat of his enemy. "What have you done to him? What lies are you telling my son?"

"Mr. de Changy!" Elizabeth screamed.

It was followed by the outbursts of both his wife and his son.

"Put your weapon down. Is this really what you want your child to see? Do you want Andrew to see you go mad with hatred and slit the throat of a man your son adores?"

"This is no man. He is a monster and he has poisoned my son the same way he did my wife."

"Lower your weapon, Raoul." Christine finally spoke up. "This is neither the time nor the place, and we don't know the whole story."

Raoul backed off and lowered the weapon to the level of Erik's stomach. "We know enough of the story. This man took our son, brought him here, and brainwashed him to believe that he wants to be taught by this monster."

"That's not true." The voice came from Andrew. "I ran away, father. I didn't like the school you sent me to . My teachers hated me, the headmistress hit me, and the other students treated me bad." He held out his hands for his parents to see. The red marks had faded, but they were still there and you could tell what had caused them. Christine looked down at her sons hands in horror.

"Yes, I found him curled up on the front step early the other morning. We made sure he was all right, we fed him and found him dry clothes, and then Erik checked him to see if he was sick from the cold. Thankfully, he was fine. After that, he has been staying at the dormitories with some of the other vocal students, and he attended the classes. Your son is very talented. He read the narrator parts for the show we are doing. We were all very impressed, because after a day he decided he would sing it to a tune he had made himself. You should be very proud of him."

"We are, thank you." Christine said smiling at the older woman.

"If it is not too bold to say, I would love to offer him the chance to stay for the rest of the year, for free. If the two of you, or of course he had any problems with us, you could take him away any time you'd like. We would love to have him in our school. You could see that there is truly no problem at all, and that Erik is a very capable teacher."

"Could I?" Andrew asked his father, who he somehow knew it would be harder to convince. "I really like it here; no one made me say anything. I came here because it was the only school I liked out of them all. If I stayed until the end of June, then I could be in the show, and if you still wanted to, I would go to somewhere else next year. For at least this year? Please?"

Christine looked convinced. She knew her son was not lying, for she knew better than anyone how you would act when the Phantom had control over your thoughts. Andrew was acting through his own free will. Raoul, however, could not see that.

"I will not have Andrew taught by him. Good day, Miss Bennet. We are leaving now." He turned around and walked towards the door. Christine and her son stayed behind. When he noticed he was not being followed by his wife or son, he turned around. He pleaded silently with his wife, but she refused to budge.

"I know you do not trust him, Raoul, but you must trust the word of your own son and of Miss Bennet."

"I do not trust Miss Bennet. How can I trust someone who would keep that man around as a teacher after she knew about his past?"

"You know just as well as I do that Miss Bennet sees these children as her own, and she would never harm them intentionally."

"Yes, but she has no children of her own, so she would never understand the need to protect your child over anything."

This struck Elizabeth very harshly. Erik noticed the hurt that passed through Elizabeth.

"If you feel the need to insult me go right ahead, but do not bring Miss Bennet into this. She has done nothing to hurt you. Direct your anger towards me. You have reason to want to hurt me, but Elizabeth has done nothing. Besides, had you not been so stubborn, she could have recommended a school for Andrew that wouldn't result in his being hit and treated unfairly." Erik replied angrily.

"Raoul, I know Andrew better than even you, he wants to be here. Nobody is forcing him. He wanted to be here before when we took him away and that was before he spent any time with Erik. If anything goes wrong we could take him away immediately."

"I can't believe that this is what you really want for him. It is not what I want for him." Raoul replied, shocked at his wife's actions.

"Yes, but it is not really our choice, is it? He'll do well here and you know it. As much as it hurts to say, Erik made me into what I was. He is able to bring out the talent in people. Can't you imagine what miracles he could do for Andrew?"

"I can't believe you really want me to do this, and I can't believe even more that I am going to let you have your way." He turned to Erik. "If you do anything to hurt him, and I mean anything…"

"I know, you will kill me with your bare hands. You needn't worry."

"I doubt that."

The couple took Andrew for the day, and he stayed with them at the inn for the night, but on the next day he was officially part of Erik's class. Erik and Elizabeth decided the night before that they might as well just write actual music for the narrative parts, and let Andrew narrate the story, rather than switch the casting around. He was beginning to learn them by memory.

By the next morning, Erik had a melody that echoed the one that Andrew had been singing for Snow White. He was very impressed that Andrew had come up with that himself, for that young a child he had phenomenal talent for both singing and apparently composing.

At the start of class, Andrew walked into the Vocal room with a huge bright smile on his face. He was finally part of a group where he was welcome. He was still confused about the events of the day before, and why it should cause so many problems for him to stay there, but that hardly dampened his excitement.