A/N: Yes this story is still continuing, I have thought the whole story out including the ending, which will not be for awhile, so don't worry. I have decided to have Erik evolve from the cold hearted Erik we know and love in Leroux's novel. From personal experience, people do change when they have children and that is what this chapter is focused on, so please don't think Erik and Christine are suddenly out of character. They are both going through changes due to the birth of their daughter.

Chapter 17-Changes

"Erik dear, can you help me with Emilie so I can take a bath?" Christine called from the bedroom. Erik came up the back stairs and into the room where his 2 month old daughter and wife sat on the bed.

"I just fed her so she should be happy for a little bit. I just would like to clean up." Christine explained. Quietly, he took the happy baby from his wife and tried to make her smile. She just recently discovered how to smile in the last few weeks and he was always trying to get her to do it. Things were a little tense between the couple recently. Erik had a hard time adjusting to life with a baby and Christine was having trouble getting used to only a few hours of sleep at a time. But Erik tried to help out when he was asked, even though sometimes it did annoy him.

He missed the days where he could shut himself up in his room and play his music for hours without any interruptions. But now it always had to be during certain times so he didn't disturb the baby if she happened to be asleep. The past few days, he had stayed late at the opera house, just so he could stay and play and work on his music, even though he knew he would never think about publishing it. But since he gave up his drug, it helped him relax.

Christine could never understand that, she always wanted him to come right home to help her. She was a woman, why couldn't she handle her motherly duties? Even though he would give anything just to hear her sing, but it had been so long since she had sang, she was seriously out of practice. However, despite all of their troubles, he remained quiet about everything. For he remembered when Christine ran away before, she could do it again and take their daughter with her, and the life that he so desperately wanted years ago would be ripped apart. But what frightened him the most was that he had wanted this life for as long as he could remember, and sometimes he had thoughts about if this was really what he wanted. For this life was far from the perfect life he had once envisioned.

Christine disappeared into the bathroom and began to run the water for her bath. Erik sat on the bed with Emilie and smiled at her again. She smiled back at him and he knew there was nothing better than this, despite all the times he didn't feel like helping out or second guessed everything. Laying her down on the bed, he hovered over her and talked softly to her making her smile even bigger. Seeing her toothless smile with the small dimple in her right cheek melted his heart. He couldn't help but smile back at her. She finally yawned as he picked her up and she fell asleep in his arms. He extinguished some of the lamps and sat in the darkened room singing a soft lullaby with his angelic voice as he lay back against the pillows and fell asleep himself.

Christine sat in the hot water thinking about what she wanted out of this marriage. She had finally allowed herself to fall in love with Erik after he gave her Emilie, and yet recently he had been so distant and cold. Things were not the way they were when she was expecting. He was so different, the perfect husband and now they were more distant than ever. Why had she allowed him to have her heart, and what had she done to make it so painful? She was afraid to talk to Erik about her troubles for she really thought he didn't think anything was wrong. But things were all wrong. She thought back to when he first took her to Nice and when she married him. How she hated him then. Then she wondered if Raoul would have changed if they were married and had children. Would he have turned distant like Erik? She didn't know, but she couldn't find out now. Being separated from your husband was against the law. Leaning back, she washed her hair and rinsed, stepping out of the tub, she grabbed her robe and left the bathroom.

She entered her bedroom shocked by the sight she saw, Erik lying in their bed with Emilie asleep on his chest. It was the most beautiful sight she had seen, and she wanted to savor the moment, for it was the first of its kind since the night Emilie was born. She gently lifted the sleeping baby off of Erik and put her in the bassinet. He opened his eyes a little bit and saw his wife putting the baby down. Turning around, she saw him awake and watching her.

"Hello." She said quietly, he gave a small smile at her and adjusted his mask back on his face. He was just as miserable as she was but he didn't know how to fix their marriage either. She changed into her nightgown and tied her wet hair back at the vanity table. She watched in the mirror as he got up to get his pajamas out of the wardrobe and changed too.

"Erik?" She said softly as to not wake up Emilie.

"Yes?"

"Can we talk tonight?" He sighed a loud sigh and replied,

"Of course." He knew that she was going to say the same things she always said when they talked, and they would end up arguing like they did numerous times a week, him going to bed mad and Christine sitting at the kitchen table silently crying. He walked out of the room and down the back stairs into the kitchen to wait for Christine. Taking two glasses out of the cupboard, he uncorked a bottle of wine and poured the two glasses full. Taking a sip, he placed both glasses on the kitchen table and took a seat.

Christine put a blanket on top of her baby and quietly closed the door halfway. Making her way down the back staircase, she was greeted by Erik sitting at the table in the kitchen. She sat down at the table across from him and thanked him for pouring her a glass of wine.

"What did you want to talk about?" Erik asked somewhat quiet. Taking a drink from her glass, she replied,

"I just wanted to talk to you about us. I wanted to know how you have been feeling about us lately." Erik sat back in his chair replied,

"Well, so many things have changed since Emilie has been born. I don't think you and I are quite adjusting as quickly as we should." Christine slanted her eyes at him, a look he always loved her to make when she seemed confused.

"Not to sound cruel, but I think I have adjusted fine." Christine replied. Erik sat up, took another drink of his wine and continued to hold it as he leaned back in the chair again.

"Have you? All you seem to do is want me with you all the time and I have to work to pay for you and Emilie to have everything you two desire. I have always suffered and now that I have exactly what I have always dreamed of, I am going to do it well, not just get by. I have gotten used to the wealthy life and I am assuming you have too. When I come home in the evening, I like to have a drink and relax instead of leaving one job I get to come home to another job. "Christine couldn't believe her ears. All she asked was for him to help out when she needed to get a bath or help Madeleine wash the clothes. She thought that Erik would want to spend time with his child, but obviously Emilie was just a chore to him. Christine was never one to lose her temper in front of Erik, despite how many times they quietly argued lately, she usually just sat silent and cried, but tonight she just couldn't hold back. She stood up with tears in her eyes and threw her glass across the kitchen towards the sink. It hit the edge of the sink and shattered into a billion pieces.

"Maybe you should have thought all of this through about how much of a burden your daughter was before we consummated our marriage!" She stomped up the stairs and into their bedroom. Erik sat stunned at the events that just took place. He didn't know what to do; he never thought of his child as a chore, he just didn't know how to be a father. Obviously the way he told Christine had come out all wrong. He sat there a few minutes with a lump in his throat and pain in his stomach. This was completely foreign to him, usually he was the one stomping up the stairs and going to bed leaving his wife all alone in the kitchen.

Quite some time had passed as he sipped on his wine. Finally he stood up and placed his empty glass in the sink hearing the sound of crunching glass beneath his slippers. Grabbing the broom from the closet, he began to sweep up the mess of broken glass when Christine appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm sorry Erik." She said quietly. He stopped sweeping and looked at her,

"I'm sorry too. I just am having trouble adjusting, I don't know how to be a father nor do I have any fatherly instincts." Christine stepped off the bottom step and onto the kitchen floor with her bare foot.

"Be careful where you step my dear." She stepped back up on the step and said,

"Erik, we are learning. We are going to have to learn together, please give Emilie a chance. It is not her fault. When I saw you two sleeping tonight together, it was the most beautiful moment I had ever seen. You are a great father, and you have the potential of being the best father, just like my father was the best father any child could ever have."

"Christine I could never amount to the father that you had." Erik replied.

"Oh yes you can. All you have to do is show Emilie your love for her. Let yourself be the father you want to be. Let your guard down with her. She doesn't know you as anything but what you are, her father. And I'll try too. Maybe we can hire a nurse to help me out that way you won't feel the pressure and I can get the help that I need." Erik stood thoughtfully for a moment, and walked over to where Christine stood on the bottom step. Standing in front of her, they stood face to face at the same level.

"I think getting a nurse for Emilie is a wonderful idea. That way we can enjoy her and love her and get you the help that you need when you need it. I'm sorry Christine, I know we have Madeleine but with Emilie I do realize how much you do now. I will try my hardest to be more understanding." She smiled a weak smile and replied,

"And I will try too. We haven't really spoken too much to each other the last few weeks; I was beginning to think that you were thinking about giving up on us." Erik pursed his lips together and gently touched Christine at the elbow.

"This is the life I always wanted, I just don't know how to live. I forced you to be here with me. I forced the making of Emilie on you, nothing was done on your own free will. I know that even now that our life has been blessed, you still think of him. You think about what would have happened if I didn't catch you two and you were raising Emilie together instead of with me. I know you and I know you think that every now and then."

"Erik, I-Emilie…" Christine was at a loss for words and struggled to gather her thoughts.

"Emilie is part of you and me, and my love for you is growing. You gave me the most precious gift I could ever ask for. He didn't give that to me. And she is sleeping right upstairs and she needs her mother…and her father."

At that moment, a slight whimper erupted from their upstairs bedroom. Both parents stood silent listening for a louder cry and eventually it came. Quickly walking up the stairs, Christine entered the bedroom with Erik right behind her. She took the tiny bundle from the bassinet and sat down on the bed. Erik sat beside her, something he had not done since Emilie was first born. The baby quieted down and looked up at her father,

"Here let me take her. Having our talk has given me a little confidence and I think I can do this. I know most fathers don't change diapers and help out, but I want to be different. I want to be like my hero, your father Christine." She chuckled a bit while handing Emilie over and said,

"Well, I'm not sure he changed my diapers and all of that, for he had Mama Valerius to help him. But if that is something that you want to take on, I will not stop you." He looked at her serious again and replied,

"Don't hold it against me if I don't do it all the time." Christine smiled and said,

"If you did it just once, I think it would put you already in a category all of your own." Standing up, Erik placed Emilie in the bassinet and raised up the baby's nightgown,

"Well, show me what to do then." He said sighing and fumbling with the pins. Christine talked Erik through the whole process and when Emilie was clean and dry, he picked Emilie up and put her in the couple's bed.

"I do need to feed her and as you know that is something you can't help with." Christine said leaning back on the pillows trying to get comfortable. Taking Emilie in her arms, she began to feed her and this was the time where Erik usually rolled over and fell asleep, while Christine had to fight to stay awake.

"Well, even though I can't perform the act of feeding her, I promise that I will stay awake with you every time throughout the nights. I'm going to try really hard to stray away from who I know myself to be Christine." She looked over at Erik who leaned back on the pillows beside her and smiled. With all of her gained confidence, she tugged on his mask and kissed him on the distorted cheek. Not because she had something to gain or because she felt she had to like she had done in the past, but because she seriously wanted to and seriously loved him more than she ever thought she could.