A/N: Excuse any and all typos. Thank you all so much for the kind reviews… going to try and get a lot of chapters up here.

I will try to reply to all reviews privately at some point but for those of you wondering you Gabriele is… refer back a few chapters.

Thanks again

RR

Chapter 10- Old Friends

Antoinette propped herself up on her elbow as the morning sunshine came streaming in through the gap in the drapes. The light rested on Scott's smooth chest and she traced it's outline with her fingertip, causing him to stir awake.

This felt like the only peace she ever got now, as she watched her husband gather his senses. They had indeed been making more of an effort with each other over the last few weeks and so far it seemed to be working. Antoinette did not feel so hardened and so cold when she lay wrapped in his arms and the comfort she found in him made her smile daily.

There were still problems, neither of them was foolish enough to believe that a few weeks of intimacy would solve all of their problems. It was not as if Antoinette did not know that it was mostly her fault that they had become so detached from each other. When Erik banished her from his home her broken heart had struggled to heal.

She had been in love with Erik for many years and, for some of that, she was sure he had loved her too. Their love could never have been, they both knew it. Scott had pursued her with tenacity and determination and eventually, she saw his virtues. He was a most handsome man, tall and smooth, trained as a doctor and making his money from business. Secure and gentle, he was perfect for her. It took sometime but she did fall in love with him, deeply, and when he asked her to marry him there were no reservations on her part... except for when it came to telling Erik.

As it happened he had taken the news quite well and they had managed to remain loyal friends for years after that. At least until that day in the cellar, Erik's birthday, when he sent her away and told her never to return.

It was then that her relationship with Scott began to deteriorate. Of course, it did not help that at this stage in their lives Scott was spending very little time at home. He was so busy with work that Antoinette saw very little of him and instead, spent most of her time either with Erik or with Meg.

But then it was Antoinette's depression at losing her dearest friend to his temper that had finally driven the wedge right between them. Her depression, though she tried to hide it, lasted for sometime and after this she simply felt cooler towards people.

If she could not trust Erik, the man she had once rescued, then who could she trust? And this was the way she began to run her life and her beliefs.

Scott, and their marriage, had been victims of her new way of thinking and though she knew she was aiming her anger at the wrong thing, she could not seem to stop it.

She no longer loved Erik, not in the way she used to, and she knew that she never could again. But she freely admitted that she missed his company, his anecdotes, his way of speaking...

Now she and Scott needed to work on their relationship and rebuild it.

So far, things seemed to be going very well.

Scott reached up and pulled her down to kiss him. When they broke from each other she tucked herself neatly into his body and she held him tight

'Good morning,' he said, his voice crackled. She remembered how much she loved the way he sounded first thing in a morning.

She lay a kiss on his chest. 'Morning,' she said.

'Sleep well?' he asked, fingers stroking her hair.

'Very,' she said. 'And you?'

'Perfectly,' he murmured as he rested his head back against the pillow. 'Are you at the theatre today?'

She nodded. 'It's getting close to opening night now,'

'I'll go into the office later then,' he said.

Antoinette pushed herself up from his chest and swung her legs out of the bed.

'As much as I would love to stay here all day,' she said, standing up and pulling her dressing gown over her shoulders. 'I need to get ready,'

He smiled up at her. 'I know,'

'Would you like me to have Diane bring you breakfast up here as you're in no rush to get anywhere?'

'No,' he said. 'I'll get up, no use wasting the morning in bed.'

Antoinette smiled warmly.

'I'll see you for dinner then,' she said.

'I love you,' he called after her as she walked down the corridor.

She knew that he did. Although they still had problems they were trying, and right now, that was all that seemed to matter.

Antoinette wandered into the open hall of the theatre and set her bag against the side of the stage. The rooms lights had all been lit and the room had a soft and ambient glow, making her feel warm. She climbed up the steps at the side of the stage and felt the creak of the boards beneath her
feet as she walked to the centre of the stage. Her hip ached but she did her best to ignore it as she breathed in the scent of the Opera Populair.

'Well, well,' she heard.

'Nadir,' she said, turning to look at him, beaming from ear to ear. 'It's been too long,'

He walked onto the stage and pulled her into a warm embrace. There were no airs and graces, no social formalities, just two old friends meeting again for the first time in a year.

'How was the travelling?' she asked him as he let her go.

'Good,' he said. 'You look well,'

He cocked his eyebrow at her.

'I feel well,' she said.

'Dare I ask?'

'Scott and I are doing much better,'

His dark eyes twinkled. 'I see my dear,'

'Nadir, such a one track mind,' she nudged him in the shoulder.

'Ah, but I'm right,' he said, grinning.

'When did you get back?' Antoinette asked, changing the subject as quickly as she could. The Persian smiled and hooked his bag back over his shoulder as he followed her to the back of the stage.

'Earlier this morning,' he said. 'I'm here in the hope that the room upstairs is still available,'

Antoinette smiled. 'It is...' she said. 'I made sure I kept it for you,'

'Good girl,' he smiled.

Antoinette stopped and looked at him, he was small in size but made up for it in energy, he had dark, thoughtful eyes and his skin was weathered by work and travelling. He had not changed one bit and she was pleased to see him.

'You are a sight for sore eyes,' she said, feeling a pearl of sadness inside her.

He looked at her, gauging her. 'Is everything alright?'

'Yes,' she said, with a nod.

'Are you sure?' he asked.

She looked at her hands, wondering where her resolve had gone.

He waited for a moment, Antoinette wondered what he was thinking.

'Have you seen Erik?' Nadir asked.

She shook her head. 'I think it's been over four years now,'

'Is that what's bothering you?' he asked, eyes watching her face.

'Not exactly...'

'But Erik is bothering you?'

She looked at him. 'There is a girl, my goddaughter, Christine... she lives in the opera house now and Erik would appear to have taken a shine to her,'

'I see,'

'Don't look at me that way, Nadir,' Antoinette said. 'This is not jealousy, I promise you...'

'Then what is it?' he asked.

'I'm worried for her...'

He nodded. 'I'm sure he won't...'

'Hurt her?' she interrupted.

He nodded in response.

'I know he wouldn't hurt her,' she said. 'But you know how he is... how obsessive he becomes...'

Nadir stood in silence as if scared to speak, scared to say what both of them knew.

'I will go and speak to him,' Nadir said. 'That's if he isn't listening to us now...'

'He won't be,' Antoinette said with a confidence that came from knowing Erik. 'This is one of the few times a day when he tries to sleep...'

'I remember,' Nadir smiled.

'I'm worried for her...'

'How did you find out about this?'

'She had a rose in her dressing room dressed in a black ribbon,' she said. 'As a signature goes...'

Nadir gave her sharp nod. 'I'm not sure how much good it will do... me talking to him,'

Antoinette had a feeling it would not do much good either but she thought that they at least needed to try. She worried for Christine but secretly, deep inside her, she worried for Erik too. How would he cope with a rejection if it were to come? Antoinette had known about his face, had grown with him, become used to it and realised that it was part of who he was... for a new woman it would be shocking.

Then there was another though; what if she did not reject him, what if she fell in love with him as Antoinette had? How would they live their lives? In sin? It must be because Erik would not be able to marry in public and even in privacy he would have problems. Could Christine cope with slinking about beneath the opera house, in secrecy, in seclusion? Simply because Erik was happy with this life did not mean that other's could deal with this, could live their lives that way.

Antoinette had known she couldn't.

'We must try,' she finally said to Nadir.

'Perhaps you should come and see him with me,'

'I don't think so,' she said. 'It's been too long to build bridges,'

'You don't miss him?' Nadir asked, watching her again.

'You know I do,' she said. She paused and took a breath; 'Does he ever ask about me?'

Nadir looked down at his hands.

'No, then,' she whispered.

He simply shook his head in response.

'That's fine,' she said brusquely, as she moved behind the curtains.

'You know how he can be,'

She nodded. 'Yes, I certainly do,'

Nadir looked at her and Antoinette spotted a sadness in his dark eyes. She thought that he was probably wondering what on earth he had come back to. He should have known that, that she and Erik would still not be friends. When Erik made decisions he tended to stick by them, no matter what consequences might occur.

This stubbornness had landed him in trouble on more than one occasion, which was how his meeting with Nadir had come about. Not long after Antoinette had settled Erik into the opera house she found that she had a suitor of sorts. A young British man by the name of Benjamin. He was kind enough but he had taken it up on himself to follow Antoinette everywhere she went.

One night, Erik caught the man following her and got it into his head that he would kill the poor boy. The plan almost came to execution, as it were, but as he lowered the rope around the boys neck Benjamin grabbed it and tugged. Nadir was just walking around the corner when it happened and chose to save Erik rather than Benjamin.

He grabbed the rope and asked the boy what he was doing with the stage prop... to which Benjamin got very confused, stammered and stuttered and wandered away.

Erik rewarded Nadir with a friendship, of sorts.

And so all three of them became close friends, though Erik was the more distant of them. Choosing the times where he was prepared to be social. Sometimes when she watched Nadir, she thought that he was a little scared of Erik. Although he gave him his full and honest opinion, he stood quite a long distance away when he did it.

Nadir had once said that he didn't think that Erik was, in his words, 'quite as sane as he could be,' and to a certain extent Antoinette was forced to agree with this. Still, Erik's problem wasn't necessarily insanity, it was more depression. He most certainly wasn't a psychopath or anything of that description... he did have a heart.

True, it was a heart that had been hurt and broken, a should more battered and bruised than any she had known. For a boy to be rejected by his mother must be the hardest of pains. Erik had lived through this, through the beatings and rejection and finally, he had found comfort in his solitude, found some strength in the night.

He had found enough heart in him, enough feeling, to love her, to befriend Nadir, to protect them and now, to find attraction in Christine.

She just hoped that he did not fall too deeply, too quickly.

After all, it had not taken him very long to force Benjamin away.