A/N Gah I love all the reviews!

Potosynthesis – I love Dr. Pepper! Aye I'm sorry about having to kill Meg off. I kinda liked her too. I hope the idea doesn't come back to haunt me.

Marumae – True. I mean… what person in their right mind would swoon into the arms of her kidnapper, even if he did look like Erik. :)

The Mouse- Yay! My cheese is safe and well! See here is another chapter. So keep them fuzzies away. :)

And thanks to all my other reviewers!

Disclaimer. I don't own POTO

When we last left off…

Erik slowly turned his head back to face Christine, eyes open but anger flashed in his cool blue eyes. Slowly he lifted his hand to touch his bare, stinging cheek.

"Christine." He growled. It was a warning, and she knew it.

Chapter 3.

Christine was surprised at how the mans' deep, almost hypnotizing voice could turn so booming and menacing. And he only said one word, her name.

"I…I.." She stumbled, wanting to apologize. But why should she apologize to him? Erik reached out again but she shied away. He jerked his hand back, emotions playing across his half covered face again.

"Christine, I would sooner cut my hand off than strike you." That was not entirely true. If he was in his right mind he would sooner harm himself, but if he had lost his temper…

He didn't even want to think about losing his temper around Christine.

They sat in an uncomfortable silence till the buggy stopped a few minutes later. The buggy bounced as the driver jumped from the seat. Christine moved slowly so that her captor wouldn't think she was up to something and slowly moved the dark curtain from the window.

Erik sat back and watched as she looked around outside. He could read the confusion in on her face.

"We are not getting off?"

Erik shook his head.

"We are only making a fast stop to collect a few of my belongings before we leave." He glanced out the window, watching his servant Daroga along with a few others file out of the grand hotel with a few trunks. "Christine." He said in that same warning tone when they grew near with the trunks.

Christine swallowed back the call for help.

'How does he do that?'

The buggy was jostled around a bit as the trunks were loaded. The door was opened and Daroga appeared, handing Erik a much smaller chest that he quickly tucked under the seat. Moments later there was a snap of a whip and the buggy jerked forward again and they were on their way. Christine sighed, letting the curtain fall back into place.

'I should have called for help when I had the chance. Why did I have to listen to his warning?'

…. . .

They settled back into a semi-comfortable silence. Christine scooted as far from Erik as the buggy would allow and gazed off into nothingness. Erik let her sit in silence. Yet his heart was troubled. He was sure that she was suffering, mourning the loss of her dear friend. He didn't want her young heart to suffer alone, but he knew that he was the last person that she wanted to confide in at the moment.

….. . .

Ever so often Christine would glance out the window and soon noticed that the buildings where getting few and far between, and that they had left the cobble stone streets far behind and now travled on smooth dirt roads. She sat up suddenly.

"Where are you taking me?"

Erik glanced at her but didn't move his head.

"To the country." He said simply

"What!"

"It's safer there. The plague can't reach you. I have a nice country side home that…." He trailed off as he watched the girl crumple into tears again. "Oh Christine." He reached out and took her into his arms.

She tried the hold the tears back, but not matter what she tried, they fell anyways. And once the warm tears fell, the sobs came. It was hopeless to hold them back now. She was only half aware that her abductor pulled her into his warm embrace. She didn't want to go to the country; there was nothing for her there.

"I want to go back home!" She sobbed into Eriks' shoulder.

"You're home is gone now Christine."

"I want to go back and be with Meg!" she countered, her voice hardly comprehensible with her sobs.

"Meg is dead Honey."

"I know! I want to be dead too."

Erik stiffened. His voice lost its' soothing qualities and became hard…scolding. "No Christine. Don't ever wish for such a thing."

"But I.."

"You have it better than most people Christine… you are alive, and at the moment you have your health. There are people who don't even have that right now. People who are begging for death, and look at you, still alive and well wanting to die. Those people would give anything to be you right now Christine." He snapped his mouth shut. He felt like a hypocrite. How many times in his life time did he wish he was dead? Countless times. But he was older now, wiser. "There is always someone out there who has it worse than you." He snapped ruthlessly.

Silence….. . .

"I u-understand." Christine finally replied, her voice still muffled by his shoulder. Erik patted her back and soothed her with soft nonsense words.

"However, it is alright to cry, Dear Christine."

And cry she did. Christine wasn't sure how long she let herself cry, all she knew was that it felt so much better to release. Out came all the pent up emotion that she hid from Meg and herself. She needed to be strong for Meg. But now… now… Meg was gone.

Gone.

……… . .

Christine wrinkled her brow in confusion. She smelled leather, and heard the clop of horse hooves, the jingle of chains and ring of wheels turning. 'Where am I? I shouldn't be sleeping. I should be watching Meg.' But she was so comfortable and warm. She snuggled closer to the source of the heat. She instantly felt a hand reach and pet her cheek. With a gasp, her brown eyes shot open and saw that she was curled up in the lap of her masked kidnapper. And she had been nuzzling at his neck! 'Good Lord.'

She leapt back and promptly fell onto the floor of the buggy. Erik jerked out of his half sleep stupor and quickly pulled the still startled girl from the floor and set her on the seat next to him. His blue eyes looked tired but alert as he scanned her for any hurts.

"Christine? Are you alright?" His voice was slightly groggy from the sudden wake from sleep.

Christine returned to the tight corner of the buggy, moving as far away from him as possible. "Yes! ….yes I'm fine. I just didn't think I would wake up in-… like that."

Erik relaxed, turning his body slightly so he could face the girl. "You cried a long while.. it did you good, as did the sleep." He watched Christine as she tried to compose herself, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and straightening her shift.

"Do you have to look at me?" 'God he's so unnerving. I can't think when he looks at me.' Christine wrapped her arms around herself and gazed at the curtain that covered the buggy window.

"Yes." 'I must look at you; I need to look at you. Christine.'

Christine only glared at him, too tired to argue. He only gazed back at her with a kind, startling caring look. Unsure what to think about this, she turned to the window again and pushed back the curtain. Christine was surprised to see the late afternoon sun already starting to set. She had slept most of the day away.

"Um, …" Christine shifted on the buggy seat, embarrassed. She kept her eyes lowered to her hands on her lap as she turned back to face the masked man. "Could we…stop a moment?"

"Why do you want us to stop? It's getting dark soon and these roads are not safe to travel at night." He paused when he notice the blush that flooded her pale face, the way her eyes refused to even look at him. He smiled a soft knowing smile "Ah, .. I see." He said softly then sat up and beat at the roof of the buggy twice with his fist. The noise made Christine jump.

The buggy slowed and came to a stop.

Christine watched nervously as Erik climbed out of the buggy, grabbing his cape from the floor of the buggy where it had fallen when she had taken her tumble. He snapped the cape once to shake it out and offered his gloved hand to Christine. She didn't want to touch him. She didn't need his help. For weeks she had taken care of her friends and Meg as one by one they grew ill and died. But she was raised better than that. The man obviously had been nothing short of painfully polite to her. Least she could return the courtesy, even if she didn't know his reasons for kidnapping her. So she tipped her chin up and took his hand and stepped carefully and as gracefully as she could from the buggy.

As soon as both feet were on the ground, Erik draped his cape over her shoulders. She wrapped it around her, remembering that she only wore a shift.

'How embarrassing, kidnapped in my underwear."

" I'll, … um.. just dart into the trees over there." Christine started off to a little grove of trees that grew on the edge of the road.

"Daroga shall accompany you."

Christine wheeled around, "What!"

A/N GAH! How embarrassing is that? Well at least Erik didn't say he was going to follow her. . Reviews are loved. And thanks for reading!.