Raoul won't be showing up again- but he will be mentioned. We won't be seeing Christine again until later in the story

In this chapter we see something of our main protagonists' background

Erik Calvier sat on the edge of the hospital bed, numb, apart from to the warm wait settled in his arms. Meg entered the private room that the baby had been moved into after Christine had abandoned her; she carried two polystyrene coffee cups. The blonde couldn't believe that Christine was capable of an act like this- she'd always been selfish; and childish (a side effect of her being pampered and petted since her babyhood by her doting father) but to abandon her own baby over something as superficial as the Cowl which had been removed hours ago…

"Meg…"

Meg was shocked and scared by the sheer exhaustion in her old friend's voice. Erik was a strong man- he'd been through all manner of horrendous things in his life but had never shown any sign of weakness. Now here he was sitting on an abandoned bed cradling an, sleeping, abandoned baby- his mask askew and his appearance dishevelled.

The young nurse heaved a sigh and moved to sit by her old friend. He leaned in to her warmth and she slid her arm around his slumped shoulders.

"Did she name her?"

"What?"

Erik's voice was so quiet that Meg wasn't entirely sure she'd heard him correctly.

"Did she…? Christine I mean- name the baby?"

"I don't know"

This was the honest truth- Meg wasn't a midwife- she was a paediatric nurse. "I've been calling her Maddie, though; I know you've always liked the name"

"Maddie?" Erik mused looking down at the tiny beauty in his arms. "Madeleine… Christine was talking about Ruby- but Maddie suits her better."

"Madeleine Ruby Calvier" Meg pondered. "It suits her"

Erik shifted the baby closer to him, he didn't want Christine to have anything to do with his daughter but Meg was right, Madeleine Ruby did suit her. A small sad smile curved his lips as he looked down at her.

"Bon jour Maddie" he whispered, in his native French whilst stroking her soft pale scalp with one finger. "Je suis ton Papa"

Meg stayed with Erik and little Maddie until the former fell asleep- she was disgusted with Christine; to thing the two of them were once inseparable, that private secondary school had changed her quiet friend into a precocious bitch. When the two had met again after so many years at the engagement party nine months ago Meg hadn't been convinced that the peroxide blonde at Erik's side was the same Christine Annabelle Daae that she'd once been so close to.

Part of her was glad that Christine had left- Erik deserved better; she remembered the day they met- way back when she was four years old, having just started in Reception at St James' primary school. He arrived at the school; frightened, out of his depth, and without a word of English in his vocabulary …

The boy was small- smaller than she was and she wasn't exactly large for her age. The new boy, Erik Cal-Vee-Ay, was huddled in a corner of the playground his little shoulders shaking.

"A-are you ok?" she asked, hesitantly, after all, mummy was always telling her not to talk to strangers.

Erik's head snapped up and he stared at her with a pair of honey coloured eyes though the sloppily painted; skin coloured mask which went from his hairline to his lips. His eyes were tearful and he looked scared.

"Pardon?" he asked in a strong accent that little Megan didn't know.

"I'm Meg" she told him putting a hand on her chest. "Meg"

"Meg" he repeated then put a hand on his own chest. "Erik"

"I know" she nodded.

He asked something in his own language which sounded to Meg's five year old mind like. "Parlay voo Fron-say?"

Meg frowned. "What? I don't understand?"

"You" he spoke in accented English, as if unsure of the right words. "Do no talk Fr-en-ch?"

"No" she shook her head- not knowing what Fr-en-ch was. "I talk English"

"Ing-lish" it must be a new word to him. "C'est Anglais dans Anglais?"

"English" she repeated.

"Thank…you" the boy gave her a sweet, small, smile "Meg"

I enjoyed writing little Erik and Meg- I think there'll be more of it before too long.

I'm aware that some of the French is wrong but he's trying to learn English so I thought I'd structure it in an English way

For those of you who never went through the English Primary School system- Reception is the first year where the pupils start learning to read and write because we start school at four and a half (tragic but true) :(

Anyway; enough from me for now-

until next time,

M.V