AN: I know I've been spoiling you but don't freak out when you don't get an update every day for a while :P I'm going to be on vacation starting Sunday so that's why I won't be updating for a week or so. I'm sorry!

CHAPTER 12

Christine gave Gerry a look of annoyed confusion and replied, "I can't just do something I wouldn't ordinarily do on the spot like that."

"Well, you don't have to do it right this second."

"At least give me some examples," she sighed. Looking up as he thought, he started numbering off things on his fingers and making a list.

"You could…tell Carlotta off, slap Carlotta, play a cruel joke on Carlotta, compete with me to see who can make Carlotta cry first…"

"What do you have against Carlotta?" she asked, perplexed. He shrugged.

"Absolutely nothing. But she's the only one I know you don't particularly care for."

"I don't like some of the girls in the ballet."

"Then do something to them," said Gerry dismissively. As she glared at him, he took his wine bottle back with his usual smirk. He was really starting to annoy her.

"Why must I do something hateful to someone to be deemed genuine?"

"You don't have to do something hateful. You can do something pleasurable."

At this, Christine threw her hands up and just started walking away, muttering, "Oh there you go, talking about THAT again…"

"Hey, hey, not so fast, I'm not telling you to do anything extreme," Gerry assured her as he followed at a fast pace. "Come on, I need help anyway with all this food you just stole…"

To his satisfaction, she turned around.

"What is this not so extreme thing then? Because what's commonplace to you is usually quite extreme for me, you know…"

Putting his hands on her shoulders like he was calming down a small, fussing child, he said, "I'm telling you, it's not much. Even for you. Just…kiss someone."

Christine just looked at him like the first time he showed up in Erik's body and didn't know what was going on.

"Uh…I have…you know that…this is supposed to be something I've never done before—"

"You haven't kissed me before," Gerry pointed out. Just as quickly as he said that, he felt himself shoved back at least a foot and almost lost his footing. Once again, Christine was quickly walking away.

"Come on, I was kidding! Don't you know what kidding is in this century? I mean, it would be great if you thought I was serious, that would be really funny…oh good, you're coming back…OW! Ok, that was really unnecessary, Christine! I think you're taking me a little too seriously on the whole 'getting angry and letting go' part…."

/

"Erik, that's like…asking a mother which kid she loves more! Or something…not exactly, but you get my point. I can't decide that! I've only known you for a few days…"

Erik gave Emmy an impatient look. "You've known my character for years. Apparently, everyone does."

"Well, THAT is like assuming you know an actor's true personality based on their movies. I mean, I could say that I object strongly to things like murder for instance, and that since I'm pretty sure Gerry didn't kill anyone and you have, I like him better, or that I personally prefer if a guy doesn't smoke so I like you better, but that's ridiculous, I can't just—"

"It's not hard, Emmy. I'm not asking who is the more moral person. Morality is a very subjective concept and a lot more complicated than just knowing which people you prefer to spend your time with…"

Emmy closed her eyes and rubbed them with her fingertips tiredly as he spoke, then finally gestured for him to stop. "Fine, ok, let me think about this and try to explain. You both aren't just regular guys. People have heard of you. People think you're unique and above the rest. When they asked me to be in a movie with Gerry, I was absolutely thrilled to death. If someone had asked me if I wanted to meet you, and for some reason I believed that you existed, then I'd be equally thrilled. And you both have your good and bad points. He has a few habits I don't really like and you have more serious flaws. But somehow I can look over them for both of you because you and Gerry are just that overwhelming to be around."

"You certainly don't act overwhelmed…" Erik noted.

"It doesn't mean I'm not. Ok…I'll put it into perspective for you. You know how you used to feel in Christine's presence? Like 'Oh my God, I'm actually talking to this person right now?' Multiply that by a million and you'll have a slight glimpse of what I'm talking about."

"Oh, I think you underestimate my feelings when I'm around—"

Knock knock.

When Erik didn't immediately get up, Emmy nudged him.

"It's your door."

"Oh. Right," he said, quickly shuffling to open it.

Ah, just the person I'd most HATE to see right now…it is so strange to see him out of costume with such short hair…it helps me not hate him so much…and Meg's here too, apparently. Wait, not Meg…what is that girl's name…Emmy only mentioned it once…damn…

"Hello…" he said hesitantly when the blonde waved at him.

"We're going to dinner tonight—most of the cast, I mean. And Joel and Andrew, of course," said Patrick cooly. Whatever-her-name-was nodded.

"Yeah, it's this Italian place further into London," she said cheerily. "We're just following each other there."

By this time, Emmy was beside Erik, looking excited. "Oh good, we'll be there, right Gerry?"

A little too eagerly, he replied, "Yeah, yeah, we would love to come."

"Oh Emmy, we were wondering where you were," said the girl, who then gave the brunette a mischievous smile. "I should have known you'd be hanging around here…"

"What time is it going to be at?" Emmy asked, looking down worriedly at her far too casual T-shirt and sweatpants attire.

"Well, we're all kind of getting ready to go right now," Patrick replied. "It's not really that fancy, you don't have to dress up…much.."

"Yeah, I know, I'm not going like this," she laughed in response.

"I'm sure they won't throw you out," he said with a smile as he started to turn to leave. "See you there, then."

The blonde followed him, then turned back to Emmy, joking, "What he means is he'll be getting his carriage and you have two minutes, Little Lotte."

"Yeah, what she said!"

After giving them another smile and wave, Emmy closed the door. Slowly, she exhaled, then looked at Erik. Immediately, she groaned and started tugging off his costume jacket.

"Why are you still wearing that…and why didn't I notice it?"

"As much as I love the fact that you're undressing me right now, I am capable of doing it myself, you know."

Emmy tried to think up a good comeback, but her face was already red. So she just sighed and headed towards the door.

"Fine, I'm going to my trailer to change. Don't step out in anything too ridiculous."

Ten minutes later, she came back, looking nice but not overdressed in a flowy, pastel shirt and dark wash jeans. After knocking on the door twice, she stepped back and waited to see what Erik ended up doing to himself.

"Ah, there you are. I thought you would take a much briefer time dressing than I would," he greeted her when he opened the door. Emmy had no choice but to slap her palm to her forehead.

"What? Is this not casual enough?"

"You're still in the costume, you just took off the cuffs and cravat."

"No, I'm not! These are clothes I found in Gerry's closet. See?" Erik defended, turning in all directions as if this would make Emmy see the difference. She sighed and stepped into the trailer, once again pulling off his jacket like he was a stubborn child who refused to take off a Batman costume.

"Ok, but it looks the same. It's still a black suit. Only with a vest. And no tie…"

Erik rolled his eyes. "Fine, you shall be my official dresser as well as tour guide and stand-in mother…"

"That's what happens when you're dealing with a man whose fashion sense consists of wearing black, black, and more black," Emmy teased, turning to Gerry's closets and searching through them to find something decent.

"It's the color of power! And seriousness! And class, and respect, and everything else I wish people to see in myself."

"Well, you can still wear it, just not head to toe…ugh, he has no khakis or anything…I'm sorry, but you're going to have to tolerate jeans for one ni—Oh."

Emmy turned around with an armful of clothes to find that Erik had already rid himself of the top half of the ones he had been wearing. At the look on Emmy's face, he sighed in frustration and turned his back on her.

"It appears I've made yet another social blunder…"

"No, no, chests are totally fine…I've seen them before, believe me," Emmy assured him hurriedly, hoping she didn't offend him. "I was just staring because I didn't expect it and, well, it's nice."

"Ha!"

"It is!" she insisted (ironically, she was also throwing him a shirt at the same time.) He held the plain black t-shirt in front of him, looking at it critically before pulling it over his head.

"Won't it be getting cold here?"

"Yeah…I'm still not used to British weather. Here, you'll like this," said Emmy, tossing him Gerry's black leather jacket.

"Why did you think I would like this?" he asked suspiciously.

"Because it's just about the darkest, most manly thing a guy can wear."

Apparently approving of this, he pulled it on then looked at himself. "See, I look completely fine covered in black…those horrid jeans aren't necessary to appear modern…"

"Not really."

"Emmy. Please."

It was impossible to resist the combination of Erik's pleading in Gerry's body, so Emmy reluctantly allowed him to walk out the door like that. She lead him to her car and they waited for someone to follow to the restaurant. Once the train of cars began to move, Erik delighted himself by playing around with the radio, flipping stations every ten seconds—the entire way there.

Once parked, Emmy turned off the car and turned to Erik. "Remember, don't speak unless spoken to, or unless you have a truly genius yet Gerry-like thing to say. Try to say more casual stuff like 'yeah' and 'ok' rather than 'oh-ho good sir, indeed I do approve of this fine dining!'"

"I do NOT speak like that."

Emmy laughed at him briefly and said, "Well, you're pretty close. Just make it more dumb sounding, ok? But don't exaggerate it, the last thing we need is for you to act like an illiterate redneck..."

"What on earth is a red—"

Suddenly there was a small knock on the window, made by Ciaran Hinds (who played Firmin). When Emmy rolled down her window, the man joked, "Hey, aren't you too young to be driving?"

"Nah, I've been driving for about a year now," Emmy responded politely.

"Ah, well still, you're a brave man, Gerry!" said Ciaran, giving him a wave. Erik waved back mechanically. At this point, Emmy opened her door and stepped out of the car, which Erik did as well before following her down the street with Ciaran. Pretty soon, Jennifer Ellison (Meg) and Patrick found them.

"You'd think that we'd be able to get closer parking than this," Jennifer said after immediately gravitating towards Emmy, leaving Patrick and Erik nothing to do besides talk to eachother.

"I saw she drove you here. Nice of you to let her, but how shaky are you now?" Patrick asked jokingly after about a minute of walking.

"Not at all, she's a rather skilled driver."

"Oh, well good. I figured she was. She's 'rather skilled' in everything else too, it seems."

Erik went over his modernized vocabulary in his head before responding. "Yeah, I don't think I've seen her do anything poorly."

"I know…oh, are you coming to watch them crash the chandelier tomorrow? It's only a one-time thing for this, you know. For some reason they had to make it out of actual glass instead of just plastic so they could do it again if they messed up…"

"Maybe they wanted it to look especially realistic," Erik suggested. By this time, the gang of actors was in front of the restaurant, a red neon light spelling out Angelo's illuminating their faces.

"Yeah, that was probably it."

As they started to file into the restaurant, Erik quickly made his way back next to Emmy, praying he wouldn't have to talk to Patrick again.

AN: Here's some fun facts about the movie you may or may not have known!

Kiera Knightly auditioned for the role of Christine, Anne Hathaway was considered for the role (but was terrified of singing at that point and was doing the sequel to Princess Diaries)

John Travolta and Antonio Banderas both prepared for the role of the Phantom (you can find Antonio Banderas singing 'Music of the Night' on YouTube. It's dreadful). All of them were rejected simply because they had baggage attached to their names and Joel wanted to bring out fairly unknown or less popular actors. Oh, and MEAT LOAF of all people was considered for the Phantom. What…?

Charlotte Church was rejected for a much more cruel reason—her weight. And Katie Holmes was rejected because of her age.

As skinny as Emmy Rossum already is naturally, she was made to look even skinnier so to fit into Christine's corset. Here's some rather disturbing Emmy quotes about it. " I mean, the corset - for six months, five days a week, 16 hours a day - it physically changed my shape. I think my rib cage is much smaller than it ordinarily would have been because it deformed me at a crucial point in my growing - but it's all good!" and "We prerecorded all the music because, with the corset, you could not sing. And I didn't eat anything all day - just ice cream, because it melted and slid down my esophagus."

The first time Andrew considered doing a film version, Michael Jackson wanted the role of the Phantom.

In April 2004 an audience of the stage version of Phantom in London was asked to stay behind at the end and record the sound effects for the chandelier crash in the movie.

I mentioned this earlier, but neither Gerry nor Emmy had ever seen the play before filming (and were asked not to watch it.)

Emmy Rossumalmost didn't get the part because her mother didn't want her to miss her family reunion.

Patrick did his own stunts.

Joel couldn't understand hardly anything Jennifer Ellison said, and Emmy had trouble with it as well.

Gerryhad a string tied just below his eye to cause it to appear more deformed when pulled down. Cast members would often tug on it as a joke between takes.

The Christine mannequin was actually Emmy with waxy makeup on because their first attempt at the doll didn't look like her at all. The half mask sold for 6,450 euros on eBay.

The (utter fail at) the drowning scene with Patrick was supposed to be an allusion to flooding the torture chamber in the Leroux novel.

I don't know which song was first, but the tune that plays when Christine is going to the graveyard at first in the movie is the same tune of 'Beneath a Moonless Sky' in Love Never Dies.

Ramin Karimloo played Christine's father briefly in the movie. He became the first actor to have played all 3 of Christine's loves: her father in the movie version, and both Raoul and the Phantom on stage. (He was so good….too bad he went on to do LOVE NEVER DIES! Which Gerry, unfortunately, attended the opening night and said it was 'cool'…Gerry, you idiot. At least he didn't try out for the role.)

Ah, and I just found out that I messed up the order of filming apparently because the first scene that Gerry filmed was 'Past the Point of No Return', but come on, I didn't know and I wanted to save best for last ;)