"Dying is easy, it's living that's hard

False prophets abound

Hope bleeds gradually

Selling belief by the pound

Hidden by statistics

Hope bleeds gradually

Make do and mend

Smile and pretend

Nothing in love is lost

I hope that this is true

Hope bleeds gradually

There is plenty for both me and you."- Excerption straight from the diary of Christine Daae.

Christine's POV

Erik and I were finally alone. We walked together down the familiar streets of Paris, the people not even giving Erik one single glance. Could it be possible that everyone had forgotten about The Phantom of the Opera, and his white mask? Even so, I found it also possible for the people of Paris to have moved far away after the Don Juan disaster. When we were walking past the opera house, I stopped to have a look at it. The fire damage had been repaired, and there were posters hanging on the outside of the building of the starring diva for the shows. It was as if none of what happened ever occurred, as if the Phantom was just a story and nothing more…..as if he had never lived exsisted.

"Come along, Christine." Erik said, pulling at my arm.

"Wait a moment." I said, tugging back. "I just want a few moments to look at it."

"Why?"

When I turned to face Erik, I noticed that he wasn't even looking at the opera house. If anything, I thought seeing the opera house would make him excited and bring a sort of homesickness to him.

"What's the matter?" I asked. "Aren't you some what excited to see the opera house again? Look Erik…." I pointed towards the roof. "Looks like they still have all the original gargoyles still there."

But Erik wasn't paying attention, he was keeping his glance as far away from the building as possible.

"We should move on before someone recognizes me."

"Erik…"

"I said now!" he growled.

But I didn't move. Erik and I were supposed to be spending tome together and he didn't seem interested at all.

"I wonder if your lair is still there." The sudden idea popped into my head, and my curiosity to find out wouldn't leave my mind.

"We should have a look!" I exclaimed. "Maybe we could find some things from all those years ago. Wouldn't that be great?"

At this point, I was trying to cross the street, but Erik grabbed my arm.

"What are you doing?"

"Come on, Erik, let's go…."

"I am going no where, Christine. I am not going to the opera house."

"Erik, stop shouting."

"I will do nothing of the sort. Not until you stop acting like a child and come along."

Erik was being completely childish. How did he expect our relationship to change if he continued to act like this. We came all the way from New York, and for what? He wouldn't even go near the opera house. What could be so bad about visiting a destination from so long ago? I for one wasn't leaving this spot until Erik agreed.

"Erik, I'm going inside the opera house whether you're with me or not."

Erik let my arm go, and once I was free of his grasp, I dashed across the street into the alley where the basement windows were. I heard Erik screaming for me to stop, but I wasn't about to do such a thing. The window to the chapel was still there, and I gently kicked it open with my foot. Then, before Erik could catch up, I snuck inside. I remembered this window from when Meg and I were small girls. Once every month, Meg would pry me out of bed to sneak me out into the city. We would walk the lamp lit streets all the way to the Bois De Vincennes to catch fireflies. We used to keep this exact window cracked so we could get back in when ever we decided to come home….This was also a great way to stay out of Madame Giry's sight.

Once inside the chapel, I looked around to see that it hadn't changed. The walls were still cold and covered in spider webs, the window was still stained glass, and the sounds of dripping water hadn't vanished….

"Are you crazy!" I heard a muffled whisper, only to turn and see Erik standing behind me.

"You didn't have to come, Erik."

"And what? Stand outside?"

"Just keep your voice down."

"Keep your voice down? Did you forget that I'm the Opera Ghost?"

I giggled.

"You used to be, Erik."

Erik approached the wall, and pushed open his trap door.

"Well then, let's see if I still have it in me."

The coldness from the catacombs instantly chilled my body, and as Erik reached out his gloved hand for my own, I couldn't help but have past images of this moment flash through my mind. It was so close to the night Erik revealed himself to me as a man….his icy gloved hand touching my own, the musty smell…..Everything was coming back to me.

Once inside the wall, Erik led me down the familiar hallway. It was extremely dark, but Erik's eye glowed yellow….

"Be careful, Christine."

Once we made it to the stairs, we walked carefully down each one, the only thing missing being Erik's horse to carry me to the gondola. The concrete floor was cracked with gaping holes making it extremely dangerous to walk on. Once we made it to the water's edge, we soon found that there was hardly any water. It was extremely shallow, a nasty green color, and smelled like death. What ever was left of Erik's gondola was sunk in the shallow gunk. Erik approached it, and tapped the rotting crud with his foot.

"So much for my lovely lake."

He didn't say another word, and walked behind a wall. I wasn't sure what he was doing, but this wasn't going to stop me. I slipped off my shoes, and stepped into the green liquid. It was freezing cold, but I wanted to get to the other side. It was then that I felt something sharp clamp around my left ankle. I cried out in pain, causing Erik to come running around the corner.

"Christine!" he screamed my name ever so angry, and looked down at the green water. "What the hell are you doing!"

I tried to pull my leg out of what ever it was clamped into, but it was no use.

"Where the hell did you think I went! Your leg is caught in one of my traps!"

"Get me out, Erik."

He ran away once more. Moments later, I heard a loud, rusty sound, and felt the clamp let go of my leg. It was then that Erik came rushing in, the green substance staining his suit pants. He scooped me up into his arms, and began hurrying to the other side.

"You've really done it now, Christine." he growled. "If the lake was filled, that trap would have pulled you down and drowned you."

When we reached the little house on the lake, Erik kicked open the door and entered the destroyed home. The once beautiful end tables were missing legs and turned over all over his home. His piano was smashed in half, the keys were cracked and missing….everything that was once beautiful was now destroyed. Erik laid me down on his old bed, and began examining my bleeding ankle.

"How could you do this, Christine?"

"I didn't know." I cried. "You have to believe me."

Erik began rummaging around his room, looking for anything he could use to clean my leg with.

"Those bastards raided my house." Erik growled, circling his wardrobe. "They took everything…including what ever medical supplies I had."

It was then that I looked down at my leg to see it gushing blood and covered in the green slop.

When Erik couldn't find any supplies, he tore a piece of his white shirt and wrapped it around my ankle.

"This isn't good, Christine. Who knows what kind of disease was in that water."

"I feel fine, Erik."

I got up off his bed, and began walking around his lair.

"Christine, come on, we should really be getting back. You need to have that cleaned out."

But I didn't listen to him, I wandered around his lair looking at the old trinkets he still had on his shelves. Yes, the mob had ram sacked his home, but they had left behind his most beautiful possession…His drawings.

I reached down into the pile of rubble, and picked up a drawn picture of me.

"Are you ready to go, Christine?"

I ran my finger over the picture, and smiled.

"Why is it that you don't draw me any more?"

Erik approached me, and looked over my shoulder.

"Why draw you? I can look at you everyday, Christine."

"I found it special…"

"Did you now? I just did it so I had something to remember you by. It wasn't often that I could see you face to face, Christine."

"When we get my leg fixed, could we come back?" I asked. "To see a show in box five, like old times?"

Erik paused, thinking about what to say.

"I'll….I'll think about it."

With that, he scooped me up into his arms again, and took a different way out of the catacombs. Our outing was cut short due to my injury, but being in Erik's arms again was something money couldn't buy. We stopped by Madame Giry's to get Eudora, and Madame became worried over my leg, but Erik promised her I'd be fine. The whole way back to Erik's house, Eudora questioned me about what happened.

Once home, Erik laid me down in my room, and left to get some medical supplies. While he was gone, Eudora jumped up on my bed, and began reaching out to touch my injured leg.

"Eudora, if you touch your mother's injury I will punish you." Erik called from the other room.

This immediately stopped her. I couldn't help but giggle….Eudora always listened to Erik, because she knew if she didn't, punishment would surely follow.

When Erik came back out, he was carrying a basin and a bottle of alcohol.

"Uncle, what happened to mother's leg? I thought you were having lunch together."

"It was an accident." he assure, shooing Eudora off the bed. "Your mother is a stubborn woman."

"Am not…" I argued. "How was I supposed to know your traps were still working."

"Christine…enough…"

Eudora's eye shot my way in confusion.

"Traps? Uncle, what is mother talking about?"

"Nothing you should worry about, little one."

To punish me, Erik poured a splash of brandy over my ankle, causing me to cringe in agony.

"But I don't understand. Why would there be traps?" my daughter questioned.

"See what you did, Christine. Filling the child's head up with nonsense."

Erik wrapped my ankle up tight with gauze, and rested it on a pillow.

"Uncle could we play with my dolls?"

My daughter held one of her dolls up to Erik, only to have him push it back to her.

"Eudora, I don't play with dolls. I'm actually going to clean the downstairs family room. The sheets are still draped over the furniture. You and your mother play with them."

When Erik walked out of the room, Eudora looked down at her doll, and sighed.

"Uncle never plays dolls with me."

"Love, I don't believe Erik would know what to do with a doll. Come here, I'll play with you."

This cheered Eudora up, and she sat beside me, handing me a doll and a small brush.

As we sat there brushing her doll's hair, Eudora asked me something I thought she would never ask.

"Mother, is there something wrong with, uncle?"

"What makes you say that?"

She shrugged, and looked me in the eyes.

"I don't know, Madame Giry was talking about his mask with me. Uncle always told me that he wears the mask because he works in Coney Island."

"Yes, and?"

"Well…..we're not in Coney Island anymore."

I knew our daughter was going to ask this question to us sooner or later, and so I decided to tell her the truth. How could I lie to her about why he wears the mask?

"Your uncle wears the mask because people make fun of him if he doesn't."

"But why?"

"Because he was born looking a little funny."

"What do you mean?"

My daughter was smart, but I knew she was confused by what I was saying.

"Eudora, do you remember when uncle Erik took you to his freak show?"

She nodded.

"And do you remember what his employees looked like?"

"Yes, they looked different than everyone else. They wear funny clothes and do weird things."

"Yes, well, your uncle is sort of like them."

"But uncle doesn't wear funny clothes…..he does do strange things, but they're amazing."

"Uncle is different than his employees, Eudora. His employees may dress strange, and have weird talents, but Erik is different. His oddity is his face."

My daughter continued brushing her doll's hair, and I knew by the expression on her face that she was still confused.

"But uncle has a pretty face." she stated. "How could he be odd that way?"

My daughter was so innocent and so kind. She didn't find anything wrong with Erik when most of the people in the world did.

"One side of his face is normal, and the side behind the mask is odd."

"How?"

"He was born…" I paused, trying to think of how to tell this to my four year old without scaring her. "He was born unfinished."

"Unfinished?"

"Yes, and that's all you need to know, Eudora. Just promise me you won't try to see your uncle without the mask."

Eudora nodded, and smiled.

"If uncle is unfinished then why doesn't he fix it?"

"Love, Erik can never be finished. It pains him to know that he wasn't born normal, now let us talk about something else."

"Like what?"

"Well, uncle says you like to play with the other children at Phantasma."

"No I don't… it just seems like that."

"And why not? That's how you make friends, Eudora."

"The other children tease me."

My daughter pulled her knees into her chest, and looked down at her feet.

"Why on earth would they tease you?"

"Mother, what's a bastard?"

"Eudora!"

I couldn't believe this! Children were calling my daughter a bastard because she didn't have a father. How dare they! There was nothing wrong with my daughter, and yet, she was teased as if she were a freak.

"Eudora, don't ever say that word again."

"I'm sorry, mother." she seemed scared, and I felt terrible for shouting at her. She didn't know….how was she supposed to know what such a word meant.

"One boy in the playground told me that people would stop calling me that horrible name if I had a papa."

"Eudora…" I opened my arms to her, and she crawled into my lap. "Love, you shouldn't listen to what other people say. People are cruel, you should know this. You don't have a father, Eudora."

"But why not? Everyone else does."

I brushed my fingers through her dark hair, feeling terrible for all the horrible things I ever said to Erik. If I hadn't said those things and lied, my daughter would have her father.

"Mother, do you love uncle Erik?"

I couldn't give my daughter false hope. If this relationship never worked out, it would break my daughter's heart.

"Love, I've known Erik for a long time. I knew him when I was a child, and we've been friends a very very very long time."

"He loves you, mother, and I know you love him."

"Love, being friends and loving someone are two different things."

"But if Erik was my papa, then people wouldn't call me mean things anymore. I think Erik would be the best papa in the whole world."

"Eudora, stop. You'll come to know that things just aren't that easy. You can never be with someone just because your child likes him. Do you understand? Someday you'll find a handsome man to marry, and then have children of your own. You won't be caught up in the mess I'm in."

I knew this upset my daughter, but what could I do? I didn't want to upset her by giving her false hope. Erik had cleaned out my wound, but what ever was in that water began to make me sick. My leg was throbbing with agony, but Erik was there to make me feel better. That night, after putting Eudora to bed, he came in dressed in his night clothes and sat at the end of my bed to massage my foot.

"You don't look so good, Christine." he said, noticing how pale I had become.

"It was my fault. I shouldn't have stepped into that."

"It's in the past." he assured. "You can't change it, so don't dwell on it."

I wanted to hold a civil conversation with him, but couldn't think of anything but Eudora's problems.

"Something wrong, Christine?"

"Erik, did you know Eudora is teased?"

"When? She's with me eighty percent of the time."

"When you let her play in the Phantasma playground, or behind stage when you're working."

"She's perfect, Christine, what could anyone possibly tease her about."

I paused, tears welling up in my eyes.

"Did you know the children call her a bastard?"

This shocked Erik. He stopped massaging my foot, and looked down at his feet. I knew anger was boiling his blood and that he was trying to control it.

"I'll make them pay, Christine."

"Erik, that will do nothing. And why is it that you always resort to being the Phantom at such dark times like these, Erik? The Phantom is gone….You're a man! A man, Erik!"

"At least the Phantom took care of business."

"You can't go around punishing people, Erik, especially children. The world is cruel, and you, Erik, are a god damn man. Going to prison will do Eudora and I no good."

"And what? Let children go around calling my angel such revolting terms!"

"At least I know why she's been pushing us to be alone together."

"What?"

"She thinks by you and I loving one another will give her a father and to stop the teasing."

"And what did you say to her?"

"Erik, what could I say? I didn't want to give her false hope."

Erik scooted closer to me, and brushed a strand of hair out of my face.

"You did the right thing, Christine. You should never lie to our daughter."

"Which is why I didn't do it."

"I'll spend some time with her tomorrow. I'll take her into town and get you some medicine. You're going to need it for the fever that's sure to come."

I laid back against my pillow, and sighed.

"You should have been a doctor."

"I could have been a lot of things."

"You're a good father, Erik."

He shyly smiled.

"I make a better uncle."

"Don't say that."

"But it's true, who would want the Phantom as their father?"

"Eudora."

Erik then got to his feet, and covered me up with the blankets that were on my bed.

"Are you comfortable?"

"Yes, thank you, Erik."

He yawned, and took out his pocket watch to look at the time.

"It's late, I'm going to bed, Christine."

"Goodnight, Erik."

"I'll check on you in the morning. If you need me, don't hesitate on calling….I'm just a short distance away."

"I think I'll be ok."

"I'm serious, Christine. I'm a light sleeper…."

"Erik…."

"Ok then, goodnight."

With that, Erik left the room, leaving me in the darkness. Perhaps there was hope for us after all….

Ok everyone, please review. Next chapter is going to be filled with Eudora/Erik fluff…. It's about time they have some quality father/daughter time together.