Hey everyone sorry this chapter took so long! My internet exploded this week and I couldn't upload this until today. Hope you all enjoy it though.
By the way in case it is unclear the dream referred to in this chapter is about Christine. This is why Erik is so grumpy.
Disclaimer: Don't own the Phantom characters but I do own everyone else.
Chapter 13: Look Who Came to Dinner
Brielle sat quietly at the table, her eyes occasionally flickering up to study her mysterious guest. The food upon her plate remained mostly untouched. Somehow his presence made her too jittery to eat and so she pushed the food about on her plate without taking a bite. Aria, after watching her mother's strange behavior, also began to stare at Erik. However, the child had no sense of guile and openly gaped with her mouth half open.
As she secretly stole another gaze at him she couldn't help but notice how devilishly handsome he was. He had arresting looks - high sculptured cheekbones, a long narrow nose, and wide spaced eyes with long lashes. Brielle had never seen such lashes before - on man or woman.
Yes, he truly had a breath-catching face. A face, she thought, that made you long to open its secrets. And he seemed to have so many secrets. The least of which was the white mask covering the right side of his face, which Brielle barely even noticed anymore. What was under it never even crossed her mind.
Despite the beauty of his face, it was his eyes which made the greatest impression. They were an unnamable color of blue, ever changing with his moods. At the moment his eyes were cold and sharp, like broken shards of river ice reflecting a winter sky. They were so cold they burned. Brielle wondered how he could live with such intensity inside himself. She felt, it would be like trying to stare into the sun.
Sometime in the night he had shed his roguish smiles and almost friendly barbs. Erik had built a fortress about his soul within the span of twelve hours. His face was as flat and empty as a prairie in winter. The changed mystified her. Made her feel exposed.
The thought that she really didn't know this man echoed within her mind, refusing to be pushed aside. And as she studied him, she came to realize just how big he was sitting at her table. His shoulders were wide and well toned; she could see his muscles moving under the shirt she had given him every time he moved. If he wanted, she knew, he could break her in half as easily as snapping a toothpick in two.
"Would you like some more mashed potatoes?" she finally asked, unable to stand the silence any longer. He merely shook his head, declining her offer as he stared into the darkness outside the window.
As a new thought dawned on her she abruptly asked. "Are you feeling well?"
"Quite well. I simply did not sleep peacefully last night," he replied coolly.
"Is it your troubling dreams or your troubling personality which causes you to be so annoying today?" Finally she had lost her patience and her tone took the biting chill of an arctic wind. If he wanted to build walls then she would match him brick for brick.
He turned those burning eyes upon her as he slowly set his fork down upon the side of the plate. His table manners were impeccable. "Did I say that my dreams were troubled?" Erik inquired as he began to frown at her.
"Muh-muh-momma is a mind reader!" Aria supplied before falling back into her silent observance of their strange visitor, a dab of mashed potatoes smeared upon her chin.
Surprised amusement flashed over his face before receding. "Oh?"
"Of course not! And Aria, what a terrible thing to make up!"
"I wah-wah-wasn't making it up!"
Brielle huffed and waved a dismissive hand, turning her eyes back to Erik. "You didn't mention it but it is not a far stretch of the mind to assume bad dreams are the cause of your insomnia." In truth, her statement wasn't an assumption at all. The knowledge had suddenly floated across her mind, like a whisper upon the wind.
Erik remained silent, but his eyes were burning bright as a winter's sun. He stared at her so hard it was as if he were boring a hole straight through the middle of her forehead. Brielle shifted under his gaze, once again feeling the unspoken threat lying dormant within the beauty of his musician's hands when they balled into fists. He is doing that on purpose to frighten me.
How she missed her husband, John, in times like these, when the fear began to grip at her chest, squeezing the breath right out of her. Brielle's hard expression softened slightly as the old grief slowly filled her, easily pushing aside the fear.
The mysterious whisper within her mind drifted into her consciousness as she met her patient glare for glare. "Everyone grieves, Erik. I ask you to not take yours out on me." She said, echoing the knowing voice within her head without understanding its words.
"What do you know of grief!" he hissed quietly, his lips thinning with temper, his eyes flashing.
"What do I know of…" Shock prevented her from dumbly repeating his words.
The pair stared at one another in silence for a split second - he with fury, she with a cool if slightly shocked expression. Slowly Brielle bowed her head, staring at her tightly clenched hands within her lap. As she raised a hand to cover the tremble beginning in her bottom lip, her heart began to squeeze painfully within her chest. The growing pressure clenched her throat shut even as tears stung at her eyes.
Erik seemed surprised when she raised her head, eyes bright with tears. The burning anger behind his eyes quickly fled as Brielle visibly struggled to not allow those tears to fall.
"Muh-Momma don't cry!" Aria pleaded, frightened by her mother's show of weakness. Her words earned her a broken smile from Brielle before the white haired lady turned her full attention upon the uncomfortable man across the table.
"Compared to some I suppose my life has been terribly easy, but make no mistake I have had my share of pain!" Her final word warbled in the air, then broke as her tears began to run freely and washed down her face. Brielle quickly covered her face with both hands, leaning her elbows on the table.
"Brielle I…"
Her words cut him off as she mumbled through her hands. "I was eighteen when I was married. I was so young then, and John was my first love. He made me feel like I wasn't so strange and I loved him for that."
He tried again, guilt over his cruel, thoughtless words clenched his stomach. Her tears made him feel like a monster. "Brielle, please I…"
"Shut up! You will listen to this!" she said sharply. Erik's mouth instantly snapped shut.
"I had been married for little over a year when John decided it would help our family financially if he were to join the army, and his older brother agreed to go with him. They said it was their duty and nothing I said would change their obstinate minds. Stupid…"
"As the day of their deployment approached, a terrible feeling deep in my heart began to take hold. I knew they would come to harm and so I begged John not to go. Begged him on my knees…but still he left. He was gone hardly a month before he was shot. It was so strange could almost feel his death before I was told about it. The day Andrew, John's brother, came to my door to tell me of his death was the day I found out I was with child. John never even knew he was going to be a father."
The room fell into tense silence as her words ran out. Brielle sagged back into her chair and let her hands fall into her lap. Her eyes then rose to his. "So don't you dare believe for a moment you are the only one in the world bleeding. Despair is universal, you egotistical maggot brained buffoon and don't you forget it!"
Aria stared open mouthed at her mother's snappish words, raising a spoonful of green beans into her mouth.
For the first time in his life Erik was at a loss for words. He had no idea such overpowering grief lay behind Brielle's cool façade. "I apologize," he began quietly, feeling foolish under the accusing gray gaze of his hostess. "I spoke without thinking. I was cruel to you because you remind me of what I have lost."
The sharpness in her eyes faded and she reached up to scrub the wetness from her cheeks. "Your apology is appreciated but you have apologized before without changing your behavior. And I have suddenly lost my appetite," she said, scooting her chair away from the table before standing.
"Finish your meal monsieur. My daughter and I will have to take our leave of you. Aria, come with me." Aria stood up on her chair, then jumped down onto the floor taking her mother's hand. As Brielle swept regally out of the room, her daughter in tow, Aria turned her head and stuck her tongue out at Erik. He was left alone in the dinning room.
With a growl, the dark haired man covered his eyes in frustration. What is wrong with me? One moment I am calm and the next horrible things are spewing out of my mouth.
A long time passed as Erik sat berating himself. Outside, snow began to fall in the darkness of the night. The self deprecating thoughts ground to a sudden halt when a shadow passed by the window. Frowning with concentration, Erik squinted through the lamp light. He jumped to his feet when the shadow flashed by the other dinning room window.
Quickly blowing out the lantern on the table, Erik crouched low so as not to create a noticeable outline as he followed the shadow moving around the outside of the house. He silently moved out of the dinning room, down the hallway and into the library. Erik may have acted like a brute but damned if he was going to let someone lurk about Brielle's house.
One of the library windows was just being nudged open when Erik reached the room's door. A flurry of snow burst in as a pair of hands latched onto the window sill. Several curses floated over the crying of the wind as a body was boosted into the room.
Erik was across the room in the blink of an eye. Something about the thought of a man breaking into Brielle's house really sent him into a rage. He threw himself upon the burglar with a growl, his fists flying. A surprised yelp issued from the thief, followed by another series of blistering curses. When Erik's knuckles made contact with a jaw the man's curses suddenly stopped.
A boot struck out in the darkness and lodged itself in Erik's gut. He fell back onto the floor with a grunt, seeing spots float before his vision. Scrambling to his feet he again dove upon the intruder, putting the man into a choke hold. An elbow slammed into his chin but he did not let go.
The burglar's movements were just beginning to slow when the room was suddenly thrown into bright light. Erik turned his head only to see Brielle standing stunned in the doorway. She nearly dropped her lamp as she rushed across the room.
"Stop it! Erik let him go!"
She obviously didn't understand the gravity of the situation. "Brielle I caught this man breaking into your house!"
"That is enough. Just let him go!"
Thinking it a mistake Erik did as she asked. Painfully getting to his feet he swiped at a drop of blood trickling from his busted lip. To his utter shock Brielle knelt by the intruder's side and helped the auburn haired man to his feet. The burglar glared fiercely at Erik with glittering green eyes.
"What are you doing? Are you mad? He just tried to…"
Turning towards Erik with an uncomfortable smile Brielle placed a hand on the intruder's arm. She glanced nervously between the two as if she expected them to lunge at one another again.
"Erik I would like you to meet my older brother, Conner."