She was in a crumpled heap at his feet, bawling loudly. Javert roughly grabbed upper arm and backhanded her, sending her sprawling across the cage. "Quit that sniveling or I swear to God it'll be the last thing you do!" He turned back to the gypsy woman. "You're absolutely positive?"

"Beyond a doubt," she replied.

"Dammit," he swore loudly. "How could this have happened?"

The woman glanced at Katja. "I have a couple ideas."

Javert began snapping at her in their gypsy language, his words lost on Katja. The woman began to argue back with him. Their voices got louder and louder until Javert raised his hand, threatening to slap the woman. She glared at him for a moment, but eventually backed down and murmured something before storming out of the tent.

He turned back to Katja, who had pressed her hands to her mouth in an attempt to muffle the sound of her sobs. Javert threw her back against the bars of the cage. She cowered from his rage. "This is because of you!" he screamed.

"I…I…It's not my fault!" she cried desperately. "It wasn't my choice! I can't control what happens." Javert slapped her again, this time for speaking. Katja began to cry even harder. He started to beat her, his temper getting the best of him. "Stop!" she begged. "Please! Somebody help me!"

Her eyes snapped open, and Katja began to scream. The man hovering over her leaped backwards. "Es tut mir leid," he said quickly. The sound of her native tongue forced her to think, which calmed Katja enough for her to realize that it was Erik and she quieted down. "I didn't mean to startle you," he continued apologetically. "You were calling for help. Or at least that's what it sounded like."

"Was…?" She stopped and tried to get her sleepy brain to switch from German to French, but Erik seemed to understand what she wanted to know.

"You were screaming 'Hilf mir'," he told her. She nodded to tell him that he was right and had understood her. "Are you alright now?"

Katja started to nod again, but wound up bursting into tears and shaking her head violently. "No," she sobbed.

Erik put his hand on her cheek and stroked it with his thumb. He shushed her gently. "You're safe here with me. I won't let anyone hurt you ever again."

"It's not that," Katja replied with a shake of her head. She hadn't meant she was scared of being hurt anymore. She was starting to really believe that Erik wouldn't.

"Then what's upsetting you?"

"He ruined me!" she cried. "I can never go home! I can never see my family again! There's no way I can tell them what he did to me! No man's ever going to want me. Not after he did that to me."

"Your family misses you, I guarantee it," he said softly. "I think they'd be happy just to see you again and to know that you were safe. Right now, they don't even know if you're alive or not."

"I…I can't." A fresh wave of tears hit her. "I can't look at my father and tell him what Javert did to me. I can't tell him that his little girl is ruined!"

Erik pulled her into a comforting hug, her head resting on his chest. Katja realized that he wasn't wearing a shirt. Even though he was lean, his muscles were well defined and she could tell he was strong. "You're not ruined. Just because he touched you that way, doesn't mean you're ruined," he murmured in her ear. "You only are if you let yourself be." She couldn't bear to tell him that Javert had destroyed her in more than one way, so she closed her eyes and listened to his heartbeat and was able to get her sobs to slow to hiccups.

As he held her, Katja wondered if he had been asleep when she screamed. "Did I wake you?" she asked when she finally quit crying.

"It's not that big of a deal. I don't need that much sleep," he responded, starting to pull away, suddenly uncomfortable with how close they were.

"I didn't mean…"

She was silenced when he placed his finger on her lips. "I just wanted to make sure you were alright," he said softly as he stood to leave. "If you need something, don't hesitate to call."

"Wait," she whispered. "Don't go yet. Please. I don't want to be alone."

He nodded and sat back down next to her. Katja curled back up next to him, her head back over his heart, desperately seeking comfort. Erik seemed to sense her need and began to sing softly. His voice was warm and soothing. She had never heard anything so beautiful in her entire life. Even though he was singing in a language she didn't understand, Italian maybe, his song wrapped her in a warm cocoon, allowing everything around her to melt away.

Erik was surprised to wake up with a blonde German girl in his arms. He hadn't meant to fall asleep. His original plan was to stay until she was sleeping, and then return to his own room. Apparently that hadn't happened.

She stirred in his arms, making him realize that she would be waking up any minute now. Carefully, so he didn't disturb her more, Erik laid her down on the pillows. He started to stand, but the movement of the mattress was enough. Her blue eyes fluttered open and she gasped in surprise when she saw him. "Did you…? I mean…? Were you…?"

"I didn't take advantage of you if that's what you are implying," Erik replied coolly.

"That's not what I meant," she clarified quickly. "But were you in here all night?"

"You asked me to stay so I stayed."

"Oh." She met his eyes for a brief moment before her gaze darted back down. Eye contact as still something they needed to work on. "Danke."

Erik nodded. "I believe Nadir is coming sometime today. I'm going to warn you, he's going to ask you a lot of questions, about you, about the gypsies. He's nosy like that. He likes to know everything about everyone. It's one of his habits of his time as Daroga in Persia, where he needed to know everything. But if you don't want to talk, then you don't have to. He can't force you, and I won't let him try."

"I believe you," Katja whispered.

"Hello?" Erik pulled on his jacket and walked into the music room. "There you are Erik." Nadir said pleasantly when he spotted him. "How are things going with your guest?"

"Better," Erik replied. "Things are improving with Katja. I've been teaching her to play piano. She talks from time to time."

"Where is she right now?" Nadir asked.

"In her room. If she wants to come out, she will. If she doesn't, let her be."

When Nadir started to protest, Erik sat at his organ and began playing, drowning him out with the sound. "Really?" the Persian sighed.

"I told you that you didn't need to come back. I can handle this."

Nadir rolled his eyes. "You always say you don't need anyone. But I think you do. I think that even the Phantom of the Opera gets lonely."

Erik turned around when he heard the soft footsteps. He offered Katja a smile and beckoned her to come in. "Guten Tag," Nadir greeted her.

She glanced to Erik, an unspoken question in her eyes. "Nein," he answered. "Er spricht Deutsch nicht." He looked at Nadir and switched back to French. "Even if he thinks he does."

"But you do speak French?" Nadir asked.

Katja nodded. "Oui."

The Persian motioned for her to sit down. She glanced uncertainly at Erik, who shrugged. It was her choice. Katja looked back to Nadir before slowly sitting down. Nadir sat down in the chair across from her to begin his interrogation. "So where exactly are you from Fräuline?"

For a moment, she remained silent, but to Erik's surprise, she actually began to talk. "I grew up in a small village on the border of Frankreich and Deutschland.

"Frankreich?" Erik asked, unfamiliar with the word.

"France," she translated. "Even though I was on the Deutsch side, everyone spoke Franzö-… French. There was so much traffic through our town of people going back and forth across the border, we needed to. My family especially. We ran a café in the center of town."

"Who all is in your family?"

"My father, my older brother Fredrick, my step-mother, and her daughter, my step-sister, Tanja."

"How far apart in age are you from your siblings?" These questions seemed kind of pointless to Erik, but he knew that Nadir was trying to get her comfortable before asking her the questions that would most likely upset her.

"Fredrick is four years older than me. Tanja, she was almost ten years younger than me."

"How did you wind up with the gypsies?"

"They were in town. I wanted to go see the fair. Mein Vater wouldn't let me. But I wanted to go because all my friends had gone and I didn't want to be left out of their conversations about it. So I snuck out." She let out a loud sob. "I just wanted to see what everyone was talking about. I was just outside the fair when two gypsy boys found me. They were… they were….they were going to…." Katja couldn't finish the sentence. "Javert found us. He stopped them. I thought he was helping me, but he only stopped them so he could do it himself."

"Then what?"

"Nadir…" Erik said warningly, picking up on how distressed she was. He didn't want him to push Katja too far. She was already upset, with her arms wrapped around herself and she was rocking back and forth.

"What happened next?" Nadir pressed.

"He…he brought me to their camp, he threw me in a cage and…and…" Katja burst into tears. Erik gently put his hand on her cheek to try and soothe her. She twisted away and ran into her room, slamming the door behind her.

"Excellent," Erik sighed, completely frustrated with Nadir. "You scared her off again. You have a nasty habit of making everything worse."

"Yet somehow I get so much more information from her."

"Because I don't pry!" Erik snapped. "If she wants to tell me something, then she will when she's ready." Erik knocked on her door. "Katja?" When she didn't respond, he let himself into her room. She was sobbing uncontrollably, with her face against her knees. He knelt next to her. "Katja, I won't let them hurt you ever again. You're safe here with me."

"You don't know what it was like," she cried. "He locked me in a cage and beat me and..."

"Katja…"

"You have no idea the kind of pain he put me through!" she bawled.

He reached out and put his hand on her back. "Katja…"

"Stop! Please! Quit acting like you know!"

Erik felt a surge of rage. He knew exactly how she felt. He yanked her chin up to look him in the eyes and ripped off his mask. "Don't tell me I don't know!" he screamed, ripping off his shirt. He spun around to show her the white scars down his back. "Don't tell me that I have no idea what it is like! Do you really think you're the only person to have ever been hurt?"

Nadir burst into the room and pulled him away from her. "Erik, stop! Calm down!"

He twisted out of his friend's grip. "Don't tell me what to do!" Erik suddenly realized what he had just done. Spinning back around, he saw Katja backed into a corner with wide eyes. "I…Katja…."

The next two words out of her mouth were the last ones he ever expected to hear. "It's you," she whispered in awe.

German Translations

Es tut mir leid- I'm sorry

Was?- What?

Hilf mir- Help me

Danke- Thank You

Nein. Er spricht Deutsch nicht- No he doesn't speak German

Fräuline- Miss

Frankreich- France

Mein Vater- My Father