Erik hadn't seen Katja in two days. She kept the door to her room shut tightly, and he couldn't bring himself to go in there to face her. What had he done? Telling her the truth had done nothing but alienated her from him.

He couldn't believe himself and what he had done. God, how pathetic he must seem to Katja. Finally he ripped open the drawer where he kept all his pictures of Christine. In a fit of rage, he tore each and every one of the drawings to shreds and threw them to the floor. Erik grabbed a nearby candle and dropped it on the pile of paper and watched it burn. That not being enough, he grabbed the diamond ring she had given him and flung it as hard as he could.

"Ouch!"

"What are you doing here?" Erik snapped as Nadir came around the corner, rubbing his head. He paused to pick up the ring, and Erik noticed a stack of papers in his hand.

The Persian threw the papers and the ring on the organ. "Fine, be that way. Next time I won't help you. Maybe if you weren't in such a foul mood all the time, people might actually learn to like you."

"Is this everything we'll need?" Erik demanded, thumbing through the documents.

"Yes," Nadir retorted. "What's got you so worked up?" He looked around the lair. "Where is your little German guest?"

"In her room," Erik replied bitterly.

"Oh Allah," his friend sighed, realizing something was wrong from Erik's tone of voice. "What did you do to upset her this time?" His gaze went to the diamond that was sitting forgotten on the organ. "Please don't tell me that you proposed in a desperate attempt to get her to stay."

"What did I do?" Erik hissed. "You mean, what did you do?"

Nadir rolled his eyes. "Okay then, what did I do?"

"That was Christine's," he said, gesturing to the ring as his only explanation.

"You told her about Christine, didn't you?" Nadir asked in disbelief. "What happened to never letting Katja find out?"

"She was listening at the door when you were talking about it!" Erik growled. "She heard you talking about it and demanded to know what I was hiding from her! Now I haven't been able to get her out of her room for the past two days. The one person who accepted me for me now thinks I'm a murderous beast!"

"Have you tried explaining the situation to her?"

"I can't!" Erik cried. "I can't go in there and face her! She's terrified of me! She thinks I'm a monster!" He sat at his organ and buried his face in hands. "And she's right!"

Nadir sighed. "Alright, I'll go talk to her, okay? Let's see if I can get her to realize that you're actually perfectly harmless."

"But I'm not," Erik moaned through his fingers. "I'm not, and now she knows it."

"Would you ever hurt her?" Nadir asked.

"No!" Erik shouted. "I would never!"

"Then you're perfectly harmless to her," Nadir reasoned. "You only hurt people when they are a direct threat to you or those you care about. All she needs is for someone to tell her that."

"Haven't you done enough damage?" Erik demanded. "This is all your fault!"

"Then let me try to help. Your train leaves for Germany the day after tomorrow. Do you really want things to end like this between you two?"

Erik gave a sigh of defeat and waved his hand dismissively. "Fine. You win. Go talk to her. See if you can fix anything."

Katja lay on her side, her back to the door, a pillow clutched to her chest. She just couldn't face Erik. She didn't know what to think of him right now because right now she just hurt. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying.

Suddenly the door opened. She ignored Erik and kept staring straight ahead at the wall. "Gutan Tag Fräuline." Katja jumped, not expecting Nadir's heavy accent. But she didn't want to talk to him either. He knew fully well what Erik had done. How could he not have told her? "Erik tells me you're upset." She refused to answer, or even look at him, simply hugging the pillow tighter. "Why is that?"

"Why didn't you tell me?!" she demanded, finally turning to face him.

"Tell you what?" Nadir asked as he sat next to her.

"What he did. You knew everything he did. Did you ever once think it would be important for me to know that he killed people?"

"Didn't you already know?"

"No!" Katja cried.

"Erik told you that he killed Javert did he not?"

"Well, yes…" she answered hesitantly. "But that was different!"

Nadir simply looked at her with the same calm expression he always had whenever Erik had one of his outbursts. "Just how exactly?"

"Javert was cruel. He tortured people. He beat and whipped anyone who made him mad. He raped women, and not just me."

"Joseph Buquet was a drunk and molested four girls, and those are the ones that Erik knew about. He would spy on them through a hole in their changing room then strike the moment they were alone. That's not much different."

"But what about the others?"

"Erik doesn't kill unless he feels he absolutely has to. He didn't mean to kill Piangi or anyone else who was there that night. And the Vicomte de Chagny was allowed to go free completely unharmed. While Erik doesn't have the perfect past, he doesn't kill in cold blood."

"What about…?"

He shushed her. "Katja, has Erik ever done anything to hurt you?" She shook her head. "Has he ever tried to hurt you?"

"Well no," she admitted. "But…"

"Do you know who the safest people in the world are?" Nadir asked. She was starting to see why Erik got so frustrated by the Persian. His cool logic and calm demeanor made it very hard to stay upset, even when that's what you wanted.

Katja sighed and rolled her eyes. "Who?"

"The people Erik care about. He will do anything to keep them safe, even if it puts his own life in jeopardy. Erik will never intentionally hurt the ones he loves. If anyone else tries to hurt them, well, they've sealed their own fate. And you Fräuline, he cares about very much. I swear to Allah, God, or whatever deity you believe in, you are in absolutely no danger from him." Nadir stood and left, allowing her to dwell on his words.

Erik paced back and forth in his room. Katja still hadn't come out and Nadir had been gone for a long while. For all he knew, the Persian made the situation even worse, but he was too cowardly to go find out.

The train was going to leave the day after tomorrow and then she'd be out of his life. But Erik didn't want it to be over. He didn't want to lose her. But she wanted to go, and he learned a long time ago that when he fought for what he wanted, it hurt that much more when he lost it.

Suddenly a scream echoed through the lair. Erik's attention instantly snapped up, but he forced himself to stay put. Katja didn't want the comfort of a murderer. Instead of going to check on her, he climbed into bed. Maybe by some miracle, things would straighten themselves out by morning.

He put out the light and turned on his side, facing away from the door. Erik nearly jumped in surprise when mattress shifted. Katja crawled into his arms. There were tears sliding down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry Erik." She buried her face in his shirt. "I'm so, so sorry Erik."

"It's okay," he cooed. "I should have told you everything from the moment you arrived. I shouldn't have kept that from you. You had a right to know."

"Hold me," she sobbed. Erik tightened his embrace, pulling her closer. He pressed his lips to the top of her head as she nestled closer still.