A/N Wow! Chapter thirty! I can't even believe that this little story has gotten this far. Again, thank you all so much for your support and reviews and favorites and follows. It means the world to me.

Chapter Thirty

Erik staggered back with the weight of her for a moment, then regained his balance and held her tightly to him. He reveled in the feeling of her in his arms and the fact that he was able to hold her after so long. He pressed his face into the crown of her head and breathed in the scent of her hair: teatree and flowers and a little bit of something that was uniquely her.

Alison pressed her face into his coat, trying to get as close to him as she possibly could. Her mind still almost refused to believe that he was there in front of her with his arms around her. They held on tight to each other, rocking back and forth and whispering to each other in French.

"Angelique."

"Oh God, Erik, you're here. I don't even know how you did it, but you are fantastic."

"I have been waiting so long to hear you say that. Words cannot express how much I missed you."

"I missed you too. So much. More than I can ever really explain."

"My life was so lonely without you, mon coeur. I needed you."

"I love you."

"I love you."

Alison's mother shifted uncomfortably. She did not speak French and had no idea what either person was saying. "So…you two know each other then?" She had never heard Alison talk about a strange man in a white mask besides in her Phantom obsession. But that had ended three years ago. Why did Alison take one look at him and run to his arms? Why?

After a while, their death grip on each other eased a little and they pulled back to look at each other's faces. Erik was alarmed to see that Alison's eyes were bright with tears.

"Angelique, please do not cry!" he said in alarm. "Whatever I have done, I…"

She put a finger gently to his lips, sending tiny shivers through his body. "Erik, I'm crying because I'm happy, not because I'm sad. I never thought that I would see you again in this lifetime. I…I needed you as much as you needed me and I missed you. I learned very quickly after I got back that it was harder to find things worth living for…without you." She removed her finger from his lips and slid her palm up to his cheek. Her other palm joined it, smoothing over the surface of the mask. He covered the hand over the mask with his.

"And this still does not bother you?" he asked nervously. "You have not realized that there are other, whole men out there who could possibly be better for you?"

She shook her head, smiling in the midst of the tears that had begun to slip down her cheeks. "Never. You are, and always will be, everything that I need."

Even after all this time, she still felt as she used to. He had grown accustomed to the jeers of "freak" and "monster" in her absence, and begun to believe again that he deserved them. But she loved him. She still loved him. A wave of love swept over him and in one motion, he lowered his hands to her waist and pulled her to him roughly for a passionate kiss.

Their kiss spoke of love and desperation and the need to be together after so much time. All of the loneliness and pain and tears of the last years melted away in that moment, in that kiss. They both knew that it might be a little awkward later. There were things that needed to be said and done and told. But until then, they could live in the moment, in love, just as they had been.

Erik's lips were soft against Alison's, counterbalancing the mask that dug a little into her lip. It hurt, but she couldn't bring herself to care about the pain. Because the mask meant that it was Erik kissing her. Her hands moved from his cheeks to tangle in the wig he wore, and she smiled for a moment against his lips because she remembered exactly how to do it without knocking the wig off. She pulled him closer and closer still, and his hands on her back tightened, drawing her into him.

Erik was in heaven. He hadn't kissed anyone since the day she left and he had forgotten how good it could feel. He wanted, no, he needed to get as close to her as possible. He reveled in the feel of her kiss, of her hands in his hair, of her love.

Alison's mother stared. This man had walked in the door two minutes ago. Alison hadn't even wanted to see him and all of a sudden she was kissing him in the middle of the front hallway. She felt so awkward, standing there while her daughter kissed a complete stranger. She needed to understand the nature of this relationship, but she couldn't bring herself to tear them apart for even one second.

Finally, they broke apart and leaned their foreheads together, breathing hard and letting their breath mingle in the shared space between their lips. Erik took a breath to say something, but was interrupted.

"Will someone explain to me what's going on here?" Alison's mother's voice was full of confusion and a little anger.

They both turned and looked at her as if they had forgotten that she was there, which they had. Alison blushed and shifted a little awkwardly.

"Erik, this is my mom, Sadie."

Erik smiled, a little nervously, and nodded his head to her. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Madame."

Sadie just stared.

Alison tried again. "Mom, this is Erik. He…um…we were together freshman year. We–"

"Freshman year?" Sadie looked at Alison intently.

They both knew what she was really asking.

"Yes," replied Alison, answering both the spoken and unspoken question.

A smile appeared on Sadie's face for a moment, then it wavered. "If you were together freshman year, where have you been for the past three years?"

Erik turned to Alison in confusion. "Three years? Where I am, it was five."

"Well here, it was three. I guess it doesn't mater all that much, does it?"

" The time difference is so strange here. You had been at the Opera Populaire for a year and Patrick," his lips curled with the name, "said you had only been away for a week. How does this all work?"

"Please forgive me if I say that I've got no clue." Alison smiled.

"Can you answer my question? I'm still trying to decide whether I should be angry with you or not for breaking my daughter's heart."

"Don't be, Mom." Alison said quietly. "None of it was his fault. It was just…circumstances out of our control."

Erik nodded in agreement. "Circumstances that I mourned over every day for the past years." He looked into Sadie's eyes, and she saw the truth of what he was saying.

Sadie smiled. "All right, then. But I imagine that it isn't comfortable just standing in the hall. Come into the living room and sit down with us!"

Alison loved her mother so much in that moment. She had taken everything in stride and tried to make Erik feel welcome. However, Alison had other plans.

"Um, Mom, Erik and I have some catching up to do that neither of us will probably want to do in the living room. Can we go up to my room instead? And I mean verbal catching up, so please don't get annoyed."

Sadie smiled understandingly. "Of course."

Alison grinned and took Erik's hand. She began to lead him up the stairs she had come down, when Sadie's voice stopped her.

"Just remember, they'll be back soon."

The grin grew a little less bright and her eyes flashed nervousness for a second. She nodded and kept going up the stairs, to a hallway, and into a door on the right wall. Erik walked after her, trying to take everything in. In the Opera Populaire, she had lived in his life. Now he would live in hers.

When they entered her room, Erik was momentarily shocked by all of the new things in it. There was a bed and a dresser, like a normal bedroom. But there was also a desk and a strange device sitting on top of it that seemed to glow. He let go of her hand, walked over to the desk, and peered at it.

"Angelique, what is this?"

She smiled in surprise. "Well, I guess I have to teach you about my time too. That's called a… oh damn, I don't know the French word for it. In English, it's called a computer."

"Computer," Erik repeated, trying it out.

"Oh, and speaking of English, since when did you learn to speak it?" Alison asked curiously.

Erik looked at her with an expression she couldn't define. "I learned it when you left in the hopes that one day, I would find my way back to you."

"Erik…" she whispered, leaning to kiss him tenderly. She didn't have to say anything else. That was enough.

She pulled away slowly and went and sat on the bed. She patted the place next to her and he obliged, sitting with her. There was a sense of unreality for them both. Alison could hardly believe that the man she had dreamed about for three years was sitting on her bed, in her room, right next to her. She still had trouble believing that he was really there.

They sat and looked at each other awkwardly for a moment. Alison dropped her gaze, trying to think of something to say. Then her mind hit on something.

"I can't believe I didn't ask this before. How did you get here? I can't think of any way you would have been able to: it's not like you could get here the same way that I got to your world."

In answer, Erik reached into his pocket and pulled out a battered white rectangle and handed it to her. Her eyes widened in surprise when she realized that it was a photograph of her house. She looked up at him, her eyes asking to explain.

"I kept the photograph that you left my world from, hoping that you would come back through it, and that I would be there when you did. For five years, it stayed the same as when you had left. But today, it changed into this. And then it just pulled me in, the way you had left."

Alison's eyebrows went up. "Really? I had no idea it could work the other way. I tried everything to get back, but none of it worked. After a while…something happened that prevented me from being able to try."

Erik frowned. "What was it? What happened?"

Alison's heart began to beat faster. This was it. She needed to tell him about her son, their son. But how? And how would he react? Would he want the child? Would he not want it? She looked away from him.

"I…gained another responsibility which meant that I needed to stay here, in this world." She took a deep breath.

He sensed her change in mood. "Angelique? What's wrong?"

"Erik, there's something that I need to tell you."

His heart stopped in his chest. "What is it?"

She sighed. "I honestly don't know how to say this properly. It…I…I'm…"

Suddenly, a child's voice rang out from the hallway. "Mommy?"

Erik looked up. "Your little brother?" he inquired.

Alison shook her head.

They heard Sadie's voice speaking quietly, then light footsteps pattered up the stairs, with skips and beats and falling over.

The door was pushed open and a little boy stood at the doorway. He had wisps of blondish-brown curly hair on his head and large, curious eyes. A smile broke over his face when he saw Alison.

"Hi, Mommy!"

He toddled across the room and climbed up into Alison's lap. She smiled at him and put her arms around him.

"Hello, darling. How are you?"

She looked up hesitantly into Erik's hurt, accusing eyes.