Erik sat in his room, anxiously drumming his long fingers on the organ. He had lent Christine the laptop (after a short tutorial), and she had locked herself in her room with it. And now he was bored.

He wondered what she was doing. He pictured her sitting at the small writing desk in the Louis-Philippe room, reading stories about their wonderful life together with their beautiful children in their small cottage by the sea. He shivered happily to think of it, and he played a scale for joy.

Then he froze. But what if she detested the stories? He recalled the horror on her face when she read that first one. And that had only been a kiss! Dieu, what if she should come across a…racy story?

He was just contemplating the possible consequences of such a situation when there was a soft knock on the door. A moment later, Christine slipped in. She was carrying the laptop carefully. "I've finished," she said quietly. He rose and took the laptop from her. "I really can't stay," she continued. "Mama Valerius is expecting me." She turned to go.

"Did you enjoy the stories?" The question burst out of him. He had to know.

She turned back. There was a slightly dreamy look on her face. "Oh. Yes, they were…interesting." She left.

As the front door closed, Erik collapsed onto the bench and began to laugh in relief and joy.

- - - - -

That night, Erik could not sleep.

He wanted to sing until his voice gave out. He wanted to go up to the roof and shout his victory to all Paris. He wanted to run out into the streets and tell every person he saw, "She loves me!"

Instead, he decided to see which stories she had read. It would be nice to know just what had changed her mind about him. As he turned on the laptop, Erik gave silent thanks to the two phans who had given it to him. Where they had been strange and slightly frightening, they now seemed like angels from Heaven. He opened the History and clicked on the first link.

It was a Raoul/Christine story.

His heart stopped. He clicked the next link. Another Raoul/Christine story. The next link. Another. And another. Of the twenty-three stories she had read, only two were Erik/Christine.

Erik wept.