Epilogue
A/N: Just a warning, I gave Madame Giry a first name. I don't think I've ever seen that she has one… Poor lady. If she does and I've gone and changed it, I'm dreadfully sorry.
Christine stirred awake late the next morning. She mumbled something quietly before realizing that there was someone next to her. Someone with his arm around her. Her quickly building panic dissipated when she looked up to see Erik. The panic was replaced with worry as she saw his mouth was turned down in a deep frown and he looked as if he were still fighting the nightmares. "Erik?" she murmured into his ear, careful not to startle him.
His eyes shot open and he took a deep breath. A set of mismatched eyes looked about for a moment before meeting hers at last. He released his breath and the frown was replaced with a soft smile and he pulled her closer.
She nestled closer to his chest, careful of his injuries. "Were you dreaming?"
"Yes," he responded, his voice raspy.
Christine watched him carefully. "Are you all right?"
He nodded and laid his head back against the pillows, allowing himself to fall deeper into them and pull her along. "All of this… has provoked old memories," he explained quietly.
"But it's over now."
"Will it ever be?"
Christine frowned and ran her hand along the exposed side of his face and into his disheveled hair, causing him to turn into her touch, eyes lulling shut. "Yes, love. We'll be happy."
"Yes…" he breathed, on the edge of sleep once more.
The opera singer propped herself up on her elbow, smiling down on him. "I love you."
Erik's eyes opened once more, looking up at her with more love than he could ever express with words. "And I you, my angel." He smiled at her and kissed her hand that had finally come to rest on the side of his face. "Perhaps you should go see if they've left you some breakfast."
"Will you be alright?" she demanded, her eyes beginning to fill with tears of irrational panic at the thought of leaving him for any time.
"Yes," he assured her with a chuckle. "I'll sleep. Don't worry, Christine. After all we've been through… I won't leave now."
She nodded, laughing and wiping the tears away. She learned down, kissing his fever burnt cheek and left him to his rest.
"He'll pull through."
Madame Giry glanced to where Nadir was leaning against the wall. "You say that as if you are trying to convince someone, Monsieur."
Nadir gave her a small shrug. "I am convinced, Madame."
"Antoinette."
"Excuse me?"
"My name, Monsieur Khan, is Antoinette Giry."
Nadir nodded his acknowledgement, giving her a small smile as he did so. "In that case, I must insist that you call me 'Nadir.'"
"Did you see that?" Meg demanded, pulling back around the corner where she had been looking. "Oh did you see that!"
Raoul chuckled at the petite ballerina. "Perhaps I'm not as much of a snoop as you, but…"
"I'm not a snoop!" Meg gasped, putting on a decent act of pouting.
The aristocrat grinned. "Your mother is a widow, is she not?"
"Yes, and I do believe Monsieur Khan is a widower."
"What makes you think that?"
"Well he had a son, apparently. And he spoke of his wife when we were coming to rescue you. Very brief, but in past tense and with a sad note in his voice."
Raoul nodded as he took a seat. "Yes… I suppose so. Well, nothing's impossible, right?" he laughed.
Their eyes met for a brief moment and she looked away. "No, I suppose not," she answered shyly.
The next days moved on at a much easier pace after that day. Mifroid had come to the house very briefly to announce that the shah had been pronounced dead in the fire – nothing they hadn't seen in the papers within the first week – and his mother had slinked back to Persia with a very small percentage of the people that they had brought with them to France. There would be no need to fear her in the future, as the sultana's power was through her son.
Erik was improving with a rate that alarmed the doctor at first. Madeleine laughed aloud when she heard him exclaiming to Raoul that it "simply wasn't human!"
"Monsieur, I assure you, he was an exceptionally quick healer as a child and I'm sure Monsieur Khan can account that he has continued to be through his years."
Nadir had nodded in silent agreement.
The doctor had let out a sigh and mumbled something, leaving the house in a flustered manner. They found out later that though he was improving physically, Erik's temper had gotten the best of him with the doctor and part of a dinner tray had followed him out of the room. That had explained all too much of the doctor's irritated exit from the house.
It was three weeks later that Christine entered the room that the Phantom had been staying in and found him pacing the floor. She sighed. "Shouldn't you be resting?"
"Hang it all," he growled. "I've been resting the last weeks and I'm tired of it. I'm absolutely aching to get out of here. I'm ready to go home."
She led him back to the bed and he lay down without too much trouble, but pulled her after him. She let out a small exclamation of surprise as she landed on the soft mattress at his side. "Something's bothering you," he said simply.
"N-nothing's bothering me, Erik," she stumbled over the words. "Oh! Have you seen Meg and Raoul in the last couple of weeks? They are positively falling for each other! It's lovely. I predict a wedding by this time next year at the absolute latest."
"Christine."
"And I'm not entirely sure that Nadir and Madame Giry aren't-"
"Christine, please."
She let out a sigh. "Do you promise not to be angry with me?"
Erik raised an eyebrow, dreading what might come. "Of course, my dear."
"Kashim… That was… yes that was his name. He said… right before you…" She stopped, eyes holding a frightened look.
"Angel," the Phantom whispered, running his hand through her hair. "I won't be angry."
"He said you killed Nadir's son," she said in a rush, looking down at the suddenly very fascinating bed sheets under her.
Erik did not respond for a moment, and then he took a deep breath. "I did. Reza was the boy's name. He was dying… A horrible death."
"But you killed him?"
"It was a merciful death," he whispered.
"No death… A child, Erik!"
"Don't lecture me on this, Christine!" he growled, doing everything he could to keep his voice and temper in check. "I loved that boy. I didn't know what else I could do for him. He was all Nadir had left but there was nothing the doctors or I could do. That is what I did, Christine. What I do! I kill. I'm quite good at it, you know!" Tears were streaming down his face at this point and his voice cracked, allowing a sob to come from him and he shook.
Christine wrapped her arms around him. He looked up in surprise. "No, Erik. You… I don't agree with your methods, but you did what you could for him."
They lay there together for the next few moments, crying softly in each other's arms. Christine laid her cheek against his chest and listened to his steady heartbeat. "I love you so much." She pulled herself up, looking at him. "May I go back with you?"
"Your old rooms are always open to you, my love." He paused, sitting up in the bed. "Unless…" He stood suddenly, motioning for her to stay where she was. She watched him curiously as he crossed the room to his bag that he had packed when they had first come. He pulled a small pouch from it and fingered it a moment.
"What is it?" Christine asked as she stood as well, closing the distance between them. She reached forward, taking the pouch from his hands and, upon receiving silent permission, opened it. A simple gold ring that her eyes knew better than even the diamond ring she had returned to Raoul slipped out. Her eyes became glassy with tears again. "Oh Erik… You kept it."
He swallowed hard. "Yes," he breathed. "I could not bare to throw it away… I always…" He took a deep breath, quelling his raging emotions.
"They were never obscenities by your tongue," Christine whispered.
"What?"
She let herself smile as she played with the ring in her hand, turning it over lovingly. "When you first asked me to marry you… Oh such horrible words, Erik! You said that I did not care for your voice so much when you spoke of things such as marriage… That words such as 'wife,' 'husband,' and 'love' were reduced to obscenities by your tongue. I never thought such things."
"Then…?"
Christine smiled as she slipped the ring onto her finger. "I love you," she said sincerely.
Erik stared at her in awe for a moment before gathering her up in his arms and kissing her.
She pulled away suddenly and his eyes looked at her questioningly. She smiled and placed a hand on his mask, removing it. "I love you, Erik. Unconditionally. All of you." She leaned forward and they met again, all the love they felt filling the kiss.
"Raoul!"
Raoul looked up from his book to see Meg Giry running into the room, a full out grin barely concealed. He gave her a questioning glance.
"Well… I wasn't snooping, mind you, just walking by, but I do think that Christine's Phantom just proposed to her!"
Raoul smiled, laying his book down on the sofa. "I'd say we best pretend we know nothing of it."
"They'd be rather upset that I heard, wouldn't they?"
The aristocrat laughed. "Yes they would." He reached out his hand to her. "Would you care to take a walk, Mademoiselle?"
Meg blushed and placed her hand in his. "Certainly."
Raoul pulled her hand to his lips, a smile still on them. "And you were snooping."
The dancer fumed for a moment. "I was not!"
Their eyes met for a moment before laughter echoed through the room.
A/N: Well that's it! How do you say "The End" in French? I knew I should have taken that class during high school! Anyway, if you can't tell, I'm a tad bit of a hopeless romantic and therefore had to have everyone happy. Erik and Madeleine are somewhere on the way to having a not-so-screwed-up relationship, Christine and Erik are now engaged (finally!), Raoul turned out not so bad of a guy and has Meg now (perhaps!), and hmm… Madame Giry and Nadir? Who knows… Leave it to your minds or if they just have a mutual hurt in the past. I'd love to do a sequel. I've really enjoyed this, but I just don't have a plot line as of now. I'll be thinking and if anyone wants to toss me a small plot bunny they'd like to run about in my head, go right ahead and email me with it. JackFan2 did that for me with a PotC fic (yes, Naomi, the one I STILL haven't finished :hides:) . I'll give you credit for the idea. I've got a possible oneshot that might follow this up, so keep your eyes peeled.
Oh yeah! Email is " takadasaiko at hotmail dot com" (sorry, it doesn't want to write it...)
Also wanted to say sorry for not getting this up yesterday. I tried! Really I did! FFdotnet was against me!
GoldenLyre:Does it end EC? Hmm.. Are you SUUUUURE you want it spoiled? Email me if you do b/c I don't want spoil it for everyone. Sorry for the confusion. Poor Christine was confused too! Lol. But it's all good. They're together in the end and that's what matters.
Clever Lass:Perhaps unnecessary, but personally I didn't think it was farfetched with his temper the way it is… But ah well, to each their own. Thank you so much for all your reviews over the story! They've really been helpful. Like I said, I'm thinking about trying to do a sequel, so if there's a full out reconciliation between Erik and Madeleine, it'll probably be there. I mean, she was pretty cruel to him the first 9 years of his life… It'll take a while for that relationship to get built up, but they're working on it!
LostSchizophrenic:grins: you just make my day with your kind words! As to a sequel, I hope so! If I can come up with an idea or if someone wants to toss a plot bunny to me that I like well enough to twist into a story, I will.
Lynx Ryder:Haha! Sending people through hell is my specialty… hehe… My friend Audrey would get the biggest kick out of hearing that! Thanks so much for your reviews and hope to see ya on the sequel if I get it out :)
Lady Baelish: I'm really glad I checked the reviews before uploading the last chapter. I almost missed answering this one and I would have felt just horrible :( Anyway, that was a very funny picture you planted in my mind... A mumified sultana... Hehe... Let's see... I play with ages a lot, though I'm sure I stretched it a bit for these. I just thought her so interesting that she had to be a villian. Alright, I can't remember exactly how long Erik was in Persia, but this is my general idea as to ages of people and how old they'd be during the story and such:
Erik when entering Persia: 19
When leaving: 22
Spent three years
Time in-between: 28
Sultana: 15 when shah was born
Shah: 19 when Erik came
Sultana: 34 when Erik came
Sultana: 37 when he left
Sultana: Currently 65
My general idea for it... :shrug: Stetch the imagination a bit, if you please. :) But thanks for pointing that out and I hope that puts it into semi more realilistic perspective...
THANKS YA'LL!
TS