"All of your ideas will get you killed!" Christine shouted, beyond angry now. Erik threw up his hands and glared at her.
"And your ideas will do nothing but make me look like an idiot!"
"You are doing a fine job of that right now!"
"This is what I get for thinking a woman would be able to help me!"
Christine screamed in frustration and threw the nearest thing she could reach, which happened to be a vase. Erik ducked and it shattered against the opposite wall. They had been trying to discuss what would be the best plan of action to take against Michael but so far neither had agreed with anything that the other had said. It was a little past midnight, and Christine knew they were making far too much noise but Erik was making her so mad she could not help but scream! His ideas would only lead to him getting hurt but he would not listen to the voice of reason, which happened to be her.
"Do not give me that woman talk, Erik Charles Desslar! You are being a typical man, hard headed and ignorant!" she growled.
"And you are being a typical woman, daft and not listening when her husband tells her something!"
"You are impossible!"
Erik watched her as she stormed out of the room. He needed a little while alone to calm down. He loved Christine more than anything but she could be very stubborn sometimes, as could he. He knew he would never be able to tolerate a timid wife but at times as crucial as these he did not need the arguments, it was getting them no where.
Trying to get his mind off of the present situation he thought about what had been going on with Chagny and Meg. He had thought it was incredibly amusing the fact that he had been caught making love. The boy was not as smooth as he believed himself to be and Erik found that very entertaining. But Raoul did have courage. He had stormed downstairs after his talk with Christine and interrupted Meg's thrashing. He would marry Meg, if he had the permission of her mother. Erik could see Antoinette was taken back by this but of course she had demanded that the two marry. It was the only way to save both of them from scandal! Meg had been surprised that Raoul had proposed but she obviously had accepted.
Sighing, Erik went downstairs, needing to be alone but unable to be without Christine. Everyone was in their rooms but he knew they could not be asleep with how much yelling he and Christine had done. He went into the foyer to find Christine sitting in front of the fire. Raoul was no where to be found so Erik could only assume that he had snuck into Meg's room. The boy never learned. Christine had her knees drawn up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them. The fire illuminated her face as she stared into the flames, not turning when she heard him come in. He could see there were tears in her eyes and on her cheeks and he sighed. This seemed to be happening a lot lately, him making her cry. He did not sit down and he did not go to her, he simply stood there, aching to hear the sound of her voice.
"I have seen things in my life that I would give anything to forget, my mother dying, my father slowly wasting away without her, but never, never will I be able to erase the image of you dying in my arms..."
Erik took a step back at the haunting tone in Christine's voice. He had never heard her sound like that before, perhaps when he had come to her for the first time after she had thought he was dead, but not since. He did not like it. But she continued.
"I turned in on myself...you were not there, so I had to make a world in which you were still with me. At times I could find it in the sanctuary of my own mind, but other times I watched you die, smelt your blood, and heard your heart slowly coming to an end. It was hell, a constant burning that would never go away. God himself could not tear me away from my own madness. I was in a state of constant disillusion. I did not eat, sleep always eluded me. At first my screams could be heard in the long hours of the night, and it drowned out the singing of the birds in the morning..."
Tears were now not only on Christine's face, but on Erik's as well. He had known that she had not been doing so well without him but he had never imagined that it was this bad. Never in any of his wildest imaginings would he have believed something like that could happen to Christine. Christine began to cry as she continued.
"A-Anthony called for a d-doctor...he said-he said I would k-kill the b-baby if I-I did not eat soon..."
She broke down completely and Erik was given the first real shock of his life. Christine, in her madness, had almost killed their child. The child they had made out of love.
"I-I d-d-did not m-mean to, E-Erik...I-I w-would never p-purposely do t-that. I-I was s-slowly dying w-without y-you!"
Erik knew Christine would never hurt their baby, she was not like that. He could see that she was afraid of his reaction. But he knew why she was telling him this, this was the reason she needed to help him. If he were to die than she might follow him to the next life, which meant the end of their child's life. She had collapsed forward, her arms around her abdomen and her face pressed to the rug. Erik went to her, getting down on the floor and pulling her into his arms, cradling her as he rocked back and forth.
"I cannot let that happen again...I-I n-need to help y-you!" she sobbed. Erik pressed kisses all over her face, wanting her to know that he did not blame her for anything. She loved him so much she had almost allowed the unthinkable to happen.
"Shh, love, it is alright now. We will do this together. No arguing. No throwing vases at the others head," he murmured.
"I'm sorry..."
"No. Never apologize, it is the past, we will not dwell on it, alright?" he said. She nodded, pressing her face against his chest.
"My little Dominic or Geneviève does not want their mama unhappy," he whispered. She gave a shuddering sob.
"I do not want you unhappy." His voice was soothing and low, trying to get her to relax. Grief sometimes did things to people that they would never normally do, and so he would never blame her for that, ever.
"Stop shedding tears, my love, we will come up with a plan together, and Michael Delauney will not know what he has gotten himself into."