"What is she doing here?" I asked, sitting up as Bernadette tugged on my arm,

"I don't know, she has only been downstairs for a few minutes,"

"She looks very sad," Bernadette said as she wriggled herself between CJ and me, "She looked like Mother did last night,"

CJ stoked Bernadette's sleek black hair, "I guess we have to go down and see what she is after," She murmured to me,

I nodded, "Bernadette, go down stairs and help Marie, we will be down in a minute," She jumped off the bed and shot down the stairs; she ran like the wind when she wanted to,

Marie shut the door,

"What do you think she wants with you?" CJ asked me as she removed the slip she had slept in; I had been focused on dressing myself and then dealing with the problem of Christine but the sight of CJ with out her slip on distracted me. I pulled her to me, cradling her head as I pressed my lips gently to hers, running my fingertips up and down her bare back,

"Erik, I think we still need to go downstairs," CJ smiled up at me and I reluctantly released her,

"I have no idea what Christine could be here for," I stated as I pulled on a fresh set of clothes and my mask,

"We could ask her," CJ said wryly, "I hear she is just downstairs,"

We walked down to the dinning room; I had an odd feeling as I walked into the room and saw my daughter talking to Christine,

"We usually don't have so many visitors," Bernadette was saying, "But last night we had people over, and now you are here! I hope you are nicer than the people who were hear last night,"

"You…you met the people who came here last night?" Christine asked slowly,

"Yes," Bernadette frowned, "They made my mother cry,"

At these words Christine sobbed loudly,

"Bernadette, that is enough talk for now," CJ said firmly, but by the small smile on her lips and the slight raise of her eyebrows she had enjoyed the fact that our daughter had made Christine cry harder,

"Can I go play with the piano?" Bernadette looked from me to her mother,

"Yes, just not too loud; no pounding," I said to her as climbed skillfully out of the chair she had been standing on and tore out of the room; much to my amusement she stopped short just as she reached the doorframe,

She grabbed the side of the wall with one hand and turned back to Christine, smiling in the mischievous way which made her remind me of me,

"It was very nice to meet you, and I hope you are nicer than the people from last night, I don't like it when my parents cry," still smiling broadly she turned and ran for the music room,

This left the three of us alone in the dinning room. We looked at each other awkwardly for a time; CJ and I sat side by side facing Christine,

"You have a piano?" Christine finally offered as a way to break the silence,

"Are you surprised?" CJ asked her in an icy tone,

"Well…" Christine began uncertainly,

"You think that we are too poor to own a piano?" CJ asked, her voice turned dangerously callous,

"No! I just thought that…um…"

"You thought what?" CJ asked sharply,

"I don't know what I was thinking," Christine finally said, giving up trying to make her point, which was most likely as good idea as CJ looked like she wanted nothing more that to rip Christine to shreds; and I would have let her.

I was angry with her for involving me in the kidnapping of her child; I had had nothing to do with it and it had caused my family a great deal of pain,

"We could sit here all day," I said harshly, "But I cannot waste any more time on you Christine, so tell me why you have come here,"

She sighed shakily, as though she had been crying so much she was now out of tears, "I need your help,"

I snorted, "Why the hell should I help you?"

Christine look heartbroken, "You have always helped me, Erik," and I saw CJ shutter as she said my name,

"I helped you once, and it…" Suddenly I stopped; I had helped her once and it had led to my ruin; that was what I was going to say, however it was not true. I had helped her and it had led me to Dumas, who had led me to CJ. I had never thought of my life in this way before and I suddenly realized that but for Christine's rejection I never would have met CJ,

Had Christine agreed to stay and I had not let her go, I would still be under the opera in darkness, and I shuttered as I thought about a life without CJ and my daughter,

"What do you need Christine?" I asked her, and there was a glimmer in her brown eyes; I looked over to CJ and I saw that her green eyes were set in an almost frightening expression; CJ was not going to forgive Christine for the night before,

"I…well I don't know how to start," she looked up at us and I saw her quickly drop her eyed from CJ's glare,

"It's Raoul…he was the most wonderful husband, and then a year or so ago he…changed. He started to act odd, he would go places late at night and he was nervous all the time. Then when we discovered our son, Henri, was gone it was like he went mad! He thought that we should seek you out, he said it must have been you. I was trying to say that I thought you would know where Henri was…because you were always watching out for me…I never meant for you to get arrested; I tried to explain this to Raoul but he would not listen!"

She paused to wipe her eyes on her handkerchief and I saw CJ roll her eyes next to me,

"Then when we got home last night, I found this," she took a piece of paper out of her handbag and handed it to me,

I read the letter; it was a ransom note; not unusual in a kidnapping. I skimmed the latter; nothing really stood out, it said all the usual things…I have your son, bring money, no police,

"I showed it to Raoul and he became furious! He destroyed my whole room; threw a vase against the wall, broke a chair, he even threw all of my dresses about and ripped some of them," she took a deep breath,

"I heard him through the door at night; he was pacing back and forth, muttering, and then he would just break down and cry for awhile, and then he would start pacing again. I was afraid of him so I left the house; I wandered around for awhile until I thought of you again Erik,"

She lifted her sad brown eyes to stare directly into mine, "I love my son, and I can't find him! I don't know where he is, or if he is safe, and I don't know what Raoul is going to do about it! I know you can do anything! I know you can figure anything out! Please, tell me where my son is!" she began to cry again,

I honestly felt sorry for her; I had been through the pain of thinking I would never see my child again and it had almost killed me; but at least I had known where she was, and that she was safe. If she had been missing…I would have gone mad. CJ appeared to grow more sympathetic as well. As a parent I knew she was thinking what I was thinking,

"Is there anyone you can think of who would what to hurt your family?" CJ asked, and her voice was considerably less sever,

"No, no, not that I can think of,"

I was staring at the letter she had handed me before; I was staring at the amount demanded for the return of the child, then I had a thought,

"CJ…" I pointed to the figure demanded,

"Oh God," she said quickly, then she ran out of the room,

"Where is she going?" Christine asked, bewildered,

"To our room, to get something," I said, still concentration on the letter,

"She is very beautiful Erik," Christine said, and I stared at her,

"Yes…she is,"

"How did you meet her?" she asked curiously,

"Long story," I said simply, and then CJ rushed back into the room,

"Here," she was holding the payment sheets from the folder Dumas had given us and she threw it on the table in front of me and pointed,

"RC," I whispered, and the amount he had been paying matched the amount the kidnapper was asking for,

"He had been in on the Cromwell scheme the whole time," CJ whispered, sitting down beside me, "But if he giving Cromwell payments, why kidnap the child?"

I considered a moment, "Maybe he wanted to get out of the game," I said,

"Why? It was probably earning him a fortune,"

"I don't know, but we could ask," I said grimly,

Moments later a bewildered Christine was following CJ and I as we walked toward the police station. Christine was lagging behind but we did not slow our pace. We had an awkward cab ride over to Etrange, after which we hurried to the station house. Dumas looked up as we entered his office,

"We need to talk to de Chagny,"

We rushed to the de Chagny manor as quickly as we could; CJ and I explained what we had found out on the way,

When we entered the house, de Chagny came toward us; he had been pacing in the foyer,

"Where the hell did you go Christine?" he barked, and then his eyes fell on all of us, "What is he doing out of jail!"

"You know he did not take your son; we have to talk, Viscomte," Dumas looked at him coldly,

Five minutes later we were seated at the large dinning room table; Dumas was between CJ and I while Christine and Raoul were across from us. Dumas threw the ransom letter on the table and pushed it toward Raoul,

"Does this look farmiliar?" he asked,

"Yes, my wife showed it to me last night, I already contacted your friend Fillips and I told him I am going to pay the money and that he should not send help,"

"Why shouldn't he send help?" Dumas asked,

"Because I know how you police men are, you would probably shoot my son instead of the kidnapper," he snapped, "And I can spare the money; it is nothing compared to getting my son back,"

"Oh I know you can spare the money," Dumas stated, "You have been sparing this exact amount for years now," and I pushed the payment records toward him; all payments with the letters RC as the name had been circled,

He tried to hide his shock but was unsuccessful, "I…have never seen those before," he stuttered,

"Maybe not, but I think you know what they are," Dumas said,

"No I don't," he snapped,

"He has your son you fool!" CJ yelled at him suddenly, standing up so fast the chair she had been sitting in flew out behind her, "Do you know what kind of a man he is! I knew his father, de Chagny," she put her hands on the table and leaned forward, glaring coldly into de Chagny's eyes, "His father is a wicked man; he had no problem locking children in rooms and beating them," de Chagny looked like he was going to be sick, and Christine started to cry again, "He raped children; he killed children," CJ snarled,

"That…that was his father," de Chagny said, shaking,

"Does your son ever remind you of yourself?" I asked Raoul in a low voice,

Raoul and Christine de Chagny buried their heads in their hands at the same moment; finally Raoul spoke,

"He…he said he was going to have to do something like this but I did not believe he would," He voice was shaking, "He said we needed to be more careful about payoffs because the police were asking about him and then that night they caught the delivery boys and found out where he was living and he had to move to escape; I told him it was getting to risky, and that I would not pay anymore, but he said he would make me," Raoul grabbed his wife's hand,

"When we found that our son was gone I did not want to believe he had taken him; I wanted to believe it was him," he pointed at me,

"But when I saw the letter and the payment amount; I knew he had taken him,"

"Why didn't you contact us at once?" Dumas asked,

"I thought I could handle it on my own," Raoul said miserably,

"Where is he? Where is Cromwell hiding?" Dumas asked,

"What will you do if I tell you?"

"We can get your son back; and if you tell us all about this little scheme Cromwell his been pulling than we will not press charges against you,"

Raoul de Chagny nodded.

The house Richard Cromwell Jr. was occupying looked quite evil; it was on the outskirts of Paris and it stood alone on a hill; the dead grass around it and the skeletal trees still naked from the winter against the darkening evening sky gave the whole place an eerie feeling.

CJ and I were waiting until night fully fell to approach the house. Cromwell Jr. had instructed Raoul to pay him the next night, so in all likelihood Cromwell was currently inside the house.

We were going to sneak into the house and find Cromwell, and then find the child. When night had fully covered the bleak area, CJ and I slunk up to the house. CJ had a gun and a knife; I had my lasso. I was reminded of our early days as assassins and I smiled a bit in the dark as I thought about the now far off time when I had first met CJ.

The house was darkened and we slunk up to it; cautiously creeping toward the windows. We had already formulated a plan; and we began to execute it. CJ went to the back of the house. She began breaking all the windows and banging on the side of the house. In the meantime, I went to the front door. Going to the front door was a very unexpected move, and we had agreed it might throw him off.

I tried the knob but it was locked. Stooping and taking out a lock pick, I had to work for only a moment before I heard a click. I opened the door slowly and peered inside. My eyes never lost their ability to look through the gloom of darkness and I saw no one in the room.

"Who ever you are I have a gun!" I heard a man's voice from the back of the house, "I will shoot!" I heard him say; and his voice seemed like it was coming from the main floor of the house,

I could hear CJ darting around the house and most likely confusing the hell out of Cromwell Jr.

"I can hear you!" he shouted, "I see you!"

And it was ironic that he said this as this moment, for what he did not see was about to ruin him. I cracked the back of his head and he fell to the ground, unconscious. I bound him with the rope I was carrying,

"CJ!" I called out, "All clear!"

"Coming in!" CJ yelled back and she ran to the front door,

I spotted a lantern on a table and lit it; allowing for CJ to see; we began to look for the child,

"Henri!" we called through the house, listening for a response; however none came. We searched the entire upper floor; we found records of his clever scheme but no child, then we searched the main floor and all that was left was the basement.

We finally found the terrified little boy; shaking, bound to a chair in the basement. He was no bigger than Bernadette. I scooped the crying boy into my arms and we left the basement. We lit a lantern in one of the top windows of the house; this was the signal for Dumas and the rest of the police to come out of hiding and go to the house.

Christine ran through the front door,

"Mother!" the little boy squirmed and I handed him to Christine,

"You really are an angel Erik," Christine whispered to me as we left the house, "You really are,"

Richard Cromwell Jr. was taken to prison, where he immediately petitioned for a lesser sentence on the bases that he testify against his father. Cromwell Jr. exposed his father as a murderer and an abuser, however at first it seemed that it would all be swept under the rug by the power of money and influence. However, the story was leaked to the papers and due to the stirring editorial from the famous writer Christopher Johnson Eriksson, public opinion demanded that both father and son be punished.

After this, Dumas pointed out to us that we were free; he had nothing over our heads and we could leave the station and find better jobs elsewhere. However, at least for the moment, we agreed to stay on; at a higher pay.

I was enjoying my life as I never before thought I could. Bernadette continued to grow and thrive. She was even introduced to Henri de Chagny; at which point she affectively managed to scare him into thinking our music room was haunted and sent him home terrified.

CJ was no doubt the love of my life; she was my savior and I cherished her company and her love beyond all else.

It was strange; I had always thought of my very life and my very face as a crime against humanity; however, I thought each time I saw my daughter smile or I held my wife in my arms as she slept; if my life was a crime I was willing to except the punishment.

Fin.