And so it came to be that Erik Carrière and his lovely young bride, Christine Daée Carrière became familiar faces (so to speak) around l'Opera Garnier. With Christine's voice being so angelic, she was wildly popular as Marguerite in Faust, and in every other role requiring a beautiful ingenue with such an amazing range and such a bell-like clarity of tone. Her husband soon became known as the manager's right-hand man, and no one was surprised when he ended up sliding neatly into the manager's position when his father retired.
He and his wife became quite close friends with the middle-aged police inspector Ledoux, and his charming wife Clemence. Christine looked up to the older lady as the mother she'd never had, while the Inspector always said that he owed "young Mr. Carriere" much more than his life – but he would never specify exactly what he owed him, or why.
The couple also maintained cordial ties with Philippe de Chagny, and were delighted for him when he finally found the woman he could remain faithful to. She was a young dancer named Meg, who had been cast for her skill on the stage rather than in the bedroom. She also had led Philippe a merry chase, being uninterested in him for several years until he had proved his worth to her satisfaction. Christine and Erik thought she was a fine match for him, and although he and Erik never actually said they were friends, they did seek each other out a great deal, to drink together and swap insults.
Alain Choletti ended up spending a good deal of time in prison, and when he got out he had gone bald, lost a lot of weight, and shaved off his formerly impressive moustache. He also discovered, much to his chagrin, that his slightly mad wife had begun a whole new line of work.
Carlotta loved it; she got to wear dramatic costumes just as she had at the opera, and she got to flirt and play the coquette to her heart's content. Her new workplace was not in a part of town that she had ever frequented before. (Her husband had, in his youth, but never during daylight hours.)
At night, though, the doorways in that part of town shone with a slightly sordid red glow that she felt complemented her hair and skin tone admirably. She couldn't quite figure out why that nasty little bald man with the strange accent wanted her to quit her job, and who did he think he was, anyway, her husband or something?
Gerard Carrière aged gracefully, gradually letting Erik shoulder more and more of the managerial burden until Gerard was ready to retire completely and enjoy his grandchildren.
Erik and Christine lived happily ever after. They also hosted, wrote, and performed some of the best operas that Paris had ever seen. They argued sometimes; they got angry at each other; they worried about budgets and wars; they took each other for granted from time to time – in short, they did all the things that every married couple does. But like all happy couples, they worked out their disagreements; they laughed and loved; they forgave each other; they did their best to raise their children even in the midst of the conflict around them.
And one day they brought their children to visit their grandfather, and together the three of them told René and Marie-Chantal all about the Phantom of the Opera.
René was the older one, dark-haired but with the sea-grey eyes of his father and grandfather. He was twelve when Gerard finally handed the reins over to Erik officially, though Erik had been doing most of the work for several years already. René definitely took after his mother in vocal performance; he sang well, and his parents fully expected him to be able to be put into the chorus in another few years after his voice finished changing.
His sister Marie-Chantal was only two years younger. She had also inherited the Carrière grey eyes, but had got her long, fine, blonde hair from her mother. She also sang well, but her true passion lay in painting and art. She was already one of the best set designers they had, and – trained by her father in the field of "magic," – enjoyed creating special effects as a hobby.
Neither one of them ever told anyone what their father's face really looked like – but neither one ever minded seeing it, either. And they faithfully kept the secret of their father's former life as a ghost, for the rest of their lives.
Gerard, having seen more happiness in his last ten years of life than he had ever expected to experience the day the Cholettis took over, finally felt that he could die happy. And years later, after a rich, full and fulfilling life, he did.
FIN
Author's Note: Thank you again, everybody, for your encouragement, reviews, and for not losing faith in me after this story sat unattended for so embarrassingly long. I do hope you've all enjoyed it, and that there was enough fluff in it to suit the fluffy phans and enough plot to satisfy the thinking ones.
The entire story as a whole is dedicated to my wonderful, lovely husband who supports my writing no matter what I write, is a terrific sounding-board, and comes up with the best plot ideas I've ever heard. My beloved Clever Lad, this one was for you (especially chapter 29!)!
But Ripper can have the Red Death outfit if she wants it. Heck, Ripper can have anything she wants, after all the gorgeous illustrations she has done for this story. Everyone should check out her homepage on Deviantart; she has tons of illustrations for this story there. Enjoy!