"Always Christine!" Meg shouted, she waved her hand in a blind gesture towards Christine. The gun sounded, startling everyone who stood on the pier.

Christine clutched her chest, expecting to have been shot. Instead she found herself and Gustave unscathed. She looked up from the terrified boy's face, to see the man that she truly loved wavering in his place.

"No!" Christine shouted, rushing towards the Phantom in time to slow his fall. "No. No. No."

He had stepped to the side just in time to save Christine from any fatal blow. Instead, sacrificing himself for her. It was his fault that Meg tried to drown their son, his fault that Meg had gone off the deep end. It was his fault that instead of committing suicide she had shot at Christine. He shouldn't have said what he had.

We can't all be like-

"Christine." The Phantom clutched her hand as she brought it to her lips. He pressed his palm against his stomach, were the blood leaked from his body. He had become accustomed to pain throughout his life; the beatings he had dealt with throughout his growing years at the Gypsy carnival and then the ache of unrequited love for over ten years of his life. Being shot in the stomach was an acceptable pain, but the pain of being eternally separated from Christine was unbearable. She was destined for heaven and he was already a step into Hell. She was an angel and he was a demon.

"Stay with me."

"Don't ever tell him." He shook his head, pleading her desperately to keep his identity concealed from their son. His vision blurred in and out as he stared up at the beautiful woman who had haunted him for years. He yearned to hold her in a passionate embrace, just one more time. One more time. To make it right, to stay with her and bask in the glory of a union with an angel.

God, if you are there, if you are real. Don't let this happen. Let me live to be with her. Let me right this wrong that I have done to her. I have ruined her life, her marriage by being a coward. If I had stayed with her and told her how I loved her. Then, then, we would be together. If I had let the fop go and kept her. The kiss she gave me! It was not a kiss to satisfy a murderous monster. That had been a kiss of love! A confession. And I scorned it. I scorned and then I left her when she finally admitted to me that she loved me. I left her when she gave to me her maidenhood! She came to me the night before she wed. She wanted me not him! And instead I left her! Let me right my wrong! Let me!

"I want him to know. He needs to know."

"Mother! I'm scared." Gustave whispered, slowly approaching the wounded man. "Where's father?"

"Here." Christine replied, taking her son's hand in her hand. "He is right here."

"I do not see him." Gustave looked around the foggy pier, trying to avoid looking at the blood that stained the wood.

"Here." Christine looked down at the Phantom. "Your real father."

"Mr. Y?" Gustave stepped back, "My father? No. It.. where's father?"

"Please." The Phantom pleaded, gasping and coughing. "No. I don't want him to see this. Go, leave, Christine. Go. Please. Let me die."

"Never. I have pretended that you were dead for ten, long years, always knowing the truth. I won't let you die." Christine brought the Phantom's hand to her lips, kissing each knuckle. "Madame Giry, Meg, please get help! Get help!"

"Christine," He shook his head weakly. "Who would help a masked man?" He gasped, the pain hot and streaking through his abdomen. He was not a fool to know that piercing wounds to the gut, always ended in death. Painful death. Though modern medicine was slowly catching onto hygiene, it was one thing that he had learned with the Gypsies. There were ways to seriously wound a man and not kill him and then there were ways to seriously wound a man and kill him quickly and then, ways to do it slowly. A piercing wound to the gut, would be a slow painful death as the infectious bile from digestive organs would seep into the blood and kill you. He had seen it done.

Gustave tugged away from his mother's grasp, stepping slowly backwards away from his… parents?

"I'm not letting you die." Christine muttered, she lifted him up, laying him gently on her lap. "I can't lose you. I've lost everyone to be with you, just one more time."

"I love you."

"I love you."

"Kiss me, please." He rasped, his grip on her hand lessening.

Taking a deep breath, Christine placed her hand over top of his mask, slowly prying it from his deformed face. His face no longer brought horror to her. Instead she felt deep pity for him and a deep hate for herself. How had she ever denied him in the light, giving him what he deserved only in the cloak of darkness. She was a coward and it was her cowardice that had brought them to this. If she had insisted that night, that she had truly chosen him and not Raoul. If she hadn't been afraid of him and what he would do if she didn't obey him and leave with Raoul. If she had stayed when she had returned the ring, the ring that had been Raoul's to begin with. If she had stayed instead of waiting for night time to fulfill her deepest desires to be with him.

If he hadn't left her.

They were both cowards because they couldn't accept each other.

Christine pressed her lips against his, reliving the last time she had felt his misshapen lips pressed to hers. Dear God, I cannot lose him. Not now that I've just been reunited. Please have mercy on his wretched soul. On my wretched soul. Please let us have these ten years back. Please let them be different.

"Christine! We've found a doctor for-" Meg ran onto the pier, stopping when she found that there was nothing but a pool of blood where the Phantom had lain. A pool of blood and a frightened child

"They just… vanished."

A/N: Just a strange little AU, fantasyish version of LND. I had the incredible pleasure of seeing it twice and now I just want to play out this weird thought I had. I've seen it done before in Phantom stories, in a very different way but I wanted to play it this way.