You Must Love Me

Written by: lysimarie

Author's note and disclaimer: Here we go! The next chapter of You Must Love Me. I just feel like updating, and this one is a little short for me, but I only wanted to cover a few things to continue the story along. The next chapter should be back to my normal length.

Chapter 4: Late Night Confessions

Last time on You Must Love Me: "Of course Fraulein. I will see you at dinner then."

"At dinner." She whispered, almost unable to breathe.

As he walked away, Christine thought of one thing….What on earth was she going to wear?

Christine had never laughed so hard in her life. The Captain was actually quite funny, and very sarcastic. "I'm serious!" he said, surprised she was laughing so hard.

"I'm sorry Captain, but what my mind depicted of you as a child, is not a cow tipper." She said, snickering.

"Really? Then what did your mind depict?" he said, turning the conversation.

She sat there for a moment, and thought before answering. "I imagine that you were a trouble maker, torturing your governesses and having a good time doing so."

Erik laughed. "You're close."

"I am?"

He nodded. "Yes, I did play tricks on my governesses. My favorite one was a pine cone on their chair at dinner." He said, a smile on his face.

Christine looked at him…and realized he had put the pine cone on her chair. "Captain! I can't believe you!" she said, playfully slapping him on the arm.

He chuckled, and looked at her. "It was a test. Most of the Governesses would either yell at my children, or they would give them a stern look. But you didn't."

"No. I grew up with three brothers. Craig, Christopher, and Caleb. I was always getting tricks played on me because I was the youngest. Now, Craig is 40 and has two little girls in addition to being stage manager on Broadway, Christopher is 35 and doing research in the rain forest, and Caleb is 29 and he is a Pediatrician."

"And you became a teacher."

"Yes. I liked working with children. When I was in high school, I would tutor middle school kids during one of my study halls in the morning, and then in the afternoon I would tutor high school kids. I had a senior my first year as a freshman, and he was not happy about being tutored by me…" she said her voice drifting away.

"Fraulein, are you all right?"

It was a long time ago. Forget about it. Just…Forget… "I'm fine. Really." She said smiling.

But Erik noticed that her smile didn't exactly reach her ears like it had been. Christine looked away from the captain, not able to be under his gaze. She did notice that he would look at her, and when she would look at him, she couldn't breathe. His eyes would captivate her, and when he wiped away her tears earlier today, she couldn't believe he was touching her, and it felt so good.

"If you ever need to talk to me, even if it's in the middle of dead night, I'll listen." He said, placing his hand on hers.

Her smiled brightened and she nodded. "Thank you Captain. I appreciate that…I do." She said, gathering courage to tell him her story. "I was fifteen years old, and he was eighteen. He hated being tutored by me, but I didn't mind. I liked teaching. As the months passed, we became good friends and were hardly seen without the other one. But then he graduated and went to college and I stayed as a sophomore. We could communicate by letters and when he would come home for holiday's we would always hang out. When I turned eighteen, we began to date formally, and after four years, we were engaged. My family was ecstatic, and I didn't think life could get better.

"And then the unthinkable happened." She whispered. "It was September. We were to be married on Friday, but he had to be in New York for a meeting at the Twin Towers. He called me before I went to work, wishing me a good day, because it was my first job as a teacher. I was only a substitute, but if things went well, I would be accepted for a real job."

Erik stopped her. "You don't have to tell me anymore. Not if you don't want to Fraulein."

"I need to." She said looking him in the eye for the first time since she began. "I was in the middle of class when my cell phone rang. It was Raoul, and he told me that he loved me and that he might not ever see me again. I was confused, and when the line went dead, one of the teachers came running in and told me to turn on the TV, the twin towers had been hit by an airplane, and one of them had just fallen.

"My entire class was crying, I was in hysterics, and got someone to cover for me as I went home. I didn't see anyone for three weeks. I couldn't eat unless no one was around, I didn't take care of myself, and I wanted to die. My mom was my biggest support system, and got me out of my hole." She said, a small tear running down her face, which she quickly wiped away.

"I understand what you went through. Staci was so strong, and when we found out we were going to have our sixth child, she was overjoyed. We loved our children so much, and there was always music in the house. But something went wrong. She was going early, by ten weeks. There were complications, and the doctor had to choose who to let live, the baby, or Staci. He asked her, and she wanted the baby to live. Before she died, she made me promise to take care of our children. I failed at that. I allowed myself to distance myself from them, and only hurt them. I wish I could go back and stop myself."

"Your children don't hold that against you Captain. They see now that you love them, and they only want that."

"I hold it against myself though."

"You shouldn't."

Silence filled the study, and Christine looked at the clock. It was late, really late. She should go back to her room. "Excuse me Captain, but it's rather late, and I think I should be going to bed. Your children are very early risers."

Erik laughed. "Yes they are. Good night Fraulein Christine."

"Good night Captain." She said, smiling as she left.

Deep chapter...

MJ Mod: You ROCK my world right now. You get this Chapter dedicated to you, because your one little review made me want to update.