A/N: Hi everyone :) Here's chapter 10 :P The song reference in here is 'Dream On' by AeroSmith. It's an awesome song... I suggest you go listen to it :D

Please read and review, that's all I ask of you! :)(:

-EFH

xoxo

Chapter 10: Dream On.

Friday November 30, 07.

Erik pulled Monique closer to his body as the two cuddled on the leather couch, down in his den, watching a movie. He leaned inwards, placing his good cheek, into her hair. He just breathed, inhaling in her sweet scent, feeling happy and relieved for once, that everything was going his way.

The two were watching 'The Titanic', under Monique's request. At first he argued, not wanting to watch a movie where they knew the ending… and an ending that wasn't even something memorable.

"What is the point in watching a movie, when you know it will just end horribly?" he demanded.

"Because it's still a love movie!" she argued.

"Yes, but the man just ends up dieing in the end anyways!"

"Oh Erik, just watch the movie with her already!" Lilliana griped, coming into the living room with a tray filled with coffee and desserts. "Stop being a typical man and watch the movie! It's still a sweet romance…"

"This is not your discussion here!" Erik growled, narrowing his eyes at her and folding his arms in a huff. "And don't make such sexist comments Lilliana." He put lots of emphasis on her name, causing Monique to chuckle at their little argument.

Lilliana set down the tray of goodies in front of them, and when she pulled back, her and Monique caught eyes. A smiled began to form on their faces, as they looked at Erik, then the two both burst out in laughter. He glared at them and was about to demand why they were laughing, when they began to laugh even harder.

"I really do not see what is so funny." he scoffed, glaring at the two.

He was hit though, with the feeling of familiarity. He seemed to recall Christine laughing in the exact same location to something of the same effect... the shoehorn.

"J-just t-the way y-you stand angrily!" Monique laughed.

"I love you Monique." Erik said softly, into her hair.

Monique looked up into his eyes, a twinkle lighting in her brown orbs. She snuggled closer to him in his embrace and said honestly, "I love you too, Erik." she smiled as the movie changed to one of her favourite scenes; where Jack stood at the front of the ship holding Rose, just gazing out on the seas and the orange creamy skies. Even in their silence, they were professing their love for each other… she wished she could have that with Erik.

The two just stayed in that position, letting reality escape them... along with the movie... to which they had already stopped paying attention to.

"How's work been? Lilliana mentioned you were trying to buy a chain of stores." Monique asked, still cuddling with him.

Erik looked down at her and said quickly, "oh, it's fine."

She smiled, believing him. "Well? Did you buy them?" she asked.

"Oh, yes." he lied. I'm doing it again. He thought to himself; lieing about my life. But for some reason, he just felt he couldn't open up about his life... not even to Monique or Lilliana. Christine was the only exception he had ever made... and even then, he did not know why.

"That's good." she said softly, stroking his chest with her hand.

She smiled at him trustingly. She was going to try her hardest to make this work.

xoxo

Christine fished out her keys from the deep pocket of her winter coat. Fumbling about, she opened the door and trudged inside her dark apartment. Shutting the door behind her, she took off her coat and slung it over her couch and threw her keys down on the table. She kicked her shoes into one corner and went into her bedroom, to change from her work attire.

"Hey Mr.Jube." Christine sighed, greeting the cat that was sleeping in her mass of clothing on her bed.

The cat looked up with tired eyes and then closed them again, completely ignoring her.

"Fine, be that way." She scoffed at the lazy cat that flipped himself to his other side away from her, and placed his paws over his eyes, ignoring her. She made sure that when she took off her bra, she threw it on top of him.

Christine pulled from her closet, a pair of sweats, and an oversized shirt. She put them on and then closed the blinds in her apartment, hating and cursing daylight savings right now.

"So you get one hour of sleep, who cares?" she grumbled. "At least you get daylight for more than a few hours."

She went back into the main room, and dug around her bag, till she found her paper that had millions of chicken scratches and cross outs and had been erased a thousand times. She sat down at the small dining table in the kitchen and was determined to finish the paper. She had spent far too long at her father's grave... and doing what; yelling at a crow. How mature. She thought to herself.

5:05 PM rolled by on the clock on the wall across from her, and she just chewed the end of her pencil, trying to organize her thoughts enough, to get the paper finished.

5:21 PM: Christine began to dig through the fridge for any type of food. All she found was a can of coke and ginger ale, a two litre jug of skim milk, a tube of lipstick she had been searching for and a bucket of cottage cheese way past its expiry date. She groaned as she stood up, and threw out the cottage cheese, knowing she should not be eating, but finishing her damn paper.

5:37 PM: She was back to sitting at the table. Now she was just doodling on the pieces of paper she had laid out. She drew Erik for some reason…

5:59 PM: She was wondering about Raoul... where was he right now? What was he doing? Can't be thinking of him! Christine's thoughts screamed at her. I. Need. To. Work.

6:09 PM: Now Erik was appearing on her mind... how was his life in comparison to hers right now? What had happened with him and his girlfriend? Were the two back together? Would he want to wallow with her anytime soon?

6:14 PM: She was hitting her head repeatedly on the table.

Finally, Christine gave up and stood up. She paced the length of her apartment for about twenty minutes, till she decided she needed someone to talk to. She thought of Kacey first, but realized she would still be at work. And after... well she would be with Tom most likely.

There was her Aunt Grace, but she didn't want to sound like she couldn't handle life... or her Aunt would tell her again how she should have never moved out; a lecture Christine was not in the mood for.

She then thought of Raoul again, and decided to call him. He's always free for me. She thought happily to herself.

After a few ringing, he picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey Raoul," she said tentively.

"Oh hey, is something wrong?" he asked, cautiously. She didn't normally call him out of the blue unless she had something on her mind. Even then, she always called his home phone, never his cell phone, and waited till it was before she went to bed.

"No... Why would you think something is wrong?" she asked, her brows knitting in confusion.

"You just don't call me when you're at work. And well, it's the thirtieth..." he responded, trying to be careful with his words. "And we all know what day yesterday was…" he knew he was the only real one who knew about her dark day this one day a year, that came like clockwork.

That's right! Christine had totally forgotten that she was still technically supposed to be at work... "Tom let me go early to visit daddy. As well as to finish the paper from hell." she sighed.

Raoul chuckled a bit. "The joys of university life."

Christine chuckled as well, despite her sadness. But her ears picked up on the sound of other cars and the passing of roads. "Where are you right now?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, I'm on the way to the clinic." she could trace distress in his voice from that one word. "You know..." he trailed off, not really wanting to say it aloud... for obvious reasons.

Christine quickly cut in, saving him from having to continue having to speak... much to his relief. "That's nice. Did you buy her another puzzle?" Christine asked, trying to sound concerned. Honestly though, her mind couldn't have been a thousand more miles away.

"Yeah. I bought the two thousand and five hundred pieces one, this time. She likes the hard ones." he responded. "This will take her awhile till the next time I visit anyways."

"What type?" she asked, making conversation.

"Um, it's a scenic view of the mountaintops. I think scenery is far more challenging." he explained.

Christine smiled, even though she knew Raoul could not see. Every month... about the exact same time, Raoul went to the clinic to visit his mother. Clara, his mother, had been in a sanitarium since he was just a little boy. But his father had raised him to still love her, despite her problems. So every month since she was put into the clinic, as he liked it to be called, (sanitarium sounds far worse in his opinion) he and his father would bring her a puzzle. Despite being insane, she still managed to put puzzles together, that being her favourite thing to do, and somewhat carry on a conversation.

The image of Clara's room, flashed before her mind. It was quite a dull looking room... to be honest. It'd make me go insane, being stuck in that room everyday for years... Christine thought dryly. She had only visited there a few times. The more recent visit, her walls were plastered with all the puzzles she had finished; even some being plastered to the ceilings... because they had run out of room on the walls.

"Do you have your scissors, rubber cement, tacks and cardboard?" Christine asked.

As Raoul pulled into the parking lot, he pulled his brown leather bag onto his lap and said, "Check. I promised her last time I visited, that I would glue and plaster on the wall, all her puzzles from previous."

"Sounds nice, she'll be really happy. Tell her I said hi, ok?" Christine spoke, trying to sound cheerful.

He paused momentarily. "Are you sure you'll be ok Christine? If you want, I can drop by after..."

"No!" Christine interjected, louder than she had intended. "I mean no, you enjoy your time with your mom... you only get to see her once a month." Christine explained as she sat down at her dining table. "I'll be fine." she reassured.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." she confirmed.

She quickly hung up the phone before he could object further, and sighed in misery. She looked at her paper that had only a few lines of her writing... and every time she looked at her textbooks for any ideas, she would read and re-read the same paragraph. The words just wouldn't stick or commit to memory...

She glared at the clock on the wall from across her, as she realized it had only been a minute after she had called Raoul...

She picked up the phone again after a few moments, and dialed a number. As it rang, she held her breath.

"Hello?" asked an elderly lady's voice from the other end.

At first Christine thought maybe she had the wrong number... but then she quickly recalled Erik mentioning that his mother lived with him. She tried to sound polite immediately. "Hi, is Erik home?" she felt like such a kid when she asked that.

Lilliana looked into the other room from where she stood, and could see Erik and Monique cuddling and joking around. And not wanting to interrupt them, she said quickly, "oh, he is busy at this current moment. But I'm sure if you call back later, he'll be free to talk to you. Would you like me to tell him that you called...?" Lilliana questioned.

Christine felt her heart sink, wanting to talk to someone extremely badly... someone who didn't have a life. She knew that was cruel, but she didn't care. "No thank you. This isn't a formal call... I can call back later... and you don't have to tell him I called." she finished.

As Lilliana said goodbye though, Christine heard Erik's laugh ring out across the phone, and the sound of a young female laugh as well. Then she heard the woman shriek Erik's name and giggle some more.

I guess he's made up with his girlfriend... Christine thought sadly. She stared at her hands for a second, and realized that she was upset about this! Why would I feel upset about this? I want him to be happy! I guess I want him to be miserable like me... and that is precisely why they say misery loves company.

She threw her head back in annoyance and stomped her feet. But her foot went too far, and she was crying out as she stubbed her baby toe on the metal bar that held the plastic table up.

She got up, thinking this definitely wasn't her day... and grabbed the skim milk and drank it straight from its container, not bothering to get a cup.

"I guess misery loves company." she stated, after she had put the jug away and wiped away her milk mustache. "I'm no exception to that."

She began to pace the kitchen in thought. For some reason Erik was stuck in her thoughts... and she just did not know why! He was a friend! And she was glad that he was back with his girlfriend... from what she had learned from him, she wanted him to have happiness... and knew he deserved it.

Christine picked up the small remote to the stereo, and turned it on. She grimaced as a yucky love song came on, and changed it. She listened as a sad melody began to play.

Every time I look in the mirror,

All these lines and a face gettin' clearer,

The past is gone.

It went by like dust to dawn.

Isn't that the way?

Everybody's got their dues in life to pay...

Christine's face contorted as she tried to place the song in her mind. She recognized the sad melody and rhythm from some where...

"Why is it that all the sad songs come on this station every time I feel like buying a gun from Wal-Mart?" she thought aloud to herself.

I know what nobody knows.

Where it comes and where it goes.

I know it's everybody's sin.

You got to lose to know how to win.

"If that's your answer," she asked aloud, "to life, then how come I'm always losing?" she shook her head at herself. "Dear God, I'm talking to the lyrics of a stupid song!" she griped, frustrated.

Half my life,

Is in books written pages,

Live and learn, from fools and from sages.

You know it's true,

All things come back to you.

She glared at the stereo, hatred seething from her because of the words.

Sing with me, sing for the years,

sing for the laughter, sing for the tears.

sing with me, if it's just for today.

Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away.

"Dream on." Christine whispered. She suddenly knew where this song came from and why it was so familiar to her! "This was my father's favourite song..." she gasped, recalling the lyrics in the graveyard.

She paused once more, to listen to the rest of it.

Dream on, dream on, dream on,

dream yourself a dream come true.

Dream on, dream on, dream on,

dream until your dream come true.

Dream on, dream on, dream on.

Christine smiled for real, for the first time today. It was almost as if she was meant to hear this song... on this exact day, at this exact moment in time. And she was glad... for the first time that day; she felt a calm spread over her.

She finally understood, after all these years, why her dad loved that song.

Dream until your dreams come true.

"You can do anything you want Christine, sweetheart. The world is in the palm of your hand. Just promise me you'll never give up on your dreams. Promise me you'll dream on."

She sat herself back down again and before she began to write her paper, she sang the final verse with the lead singer. She could now attest that this was her favourite song too.

"Maybe I should play the stereo more often..." she murmured as she began writing her paper.

xoxo

Lilliana hung up the phone, a bit disgruntled. Who was the young woman that had just called? She suddenly wished the woman had given her a name. And now she was curious what Erik was doing and how he knew this girl.

She peered around the corner at the couple. She was so overfilled with joy, that Erik and Monique had managed to work out their problems... but she recalled Monique mentioning a girl's name written on Erik's arm, with a set of numbers and a heart.

"... not to mention, the day after the proposal... he already had a girl's number on his arm!" Monique took the napkin and wiped her eyes.

Lilliana did not recall Erik ever recieving any kind of attention from others, unless it was Monique, herself or a business call. But this girl on the phone... she had sounded... sad. Desperate even. And she sounded like she couldn't even be a day older than twenty eight. Twenty even!

"That's just not like Erik." Lilliana murmured to herself.