Thank you everyone for reading! I appreciate all of the reviews!

Next one is from Raoul's POV (when we learn the aftermath of what happened in the hotel) and the final chapter will be from Christine's perspective (where we learn the aftermath of everything else).

Enjoy a Shortie :)

Chapter 53

Meg

I hadn't been able to sleep.

But it was the best kind of insomnia.

Raoul - sweet Raoul - had taken me in his arms and danced with me. Time had passed us by - the dance had carried us through the world on a soft current where nothing but the look and smell and feel of the other mattered.

I wasn't sure what I felt for him, but after tonight, I knew it was so much more than mere friendship. I knew it was something I wanted to keep forever. And I hoped he felt the same.

So I'd lain awake, long, long, long into the night. So long that when the light changed in the room, signaling early morning, I merely sighed and pulled the covers over my head, hoping to get some sleep - I didn't want to waste the day in bed or exhausted. I wanted to spend it with Raoul.

But I couldn't stop thinking about him. How sweet he was. How patient.

And he was aristocracy - the knowledge had upset me at first, but if he felt about me the way I felt about him...would I dare to dream that I'd one day be aristocracy too?

I closed my eyes tight. I had merely thought the idea, and it already brought me a wave of embarrassment. I couldn't be assuming things like this. Even though I wanted to.

The sun had gone just a little higher in the sky when there was a knock heard from a distance - the apartments front door. I shifted my head to listen - it was likely the twins come for breakfast. I listened as Raoul, who was apparently just as awake as me (and had been keeping his clothes on one of the side tables in the parlor), answered the door. I heard him give a little cry, listened to him speak - though his voice was intelligible - and then heard as his footsteps came close to the bedroom door. He knocked.

"Yes?" I called.

"May I open?" He sounded frantic.

I sat up quickly. "Yes. I'm dressed."

He pushed it open, and I saw his eyes shining brightly with excitement. "Meg. It's your mother."

I stared at him, a bubbling starting in my chest. "My mother?"

"And Christine. They're both alive. They're here-"

I didn't wait for the rest. I bolted from the bed and past him, still in my nightgown, and-

There they were.

In the doorway to the place I'd been hiding away was Christine, looking at me with all the love in the world, seeming ready to cry.

And next to her, face thinner than normal, hair grayer, but with eyes that glimmered with their usual spark, was my mother.

Unable to hold in my relief, I let out a sob and ran forward.

My mother and sister caught me in their arms. It wasn't long before their faces were wet with tears too.

Here. They were here. Right now, I didn't care how. I didn't care where they'd been. In this moment, I simply never wanted to let them go again.