Plot: Two years after her death Christian is still mourning for Satine. One night Zidler turns up and reveals a secret he had kept for five years.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for one they all belong to the people who made them up.



Satine's Lily



Christian sat alone. Alone. He had never felt alone before, her. Now loneliness filled his days and nights with restlessness and despair. The bad memories filled him with regret and the good ones made the hurting worse. He could barely remember her laugh or the smell of her perfume all he remembered was that she had the sweetest voice he had ever heard and that he loved her. For two long years now he had sat in a dazed drunkenness that kept him from going insane.

Oh but her voice how he longed, he pined to here her sing just once more and hold her in his arms just for one moment and tell her.

and tell her he loved her just one more time. But she was dead. Gone forever, never to be seen again, like a shooting star that zooms brightly across the sky for a split second and then disappears and just the memory of it makes you want to see it again. Just like Satine.

He had visited her grave. It was the only place he could bare to leave his home for. It was in a beautiful place, beside a river. On clear nights the stars reflected in the water. Like sparkling diamonds.

Tonight Christian sat alone. Toulouse his midget friend had grown tired of trying to cheer him up, after Satine died Christian had grown bitter and no longer was good company for the idealistic Bohemian. Occasionally Toulouse came by; he talked to Christian of "vanderfull" ideas he had for a new play. Tonight Christian sat alone.

He swigged at his fifth bottle of absinthe and stared out the window. He felt like a tired old man in a young man's body. He felt weak and lifeless, his eyes were no longer wide open and eager to see the world, they were tired looking eyes, stained red and surrounded by dark eye-bags. His gaze was fixed on Moulin Rouge where it had all began, on the elephant where she had first said loved him. Christian sighed and slowly closed his eyes.

"One day I'll fly away"

His eyes opened for a moment and then closed again.

"Leave all this to yesterday

What more could your love do for me

When will love be through with me

Why live life from dream to dream.

"Christian?" a voice said

Christian turned over in his sleep.

"Christian?" the voice said again, it was strangely familiar

"Satine?" he murmured

Strong hands shook him and he awoke a well-built man with an orange colored beard and goatee stood before him.

"Zidler?" Christian had not seen Harold Zidler in years. After the death of Satine the Moulin Rouge had stayed as a theatre but was never quite as successful as it had been as a nightclub. Christian had noticed how it didn't have the same zing as it used to. There were not as many crowds that lined the streets, not as much glorious noise.

"Hello Christian" Zidler said grimly

"Hello Zidler, um what are you doing here?" Christian asked

"Is everything alright? Is Marie okay?"

"Yes Christian, Marie is fine, and so am I. But there is something I thought I should tell you" Zidler said his voice low and gruff.

"The Moulin Rouge is not doing so well" he coughed " We are in a bit of debt, so we are selling it"

This was no surprise to Christian the Moulin Rouge had always been a high maintenance attraction.

"We're moving away to start again on a new nightclub somewhere far away but there are various matters keeping us here" he coughed again

" What matters Zidler?" Christian asked

The old man couldn't keep it in any longer he blurted it out

"Christian before she met you, Satine had a daughter"

The news hit Christian like a fainting Argentinean.

"What?" he said not believing what he had just heard.

Why hadn't she told him?

"Christian" Zidler said seeing the look on his face

"She didn't know"

"How could she not know that she had had a child?" Christian shouted, loosing composure.

Harold looked down at the floor, ashamed.

" We told her it had, it had died" he coughed again, Christian could see that it wasn't easy for him to say this and wasn't about to make it any easier, his heart hardened.

"YOU WHAT?" he shouted

"Christian" Zidler said stammering to explain " She was our star, it wasn't a child she wanted. It was to be famous, a famous actress. We thought at the time that we were helping her along, Christian I know it was a stupid thing to do."

"YOUR DAMN RIGHT IT WAS A STUPID THING TO DO!" Christian shouted enraged

"Christian" Zidler said trying to calm him down" Christian we told her, that night she died, we told her, she met her child, Christian?" Christian sat weeping on the floor

"Why are you TELLING ME THIS?"

"Christian, the truth is we don't have a lot of money. To start up a new nightclub we need all the money we can get. We need you to take the girl." He paused to see Christian's reaction. Christian stopped crying and sat in shock.

"Just for a little while"

"At least until we're ready to take her again" Zidler said.

"Yes" Christian said, he would love the girl as his own

Now it was Zidler's turn to be surprised but he quickly recovered with a shake of his head, he smiled.

" Her name is Lily, she is five years old now, I'll bring her here tomorrow. Maybe you should use that time to clean up," he said glancing around the apartment