London Theatre

Disclaimer: yes, again I still do not own Moulin Rouge, except on VHS and I hope to get the DVD soon though so I can watch it on my laptop.

Pre-A/N: Well, I find that Tork is actually "The Doctor." Well, I will continue calling him Tork as a name, and we'll call the Unconscious Argentinean Narky (short for Narcoleptic Argentinean lol.)

A/N: Words in italics with no quote marks ("" or '') around them are the thoughts of Satine.

Words in bold italics with single quote marks ('') around them are the thoughts of Christian.

Words in italics with single quote marks ('') around them are the thoughts of Harold Zidler.

Words in italics with double quote marks ("") around them are past quotes from the last chapter(s) or from the movie.

~~Begin Chapter~~

Arriving in London in a few days time Zidler hurried about the streets asking people for directions to the theatre play A Love Which Will Last Forever. Then he caught a cab to the West End Theatre. All the way there he was thinking of how he was going to say the truth and reasons as to why he didn't say anything to Christian two and a half years ago.

~~West End Theatre~~

There was no show today, which was a relief as since there were usually crowds outside begging and pleading for more showings! Everyone just hung out at the theatre some rehearsing other just toying around with the props. Jude, Sadie, Christian and Satine sat next to each other on the edge of the stage.

"Well, that was nice what you do opening night, Jude!" Christian said. "I think we're still trying to get the stench out!"

"Hey! I didn't plan of vomiting! I was planning on just acting sick so you could play the lead!" Jude said.

"Oh so you were just 'acting' eh?" Christian laughed. Jude nodded.

"Yes, of course! I was just acting like I was sick so you'd have to play along with Satine," Jude said.

"But we weren't acting when we said we loved each other," Satine said Christian grinned and wrapped his arm around her.

"Of course we weren't," Christian said.

"I'd hope not! After all that time we've plotted to get you two together, the stage was our last resort, but after you two had gotten together already somehow, we decided to do that just for fun," Sadie said.

"So did you send that man to attack me?" Satine asked. Jude and Sadie looked at her confused.

"What man?" Jude asked.

"Uh, Jack the…what was it?" Satine looked to Christian.

"Uh, Jack the Ripper I think," Christian said. Jude and Sadie's eyes widened.

"One, we wouldn't send anyone to attack you even to get you two together and two-" Jude started.

"You were attacked by Jack the Ripper?! Oh my god! Why didn't you say anything about that to us! Did you get a good look at his face? We can report him!" Sadie said. Satine and Christian exchanged a looked and they both smiled and laughed nervously.

"Uh, hehe," Christian said, "we kind of…uh…killed him, well I did anyway."

"What?!?!" Jude and Sadie both said at the same time.

"Well, he attack Satine and I got angry and I just sort of…killed him," Christian said.

"Thank God I am only your friend Satine!" Jude said. "Would you have killed me if I were more than a friend in that way to her?"

"Yes, I probably would," Christian mumbled.

"Hehe, jealousy, it's a pain in the ass…to whoever gets to see it from you," Jude laughed.

"So where did you hide the body?" Sadie asked.

"In the pond/lake in the park a few miles away," Satine said pointing in the direction.

"Well, wasn't that a stroke of luck!" Jude said.

"SATINE! CHRISTIAN!" They heard yelling from out side the doors. All four turned their head to the doors.

"That sounded like-" Christian began.

"Zidler," Satine finished. "Let's go see, I have a few things to say to him."

"Me too," Christian said hopping down and helping Satine down. Jude and Sadie followed them. Satine pulled open the door and in came Zidler he hurriedly closed the door behind him.

"Hello, Satine, and Christian," Zidler said. Then he tipped his hap to Jude and Sadie. Then he noticed the cold looks all four of them were giving him. "Uh, I can explain everything."

"Can you? Well that's good, because you have a load of explaining to do," Satine said standing in front of Christian who seemed ready to kill Zidler. Then Satine walked to Zidler and gave him a hell of a mean right hook. "YOU BETTER START TALKING NOW BEFORE I MAKE YOU MUTE!"

Satine shrieked and they all backed up immediately. Christian realized that Satine could do Zidler more harm than he could. He walked up behind Satine and placed his hands on her shoulders, "Calm down, Darling."

"What?" Satine got a regular look back in her eyes that a moment before, was filled with rage. "Oh, yes of course."

"Well Zidler? What have you to say in your defense for not telling me that Satine was alive or telling her that I was alive!" Christian said a little more anger showing in his voice than he wanted to show. Zidler got up.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything, Christian," Zidler said. "And Satine, I truly didn't know he was alive when you woke up, I didn't go check. I didn't want to see Christian dead on the bloodied floor with half his head on the other end of the room."

"Well, thanks for caring," Christian said semi-sarcastically.

"I know, I should have told you for the benefit of your love," Zidler said a look of sorrow on his face. "But the Duke wanted to kill all the people in the play for making him seem like a fool; he didn't know Satine was 'dead.' You two were at the top of the list and he wanted to kill you two together. That's why I wanted you to leave quickly, Satine. Then a few days later I heard Christian was alive. I would've told him, but the Duke would soon find out and look for both of you. But in a few weeks, after I had paid back the Duke I was still in debt. I didn't know what to do, and then I heard one day that he was dead! The police ruled it out as a suicide. I am no fool; I knew who the killer was." He shot Christian a look, but Christian didn't seem to carry the guilt anymore, it's not like he ever did anyway. Zidler continued, "For a while I thought that it was safe, and I was working up on how to tell Christian you were still alive, Satine. But then I saw another obstacle, the Duke had an older brother, Jerald Champlain. He was out to get revenge for those he killed his brother, so I had to keep Christian hidden I couldn't let him out during the day."

"You still could have told us! Our love would overcome this obstacle!" Christian said holding Satine to him. Zidler shook his head.

"No, Christian, with the Duke out of the way, Jerald became the Duke, and he was already powerful enough to hire assassins to kill you. He didn't originally want to be the duke, but now that he has the responsibility he hates it. He heard of this play, he realized it was by you, Christian, the murderer of his younger brother! He saw also that Satine was in it, now he was on his way here or here already to kill you! I came to warn you, and I'm sorry I didn't say anything before!" Zidler said. Satine looked at Christian.

"You killed the Duke?" She gasped. Christian nodded.

"I have no guilt for it," Christian said. He looked at Satine and brushed his hand against her cheek and whispered, "I did it for you. Because I thought he was one of the reasons you 'died.'"

Satine smiled, "Thank you."

Zidler sighed, "Well, you two have your lives in danger and you don't seem to care."

"Of course they don't," Sadie said.

"They're madly in love, just like Sadie and me, nothing can bring them down now," Jude said pulling Sadie so close to him it looked like they were joined at the hip.

"But we should at least make some preparations to keep them safe!" Harold said. Jude and Sadie thought a moment then nodded in agreement.

"You're right; we should make some preparations for the worst. They may not care if they die, as long as they're together, but we do," Jude said.

"We don't want to loose our two best friends," Sadie said.

"What should we do?" Jude asked. Zidler laid out the plans to them as Christian and Satine walked to the back to the bedrooms in the theatre.

~~In a Hotel~~

Old Champlain got into the most expensive and fanciest hotel in all of London near the West End Theatre.  He sat down to his desk and plotted on how he was going to kill these two people, the most grueling, painful way he could. Not grueling painful by physical harm, though that is a plus, but by their emotions. He wanted to kill them slowly inside and work his way out. He had to separate them, make them suffer.

Then he got it! He was going to wiggle his way into their lives slowly and make them put a lot of trust in him, he was going be their 'best friend' and then he was going to back stab. Yes, he had the plan! The plan was flawless in general he just needed to fill in the fine lines.

He grabbed the phone and told the operator to contact an old friend he had in London. The phone rang then someone picked up.

"Mm?" Came a grunt from the other line.

"Marcus?" Old Champlain asked.

"Mm?"

"Hello Marcus, it's me, Champlain. How long has it been since you've worked?"

~~West End Theatre~~

Satine and Christian came back to Jude, Sadie and Zidler a few hours later dressed rather sloppily.

"Hello again," Satine said as she sat on the edge of the stage next to Sadie. Christian sat right next to her. Jude, Sadie, Satine and Christian looked at Zidler who was sitting in the front row.

"I don't know how he works," he said. "I just know he will probably go for a painful revenge, to wreak as much pain as he can on you, probably through emotional ways."

"Let him bring it!" Christian said. "I can take anything with Satine next to me."

Zidler looked at him, "That's it! He'll probably try to break you two up! He'll probably try to break you up and then go for the kill!"

"Why would he want to kill what is dead?" Satine asked. "Breaking us up would be the death of us."

"He's mad with grief, he's a madman, we don't know what else he may do," Zidler said. "He's truly an insane man."

"Wait, wait," Sadie said. "Did you say his name is Jerald Champlain?"

"Yes."

Sadie gasped, "Oh my God! It's the head of Champlain publishers, the publishing company who published the book!"

Everyone was shocked silent.

In the back stage, four men listened to everything intently. The looked at each other and nodded. They went off out the back way.

~~Two weeks later~~

For two weeks Old Champlain had Marcus study the goings and doings of Satine and Christian. Now, Old Champlain thought he was ready to go in.

Casually Champlain walked over to the West End Theatre on a rainy night that the play was not showing. He knocked on the door. Four men answered, he bowed lightly, "Hello gentlem-aaaaah!"

The four pulled him inside. Two tall ones held him down as a short one took a knife from another one looking out and held it to his neck.

"Do not lie to us," he said. "Are you Old Champlain?"

"Who wants to know?" Champlain asked.

"Toulouse," he spat back. Champlain nodded slightly. Toulouse smiled. "Good!"

Then he ran him through. Narky and Tork held him down with all they could to keep the guy from convulsing too violently. Satie just kept a look out, not wanting to see the dead body.

"What are we going to do with the body?" Narky asked. Tork and he stretched it out to make it look like it was in a coffin.

"We'll write a suicide letter and place it in his hand," Toulouse said. Then he took the other hand and put the knife in it. "Then we'll keep the knife lodged in his abdomen and place his hand on it, it'll look like suicide."

"Alright," Tork said he had already started to write the letter. He finished it and put it in Champlain's limp hand. "It won't stay in!"

"Hold it there a moment," Toulouse said. Then he took Champlain's hand and squeezed it shut with the letter inside. "A death grip."

Narky and Tork pulled the dead man up, and struggled out of the row of seats. Satie went outside, amazingly, for a night on London streets the street was rather empty. He nodded and motioned for them to be quick.

Quickly Narky and Tork and placed him outside, Narky smirked at him and waved, "Bye-bye ass hole!"

~~Next Day~~

A shriek from a woman woke up half of the theatre. Christian and Satine were awaken by it as well, that night they spent at the theatre since today they had work to do. They looked out the window and below they saw a crowd gathered in front of the theatre. They hurriedly got dressed and rushed out the door along with other workers at the theatre.

A police man shoved his way through the crowd, "move! Move! Out of the way! I'm an officer here!"

He paused once he saw the dead body. He pried open the death grip on the note in Old Champlain's hand. He read it sighed and shook his head.

"It's a suicide, over heartbreak and stress. Nothing to see here people, move along with your business now," the officer said motioning for everyone to leave. "The workers of the theatre are busy working." He called to the young officer in his command, "Nicholas, call up the morgue men, get them up here to carry this body out of the street!" the officer nodded and went inside to use the phone. The Older officer turned to Director Cephus, "I'm terribly sorry about all of this sir. I hope this doesn't delay your usual show times for the play does it?"

Cephus shook his head, "Not unless the people of the morgue don't get here with in eight hours!"

The officer looked relieved, "Good, I've taken my wife to this show eight times already even I like it! Oscar Wilde himself says to go to this play. I'd certainly like to shake the hand of the lead actor, lead actress and the writer!"

"I'm they and this is she," Christian said. He shook the hand of the officer and then after the younger one came back they waited for the morgue people. The theatre workers went back inside to prepare for the play.

Zidler walked next to Christian, "Did you kill him?"

"What?" Christian asked.

"Did you kill him? That was Old Champlain you know!" Zidler said. Christian looked confused.

"No, I didn't! Satine is my witness; I was with her all night!" Christian said Satine nodded in agreement. "I didn't even know that was Old Champlain! I didn't recognize him! Wait, did you kill him?!"

"No! I would never!" Zidler said.

"How do you know he was killed then eh? You saw the letter, you heard the officer, it was a suicide!"

"No, I don't think he would kill himself when he was ready to get revenge!" Zidler said.

"Then I guess we'll never know who did it," Jude said walking up to them with Sadie.

"I guess not," Satine and Sadie said at the same time.

Near the stage Toulouse, Narky, Satie and Tork grinned. They didn't like having to kill, but they were glad now that Satine and Christian could be together safely forever. They wouldn't have to worry about people wanting revenge. Of course, the four bohemians didn't care that they didn't recognition for what they did, but for what they did they didn't want recognition. They were just glad that the love Satine and Christian held would last forever.

~~End Chapter~~

**~~End Story~~**

Well what did you think? Were you expecting me to actually go into long chapters about how Champlain would be close to winning? I didn't want to, because if I did I would loose interest! This way, it's short and it still is something fun for me to do.

Well that's that! And that's the end! I hope you enjoyed reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it for you! Well, thanks for reading it. Have a nice life!

Jester