A.N. Thanks for all the good reviews! Sorry this chapter took so long to get up! By the way, I received one review asking me about the weird E at the end of words. That E is not something I intentionally put; it replaces an ellipsis (three periods in a row) whenever I upload a chapter. This story has a lot of these because I use an ellipsis quite often in Satine's dialogue-since she's crying a lot of the time, her sentences are broken up. I don't know how to fix the weird E.
Disclaimer: I don't own Moulin Rouge.
A week had passed, and Satine's legs were getting stronger and stronger. By now, she could walk across the room without Christian's help.
Christian noticed that her physical strength was not all that was improving. She was becoming emotionally stronger as well. Not once in the past week had she broken down in tears. She had not had any more nightmares or flashbacks. And what relieved Christian the most was the laughing.
At first, it had seemed forced, as though Satine was trying to make Christian less worried. But over time, Satine's laugh had become more genuine. Now, her laughing never seemed to stop, not that Christian wanted it to. After months of only hearing her cry, it was wonderful to hear her laugh again.
Now that Satine was able to walk again, she was continuing her sessions with Dr. Landon. The sessions had been halted while Satine had recovered from her injuries. Dr. Landon could see a change in Satine immediately. She seemed more alert, more in tune with what was going on around her.
"Well, Satine, you are looking better. I was expecting things to become worse after what happened, but you seem to have improved since I last saw you. Tell me, have you had that nightmare at all since what happened?" he asked.
Instead of staring downwards, as she had done before, Satine looked straight at his face as she answered. "No.
Dr. Landon seemed surprised by this. He had expected her nightmares to increase after the attack. "Really? Not at all?" he asked.
"Well, I still have dreams about the attacks, but not that particular one. And the dreams no longer scare me. I don't wake up crying anymore, and I fall back asleep quickly." Satine answered. Dr. Landon looked at Christian for support, and when Christian nodded in agreement, he smiled. "Well, I must say that I am very proud of you, Satine. You've made a big step in your recovery. I can see that something has changed in you, and I think I realize what it is. Now, you are putting effort into getting better. Before, when I first started seeing you, you relied very heavily on Christian for support. You seemed to want me to come in and just make everything better, which no one could have done. Of course, you can't really be blamed for that. But now, you are actually making yourself get better. I'm not sure what caused it, but it's wonderful. I would say that you are well on your way to being recovered. But remember, you don't have to be completely alone in this, either." Dr. Landon said.
At the end of the session, Dr. Landon left and Satine and Christian were alone in the room. Christian looked at Satine. She was looking out the window. She turned her head and looked at him.
"Christian, do you realize we've lived here for over two months now and I still haven't been out of this house?" she said. It was true. Satine's first nightmare had happened the night they moved in. After that, Christian was afraid to take her anywhere, for fear she would have a flashback. He only left the house to buy food, and those trips were few and far between. He could see that two months of being trapped in a house was having a physical effect on Satine. Her normally pale skin was now almost pure white, as a result of not having gotten any sunlight for two months. "Would you like to go out?" he asked. Satine smiled and nodded. "Yes. Let's go now!" She jumped up and headed for the door. Christian couldn't help but smile at her newfound energy as he followed her.
Christian and Satine spent most of the afternoon exploring their neighborhood. Satine was shocked to find that many of their neighbors knew about what had happened, and came up to her to congratulate her on being so brave. After all, the Duke's arrest had made headlines, and many people in the neighborhood knew that the victim described in the papers lived on their street. Satine was more than happy to meet the neighbors, but she wished they would stop talking to her about being attacked. They all talked to her like she was fragile, like the wrong phrase could make her collapse into a heap of tears. That was exactly what Satine was trying to get away from. She wanted to be normal.
After Satine and Christian returned home, they sat down to dinner. In the middle of the meal, Satine looked at Christian and said "You know, I really miss everyone back in Paris. Do you think we could go there, just for a visit?
At first Christian had doubts about going. They had been warned before about returning to Paris because of Satine's health. However, he checked with the doctor and was told no harm could come of a simple visit. And so Satine and Christian prepared to return to Montmartre.
