Thank you for the reviews again! I finally made it past chapter 42. It took too long to write and its very long so you better be satisfied...please? All right, sorry, I'll start again. Thank you for the reviews! 500 plus! woohoo! Okay, nothing much to say now so here is chapter 41:

Memory Lane

It wasn't only the smoking that he had taken up. Now he was drinking more than ever. She noticed this when halfway through the flight, he started drinking. It was a good thing that it wasn't the big bottles and only the small ones like in the mini-bars at hotels.

When he offered her a small Jack Daniels, she refused and he drank it instead.

And it wasn't as if she could ask him to stop. She couldn't play the concerned girlfriend, not anymore.

While she was reading a magazine Raoul spoke up.

"I heard you were in Paris."

Christine slowly lowered the magazine to look at him. "Yes, actually I was."

"I saw the performance on TV. You were great."

She smiled half-heartedly. "Thank you."

"Loved the song," he said casually. "He wrote it as an autobiography?"

Christine swallowed. "A-actually I don't know. I doubt it."

"Seemed like it," he said drinking from a small Bacardi. "I loved the way you two sang to each other. Like you two had a connection or something."

Christine didn't know how to answer that one.

"You two always had that connection, who was I to take it away?"

Christine watched him as he drank yet another bottle.

"Does he know I'm here with you, alone?"

Christine nodded, still not letting go of the magazine in front of her face. "He was the one that dropped me off, actually."

"Saw me, did he?" Raoul asked leaving the small empty bottle on a table next to him. "Didn't find the need to take out a gun or lasso?"

Christine sighed, regretting the conversation. She put the magazine over her eyes again and flipped the page. "Guns are your specialty, remember? Or have you forgotten Perros Cemetery?"

Raoul shot back without hesitation. "And lassos are his, or have you forgotten about James?"

Christine shut her eyes and took a deep breath. "No, I haven't. Thank you for bringing back such a painful memory."

They were silent for a long time but the silence was broken when Raoul started laughing. She looked at him from her magazine with an eyebrow raised, wanting to ask him what was so funny.

"You remember that time when we went to Gallos with my nanny and we hid from her?"

Christine smiled. "We almost gave that woman a heart attack."

Raoul shrugged. "Served her right for being on the phone at the fair with two children. I mean, the woman should know better."

"You remember how she always wore black with a white covering on her head?" Christine asked putting the magazine next to her. "You used to call her the flying nanny after the flying nun."

Raoul started humming the theme song of the show and they both laughed.

"We were horrible to that woman," Christine said, smiling at the memory.

"I was horrible," he corrected. "You followed."

"You were quite the little nightmare," Christine said laughing.

He sighed. "Those were the good old days."

Christine smiled to herself. "Indeed they were."

Raoul continued after about a minute of silence. "I used to enjoy being with that woman because she knew how close we were."

Christine nodded. "You always came over asking for tea and cookies. Father always pleased you with it."

"And then we would go to the attic and have picnics while your father played the violin for us."

"And you would scare me with your ghost stories-"

"Your father would take that fear away when he would tell you the story of Little Lotte and-"

"The Angel of Music," she finished sadly. She tried to take away the somber air between them. "How about the times that Father would have to work during the day and he left me with you and your Nanny?" She smiled mischievously as she recalled a memory.

The little brunette followed the small boy into a very large office. She thought that the office could comfortably fit her entire home, but she kept that comment to herself.

Raoul de Chagny ran inside, his expensive jacket stained and sweaty from all the running he had been doing. He ran into his father's office, closely followed by Christine Daaé.

Her father wanted her to stay with the de Chagny's that day. It was a day off at school and since she had no where to stay while her father went to the hospital, she was being kept under the watchful eye of Raoul's nanny, while he fetched some papers on a different floor.

Raoul's older brother Philippe was with his father, learning the ropes of the company he would soon run. Christine only sighed at the fact that Philippe was only thirteen years old.

Raoul had it easy, he was only eight and was care-free at the moment, desperately trying to impress the small brunette.

When his father found out about this, he had asked her if he tried to woo her. Raoul had asked what he meant and his father asked if he had a crush on her.

"Me? Like a girl?" Raoul asked with obvious disgust. "No way!"

But it was clear that he cared for the girl when he tried impress her with his father's shiny office.

He had his arms outstretched and a smile on his face. "This will all be mine, someday Christine, you'll see."

Christine didn't doubt him.

"And I'll own half the world and tell everyone of your father and then he'll play all over the world."

"But Raoul," her small voice said. "I'm frightfully tired of moving."

Raoul thought about it for a second. "Then he'll stay here, in Virginia."

Christine rolled her brown eyes. "Yeah, sure."

Raoul moved to his father's oak desk. "One day Christine, I'll be the richest man ever and then I'll have anything I want. Like that new train that I saw in the toy store window on the way here."

"What about Philippe?" the six-year-old asked.

Raoul thought again. "He'll be too busy cleaning my house."

Christine giggled and tugged at her braids. "And I'll be the bestest singer ever and everyone will love me and my Papa because he'll be playing the violin with me." Then she sighed. "I hope he stops going to the hospital so much. I don't know why he likes to go so many times, it's so boring."

Raoul only sighed as he sat in his chair. "And then I'll go to all your concerts and be your number one fan!"

Christine giggled again and sat down at the couch that was conveniently in the office. "Do you really think that I'll be a star?"
Raoul started rocking the large chair back and forth. "Of course, Little Lotte." Then he put his feet up like his father would do all the time on the desk. "Just like I'll be-"

He didn't finish because in the next second, he fell back in the chair, his feet flailing up in the air behind the desk. Christine broke into hysterical giggles as his flushed face appeared behind the desk.

"That's not funny!" He said as he huffed his way from the back of the desk.

Christine tried to stifle her laughing but manage to let a small snicker escape her lips.

Raoul looked at his hand. It had a small scrape but Christine could see it hurt him, he bit his lips to keep the tears in his eyes at bay. Anyone could see that he was trying to be brave in front of his small crush. "It's not funny!" He said again.

Christine went to her friend and kissed his scrape, trying to make it feel better like when her father would do to her. "Better?"

Raoul looked at her as if she were mad then he opened his mouth. "Ew! Girl cooties!"

Christine laughed at the memory. "That was priceless."

Raoul looked at her as if he were seething. "It wasn't funny."

Christine grinned at him. "Yes it was."

Raoul laughed. "You know I had a crush on you."

She rolled her eyes. "Father would constantly remind me. He said I had to mind my manners around you. He swore that we would marry when we were older."

Raoul took another bottle and started opening it.

Christine sighed. "Then we moved to New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and finally to Maine."

Raoul looked at her with sympathy. "If you don't mind me asking, Christine, when did he finally tell you he had leukemia?"

Christine sighed. "A couple of month before he died. At first I thought he was lying, I didn't talk to him for days." Christine paused. "Then he had that attack and, well, I had to face the fact that he was dying. Then he did."

Raoul placed the unopened drink on the table. "I'm sorry I'm bringing it up now but I couldn't bring it up months after he passed on--"

"Yeah, I know," Christine interrupted. "I never thanked you guys for helping pay for the funeral. Even after I moved and hadn't heard from you guys in eight years you were still there for me."

"Dad always thought highly of Gustave," Raoul said simply. "He respected him for doing all that he could to support you. He never accepted a cent from him."

"I wouldn't have either but it was either accept your help or have him lying in a ditch with an unmarked grave." She shuddered. "I just couldn't let that happen."

"I wouldn't let that happen," Raoul told her. "I cared for your father very much."

Christine smiled. "Thank you, Raoul."

He smiled also. "Not to worry, Little Lotte. Remember I swore to you that I would be there when he couldn't."

Christine smiled remembering the conditions she was under when he had given her that promise.

The service had been over and people were leaving so that they could take the coffin out of the poorly lit room. Christine sat in the front pew her head hung low her eyes still red from the continuous crying she had been doing for days.

She remembered thinking that she would never be the same again. Her life had changed forever.

She was dressed in a black dress that she had never worn. Black was never her color, even the covering over her head was black and it covered her face from the people there. She didn't like people to see her crying.

That was when he approached her. He was the only one left other than Christine.

"Hey."

Christine looked up at the figure standing in the aisle next to her empty pew. He had smiled down at her, his blond hair loose around his face, his face alight in the candlelight.

She was so glad to see him. Her childhood friend that had always been there for her was there again. She hardly recognized him though. He wasn't the nine-year-old boy they had left behind.

He was taller than her, she could that much by not even standing up. And the clothes he wore were really expensive, they were worth more than the black cotton dress she was wearing.

"Raoul," she said almost sighing.

He sat next to her and placed his hands on his knees. "I thought you could use a friend."

"You thought right," she had said softly, looking at her hands.

There was a silence between them and Raoul could only look at Gustave's coffin. "Christine, you want to stay with us until everything is settled down?"

Christine shook her head. "No." She sniffled and looked up at the ceiling as if holding back her tears. "Oh, God, Raoul. Everything was so perfect a couple of months ago. How could this happen?"

"Shit happens," Raoul said plainly.

Christine nodded. "He was just fine the day before it all happened. He was playing his violin and the next morning I found him barely breathing. And the months that followed were torture, going to school, even when I knew that he was in the hospital almost dead." Christine felt a tear land on her thigh. "I had to stay with a neighbor while he was in the hospital. Valerius was so nice to me, it was as if she knew something I didn't."

Raoul nodded his head, knowing that she needed to vent.

"'He'll get better,' I told her. 'He has to.'" She punched the wooden pew with a small fist. "I was so stupid."

Raoul placed a hand on her shoulder.

She sniffled again. "You know what his last words were, Raoul?"

He shook his head.

"'My Little Lotte,'" she recited, the conversation replaying in her mind. "'When I am in heaven, child, I shall send the Angel of Music to you. He will protect you and guide you, this I promise you.'" She sniffled again and after a minute of trying to hold back her tears, she spoke again. "Do you believe that he will send the Angel of Music to me?"

Raoul nodded although Christine could see the skepticism in his eyes. "Yes, Christine."

She had sniffled again at that point, her tears beginning to flood her eyes. "The hospital needed me to pay the bill. But Valerius she didn't have a lot of money so I did the only thing I could do. I sold his things."

"Christine," Raoul said compassionately.

"Everything," Christine said in anger. "The house, the furniture, his clothes, his shoes, the paintings he had kept, my mother's jewelry, his violin." Her sobs shook her small body. "Everything, Raoul. Everything that reminded me of him is gone. Just so that I could pay off that damned hospital bill!"

Raoul looked at her gently. "You have been through more than your fifteen years of life could expect of you."

Christine cried against his shoulder. "I don't know what to do, Raoul. I can't stay with Valerius, she hardly is fit enough to feed herself! I don't know what to do!"

Raoul rocked her back and forth. "Your father, Christine, had a will."

Christine's puffy eyes looked at his. "What?"

"My father's lawyers are looking over it as we speak. You are to live with an Annette Giry and her daughter Megan Giry not far from where I live."

Christine vaguely remembered her father mentioning a Giry. She was his friend in college before he dropped out. "I am?"

He nodded. "Yes, you will see, Little Lotte, nothing is as bad as you thought."

There were men coming into the small room and Christine knew why. She turned her face away from them, knowing what they were doing.

She could hear them take away the flowers that had been there, wheeling away the coffin through some double doors to a waiting hearse that would take it to Perros Cemetery.

Christine buried her face into his shoulder as Raoul had whispered, "I will always be here for you."

But after that it was as if the promise had never taken place. She shut herself in a little world, seeing no one but her father's face and her new "family." Even after that, she had been cold to Raoul when she moved in with the Giry's. She had been cold to everyone around her except her Angel of Music.

She rid herself of the past and focused on her present. She still had some things to go through with Meg before her wedding.

She finished off the magazine just as the plane landed.

As soon as they went out of the plane and onto the airstrip, they were greeted by both Meg and Philippe. Christine ran to her friend and hugged her just as Raoul lit a cigarette.

When Meg let her go, Christine turned to Philippe just as he took the cigarette from Raoul's mouth.

Philippe threw the unused cigarette to the floor. "These things will kill you."

"There are worse things," Raoul muttered.

Christine watched as the brothers embraced. When Philippe let his brother go, he turned to Christine and grabbed her in a very strong hug. "Christine, I haven't seen you in years!"

"Okay, me neither Philippe, but you're crushing me!"

Philippe let her go, finally letting her breathe and kissed her cheek. "Come on, kids, let's paint the town red." He put an arm over Meg's shoulders and the other over Christine. "The four of us are together again, we need to celebrate."

Raoul continued after his brother as they walked off the airstrip and to the car. "I was thinking about the Fernos account. Maybe if we gave them fifteen percent instead of twenty-"

Philippe rolled his eyes and let Christine go, then he did the same thing with Raoul. "Come on, little bro. Chill out. We have the day off. The meeting was canceled."

Raoul looked at him skeptically. "Really?"

Meg whooped. "We're going to a Yankee game!"

Christine laughed. "Before we do, there's a call I have to make."

If that wasn't long enough for you guys, you should see the next chapter, i mean really! Anyways, thank you for loving (knocks on wood) my phic! Thank you, really! Thsi little note is for Asia1st: everyone is entitled to their opinion. I respect yours and I know that Erik is a pychotic guy. Just because you don't like that they're together doesn't give you the right to call me a bitch, really. what did i ever do to you?
Coming up: Chapter fourty-two: Embracing The Darkness
Reviews and flamesare much welcomed!