This is it, people. The Final Chapter. Chapter Twenty. It's been a great journey, but I think it's time to wrap things up. So, for the last time, happy reading. I hope you loved it. If you're ever going to review, I believe now would be the time. Thanks for all your support. See you again some time! (I own only Serenity, Luke, Megan, Jaques, Angelique, and David.)

Endings

Luke remained unconscious for hours, but he was expected to recover with time and patience. The doctor had warned, however, that he may never again have full use of his left arm; the blade had severed a nerve, and it was possible that Luke would never use his hand again. This news was, to a great musician, devastating. For weeks, with Serenity's aid and support, Luke struggled to regain the use of his numb fingers. With patience and determination, within three months he was working with both hands better than he ever had before.

"Senna," Luke said one day after the two had rehearsed an act from the newest stage production, "we've been engaged for four months, and we still have no plans for a wedding."

"I know," she said quietly. "I didn't want to push anything. I thought it best to wait."

"Well, I don't know how much longer I can stand having you so close, yet not my own."

"I am your own," she whispered, looking at him with such deep adoration and burning passion that he almost flinched away. "Now, and forever." He leaned forward and kissed her softly, pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

"God, how I love you," he told her suddenly.

"I love you too, Luke," she replied. After a second, she added hurriedly, "so let's get married."

"We are already engag- "

"No, now. Today. At the nearest church we can find. I am so tired of waiting."

"Senna, are you sure?"

"Absolutely. You have learned by now that I know exactly what I desire."

"Yes, I had noticed," he laughed. Serenity joined in his laughter, partially from happiness and partly because she knew that her mother had planned this abrupt proposal, and one of her own as well. And she laughed in knowing what a shock her father was in for.

"Erik," Christine said softly, earlier that same morning. He mumbled incoherently and sat up in bed next to her to look into her intense gaze. She kissed him softly, tenderly, and placed her palms on his cheeks. "I want to marry you."

"What?" he asked sharply, obviously startled.

"Oh, God, Erik, I've loved you since I was younger than Serenity. For God's sake, I had two daughters by you. We've been lovers since you returned here, and I want nothing more than to be your wife."

"Christine," he said more softly, "if people knew you were married to me, the dreaded Phantom of the Opera -"

"I don't care!" she replied, adamant. "I love you! We are not the children we were once, and I know my own mind. Please, Erik," she whispered. "Say the words."

He looked at her for a long moment, eyes unreadable, then go up and walked to the dresser. He opened a drawer and pulled out a small gold ring, diamonds glinting in the soft sunlight streaming through the windows. He returned to the bedside, knelt on one knee, and took Christine's hands.

"Christine Daae, you are the missing half of my soul. I could not live without you, and I ask you now to merge your life with mine. Will you marry me?"

"Oh, Erik, I've dreamt of those words for twenty years. Yes, of course." She leaned down and covered his mouth with hers, the years of separation, longing, and desire evaporating in this moment of perfect completion.

At the end of the double ceremony, attended only by Meg and David, Christine and Serenity wept with joy for themselves, their new husbands, and especially for one another. Erik and Luke looked on, both stunning in lavish black tuxedoes. The women were resplendent in white gowns, flowing and sliding across their almost identical figures. Erik looked at his bride, so long denied to him, and felt love well within his heart until he could not bear it any longer.

"Christine," he called, looking at her hungrily, "I believe it's time we were going."

The women exchanged glances, and Serenity giggled as her mother blushed. "It seems your new husband is a bit... eager," she teased.

"Have you seen yours?" Christine retorted. "The looks he's giving you don't exactly suggest anything innocent."

Serenity laughed again, hugged her mother, and walked over to kiss Luke deeply. She sighed, and slid her hand into his. He looked at her, eyes shining with unshed tears, and whispered, "I love you." She giggled again, kissed his nose, and pulled him out the door.

"It's hard to let her go," Erik commented softly as he watched his only child walk out the door with the man who would spend his life with her.

"I know," Christine sighed. "But there's no one else I would rather see her go with. And just think: at this rate, we'll have a grandchild within nine months!"

The corners of Erik's mouth flicked upward slightly into what might have been a smile, and he placed his arms around Christine's shoulders. The long-delayed couple walked out the doorway into a bright new world that seemed, somehow, larger, more infinite, and completely different than any they had known before.

The years passed quietly and kindly for the blissfully married couples. It was only a year before Serenity and Luke had their first child, a blond, blue-eyed girl who looked exactly like her grandmother. No one thought to call her anything but Megan. Two more children followed over the years: Veronica, tall and dark like her mother, and James, who was the very image of his father. Fate also had a surprise in store for the older pair; at the age of thirty-nine, Christine delivered a healthy, black-haired son named Alec. To their parents' immense joy, none of the children had received the dark inheritance of the Phantom, though all showed exceptional talent in music or art. So they grew, and they learned of their heritage together; and as their parents grew older and eventually died, their very presence, and that of every generation to come, kept alive the legend of the terrible, mystic Phantom of the Opera.