A/N: Wholly Cannoli who took forever to get this chapter up? Err...that would be me. Sorry, I'm really swamped right now; I don't have enough time to breath let alone write. So, this is the last chapter. It's been great to right this, sort of gives you…closure. Now I can part with "Phantom" and continue to read the mountain of Phantom books I've got left to go through. Who knows, maybe some more writing soon?

I hope you guys have enjoyed, please do me a favour and review. Please? Pretty please? I really love to hear your feedback, hell, if you hated it I still want to know!

The time we covet the most seems to blur, hours we wish would stretch for days are gone in a heart beat. I had come here, completely prepared to find Erik unwell, or even fatally ill. Still, the shock of his truly imminent death still sent a shiver of uncomfortable shock through my veins. After all, he had been my angel of music, an Angel that would never leave me…

I was content, lying peacefully in that large old bed. How many days had I spent in this room? How many countless hours had I spent cowering from his touch? It seemed so distant, a hazy memory of what once was. Here and now, this was the only place I wanted to be. It had taken me months to reach that painstaking decision, and in the end I had chosen Erik. Now I would lose him again.

Yet there was no denying that those wonderfully warm arms that seemed to wrap around me with such protectiveness, were anything but alive. His face pressed softly into my hair.

"Christine…" it was impossible to deny the quiver of pain hidden in his voice. It was the first time either of us had spoken in…hours at least. I doubted he would destroy this beautiful moment for anything less than something extremely important. "I'm afraid…it won't be long now."

I grasped his hand tightly; my knuckles turning a ghostly white, "I won't leave you. You can…you will hold on longer." My voice was fierce, clouded with hurt and determination.

"You came back, that is more that I ever hoped for. You have given much more than I deserve, but I won't pretend I didn't hope you would return." A smile grazed his deformed lips; it was an act I had seen on only a few occasions.

"I don't want to be alone again…" my voice was no more than a grieving whisper. My eyes began to burn, a lump as hard as brick forming solidly in my throat.

"My dear, you know as well as I that I will never let you be alone. No doubt your fiancé is waiting anxiously right behind those doors." His eyes flashed; even on his death bed he still possessed that same infamous temper. "I promise you; never again will you be lonely. I will always be with you. Christine, I love you."

How lovely those words sounded. Never lonely…it was a dream that had never truly become reality for me. Now I had his promise, one I knew he would never break. Erik may cease to exist, leaving nothing but the disfigured shell of his life long imprisonment. A body will rot and decompose, but my angel of music will always be with me.

"I don't want you to leave…but I don't want you to hurt any more," after all, his pain was becoming more and more evident as the moments passed by. His breath was shallow, the color draining from his parchment like skin.

"My dear, the pain is nothing really. Death isn't anything I fear, I want to remember this moment, exactly as it is now…I have spent too much of my life trying to forget."

His body often shook with tremors, what else could I do but simply hold him? I would preserve this perfect night for him, push pass the pain to give him a final moment of beauty and happiness. I was completely his, if only for a few hours.

I knew almost immediately when the finale seizure of pain shook his body. Tears still fell steadily from his eyes, though from the pain or from the joy of spending those last few moments at my side, I was not sure. That final look he gave me…such sadness and euphoria, too many emotions to describe. I was sure he was suffering, peace would not be denied to him much longer.

"I love you Erik…" My wet cheek pressed warmly against the hollow of his neck, I could hardly hear his shallow breathing cease over the racking sobs issuing from my chest. He was gone. I had loved him, a strange complicated love indeed, but one greater than anything I had ever felt.

So many conflicting emotions, unbearable grief, undying love, and a strange glimmer of happiness residing purely in the knowledge that he would always be with me. Even now, he was there, as he is with me now. Love is a bond that not even death can destroy. I couldn't help but cry, even as I tried to retain some composure.

All the things I had prized, my shallow interests and fears, how trivial they all seemed now. Of course that's always be the way things play out, we don't realise how contorted our values are until something happens to put us in our place. I wasn't new to the ordeal; this would be the second time I lost someone I loved dearly. Yet the passing of my father had never succeeded in straightening my head, in fact it had accomplished quite the opposite. I had been forced to grow up, in the literal sense of the word, but I had never really become an adult. I could feed myself, make my way in the world if need be. Regardless, I didn't deny that the only thing I had ever been on the inside was a little girl, and a miserably dejected one at that.

Raoul, as Erik had predicted, was waiting tensely outside the door. The last thing I had wanted to do was leave, but Raoul needed me. I was his fiancé, and although that night's events had changed me to the core, I still cared for him. It was a love that seemed rather flighty in comparison, but I couldn't deny that those feelings were there.

He never questioned me, never showed even a glimmer of surprise or anger. I was sure he had at least glimpsed ring that adorned my wedding finger, yet he didn't speak a word. Raoul understood, probably better than I gave him credit for, the love I had felt for Erik.

Had I finally breached the gap between adult and child? I doubt if it's possible to ever do so completely, and to this day I still often find myself reverting back to an almost giddy like child ignorance. Yet I know I have been changed forever, taught to live my life with love and acceptance. You have changed my life forever Erik…. More than you will ever know.

A/N: DONE! D: it's sad, I wish it would never end! My characterization may not be completely coherent with how you interpreted the characters, but I tried to get Christine to a point where she still obtained some of that….dare I say it, ditziness, that she originally had in Leroux's novel. Yet it seemed important that she make that drastic jump from child to adult.

I hope you all enjoyed. I know I had fun writing it! I'm going to apologize on final time for all the horrible mechanical errors in this story…I'm really giving it my all trying to proofread, but I admit to not being an excellent proof reader.