Hey guys, thanks for your patience! Finals are all wrapped up, as is my first semester in college, and soon this fic. Despite what it seems, this is the last chapter and the epilogue should be going up here in the next few days. Thanks for reading my story and all the kind reviews you've left. Thanks also to everyone who's fav-ed and followed this. It means a lot to me! Read and review and get ready for the epilogue!

~nibblesfan

Erik bounded up the tree at lightning speed before ripping open Mia's window and launching himself inside. Mia was tucked in bed. She was as still as the night sky and as white as the mask on his face. The only difference was the dark bruises that dotted her body from her accident. He caressed her cheek gently and tears began to flow down his face.

"Mia, I'm so sorry," he whispered, even though he knew she couldn't hear him. "I…I didn't mean for this to happen. When you sent me away I was so angry that you had changed your mind again, I decided I was done chasing after you. You had always come back to me, sooner or later no matter what, you always came back." He sat on the edge of the bed and cradled her petite body against his chest. "Even with Amelia trying to stop you, you always came back."

"I didn't mean it," Erik repeated, murmuring into her hair. "I thought maybe that it was Amelia that said those terrible things that you still wanted to be with me, but when you never came back, when you never even tried, I realized that you were serious this time. You had finally chosen. You had finally chosen, but you didn't choose me."

He fell silent as he heard a couple of voices outside the door. "Monsieur how is she?" a female voice asked. Whoever she was, she seemed on the verge of tears. Mia's maid perhaps, Erik guessed. Mia seemed to take a special liking to her. They seemed close, or as close as Mia got to anyone here.

"She'll be lucky if she makes it till morning," a male voice, not Gaston, a doctor presumably replied. "And even if she does, I don't think it won't be long past that."

"What about the baby?"

"A child born this early and under these conditions would have a hard time surviving even with its mother."

Once things quieted down, Erik turned back to Mia. "I'm so sorry," he said again, his tears falling in her hair. "You would have been a wonderful mother. Of that I have no doubt. Even if the child was Gaston's."

Erik pressed kisses to Mia's face and hair, as though she were awake and could feel them. "Forgive me," he begged. "Had I known this was going to happen, I would have taken you away that night, whether you wanted to go or not, even if I had to drag you out kicking and screaming. I just wanted to do what would make you happy and when you didn't come back, I thought you were happy without me. Happy here with your baby. Forgive me Mia. I never intended this to happen."

"Madame, one more thing, were you with her when she fell?"

"No Monsieur, I wasn't. Why do you ask?"

"I couldn't help but notice the scars on her arms. It is clear Madame Barineau has a history of instability. Is it possible that maybe this accident wasn't an accident and that she might have done this to herself purposely?" As soon as he heard the doctor's suspicions, Erik took her wrist and pushed her sleeves up, exposing her arms. But to his surprise, there weren't any fresh cuts. Everything had scarred over and as he ran his fingers over the white lumps Erik realized that she had finally stopped cutting herself. "A lot of good now," he snorted.

The doorknob began to turn, making Erik's head snap up. "I love you Mia," Erik said before kissing her quickly once more, for the last time, and disappearing through the window, tears blurring his vision.

Mia was gone. Erik sat with his head in his hands as bitter tears of regret slid down his cheeks. She had just vanished into thin air. He had gone back to spend what little time he could before he lost her for good, but she wasn't there. When he couldn't find her in the house, Erik had searched through every paper for weeks looking for an obituary and scoured every single cemetery in Paris trying to find out what might have happened to her. He had found both the de Chagny and the Barineau plots but there was no sign of Mia. But all of her possessions were gone as was she and the baby and Erik himself had heard the doctor say she wouldn't survive. All he wanted was to know where she was so he could still spend time with her but Barineau had denied him even that.

Losing Mia was the end of Erik's life in the world above and the death of the Phantom. Erik quit interfering with the opera house above him. It didn't matter to him anymore. The music didn't have any meaning, it didn't make him feel anything anymore. The only thing he felt was the crushing guilt and gaping hole in his heart that Mia left behind. There was nothing left on this earth that could give him happiness or peace.

"Madame?"

"What is it Hazel?"

"I know you're supposed to be resting, especially after such a long journey but the baby won't stop crying…hasn't since we left Paris. Sometimes a mother's touch is the only thing that comfort an inconsolable child." The maid fell silent and turned away, wringing her hands. "I'm sorry, I know it was silly of me to ask…I'll just see what I can do."

"No you're right. And I've been either in bed or resting since we left Paris. Bring the baby here. We'll see how much a mother's touch can help."

Hazel left and returned with a fussy bundle of blankets and placed them in her arms. She began to murmur and coo, trying to calm the baby. "Everything's alright," she said soothingly. "Mama's here. Mama will protect you." As she stared out the window at the French countryside, hundreds of miles away from Paris, she couldn't help but wonder just who exactly was going to protect her.