I DO NOT OWN MOULIN ROUGE. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO BAZ LUHRMANN. I FELT THAT THE LOVE STORY OF CHRISTIAN AND SATINE DESERVED A HAPPIER ENDING THEN WHAT WE SAW. ALSO, I ENJOY WRITING STORIES ABOUT THE ROMANOVS AND THE TIME PERIODS HAPPENED TO WORK OUT FOR THIS STORY. CHRISTIAN AND SATINE WERE NEVER GIVEN LAST NAMES, SO I MADE SOME.

FACE CLAIMS

CHRISTIAN DEERING- EWAN MCGREGOR

SATINE THIBAULT- NICOLE KIDMAN

HAROLD ZIDLER- JIM BROADBENT

CHOCOLAT- DEOBIA OPAREI

MARIE- KERRY WALKER

Christian Deering's Apartment. Paris, France. November 30, 1899.

Christian Deering looked out the window of his partner with jealousy and fear. Satine Thibault, his sparking Diamond, the love of his life, was currently in the process of making love to the obsessive and cold hearted Duke of Monroth.

He knew that she had to keep them both safe and to save the Moulin Rouge. It didn't mean he had to be happy about it. To picture the woman he loved in the arms of a man who saw her merely as an ornament to be possessed tore at his very soul. He did the only thing he could: he sang their secret song; the song that they could sing and reassure their love anew when it was under threat.

"Come what may...I will love you...until my dying day." Christian whispered softly as he wiped his tears. Suddenly, the door burst opened and Christian was about shocked and relieved to see Satine burst in, flanked by Chocolat, one of the club's bouncers.

"I couldn't, I couldn't go through with it!" She exclaimed as the lovers embraced tightly. "I saw you there, and I felt differently and I couldn't pretend...and the Duke, he saw! He saw and he...Christian, I love you."

"It's okay..." he assured his true love as he touched her cheek.

"I couldn't do it. I didn't want to pretend anymore. I didn't want to lie. I don't, and he knows. He knows and he..." Satine said as she continued to sob and hold onto Christian for dear life.

"You don't have to pretend anymore. We'll leave, we'll leave tonight!" Christian assured his Diamond as he looked her in the eye. He knew that their only safety lay in flight. Paris was no longer the safe haven Christian had dreamed of. The Duke would never leave them be, now that he had marked Satine as his plaything. They had to leave and begin their lives anew.

"Leave, but the show..." Satine stuttered, knowing how thrilled Christian had been to finally become a real writer

"I don't care, I don't care about the show. We have each other. That's all that matters. " Christian assured her and he meant it. Somewhere out there, there would always be another show. But the love that he and Satine shared, that was once in a lifetime; twice if you were insanely lucky.

"Yes, as long as we have each other...we have each other." Satine assured herself as the lovers kissed each other fiercely.

"Chocolat, take Miss Satine to her dressing room and get the things she needs." Christian commanded as he turned to the dark skinned bouncer. "No one must see you. Do you understand?"

"I understand." Chocolat assured the writer as he kissed Satine again.

"Darling, you go and pack and I'll be waiting." He assured his courtesan as she and Chocolat quickly ran off into the French night.

Moulin Rouge. Paris, France. Later that night.

Satine Thibault was turning her room upside down as she quickly packed up all her clothes and all of her worldly wealth. As she finished, she was shocked to see Harold Zidler standing in her doorway. For so many years, he had been as a father figure to her. But now, he seemed like a common pimp. He'd brought her maid Marie with him, no doubt to guilt her into staying.

"Forgive the intrusion, cherub." He said calmly.

"You're wasting your time, Harold." Satine said as she finished her packing.

"You don't understand. The Duke is going to kill Christian." Harold said as Satine's heart dropped.

"No." she gasped as she fought the tears forming. She had expected the Duke to have Christian thrown out on the streets, perhaps even beaten; but murdered? The idea of Christian dead was the stuff nightmares were made of.

"The Duke is insanely jealous." Zidler explained. Unless you do his ending and sleep with him tomorrow night...the Duke will have Christian killed." The Duke had caught on to her feelings for Christian and had demanded that the play's ending be changed so that the Courtesan would forsake the penniless Sitar player and marry the wicked Maharajah. Satine would not, could not forsake her true love.

"He can't scare us." She declared bravely.

"He's a powerful man, you know he can do it." Zidler insisted as Satjne turned away in disgust. "What are you doing?"

"I don't need you anymore!" Satine shouted in pure frustration. "All my life you made me believe l was only worth what someone would pay for me; but Christian loves me. He loves me, Harold. He. Loves. Me. And that is worth everything. We're going away from you, away from the Duke, away from the Moulin Rouge! Goodbye, Harold."

"You're dying, Satine." Harold said, playing his trump card. "You're dying."

"Another trick, Harold?" Satine whispered, desperate for his words to be lies. To be torn away from her writer, her sitar player, just as they had found each other, had found freedom and beauty and truth in their love. She couldn't be dying; she had just begun to live.

"No, my love. The doctor told us." Monsieur Zidler spoke solemnly as Satine turned to her maid.

"Marie, I'm dying?" She asked as the maid in question spoke no words, her eyes confirming the owner's claim. Satine felt the tears roll down her cheeks like raindrops. It all made sense now, the weakness she'd felt, How breathing was sometimes difficult, the blood dripping from her lips. She heard that nasty word whispered about Paris so often: Consumption. It had snuffed out the light of many a artist living in poverty; but Satine had naively believed that such a fate was beyond her grasp.

"I can't have the consumption, I wouldn't.." she stuttered as she felt like she'd been struck in the stomach.

"You do have it, my sweet." Zidler declared with pity. "Why put the boy in danger if you've only a few weeks at most?"

"Because...a fortnight with Christian would be more wonderful than 3 decades with the Duke." Satine declared as she grabbed onto her spine and held it in place. "Perhaps you're right, perhaps I have only a small window of time to be loved by Christian...but I wouldn't miss it for the world. I will love and be loved in return...for as long as I can." Satine then dried her eyes, grabbed her bags, and stormed past her former friend as she ran for her love. Satine was determined that if these were her final days, they would be spent with Christian and no other.

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