*A/N* Thanks for being patient! And I am SO sorry that this is probably NOT what you were expecting...it wasn't what I was expecting either. I wasn't actually thinking I was going to finish this until after I finished my novel (still working on it, by the way), but at 4:30 this morning I was like "That's IT, I don't care what I was originally going to do, I'm done with that story NOW and I'll post it NOW!" So...voila. THANKS TO ALL MY FAITHFUL READERS-I LOVE YOU ALL! *xoxoxoxo*

Until Our Souls Get it Right

By Musashihazmat84

Part 4: How the faces of love have changed

For Christian, love didn't come so easily as it seemed to for Roxanne. Balancing his school work, his work with the paper, and seeing her proved to be one of the most difficult tasks he had ever undertaken. It was hard for him to justify watching a movie with her if it wasn't going to provoke any intellectual thought—he enjoyed conversations with her more than anything else.

From these conversations, Christian had decided that most of Roxanne's favorite movies were typical chick-flicks and therefore ones he had never seen.

One rainy Saturday, almost a week later, Roxanne finally convinced him to watch a movie in the student lounge in Julie Hall; she'd said it was an older movie called "Dead Again" that Professor Stokes had recommended.

In all honesty, he would have preferred to see it in his room, but the truth was that he didn't have a VCR or even a TV in his room. Instead, a portable type-writer sat in the place where most students have their TVs, which seemed even more out of place when one could see that a computer—a laptop, to be precise, sat on his desk. Roxanne's VCR had broken just that week after almost 18 years of use.

The student lounge was empty when they arrived that night; Roxanne put the movie box on a nearby table and went to turn on the big screen TV.

"Did Professor Stokes say why he recommended this film to you?" Christian asked.

"Actually, he recommended it to both of us," Roxanne said, "He said that he had a theory or something about the two of us…"

"Really?" he sat on the couch. "He didn't mention this to me."

She shrugged. "He only recommended it to me last Friday—unless you'd seen him since then I doubt he would have brought it up before then." She joined him on the couch as the movie began.

The film began with a woman who had nightmares and amnesia, and as the film progressed it became evident that her nightmares represented memories from her past lives—Christian would have normally dismissed it as folly if he could, but the fact that his stomach had tied itself in a knot by the end only told him that he related more to the movie than he cared to admit.

If Professor Stokes had recommended this to both of them, then did Roxanne feel the same way? She was silent as she turned the TV off and rewound the tape.

"Well," he said, "What do you think?"

She smiled uneasily and went to the window. "I've always been a firm believer in reincarnation," she said softly.

"Do you think you can remember?"

She shrugged. "Sometimes I have vague dreams…" she gestured helplessly.

"Me too." It had slipped out before he'd realized what he said, and now she looked at him curiously. "But I'm sure everyone is like that," he said quickly.

She sighed in discontent. "No, most people think past lives and reincarnation is ludicrous."

He bowed his head in silent admission.

"You do too, don't you." Disappointment echoed from the syllables of her words.

"I don't know what to think," he said, meeting her eye. "I was raised Catholic…" he trailed off; this wasn't helping his argument any.

"Hey you two," Carolyn said, poking her head into the doorway, "the girls and I are about to come watch Moulin Rouge—wanna join us?"

Christian shook his head, but Roxanne took his arm. "Maybe we should watch it—we could use something that's not so heavy after what we watched just now."

Carolyn looked at her strangely. "Roxy, aren't you forgetting? Satine dies in the end."

Christian's head snapped up—Satine—the ever elusive name of the goddess of his dreams…

The movie was based on a true story, written by a man with nearly the same name as he—Christian Fletcher.

"Come on, Christian," Roxanne said, "The movie is very close to the book—didn't I ever tell you that it was written by my favorite author?"

Their eyes met, and an odd smirk spread across his face.

"Come on, Christian…"

There was something…some phrase on the tip of his tounge…Roxanne would probably know it. Quietly, he whispered the one word he knew was part of it, "Come…"

"What?"

"May," he finished.

"Come what may…?" she whispered back in confusion and wonderment.

Suddenly, her eyes grew wide.

The End.