In all Cassandra had been gone from the stage six hours. Ryan and Mark had disappeared for Four and a half hours and the field agents had looked for them all for four hours. After their return and a mandatory trip to the hospital for examinations they'd returned for several grueling hours of interrogations. Cassie had to relay her ordeal to her father, Mr. and Mrs. Giles, the American field agents and the French Inspectors as well as to Mia, Matt and the rest of the students. It was five in the morning before she got to even think about going to sleep. Mark was treated for a gunshot wound and released to return to the opera house where everyone bombarded him with questions.

The next morning the newspapers had come wanting to know what had happened but the students refused to talk about it and told them to talk to Mr. Giles. The article in the paper the next day was filled with more questions than answers.

The astonishing events of the opera house unfolded before everyone's very eyes and mysteries that had been around for one hundred years were laid to rest.

Cassandra's father departed for Russia to close up some loose ends the day before the students were to leave Paris.

"Daddy, really…I'm OK. Besides shooting me with a blow dart and a couple of bruises and scrapes, he didn't hurt me at all. I'm fine." Cassandra had told him. But he wouldn't listen.

"I'm moving you into a maximum security dormitory at that conservatory. You're lucky to be even going there….I shouldn't allow you in a conservatory, but a convent."

"Daddy…" He hugged her close to him and wouldn't let her go for sometime.

"I'll meet you in Austin. Mia's mom is going to put you up for a few days and then we'll get you moved in to your place at the conservatory."

"Yes, so you've said sixty seven times before this. I understand the plan dad, don't worry about it."

"I do worry….I can't lose you too." Charles hugged his daughter tightly before getting in the cab. "I'll see you at Mia's in a week. I'll be there as soon as I get everything settled out in Russia for a few weeks."

"Yes Dad."

"And be good! No hiding behind closed doors with Ryan young lady!" Cassie waved as the cab pulled away. Ryan came up and slung his arm around Cassie's shoulder.

"Well, now that we've ditched the old man, what do you say to a hotel room and….what is it that Mia says….'Hot Passionate Monkey Sex?'"

"I'm not going to have hot passionate monkey sex with you Ryan." Cassie said going back inside. "You heard my father. I'm not allowed to hide behind closed doors with you."

"So we'll leave the door open." Ryan said as if it were the simplest thing in the world. Cassie laughed and returned to her room and finished packing.

She and Ryan hadn't had a spare moment since the ordeal that night. Their last night in the Opera house, only three days after their final performance, Ryan knocked at the wall in Cassandra's room and sat on her bed as she finished packing her bags.

"Am I ever going to see you, or is your dad going to squirrel you away forever?"

Cassie folded the shirt she was holding and placed it into her suitcase before going to sit on her bed beside Ryan.

"You'll see me. He'll calm down in a few weeks."

"Few weeks?" Ryan smiled slightly. "Might as well be a few years! I've seen you at least a little bit every day for the past couple weeks….and before that five months! This is going to feel weird leaving here."

"I know what you mean. Now that everything has settled down I wouldn't mind staying a few more days…"

"Yeah." Cassie moved to sit in Ryan's lap and laced her hands behind his neck.

"But you're going to be at NYU, and I'm going to be at the New York Conservatory and we're going to see each other between studies. Promise?"

"I promise." Cassie kissed him slowly and felt his arms wrap protectively around her.

"Hey, Cassie….oops!" Mia walked back out the door and into the hall seeing Cassandra in Ryan's arms. Cassie rested her head against Ryan's shoulder and laughed.

"Is that a talent of hers or something?" Ryan asked as Cassandra continued to laugh. "No seriously!" Cassie pressed her lips quickly to his effectively silencing him.

"She won't come in anytime soon now."

The file on the Phantom, or Richard Villefort, or whatever name he intended on using, was sealed and the students were begged to forget everything they ever thought they knew about their instructor for the legal authorities could find and prove nothing. Everyone had helped to load the big truck and they got all their suitcases on the bus early the next morning. Their flight was leaving before the sun was to rise and most students hadn't gone to sleep the night before. Cassie and Ryan sat in the back of the bus and stared out the window as they pulled away from the Opera House. They were escorted through the city by police and bustled into the airport to go through the customs process. The American field agents held Mr. Giles back as the students went through security and congregated at the gate. It was a long boarding process and once again Ryan and Cassie found their seats secluded at the back of the plane.

Half way through the flight Mr. and Mrs. Giles were standing near the stewardess's station talking in quiet whispers. Ryan roused slowly and listened to their conversation.

"….and the body was gone. There's no record that anyone signed for it."

"But who would have taken him? He had no family."

"I don't know. I specified for him to buried in a Potters field…no one would have claimed him."

"That's odd." Mrs. Giles hissed. "But why did they tell you?"

"I don't know, I think they thought I wanted to know where he was." Mr. Giles said as he took a cup of coffee from the stewardess. "Honestly, I don't care. He's dead and nothing can change that."

"He's dead….nothing will change that." Cassie said opening her eyes and looking up at Ryan. "Nobody lives forever."

Four and a half years later Cassandra stood on the stage singing in her Senior Ensemble. She was graduating with a degree in stage performance and was already singing in the chorus of a Broadway production. It would only be a few more years before she was billed in a leading role and everyone knew it. She smiled out onto the crowd gathered and laughed as Ryan, Matt and Mia, and a dozen or more of Ryan's fraternity brothers shouted and whistled as if they were at a hockey game instead of a concert. She took a bow and went back stage.

"Lover you were spectacular!" Sean, one of her accompanist's said with a broad smile kissing her cheek. "When are we going to get married so I can have your babies?"

"Ha! When you give up men!" She laughed. He was flamboyantly gay and he and Cassie had talked about men several times, even taking him man hunting with Mia a few times. Sean had become one of her best friends at the conservatory taking the place Mia had occupied when they'd been at St. Isabel's. Sean turned away from her and batted his eyelashes coyly.

"I'll give up men when you do!"

"You better get back out there! They want an encore." The stage manager said.

"Go on!" Sean pushed her towards the middle of the stage.

"What shall I sing?" She asked hurriedly.

"Do Angel of Music!" Sean shouted as he took up a place at the piano. "I'll play! It can be our final duet!"

Cassie had avoided singing anything from The Phantom of the Opera for a year after their return from Paris; the events too traumatic to deal with. One drunken evening at a flat in the Village Ryan and Sean talked her into singing. Cassie had boldly climbed up onto a table and had broken into All I Ask of You, Ryan and Sean accompanying her drunkenlyThe party had come to an abrupt halt to hear it and everyone cheered Cassie's performance and had told Ryan and Sean not to quit their day jobs.

Cassie sang Angel of Music as her encore performance and took one last bow at the conservatory, the crowd shaking the rafters with their applause. She made a mad dash to the wings where Ryan, Mia, Mark and Matt stood with her father, as well as all her other friends and admirers from the conservatory.

"You are spectacular!" Ryan said as he spun her around. "Top grades in her class, beautiful, and talented! What more could a guy ask for, eh?" He said planting a passionate kiss on her lips. Cassie and Ryan were no longer shy about public displays of affection in front of her father; they were engaged and had been for about a year.

"Ryan, let's go get the cars so we can all go out to eat and celebrate. Besides, I'm sure Cassie has quite a few more people she needs to talk to and things to do." Ryan and her father disappeared and Cassie was shuffled from one group to another by the stage manager so she maximized her face time.

It was a mad blur and a press of people around her and she was all smiles; a successful, talented and polite, star. The stage manager was taking her to be introduced to another producer when she was suddenly cut off from him, pressed against one person in front and one on the back she could hardly move when she suddenly had something pressed into her hand and heard a voice at her ear.

"I knew you'd understand the symbolism….I hoped you hadn't forgotten me." She whipped around searching for the green eyes she knew she should have seen and then looked down at what she held.

Ryan returned and found Matt and Mia standing to one side looking into the press of people.

"We lost track of her a few minutes ago." Matt said. "I don't know where she is. It was several minutes more before the stage area cleared enough for them to see Cassandra standing in the middle of the room stock still and looking perplexed.

"Cassie?" Ryan walked up and placed a hand on her shoulder when she didn't respond. "Cassie, what have you got there?" He asked when she turned, staring at something in her hands.

"He's here." Cassie said staring at Ryan. She held out the blood red rose, tied with the black ribbon and watched as realization dawned on his face. "Everything's changed…."

Well, that's going to end it kids. I know it's a bit…'cliffy' but that's just the way I wanted it to work. We couldn't have the Phantom dying now, could we? What kind of story would that be? I hope you all enjoyed it and thank you very very much for all the wonderful reviews. :-D Have a safe and merry holiday season!