You make me feel safe
Jean Valjean awoke one morning and felt a shape next to him, he was confused for a moment until he remembered the events of the previous night, then everything made sense.
Little Cosette had been sat on his knee during the evening and he was reading to her like he did most nights, for some reason he felt like Cosette didn't want to go to bed that night because she kept pleading with him to keep reading more, which he did just to keep her happy, but eventually he had to be firm with her and tell her that it was past her bedtime and she had to go to bed.
"Papa, please may I sleep with you tonight?" she had said to him that evening
Valjean was confused when she said this, she was usually a very good girl when it came to her bedtime but she looked almost scared of going to bed that night.
"Why my darling?" he said to her
Cosette didn't answer him right away; she just looked sadly at him for a moment and chewed her bottom lip nervously.
"Cosette, tell papa. Why don't you want to sleep in your bed?" Valjean said
"Because I don't have nightmares when I'm with you, you make me feel safe" she said quietly
Valjean understood right then why she was getting upset; she had been having nightmares ever since Valjean had rescued her from the hands of the horrible Thenardier family. It seemed like she feared them more now even though she wasn't with them anymore, it was understandable to him of course, when she had been living with them that was the only life she knew, but now that she was safe with her papa all she had of her childhood was bad memories and they haunted the poor child.
It hurt the old man to know that the only place he couldn't protect his little girl was in her dreams.
"Oh Cosette" Valjean said to her, "Are you still having nightmares?"
Cosette nodded as a tear ran down her face
"Oh sweetheart, don't cry" He said to her, wiping away the tears "Of course you can sleep with me tonight. Come on; let's get you into your nightdress".
So after they were both comfortable that night, Valjean put out the lamplight and Cosette snuggled close to him, she never felt afraid when her papa was next to her, he stroked her hair gently that night which always made her feel comforted. That was the last thing she remembered before she fell asleep, the feeling of her papa being so close to her and feeling such warmth and safety from him.
As he held his little girl in his arms that night Valjean idly thought how odd it was to now be a source of comfort to someone. When he had been in prison he was such a cruel and unfeeling being that to now be the one person who provided safety to a little girl felt so bizarre to him, but he shook those thoughts out of his mind quickly. "I'm not that person anymore, I'm a father now and I have to protect this child, she needs me to do that, no one else will".
Valjean looked at the peaceful sleeping child next to him that morning and smiled, she was such a darling little thing to watch. He touched her hair gently and marvelled at her, it was incredible to him how perfectly she had fit into his life in every way. When he held her hand it fit perfectly into his, when he picked her up and carried her she was the perfect weight for him to hold, when she sat on his knee when he read to her in the evenings she was exactly the right size to fit onto his lap, when she curled up next to him in bed like she was right now she fit perfectly in next to him, and perhaps most importantly to the old man she was exactly the right size for his heart to hold.
Valjean stroked her little face with his fingers and smiled at her again, sometimes when he looked at her he didn't see the eight year old girl that she was, he saw her as a baby. He had definitely been treating her like she was younger than she was, he would help her with things that they both knew she was perfectly capable of doing herself, like getting washed and dressed, but Valjean wanted to help her do those things because that's what she was to him, she had become his baby and so much more as well. She was his world, his reason for living and his chance at redemption.
Sometimes he wished that she really had been his baby, he wished that she was really his "she felt like mine from the first moment I held her hand in that cold woods though" he thought to himself, "maybe that does make her mine".
He would have happily chosen to keep looking at the sleeping child forever but unfortunately at that moment his need to relieve himself became greater than his desire to keep watching Cosette so he gently and quietly got himself out of bed and went about his morning routine.
Valjean was usually an early riser, which was a side effect of the many years he had spent in prison that he had never gotten past, but Cosette slept longer than him so he would always wash and dress himself quietly every morning until she awoke too.
A little later that morning when Cosette was waking up Valjean was right there next to her to greet her like he always was. Cosette opened her eyes slowly and rubbed them sleepily, Valjean smiled at her and knelt down next to the bed to help her wake up; she was so adorable in the mornings when she was still sleepy and her hair was tousled slightly.
"Good morning sleepy girl" Valjean said quietly to her
Cosette smiled softly at him, "Good morning papa" she replied quietly, still waking up.
Valjean looked at the still half asleep little girl for a moment before he placed one of his hands on her head and stroked her hair softly again.
"Did you have any nightmares?" he asked her
Cosette shook her head gently to confirm that she had passed the night without any bad dreams and that she had slept soundly by her father's side.
Valjean didn't say anything back to her; he just kept smiling at her whilst she closed her eyes again and buried her head back into the pillow not wanting to wake up properly.
But Valjean knew a way to wake her up, he had found out soon after he had brought her home to live with him that she was a very ticklish child and a mischievous thought then suddenly flashed through his mind and he decided to tickle Cosette into waking up.
He started gently tickling her under her arms which made the little girl smile, then he got more forceful with her until she was practically having a fit from laughing. It was charming to Valjean how adorable she was sometimes, she had the most enchanting laugh that it made Valjean forget himself sometimes and he felt like a child too whenever he had the chance to play with his little girl.
Eventually he stopped tickling her, his plan had worked and she was awake now. Cosette smiled at him as she sat upright in bed, "You're silly papa" she said to him sweetly.
Valjean didn't say anything to that, he just tapped her playfully on the nose and smiled right back at her.
The End