Unconditionally

"Unconditional, unconditionally, I will love you unconditionally".

These were the words Valjean whispered to his new daughter one night. He had only become a father mere weeks ago and he had come to realise Cosette had some deep scars that would take a long time to heal, if ever.

The poor child had been plagued with nightmares from the beginning of their time together, and if she felt like she did something wrong she would become overcome with fear. There was an incident one morning when she sleepily knocked over her milk that Valjean had poured for breakfast and she was suddenly overcome with terror that her new papa was going to hit her that she burst into uncontrollable tears and ran away from the table in fear and shame.

Instead of shouting at her, hitting her, or punishing her though Valjean did something Cosette hadn't expected.

He took her little hand in his and kissed it gently, then looked her in the eyes. "It's alright my dear girl, it was just an accident. Don't be scared, I won't hurt you".

Cosette was quite taken aback by this behaviour, she was so used to being beaten all the time for minor things that it was almost unbelievable to her that someone wasn't going to hurt her.

"Aren't you mad?" she asked her new papa as her tears subsided.

"No my dear, of course not. Come here" He said as he picked her up gently and held her close to him to comfort her. She was still so tiny and light that she felt like a feather in his arms.

"There now, don't be afraid anymore Cosette. Nobody's going to hurt you". He whispered to her.

Cosette believed him, but it was going to take a lot more love and patience to completely rid her of her fears, which was why a few nights later Cosette found herself needing to be comforted by her papa again.

She was curled up next to him in his bed after he had brought her over to sleep there, she had woken up from a terrible nightmare and Valjean knew she needed a lot of love and comfort tonight. He wrapped his arms around the little girl and held her, just simply held her until she felt safe again.

He whispered to her as well, the sweet comforting words she needed to hear to know that she would always be safe and loved with her new father. "Sssh now sweetheart, everything's alright. There's nothing to fear now. Papas here and he loves you. He'll always love you".

He made a vow to himself that night, a vow that he would love this little girl unconditionally for the rest of his life. There was nothing she could do, nothing bad, nothing wrong and nothing about her past that would make him stop loving her. He was a father now and that was the job of a father to do.

He pulled her in even closer than she was, and whispered to her some words that she didn't fully understand yet, but she knew what he was saying was very very good.

"Unconditional, unconditionally, I will love you unconditionally. There is no fear now, let go and just be free, because I will love you unconditionally".

The words made her feel safe at last, and Cosette had no more troubles with nightmares at all that night.