On April 12th Combeferre received some very distressing news.
"Two days?" Combeferre walked around the reception desk and looked at Anne's computer screen. "Do you know for sure?"
Anne pointed to Enjolras's name in the screen, "See, this is his row and all the columns are the days." She pointed to the two consecutive blank lines, "Every time any of the patients enter into the dining hall and put in their code, it transfers to these columns and puts an X in for each meal." She looked up at Combeferre. "Enjolras hasn't had any X's for the past two days."
Combeferre shook his head. "He hasn't eaten in two days …"
Anne shrugged. "It could be that he's forgetting to put in his code."
"No, Enjolras always remembers to do that." Combeferre sighed and looked at the clock on the computer. "I should go talk to him."
"Aren't you off duty? It's 6:00."
Combeferre walked back around the reception desk and towards Enjolras's room. "Yeah but this is important."
"Eating is important to your health, Enjolras." Joly said with concern.
Enjolras sighed. "I am well aware of that, but it is unsafe to enter into the dining hall."
"Unsafe?"
Bossuet sat down in front of Enjolras. "Yeah, I heard the police force is spreading their surveillance. They are definitely in the dining hall."
Enjolras sat back in his chair. "There is no other explanation. They must have found out that we frequent the dining hall and that's why they changed everything."
Courfeyrac came and stood beside Enjolras. "So, what, are you going to starve yourself?"
"Well, I certainty cannot go back in there … not with those numbers." Enjolras shook his head. "Things are getting far more dangerous than I expected."
Combeferre knocked four times on Enjolras's door and then entered. "It's me Enjolras."
Enjolras was sitting at his small table surrounded by papers. He turned and looked at Combeferre in confusion. "It's past 6:00, Combeferre. You leave and go home at 6:00 and then come back in the morning at 7:00. You are still here, why are you still here?"
Combeferre walked over to Enjolras's table. "I'm still here because I need to ask you a question."
Enjolras looked up at his clock worriedly. "But if you stay, you run the risk of leaving at 6:03 or 6:05 or 6:07 or 6:09—"
Combeferre sighed. "I don't always leave right at six on the dot, Enjolras."
Enjolras's eyes widened and his breathing became suddenly uneven. "You … you don't? You sometimes leave at 6:03 or … or 6:05?" He looked desperately at Combeferre. "Please say that you always leave at 6:00 on the dot, Combeferre. Can you please say it?"
"Yes, yes, of course." Combeferre looked at Enjolras in the eyes. "I always leave at 6:00 on the dot, okay? Always."
Enjolras looked down at his papers and started stacking them and muttering, "Combeferre always leaves at 6:00."
Combeferre motioned to the second chair at the table. "Is this seat taken?"
Enjolras nodded. "By Bossuet but he got up so you can sit now, Combeferre."
"Thank you, Enjolras." Combeferre sat down, folded his hands and put them on the table.
Enjolras mimicked the motion and looked at him sternly. "This is a serious conversation. Our hands are folded so that we won't fidget."
"You are correct." Combeferre took a deep breath and then looked directly at Enjolras. "You need to tell me the truth, okay? Have you been to the dining hall in the past two days?"
Enjolras immediately looked away from Combeferre and started wringing his hands. "Maybe we can talk about something else." He said quietly.
Combeferre shook his head. "No, Enjolras, you need to answer this question. Either yes or no." He already knew the answer. Looking at Enjolras now he could see that he was paler than usual, his red T-shirt looked a little too big and there were dark circles under his eyes. Combeferre also realized that in the past few days he'd checked up on him, Enjolras was never standing, he was always sitting down and Combeferre guessed that he was maybe too weak to stand.
Enjolras looked hesitantly up and Combeferre through his blonde curly hair, afraid to speak.
"Yes or no, Enjolras. Have you been to the dining hall in the past two days?"
"Yes."
"You have been going?"
"No."
Combeferre sighed. "You need to give me a straight answer."
"Please, don't yell." Enjolras squeezed his hands together so his knuckles went white.
"I'm not yelling." Combeferre closed his eyes and once again took a breath. "I'm going to ask one more time, okay? Have you been to the dining hall in the past two days?" He opened his eyes and found Enjolras shaking his head. "Thank you for answering me. Why haven't you been going?"
Enjolras bit his lip and rocked back and forth in his chair. "They changed my number and I don't think that I like the change. It's not good."
Combeferre frowned. "They changed your code?"
Enjolras nodded. "I think that the police did it."
"The police didn't do it, Enjolras. There are no policemen here."
"Combeferre says no policemen." Enjolras muttered. "Bossuet, Joly, Bahorel, Grantaire, Courfeyrac and Feuilly, Combeferre says no policemen."
"Enjolras, did you forget your code?" Combeferre asked, trying to regain his attention.
But Enjolras shook his head. "No, no, I don't forget, Combeferre. My old code was 0242 and that was a nice code with nice numbers" He drew in a shaky breath. "I don't like the new one, Combeferre."
"What's your new one?"
Enjolras made a distressed noise and blinked a few times before answering. "515."
Combeferre sighed and muttered "Oh my god …"
Enjolras's breathing became even more uneven as he spoke. "515 … that's only three numbers, Combeferre … and … and five times one is five and then five times five is twenty five."
"Enjolras-" Combeferre started
"Five plus one is six but six plus five is eleven and I can't use that number, Combeferre. I can't use 515." Distraught tears started to form in Enjolras's eyes and he furrowed his eyebrows and started to rock back and forth in his chair. "Don't make me use 515, please. I don't want to use it."
Combeferre reached out and rested two of his fingers on Enjolras arm. Enjolras immediately stopped rocking and looked at Combeferre's fingers. "Two." He muttered.
"Enjolras, we are going to get your number changed." Combeferre said, placing four fingers on his arm.
"Four." Enjolras said. "You are going to change my number."
"Yes, I am going to change it back to 0424." Combeferre patted Enjolras's arm with his four fingers. "It will never be changed again after that."
Enjolras sniffed and nodded. "Thank you, Combeferre."
"You don't have to thank me, mon frère."
"Mon frère." Enjolras repeated. "We are not related, Combeferre."
Combeferre smiled. "Not by blood, no, but we can still be brothers."
Enjolras returned his smile. "I've never had a brother."
"Well, you do now." Combeferre stood up. "Do you want to come to the dining hall and get something to eat?"
Enjolras nodded and stood up slowly and as he did, Combeferre saw that he was struggling.
"Enjolras, do you want to stay here and let me bring you food? I'm afraid that you are going to fall down if you try to walk."
"My head hurts, Combeferre, and so does my stomach."
Combeferre nodded. "That's because you haven't eaten in two days."
"Can I sit back down?"
"Yes, of course. I'm going to bring you some food, okay?"
Enjolras sat and leaned his head against the wall, closing his eyes. "Thank you, mon frère."
"So, does Jacob have any friends here? I mean, besides you?" Noémi asked, walking along the dinner line with Combeferre as he gathered some food for Enjolras.
"Not really." Combeferre grabbed a small bowl of red Jell-O and placed it on the tray. "All of his friends are in his mind."
Noémi nodded. "Oh, that's right. He's autistic and –"
"Schizophrenic." Combeferre finished. "Yeah. He has imagined up this whole group of friends and he thinks that they are all going to rise up and revolt against the government."
Noémi nodded. "Wow, that's … interesting. Our government could probably use some revolting against."
Combeferre smiled. "Yeah. It's not as bad as Enjolras is imagining it to be though. I mean, we still have a King and oppression and inequality still exist but Enjolras thinks it's much worse than what I actually is."
"Well, it's not like he is ever going to get the chance to actually revolt." Noémi said, with a hint of sadness in her voice.
"That's true." Combeferre finished filling the tray and the two started walking towards the dining hall door. "But you should read the speeches he writes, Noémi. They … they are absolutely incredible. Sometimes I wonder …" He trailed off.
"Who he could have been?"
Combeferre looked down at the tray of food in his hands. "Yeah. But he is the way he is and that is incredible too."
They walked about of the dining hall and Combeferre turned to go back to Enjolras's room.
"I'm going go home, Guillaume." Noémi said, stopping in her place. "But I have a suggestion."
Combeferre turned around. "A suggestion?"
"Yeah, I was thinking that it might be better for Jacob if he had a friend here, I mean, someone who was here all the time."
"You mean like one of the other patients?"
"Uh huh. Someone who could maybe prevent something like this from ever happening again. Someone to help him."
Combeferre shrugged. "Do you have someone in mind? Enjolras is a very forthright person, if he doesn't like someone he'll say it and never see them again."
Noémi nodded. "I have no doubt. But yes, I do have someone in mind, my patient actually. He's the sweetest person you will ever meet, he's very caring and friendly, he loves books and writing poetry but he is also willing to be very daring, which Enjolras might connect with."
"Sure, I have no objections. Enjolras would benefit from having a real friend besides me and Courf—" Combeferre stopped himself and quickly tried to recover. "What's his status?"
"He has a mild form of autism along with a more severe case of ADHD. If you want they could meet tomorrow, outside at 1:00."
"Better make it 2:00 but that sounds great." Combeferre started walking towards Enjolras's room, when he remembered something and turned back. "Oh, and what's your patients name?"
Noémi smiled. "Jean Prouvaire."