Before they knew it, it was time for the new baby to make its arrival. Cosette had begun to feel contractions early one morning and by lunchtime a midwife had been summoned and Cosette was back in their bedroom panting through contractions and trying not to get too worked up from the pain, which wasn't easy.

Marius had spent a lot of the morning with Marie; she seemed to sense that something was going on because she had been very upset and fussy all morning.

"You should go be with Marie" Cosette had said early on into the labour. "She needs you more than I do right now"

Marius disagreed however "I don't want to leave you alone Cosette".

"It's going to be a while yet Monsieur" The midwife chimed in "There's really not a lot you can do at the moment".

"Go take care of Marie please, I'll be alright". Said Cosette

Marius did as Cosette asked and kissed her temple before leaving the bedroom to tend to his daughter. Most of the morning had been spent pacing up and down the living room holding Marie close to him and trying to settle her, he was nervous about Cosette and he felt like Marie was feeling the same as him so the two of them together were just a wreck, eventually though she calmed down and just rested her head against her papas shoulder quietly.

As for the rest of the family, Aunt Gillenormand had been worrying all morning for Cosette too, but in her own way. She had been keeping to herself and gripped her rosary beads tight in her hands and had been praying that Cosette and the child would be safe. Marius had noticed this behaviour from her and he was quietly grateful. He knew his Aunt well, she was never one for overtly expressing her emotions but she was quite fond of Cosette as she felt she was a lovely young lady, so to know how worried she was for her was quite touching. Grandfather had been slowing down immensely lately and nowadays mostly just spent his days sitting silently, Marius knew inside he didn't have a lot of time left, it was obvious to everyone in the house, but he would have been lieing if he said he wasn't still sad about it.

By early afternoon Cosette was calling for Marius again and he raced to be by her side, and after much breathing and panting and pushing and screaming the second Pontmercy child arrived into the world and it seemed that Cosette had gotten her wish, it was a boy!

The midwife cleaned the child up, cut his cord and wrapped him up in a blanket before placing the boy in Cosettes arms. She was so happy that she could only gaze at him; he had a patch of dark hair just like his sister and blue eyes like herself. Marius was happy beyond belief that it had been a safe arrival and that they were both alright, and he shed a few joyous tears as he looked at his firstborn son for the very first time.

"A boy" Cosette said dreamily looking at the child, then she turned to Marius who was just gazing at the boy too. "Oh Marius, we have a son!" she said to him happily as if he hadn't just witnessed the great event.

"I know Cosette" he said smiling at her "It's wonderful, just wonderful".

The three of them just sat there together for the longest time as happy as they could be, Cosette realised after a while that Marius hadn't held him yet and cursed herself for being so selfish. "Here, meet your papa" she said to the baby whilst handing the boy over to Marius.

Marius took the baby gently into his arms and simply looked at him so proudly "Hello my boy" he said happily.

"Cosette had been right" he thought, a son was a wonderful thing to have. Right there in his arms was his fathers legacy, the continuation of his name, his hopes for the future and the future of France; it was all inside this tiny little boy. Then he realised that that was quite a lot of pressure for a baby so instead he just focused on loving him just for him. He smiled again and kissed the little boys head.

"I think he looks like my papa" Cosette then said, smiling at the boy

Marius paused for a moment on hearing her talk about her dear papa, his father in law, Jean Valjean. He would have made a fine grandfather, Marius was sure of that, but they both knew he wasn't Cosette's real father so it surprised him that she could think that her son would resemble him.

"Cosette" He began to say disbelievingly "You know he couldn't….."

Cosette stopped him before he could say anything more, "I know its impossible Marius, I do know that" she said "But he does, I'm sure of it".

"Perhaps you're right Cosette" he said, humouring his wife, "she'd just been through labour and given him a son, she could think anything she wanted too right now" he thought.

"Where's Marie?" Cosette asked

"She's with the nanny my dear" Marius said

"Would you bring her in here? I want her to meet her new brother" Cosette said happily

"Of course" he said and handed the boy back to her, he kissed her forehead once again before leaving her side to go collect his daughter.

When he stepped out of the bedroom he leaned against the door for a moment and smiled to himself, he had a son and that felt wonderful, but more importantly both the baby and Cosette were safe and healthy and that was the best thing he could have asked for. He closed his eyes and breathed out heavily, the worry that had been there all morning was gone and he could relax again.

He didn't notice his aunt at the other end of the hallway until she spoke and broke him from his reverie.

"Is everything alright?" she asked bluntly

"Everything's fine Aunt, They're both healthy" he said smiling slightly. "It's a boy" he added.

"Oh, well that's…that's lovely". She said flatly, but inside she was quite relieved at the outcome.

"Would you like to go in and see Cosette, I'm sure she'd like that". Marius said

"Oh no thank you, I'm sure she's quite tired at the moment" she said, and then quickly walked away.

Marius left the hallway and went to go find Marie, before he did so he went into the living room where his grandfather was sitting quietly. His heart did go out to the poor man, he wasn't sure how aware he was of what was happening that day, sometimes he was more lucid than at other times but Marius had been too distracted all morning to really find out.

He approached him quietly and kneeled down beside him "Grandfather?" he said quietly and the old man turned his head to look at him.

"Grandfather, I have a son". He told the old man.

Grandfather looked at him, his eyes registering what the young man had just said; He just smiled at Marius and reached his hand out to him. He took the old mans hand and his Grandfather patted it and said quietly "Well done".

After a short time there he left again and went to find his daughter, she was with the nanny in the nursery, when she saw him she smiled and reached out her little baby arms to him. He picked her up and kissed her little face. "My beautiful girl" he said "You're a big sister today Marie, yes you are!" he said, talking like a fool. He carried on talking to her like that whilst he took her to his bedroom to meet her new brother.

Marie's face lit up again to see her mother and Marius placed the little girl on the bed next to Cosette so she could introduce her to her brother. Obviously she was too young to know what was going on, but she was a perfect angel when she saw the new baby, she didn't fuss or shy away she just sat there with her mother and father and the three of them bonded with the new arrival.

"Marius?" Cosette said after a while "Can we name him Jean? Jean-Georges? After both our fathers".

Marius only had to think about that for a second before he knew that the name suited the little man perfectly, "Jean-Georges Pontmercy?" he said, "I like that". Then he looked at the little boy and smiled again "Hello Jean, welcome to the world my son".

The End