So it seems I've switched from a once-a-week schedule to an eight day schedule. I'm so sorry guys! But I've just started school again and my computer has broken four times and doesn't have internet. Thanks for putting up with me!
Chapter Three: Shield Me
It wasn't wise to visit Éponine and the others at her and Grantaire's apartment, especially since she couldn't stay with them, but there was nothing wrong with meeting her boyfriend for lunch. Marius had texted her saying that things were already insane, and that he missed her, so they planned to grab a bite to eat and then go to the library to talk about it.
Cosette arrived at the Quickie (a stand selling quick food for students that didn't have time to go to the cafeteria before classes) before Marius, and hummed some song in the back of her mind for a moment, before cutting off abruptly. She couldn't help it; she was nervous.
Of course, they all were. Yesterday evening they'd gone from a group of students to vigilante mob hunters. Cosette still couldn't believe everything she'd heard about Éponine and Grantaire's past, and the terrible things that had happened to them Just in case, she'd taken as many extra precautions as she could to keep everyone safe. She'd carefully placed dimes in the corners of all the doorframes and window frames of the apartment, and wore gingko leaves (she had pressed some of the fallen leaves last autumn before and after they turned yellow) in her hair.
When she'd explained how dimes were underestimated because they were the tiniest coin, and underappreciated for trying to bring the order to an entropic currency system, Éponine had just laughed and nodded along. Cosette would've been ruffled about it, but the olive skinned girl let her leave the dimes, and promised not to move them.
This morning she'd woken up for Thursday classes as usual, and dressed in browns and pinks, before pulling out the green gingko leaves and weaving them into her low bun. The air was still cold for mid-March, and there was still snow on the ground but she put on flip-flops anyway, to defy nature. After all, disobeying the weather almost always made her feel powerful when she was anything but.
After waiting for almost a minute and still not seeing Marius, even the flip flops couldn't comfort her, and she ran into the building a few feet away. It was the campus convenience store, and she didn't need to buy anything from there, but it felt good to be indoors.
When Cosette had gone on research duty, she'd tried to find pictures of Claquesous to give everyone a reference, but there was nothing. It hadn't seemed possible; even Montparnasse had an electronic trail, and a face to put to the name with a careful internet search. His second in command however, didn't seem to have a face or a name. He was invisible, and that was terrifying.
She walked slowly through the tiny aisles, avoiding the shelves full of ramen, and moving closer to the candy shelves. Perhaps she would buy some Mentos for later; because they always looked like bird food for people when she was a child, and that had appealed to her.
"So you're the off-campus freshman?" A smooth voice spoke behind her, carrying a little bit of a lisp, and Cosette jumped, and spun around.
There was no one there.
"Over hear, my dear," the voice said again.
Cosette spun around, this time to her side, to see a tall man in the next aisle smiling down at her. He looked to be in his early forties, and had a face that made his teeth look way too large. More importantly though he wasn't wearing a campus staff shirt; he didn't work here. Her eyes widened, and it took all of her energy not to back away.
"You startled me," she said nervously, placing a hand over her chest and pretending that she was no longer terrified.
"My apologies, dear," he said, walking around the line of shelves in between them, and joining her in the junk food aisle. "I'm a ventriloquist you see, and if I don't keep my skills up then I fear I'll lose it."
"Yes of course," Cosette said faintly and turned to focus intently on the shelves of candy, praying that Marius would come soon and would think to look for her in the store. "That would be terribly rude to your vocal chords to forget them like that."
"Finally, one who understands," the man said grandly, and picked up a snickers. "Truly this is cause for celebration. You can call me Cabuc. What, pray tell, is your name?"
In that moment, Cosette felt trapped and nauseous. Marius had a habit of saying pray tell far too often, and it always made her giggle. Hearing it from that purposefully extravagant voice brought goosebumps to her skin, and made her want to cry for Marius to get here soon. Because regardless of the name he gave her, Cosette was sure that this man was Claquesous.
She debated frantically which name to offer; she never used her given name, and if he asked around and no one recognized the name, he might think she lied to him. And yet, her nickname was something she possessed, not something she was burdened with. To give Claquesous her preferred name, he would possess a small part of her. But if she were to lie and he were to find out, he would know that she knew to be afraid of him.
"Cosette," she said finally, plastering a fake smile on her face. He had her nickname in his ears now, and she had to fight back tears.
He took another two steps closer to her, and it took all her willpower not to back away. Bahorel was both taller and broader than this man, but the ginger had never felt like a threat the same way Claquesous did. Granted, Bahorel always had a strange awareness of himself, causing him to show unusually reassuring restraint. Claquesous seemed to have that same awareness of himself, and used it to make her as uncomfortable as possible without overstepping socially accepted customs. All she could see were those gleaming, too large teeth and somewhat terrifying gums opening wide and devouring her.
"Cosette," he repeated, and her name sounded like wax smudges on wooden tables to her ears. "How would you like to make a little extra pocket money without having to work so many hours a week?"
Her eyes widened and she wondered for a moment if it was possible to swallow her own tongue. He had recognized her specifically as the freshman who lived off-campus, and was asking if she wanted to sell drugs to the other students.
She was the contact.
"Work is not man's punishment," she said impulsively, trying to avoid the mobster's gaze without making her discomfort apparent. "It is his reward and his strength and his pleasure."
Normally when she fell back on her typical whimsy people wrote her off as strange, and left her alone. Even being a blonde helped, because she could play dumb far too well.
Instead of the negative response she was expecting, he just chuckled and asked, "Who said that?"
"George Sand," she replied.
"Yeah, well he needed to put his feet up and relax on occasion. You're a college kid. You should be allowed to have a little fun, break a few rules, and make a few bucks while you're at it."
Cosette didn't correct him and explain that George Sand was a female writer of the nineteenth century. She wanted to take off her clearly faulty flip flops, put on her fuzzy killer rabbit slippers, and curl up in Marius' arms and hide away. Claquesous wasn't expressly explaining that he was asking her to sell drugs, so he knew that she already knew. Of course, he probably thought she'd heard it from other freshmen so the toothy, gummy smile stayed on his face.
"Why me?" she asked softly, not bothering to play dumb anymore.
"You're a high class beauty with all of college ahead of you," he said as if it were obvious. "Long blond hair, big brown doe eyes, and living off campus in that big house of yours with Daddy. No one would ever suspect. You'd be perfect, dear."
On his last sentence he reached up and stroked her jaw, ignoring her when she tried to jerk away. It took all her effort not to burst into tears at this point. All she could think was that he knew where she lived, and he was trying to make her the mob's contact.
When she was a child and things scared her, Cosette used to bottle them up in an old jam jar and place it on the sunniest window sill she could find. The lingering scent of strawberries, fireflies, and summer would bleach away the fear and negativity. But it was winter and there was no way to bottle up a viable threat.
Claquesous grinned again, and maybe he knew that he'd already won. Because now he had just threatened her Papa, and there wasn't much in the world that she wouldn't do for him. She reached behind her head, but couldn't feel the gingko leaves that were supposed to be nestled safely in her hair. Maybe they had been too afraid of Claquesous to stay and protect her.
"Hey Cosette, there you are!"
She nearly sobbed in relief and sudden terror when Marius bounded up to them, looking even more like an excitable beagle than usual, with a white knit hat on his head complete with ear flaps and everything. Cosette needed him to be holding her, smelling like firewood and soap. But she was a target now, and that put him at risk.
Her mouth opened, hoping that by the time her vocal chords remembered how to speak she'll have come up with some brilliant way to save the situation, but instead she remained mute. Her boyfriend looked Claquesous up and down, eyes narrowing when he took in the age and thankfully made the connection. Without a word, Marius inserted himself in between her and the mobster, wrapping his arms around her shoulders defensively.
"Just think about it dear," Claquesous said with an extravagant little twirl of the fingers, making it look like he'd just saluted and bowed. Then, with another toothy, gummy smile, he turned and left the store.
Before Marius could turn to face her and ask if she was okay, she had already burst into tears.
/. /
Marius wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and let her sob into his shoulder, unsure what to say or do to help her. Was he supposed to tell her that everything would be okay? The words felt bitter on his tongue so they never escaped. After all, if he were to tell her that it would be okay, she could ask him how. And for that, he had no answer.
Because it wouldn't be okay, would it? Yesterday he'd found out that one of his best friends had been repeatedly raped throughout her entire life, because her father gave her out to his customers.
Was there some sort of procedure for how to handle this? The rest of the Amis all seemed to have a response ready; Enjolras mobilized the group and sent them into battle, Feuilly grabbed Bahorel and Joly and somehow planned to comb through the entire town to find any possible contacts, Jehan took off to go talk to the freshmen with his roommate. And all Marius could do was wonder how many times Éponine had to get tested for STDs before she'd even gotten her first period.
Marius knew that he wasn't quite as perceptive as most of his other friends. At times he was a tad oblivious, and had a tendency to not hear what he was saying. With the Amis, it was hard not to know your flaws because they had fun pointing them out. But it was never too noticeable to upset him. If Marius got a few groans of "Oh Pontmercy" thrown at him from time to time then he didn't mind all that much.
But this was different. Now, Éponine's life was resting in their hands, and already, things in the group were starting to splinter under the pressure. Last night Bahorel had returned from his assigned duty to tell them that Enjolras had "something he needed to look into" and "would be right back." And obviously, Grantaire had freaked. It had been terrifying, and when Éponine asked him under her breath to bring him a bottle of pills from their bathroom he'd been even more lost. They turned out to be only sleeping pills, but even so the experience left him shaken. He'd immediately texted Cosette and asked to see her.
Obviously, he hadn't been expecting this.
Marius had spent the majority of yesterday, and all of today reminding himself that he couldn't afford to fuck anything up this time. And yet, as they started walking away from the convenience store, Cosette yanked on his arm and stopped him in the middle of the sidewalk.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" she demanded angrily, and he was sure that somehow, he'd missed something again.
"Back to 'Ponine's," he said slowly, raising his voice on the last syllable to make it a hesitant question.
That seemed to be the wrong answer, because Cosette stared at him like he was growing a small vegetable garden in his hair. Actually no, strike that. Cosette probably would've been charmed and delighted if he had a vegetable garden in his hair. She looked at him as if he'd just sacrificed a puppy in the name of Satan.
"Is that wrong?" he asked finally when she just continued to stare at him, waiting for him to come to some obvious conclusion on his own.
"I can't be seen anywhere near 'Ponine and R's apartment," she said miserably as she tugged him in the opposite direction, pulling him towards her house. "Don't you get it Marius? That was Claquesous!"
"I got that part," he said with a nod, frustrated for not making the connection that everyone else in the group surely would've made by now.
"He was trying to get me to sell for him," she explained miserably. "He knows where I live. He could go after Papa. He could easily follow me to 'Ponine's."
Marius swallowed, and wondered if this was how it felt to fall victim to Midas' touch. His stomach felt like lead as it hit him that this had suddenly gotten so much more dangerous. Now Cosette, his Cosette was in danger as well, and unlike Éponine, she had to be holed away in her own house without an entire Hibernation of protection
He walked her home in silence, holding her hand to try and bring her some level of comfort. But when it came to Cosette, she didn't take comfort from people so much as she took comfort from familiarity. According to her, people were transient, and any physical comfort was fleeting at best and unrecognizable at worst. But the creations of man outlast them, and hold with them the essence of the creator and the owner; they were imbibed with meaning and purpose.
Marius hadn't understood it at first, and they had gotten into a huge fight about it in the earliest weeks of their relationship. He didn't have the money that she did, and he yelled at her for taking his pens and other tiny things when she came over. She'd tried to explain that he could just take everything back from her, but he had been too pig-headed to listen and screamed at her about how he had to pay for those things, and she couldn't understand because she was rich.
Later at dinner when he'd told Courfeyrac and Combeferre about it, his roommate had sighed, smacked him upside the head, and then explained.
"She told you how her Mother died, right?"
"Yeah," he'd replied huffily, not sure where he was going. "She fell on hard times and had to sell herself to make money, and wound up with a bad STD."
"No, how she physically died," Courfeyrac said exasperatedly, shaking his head like Marius was an idiot. "She died crying and screaming for her. Cosette, my baby, come back to me! Cosette, where did you go! Stuff like that. Cosette was in the room, holding her hand and her Mom didn't even see her."
Marius hadn't known that, and at the time, he'd felt sick and stupid for not understanding how it all connected. Even Combeferre had sighed at that point, making the jump from that piece of information to Cosette's kleptomania quirk. After staring at Courfeyrac blankly for several moments and realizing that he wasn't going to get any more help from him, he turned to Combeferre, who'd indulged him.
"George Berkeley had a theory that we can't know if anything truly exists outside of our perception," he said slowly, but not condescendingly. "For example, if everyone in the world stopped looking at this plate, would the plate cease existing? Maybe to her, it's the exact opposite. Outside of our perception, people change, and age, and even disappear. So things would hold more of a physical presence than people to her."
Marius had turned to Courfeyrac for confirmation, and he'd nodded slowly. Although Courfeyrac's indulgent nods were definitely condescending.
"By taking your goddamn pen, you continue to exist beyond when she can see you. Why do you think Jehan always makes her those little origami things out of my post-it notes when he stays over?"
He'd immediately gone and apologized to her, agreeing that she could take all of his pens if he could take hers when he needed them. Somehow, that must've been the best thing he could've said, because she'd pulled him into her room for the first time. Marius didn't think there was a happier man alive than he had been that night.
Of course, there were still issues with the topic; he disliked how she stole the 25¢ gum at the campus convenience store counter and justified it by leaving 50¢ in the tip jar, and how she'd taken two cloth napkins from restaurants when they went out on dates. And there were dozens of tiny little Cosette-isms that he still had yet to figure out or have explained to him, but he had plenty of time to figure it out. He kept his discomfort to a minimum, and she tried to cut back on the petty theft.
They were nearly at her house when he realized that Cosette hadn't stolen any 25¢ gum from the convenience store. Marius had resigned himself long ago to the fact that nothing he could do or say would keep her from stealing that gum. Claquesous had understandably left her shaken and distracted enough to forget a basic habit that brought her comfort.
Hugging and kissing her wouldn't comfort her. As for words… if there were any correct words, Marius certainly wasn't likely to figure out what they were. They reached her front door, and after a couple of seconds, he decided what to do. He looked down at his hands and pulled off his black gloves before handing them to her. They cost all of three dollars at Wal-Mart, but looking at Cosette's watery smile, he thought he might've just given her something precious.
"Thank you," she said sincerely, and she pulled them on immediately, using them to cover her face as she tried not to burst into tears again.
"It'll be okay," Marius promised her impulsively as he wrapped his hands in her newly gloved ones.
She didn't ask him how or why, just smiled again and walked inside, closing her front door behind her.
It was a stupid promise to make, but he always kept his promises. Now he just needed to find a way to make it true. They were dealing with mobsters and gangs, and Enjolras was nowhere to be found. The Amis were in way over their heads this time, and Marius couldn't even comprehend what was happening or what to do. Except there was one very obvious thing that they could be doing, he realized. The one thing that they probably should do.
His mind made up, he raced down the street, trying not to focus on the stinging cold in his hands. He jumped over icy patches on the sidewalks, and didn't slow (no matter how much of a fool he ended up looking like) until he had found his way downtown, and located the tall stone building he was looking for.
He burst in and all but leapt up to the front desk where the secretary was staring at him, face probably red from the cold and the exertion, panting like an idiot. But to her credit, she didn't say anything, and let him catch his breath and speak on his own.
"I need to talk with the chief of police," he said without any pretense.
"She's not in today," the secretary said. "Would you like to see the Detective standing in?"
He nodded, despite the sinking sensation in his chest. The tiny woman lead him through the police station, then pulled up to an office closed off from the others. Inside was a broad, stern-looking man writing up paperwork at the desk. For a few moments after being let in, Marius just stood at the door, taking the man in front of him in. Then finally, he snapped out of trance and ran up to approach him.
"I need to talk to the Chief of Police."
"I'm sure Ms. Jenkins told you already that the Captain is out on maternity leave," the Detective said, not looking up from the papers he was writing. "Whatever your issue, you can speak to me."
"It's urgent," Marius tried again, not wanting to talk to anyone less than the highest ranking official in the town.
"Then speak quickly," the man in front of him said, enunciating his words sharply and precisely.
Marius sighed and acquiesced, realizing that this was the best he was going to do. Even though he was just speaking to a detective, he still felt reassured. The man in front of him certainly had a presence that inspired fear and respect, and he hadn't even looked up to meet his gaze yet.
"There's a man from the French mob in town trying to sell drugs to students," he blurted out, unsure of a better way to put it.
At that, the detective in front of him looked up from the paperwork to meet his gaze.
"I am a very busy man. If I find out that this is some college joke…"
"It's not a joke!" Marius cut him off, voice raising a decibel or two at the accusation. "His name is Claquesous, but he's going by Cabuc on campus, and he's part of the Patron-Minette and trying to set up a place to sell in town as a stop-over on some drug route."
At this, the man gestured for him to take a seat at the desk in front of him. And after a moment, Marius did as he was told.
"Tell me everything you know."
And Marius did. After a moment's consideration, he decided to leave Éponine and her connection to the Patron-Minette out of the story. The point of the hibernation was to keep her safe from the eyes of the police and the mob, so her story wasn't important. Instead he talked about Claquesous going into the freshman dorms and pedaling mescaline, cocaine, heroin, and something called molly. The detective recognized the name of the drug, even if Marius himself didn't. Then he finished with Claquesous going up to Cosette and approaching her about selling for him.
By the time he was finished, the man in front of him had his hands clasped into a fist and his elbows resting on the desk in front of him, listening attentively to his story. The detective's eyes narrowed at what he heard, and finally he sat up and nodded.
"If what you're saying is true, then you are right in guessing that this Claquesous doesn't have a contact in town yet. Unfortunately, it's also unlikely that he brought with him a substantial enough quantity of drugs to arrest him for drug trafficking."
"What do you mean?" Marius demanded, flabbergasted that after everything he's revealed, the police's hands were still tied. "You have my word. I'll testify!"
He remembered Éponine saying that the Patron-Minette had law enforcement on their payroll, and for a moment, he was afraid that he'd just tipped his hand to a mob informant.
"One boy's word against a man from word of mouth gossip isn't probable cause," the man in front of him said harshly, shutting Marius up. "At the moment, the most I'll likely be able to catch him on would be a possession charge, but then he could escape with little more than a fine."
Marius sighed, both in relief and disappointment. On the one hand, this man was on his side and wanted to help. On the other hand, a possession charge wasn't nearly enough. They needed to lock Claquesous away for a long time, enough to send a message to the Patron-Minette that their town was off limits.
"That's not even a slap on the wrist for these guys," he whined, trying to say anything to get the detective to do more, even though he knew that wasn't how it worked. The detective also picked up on his childish behavior and leveled him with a displeased stare.
"I'm aware of that, boy. I'll investigate and see if there's anything more. But unless we find more tangible proof of your claims, there's not much else I can do."
The clipped words held finality to them, and Marius gave up trying to push the older man farther. He would try to help them, but it didn't look like they would be getting much help at all. He couldn't help but feel like he was right back where he'd started: in over his head and worried sick.
When Enjolras returned (assuming their leader hadn't done something stupid and gotten himself captured) he would have a plan of attack or more information to work with.
"If I find more evidence, what should I do?" he asked the man in front of him, determined not to lose this ally.
The detective stared at him for several seconds, seeming to appraise him. Marius tried not to squirm under the judgment, and locked his knees straight, holding his gaze. Finally, the older man must've found what he'd been looking for, because he gave him a slight nod.
"If you find anything, bring it straight here," he said finally. "Ask for Inspector Javert."