Madame was surprised, "So you've met Fèlix." She said with a knowing smile,Angelique blushed inclining her head discreetly.
"Yes, we've been introduced." Fèlix smiled at Angelique and extend his hand towards the ethereal beauty. "She is my honored guest this evening." Rather bashfully Angelique placed her hand in Fèlix's outstretched hand, Madame beamed like a proud parent and said with a wink,
"I'll leave you kids to it then." And without another word, she hurried off to tend to her customers. Angelique couldn't help but shoot a smile at the elder woman's retreating back, she was hardly a child, but Madame had always teased her good-naturedly. The mass of students and citizens were heading back up the stairs, Fèlix turned to Angelique and smiled. "Shall we head upstairs?" He said politely, it was then the magnitude of what she had come here to do crashed down onto Angelique.
"I must speak to you," she said urgency in her tone, out of the corner of her eye she saw an apparition of Joly and Prouvaire entering the café as they had years ago. She stiffened, they're not there. She reminded herself.
"What about?" Fèlix asked
"The revolution-"
"Ah, good we were just discussing tactics. Come upstairs I'll show you!" Fèlix raced up the stairs, dragging Angelique after him before she could protest.
Fèlix guided Angelique over to a table in the corner, Angelique could barely breathe; recognizing it as the table the L' ABC had worked over so long ago. There was no escaping her visions now, they were everywhere, mixed in among the new revolutionaries. Angelique worried her lip as she tried to keep it together, it was then she realized Fèlix was talking and she wasn't taking in a word of it.
"-If they won't listen to us then we'll rage war upon them, we'll free France and all her people! Just wait, we were thinking of building the barricades in front of the cafe-"
"No!" Like a gunshot the word exploded from Angelique's mouth, silencing the room.
"I'm sorry?" Fèlix looked genuinely confused, Angelique felt the beginnings of a panic attack grip her, struggling with her breath Angelique moved the papers and maps on the table out-of-the-way until she found what she was looking for. Crudely carved into the table top was G + A in a heart, Gavroche had carved it after Courfeyrac had taught him to write. She had been embarrassed at the time but things were different now. Tears burned her eyes, God, how things were different.
"Don't revolt," the students around her erupted in outrage. Angelique held up an authoritative hand, like she'd seen Enjolras do so many
times before, silencing them. "You may think that starting a revolution is the best thing right now. But there are ramifications of your actions! You obviously have no idea what horrible events can occur from this..." she said, looking down toward the ground where so many of her friends had sat, and talked about their own revolution. Remembering her friends, she took a deep breath. "Are you prepared to die? To live and watch your friends fall? Are you ready to be haunted by nightmares and apparitions of your friends dead and alive?" The students were silent for a long moment before one stepped forward, he was young, attractive, and had a fire in his eyes Angelique knew all too well.
"And what do you know of the aftermath of war?" He challenged, Angelique drew herself up to her full height, with her head held high Angelique locked eyes with the young man.
"Because I am a survivor of the June Rebellion."
Thanks to Slink190 for helping with the speech I couldn't have done it without her, please review!
