I know this chapter is quite different from the other three, this isn't dark like the others and honestly i think it sucks but i kinda just wanted to give Cosette a happy ending.
Ten years later
Through some combination of both a miraculous recovery and her fathers love and protection Cosette had managed to forget most of the terrible things that happened to her during her childhood. She still had the occasional nightmare about being hurt, about being touched in places she didn't want to be touched but she had been able to come to terms with these and think of them as just nightmares and nothing more.
She grew up happily with her father who taught her so many good things and kept her safe during the years whilst he watched her grow; when she was still a little girl and she would get scared during the night she would crawl into her papas bed and he would shelter her from her fears. As she got older these times happened more infrequently, in fact the last time she had spent the night in her fathers bed was when she was fourteen. Valjean had thought she was too old to still be doing this at that time, but then he also remembered everything she had been through so he didn't deny her comfort that night either. She was his child, and he loved her with all his heart and she loved him just as much in return.
Valjean became everything to Cosette, a father, mother, friend, playmate and comforter. "You'll never have to be afraid of anything Cosette" he had said to her numerous times during her childhood. She had heard those words so many times that she eventually was able to forget what it was she was originally afraid of.
Cosette had begun to think her father was the most wonderful man she'd ever known, she would have been perfectly content to stay with him for the rest of her life, but then she met Marius.
In the past few years she had started to become more sexually aware as her body developed and went through changes, she would notice men more and more when her father would take her for walks in the Luxembourg gardens, some of them she thought very handsome, some she thought very stern, and some just repulsed her.
When she met Marius she began to feel desire and want for another person's body and she was unsure if these feelings were appropriate or not. She never dared to bring it up to her father though, for one she was too embarrassed to talk to him about those kinds of things and two, she felt ashamed of feeling those kinds of things. She often felt ashamed of wanting Marius to touch her, to kiss her, to feel her and even more. She couldn't be sure why this was, but she thought that it must have been something from her past that was bad; perhaps that's why her father never talked to her about her past anymore.
She often wondered if it was her, if she had done something shameful in her past? But then sometimes when she was with Marius he made her feel like she was the most beautiful woman in the world and all the two of them could see and think about were each other.
Cosette and Marius had been married today, and they had just shared their wedding night together. It had been an odd experience for Cosette, a mixture of fear, nervousness, desire and lust.
The fear was mostly due to her girlish innocence, of course she had no idea what was expected of her on her wedding night, her father hadn't discussed it with her, he had wanted to but when he looked at her he could never see the grown up she had become, he only ever saw his little girl so he just couldn't bring himself to tell her about marital duty.
That night when Marius had laid down with her and begun to kiss her gently she whispered to him "I don't know what I'm supposed to do" as his lips caressed her neck gently.
"Just do whatever feels right to you" he whispered back to her.
So she did just that, although she really didn't know what felt right yet. She touched his body with a gentle eagerness, she caressed his strong shoulders and his chest with her delicate fingers and when his hands gently removed her nightgown from her body she helped him along with his trousers too.
When Cosette saw him fully naked for the first time she was somewhat bashful and looked away, but she was curious too and she made herself look at him. It was strange, but she quite liked seeing all of him and she longed to touch him.
Being with Marius that night had been wonderful, but it had also been quite painful as he took her virginity. Thankfully he had been gentle with her, Marius was nervous and virginal too and he moved slowly inside her, making her feel loved and wanted and cared for.
But it also made her feel something else as well, as Marius was touching her that night it made a memory stir inside her head. She remembered something from her childhood, it was a hazy memory now and she couldn't remember a face or where she was but she remembered a man touching her when she didn't want to be touched. The memory made her feel ashamed, that's what she knew for sure. But then Marius brought her back with his gentle touches and whispers and she let herself enjoy being with him. It didn't feel wrong making love to him that night, although it did make her somewhat uncomfortable to hear the noises he made as he shuddered and spent himself inside of her. It was just such a raw sound, almost animalistic, and she was unprepared for that amount of passion from him so soon.
The way he gently kissed her lips and face afterwards reminded her that it was still her Marius she was with though, and that made everything alright again. As long as it was Marius she was with she knew she would always be cared for.
The two of them stayed awake for a long time after they had made love that night, but it was awfully late now, or perhaps it was early depending on your point of view, Marius had fallen asleep next to Cosette with his limbs entwined with hers, he looked so peaceful and content but Cosettes mind was racing quite a bit from everything that had happened that night.
She slipped out of bed quietly and put on the nightgown that Marius had discarded from her earlier and walked over to the window of their bedroom, it had begun to snow and she looked outside for a long time whilst her mind was busy wondering about something.
The memories that had stirred inside her earlier were bothering her, someone had hurt her when she was a child, she was sure of it. Someone had made her feel ashamed and dirty, someone had touched her in a place they shouldn't have and it was why she had been so afraid as a child.
It wasn't her father, she knew that much, he would never have hurt her like that. But who was it? And why did they do it? She didn't know, and she would never know and that probably was the hardest part of the memory, not knowing and not being able to understand it.
As she thought hard that night on this memory it began to upset her more and she cried quietly as she kept looking out the window, everything was so muddled up inside her head and she kept trying to make sense of it, she was deep in thought and might have stayed that way all night if something hadn't finally distracted her.
"Cosette?" she heard Marius say quietly from behind her, he had woken up and he could see her standing by the window in the moonlight, he was curious as to why she wasn't in bed with him. "What's the matter?" he said quietly as he noticed her tears when she turned around.
"Oh…um…nothing" she said, startled by him slightly "I was just….well a lots happened tonight and I kept thinking about it all and it just overwhelmed me a little. I'm fine though Marius really". She smiled at him sweetly as she wiped away her tears which put him at ease again.
"Come back to bed" he said softly, patting the mattress next to him
Cosette did so, climbing back under the warm covers and putting her arm around Marius.
"Are you sure you're alright? I didn't hurt you too much did I?" He asked her as he kissed her softly on the forehead.
"No, not at all" she said quietly to him, stroking his face. "I'm just so happy to be with you Marius".
Marius smiled at her again, feeling reassured by her words. He kissed her softly on the lips for a while until they were both finally ready to fall asleep.
Cosette thought to herself before she drifted off that night about all the good things she had in her life, she had a father who loved her dearly and now a husband who loved her and wanted her in the same way she wanted him.
Being touched by Marius felt wonderful and she knew it wasn't wrong to feel that. So what did it matter if someone had hurt her in the past? That's all it was to Cosette now, it was part of the past and she decided she would rather look to the wonderful future she had in front of her and forget the hurt that had touched her in the past.
The End
