Eponine looked up into Marius's eyes, glad to finally have his arms around her. "Hush-a-bye, dear Eponine," she heard him say, tears streaming down his face. "You won't feel any pain. A little fall of rain can hardly hurt you, now. I'm here. I'll stay with you til you are sleeping."

"And rain," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"And rain," he repeated.

"Will make the flowers..."

"Will make the flowers...grow," she barely heard him finish as she slipped into blissful unconsciousness.

***EPPIE IN THE MIDDLE***

Axl Heck was on his way home from school in the pouring rain when he saw someone lying on the side of the road. Curious and a little worried he pulled over and got out to help her. As he knelt beside her, he tried to remember what he had learned while training to become a lifeguard. "O-okay, gotta find a pulse..." He gingerly picked up her wrist and felt for even the smallest hint of a pulse. Not being able to feel one, he carefully leaned his head over her chest and listened for a heartbeat. He breathed a sigh of relief when he heard a faint but regular rhythm, and went back to kneeling beside her. He noticed that she was dressed very raggedly, like some kind of peasant from the 1800's. "Hey...Hey, can you hear me...? Hello?" Finally, after a few moments of trying to wake her, he decided to put her in his car and drive her to a hospital, since he didn't have his phone. Gently, he lifted the mystery girl into his arms and stood.

The sudden movement caused her eyes to flutter open. "M-Marius...?" she asked, looking up at him innocently.

"O-oh...You're awake. Sorry, my name's Axl. What happened?"

"I-I..." He could tell the girl was struggling to keep her eyes open.

"You know what, never mind. Just get some rest. I'm gonna get you to a hospital."

"N-no..."

"You need help..!"

"No, I-I am fine, m'sieur Axl. I don't feel any pain." She smiled up at him.

"You sure? I thought you got hit by a car, or something."

"No, I just fell, but I'll be alright."

"At least let me take you home. You'll get soaked if I leave you here."

"A little fall of rain can hardly hurt me, now," she said with a chuckle, already regaining her strength. He found it almost impossible to smile at this, but he still carried her to his car. "Merci," she said as he slid her into the passenger seat and closed the door, then went around to the drivers side and started the car. The sound of the engine seemed to startle the girl a bit.

"So, where's your house?"

"I...don't have a home."

"Oh...then what's your name?"

"Eponine Thenardier," she replied.

"You're from France?"

"Oui, Paris, to be exact. Where am I, now?"

Axl turned to look at her, startled. "You're in Orson, Indiana, in the United States...!"

"Oh, wow! How exciting! I've been transported to a brand new state!"

"Uh, no...Indiana's been around for a couple hundred years..."

"Then...I am in the future?"

"That depends. What year was it the last time you checked?!"

"1832."

"WHAT?!"

"Please, m'sieur, don't shout..."

"Sorry, but how am I supposed to believe that I'm driving around some French girl from the 1800's?!"

"And how am I supposed to believe I'm still alive, and in the future?!"

"Okay, good point...wait, still alive?! Y-you're supposed to be dead?!"

"Last time I checked, I was dying in the arms of the man I loved. That's why I called you Marius when I woke up! You're nothing like him, by the way!" she snapped, scowling at him. "Axl just glared at the road and kept driving. "What is this...thing, anyway? It's faster than any carriage I've seen."

"It's called a car, and it goes faster because it's motorized." They stayed silent for a while, before Axl finally grinned, getting a brilliant idea. "Hey, you wanna see how fast it can really go?" Eponine nodded, and he turned onto a long country road. "Ready?" He smirked and gunned the engine, cruising down the dirt road at 140 MPH. Eponine jumped and squealed with delight, making him laugh out loud. They cruised like that for a few minutes before he was forced to slow down and stop at an intersection.

"THAT WAS AMAZING!" she squealed, reaching over to hug him. He blushed at this, and awkwardly hugged her back.

"O-okay...since you said you don't have a place to stay...why don't I take you to my house? I'll talk to my parents, and ask if you can stay with us." Eponine pulled away and looked into his blue eyes.

"You would do that for me...? W-we just met..."

"So? That doesn't mean I'm just gonna leave you out on the street. H-hey, don't cry...!" he said, growing worried as he watched her warm brown eyes fill with tears. "D-did I say something wrong?"

"No...I've just never had someone care so much for little ol' me..."

"Whoa, what about that Marius guy? I thought you said he was your love, or something."

"He couldn't have cared less how I felt about him. Even as I lay dying in his arms, the first thing he asked me was if I had delivered his letter to the girl he actually loved!"

"Wow...what a world-class jerk! He must've been an idiot not to love you..." At this moment, Axl found it extremely hard not to kiss the girl beside him. He only refrained because he realized that they had been sitting at the intersection for fifteen minutes. "Sorry...we should get going," he said, letting off the brakes and resuming their journey home. They never noticed the tall, black-haired young man that appeared on the side of the road, glaring at them with dark green eyes. They couldn't see that he had flagged down a car and was now following them.

When they finally arrived, Axl politely opened the door for Eponine and led her into his parents' house. "Mom? Dad? There's someone I'd like you to meet."

"Who?" Frankie Heck asked, making her way to the front door to meet her son and his guest, followed closely by her husband, Mike. They both were shocked when they saw the brown-eyed, dark-haired peasant girl standing just behind him.

"Mom, Dad, this is Eponine Thenardier. I found her on the side of the road, today. She's...lost, and she needs a place to stay." The girl just looked at them shyly.

"Okay, first of all, you realize that everything you just said rhymed, right?" Frankie asked. "Second of all, how do you know you can trust this girl?!"

"Yeah, use your head, Axl," Mike chimed in. "She could be feedin' ya a pack of lies so she can rob us while we're sleeping!"

"She's not that kind of girl!"

"How do you know that?! You said you picked her up off the street!"

"M'sieur...I'm not my mother, or my father. They tried to teach me to rob and steal, but I wouldn't listen to them. That's why I look like this, and part of why your son found me on the side of the road. I thank God that he did, for if he'd kept going, I would have died." The three of them stared at Eponine, partly in disbelief, partly in awe. No one had expected her to defend Axl, nor did his parents realize that their son had actually helped her out of the goodness of his heart. "Axl is remarkable and kind, and I really wish there were more boys on this earth like him."

"O-oh..." Frankie stammered out. "Well, in that case, come in. You can stay as long as you need to. I'm sure Sue wouldn't mind sharing her room with you, and you could probably even borrow some of her clothes, or mine, if you need to. Hang on, I'll go get her. SUE! C'mere!" A moment later, an awkward-looking girl with long, honey-colored hair and braces scurried into the room.

"What's up, Mom?"

"This is Eponine. She's gonna be staying with us for awhile, so I need you to set up a sleeping bag in your room."

"Oh, Mom! You can't make our guest sleep on the floor!" The girl then turned to Eponine and offered a handshake. "I'm Sue. You can have my bed for as long as you need it," she said happily. Eponine smiled and shook her hand.

"Merci, Sue. You are all so kind."

Just then, Brick Heck walked through the front door, followed closely by a young boy who looked a lot like Eponine, and was dressed in much the same style. "Sorry, Mom. I couldn't get him to stop following me, and he doesn't understand English."

"Bonjour~" the other boy said cheerily.

"Gavroche! Que faites-vous ici?!"

"Je vous suivais, 'Ponine. Ensuite, j'ai suivi ce garçon. Il est très étrange. Je ne comprends pas un mot, dit-il!"

"Gav, ne soyez pas impoli...!"

"Désolé. Où sommes-nous, de toute façon? Ce n'est pas Paris!"

"Orson, Indiana."

"Oh."

Eponine finally turned back to the Hecks and explained. "This is my little brother, Gavroche. He does not speak English very well, but I've been trying to teach him. Would it be alright if he stayed with you, too...?" When they nodded yes, she explained it to Gavroche in French. Smiling at his response, she translated. "He's very grateful to you all!"

"Great, we'll get you both set up, now. Gavroche will have to share a room with Brick and Axl," Frankie started, but Axl interrupted her.

"I can make up my room in the garage again so Gav and Brick can have more space."

"Wow, Axl, I'm really proud of you! You're being so selfless, for a change!"

"Yeah, yeah..." Axl looked down shyly, making Eponine giggle. This, in turn, caused him to blush bright red. "Right, so, uh...I'm gonna go get started on that. Yeah. Seeya!" he said, taking off toward the garage. Sue took Eponine's hand and excitedly led her to their room. Brick did the same with Gavroche. Frankie looked up at her husband and smiled.

"I guess they haven't turned out so bad, huh?"

***EPPIE IN THE MIDDLE!***

Eight months after she and Gavroche had moved in with the Hecks, Eponine was hanging out with Axl and Sue when the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," she said with barely a trace of her French accent, and went to the door. When she opened it, she found an almost too perfect-looking girl waiting to be let in. "Hello. Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm Morgan. Is Axl here?"

"That depends," Eponine said with a bit of a scowl. "Are you here to rip his heart to shreds, again?"

"So that's what his mom told you about me?"

"No, that's what he told me about you. I highly doubt he wants to see you again."

"Oh, I get it. Are you his new girlfriend, or something?" Morgan asked snidely.

"If I said yes, would you leave him alone?" Eponine retorted, not expecting Axl to back her up.

"Yeah, Morgan. I've been over you for two whole years, and Eponine actually cares about me, so just get lost," he said, walking up behind the dark-haired beauty and putting an arm around her shoulders. Eponine blushed, but kept glaring at the other girl, who sneered, turned on her heel, and left. Axl happily closed the door behind her. "Hey, for the first time since I met her, she didn't even try to hide her evil side," he said with a slight smirk.

"Maybe she thinks she can scare me off," Eponine giggled.

"Well then, she's got her work cut out for her, huh, 'Ponine?" His smirk turned into a full-fledged grin, and she couldn't help but laugh. They hugged and went to sit back down with Sue.

"I wonder what she wanted, though," the younger girl piped up.

***EPPIE IN THE MIDDLE!***

As Morgan stalked down the Hecks' driveway, back to her car, she was startled to find a tall, pale young man with shoulder-length black hair and hauntingly green eyes leaning against it, his lips curled into an amused smirk. "Ooh, that was a bit harsh," he said with the charming English accent that he had adopted in order to hide his origins. Morgan just stared at him in shock. "Oh, don't give me that look. I'm not a bloody demon, though I have been called one..."

"What are you doing by my car?"

"Watching you, of course. Well, really, I was watching the girl inside that house. Her name is Eponine, and you don't have to worry about her stealing your beau. They aren't together. Actually, she's mine; she's just forgotten, I'm afraid. I'm going to get her back on the right track, though. Say, if you help me, I might even convince him to come back to you, as well. What say you?" As Morgan took time to process this, she felt the strange man move closer to her. "Well? What's the verdict?"

"I-I...I don't know...Who are you, anyway?" She couldn't place it, but something didn't seem right about him. It made him look very dangerous and alluring at the same time.

"My name is Monty, and I'm not very a patient man," he said with just a hint of a growl. This brought Morgan out of her fog, and she glared at him.

"Why go after her if she doesn't love you? Why not move on with someone new?"

"My, my, you are just full of questions, aren't you, my dear?" He smirked at her last question. "Why? Are you volunteering?"

"Pffft, no..! I just want to know your motives before I say yes, and get myself into a whole lot of trouble."

"Oh, dear. Do I look like trouble to you?"

"Yeah, you do."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'll leave you to your sulking, then." With that, he turned on his heel and started to walk away, trying with all his might not to lose his cool and go off on her.

"You didn't let me finish. You look like the kind of trouble that's really hot, so I guess I can help you, on one condition."

"Oh?" He stopped and turned back to look at her, mildly surprised. "And what is that?"

"If it doesn't work...if either of us doesn't get our love back, we have to help each other move on. No more dwelling on the past, got it?"

"You have my word," Monty said, almost without thinking. Morgan couldn't help herself, and let out a small giggle. "What's so funny?"

"Sorry, you just sounded so old-fashioned when you said that...!" she giggled again.

"I didn't know being a gentleman was considered old-fashioned," he replied with a laugh of his own. It was hard not to abandon Eponine for this strange, modern girl. She was, after all, very beautiful, and her voice sounded like music to his ears. She didn't despise him, either. The only problem was that they were both strung up on their past loves. If only he could let Eponine go. "As I was saying, you have yourself a deal, miss..." he trailed off, not knowing her name.

"Morgan," she provided.

"Ah, Morgan. What a lovely name." He smiled at her, and turned to leave again. "I'll see you soon, then."

"Actually, I could give you a ride home, if you want."

"Really? Thank you."

Holy cow, this one was freakin' long...but that's because there were three Les Mis characters instead of one, I guess. Yes, I had to add 'Parnasse! :3 R&R, please?

Eponine's convo with Gavroche translated:

"Gavroche! What are you doing here?!"

"I followed you, 'Ponine. Then I followed the boy. He is very strange. I can't understand a word he says!"

"Gav, don't be rude!"

"Sorry. Where are we, anyway? This isn't Paris!"