Summary: AU where Fantine lives and Valjean is exonerated of all charges after the Champmathieu affair. Fantine and Valjean are engaged and soon to be married.
"Papa, I'm tired," Cosette whined, getting up from the floor of the mayor's office. "I want to go play by myself now."
"Not yet, Cosette."
"But why not?"
"Because your mother hasn't gotten to play with you since you were a baby, and she wants to make up for lost time," he said kindly. "You'll understand when you're older."
"But I don't want to play with Maman. Her games are boring." She jumped back in surprise when the two adults began laughing. "It's not funny," she insisted. "You say you want me to have fun, but you're only picking gamed that you like."
At this, Valjean felt himself get genuinely angry. "Now listen here, young lady," he told her, grabbing her by the collar and staring her down. "Your mother has done a lot for your sake that she didn't want to do. Now it's your turn to do something for her, something incredibly minuscule in comparison to everything she's done. So if you want supper tonight, you'd better sit back down and do exactly as she says."
"Monsieur!" Fantine exclaimed. "How could you threaten your own child with going to bed hungry? You know how those awful Thénardiers starved her!"
"I'm sorry, Fantine," said Valjean, backing down in shame. "And Cosette, I'm sorry to you too. I would never dream of punishing you in such a way."
Cosette was silent. She looked down and started to sniffle.
"What do you say, dear?" Fantine asked gently.
"I forgive you," she muttered in Valjean's direction.
"Truly?" Fantine goaded her.
Cosette nodded.
"Are you excited to have Monsieur Madeleine as your father?"
"Yes, Madame."
Fantine leaned close to her fiancé and whispered to him. "She's thrilled."
An hour later
Fantine listened to her husband sing casually to himself, softly yet passionately, as he walked down the hall to his private study. He had a lovely, strong baritone voice, she thought. It was a pity he didn't share it with people more often. He was singing a soulful tune, the kind to which only longtime vagrants and prisoners could do justice. He knew how to sing as if no one in the world could hear him, and if they could, he didn't care.
"How on earth do you manage to be so good with children?" she asked him once he was at her side.
"I am a good mayor, aren't I?"
"Yes," she said, pressing her hand on his chest.
"So if I am good at managing the dozens of children masquerading as grown gentlemen who come to my office asking for this or that, shouldn't I be quite skilled at entertaining a little girl who is much more mature than they are?"
Fantine giggled. It was true; many of Montreuil's gentlemen lacked even the patience and common sense found in young children. In private, Madeleine always knew how to take them down a notch without being cruel.
"She has your eyes," he said, bending his head down towards her.
"And your soul. I gave her many things, but the best one was you."
"She'll never understand," Valjean whispered as Fantine kissed his cheek. "I can't make her understand all you've done for her without destroying her innocence."
"If you say the word 'martyr' one more time with reference to me, I swear I'll stop speaking to you," said Fantine, pulling back. "I am not a martyr; I only did what I had to in order to survive. And I'm alive, aren't I?"
"Yes, but you came very close to death," he reminded her gently, following her around the room. "And you were ready to accept it gracefully, for Cosette's sake."
"If I'm a martyr, then so are you," she said haughtily. "And you sacrificed yourself for a complete stranger, which I wouldn't have done in a million years. That makes you better than me."
"Cosette was a stranger to you until a few weeks ago," he reminded her.
"A child is never a stranger to her mother," Fantine contradicted him.
"And Champmathieu was no stranger to me. Because a brother is never a stranger to his brother."
She smiled up at him.
"What are you smiling at?" he asked her, cracking a smile himself.
"You."
"Me?"
"Yes," she said, making circles on his blouse with the palm of her hand. "You see, the day I found out I was pregnant with Cosette, I knew that her father would always have a special place in my heart."
"And?"
"And now..." She drew closer to him. "Now you are Cosette's father."
He kissed her cheek and looked out the window at the sunny sky. "We both have lots of lost time to make up for," he said thoughtfully.
She embraced him tighter, cushioning herself in his scarred body. "And plenty more time in which to do it."
