Lauren woke up the next day next to Carlisle. Thankfully, there was plenty of space between them. Nonetheless Lauren could smell the alcohol on his breath was disgusted by it. She just couldn't understand why everyone, no matter the time period, had such a fascination with alcohol. It wrecked your liver and motor skills, not to mention potentially your social life. Perhaps she could teach Eponine that drinking was a bad idea, if she hadn't come to that conclusion herself, that is.

She rolled out of bed and hastily found something to wear that covered more than just a mere nightgown. White was a particularly see through color, and she didn't want Carlisle ogling at her lady bits, no matter that it wasn't her own body and that he'd already seen enough to get her pregnant twice. She went with a brown dress that came with a corset that covered everything, revealing nothing at all.

As she dressed, there was a knock at the door. She rushed to finish and made her way downstairs to the door. When she opened the door, she saw a man with Cosette at his side. Before she could say anything, he spoke, "I found her outside lugging a bucket that must've been half her weight." Again, before she could speak, he went on, "And I am here to help Cosette, I will settle any debt you may think proper. I will pay what I must pay to take Cosette away."

How Carlisle got there so quick, Lauren didn't know. She jumped as he spoke behind her, walking to join her at the door. "What to do? What to say? Shall you carry our treasure away? What a gem, what a pearl. Beyond rubies is our little girl. How can we talk of debt? Let us not haggle for darling Collette."

"Cosette!" Lauren corrected him, blown away by how he'd got her name wrong.

"Cosette," he corrected himself.

"There is a duty I must heed," the other man spoke. "There is a vow that I have made. For I was blind to one in need. And your mother is with God," he said to Cosette. "Her suffering is over. And I speak here with her voice, and I stand here in her place. Cosette shall have a father now."

"Dear Fantine, gone to rest, have we done for her child what is best? I think so. Shared our bread, shared each bone, treated her like she's one of our own, like our own monsieur."

"Let us not talk of bargains and bones and greed, now may I say we are agreed?" The man held up a handful of bills.

Carlisle's eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas. Surely if the man had that much on his person he had more. "That would quite fit the bill, if she hadn't so often been ill. Little dear cost us dear, medicines are expensive, monsieur. Not that we'd begrudge a sous, it's no more than we Christians must do."

"No more words, here's your price. 1500 for your sacrifice."

"Uh, no." Lauren grabbed hold of Cosette and pulled her back inside. "I don't care who you are or if her mother's dead or not. You can't buy a child. She left her to our keeping. Forgive me for saying, but I don't think your intentions are quite correct, sir." She paused before closing the door. "And I bet that money is counterfeit anyway." She closed the door and locked it.

"What the hell was that, Ivonne? You just turned down a lot of money and the chance to rid ourselves of this child!"

"It's called using common sense. That man could have been a rapist, a murder, or worse."

Cosette was confused. Just yesterday the woman was saying that they shouldn't have taken her in, that they were stupid for doing so, and that she and her mother were nothing but the scum of the street. Now a man had offered to pay to take her away, and she flat out denied the offer. She could tell Carlisle had been faking his affection, but somehow Ivonne's concern hadn't seemed false.

Eponine came down the stairs. "Who was at the door?"

"None of your business!" Carlisle snapped as Lauren calmly replied,

"No one of your concern, honey." She glared daggers at Carlisle for snapping at his daughter only for the fact that she was curious. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Cosette run up the stairs past Eponine and watched as Eponine ran up after her. She sighed. The longer she was there, the more and more dysfunctional the year 1839 got.

"Who was at the door, Cosette?" Eponine asked softly.

"I don't know. Some man who was gonna pay to take me away, but she stopped him."

"Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?"

Cosette shook her head. "A part of me wanted to go with him. I'm tired of cleaning and being yelled at. I'm tired of being hungry when they forget to feed me or when you can't sneak anything to me. I'm tired of him. I'm tired of him hitting me. I'm tired of him hitting you. I just wish things were the way they used to be. Back when they both cared about me, when they loved me as much as they loved you. I'm tired of us having to be friends in secret."

Eponine wrapped her arms around her in a hug. "It'll get better, Cosette. It'll get better someday, I promise."

"I hope you're right." She rested her head on the other girl's shoulder. "I really do."

"It won't be long before we can move away. Court a few boys, find one to marry. And we'll make sure they're nothing like Father, they'll be sweet and kind, they'll treat us like princesses, and they'll love us more than anything, more than life itself."

"You think so?"

"Yes, I think so."