Fishing - Combeferre

"You're awfully quiet tonight." Combeferre said as Enjolras wasn't his usual rebel-rousing self that evening in the cafe. Enjolras took a deep breath and sighed.

"I guess I should be happy with what I got." he said after explaining what he had set out to do that time. "I just really wanted them to stick together." he remembered any time he went through something troubling, how lonely it was being the only child and wishing there was someone is age going through the same thing as he was so he would have some comfort. "But at least I have Nico and Minette together and that's twice as much as I had expected. I hadn't expected my father to say he would take one, let alone two." he had to look at the bright side. With Jean Prouvaire's parents both deceased, he wouldn't have had anyone to take Minette. She wasn't going to fare well for the first little while but they saw she would eventually become her shy, sweet self and it would be hard to not warm up to Mme Enjolras. Even M. Enjolras...he was everything his son was. Tough and appearing at first to be uncaring but if you could get through the outer shell then there was warmth and security under it.

Oddly enough, the children still had no idea what was going on. Everything was talked about around corners or after they had been put to bed or, to be safe, not at all. Combeferre had a few ideas for Fleur but none of them panned out. His mother had died of the fever a few years back and his sister was in a dorm at university. His father wasn't really willing to take a child and the rest of his family just wanted to remain uninvolved. It was as though they believed that if they took the girl, they were going to be marked as rebels and punished.

"It's not like that." he had told various aunts. "It's just until I come for her. I do plan on taking her back, I'm not dumping her forever."

"IF you come back, Yvan." the matriarch of his extended family said.

"I do plan on it." he nodded. There was a great risk, he knew that but if it were in his power, the only way he wouldn't be coming to get her was if he perished in the battle.

"Yvan." his sister came to him later that night. "I would take her if I could." she promised.

"I know." he turned from the fence he was leaning on and hugged her. They had grown up very close. "I guess I'll just have to leave her at a convent until after it's over."

"What does she look like?" Danielle asked.

"Her hair is jet black, her eyes are like emeralds. She has..." he stroked his sister's fine face. "...porcelain skin, like you. You really could pass for sisters."

"Well, she can't very well stay with me in the dorm!" Danielle remarked and Combeferre nodded. "Hang on...what if I wasn't IN a dorm? You don't HAVE to live at that cafe, you know." she pointed out. "You can move back to your flat, the one you have before going on this...project." she waved towards the slums. "Yvan, get your flat back, get one close to the university and she can stay with me."

"Your studies." he shook his head, knowing how hard first year of med school was. "You won't have the time to take care of a child." he said. "There are six of us at the cafe and we have to alternate so that we can all get studying time and school time and relaxation time and...even this visit was 'scheduled' so that someone was home with the kids."

Danielle smiled. She could see that the children meant everything to her brother. That didn't surprise her - she never doubted that she, too, meant everything to him. "Well, it's an option." she shrugged. He nodded and kissed her forehead before heading back to the cafe to think it over.

She had offered a brilliant solution though. He could rent the flat again and put her in there with Fleur...and it wouldn't be a problem to find a nanny. The young women who have had to turn to the street to make ends meet often went missing and nobody knew if they had been kidnapped, killed or merely 'hired' by a family.

He had something to take his mind off of the matter when he got back to the cafe. Minette was fevered and in a lot of pain in her ears. Joly looked at them and noticed they were a bit pink in there but there was no infection and she didn't want to sit long with him anyway. He was harmless but he shooed the kids away from him like they were toxic so they didn't exactly feel the love from him. He was glad to see Combeferre come into the cafe so that his obligations were finished and he briefly explained what was wrong.

"Let's see, Bebe." Combeferre said to Minette, who readily went over to him and stood still for him to look into her ears. He felt her glands then had her open her mouth. "It's not her ears..." Combeferre said to Joly. "...it's her teeth." he pointed out that there was two broken molars. Judging by her temperature, there was more going on there and something would have to be done pronto.

"Can you pull them?" Jean Prouvaire asked when he got home and Combeferre explained what was going on. He held Minette on his lap just wrapped in a blanket so that it was easier to give her cool baths.

"I'm not going to." Combeferre said. "She'll never let me near her again but I'll bring a dental student home tomorrow, someone she'll never see again. That's only part of the problem though." he explained about the fever and infection. He handed her back to Prouvaire. "Maybe take our room for the night." he said, as Jean was still sleeping on the dining room table and Minette under the corner table.

Things like this were more of a worry. What if he left Fleur with Danielle and a nanny and she got ill? Rotten teeth were not exactly rare. Gavroche's front teeth always looked on the verge of snapping and nobody could believe he still had them. He focused again on where he was when Fleur came over with a cup of tea and cookie for both of them. She put it in front of him and climbed on the chair next to him, blowing on her tea before trying to sip. "What's happening?" she whispered, rubbing his arm.

"Kind of...grown up stuff, darling." he told her and smiled as he took his teacup in his hand and blew on it. "Bigger than I could explain it to you."

"Everyone seems so angry." she said.

"Not angry...well...yes angry but..." he sighed. "...not at you and not at each other." he assured her.

"Angry about out there." she pointed out the window.

"Yes." he nodded. "Fleur..." he said. "...let me see your teeth...swallow your cookie!" he said quickly. Fleur was so much in with the boys, their habits and talk that he wasn't sure WHAT he was going to get back to after things were over. Hanging their tongues out with food on them was a particular favourite of Fleur and the boys. While he was at it, he checked her hands and feet for splinters and her hair for bugs. He kissed her forehead after he was done and gave a silent smile.

"You're very sad." she said, stroking his face. "Frere Yvan..." she asked and waved him to get his face very close. "Everyone is going to another house soon...what about me?" she whispered.

He had no idea she knew what was going on. "When did you get to be so smart?" he asked her and pulled her onto his lap. "I'm still looking, Fleur." he said "I won't stop looking."

"I can run really fast." she said.

"You are NOT going to run away!" he told her. "Promise me." he held her by the shoulders and looked into her green eyes then held her to him. "You picked me." he reminded her. "I will find somewhere for you to go...I promise...I promise...I promise." he said, kissing her forehead with each promise. Danielle's idea was as good as any. "Do you know any of the ladies out there?" he asked.

"I'm not joining them!" she said.

"No...I mean taking one of them with you to take care of you." he clarified.

"Oh yeah, I think so." she said and finished her tea and yawned. Sleeping in Minette's bed sounded fun for one night and she knew Combeferre was sad so she wasn't going to be awkward.

A few hours after Jean Prouvaire and Minette had gone to bed, Combeferre made up a poultice of oatmeal, tea and cloves and put it in a little pouch of fabric then went to get Minette out of bed. She was hot and lethargic. So out of it she didn't even protest being taken out of the sleeping Prouvaire's arms. He carried her around awhile to get a feel for her fever and feel how weak she was then sat in a chair. "Open your mouth, Bebe." he said, stuffing the small poultice in her mouth. "Bite." he said and she did before leaning her head onto his shoulder. He gave her a kiss and rocked her awhile before putting her back to bed. By the time he got back to the common room with the mattress for the table, Margurite was in there looking around. "Hey..." he said quietly and went over so that he didn't startle her when she turned around. Grantaire's snoring seemed particularly loud that night. They didn't think that it would bother her but they could tell that his voice comforted her more than others and when she was having a wakeful night, she would put her little hand on his throat to feel the vibration, so she was hearing something. There was a little bit of boiled water still in the pitcher on the counter so Combeferre gave that to her and got her to open her mouth so he could check her teeth. She was a mystery. How old was she? She was petit but she may have been ill as a baby.

She sat on his lap and rested her head back against him as he studied a bit more until he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. He carried her back to the bedroom and lay her on her bed then went over to Grantaire's passed out body. "Now...how does Enjolras do this..." he said under his breath and grabbed Grantaire's arm and leg from his side closest the wall, flipping him on his side with the wall to brace him from rolling on his back again. "Sorry..." he whispered and patted Grantaire's head as he knew it had hit the wall. He took Margurite and laid her beside Grantaire so he didn't roll that way either.

He snuck into his room where Prouvaire and Minette were sound asleep and changed into his nighshirt then padded back out to the common room where the mattress was on the table. "Merde!" he said, stepping on a splinter. The kids would have a field day with that if he knew what'd happened. He picked it out then extinguished the gas lamp, crawling up onto the table.

He was almost asleep when he felt the mattress weigh down. It wasn't a wide table or a wide mattress but he moved over a bit so Fleur could lie under the blankets, too.

"We'll think of something." she said and kissed his cheek.