A/N: T rating for this chapter! This is probably going to be quite a sad chapter (yes, today is another two chapter day, and I'm working on a happy one too for those who don't like sad things) as it involves a person in a coma - if anybody is sensitive about this then I would advise waiting for the next one, as the last thing I want to is make anybody properly upset over this. I got a bit emotional whilst writing this myself, so if you do get upset easily it's nothing to be ashamed of! Thanks. :)

On a happier note, hit 1,000 views! Thank you!

Prompt: Imagine Person A having fallen into a coma and Person B endlessly holds vigil by their bedside. Person B rests their forehead against Person A's forehead and whisper, "Please, please wake up."

Marius stared at Éponine's sleeping figure anxiously.

He hadn't moved in almost a week, save for going to the loo. He wanted to be there the whole time, regardless whether Éponine knew he was there or not. It killed him to see her stretched on the hospital bed, hardly breathing, completely still, knowing there was nothing he or anybody else could do.

Wait, they'd said. Wait. Wait there and watch the girl you care for practically lifeless. Wait and watch her breathing slowly, still as a brick. Wait and watch as there's nothing you can do to help her.

Wait.

What terrified him most was how completely still she was. It was unnatural. Even in her sleep Éponine still fidgeted a lot, often twiddling her hair around. When she was awake she could never keep still, activities such as sewing bored her to tears and she usually ended up running around Marius' flat, timing herself before going out to do some more pickpocketing.

It scared him, seeing her like this.

He tried to think back to how she was before, but the accident kept playing in his mind - well, it wasn't an accident at all. It was her father. He'd lost it and lashed out, slamming her head against the concrete so hard he'd put her in a coma. How anybody could do that to their own daughter was a mystery to Marius.

He'd found her a few hours later, still lying still, eyes closed. For one horrible moment he thought she'd been killed, but then he noticed her breathing, and had picked her up and carried her to the hospital as quickly as his legs would take him, weaving through market stalls and alleyways to get there as quickly as possible.

When he'd arrived with her, the hospital staff had taken her straight to the emergency ward, gesturing to lay her on one of the beds. It wasn't the cleanest, but it was a friendly place, and after all, hospitals in 1832 were hardly completely sanitary. He'd been given a rickety chair to sit on and allowed to stay with her, whilst a kind-looking doctor asked him questions on how it had happened. Marius had said he wasn't sure, which he wasn't, but he suspected her father, since that was where most of her injuries came from.

The doctor had written it down and told him to wait.

Wait.

Such a silly word with such a powerful meaning. He'd been waiting for almost a week now, not caring that he probably smelt (as established, the cleaning facilities weren't the best) and he'd been wearing the same clothes since he found her. All that mattered was the girl lying in front of him.

His Éponine.

She should be his. She would be his. He wasn't going to let that bastard of her father take her away from him. Éponine was a fighter, and Marius was joining that fight. He wasn't going to let her be taken away from him.

But another day passed, and another day after that. No change.

Marius was distraught. He knew there was a chance she wouldn't pull through, but he refused to accept it. She was strong - not just physically, but mentally too. But each passing hour led to Marius becoming more desperate, to the point he'd almost slapped one of the nurses when she said there was nothing they could do.

He got up from his chair, unaware of how stiff he was, and took a step closer to her bed, sitting in the edge of it and biting his lip, brushing away the stray hairs with his hand. Gently stroking down her cheek, he leaned forwards so his forehead was touching hers.

"Please, please wake up. I love you, 'Ponine. Please wake up. For me" he whispered quietly, trying to stop the tears that pricked his eyes.

He stayed there for what seemed like hours, ignoring the protest screams coming from his back muscles. The nurses had tactfully kept out of the way, not wanting to ruin the moment, wondering what it would do to the broken man if they did.

For that is what Marius was. A broken man. He felt numb. He didn't eat unless he had to, he hadn't slept more than about ten hours in total over the past week. It didn't feel right, not whilst Éponine was in such a fragile state.

Hours passed. Marius had fallen into a light sleep next to Éponine, when he felt movement. His eyes flew open and were greeted with tiny slits of Éponine's hazel ones staring into his, clearly confused. "Ép-Éponine?" Marius said, unable to grasp that she was awake. He got a small, weak nod and a smile in return, and returned it with one of his own as he hugged her tightly to his chest, letting the tears flow. He kept murmuring her name as he clutched her, still unable to believe it was real. "I'm here, Marius" he heard her mutter, and he released her from his grip to look her in the eyes.

"I can't believe you're finally awake" he said, still staring at her. Before she had a chance to answer, he leaned down and kissed her, holding her tightly and feeling her tears mixed with his own.

He only broke away when he heard the doctors coming, both practically gasping for breath as they rejoiced together. Marius brought his forehead back to rest on hers.

"I love you, Éponine Thénardier."

"I love you too, Marius Pontmercy."