Title: Mother and Daughter
Summary: Cosette talks to Marie on the eve of her wedding
World: Either

Cosette sighed, looking at the grandfather clock on the wall. Nine thirty. She should go upstairs if she wanted to talk to Marie before she retired... But there was still so much work to do! The food that could be prepared in advance was done and set aside, but decorations were being erected all over the Pontmercy living room and dining room, flowers being delivered, candles set out, extra furniture being procured and set out to seat all the guests.

"I think I'll go to bed now," Cosette said to Marius, who looked at her as though she was crazy.

"There's still so much work to do!" he gasped.

"It's getting done, just watch," she said, pointing to the servants who were working. With so many extra people working on the construction of Marie's wedding, individual people did not have too much work on their hands. However, Marius was the one in charge of both the party planning (not his forte) and the legal agreements, so he had a lot on his shoulders. "I need to talk to her before she goes to bed," Cosette explained, and like always, he understood.

Cosette walked up the stairs of her home, where she had lived for the past nineteen years- nearly twenty, come this February. The upstairs looked the same- not garnished with flowers and candles or scrubbed beyond recognition. It was still home. However, when she reached her eldest daughter's bedroom and lightly knocked, it was different. Her daughter's soft voice beckoned her inside, and the room was stripped except for the bed, which was left for Marie to sleep in. A washbasin still sat in the corner, as well as a casual dress for the morning and the garment bag with her gown, come time for the ceremony. Everything else had been moved.

Marie and her soon to he husband were moving into a tiny yet charming house in the same quarter- actually only few minutes' walking distance from her home. Marius had gone with his daughter's fiancé to pick it out (something Cosette forced him to do, so he could actually get to know the young man instead of simply tolerating him- Marius had a hard time letting go of his eldest daughter, for she was very special to him). Even though she would still be so close, Marius, Cosette, and Marie's siblings were already feeling her absence.

"Hello, darling," Cosette said. Her beautiful daughter turned her dark eyes up to her mother. Marie was sitting on the edge of her bed, her long thick hair hanging in curtains around her face, ready for bed. Her large eyes were frightened.

"Maman," she said weakly.

Cosette gave her a smile, and sat down next to her daughter. She was built differently than her mother- Cosette all soft lines and curves, with a round face and twinkling eyes, Marie was her opposite. She was tall and thin, with straighter lines than her mother. Her face was hollow, but in a beautiful way, pronouncing her cheekbones. Her dark brown eyes were secretive and sad, with a different beauty than her mother's kind and humor-filled blue ones.

Cosette ran her hand through her daughter's thick hair, and then untied a ribbon from her own twisted array on top of her head.

"Here," Cosette said, and began to comb through Marie's hair with her fingers, loving the feel as she felt the soft strands slip against the skin of her hands. She had always loved this feeling, even when Marie had the soft, fine hair of a baby. Then she began to braid it loosely back for a comfortable night's sleep- something she would probably do for the last time.

While Cosette braided, Marie finally spoke. Her voice held all the fears that Cosette had felt nearly twenty years ago- fear of leaving behind your family (though for Marie it was worse, for she was losing both her mother and her father, as well as all her siblings), the fear of the unknown, and wondering if you would be happy. If, in leaving behind the security of the home you'd grown up in, you would also leave behind happiness.

"Maman," Marie said again in a shaking voice. "Please, tell me the truth. Will you?"

"I promise to," Cosette said, knowing what Marie needed now was love, more than truth. But still she promised. She was old enough now.

"Not every marriage is as happy as yours and Papa's. Am I right?"

Cosette bit her lip. She wanted to say that Marie was wrong, and that every couple was this happy. True, Cosette and Marius had not been happy for every day of their marriage, but overall they had fought little and shared an uncanny respect for each other. He had treated her with more worth than she knew most husbands did, and she had never doubted that she was more than just the mother of his children.

She wanted to tell Marie that it was always like this- that husbands did not really sleep with other women, or gamble and drink, or beat their wives, or leave them with nothing. But that wasn't true.

"No, Marie. Not all marriages are happy," she confessed. Her daughter looked at her, her already enigmatic eyes now heartbreaking in their fear.

"How... how can I make sure that it doesn't happen to me?" she whispered.

Cosette was stumped. She had no idea- she had merely gotten lucky. Cosette had heard of lots of people who had started out loving their spouses, but then eventually it went away. Or infidelity poisoned their marriage, or one of the spouses changed. How could Cosette tell Marie that it was simply luck that she had found the right person, not just for her when she was seventeen, but now when she was thirty-seven?

"You have to hope that happenstance has led you to someone who will change with you as you change. You can't hope for someone who'll stay the same for the rest of their life, because you won't stay the same. You'll outgrow them, or they'll outgrow you... You just have to pray that, in twenty years, your lives still connect. And you need to give, and to love, as much as you can. Nothing can ruin your chances more than selfishness."

Marie was quiet. "I don't know how to know if he's going to love me in twenty years! He loves me now, but how do I know-?"

"You won't," Cosette said, putting an arm around her daughter. "You'll never know. You won't even know if you'll love him in twenty years."

Marie shook her head. "I will. I know I will."

"Well then," Cosette said, smiling. "You'll be fine, as long as you remember that."

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