He never thought someone would come along
And show him a feeling he's always dreamed of
She didn't plan on falling in love
Upset that balance she's wanted so long

Several weeks later, the end of their spring finals week had finally arrived for the friends. Cosette had promised Grantaire lunch. The table she snagged was on the main floor of one of their class buildings, right by the windows. The cherry blossom trees outside the window couldn't have been more beautiful in bloom. "Have you heard anything new?" Grantaire asked Cosette as he sipped his coffee.

"No, I haven't," Cosette replied. She ran her hands through her long blonde hair, as she did when she was frazzled. "I still haven't heard from her since…the night you got sick," she said.

"That's an awfully nice way to say 'the night I almost drank myself to death'" Grantaire snorted. Cosette smiled shyly. Their group of friends had taken to treading lightly when Grantaire was around, even though he was content to act like it hadn't happened. Heartbreak didn't suit him well, and it was showing. Cosette's eyes couldn't help but keep returning to the things that worried her: Grantaire's unkempt hair, the purplish circles under his eyes, and the way his hands shook around his cup of coffee. It was spiked, naturally, but less than it normally would have been.

"I think Azelma knows where she's staying, but she won't budge," Cosette said. "She's even stopped speaking to Bahorel because he wouldn't stop asking her."

"I just don't understand what I did to her. I would be there for her no matter what other stupid stuff happened."

"I know, R. I wish I had better information for you." Over the past few weeks, Cosette had shared every scrap she knew about Eponine with Grantaire, in his search to find her.

This road to recovery has taken all I have
It seems hard as I try to succumb once again

"I just don't understand. She came after me. She wanted me to help her get through some things. I didn't exactly plan on falling in love with her…it just happened." Grantaire winced. "It wasn't enough to keep her here, though."

Cosette's romantic heart broke a little bit. "You can't blame yourself, R," she said. "Marius and I aren't perfect, either." Grantaire looked her in the eyes. "No couple is perfect. She's going to come back. She's a broken soul, but not a cruel one."

"I really, really hope you're right," Grantaire said softly.

"Hey," Jehan said, sliding into the booth next to Grantaire. "Care if I crash your lunch?"

"Of course not," Cosette said. She nibbled on a corner of her sandwich.

"Going to turn your photography final in after this, R?"

Grantaire made a face at Jehan's words. "Yeah, I am. I'm still not completely happy with it but it's really the best I can come up with at this point."

"Same here," Jehan said. He hoped his relief didn't show on his face. Eponine hadn't come to class in the past couple of weeks, but he didn't want to risk having Grantaire turn his work in alone, in case she showed up.

The trio ate their lunches, mulling over the possibilities of where Eponine could be. She had deleted everything she used on the Internet, and all calls and texts to her went unanswered. Nobody had seen her at a bar or restaurant. Eponine might have vanished except that, from time to time, one of their friends caught brief glimpses of her on campus.

Well he lost control and gave up his heart
To follow the girl that he's always dreamed of
She pulled away so scared of a love
That might have been more than she had planned on

"I think I actually almost made Enjolras cry, you know," Grantaire laughed halfheartedly.

"When he brought you back to our place?" Jehan asked. He shuddered. That had been a particularly bad morning for everyone.

"Yeah, when I started crying, looking for all her stuff," Grantaire said. "Should've taken a picture of his watery eyes for blackmail, eh?"

"Oh, I don't know about that, R," Cosette said with a devilish smile. "If he wasn't embarrassed by that picture of you two from that party I don't know what could embarrass him."

"Right, I forgot how embarrassing I am to be seen with," Grantaire snorted.

Cosette paled. "Come on, I didn't mean it like that! I'm trying to help you!"

"Stop it, both of you," Jehan insisted. "We still haven't checked the most logical place for her to be, you know."

"I really, really don't think she would be back at her parents' house, Jehan," Cosette said. "Honestly, they're pretty much the worst."

The friends didn't know that Eponine was watching them from the winding, open staircase not twenty feet away. Eponine had been running up the stairs to their photography professor's office, to turn in her final, when she heard Grantaire's voice and stopped. Her breath had hitched in her chest, and she dropped the folder containing her project.

This road to recovery has taken all I have
It seems hard as I try to succumb once again

She stooped to pick it up, looking at her friends from between the rungs of the railing. It would be so easy, she thought, to just go sit with them. To pretend all this didn't happen. She almost turned around to go back down the stairs toward them. Except it did. She had been fighting this internal battle for weeks, and it was tearing her apart.

Eponine pulled out her phone, and against all of her better judgment, she texted Grantaire. Without looking in his direction, she ran again toward their professor's office. She intended to drop off her project and run to the place she had recently been calling home.

"We should probably get going to drop off our projects," Jehan sighed.

"Hold on," Grantaire said. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket with a text. He was sure it was just one of his friends, who had so loyally stuck by his side throughout this ordeal. "You're fucking kidding me." He held out the phone so Cosette and Jehan could read the text: I'm sorry.

"If she's so sorry, where the hell is she?" Grantaire wondered out loud. He didn't know if he should be angry or relieved.

"You know what, I think I have an idea, you two go ahead. Turn your projects in, I'll call you later," Cosette said quickly. She gathered her things and all but ran from the table.

"I swear I've read every book and every poem on this planet, and I still don't understand women," Jehan said bluntly. Grantaire just shook his head in agreement, staring at the text from Eponine. The pair slowly made their way toward the main stairwell.

Cosette was waiting outside the building a few minutes later when Eponine burst out of the door that lead to the back stairwell. "Busted," the blonde stated simply.

Eponine withdrew as if she'd been slapped. She looked frightened, and just about as unkempt as Grantaire did. "I can't do this right now, Cosette," she pleaded. "I just dropped off my photography final, I have to go study for my last one. It's in the morning."

"Let me come with you, then, please," Cosette asked. "I won't even tell Grantaire I saw you if you don't want me to." At this, Eponine's expression softened a bit. "You've been on the run like a convict or something, I just want to talk."

Eponine just nodded, and motioned for Cosette to walk with her. It was strange, Cosette thought, as Eponine lead her through what felt like a maze behind and between the campus buildings, staying away from the main walkways.

"You're going to be awfully pissed off, I'm warning you," Eponine said after a few minutes. She knew there was no getting around this one.

"Why? I'm not mad at you, honestly."

"Well, it's about where I'm staying."

"You're not at home again, are you?"

"No," Eponine said, just as the girls walked onto a familiar block. It was the block that held such establishments as their favorite bars, like the Corinth (where this whole ordeal started, Eponine often noted.)

Cosette trailed a few steps behind Eponine, soaking in the warm sunshine, until the realization hit her. "You little shit!" she gasped. "How long has he been letting you stay here?" Eponine had stopped in front of a small apartment building that Cosette recognized as being owned by her father, Valjean. He owned quite a lot of apartments in the area, but he never told Cosette he was renting one to Eponine.

Eponine blushed. "Just for two weeks now. I was with Azelma for a few days but I knew you'd come looking for me there…I'm paying rent, you know, just on one of the little studios. It's not like I'm bumming the place off of him."

Cosette groaned. "So my father's been listening to me worry about your ass when he was collecting your rent money. Nice."

"Come on," Eponine offered. "I'll talk." It was enough for Cosette, who followed her up to the small studio apartment.

Eponine collapsed on the bed (Valjean had been kind enough to provide basic furnishings), and Cosette on a plush denim beanbag chair that she recognized as having been in her own room as a child.

"So are you aware that Grantaire, as he has put it, thinks that you left him because he wasn't good enough for you? He's feeling really worthless right now."

"I left him because we weren't good for each other. I leave destruction where I go," Eponine said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, no shit you do."

Eponine started to get upset. "Look, we weren't going to work out anyway, okay? Why prolong the inevitable?"

Well love's a bitch; relationships end
What happens now, when that person's gone?
The one who you thought you could always count on
You fall in love and they fall out
Love is a bitch; all relationships end

"After I found out about you and Marius, I thought he and I weren't going to work out either, you know," Cosette said carefully. "I said the same thing, that we weren't good for each other. But you know what? People aren't good for each other.We do hurt each other's feelings, betray each other, and stomp on each other's hearts. But that's called living, Eponine. And that's only a small part of it. Maybe Marius and I will break up at some point. But you know what? Until then, we're having a damn good time, and we are happy. Maybe not all the time, but being happy isn't a permanent thing; it's not the only thing we are supposed to feel." Cosette finished her speech a little out of breath. She had been holding that to herself ever since Courfeyrac had pointed to Eponine's retreating figure the night she left.

"I'm not apologizing either, I think you needed to hear that," Cosette said, her face flushed. Eponine was clutching her pillow to her chest, immobilized. She let out a deep breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"You're right," she admitted in a low whisper. She buried her face in the pillow. "I just don't know what to do. I wasn't planning on falling in love with him. I wasn't planning on causing a scene and leaving. I'm so embarrassed; I can't show my face again."

"Yes, you can," Cosette said, almost impatiently. "Don't you get it? Our friends kick ass. Enjolras doesn't give a shit when one of us takes a picture of him in a compromising situation. Courfeyrac doesn't even bat an eye when we catcall at him when one of his hookups crosses his path on campus. Joly and Bossuet laugh their asses off when Bahorel punches strangers out for being rude about them being gay. Do I have to go on? Hell, Grantaire isn't even embarrassed about having to get his stomach pumped. He was drinking again like two days later, just sad that you weren't there to drink with him."

Eponine smiled sadly at that. "I feel like I broke up with all of you, not just R."

"Well, I think it's safe to say we want you back," Cosette laughed. "You're going to have to cut the pity party out, though."

"I guess I could do that," Eponine conceded. "To be fair, I think you've probably been nicer to me than anyone else has ever been."

"No way," Cosette replied. "That title goes to Grantaire for putting up with you," she joked, sinking back into the beanbag chair. A relieved smile spread across her mouth, but she was going to have some choice words for Valjean for taking her chair without asking.

Grantaire and Jehan left the academic building after dropping off their final projects. "Feels so good to be done," Jehan sighed. He threw his arms out and spun in a circle a few steps ahead of Grantaire, who snorted.

"What? I have a really good feeling. Like things are gonna work out or something," Jehan said earnestly.

How do I let go of a love that meant so much to me?
How do I go on when you're part of me?
I'm dying inside each time I see you
Don't lose sight of me, 'cause you're all I see
You're still all I see

"I hope you're right," Grantaire said, absentmindedly digging through his bag for his phone. He still hadn't responded to Eponine's text from earlier. "Should I say anything back?"

"You already have," Jehan said innocently. Grantaire looked up in horror to see his phone in Jehan's palm, and snatched it back. "I miss you so much, xo. You know, I can't even be upset you did that because she's clearly going to know that wasn't me, you ass," Grantaire laughed.

"Whatever, it was worth getting a real laugh out of you," Jehan said with a smile. "Besides, I would bet you anything that Cosette's found her. Why else would she leave like she did?" Obviously, all of his reading had paid off; Jehan understood women better than he thought.

Grantaire's phone buzzed again and he recoiled, terrified that Eponine thought the mushy text was from him. He didn't want to push things right away. He was relieved when, a moment later, Jehan's phone buzzed too. "Group message from Courfeyrac," the poet said. "He's reserved the top floor of the Corinth for us all tomorrow for an end-of-finals week party. $20 all-we-can-drink."

"All we can drink? The staff realizes it's us, right?" Grantaire was laughing again. All their friends could drink was an impressive amount.

"Sounds like a challenge to me," Jehan said cheerfully. "Told you things were looking up."

This road to recovery has taken all I have
It's taken all I have

-

So…new chapter!

I'm curious as to whether anyone has figured out what song the title of this story is referencing! This chapter is inspired by the song Road to Recovery by Rufio. I've tried to keep the songs sort of mainstream but this song is an old favorite and it actually inspired this whole story in the first place.

Also I probably would have deleted this a while ago without my beta, ConcreteAngelRoxHerHalo. :)