"We need to take Minette to get some teeth pulled." Combeferre told Jean Prouvaire as they studied at the table while the little girl slept in the little room Combeferre shared with Fleur. "A couple of friends will do it..." he felt a bit sad. He was going to be taking her there so there was a risk that she wouldn't trust HIM after it all happened either. She was old enough to understand after the fact why it was done and especially after the infection was gone but he still felt like he was betraying her. "So come back here as soon as you're out of school so that when we get back, you'll be here for her." he said and Prouvaire nodded.

Minette was still running a fever and her eyes were glassy. It was Enjolras' day to stay home with the kids that day but he couldn't expect Nico to let his guard down. Their parents died of the fever and now his sister was appearing to be going the same way. No matter how they explained it was about her teeth, it wouldn't relax him and it didn't take away from the fact that she really was ill. "Do you want to go with them?" Enjolras asked Nico. The thing was, she really wouldn't have any idea that they were taking her anywhere associated with pain. It would be the during and after that would be the problem.

"I think I should." Nico said. "If she cries..."

"Oh, she'll cry." Enjolras assured him.

"Yeah..." Nico nodded. "...and I'll at least be able to hold her hand." he said. They had been in dentist's chairs before, they knew it meant pain, it was just a matter of how much Minette was aware of in her present condition.

Combeferre came home and dropped off his book bag. He took a small glass and some of Grantaire's absinthe then went into the bedroom where Minette slept on the mattress. She was very hot and not making much sense when she talked. He held her and tipped the glass to her lips. She didn't like it but he told her it was medicine and she had to admit, it was numbing her pain. When she dozed off again, Combeferre picked her up and carried her out. His legs were long and Nico had to almost jog to keep up with him sometimes but it had to all be done before she realised what was going on.

The dental classroom had some functioning stations and the students were allowed to practice on real people, just not charge and there was no guarantees that things weren't going to mess up. Combeferre laid Minette into the big chair and kissed her head, unsure if he should stay but she seemed to be so out of it, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea. Nico was on the other side of her. When the student opened her mouth for her, Minette came alive and thrashed her head from side to side. "Go." the student told Combeferre who stepped out of her sight. He hated to see one student holding her down as she screamed while another pried her mouth open and the third one removed two teeth and a few times he covered his eyes. He was going to have to get used to this but for now he felt terrible.

There was no definition of 'before' and 'after'. Going by just the sound, there was no way to tell when they were finished but for when they sat the little girl up and had her spit into a basin. "Minette..." Nico sat beside her and played with her ponytail. "...you'll feel better." he promised but they could hardly hear him over the noise she was creating.

"She's all yours again, doctor." the students said. They had taken care of the teeth, it was Combeferre's turn to deal with the infection. They left some things to make various poultices with but they left without saying much more and Minette would never know who they were. It was to Combeferre's surprise when he went back over to her that she jumped up and threw her arms around his neck, still crying, drooling saliva and blood all over his collar. She wouldn't bleed much, that wasn't anyone's worry but she was still sick from the infection.

"Thank you, Nettie." Combeferre smiled and rubbed her back. "Not making me the bad guy." he packed the poultice bags full. "Here...bite." he stuffed it in her mouth. "Jean Prouvaire will be home when we get there, bet you want to see him." he said and carried the drunken, sick and sore little girl back up the street.

Having the offending teeth out of her mouth there was just the one thing to worry about and now they would take turns holding her and getting her better.

Oddly enough, there began a small 'hum' of gossip around the university campus and Enjolras was surprised one day in the library when a woman, fellow student slid into the seat next to him. Enjolras was handsome and charming and it wasn't a rarity for a woman to be smitten at the site of him. Once she sampled his one-dimensional passion and temper bordering on bitterness, realising that there was nobody, man nor woman who was going to get his attention, though, she turned away. It didn't help that most of the students were upper class and the exact type of people Enjolras wanted people to turn from. "You're Sylvain Enjolras..." she said. "I saw you with a small street boy...someone said you took him away from here."

"I brought him back." Enjolras said, lest he be accused of kidnapping.

"Someone said you were relocating children." she said and he stopped reading and looked at her. Who told her that? Who told anyone? Were they to find homes for the gamin of Sainte Michel? "I want to help." she said, desperately.

"Why?" Enjolras, ever skeptical asked. The reason HE was in it was because he had fallen in love with the children they had, he would have shown the upmost impatience with the others had he not done so. The revolution was still first and foremost...but without meaning to, he had another cause. He looked down and saw her sociology texts. A relatively new course, not much understood by anyone except those with an interest but Enjolras knew it could come in handy. "You know where Cafe Musain is in Sainte Michel?" he asked so she could join the meetings.

"I do..." the woman said. "...do you know where the train station is?" she asked and Enjolras gave her a dry look. Of course he knew. "Ten children for now." she said and held up papers. "There are people in England, my family's friends..." she said.

"Not our kids.." Enjolras firmly said, suddenly worried. He would love to send them farther away than his parents' and Courfeyrac's parents' homes but would they see them again?

"Any kids!" she said. "My name is Emily Copeland, I'm from Devon." she shook his hand. That made sense, she did sound as though French was her second language. "They will pay boat passage..."

"They will stay as children?" Enjolras asked. "Because if they are going to be staff or servants, they can do all of that here."

"They will be raised as their own children she assured. "Only...they have to be healthy. It was the best I could get..." she said quickly, knowing the most disadvantaged were the highest priority in the eyes of the Amis but Enjolras understood.

"They...might have fleas." he shrugged. "It's unavoidable there, we can try to treat them." he said as the cafe was pretty much the only relatively flea-free area in Sainte Michel thanks to Mme Courfeyrac's occasional visits with rosemary, lemon and geranium water. "How did you hear about this?" he asked.

"Georges Grantaire." she said and Enjolras paled. Grantaire was starting to talk? He would have to stop him. "He told me about you, says you are a jerk but get things done."

Enjolras hazarded a rare smile, almost a laugh. Rarely could anyone but the children could make him laugh. "That's...kinder than the things I say about him, believe me." he said and nodded when they said they would meet later. "Come to the cafe with me after school." he told her. "It's best if the others meet you." they agreed. "Emily..." he said as she began to walk away. "Was he perhaps making provisions for a deaf child?" he asked and she nodded.

It was a rare sight, Sylvain Enjolras in his familiar red coat walking side by side with a lovely English woman. It made those who knew him turn and look twice. Odder still was for the woman to see the transformation in him when they got to the cafe when he took the coat of the revolution off and greeted the children.

"Bonjour Frere Sylvain!" Fleur came running at him and kissed him as Nico threw his arms around his waist. Bonjour ma soeur." Fleur greeted the woman. "Je m'apelle Fleur." she introduced herself. Upon hearing another woman's voice, Eponine turned from where she was filling Grantaire's wine glass. She was beautiful, clean, high class...a woman. Eponine was "one-of-the-guys" and when the students would come home, they would see her instead of their buddy, Ponine.

Emily looked in the corner and saw Grantaire. "'Allo Georges." she said and he toasted her silently. She had no idea of his clandestine rituals and he had no idea she would venture into his territory. "Is this her?" she asked as Margurite came up the hallway and sat at the table next to Grantaire with her sign language book, urging him to study with her. "She's lovely." she said. If it weren't for the fact that the age difference wasn't wide enough, she noticed the resemblance with the black curls and often expressionless face and wondered if they weren't kin in some other way. Perhaps it was the other way around and Peep had gone first to him because he reminded her of her father or brother. What Grantaire didn't miss, however was the look Enjolras shot him.

"I don't know what else to do." he shrugged. "I have no one to leave her with." he slurred. No wonder he had been so quiet and drunker than usual. He had resigned himself to the fact that he had to let her go.

"Not her." Combeferre interrupted and motioned to Peep. "We have somewhere for her." he told Emily. Enjolras looked at him and Combeferre shrugged a bit. No, he didn't but wherever he was sending Fleur, he would send Peep.

"Gav, take this one, I'm going to get water." Courfeyrac's voice sounded on the stairway. "Someone help Gavroche with the groceries!" he hollered and took the pail out back, coming up in a few minutes and catching the eye of the English lady, looking away as she did the same. They had met before, perhaps only once, perhaps frequently but some of the Amis bit their lip and held back smiles. Courfeyrac's reputation followed him, everyone knew. "Mademoiselle Emily." he nodded towards her and poured the water into a metal pot to boil over the fire. The children were used to being sent to another room or to play outside as the adults talked, they almost headed there automatically. Fleur went to the kitchen downstairs to help Eponine start supper.

"How will we choose?" Jean Prouvaire asked. "There are hundreds!"

"They have to be orphans, they have to be healthy." Emily said, knowing that would cut it back as the only clean and scab free gamin she had seen was in the cafe.

"The kids will spread the word." Courfeyrac said. "They know who has parents and who doesn't." That sounded absurd to Emily. Of course none of them had parents, parents wouldn't let their children run around like that would they?

The conversation in the upstairs section of the cafe was passionate and bounced from the kids to the revolution, a bit of studying and some levity. Emily looked around at the students. Most of them were familiar faces but she was used to seeing them in their rich schoolboy clothes. She hadn't considered that, after hours they loosened their ties, took off their jackets, kicked back with wine and absinthe and most of all, they all became very young fathers. It was a warm evening but with only one window and the fire blazing to boil water over, it was stifling up there. In winter that was welcome but today, jackets were cast aside, sweat was the word of the day and the steaming pot of soup Eponine was carrying up the stairs only added to it. Emily looked left and right as the children were scampering around, washing their hands and wiping off the table as the students stacked their books on Grantaire's table. "We don't eat like royalty but it's good food." Eponine said as she started to fill bowls with soup while someone else put bread and cheese on the big table.

"Oh, I should really get home." Emily said.

"There's enough." Jean Prouvaire said. They had nowhere to keep leftovers and now that the children were used to the fact that there would be food tomorrow, they didn't eat like it was going to go bad in a moment. Fleur placed a bowl of soup before Emily and one of the Renes gave her some bread.

"Merci." Emily said. "What's your name?" she asked, looking at a rather ill looking Minette. For an answer, Minette ran off and dove under the table. "Is she scared?"

"Shy and still a bit sick." Prouvaire said. "Not usually shy around women though, I think she's just a bit unwell." he told her and took a bowl of soup to Minette's table. "You want to eat under there?" he asked her and the answer was obvious as she didn't move. "Just as well, they need your seat." he grinned and went to get his own food, going back to the little table. "Pardonez moi." he said to Emily and slid under the table with his food. Emily looked around at the others to see if they, too, noticed something a bit strange about that. Jean Prouvaire, lover and poet just slide under an old wooden table to sit on a mattress and spoonfeed a little girl with a sore mouth some soup.

Courfeyrac noticed Emily looking back at the corner table where Grantaire and Margurite sat. "Oh, they stay there. We don't make them but there's no room here and by this time 'Taire is pretty close to immobile."

Emily was very disappointed. While rumpled and messy, Grantaire was NOT the same on campus as he was at the cafe. It wasn't that he was obnoxious or ungentlemanly at the cafe and she couldn't deny that he was very attentive and good with Margurite but she just envisioned someone a bit more between domestic and high-society sitting around sipping cognac. She knew he hung at the cafe, she had a mental image of it being just an extension of the library, she had no idea it was just bustling with activity from sun-up to sundown.

She was from a rich family, just like the students were. Raised with staff to do these things like setting tables and cleaning up. She was used to doing it small scale at the flat that she was living at with another woman but not to this degree. There was water constantly being hauled upstairs and heated over the fireplace. Basins were filled, first to wash the dishes then filled again for children to soak their feet in. The assembly line began.

Margurite sat on a low stool with her feet in the water for a few moments while Courfeyrac sprinkled the "flea water" over her hair and body. They all got the same treatment and now Emily knew the reason that those students didn't smell like the rest of the people on the campus. She would have to learn to make that treatment for their trip. Enjolras wrapped a blanket around Peep and carried her to a chair at Grantaire's table where she put her feet up on Combeferre's lap for her inspection then slipped her shoes back on her feet. Gavroche screamed when Combeferre touched one of his feet. He shouted so loud it woke Grantaire out of his stupor and Combeferre jumped, worried he'd encountered some mystery, invisible spinter. "Just kidding." Gavroche grinned.

"Not funny, Gav." Courfeyrac said. Hearing any child, especially Gavroche scream in pain made his heart skip a beat and his heart didn't like it. As Grantaire got up to stagger to bed, he slapped Gavroche across the back of the head. Emily gasped to see the slap until she saw some of the guys trying to cover smirks.

"Ow!" Gavroche said for real this time, not only at the slap but Combeferre hadn't been amused either and started scraping a callus. All the same, Gavroche couldn't stop giggling. As those guys were treating the children, Jean Prouvaire crawled out from under the table and Minette took her place in line. He and Eponine went and treated blankets and pillows. The evening wore on, candles were lit and the fire burned down, making it a bit cooler up there.

Emily chatted with everyone but mostly she just observed everything. Things like...how Enjolras, always "all-business" sat Nico at a chair with some warmed wine to drink and trimmed his hair while he studied his own stuff AND helped Nico read a book. Courfeyrac sat and read, absently stroking Gavroche's hair as he dozed off and Jean Prouvaire crawling back into Minette's bedroom under the table to tell her a story, as it was too dark under there to read. She would be astounded if she knew the real reason he couldn't go to bed until everyone else had. Margurite sat on Combeferre's lap, facing him but bending backwards while he was pretending to almost drop her until finally he let her down easily until she did a backwards somersault onto the floor and Fleur climbed up for her turn. What Emily noticed was that all of them, while doing all of this stuff were still studying, exchanging notes and writing things while holding onto a kid or playing.

"Can I walk you out of here, Mademoiselle Emily?" Feuilly asked. The Renes were starting to nod off and he had to get them home. They didn't want Emily to walk out of the area unescorted.

"That would be nice, Monsieur, thank you." she said, standing up and wrapping her shawl around her. "Mon Dieu! What is that?" she looked around and everyone laughed that Grantaire's snoring startled her. Still amazed by the way the cafe ran like a household, she watched the children...these street gamin...clean and flea-free go from student to student for good night kisses. Courfeyrac picked up Gavroche who had fallen asleep and carried him to his room.

Enjolras went in and flipped Grantaire onto his side, waving Peep to climb into the bed to keep him from rolling onto his back again. "Good night." he said, kissing the little girl. She pointed to Grantaire. "Uhhh, no, you kiss him." Enjolras said. By then the children were being herded to bed and as Enjolras came back into the common room, when Courfeyrac walked by with Gavroche, Enjolras kissed the sleeping boy then flopped down into a chair at the table, giving a tired sigh.

"God I hope we can run the train this smoothly!" Emily said. "It's only overnight for us and then another day of sea travel...you do this every day!" she looked around at the now-quiet common room. "Does it ever end?" she asked as there was just one more bit of drama from under the table.

"Basin! Basin!" Jean Prouvaire shouted and someone ran for it so he could catch the soup that Minette hadn't been able to hold down. "Oooh Nettie." he said after she was done and handed the basin back to Eponine who took it outside to empty then brought the night pail in and handed the basin back under the table just in case. Prouvaire curled up on the little mattress under the table and she tucked herself into the hollow his body made. "Go to sleep." he whispered and stroked her silken hair.

After bidding everyone good night and vowing to keep in touch, Emily went down the stairs ahead of Feuilly and the boys. Outdoors was different from when she had gone in there. While she couldn't see the filth anymore, she could smell it and the homeless were curled up in doorways and beside the road. In the dark, people gave no regard as to where they eliminated their wastes or sought amour from the ladies of the night. It was so commonplace that Emily noticed neither of the boys really paid attention to it, just chatted to each other. Feuilly held out his arm, encouraging her to take it so everyone would know that she wasn't just a woman walking alone. "What is it that keeps you coming here?" she asked him, as he didn't live at the cafe.

"The cause, Mademoiselle." Feuilly said.

"Where are the children now?" she looked around.

"They're around." Feuilly said. "You keep coming here, you'll get some." he held up his hand that was closed around one of the Renes. "I just got lucky." he grinned. "Oh come on!" he said as one Rene decided he was tired and wanted a piggyback. "Not long." he told him. When they got to their flat, he stopped while the boy climbed down. "I'm going to walk Mademoiselle Emily home, you guys go to bed." he told them and let them in the house then continued on until he got to the dorm on the university she was staying in and she let go of his arm. "As you see, it take a lot of work, I hope you have ten people to travel with you."

"Only two...but I'm up for it." Emily said. "Good night Monsieur Feuilly." she said and disappeared through the door.