Chapter 14: Home From So Far

"Who's there?" Hollered a voice.

Marie-Anne shuddered. Eponine touched her arm and nodded as reassuringly as she could.

"French revolution!" Enjolras called boldly.

"FIRE!"

Millions of gunshots shattered Eponine's eardrums. Neither her nor Marie-Anne had a gun. They scrambled backwards as many other bodies fell.

"'Ponine." She heard a voice say.

She looked down at the street. On the ground lay a thin girl. Her face was pinched with pain. A rosette was pinned to her ragged dress. Her dirty tangled hair was drenched in blood.

She had a bullet hole in her head.

"Azelma."

Despite the past, Eponine knelt and held her sister. The sister she'd been born with.

"My dear sister...forgive me." She gasped, clutching Eponine's coat.

"I forgive you." Eponine choked, her voice hoarse. A tear fell from her eye. "'Ponine...I'll be happier...now." Azelma's whole body convulsed, but she reached for the pin and unpinned it.

She pressed it into Eponine's hand.

"Fight...for...hi-" She gasped and convulsed again, before collapsing onto Eponine's shoulder.

Tears streamed down Eponine's face as she held her sister's dead body. Marie-Anne watched them, tight-lipped.

"Ep." She took the rosette from Eponine's hand and attatched it to her coat. She thought she knew what Azelma had been trying to say. "Fight for Marius."

She took Azelma's body and began to sing a gentle lullaby.

Eponine rose, before turning to the action.

The national guard were climbing the barricade. Eponine frantically searched for Marius, before she finally caught sight of him holding a torch and bending down to pick up a barrel of gunpowder.

"Marius! What are you doing?" She heard Gavroche say.

A gun was aimed at Marius. "No!" Cried Eponine, running forward and scrambling up the barricade.

"Eponine! Don't!" Marie-Anne screamed hoarsely, but it was too late.

Eponine put her hand over the musket as the trigger was pulled.

One thought surged through her mind.

Fight for him. I would die for him. I will die for him.

"Fall back or I'll blow the barricade!" She heard his voice say.

"Blow yourself with it?" The national guard tried sounding clever, but his voice trembled slightly.

"I'll blow myself with it." Vowed Marius.

Eponine bit her coat so she didn't cry out in pain. Her shoulder and collarbone and hand seared. She felt her consciousness slipping.

"'Ponine." Her eyes opened slightly. Her vision was blurred, but then adjusted to Marius' perfect face.

"Marius." She spoke weakly. She smiled slightly. "So it wasn't too late...Monsieur Marius."

"Eponine-" She cut him off so she could continue talking.

"When I'm gone, remember to kiss me on the forehead, I shall feel it from beyond..." She tried to reach for him, but gasped in agony as her shoulder had been moved.

He knelt beside her, concern deep in his hazel eyes again. "Eponine, what's wrong?" He took her cap off. "There's something wet upon your hair." He then took her hand in his, causing her to flinch slightly. "Eponine, you're hurt...one can't die of a hole through a hand! Oh lord, it was you, who blocked the bullet! You need some help, oh, God, it's everywhere!" He was starting to look panicked as he saw how much blood was dripping down her torso, but she tightened her own grip on his hand. The expected pain didn't come.

"Don't you fret...it's nothing, Monsieur Marius...I don't feel the pain anymore." She assured him. "A bit of blood that weeps...a little fall of rain, can hardly hurt me now...you're here, it's you!" She looked deeply into his eyes. "You're all that matters to me...you're here, that's all I need to know." He let go of her hand a moment, adjusting their position so her head was on his shoulder and his arm was around her.

"Such bliss...and you will keep me safe, you will protect me. And you will keep me close, pressed close against your heart...the rain will make the flowers grow." She closed her eyes and sighed in content, her hair cascading over his shoulder. Over the gunpowder, he could still smell its floral fragrance.

How had he gotten so drunk last night?

'Ponine was the one who he loved. Now he was losing her... And he realised now, she cared a lot more for him than he thought.

"But you will live, 'Ponine...Dear God above." He half spoke to her, half prayed towards the smoke filled sky. "Look at me." He touched her face gently. "Love knows how to close your wound, if I could heal your wounds with words of love."

"Just hold me now, and let it be. Shelter me, comfort me and keep me warm. I feel better in your arms." At last. "Please don't leave, it won't be long-"

Marius cut her off. "You would live a hundred years, if you let me show you how. If you just listen to me," He checked to be sure she was listening, "I won't desert you now." He promised.

"The rain can't hurt me now! This rain, will wash away what's past! The last drops of rain..." She held out her unwounded hand, which shook from lack of blood, to feel the rain on it. "And you will keep me safe, and you will keep me close. You are the springtime returning...you will protect me. Held very tightly, so close..." She was stumbling over words, but the last thing she said was full of sincerity. "I'll sleep in your embrace at last."

She took his hand in her own. "The rain that brings you here is Heaven-blessed! Bless the rain, that brings you back...the skies begin to clear, and I'm at rest." She choked slightly, before saying gently. "I feel better...a breath away from where you are." She choked again. "But where is this light coming from? Barely a breath separating us...I've come home from so far!" She gasped in pain again. "It wasn't too late." She choked.

Marius' face was agonised with despair. "So don't you fret, Monsieur Marius...no, it's nothing, M'sieur." She comforted him.

"Rest in peace, dearest Éponine. Hush-a-bye my dear." He held her a little closer.

"I don't feel any pain." She said.

"You won't feel the pain anymore." Marius felt assured.

"A bit of blood that weeps." She examined her hand.

"The last drops of rain, won't hurt you anymore." He assured himself as much as he assured her.

"A little fall of rain can hardly hurt me now." She gasped the last word in an agonised way.

"It's me-look, I'm here." He said gently.

"That's all I need to know." She replied softly.

"You will protect me...safe," She choked.

"I will wait here, I will stay with you." A tear escaped his eye.

"Pressed...close...against your heart."

"'Til you are sleeping." He promised.

"The rain..." She trailed off.

"And rain." He spoke strongly, trying to encourage her to keep breathing, trying not to lose her.

"Will...make...the flowers..." She moved her head closer to his, but her eyes closed and she was still.

"Will make the flowers..." He gazed at her, but she remained still. "Grow." His voice was hoarse. He leant to kiss her on the forehead.

Her eyes fluttered open, a pure, bright green.

"A breath away..from where you are...I've come home...from so far..." This time, her lips met his before she went limp again.

Marius' lips tingled. He needed more of that kiss.

"Eponine?" He whispered. She didn't reply.

"Eponine. I've come home from so far." He sobbed into her hair.