So I've been holding this hostage for a couple days—couldn't decide if I liked it or not.
When Enjolras saw Bossuet and Marius come rushing into the convention hall, interrupting the man who had been speaking, and shouting his name, he felt his heart drop. He ran down toward his friends, apologetically nodding for the speaker to continue, as he ushered them out of the main room.
Once they were in a corridor, he grab one of each of their shoulders' frantically and gasped, "What is it?" hoping against all odds that it was something stupid and silly and he could just go back to work, exasperated at his friends, but he knew from the looks on their faces that whatever was the matter, it was something serious.
"Eponine," Marius choked out, but stopped as Enjolras transferred the hand that had been on Bossuet's shoulder to Marius' other side and shook his friend, angrily willing him to spit it out, "Eponine…" Marius began again but paused and gulped nervously, "She…her father…kidnapped her," he finally managed to say.
Enjolras let his hands fall from his friend in a daze, anger and fear bubbling in the pit of his stomach. His mouth was agape as he turned to his friends who were watching him intently, "Did he give any hint about where he was taking her?" he asked, voice quiet and calculating as his thoughts ran over the hundreds of possibilities of what could be happening to Eponine at that very minute. He remembered Eponine's fears at the thought of returning home having abandoned her father during one of his criminal acts.
Bossuet shook his head, but Marius looked thoughtful, "Well," he began, only to be met with Enjolras' frightening glare yet again, "I know where she used to live—where her family lives. Do you think he might have taken her there?"
Two pairs of eyes were trained on Enjolras waiting for him to make a decision, "I guess it's the only thing we've got to work on, so let's head there," he decided and whirled out of the corridor, half running toward the door, with Bossuet and Marius close behind him.
Enjolras let Marius overtake him when they reached the street, as he realized he had no idea where they were headed. "Come on," Marius called running past his friends and waving over his shoulder, "She lives this way!"
The trio took off down the street, barely managing to swerve and avoid innocent pedestrians. It did not take long for Marius to lead them to the building where the Thenardiers lived. He stopped outside the front stoop and turned around to Enjolras and Bossuet, "Should we just burst in there? Or do we need a plan?"
Enjolras frowned. He had no clue what they should do. At this point he really wished they had thought to fetch Bahorel, as he would be much better in a fight if it came to that. He studied the building for a minute, "We don't even know if they're in there. So maybe we should just go up and listen at the door and try to figure out what we are dealing with?" he suggested. If Eponine was up there potentially being hurt by her father, he did not want to waste another minute deliberating outside. Marius and Bossuet nodded in agreement with his plan and they had just turned to head into the building, when they heard footsteps thundering down the stairs inside.
"Over here!" Marius motioned for his friends to hide beside the stoop and try to avoid whoever was coming out. It was lucky he had, for as soon as Enjolras and Bossuet were crouched down next to the wall beside Marius, Thenardier came crashing out of the building, muttering to himself.
Marius inclined his head to the departing man before he muttered, "That's her father," to clarify for his two friends.
"What is he saying?" Bossuet tried to whisper, but unlucky as he generally was, Thenardier heard him and whirled around spying the three men as he did. Enjolras did not wait for Thenardier to react; he surged forward and grasped the smaller man by his collar and finding some unknown strength, pulled the man up off his feet, making him gag as his loosened cravat dug into his neck.
"Where is Eponine," Enjolras icily demanded, voice dangerously low as he stared down Eponine's father.
The man got a steely glint in his eye and just chuckled, "Why would I tell you? It's my business where my own daughter is, not yours," Thenardier spat at Enjolras.
Enjolras did not flinch, but just gripped the man's collar more tightly in his hand, "Tell me where she is and what you did with her this instant," he said in a venomous whisper. Behind him, Enjolras could hear Bossuet and Marius moving to stand on either side of him, backing him up. He noticed Thenardier's eyes flick to each of them three men before he spoke.
"She's inside," he muttered and began squirming trying to get away again. Enjolras dropped the man and rushed inside the building, not even bothering to see where Eponine's father slunk off to.
He charged up the stairs, hearing Marius shout from behind him, "Third floor, fifth door on the right!" giving him the needed directions to which flat was the Thenardiers'. Approaching the door, Enjolras paused for a second, and not hearing any noise coming from the flat, he burst inside, shouting Eponine's name.
He was greeted by the sight of a middle-aged, robust woman, in raggedy clothing, standing by a rickety table, staring at him in shock. Judging from her looks, Enjolras deducted that she must be Eponine's mother, for she looked quite similar to her daughter, but in a less pleasant sort of way. At first, Enjolras could not figure out what the difference was, for the woman had the same bone structure and same brown eyes, although her hair was auburn instead of Eponine's dark brown hair, and then he realized that her brown eyes were flat and beady, staring at him without the spark of goodness and intelligence that Eponine's always held.
Fighting back a shudder at the realization, Enjolras tried to control his anger as he asked the woman, "Is Eponine here?" The woman nodded dumbfounded and jerked her thumb toward the closed and latched, door at the side of the room.
Enjolras brushed past her and undid the latch, walking into a pitch black room to find Eponine and a younger girl sitting up on a bed, blinking at the light that flooded into the room from the open door.
"Enjolras?" Eponine asked uncertainly.
"Eponine!" he cried and rushed forward to envelope her in a tight embrace, which she returned.
As he was pulling her off the bed and helping her to stand Eponine resisted for a minute, falling back onto the bed and looking at him, confusion clear on her face, "How…why…what are you doing here?" she finally asked.
"Looking for you," he replied shortly, still trying to tug her away, "Marius and Bossuet are outside, let's go."
Eponine stood finally, but turned to look at the girl still sitting on the bed, eyes wide with fear. Eponine turned to Enjolras, "I can't just leave my sister," she whispered to him.
Enjolras looked between the two girls, "Then she can come back to our flat," he offered, holding a hand out to the other girl.
But the younger girl shook her head, "I can't leave, Eponine—father would kill me if he came back to find us both gone. You go, I'll be fine."
Eponine's eyes filled with terror and she reached out and grabbed her sister, wrapping her arms tightly around her, "Azelma, you have to come with us, it's much safer to get you away from here. He will probably hurt you badly as is," Eponine pleaded, practically shaking her sister.
But Azelma just shook her head and gave Eponine another hug, before she sat back down on the bed and raised her chin, in a mimicry of Eponine's determined expression, "No, you know I'm not as brave as you, 'Ponine. I have to stay. I'll be fine. Mama won't let him hurt me too badly."
Eponine looked like she was close to tears, so Enjolras made one last plea to the sister, "Please, really, you can come with us," but the girl just shook her head sadly, resigned to her fate. Enjolras realized that Eponine was not going to be able to convince her sister otherwise—the girl looked to be just as determined as he had seen Eponine look in the past. So Enjolras just nodded in understanding at the younger girl and gently took Eponine's hand, "Come on; we have to be going," he told her and slowly started pulling her out of the room.
Eponine grabbed Azelma's hand and grasped it, while still allowing Enjolras to take her away. When the girls' arms had been stretched to their fullest extent, Azelma sadly dropped her sister's hand and gave her a small smile. Eponine bit her lip in determination and assured her sister, "I will come back for you soon."
Azelma just shook her head as if she did not believe her sister and moved to return to her place on the bed as Enjolras and Eponine disappeared around the corner and out of sight of the bedroom.
As soon as Eponine let go of her sister's hand, Enjolras began to pull her more rapidly away. Neither of them acknowledged Madame Thenardier as they hurried for the door. Once in the hallway, with Marius and Bossuet, Eponine gave a sob and buried her head in Enjolras' shoulder as he led them out of the building and onto the street.
Once they were out of the worse sections of Paris, Marius and Bossuet left Enjolras and Eponine to go rejoin Joly and the girls where they had left them at the café and Enjolras and Eponine headed toward their flat.
When they were alone, Eponine pulled away from Enjolras and they made the rest of the way to the flat in silence, Eponine staring sullenly at the ground and Enjolras watching her intently.
Enjolras was beginning to become worried at what Eponine was thinking, but as they were nearing the flat, she finally spoke up and said, "I can't believe I left her," in a small voice. Enjolras felt his heart drop at the sadness in her voice and reached over to take her hand and just silently listened as she continued, "I should have made her come with us. Now she's alone with our father."
"She wouldn't have come Eponine," Enjolras pointed out, which just earned him a glare, but he continued, "She was giving you the same look you gave me when you were trying to convince me to let you come to the barricade," Eponine looked at him startled, "She was very determined to stay."
Eponine appeared to think about this as they climbed the stairs to the flat. While Enjolras was opening the door she stated, "I'll have to figure out a way to help her," and then after a pause she added, "and Gavroche."
Enjolras started and turned around to stare at Eponine, "Gavroche? Why would you need to help Gavroche?"
"He's my brother," Eponine said matter-of-factly.
"He is?" Enjolras asked incredulously. The little boy had never mentioned having family, but if all the family he had was terrible thieving parents, then Enjolras could not really blame him.
Eponine frowned at him, "Yes. Do you know him?"
Enjolras nodded, "He used to hang around our group a lot. He was at the barricades. His friends and he acted as messengers between the barricades," honestly, Enjolras was surprised Eponine had not seen him, even though she had been unconscious for much of the battle—the little boy always seemed to be everywhere all at once.
"He was!" Eponine gasped, "How could I have missed him! Have you seen him since?" Eponine looked up at him, her face displaying her anxiousness at the thought of having news of her brother.
Enjolras shook his head, "No I don't think I've seen him since the day the convention first met," he told her and watched her face fall, "He does not live with your family, correct? Why? When was the last time you saw him?" he asked curious, as to why the boy lived on the streets as he thought he did.
Eponine sighed and moved slowly toward the couch, where she perched sadly as she began her story, "No, he ran away when he was ten or so, because of our parents' hatred toward him. They beat him worse than Azelma and me," Eponine grimacing as the memories flashed before her eyes, "And they treated him like trash. At least with 'Zel and I, our mother liked us enough and made our father not hit us too hard, but Gavroche was just another worthless mouth to feed to them. So finally, he had enough and he just left. I haven't seen him in a while and I miss him," Eponine trailed off sadly hanging her head.
Her depression made Enjolras wrap his arms around her and pull her into a tight embrace, "I'm sorry," he said, "If I see him soon, I will let him know you are looking for him," he gripped her tighter, "And we will figure out a way to help both of them—Azelma and Gavroche."
Eponine smiled up at him through the tears glistening unshed in her eyes, "Merci," she whispered, leaning up to brush her lips against his jaw.
They remained entangled in each other's arms for a long while, as Enjolras was just glad to have Eponine back safe and sound. Eventually, Eponine pulled back from him with a sigh and stood up.
She leaned down to press a kiss to the top of his head, "Thank you for finding me so quickly. I was rather surprised to hear your voice," she laughed in relief at the memory, before she smirked, "I would have gotten away eventually though. So you don't always need to rush to my aid."
Enjolras laughed, "I'm sure," he grinned, "But I enjoy rushing to your aid," he assured her as he also stood up, happy to see her smiling again, "Don't you have a speech to be working on now?" he teased as he pushed her toward the table.
Eponine frowned, "Yes, yes, I know, I'm on it," she waved her hand brushing him away. So Enjolras just smiled and picked up his own work as they settled into their happy little evening routine.