A/N: Brace yourselves for this chapter, everyone! Warnings here for death and much drama.

Ceara: Marius being the lawyer, as well as E/E are the two elephants in the room that no one wants to talk about for now!

Just a Guest: Yep, hooray for Clue! Yes, the burglar is Claquesous. No one else in Paris has that bad a vendetta against the older Thenardier girl. You're pretty much spot on with what happened with Fantine and the kids...though actually Eponine had the exact same plan in mind (getting her mother to someplace safe), and just needed the extra manpower there. Too bad it all backfired. As for Thenardier's note, we'll see its odious contents soon enough.

Chapter 26: Leavetakings

Despite Fantine's earlier revulsion regarding M. Thenardier's missive, it was only a matter of time till she found herself wondering about its particular contents. 'It must be truly horrible if it can make Eponine so upset,' she mused as she pushed some more wood into the stove warming the front room. An eerie silence had overtaken the apartment despite the fact that everyone was busy; Jean Valjean and Victor were preparing supper in the kitchen while Azelma, Cosette, Marius, Combeferre, Enjolras, and Courfeyrac were in another room tending to Mme. Thenardier. The only other person in the front room was Eponine, who was curled up in an armchair for a much needed nap. As quietly as she could, Fantine stole up to the sleeping girl and found M. Thenardier's note still crumpled up in her hand. She deftly extricated the tobacco stained paper from Eponine's grip and smoothed out the reeking missive on a table in order to decipher this scrawl:

Babet,

If my wife and the girls see you, tell them that I've gone to our benefactors. The business I have requires some elegance and so I have no use for their shamming their illnesses and squawking about coins. I will be moving with utmost discretion, and so I shall not be back soon.

Regards,

Thenardier

For a moment Fantine had the urge to toss this insulting missive into the stove, but she recalled that Eponine would surely search for it, and so she settled for dropping it next to the armchair. All the same she could feel her limbs trembling from sheer disgust at M. Thenardier's words. 'He's not what Lisette wants him to be,' she realized as she rushed out into the house's narrow front courtyard. She leaned against the wall and took a deep breath in an effort to hold back a sob as the memory of Tholomyes' desertion years ago welled up anew in her mind's eye. As bitter as this recollection was, she knew it could hardly compare to the Thenardiers' present situation. 'If she asks me about him, will I have to lie just how Sister Simplice did years ago?' she wondered.

As she swiped at her eyes she heard the front door open. "Fantine, you should come back inside," Jean Valjean called to her kindly.

"I can't," Fantine said. When she looked up, she now saw Jean Valjean standing at her side. It took a few more moments before she could meet his gaze, which would have been the very picture of serenity if not for the drawn look under his eyes. "What will we do?" she whispered.

Jean Valjean glanced back towards the house. "We have to care for Mme. Thenardier. Perhaps by the time she is strong again her husband will return."

Fantine shook her head. "Not only her." She shivered as she recalled the harrowing events of the afternoon, especially the sight of her friend gasping for breath in the abandoned stairwell. "The girls and those young men do not trust me. I was only trying to help. I didn't know that the police were following me. I wouldn't have gone to the Marais if I had the slightest idea of it."

"Eponine and Azelma said they were trying to get their mother away from the area when you arrived?" Jean Valjean asked.

Fantine sighed miserably. "They never said to where. Maybe they were going to the Necker or someplace better. Now it's not going to be of any use since she's so sick and of course they'll never forgive me for making a mess of it."

Jean Valjean looked down even as he stepped a little closer to her, perhaps in order to not be overheard by anyone in the house. "Have you ever told them why Inspector Perrot relies on you?"

"What would I tell them? That it all began because I had to keep Cosette away from the police when they thought she was with that meeting at the Musain?" she seethed. "They will not understand."

"They will refuse your help if you cannot convince them to trust you," he pointed out.

"I do not have a choice," Fantine hissed. "I cannot tell the truth either because of Perrot. If he finds out that I told of our arrangement, he'll have all of us in prison before we know it!"

Jean Valjean was silent for a few more moments. "Is there no means of amiably parting ways with him? He has already learned much from you, and it will be unseemly for him to still do so now that there is an attorney in the picture," he said, but his tone was soft as if he was speaking more to himself than to her.

Nevertheless she heard and so she shook her head. "I know who he wants." She sighed as she recalled her rash promise to Eponine; it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep her word without endangering so many other persons. 'Perrot will want me to give up someone, anyone,' she realized. What if he would ask her to hand Victor over to the police? 'If I do that it will be as good as if I turned him out into the street after Lisette pushed him away,' she thought.

Jean Valjean let out a heavy sigh. "Does Javert know about this situation?"

"I do not know." This was a possibility that Fantine did not wish to contemplate at length, especially since Javert knew the man who had broken into the hovel at the Marais. It would not be long till the police officers would start comparing notes about this incident and Javert would make the connection, if he hadn't done so already. "If he knows, where will we go this time?"

"Out of Paris," he murmured.

"Where?" she wondered aloud. Despite all the years and miles away from Montreuil-sur-mer, Javert had still found them. He had also recognized Jean Valjean from the galleys at Toulon. It now seemed to Fantine that he had a reach that encompassed all of France. "We'll have to leave the country."

He nodded pensively as he leaned against the garden wall. "England is closest by."

Despite the gathering dark, she felt a laugh rising to her lips at the mention of this place. "A friend of mine once went there. Her name was Favourite. She liked England very much," she explained.

Jean Valjean's expression was a little brighter. "What will we be there?"

"A respectable family," Fantine blurted out. "Maybe not just you, me, Cosette, and Victor. Lisette, Eponine, and Azelma can come too. We can leave when we've prepared properly for it and when Lisette is well again." She could envision all of them in a cottage by the sea, as she had once seen in a picture in a book featuring the town of Brighton; she knew nothing of the place but the name was wholesome to her ears. Perhaps there, in a different clime, there would be no need for all the names they carried. 'What would I be though after having been Mademoiselle Fabre for so long?' she wondered.

Suddenly the sound of a door opening and shutting cut through her reverie, prompting her to hurry into the house. She and Jean Valjean found Victor and Enjolras outside Mme. Thenardier's sickroom, poring over what was clearly a clandestine newsletter. At the sight of them, the two young men ceased their conversation and Victor pocketed the reading material. Enjolras merely nodded to them diffidently. "There hasn't been a change."

"It hasn't been very long," Fantine answered. She looked at Victor and crossed her arms. "I need to speak with Monsieur Enjolras. Go to your sister."

Victor chewed the inside of his cheek. "Now?"

"Please," Fantine said more sternly. It was all she could do not to breathe a sigh of relief when Victor followed Jean Valjean to the sickroom and shut the door behind him. She swallowed hard as she looked at Enjolras, who now seemed to be deep in thought. "I will not allow you and your friends to endanger my son," she told him.

Enjolras met her angry eyes for a moment. "You should know that we do not permit him to be involved in some of our activities. However we cannot prevent his forming opinions."

"He's a child! Do you expect him to know better?" Fantine snapped. "What sort of ideas have you boys been giving him?"

"Ideas that he is free to adopt," Enjolras replied.

'Why does he listen to you, Bahorel, and the others, but not to me?' Fantine raged silently. "What about Eponine? Are you simply allowing her to follow you into danger?"

"She is not doing such a thing," he retorted.

"She would," Fantine insisted. She sighed when she saw Enjolras raise an eyebrow sceptically. "I know you find it difficult to believe me, but I am telling the truth when I say that the police have been following you—you and your friends. They have been doing so for some months now, since that raid at the Musain, maybe even before. I am sure that they will put you in prison if they don't do worse to you at an emeute," she continued.

"Why are you telling me this?" Enjolras demanded.

"She's not my daughter but I look at her almost as my own, as if she was Cosette's sister. I've known her and her family for years," she said softly.

He nodded almost imperceptibly. "Then what would you have me do?"

"Keep her away from your fighting. "You love her even a little. If you don't love her, at least have a little pity," Fantine entreated him. "She's so young and you're going to lead her to her death! How can you stand it?"

Enjolras' eyes narrowed. "That is not my intention. You presume a great deal, Citizenness."

"You cannot be certain that she will be safe either," Fantine challenged.

"And I s'pose you think you're the one who is sure of it?" Eponine's voice chimed in. She was now standing in the doorway of the front room, still blinking sleep away from her eyes. She bit her lip as she looked at Fantine and Enjolras. "How is my mother?"

"She is still asleep," Enjolras replied, taking a step towards her. "You should be there when she wakes."

Eponine sighed grimly as she met him and slipped her thin fingers between his callused ones before following him back towards the sickroom. It was at that exact instant that Cosette and Marius emerged from the room, also hand in hand. A smile of wry mirth crossed Eponine's face while Cosette's cheeks reddened. Enjolras merely raised an eyebrow as Marius shrugged sheepishly before pulling Cosette aside in order to allow their friends to pass.

Fantine looked at Cosette and Marius for a long moment, now finding herself at a complete loss for words. She now remembered having seen Marius at the Luxembourg so many weeks ago, and now she was absolutely certain that this young man had found some means to secretly keep up communication with Cosette. 'How could I have been so blind to it all this while?' Fantine wondered with dismay.

Cosette took a deep breath. "Maman, I'm sorry that Marius and I have been quiet about this for a while, when we should have told you earlier-"

"I told you that you were not allowed to see him!" Fantine cut in. "Why did you disobey me?"

Marius looked stricken but he did not let go of Cosette's hand. "Mademoiselle Fabre, the fault is entirely mine," he said. "I wrote to Cosette."

Cosette gave him an affronted look. "Marius, it's my doing too," she whispered. She was pale as she looked at Fantine again. "Maman, I know you worry about him, but you can see he's a good man, he's been nothing but kind to me."

'They all are at the beginning,' Fantine thought as she crossed her arms again. "Yes, but what will he bring you to? With the friends he has, I cannot trust him."

"I do not mean to bring her to any harm," Marius insisted. "I'd give up my life for her first."

Fantine shook her head as she looked at Marius. "I would do that same thing, Monsieur, and I have in some way. That is why I cannot allow you to see her."

"Maman, please!" Cosette begged. "If you could just listen-"

"You don't know what you're talking about, Cosette!" Fantine cried. She saw Cosette's eyes grow wide and it was only then she realized that she'd grabbed her daughter by her shoulders, as if to shake her or pull her away from Marius. Fantine recoiled and stepped away from the girl. "Cosette-"she whispered over the sound of the sickroom door opening. Fantine looked up and met Combeferre's weary eyes. "How is Lisette?"

Combeferre shook his head. "If you have something to say to her, now is the time."

"Isn't there anything you can do?" Fantine asked. "Some medicine, something more-"

"I wish there was such a thing," Combeferre said, stepping aside to let them into the room.

'You've seen people go before in the infirmary. You can't afford to cry now,' Fantine told herself as she entered the room, taking care not to meet the eyes of anybody else there, not even her own daughter. She felt something tighten in her chest when she saw Eponine and Azelma curled up in bed next to their mother's almost motionless form. "Lisette, can you hear me?" Fantine murmured as she found a place at her friend's bedside.

It seemed to her at that moment that Mme. Thenardier's lips quivered, as if she was trying to speak even as her breath was beginning to fail her. Fantine pressed the woman's thick though wasted hand in her own thin one. "Can't you stay? You need to. Your girls need you," she whispered. Yet how many times had this poor woman heard this, or perhaps repeated it to herself? How long would it sustain her, if ever at all?

Fantine took a deep breath as she chafed Mme .Thenardier's fingers. "When you get better, I'll make sure you'll be cared for. We can get away from here and live someplace better. You'll never have to worry again." She paused to wipe her eyes. "I'm sorry it went this way, I'm sorry I never did more for you and your family when I could have. It can be different, Lisette. I promise it can be."

At that moment Eponine sat up and for a moment she scowled when she saw Fantine. "What are you doing here?"

'What I have to do,' Fantine almost said but she kept silent as she continued to clasp Mme. Thenardier's hand. Eponine touched her mother's shoulder even as she shook Azelma awake. Mme. Thenardier was insensible to all of this; her chest rose and fell slowly for a few more moments till at last she was still.

Fantine chafed Mme. Thenardier's palm, but she now felt nothing in that sturdy hand. "She's gone. I'm sorry," she whispered, looking at the Thenardier girls.

Eponine nodded resolutely even as she clumsily pulled her sobbing sister closer to her. "Goodbye Maman."