When Valjean is shot at the barricade, he begs Enjolras to save Marius' life. Enjolras doesn't want to, he wants to die on that barricade because Prouvoire is dead, Bahorel is dead, and everyone else is going to die soon enough. And he killed them. Yet, when Valjean gives him a letter, Enjolras understands. He is not a volunteer: he is Cosette's father. Cosette, a girl he has never met. And yet he agrees to do it for her because she has just lost her father because of Enjolras' reckless attempt at a Revolution, and Enjolras owes Valjean his life. He is responsible for her father's death; he will not be responsible for the death of the man she loves.
He carries Marius through the sewers, to his grandfather. That is a strange request, since the last time he recalls Marius talking about him, the boy had said they had cut every bridge. Nonetheless, he does as he is told, without question, for once in his life.
There is an hour, or maybe more, of confusion, of people running and yelling, of dirty shoes staining the perfect floor of that wealthy house. He sits in the hallway and waits for the doctor to finish with Marius. He explains to Monsieur Guillenormand what has happened and answers his questions, but most of the time he just says I don't know. When the doctor has finished with Marius, he insists on checking on Enjolras. He does not want to, but there is no strength left in his body to fight. He washes clean of the dirt, the dust, the gunpowder, the blood and accepts the clean clothes he is offered. Not that he cares about looking good, he does not feel good, but he cannot walk in the streets covered in blood and gunpowder, and he does not want to frighten Cosette.
When he knocks at the door of Rue de l'Homme Armé, an old woman opens the door. He asks to talk with Cosette and shows her the letter, but she will not let him in. She is trying to protect the girl; he understands that. Then he mentions Marius, Marius who is wounded, Marius who might die, and the woman softens. She still forbids him to enter, but she promises to tell the girl and Enjolras leaves. He has nowhere to go. Normally, he would go back to the apartment he shares with Combeferre, but it is too risky to go there, for now. And there is too much of Combeferre in that place, things he is not ready to deal with. He walks, for hours, until his feet bring him back to the house he had been to after the barricade. He is welcomed kindly and offered a warm meal, and then he sits beside Marius' bed. He sits there and the only thing he can think about is that he wished it was Combeferre, or Courfeyrac, or anyone else in Marius' place. Not because he does not like the boy – well, he doesn't but that is not the point – but simply because he was at the barricade with the precise intent to get killed, to end the sufferance of a broken heart.
His thoughts are interrupted by people going in and out: the doctor, Monsieur Guillenormand, the governess. Then someone different enters and Enjolras notices because someone is explaining to the new visitor what has happened. He turns; it's a reflex, nothing more, but he turns because he needs to see. The girl standing at the end of the bed is very young, she might be seventeen, maybe eighteen; she is quite beautiful, with her dark brown hair nicely braided, the dress that underlines her curves in the right places. She has a kind face and smart eyes; she must be beautiful when she smiles. Enjolras would not normally notice something like that, but it strikes him the fact that she looks like she comes from another world, a world without death.
In the following days, they sit there together, most of the time in silence. Only once does Cosette ask about her father, and Enjolras explains. The first time he mentions the barricade he is not sure if the girl knows what that is, but she appears to understand. Cosette cries for her father of an hour, and Enjolras awkwardly pats her back, because he does not know what else to do. The rest of the time, Cosette holds Marius' hand and speaks softly to him, even if the doctor has told them that he cannot hear her. She does so with stubborn confidence, the same that induced Enjolras to build a barricade. When Marius dies, after ten days of sufferance, she cries again, for hours, with Enjolras trying to console her. She cries, but she does not break. She grieves, but she does not lose her lucidity. She asks Enjolras for the name of a good lawyer because she needs to settle her father's affairs, and Enjolras offers to take care of it himself.
In the days after the uprise, the King has renounced hunting down the revolutionaries who survived the barricades. He seems satisfied with the carnage and convinced that no one will try again. Enjolras, like other leaders – the few who survived – receive a royal pardon. He hates it but is too emotionally drained, too occupied with blaming himself for the death of his friends to do anything about it.
The Corinthe reopens two weeks after the barricade. The lady who owns it now looks familiar, but Enjolras does not dare to ask. He goes there every day, after classes. He has returned to university, to his apartment, to the life before the failed Revolution. He has helped Cosette to find a new home, a nice three bedrooms apartment above an empty shop, which she wants to transform into a boutique. Sometimes they talk, mostly about business, but occasionally she asks about Marius' life, the meetings at the Musain, the Revolution. She wants to know the parts of Marius that she did not have time to ask about directly, and Enjolras shares what little he knows. It is painful, but it keeps the memories alive.
When they meet, it is because Cosette joins him at the Corinthe, where Enjolras sits, observing the painfully familiar lady serving at the tables. She introduces herself as Musichetta one day, and Enjolras knows the name. Someone's mistress. Not Combeferre's; he would have known if he had a mistress. Not Courfeyrac's because he never brought the same mistress twice, and the brunette serving him his coffee is a rather regular presence in his memories. It occurs to him that it might have been Laigle, or Joly, or both, and he settles with that. Musichetta: Joly and Laigle's mistress. Another woman has robbed of her loved ones.
When he graduates, he celebrates at the Corinthe with Cosette. They have become quite well acquainted during the past year. She is educated, polite, resilient. She is brilliant in her own way, and she lost that aura of ingenuity she had when he first met her. She is independent and lives by herself. She owns a shop, and she is happy with it. Enjolras opens a legal counselling office, and he works late every evening. He helps people, charging those who can afford to pay and working for free for those who need it. He has chosen a flat close to the Corinthe that he uses as a home and office. He goes to the Corinthe every evening because Musichetta's cooking skills are excellent and Cosette is there. They share a meal, and they talk about their day.
Enjolras has not changed. He still is the idealistic and charismatic leader he was before that June of 1832. He has become less open and less inclined to share his thoughts. Cosette is quiet, maybe because of the long years she spent alone with her father. They never talk about their childhood; she never mentions her mother, and he never asks. When the weather is good, the walk to Luxembourg's gardens on Sundays, Cosette shows him where he first met Marius, and Enjolras likes to stand on the rock he used as a stage the first time he tried to rally the people. It is a comforting routine. The dawn of the Fifth of June is part of their daily lives, but it fades with time.
Cosette seems happy enough, and he enjoys her company. Furthermore, his father pressures him; he wants him to settle, build his family, and produce an heir. There is no running from that duty, and Cosette seems to enjoy his company, too. So, one day, he gets on one knee and asks her to marry him. It takes a good deal of effort to do it because if she refuses, he will lose her friendship and the prospect of settling with someone he likes. But she says yes, and they are married within the year.
On their wedding day, it rains. The ceremony is held in a Church because Cosette is Catholic and he respects that, but it does not last too long. Brief and painless. Musichetta is quite worried about the reputation of her cafe. Too many smartly dressed people in here, she says, referring to Enjolras' extended family. He seems annoyed as much as she is, but the alternative was to have a fancy reception in his father's mansion in Provence, and he would rather not. He is a good dancer, and so is Cosette. Their upbringing, he considers, had the positive effect of saving them the embarrassment of not knowing how to dance.
They don't love each other, not in the way Cosette loved Marius, and not in the way Enjolras loves Patria. Nevertheless, they respect each other, and, with time, they become more intimate, more spontaneous around each other. That is enough to raise three happy children. Their firstborn is called Jean, like Cosette's father. Like Prouvoire, Enjolras thinks when Cosette suggests the name. Their daughters resemble Enjolras in an almost frightening way. Clarisse often holds public speeches to her dolls, something Musichetta finds very amusing. Marie can be so deeply absorbed in her thoughts that she loses the sense of time, like her father when he is working on his next idea to help the people.
They never talk Revolution in front of their children. Who knows what to expect from Enjolras' heirs if a small flame is kindled in their hearts