Les Méchants, Waiting Here, Unconditional Love, A Little Blood That Cries, Hope, One Towards the Other, La Pluie Fera Pousser les Fleurs, I Love Him, Outburst, Empty Promise, The Sombre Depths of Death, Une Pauvre Fille, Toute Seule, Love Prevails, The Girl Nextdoor, Quelques Gouttes de Pluie, Love is a Hardship, Stalwart and True, Ma Chérie, My Darling, Un Peu de Sang Qui Pleure, The Jondrette Girl, Her Death, Prom Night. That's 24 Méponine fanfictions (now it actually is 24 :P)... I need another hobbie :P Wow, 10 reviews already! That's awesome, you guys are awesome!

Thank you to everyone who reviewed and thank you to EM Lover. I think you will like this chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Les Mis or any of the characters.

Eponine walked as quickly as she could, which wasn't very quick as she was limping. Once she figured she was far enough from the Gorbeau House, she walked down an alleyway and collapsed. She pulled her knees up to her chest and sobbed out of such sheer desperation.

"Great." she muttered. "Now, not only do I feel like a fool, but now I'm homeless! Great, just freaking great!" She continued to sob until she passed out, both from exhaustion and from loss of blood. She slept dreamlessly.

...

Around the same time as Eponine, Marius was also drifting off into sleep. Though, unlike Eponine, he did not sleep dreamlessly...

Marius' hands lovingly caressed Eponine's body as he kissed up and down her neck. She moaned in pleasure. Marius pressed his lips to hers and he held her close to him. She kissed him back fervently.

"'Ponine..." he murmured against her lips, "Oh 'Ponine... I love you..." his hands rested lightly on her thighs.

"I love you too, Monsieur." she murmured back. He deepened the kiss and pulled her even closer, if that was possible. Eponine wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'm yours..." she whispered. Marius smiled.

Marius woke up, rather suddenly.

"What the hell!?" he exclaimed to himself. "Did I just dream about...? What the hell!?" Marius didn't realise that it wasn't a dream, but a memory. "I... I cannot be having those type of dreams about Eponine!" he said, though he had not found it to be an unpleasant dream. "Seriously, what the actual hell!?" He tried to forget about it, but he found himself quite unable to. He got up and got dressed, deciding that he would go for a walk.

It was still dark outside. Marius guessed that it was around 4:00 in the morning. He walked down the streets of Paris, thinking about his dream. I cannot be dreaming about Eponine like that... She's my best friend, I can't... She's so beautiful... Stop that! What am I thinking!? I can't... This is bizarre... Marius was confused by these feelings. It was the first time, save for the drunken night that he did not remember, that he had ever thought of Eponine in that way. He was definitely not used to it. He sighed lightly.

"'Ponine..." he murmured, "Why do I feel like this...?"

"Feel like what, Monsieur?" a voice softly asked from the shadows of an alleyway. Marius turned and saw Eponine, beaten and battered.

"Eponine! My God, what happened to you!?" he asked her as he ran over to her.

"I'm okay, Monsieur."

"You're bleeding!"

"I'm okay."

"You are not okay! 'Ponine, what happened? Who did this to you!?"

"No one..." she replied.

"Please, Eponine, tell me." he begged her. She took one look at him and knew that she couldn't deny him anything. Not quite sure that's a good thing... she thought bitterly.

"It was my father..." she said quietly. His eyes widened.

"How... how long has he... how long has he been beating you?"

"Since we moved to Paris." she admitted. She wobbled slightly.

"You need a doctor's care." he said as he wrapped an arm around her waist to support her. She shook her head. "Eponine, please, let me help you. You're badly injured and you're bleeding. You need help, let me help you." She sighed.

"Fine." She went to take a step and would have collapsed if Marius hadn't caught her. He picked her up. "Hey, I can walk." she said, knowing that it wasn't true. Marius just shook his head and carried her to the hospital, worrying the whole time about how badly she was bleeding and how light she was. Eponine ended up passing out before they arrived at the hospital.

Once in the hospital, Marius was led by a doctor to a hospital bed, where he gently placed Eponine. The doctor cleaned and bandaged her wounds. Eponine remained unconscious the whole time.

Marius watched her worriedly. He always worried about her, about what her father and his gang did to her, or how malnourished she was. When they'd first become friends, Marius had often offered her money. He had stopped doing that, realising that it offended her a bit and that she would never accept his money. He also often bought her food, though she didn't always accept it (she usually only allowed him to buy her food when she was absolutely famished). And why did Eponine so often refuse his help? Pride definitely played a part, but it was more that she didn't want to seem weak in the eyes of Marius, or that she didn't want him to 'waste' (though Marius always argued that it wasn't a waste) his money on her.

The doctor was about to give her a needle to dull the pain that she would undoubtedly experience upon waking, when Eponine awoke and grabbed his wrist, effectively stopping him from giving her the needle.

"It will help with the pain." The doctor explained. Eponine didn't release her grip on his wrist.

"It's okay, 'Ponine." Marius said softly. "Let him give you the needle, it'll help." Eponine eyed the needle apprehensively. "Please, 'Ponine, trust me." Eponine sighed and let go of the doctor's wrist. Marius took one of Eponine's hands in his own as the doctor gave her the needle. Eponine winced slightly as the needle went in, but almost immediately felt the effects and began to calm down as he pain vanished. Her eyes drooped.

"Did I neglect to mention that it'll make you sleep?" the doctor, a rather elderly man, asked.

"Just a little..." Eponine replied drowsily, a bitter edge in her voice.

"Rest now, Eponine. You're safe now." Marius said.

"I don't... wanna..." Eponine tried uselessly to fight the drowsiness.

"Eponine, please, just rest. You need to heal."

"'M not tired..."

"Yes you are."

"No 'm not..." she mumbled before her eyes closed. She had fallen asleep. Marius couldn't help but smile slightly.

"There's not much else I can do for her," the doctor said, "is there anywhere safe that she could stay until she heals?" Marius nodded.

"She can stay with me." he said. He gently lifted her from the hospital bed and carried her to the Cafe Musain, where he lived in one of the rooms above. When he walked through the door, he wasn't surprised to see Grantaire sitting at one of the tables, passed out with a bottle of wine still in his hand. All of the other members of Les Amis de l'ABC had long since gone to bed. Marius glanced at his watch. It was 5:00 in the morning. He carried Eponine up to his room and laid her down on his bed. He watched her sleep for a moment, still worried about her, before walking over to the sofa and laying down. He was asleep within seconds.

Once again, Marius dreamed of Eponine.

Well I hope you enjoyed that! Please review!