AUTHOR'S NOTE: Infertile is the third installment in the fic series Tied In Knots. It takes place during and after Little Black (And White) Dress. The fic Stuck In The Rut is a prequel to both works.

This may be the final installment of Tied In Knots. If I have another idea, I'll write it, but this series is now done for the time being.

This is based on mainly the 2012 film, with a good amount of the book. The only difference is Katie Hall (from the Les Mis 25th concert) is forever and always my Cosette. Otherwise, I use the 2012 film cast.


While organizing his classroom after a long day, Marius' phone vibrates. When he reads the text, the beta has to sit down at his desk.

COSETTE iPhone 3:30 PM Éponine and Enjolras just checked in at the Mount Sinai birth center. It's happening.

Looking out the window at the bustling street in New York City, Marius runs a hand through his russet hair. His room needs sweeping at Patricks And Collingwood-Kingsley, or P.A.C.K. Kindergarten, but he dwells instead on the news. He wants to be happy for their mated friends. Éponine went through hell at the maid café, yet now she and her alpha husband's pup will enter the world imminently. Marius thinks of his alpha cousin Theodule, with a small army of children all over the city from various omega lovers. But it reminds the beta kindergarten teacher that he is sterile.

Millions have been poured into beta fertility research, and endless treatments, medicine, and therapies have been attempted. Marius himself has taken a few. But throughout history, no beta has ever concieved, or been able to sire pups with a partner. And Marius enjoys teaching at the private P.A.C.K. school in Manhattan. But now he wonders if he became an educator to have surrogate pups; if he couldn't have his own, he could look after students. And as hectic as the kindergarten can be, he loves his work.

But today is a stark reminder that he and Cosette will never have biological offspring.


The newborn Marianne sleeps in Éponine's arms.

As their attending labor and delivery nurse, Cosette is almost as tired as the new parents Enjolras and Éponine. Marius puts an arm around his wife's shoulders, while the alpha and omega gaze in breathless wonder at their daughter. Marianne wakes, and the red and wrinkled pup clasps a tiny hand around her father's finger. The normally stoic Enjolras wipes away his tears as Éponine lets out a watery laugh. "Have you ever seen anything more perfect?" she breathes.

"Well done, Cosette," Marius says quietly as not to disturb the new family. He kisses the blonde's temple, uncaring that Cosette's blue scrubs are dappled in Éponine's blood and placental fluids.

"Éponine and Marianne did the hard work all night long," Marius' spouse replies with a yawn. "Nineteen hours of it."

"You were an important part of that. You and Combeferre both." They hear footsteps. "Speaking of which."

In a white lab coat, the beta Combeferre walks in. "As your friend, let me say congratulations again. But as an OB-GYN, I need to run some more tests on your pup."

"Could I come?" Enjolras asks, still wearing his own scrubs. "I don't want to be away from Marianne."

Their obstetrician-gynecologist nods with a smile. "Of course you can join us," Combeferre replies.

Marius watches Éponine place the baby in Cosette's arms. The blonde omega looks natural with the infant, like she was meant to have children. Marius, just like any alpha, feels an immediate and intense desire to have a family with her. He wants this with his mate. But the rational part of him whispers, You can't do it. You'll never conceive with her. You're a sterile, useless, boring beta. You'll never be capable of fathering a child.

When Enjolras follows the doctor and nurse, Marius is left alone with the omega mother. "Do you need anything?" Marius asks.

Clad in the hospital gown, Éponine adjusts the pillow behind her. She winces at even the slight movement on her exhausted body. "More painkillers, honestly. The epidural is wearing off."

"Afraid I don't have the authority for that." He draws a steadying breath. "Look, 'Ponine, I need to tell you something. I sincerely apologize for not helping you before. At the maid café, I mean."

"Enjolras helped me escape. You don't need to say-"

"Yes, I do. We were, are friends, but I left you to suffer. I saw the story on the news, and he told me how you were exploited and abused. Yet I did nothing. I'm truly sorry."

"Yes, you should have done something," she says evenly. "But I accept your apology." She adjusts the medical wristband on her arm. "Words can't express how much I loved you back at NYU."

"I know."

"But I've finally found love for myself. I have a husband, and a pup, and pack of my own. I moved on at last. So can we go back to being friends?"

"Of course." He looks at the tile floor. "Weird question, but uh. What are Cosette's omega pheromones like? She told me once, but I can't scent her."

"Lavender. Cosette's scent is lavender."

Marius reaches for Éponine's hand. "I'm happy for you," he says, and this time he means it.


Drained that night, Marius and Cosette flip through television channels at their loft apartment in Manhattan. "There's nothing on," he sighs as he presses the remote button again.

The Alpha Bachelor comes on. "I will now select a mate to receive the rose," a buff alpha says. The contestant is handsome but with a dim expression, as he stands before thirty shallow omegas eager to catfight.

Cosette reaches for the remote. "Next."

A pop singer performs A Little Party Never Killed Nobody's Pack at an awards show. Teenagers weep about spending mating cycles alone in Alphadale High. The host of the children's program A's & B's & O's explains the three presentations. Omega milk factories are exposed in the crime documentary Organic.

With revulsion, Marius recognizes the next movie instantly. Help! I Didn't Know I Was An Omega! is a popular film he refuses to watch out of principle. But now he can't look away.

"Oh, I had no idea I was an omega!" the delicate omega actress gasps while she cries prettily. "I thought I was a beta my whole life!"

Marius tenses.

"But you are an omega!" the muscular alpha actor says. "Don't deny your true nature. Omegas were made to be with alphas, and to have pups. Betas are a genetic dead end–"

Marius turns off the television so swiftly, he thinks he might have cracked the remote. Silence falls.

"Well, I am a genetic dead end."

His wife looks at him. "Marius…"

"They're not wrong."

"Look at me, Marius." He finally does. "Look at me. You are more than your ability to have children or not. I am too. Our reproductive health doesn't define us."

She embraces him, and he leans into her. As a beta, he has no heightened sense of smell. He can notice average aromas, but not pheromones. He is reminded that he himself can't detect his own wife's omega scent.


The next day, the apartment is drenched in the fragrance of lavender.

Flowers are everywhere in their home – vases in the dining room, bouquets on the coffee table, overflowing in jars in the kitchen. When Marius walks in, Cosette is waiting in a light purple sundress. "Éponine mentioned you asked about my omega scent. Thought I'd surprise you with perfume."

He embraces her, and breathes in her artificial cloud of scent. "Thank you."

He noses her mating gland; he, however, doesn't have one on his own throat. She gasps when he kisses the sensitive skin on her neck, and he wonders what it feels like. Pressing his mouth to her lips, his hand goes to her flat abdomen. He imagines her expecting their own pup within her.


A few weeks later, he picks up his wife at Mount Sinai Hospital. When Cosette gets in the car, Marius can tell she's upset. "You okay?"

"I was passing the ER during my break," she explains. "This foster kid apparently ran away from home, and got in a horrible situation with Brujon."

"That drug dealer who's always on the news?"

She nods, brushing away her tears. "The boy was really banged up when they rushed him to surgery. It's not my department, but I heard them talking."

He sighs. "Cosette, do you…"

"What is it?"

"Do you ever think about adopting?"


Marius is nervous when they arrive in Queens to St. Ornella's Home For Foster Pups. Youthful faces appear at the windows, but as Marius looks up, the pups disappear.

He and Cosette go inside to the meet-and-greet. There is a sea of children at various ages, and adopters mill about the room. A laugh catches his attention. A charismatic boy has a shock of red hair even brighter than Marius' own. The pup, about eleven, has three sets of adult couples vying for his notice. He is a future alpha if Marius ever saw one.

Another pup speaks with two potential families. The girl has chocolate hair, blue eyes, and a sweet nature, and it is clear she will grow up to be an omega one day. She is a dream child to adopt. "Hey, Olga!" the ginger boy shouts.

"What, Alfie?" Olga replies with a winning smile.

"Look," Cosette says, putting a hand on Marius' arm.

They see a girl in the back corner. She huddles alone, trying to disappear into the wallpaper. Looking longingly at the adults who walk past, the ten-year-old clutches a short pencil stub, and sketches on a torn scrap of crumpled paper. She has nut-brown hair, and wears a dull green dress with sensible shoes. It might be just because of her shyness, but Marius recognizes another beta. True, she is too young for anyone to be sure. But he remembers what it was like to be a beta child feeling ignored as life raced by, in a world catered to alphas and omegas. The group home is filled with people, yet no one pays any attention to her.

"Hello," Marius says carefully.

The girl looks up. "Hi," she whispers.

"I'm Marius, and this is my wife Cosette."

"What's your name?" Cosette asks.

The girl's voice is so soft that he barely hears her. "Bethany."

"That's a lovely name," Cosette replies. Bethany smiles shyly.

"Can we sit with you?" Marius asks, ensuring to keep his tone even. He grew up with his tyrannical grandfather's harsh rebukes. Though Marius is on better terms with Gillenormand, he now is careful not to turn out like the man who raised him.

Then Cosette digs into her purse. "Here," the omega woman says, holding out a pencil and two pens she pulls from the depth of the bag. "These are the only things I have with me. But you should have something more than that pencil stub, dear."

He always thought Cosette could charm a tiger. And from Bethany's expression, the girl is already won over.


They soon return to St. Ornella's.

As Marius takes the heavy box into the foster home, he and Cosette hear a familiar voice. They see Alfie and Bethany through a doorway, as the fire-haired boy backs the girl into a corner.

"I guess you're going to be a beta," Alfie sneers. "Adopters want an alpha or omega kid! Not a useless, boring beta like you!"

"What exactly is going on here?" Cosette says, striding in. She usually has a gentle disposition, but when she is vexed, it means something.

Alfie runs as Bethany looks up gratefully. "This will be reported, young man!" Marius calls as the boy flees. "Are you okay?"

Bethany scrubs at her tears with a fist. "Alfie is always like that."

"That doesn't make what he said right," Cosette replies. "We brought something for you."

"You did?"

"You deserve to have proper art supplies," Cosette explains as Marius sets down the overflowing box from the painter's store. Bethany stares in shock at the pristine sketchpad, blank canvas, paint and brushes. Olga, the returning Alfie, and other children watch from the stairs.

"And," Marius says, offering cases of lead and colored writing utensils, "enough artist's pencils to last you a lifetime."

He had expected Bethany to take the gifts and dash away to watercolor and sketch. But she tears up. "Thank you. No one's ever done anything this kind for me before."

"Bethany," Cosette says as she and her husband kneel, "would you like to come home and live with us?"

"And be part of our family?" Marius asks, bending down.

Gasping, Bethany nods. "Yes, more than anything!" The girl bursts into tears and throws her arms around him, and then hugs Cosette.

"Welcome to the Pontmercys," Marius says thickly.

He is trying to accept that he will never have biological pups of his own. But as Marius and Cosette embrace their adopted child, perhaps Bethany was meant to be with them all along.