Part Two
The air was heavy with dampness and smell. Enjolras wrinkled his nose as he first stepped downward. "From one hell to the next," he murmured
"A living hell." Marius remarked softly from the lead. His whole body ached, and more, his heart ached. So many lost...they simply hadn't been ready.
He saw Enjolras' beautiful face turn away. "We had to fight. We had to for them that could not."
"So we did, my friend. So we did. And we may yet fight again." Marius replied. Every day simply to survive, for the rest of our lives. No nights at the opera now. He added silently.
"And for what?" Grantaire demanded, his cynicism coming into the conversation in full. "Nothing came out of your plots and plans, Apollo."
"Don't start," Enjolras breathed.
"Don't start what? The truth? I told you it was a fools errand! I told you you couldn't win. Would you listen? No! You the might god! You! Apollo who sits up and looks down on those of us who are lower than you! I follow you. I would have followed you to the death!"
"You are a drunken fool and you will shut your mouth!" Enjolras roared suddenly, face pale and sweat drenched. He shook as he stared at the other man. It had built up between them for far too long.
Marius stopped and leaned one hand against one of the walls surrounding them. "My friends, now is not the time for this." He warned without turning around.
Valjean shifted Eponine against him. "I agree with the boy. Perhaps you gentlemen should argue the past when we are safe."
"No, I'm saying it right here because we all know we won't make it much further!" Grantaire screamed.
"Shut your blathering mouth," Enjolras hissed. "They'll follow your drunken rage all the way here and find us!"
"I assure you we can still make it to safety." Valjean said more firmly. He glanced at Marius, who had still not turned around. The young man was unnaturally silent.
Enjolras turned as well, ignoring the drunk behind him. "Marius?"
"We must keep moving." Marius said quietly. "Grantaire, we must keep on."
"Why should we? Into another trap? You knew we were going to die there, Enjolras! You planned it!"
"Shut UP!" The blond student turned back to his friend and put a hand on his shoulder, unnaturally gentle with him. "Come now."
Marius moved away with the wall and fell into step with Enjolras. Grantaire felt his anger boil over. "You selfish bastard!" he snarled. He jerked forward and grabbed Enjolras' shoulder, pulled back his fist and punched the blond man. Marius was startled, but regained himself enough to catch Enjolras when he staggered and kept him from falling over.
The injured man fell back, choking horribly on the blood rising in his throat. His hand flew to his crimson-soaked side and his eyes widened, staring at Grantaire as if the drunkard had been the one to shoot him. "You... talk of... selfishness..." he rasped, coughing and spitting blood. "You... whose only friend in the world... is a bottle of alchol."
Marius held Enjolras up, fear swelling within him as he took on more and more of his friend's weight. "Enjolras," he gasped. He glared severely at Grantaire. "How dare you? How much time have you cost us now?" he hissed.
"What does it matter?" the cynic asked as he through up his hands. "We were doomed from the beginning. Tell them, Apollo. Tell your friend Marius, your precious Marius in whom you roped into this fiasco, that you knew we were doomed from the beginning. Tell them how you planned on dying."
The man in question only glared.
Marius felt the moment when Enjolras lost the last of his energy and his spirit. The younger man sank with his friend to the dirty ground beneath them. "Don't say anything. You owe me nothing." Marius whispered against his friend's temple. He could feel the blood on his fingertips.
"I knew," he murmured, shuddering against the other. "How... could I not?" His blue eyes turned upward. "Go to your Cosette."
Marius tightened his hold, but not enough to be painful. "I'm not leaving you." he whispered fiercely. "I won't."
Grantaire laughed out loud. "You're insane, Marius. He led you like a lamb to slaughter and yet you stand by him? Are you a complete fool?"
Valjean frowned. They didn't have time to waste. "Marius! Get him up. We have to get out of here now."
Marius pulled his friend up, doing his best to carry all the weight he could. The elder boy - which was all they seemed to be reduced to now - shuddered and clung to him.
"What will your grandfather say?" he murmured, licking the blood from his lips.
"That we are fools." Marius said with a soft laugh. "Which may be true. But we did the right thing, Enjolras. We did what no one else would dare to do, and I would follow you a hundred times over."
"Why?" the elder student rasped. "You have so much to go back to..."
"I have so much here with me."
There was light shining through the end of the sewers. Streetlights, but they were lights never the less. "We're here," Marius breathed.
"And the police will be waiting for us!" Grantaire grumbled. "Did you set that up too, Apollo? You lost out on your martyrs death, so you set up a back up plan?"
Enjolras' eyes jumped to life and he pulled away. "You've crossed the line one too many times this night," he growled.
"For God's sake, he's not worth it, Enjolras! Please, let's just go. You need a doctor, Eponine needs a doctor and I don't think I can stand much longer." He said pleadingly.
Enjolras turned sharply. "How bad?" he demanded suddenly.
"It's nothing. Just exhaustion. We've been fighting a long time, you know." Marius said deflectively. "Come, we're so close..."
"I know a lie when I hear it," his leader responded curtly.
Marius smiled, suddenly. "Obviously not, otherwise I would not have gotten this far."
"How bad?" Enjolras demanded again. "I shan't move an inch until you tell me."
"Then I'll go by myself and you'll feel very silly standing here in the sewers alone."
Enjolras was struggling to keep his breathing regular. "Then come on. We'll get you and the girl a doctor." He moved to the cage of the sewer and reached a trembling hand for it.
Marius watched as Enjolras forced the cage open and light flooded into their little section of the sewer. The young student smiled grimly. "So this is the last light I see." he whispered to himself. He felt his eyes slide shut, and his world turned black.
"Marius!" Enjolras' yell brought the police that had been standing just outside, Javert leading them. The revolutionary stumbled his way to his fallen friend, calling to him, calling to anyone to help him. Ignoring Javert's demands to stop. "Grantaire! Get him up out of the grime!"
: Grantaire shrugged. "We have no where to go. Leave him, if he sinks enough into it, they may not find him."
Valjean fought back a sigh, listening to Javert's voice above them. "No good deed goes unpunished, heaven help me." he murmured.
takadasaiko: ROFL
"Jean Valjean! You are under arrest! As are the three of you, for treason to the king of France!" Javert said highly.
"I presume you have enough of a gentlemen in you to spare the girl." Valjean said dryly. "She was, after all, in the wrong place at the wrong time. A situation I'm sure you've found yourself in from time to time."
Javert glared at the convict. "Her wrong place at the wrong time was with scum," he announced. His eyes traveled to the bloodied man who held Marius up out of the grime and those blue eyes widened. "You... I've seen you before. Your father is..."
"Yes yes," Enjolras grumbled, breath coming heavily. "He is."
"As was your place a the wrong time." Valjean said under his breath. "Grantaire, if you would do an old man a favor and take the girl for just a moment, my arms are sore." The younger man opened his mouth as if to make a smart reply, but changed his mind at the look Valjean gave him. Grantaire held his hands up and moved slowly towards Eponine, taking her as gently as he could from Valjean. The older man rubbed his right arm and turned to stare at Javert. "I'm never to be rid of you, am I? What irony binds us, Javert."
"I am simply doing my duty," the inspector answered automatically, eyes still trained on the blond student.
"Of course you are. Does the phrase 'above and beyond' mean anything to you?" Valjean asked, marginally moving closer to his long time foe.
"Shut your mouth, scum!" Javert hissed. "All of you are under arrest. None of you are above the law! Not even you, Monsieur Enjolras."
"I seriously doubt he thought he would be. He is, after all, hiding in a sewer. We scum must stick together, you know." Valjean retorted.
Marius had reawakened during their discourse, tilted his head back so his mouth was near Enjolras' ear. "Get ready to run." He breathed.
"You expect we can?" Enjolras murmured back. "We're a sorry lot at the moment."
"We have to. Valjean...his sacrifice, at least, will gain us something."
"Then we will," Enjolras answered quietly.
"He knows you?" Grantaire asked suddenly, looking intently at Enjolras. "Did you go to him to tell him about this?" He was all seriousness now. The bitter sarcasm had drained out to what he thought was realization.
"Grantaire, please pay attention. He's here to arrest us all. Him having seen my face before will not permit me some higher standing." Enjolras said mildly.
"No matter how pretty it is?" Marius murmured. Enjolras resisted the temptation to blow their cover and smack the younger man.
Javert snorted. "The government is lucky that I found you, Enjolras. Any other man might have been bought by your father."
"My father cares nothing for me," Enjolras spat.
"Something else you can relate to." Valjean said quietly.
"Shut up!" Javert growled, moving toward and then, surprisingly, past Valjean. He stopped at Enjolras, who looked ready to drop. "You threw everything away, boy."
"Good. Long live the Republic!" Enjolras said in the strongest voice he could manage.
Valjean glanced up and behind him to the officers still standing outside. They were unsure what to do, Javert had not given them any direct orders. He moved closer to the sewer cage. All he had to do was slam it shut. It would plunge them into enough darkness to give him enough time to attack Javert. They would have to see if he was still the stronger of the two.
Javert cuffed the blond man before any of them knew what was happening and sent Enjolras sprawling, Marius falling away from him. The blue-eyed youth struggled up, wincing and groaning. Javert stood over him and his eyes turned defiant. "Long live the Republic! Down with the monarchy! You will see the people rise!"
"Not in your lifetime, boy." Javert sneered.
Enjolras lunged forward and Javert raised his gun to hit Enjolras with it to knock him away. Marius sprang upwards, a defiant cry on his lips and tackled Javert into the dirty ground. Valjean reached over and slammed the cage shut. They now had time, but precious little of it.
Valjean caught Javert up by the shirt collar. "This is between you and I," he growled lowly. "You will leave the boys alone."
"And you shall be their protectors?"
"I shall be my daughter's protector, and since that encompasses them, yes." Valjean forced Javert's hands away and fumbled for the keys. Once he found them, he threw them to Marius. "Go, get out of here!" he hissed. They could already hear the officers outside trying to pry the cage open.
"And you?" Marius called back.
"I'll be fine, boy. This one hasn't beaten me once yet."
Marius nodded and gathered up Enjolras as best as he could. The elder boy was barely conscious.
It seemed an eternity before they reached the surface and started for the house that Marius knew Cosette would be at. This had all been in silence, until Grantaire spoke up.
"Who's your father, Enjolras?"
"That's not important." Marius said firmly, his breathing shallow.
"No, no. He has the right to know, at least now. He's one of the king's...personal aides and advisors in the court...my family comes from..." Enjolras gasped, "...a long line of...semi-royalty." He laughed mirthlessly.
"Bastard," Grantaire growled. "Were you a spy?"
"No!" Enjolras yelled, wincing as he did so. "I led Les Amis ready to die for our cause." He paused. "Just shut up and let's get inside. The girl will be there?"
"Yes, she'll be here." Marius said. He was so close to home, now...he had everyone with him and he was so close he could almost taste it. A freedom of a different kind, yet a freedom all the same.
Cosette had been watching that the window and met them at the gate, flinging it open and embracing Marius the best she could with Enjolras leaning on him. "My love!" she murmured as he took her with one arm around her. "I thought you'd died! Where is Father?"
"It was your father who gave us our escape," Marius murmured. "For now, we need a doctor. Forgive me, Joly, your services will only help a fully trained doctor."
"I understand," the medical student, who had been entirely silent through the whole ordeal, said quietly.
"I will go get Doctor Flaubert, he will help us." Cosette said. "Can you make it inside? Take any of the bedrooms you need." she added.
Marius nodded in thanks and agreement and they moved inside. Joly moved to the room in which Eponine was laid, on Enjolras' strict orders. Marius helped his leader to a bed, the latter complaining the whole way that he could do it himself, and eased him down, sitting by his side as his legs would hold him no longer.
"We're alive," Enjolras murmured as if it had finally sunk in. They had lost, but they were alive.
"We are indeed." Marius agreed. He reached over to the bedside table, grunting as he did so, and pulled the towel off the top. He placed it in his lap and reached to push aside Enjolras' shirt in order to see his wounds.
"You should rest yourself," Enjolras said as he pushed Marius' prying hand away. "It's not so terrible."
"Terrible enough." Marius said softly, fighting back the urge to break down in tears. The day had worn on his soul.
"No one would miss me if I die," the blond said. "Look, even my most dedicated, even if irritating, follower has denounced me quite well. Even Grantaire... But you, Marius. You have two someones that would weep."
Marius shut his eyes and wrapped his fingers around Enjolras' wrist. "You think so little of me?" he whispered.
"I've thought quite a bit of you over the past hours. What do you mean?"
Marius opened his eyes again and could not help the tears that spilled down his cheeks. "I would weep. I would cry for you, my closest, dearest friend."
A frown marred the beautiful face of the one they called Apollo. "I am the son on one we hate most. I led you into certain death, knowing that we would die! Knowing, Marius! I knew you had that girl to go back to and yet I convinced you to stay. And I am your friend? If that is so, you are a fool."
Marius poked a finger at him, his tears now falling angry. "Being his son does not make you like him. I'm not stupid, Enjolras, I knew we would probably die! I followed you of my own free will, if you remember correctly. I think I said something along the lines of my place is here, I fight with you. I would always fight with you, by your side whether I thought we'd survive or not. I knew I might die, but I would be dying for the right thing, and that the girl I love would one day benefit from it! And I had hoped, just a little, that you would benefit from having me by your side today or any other day we may fight."
"I did," Enjolras answered quietly. "France did."
The door opened suddenly and a doctor followed by Cosette entered.
Marius briefly touched Enjolras' cheek. "Don't go anywhere." he whispered. He tried to stand, and didn't get very far.
The doctor rushed forward, catching the young boy as he stumbled to the floor. "Let's get you to a bed," he said softly, pulling him up.
Marius mumbled something he hoped was an agreement. His body had given up on him, and his tired mind wasn't far behind it. He needed sleep, and then he could deal with tomorrow.
"Check on the boy in the bed," the doctor said as he led Marius to the next room.
Cosette stared at Enjolras wide-eyed. "You... you're the one that was going to take him away?" she murmured as she came closer.
Enjolras cleared his throat, forcing his voice to sound stronger than it had before. "And you're the one that was going to take him from us, am I wrong?"
Cosette gave him a small smile as she picked up the towel her beloved had dropped and also picked up the basin of water on the bedside table. She dipped the towel in the water and wrung it out slowly. She placed the basin on the floor and reached over with pale fingers to pull away Enjolras' shirt as Marius had been about to do. "I suppose that's fair enough." She said finally, wincing for him as the shirt came away heavy with blood.
He grit his teeth as the shirt, which had been dried to his skin with blood, was pulled away, reopening the angry wound. He gasped, not allowing himself to call out. He would not, could not, scream out. It was beneath him. He shook horribly, but forced his eyes to meet her soft ones.
"I am sorry." She murmured softly. She pulled the shirt open and completely away from his torso as gingerly as she could. She held the cloth in her hands for a moment in an effort to warm it before placing it gently against his skin. She first wiped away the excess blood before dabbing the out edges of his wounds. She tried another smile. "Not so bad, really. I'm afraid your shirt is ruined, though."
This brought a chuckle from the wounded man. "If that's all..."
"Well, it had better be all." Cosette said with mock sternness. "You can't go and upset Marius by not getting better."
"He has you. He was being dramatic. That's what made him a good speaker." His eyes were lulling now, blond lashes covering blue eyes.
"I may inspire his heart, M. Enjolras, but you inspire his soul." She said. She touched his face. "You mean more to him than you will ever know."
He pulled away, a cough choking him. "You know," he murmured when the fit passed, "I could never decide whether I should go into law or medicine. I took classes on both." He watched her carefully. "I know my chances."
Cosette tilted her head thoughtfully. "As you did on the barricade, and look, here you are. This fight, as the last, is up to you."
"There's only so much I can survive."
She continued to clean his wounds. "My father has run from Javert for many years. He has endured much, and even when he was sure he could not go on, he found something to hold onto. Whether it was my mother, or myself, or God, he found something. You can find something too, if you wish it. Otherwise, you would have not let Marius take you from that barricade."
His eyes opened fully and he stared. "You're not a foolish girl, are you?" He chuckled. "You and Marius, you'll do well together."
"Pretty and smart. What a dangerous combination." She smiled fully now. "One day, M. Enjolras, I believe we will see the France you hope for. Marius will always look for it, always."
"I hope we live to see it," Enjolras breathed. "And drop the formalities."
"As you wish." She said. "Can I get you a drink? Perhaps it would easy the pain a little before the doctor comes in."
"I don't drink," Enjolras said quickly. "I'd end up like the winecask in there." His voice was bitter as he said this.
"Perhaps I could strike on the head and it would have the same effect?"
The revolutionary leader chuckled, struggling to restrain it as he did. "Perhaps so, but he'll give me laudanum whether I want it or not."
"Pick you poison, I suppose." Cosette said bemusedly. "I shall go see how he's coming along and I'll be back to check on you in a moment." She patted his shoulder.
He watched her go and settled back. "No wonder," he murmured. His eyes flew open when he sensed another presence in the room. "What do you want, winecask?" he asked, eyes narrowed and glaring at the drunkard.
A/N: I know some of the scenes might have looked a bit slashy, but they weren't. Anna-chan and I work with very close friendships, being as we are.
AmZ: I believe I emailed you about this…. I know I was going to but a lot's happened since then, so I don't remember for sure. Valjean, in the book, was at the barricades. But thank you for your review.
ArgentineRose:sigh: what is it with everyone being so critical? You can have nice things to say, can't you:looks pleading: If you're reading you must like SOMETHING about it. Comment on that along with your critiques, I beg of you! The only flames I like are on political essays. But as to your overly sarcastic comment, discription, dear, is a wonderful part of writing. Of course he was a French soldier, but I decided that I wanted to make it a bit more descriptive b/c that's how I write.
Carly:hugs: THANK YOU! ONE KIND SOUL! I'm sorry about my misspellings… I'm a horrible speller and usually my grammar and spell check catches it, but sometimes it doesn't. I don't have the patience for a beta. I barely have time to edit what Anna and I write over AIM as it is. But I'll try to keep an eye out while editing. Thanks for the pointer.
TBC
Takada Saiko and Anna Maxwell