Watch me Fall, Help me Fly
"You've done your duty; let her be, she needs a doctor not a jail,"
"But Monsieur Mayor,"
"Where will she end, this child without a friend?" Javert fell silent as he watched the mayor help the feeble prostitute to her feet.
"Javert, I want all charges against this woman dropped, I will see you later," Javert almost spluttered in horror,
"But Monsieur Mayor,"
"I will see it done." Javert scowled at the prostitute as she attempted to totter past him, she didn't see this however as she fainted moments later. Jean Valjean carefully manoeuvred his way through the door, carrying the comatose girl in his arms, along the street to his own home the other side of town. It was a long walk, tiring and slow but he didn't see anyone, it seemed most people had gone to bed for the evening or were holed up reading books by the fire.
It took him some time to reach his modest house; he let himself in with difficulty, trying to keep from bumping the girls head on the doorframe. The stairs were surprisingly easy once he'd found a shuffle that got him safely up them and he had left his bedroom door open that morning anyway.
"Cosette," the girl whimpered as he gently laid her down on the bed, for a long moment he looked down on the girl with concern as she broke in to a series of raking coughs. What could he do now? Who was Cosette? Thinking quickly Valjean let himself out of his house and ran along the street to the hospital he'd recently funded.
"Monsieur Mayor, how can we help?" a friendly but slightly concerned matron enquired as she looked over his harried appearance.
"I need a nurse immediately," he panted,
"Are you ill? Sit down Monsieur," the matron instructed even as she began to look him over.
"No, no matron, a young lady is ill, she's at my house, she needs care," the matron nodded and disappeared into another room. She reappeared moments later with two nurses clutching medicine bags,
"We are not busy, we can spare you two," Valjean barely had time to thank her; the nurses led the way out the hospital, eager to get to their patient.
"What are her symptoms, Monsieur Mayor?" one of them asked, between pants as he tried to keep up, Valjean did his best to answer despite not being with the girl for long.
"Coughing, she's hot and yet shivers, she fainted on me as well, someone told me she has been this way for some time now," the nurses shared a sad glance which was not lost to Valjean,
"What? What is it?" he asked,
"We cant be sure, but it doesn't sound like anything good we know of, we just need to get to her." Valjean nodded silently and increased his pace a little, if it didn't sound good, he needed to het help to this poor woman.
Later that evening
Valjean blinked once, twice and felt the urge to stretch, where was he? He must have fallen asleep at his desk again, but he was leaning on something soft, yawning he sat up and closed his eyes tight as he stretched his arms above his head.
"Good morning Monsieur Mayor," so startled was Jean Valjean by that soft, friendly female voice that he jumped backwards, knocking into the back of the armchair he had been sitting in and he followed it to the floor in his haste to scramble away from the voice he had not expected. When he found himself looking up at the ceiling he was struck by a mild sense of horror and then confusion until finally he got to his feet and turned to meet the laughter coming from his bed.
"I … I forgot you were here," he muttered, the lady laughed, she had been dressed in some sort of nightdress from the hospital and was sitting up in bed nursing a cup of tea in her hands,
"That is nothing to my confusion good sir, I did not know I had got here in the first place," Valjean couldn't help the smile leaping to his lips despite his embarrassment. Carefully pulling the chair to a standing position again, Valjean took a seat beside her,
"How do you feel?" he asked kindly, she sighed,
"Better, much better, thank you Monsieur Mayor," Valjean waved her formalities away,
"Please call me …" he paused, 'call me Valjean, that is my name' "ah, don't call me mayor, I am but a friend," the girl sighed,
"And I am Fantine," Valjean nodded, unable to stop himself looking her over, she was a pretty girl, in her twenties it would seem, her shorn off hair was thick and shiny, it had obviously been a dazzling blond but cut short seemed a little less amazing and slightly darker. She was too thin to be deemed healthy and her persistent cough was unsettling, it did not bode well for her health.
"How have you found your stay here? I hope the nurses are attending to you appropriately," Fantine's smile darkened,
"Yes I am being well treated, but Monsieur I can not pay you for this except by trade, tell me, what are your terms?" Valjean frowned, what was she talking about?
"I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean, Mademoiselle," Fantine sighed,
"How would you like me? I owe you at least four, the hire of nurses for private means must be expensive and the food I received, your bed, when do you require me for payment?" she pulled aside the bedcover to reveal her nightdress clad emaciated body, the pose she attempted to strike was meant to be seductive and wanton but was in fact grossly depressing and in no way appealing sexually.
"Mademoiselle you quite mistake me, I do not require payment of any kind and I would rather you kept yourself covered and warm, you need to fight the infection in you and being cold will not do this." Fantine stared at him, she neither moved to cover herself or say anything in reply, and then quite suddenly, much to Jean Valjean's horror, she began to cry. Her tears came hard and fast and he was at a total loss as to what to say or do, how had he caused such violent emotions from the distraught girl.
"Mademoiselle, what's wrong? Fantine what is wrong?" he asked, watching as the girl fell face down on the bed, leaving herself uncovered and wept hard into the pillow,
"Please Monsieur, name your price," she whimpered, Valjean frowned,
"I will not, I give this to you freely, you are welcome to my house until you are quite well enough to leave it," this seemed not to cheer the lady up but make it worse, she erupted into fresh sobs and there was a moan in her voice which spoke of utter hopelessness.
"Fantine please, please don't cry," he told her, carefully pulling the cover back over her to keep her warm, Fantine registered this through her tears and was yet more upset.
"Please don't be so nice to me, I am a common whore, fallen so far from my pride, don't torment me when it was you yourself who first put me here," Valjean was cut to the quick. Was he guilty of this woman's situation? Had he put her here, here near the end?
"I … I don't understand," he finally muttered, in anger she turned her tears streaked face to look at him, her eyes flashed with a passion which Valjean had rarely seen in human beings,
"Don't mock me now I pray, you let your foreman send me away, yes you were there and turned aside, I never did no wrong, my daughters close to dying, if there's a God above he'd let me die instead." She collapsed back onto the bed, the fire leaving her eyes and with it the fight, she started coughing again, one hand clamped to her mouth in pain, it hurt.
"Had I only known then, I swear Fantine I will help you, you will get better and so will your daughter, what's this?" having taken her hand in his pledge he now found a swear of blood, Fantine turned her face to him at his question and Valjean gasped, at the very corner of her mouth, a slow trickle of blood escaped her lips.
"Can you taste the blood?" he asked, she nodded,
"Every now and then it comes, I think I've bitten my cheek, when I cough I open the wound," Valjean shook his head sadly,
"Dear Fantine, so innocent, sleep now child, rest yourself and in time I will return to you, I will not be gone for long," Fantine nodded,
"I … I would like that, I … I feel safe here, with you," she stammered, Valjean felt his chest tighten at her sweet, trusting words, in truth he wanted to be with her, to help her through this, she deserved a better life than the one she was forced to lead, when she was better, he vowed to give her a good start to a new life, with her daughter.
Hello and thank you for reading, I promise my next chapter and the ones following will be longer but this is just a … prologue type chapter!
Anyway, please do leave me a review, I LOVE reviews! Lol!
ChasteBlush
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