LOVELIES! Two updates in two days! I just had to get this one out there, with good music and some free time you can do anything! Don't let the chapter title scare you, this one is FLUFF LOADED! Please leave a comment/review or PM me with name ideas! They'll come next ;)
Warning: A LOT of fluff, like maybe too much...
Disclaimer: Alas, I do not :'(
Chapter 18: Don't Tell
"Come on little one," Jehan cooed, stroking the boy's cheek ever so slightly, smiling the babe wriggled in his sleep. "It's high time we brought you to meet you sister and daddy."
Halfway to the hospital Éponine began to wake. Enjolras noticed her groan and shifted to swipe the hair out her face. Bahorel also noticed the change in the girl sprawled over his legs and, being the friend he is, began to massage her feet.
"Whashappening." She mumbled, blinking in the car's dim light along with the fluorescent advertisements that flickered in and out of the car's sight.
"Ferre?"
"Ép, it's alright, we've got you." Enjolras whispered, gently rubbing her forehead.
"Where are my babies? What happened to my baby?" Her eyes snapped open now, all the memories of the last several hours became strikingly clear in her once fuzzy mind. Bahorel tried to glare at Enjolras, tried to telepathically tell him not to give her the blunt description as he usually did, and for the first time in his life, Enjolras understood the message.
"Well, Jehan's got your son, they're in the front seat, see?" He gently lifted Éponine to a slightly more elevated position than before so that she could see Jehan swivel in his seat to display her baby boy.
Tears once again welled in her eyes as a shaky smile spread over her features. She weakly held out her arms.
"Can I hold him? Please?" She whispered, afraid that her fainting had caused them to lessen their trust of her mothering skills.
Jehan looked to Enjolras for guidance, the latter nodded, and the poet carefully placed the boy in his mother's waiting arms. Instantly Éponine curled the baby close to her chest, bringing her lips to his tuft of sandy hair. Her tears dripped onto his forehead as he blinked open his eyes for the first time, his little hand reaching up to grab his mother's face.
"Bonjour mon petit homme." She breathed, giant tears rolled down her cheeks when she saw her baby boy's eyes. A stunning pair of coffee brown eyes that mirrored her own identically. She laughed at the sight.
"Mon beau homme, Papa will be thrilled, you're gonna look just like him. But you've got my eyes baby." She cooed, stroking his cheek gently, laughing some more when his little fingers wrapped around her thumb.
She was startled to hear sobbing from not only Jehan, but Bahorel as well.
"Rel? Are you crying?" She questioned, her natural nature slowly returning.
"I'd try to come up with a bullshit lie, but I'm not gonna try, this is just too precious."
"Watch the swears Mon ami, there's an infant present." Grantaire chided, eyes focused on the road, but his own tear slipped down his stubbled chin.
After a few more moments of pure bliss, Éponine remembered why she had passed out.
"Enj, where's my other baby? What happened to them? Are they?" She couldn't finish the thought, a new fear, and one far worse than any she had ever felt before, swelled in her throat. Instinctively she pulled her child closer to her chest. The infant, sensing his mother's distress, began to wriggle and whimper.
"Shh mon petit." She croaked. "Enj? What aren't you telling me? Where's Ferre?"
She tried her best to look into his face, knowing Enjolras couldn't lie or keep the truth from anyone, especially his family, but she couldn't turn fully to examine the once marble façade.
"Ép, I've never seen Combeferre move that fast or that skillfully in his life. It was truly incredible, he knew exactly what to do." Enjolras breathed, remembering his friend's amazing performance back at the café. "He unwrapped the chord, cut her free and stormed out to the ambulance, which managed to show up just in time for the more serious incident at hand. He told us to take you and your son to the hospital to meet him there, but he seemed to know what he was doing." Enjolras finished, watching Éponine's face carefully.
She took in the news. Wrapped umbilical chord, Ferre knew exactly what to do, her.
"Her?" Éponine whispered, her own wish of having a little boy and girl came true. A boy just like Combeferre and a girl just like her, the perfect little family.
"Yes Ponine, you have a double set." Enjolras smiled, smiling wider when he heard Grantaire's victory cry and Bahorel's colorful grunt.
"I see they've begun to collect?" She sighed, turning her attention back to the little boy in her arms.
"Yes, Courf, Bahorel, and Feuilly aren't happy. Cosette and Grantaire are overjoyed and Bousset is simply relieved he didn't put any money down."
"Cosette put money down?" Éponine asked in disbelief. "What did Marius say?"
"He tried to open his mouth, but Ép, I'm becoming slightly more terrified of her than I was and am of you."
Bahorel nodded in agreement, holding in laughter. Jehan was desperately holding back his loud sobs.
"Ép, you've filled an entire anthology for me in one night!" He cried, wiping his crocodile tears with is heinous sweater.
"I'm glad I could be of help." She sighed, feeling relief when Grantaire pulled the car to the ER's curb and brought the vehicle into park.
"Alright Éponine, you're gonna need to hand the baby back to Jehan, only for a moment, so we can get you in a wheelchair." Enjolras hastily added when he saw her pull the child closer to her at the thought of letting go.
"There is no way in Hell you're putting me in any wheelchair." She snapped.
"Ép, you've just given birth to twins! There's no way you can walk!" Bahorel cried, getting slightly fed up with her stubborn nature in this situation.
"I'm perfectly fine!" She huffed, moving to get out of the car. She hit the pavement thirty seconds later.
"Thank God she gave the child to Jehan first." Grantaire sighed, rolling his eyes as he moved to lift his friend back to her feet.
"Now will you sit in the wheelchair?" Grantaire chided. "That way you can hold your son." He added.
The four men sighed in relief as Éponine grumbled her way into a chair.
"Was that so hard?" Bahorel taunted, but quickly recoiled from one of Éponine's famous glares.
"Just because I'm the mother of two doesn't mean I'm any less capeable of castrating the lot of you," She growled, "Now, take me to my daughter and fiancé." She commanded.
Once in the hospital, Enjolras wheeled Éponine over to the reception desk. The nurse who had seen the disheveled band of misfits seven months earlier was once again greeted with the stoic blonde, the fighter and the boy with the beanie not far behind him. She sighed, what had they done this time? She was startled by a impatient "ah hem." From below the desk, she stood to see they formerly unconscious pregnant woman, who now cradled what she guessed was her recently born child.
"Hi, I'm sure you recognize us, we're regulars at this hospital." The young woman flashed a toothy smile, which caused the nurse to blink several times, the group had certainly changed since last they'd encountered. Perhaps no one was near death this time? "I was wondering if a mousier Combeferre came in with his daughter?" Worry filled the young woman's brown eyes and the nurse realized she must've had twins and something happened to the other child.
"Well, an ambulance crew came back about ten minutes ago, they went up to the maternity ward, I can check the status and name of the patient if you'd like?" The nurse spread a warm smile at the young mother's nervous nod. She turned to the computer and scanned through the recent activity. Finding what she was looking for, she looked back at the odd party. The four men, infant, and mother, where now flanked by four more grown men, one of the curly haired boys she remembered being hysterical had his hands perched on a young boy's shoulders. The young boy with the blonde mop she guessed was Gavroche Grantaire, the little boy from the accident. Well, he recovered nicely. She thought, but frowned when she saw the blood flecks on his t-shirt.
"Yes," she finally responded, meeting the young matron's eyes. "A Henri Combeferre came in about fifteen minutes ago, his infant daughter with him."
"And?" A curly haired ginger boy asked impatiently.
"Well, both father and daughter appeared to be healthy and well, they're up on the maternity ward right now. Would you like me to check you in Ms?"
"Éponine Combeferre." She gave without a second thought, there was no way she'd ever use Thénardier again, and what's a couple of months? Having the man's children was close enough to officially married in her book.
"Alright Mme Combeferre, one of the attendings can bring you right up." Éponine nodded, but several of the men behind her moved to object. The stoic blonde, who she assumed was the leader, shook his head.
"Let Ép and Ferre have a moment of peace with their children."
The boys nodded, eyeing the paling attendant threateningly.
"For Cripes sake boys, she's only going up three floors in a hospital, nothing is going to happen!" Musichetta laughed, pulling Bousset and Feuilly back from Éponine's retreating form.
"Not to mention, there's a gift shop to be raided!" She cried, laughing when she saw a majority of the boys' faces light up like Christmas trees.
The nurse, still disturbed Gavroche's bloodstain and pale complexion, broke the merry festivities.
"Gavroche?" The older woman called; worry filling the group as the little boy looked up, slight fear and guilt washing over his features.
"Are you ok honey?" He nodded his head weakly, but the words had been said, and immediately the doctor of the group rushed to the boy's side.
"Gav, what happened? Why is your head bleeding?" Joly questioned, worry tainting his words.
"It's nofing, I swear!" He cried, trying to wriggle away from Joly's grip.
"Gav, bud just let Joly check you out ok? Then we'll get some treats for the babies ok?" Courfeyac offered, pulling the boy onto his lap. Gavroche grumbled, but nodded.
Joly tilted the boy's head forward and gasped slightly, the back of Gav's head was bloody. His blonde curls were matted with the dark red liquid, but thankfully, it appeared to be only a bad gash.
"Gav, why didn't you mention this earlier?" Joly scolded, moving over to the nurse to request a space where he could clean and bandage the boy up. After flashing his badge, the nurse led him and Courfeyac, who now held a slightly protesting Gavroche, to an examination room.
"Now hold still, this'll sting, but it'll be over in a moment." Joly instructed. Gav nodded, then winced at the sudden sting.
"Gav, back to Joly's question, why didn't you say something? What happened."
"I tried to fight Parnasse when he was holdin Ponine, and he flung me off 'im, guess I hit the wall harder than I thought." He tried to smile, but the sting came again.
"And, why didn't you tell us?" Joly pressured, finishing the cleaning of the small gash and unwrapping a bandage and some gauze.
"Ponine and the babies were in trouble, no ways I was gonna say somefing to distract everyone!" Gav cried. "I wasn't important, only Ponine was." He spoke stubbornly and both boys shared a knowing look over the boy's head.
"That was very noble of you Gav, but next time, let us know a little earlier, ok? That gash could've been a lot worse and Ponine wouldn't've been happy to hear of your injuries as well." Joly finished, but immediately regretted his words.
"I didn't wanna burden Ponine, I'm sorry." Gav whispered, tears now forming in his tired blue eyes. Courfeyac swatted the back of Joly's head before kneeling to meet Gav's eyes.
"Listen to me Roche, you are not a burden to anyone. What Joly was trying to say was that Ponine would've been extra worried if all of her babies were hurting and she didn't know about it."
Gavroche nodded, sniffling and wiping a few tears.
"Coof?" He questioned weakly.
"Yes, Gav?" The elder questioned, lifting the boy into his arms.
"Doya think the babies like chocolate?" Courfeyac began to laugh.
"I think eventually they will, with a brother/uncle like you Gav, but for now, hows about a teddy bear, huh?"
Gav nodded, frowning slightly at his 'brother's' logic.
"Coof?"
"Gav?" Courfeyac responded, mimicking the boy's tone.
"Can we get chocolate anyway? For Ponine?" He added hastily, which only caused Courfeyac and Joly to laugh even louder.
"Of course bud, let's go see what they've got here."
And together, Courfeyac and Gavroche walked down to the gift store to join the rest of their oddball family, each member laden with treats and trinkets to spoil their newest members.
Sweet aint it? Longest one yet! YAY! =D
Name ideas? I'd love to hear 'em! Leave a comment/review maybe even follow/fav!
Until next time Lovelies!