Hello Lovelies! Sorry it's been an age, school has been very stressful. But this story came about with a character i realized i completely forgot about! So here it is!
This chapter being said... poll is still up for godparents...
Disclaimer: You know, in my two week hiatus I tried... but nope.
Chapter 20: Old Faces
Up above, in the nursery, several nurses were cooing and fussing over the little twins that had just come in.
"Poor dears," An older woman fussed, wrestling little Sarah into a nappy. "Such a stressful birth I heard."
"Really?" Another one said, stroking the sleeping Henri's cheek, smiling at the little boy.
"I heard the mother delivered in a café."
Several of the nurses' jaws dropped, but one simply sighed.
"Must be the offspring those revolutionaries, they're always getting themselves into trouble. The nurses down on the ER level know most of them by name."
"Oh you're exaggerating Alice," The older nurse chided. "That hypochondriac resident is part of that group."
"Yes, and his boyfriend is constantly in the ER." Alice remarked. The nurses continued to laugh as they busied themselves with cleaning, clothing, measuring, and weighing the babies before them. Outside the nursery, a custodian stopped to listen. With his eyebrows quirked, he realized the description of the parents of those children was very familiar.
Moving towards the momentarily unguarded cots he gazed down at the infants. The girl squirming impatiently, obviously longing to be back with her mother, struck him immediately. He could clearly remember a jubilant ginger bursting out of his bedroom, presenting his followers with his little bundle. Hell, he could remember holding an identical girl not long after, admiring her spirit even at minutes old. The boy, well he was harder to place. He'd admit he was impressed the little bugger already had his thumb in his mouth, but he wasn't familiar with the face.
Finally, he remembered the university paper he somehow got his hands on back in his final years in the cell. The revolutionaries that had attempted to overthrow the president of the university for discriminating against minorities. He laughed at the memory of scouring the sad excuse of a barricade they made the next day to pilfer through the left over jackets and bags left behind. The face this little boy resembled the most was the boy with the glasses, who stood at the leader's right side. He remembered climbing over injured students in the immediate aftermath, pretending to be searching for someone and he remembered seeing glasses boy, quite motionless and bleeding from a gash on his head. Glancing once more at the two children, especially the little boy, he was glad to know the idiot survived.
Scanning to make sure no one was watching him, he went off to give the mother his felicitations.
Making his way down the fluorescent hallway, it wasn't long before he came upon the napping Éponine. Moving into the room, he brought his grimy hand up to her forehead and brushed the hair off her face. Smiling to herself she let out a small sigh.
"Hm, Ferre, is that you?"'
"Close Éppy, real close." He never thought he'd seen eyes shoot open so quickly.
"What the hell are you doing in a hospital?" She sneered, pulling away from him.
"Is that anyway to greet yur favorite 'uncle'." He jeered.
"Brujon, if you're my uncle then my father's a saint." She snapped.
"What do you want? I don't understand why you people want me to suffer!" She was no longer hysterical as much as seething.
"Look Ninny,"
"Don't call me that." She breathed, stabbing him with her deathly glare.
"I jus thought congrats were in order. Didn think you'd have brats of yur own."
"You leave my children out of this or so help me God, I will murder you so slowly you'll beg for mercy ten times over."
Brujon had the decency to back up.
"Maybe I'll let yur father know, I have to report to the prison at weeks end, show 'em I'm keeping up my service to the community." He almost laughed at the pure fear that pooled in her once fiery eyes.
"Please Brujon, I know it was my fault you got arrested all those years ago. I know you sat in prison for God knows how long planning your sweet revenge and now that everyone else is in prison, I'm your next target, but please, please not my children." She pleaded, her small hand wrapping around his wrist like a vice. He scanned her face and he almost smiled.
In front of him was not the waifish teenager who was forcibly dragged to all her father's schemes. The fiery girl who'd protest and fight, only to be beaten down and abused by every man twice over (he was ashamed to admit he was once one of those men.). No, in front of him was the little girl in the pretty blue cap and the smile on her face. The little girl who'd clamber onto his lap, asking for a treat, telling him of all the wonderful things her Papa would do. Once upon a time when only a petty con could keep the old crook and his gang at bay. This was the girl he saw pleading with him, and suddenly, the heart he felt he once possessed, softened.
He gently wiped away the stray tear with the pad of his thumb.
"Nothin'll happen to them Éppy." He sighed.
"Ah-hem." The stout nurse, Alice, made her precence known to the room.
"Madame Combeferre? You have two people who are very eager to see you."
Brujon looked from the nurse to Éponine, who's fear and fire had drained, to be replaced with a look of pure love that left her glowing. Moving out of the room he looked back at Éponine, now settling back into the bed with a baby in each arm, lost to the world.
"Hey Pon," He called; she looked up, almost startled forgetting he was here.
"They really are beautiful, congratulations."
She nodded slowly, instinctively pulling her children closer to her chest. Hitting the doorframe gently, he turned from the room. He'd tell Thénardier when he saw him at week's end, praying the master thief would feel more anger towards the man who nearly took his grandchildren's life away than the girl who'd given it to them.
YAY! Next chapter will have more fluff... I promise, but this little thing (while seeming like a filler right now) will have a purpose i swear!
Until Next Time Lovelies! Leave a comment/review follow+fav!