Lovelies! I know... it's been TOO long... but to make up for it, not only to I bring you THE SCENE YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! BUT! I give it to you 100% in full! No cuts or two part chapters, just all 8 word pages of pure Thénardier confessions and prayers of forgiveness... I apologize if you don't like the length, but it's my way of saying sorry for neglecting you guys all this time... That being said, because this chapter is so big I would REALLY LOVE some feed back! It would mean a lot...

So here it goes! chapter 30! (goodness 30 already!)

Warning: Fowl language, mentions of the past, and... fluff

Disclaimer: I don't think Victor would've done this... but what the hell :)

ALSO CELEBRATE! LES MIS HAS OFFICIALLY OPENED ON BROADWAY AS OF LAST NIGHT! BRAVA! :D

Chapter 30: A Father's Confession

"Papa?"

There was a moment of silence before the shadow responded.

"My girls, my beautiful girls, it's been an age." Muffled sounds of sheets and wires being disturbed as the silhouette struggled to move.

"Curse this rotten curtain, it's like they don't want me to see daylight."

Not wanting him to struggle any longer, both girls moved to the other side of the curtain, Azelma letting out a visible gasp.

Master Thénardier was a shadow of his former self lying in the prison hospital bed. His once fiery ginger hair was now completely grey and listless. His skin, once a healthy tan (though in anyone's defense, it hadn't been this color since before Azelma's first birthday.), then a jaundice, was now nearly a cool grey, as if the blood was stilled in his veins. His torso was wrapped in thick white gauze, a rusty spot staining most of the right side. But the most striking difference in their father's appearance was his face. No longer were his crooked features twisted into malicious and sinister smiles and villainy, but somewhat subdued, tired, broken. He frankly looked exhausted, but when his daughters and grandchildren revealed themselves from behind the curtain, something broke across his face that neither girl had seen in years, a kind and relieved smile.

"Girls," he croaked, extending his arms out to them in the least harmful gesture they'd seen in years. "You came."

They remained silent for a few moments, Azelma shifting nervously between her feet, and Éponine examining every inch of her father's form. It was neither girl that broke the icy silence, but the youngest girl in the room. Sarah, feeling the tension and unease in the room let out a shrill cry, wiggling impatiently in her mother's arms.

Thénardier's eyes lit up at the sound of his granddaughter. Éponine's eyes widened when he weakly extended his arms towards her, asking simply, quietly,

"May I?"

She hesitated, was she really going to trust her daughter in the arms of a murderer?

"I know yu don't trust me Nina, I've done enough shit in my life, to your life to cause this, but I swear to you, in this room, in this point in my life, I won't do anything more to harm ye or ye family."

She scanned his face for truth, for bluff, and was surprised to find neither. So, with slight hesitation still, she moved forward to place her infant daughter in her grandfather's arms.

Sarah took to the new arms well, shifting to face the man in the hospital bed, reaching out to touch his face. He smiled, letting out a belly laugh, pulling a gurgle of happiness from the baby.

"She's jus like you Nina, looks exactly like you did when you were this little. Was her name?"

"Sarah, Sarah Amie Combeferre."

"He was that boy who proposed back at the house?"

"Yes Papa, that's my fiancé."

"Good." He responded, turning his attention back to the little girl in his arms.

"Papa," Azelma asked, breaking the silence once more. "Why is it good? Why are you so excited to see us? To see your grandchildren, children you wanted dead not too long ago? Why did you defend them and kill Montparnasse? Why?" She finished in a flurry, both Éponine and Thénardier looked at her in disbelief (though Éponine was slightly relieved it was Azelma that finally got to the point.).

Thénardier let out a sigh before settling his gaze on Ben, who had woken up after Sarah's screech.

"Can I at least hold my grandson?" He asked weakly, extending his free arm.

Azelma hesitated, looking to her older sister for guidance. Éponine sighed and nodded.

Ben was placed in his grandfather's arms and much to his mother and aunt's surprise, reacted much like his sister, calmly. He simply wriggled in the older man's grasp until he was comfortable and soon drifted back to sleep.

"Was this little bugger's name?" Thénardier asked smiling, not taking his eyes off the now dozing Ben.

"Benjamin, Benjamin Henri." Éponine whispered. "Papa, why?" She asked once more, now pleading with him.

Thénardier sighed, finally looking up to meet his daughters' eyes.

"Look, girls, I could start this how I wanted to, with a big fat I'm sorry, but we all know I've fucked things up too much for that to suffice."

"You think?" Azelma hissed, venom seeping through her teeth. Éponine lightly hit her sister's arm, shaking her head slightly, but Azelma was having none of it.

"Éponine, you know what he did to you! What he let his men do to you! If the boys didn't help he would've let them do it to me and you think he can win us over with a simple sorry?!" Azelma was close to yelling.

"Of course I know everything that happened, I suffered them after all, but I want to hear he has to say." She bit back at her sister.

"Zelly's right," Thénardier sighed, his shoulder's hunching at his daughter's words, guilt he felt he'd never feel slowly weighing him down. "But at least let me explain myself somehow, I know it'll never win back your love or your trust, but it let me leave this world knowing I at least tried. I don't expect your forgiveness and I sure as hell don't expect your love ever again, but I at least expect a chance to try to at least explain myself." He croaked, his voice the weakest Éponine had ever remembered hearing it, not even when the doctor let them know her mother had not survived Gavroche's birth did her father sound this broken.

"I'm all ears." Éponine responded after a few moments of silence, pulling once of the chairs adjacent to the bed to the bedside. Azelma stared in disbelief between her father and her sister, appalled by her sister's quick response and agreeance to her father's plea. Éponine was curious as to why Azelma was quicker than her to accept his request, but then again she wasn't a young girl who witnessed her sister's brutal beating. She wasn't a little girl who almost watched the only person left who loved her in the world die at the hands of the man in the bed in front of her. No, Éponine never saw that, and thank God, never would, but Azelma was never too quick to forgive anyone because of that. But seeing her sister was not going to budge she grumbled reluctantly and dragged the second chair nosily to the bedside. Sitting in it, she twisted her arms to her chest and let a scowl stain her otherwise happy face.

Thénardier looked mournfully at his youngest daughter, almost as confused as Éponine as to why she was reluctant, but then her little face flashed in his memory, screaming at him that fateful night, her body twisting in pain as his heavy hand came down in a powerful backhand. Taking in a shuddering breath, he pulled his grandchildren closer, and smiled slightly, the most innocent in the room, the only who openly accepted his attempts at affection, oh those poor naive little babies, he thought to himself, then sent up a silent prayer of thanks that they'd never endure what his children did… at his own hand.

"Nina, Zelly, I'm going to tell you things I don't expect you to believe, but I want to let you know that they're all true. From the day both of you were born I wanted to give you everything. I remember holding you Nina, you look jus like yur little girl and I remember promising you the world. I did the same with you Zelly, but it was getting harder. I was never good at working, I couldn't hold an honest job, but cons, they was easy. The only honest thing I did was getting that inn. I got that with the money I earned from mostly honest jobs. But once Nina was born I knew simply charging people wasn't enough, I had to come up with new ways of charge."

Éponine, despite her best effort, smiled slightly when she remembered sitting on her father's lap as he charged a poor unsuspecting couple nearly a hundred and fifty euro more than necessary for sleeping with the window shut, among other outrageous charges.

"And then Zelly came and simple cons weren't enough, I turned to petty thievery, recruiting men I used to work with, back when that old plant was open, my only honest job. With them, and sprits," his eyes darkened slightly. "the jobs got bigger, the spoils better, but the repercussions were greater.

"I fell girls, I fell faster and harder than any man could at the time. The men and I soon became notorious after a job gone bad, family came home and Babet was always a trigger eager fellow. We had to hide after that and with the money no longer coming in, the poker tables were looking real friendly."

Éponine didn't have to hear this again, she lived it. She remembered her father coming home that night, shirt front covered in blood. The screaming match that happened between her parents, the hiding when the police sirens roared down the street.

"Well, I don have to explain that to you," He muttered, noticing Éponine stiffen. "I don want anyone to relieve that night I lost everything. That night I first struck you Nina. I know you won't believe it, but that was the worst moment of my life, but it also opened a dismal door to a relieving feeling. Falling as hard as I did drove me to blame what I once lived for. I was too much of a coward to blame myself. I damn well what Babet was capable of, it wasn't his first kill, and I knew going in that I was a rotten gambler, but I went still. And once everything was gone, I figured the only thing I could blame were the people I tried to give everything too."

He took a shaky breath, not looking away from Sarah who was now snuggling into the crook of his arm, mirroring her brother's actions earlier. He didn't dare look at his girls.

"I lost your mother after that. Sure she'd help with the occasional con, but after I rose a hand to our girls, I was dirt to her. At the time I didn't care, I knew she wouldn't leave and I was happy to see her spiral down as I had in the bottle, if I suffered, everyone would. But then she found that damned Grantaire. That man who gave her everything. Up she went and I began to lose everything. I panicked when she was gone later and later, hell she even tried to bring you two to meet 'im, so I moved us closer to the gang, in territory I could control, Gorbeau.

"Everything was going fine, until your mother started to show and I knew that bastard wasn't mine. Your mother and I hadn't shared a bed since months after Zelma; it was that rotten Grantaire, the man who was going to tear my family apart. Hell,"

He laughed bitterly.

"I should've let him rather than make anyone suffer anymore, but in my twisted mind, you were all my property, my precious items that I couldn't lose, but it was in my madness that I lost you.

"By taking your mother away from the man she truly loved she barely made it through the pregnancy, let alone delivery, hell I was surprised she lasted long enough to see her baby boy and name him. But that bastard was the symbol of my broken family and I resented every inch of him. Believe that, I resented a baby, a baby who'd just lost his mother and I again took it out on my little girls who'd also lost their mother, their only protector. Yet, Nina, you took that position pretty quickly and I wish you didn't have to. Then you found his son and his friends and you finally had a safe haven, but that led to that pesky man questioning things and becoming too nosy. I was losing everything, EVERYTHING!"

He shouted, causing both twins to awake suddenly and let out shrill cries. Azelma and Éponine rose to their feet almost mechanically taking the twins from their father's arms and rocking them back into silence. Both silently absorbing everything their father was telling them not knowing what to think.

"Then, my darkest night was when I lost all three of you. The bastard grew on me, he could be useful, he was tiny."

"That's because you starved him." Azelma snapped, breaking her father's soliloquy for the first time.

"Azelma, stop, let him finish." Éponine scolded her sister, but then turned on her father. "And please, for our sake, call him by his name. Not that bastard or any other vicious name, just Gavroche."

Thénardier nodded numbly, almost whimpering at the loss of comfort he felt in his grandchildren.

"Nina, when I found your acceptance letter to university, I didn't know what to think. I was going to lose you, I'd already lost your mother and I knew if you left, that you'd find a way to take your siblings with you. I knew you had had enough with everything and I was walking on a thin wire trying to keep you with me and, like so many times before, I snapped. I thought if I broke you, you wouldn't have it in you to run away."

He looked down, ashamed, that moment, letting his gang go in and violate her daughter. Hearing her screams that night, well, he didn't hear much of it, he ran to the pub as soon as they set in. The only screams he heard were muffled by the thick brick walls and then the safety of his car. Safety…hell, even he'd realized years ago it was the cowardice.

"Nina, my dear baby Eponina, I have never regret a moment more than when I nodded to Montparnasse and the others. I never expect you to forgive me for that moment of cruel judgment. Oh Ponine, if I could take anything back, it'd be that. It'd be that night."

And then the master criminal did something that neither daughter, not even the master himself, expected, he broke down and cried.

Rémy Thénardier, a man who hadn't cried in decades, not even after the death of his wife was balling like an infant.

"The only reason I tried to kidnap that brat was to bring you back, I never wanted anything else then to have my girls back, I'd lost everything, not even killing that bastard Grantaire did anything." He let out a horrific howl and buried his face in his hands.

Both girls were frozen; Azelma's attempt at rebuttle, infuriated her father even considered that they'd ever come crawling back to him died in her throat. Éponine was also biting back a tearful comment that his cold blooded murder of Grantaire's father led to the very near death of one of her best-friends.

"I don expect anything, I've been a rotten father from the start, I'd say I never shoulda been a father, but then the world wouldn't be blessed with you two girls, or my beautiful grandchildren."

His sobs continued, and Éponine felt her resolve cracking. Yes he beat her, yes he let his men rape her, yes he nearly killed her brother and her best friend, but he regrets it? Regrets everything? Was it possible to be so lost on the path he was on that he lost what was truly important? Had he, like Valjean and Javert had told him, seen the face of God? But one more question still lingered, one that she felt now the answer was pretty obvious, but she wanted an answer anyway.

"Papa?" She whispered, surprised she called him that, she hadn't actually called him anything since entering the room. He was as surprised as she for his head snapped up; his now blood shot eyes were full of hope.

"Yes Ponina?"

"Papa, why did you fight Montparnasse?"

Thénardier blinked at his daughter, awe written on his face as if the answer was obvious.

"Ponina, I had already destroyed so much in your life, so much happiness and love you should've had from day one and after I saw you again with those boys, finding out you were expecting after that one boy with the glasses storm in and proposed to you, I knew you found people that would make you happy. It was within my first few months locked up, mulling over everything that I realized how far I'd spiraled, and instead of mulling in anger as I'd done before, I did something the old priest they've got here told me to do."

Azelma snorted, startling both Ben and Sarah, the latter letting out a giggle at the noise.

"You went to the prison priest?"

Thénardier turned on his youngest daughter, a flare of humor in his otherwise dying eyes.

"As a matter a fact I did. And he told me to reflect on everything rather than hate everyone. And thas what I did. I reflected on the shit job I've been as a husband and father. The shit I've dragged my family through and hell, I don't need to re-explain it, I'm a piece of shit. But knowing that on the outside you had found happiness Ponina, you had found a husband who cares for you, loves you even! And a family that came racing to your aid at the drop of a hat. I've never known anyone to take on the Patron-Minette head on other than those students. I only fed the kid lies that no one would come because I didn't think anyone would. And not only have you found people who love you but you have two beautiful children as a result of it, then I knew that despite everything I've put you through, you still turned out to be a phenomenally wonderful, successful and beautiful woman, both of you."

He reached out and was nearly overcome with another bout of tears when both of his daughters freed their hands from behind their charges and took hold of his.

"So when I heard Montparnasse threatened that. Threatened not only your life but the lives of your children, my grandchildren, I snapped. I was and am done with anyone bringing harm or destruction to your lives. I can't control your future, and I've fucked up your past, but I can fight to keep you safe as I live, so if that meant fighting and even killing who was once my best man, it was worth it. I would do it again if it meant that I could erase all the pain of your life."

Éponine's mouth opened in a shocked 'o', and both her and Azelma sucked in a short breath. That was something they never expecting to hear out of their father's mouth, it was almost as if he'd said 'I love you.'

"Despite everything girls, I do love you."

Scratch that, he'd uttered the three words he hadn't said to anyone besides members of the gang and his money.

"I truly do, and I screwed up your childhood and I nearly ended your adulthood and I don't have much time left, even before Montparnasse popped me in the gut I knew I was gonna last long here, but I thought I'd make the best of it with what that bishop told me."

"Bishop? I thought you said he was a priest?" Azelma asked, a small smile playing on her lips.

"No, I think he was a bishop, but it doesn't matter, what matters is he helped me unlock what I've tried to bottle up for years. And I do love you girls, I always have, I've been blinded by greed, alcohol, power, you name it I've been blinded by it. But here I am at the end of my days and simply asking for forgiveness, a little comfort for a dying man."

His eyes met theirs, full of unspent tears and unabashed and childish hope that one-day he may get his wish.

Both girls were once again silent, both raising their hands to their cheeks to find them drenched with tears.

"I'd realize if you can't." He whispered, looking back down at his hands.

Éponine bit her lip fighting back more tears. Azelma cracked before her. Nearly tossing Ben into Éponine's unsuspecting arms, she launched herself into her father's arms and wept openly.

"Oh Papa!"

Thénardier was not expecting the reaction for he jumped slightly, but soon he brought his arm up to run his fingers through her unruly ginger curls. The gesture was so paternal, so affectionate that Éponine felt her self finally crack. She could never completely forgive him for everything, but she could perhaps let her heart welcome the new him in, even forgive him for the early stages.

"Papa." Éponine whimpered, carefully placing the twins in her father's lap, her arm still around them as she buried her self in her father's other arm. Feeling his fingers comb through her air, an action she hadn't felt in nearly twenty years, she let out a new wave of tears.

They stayed like this for what felt like hours. They stayed like this for so long, Combeferre had taken it upon himself to check on them (much to most of the staff's disapproval.). When he entered the room, he stopped dead in his tracks, a small smile warming his once worried features.

On the bed, Thénardier was holding both of his girls, carding gently through their hair, humming a lullaby he'd heard Éponine humming to the twins. The children in question were curled on their grandfather's chest, their little hands intertwined, Sarah with her aunt and Ben with his mother. Taking out his phone, he snapped a silent picture before moving closer to the bed.

Thénardier, being the man and having the profession he did, noticed his presence first. He cracked open an eye to see the tall sandy haired bespectacled student admiring the scene before him.

"Don trust me blondie?" He spoke flatly, quite shocked to see the young father shake his head.

"No, actually, seeing this, I've never trusted you more."

"Which I'm guessing wasn't that much to begin with, so we're back to little to none?"

Combeferre had to smile at the ex-con's rebuttal.

"I was coming down here cause it's been four hours. I was getting worried."

Thénardier's eyes widened, but not because of the time span, but because of the genuine care and worry on the man's face.

"You truly love my daughter?" He eyed the bespectled youth, looking for a bluff, and was very happy when he found none.

"Sir," he paused, never thinking he'd address Thénardier as such. "I love your daughter with all my heart. I love your other daughter as a little sister, and probably a little like a daughter, and I love your grandchildren, my children. I love her, and I love them."

"You'll protect them and make sure they'll never have to relive what I've put them through?"

Combeferre was taken aback, he never thought he'd witness the master criminal admit to his horrendous treatment of his daughters let alone make sure Combeferre would protect them from people like their father. But soon a smile spread across his face and he nodded.

"I swear to you sir, I will do everything in my power to protect them and any other members we add to our family."

Thénardier let out a short bark of laughter, looking back down at his family.

"That's all they've really needed."

They were quiet for a few moments longer before Éponine stirred. Blinking in her surroundings she noticed Combeferre set by the bed.

"Ferre? What? How long have you been there?"

"Only ten minutes, you've been in here for four hours, I came to check up."

Éponine's eyes bugged. "Four hours! Oh the boys are gonna kill us!" She gently shook Azelma and began to move the sleeping twins off the bed. Thénardier, realizing they were gearing to leave suddenly latched on to Éponine's hand.

"You're leaving?" He whimpered and Éponine had to fight hard to hold back tears, but, overcome with everything she took both her father's hands and looked directly into his coffee brown orbs, ones that were identical to her own and identical to her son's.

"I'm leaving for today, but I'm going to come back Papa, I promise."

Thénardier broke into a watery smile.

"Really Nina?" his eyes shining with tears of mirth.

She smiled back at him.

"Really."

Once the twins settled in Azelma and Combeferre's arms they'd started to move out of the room, but Thénardier called out for Combeferre and Éponine to wait for a moment. Azelma, deciding it was best, handed Ben back to Combeferre, and after pressing a quick kiss to her father's brow also promising to return, she disappeared from the room.

"Young man, I know you're marrying my daughter, but as you remember last time we met, I gave no such permission." Thénardier fixed a scowl on the young man who blanched.

"I-I did ask Gavroche." He mumbled. "but, Sir, can I marry your daughter?"

The master was silent for a moment, before nodding and Combeferre, despite everything, let out a breath of relief. He lingered in the doorway, rocking Ben as Éponine approached her father once more.

"Papa, I want you to know that I don't know when I'll be able, if I'll ever to be able to fully forgive you for what you've done in my life, but I'm on that path and if you remain the man you've become today, I want my children to know their grandfather, this grandfather."

Thénardier nodded. "That means a lot to me Nina and I'll obey, I'll try will every fiber I will try to remain this man until my last breath, if not for you, then for them." Saying this he brought a gentle thumb to Sarah's cheek, the little girl smiled and gurgled happily on contact.

"Thank you." She smiled before grabbing her father's hand, once again finding his coffee eyes. And, if you're able," She paused, looking to Combeferre for guidance. The guide had realized what she was going to ask her father before she had and nodded quietly.

"Will you give me away at my wedding?"

And for the third time that day, more than he had in his whole life, Thénardier broke into tears.

"Of course ma petite, my Ponina. I love you so much and I'm proud of everything you've become."

And Éponine, also overcome with tears and feeling a squeeze from her fiancé behind her spoke words she hadn't said in a very long time and feared she'd never say again.

"I love you too Papa."

So... whatcha think? Were they too quick to semi forgive? Was this too turned around for Thénardier or did an old friend help him out like he did for old Valjean?

Please please PLEASE leave a review for this chapter! I REALLY want to hear your feedback with this one!

Also... after (or during.. I'm not sure) AmberI'm hoping to do either a story or a series of one shots in this universe, but following the children.. want it? thoughts?

Please comment/review... follow/fav and I promise i'll be back sooner! Warning... b/c of the bombshells in this chapter, the next one (or possibly couple) will be a bit filler... but the wedding's coming up ladies and gents! :D

until next time Lovelies! (LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!)