Author´s Note

Hello, again. For one last time. Or maybe not? We´ll see about that later. First let´s get back to the story that´s already finished, shall we?

How the hell did this happen?

Well, simple. I got the movie. I watched it. Found it good enough. Rewatched it. And in time, before I even noticed it myself, I was caught. At some point I (obviously) started to wonder what could have been if things had ended differently. Not all of it, but some minor (or not so minor) details. Like (who would have guessed it) Javert´s death.

Aren´t there many of us who wished there´d been another way? I began wondering how this way could have looked like. You read what I came up with. Not much originality here. There were two, already well explored ways, that many fanfic writers had done times and times before me. He either gets stopped by Valjean (I considered that briefly but dismissed it – he would have rather caused an even faster jump if he´d been there) or by someone else. That this someone should be a strange woman is also something that has been done before, but it seemed to be the only scenario that wanted to be told, so I had no choice.

Everything else really developed from that point.

Let me go far afield a little more at this point. Before I even started thinking about writing a story of my own, I had read one, on this very site, that was very intriguing and I can only recommend it to everyone who enjoys the pairing of Javert and Valjean as the characters that they are. It was the story "Tale of Two Men" which was sadly never finished. But the characterization of both Javert and Valjean in this story, just had me in awe, plus it features a murder case the two of them got involved with.

After I finished reading the last posted chapter of this story, I was tempted to contact the author, and ask for permission to pick up her plot and finish it for her, since she had clearly stated that she wouldn´t do it anymore. But the plot was too complex and the historical details she had put into it, kinda discouraged me. I´d never been good with stories that played in the past, where people did not have cell phones or say at least guns that can shoot more than once before you have to reload. Seriously. How to write an action shooting scene with guns that can not shoot repeatedly? It´s impossible, right? Well, that´s at least what I thought. Which was, because I almost didn´t even start writing.

But as it is with all obsessions, sometimes you cannot get away from them. I tried, but the idea just wouldn´t leave me. If you can´t write someone else´s story, write your own, it kept telling me. What would it be like? Hm? Just try to imagine.

And what can I say? I did. And what you just read was the result.

Marianne was the first one to come in. It was a challenge to write her, and not let her become a Marie Susette, as one of my reviewers called it so eloquently (that one still has me laughing – Mary Sue indeed) Her only purpose, at least when I started, was to get Javert off the bridge. But somehow I knew that her role would be bigger than that. Unfortunately I also knew that this role of hers, would get her killed very soon in the story.

I wanted something interesting, something that would tie to the events before the bridge. I was watching a lot of 24 while writing this story, so you can easily call that show my main inspiration for the plot. Political thriller that is not really political. Life threats wherever you send the characters and no one can be trusted. Marianne turned out to be the key to the whole plot, even after she had died.

For everyone who lost track of her story, here a brief summary. She was Lecomte´s girlfriend, unsuspecting of what he was involved with, and when she found out by total chance, she went to an old friend of her dead father: the general that happened to be Javert´s old mentor. He asked her to spy for him and to have an eye on Javert as well, because Javert was the only one he could trust in all of this. And that is how the poor guy got involved in this plot, and why she could save his life in the first place. Because it had not been coincidence that she passed the bridge that night. At least not completely.

Anyway, this is how it all came together. How it went down, how it ended. Javert might not have been happy about her showing up and interrupting his rendezvous with death, but in the end he fought for his life again. Especially after her death. I found it quite fascinating how Marianne stayed in the story even after I killed her. She was one of the main reasons why Javert did all the things that he did. Because he wanted revenge.

By the way, the chemistry between him and Marianne was something I didn´t plan or even foresee. All I wanted was some sort of understanding between them. When Marianne started telling him how she knew what he was going through (and that too came from her, not me) it became more though. I guess he fell a little in love with her, and who knows, if she hadn´t died, they might have been something. But she did die and so we´ll never know.

Valjean´s involvement in the plot was a given of course. Of course I wanted them to work together, and of course I sent him this way, so they would meet up by "coincidence". But that was truly all I had to do. As soon as I had them in a room together, forced to fight for their lives side by side, my task was done. Everything that came after that, came from these two guys. Sometimes there are characters that do all the work for you, and in this case, that´s exactly what they did. I seriously only had to sit back and watch them do their thing.

Every time they were in a scene together I just let them talk and wrote down what they gave me. None of this came from me. So if any of you commented me on how well I wrote them, all I can say is this: It wasn´t me. Thanks a lot, but I can´t take credit for it. All the credit goes to Valjean and Javert (or maybe Jackman and Crowe, however you prefer it).

I´d never write a character in a way that would make the character do or be anything the character doesn´t want to be. If I´d try to force them to do anything against their nature, they´d downright refuse to work for me. So everything that happened in this story, to these guys or between them, was entirely their choice, and could only happen because they wanted it.

Same thing goes for Cosette by the way. She was a real treat I can tell you this. Let me start at the beginning once again.

What had always bugged me about Cosette, in other fanfics that I´d read was this: She never had much of a personality. She always comes as this totally unknowing innocent girl, that had no idea what is going on. If she meets Javert (usually Javert and Valjean have met up already at this point of the stories) she never has any idea who he is. She automatically assumes that he and her Papa are old friends, and the two of them, not wanting to destroy her innocent view on the world, even play along with that.

Sorry, but that really rubs me the wrong way.

The kid was not a toddler anymore, when Javert chased them through the night, so of course she would remember something. And on that day in the street when he intervened and practically saved Valjean from Thenadiere, she saw him too.

So I allowed her some awareness, about who Javert was and about the threat he represented. And once again that was all I had to do. The rest developed from there. Her mind was much darker than I expected it to be, I can tell you. I surely knew that something would come from this, in the end of the story, but I had no idea what it would be until I was there.

What I liked though, was the fact that it was Javert who would bring her back around. It was a nice way of coming full circle at the end of the story, when he did for her practically the same thing Marianne had done for him, when it all began.

So there you see. All the characters had their own journey in this story and bringing it to a satisfying end is always tricky. I liked the idea of finishing with an open end. One that promises an interesting future for Valjean and Javert. Or at least … leaving it open was the idea. By now it is not quite as open anymore.

Sometimes when you tell yourself you will write a story, just for fun, and that it doesn´t have to be big (just like four or five chapters or so and it will be all right) the story has other plans. And when you´re done writing it, you suddenly feel as if it was over too fast. So I kept asking myself … is there another story in it? Maybe? And if so, what would it be like? Just try to imagine …

Well, what can I say? I did. And what I saw didn´t look all too bad. I guess there could be another story in it. So maybe we´ll see each other again. Next time? Until then.

If you made it through all of this and are still here – respect. You can still share your opinion with me. Or suggest what to do better next time.

Aside from that, I´ll say one last time, thanks for reading.