Enjolras checked his watch for the eighth time. She was almost thirty minutes late. She wasn't coming. She was going to stand him up.

The waitress stopped at his table for the third time.

"Are you sure I can't get you something else?" she nodded towards his untouched glass of water. "Something to start even, you know, while you're waiting?"

"Um, no thanks, I'll just give it a few more minutes."

"OK then," she said, "just give me a shout if you change your mind." She threw him a sympathetic smile as she walked off. He was clearly not the first man she'd seen abandoned in a restaurant.

He tried to distract himself by reading the menu yet again. He didn't know when he should give up, it was pretty obvious that she wasn't coming, but he didn't know when was the appropriate time to admit defeat and just go home. Should he give it the full half an hour before trying to slip out with his tail between his legs?

Then out of nowhere Eponine breezed past the table.

"Sorry I'm late," she said, sliding into the seat across from him. "I've been throwing up since 4pm, so I was just waiting for the lull."

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just don't know why they call it morning sickness when it's really all the fucking time sickness."

She sounded beyond pissed off and he couldn't tell if he was because she had been throwing up all afternoon or because she was in his company; maybe it was a combination of the two.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"So you should be, it is technically half your fault."

She opened her menu and began to scan through it. Enjolras wasn't sure what to say, she was right after all; it was half his fault.

"Well, you look really nice," he said in a lame attempt to try and cheer her up.

She glanced up. "I look sweaty and pale. But thanks for lying."

"Oh you're here," the waitress said, sounding pleasantly surprised as she stopped at the table for the fourth time. "I thought you were going to stand this poor guy up."

"Well I did strongly consider it," Eponine replied, "he does need brought down a peg or two."

The waitress glanced over at Enjolras; he just smiled at her, hoping she would assume that Eponine was being sarcastic and not that he actually was an asshole who deserved to be left sitting alone in a restaurant.

"Can I get you a drink?" she asked Eponine.

"A ginger ale would be great thanks."

"Sure thing, I'll be right back."

As soon as she walked away from the table Eponine smirked at Enjolras. "So, everyone thought you'd been stood up huh?"

"It did look that way."

"I kind of wish I had done it on purpose now, that would have been much more amusing."

He knew there was no way she was going to let him off the hook that easy. When he had called her that afternoon she had barely even given one word responses to everything he had said. But she was here and that was the main thing; at least she had actually shown up, surely that was half the battle.

They spent the whole meal making awkward conversation and very obviously avoiding the topic they had actually come to talk about. Enjolras talked about the case he was working on and Eponine pretended to understand. She talked about how Cosette's Dad had been round at their place all day helping to paint the kitchen, and how rude she had felt having to keep excusing herself to go be sick.

"I'm pretty sure he thought I was just really hungover," she said, in between mouthfuls of the chocolate fudge cake she'd ordered for desert. "It was really awkward."

Enjolras decided to take that as his cue to bring up the subject they'd been avoiding all night. Otherwise they were just going to end up going home no further on than they had been when they first got there, and she surely knew as well as he did that they couldn't keep ignoring the elephant in the room forever.

"So I suppose we really should talk about... well, the baby."

"OK, I guess you're right." she said, pushing her now empty plate into the middle of the table.

"So," Enjolras said, taking a deep breath, "when I spoke to Grantaire this morning he said you didn't know if you were even going to keep it."

Eponine had been expecting this to come up. Grantaire had text her to tell her that Enjolras had been at his place all morning freaking out, and that in an attempt to calm him down he had decided to tell him that she didn't even know if she was going to keep the baby, which had apparently just freaked him out even more.

"Which is fine, I mean, it's totally up to you. It's your body after all, so whatever you want to do is totally fine. I'll support whatever decision you make," he said, fumbling over his words as he spoke.

"He's right." she said, sitting up straight.

Enjolras felt his heart drop. She was going to have an abortion, of course she was. Why would she keep the baby? They were too young to be parents, they weren't even a couple, this whole thing had been one big messy accident. She probably just wanted to get rid of it and forget any of this had even happened.

"He's right," Eponine continued, "in that I didn't know what I was going to do initially."

"But you do now?" he said, trying to sound as together as possible.

Enjolras looked devastated. Eponine didn't really know what to do; the man spent his entire life sporting the world's greatest poker face and now here he was, looking like he was seconds away from crumbling right in front of her. She didn't think he'd react this way, she had been pretty sure that deep down he was hoping she'd have an abortion and they could just go back to awkwardly avoiding each other in all social situations.

"I'm going to keep it... the baby. I'm going to keep the baby," she said. "I seriously have to stop referring to it as 'it'."

"So you are going to have to have the baby?"

She nodded. "But I did mean what I said yesterday you know, about you not having to be involved if you don't want to be. I'm not going force you into anything and I really don't expect anything from you. I'm a big girl, I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself, whatever you want to do is up to you."

"I'm not going to leave you to deal with this by yourself Eponine. I want to be as involved as you want me to be."

She knew then that she had to forgive him for how he had reacted when she first told him she was pregnant. There was no point in wasting time by staying annoyed at him, he had apologized and she would just have to learn to let it go. He was still there after all, trying to making things right. And maybe she was a gullible idiot, but she believed him; she believed it when he said that he would be there if she wanted him to be. Besides, surely he at least deserved one chance and if he fucked up then that was it. She'd learnt a long time ago that most people won't worthy of second chances.

"I would like you to be there," she said quietly.

"Well then I'm there," he said.

"So I guess we're going to have a baby then," she said. "Jesus, we're having a baby. Even saying it sounds fucking insane."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I still can't believe this is really happening."

"I know," she said, "it still doesn't feel real. I mean obviously my body insists on constantly reminding me that it's real, but it just feels like it's happening to someone else."

"Are you sure you're OK?"

"I'm absolutely fine," she said, feeling slightly flattered at his concern, it wasn't something she was entirely used to. "You don't need to worry."

"Have you been to the doctor yet?"

She shook her head. "I'm going on Thursday. You can come if you want? It's in the morning though so you might be at work."

"I'll get the time off," he said, barely giving her time to finish the sentence.

"The appointment's at 11, shouldn't take that long."

"OK, 11 on Thursday. I'll tell them tomorrow."

"Are you going to tell them why you need the time off?" she said.

"No, I'll just tell them it's a medical thing. Besides I don't think you're really supposed to tell anyone until after 12 weeks right?"

"Yeah, so we still have 6 weeks of keeping it on the d/l."

So far only 3 people in the entire world knew about the baby and if Eponine had her way it would stay that way for as long as possible. She hated the idea of everyone finding out. She tried to tell herself that it was because she hated the idea of having to explain herself over and over again, but she knew that it was really because once everyone found out then the whole thing would become exceptionally real and she still felt like she needed some time to get her own head round it without everyone else suddenly started sticking their noses in.

"Listen Eponine," he said, shifting in his seat. "I've been thinking that maybe, only if you wanted to that is, you could move in with me?"

"Move in with you?"

"You know I have a spare room and it just seems right that I should be there, in case you need anything. And it might be nice for us to try and spend some more time together."

"Can't I just call you if I need anything?" she said hesitantly.

"Well yeah, but what if it's 3 in the morning? Or what if it's really urgent? At least if you were at my place then I'd just be in the next room."

"You've certainly changed your tune," she said. "Barely 48 hours ago you were denying all involvement and now you're asking me to move in with you? That really is quite the turn around."

"I'm so sorry Eponine..." he began, the tone of his voice indicating that he was more than ready to start grovelling.

She reached across the table and grabbed his hand. "Enjolras, I'm just messing with you. I think you've more than proven that you're willing to step up to the plate here."

"I am sorry through."

"I know."

This was whole thing was crazy. They didn't even really know each other and he was asking her to move in with him. But maybe that was the whole point. They were going to have a baby, they were stuck with each other for the rest of their lives, whether they liked it or not. Was she really going to agree to move in with him? Was she was seriously considering living with Enjolras? The more she thought about it the more she couldn't help but think that maybe it wasn't such a crazy idea after all.

"OK," she said,

"OK?

"OK, I'll move in."

"You will?"

She knew she could very well live to regret this and that everyone was going to think that they had lost their minds, but surely they had to at least give it a go? What did they have to loose? And it wasn't as though he was asking her to marry him, he was basically asking to her to be his roommate, that was all it was. They would just be roommates who happened to be having a baby together, what could possibly go wrong?

"Yeah. If we're going to do this then I suppose we should at least try and do it semi properly. Or at least try to, I don't know, build a better relationship between us before the baby comes."

"OK, great," he smiled.

"Well then I guess I'll go home and tell Cosette that I'm moving out. Her dad will probably be thrilled, now that he thinks I'm a raging alcoholic."

He gently squeezed her hand. "So we're really going to do this then?"

"Yeah," she said. "I guess we are."