The following Friday night Enjolras suggested that they go to the Musain. They'd both been so busy recently that they'd barely darkened the door of their old stomping ground, and the others were beginning to make noise about the fact that they hardly saw them anymore.

By the time they managed to get themselves organized and actually get out of their apartment everyone else was already long assembled.

"Fucking finally!" Grantaire yelled as Eponine and Enjolras made their was across the busy bar to their usual tables at the back, which their friends already occupied.

"We thought you weren't coming," Courfeyrac said. "We were actually taking on bets on exactly when one of you was going to text and bail."

"Oh yeah, cause you're all amazing time keepers who are never late for anything," Eponine said, setting her purse on the table.

"But we're just late," Courfeyrac replied. "We do actually show up eventually, you two on the other hand have just been AWOL recently."

"We've just been busy," Enjolras said as he sat down.

"Busy doing what?" Courfeyrac said, "Making more babies?"

Grantaire sniggered.

"How much have you had to drink?" Eponine asked.

"I may have had some drinks," Courfeyrac replied.

"By some he means that he's been here with Grantaire since lunchtime," Marius chipped in.

"Figured," Enjolras said. "Are you OK?" he said, turning to Eponine, who was still standing. "Do you not want to sit down?"

"Yeah, 'Ponine, you should sit down," Joly said, already looking highly concerned just by her sheer presence in the bar. She knew that if he had his way she'd be on bed rest from now until she gave birth. She was still highly amused by the fact that the biggest hypochondriac she had ever met was actually a fully qualified doctor, she always thought he should have his own TV show or something, the whole thing was just too ironic.

"I'm just going to go the bathroom first," she replied.

"Oh, I'll come with you," Cosette said, getting up from her place beside Marius. "I need a rest-bite from freakin' Thing 1 and 2 over there," she said, pointing towards Grantaire and Courfeyrac, who feigned hurt expressions as the two women left the table.

"So, have you told Enjolras you love him yet?" Cosette asked the second the bathroom door closed behind them.

"No," Eponine replied as she made her way over to the sink. She glared at her face in the mirror; it was definitely getting fat.

"You need to tell him," Cosette said, leaning against the sink beside Eponine.

"What I really need is to pee," Eponine said, spinning round and heading for the first empty cubicle.

The entire time she was in there Cosette continued to preach to her about why she needed to tell Enjolras how she felt and how they needed to sort it out before the baby was born because it was't fair on either of them.

Eponine just made noise in agreement with everything she was saying, after all she was only making fair points and Eponine knew she was right, she just didn't want to deal with it right now, especially after Grantaire's revelation that Enjolras had probably been in love with her long before anything had ever happened between them.

It was only when she stood up from the toilet that she saw the blood. There wasn't a lot of it, but it was definitely blood. Cosette was still talking, oblivious to what was going on on Eponine's side of the door.

Eponine thought she might faint. Something was wrong. There shouldn't be blood.

She just stood there, letting Cosette ramble on. Her whole body was starting to shake. She didn't know what to do.

"Eponine, you OK?" Cosette finally said, after being greeted with silence for long enough to make her concerned.

"Cosette, can you go get Joly for me?" Eponine said, trying to sound calm.

"Joly? Why do you want Joly?" Cosette replied, knocking the door of the cubicle. "Eponine let me in."

"Can you please just go and get Joly and Enjolras, Cosette, please." she said, this time her voice coming out as nothing more than a desperate squeak.

"Eponine, what's wrong?" Cosette replied, starting to panic.

"I'm bleeding."

Enjolras and Grantaire sat in the perfectly white, and eerily quiet, hospital corridor.

By the time they had gotten into the bathroom Eponine was crying, slouched against the cubicle wall. Joly had tried to keep her as calm as possible, telling her that it was probably nothing to worry about, but the whole way to the hospital she had just kept apologizing. She had laid in the back of Joly's car telling Enjolras how sorry she was over and over again. He had told her it wasn't her fault, he had stroked her hair and told her that everything was going to be OK, but she wouldn't listen.

When they reached the hospital they had rushed her in right away and told Enjolras to wait. He didn't know how long ago that had been, he had no idea how long he and Grantaire had been sitting there staring at the same white wall, but it felt like an eternity. Joly had wandering off a little while ago, saying something about going to try and find someone he knew who was working the night shift and might be able to give them an update on what was going on. He hadn't come back yet.

Enjolras had never felt so helpless in his entire life. There was nothing he could do, absolutely nothing. Eponine needed him and he couldn't help her.

"You want something to drink?" Grantaire asked. "I could go see if I could get us some tea or something?"

Enjolras shook his head.

"What about something to eat? Are you hungry?"

"What is she loses the baby Grantaire?" Enjolras said, barely even able to comprehend the words coming out of his mouth.

"She'll be fine," Grantaire replied, trying to sound as positive as possible, even though he was terrified. "They'll both be fine."

Enjolras leant over with his head in his hands. It was only after a few moments, when his shoulders began to shake, that Grantaire realized he was crying. Grantaire had never seen his friend like this before and he didn't know what to do. Enjolras was the most together person he had ever met, and now he was falling apart right in front of him.

"If something happens to her..." Enjolras said, his voice coming out in muffled sobs.

Grantaire reached over and grabbed Enjolras's shoulder, squeezing it before leaving his hand there. He didn't really think anything he said would help, he didn't think there was a right thing to say in this situation, but the very least he could do was let Enjolras know that he was there.

The silence returned and they continued to sit there, as if frozen in that position. When the double doors not far from them swung open both men turned to see a doctor marching up the corridor towards them.

"Mr Enjolras?" the doctor said, looking between them, unsure exactly which of the two he should be speaking to.

"Yes," Enjolras said, jumping to his feet as he tried to wipe his face with the back of his hand.

"Mr Enjolras, I'm Dr. Petit," the doctor said, reaching out to shake Enjolras's hand.

"Eponine?" Enjolras asked desperately.

"Ms Jondrette is fine, and so is the baby. They're both fine."

"Oh thank God," Enjolras gasped. He bent over with both hands on his knees and tried to take deep breaths. He felt like his breath had been caught in his throat from the moment Cosette had rushed out of the bathroom calling for Joly.

"What happened?" Grantaire asked. "Why was there blood?"

"We don't know unfortunately," Dr. Petit replied. "Bleeding at this stage in the pregnancy is always a cause for concern, and sometimes we just don't know why it happens, but I wouldn't worry about that too much, we've checked them both out and they're both absolutely fine."

"Thank you Doctor," Enjolras said, trying to regain his composure.

"She is asking for you Mr. Enjolras," Dr. Petit said. "If you'd like to follow me I can take you to her."

"Yes," Enjolras said, breathlessly. "Yes, I need to see her."

He was just about to take off down the corridor when he turned to Grantaire.

"Thank you."

"Hey, don't mention it," Grantaire replied, smiling. "Now go to Eponine. I'll call the others, let them know that everything is alright."

The doctor showed Enjolras to Eponine's room and gave him a reassuring pat on the back before closing the door behind him.

Enjolras didn't say anything, he just bounded straight over to the bed, took Eponine's face in his hands and kissed her. It was a desperate frenzy of a kiss and the second his mouth met hers Eponine started to cry.

"Hey," Enjolras said, brushing his thumb across her cheek, "why are you crying?"

"I'm just so glad that you're here." she said, wrapping her arms round his neck and pulling him closer: she needed him to be closer.

"I'm here," he said, "I'm not going anywhere."

"That was the most fucking terrifying thing that has ever happened to me," Eponine said, laying her head on his shoulder.

"But you're both OK," Enjolras said, resting one of his hands on her bump as he kissed her forehead. "You're both OK," he repeated, as if needing to reassure himself that everything was alright.

"Enjolras?" she said, lacing her fingers with his.

"Yeah?"

"I really am sorry."

"Eponine, you don't need to apologize, this wasn't your fault..."

"No," she said, interrupting him. "I'm sorry for the way I treated you."

"The way you treated me?" he said, sitting up and causing her to lift her head from his shoulder.

"When I thought I was losing the baby I was so fucking scared that if I did that meant I would lose you too," she began.

"Eponine..."

"Just let me finish," she said, taking a deep breath before she started speaking again. "I'm a pretty miserable bitch most of the time, but not when I'm with you, being with you makes me so happy that I don't even know how to process it. This past while I've been so afraid of messing up what we have that I've been avoiding actually discussing it, we both have."

Enjolras shifted on the bed, knowing that she was right, he was just as guilty of burying his head in the sand as she was.

"I just kept thinking, 'oh now is not the right time, I'll talk to him about it next week', and that was really fucking selfish of me because what if we don't get next week? When I was laying here earlier and no-one would tell me what was going on, all I wanted was you: all I wanted to do was tell you that I love you because I was so fucking frightened that fate was going to intervene and that we were going to fall apart, and that next week was never going to come and I would never get the chance to say it to you. So there, I'm saying it now, and I know this isn't exactly the world's romantic setting but I just need you to know that I do love you Enjolras," she said, her voice starting to break. "I really do love you."

Enjolras kissed her, but this time it was slow and gentle and Eponine thought she might die when he pulled his mouth back from hers.

"I love you too," he said softly.

Eponine smiled before burying her head into the crook of his neck. "It sounds nice when you say that."

"I love you," he whispered in her ear.

"Say it again."