A/N - Happy Sunday - enjoy!
Eponine slept for almost two days. On the third day she went to Enjolras's apartment whilst he was at work and got her things. She moved as quickly as she could, not wanting to spend too long there in case she became engulfed in the memories those rooms now held. Before she left she had made the fatal mistake of stopping in the doorway of what had been the spare room, had then become her room, and was in the process of becoming the baby's room; not that they had gotten very far with decorating it. She guessed that Enjolras would finish it himself and use it when the baby was with him. It was the first time that she thought about what was going to happen once the baby was actually born, how they were going to deal with co-parenting this little human being who had no idea of the mess its parents had created before it even made its way into the world.
When she got back to Grantaire's apartment she climbed back into bed and was hoping to sleep for a further two days, but instead she only managed a few hours before she was awoken by her ringing of her phone. When she grabbed it from the nightstand she saw Cosette's name displayed on the screen. She considered not answering, but she knew Cosette well enough to know that she didn't take a non-answered phone call as an answer and that it would then only be a matter of time before she was pounding on Grantaire's door.
"Hello," Eponine answering, trying to sound like she hadn't been asleep at 4pm in the afternoon.
"Ep, Marius told me what happened! Well he told me yesterday and I was going to call you, but I just wasn't sure what to say and I thought maybe you needed some time, but I didn't want you to think I was a bad friend for not calling either," she said, talking at a hundred words a second. "Are you OK?"
"Yeah, I'm fine Cosette," Eponine lied.
"Are you at work?"
"No, I took a few days off; blamed it on being pregnant."
"Oh Eponine, I'm so sorry," Cosette said, sounding genuinely sympathetic. "Is there anything I can do?"
"No," Eponine replied, pushing herself up into a sitting position. "I just need to lie in my, well Grantaire's, bed for a few days and then I'll be right as rain."
"You can always move back here if you want, I've spoken to Marius about it and he absolutely doesn't mind, we'd love to have you back," Cosette said, "I'm sure you don't want to be living over at Grantaire's. I mean there's not exactly a lot of room there."
Eponine looked around Grantaire's bedroom, which she had now taken over. The room was still cluttered with his stuff, and was now joined by the bags she had stuffed full of her belongings. She had just dumped them all onto the floor when she got back from Enjolras's apartment. It was only when she saw the mess of the room in front of her that she was really forced to consider how this living arrangement was going to work. She wasn't entirely sure that Grantaire had even really thought it through when he had suggested it. Did he really think he going to spend the next however many months sleeping on his own couch whilst Eponine, and then the baby, took over his bedroom?
But then could she really face the alternative? Moving back into her old apartment, back into her old bedroom where this whole sorry situation had started. Living with Marius and Cosette, watching them be ridiculously in love every day, whilst she attempted to bring up a kid on her own. Neither option was really all that desirable, but for her own sanity she knew she probably had to stay put at Grantaire's, at least for the meantime until she tried to think of a better solution.
"I'm fine here Cosette, but thanks for the offer."
"Well if you change your mind you know you're always more than welcome."
"Thanks," Eponine said, figetting with the corner of the duvet cover.
"Have you heard anything from, eh, Enjolras?" Cosette hesitantly asked, almost whispering his name.
Eponine swallowed hard, her breath catching in her throat. "He's text me a few times, just checking that I'm OK."
"And did you reply?"
"Well yeah," Eponine said, "but more just to let him know that the baby is OK."
"And that's it? You haven't called him, or seen him?"
"Cosette we broke up," Eponine snapped. "I'm trying to forget about him, calling him and or seeing him is not going to help me do that."
"Right, right," Cosette stammered. "Sorry."
Eponine sighed. "No, I'm sorry Cos, I shouldn't haven't snapped. I'm just tired." As she rested her head back aganist the headboard she felt the baby deliver a series of hard kicks aganist the left side of her stomach. "Listen, I'm going to have to go; the baby is kicking the shit out of me."
"Oh, OK," Cosette said, sounding disappointed that Eponine was cutting the conversation short.
"Thanks for calling though Cos," she said, "seriously."
"Don't be silly Eponine," Cosette replied, "you're my best friend."
"I'll text you later."
"Oh Ep, before you go – I know this is probably the last thing you want to do, but we have that dress fitting at 10 on Saturday morning."
Eponine had totally forgotten about the fitting that had been arranged weeks ago. Cosette was right, standing around getting measured for a dress that probably wasn't even going to fit her by the time she actually had to wear it, was the absolute last thing she wasn't to do right now. But of course she wasn't going to admit that to Cosette.
"I'll be there," she replied, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible.
"Great!" Cosette replied.
"Right, well I'll see you on Saturday."
"If you need anything before then just let me know."
"Thanks."
"Bye Ep."
"Bye Cosette."
Eponine hung up and was just about to throw her phone back onto the nightstand when she noticed that she had 2 unread messages. She clicked in, and wasn't surprised to see that they were both from Enjolras.
From: Enjy 11:14
You have some mail at the apartment.
From: Enjy 13:22
Did you come by today and pick up your stuff?
She quickly typed a response.
To: Enjy 16:37
Yes, I called over this morning. I'll give your key to R he'll probably see you before I do.
Her phone had barely hit the bed beside her when she heard her incoming message tone go off. She sighed as she grabbed the phone and read Enjolras's speedy reply.
From: Enjy 16:37
Don't you want me to come to your appointment with you in Monday?
Eponine had totally forgotten that she had a scan scheduled on Monday morning. The thought of having to muster the strength to go to her dress fitting on Saturday and then face Enjolras at the hospital on Monday morning made her just want to curl up in Grantaire's bed and sleep the rest of her life away.
She didn't want to see him, it was too hard; but she couldn't be selfish and tell him that he couldn't come to the scan just because she didn't have the emotional strength to look at his face.
To: Enjy 16:40
You can come. Just forgot it was on Monday. I'll meet you at the hospital at 9.50, beside those vending machines at the front doors.
As she hit send the baby delivered another series of sharp kicks to the left side of her stomach, causing Eponine to winch.
"Alright there bambino, calm yourself," she said, rubbing gentle circles on her belly. "Thanks for letting me know you're alright in there through, I'm sorry that I've been a really shitty oven over the past few days." Her comforting rubs seemed to have the desired effect as she felt the force of the kicks lessen. "We're going to be OK you and me, well at least I think we are. I know things are such a fucking mess right now, but I promise you I'll … we'll … figure this out: me and your dad. He's not a terrible person, you should know that. He's actually the complete opposite, he just makes a lot of terrible decisions. But he loves you, and I love you, and no matter what becomes of us please just remember that; remember how much we love you, and how much we want you." She lay back, placing her other hand on the opposite side of her stomach, cradling her bump, staring down at it as she spoke. "I'm going to be a bit sad when you have to come out of there you know, I mean I'm not looking forward to the actual process of getting you out, but I kind of like having you in there, I like that it's just you and me and I don't have to share you with anyone yet."
She was so engrossed in her one sided conversation that she jumped slightly when the soft knock on the bedroom door came.
"Ep, are you awake?" Grantaire's voice asked. "I thought I could hear you talking."
"Yeah I'm up," Eponine replied, pushing herself back up again. "You can come in."
She heard Grantaire briefly sturggle with the doorknob before he finally manage to get it open and barged into the room, a container in one hand and a bottle of water in the other.
"I brought you some chicken noddle soup from that deli you like," he said holding up the container as he sat down in the bed and pulled a plastic spoon from his pocket, handing them both to Eponine. "And also some water, because I don't want you getting dehydrated."
Eponine opened the containter of soup and inhaled the smell that escaped as soon as the lid was off; she hadn't realised how hungry she was until that moment. "Since when did you care about my hydration levels?"
"Well it's very important to always drink 2 litres of water a day."
Eponine raised her eyebrows as she slurped her soup off the spoon. "Enjolras told you to make sure I was drinking enough water, didn't he?"
"Maybe," Grantaire sheepishly replied.
"Figured," Eponine nodded. "You've never offered me a non-alcoholic drink the entire time we've known each other."
"I saw him earlier. He looked like shit."
"What, as opposed to me? Who hasn't washed her hair in 4 days and is in bed eating soup from the container in the middle of the afternoon."
"He took a day off work Eponine."
Eponine nearly choked on her soup. "I'm sorry, what?" Enjolras had never taken any time off from school or work. Eponine could even remember him practically crawling into a lecture one day when he had the flu, before nearly coughing his insides up and then protesting loudly when the professor insisted that he go home to bed.
"He took a personal day, the day after you and him had that talk here that you really awkwardly made me stay and witness."
"Oh," Eponine said, as she noticed Grantaire scanning the bags of belongings she had left strewn throughout his room.
"Did you go get your stuff?" he asked.
She nodded.
"Ep, you shouldn't have gone over there yourself, you should have waited and I would have come with you. Did you carry all that stuff on the Metro?"
"It was fine," she replied. "I kind of wanted to do it by myself; you know, just get it over with."
"Still, you shouldn't have been carrying those bags across the city Eponine, you're with child."
"It's just clothes and other crap, the bags aren't even that heavy."
"You're so stubborn," Grantaire said, shaking his head.
"Tell me something I don't know."
"But I wouldn't want you any other way," he said, nudging his arm aganist hers.
"I really don't know what I'd do without you R."
"Well I am an excellent friend – I mean, who else would bring you food and let you lay in their bed all day?"
Eponine knew Grantaire was just trying to be funny, but she couldn't help but feel guilty when he drew attention to the fact that she had taken over his bedroom.
"Listen R, I seriously can find somewhere else to live. I spoke to Cosette earlier and she said that I can move back into my old place-"
"Eponine, let me just stop you there," Grantaire interupted. "Firstly I know you would rather die than go and live with Cosette and Marius, and secondly, I want you to stay here. I don't give a shit about you sleeping in my bed or keeping your stuff in my room: I fall asleep on the couch most nights, and we can use the closet in the hall for extra space, it's basically empty."
"But Grantaire I'm going to have a baby in like 3 months."
"What?" Grantaire yelled, clutching his chest in fake shock. "You're pregnant?"
"Very funny asshole," Eponine said, thumping him on the arm.
Grantaire pulled his legs up and lay down on the bed beside Eponine, resting his head aganist the headboard.
"Look at the state of us R," she said, as they both stared at the opposite wall. "Like how the fuck did we end up here?"
"Not going to lie," he said, "I feel like I was always kind of destined to spend my life drinking away my parents' money, but I definitely did not see me doing that whilst living with Enjolras's pregnant ex – and that that pregnant ex would be you."
"You know I don't think I ever got used to being known as Enjolras's girlfriend, never mind his ex," Eponine said, her eyes still glued to the wall. "It's weird."
"Eh, before I came in here were you talking to the baby?"
"Were you eavesdropping through the door?"
"I wouldn't call it eavesdropping," Granttaire replied, "I was just making sure that you were awake, I didn't want to disturb your slumber."
"I'll take that as a yes then."
"You still haven't answered my original question."
"Yes Grantaire," Eponine said. "I was talking to the baby."
"Can it hear you?"
"Apparently so. Enjolras talks-" she stopped herself and sighed when she realized that she had used the present tense, her mind suddently being invaded with the memories of the nights they would lie in bed and he would talk away to her stomach for what felt like hours. "Talked. He used to talk to the baby all the time."
"He really misses you too," Grantaire said.
"I didn't say that I missed him," said Eponine said, turning her head to find Grantaire already staring at her.
"You didn't have to."