A/N - Sorry for not getting this chapter up sooner - things have just been pretty crazy over the last month or so. I hope this chapter makes up for it - it gives a bit more of an insight into Enjolras and his relationship with his own parents.

As always thank you for taking the time to review the last chapter, enjoy this one!

When Enjolras's door knocked at 8pm on a Wednesday night the last person he expected to see standing on the other side was his mother.

"Mom?" he said, needing her to clarify that she wasn't actually some form of mirage standing in the hallway in front of him.

"Alexander," his mother said smiling at him.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well that isn't a very nice welcome for your own mother," she replied. "Aren't you going to invite me in?"

"Eh yeah," he stammered, pushing his unruly hair back out of his face. "Of course. Sorry. Come in."

He stepped aside to allow his mother into the apartment, closing the door behind her. "Can I get you anything?" he asked as they walked into the living room. "Tea? Something to eat?"

"No dear, I'm fine," she said, taking off her coat and sitting down on the couch. "One of your neighbors let me into the building, lovely man; lives across the hall from you he said."

Enjolras didn't know how to react to her, he didn't know why she was now sitting in his living room. He hadn't spoken to either of his parents since the night he had run out of their house after Eponine, and this was the first time either of them had made any sort of contact with him. He was also exceptionally conscious of his mother's poor health and that the last thing she should have been doing was making the trip into the city to show up unannounced at his apartment.

"What happened to your face?" she asking, snapping him out of his train of thought and reaching towards the now fading bruise on his cheekbone.

Enjolras shook his head and jerked back from her attempted touch. "Nothing."

"It doesn't look like nothing Alexander."

"I said it's nothing," he snapped.

His mother looked shocked at his brief outburst, especially when it wasn't immediately followed by an apology; but he couldn't even bring himself to care whether or not he had offended her.

"Why are you here Mom?" he asked.

"I just wanted to make sure you were OK," she replied.

"Well I'm fine," he replied sharply. 'So there's the answer to your question. You can leave now, sorry you made such an unnecessary trip into the city."

"I was also hoping that maybe we could talk about what happened when you came to visit."

"You don't need to worry about that Mom," Enjolras replied. "You can just forget about the whole thing because Eponine and I aren't together any more. So why don't you just run on home and tell Dad that you both got what you wanted."

"When did I say that was what I wanted?"

"Oh come on Mom," he replied. "You didn't need to say it, Dad made it perfectly clear how you both felt – not that I really expected any other reaction."

"I never said that I didn't want you to be with her Alexander," his mother said. "I wasn't even aware that you had a girlfriend, never mind a baby on the way. I'm not going to sit here and say that I wasn't shocked at your news that evening, but I haven't come here to speak on behalf of your father, I know he said some very unkind things but, contrary to what you think, I don't share his opinions."

Enjolras thought back to that night in his parents' dining room; how his mother had stood in silence as his father exploded.

"How could you be so goddamn stupid Alexander? You do realize that she has done this on purpose? She probably couldn't believe her luck when she got you into bed. Have you no self control? I didn't think you would be the type to think with your cock instead of your brain. You stupid, stupid boy."

"Do you love her?" his mother asked.

"I don't want to talk about this." Enjolras replied, diverting his gaze away from her and towards the floor.

"It's not going to do you any good not to talk about it Alexander," his mother said softly.

Enjolras felt like a child. "Why does it matter if I love her? Why do you even care? You didn't want us to be together, and we're not anymore, so I don't understand why this conversation is relevant. I don't understand why we're still talking about this." He sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. "There was really no need for you to come here."

His mother cleared her throat before she spoke. "Alexander, I've been married to your father for over 30 years. Not once did anyone ask me if I loved him: not my parents, not his parents and not even your father himself. When I met him he was 36; the perfect age for a professional, successful lawyer to get married as far as he was concerned. It's always been about what the outside world thinks with your father, he'd had his years of fun and felt that he was starting to get the age where people would question why he hadn't settled down. The only reason I was the one he chose was because I was there – this young girl from a good family who just happened to be interning at his firm – he wanted a trophy wife and there was one sitting right there in his office. I highly doubt that your father has ever loved me. I think he finds me tolerable, an acceptable wife to bring out at social gatherings, but I don't think he loves me; and I've made my peace with that."

Enjolras couldn't believe the words that were coming out of his mother's mouth – he always knew that his parents weren't exactly madly in love with each other; he knew about his father's many affairs and he had always assumed that they had simply grown tired of each other as time went by. To hear his mother say that they had never even been in love to begin with genuinely shocked him.

"Why are you telling me this Mom?" he asked, lifting his stare from the floor.

"Because I've had a lot of time to think over the past few months, I've had a lot of time to think about all the things I've done wrong, all the things I wish I could get another go at and I don't want you to make the same mistakes I did. I married your father because he ticked all the boxes – he was stable, successful, handsome – I couldn't imagine anyone better coming along, I knew he was the type of man other girls would die to have proposing to them. I was young and naive and flattered that this older, wealthy, well-respected man was interested in me; I got caught up in the whole whirlwind of being your father's wife – I didn't even stop to think about the fact that I was marrying a man I wasn't even sure I was in love with; I was 22 at my wedding Alexander, I didn't know anything about love," she paused. "I don't want that for you."

"Then why have you spent your entire life trying desperately to set me up with the 'suitable' daughters of your stuck up friends?" he asked, calling her out on her apparent hypocrisy.

"Because I thought I was doing the right thing, I thought you belonged in that world. Now I see that you don't, now I realize that you never have. If I had known about you and Eponine I would never have continued suggesting that you go on dates with those girls. I know you Alexander, you're my son, and I know that you don't fall in love easily. I have no doubt of your feelings for her – or of the fact that she is deserving of them. If you love her, if you deem her worthy of your love, then I don't care about her background, or who her parents are. I just wish you had told me the truth."

Enjolras had always had a pretty decent relationship with his mother, he had happy memories of her from his childhood and he could remember a few occasions when she had broken from the party line and tried to reason with his father when he was furiously trying to impose the life plan he had devised for their only child. But ultimately she had always played second fiddle to his overbearing father, it was a position he had always assumed that she had taken gladly – but now he wasn't so sure.

"Does Dad know you're here?"

His mother shook her head.

"Didn't think so," Enjolras muttered.

"All I've really ever wanted is for you to be happy Alexander," she said, "and that is what your father wants too, he just thinks he knows best when it comes to what factors, and people, are going to contribute to that happiness. I know that you mightn't understand that now, but you will; when your baby arrives you will."

Enjolras's throat tightened at the mention of the baby. "I'm perfectly capable of figuring out what makes me happy Mom."

"So then where is Eponine, Alexander? Where is the girl you're clearly madly in love with?"

"She's not here Mom," Enjolras angrily snapped back. "It's over. How many times do you need me to say that before you understand?"

"And you just let her go?"

"I didn't have any choice. You think I wanted to just stand there helplessly whilst she told me that we couldn't be together anymore? There is nothing I wouldn't give to have her back here, I'd give her anything that she wanted – anything - but I've fucked it up Mom. I've hurt her too much; she's never going to really forgive me for what happened that weekend at your house."

"Does she love you?"

"I don't know." Enjolras shrugged. "She did. I don't know if she does anymore."

Enjolras's mother stood up, walked over and crouched in from of him, taking one of his hands in her's. Enjolras felt himself tense up slightly at her unexpected touch.

"Can I give you some advice Alexander?"

"Eh, yeah, sure," he replied.

"I don't know how much longer I'm going to be around for-"

"Mom-"

"It's the truth sweetheart," his mother replied matter of factly, "and the last thing I want is to know that I could be leaving my only child behind, heartbroken and unhappy, especially when I feel somewhat responsible for that unhappiness. I can't apologize on behalf of your father, but I can speak for myself, and I want you to know that I am truly sorry that you felt that you couldn't tell us that you had found someone you cared that deeply for, someone that you are going to have a child with. I'm sorry that you felt you had to keep that from us... that we made you feel that you needed to keep from us."

"I don't like to hear you talk like that," Enjolras replied. "It feels like you're giving me some grand goodbye speech."

"Darling, I'm not going to stop fighting this, so don't think that I'm simply accepting defeat," his mother said. "But there is nothing like a cancer diagnosis to make you re-assess your entire life as you stare your own morality in the face."

"I should have been there for you more." Enjolras said quietly.

He was overcome with a sense of guilt that he had been trying to suppress since he had found out about his mother's cancer. Despite everything that had happened over that fateful weekend, and the fact that his own life had subsequently fallen apart, he was still wracked with guilt at his inability to be there for his own mother when she needed him the most. He had barely even spoken to her that weekend, the only time he had actually spent with her was during dinner. He had been planning to speak to her alone at some stage – but that chance had never come.

"Nonsense," his mother said, shaking her head. "You need to be here. Eponine needs you more than me; that baby needs you more than me."

Enjolras tried to stop the lump he felt rising in his throat, but he couldn't do it – all the emotion he had been trying so hard not to feel suddenly hit him. He abruptly pulled his hand from his mother's hold, clamped both his hands over his face and wept.

"Darling," his mother said, shocked at seeing her only son in such a state. She hadn't witnessed him cry so distressingly since he was a child. "Oh darling."

"I can't do this Mom," he said through the uncontrollable sobs, which were making it feel as though his whole body was shaking. "I'm scared. I'm so scared."

Enjolras's mother stood up and sat on the arm of his chair before gently wrapping her arm around his shoulders, allowing him to rest against her.

"I know darling, the prospect of being a parent is terrifying – but you can do this, I know you can."

"What if I can't though? I don't know the first thing about bringing up a child. I'm going to mess everything up," he paused briefly. "Like I always do."

"You don't mess everything up my love," he mother said, trying to comfort him.

"Yes I do," Enjolras replied as he sat up. "I've let you down, I've let Eponine down, I've let my own child down and it's not even born yet. I just keep messing everything up, and I don't know how to make it right; I don't know how to make any of it right."

"You haven't let me down," his mother replied. "I'm so proud of you Alexander. I'm so exceptionally proud of the man you've become. Don't you ever think that you've let me down."

As Enjolras listened to his mother speak he took a deep breath – his tears finally beginning to subside.

"If things don't work out with you and Eponine then that is something you'll just have to learn to live with. That doesn't mean that you'll just stop loving her, maybe you'll never stop loving her, but you will learn to live with not being with her - eventually."

"And the baby?"

"Unfortunately they don't come with a manual my darling, but you will learn; and yes, you'll make mistakes, every parent does, but I have no doubt that you'll be a wonderful father."

Enjolras couldn't help but smile at his mother's compliment as he wiped his face with his sweatshirt covered hands. "Thanks Mom."

"Now," she said, "are you going to tell me what happened to your face?"