A/N: Final chapter. Warning: the ending isn't very happy. I think I cried bucketloads whilst writing this.
Chapter Twenty Three: And rain will make the flowers...
Marius was vaguely aware of the boy who'd blocked the bullet falling back. The boy managed to climb down. Marius was focused on stopping the soldiers. He stood face-to-face with two of them, whilst holding the torch and a barrel of gunpowder.
"Fall back! Fall back or I'll blow the barricade!" He yelled.
"Blow the barricade and you'll blow yourself with it!" One of them said.
Éponine found that voice familiar...but she was only vaguely aware. Her mind was hazy. Her hand was throbbing. Her chest and back were in agony: for it had been her hand on the gun. She stopped the bullet reaching Marius, and injured herself.
She felt dizzy as she was sat on an edge of the barricade, up high, but she had to see Marius. She'd knocked her head whilst falling and cut it, so she was sure her hair was covered in blood. "I'll blow myself with it." Marius' voice was fiercer than she'd ever heard it before, but there was also a fearful edge to it.
"Back! Fall back!" She knew where she recognised that voice. The one who had shot her, the one who used to talk to her like a friend. Dániel. Why had he left all his friends? She would never know.
She tried not to black out with pain; not to close her eyes. For if she did, she knew she'd never open them again. She would never see Marius.
Marius! Her eyes opened.
She would wait for him, to see him one last time before passing. Marius...
Marius stepped down from the barricade, in a daze. He was aware of people complaining, asking what he was doing. Enjolras came up to him.
"You saved us all." He patted Marius' shoulder. Marius nodded, still dazed. Enjolras joined the others further away.
"There's a boy climbing the barricade!" Someone yelled. Everyone looked up, seeing someone climbing down.
"I know him." Marius saw who it was. Éponine?
"Good god? What are you doing?" But why was she here? Why not with the others, in safety? Why had she come back?
"'Ponine, have you no fear? Have you
I seen my beloved? Why have you come back here?" He helped her down.
Beloved. The word hurt Éponine more than her wounds. The letter Cosette gave her for him was like ice in her pocket.
"Took the letter like you said! I met her father at the door..." She felt a jolt through her body.
"He said he would give it-I don't think I can stand anymore!"
The pain took over, and she collapsed, Marius preventing her from falling too hard. They were both sat against the barricade, Éponine in Marius' arms.
"Eponine? What's wrong?" Marius asked. He went to take the hat off her head, and felt something wet.
"I feel there's something wet upon your hair!" Blood. He took her hand, with the bullet hole through it. Everything made sense...it was her hand on the gun he saw.
She put her good hand in her pocket, pulling out Cosette's letter.
"I kept it from you. It's from Cosette...I'm sorry." she said softly, handing him the letter.
Marius clutched the letter, noticing the broken seal. He shook his head and put it in his pocket. He was more concerned about Éponine at this moment.
"It was you who blocked the bullet that would have killed me. You took me to Cosette. You gave her my letter...you bring me a letter now. I must be able to help-you can't die of a wounded hand."
She shook her head, and tried to speak.
"You can't help me now. But promise me one thing...when I'm gone...kiss me on the forehead...I shall feel it from beyond." She was barely whispering now.
"Eponine! You're hurt! You need some help!" He was panicking now. He opened her coat as he was going to take it off to use to staunch the blood flow. Then he saw the hole through her chest, spurting blood. "Oh god, it's everywhere!"
Éponine held his arm, and looked into his eyes.
"Don't you fret, Monsieur Marius." He realised how bad her wounds were. He realised it was starting to rain. Éponine closed her jacket so he couldn't see her wound.
"I don't feel any pain." She was lying, but she couldn't stand that tortured look on his face.
"A little...fall...of rain, can hardly hurt me now...you're here..." She sounded faint, but she was telling him.
"That's all I need to know." He listened, puzzled, although the truth was dawning on him at last.
"And you will keep me safe...and you will keep me close...and rain...will make the flowers grow."
She leant her head back, closing her eyes. She was beside Marius, the one she loved. Nothing else mattered. She felt herself fading...her life would end now. She tried to lie on her side to pass, but she felt an arm around her waist, pulling her towards Marius. Her eyes opened in a daze, raindrops in her eyelashes.
"But you will live, 'Ponine! Dear God above!" He did care! It wasn't too late after all. "If I could close your wounds with words of love." Her head nestled into his chest.
"Just hold me now...and let it be! Shelter me, comfort me!" Strength seemed to be coming back to her. She felt numb, instead of in pain. Being with him made it all better.
"But you would live, a hundred years.
If I could show you how! I won't desert you now!" He felt guilty about how he'd stopped talking to her when his mind became filled with Cosette, how he'd not bothered.
"The rain can't hurt me now! This rain, will wash away what's past!" His regrets too? He wondered. Éponine pushed Cosette aside. He was caring for her now, not Cosette. She was the one close to him now.
"And you will keep me safe, and you will keep me close, I'll sleep in your embrace at last!" Like so long ago. At last...it was happening again. This time, he wouldn't leave. She could stay there forever.
People were silently gathered around them. Most people observed silenty. Jaques clutched a sobbing Azelma. A tear slid out of Gavroche's eye. The sky was starting to clear, allowing starlight dance through.
"The rain that brings you here is heaven blessed!" Her wounded hand was outstretched towards the sky, rain falling on it, red blood running off, down the cobblestones. Red, like the flag they slept on that night. like the flags surrounding them.
"The skies begin to clear...and I'm at rest.." She fell back, against Marius, looking up at him. Freckles, hair plastered to his forehead...his colourful eyes-grey, brown, green and blue-full of tears.
Eponine spoke softly. "A breath away...from where you..are...I've come home...from so far!" The pain was back, her strength waning. She gasped in pain, but still managed the words.
Marius looked worried again. Encouragingly, she said; "So don't you fret, Monsieur Marius, I don't feel any pain."
He relaxed, although he was crying. He looked into her eyes and gently murmured to her. "Hush-a-bye, dear Eponine. You won't feel any pain."
"A little...fall...of rain. Can hardly hurt me..." It was hurting. It was agony. "Now!" She gasped again, obviously in pain.
"Look, I'm here." Marius was staring into her eyes, and held her closer. She stared back into his. He realised now, he had loved her. It was too late. He choked back a sob.
"That's all I need to know." She said, gently and sweetly."And you will keep me safe..." She felt like she was drifting.
"And I will stay with you..." He promised, his voice clouded by the lump in his throat.
"And you will keep me close." She was closer to him than she'd ever been. She was finally truly happy, no doubts in her mind.
"...'til you are sleeping." He would stay.
"And rain." The rainfall had slowed. Éponine's eyes were closing.
"And rain." He didn't want her to die. She was right though; there was nothing more to do. He couldn't save her, but he could help her.
"Will make...the...flowers-" she cupped her hand around his face. He held her wrist. She tried lifting her head up to kiss him...her desires hadn't left yet. But she slipped down, sighing heavily. Rain still fell on her face.
"Will make the flowers." Marius was desperate for her to blink, to show she was still alive. She remained still, not breathing anymore.
"Grow." He said finally.
Marius stared at the girls face in silence. He did believe her soul had gone. Rain will make the flowers grow. She wrote that before. He reflected sadly, that wasn't true for humans. This girl would never grow up, never grow old.
But she opened her eyes, which were brighter than they'd ever been before, and smiled. She seemed like she was already in another world. A world full of no more pain.
Her hand, which had grown limp against his face, cupped it again.
He tightened his grip on her wrist. He didn't want to let go.
"Monsieur Marius, I do believe I was a bit in love with you." Her voice was clearer than it had been before.
But then, her body went limp.
She was really gone now.
"I loved you too, Dearest 'Ponine." He whispered.
Marius pressed his lips against her forehead gently, tears and rain streaming down his face.