Chapter Ten

Disclaimer: I do not own Les Misérables.

Valjean stopped breathing, vaguely registering how odd it was to have been finally correctly identified just when he had thought that the danger was over. He had not recognized this boy but the boy had recognized him and he must have changed at least as much over the years. Most people who thought they saw one man in another man it could not be would not even go as far as Javert who had attempted to investigate and explain it. But this boy thought it was impossible and still believed it and had still said it.

He should have known that this was a risk and should have prayed that their paths never crossed. Instead, he had actively searched the boy out, seeking only to make up for the wrong done to him. What had he been planning to say? What he planned if he was recognized? Had he had a plan. He no longer remembered. So many years had passed that he had begun to despair of ever finding Gervais, especially so far from Digne. Perhaps it was not surprising that the law had managed what he could not.

Cosette…He had to…had to…

The silence stretched on awkwardly between them. Valjean knew that he had to say something but he found that he could not.

To his surprise, Gervais eventually looked down. "Ah, I'm sorry."

Valjean started. Had Gervais changed his mind and decided that his theory was too ridiculous for him to have brought up?

"You look like you think I'm going to go running for an inspector," Gervais elaborated. "I'm not."

"No?" Valjean managed to say.

"It wouldn't do any good since that other guy is in prison," Gervais reasoned. "They don't seem to be too fond of letting people out once they put them in."

That was putting it mildly.

"And I already told you that I didn't care anymore about that coin."

"That is," Valjean began carefully. He cleared his throat and tried again. "That is not the way most people would see it."

Gervais shrugged. "It's not like that's anything new, me being different than others."

Being different had always bothered Valjean in a way that it clearly did not matter to Gervais. All he had ever wanted was to be like any other man. But this boy, who could come far closer than a man unable to use his real name ever could, did not care for such things. Such were the ironies of life, he supposed, feeling a sudden surge of gratitude that his act had not sent this boy into a life of crime himself.

"I don't understand. You said that losing that money caused you a lot of problems."

Gervais nodded. "Yes. Nearly nine years ago." His voice made it clear that he thought it was kind of ridiculous that they were still talking about this but Valjean could not just let it go at that.

"I have…experienced troubling events at least that long ago and longer that still upset me." Valjean hesitated before he went on. He had not denied Gervais' claims and it was not like a denial would likely change this boy's mind. The boy himself had denied any intention of reporting him and no one would believe him with Champmathieu as he was but the fear was hard to shake. Oh, how little reality mattered when you had expectations to meet! "It strikes me as odd that I appear to be more upset about robbing you than you are about having been robbed."

Gervais' expression did not change at this admission of guilt and he merely shrugged. "That's good, I guess. Means you probably won't rob other kids. Not that a mayor would have to outright steal things. He can cheat a man in other ways."

"I wouldn't!" Valjean protested wildly before his shoulders hunched." I understand why you would not believe me."

"I don't not believe you. I'm sure I don't know. I just got here but when I was asking about you people seemed to like you and I know what my boys say. People usually know if they're being cheated even if they can't do anything," Gervais told him. He snorted. "Well, unless they're those rich idiots and then they'll fall for anything!"

He did not seem to realize that, technically, 'rich idiot' would describe Valjean. He did not feel the need to bring it up or to say anything else at all for that matter.

Gervais sighed. "That wasn't the first time I been robbed. It wasn't the last. You didn't beat me for my coin and you didn't take everything I had and that's probably the nicest time I ever been robbed. I bee not paid for honest work before and turned my back for a second and my food was gone. Bad things happen all the time and this wasn't the biggest or worst of the lot."

That didn't make him feel any better. He felt a deep sadness settle on him again for how he had added to this boy's misery even though Gervais had clearly moved past that.

Something must have shown on his face for Gervais scowled at him. "Hey! Don't you dare pity me! I'm doing fine."

"I know you are," Valjean said quietly. "I just hate to see anyone suffer and I cannot bear it when this suffering is because of me. I'm sorry."

Gervais had clearly not expected this. "Thank you. I guess. Doesn't make much difference but it's a nice thought."

"No, I suppose it doesn't," Valjean agreed, sighing in resignation. So many things had happened, so much pain had been caused, and no amount of regret or attempts to make it right could ever change that.

He could bring prosperity to an entire town but that would not leave his sister and her children one iota better off than they had been when he had been forced to abandon them when they were cold and starving. He was raising Cosette but that did not change Fantine's fall from grace and her subsequent suffering and death. His opinion on reform was being sought by factions outside of Montreuil but that would not mean a thing to the unjustly imprisoned Champmathieu.

Dwelling on them might be a fair punishment for the guilt that he bore but he could not allow that stop him from moving forward and preventing himself from having any more regrets than were necessary. He was not sure how much blame he could bear before he was drowning in it.

"Just the same, I have something for you," Valjean said, reaching deep into his pocket and pulling out the coin that had begun all of this. He had taken to carrying it around with him since the trial, since he had attempted to destroy it in a frenzy. He had thought that he had needed the reminder but this boy deserved it more.

Gervais curiously reaches over and takes the coin. He stared intently at it, his brow furrowing. "Is this…?"

"That is the coin I took from you, yes," Valjean confirmed.

Gervais was still looking down at the coin in wonderment. "You kept it all this time? But why rob me at all if you weren't going to spend it? I guess you must have turned your life around pretty quick!"

Though he was still not looking at Valjean, Valjean himself felt that he could no longer look at Gervais. "I…did not mean to steal that from you."

Gervais thought it over before shrugging. "I could see that. You didn't seem to really notice me and you could have easily just automatically stepped on something rolling down towards you."

"It has been so long since then and I was going through something of a mental breakdown," Valjean said slowly. "I do not remember what happened or why. I will tell you that after you left and I realized what I had done, I tried to find you immediately. I called your name for as long as I could and I even asked a passing priest for help finding you but he did not know you and fled when I confessed."

Finally Gervais glanced back up at him. "I was wondering how they knew about that. I never told nobody because, well, there was nobody to tell. It would have been nice if you had found me and given it back but that's no reason to go admitting to stealing things!"

"I was trying to turn my life around," Valjean said simply. "Robbing a child was not a great start and then lying about it would have been worse."

"You didn't stick around to get arrested," Gervais pointed out.

"No one came to arrest me," Valjean replied. It was just the way with he had confessed at the trial. The sheer unevenness of police work continued to amaze him. "I had actually not expected there to be any criminal charges for it until I heard about the man that they thought was me."

"The man that they still think is you," Gervais said neutrally. "Assuming you are Jean Valjean."

Valjean bowed his head. "I told them the truth. That they convicted him anyway was beyond my control and with no way to save that man why leave? I do good work here."

"I have heard," Gervais said, nodding.

Valjean shook his head. "I'm sorry but I still do not understand your…lack of concern regarding my past. You do not just know that I was a thief but you were actually a victim yourself."

Gervais stared up at the ceiling and unconsciously began to play with his coin. "We all do what we have to to survive."

"I did not need to do that to live," Valjean said gloomily.

"And you no longer steal," Gervais said, shrugging.

"I want you to have this," Valjean said, taking out two gold Napoleons and passing them over to the boy.

Gervais accepted them almost reverently, peering closely at them. It was unlikely that he had ever seen a coin like this before let alone possessed one. The lot of the Savoyard child was an unhappy one. "What's this for?"

"I…feel bad," Valjean said, a little lamely.

Gervais actually laughed. "You did say that."

"I cannot change the past and maybe it is crass to try and buy forgiveness but that is not what I am trying to do at all. I just caused you to suffer and would now like to benefit your life in some way," Valjean said quietly.

"Well thank you, then," Gervais said casually, slipping the three coins into his pocket.

Valjean couldn't hide the brief flicker of surprise that crossed his face.

Gervais laughed again. "What? Did you think I was going to refuse because it's charity or something?"

"Perhaps," Valjean allowed. "At least initially. I have found that many of our most needy are the least inclined to take what they deem as charity or pity. Their physical needs matter less to them than their sense of dignity."

Gervais snorted. "They can hang their dignity. Dignity doesn't put food in your stomach. Pride is all well and good if you can afford it." The 'and I can't' hung in the air between them.

Valjean cleared his throat. "I am glad that I found you after all this time."

Gervais grinned at him. "No, Monsieur, I am glad to have found you. You got to feel better about something that doesn't even matter anymore and I am rich!"

Valjean's heart clenched painfully; he still well remembered the time when he would have thought that bit of pocket change was a fortune himself. "What do you plan to do once you leave here? Where will you go?"

Gervais looked surprised. "Oh, I don't know. I can't possibly go back to Digne; it's too far and there's nothing there anyway. I might stay here in town or try one of the neighboring towns, see if there's anything there for me."

"Would you like a job?" Valjean asked, almost before he realized what he was saying.

Gervais frowned, puzzled. "A job? What do you mean?"

"I own a factory here in town," Valjean explained. "We could always use another worker if you are interested."

Gervais' face lit up. "I suspect that you are only offering because you feel guilty about something that happened forever ago."

"But who needs pride," Valjean replied.

Gervais nodded. "Who needs pride indeed?"

Javert was not entirely sure what to make of it when he heard that that witness at the trial, that Savoyard, had been given a job at Madeleine's factory by the man himself. Gervais (was that his name?) had not struck him as being particularly bright since he was certain that Valjean was not the man who had robbed him when it was confirmed by other, more reliable, sources that it was. Yes he had just been a child at the time and it was a long time ago but with such a traumatic event as a robbery he would think that the child would remember. He could have at least been less confident of his mistake!

And now to show up here and be here to stay…It was completely unexpected though he had to ask himself just how long he was going to let himself be completely shocked every time the mayor did something like that. It could not be healthy and it made him feel rather foolish.

He did not, as he was sorely tempted to do, immediately go to Madeleine and try to figure out just what the other man was thinking because he was still on duty and he could not neglect his post for the sake of simple curiosity.

When he had finished, he was making his way towards the mayor's office when he saw Madeleine walking along, evidently on his way home.

Javert immediately removed his hat. "Monsieur le Maire."

Madeleine nodded back at him. "Good evening, Inspector. Was there something you wished to speak with me about?"

"There was but it can wait until morning," Javert told him.

"Nonsense," Madeleine said briskly. "Why don't you walk with me and tell me on the way?"

That seemed sensible and so Javert bowed his head. "Very well." Unfortunately, despite the speeches he had been half-composing in his head while out on patrol that day, the only thing he could think to say way, "You do realize that it is things like this that helped convince me that you were Jean Valjean?"

Madeleine did not miss a step. "Things like what?"

"You hired that Savoyard, that Gervais," Javert elaborated. "That boy that Jean Valjean robbed so many years ago."

Madeleine tilted his head. "Ah but why would a man who had once robbed him then turn around and offer him a job?"

Javert considered the question. "It is not unheard of for a convict to have a conscience and wish to change. Very rare, particularly after a few years in Toulon, but it happens. The fact that they ultimately cannot change what they are is tragic but it is fact. Perhaps such a man would be trying to undo the wrong committed, although of course one action can never cancel out another."

"No, that is true," Madeleine said vaguely.

"Did you know who this boy was when you hired him?" Javert wanted to know. He would not put it past the mayor to just hire the boy on the spot because he was poor and needed work and not bother to inquire about any of the particulars. But at least the only thing of note in his past was his status as Valjean's victim right as he was breaking parole.

Madeleine nodded. "Yes. He told me that he came to see me to show his appreciation for what I had done for his fellows. It seems I am very popular among them."

Javert sighed internally. Madeleine never would acknowledge just how popular he was with everybody who did not have some sort of jealousy motivating their dislike. And his actions with the other Savoyard also added to his once suspicions.

"He explained that he had heard of me all the way up in Digne but the distance was such that coming to see me had never been practical until now. I asked what brought him here and he explained about the trial and I knew that I had to do something," Madeleine continued.

"Why, exactly, did you feel the need to do anything?" Javert queried. "What does it matter that Valjean wronged him? You may have been mistaken for him once but that does not mean that his sins are yours to correct."

Madeleine was quiet for a long while and, as they walked in silence, Javert wondered if the conversation was over.

Finally, they stopped in front of Madeleine's house. Javert had never been inside but he knew where it was located, of course.

"Perhaps not," Madeleine finally spoke. "But they must be corrected somehow and if not me then who would you propose do so?"

Javert did not have an answer for him. The truth was that sins could not be corrected and if they could it was the responsibility of the man who committed them to do the correcting. And if they could not, as Valjean could not (not that such a man would if he could), then the consequences must stand.

But it was such a small thing, hiring an extra worker. Madeleine probably would have done it even without the Valjean connection.

"Papa!" Cosette cried out, running out to greet him. "You're home!"

Madeleine's face changed immediately when he looked at that child. "Hello, my darling girl. Did you have a good day today?"

Cosette nodded. "I did! Catherine and I had a tea party!"

"That sounds like quite the adventure," Madeleine said warmly.

Cosette nodded seriously. "It was. It would have been better if you had been there, too."

Madeleine chuckled. "I will be. I promise."

Feeling distinctly uncomfortable, Javert quickly took his leave.

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