A/N: This week has been crazy and I'm really sorry for not posting sooner. Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon. Thank you SO MUCH for all the follows and favorites! They really mean a lot. I hope you like this chapter. Let me know!

Disclaimer: Victor Hugo wrote Les Miserables, not me

Chapter four: Coping

"No one's laughing at God when they've lost all they got and they don't know what for"- Regina Spektor

Eponine opened the doors to the inn and a wretched scent pierced her nose. The place was an absolute mess, piles of filth lying around. Some of the inn's long term residents wandered around by the bar, smelling as if they hadn't showered in weeks. The whole place was chaos. Shelves were overfilled, laundry baskets were filling over, the tables were full of dishes. Eponine found her parents by the bar with some of their friends, laughing loudly. When they saw her, their smiles fell.

"Hi mom. Hi dad."

"Well, well, well. Look who decided to come crawling back," sneered Madame Thenardier, sauntering over to her daughter. "Did your boyfriend see you for the tramp you are? Did your friends finally realize it's not in their best interest to be around a crook?"

"Why, after disowning us and disgracing us, do you dare to show your face here?" her father said, grabbing her arm and taking her into a more private room so they wouldn't make a scene. "If you think that after not talking to us for months that we are about to let you come back, you are so wrong!" Thenardier approached her, towering over his daughter. Though he stood a good six inches above her, Eponine managed to stand up straight and stare him in the face. They stood only a few inches apart, their eyes not parting.

Eponine took a deep breath and said,"I am willing to work to stay here." Her only answer was a suspicious glare from her mother and a scoff from her father. "I'm the best pickpocket here, you both know that," she said, holding up her father's wallet that she had just taken. "I'd be able to help you a lot."

Thenardier snatched his wallet back from you. "We are doing fine without you," he said hotly.

"Wait, dear," his wife said in a sickly sweet voice. She stood next to her husband and took his arm, pulling him back from their daughter. "Let's not be too rash. Perhaps we were too hard on her. She's obviously going through a hard time, what kind of parents would we be if we didn't help her out?" Madame looked her daughter with fake sympathy in her eyes. "You poor thing."

It took everything Eponine had to not roll her eyes. She knew this was how they would respond. All they cared about was money and themselves. This was something that from a young age Eponine had resented. But now she was able to use it to her advantage.

Once what Eponine had offered had sunk in, Thenardier agreed. "Yes, she's obviously having a rough time," he said, embracing his daughter. Eponine cringed as he planted a kiss on her forehead. "I'm so sorry, honey. You are welcome to stay with us as long as you want."

"As long as you pay for yourself," Madame included.

Eponine and her parents came up with a payment program. She would go out and do whatever they wanted- pickpocket or beg usually - and give them sixty percent of her earnings. It was unfair, but she didn't really have any other choice. It was all she could do.

Being at her house subjected her to abuse that she had to endure without a word. Verbal abuse from her mother about not bringing in enough. She would say how much of an inconvenience Eponine had been since they took her in and that if Eponine really wanted to pay her way, she would have to get better. Her mother had a shrill voice that when she yelled, it made you want to claw your eardrums out. There was also physical abuse from her father, though it was just usually drunken slaps across the face. Her parents were also perpetually at odds with each other. They would fight constantly, yelling loud enough for the residents of the inn to hear. And their fighting with their spouse only made them worse toward Eponine.

Already, her physical appearance had changed. She easily weighed ten pounds less, now really just skin and bones. Dark rings lined her lifeless, brown eyes. She walked as if she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her whole image just was one of exhaustion and frailty.

Eponine was trying to find another job, anywhere. She needed to start saving up again. She felt like she couldn't spend another day with her nagging mother and her repulsive father and his friends. Montparnasse had not stopped harassing her since he learned of her coming home. She had to get out of there. She had a job lined up at a bar, but it would still take a while for her to get out of the house. In the meantime, she just had to keep doing her parent's dirty work.

As she walked through the crowd, Eponine looked at the shoes of the people passing her. She had a personal rule of never looking her victim in the face. If she looked down, it was over, quick and painless. If she saw their face, they had a family, a story. If she looked at their face, they were no different than her; someone just trying to make it in the world. She had to turn off her emotions and just get it over with.

A pair of simple black Converse caught her eye. She followed the shoes for a couple of feet before bumping into them. She mumbled a 'sorry Monsieur' and quickly walked away. Not quickly enough though. A firm hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

"If you think that trick is going to wo-" the man stopped talking abruptly. Eponine looked up into his face.

"Shit."

Standing right in front of her, holding her arm, was one of the men that Eponine had told herself she would never see again. She tore her wrist out of his grasp and handed him back his wallet. Then she quickly made her escape down the busy street. She heard him calling her name, but she ignored it. She just kept on running. Running away.

Enjolras stood, stupefied, holding his wallet. Had that seriously just happened? And had he really just lost her? He and the boys had promised to not go looking for her when they realized she had left. They all knew where she went and why. They also knew she would never forgive them if they purposely went to find her. She was too proud to ever say she needed help from any of them, and too proud to let them see what she had sacrificed.

Though they had made that promise, it hadn't stopped any of them from going to that part of Paris to try to 'accidentally' see her. They knew where the inn was and every one of them had gone down there. But Enjolras was the first to have seen her. And he let her go. How could he have been so stupid?

Later that night when Enjolras and his friends were in the café (a different one than Eponine had previously worked at out of respect for her), he finally decided to bring up the topic that had been nagging at him for hours.

"I saw Eponine today," he said after they had fallen into a silence, looking at Marius specifically for a response. Les Amis tried to make things not awkward when Eponine was living with Grantaire. They were all still friends with Marius, they just never asked him to hang out when she was around. When she left, they found themselves falling back into their old routine. Enjolras would be lying if he said he wasn't upset that Marius had moved on so quickly from Eponine, but he wasn't about to lose a good friendship over that.

Marius looked up in surprise, joined with the other members of Les Amis.

"Where?" Grantaire asked urgently. He had been a mess since Eponine left. He felt responsible for her leaving and took all guilt upon himself. He had been drinking more than usual and wasn't his general snarky self.

"Right by the little bookstore on the southside of town," Enjolras responded. "She tried to take my wallet."

"What happened?" Courfeyrac asked. All of the guys were hanging on Enjolras's words. They had all been good friends with Eponine. She touched their lives in different ways, and for each and every one of them, there had been something missing from their lives since she left.

"The moment she found out who I was, she bolted," Enjolras said sadly. "I tried to chase her down but she got lost in the crowd."

"Why don't we go down there and find her and bring her back with us?" Combeferre suggested. "Now that we know where she is when she's not at home we can convince her to come stay with one of us."

"She's not stupid, Combeferre," Marius snapped, speaking up for the first time. "I know her better than all of you. She won't go back to that spot. And even if you did find her, she would get away. When she doesn't want to be found, she isn't found."

"It's worth a try though!" Grantaire said desperately. "We have to try!"

"Marius is right," Joly said. "We won't see Eponine again until she lets us."

There was a long silence as this sunk in. The boys all new this was true, but they didn't want it to accept it.

"So how did she look? Was she okay?" Joly asked after a while.

"No," Enjolras said. "Actually, I barely recognized her. She's a different person."

They all looked down sadly. As romantic as the thought was, they all had hoped she would be doing well. Prospering.

"So, Enjolras, what should we do?" Combeferre asked, looking to the leader.

Enjolras got to his feet as he thought. He looked out the window into the city, thinking about how alone Eponine was. His heart broke for her. But she was strong and she was stubborn; if anyone could make it in circumstances like that, it was her. And even if they did find her, she would never forgive them. "We do what we have done. We go places where we might see her, but we do not go to her house or invade her privacy like that at all," he said finally. "She would never forgive us."

Eponine was working at the bar most nights. The pay was okay and the tips were decent. The men were vile, but the worst they got the higher the tips got, so it kind of evened out. She didn't particularly enjoy it, but if it would get her out of that awful house, it was worth it.

Because she had no other ways of transportation, Eponine had to walk the mile home every night. She generally got off very late and the streets weren't exactly the safest. So far, she hadn't had much trouble on the streets. Too often she heard aggressive voices in an alley way. She knew better than to go down and help whoever was in trouble. That is, until one night she heard a familiar voice. A voice she thought she would never hear again. Marius.

Before she could even stop herself, Eponine walked into the dark alley. The scene in front of her made her stomach drop. Marius had his back up against a brick wall. It was dark, but it looked like there was a cut on his face where he had gotten hit. Surrounding him were men all too familiar to Eponine: her father and his gang. Gueulemer was about to punch Marius when she yelled out.

"NO!" she yelled in a raspy voice that didn't even sound like her. The sound of desperation. All of the men looked up; five in anger, one in relief. "Don't hurt him!"

"Who the fuck is that?" slurred her father. "Go grab them, 'Parnasse."

A figure approached her. He didn't recognize her until he was only a foot away. He laughed drunkenly. "It's your tramp of a daughter, Thenardier!"

"What? Bring her over here!" Montparnasse grabbed Eponine by her shirt and dragged her over to the group of men. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"Let go of me!" Eponine tore her clothes out of his filthy hands. "Don't hurt him. Pick anyone else in the city, let him go."

"You think I'm going to listen to you? You have cost your mother and I a lot. You've been nothing but a pain in my ass since you came back. And all of a sudden I'm going to do what you want? Why do you even care anyway? You can think again," her father yelled. He leaned close to her face and she could smell the alcohol on his breath. She knew this was not going to end well, but she couldn't let him hurt Marius.

"Um... Thenardier?" Gueulemer said stupidly. "Where did he go?" The large man pointed to the spot where the student had just been.

Thenardier exploded. "Idiot! How could you let him get away? You had one job, and you couldn't even do that, you stupid idiot!" Thenardier stared up at the man a head taller than him. "Get out of here!"

Eponine smirked triumphantly. Her plan had worked, he would be safe another day. And so would she. Since all the men were so wrapped up in Marius leaving, she started to sneak away.

Suddenly, she was pulled back and shoved against a wall. Montparnasse stood, face inches away from her. "Oh no," he slurred. "You're not getting away."

Thenardier turned around to face her, his face red with anger. "You. Little. Bitch. It's because of you that we lost him!" He swung to hit her, but she ducked, causing him to hit Montparnasse instead. 'Parnasse turned to her, eyes flaming with anger. He hit her hard, making her fall. Eponine stood up slowly, dizzy. She felt blood running down her nose and she went to wipe it away. Thenardier made another swing at her, making his mark this time, right into the gut. Eponine managed to hold her ground this time, but ran into the wall behind her. She doubled over, coughing.

As Thenardier went to make his next move, Eponine dodged it quickly, making him hit the wall instead. She turned and kicked him in the stomach, making him lose his footing. He fell back and she was above him. She punched him in the face, and feeling her anger release, hit him again. Just as she was about to punch him again, she was jerked back by her hair. Montparnasse threw her on the ground, making her hit her head. He kicked her in the ribs, knocking the breath out of her. As she gasped she felt another blow. She was seeing black spots, but she wouldn't give up. She luckily rolled out of the way of another kick and stood up. As 'Parnasse advanced toward her and swung at her again, she did the only thing she could think of; she kicked him in the balls.

Montparnasse's legs collapsed and he was left kneeling on the ground. Eponine began to run away from the scene, but her arm was jerked back and she was thrown to the ground. Her head hit the curb of the road. Thenardier looked over his daughter whom he had just thrown. He kicked her in the stomach, but she didn't move. For a moment he was left speechless. He stared at her motionless body, reality kicking in. What had he done?

"Fuck. 'Parnasse, let's get out of here," he said, snapping back into reality. "Shit shit shit. We have to go." He helped his partner up. He glanced back at his daughter as he ran from the scene, tears rimming his eyes. "Je suis desole, mon cher." I'm sorry, dear.