A/N: Thank you so much to all of my reviewers! And my readers, too. Hopefully this chapter (Chapter 10!) satisfies all of you, and I apologize for the somewhat late update! Remember, please vote in the poll on my profile.

Disclaimer: I do not own Les Miserables or any of the characters mentioned from the Brick, nor am I a deceased Frenchman by the name of Victor Hugo. I own only the arrangement of the words upon this page.

When Gavroche and Inspector Javert got back to the station, order had finally settled upon the officers. Everyone was back at work, writing up reports on their desks and drawing out routes on various maps hanging on the walls. Officers were still running about, but only in that kind of purposeful running about. Everyone had something to do and somewhere to go.

Inspector Javert walked in first, Gavroche tailing behind him. One of the secretaries stopped them with a wave of his hand, beckoning them over.

"This is the one that caused the trouble?" the young man said, staring at Gavroche, who grinned back at him. Javert nodded, and then tried to push on by.

"No, no," the secretary said, stopping them. "Not yet! We have to file a report on this boy." With that, he reached into his desk to pull out a blank sheet of paper. "Name, please. And no lies."

Gavroche was about to answer, but Javert interrupted him. "I am handling this case, Cloutier. The boy is with me." He tried to move forward again, but once more, Cloutier prevented them from going.

"But you're an inspector!" Cloutier protested. "Shouldn't you be…inspecting, rather than filing a report for this boy?"

"I shall have you know, Cloutier, that being an inspector is not all dangerous heists and catching criminals," Javert said with a sigh. "And I really do have to go now, so, please let us by."

"Fine," Cloutier mumbled, and finally let them pass. Javert and Gavroche headed to the inspector's desk. Javert took off his coat and hung it on a peg from the wall, and then he placed his hat on the desk.

"I will eventually have to file a report for you, you know," Javert said to Gavroche. "But that can wait. We have far more important things to do at the moment, and really, the filing is all a formality." He took a piece of blank white paper and a pen from his desk drawer, and then sat in his chair. He began to sketch out a rough outline of the Gorbeau tenement, circling all of the entrances and windows. Possible escape routes.

"A repor'? Doesn't tha' mean I'm gonna go t'jail?" Gavroche asked, moving to lean against the wall. Javert looked up at him, then motioned to the chair on the other side of the desk. Gavroche went to sit in it, still regarding Javert with wary eyes. "I'd 'ave t'go to jail, then, wouldn't I?"

"Not necessarily, no," Javert replied, carefully sketching in a doorway. "It would depend on your offence. Now, if you would just explain to me exactly what you did, it would save us a lot of trouble."

"Don't see 'ow it'd 'elp me," Gavroche mumbled. Javert looked up at him again, as if he was studying him intently. "I'd still be goin' t'jail, wouldn't I?"

"It is possible. I cannot rule that out as a chance," Javert said. "But if we know what you have done, perhaps arrangements better suited for you could occur. You are, after all, a child. Children occasionally get lighter sentences than adults."

Javert honestly could not believe he was saying this. Was he supporting this gamin, this child that had obviously committed a crime? Was he considering twisting the rules, bending the law, for this child's sake?

He supposed he was.

After all, if only…Oh, but that was many years ago. No one had been there for him then. No one had considered bending the law to help him.

Of course, he doubted that what Gavroche had done could even compare to his own deed. And he was quite fine where he was, where he had ended up. Being in the force was not all that bad. In any case, the force was not quite the same as La Force. Even though both were sort of a prison.

Javert knew, deep down, that he could never stop this, stop being a policeman. It compelled him, and he knew he gained a sort of joy in his work. But yet, he also felt like a captive, that it had pulled him in, like a maelstrom, and it would never let him go. But the conditions were much better than they could have been.

Just like La Force. Prisoners there were not treated as badly as prisoners at other facilities. They had basic amenities, and some even had private rooms. But each one was still a prisoner. The conditions do not change. A prison is a prison, regardless of the environment.

He let out a sigh, returning to the present, to his drawing. This would help the reinforcements when they teamed up with him to storm the Gorbeau tenement. Some had not seen the interior yet, and could become confused by the many rooms and haphazard architecture.

Javert suddenly stood, but he motioned for Gavroche to stay seated. He walked to one of the constables with the sketch in his hand.

"I will need reinforcements for an operation tonight at six, Tessier," Javert said.

"How many, and where?" Tessier asked, looking up from his own paperwork at Javert.

"I will need fourteen, and plus me, that shall be fifteen," Javert replied. "We will meet at the rue de la Barrière-des-Gobelins opposite the Gorbeau tenement, boulevard de l'Hôpital, numbers 50-52."

Tessier nodded knowingly. "Things always seem to happen there, don't they?" he asked rhetorically, fishing a paper out from the bottom of his stack of work. He began to energetically cross entire paragraphs out and scribble in new addendums. "All right. I will have your men there. Any particular time? You said six…"

"Five thirty. That should give us enough time, to allow for mistakes."

"Mistakes?"

"I have involved a civilian in the matter; it was absolutely necessary, or I would not have done it," Javert said. Oh, how he hoped Marius Pontmercy would remember his instructions!

"Understandable. Anything else I should brief them on before they reach you?"

Javert handed Tessier the map he had drawn. "Here is a sketch of the interior, for those that haven't covered a case there yet. And there will be some look-outs that we will have to take care of first."

"Fine, fine. They will meet you at the arranged spot at five thirty, Inspector," Tessier said, then pulled out another sheet and began to cross things out again, with perhaps more force than truly necessary.

Javert returned to Gavroche. "It's almost five o'clock," Javert said. "Let's talk about your part in the matter."

"Sure, 'spector!" Gavroche said. "Wha' do I do?"

"I am assuming that the look-outs will be Thénardier's girls. You mentioned that they were named Éponine and Azelma. I believe they will be the look-outs for the operation," Javert said, sitting back down. "Since you know them, I imagine I could enlist your services in 'bagging' them."

"Sure," Gavroche said. "Wha' else?"

"Slow down there. You have not let me finish." Javert put the pen back into his desk drawer and began straightening his papers upon his desk. "When we spot the girls, you will go out to them, convince them to come with you and leave their post. You will lead them straight to us."

"Go' i'," Gavroche ascertained.

Javert was a little surprised at his willingness to betray his own family members. After all, these were his sisters, not just two unrelated girls. But he supposed that in the kind of family Gavroche had, one forgot one's own siblings as easily as they forgot what they ate last night. Javert could relate, in a sense.

"Next, after we have taken the girls away, we will wait for Marius Pontmercy's signal. When it comes, we shall enter."

"Me too?"

"Yes. We may need you as leverage, to aid in the arrest," Javert said. "Do you understand?"

"Yep."

"Then, let's go. Don't want to be late for our entrance. I imagine the understudies would not be too good!"

With that, Javert grabbed his coat and hat and brushed out the door, Gavroche tailing behind.

It was going to be quite a night.