So, uh... Long time no see? Please don't kill me for taking forever.

Yes, I know, it's been a while. But I got really busy with school and a job and then I lost the job and I've been trying to find another one and I've had basically no time to myself at all to calm down and focus enough to write. I am REALLY sorry. So, to make up for it, here's a chapter that originally I wasn't going to write. I'd been working on an epilogue, but I've got writer's block on it, so you get this instead. Hope it makes up for the long wait. Again, I apologize, but I do have a life, albeit a pathetic one, which over the past several months has been full of way too much drama and trouble that I'm not going to go into detail on. I DID, however, get to go see Les Miserables in Toronto, which was the most amazing thing ever, because Ramin was Jean Valjean, and I got his autograph AND a picture with him. Best weekend of my life. Almost didn't get to go, because our flight from Thunder Bay to Toronto ended up being delayed five hours. So Friday November 22 was the most anxiety ridden yet incredible day of my life so far, but it was all worth it. Also, I've been accepted to four different universities – Brock, Bishop's, Queen's, and Guelph – to study drama.

Anyway, this chapter is pretty sucky and I'm not pleased with it at all but it's been nearly a year since I last updated now – yes, I know, I suck, I'm sorry – so it's the best I could do out of desperation.

Chapter 18

"Eponine, calm down, you'll be fine. Everything will be perfect," Cosette said reassuringly as Eponine paced back and forth. "You'd think you were heading to your execution, not about to walk down the aisle at your wedding."

"I think I'd rather take the execution right now, honestly," Eponine replied, shuddering at the thought of what she was about to do.

"Why? You and Enjolras love each other. You're getting married! You were so excited when you told us several months ago," Cosette reminded her.

Eponine sighed. It was true. When they had told their friends the day after Marius and Cosette's wedding, they had been ecstatic, and their friends had been as well. But now she felt nothing but nervous and terrified.

"I know, but- what if something goes wrong?" Eponine asked, feeling slightly ridiculous for being so nervous in front of Cosette.

"Nothing will go wrong, I promise," the other woman replied, smiling. "Everything will be fine, you'll see."

"I doubt that," Eponine sighed, frowning. "It's been too long since I've heard from my parents, everything's been too perfect since the barricade."

"Why would perfection be a bad thing?" Adalina asked, finally joining in the conversation after doing nothing but sitting and listening.

"Because my life has been nothing but imperfect. Nothing ever goes right like this. The fact that everything has been so perfect makes me think that something is going to go very wrong very soon. And no doubt my parents will be behind it."

"Maybe your parents just forgot about you?" Cosette suggested. "They never were very good parents. They probably think you died at the barricade and then just forgot about you."

"They showed up at your wedding, Cosette, remember? Just before you and Marius left. They probably saw Enjolras and I together," Eponine reminded her friend, recalling how horrified she had been when she'd seen her parents at Cosette's wedding, dressed in the most ridiculous outfits she'd ever seen.

"Well, they haven't interfered in your life yet, maybe they'll just continue to leave you alone," Adalina put in. "Now calm down, you're about to marry my brother. If he sees you being nervous, he'll end up being a million times more nervous than you are. And we do not need two nervous wrecks, one is bad enough."

"Thank you for that, Adalina," Eponine replied dryly. "Remind me to tell you the same when you marry Courf."

"Wouldn't work, Courfeyrac isn't your brother," Adalina shot back instantly. "Besides, I'll be more excited than nervous!"

"You really think that?" Eponine asked. Why anyone would be excited to marry Courfeyrac was beyond her. But Adalina had been head over heels for him from almost the moment the two had met, so she couldn't blame her friend for being excited.

"I know it," Adalina replied proudly.

"Don't get too far ahead of yourself, you two aren't even engaged yet," Cosette reminded the petite black haired girl.

"I have faith," Adalina replied. "Courf never even so much as looks at other girls, and he's seemed a bit jumpy lately. I expect he'll be proposing soon enough."

Eponine smiled. "If you say so."

"I know so!" Adalina replied. "We'll live happily ever after!"

"Enough about possible future weddings," Musichetta chastised. "We don't want Eponine being late to walk down the aisle at her own wedding, which is in five minutes! Come on!" The enthusiastic red-headed girl then proceeded to heard the other three women to the door, her excitement making Eponine wonder if her friends were more excited for her wedding than she was.

But then the doors opened, and she saw Enjolras standing there waiting for her at the front of the church, and all her doubts went away. She loved him, and he loved her, and they were going to spend their lives together. Nothing else would ever be more perfect.

The reception was perfect. All of their friends were there, and Enjolras' family, along with Gavroche and Azelma, the only members of Eponine's family that still mattered to her.

Eponine felt happier than she had felt in all of her life as she danced with Enjolras. She felt safe in his arms, and she could see all of his love in his eyes. She could almost feel her heart soaring up to the stars.

Unfortunately, that feeling didn't last long as a sudden crash interrupted the reception. As they turned to see what had happened, Eponine felt her heart sink into her stomach. Her parents were there, wearing the same ridiculous outfits they'd worn when they had interrupted Marius and Cosette's wedding several months before.

"What are you doing here?" Bahorel asked rudely.

"What does it look like we're doing? We're wedding crashing!" Thenardier replied, laughing at his attempted joke while his wife swatted his arm, a scowl on her face.

"Stop with the joking around," Eponine's mother snarled at her husband. "We're here for a reason, remember?"

Thenardier rolled his eyes in annoyance and glanced around. His eyes lit up as he saw Eponine and Enjolras standing together. "So my girl, you found yourself a rich bourgeois boy to get hitched to. 'Ow much is he paying you?"

Eponine felt Enjolras stiffen at her side, and put a comforting hand on his arm. "He's not paying me anything, father," she replied, spitting the word 'father' at him. Father. She could barely even bring herself to call him that.

Thenardier's eyes darkened as he looked at his daughter. "What's the point in you finding a rich man if you're not getting anything from it? How is that supposed to help our family?"

Eponine rolled her eyes at her father's words. Of course he would think of that. "What family? We haven't been a family for a long time. I had to raise Gav and Zelma basically entirely on my own."

"Your point being?" Thenardier sneered. "We brought you into this world, we can take you out of it just as easily."

"Don't you dare," Enjolras told him, glaring furiously. "You're never touching her again, or her siblings."

Thenardier raised an eyebrow. "And who's going to stop me? You, you little bourgeois pretty-boy?"

Enjolras responded with a well-aimed punch to the face. There was a sickening crunching sound as his fist connected with Thenardier's nose. There were several gasps of surprise from some of the guests, and Eponine had to restrain herself from laughing at her father's shocked expression as he finally got what he deserved.

"Get out," Enjolras growled at him, and Thenardier quickly turned and ran like the coward he was, his wife close behind him, scowling.

"Well, that was entertaining," Grantaire commented as he took a sip of wine.

"I just hope we've seen the last of them," Eponine replied. It was hard enough remembering everything that had happened with her parents in the past, she didn't want to have to deal with any new painful experiences with them.

She smiled as Enjolras wrapped a comforting arm around her waist. "Even if we do see them again, it doesn't matter," he told her gently. "We have each other, and there's nothing they can do about it. They will never hurt you again."

Again, I apologize for how terrible, short, and rushed this chapter is, but after nearly a year (last update was last may, and I'm REALLY sorry about that) I just don't even care anymore. I'm planning to just edit and update everything in this trilogy at some point anyway, so I'll fix it then.