Marius told Courfeyrac that Enjolras was coming.

"Good."

"Did you have to curse so many times?"

"Yes. It felt good to get that out."

"Do you think she's alright?" Marius asked, putting a hand on Grantaire's cheek.

"I don't know."

Ding dong.

"That should be Enjolras," Courfeyrac said nodding towards the hall. Marius went and opened it and there indeed was their fearless leader, hair a mess, looking unimpressed.

No words were said. Marius just turned away and left the door open. Enjolras bit the inside of his cheek and followed, closing the door.

"I called Combeferre and Joly. They're both coming," Enjolras finally said as he stood in the doorway to the sitting room.

Courfeyrac was sitting on the loveseat. Grantaire's body was sort of wrapped around him, her right arm was thrown over one shoulder and she had buried her face into his shoulder, her left arm wrapped around his abdomen. Courfeyrac looked a combination of concerned and mad.

Concerned for Grantaire. Mad at Enjolras.

"She didn't even say anything," Marius said after a little while, "Courf was sitting there watching TV and she just burst into the room, tears streaming down her face, and curled up on him like that and started sobbing. Then she just kind of stopped."

"Is she breathing?"

"Yeah. I think so," Courf finally said. He was definitely pissed at Enjolras.

"Have you tried to wake her?"

"I've talked to her."

"She replied?"

"No. I guess I should say I talked at her."

"What happened? Do you know?" Enjolras asked as he took his jacket off.

"No. I had Marius go upstairs to see if she messed up or something."

"And?"

"Nothing," Marius sighed, "It looked amazing. It looked better than the picture."

Ding dong ding dong

Marius went to open up the door and Joly, Combeferre, and Jehan came in. Joly quickly brushed past Enjolras and felt for a pulse on Grantaire.

"Pulse. Good. Breathing. Good. She's warm. Good. A little clammy."

"She was crying remember."

"No this is a cold clammy. Like the rest of her is warm, but her hand is clammy. Feels like a fever," Joly said, holding a hand to her forehead.

"How was she acting before she passed out?" Ferre asked.

"She was crying."

"How hard?"

"Body racking sobs."

"I see. Did she say anything."

"Nothing. She just cried."

"Okay what about the painting?"

"Already asked about that," Enjolras finally spoke, "Marius said it looked perfect."

"Hm, what was her behavior like today?"

Courf looked at Marius.

"Um, she was irritable, she kept screaming at something. Not like a scared scream but an angry scream. She didn't eat the food I brought her. She may have taken a sip of the coffee. The wine was untouched. She came down once this morning and ate a piece of toast, she complained of a headache. I told her to go to sleep but she said it was fine she'd just take an Advil and go back to painting. Except for the screaming, that started at about three this afternoon, she's been pretty quiet all day. She told me she took a shower, which I think is the most non-painting-related thing she's done for the past 48 hours," Marius said, then he shrugged, "I think that's it."

"Interesting."

"I think we can wake her up," said Joly, "but we should carry her up to her room first."

Courfeyrac put his arms under her and picked her up without any help.

"Isn't that hard?" Jehan asked, it was the first thing he'd said.

"She hasn't been eating," Courf said, "She's lost more weight in more time than what is healthy."

"I'd say," Joly agreed.

Courf carried Grantaire all the way up to her room on the third floor. He laid her down in bed and waited for Joly who was looking at his phone.

"I'd suggest having Jehan wake her up," Combeferre said as Joly reached forward to shake Grantaire.

"Why?"

"She told me the other day how much she loves Jehan. She said that he reminds her of a spider's web, fragile, delicate, intricate, and beautiful. Her behavior is spontaneous and irrational, I'd guess that seeing you guys wouldn't give her a reason to act any differently, and she might react violently or irrationally, but if she sees Jehan, then she might find a reason to get control of herself to protect him."

"What are you saying?" Courfeyrac asked, standing up, "Are you saying that she's fucking mental?"

"Calm down Courf," Marius said quietly.

"I will not calm down!" Courfeyrac whisper shouted, "Ruelle Grantaire is not fucking mental. She's a rock. Ever logical and realistic. She's the least likely person to be mental in the history of such."

"Courf, it could happen to anybody. I talked to Feuilly, he said that she has to take weeks off every so often. No body knows why, but he said that one week, she was acting depressed in class and then she wasn't there the next week. For all we know she could be bipolar."

"No. She's not. She hasn't had any high highs or low lows or anything while she's been here."

"Let's just have Jehan wake her up," Enjolras finally interrupted, "Get it over with."

Courfeyrac finally nodded before turning away and running his hands through his hair.

Jehan sat down on the side of the bed and took Grantaire's hand.

"Grantaire," He said softly, gently shaking her shoulder, "Hey, it's Jehan. Wake up."

"gngh mfflbte," came out of Grantaire's mouth.

"Hey, hey, it's me. Jehan. Wake up carefully, you're in a room full of men and you don't want to embarrass yourself."

"Fikin ge ou," Grantaire said, jerking her hand away and rolling over.

"This isn't working," Courfeyrac leaned over to Combeferre and said.

"Give him a few more tries then you can do it your way."

"Hey, Taire? Listen I need to talk to you," Jehan said putting a hand on Grantaire's arm.

"Out," she said, word clear this time.

"Come on, wake up more. Please?"

"Ngh mmbimmbmm."

Jehan looked up at them, shrugged and stood up.

"Fine," Ferre said quietly. Courfeyrac went to the bed and sat down beside Grantaire. He motioned to Marius who did the same on the other side.

"Oh Danny boy, the pipes the pipes are calling," they started singing together quietly, "from glen to glen and down the mountain side," They slowly got louder, Grantaire tried to curl up into herself, but Marius was too close to allow that, "The summers gone, and all the roses are falling, its you, its you must go and I must bide."

"FINE!" Grantaire finally said, "I'll fucking wake up. Leave me alone."

"But come ye back, when summer's in the meadow, or the valley's hushed and white with snow," they kept singing. Everybody wondered whether this was something they did often, "And I'll be here, in sunshine or in shadow."

"Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so," Grantaire finished elbowing Courfeyrac hard, "I get it. I'm up. What the hell do you want?"

"You came downstairs, threw yourself onto me, and started sobbing before passing out," Courfeyrac said bluntly. Grantaire sat up and looked at him.

"Shit," She muttered rubbing her eyes tiredly.

"What happened?" Ferre asked.

"shit shit shit shit shit shit shit," Grantaire chanted as she stood up in the bed, leapt off of it, and rushed out of the room.

She then ran down the hall and up the stairs. Enjolras was closest to her so he followed most closely.

"No no no no no no no no no no, NO. Agh!" Grantaire was checking her painting. Enjolras moved so he could get a good look at it and froze.

It was perfect.

Grantaire was getting out some paintbrushes.

"Stop," he commanded, Grantaire froze at the commanding sound of his voice.

"I was just gonna-"

"No. This. This is what I want. No better."

"But the-"

"Nope. I don't care if you forgot a detail or something is the wrong shade," Enjolras said, "This right here is perfect. It's exactly what I want," he turned to Grantaire and smiled, "Thank you."

Then he noticed she was shaking, but he wasn't going to point it out so he walked over and enveloped her in a hug.

"Thank you," he whispered in her ear, "now how about that drink?"

He'd figured out what it was.

She was suffering withdrawal from alcohol without adequate sustenance.

He led her downstairs, into the kitchen. As he passed by Courfeyrac he suggested that Courf go to the meeting and explain what happened. As he passed Marius he reminded him of his dinner with Cosette. As he passed Jehan he smiled. For Combeferre he told him to go home. And for Joly had ruffled his hair and told him it was withdrawal. Joly agreed with his analysis and told him the best thing to do.

Soon the house was empty except for Grantaire and Enjolras.

Enjolras poured them both glasses of wine and heated up some food. He then told her that it was withdrawal and she said that she'd gone through it before and thought she could handle it, but kept forgetting to take care of herself.

"Now I think you owe me two drinks for having to put up with all this," Enjolras said before taking a drink of wine.

"Deal," Grantaire said, then she took a sip of her own wine, "damn that tastes good."

"Yeah..."

"So, it's really what you wanted?"

"Yes. What was wrong with it in the first place?"

"One of the birds was a black bird when I'd meant to make it a starling," Grantaire said, blushing.

"You got very involved didn't you?"

"I wanted to please you," she said quickly, "to do my very best. To raise your opinions of me. I know that with the drinking and cynical nature you don't think much about me. I guess I wanted to change that. But I kept messing up, and I thought that I'd never get it perfect. Then I had messed up the lighting on one kid's hair and by the time I had that as perfect as I could I realized that I'd painted the wrong birds in the wrong places, and I was shaking and not thinking well and emotional. All I could think about was that nothing I could do was perfect. I was innately imperfect. That I could never please a god like you. I was upset and so as I left the attic I just kept seeing all these nice things and how Courfeyrac is practically giving them to me when I don't deserve it. So I started crying. Then when Courf and Marius tried to comfort me, I couldn't stop."

"Withdrawal plus the inability to see self worth plus one tiny mistake equals emotional break down?" Enjolras questioned.

"I guess I'm just passionate about my work," she replied sheepishly. Enjolras smiled.

"That sounds like someone else I know."

"Yeah..."

"For the record. I do think about you. I have a high opinion of your opinions, since they're usually good points."

"Ah I suppose if that's all the god of sunshine knows me for... I'll have to accept it."

"And you're crazy talented. And you're right, I don't like the drinking, but it's part of who you are, which I like over all," Enjolras admitted, but then he couldn't seem to stop himself, "And you're smart, and kind, and loving, and passionate, and beautiful, and-"

"You think I'm beautiful."

Enjolras blushed.

"Yeah."

Grantaire blushed.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."