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Title: "Rescue," Chapter Nine
Author: Darkover
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Please see Chapter One.
Summary: Javert is saved from suicide by Valjean, but it becomes more complicated than that, especially as it is not always clear who is saving whom.
~ooo0ooo~
Chapter Nine: "Take an Eye For an Eye"
"Please, I will give you whatever you want! Just tell me where my daughter is!"
"In due time, Monsieur," Thenardier said. He was enjoying himself. He had never seen the old con, Jean Valjean, so agitated, and besides, five thousand francs was just the beginning. "You brought the money?"
"Yes!" Without hesitation, Valjean thrust two handfuls of bills at the other man. "Take it! Just let me have Cosette back!"
Thenardier turned to a dapper-looking young man. "Montparnasse, bring the girl in here."
"Hold on," snapped the heavyset woman whom Valjean recognized as the wife of the former innkeeper. "Why should he get the girl back? She belongs to us!"
"Now, now, my dear," Thenardier said to her while smiling at Valjean, as if commiserating with the other man against the irrationality of women. "This gentleman has made the first payment, he's entitled to a look."
"Like hell," Madame Thenardier said. She was gazing at their male prisoner with eyes made dark from fury, her visage even uglier than usual from being suffused with hatred. "Why should he get anything he wants? Why should that little cow he adopted lead a bourgeois life, when my poor Eponine—"
"I'm not interested," Thenardier cut her off, and he smiled as Montparnasse reentered the room, pulling a disheveled Cosette along with him. The girl's hat was gone, her clothing slightly mussed; clearly she was frightened but trying hard not to let it show. She cried, "Papa!" upon catching sight of her father. Valjean's heart soared at the sight of her, and at the sound of her voice he took a step in her direction. Thenardier shoved him back. Babet and Gueulemer, standing silently in the background, each grabbed an arm.
"That's enough. I said you could have a look, nothing more. If you want her back, you're going to have to come up with more money."
"`Want her back?'" His wife stared at him. "You said—you promised me—"
"Shut up, woman, I'm trying to cut a deal here!" Thenardier barked. He turned again to the most youthful and handsome member of the gang. "All right, Montparnasse, he's has his look. Take the girl—"
"NO!" Valjean flung off the two strapping gang members as if the other men clinging to his arms were no more than children. For an instant both thugs staggered back and then they made to restrain him again, even as Cosette cried out, "Papa!" and Montparnasse, trying to obey Thenardier's order, took hold of her once more. She surprised him by screaming in outrage and whipping around to claw at his face with her nails. Montparnasse, vain as ever about his looks, instinctively flinched and jerked away from this unexpected attack, automatically flinging up an arm in front of his face to block her assault on his handsome features. He lost his grip on Cosette as he did so. Simultaneously, Madame Thenardier seized her husband by the arm and began remonstrating with him loudly. Cosette was still screaming, Valjean and the gang's two biggest thugs were fighting, and the noise was overwhelming. Thenardier, roaring at everyone to shut up, shoved his wife away so violently that she bounced against a wall. For an instant Madame stared at him, and then rushed out of the room. Valjean, briefly grappling with the two men trying to subdue him, got a grip on the back of each one's head and struck their skulls together as if they were coconuts. Both Babet and Gueulemer collapsed to the floor unconscious. Montparnasse had finally seized hold of a struggling Cosette and tried to silence her by clamping a hand over her mouth, but she bit down hard enough to draw blood. He howled in mingled pain and rage, drew back a fist—
His punch never landed because Valjean with one Herculean blow knocked the dandified thief to the ground. Montparnasse went down without a trace of his usual elegance, Cosette threw herself sobbing into her father's arms, and he, also weeping, embraced her in return. A single shout from Thenardier cut through the emotion of their reunion.
"FIRE!"
Ignoring the fallen members of his own gang, Thenardier leapt over their sprawled forms and dove for the door, but it would not open. He turned the knob frantically. Cosette said, "Papa, we must leave now!" Flames were already spreading up the side of the building.
"Let us out!" Thenardier was roaring and pounding on the door. "Let us out, woman!"
"No!" The voice of his wife came through the door that had been blocked on the other side. It was astonishing how that one word throbbed with such anger and hatred.
"This place is on fire! Let us out, or we'll die here!"
"Fine!" Madame shouted. "As long as the girl dies! I lost my daughter, why shouldn't he lose his? I sent those two fools to kidnap Cosette, but they couldn't even do that right! You promised me that we would kill her, and then you tried to sell her back!"
"You crazy bitch!" her husband screamed.
From behind him, Valjean spoke, his voice carrying a tone of authority that would not have been misplaced in coming from a Mayor. "Stand aside."
For a change, Thenardier obeyed, and with alacrity. Valjean kicked savagely at the door with all his considerable strength behind each blow—once, twice, three times—and on the third kick it flew apart, opening a way out. Quick as a rat, Thenardier darted outside. Valjean grabbed Cosette's hand and father and daughter followed rapidly, the remaining criminals lying unconscious behind them.
"That's far enough," a familiar voice said.
Thenardier stopped short, gaping. Before he could react, he was seized by Inspector Javert, who snapped manacles on the gang leader while informing the latter that he was under arrest. The young gendarme Dubois was also present. In his custody was a furious-looking Madame Thenardier. Her hands were cuffed behind her, but Dubois still kept a firm grip on her arm and his truncheon at the ready in his other hand; he was sporting a black eye that indicated the woman had not accepted her arrest quietly. Cosette leaned against her father. Behind them, the flames were rising, intent on devouring the run-down house that Thenardier and his gang had been using as their headquarters.
Valjean kissed his daughter, and then pushed her gently into Javert's arms. "Take care of Cosette. There are three men left inside," he told the Inspector, and then turned back.
"Papa!" his daughter screamed, while Javert shouted, "No!" but by then, Valjean had reentered the fiery building. There was a crash inside, Javert cursed, and Cosette began to sob. Javert drew her gently to one side, away from danger, and then turned to the crowd that was forming around them. The sound and smell of the fire were attracting attention, with people were coming out of their houses to stare. Javert raised his voice to address them. "I am Inspector Javert of the Police! Fetch some buckets! Get water! You men there, form a line—we must put out this fire!"
As the locals, impressed by his authority and also concerned about keeping their own homes safe, moved to obey, Javert turned swiftly to Dubois. "Keep an eye on these criminals, and take care of the young lady," he ordered. Then without a moment's hesitation, he too plunged back into the burning building.
"Inspector!" Dubois and Cosette cried out simultaneously. Cosette wept, putting her hands over her eyes. Within moments the flames were roaring, but there was no sight of either her father or Javert—
Then Valjean cleared the doorway, dragging two men along with him. Both of them were still unconscious; Babet was one, Gueulemer the other. Just behind those three men was Javert, who was dragging Montparnasse. Both Valjean and the Inspector were covered in ashes and looked like demons from hell, but they were alive and appeared unharmed.
"Oh, Papa!" Cosette sobbed, and hurled herself on her father. Valjean released the men he had saved, and embraced his daughter. Behind him and the Inspector, the building collapsed in upon itself, still burning madly.
"Move back!" Javert ordered them all. The heat from the building was intense, and they were all still too close to the flames to be truly safe. The others obeyed his order as he and Valjean dragged the groggy criminals, who were slowly regaining consciousness, away from what had once been their hideout. The water being dumped on the fire by the local residents was not enough to save the burning house, although it was sufficient to keep the inferno from spreading to other buildings.
By this time, two more local gendarmes, attracted by the commotion, had joined the small group, which was fortunate as neither Dubois nor Javert had any extra manacles. The other gendarmes stared at both Valjean and Javert, not immediately recognizing their superior through the cover of ash and soot. But Javert's familiar voice and crisp commands, telling them to assist Dubois in taking charge of the assembled criminals, soon clarified the Inspector's identity, and the two young men moved to obey.
Madame Thenardier was weeping, but apparently from frustration and rage rather than fear or pain. "So close, I was so close…"
Valjean wiped his face with his handkerchief, coughed a few times to clear his throat, and then spoke to her, his voice a little hoarse from the smoke. "What harm have I ever done you, Madame, that you would take my angel from me? And what harm has my daughter ever done to you, that you should wish to take her life?"
The woman laughed hysterically. "She's not your daughter! You don't know what it's like to have a daughter! I do—or I did! Eponine was my daughter. She died on the barricades, while this one, who used to be nothing more than a slave in our house, lives like a princess! I'm just evening the score!"
"But why should you wish to harm us? We have never harmed you!" Valjean persisted.
"Jean, you are trying to reason with a madwoman," Javert said.
"Nothing mad about me," the woman said. "I'm the only one who sees life for what it is. It's a dog-eat-dog world, and the stronger dog wins. No one can have anything good in this life unless he takes it from someone else. I've known that since I was a child in Faverolles. There was never enough food for everyone, never enough of anything. If you ever had anything to eat, it was because you took it from somebody else. It was either that, or they took it from you. Things only got worse after our stupid uncle got himself arrested and sent to the galleys—"
"What are you saying?" Valjean's face had gone white.
"Oh, Christ, not this again," her husband said simultaneously.
"Take them to jail," Javert interposed, speaking to the gendarmes in a voice that overrode anyone else's by being firmer and louder as well as more authoritative. "Charge them with kidnapping, assault, demand of ransom, unlawful imprisonment, and the woman with arson and attempted murder."
"It wasn't me, I didn't do anything!" Thenardier said, immediately and automatically.
"You should be grateful, cochon, that you are still alive," Dubois snapped at him. "Were it not for the courage of this gentleman and the Inspector, you and the members of your criminal gang would be dead." He swept off his hat and bowed to both Javert and Valjean. "Messieurs, I salute you!"
"Yes, all right, Dubois," the Inspector said brusquely, and seemed about to say something else, but that was when Cosette embraced him and kissed his cheek as though he were a beloved uncle. Javert's eyes widened with surprise at this unexpected display of affection and gratitude, and he actually blushed slightly. Following that, she turned to her father, flung her arms around the latter and kissed him, too. All this was witnessed by the crowd of people who had assembled to fight the fire, and they cheered loudly and delightedly at the sight. They were not sure what was going on, but emotions were running high and they found this entertaining. The two other gendarmes besides Dubois grinned and exchanged glances with each other, thoroughly impressed and enjoying these events as well. Their superior Inspector Javert, the man who lived only for duty and was widely regarded as being more wolf than human, had been hugged and kissed by a pretty girl! No one back at the police station was going to believe it!
"What are you looking at?" the Inspector barked at them. "Do your duty! We must take these criminals to jail!" He advanced on Thenardier, lowering and hardening his voice and speaking to the man directly. "You and your gang of vicious thugs will not escape this time."
Thenardier said nothing. His wife spat in their direction, although whether to express her contempt of the Inspector or of her husband was unclear.
"Madame, I must speak with you," Valjean said urgently.
"No," Javert cut him off. "Take your daughter and go home at once."
"But this woman—she may be—"
Javert gripped the other man's shoulder hard and said firmly, "You have inhaled smoke, you do not know what you are saying. Mademoiselle Cosette has been through a terrible ordeal. You must take her home. Just leave this to me."
"Yes, Papa, please!" Cosette begged.
Her entreaty got through to Valjean, who went to his daughter's side and put a protective arm around her. "We will go home now, I shall summon a fiacre," he told her gently. She gave him a smile of relief and gratitude. But as father and daughter walked away together Valjean still glanced over his shoulder, giving Madame Thenardier a long, anxious stare.
TBC…