Chapter Six

A/N: Thank you to HelljumperScout, PhantomFandom, Christine Eponine and guest for reviewing.

A long silence followed the single word, as neither party could truly believe what they saw before them, despite the fact that they had wished for it since the events of the first battle. Or even because of it.

Éponine had closed her eyes once again, as if she did not believe what they reported to her, or did not want to. The girl had been let down so many times in her life by believing in things that were not truly there, and she did not wish for such an occurrence to hurt her once again, the false hope having been more painful than any blows ever landed by her father.

Marius, on the other hand, could not take his eyes off of the woman lain on the bed. He had watched her be shot, held her as she died, sobbed over her lifeless body, and yet here she was, living and breathing before him as if nothing had happened at all. He almost could not dare to believe in the fact that she was not a ghost, or a memory, or a trick, but convinced himself to do so. After all, he had always been taught to look upon the bright side of life, as it was a better way to live. If he could see Éponine before him, then he could bring himself to believe that she was real.

"Éponine?" he asked, his voice a great deal stronger than hers had been, when she had spoken his name a couple of minutes earlier. "Is that you, 'Ponine?"

In truth, the man did not know why he asked. He would recognise his young friend in a crowd of a hundred girls, something that he probably could not say for his beloved Cosette, as she had far less distinguishable features than the brunette did, not that it made her any less beautiful, of course, as she had the beauty of an angel come to earth in Marius' eyes.

"Yes." the young woman answered in a rasping voice, bringing the student from his revenue and reminding him of her presence at his side. "Believe it or not, it is me. I'm sorry if that disappoints you."

For a moment, the dark haired man went silent. When Éponine had spoken to him for the first time, that response to his question had not been the one he had been expecting. Truthfully, he did not know what he had been expecting, as he had not had time enough to consider the options, and he had never expected to be able to speak to the young Thénardier again, as having cradled her until she was dead, the young man had naturally expected her to stay that way.

"Oh, 'Ponine. How can you possibly think that about me?" he asked, trying desperately to convince the younger of his point of view. However, as she winced when he spoke the old fond nickname he had used to have for her, the man could see that he had a lot more work to do. That still did not stop him from using it again though, thinking that persistence was the best method for getting through to her. "I could never been disappointed that you're here with me again. It's a miracle that you are even living, 'Ponine, after the trauma you went through at the barricade, and it is not a miracle that I would ever have wished to have been denied."

"Oh, really?" she questioned in return, attempting to a great extent to keep her voice on a level tone, but realising soon that she was failing. "And why would you care about what happened to a dirty little street rat like me?"

The words echoed in the room like a flight of doves' wings in a church hall, seeming to be amplified through the silence that remained after they were spoken. The painful impact of them was just as prominent for the pair, and their eye contact was broken immediately, Marius' gaze turning to the view from the window and Éponine's filling with tears that fell down into her lap, leaving miniscule spots of dampness upon the pure white linen. Neither dared to look back to the other, fearing that they would find the other person staring at them, and so the period of hush lasted for a great deal longer than it would have needed to do, had they not been so stubborn.

Eventually, it was Éponine that broke the quiet, speaking in a voice that was still choked with tears, though she was chagrined that it had remained as such, even after her eyes had dried. "Everything has changed now, hasn't it? They're all dead. All of them. They fought for freedom, for a new world that would rise up with the sun in the morning. Where's that new world now, when the men who fought for it fell into the dust with a single shot? Where I should have lain now."

Marius opened his mouth to speak, but found it closing again very quickly, as the young woman had resumed her speech.

"Not all of them were men, you know, though of course, you would. Some of them were just boys, not even tall enough to match the size of the gun." By the time she had reached this point in her speech, the girl was sobbing. Marius did not quite understand the reason for this, as she had never been particularly close to any members of the revolution, nor to the children that hung around for the fun of this. But when the next phrase came from her mouth, he suddenly understood. "Gavroche was the smallest of all."

In an instant, the silence and the awkwardness and all the façades disappeared, leaving only two friends, one of whom had lost the only family member she had loved as much as they had loved her. Forgetting all of the harsh words which had passed between them, the student stepped forward, embracing the brunette, whose sobs had been mingled with cries of loss. For a long while, neither knew how long, nothing else mattered.

For now, they were just Marius and his little 'Ponine.

A/N: Finally, a reunion, but it's not going to be plain sailing, I'm afraid. Please, please review!