Chapter Twenty

A/N: Thanks to Lylex96 and Guest for reviewing the last chapter.

Éponine did not know how long she stood in shock, her lips trembling around her open mouth. She had been taught when she was younger to cover her mouth, one of her mother's attempts to make her raggedly dressed daughter seem more like a lady, but the brunette could not bring herself to raise her sleeves, not when they were coated with flecks of dried blood.

"Whose is it?" she asked, the intensity of her voice surprising them both. She had never been a girl to simper and speak quietly, had never able to in the life she had known in Paris. Marius tried not to think of the type of life Éponine could not have lead; that life came far too close to answering her question. "Marius!"

"I…" He had barely begun to speak when he trailed off again, unable to bring himself to lie. Marius paused for a moment, seeing the innocence behind his beloved's eyes and wanting to preserve it for just a little while longer.

"Marius, please just say it." Éponine requested. She moved to press her hand against Marius' forearm, to comfort him, but she could not go that far. Not when she did not yet know the truth. "No matter how horrid, I swear to you, it's better to know than wonder."

The young man was silent. Then he spoke. "Cosette."

The word might as well have been a blow to the head, such was the way Éponine reeled in response. She stumbled backwards, seating herself on a small wooden chair at the edge of the room, her gaze fixated on the wall, the only direction she could look without seeing Marius. She could not bear to look at him, not covered in blood. This was not her Marius.

"What did you do to her?" the young woman questioned, still focused on the wall. There was no answer she wanted to hear, except that perhaps the whole situation was a misunderstanding. It was not out of love for the other woman, who had made her life a misery and almost brought it to its end, but out of fear for her beloved. There were no scenarios that could have him escape prison, and few that would have him evade the gallows.

"She was grasping at my arms, trying to get me to listen to her." Marius recounted and his voice was emotionless, as if he were recounting a historical battle rather than his own altercation. "I pushed her away from me, so that I could get past, and she cracked her head against the garden wall. She died."

Éponine closed her eyes, hoping to keep her tears at bay. This was not Marius' fault, it was a mistake, a tragic accident. But the police would not see it that way. They would see a murder.

"Did you at least cover it up?" she pressed, ignoring Marius' jolt of surprise. He seemed to find it easier to pretend she was not the daughter of a criminal, a feeling she understood, but her danger-filled upbringing had not passed over her head. "Did you bury the body before you ran?"

"I didn't have time." Marius responded with a shake of his head. "The police came, they were going to find me there and arrest me. I left her in the garden while I ran."

"And did they see you?" Éponine continued, already seemingly furious with the man's lack of foresight. His expression was enough of an answer and the brunette flew out of her seat, pummeling his chest with her fists in anger. In novels a woman doing such a thing would have her eyes streaming with tears and her love would pull her into his arms and hold her while she wept. The fury in Éponine's eyes, dry of tears, was enough to convince him not to try.

Marius made no attempt to stop her movements, instead waiting for her anger to subside, her blows to become weak and her legs to crumble beneath her. Even then he did not embrace her, as much as he might have wished to.

"You're a fool, Marius." Éponine whispered, her voice as weak as her limbs. The overwhelming disappointment in her tone was like a stab of pain in Marius' heart. "All this time we ran from the law, all it almost took from us. And now you've done this."

"I know I've made a mistake, 'Ponine, and you don't know how much I wish I had never gone there." Marius could hear the pleading notes in his voice, making him sound like a small child. He felt like no more than that as he watched the young woman's face turn darker.

"I believe that you regret it. At least you're not lying to me about that." Marius opened his mouth to protest further, to claim he had never lied to her, or that if he ever had done by mistake he had only done so to keep her safe, but she held up her hand to stop him, barely strong enough to hold it above her elbow. "Marius, please don't speak across me, not now. It's difficult enough to say these words without you cutting in. I hope you realise how much I love you. It's all I ever wanted, you and me together, the perfect life I dreamt of through so many nights of suffering. It has been my heart's desire ever since I was a little girl on the Paris streets. And we were so close to having it."

"We still can." Marius assured her, ignoring the terms she had set. Éponine winced, blinking tears from her eyes. By now she was standing tall, even as she was made faint by the effort of it.

"No we can't, Marius, not now." She took a tentative step towards the man, reaching out to take his hands in hers. "There are only two ways this could end. Either you run from the police, far out into the countryside, and hope they never catch up to you, or you face the consequences, face the noose. I refuse to spend the rest of my life running from the law, living in the shadows and forever looking over my shoulder. But I cannot watch you go to your death. I wouldn't survive it. I cannot bear to see you exiled or to see you dead. The only way to avoid that is not to see you at all."

Marius felt a tear slip down his cheek, its coldness seeming to almost burn. "'Ponine, please."

"No." she responded, stepping away and returning her hand to her side. "No, I can't listen to any more. Goodbye Marius."

The student opened his mouth, to apologise, to say farewell, to beg his beloved to stay. Instead he said nothing, watching in despair as Éponine disappeared into the moonlit streets.

A/N: Not the most uplifting chapter, sorry! Please review!