The Barricade Girl (A Les Miserables FanFiction)

Chapter Sixty-Four

"Where is he?" I clutch my Grandfather's arm to keep myself standing, feeling like I could fall over any second after the shocking words I've just heard.

"He's in his room", Grandfather replies, but before he even finishes his sentence, I'm running towards the study door. "Juliette!" Grandfather calls after me. I whip my head around to face him, digging my heels in the ground to stop my feet from running. He looks at me, as if he can see into my soul, his eyes full of love – the complete opposite to what I was expecting to come home to. Maybe my brief stint away, and the risk to his grandchildren's lives has made a change for the better in Grandfather. As a moment's pause, he speaks to me, sincerely and genuinely. "I'm deeply sorry for your loss. I'm sorry I never saw the wedding". My eyes fill with tears, but they don't fall. I offer a nod in heartfelt thanks, unable to speak any words in fear that the tears I'm holding in will fall. "Courfeyrac and Gavroche will always have a place here". And for the first time in what feels like years, I can feel my mouth twitching into a real, genuine smile – not a fake one, not one plastered on to keep up appearances or to make others feel better. It was a genuine smile for me. The first step toward starting over.

I run through the house quicker than I ever have before, not even taking in the familiarity of my surroundings, not even thinking that the last time I ran through these hallways was when I was running to Enjolras' arms, the moment he tried to say goodbye. In a matter of moments, I'm bursting through the door of Marius' room and throwing myself on his bed as he wraps his arms around me.

"You're alive!" We both say at the same time.

"I thought you were dead!" I exclaim.

"You too!" He hugs me again as if neither of us can believe the other one is really there. Typical us. Instead of weeping at the sight of one another, we're laughing. It almost feels wrong to laugh when so much tragedy has happened to us. But he's my brother. Our response to each other isn't going to be normal.

"You're home..." I state softly, the words that I've been wanting to say for so long. After all these months of arguments between him and Grandfather, Marius was finally back with us. "How did you get away? The last I saw of you, I thought you were dying".

"Me too..." He replies, the haunted look returning to his face as he thinks back to that day. "I don't know how I got here. I blacked out on the barricade with a wounded arm, and next thing I know, I'm back at Grandfather's, and Cosette is at my side".

"Cosette?" I ask, a little more disgust in my voice than I intended as I remember that Cosette was ever in the picture, as I remember the pain it caused Eponine and everything our boys went through, and then think that Marius just ran back into Cosette's arms as if nothing had happened. I lean back, and that's when I realise that Cosette and her father have been in the room the entire time – I just hadn't seen them. "You've been looking after Marius?"

"I have", she replies, smiling sweetly as she perches herself on the edge of his bed. "He's doing so well. Everyday he walks with stronger step, he walks with longer step. The worst is over", she informs me as she takes his hand.

"But, I wonder everyday who was it that brought me here from the barricade?" Marius states, almost as if talking to himself. Monsieur Valjean catches my eye – he knows something. Something that Cosette and Marius don't know. And then I realise. I piece it all together in my head, and I gasp at the revelation. Valjean subtly nods his head at me, telling me that my suspicions are right – it was him. He saved Marius. And Marius, clueless as ever, has no idea. Marius has no idea about the people that have sacrificed for him and Cosette – the list gets longer day by day. Valjean. Eponine. Enjolras. Even Gavroche had put his own life in danger for Marius' sake.