A/N: Muse oh muse, must you be so elusive!

Insanemistosingmore: Yes, and the Marius torture is not over yet!

Eponine Thenardier: Hm, that choice of book might be a good idea

Wendla Bergmann: Yeah, and I used the cliché of having them name their kids after Colonel Pontmercy and Jean Valjean.

This is more of a segue into another bit. Next chapter when it comes will have more of the young people again.

The Unburied Future (X)

It seemed to Marius that the next few hours were a blur. After the police had come over to investigate the robbery and cart away the perpetrators, he and Marie-Fantine had to deal with the perfectly understandable fuss that the rest of the family as well as their acquaintances made over them.

"It is a good thing that the young gentlemen were visiting. Otherwise what would have happened to you two?" Cosette fretted that evening once the children had gone off to bed. She and Marius were straightening up the study and taking an inventory of the items that were damaged in the assault.

"Indeed, though I'd like to believe that if they hadn't been there, Basque would have had the presence of mind to get help," Marius said. He winced as his arm accidentally brushed against the bandage on his head.

Cosette sighed deeply as she got up and placed her hands on Marius' shoulders. "What would I do without you? I almost lost you once in the barricades, and now here, in our own house!" she said.

"The first time, I was a desperate man. The second, I was unsuspecting. But yes, I will be more prudent next time," he said as he kissed her gently to reassure her.

She nodded firmly. "Those men though were known swindlers; a few ladies I know have had their husbands almost conned by them. But why did they choose to be so violent towards you?" she wondered.

"As always, Cosette notices these things first," Marius thought wryly. A sort of theory had begun to form in his mind, based on some observations that he had made himself when it came to the thieves. There was truly something about them that seemed a little familiar, but he could not place it.

"Is it possible that they were trained by Patron-Minette?" he mused aloud.

"Maybe. There is no way of proving that though," Cosette said. "Why do you ask?"

"A disturbing possibility," Marius replied as he went to his desk and began to rifle through the drawers. "Cosette, I know that it must pain you to remember, but how many children did the Thenardiers really have?"

"Only three that I remember," she answered bravely. "Eponine and Azelma of course, and a baby boy whose name I forget. It is possible though that after I left, they might have had more."

Marius nodded gravely. While he himself had only seen the same three Thenardier children, there was an unmistakable resemblance that they also had to the brothers Devareux. "Eponine's hair was the same color under the dirt, and the brothers Devareux have M. Thenardier's nose," he mused.

"I think, Cosette, that those thieves were somehow related to them, the Thenardiers," he said softly.

"You mean they are. You are suggesting that they were Azelma's brothers? But why didn't she mention them?"

"Maybe it's possible that she was told not to, or that she doesn't remember," Marius said. "Years and years ago, when your father was still alive, before M. Thenardier went to America, I did make a few inquiries as to Patron-Minette and the rest of their friends. I found that one of their associates, a certain Mlle. Magnon, was once a maid here in this very house."

"Well, so you're saying that this Magnon might have pointed them to this place?" Cosette asked.

"So to speak. But there seems to be more…and the answer might have been in my grandfather's letters." Marius opened another drawer, this one designated for old correspondence from his grandfather and his aunt. He pulled out a stack of yellowing paper and began searching through it, till he came up with this note:

March 1832

To M. _

Please investigate the whereabouts of Mlle. Suzette Magnon and her two sons Neville and Jacques, and their acquaintance Mlle. Hastings. They were last seen on the Rue Clocheperce last January. The three Magnons are in my charge somehow, and I am anxious to know where they have removed in order to avoid liabilities and troubles…

"The rest of the note is crossed out," Cosette observed. "Why?"

"We'll never know."

"But if the boys are Magnon's sons, what do they have to do with M. Thenardier—no, are you saying that Magnon cared for two of the Thenardier children?" Cosette said. "It would make sense, Marius, but why?"

"The Thenardiers as you and I know would have done anything to have less mouths to feed. Well anything short of murder," Marius pointed out.

"And yes, I remember that the Thenardieress was absolutely horrible to her son," Cosette said with a shudder. "That woman who was with them to distract Basque, was she Magnon?"

"No, she had an English accent," Marius said. He heard as much from his study.

"Then she must have been that Mlle. Hastings," Cosette declared. "But where is Mlle. Magnon?"

"No one knows. Grandfather never told me, and no one I knew ever gave me an answer," the baron replied. "Do you think that Azelma, or rather, Madame Smith would know?"

Cosette shrugged elegantly. "The question is, Marius, would she want to tell you? It is a very painful, costly subject for her."

"Isn't the past always so, Cosette?"

She said nothing to this, but only reached for his hand and squeezed it. "Let's go to sleep, Marius. We can figure out what to do in the morning," she said as she led him out of the study and up to their room.