Hello!

Since I love Marius and Eponine, I'm just going to write a story about what would have happened if Éponine lived!

This is just wishful thinking!

Of course, this is going to be Marius/Éponine, from day one, so any Marius/Cosette fans, look away now!

Enjoy!

...

Marius gulped, disbelieving. Éponine, she couldn't be gone! Éponine...'Ponine, she was brave, determined, fierce...Éponine couldn't be taken down! 'Ponine would fight, she wouldn't let this take her down!

But as the trembling schoolboy looked down upon his limp best friend, any small glimmer of hope in the dark night of the revolution had been shattered.

"Éponine..." he whispered, as his tears engulfed him. "No, 'Ponine..."

"Marius."

The boy looked up and saw two revolutionaries. He was grieving for his best friend, and too distraught to care who they were. All he registered was that they tried to take away his Éponine.

"Éponine..." he whispered softly as she was carried away.

...

As Enjolras and Joly carried the girl through the streets of their beloved Paris, through the quiet streets, past all the people who peeped out their windows, their thoughts patrolled angrily about both their heads.

"What do we do, Joly? Where do we take her?"

"Well, we need to get her somewhere clean, and quiet, and under a roof. Then I'll check her wounds and I can only try my best sir. She wasn't in the best health before she got shot, there's a high chance her weak body won't cope. By the looks of those, her body's already been broken enough." He jabbed his thumb in the direction of the bruises that decorated her.

Enjolras shook his head. "What do you mean, Joly? I thought she was dead, did you not see the look on that lovesick fool's face? "

"Yes, I did," Joly chuckled. "And I think it's going to be very... interesting to watch Marius when they see each other again."

"So, she is living? We'll take her to mine!" Enjolras upgraded to a brisk walk to his apartment.

"Of course she is, Enjolras. She simply passed out from the pain. And we must not tell Monsieur Marius."

"Why forever not?! He'll be dying without his best friend."

"Best Friend?" Joly raised his eyebrows. "Understatement aside, that was my point. He'd be distracted the whole way through the revolution. He'd want to get back to her, and then he'd regret leaving the fight, the cause and his friends behind after. Now the boy can realise his real feelings for the girl."

"Which are?" asked Enjolras, throwing open the door to his apartment. He ran through the hall, and to the spare bed, laying down the girl.

"Later, Enjolras, such things are not important right now. I must go and get towels and water," he shouted, already half way down the hall, already halfway to his apartment.

Enjolras looked down at the girl with a strong feeling of pity. She had nearly died fighting for the love of her life, while he was fighting for the love of his life.

He suddenly felt a strange awe of the gamine. Despite the grumbling stomach, the father with a bad reputation, that girl...Colette? Despite her empty pockets, and the lack of love shown towards her, she fought, fought through the barricade, through the Friends of the ABC, through the stares that Marius received from his "family and friends" when seen with Éponine, through everything that went wrong in her life.

And Enjolras had an overwhelming respect for the girl. Suddenly, he heard his door slam close.

Joly bounded through his hall, into Enjolras' room and over to the spare bed.

"Any progress?"

"Still sleeping."

Joly nodded and placed the basin of hot water on a small side table and dipped the towels into it. He opened the buttons on her shirt, and unwrapped most of the bandages, making sure to leave on enough to protect what little respect t he girl had for herself.

"I'll go fetch Madame Ophelie."

Joly nodded, and continued cleaning Éponine's wounds.

Enjolras ran through his large apartment, and when after a minute or so he couldn't find his housekeeper, he ran down to the markets.

The streets were deserted, civilians too scared to come out incase the revolution would carry over near them and they would get caught up.

He couldn't see Opheliee anywhere. He found her ten minutes later, creeping through the Parisian streets, trying not to get noticed. Her wispy grey hair surrounded an aged, wrinkled, yet beautiful face that was contorted in fear.

"Ophelie!" he whispered.

The older housekeeper's head shot up, and she looked around. The fear on her face dissolved upon seeing it was only Enjolras.

"You gave me quite the fright! I was just returning from Marianne's. What is it you need?"

"I have a young girl, a friend of a friend, in my apartment. She has been injured, and Joly is attending to her right now, but I need to return to the barricade!"

"Don't you worry, young man, I'll be with her soon enough. You just go to that barricade you talk so fondly of," she smiled.

Enjolras nodded, grinning and ran over to give the woman a fierce hug.

"Hurry off, boy! You'll be late!" she ordered.

Enjolras ran off into the night, disappearing into the darkness.

The old woman chuckled and briskly walked to Enjolras' apartment.

All of Madame Ophelie Bonnet's children, 3 boys and a girl, had moved on to other parts of Europe, only one of them staying in France, and in a place far away from Paris. She was very glad they'd moved on with successful careers far away from the Paris slums. She, however, had a job, and would feel lost without the comforting streets of Paris. Not long after her husband passed away, she discovered a young, charismatic man looking for a housekeeper, and never looked back.

In absence of her children, and grandchildren, she viewed Enjolras as family. And he, in the absence of a family that respected his views, saw Ophelie as somewhat of a mother or aunt.

She soon reached his apartment, and hurried in, where she spotted Joly running from the bathroom with a basin of hot water.

"Hello, dear boy! Where is she? How is she?"

"Follow me, in his room. Her name is Éponine, and she's been shot in the chest. I cleaned her wound up, and gave her medicine that I found in the kitchen, and she's been sleeping. She seems to be doing alright. I was just about to bandage her."

Ophelie could tell the boy was just itching to get back to that barricade that Enjolras talked about so often.

"Go on, I'll wash her and bandage her. I'm a mother, I'm not completely clueless when it comes to taking care of children," she smiled warmly.

Joly nodded. "Thank you! The medicine I used is still sitting out on his table in the kitchen, bandages are on her bed. If she wakes up, tell her she's been shot, but she's being taken care of, the boys are at the barricade, and she's going to be okay," he rushed and ran, before the women could change her mind.

As much as Joly loved taking care of others, as much as he valued and respected Éponine, he was a wreck away from the highly anticipated revolution. 'Relax, Joly!' he scolded himself. She was in good hands.

He smiled to himself. Marius had truly looked distraught. Everyone had seen through Éponine within an hour of seeing her around Marius, but not one person had seen through Marius. He saw how fond he was of the girl, even if she was only his 'best friend.' From what he heard about this blonde, she was nothing but a distraction, a light in the dark of the revolution. She was only an infatuation, a way out of the misery that surrounded the lives of him, his friends, and Paris in general.

Joly grinned wider. If they got through this battle, if they lived, he would stand by the words spoken to Enjolras earlier.

It would be very interesting watching Marius and Éponine after this.

...

I'm not sure whether or not to continue this, depends on the reaction! It could work as a one-shot, but if you want more I'm happy enough to give you some!:)

I've decided that I'm going to try and make all of the OOC's names mean something that is relevant to the story/their personality. This started with Madame Ophelie Bonnet, Enjolras' elderly housekeeper.

Ophelie = Help/Succour (succour meaningassistance in time of difficulty)

Bonnet = From the Latin given name Bonitus meaning 'Good.'

Because, she is going to be very helpful in Éponine's recovery and I plan on making her the nicest person ever!