Another Time

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this.

So this is the final part to the It's About Time world. I guess I just wanted to finish it up and people wanted to see Enjolras and Eponine's kid. So it's not exactly what they asked for but I hope you like it.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed read and put these stories on their favourites list. I couldn't believe people actually liked them so much. Hope you like this one.

Madame Argent was used to strange children.

Actually that is phrased the wrong way-Madame Argent was used to children with various different backgrounds and personalities. She had seen it all; the worriers, the yellers and the criers. She knew how to handle each situation and no child had ever left her classroom without having improved their behaviour.

Nothing however could have prepared her in all her twenty years of teaching, for Alexandra.

The young five year old had dark blonde hair and brown eyes as big as saucers. She smiled like an angel and treated others like they were her very best friends. But it was safe to say that there were some parts to her that shocked her teacher.

For instance, in her second week in the school, she took the class rabbit out of its cage and tried to release it into the playground. When questioned by the principal, she simply looked her in the eyes and replied, "Viva la Mr. Floppy."

And when a boy in her class made fun of a girl's glasses, Alexandra did not just tie his shoelaces together; she also stole a bottle of glue and managed to make his shoes stick to the floor. The poor kid cried because the shoes were ruined but Alexandra just sniffed and said, "Injustice should not be put up with!"

So in the last class of the day, on a sunny Friday afternoon, Madame Argent just hoped the Alexandra would behave herself for the last few minutes. Throughout the day, the children had stood one by one in front of the class and told a quick speech about their family; simple sentences that encouraged pronunciation and the different types of family. Madame Argent had left Alexandra last in the hopes that whatever she said would be tame after a whole week of learning.

Alexandra stood at the top of the classroom, beside the teacher's desk, in her red dress and white shoes. She had a blue ribbon in her hair that did nothing to stop the strands falling in her eyes but Madame Argent figured it was because she kept messing with it. Alexandra stood with hands behind her back and waited until every child was looking at her before beginning.

"My papa's name is Enjolras and my maman's name is Eponine and they are the best parents in the whole wide world; if you think that yours are any better, than you are wrong."

Madame Argent was already regretting letting her speak.

"My papa is a lawyer and my maman owns a cafe. He always put me up on his shoulders when we're at the park and she reads me bedtime stories before I go to sleep. I have two older brothers named Peter and Jacques. They are twelve and eleven and I love them both very much even though they eat like pigs and smell weird sometimes. My sister Azlema is in university and actually smells really nice."

Madame Argent allowed herself to breathe easier; perhaps this wouldn't be a complete disaster.

"I have a lot of uncles and aunts who are also better than any of yours."

Nevermind then.

"I won't name all of them because class is nearly over but they are very special to me, especially Uncle Grantaire because he's the funniest, even when he's on his special drink, which I am not allowed go near."

If this was any other child Madame Argent would have called the authorities by now; but she had met Alexandra's parents and they had explained their situation. It was far simpler than Alexandra made it sound. Still, she wondered if they were as amazed as she was about how observant their daughter could be.

"Finally there is my bruncle Gavroche," Alexandra says with a smile, "He is sixteen and the best person ever-please, don't even try to argue with me, you all just embarrass yourselves."

The other five year olds blink back at her from their seats in silence. Finally one girl leans over to the boy beside her and asks, "What does embarrass mean?"

The boy shrugs and replies, "I don't know but because it's Alexandra, I think it's better not to ask."

Madame Argent had to agree; the girl did have an unusual vocabulary. "Alright!" the teacher says, standing up, "I think that's enough for today. Everyone start packing up for going home."

The children trickled out of the classroom as their parents came to pick them up but Alexandra was the last one left. Eponine had mentioned when she dropped her off that morning that as Gavroche was finishing school just a few minutes later that certain day, he would pick her up and they would walk home. Peter and Jacques had soccer practise after school so they would return home later.

As she remembered this, Madame Argent looks at Alexandra, who is sitting on a table with her bag on her back and her legs swinging. "Alexandra, we do not sit on tables in school."

The girl looks at her and says, "School is over."

Madame Argent lets out a slow breath and the young girl sighs as she hops off the desk. Her teacher links her hands together on the desk, leaning forward slightly as she spoke.

"Alexandra, in your little speech...you said that Gavroche was your...'bruncle'. You do know that bruncle is not a word?"

Alexandra nods her hair bouncing across her shoulders. "Yes; it's our special word."

Madame Argent frowns slightly and echoes, "Special word?"

Alexandra bites her lip and looks around, as if anyone else was actually in the room. Then she hurries to the front of the desk and leans forward, whispering. "You see, my Maman is Gavroche's sister and she's Peter and Jacques sister too. But Peter and Jacques call her Maman and they say that my Papa is their Papa too. They are my uncles but they are more like my brothers. And then Gavroche doesn't always call my parents Maman and Papa but they say they love him just as much as they rest of us. So he's my bruncle-my brother and my uncle."

Madame Argent knew all this but she was amazed that Alexandra had such a grasp of it. This little five year old had wrapped her innocent and naive head around a complicated situation and made it wonderful.

"You are the most extraordinary young girl," the teacher says.

Alexandra smiles sweetly and replies, "I know but Maman says I'm not suppose to brag."

There is a knock on the open door and they both turn to see Gavroche standing there. He had grown into a handsome and witty young teenager whose attention for school constantly get sidetracked by the various trips he was planning to take around the world. Alexandra ran over to him and he picked her up for a moment in a hug.

"Good day at school 'Ra?" he asks her as he places her back on the ground.

She shrugs and replies, "It was alright Roche-but I'm afraid I am surrounded by idiots."

Gavroche winches slightly, although he was trying not to laugh, and answered, "The other children are five 'Ra and not all of them read dictionaries for fun."

Alexandra just shrugs and suddenly got distracted by the sunlight dancing across the ceiling.

Madame Argent walks over to Gavroche and mumbles, "Don't worry; she may call them idiots but I truly believe that doesn't actually think that."

Gavroche grins and takes Alexandra's hand. "See you on Monday, Madame Argent!" Alexandra calls as she skips out the door.

She swings her and Gavroche's joined hands as she chats about her oh so busy day.

Gavroche smiles at her happiness, still amazed that after five years, this little girl could inspire such joy just by talking. He had always had a special bond with her. Peter and Jacques were her older brothers and they were allowed to ignore her or argue with her while hugging her and playing with her all in the same day.

Gavroche however, was like her hero. When she was old enough to understand nicknames, she refused to be called Alex because it started with an A instead of an R, like Roche. So, from then on, she only answered to Alexandra or Ra. She loved it when he told her stories of far off places and when he picked her up from school; she was the happiest child in the world. Of course, her Papa was the main man in her life but Gavroche came in a really, really close second.

He still remembered quite clearly, the day she was born.

Gavroche sat on the orange hospital waiting chair between Courfeyrac and Combeferre. After Eponine had been rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night, he, Peter and Jacques had been staying with Courfeyrac. It was now the afternoon and Enjolras had called to say that Eponine had had the baby.

Gavroche refused to wait until tomorrow to see his sister and from what he had guessed months ago, his new nephew. And now they were all waiting for Enjolras to come and bring them up to Eponine's room. Gavroche starts to lose patience when Enjolras turns the corner and sees them. He jumps up and hurries over to the older man.

"How's Eponine? Is she ok? How is the baby? Is he alright?" Garoche babbles and Enjolras, who looks tiered, just smiles at him.

"They are both fine and perfectly healthy. But there is something you should know about the baby."

Courfeyrac and Combeferre walk up behind Gavroche and can see the slight signs of Enjolras smiling. Gavroche, however, sees nothing funny. "What? What's wrong with him? Does he have one arm or one leg? Does he have missing toes? Is he some kind of weird antenna or something?"

Enjolras stops him as the kid's voice reaches a panicked and high pitched level. He places his hands on his shoulders and says, "Gavroche, the baby has all of his limbs, fingers and toes...and he does not have antenna. The baby is a girl."

Gavroche blinks at him, silent.

Enjolras glances at his two friends who shrug and then looks back at Gavroche. Finally the boy says, "A girl? Like...a girl, not a boy."

Enjolras nods and Gavroche continues, "So...I have a niece, not a nephew?"

Enjolras nods again.

Gavroche is quiet for another few minutes until he walks past Enjolras and exclaims, "We are all doomed!"

The three men follow him, Enjolras showing the way to the room while being utterly confused about Gavroche's comment. But when they get to the door and open it, they catch sight of Eponine sitting up in the bed with baby Alexandra. All four men look at the woman smiling down at her little girl, who already has big brown eyes and the cutest face.

So, yes, they all had to agree, they were doomed to a life of being wrapped around her little finger.

The two of them walked out of the school yard and onto the street, Alexandra talking away as usual. Gavroche was listening attentively but halfway home, he looked forward and froze. Alexandra stops too and looks up at him with curiosity.

Gavroche stares carefully down the street, watching the tattered piece of a women slowly walking towards them. Her dyed blonde hair was matted and greying at the roots while the clothes she worn were patched and ripped in placed. Gavroche suddenly picks Alexandra up and hold her tightly as he hurries down the pavement. The women saw his quick actions and reached out as he passed by.

"Gavroche!"

He almost doesn't stop; it's the anger that makes him halt. He turns back to the woman who was supposed to be his mother. He is seething but Alexandra is right there and he can already tell that she's terrified by his strange actions.

"I don't care why you are here and I don't care what you want. You need to leave and never come back," he says, his voice laced with bitterness and controlled rage.

Madame Thenardier holds her shawl around her shoulders tighter as she smiles through broken teeth. "Little Gavroche, I just wanted to see you-see all of you. Eponine is married I hear." She looks past her son to Alexandra who is hiding in his shoulder. "And this must be her little one-."

"Don't!" Gavroche pulls Alexandra even further away from Thenardier's outstretched hand.

The girl is really scared now and she mumbles, "I want to go home Roche."

Thenardier says suddenly, "Yes, let's all go, my boy!"

"It's not your home! You have no home with us. Go back to your husband and leave us alone-it's the best thing for all of us." Gavroche doesn't care if he's being harsh; he just wants her to leave as well as not find out where the house is. The fact that she obviously knows where Alexandra, he and the boys go to school is bad enough.

Thenardier stills slightly and Gavroche sees that familiar glint of temper in her eye. "I can't go back to him; he's dead. Back in America, he got in a spot of bother that he couldn't get out of."

The idea that his father was dead should have upset him but Gavroche only felt a sense of freedom. At least he couldn't hurt them anymore. "So why don't you just go somewhere else then? You can't possibly have thought that we would let you back here?"

Thenardier is about to reply when all three hear Eponine's voice from down the street. She hurries towards them and Gavroche is thankful for his sister's clever mind.

They were already late because of Alexandra's slow walking but this also held them up. Eponine must have worried and gone looking for them. She reaches them and Alexandra nearly jumps into her mother's arms.

Eponine kisses her daughter's head and hands her back to Gavroche. "Go home; I'll be there shortly."

Gavroche doesn't need to be told twice and he walks away with Alexandra. He doesn't want to know what she'll say to Thenardier and he really doesn't care. As long as she leaves their lives and Eponine says not to worry, then Gavroche is fine with never hearing from Thenardier again.

They don't...hear from her again, that is.

Eponine probably let loose on her; years of anger and disappointment boiling over. Probably the woman is at some shelter somewhere but she lost the right to her children's sympathy a long time ago. Enjolras notifies the school about her and they keep a careful watch out. But Gavroche refuses to let this disrupt their lives; not again.

So he convinces Enjolras and Eponine to continue with their dinner plans for a Saturday night; they were worried about staying over in a hotel for the night with the children in the house. Yet it has been weeks since Thenardier made her appearance and Azelma is visiting from university anyway so they both can babysit. So, the couple go out to dinner and spend the night away, just the two of them.

When they left the house Alexandra had looked at Gavroche and asked, "Why are they staying away the whole night? What are they even going to do for that whole time?"

Gavroche just tells her that Eponine will tell her when she's older-there is no way he is going through that conversation again.

As the night goes on, Gavroche finds himself to be the only one awake. It's not unusual; he is a night-time person. He sits up, watching TV, half listening to the far off thunder storm that is going on outside. The doors and windows are locked and the curtains are drawn. It's peaceful and he finds that he is not that sleepy at all.

Footsteps on the stairs, however, make him look over. Alexandra stands on the staircase, her stuffed toy cow clutched in her hands. "Are you scared of the thunder?" he asks and she nods, hurrying down the stairs to hop up on the couch beside him. He talks the blanket from the arm of the chair and drapes it over them both as she curls up like a cat beside him.

"You shouldn't be afraid of it," Gavroche says to her, "It's only someone sending a hello."

Alexandra frowns at him and Gavroche continues. "Thunder and lightning are messages sent across the sky from one person to the other. Lightning means "Hello" and thunder means "I love you."

There is another flash, lighting up the closed curtains and then a crash of thunder.

Alexandra looks up at Gavroche and replies, "Well, you think they could say it a little quieter."

Gavroche laughs and says, "Well how do you know that the storm is not Papa and Maman saying hello and telling me that you should be in bed?"

Alexandra pouts. "I don't speak Storm, that's why!"

"Well, I do," Gavroche says, "And it is defiantly saying that Ra should be asleep in bed." She pouts again but Gavroche stands firm. As he is tucking her into bed, Alexandra looks up at him with her brown eyes and asks, "Gavroche, who was that lady before? The one you didn't like."

Gavroche sits on the edge of the bed and he sighs quietly. "She was someone who did a lot of bad things and hurt people. I didn't want to see her. But you never have to worry about her ok?"

Alexandra nods and Gavroche continues almost despite himself. "All you have to remember is that you are loved by so many people, alright? Promise me that you always remember that."

"I promise Roche," she says, "And don't worry, I love you too."

Gavroche smiles at her before getting up and closing the door quietly, only leaving it open a crack to let the hall light in.

Eponine and Enjolras are confused the next day as to why their daughter is looking for a Storm-to-French dictionary. Gavroche has to explain which only sends them into peals of laughter.

Alexandra's sixth birthday a few weeks later consists of a garden full of children, a tableful of treats and a Grantaire in serious need of a drink. "I love that girl like she's my own; but my head is splitting!" he grumbles to Courfeyrac who is eyeing up on the children's single mothers.

Streamers are put up across the garden and balloons are dotted around the grass. Children run back and forth and in and out of the kitchen. Eponine and Enjolras are getting food ready while the Les Amis are put to different tasks like blowing up balloons, keeping an eye on the children and being used as toys in various games. Peter and Jacques are put in charge of making sure none of the children fall of the trampoline.

Alexandra laughs and giggles with all her classmates; her "surrounded by idiots" comment forgotten. She is dressed in a bright blue dress with a red bow in her hair. She was currently planning a catch game with a girl and a boy-the same girl and boy who had discussed the meaning of the word embarrassed during her speech.

"Can I go get a piece of chocolate before we start?!" the girl asks and Alexandra frowns.

Before she can reply, the boy says, "Sure, hurry up though."

The girl skips away and Alexandra turns her attention to the boy. He's wearing a pale yellow t-shirt and jeans, his mousy blonde hair, falling into his eyes slightly. Over his head, she catches sight of Azlema holding hands with a boy from her school. They are taking a slight break from face painting the party guests and they were talking while smiling weirdly.

The boy turns around and sees them before turning back to Alexandra. "What's his name?" he asks and Alexandra replies, "Toby; he is visiting for the weekend but I don't know why."

The boy raises an eyebrow and replies, "I think it's because he's her boyfriend."

Alexandra frowned at the boy, whose name is Zach. He had been sitting beside her in class at the beginning of the school year, but Madame Argent had separated them after they kept arguing.

"What does that mean?"

Zach's eyes light up and he exclaims, "Are you saying that I know something you don't know?!"

Alexandra sighs and mumbles, "Yes...now tell me."

Zach waits silently with a grin on his face until Alexandra adds, "Please."

Zach shrugs and just says, "A boyfriend or girlfriend is what a person is before they get married. They kiss and be gross."

Alexandra nods slightly and then asks, "Wait...being married makes you happy right?"

"My maman says so."

"Then a boyfriend or a girlfriend would make you happy too."

"I suppose."

Before she can ask another question, Gavroche appears by their sides. "The cake is nearly ready Ra," he says, "You better tell everyone to come into the kitchen. Hey Zach!"

Zach grins at the older boy and replies, "Hey Gavroche! Guess what? I got a new high score on my game."

Gavroche smiles at the young boy as he says, "That's great! We can have a go on the game in the living room before you leave if you like?"

Zach nods happily and Gavroche heads off back to the kitchen, passing Eponine on the way. Alexandra watches as Cosette joins her and the two women walk towards the children.

"Oh no..." she grumbles before her mother stands in front of her with Cosette. The blonde is holding a camera and she says, "I want a picture of you two before you get covered in cake."

"But Maman-!" Zach starts to argue but a look from Cosette shuts him down.

Reluctantly, he and Alexandra stand beside each other with matching fake smiles. "You look like a squashed blueberry," Zach mumbles through his teeth.

"And you look like an upset banana!" she replies as the picture is taken.

The children go home with party bags in tow, the garden is cleaned for decorations and the remains of a chocolate cake are put away in the fridge. It is still early in the evening so Gavroche decides that he'll go see a film with some of his friends.

He walks into the kitchen and sees Eponine typing on her laptop while Enjolras beside her at the kitchen table with Alexandra on his knee as he reads her a story.

"Hey, I'm going to go; I should be back by eleven," he says and Eponine calls to him.

"Do you have your wallet?"

"Yes."

"Your phone?"

"Yes."

"Your keys?"

"Yes, can I go now?!" he says with a laugh.

Eponine grins at him and Gavroche calls his goodbyes as he walks out the door. Enjolras is about to go back to the story when he looks down and sees Alexandra's frowning face.

"And what are you thinking so hard about?" he asks.

Alexandra stares at the door with her head tilted slightly. "Papa?" she asks and Enjolras and Eponine glance at each other in amusement before he answers her.

"Yes?"

"Does Gavroche have a girlfriend?"

Eponine giggles slightly and Enjolras tries not to laugh as he says, "No, but why do you ask?"

Alexandra shrugs as she turns back to her storybook in her father's hands.

"No reason; I just think it's about time someone helped him find one."