Epilogue

"Where's the birthday boy?!"

Eponine winced and grabbed the baby monitor, glancing at the screen to see if Courfeyrac's obnoxiously loud entrance through the back door had woken her son. Luckily, the baby was still sleeping soundly, knocked out cold in his crib upstairs.

"Shut up!" she heard Enjolras gripe at him from the kitchen. "He's asleep because you're an hour early, doofus. Good to see you, though."

Gavroche looked at her and grinned, putting the finishing touches on the gift table in the corner of the living room. "Courf's here, not that you could miss that."

"No kidding." Eponine followed Gavroche into the kitchen, baby monitor in hand, and pinched an unsuspecting Courfeyrac's ass as she came up behind him. "If you wake up the baby with your loud mouth, you're the one who gets to deal with his screaming. He is not happy when he doesn't wake up on his own time. But welcome back!"

Courfeyrac jumped and turned, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and squeezing tightly. "Hello to you, too. And sorry I got the time wrong – I could have sworn that one told me 1 o'clock," Courfeyrac accused, pointing at Gavroche.

"It's okay. Now I can put you to work. Can you put these up around the food table and wherever in the kitchen you think they'd look good?" Eponine handed him a roll of crepe paper streamers and tape and smiled sweetly.

"How is the little ankle biter? I haven't seen him in what? Three, almost four months?" Courfeyrac asked, getting to work on the streamers like Eponine instructed. Courfeyrac had just gotten back into town after going on a backpacking trip through Europe; Gavroche joined him for two and a half weeks during his Christmas break, but other than that, Courfeyrac was off the grid most of the time.

"He's great. I can't believe it's been a year already. And I won the bet!" Eponine said proudly. "I got him to say 'mama' before 'dada.' It was only about two weeks between them, but still."

Enjolras rolled his eyes, but kissed her forehead affectionately as he passed her to grab a snack from the fridge. "Well, he's not stupid. He knows where the food comes from."

Courfeyrac snorted and eyed Eponine's breasts appreciatively. "I'd say 'mama' too, if I were him."

"Courf, seriously? Stop staring at my sister's boobs," Gavroche grumbled. "That's just gross."

"It's only gross because she's your sister. I, however, have a deep love and appreciation for the female body."

"Speaking of boobs..." Eponine pointed to the baby monitor. "I see someone's awake, which means he's going to want me in a few minutes. I'll bring him down when we're finished." Eponine ruffled Courfeyrac's hair as she walked past him to the stairs. "I missed you, Courf!"

She tiptoed up the stairs and through the hall, stopping just outside the baby's room. Sometimes if he didn't realize someone was coming for him, he was content to just sit in his crib and babble, which Eponine thought was the most adorable thing in the world. Today, however, all was quiet.

"Elliot," she called in a sing-song voice as she pushed open the baby's door. "Where's my birthday boy?"

As soon as he heard her voice, Elliot stood in his crib, hanging onto the side and giving her a drool-filled grin. Eponine stood in front of him and smoothed back his messy blonde curls. "Hey, you. Uncle Courferyrac is downstairs! And grandma and grandpa are going to be here. Everyone is going to come see you today," she crooned. "And you get your own cake!"

Elliot talked back in his usual way as Eponine scooped him up into her arms. "And don't tell Daddy, but your cake is chocolate because it's way better than vanilla." She settled into the comfortable rocking chair in the corner of the room and began to nurse Elliot, feeling a little bit of remorse that within a few days, nursing time was going to be drastically reduced. She had been breastfeeding for a year now, and while it was amazing bonding time with her baby, she was starting to feel ready for her body to be her own again. Still, it was going to be hard for both of them to let go.

They were both quiet for several minutes, Elliot content and still as he nursed. He was usually pretty docile during this time, one of the only times of day he wasn't on the go. He'd crawled pretty early, as babies go, and was walking on very shaky legs by ten months. (She stopped counting the bruises and bumps on his head from the tumbles he took – Elliot never seemed to be bothered, and always got right back up again, showing the same determination she remembered in Gavroche.)

Elliot's eyes were big and blue as he gazed up at her, and Eponine took his hand and kissed it. Not that she minded at all, but he looked exactly like his father, down to even the same grumpy look he got when he fought sleep, his death glares when he was unhappy or mad, and his look of concentration when he tried to do something new. She loved him in such a fierce, unyielding way that it sometimes took her breath away.

"You're one year old today, Elliot. Did you know mommy and daddy barely made it to the hospital when you were born? Mommy was so crazy she didn't even know you'd decided to make your grand entrance," she said quietly.

"Yeah, let's not let that happen ever again."

Eponine looked up and grinned, stinking her tongue out at Enjolras, who stood in the doorway watching them. "Oh, it wasn't that bad. We got there, didn't we?"

"Barely." Enjolras walked across the room and bent down, giving Elliot a light kiss on his head. Elliot smiled, but was still too preoccupied with his afternoon meal to give his father too much attention. "Hm. Do you think you almost giving birth in Courf's backseat had anything to do with why he fled the country?"

"I wouldn't doubt it. Can you believe it's been a year?"

"Not at all. It's flown by...and yet, at the same time, I now don't remember what a night of good sleep feels like."

"Me, either. Elliot needs to spend the night at your parent's house soon so we can catch up."

"With sleep or with other areas we've been neglecting?" Enjolras asked suggestively.

"Both. Hell, maybe they should keep him for the weekend."

"Sounds good to me." Enjolras wandered over to Elliot's dresser and pulled out the birthday outfit she picked out that morning. "This is cute."

"Thanks, I thought so."

Elliot suddenly decided he was full and abruptly broke away from Eponine's breast, holding his hands out to Enjolras as he squirmed in her lap. "Dada, dada, dada!"

"Oh, I see how it is," Enjolras playfully glared as he picked Elliot up, making him squeal as he tickled his sides and held him above his head. "You like me now that you're full, huh?"

Eponine fixed her bra and shirt and stood, smiling as she watched Enjolras playing with their son, a sight she never got tired of seeing. Enjolras smiled more with Elliot in his life, and was just more relaxed and playful in general. "Don't shake him too much," she warned, "unless you want a bunch of puke in your face."

"Been there, done that." Enjolras lowered Elliot in front of his nose and sniffed, making a disgusted face. "Oh, Lord. I came in at the wrong time. Thanks for warning me."

"You took him, he's yours now!" Eponine called over her shoulder as she quickly left the room, laughing as Enjolras yelled indignantly after her. She fled downstairs, where more of their friends and family now mingled since it was closer to the actual start time of Elliot's first birthday party. Enjolras' parents, the Pontmercies, and Combeferre, along with his new wife and four year old step-daughter had already arrived.

Eponine grinned as she saw Cosette, who was now five months pregnant with her first child. "Look at you! You popped over the last two weeks, you were barely even showing then. How are you feeling?"

"Pretty good! I'm not throwing up every five minutes anymore, so things are looking up. Where's Elliot?"

"With his daddy. Enjolras got diaper duty."

"Good call. I'm beginning to think that after incubating his spawn for nine months, Marius should change every single diaper," Cosette said firmly.

"I am totally in support of that plan."

Enjolras brought Elliot downstairs in a few minutes, and as more and more people arrived for the party, Elliot reveled in being the center of attention. Though he looked like Enjolras, his personality so far was very different from them both. He laughed at everything, was easy-going and full of energy, and was now very used to being the center of everyone's world; in fact, he probably expected it at this point. His grandparent's doted on him, so much so that Enjolras had to put his foot down a few months prior and gently tell them to stop buying Elliot new toys. They never had trouble finding a babysitter between grandparents, their friends, and Gavroche, who was surprisingly good with his nephew. Throughout the last year, there were several moments when Eponine completely stopped in her tracks, overcome with the realization of how lucky she was to have so many amazing people in her life.

The rest of the party passed quickly, with all of the customary happenings for a now one-year old. Eponine and Enjolras sat on the floor and helped Elliot open his presents, he covered himself with chocolate cake as everyone giggled and egged him on, and somewhere near the end of the party, it hit Eponine hard: her baby wasn't a baby anymore, but an actual toddler.

Once the party was over, Eponine gave Elliot a bath, one of his favorite things, to get the chocolate cake out of his hair, and let him play as long as he wanted in the bubbles. He giggled every time she blew them from her hands, and clapped in delight as she piled them on top of his head. He'd had such an eventful day, however, that he fell asleep practically as soon as she wrapped him up in his fluffy duck towel, the little hood with the duck's bill on it flapping over his face. She carried him into his bedroom and sat in the rocking chair, content to stare at him for a while as he slept. It was reflective moments like these that sometimes made her think about her own parents; the only conclusion she had come to was that there was something inherently defective about them, because the instinctive love she felt for her son from the moment she found out she was pregnant was something she could never ignore or push aside. There was no telling what made her different, but whatever it was, she was glad; she couldn't remember a time when her parents were ever truly happy, just struggling and scheming to survive.

Eponine was startled out of her thoughts by Enjolras' footsteps in the hall. He peeked into Elliot's bedroom and entered quietly once he noticed her. "There you are. What are you two doing?"

"Just sitting. He's asleep." Eponine lifted Elliot's hood a bit so Enjolras could see his face.

"Thinking again, huh?" Enjolras asked, leaning down and kissing the top of her head.

Eponine smiled sheepishly and shrugged, letting Enjolras take the sleeping baby from her arms and put him on the changing table. He began to put Elliot's pajamas on, trying all the while not to wake him.

"Someone's tired," Enjolras remarked quietly, picking Elliot up and cradling him against his chest once he was dressed. "Maybe we'll get a couple extra hours of sleep in the morning."

"That would be nice." Eponine stood and kissed Elliot's forehead, standing back as Enjolras put him gently in the crib and covered him with his favorite blanket.

"What were you thinking about?" Enjolras wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on top of her head.

"How ordinary my life is, for the first time ever. It's just a really nice feeling. I mean, nothing stays perfect forever – we're bound to hit some bumps in the road and everyone has problems. But I don't look over my shoulder expecting tragedy at any moment anymore."

"Which is a first." Enjolras cupped her face and kissed her gently.

"I am sad, though," she admitted. "Elliot's not a baby anymore. He's walking and sort of talking and everything is just going by so fast. A year ago at this time we were in the hospital sitting there staring at him, and he was brand new and so tiny. It's just crazy to think about how quickly time passes."

"It does seem like it goes by much faster now," Enjolras mused. "When we were hiding our relationship, every day seemed like a year. It doesn't anymore."

"Maybe that goes with 'ordinary.' Or just getting old," she teased. The other day when Enjolras found his first gray hair in the mirror, he'd tried to play it cool, but Eponine could tell it freaked him out a little bit.

Enjolras glared and slipped his hands down to her ass, squeezing appreciatively. "31 is not old," he said firmly, "and just because we're married and ordinary doesn't mean we have to be boring. For instance, there's still half a chocolate cake downstairs and all day I've thought about how good it would taste if I covered you in it first."

Eponine blushed, but managed an affronted look. "Uh, no. Excuse me, but I'm the one that likes chocolate. If anyone is going to be covered, it's you, because then I get to lick it off."

Enjolras held his hands up and shrugged. "Okay, okay. I know when to back down. I'll be back in two minutes."

Eponine laughed as he jogged out of the room, then checked Elliot one last time before turning the light off and the baby monitor on. Ordinary, but not boring, she thought, I can get used to that.

Thank you all for reading. :) I had a blast writing this story, and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it just as much. THANKS!