The final chapter, the writing of which took place while the author smiled tearfully and listened to the Walk to Remember soundtrack to help set the atmosphere.

One Year Later

"'Vroche, do not grumble; you said yourself you would rather stay in Paris, with Courfeyrac."

Eponine ruffled her twelve-year-old brother's hair and looked amusedly at the boy's furrowed brow. "I was not grumbling," Gavroche said declaratively. "But… you are going to visit soon, right?"

"Right," echoed Eponine, laughing to herself at the way her brother's face softened. "And next time you see me, you will be an uncle!"

Gavroche grinned at last, looking fondly at Eponine's heftily pregnant stomach. The baby was due in a month, planned to be dutifully named Jehan if it was a boy, and Lucia if it were a girl, after Eponine's mother. She had briefly thought to name the child Azelma, but the named carried too much weight to belong now to anyone else.

"I will miss you," Gavroche admitted, reaching up to put his arms around his sister's neck. She warmly accepted, placing her single bag down on the paving stones beside her.

It was June again, a year after the revolution, and Marius and Eponine, the latter now known by Mme. Pontmercy, were leaving Paris to live in a small house in the country, not far away from the sea. At first the idea, suggested by Eponine, seemed impossible: to leave Paris after a lifetime walking its streets. Slowly, however, they realized that the city would not be the ideal place for raising a child, so they followed Joly's and Musichetta's action of purchasing a small house in the beautiful countryside of France. Their incomes had not been enough to purchase a large home, but it did not matter to Eponine. She was running on the sheer excitement of owning and sharing a real house with Marius by her side.

If the first days of being the wife of Marius had been bliss for the girl, each day had only brought new joy to her heart. By this point in their marriage, Eponine did not believe she could grow to love him more; and yet, with every second she was.

This must be how heaven feels like, she had told Musichetta at one point. The older girl could not agree more. After years of living with her beloved Joly, she was now his wife, and the mother of little Damien Joly, a bright and bubbly baby boy with the distinct and already thick black curls belonging to both of his parents. And soon, that will be me! Eponine thought.

"All set for the ride?" said a voice from behind Eponine. She turned around and saw Courfeyrac standing there against the waiting carriage, his usual grin on his face.

"Yes," Eponine said politely, standing on her toes so as to peck him on the cheek. "And I could not thank you more for taking care of my brother."

"My pleasure, Mme. Pontmercy," said Courfeyrac with a shake of his mousy-brunette head. He put an emphasis on the surname, an implication that made Eponine blush. "Best wishes, and do be careful." He gestured to her stomach.

"Thank you so much for everything," Eponine said once more.

"Alright, I'm ready," said the voice of Marius from several feet away, behind the two friends. Eponine turned and now saw her husband, a grin on his face, prepared to climb up into the carriage. Standing beside him was Enjolras, a newly characteristic smile on his handsome face. Things had not been the same for the formerly somber young man in the past year. He had become more lighthearted, easier to speak to and befriend. Eponine thought with a heavy heart that it had something to do with the loss of his revolution, and the fond memory of his lost friends. In the wake of devastation, he had realized as many do that grief is not appreciated by the dead.

Eponine's eyes locked in on Marius, who was looking straight at her, smiling lovingly. The girl could not control the brilliant, delighted blush that filled her cheeks as she rushed to his side. "As am I," she responded to his statement. Grabbing his hand, she looked around at her friends, and let Marius help her up into the fiacre.

"I will see you all soon," she promised as the group said their goodbyes, and the carriage set off down the Rue Segiur.

Once the others were out of sight, Eponine turned to Marius, smiling joyously. "I will miss them all so much," she said wistfully.

"As will I," said Marius. "But we can return to visit as often as we like, you know." Eponine nodded.

"I know."

The fiacre rolled on, and the couple joined hands, watching as Paris went by on either side. Familiar buildings and faces came and went. When they passed by the Musain, Eponine felt Marius squeeze her hand more tightly.

Remembering their friends had been hard for Eponine and Marius, and for the others, since the fateful day a year ago. Even after their marriage, Eponine had had nights where she woke up from terrible dreams and spent hours afterwards crying silently into her pillow, attempting to not wake Marius. Similarly, Marius would be roused by Eponine murmuring in her sleep. Mostly, she would speak Jehan's name. God knows she will never forget what she saw, Marius thought, shaking his head.

As time passed, however, the couple found it easier to visit the memorials for their friends. There were no true graves, as only Combeferre had been retrieved, and his body had been taken by his family. Still, the four remaining ABC boys had put together their money to purchase engraved headstones in their friends' memories, stones that marked nothing but meant everything. Now, there was a place to visit and remember. Eponine went every week, and sometimes ran into one of the others.

"It feels so strange, to be leaving them here," Eponine said. Her statement could have been referring to anyone, but Marius knew who she was talking about. Then, she turned and asked, "Can we go visit the Gorbeau place, one more time?"

The young man nodded grimly. She wanted to go see Azelma's grave, too. As the Gorbeau place was so far away from their usual haunts, the couple had only traveled there about once a month, so when they did so it was of utmost importance.

As Marius watched Eponine gaze out at the city, he noticed something around her neck. It was a necklace consisting of a gold chain and a dazzling charm with a pink stone in the middle. "Where did that come from?" he asked, pointing to the piece of jewelry.

"Oh," said Eponine, an eager smile on her face that suggested that she had been waiting for him to ask. "It was Cosette's. She gave it to me the last time I went to visit her."

Marius felt a wave of joy that his wife and Cosette were getting along. He knew that they would in the end; Cosette was not one to hold grudges. In fact, she had been going out to dinner with the entourage regularly, ever since she had returned from England; at least, after a lengthy talk between Marius and M. Fauchelevent.

Unbeknownst to Cosette's father, and supposedly to all others who knew, Cosette was quite taken with Courfeyrac, the latter of whom did not mind their friendship one bit. At first, Marius thought of giving her a warning against Nicolas Courfeyrac's ways, but it appeared as though the boy had settled down some in the past year, particularly after seen that it was possible to feel affection towards a girl who did not flaunt her bosom as though it was in a museum.

"I do hope things will turn out nicely for Cosette," Eponine had said once after returning from the girl's house, and Marius could not agree more.

So much had changed in the past year of his life, Marius reflected. A year and a half ago, he had been stark poor, living in the Gorbeau tenement, obviously unaware of the girl and her sister living next door to him, and secretly courting a young girl with whom things would never quite work out. Now, he had a loving wife, a child on the way, and a new home in the beautiful country to look forward to. Of course, he had lost so much, what with the revolution, but in the end, the sappy truth was that his friends would always be with him, no matter how far out of Paris he was.

As the fiacre hit a rough spot in the road, Eponine slid into her husband's shoulder. "Salut," she said jokingly to him, and he laughed, holding her closer. And as he looked into her chocolate eyes, and fingered her long brown hair, Marius could not help but think, things could not be better.

And as Eponine would say later that night as the carriage rolled on underneath the light of the moon: "I have the funniest feeling that all this time - all during the hardest parts, back when my sister died and when you had no home, I mean - I have the funniest feeling that we've just been falling up, not down. Up to where we are supposed to be. Up to here, right here. Because now, after all that, things are finally alright, and still getting better."

And Marius, with tears in his eyes, leaned over and kissed her on the lips, and had to agree.

I searched through my pockets one day,

Looking for a twenty,

To buy a ticket down the train tracks,

Just a few stops too many to walk.

And as I overturned all the cushions and ransacked the closet

And forgot to pray,

I looked to the door, and saw you standing there.

You had no money, but you had two hands, and two eyes,

And you helped me look.

It took us all day and all night,

But by morning we found a fifty

At the bottom of a drawer,

Where I would never have bothered to look before.

And with that fifty we bought two tickets for the train

And went as far as we could on the ten dollars left.

And now we are together,

With all we have been given,

And for now, that is just enough.

C'est fini.

As sad as I am to finish this one, I have several others already being worked on. I just have to figure out which one to go with for now. So hopefully you guys will enjoy reading those too.

For the last time,

Love, Giz.