Shadows

1

“Are we there yet?”

Cosette turned down her music and looked over at her brother, her eyes narrowing in annoyance at his antics. “What?”

Enjolras looked back over, his head tilted to the side as he looked up at her out of the corners of his eyes. “You heard me.” He turned the radio back up and began to lip sync the words to the song, bobbing his head and dancing in his seat as the music played. Cosette let out a huffy breath before turning her eyes back towards the road and away from the impatient man as he started to tap at the car clock.

It only took a minute or so before the tapping was too much for Cosette to bear, and she darted her hand out, smacking Enjolras away from the glowing red pixels. “Stop. Hitting. The. Clock,” she ground out as the boy reached forward again. “We’ll get there when we get there.”

Enjolras sat back and groaned. “Seriously, Cosette, we’ve been driving for hours. I’m sick of this God-damned vehicle.”

Cosette shrugged. “Tough luck. You know, you could always just walk, if you’re so sick of the car.” She gestured to the miles and miles of cornfields on either side of them as they blurred past. “Besides, it has only been three hours. We’re nearly there, already.” She brushed a strand of blonde hair away from her face. “It’s only an hour more, at most.”

Enjolras groaned again before slouching back in his seat and pulling out his phone, flipping it around in his hand before unlocking it and staring at the screen. “At least pull over somewhere and let me get some food,” he finally said after a few moments. Cosette glanced over at him, but didn’t say anything. He arched over the center console and leaned his head against the blonde’s shoulder, his dark blue eyes widening in a pleading expression. “Please, Cosette? I’m starving.”

“You ate like a hour ago!”

“I’m a growing boy. I need to eat often.”

Cosette snorted. “Enj, you’re twenty-two. You aren’t growing anymo—”A loud rumbling sound from her right cut off Cosette’s sentence. Enjolras gave her a pointed look before looking back down at his stomach, then back at her. She sighed. “All right, fine. McDonald’s good?” She nodded towards the exit sign, where an image of the trademark Golden Arches sat staring at the duo. Enjolras nodded enthusiastically. Cosette turned her car and followed the ramp for a quarter mile until her bright green Ford Focus was nestled in between a cherry Kia Soul and a black Jeep Wrangler. She put the car in park and sat back.

Enjolras unbuckled and began pushing open the door before he paused, turning back to look at his older sister. “Aren’t you coming with?”

Cosette shook her head before opening the glove box and pulling out a Ziploc bag filled with chocolate covered raisons and chocolate covered pomegranate seeds. “I’ve got it covered.” She opened the bag and popped a few in her mouth to prove her point.

Enjolras shrugged. “Suit yourself. I’ll be right back.”

Cosette watched her brother leave, his curly light brown hair falling to the side as the wind blew through it. He turned back around and gave a theatrical wave before throwing open the door and stepping in. Cosette chuckled, shaking her head. Her brother could be so bizarre sometimes, especially when he was trapped in an enclosed space for more than five minutes. She had known what she had gotten into when they had decided to sell Enjolras’s car and just use Cosette’s to get from Springfield, Illinois to their new home in St. Louis, Missouri, but she hadn’t expected Enjolras to continue to be so theatrical after the first hour.

The blonde turned up her music as her favorite Tegan and Sara song, “The Con,” started to play. She sang along to the song, watching the door impatiently as she waited for her brother to come back outside. Once the song was over, she sang along to another. And another. She flipped open her phone to see that Enjolras had been gone for nearly fifteen minutes, and there did not seem to be any sign of him coming back outside. She groaned as she unbuckled and got out of the car, the wind immediately rushing to her as it tried to force her to the ground. She endured it, though, and staggered to the glass door.

Enjolras was standing at the counter, a bag of food in his right hand as he leaned against the marble with his left forearm. He was holding a pen, alternating between twirling it between his fingers and nibbling on the tip of the cap. He was staring flirtatiously at a bright red employee, while the boy’s eyes were locked firmly on Enjolras’s mouth. The boy’s eyes were wide and his lips were ajar at the show. Cosette tried her hardest not to laugh as she approached the duo, the employee making a strangled sound as Enjolras’s tongue darted out to run over the cap.

Cosette reached the counter and placed her hand on Enjolras’s arm, pulling his attention away from the young man. His eyes screamed Thanks for interrupting, little miss cock-block, but he forced a smile. “Cosette! How great to see you!”

Cosette smiled back cockily before turning her viridian eyes to Enjolras’s conquest. “Sorry to interrupt,” she glanced down at the nametag, “Frank, but my brother and I must get going.”

The boy nodded, his face flushing a deep red in embarrassment. “Uhm, yeah, of course,” he stuttered, reaching up and ruffling the back of his hair uncomfortably. He let out a small smile at Enjolras before turning around and starting to get back to work.

“Hey, hold on,” Enjolras said, grabbing a napkin and opening his pen. He quickly scribbled some numbers on the napkin before pushing it Frank’s way. “In case you ever want to . . . ” he trailed off, winking. Frank blushed harder, and he said nothing, simply making another strangled sound.

Cosette grabbed Enjolras’s arm again and began to pull him towards the door. “Come on, horn dog,” she said, pushing the man outside and back into the Ford.

Cosette turned her music back up while Enjolras ate as they got back on the road. The food occupied Enjolras, and he was quiet and calm for a few moments until he had eaten everything. He stuffed the wrapper of the burger in his McDonald’s bag as a mischievous glance came over his eyes. He turned to his sister and stuck his tongue out as he murmured, “Are we there yet?”

***

An hour and a half later, Cosette turned into the neighborhood and made her way down the street towards Enjolras and her new home. She pulled her car into the driveway next to the moving truck before she glanced over at her brother, chuckling softly at the sight that she saw. Enjolras had gone quiet twenty or so minutes ago, but Cosette had been so focused on figuring out how to get home that she hadn’t bothered to look to see why her brother was so quiet.

The boy had apparently fallen asleep, his head tilted back and his mouth wide open as he slept. Cosette backed the car out of the driveway and down the street a ways before pressing as hard as she could on the pedal, and then on the break. The car lurched forward, and Enjolras was jolted awake. He looked around in a panic, his eyes wide. Cosette laughed. “We’re home, idiot.”

Enjolras groaned and rubbed at his eyes to wake up before he leaned forward and looked around at all of the houses. “Uhm . . . which one?”

Cosette laughed again before backing the car up again and pulling into the driveway of a modest two-story home. It had light-blue shingles and a dark-gray roof, and the front yard was landscaped with several different styles of shrubberies, as well as a small man-made pond and a dark red brick patio. Enjolras whistled as he looked at the house. “Nice job, sis,” he said, nodding in approval.

Enjolras and Cosette stepped out onto the concrete and looked up at the house before moving back and opening the rear doors of the car to pull out some of the moving boxes. Enjolras began to stack the boxes three high in his arms, while Cosette decided to grab only the boxes labeled “T.” She grabbed one with “bedding” plastered across the top in sapphire-blue ink. She carried the box into the house and up the steps, wandering down the hall until she found what she assumed was the master bedroom. “I call the master!” she shouted down as she heard Enjolras’s heavy breathing on the steps. She did not wait for an answer before walking in and dropping her box on the mattress that the movers had already brought in from the van.

Cosette sat down next to the box and looked around at her room. It was reasonably large, with olive-green walls and a dark oak wooden floor. The ceiling was arched, and there was a large skylight above Cosette’s bed, which could be covered by hitting a button net to the bed. The room was bare other than Cosette’s mattress and the bed frame, but a simple call down to the movers furnished the room with Cosette’s armoire and two of her bookcases. She smiled as she looked around.

“Cosette! Come carry something else in!”

The blonde moved over to the window. She glanced out, chuckling when she saw Enjolras staring up, his eyes narrowed as he held another stack of boxes in his arms. He tilted his head back towards the car when he noticed her looking down. She nodded at him before leaving the room and heading outside. “Took you long enough,” Enjolras muttered as she passed him to the car. “Not like we only have one box left of the ten that we crammed into this car.”

Cosette chuckled again and shook her head. She picked up the final box and shifted it so that it was propped against her side as she followed behind the movers, who were carrying in Enjolras’s worn gray plaid couch. “This is the last thing we have to bring in, miss,” one of the men said, tipping his head back at Cosette as she crossed into the house. “We put the beds in the first two rooms, and your desks and the rest of your bookshelves are in the third room. We also placed your dining set in the dining room. I hope that is all right.”

“That it perfect,” Cosette responded, smiling at the man. He smiled back before calling to his men that they were leaving. Cosette watched them get into the van and pull away before she put the box on the couch. Enjolras came in from the kitchen and plopped down on the couch with a groan.

“Thanks for all the help, sis,” he commented, rolling his eyes. He leaned forward in his seat and grabbed at the neckline of his Supernatural tee shirt, pulling at it to try and get some air. “Could this room get any hotter?”

Cosette had to agree, as she herself was sweating simply from being inside the stuffy house. She had barely moved any boxes, and if she was warm, then Enjolras had to be burning up. She walked over to the window and propped it open, immediately feeling more comfortable as the breeze swept through and cooled the room. Enjolras smiled in appreciation. “I am going to go and figure out how to turn the air conditioning on then I’ll set up the office, if you want to set up the living room?”

Cosette nodded. “Works for me.”

Enjolras stood up and gave his sister a mock-salute before leaving the room with an air of authority. He returned a moment later, a look of confusion on his face. “Uhm . . .  where is the air conditioning located again?”

Cosette thought about it for a moment, trying to remember where the realtor had said it was when she came to look at the house. “I think that it is downstairs,” she said after a moment, shrugging. Enjolras nodded before looking around in confusion again. Cosette laughed before pointing to a door next to the kitchen. Enjolras clicked his tongue playfully and gave her a double thumbs up before sprinting down the steps, his size-thirteen shoes slamming down on every other step.

Cosette shook her head and got to work on unpacking the living room. Fortunately, there was not very much that the blonde needed to do: once the lights were set up and the cable was plugged in to the television, she was pretty much done. All that was left to do was to decorate, and Enjolras and she would do that over the coming weeks, as they had either sold or given away most of their furniture so that they would have more money for the house. 

Cosette made her way to the kitchen in search of more of the boxes for her room. Sure enough, there were four more sitting on the kitchen table. One by one, she took the boxes up to her room. Once they were all brought up, she began to pull everything out and put them in her the rightful place: her clothes in her closet and armoire, her books alphabetized across the two bookshelves, and her bed neatly made, hospital corners included.

Cosette smiled as she looked around the room. She had done a rather nice job of picking out the house, hadn’t she? She had always expected that her parents would be by her side when she purchased her first house, but since they were gone, Cosette had had to enlist the help of her older sister, Mia Rose, to help her maneuver the maze that was home-ownership. She shook away the thought as she walked over to her closet, pulling out a dark-blue Nike sports bra and a pair of lilac compression shorts. She slipped them on and puller her hair back into a braid before grabbing her phone and arm-band phone holder.

“I am going out for a run!” Cosette called to Enjolras as she moved to lean over the balcony to the living room below. Enjolras looked up and nodded before going back to texting idly on the sofa. She quickly made her way down the steps to the vast new world outside.

***

Seven miles later, Cosette slowed to a jog as she approached the house, her calves burning and her breath coming out in pants. She was drenched in sweat and her entire body was tingling, but she felt better than she had in weeks. It was nice to be able to explore her part of the town without fear or memories creeping around every corner. She pulled off her toe shoes at the door, leaving them outside to dry from when she had tripped off the curb and into a puddle.

She opened the door and walked inside, greeting Enjolras as she did so. The man was laying on the couch, his laptop resting on his bent legs as he watched some movie on Netflix, which was hooked up to the television from his Xbox. Cosette stopped at the foot of the steps to glance at the television. She laughed when she saw what Enjolras was watching.

“Emperor’s New Groove? Really?”

Enjolras turned his head and looked at his sister. “What? It’s a great movie.”

“All right, Enj. Whatever you say.”

Cosette started to laugh again as she reached the crest of the staircase. She could hear Enjolras quoting the movie as the scenes came on, his voice enthusiastic as he spoke. “‘I will turn him into a flea, a harmless little flea. Then I will put that flea into a box, and then I will put that box into another box, and then I’ll mail that box to myself, and when it arrives, ha! I will smash it with a hammer!’”

Cosette shook her head as Enjolras’s voice trailed off. She made her way to her room, clearing a spot on the floor to stretch and do her pushups and sit-ups. She had just sat down and begun to stretch when she thought that she saw something out of the corner of her eye. A woman. When the blonde turned, however, she found herself staring at the wall. Shrugging it off, Cosette turned back to her stretching. Must just be shadows, she thought to herself. She pushed herself up and walked over to her closet, pulling out a box that she did not unpack to grab one of her towels and her travel-sized shampoo and conditioner before she made her way to the bathroom.

***

Twenty minutes later, Cosette stepped out of the shower. The room was filled with so much steam that she could scarcely see her own hand in front of her face. As she stepped out, she looked at the mirror, sighing. The steam had gotten to the mirror, and the glass was white. That is, except for a section towards the left edge, where a large dark section was rippling in the water vapor.

“The hell . . . ?” Cosette murmured, narrowing her eyes. She moved closer to the mirror, taking the edge of her towel and rubbing the spot. The mirror came back clear. Cosette eyed it for a moment more before shaking her head, a feeling of dread bubbling in her belly. Two glimpses of something weird in one day? She thought that she had gotten over all the hallucinations when she had cleaned up her act when she was nineteen, but perhaps some had lingered over. She shrugged and dried her hair before pulling the damp strands up into a messy bun, slipping into a pair of shorts and a tee. 

A decadent smell filled Cosette’s nostrils as she stepped out of the bathroom. She followed the smell back to the living room, where Enjolras was sitting on the couch with a container of Chinese food. Enjolras sat up straighter on the sofa as he slurped a Lo Mien noodle. He nodded to a brown paper bag on the table. “I got you tofu-vegetable and rice,” he said, taking another bite of his supper. “I ordered it while you were on your run.”

Cosette smiled at him, walking over and picking her food out of the bag before sitting down on the sofa. “Thank you.” Enjolras nodded, turning his attention back to his food. He reached over onto the table and picked up the Xbox controller. He tossed it to Cosette before flicking his head towards the television. The blonde got the message, and she opened Netflix to see if there was anything good that they could watch. She let out a huffy breath when she could not find anything before putting her food down on the table and heading back up to her room.

She returned a moment later, a stack of DVDs in her hand. She handed the stack to Enjolras before taking her spot back on the sofa. Enjolras flipped through the movies before grinning and holding one up, turning it so that the cover faced in Cosette’s direction. “This one. Definitely.”

A little over an hour later, when Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride had reached an emotional moment, Cosette nuzzled into her pillow as she blinked back tears. She sniffed, startling when an echoing sniff reached her hearing from the back of the room. She jerked her head towards the sound, but there was nothing there. She glanced over at Enjolras, but the boy was still staring at the television screen. Guess it is just me then.

Cosette shook her head and turned back towards the movie for a moment until she heard the sniffing sound again. This time, however, Enjolras reached to the controller on the table to pause the movie. His eyes narrowed as he turned around. “Did you hear something?” His eyes flickered to Cosette. She nodded as the sound echoed again, this time sounding more like someone crying that in did sniffing.

Cosette hesitated for a moment before standing and walking towards the sound. Enjolras stood up and followed her, moving to stand in front of his sister in protection. Cosette grabbed Enjolras’s hand as she said, “It’s probably just the air conditioning or something. You know, new house, new sounds.”

“Yeah,” Enjolras agreed, his voice wary. “How about . . . how about we go and check the unit then?”

Cosette nodded, her stomach uneasy. She thought back to the shape that she had seen in the mirror earlier, as well as the woman she thought she had seen watching her when she was in her room, stretching. Could someone be in the house with them?

Cosette gripped Enjolras’s hand tighter as they descended the stairs. Once they reached the bottom, Enjolras pulled the string to illuminate the basement before putting his arm around his sister comfortingly. He lead his sister to the unit, the nervous feeling in both of their guts lessening slightly as they listened to the unit buzz. “Must have been this then, right?” Enjolras finally said, his voice strangled. It was clear that he did not believe what he was saying, but it was better than the alternative. Cosette nodded as well, biting her lip.

“Yeah, must have been.”

The duo stared at the air conditioning unit for a moment before going back upstairs quietly, both still a bit nervous about what had happened. Enjolras sat back down on the couch, but Cosette stayed standing. “Do you feel like finishing the movie?” the curly haired boy asked, looking over at his sister.

Cosette thought about it for a moment before glancing down at her watch to see it was 21:58. She shook her head. “I think I am just going to go to bed, but you are more than welcome to finish it if you’d like.” She walked over and kissed Enjolras on the cheek. “Goodnight, Enj.”

“Night, sis.” Cosette walked over to the steps and made her way up to her bedroom. She quickly set an alarm on her phone for the next morning before climbing into bed and putting her cell on to charge. She sent a text to her sister. Hey, Mia Rose. Just wanted to let you know that Enj and I made it to STL all right. The drive was a bit long, but we got through it. I will call you tomorrow. I love you, and miss you already.

Cosette switched her phone to silent and moved placed it on her bedside table before turning over and going to sleep.

2

Cosette awoke the next morning to the shrieking of her phone, the alarm going off at such a strong intensity that it vibrated off the nightstand and fell to the floor with a crash. The blonde groaned and rolled over, reaching to the Android to kill the shrill sound. She rolled out of bed and staggered to her closet to grab her sports bra, running shorts, and shoes before she had time to talk herself out of it.

Once Cosette was dressed and had made her way downstairs, she quickly left the house and immediately set off on the same path that she had taken the day before. Her calves and hamstrings were tense as they struggled to adjust to being vertical, but she pushed through it, and soon Cosette found herself wide awake, her normal pace of 8:23 speeding past and allowing her to max out her speed at 7:15 per mile. By the time mile six was coming to a close, Cosette was nearly ten minutes under her normal run time, with energy left to spare.

Twenty-five minutes later found Cosette emerging from the shower, her body warm and energized from the intensity of the run. She smiled as she got dressed, her runner’s high still filling every cell with contentment. Her growling stomach was the only thing that pulled her away from her serenity.

I need to go grocery shopping, Cosette reminded herself as she walked downstairs. A quick glance into the kitchen reminded the girl that her grumbling belly wasn’t the only thing in the house that was empty. She grabbed her wallet and made her way to her car as she pulled up MapQuest on her phone. She followed the route until she pulled into the parking lot, the bright red “24 hours!” sign on the side of the grocery store highlighting her path and bathing her vehicle in a soft red glow. She slid into a spot and got out.

As Cosette walked into the store, she mentally made a list of everything that she needed to buy. Pancake mix, chocolate chips, and blueberries were at the top of her list, but milk, eggs, flour, and sugar popped into her mind, as well. She maneuvered her way through the aisles and grabbed everything she could think of before heading to the register.

“Hello,” Cosette greeted, smiling at the young boy who stood there. He glared at her, his lips pursed in annoyance at being awake at such an early hour. Cosette made a face and shook her head. “Alright. Long night?”

The boy rolled his eyes before holding up Cosette’s groceries. “Paper or plastic?”

***

The smell of pancakes filled the air as Cosette poured the first quarter of the batter on the griddle, the liquid bubbling and gurgling as it hit the steaming metal. She stared at it for a moment before stepping back and glancing into the living room to see if her brother had awoken, as he was ought to do whenever Cosette was preparing his favorite foods. When he failed to appear, Cosette shrugged before returning to the griddle and flipping the cakes.

She had just begun to pour the second batch when she heard lazy footsteps on the stairs. “Knew it,” Cosette mumbled, grinning as she shook her head. She looked over to the first batch before pushing the plate over towards the coffee pot as Enjolras walked into the room. “Good morning,” she said, glancing back to look at her brother.

Enjolras rubbed his eyes before lifting a hand slowly and groaning. Cosette laughed and turned back to flip the second batch.

“I made coffee, if you want some.”

Enjolras nodded before pulling down two mugs and pouring coffee for the both of them. He walked over and nudged her. “Here you go,” he said, sliding the coffee over slowly. “I made it how you like it.”

“Two sugars?”

“Yeah.”

“Thank you.” Cosette smiled at her brother before flipping the second batch onto the plate with the first one. Enjolras grabbed the plate and made his way to the table before returning and grabbing two smaller plates from the cabinet. He placed a few on each plate before sitting down and digging in to the meal.

Cosette finished the final batch before moving to the table and taking a few bites of her own, signing in contentment when the first chocolate-coated blueberry exploded on her taste buds. She took another bite of the buttery sweetness before asking, “What are your plans for the day?”

Enjolras took a gulp of coffee before answering. “Actually, I have an interview at two. Nothing before that, though.”

Cosette’s eyes widened. “Oh! Congratulations! I didn’t know that you had applied anywhere yet.”

Enjolras nodded. “Yeah. I mailed a couple of different places my application when we were still considering moving out here. One of them called me yesterday while you were out running, and today was the earliest they could see me.” He smiled. “It would actually be a pretty good gig if I got it, anyway.”

“Where is it at?”

“It’s—” Enjolras paused. “Don’t be mad, okay? But it’s a job as a bartender.”

Cosette nodded slowly. “Oh.” She shook her head, trying to clear away the thoughts of her parent’s accident that sprung to her mind. “It’s all right. What bar is it at?”

Enjolras thought about it for a moment before answering. “Uhm . . . I think it was called Attitudes? Or something like that? I can’t remember the name exactly, but I know that it is the best gay bar in St. Louis. We should go sometime.”

Cosette shrugged. “All right. That sounds like it could be fun. You said your interview is at two?” Enjolras nodded. Cosette glanced at her watch. “Well, it’s ten now. Do you want to go to Wal-Mart with me? We need napkins, soap, things like that.”

“Yeah, sure. I don’t have anything else to do today.” He stood up, gesturing to the dishes. “Do you want me to take care of this or is it cool if I go and take a shower?”

Cosette waved her hand in her brother’s general direction. She took another sip of her coffee. “Go on ahead. I’m not in any rush.”

Enjolras smiled and left the room to head upstairs. Cosette watched him for a moment before standing up as well. She rinsed off the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.

Once the appliance was closed, Cosette made her way upstairs into the office, wincing when her tight calf stretched too far in her leap from the second-to-top step to the floor. She leaned down and rubbed at the injury before walking to the desk and sitting down. She pulled out a notebook from the second drawer and opened it to the first page, pulling out a pen from the cup on the desk. “Let’s see . . . what all do we need?” she muttered, tapping the pen against the side of her lip as she made the list:

     Dishwasher soap

     Trash bags

     Hand Soap

Body Wash

     Shower curtain

     Toilet wand / cleaner

     Shampoo / Conditioner / Razors

     Laundry Detergent

     Toothbrushes / Toothpaste / Floss

     Lamp for Bedroom

     Napkins

     Paintings? Wall Art?

Cosette shrugged as she held the list in front of her and read through it a second time, hoping that she had everything that they needed. She really did not want to have to brave Wal-Mart a second time. She couldn’t stand that store sometimes. Granted, she was sure that the Wally-world here was much better than the one that Enjolras and she had gone into during their drive to St. Louis, but she couldn’t be certain. Who knows, she thought, chuckling. Maybe Enj and I will be able to play “count-the-camo” again.

Cosette turned back to her list, adding a few more items, before she jumped at a sudden shout from Enjolras. “You okay?” she called, leaning back to glance into the hall towards Enjolras’s closed door. When there was no response, the blonde stood and walked to the doorway. “Enj?”

“I’m fine!” Enjolras called back after a moment. “I thought I saw something, but I guess that it was just my shadow!” He exited his room and made his way down the hallway in dark jeans and a red Southeast Missouri State University tee shirt. He was rubbing his hair dry with a dark blue towel and humming softly to himself as he walked. Cosette smiled at him and gave him a wave. Enjolras rolled his eyes, but smiled back nonetheless. “Ready to go?”

***

“Is that everything?” Enjolras asked, turning Cosette’s list around in his hand as he struggled to read the cramped cursive. He squinted, focusing his eyes on the last item on the list. After a moment, he gave up, handing the list back over to the blonde. “What does this say?”

Cosette took the list, quickly glancing to the left of Enjolras’s thumb. “Brownie mix.”

Enjolras took the list back and squinted his eyes again as he tried to connect his sister’s words with the ink. “Allright,” he drawled, shaking his head. He tossed the list into the cart before looking up, casting his eyes over the aisle labels. Cosette nudged him with her hip before pointing to aisle ten, where “baking supplies” was the first item on the overhang. Enjolras nodded before following his sister until they reached the aisle. “On second thought, I am going to go and hunt down a pie. Cherry sound good?” Cosette nodded. “Roger that. Want to just meet me in bakery?”

“Yeah. Let me get the brownie mix and then I will head over.” Cosette walked into the aisle as Enjolras headed the opposite direction. She quickly glanced over the different mixes until she found one that looked the most decadent, grabbing it and throwing it in the cart before she went over to meet her brother. The blonde found the boy staring back and forth between his hands, a look of contemplation on his face.

Enjolras placed one of the pies back on the shelf before pushing a hand through his curls. He picked the pie back up before looking at his sister. He held them both out. “Which one?”

Cosette looked at both of the pies before pointing to the one in his left hand. Enjolras nodded and placed it in the cart before shrugging and placing the other pie in as well. “What did you need my help for then?” Cosette asked, rolling her eyes. Enjolras shrugged again.

The siblings made their way to the checkout lanes. Fortunately, the store was not busy, and Enjolras and Cosette found themselves walking to the car only a few minutes after they had left the bakery. 

Enjolras glanced down at his watch as he opened the passenger door. He slid in and leaned back, propping his foot up against the dashboard. Cosette got in as well, and turned on the car before turning on the radio and pulling out of the parking lot.

“Ready for your interview?” Cosette asked as she pulled back onto the road. She glanced at the car’s clock, noticing that there was only an hour and a half before Enjolras had to be at Attitudes. When there was no response, Cosette glanced over at her brother to see him staring out the window, an odd expression on his face. She reached over and shook the boy’s knee lightly. “Hey kid, what’s up?”

Enjolras turned his head back over before looking back out the window, remaining silent. Cosette watched him for another moment before shrugging and turning her attention back to the road. The rest of the drive was silent until Cosette had begun to turn into their street, when Enjolras finally said, “I really miss them, Cosette.”

Cosette looked over at her brother, a wave of sadness coming over her. “I know you do, Enj. I do, too.” She pulled into the driveway, turning off the car and sitting in silence for a moment before glancing back over to her brother just in time to see a lone tear run down his cheek. “Oh, Enj,” Cosette said, turning to pull her brother into a hug as best she could over the center console. He quickly turned in her arms, pressing his face into his sister’s neck as he let out a shaky breath.

“I just . . . ”he began, trailing off. He took another deep breath before starting again, pulling out of the hug to stare forward through the front window. “First, Mom and Dad passed away, and then Tommy left . . . ” He shook his head, scoffing. “I couldn’t even finish my undergrad degree. Why did I ever think that I would make it through grad school?”

“You can go back, though,” Cosette reminded him softly, squeezing his leg again. “We have more than enough left of Mom and Dad’s savings to put you through your last year of undergrad and all of graduate school.”

Enjolras shook his head. “I don’t know if I even want to go back. After Mom and Dad died, I just stopped caring, you know?”

“Yeah, I know.” Cosette turned to look out the window, struggling to swallow around the lump in her throat. She had lost so much in the split second that that intoxicated teenager forced Michael Fauchelevent’s car into that pole, and no matter how hard she tried to keep all thoughts of the accident from her mind, she couldn’t help but feel her heart shatter all over again at the memory. She bit her lip as tears pricked at the corner of her eyes, curling the fingers of her right hand into a fist.

This time it was Enjolras who did the comforting. He reached over and brushed a strand of his sister’s hair back before hugging her again. “I’m sorry for bringing it up, Cosette. I know how much harder it was for you when they died.”

Cosette nodded before shaking her head. “Let’s not talk about this anymore, okay? Please? Let’s just get inside and you can get ready for your interview.”

“All right, sis.”

Enjolras and Cosette got out of the car and went into the house. Enjolras made his way upstairs while Cosette collapsed on the couch, her head in her hands as she fought to calm herself back down. After a few moments of deep breathing, she succeeded, and sat up straight before turning and collapsing on her side. She grabbed the remote and began to flip through the channels, finally settling on a rerun of Torchwood on BBC One.

The episode was drawing to a close when Enjolras came back down the steps in a pair of black slacks and a mulberry button-down, his curls slightly more calm than normal. However, based off the habit that the boy had of running his fingers through his hair when he was anxious, Cosette was sure that his hair would look like it had never be introduced to a comb by the time that the interview actually started. “You look nice,” Cosette said, turning to glance at her brother.

“Thanks,” Enjolras responded, reaching onto the table by the door to grab Cosette’s car keys.

The blonde clicked on her phone screen to check the time, surprised to see how early her brother was. “Heading out already? You have a little over an hour until you have to be there,” she reminded him.

Enjolras nodded. “Well, I don’t know where exactly I’m going, and I don’t want to wait until the last minute to leave, only to get lost and miss the interview.”

Cosette tilted the remote in the boy’s direction, nodding. “True. Well, good luck then!” She smiled.

Enjolras smiled back. “Thanks, sis. I’ll make sure to tell you how it goes.”

“Like you have a choice.”

Cosette settled back into the couch as Enjolras left. She pulled out her laptop from under the bed, opening both Facebook and Tumblr. She alternated between the tabs for about an hour before groaning, boredom hitting her hard. She pulled out her phone, scrolling through the contacts until she had located Mia Rose’s name in her contact list.

After three rings, Cosette heard the phone click as her sister answered. “Hello?”

“Hey, Mia Rose. It’s me.” Cosette swung her hips around, leaning back against the back of the sofa and propping her legs up on the coffee table.

“Hey! I was just thinking about you. Jackson’s babysitter watched some documentary about mermaids on Animal Planet with him last night, and he’s spent the last four hours telling all of his stuffed animals about how he is going to live in the ocean and make friends with one.” She chuckled. “It reminded me of that phase you went through when you were six. Remember? When you were convinced that faeries were alive and stealing your candy from your ‘secret stash’?”

Cosette laughed at the memory. “Yeah, I remember. It wasn’t until we realized that George Washington was covered in melted chocolate did we figure out that he had been the one stealing everything.”

“You were too young to remember much about good ol’ George, but that ferret was more trouble than he was worth. He used to steal Enjolras’s diapers and your pull-ups from the changing table and make a nest in the kitchen cabinet. Took Dad’s slippers and my hoodies in there, as well.”

“Well, that’s why we got rid of him. Crazy thief.” Cosette got up off the couch and headed to the kitchen, popping open a grape soda and making a ham-and-cheese sandwich. She glanced down at the date on her watch before asking, “Hey, Meaghan’s doctor appointment was this morning, right? How did that go?”

“No, we got rid of that stupid ferret because he ate the ring Dad was giving Mom for their anniversary, remember?” Mia Rose laughed softly before answering the question. “It went all right. Apparently Meaghan has strep throat, which is interesting, seeing as I took her in for a twisted wrist.” Cosette could hear the eye roll in her sister’s voice. Mia Rose sighed. “Well, I don’t know why I expected anything different. Meaghan seems to be sick with something new every time I look at her. Anyway, enough of that. How was the drive down?” 

“Longer than I thought it would be. Enjolras drove me crazy. I forgot how impatient he gets when you put him in an enclosed space.”

“Speaking of Enj, what’s he up to today? I can’t hear his music blaring in the background, so I am assuming that he isn’t home.”

“Actually, he’s at an interview.” Cosette took another bite of her sandwich and took a large gulp of her soda before sitting up straighter as she heard a car door slam. “Hey, can I call you back later? I think he just got home, and I want to hear all about how it went.” She went  to the window and glanced out, letting out a small smile when she spotted her car in the driveway.

“That’s fine! Just give me a call tomorrow. I will be too busy today to talk much. I love you, Cosette.”

“Love you, too.” Cosette clicked off her phone before tossing it onto the sofa, glancing back when she heard it bounce off the back cushion and hit the floor. She picked it back up and placed it on the coffee table before standing up and heading towards the front door. She opened it and let out a big smile when Enjolras danced up the driveway, flashing his sister a thumbs up.

“I got the job!” Enjolras said, coming up the steps and pulling his sister into a hug. “I start in a couple of days.” He pulled back and grabbed her sister’s hand, dragging her into the house and into the living room. They sat down on the sofa as Enjolras started to laugh. “So, I have something to tell you.”

Cosette scooted back on the cushions, pulling her legs up under herself and sitting cross-legged. “Okay. What’s up?”

Enjolras smirked before throwing the pillow at his sister. “I learned something at my interview today.” He trailed off, raising his eyebrows suggestively. Cosette snorted and shook her head before gesturing with her hand for the boy to continue.

When Enjolras still didn’t say anything, Cosette rolled her eyes. “Are you going to make me beg for it, Enj? Just tell me whatever you learned!”

Enjolras leaned forward in his seat in the adjacent chair and placed his elbows on his knees, cocking one of his fingers towards Cosette. She leaned forward, once again rolling her eyes. Enjolras smirked before saying, “That interviewer is reallygood at blowjobs.” He winked.

Cosette sat back up, a look of disgust on her face. “Ew, gross! Way too much information!”

Enjolras laughed and fell back in his chair, his arms bent and his fingers splayed, his palms facing upwards. “Hey, what can I say? The men love me!” Cosette shook her head and squinted her eyes, trying to rid herself of the image of her brother with this mystery man.

A creaking sound from upstairs pulled Cosette’s mind back to reality. They both looked upwards before looking back at one another. “Did you hear that?” she asked, looking back up when another creak reached her ears.

Enjolras nodded before turning his eyes up as well. Cosette glanced at her brother. He was worrying his lower lip between his teeth and the sides of his eyes were wrinkled in concern. He kept his eyes on the ceiling as he said, “I am going to go upstairs and see if anyone is up there, all right? Just stay here.”

Cosette shook her head. “No, Enj. I’m not going to stay down here, alone, if someone is in the house. I’d rather stay with you.”

The boy shrugged before running a hand through his curls, his eyes wide and uncertain as he thought about what could happen to his sister if someone in the house got her. He sighed. “All right, fine. I guess that’s a better idea than you being alone here.” He stood and gestured with his head towards the steps. “I have a baseball bat in the garage. Let’s grab that then head upstairs, okay? Stay close to me.”

Cosette nodded and stepped close to her brother, grabbing onto his shoulder as he walked towards the garage. Once they had the bat, Enjolras hoisted it so that his left hand gripped the base, his right hand catching the upper half as he tossed it back and forth in an attempt to be threatening. As the duo ascended the stairs, however, Enjolras moved to grab his sister’s hand. “Stay close,” he whispered again, tightening the grip of both his sister and the bat.

Once Enjolras and Cosette reached the upper level, they paused and listened for the footsteps. Cosette stood up straight when she heard the creaking sound again, this time coming from the direction of her bedroom. Her eyes widened. “Enj,” she whispered, gripping Enjolras’s hand and digging her nails into his palm, “I think they are in my room.”

Enjolras let out an anxious breath. “Fuck,” he murmured. He stopped moving and turned towards Cosette. “Please stay here?”

“No, Enj. I am not staying here.”

The boy sighed before nodded reluctantly. He turned back around and held the bat out in front of him as he tip-toed towards the door. Cosette followed behind him, a sense of dread filling her stomach as she realized that her door was cracked. She could have sworn that she had shut the door, but maybe she had left it open the last time she was in her room.It didn’t necessarily mean that there was an intruder in the house, did it?

Enjolras glanced back to his sister a final time before taking a deep breath and pushing the door open. Cosette hid behind his shoulder, glancing into the sun-streaked room. Her eyes widened as she saw a young woman standing in the shadow of the armoire.

The woman was not looking in Cosette and Enjolras’s direction, but at the strangled cough that Enjolras let slip, she turned in their direction. She stared at them for a moment before her mouth dropped open in shock, her bright blue eyes wide in confusion. She sputtered for a moment before asking softly, “Can you see me?”

3

The woman took a step towards Enjolras and Cosette, only stopping when Enjolras held the baseball out in a threatening fashion. She held her hands up in defense before stepping back.

Cosette emerged from behind her brother, moving to the side when he held out a hand to block the blonde from going any further towards the shadows. “Why are you in our house?” she asked, putting a hand on her brother’s back.

The shadowed woman ignored the question, stepping back and looking out the window thoughtfully. “No one has been able to see me before you two.” She stepped back into the shadows before turning to face the siblings once again. “Why can you see me?”

Enjolras pushed Cosette back into the doorway before taking a few steps forward. “Listen, lady. This is our house. We won’t call the cops if you leave right now, but you have no right to be here.” He held out the bat before glancing back at his sister, turning to gesture out the door, Cosette behind his back once again. When the woman did not move, Enjolras nodded impatiently before gesturing his hand at the door again, his teeth clenched tight.

After a tense moment, the woman sighed before stepping out of the shadows. She had dark brown hair that reached a third of the way down her abdomen, and bright blue eyes that glowed even across the room. She was wearing a white-and-black layered tank top with navy blue track pants and a pair of well-loved black fuzzy socks. The closer that she moved towards Enjolras and Cosette, it was more and more clear the that something was seriously wrong with her physically. She had a deep red gash that ran across her forehead diagonally from her hairline to her ear, and every inch of visible skin was covered in dark purple and yellow bruises. “Look, I’m sorry, but I can’t leave.”

As Enjolras tightened his grip on the bat again, Cosette turned back to the woman. “Who are you?”

The woman pushed a strand of hair behind her ear before looking away. After a moment, she glanced back, saying, “My name is Eponine.”

“Last name?”

Eponine looked away again, staring at the wall. She crossed her arms and rocked back on her heels, her lips pursed in a tight line. Enjolras’s eyes flashed in anger as he glanced at his sister before looking back to the brunette. “My sister asked you a question,” he ground out, clenching his free fist. Eponine mumbled something, her voice too quiet for Cosette or Enjolras to understand what it was that she had said. Enjolras let out a huffed breath. “Repeat, please.”

Eponine cleared her throat uncomfortably before turned to look back over. “I said, I don’t know what my last name is. I can’t remember it.”

“What are you doing here?” Cosette asked again, repeating her question from earlier.  Eponine shrugged, looking away again.

Enjolras let out a growl before lunging forward to forcefully remove Eponine from the room. “Listen, lady—” He let out a surprised gasp as his hand fell through the girl’s arm as though she was made of smoke. He yanked his arm back and cradled it, looking down at it in confusion before looking back up to Eponine. “What the hell was that?!”

Eponine sighed, a look of sadness darkening her eyes. “And the normality has returned.” She wrapped her arms around herself and turned away. “Should have figured it was too good to be true.”

“What are you talking about?” Cosette asked, trying to step around her brother to get a better look at the apparition. Eponine tucked another strand behind her ear before gathering her hair and pulling it over her right shoulder, opening her mouth to speak.

Unfortunately, whatever Eponine was going to say was disregarded, as Enjolras grabbed his sister’s arm again and began to pull her out of the bedroom. “Listen, lady, I don’t know what you are, or if you’re really stuck here, but I need to talk to my sister, so fill us in your voodoo ghost shit later on, all right? We’re leaving.” He dropped his fingers down to Cosette’s hand and dragged her down the steps, not letting going until they were standing in the foyer.

“Enj, what—”

“Cosette, we need to talk about this. We don’t know anything about this girl. She could be really dangerous. We can’t stay here.” A wave of panic crashed through his eyes as he glanced back at the staircase.

Cosette studied her brother for a moment before giving in, her shoulders slumping in defeat. “All right, fine. Where do you suggest we go then?”

Enjolras shrugged. “I don’t know. Let’s just drive around until we find somewhere, all right? I just—I want to be anywhere but here.” Cosette nodded, and together they made their way out to the car.

Fifteen minutes later found the duo pulling into a parking lot next to a white building, with a large sign exclaiming “Fritz’s Frozen Custard” hanging above. From what Cosette could see, the building served as employee-only, as all the tables were scattered around the patio, and customers were lining up at a window in the front of the building to place their orders. She pulled the car into a spot before getting out and heading towards the window, reading through all the different types of frozen custard listed on the menu.

Enjolras went up to the window first. He ordered a chocolate Oreo concrete with a banana split to take home for later.  Cosette followed him a moment later, smiling at the attractive young woman behind the window. She was thin, and was wearing a tight white polo that strained tight over her large breasts. Cosette glanced down at the nametag, which said “Ashleigh,” before glancing at the girl’s long chestnut braid and back up to her icy blue eyes.

“Hello, Ashleigh,” Cosette greeted the girl. The girl smiled back, her eyes sparkling as she regarded her customer.

“Hey. How are you today, miss?”

“I’m fine. How is your day going?”

The chestnut-haired girl shrugged, the corner of her lip raising in a smirk. “Can’t complain. I think it’s going to get better, though.” She cast her eyes up and down Cosette’s body slowly before connecting their eyes once again. Cosette laughed. Ashleigh’s smile widened before she said, “What can I make for you today?”

Cosette wrenched her eyes away from the girl to glance back up to the menu again before looking back. “Actually, I’m stuck between a few things. I’ve never been here before.”

Ashleigh’s eyes widened. “Really? I haven’t met anyone from around here who hasn’t been to Fritz’s before. Are you from out of town?” When Cosette nodded, Ashleigh gave an answering nod of her own. “Where are you from, then?”

“I’m from Springfield. I just moved here yesterday, actually.” Cosette thought for a moment before saying, “My name is Cosette, by the way.”

“Well, hello, Cosette.” Ashleigh winked. She straightened her back when a man wearing a nametag labeled “Manager” walked by, clearing his throat and casting a pointed glare at Cosette before glancing back at Ashleigh. Ashleigh sighed. “What are the choices you are deciding between?”

“A chocolate cherry concrete, a mint chocolate chip concrete, or a chocolate cookie dough concrete.”

Ashleigh let out a pleased sound at the prospects. “Mmm. Chocolate cherry concrete, all the way. It’s my all-time favorite.”

Cosette nodded. “Chocolate cherry it is then.” She smiled before stepping away from the counter at her second glare from the manager. Cosette raised her eyebrows and looked down to the left, mouthing “wow” as the man leaned back against one of the machines, crossing his arms and looking back and forth between his employees with an air of authority.

The blonde looked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder. “I’m going to go and grab us a table,” Enjolras said, holding up his concrete. Cosette nodded, glancing back over to the counter when she heard Ashleigh call her name. She smiled as she walked over.

“Hi,” Ashleigh said, letting a sly grin as she held out the ice cream. Cosette reached out to grab it. Ashleigh, however, had other plans, and pulled her hand back, shaking her head. Cosette raised an eyebrow before reaching out again. This time, however, Ashleigh gave it to her before sliding a piece of paper across the table. Cosette looked at it oddly before holding it up, realizing that it was a set of numbers. She looked up at Ashleigh, who blushed. “You know, in case you ever want someone to show you around town sometime,” she said awkwardly, playing with her hair.

Cosette held the slip up between her fingers. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She winked before making her way over to her brother. She sat down one the concrete bench, shrugging off her purse onto the bench next to her before tucking Ashleigh’s phone number into her wallet. Enjolras was grinning and happily digging into his concrete. Cosette laughed as she looked at him. “Good custard?”

Enjolras groaned before nodding. “God, yes. It’s delicious.” He took another bite before making another deep noise in the back of his throat, his eyes rolling backwards. Cosette rolled her eyes at him, feeling slightly disgusted at the obscene noises coming from her brother’s mouth. She was also confused by the action, until she saw Enjolras peak out of the corner of his eye before beginning again. Cosette followed Enjolras’s line of sight to a young man with dark brown hair staring at her brother, his eyes wide.

Cosette threw her spoon at her brother. He caught it and handed it back to his sister, shaking his head. “Oh, Enj! Gross!” Enjolras sniggered before looking over at the man, winking saucily when the brunet flushed a deep scarlet. He laughed as he turned back to Cosette, his serious face on. “All right, in all honesty, though. What are we going to do about Miss Spirit-World?”

Cosette took a bite of her custard, her eyes widening as she bit down on a chocolate-coated cherry. Ashleigh was right, this was delicious. She took another bite before shrugging at her brother. Enjolras sighed before suggesting, “Maybe we should hire ghost hunters or something.”

Cosette snorted. “Yeah, let me just speed-dial the Winchesters and tell them we have the spirit of an incredibly attractive woman haunting our house.” She took another bite, pausing as she pulled the spoon from between her lips. “Actually, that might get them here quicker.”

Enjolras rolled his eyes. “Seriously, Cosette. I have no idea what we are supposed to do here. Do we just ignore her and hope that she goes away? Salt and burn her bones?”

“That, Enj, would require us to have an inkling of an idea of what happened to her, which we do not have.” She pointed her spoon at him again before looking down at her ice cream and shrugging. “I don’t know if we actually need to do anything. She doesn’t really seem all that dangerous to me. Seems lost, more than anything.”

Enjolras put his elbows on the table and leaned forward in frustration. “But Cosette, Eponine is freaking—” he cut off and looked away, letting out a huffy breath. He turned his eyes back and lowered his voice. “Cosette, Eponine is dead. She is dead, and she is stuck in our house. Dead. Dead. As in, our house is haunted. That doesn’t freak you out at all?”

Cosette shrugged. “We don’t know anything about her, though. Think back to when we spoke to her at the house. Did she seem like she wanted to hurt us?”

Enjolras sighed. “Not really . . . ”He shook his head before raising his hands. “All right, fine. What do you suggest we do, then?”

Cosette thought about it for a moment before answering. “I think that we should talk to her and see if she is going to hurt us or not before we do anything rash.” At Enjolras’s look of uncertainty, she reached out and took her brother’s hand in her own and squeezed it. “Hey, worst case scenario, we’ll take a trip back to Springfield and stay with Mia Rose for a few days until we can find a non-haunted house here.”

“I guess you’re right.” He flicked his eyes up from the table apologetically. “I’m sorry for dragging you out of the house, but I got spooked. I didn’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Hey, it’s okay. Got me a phone number and frozen custard, didn’t it?” She chuckled, squeezing her brother’s hand again. After a moment, he squeezed back, a small grin spreading across his cheeks. Cosette gestured with her head back towards the car. “Let’s get going, all right? See if we can get anything else out of Eponine today.”

Enjolras nodded. “All right, sis.” The duo stood and made their way over to the trashcans to toss their concrete cups before going to the car and heading home.

As the car pulled into the driveway, Cosette glanced up at her window to see Eponine staring out, a sad look on her face as she looked at the street. I wonder if she misses being outside, Cosette wondered, watching as Eponine looked around  few more times before looking down at the car, sending a small wave Cosette’s direction. She waved back before following her brother into the house and upstairs to her bedroom.

When Enjolras and Cosette entered the room, Eponine was back on the bed, her legs pulled up under her as she drew designs with her finger on the blanket absent-mindedly. “Welcome back,” she said, glancing up before turning her eyes back down to her fingers. Cosette and Enjolras walked over and sat down: Cosette on the end of the bed, while Enjolras sank to the ground below the window.

The siblings looked at one another before Cosette began to speak. “What did you mean earlier, when you said ‘the normality has returned’?” She fiddled with a loose thread before looking up, her eyes bright. “You know, when Enjolras, uhm . . . fell through your arm?”

Eponine sat up straighter and ran her fingers through her hair, biting her lip in thought. “Everyone seems to go right through me. Doesn’t matter if I am talking directly to them or not, if I am in someone’s presence, it’s like I am made of smoke. It doesn’t hurt me and, as far as I know, it doesn’t hurt them, but it scared me the first time that it happened. I honestly just thought that the man was ignoring me—I had no idea that he was not able to see me.”

She shrugged. “After that, I spent quite a while desperately trying to see if there was anyone who could see me. I would scream and dance and physically jump on people without them even so much as batting an eye.”

Enjolras shifted on the floor before settling with his legs splayed in front of him. He nodded. “All right. So, ghost. We got that. But how did you die?”

Eponine thought about it for a moment before shaking her head. “I honestly have no idea.”

“Want to know my theory?”

“Sure.”

Enjolras nodded to the bruises adorning her body. “I think you were beaten to death. Well, that, or . . . ” he trailed off, gesturing to her forehead. “Maybe you were tossed into something and split your head open.”

Eponine’s hand flew to the broken skin, her eyes wide. “I don’t remember that being there, either.”  She drew her hand away glancing over at the bruises on her arms. She paused before softly saying, “I wish I knew what happened to me.”

Cosette shifted to sit cross-legged, grabbing a pillow and hugging it to her chest. She placed her chin on it before leaning forward, cradling the softness. “What do you remember?”

Eponine thought about it for a moment before answering. “I remember looking at someone’s phone the day that I . . . woke up, I guess? Appeared?” She shook her head. “Anyway, their phone said December 2012, but the last day that I remember was October 21, 2010, because it was the day that my girlfriend and I—” She trailed off, blushing. “Never mind.” 

Enjolras nodded. “Okay. So, it has been six months that you’ve been in the house, and we’re the first people to see you? Why? We’re just nobodies from the Land of Lincoln. What makes us so special?” He looked down at his lap as his phone dinged, smirking as he typed out a response before he looked back up into the conversation.

Cosette’s hand went to her hip as she felt her own phone vibrate. She pulled it out, rolling her eyes as she saw that she had a new message from her brother.

Booty call wants me. Think you’ll be safe alone for an hour or two?

Cosette snorted before answering. Seriously, twice in one day? And yeah, that’s fine. I’ll keep the baseball bat nearby and I’ll let you know if there is any problems.

And you’re sure we can trust her?- M

Cosette read the message before looking back over at Eponine, who was smiling softly at her. Could they trust her? Well, it was far too early to tell, but something in Cosette’s gut told her that this girl wasn’t dangerous, and she was beginning to feel as though she would like to have this girl as a friend. Cosette shrugged before turning back to her phone.

Do we really have any choice? -T

She glanced over at her brother as his phone dinged again. He glanced at the message before shaking his head and standing up, popping his back as he stretched. “Well ladies, I must be going.” He locked eyes with his sister as he walked out. “If you need anything, get your ass out of this house and call me.” He turned to Eponine. “And you, missy. Do anything to my sister, and I’ll have Ghost Busters on your ass faster than you can say ‘boo,’ got it?”

Eponine nodded. “Got it.”

Enjolras gave a curt nod as well. “Good.” He left the room, swinging the door shut behind him.

Cosette moved so that she was sitting next to the girl before she turned, remembering what the brunette said about her last memory. “So, girlfriend, huh? Anniversary? Break up?”

Eponine looked down uncomfortably. “Break up. Well, and anniversary. It was our one year, and she got sick of being in a relationship with someone who refused to come out.” She smiled sadly. “Who knows if I ever came out after Cindy and I broke up. Maybe when I died, everyone still assumed that I was straight.”

Cosette snorted. “That would be a shitty way to be remembered. When I die, I want to go out proud of who I am, not loitering in Narnia with fantastical creatures.” She shook her head, laughing softly. “God knows I spent enough time in there before I finally emerged back into the real world.”

Eponine said nothing for a moment before whispering, “You too?”

Cosette nodded. “Yeah. Me too. Enj, as well. My parents were lucky enough to be blessed with three queer children. My older sister, Mia Rose, actually has two kids with her wife, Jules.” She looked over at Eponine, feeling slightly discouraged to see a look of sadness still darkening the pretty brunette’s face. Cosette, without thinking, tried to nudge Eponine with her shoulder. She immediately fell through before sitting up awkwardly, her face growing hot. “Sorry.”

Eponine shook her head. “It’s okay. Doesn’t hurt me, remember?”

Cosette was quiet for a few moments before asking, “What does it feel like?”

“What do you mean?”

“When someone falls through you,” Cosette clarified. “What does it feel like? Do you even feel it at all?”

Eponine nodded. “Yeah, I do. You know what it feels like when you run your fingers through sand, right? How it slips through your fingers, but for a moment, you feel the weight of every single particle?” Cosette nodded. “It’s a lot like that. I can feel it, but I can’t keep the mass in one solid glob. What does it feel like to fall through me?”

Cosette thought about it for a moment before saying, “Cold.”

Eponine laughed. “I could see that.” She shook her head before leaning back, resting her weight on her forearms as she stretched her legs out in front of her, her left knee bent as she looked up at Cosette.

Cosette shifted as well, moving the pillow so her back was pressed more comfortably against the headboard. “So what is it that you do all day? It seems like it would be pretty boring, being a ghost.”

Eponine thought about it for a moment before shrugging. “I guess that time doesn’t really pass the same for me as it does for you. Days pass by in minutes, weeks pass by in hours. I spend most of my time just observing anyone who comes to the house. It was especially interesting before Enjolras and you purchased it, since there were so many different people passing through.”

“ . . . or when observing me in the shower.”

Eponine pushed herself up straight again, her eyes going wide. She shook her head and changed her attention back to the bruises on her arms. “I never noticed any of these bruises before Enjolras pointed them out,” she commented, her voice strained as she changed the subject.

Cosette laughed before shaking her head. “All right, fine. Skate around the question.” Her eyes darted down to the bruises as well before looking up to look Eponine in the face. “Haven’t you taken a moment to glance in a mirror since you appeared?”

Eponine shook her head. “I can’t see my reflection. I didn’t think I had one any more, to be honest.” She poked at one of the bruises before sighing. “I can’t even feel this. It’s like someone just took a marker and colored all over my skin.”

“Don’t worry, you still have a reflection,” Cosette assured the brunette. “I’ve seen you in the mirror, and I’m pretty sure that Enjolras has, too. And in regards to feeling the bruise, do you even feel anything?”

Eponine thought about it for a moment before shaking her head. “My emotions are all the same, but physically, it’s just like I’m on really, really strong Vicodin.” She paused before looking back up at Cosette. “When did you see me in the mirror? I’m just curious.”

Cosette rolled her eyes. “ . . . when you were spying on me in the shower.” She winked at Eponine. She was surprised by the realization that she wasn’t uncomfortable with the idea of the girl catching a glimpse of her in the shower. I wouldn’t mind seeing her naked, she thought, casting her eyes over the curves visible through Eponine’s tank top. Cosette bit her lip when she realized she was staring before pulling her eyes up, sliding them to meet with Eponine’s.

“I wasn’t spying on you,” Eponine finally said after a few more tense moments, her cheeks growing darker. “It was an accident. I was wandering around the house and just kind of ended up in there.” She shook her head. “Anyway, it was just for a second—I didn’t see anything I shouldn’t of, don’t worry.”

Cosette laughed. “All right, Eponine. Whatever you say.” She smiled at the girl before leaning back on her arms, looking up at the brunette, who had begun to nervously chew on her nails. Cosette sat back up. “Hey, don’t do that. It’s not that big of a deal. I really don’t mind.”

Eponine sighed before nodding, looking back up at Cosette before smiling back, her eyes brightening once again.

4

Cosette glanced over at Eponine before pushing herself off the bed, gesturing towards the door with her thumb. “Want to come downstairs with me? I’m in the mood to do something other than just sit around all day.”

Eponine nodded before standing up. Cosette smiled at the other girl before wincing, her rumbling stomach alerting her that she needed to eat more on the days that she did long runs. Eponine started at the sound before she smiled, shaking her head. Cosette laughed. “I guess maybe we could cook something? Well, I guess it would be me cooking and you observing, but you know what I mean.”

Eponine smiled back. “Yeah, that sounds like fun.” She stood and made her way to the door, winking at Cosette as she walked past and headed to the stairs.

Cosette rolled her eyes are she followed, her eyes slipping down to glance at Eponine’s bum as she glidedbefore she pulled her eyes up, embarrassment coloring her cheeks. She cleared her throat before quickening her steps until Eponine was by her side. She looked over at the girl, thinking for a moment before speaking. “So . . . what was your favorite dessert when you were still alive?”

Eponine thought about it as her eyes glazed over, a small smile resting upon her lips. “Frozen yogurt,” she said after a moment, making a contented noise in the back of her throat. “When I was twelve or thirteen, my older sister, Azelma, would take me to some restaurant she had found that served the best frozen yogurt in town. We would go every Wednesday night, after she picked me up from bible study at my aunt’s house. It was a special treat that I looked forward to every week.”

Cosette nodded. “That sounds nice.” She paused for a moment in thought as she thought about her own favorite dessert. “Hmm . . . I can’t decide what dessert is my favorite. I am a big fan of my special chocolate brownies, but I think that my mother’s nut bread will always be my all-time favorite.”

CosetteledEponine to the pantry. She opened the cabinet and pulled out a dark red box, flipping it over to look at the necessary ingredients on the back of the wrapping before making her way to the fridge and pulling everything out. Eponine moved to sit on the counter next to the stove, swinging her crossed-legs back and forth as she leaned forward and gripped the counter.

Cosette looked over at her, her brows narrowed in confusion. “Why don’t you go through inanimate objects like you do animate ones? You shouldn’t be able to sit on that counter without falling through to the floor, right?”

Eponine thought about it for a moment before shrugging. “You know, I really don’t know. I can’t move anything—like, if I wanted to pick up a knife or something, I couldn’t just spin it and toss it in the air if I felt like being violent, you know? But as long as I’m just sitting here, I’m fine. No succumbing to the wrath of nefarious pots and pans determined to try and break my fall.” She winked, pushing herself up and onto the floor before walking over to the kitchen table, where Cosette had begun to make her batter.

Eponine sat down next to the bowl as Cosette turned back around, heading to the pantry to grab more ingredients. “I thought you had everything out that you needed,” Eponine commented, eying the mess of containerssitting on the table.

Cosette leaned back to glance at the table before shaking her head. “No, I still need the special ingredients that make my brownies really pop.” She turned back to the pantry, rummaging through it. “Now where did I put—oh, here they are!” The blonde pulled out two spice jars, angling them so that Eponine could read the labels before she gripped them in her left hand.

Eponine studied them for a moment before her eyes widened. “Cinnamon and chili powder? For brownies? Why?”

Cosette shrugged as she walked back to the table, placing the jars next to the rest of her ingredients. “It is a trick that I learned in high school, when I was desperately trying to be friends with this girl in my chemistry class. One of her favorite movies mentioned how good chocolate is when mixed with chili powder, so I gave it a shot. It actually came out really, really good.” She snorted. “I added cinnamon at first on accident. I figured that it wouldn’t suck too much, so I just added the chili powder as well and went from there.”

Eponine made a face before nodding. “Okay, if you say so. Did the girl like it, at least?”

“Well, it turned out that she was severely allergic to cinnamon. She ended up spending the night in the hospital after she tried one.” Cosette shook her head. “That friendship clearly didn’t ever go anywhere. What about you, Eponine? What’s the most embarrassing thing that you’ve ever done to try and impress someone?”

Eponine rocked back, moving so her forearms were supporting her weight. She pursed her lips as she thought about it before saying, “It probably would have to be when I had a crush on this girl named Mallory, when I was sixteen. Mallory had a thing for dancers, so I thought that if I was able to dance, then maybe I’d have a chance with her.” She shook her head. “Yeah, broke my ankle the very first class, which, of course, happened to be the very same class that shehad gone to every Monday night since she was twelve.”

Cosette snorted. “Oh, that’s really rough.”

Eponine nodded. “Yeah, it was. I had to take months off from competing in any sport, which really messed up my training. I did MMA and gymnastics, so taking time off made it a lot harder for me when competition season rolled around.”

“I bet. I played lacrosse and field hockey, plus I ran year round, so I understand what you mean. I dislocated my shoulder once, and it nearly killed me to spend seven weeks not doing any physical activity.” Cosette poured the batter into the pan before taking it to the oven and putting the brownies in to bake, setting the timer for twenty minutes.

Cosette jumped up onto thetable next to Eponine, flashing her a smile. “So, MMA, huh?”

Eponine nodded. “Yeah. My parents were convinced that I had anger issues because I went off on one of my teachers when they were mocking another student’s speech impediment, and they figured MMA would help with that.” She shook her head. “I ended up really enjoying it, though, so I stayed in after I was ‘better.’ I went competed at the national level my junior year of high school. I didn’t win, but the fight was worth the experience.”

Cosette nodded. “That sounds really cool. The most exciting thing that I’ve done with my sports is the marathon that I did last spring.” She shook her head. “Most people wouldn’t consider 26.2 miles fun, but I didn’t mind it. It was empowering, you know?”

“I would imagine so.” She winked. “I started gymnastics a few months after I started MMA. I did that because—”

Cosette tuned out the rest of Eponine’s nervous ramblings, watching the passion splay across Eponine’s face as she talked.

Cosette soon found herself unable to look away as she locked eyes with the girl, her stomach doing flips as she stared at the orbs. The ice blue and grey irises caught Cosette by surprise. At first glance, she had been able to tell that Eponine’s eyes were blue, but the blonde had not noticed the sheer beauty that made up the orbs.

The blonde forced her eyes away, coughing uncomfortably as she felt her eyes wander back over to the girl’s very firm, very ample chest.

If Eponine had had a body, and they had met in a club, just like this, Cosette was sure that she would have tried to do whatever it took to bring the brunette into her bed that night. Especially with those eyes, and those breasts, and those curves . . .

Cosette jumped off the off the counter and shook her, trying to shake away any lingering aspects of the images filling her mind. “It, uhm, was nice to hear about your interests,” she said, running her hand through her hair nervously. Eponine nodded. Cosette avoided Eponine’s eyes as she turned around, pulling the brownies out of the oven carefully. She placed them on the stove to cool before turning to Eponine and giving her a small smile. “I’m going to go and take a nap, all right? I’ll talk to you later.” She gave Eponine another smile before tucking her hair behind her ear and making her way upstairs.

What was she thinking? This wasn’t a night at a bar, or a romp through a gay club. She couldn’t be chatting up the hot girl in the corner, couldn’t go home with her for a quick fuck and run away in the morning. She would have to deal with this every day, and Eponine would never be another body to warm her bed.

***

Several hours later found Cosette sitting in her car, idly staring at the garage. She was lost in thought, her fingers tapping out a pattern on the steering wheel, her mind whirring with the feeling that she had gotten staring at Eponine. She wasn’t able to help it, though; Eponine really was beautiful. Especially those eyes . . .

She sighed, shaking her head. She needed to get away for a while and just be alone with her thoughts. She started the car, glancing over her shoulder before backing out and pulling onto the road. Cosette didn’t know where she would go, but she couldn’t stay here and stare at the house in wonderment. The afternoon was going to drive the girl crazy if she kept focusing on the color of Eponine’s eyes.

***

When Cosette finally stopped driving forty-five minutes later, she had reached the parking lot of a campground that she had stumbled upon. She pulled into a space that overlooked a clearing where a young couple and their son were playing catch next to a lake, their white ball a speck as it passed in front of the thick birch trees.

Cosettewatched the triofor a few moments before leaning back in her seat, her mind swirling with memories as she recalled the last time that she and her family had gone camping several years previously to celebrate Mia Rose’s graduation from secondary school, in a campground very similar to this one.

Cosette had been a few days shy of her ninth birthday on that chilly night in April. It was the first time that her parents had let Enjolras and she stay up with Mia Rose, alone, and both of the children could barely contain their excitement. Normally, Jenny and Michael Fauchelevent wanted their youngest two children to go to bed at the earliest time possible, but tonight, both the adults were far too exhausted from a day of hiking and wrangling their children to care. They figured that Mia Rose, now eighteen, would be able to sufficiently watch her brother and sister.

Cosette and Enjolras were sitting around the campfire, listening to Mia Rose tell “spooky” stories when she suddenly stood up and made her way over to the tote next to the trio’s tent, coming back a moment later with a plastic Wal-Mart bag in her hands. She smiled at the younger Fauchelevents before moving the bag to her side, keeping the top pinched tightly so Enjolras and Cosette couldn’t see what was inside.

“Mia Rose, what’s in the bag?” Cosette asked, craning her neck to peek inside.

Mia Rose shook her head. “Close youreyes,” she instructed. Cosette closed her eyes. It was quiet for a moment before the red-head laughed and said, “Enjolras, that means you too, buddy.” The bag rustled as an owl hooted in a nearby tree, its call mixing with the singing of the tree frogs. “Okay, you can open your eyes now.”

Cosette opened her eyes to see Mia Rose holding out two sticks, fluffy white marshmallows adorning the top of each. The girl let out an excited squeal before reaching out and taking a stick, Enjolras doing the same.

The marshmallow sizzled as Cosette thrust the stick into the fire, grinning gleefully when the white mass began to bubble and blacken in the blue heat. “Cosette, you’re doing it wrong,” Enjolras whined from her right, nudging Cosette’s shoulder with his head as he held his marshmallow precariously above the flames. He turned the stick in circles, watching the sweet slowly becomebrown.

Cosette shook her head before pulling her stick out, blowing out the fiery ball and holding the stick out to Mia Rose. “Help please,” she asked, before turning to Enjolras. “No, Enj, you’re making it wrong. You’re too little to know how to make these right.”

Enjolras squinted his eyes and shook his head. “Nuh-uh! Mommy always makes my s’mores brown!”

Cosette made a face and stuck out her tongue before blowing a raspberry Enjolras’s direction. “Daddy always lights mine on fire!”

Enjolras shook his head again, pouting at the marshmallow. “No, Mommy’s doing it right. Daddy’s wrong.” He turned his head to look at Mia Rose, his pout getting bigger. “Right, Mia Rose? I’m doing it right?” The six-year-old’s lower lip started to tremble and his eyes began to brim with tears when Mia Rose shook her head as she handed Cosette her completed s’more.

“Sorry, buddy,” she said, “but I have to side with Cosette on this one. Mommy and you aren’t wrong, but I just like them burnt more.” The red-head moved over to comfort the child when he started to cry quietly. “Hey, don’t cry. You’re doing it right, too. There is more than one way of doing things.”

Enjolras sniffed. “So Mommy teached me rightly?”

Mia Rose laughed. “Yeah, buddy, she taught you correctly.” She reached down and took the stick from Enjolras’s hand, pulling it back to show him that the marshmallow was brown. “There you go. See, you did it perfectly! Now how about we get this thing put together, huh?” Enjolras nodded happily. Mia Rose built the s’more beforehanding it to her brother. “There you go. How about I make you two another one, my way.”

Cosette nodded happily, trying to grin through the sticky mass that was gluing her lips together. Enjolras pouted in confusionbefore shrugging and nodding at his eldest sister as well. The two children continued to eat their s’mores quietly while Mia Rose prepared the additional sweets. After a few minutes, she handed one to each of her siblings.

Cosette immediately started nibbling on hers, but Enjolras was a bit more wary as he stared at the treat. He poked it, saying, “Ew, it’s sticky!” when the marshmallow pulled out from under the chocolate in long, charred strands. He waved his hand in the air, tears brimming his eyes as he realized that the goo wasn’t coming off his fingers. “Mia Rose, get it off! Get it off!”

Mia Rose rolled her eyes before sighing and going to her tent to grab the package of baby wipes that she kept in her purse for moments such as these. She handed one to Enjolras before sitting back down on her log. The boymade a wounded noise before frowning down at the wipe that he had placed on his lap. Mia Rose groaned before standing back up and coming to her brother, cleaning his hands. “There, happy?” she commented, rolling her eyes again when Enjolras nodded happily and opened his mouth. Mia Rose looked down at the s’more before looking back up to Enjolras’s mouth. “Seriously?”

Enjolras nodded again and opened his mouth wider, leaning forward. Mia Rose muttered under her breath as she picked up the s’more, holding it up and letting her brother take an exploratory bite. His eyes lit up as his teeth sank into the goo, the chocolate oozing out over the top of the marshmallow and soaking into the graham cracker below. He made a contented noise before reaching forward and grabbing the s’more. He stuffed it into his face happily, no longer concerned with the stickiness that he was so worried about before his first bite.

Mia Rose laughed. “Good, isn’t it?” She grabbed the baby wipes again, moving over to Cosette. Cosette giggled and licked her fingers before holding out her hands for her sister to get rid of any residue. The red-head pulled the child’s hands to her own, quickly wiping off the leftover goo from between her digits. Once she was done, she pushed Cosette’s hands away before moving back over to Enjolras and cleaning his hands.

Mia Rose tossed the soiled wipes into the flames before turning to her siblings. “Okay, kiddos. I’m going put the fire out and then it’s time for bed.”

Cosette pouted. “Awe, why? It’s not even late yet!”

Mia Rose shook her head, glancing down at her watch. “It’s almost ten. That’s way past your bedtimes.” She leaned over and kissed Enjolras on the head before smiling at Cosette. “How about you two go back to the tent and wait for me to finish up here, all right? I’ll tell you guys a story and we’ll all go to sleep.”

Cosette let out a huffy breath. “Okay,” she groaned, leaning forward and lifting her chin as she pouted. Mia Rose raised an eyebrow at Cosette, who groaned again and stood up. She held her hand out to her brother. “Come on, Enj, we’re stuck listening to Mia Rose.”

Enjolras let out a pout before grabbing his sister’s hand and following her to the tent. He yawned as they reached the entrance, sleepiness finally catching up to him the closer that he got to his sleeping bag. Cosette and he uncurled the rolls of fabric before getting in and waiting for Mia Rose.

After a moment, Enjolras said softly, “Hey, Cosette?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s really dark out here,” Enjolras murmured, his voice tight. “Can-can I snuggle with you? I’m scared.”

Cosette unzipped her sleeping bag. “Yeah.” She scooted over as she heard Enjolras crawl across the slick floor of the tent towards her. She held her arm out for Enjolras as he reached her. Cosette kissed him on the head. “There’s no need to be scared. Mia Rose will keep us safe tonight while Mommy and Daddy are in the other tent.”

“Mia Rose takes good care of us, doesn’t she?” Enjolras asked, snuggling against his sister’s shoulder.

Cosette nodded. “Yeah, she does.” She thought about it for a moment before saying, “I was mad at Mommy and Daddy for making me come and spend the night outside, but I’m happy that we’re here, now. Mia Rose is making it fun. I wish there wasn’t any bugs, though. They’re too crawly.”

“Yeah.” 

Enjolras and Cosette looked up as Mia Rose pulled back the tent-flap, the moon glowing brightly behind her back. “Fire’s out,” she said, zipping the tent shut. She grabbed her sleeping bag before feeling around for her younger siblings. “Guys, get up for a moment please.”

“Why?” Cosette asked.

“Just trust me, all right?”

Enjolras and Cosette did as their sister asked, getting out of Cosette’s sleeping bag and moving to the exterior edge of the tent. They listened to the sound of the sleeping bags being unzipped and moved around before Mia Rose moved over to them, grabbing their hands and guiding them back to the sleeping bags. Cosette smiled to herself as she sat down, quickly realizing that Mia Rose had spread out the cushy fabrics to resemble a make-shift bed.

Mia Rose spread her arms, pulling her brother and her sister close to her. “What story do you two want to hear?”

“Ricky Raccoon!” Enjolras exclaimed excitedly.

Mia Rose laughed. “You always want to hear that story.”

“Ricky Raccoon! Ricky Raccoon!”

“All right, all right! Once upon a time . . . ”

By the time Mia Rose had finished her story, Enjolras was snoring softly at her side, and Cosette was struggling to keep her eyes open. “Falling asleep, little one?” the eldest Fauchelevent asked, kissing her sister on the head. Cosette nodded, snuggling further into her sister. Mia Rose began to stroke her hair softly. “Go to sleep, Cosette. I’ll keep watch over Enjolras and you while you sleep.”

Cosette was pulled out of her memory by a loud clap of thunder. She shook her head, noticing the heavy drops of rain that had begun to coat her windshield. She stared into the rain for a moment more before sighing, putting the car in reverse, and heading back home.

5

Mid-November, 2013

As the weeks flew by, the scalding heat of the summer sun gave way to crisp, cool air, and Cosette had found her niche in this new town of hers. She had begun to make friends, she had figured out how to get to the most necessary places (like the Wal-Mart, and the grocery store) and, best of all, she had figured out how exactly she fit into this new company that she had been hired to work for.

The Bard of Avon was a successful company that specialized in the production of a medieval-style magazine chain, as well as in the sales of medieval, historical fiction, and fantasy novels at its outlet bookstore. It had several dozen employees, with some working strictly-corporate, some working part-time at the bookstore, and some working both. In general, Cosette worked corporate, which earned a yearly salary, but, sometimes, the girl would fill in at the bookstore to pick up some extra hourly-wages.

It was on a chilly morning in October that Cosette had been called in to work a shift on the floor for some extra money. Typically, the blonde spent her days in the corporate office working on creating short stories and editing submissions for the magazines, but on most Friday afternoons, she left the corporate office at two o’clock to come and read picture books to the kids at the store. Today, though, she arrived at the store at eight, dressed in the store-uniform and ready to work on the floor.

Cosette had only been in the break room for a few minutes when the owner of the company, Jeffrey Michaels, came in to greet her, a smile on his face. “Hey, Cosette. Thanks for coming in.”

“No problem, Jeff. Extra money in my pocket,” she said, winking. Jeff smirked.

“Well, that’s true.” He gestured with his head in the general direction of the storage room. Cosette followed him out of the break room and down the hall towards the rest of the store before following him to an elevator that would take them to the basement, where the storage room was located. Once they reached the room, they went to the very back to a large shelving unit. Jeff stretched to the top shelf, his bald head glinting in the artificial light as his red-and-white striped polo rose over his beer gut.  He pulled down a box, quickly depositing it on a nearby trolley before reaching back up to grab more boxes.

Once the unit was properly stocked, Jeff pushed the trolley in Cosette’s direction. “I need you to put these books out. They are all going to go in that new section, by the kid’s area.”

“All right.” Cosette grabbed the edge of the trolley and pushed it behind the man, following him out of the room and up the elevator back to the main floor. Once she had reached her destination, she paused for a moment to grab her box cutter from her locker before coming back and taking the books to the assigned section.

Twenty minutes later, Cosette paused her work when she felt a light tug on her skirt. She glanced down to see a girl with light blonde pigtails and big blue eyes smiling up at her.

“’Cuse me?” the girl murmured, pulling on Cosette’s skirt again. “Where are God stories?” She put her hands behind the skirt of her own light blue dress as Cosette smiled at her.

“Do you mean stories on Greek Gods and Goddesses?” Cosette asked, crouching down so that she was at the child’s level. The girl nodded. Cosette smiled at her again before standing and holding her hand out. “Where’s your mommy, sweetheart? I’ll show her where you can find these books.”

The child pointed to a pretty chestnut-haired woman in her mid-twenties, who was sitting on a bean bag chair in the reading circle with a dark-haired toddler on her lap. As if on cue, the woman looked up as her daughter pointed, waving and sending a wink Cosette’s direction. “Ask the nice lady to show you where the books are, Gracie!” the woman called to her daughter. Cosette raised an eye brow at the woman’s nonchalant attitude but took Gracie’s hand again. She couldn’t understand why the woman wasn’t more concerned about someone walking off with her young child, even if it was a store employee.

Regardless, Cosette led the child to the Greek mythology section and showed her a couple of different children’s books about the different deities. “Who is your favorite God or Goddess?” she asked the child as she pulled out a book about Aphrodite. “I like Hypnos, personally.”

The petite blonde thought about it for a second before excitedly answering, “I like Hades! He’s the God of dead things!”

Cosette laughed. “Well, technically, he’s the God of the Underworld, but yeah, that’s right.” She studied the bookshelf, moving books around until she found a couple of picture books about Hades. She pulled the stories out and handed them to the child, who let out an excited squeal as she glanced through the pictures.

Cosette stood up and offered her hand to the child again before escorting her back to her mother. As she approached the reading circle, she saw that Jeff was talking to the woman, the toddler now resting on her hip. Gracie let go of Cosette’s hand and raced towards the duo as she saw them. “Daddy!” she exclaimed as she ran forward. Jeff glanced over and crouched down as she approached, holding open his arms as she crashed against his chest with a resounding oof. Gracie held the books up to show her father. “Look what the nice lady found me, Daddy! Hades’ stories!”

Jeff flashed Cosette a smile. “Yeah, Miss Cosette is pretty good at finding books, isn’t she?” He turned to the woman, her massive diamond wedding ring glinting as she shifted the toddler in her arms. “Lydia, this is Cosette, the new employee that I was telling you about, our new short-story master.”

The woman, Lydia, turned and held out her hand, her cerulean eyes twinkling. “How do you do?”

Cosette smiled at her and shook her hand politely before turning her attention to the toddler. “And who is this little guy?” she asked as the boy shyly hid his face in the crook of his mother’s neck.

Lydia glanced down at her son. “This is Samuel.” She winked at Cosette before loudly whispering, “He’s a little cranky because he hasn’t had his nap today.”

Cosette laughed and shook her head as Samuel let out an unhappy sound at being talked about. She stayed and made small talk with the family for a few more minutes before telling her boss that she was going to head back over to her books. Jeff, however, had other plans. “Hey, Cosette, we’re actually pretty slow today, so how about you put those books back in the storage room and just go work at the office until you come back and read later? I’ll still pay you for the allotted shift, but you can work on that short story that you started yesterday.”

Cosette nodded. “Sounds good to me. I’m going to finish up this box and then I’ll head over there.”

Jeff nodded. “All right.”

Cosette flashed him another smile before she made her way back over to the shelves. While she did end up putting away only one box, the blonde grew distracted by reorganizing a display that someone had knocked over and, before she knew it, an hour and a half had already passed since she and Jeff had last talked. She finished up with the display before she went to the break room to clock out and tell Jeff that she was going to the office now. 

A few moments later, Cosette was leaving the store and walking up the street to the corporate building, which was only a little over a block away. She went to the cafeteria to grab a large gourmet salad before paying for her lunch and making her way up to her cubicle. Once she was upstairs, she placed her salad on the desk next to her, booting up her desktop and loading her newest fable for the next edition.

Cosette had completed a little over two pages, as well as half of her salad, when she heard someone quietly speak her name from her left. She glanced over to see her coworker, Taryn. Cosette smiled at her, glancing down to the soft pink dress the woman was wearing. “You look lovely today,” she commented, nodding at the dress.

Taryn smiled at her. “Thanks, Cosette. Working at the store today I see?” She laughed as she took in the black shirt, mauve skirt, and boots that Cosette was clad in. Cosette shrugged before nodding. Taryn laughed again. “I can’t believe that Jeff convinced you to work the floor. I would never do it.” She glanced over her shoulder as a young man walked up to her before looking back at Cosette. “Perfect timing! Cosette, this is Cody Marks, our new intern. I was hoping that you’d be able to show him the works for a little bit.”

“Yeah, that would be fine,” Cosette said. Taryn gave her a grateful smile before turning and walking back to her own cubicle. The blonde moved her chair over to give Cody room to look at what she was doing. As he moved closer, Cosette took a moment to take in his appearance. He was wearing a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and red vans, which matched the red plaid button down that he was wearing under a grey sweater. He tipped his large black glasses towards Cosette’s computer before reading what she had been working on.

Cosette watched him for a moment longer before asking, “So, have you been shown around the office yet?” Cody shook his head. Cosette smiled at him before pushing herself out of her chair, gesturing with her head toward the rest of the cubicles.  “Follow me then.”

The blonde pointed out the major offices to the brunet as they walked around before leading him up to the community garden that took up the top level of the four-story building. She led him to her favorite spot: a bench near the window that overlooked the parks and neighborhoods below. It was situated next to a marble waterfall and beneath a medium sized weeping willow that nearly brushed the top of the glass-paneled roof.

“So, why did you choose to work with The Bard of Avon?” Cosette asked as they sat down. She turned to face Cody as he glanced out the window at the wooded park across the street before looking back at her.

Cody shrugged. “I don’t know. I had to find an internship for my Publishing minor, and The Bard seemed to be as good of a place as any.”

Cosette nodded. “The Bard is a really nice place to work,” she said, smiling at Cody before looking around at all the different plants and statues making up the garden. “You know, this garden was actually a gift from Jeff to his workers. He won the lottery a few years back, and put nearly all of the money that he won into making improvements on the magazine, the bookstore, and this building. Taryn showed me pictures of what the store and this building looked like before he made the changes, and both looked vastly different than what they are today.”

Cody nodded. “I think I remember passing this building when it was under construction. Didn’t Jeff add an entire wing during the changes?”

“Yeah, he did.” She smiled. “I like Jeff a lot. I met his wife and children this morning, and they were all really sweet, too.” Cosette thought for a moment before glancing back up at Cody. “Do you know what my favorite part of this company is?”

“Hmmm?”

“How dedicated everyone is to making this company the best that it can’t be. I’ve been here for a little over four months, and I have yet to work with anyone who hasn’t given a hundred percent in every aspect of their job. There’s only a little over two dozen people working here, too, plus the dozen at the store, so it isn’t like there’s a lot of people that I haven’t worked with for at least a portion of a project.”

Cody nodded. “Yeah, I’ve seen that just in the few days that I checked out this place before getting this internship. Everyone seems to really be on the same page, if you excuse the pun.”

Cosette nodded before glancing at her watch and standing. “Okay, now that I’ve shown you the best place in the building, do you want to see some of the things that we do?”

A grin spread across Cody’s face as he stood as well. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

“Let’s go then.”

***

Several hours later, Cosette had finished working at both the office and the store. She pulled into the driveway, immediately noticing that her brother’s new blue Chevrolet Impala was not there. He must be out with his booty call, she thought, rolling her eyes at the relationship that was still stemming between Enjolras and his manager.

The blonde made her way into the house, slamming the door to alert Eponine of her arrival, her eyes narrowing in confusion when the dark-haired girl did not appear. Normally, the girl came down to the living room to meet her companions whenever she heard someone enter the home.

Cosette listened to her surroundings for a moment before realizing that she could hear music booming from Enjolras’s room. She rolled her eyes. The boy had always forgotten to turn his electronics off as a child, and clearly, it was a trait that lasted into his adult life. She jogged up the steps and went into the room to turn off the stereo. She paused in the doorway as she caught sight of Eponine dancing around the room, belting out the lyrics to a song from Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.

It took all of Cosette’s willpower not to burst out laughing when Eponine attempted to do the voices of Penny, Dr. Horrible, and Captain Hammer throughout the song, her voice cracking as she attempted to hit the lower notes. She was good though, Cosette had to admit. The younger girl’s voice was velvety and rich, and she had a look of bliss on her face that only grew stronger the louder that she sang. God, she’s adorable, the blonde thought, a slight smile spreading across her face.

Eponine looked beautiful with her dark hair flying around her face. Cosette stared until Eponine got the end of the song. The blonde started clapping. She let out a laugh when the brunette started, her feet spinning out from under her in her shock, making her fall to the ground in a heap. Cosette laughed again. “Hey, Eponine,” she said, winking at her friend.

Eponine let out a small smile. “Hey, Cosette.” She ran her fingers through her hair uncomfortably before pushing herself back into a standing position. Cosette gestured with her head towards her own room before turning and walking in that direction, smiling when she noticed the other girl following her.

Once the girls got to the room, Cosette directed Eponine to sit on her bed while she went into the master bath to change clothes. Before she went in, though, she opened her closet and pulled out a pair of black sweat pants, as well as a soft baby-blue tee shirt, which she threw on the bed next to Eponine.

Cosette closed the bathroom door behind her before moving to stand in front of the full-length mirror on the door to look at her uniform: a black tank top, and a long, burnt orange skirt. She wasn’t sure how the outfit contributed to the medieval feel of the store, but she was sure that Jeff had some sort of reason behind his choices. Shaking her head, Cosette moved to relieve herself before washing her hands and her face in the sink.

Once Cosette’s makeup had been removed and her face and hands were dry, she went back out to her bedroom and winked at Eponine. “Do you mind if I change out here?” she asked, hoping that Eponine would be fine with it. When the girl shrugged, Cosette fought the keep the bubble of lust that rose in her stomach down, reminding herself that nothing could happen with Eponine, no matter how much she wished that it could. She couldn’t deny it: Eponine was hot. Not only that, she was incredibly sweet, and funny, and smart. God, she was everything that Cosette had ever wanted in a partner and, even though the relationship would never entirely work, Cosette couldn’t help but feel as though her interest in the girl could barely even be considered a meager crush any longer. 

Shaking the thought away, Cosette turned towards the closet to shrug off her tank top and skirt before glancing back over her shoulder at Eponine to see the girl’s gaze locked on the her legs. She let out a laugh. “You know, this would go a lot quicker if you weren’t so intent on staring at me.”

Eponine’s eyes shot up before they darted back down, her hand coming over them to block her gaze. “Oh! Sorry.”

Cosette laughed again before taking her bra off. She slipped on a pair of fuzzy green-and-purple pajama pants and a black sports bra before making her way to the bed. She sat down next to Eponine before saying, “Okay, you can uncover your eyes now.”

Eponine moved her hand so that it was resting on the bed next to her crossed legs. “So, how was work?”

“It was fine. How was your day?”

“Fine.”

Cosette nodded before moving next to Eponine to lie back on her pillows. She watched Eponine for a moment before rolling her eyes and pushing herself up on her forearms. “Well? Aren’t you going to lie down with me?” Eponine stared at her for a moment before doing what the blonde asked, turning onto her side to face Cosette, who was lying on her back.

The girls were silent for a few moments until Eponine sighed, a downtrodden look passing through her eyes. Cosette looked at her in concern. “What’s wrong?”

The brunette shifted on the bed, moving her hand so that it rested as close to the older girl’s waist as it could without falling through before she glanced up to lock her cerulean eyes with Cosette’s viridian ones. “Have you ever been incredibly interested in someone that you could never have?”

Cosette chuckled. “I was just thinking the same thing,” she said, shaking her head. She bit her lip before letting her eyes fall down to the soft flesh the younger girl had between her own teeth. “God, I want to kiss you,” she breathed, struggling to look away. Butterflies filled her stomach at the realization of just how severe her want was, and she found herself once again wishing she had the chance.

Cosette shook her head, trying to force away the nervousness she was suddenly feeling from being so close. “I think I’m just going to go nap for a while, all right?”

A look of disappointment flashed across Eponine’s face for a moment before her eyes went blank. She nodded. “All right. I’ll be here when you wake up.” She gave the blonde a shy smile.

Cosette smiled back. “Good.”

***

When Cosette awoke a couple of hours later, Eponine’s staring was the first thing that she saw. She smiled at the brunette before saying, “Hey, you.”

Eponine smiled back. “Hey, yourself.” She opened her mouth to say more before closing it, a loud series of knocks on the front door downstairs cutting her off. She gave Cosette look of confusion. “Were you expecting someone?”

Cosette shook her head. “No, I wasn’t. We should go and check it out, though, see if it’s important.” Eponine nodded. The girls got up and made their way downstairs. Eponine walked over to the couch and sat down, waiting patiently while Cosette went to answer the door.

Cosette pulled back the wood to see a woman walking away from the door, a toddler held tightly in her arms. Shewatched them for a moment before stepping out of the house and shutting the door behind her. “Excuse me,” she called, stepping off the porch and towards the duo.

The young woman turned around, her high cheekbones and bright viridian eyes reflecting the sunlight. Cosette gave her a smile before walking over to her. “Can I help you?”

The woman smiled back. She nudged the toddler, who held a plate of brownies up in Cosette’s direction. Once the she had taken the brownies, the toddler turned and buried her head against the woman’s shoulder, her light blonde pigtails swinging as she moved. The woman kissed the toddler on the head before holding out her hand. “My name is Allison Maxwell, and this is my daughter, Corrie. We live just across the street.” She gestured to a yellow brick two-story with bright red shutters. “I hadn’t had time to come and meet you yet, even though you have been living here for almost five months, so I wanted to bring a treat for you and your husband.”

“Husband?” Cosette snorted. “No. Enjolras’s my brother. I’m not married.”

Allison flushed in embarrassment. “Oh! My mistake. I’m sorry.”

Cosette laughed and shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. Thanks for the brownies.” She smiled.

Allison smiled back. “It was my pleasure.” She kissed Corrie on the head again before glancing to Cosette’s home. “It’s such a shame about what happened to the last family that owned this house.”

“I wasn’t told anything about that. What happened?”

Allison thought back for a moment before answering. “When I first moved in, Corrie was only a few weeks old, and there was two young women and a little boy living here. I believe that the women were sisters?” She shook her head. “Anyway, the youngest of the women passed away sometime last June. The oldest wasn’t able to cope with it, and put the house for sale that same week. Moved out that week, too. It was too painful for her to stick around without her sister there.”

A stab of realization rushed through Cosette as she realized what this could mean. She may have found the answer to why Eponine was stuck haunting the house! “That’s such a shame. What were their names?” 

The brunette thought for a moment before shaking her head. “We weren’t all that close, unfortunately. I was too busy trying to work and raise a newborn by myself to really get to know them. I believe that the sister’s name was Lori? Or Eponine?” she shook her head. “I can’t remember for sure, but I’m pretty sure that her name started with an L.” Corrie pulled at her mother’s hair, causing Allison to laugh. “Well, I guess that Corrie is ready to go home. I hope that we are able to talk more the longer than you live here.” She gave Cosette warm smile.

Cosette nodded, smiling back. “I’d like that.” She watched as the duo left before turning back to the house and going inside. As she shut the door behind her, she turned to Eponine. She paused for a moment before saying, “I may have figured out why you’re in this house.”

6

Eponine narrowed her eyes in. “What?”

Cosette gestured towards the door before walking over and collapsing back down on the couch. She shrugged, the corner of her lip quirking to the side nervously. “That woman at the door, Allison, said that when she moved in, there was a girl, her sister, and a little boy living here. Allison was pretty sure that the girl’s name was Eponine, so maybe it was you.”

Eponine swung her legs around and sat up straighter. “Really? What else did she say?”

Cosette thought back to the conversation. “Well, she said that that Eponine passed away about a year ago, and that her sister put the house up for sale almost immediately after. Apparently the sister was too heartbroken to stay there any longer, and hasn’t been back since.”

“Did she say how the girl died?” Eponine asked, a hint of excitement to her voice as she thought about the possibility of knowing how she got in this state. Cosette shifted nervously under the girl’s intense gaze, her blue eyes wide and bright, before shaking her head. Eponine deflated immediately, letting out a quiet, “Oh,” as she sank back into the couch.

The blonde smiled apologetically at the girl before saying, “Well, at least we have a timeline now, right? You died in June, and entered the house in December.” She paused, shrugging. “Well, that’s six months missing, though. What’s the last thing that you remember before you died? You don’t remember living here, right?”

Eponine nodded. “Yeah, last I remember, I was trapped under my parents’ watchful gazes at their home, still.” She shrugged, thinking back to her last memory.“I was spending the day with my sister and her son, Lucas, at her apartment, since she wasn’t allowed at my parents’ house, and we were marathoning the Land Before Time movies.”

“Why wasn’t she allowed there?”

Eponine didn’t say anything for a moment before shrugging. “My parents didn’t approve of her lifestyle. Azelma was seventeen when she got pregnant with Lucas, and they kicked her out as soon as they found out she wouldn’t give the baby up for adoption.” She made a face, rolling her eyes. “They didn’t approve of anything that, in their eyes, ‘shamed’ their perfect little cookie-cutter, Catholic family.”

Cosette snorted. “I know how that is. My first girlfriend came from a family just like that. It was the reason that we broke up, actually.” She shook her head before looking up. “I guess they didn’t have any idea about you being gay, huh?”

Eponine’s eyes widened and she gave a forced chuckle. “Hell no. They would have kicked me out in an instant if they ever found out.” She went quiet for a moment, running a hand through her hair before idly tracing patterns on the couch with the tip of her finger. Eventually, she whispered, “Do you think that’s why I lived with Azelma? Because they found out?”

“I really don’t know, Eponine, but I would have to assume that that could be an extremely plausible reason.”

“Did your parents know about you and Enj?”

Cosette nodded. “Yeah, I came out when I was twenty, and Enj came out at fourteen.” She laughed. “We all knew he was gay, though, ever since he was a little kid. I was just a bit slower on the uptake for myself.” She paused, listening as she heard a key turn in the lock of the front door, signaling Enjolras’s arrival home. “Speak of the devil,” she muttered before moving over to give Enjolras space to sit down with them.

The boy made a face at his sister before plopping down on the couch next to the girls. “So, ladies, what are you two up to this fine afternoon?”

“We’re just chatting, Enj,” Eponine said before standing and moving closer to Cosette, sitting down and positioning her arm so that it rested as close to her shoulder as it could without going through.

Enjolras smirked before nodding. “All right. Talking. Well, how about we do something that doesn’t involve entertaining each other with talking, yeah? How about we turn on a movie or something?”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Cosette responded after a moment, turning to look at Eponine. “What was your favorite show when you were still alive?”

Eponine pursed her lips in thought, her eyes and nose squinted up in a way that Cosette could only call adorable. “Xena,” the brunette said after a moment, shrugging nonchalantly as Cosette laughed.

“We used to love that show,” she said, leaning towards the coffee table and grabbing the Xbox controller. She quickly turned on Netflix and scrolled through until she got her list, flipping through the episodes until Enjolras finally suggested one partway through season five. She leaned back against the couch as the episode began to play.

After a few moments, Cosette grew bored with the show, as the episode that Enjolras had chosen was one that she had seen many, many times, as it was the boy’s favorite, and the one he almost always chose when it was his choice. She chose to stare at Eponine instead.

The girl was beautiful. There wasn’t any way around it. She had smooth, albeit discolored, skin, and her long brown hair fell in gentle waves over her shoulders. Her features were delicate and feminine, from her almond-shaped eyes to the full pout of her lips. Cosette let her eyes flicker down the girl’s body. The brunette was slender, yes, but she had full breasts and a petite waist that lead down to her voluptuous hips that Cosette couldn’t help but wish she could dig her fingers into. She wondered if there were as many bruises beneath her clothes as were visible on her bare skin, and if any marks she left with her hands or mouth would make the skin any more blotchy.

Cosette was broken from her trance when a pair of ice blue eyes turned to her, Eponine raising an eyebrow in confusion. She shook her head and gave the girl a shy smile before turning her focus back to the screen. After a moment, however, she found her eyes being pulled to the brunette once again. She stuck out her tongue playfully at the other girl when she saw the way that Eponine’s eyes were tracking down her body.

A booming laugh made Cosette’s attention to shift towards her brother. When she gave him a questioning look, though, Enjolras waved his hand to get his sister’s attention away from him. It worked temporarily, but when Enjolras started cracking up again during a very serious part of the episode, Cosette reached over to the controller and paused the show. “Okay, Enj, what’s so funny?” she asked, rolling her eyes at the affronted look her brother had gained in response to the pausing.

The boy shook his head, laughing again before answering. “I was just remembering that one year that you, Mia Rose, Jules, and I dressed up like Xena characters for Mom and Dad’s Halloween party.”

Cosette started laughing as well, images of her siblings and herself acting out scenes in front of the guests swirling around her mind. “I forgot all about that! Mom and Dad were so entertained, they kept making us act out scenes from other shows for, like, three weeks afterward.”

“What did you dress as?” Eponine asked, pulling Cosette’s eyes back to her again.

Cosette smiled flirtatiously. “Why, can’t you see it?”

Eponine looked back and forth between the siblings for a moment, a look of concentration on her face, before she shook her head. “No, I really don’t have any idea. Aphrodite and Ares for you two, maybe?”

Enjolras chuckled and shook his head. “Oh, no, no, no.” He paused for a moment, before quirking up a side of his lips and winking at Cosette. “Well, Jules dressed up as Aphrodite, but none of the rest of us were Gods. I was Joxer, Cosette was Gabrielle, and Mia was Callisto.”

Eponine snorted. “No Xena?”

Cosette shook her head. “Nope. Other than Enj, all of us girls are blondes. Jules considered being Xena, but she decided that she’d rather not have to change her hair just for one night.” She thought for a moment before saying, “You know, I’m pretty sure that we have pictures of it in one of the photo albums that I have in my closet, if you’d like to see.”

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

Cosette pushed herself off the couch and made her way up to her bedroom. She opened the closet and pulled down the stack of photo albums, staring at them for a moment before realizing which album her parents had placed the photos in. A feeling of dread filled her stomach as she stared at the album mutely. Could she really look through these images? She had spent over a year avoiding them . . . could she really do it now? You could just tell Eponine that you couldn’t find the photos, Cosette reminded herself, feeling small in her own room before she shook her head. No. She could do this. It would help her get closure, help her move on.

With that thought in mind, Cosette pulled the hefty album to her chest and made her way back downstairs, not missing the way that Enjolras’s eyes widened when he saw the light pink book that was in her hands. He gave her a concerned look as she placed it down on the table. She shook her head before pulling open the cover, flipping through a few pages until she found the images of the party. She stared at the image before turning the book around.

“There,” she said, pointing to an image of the four of them, their arms wrapped around one another as they stood in costume. Eponine cocked her head to the side as she studied the image before she chuckled.

“Yeah, still don’t see the resemblance. Your abs rival Renee’s, but that’s about it.” Eponine winked, laughing when the blonde sputtered in response.  Her wandered down to Cosette’s lips before she bit her own lip and looked back up at the blonde, the desire obvious in her eyes. She cleared her throat before looking back down the album. “Can I see more?”

Cosette nodded before slowly flipping through more pages, her stomach growing heavier as she neared the midway point of the album. Her fingers began to shake as she started to turn the page, only to be stopped by Enjolras firmly placing his hand over hers. “All right, I think that’s enough pictures for today.”

Cosette shook her head, swallowing thickly as the tremor in her hand worsened. “No, Enj, it’s fine. I need to look at these eventually.” She took a deep breath and swallowed again. “No time like the present, right?”

When Enjolras nodded uncertainly, Cosette bit her lip and turned the page to a picture of Enjolras and Mia Rose gathered around a crib, peaking in at a pale pink bundle that was resting in its confinement. Adjacent to the image was a series of pictures of Jenny and Michael Fauchelevent holding a wide-eyed babied girl, adoration evident in their eyes. Cosette continued to turn through the pages, her chest beginning to ache as she looked at the images of different members of her family holding the infant.

Eponine looked at the pictures in confusion, her eyebrows furrowed. “Cosette, who is that?” she asked, cocking her head to the side as she tried to discern the baby’s relation to the rest of the family.

Cosette cleared her throat before running her finger over an image of the baby resting against Mia Rose’s Great Dane, Carlisle. “That’s my daughter, Libby.”

Eponine’s gaze shot up at that, her bright blue eyes bright and confused. “You have a daughter?”

“Cosette, you don’t have to talk about this,” Enjolras interjected before Cosette had a chance to respond, reaching out and placing his hand on her knee. Cosette shook her head before pushing him away. He, however, was determined to comfort his sister, and moved so that he was sitting on her opposite side. He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a tight hug, which Cosette returned.

It took a few tries before the blonde was able to properly articulate anything. “I did have a daughter, yes. When I,” Cosette started, her voice cracking. She paused for a moment to take a deep breath before starting over. “When I was nineteen, I wasn’t sure about my sexuality. One weekend, I decided to go to a frat party with some friends of mine. I had a bit too much to drink, and ended up going with some guy who’s name I don’t even remember anymore, and we had sex. I ended up getting pregnant and, once I found out, I transferred to a university in Springfield so that I could live with my parents and have their help watching my baby while I finished my education.”

She shook her head, the memories that she had been trying so hard to repress filling the forefront of her brain and making her feel sick to her stomach as she forced herself not to cry. “I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl the following April, and named her Lily Beth, but everyone ended calling her Libby once she started to introduce herself as such when she was two. She had trouble saying Lily Beth, and it came out ‘Libby’.” Cosette chuckled at the memory of the toddler hobbling around Cosette’sparents’ living room at Christmas, standing by all Cosette’s cousins and other relatives, and introducing herself as Libby Cow-way.

Cosette’s face turned solemn as she began to speak about the tragedy that had fallen upon her sweet baby girl. “One night, after I had moved out of my parents’ house and into an apartment of my own, I dropped Libby off at my parents’ so that I could go and see a movie with the other third-grade teachers that I had been working with at the time.” Her breath caught, making it difficult for her to continue. But she had to, she knew this. If she didn’t, she would keep pretending that it had never happened, and would continue to push it back further and further into her memories.

After a moment, Cosette continued, her voice tight. “Mom and Dad decided to take Libby to go and see some new animated movie that they thought that she would enjoy, and, on the ride home . . . ” she trailed off. Enjolras hugged her encouragingly. Cosette let out a shuddering breath before continuing. “Some drunken idiot was texting and driving, and his car slammed into the side of Dad’s SUV when they were on the highway. Dad wasn’t able to control the vehicle, and ended up wrapping the car around a cement pole that was holding up the overpass.”

“Oh, my God . . . ” Eponine breathed, her eyes wide and her jaw gaping.

“Mom and Dad . . . they were killed on impact, but the paramedics were able to get Libby out of the car. She lived long enough for me to hold my baby girl in my arms one last time and tell her goodbye.” Cosette looked up and locked her eyes with Eponine, the pain from her chest expanding through her entire body. “I watched my daughter die that night. In aninstant, I lost three of the most important people in my life. That’s why Enj and I moved here. I finished out the school year then quit my job and, once Enjolras had officially graduated from college, we decided to move out here and make a new start, away from the memories of Libby and our parents.” She stood, swallowing thickly as she forced back tears. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to my room.”

Cosette didn’t wait for a response before walking away.

7

Cosette made her way up the steps, her legs trembling as she fought to keep herself from breaking down. She ground her teeth together before jumping over the last step and walking into the room, shutting and locking the door behind her as she blinked back tears. She walked slowly over to her bed before throwing off her pillows and pulling back the silk sheets. 

Cosette sank down onto the bed, the tears finally beginning to fall. She pressed her palms against her eyes as she curled in a ball. She missed her little girl more than anything in the world. Libby had only been five when she was taken from Cosette! She had been so young . . . There was so much of her life that she’d never get to experience. Libby would never learn to drive a car, never struggle through her ACTs, never have her first kiss. Cosette would never get to embarrass Libby in front of the first boy or girl that she brought home, would never get to buy a prom dress with her daughter, would never get to see children of Libby’s own . . . all of her dreams for her sweet girl, lost in a single second.

Cosette sniffed heavily as she turned to reach over the edge of the bed and pulled a pillow back onto the bed. She wrapped her arms around it before burying her face in the soft fabric, the cotton absorbing her tears as they streamed down her cheeks.

“Calm down, Cosette,” she chided herself as she pinched the bridge of her nose, trying desperately to get the tears to stop. She shook her head and forced herself to focus on the happier memories that they had together, such as vacations and trips to the zoo.

She sat up slowly, pushing the pillow away as she swung her feet around. She moved until she was perched on the edge of the bed. She curled her fingers around the edge of the mattress before standing up and making her way across the room.

Cosette stared at the closet for a moment before walking over and crouching down, moving her clothes to the side as she reached to the very back to pull out a large white box. She pulled her legs out from under her, moving to sit cross-legged on the floor as she pulled off the lid.

Cosette glanced inside the box before pulling it closer, gently pulling out the faded pink blanket that her mother had knitted for Libby when she was born. She stared at it for a moment before holding it up, rubbing her cheek against the yarn before she placed it on her lap. She reached back into the box, pulling out article after article of clothing, which she folded and placed on the floor at her side.

Cosette grimaced as something fuzzy met her hand. She dug further into the box until she located the item, letting out a strained laugh when she found what she was looking for. Libby’s favorite toy: a fuzzy orange stuffed duck named Scuba. It was missing an eye as well as its tail, and one of the wings was decorated with swirls of blue and purple from the time that Libby had gotten a hold of the pack of permanent markers that Cosette had kept in her office for grading. She had been so angry when she had found out what Libby had done, but now, looking at the colorful bird in her hand, she couldn’t help but laugh.

She stood and walked back over to her bed, kissing Scuba on the beak before putting him down on her pillow. She came back over to the closet and sat back down, pulling the box towards her once again. She shuffled through it for a few moments before stopping and pulling out a bright yellow frame. Cosette smiled, running her finger over the photo as she took the image in. Cosette had been down on one knee, her arms around Libby’s waist, and was smiling fondly at her daughter, while Libby was beaming at a boxer puppy that was resting in her arms. Cosette smiled as she thought back to the day that the photo had been taken. 

Cosette’s work day had ended early when the school’s power gave out, leaving the building of three-hundred grade-schoolers to attempt to learn in the dark. The principal had instructed all the teachers to ensure that all their students got home safely but, once they had, they were free to leave if they so wished. Cosette used that opportunity to get her now-four-year-old daughter the birthday present that she had been asking for, for over a year: a puppy.

She pulled into the parking lot of the daycare before going inside and telling the secretary that she was there to pick Libby up. One phone call and a few minutes later, the tiny brunette walked out hand-in-hand with a young blonde woman, a princess backpack on her shoulders. Her face lit up as she caught sight of Cosette. She let go of her teacher’s hand before running to her mother. “Mommy!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around Cosette’s legs and smiling up at her. “You’re early!”

Cosette crouched down and kissed her daughter on the cheek before hugging her back. “I know I am, sweetie. Mommy got out of work early, so she figured that she’d take you to see your birthday surprise.”

Libby started bouncing in place excitedly. “Surprise?!”

Cosette laughed and picked her up before heading to the car. “Yeah, a surprise. You’ll find out what it is in a little bit, okay?” She kissed Libby on the forehead as she buckled her into her booster seat. The child nodded before throwing her backpack in the seat next to her, swinging her bright pink tennis shoes back and forth so that they slammed against the base of the seat. She began to sing to herself as Cosette turned on the radio, keeping herself entertained for the entirety of the ride.

Twenty minutes later, the duo reached a small, cozy-looking white house with a dark gray roof and blue shutters, a thick layer of ivy creeping up around the drain and the corner of the building. Cosette got out of the car before she circled around to her daughter, excitement bubbling in her belly. She unbuckled Libby before pulling a blindfold out of her pocket. “I’m going to put this over your eyes so you don’t peak, all right, sweetheart?” she asked, showing her daughter the fabric. When Libby nodded, Cosette gave her a smile before covering up her eyes and lifting her out of the car onto her hip.

Regardless of the residential-look of the building, it was not a home at all: it was a pet store that Cosette had worked at when she was in high school. When she had decided that this was what she wanted to give Libby for her fourth birthday, Cosette had called up her old boss, the owner, and asked him if he would cut her a deal on one of his puppies. He had come to view the blonde as a daughter over the years, and like an uncle to the beautiful brunette that she had brought into the world, and agreed to give his girls one for free before Cosette had even been able to finish her request.

Cosette carried the child into the building and to the basement, smiling at the kindly old man who was standing in front of the enclosure of a solitary ball python. The man’s face lit up when he saw the girls, and he approached them happily as Cosette removed the bandana from Libby’s eyes, making sure that they were facing away from the puppies. “Uncle Andy!” Libby squealed, holding her arms out for the elderly man to take her in his arms. “Mommy brought me here as a surprise!” She wrapped her legs around his beer belly as she buried his face in his fluffy white beard. “I missed you, Uncle Andy!”

Andy laughed, hugging the child back. “I missed you too, Miss Libby, but I’m not your surprise. Do you want to see what it is?” Libby nodded enthusiastically. Andy smiled at her. “All right. You need to cover your eyes first!”

Libby put her hands over her eyes. Andy winked at Cosette before carrying the child over to the puppy pen and gently placing her down inside. He instructed her to keep her eyes closed before taking one of her hands and holding it out to a tiny Pomeranian. When it licked at her fingers, Libby let out a loud squeal and opened her eyes. “Puppies!” she exclaimed, running into the middle of the pen and sitting down so that the dogs could crawl all over her. She looked up at her mother excitedly as one stumbled over to her on wobbly legs. “Can I play with them, Mommy? Please?”

Cosette laughed. “Of course you can, sweetheart. That’s why Uncle Andy put you in the pen.”

Libby squealed again before reaching over the schnauzer puppy that had greeted her and petting it gently behind the ears like she did with Mia Rose’s Great Danes. A black lab and a poodle puppy made their way over to her as well, although Libby’s attention was quickly stolen by a three-legged boxer puppy that was laying in the corner with sad eyes. She moved the other puppies aside before crawling over to the boxer and pulling it into her lap gently.

“Hello,” she cooed, leaning down and kissing the puppy on the head. “Why are you sad?” She scratched the puppy behind its ears before kissing it again. “Are you sad because you are missing a leg?”

The child turned the boxer around to face her own leg, the prosthetic clearly visible from her left knee, down to her tennis shoes. “See? I am missing one, too, and I’m happy! What happened to yours?” She picked it up and looked in its eyes, her own squinting up in thought. “Mommy says that God made me extra-special when I was born, because I get to have a pretty silver leg that I can take off whenever I want while all the other kids have to keep theirs.”

As Libby talked, the puppy began to perk up, its entire body wagging in excitement as it stood on its singular hind-leg to lick at the girl’s face. Cosette smiled at Andy before nodding that yes, this little dog that Libby was fawning over would be the one that they would take home. Andy gave his own nod in response before saying, “Hey, Libster? I need you to do me a favor, all right? Can you bring me that puppy that you’re holding, please?”

A look of sadness crossed Libby’s face as she thought about giving up the puppy, but she did as she was told. Andy shifted the dog to rest in the crook of his elbow before he grabbed Libby around the waist with his free arm and lifted her out of the pen. He led the girl over to a shelving unit against the wall that was filled with leashes and collars of all shapes, sizes, styles, and colors. “Can you pick out a leash and a collar for this little guy for me?”

Libby nodded, her face scrunching up in concentration as she picked through the items. After a moment, she made a decision, and handed Andy a sapphire blue collar and an acid-yellow leash. Andy nodded before placing both items on the dog. He set the puppy down on the floor before handing Libby the leash gently. “Those are mighty fine choices. Can you name him for me?”

Libby stared at the dog for a few minutes before quietly saying, “Scout.”

Andy nodded. “That’s a good name. Can you do me one more favor? You can play with more animals once you are done.” Libby said that she could. Andy kissed her on the forehead before picking Scout up and placing him in the child’s arms. “Can you give Scout a good home and do whatever your Mommy asks you to do to take care of him?”

A wide smile broke across Andy’s face as the child turned to Cosette excitedly to see if what the elderly man said was true, letting out a happy shriek when her mother let out a smile and a nod. She ran over to her mother and set the dog down, hugging the elder woman around the legs. “Thank you, Mommy! Thank you!”

Cosette laughed and ruffled her daughter’s hair before leaning down to kiss the top of her head. “You’re welcome, baby. Remember, though, you have to help Mommy take care of him.”

Libby nodded enthusiastically. “I promise, Mommy!”

“Good.” Cosette squatted down to pat at the puppy’s head before pulling her daughter into a hug.

Andy made his way over and swept both of the girls into a hug before he pulled away to grab his camera to take a picture of the new family.

Andy had given Cosette a copy of the picture a few days later. Scout was well-loved, and quickly became Libby’s best friend. They did everything together. Scout had become a big part of Cosette’s life, as well, and she found that she came to love the boxer nearly as much as her daughter had, even going so far to set up a curtained-off section of Libby’s bedroom for the canine to rest in while the child slept.

 After Libby had passed away, however, Cosette found herself unable to care for the sweet boxer any longer, and had given him away to a young couple three doors down. They had sworn to take good care of him, promising Cosette that they would stay in touch and update her on how Scout was doing. While Cosette was thankful for the consideration, the mere mention of the dog and Libby’s friendship made her heart clench. She had to decline.

Ahem. Cosette glanced up to see Eponine standing in the room, her back pressed against the door as she nervously ran her fingers through her hair. Cosette shook her head before pushing herself off the ground.

She sat down on the bed and sighed, quietly musing for a moment before glancing over at Eponine and beckoning her over.

“I’m sorry,” Eponine whispered as she sat down. Chills wracked Cosette’s body as the brunette reached out an arm, letting it hover above her shoulders comfortingly. She glanced over to see Eponine looking at her sadly, her lips drawn in a tight smile as she ground her teeth. “Enjolras showed me the rest of the album. Libby was beautiful.”

Cosette let out a pained laugh. “Yeah, she really was. She was the most beautiful child I have ever seen.” She shook her head. “You don’t need to apologize. I can’t keep bottling all of my emotions and thoughts about her . . . I can’t pretend that she didn’t exist, or that the accident never happened. I’ll never move on if I don’t let myself feel it.”

And feel it Cosette did. Before she could ever finish the sentence, she was doubled over, her head buried in her hands as she sobbed. “I-it just hurts so much,” she moaned, sniffing loudly as she breathing quickened. “A-a child s-should never go b-before her m-mother.” Cosette shivered as she felt Eponine press a hand comfortingly to her lower back, the icy feeling sending goosebumps across her skin.

After a few minutes, Cosette pressed the heel of her hands against her eyes as the tears slowed to a stop. She gave Eponine another pained smile as she struggled to push down her sorrow once again, even though she knew that she shouldn’t. At least I acknowledged it, she thought to herself. That’s the first step to moving on, isn’t it? Admitting that something really happened.

Eponine smiled back, her lips still tight before she said, “Cosette . . . can I try something? Try to comfort you in a different way?”

Cosette gave her a look of confusion before nodding. Eponine took a deep breath before putting a hand on the bed next to Cosette’s thigh. She leaned forward slowly, lightly putting her lips against Cosette’s forehead. Cosette shivered almost immediately, the ice from Eponine’s touch chilling her to the core before warming her as her heart began to race.

Eponine pulled back, looking Cosette straight in the eyes. She gasped when she saw the passion displayed there. Eponine paused for a moment before raising the hand that was not supporting herself and holding it next to Cosette’s face, biting her lip lightly.

“What is it?” Cosette found herself asking, her voice breathless.

Eponine said nothing for a moment before taking another deep breath and whispering, “I know this isn’t the best time, but—I love you, Cosette.”

8

Cosette stared at Eponine in shock, her eyes wide at the girl’s confession. How was she supposed to react to something like that? She had barely just stopped her heart from breaking at the thoughts of her little girl, and now she was supposed to face the fact that Eponine had somehow fallen in love with her? Was she supposed to tell that girl that she loved her, as well? Eponine wasn’t even a real person. She was just a figment of reality that happened to be stuck between the real world and the veil of death. Cosette couldn’t possibly be in love with her.

The more that Cosette thought about it, though, the more she realized that that wasn’t true. It was extremely possible for her to be in love. Take Hannah, a friend from high school, for example. Hannah had fallen in love with her now-husband, Michel, after they met online in a chat-room for people who had lost a sibling to suicide. They talked online for two years before meeting face to face. Eponine and Cosette’s relationship was essentially the same thing, wasn’t it? If Michel and Hannah had fallen in love without ever being physically together, couldn’t the same thing be true for Eponine and Cosette?

Yes, Cosette realized, her heart pumping wildly as she stared at her friend. It didn’t matter that Eponine was just a spirit, Cosette had grown accustomed to coming home to the brunette every day and falling asleep next to her every night during the last few months and, somewhere along the line, her emotions had changed from friendship and lust to love.

Cosette opened her mouth to respond to Eponine’s confession, only to be cut off  whenthe girl shook her head, her shoulders slumping and her face hanging towards her lap. “It’s fine if you don’t feel the same way,” Eponine said, her voice quiet and shaky, “but I just wanted you to know. I understand, though, that what you need is someone who you can actually be with.”

Eponine began to fade away, only brightening back up when Cosette yelled, “Wait!”

The spirit came back to full capacity, her brows furrowing at her beloved as she waited to hear the rejection she was so sure was coming. Cosette took a deep breath before saying, “I love you, too.”

Eponine’s face dropped once the words were spoken. “Like I said, it’s fine that you don’t—” she trailed off, her eyes shooting up at Cosette and her mouth dropping open. “Wait, what did you say?”

Cosette chuckled, shaking her head. “I said that I love you, too, Eponine,” she teased, winking when the brunette’s face lit up. She smiled widely before her expression changed, her eyes turning sad and her smile facing. Cosette narrowed her eyes in concern. “What’s wrong?”

The brunette was quiet for a moment before responding, her eyes trained on the floor. “You’re everything that I wished for when I was growing up: beautiful, funny, smart, and one of the most caring people that I have ever met. I just wished that this could be real, that we could actually have a relationship.” She shook her head. “I guess it’s just my luck that when I finally fall in love, I don’t even get a real chance to explore it.”

Cosette’s shoulders slumped as she agreed with the statement before they perked back up. Who said that a relationship had to be physical or lead to something more in order to be real? Why couldn’t they be happy together, just having this? She chewed her lip before saying,“Well, why can’t we try? Obviously being together wouldn’t ever lead to marriage or a family, but you make me happy, and I’m pretty sure I make you happy, too, so why don’t we just go from there?”

Cosette let out a slight grin as she remembered what Hannah and Michel did when they lived on opposite sides of the world: virtual dates. She jumped off the bed and moved to the dresser to grab her laptop before bringing it back to the bed. She opened up Skype before staring at the screen for a moment, trying to remember Enjolras’s contact information.

A few minutes (and several failed attempts) later, Cosette had successfully logged in to her brother’s account. She clicked on the icon to her user before turning the screen towards Eponine and clicking the “answer” button when the Skype application on her phone began to beep. “Stay here,” she insisted before walking out of the room and running down to the kitchen. She clicked through her settings until the camera was reversed, the bottom left corner of the screen filling up with her face. She winked before saying, “Okay, Eponine, can you see me?”       

Eponine’s voice came from directly in front of the screen. “Yeah, I can. Why are we doing this?”

Cosette winked at the screen before signaling “one second” and moving into the living room, where Enjolras was still sitting on the couch. He was flipping his phone in one hand and chewing on the nails of his other, his eyes still locked on one of the albums. Cosette cleared her throat softly, trying to get his attention. He glanced over, his eyes widening before he stood up and walked over, pulling his sister into a tight hug. “Hey, are you sure that you’re okay?” he asked, hugging her tighter before pulling away and looking her in the eye. Cosette nodded. Enjolras gave her a look that said that he clearly didn’t believe her. “Are you positive?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I have to talk about her sometime, don’t I?” Cosette responded, shrugging off the emotion that was threatening fill her stomach once again. She gave Enjolras a tight smile. “Hey, can you do me a favor? Can you go up to my room and turn my camera so that it’s facing my full-length mirror?”

Enjolras nodded before reaching over to Cosette’s phone and hitting the “mute” button so that Eponine couldn’t hear what he was saying. “Yeah, I will, in a minute. I want to talk to you about something, first.” He gave her a nervous look before guiding his sister back onto the couch. “I am going to ask you something, and I want you to answer honestly.”

“And once I answer, you’ll turn my laptop?”

Enjolras rolled his eyes before nodding. “Yes, I will turn your God-damned laptop.” He shook his head and rolled his eyes again. “All right. Onto my question.” He took a deep breath before positioning himself to lock his eyes onto Cosette’s. “Are you in love with Eponine?” Cosette sighed before nodding. Enjolras nodded back. “All right. Are you sure that you are going to be able to handle the hurt that is guaranteed to come with this relationship, since you two will never really  be able to be together?”

Cosette rolled her eyes, her memory flashing back to the conversation she had just had with Eponine,  “Enj, I know that. I understand what this relationship will be like, but Eponine makes me happy. I can deal with never being able to touch her or be with her physically, as long as she is still in my life in some fashion.”

Enjolras gave Cosette a smile before pulling her into another hug. “All right. Good to know. I’ll go turn the laptop, now.” He kissed her lightly on the cheek before going upstairs and doing what his sister asked. Cosette stared down at her phone, giving a slight cheer when the view of her room changed to a view of the full-length mirror attached to her bathroom door.

Cosette waited for Enjolras to come back downstairs before speaking to Eponine again. “Okay, move so you’re sitting in front of the mirror.” She waited patiently while the other girl did what she asked, a huge grin breaking across her face when she was able to see the brunette clearly. “Woo! I can see you!”

Eponine rolled her eyes, but she was clearly surprised that she was visible on camera. “What is this for, Cosette?” She turned her eyes down to the screen, crossing her legs and leaning against her palm as she stared at the screen.

Cosette winked at her. “Well, we might not be able to go on dates together, but we can see the same things if we go on Skype dates.” She shrugged, butterflies suddenly filling her stomach at the look of uncertainty filling her beloved’s face. Her smile fell.  “I just figured, uhm, that it’s as close as we could get to really dating, so why don’t we give it a shot?” She shrugged her shoulders and looked away. When Eponine remained silent, Cosette looked back at the screen, the butterflies turning to stone and dropping heavily. “Just if you want to, that is.”

Eponine considered it for a moment before a soft smile came across her face. “All right. We’ll try it.” Cosette’s smile came back full force. The brunette tapped her lip in thought for a moment before saying, “You know, I always wanted to go on a picnic at Castlewood State Park with a girl. I thought it would be romantic to have a date on the cliffs.”

Cosette nodded, the park name sparking in her mind as a place that she had passed during one of her runs. “Cool. We’ll do that, then.”  She minimized the Skype application before opening up MapQuest and figuring out how to get to the park, as she couldn’t remember just which running route the park had been on. She went to the hall closet to grab her back pack and a second jacket and to the kitchen to grab a water bottle before making her way out to the car. “Okay, Eponine, don’t move,” she said, turning on the car and pulling out onto the road. “We’ll use Skype to communicate over the next few hours, and for that I kind of need you to stay there.” She flickered her eyes to the screen before looking back at the road, laughing at the seriously? look that the other girl was giving her.

Eponine  shifted so that she was leaning back on her hands, chuckling. “I know how Skype works, Cosette. I haven’t been dead for that long.”

Cosette rolled her eyes, choosing to stay silent for the rest of the drive as she tried to figure out where she was going. On her way to the park, however, she drove through McDonalds so that Eponine could have the “picnic” that she had dreamed of.

Less than ten minutes later, Cosette pulled into a parking spot near the trail head that Eponine mentioned that she wanted to explore again. She held the phone so that it was facing outwards. Eponine sighed happily as the blonde moved slowly in a circle, allowing Eponine to see everything around her. Cosette had to admit, even the parking lot’s surroundings were beautiful.

 “Goodness, I forgot how beautiful this park is,” Eponine said, awe evident in her voice. “I used to come here when I was younger with my parents and Azelma, and I started running the paths myself when I was fifteen.”

Cosette looked around, a feeling of peace filling her as she got used to the quiet. It was nice to be able to hear singing birds and frogs without the sound of cars and the real world disrupting its beauty. “It really is gorgeous out here. I can see why you loved it so much.”

“Yeah, it really is,” Eponine agreed. Cosette flipped the phone around for a moment to see what expression the other girl was wearing. She was happy to see that Eponine had a soft smile on her face and an excited glint in her eyes. She stared for a moment before turning device back around so that Eponine could see the surroundings once again. The duo was quiet for a few more minutes until the younger girl said, “You know, you should try running some of the paths here sometime. My favorite one is closer to the car than this one, though, and goes away from the cliffs, rather than towards them.”

Cosette nodded. “All right. I’ll definitely have to do that.” She had used to love running trails when she lived in Springfield, especially with Scout. After she gave the dog away, though, she hadn’t really felt safe running trails by herself. Maybe it was time to adopt a puppy and start running in the woods again.

Cosette was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of Eponine clearing her throat. “Hey, Cosette, will you turn the phone around for me so that it’s facing you?”

Cosette did as she was asked, a look of concern etched onto her features. “Is something wrong?”

Eponine smiled at the mirror bashfully, shaking her head. “I just wanted to look at you,” she admitted, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. Her smile widened when Cosette looked at her lovingly, her eyes gentle. “I’m really enjoying this, Cosette. Thank you.”

“Hey, the pleasure is all mine,” Cosette said, winking playfully at her screen before she glanced back up at the path. She let out a groan as she saw the structure standing in the middle of the path. “Seriously, Eponine?” she moaned, turning the screen so that it was facing the massive staircase that led to the next section of the trail. From her spot at its base, Cosette could only see three flights, but she was sure that there were more stairs hiding beneath the camouflage of the canopy.

Eponine laughed. “I forgot all about that!” Cosette turned the phone back around to see Eponine shaking her head, a look of nostalgia on her face. She narrowed her eyes at the other girl’s amusement. The brunette stuck her tongue out at her before saying, “When Azelma and I were little, we counted them once. I think there was over three hundred?” She winked. “Oh well, at least I’m not the one climbing them.” She laughed and winked again when Cosette let out a groan.

“God, my legs are going to hurt so badly in the morning.” She gave the still-giggling girl a mock glare before taking the first step.

Eponine let out another laugh. “Sorry, baby,” she said, sticking her tongue out.

Cosette made a face at the camera before saying, “You know, I think I like it when you call me baby.” She gave Eponine a shy smile before continuing up the stairs, a grimace soon forming on her face as her quads began to protest the incline. As sweat began to drip down Cosette’s cheeks, she turned the camera on her phone around so that Eponine was once again staring at the surroundings, as opposed to Cosette’s looks of irritation and pain.

Eponine let out a protest at the change in her vision. “Not fair, Cosette. I want to see you. Turn the phone back around again.” Cosette groaned before doing as she was asked, pointedly looking away so she didn’t have to see the brunette’s reaction. Eponine, however, was content to stare, and let out a snort when she once again saw how red and sweaty Cosette had gotten during the first half of the climb. “You know, for how fit you are, you sure suck at stairs.”

Cosette glared at her again, pausing to lean against the railing as she struggled to catch her breath. “Hey, I’m the one doing all the climbing here.You’re sitting comfortably at home, so shush it, yeah?” She grabbed a sip of her water bottle from her bag before narrowing her eyes at the staircase again. “This better be worth it,” she grumbled, beginning to move again. Eponine was silent, letting Cosette make the decision for herself.

Five minutes later, Cosette finally reached the railed platform at the top, the sight taking her breath away. “Woah,” she said, her jaw dropping. She could see trees and the river for miles in all directions, the dark gray of the trees mixing with the mist coming off the river. Above the horizon, the sky was pure and light blue, with only a sparse mix of clouds hovering in the far east. “This is so beautiful, Eponine.” She glanced at the camera before turning it around so that Eponine could see exactly what she was seeing.

“I knew you’d love it,” Eponine said, her voice getting slightly lost as the wind blew. Cosette leaned against the railing of the balcony, pulling back when the other girl said, “Walk a little bit further up the path and I’ll show you an even better view. You should picnic there.”

“All right.”

Cosette made her way up the path, her legs protesting once again as she stumbled up the hill. She cast her eyes back to the trees every few minutes, glimpses of the river peeking through the bare branches. She found herself growing impatient to stop, the desire to simply stare at the scene battling with the desire to let her muscles rest. After a few more minutes, though, she neared a smooth rock, and Eponine instructed her to stop.

This view was so much better than the one that the platform presented. While Cosette had thought that she could see everything before, this view extended for miles more. In addition, she could see people biking on the path that she had started out on, and could see train tracks directly below her spot. She moved to sit cross-legged on the rock and pulled out her meal before showing Eponine a hawk that was flying overhead. “That bird is huge!”

“Yeah, there’s always a lot of birds of prey at the park. If you really want to see some cool birds, though, you should virtually go with me the Bird Sanctuary that’s, like, fifteen minutes from here on our next date.”

Cosette nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like fun.” She smiled at Eponine before positioning the phone against a tree so the other girl could see both her and the surroundings. Once she was satisfied with its location, she moved back onto the rock and quietly ate.

Once she had finished her meal, she glanced over to the phone to see Eponine staring at her, a look of adoration in her eyes. Cosette winked before shoving the trash in her backpack and standing, grabbing the phone and angling it towards the trail, deciding that she was more than ready to be as close to the girl as she possibly could.

“Okay, so how do I get out of here?”

***

Cosette pulled into the driveway, telling Eponine that she would see her again in a minute before hanging up Skype and shoving the phone into her jacket pocket. She shivered slightly as the wind blew, a light chill passing through the fabric and going straight to her bones. She pulled her jacket tighter around her chest before making her way into the house, a smile spreading across her cheeks as she glanced up the steps to see Eponine impatiently waiting for her, a bright smile gracing her own features.

Cosette walked up the steps and sidestepped the girl to head towards her bedroom, the brunette following close behind. She shut the door behind her before saying, “You know, I had a really, really great time, Eponine.”

Eponine’s smile grew as she nodded. “I did, too. It was the best date that I have ever had, even if we weren’t physically together.”

“I’m really glad that you suggested that park. It was so beautiful,” she said, letting her eyes cascade over her lover’s body as she considered what was really beautiful. Her eyes widened momentarily as she realized that something was different with the girl’s body than it had been when she had first appeared: the bruises and cuts that had marred her skin had begun to yellow and fade, taking away a lot of the grotesque misfortune that Eponine had been cursed with before.

She shook the thoughts from her head as she smiled shyly at Eponine. “I’m going to go and take a shower. Would you like to join me?” She winked. “You can watch, or . . . ”

“Or . . . ?” A mischievous glint flashed in Eponine’s eyes as she led the way towards the shower. Once she reached the tile, she turned and gave the blonde a pointed look before allowing her eyes to trail down Cosette’s body lustfully.  She took a step back through the glass doors into the shower to impatiently wait for Cosette to hurry up and come in.

Cosette laughed nervously before removing all of her clothing and turning the shower on, goose-bumps erupting across her flesh as she stepped under the stream and waited for it to warm up. Eponine’s eyes trailed over her again, her pupils dilating as she stared. “God, you are beyond stunning.” She traced her eyes from Cosette’s lips, down to across her nipples and abdomen to settle on the dripping tuft of dark blonde that rested in the apex of the older girl’s thighs. She leaned forward, her face drawing near to the blonde’s ear. “Do you trust me?”

Cosette nodded, her breath quickening as she watched Eponine’s eyes darken with desire. Eponine smirked, blowing a breath against the other girl’s ear before she pulled back. “Follow my hands,” she demanded, pulling her hand back and pulling it through the air directly in front of Cosette’s chest, smirking when Cosette did the same, her hand slipping to roll her nipples between her fingers as Eponine’s fingers hovered there.

Eponine made a keening noise in the back of her throat when Cosette let out a soft moan, her eyes flickering shut. She shook her head. “Keep your eyes open.”

Cosette did as she was asked, allowing her eyes to flutter back open as she glanced down at Eponine’s hand, shivering when the brunette moved close enough that the older girl could feel the cold oozing off her form. She let out anther moan when Eponine’s fingers trailed down to her inner thigh before landing on her clit. Cosette pressed down firmly, running her fingers in little circles as she wrenched her eyes away from Eponine’s fingers up to her eyes. She propped her leg up on the side of the tub to get better leverage before pressing harder.

“What do you want?” Eponine asked, letting her eyes break away from Cosette’s to crouch down until her eyes were level with the girl’s swollen clit, her eyes entranced by the circles.

Cosette let out a moan. “Please, baby. I want you to fuck me.”

Eponine shook her head. “No, I don’t think that I will yet.” She licked her lips before standing, her eyes locking with her lover’s once again. “I want you to keep playing with your clit while I enjoy the rest of your body.” She moved her hands so that they were hovering over Cosette’s breasts again before trailing her fingers across the soft flesh.

Cosette shivered as a shock of cold ran through the entirety of her body, spreading outward from where Eponine was touching her, pressing hard enough that the blonde could feel the movement without any digits falling through her heated skin. Beneath the cold, though, Cosette’s insides were burning, each caress from Eponine making her feel as though ever nerve had been set aflame. “Baby, please,” she begged, her fingers pressing harder against her clit as the circles grew more and more frantic. “Please fuck me.”

Eponine paused for a moment before leaning in to whisper in Cosette’s ear again. “Go ahead, sweetheart. I want you to pretend that those are my fingers fucking you, that it’s me that’s making you arch your back and whimper so desperately.”

Cosette slammed her fingers inside herself before letting out a loud moan, forcing her eyes to stay open so that she could stare into Eponine’s cerulean orbs. “Oh, baby, it’s all for you,” she panted, letting out another moan. She was incredibly close, and she knew that it wouldn’t take much longer for her to cum, especially not when Eponine was looking at her with such love and arousal in her eyes.

Sure enough, it only took a few more thrusts before Cosette fell over the edge, her entire body tightening and convulsing with pleasure as Eponine let out a moan of her own. Cosette collapsed against the shower wall, her head falling back and landing with a loud thunk as it smacked the porcelain. She barely noticed, still too lost in the intensity of her orgasm to care.

Once the girl’s racing heart had calmed back down to a steady beating, she smiled at Eponine. She leaned back against the shower wall, pressing her palms against the warm tile for a moment before pushing herself forward. “That was amazing, baby. I’m going to wash my hair and my body and then get out. Are you going to stay and watch or meet me in my room?”

Eponine thought about it for a moment before shrugging. “I’ll go ahead and wait on your bed.” She smiled back before blowing her kiss and fading into the shower tile. Cosette laughed and shook her head. She washed quickly before drying off and walking back into her bedroom.

Cosette glanced at Eponine, letting out a soft smile at the way that her lover was lounging on the bed, her dark brown hair splayed over the pillow as she watched Cosette get ready for bed. Cosette winked at her before turning to her closet and grabbing a pair of flamingo-covered boxer shorts and a soft grey tee shirt.

Once she was dressed, Cosette walked over to her bed, pulling back the covers next to Eponine and slipping in. “I’m suddenly so tired,” she murmured, letting out a loud yawn as she sank down against the pillow. She turned away from Eponine and arched her back, trying to get as close to the girl as she could without going through her as she started to drift asleep. “I love you,” she whispered, another yawn overcoming her.

Eponine laughed. Cosette felt a sudden chill as Eponine ghosted a hand over her shoulder before kissing the air above her forehead. “I love you, too, Cosette.”

Cosette smiled, finally falling into a happy sleep as she thought about her day. Best date ever.

9

“Okay, what do you think of turning it this way?”

“No, I think it look better the other way.” Cosette turned the caption on the photograph to the right, shifting it so it was under the magazine’s title. She smiled at Cody. “There! Much better.” She opened a file on the computer, pulling up several different images of a medieval farm. “Okay. Next question. What image do we want to use for the back cover?”

Cody shrugged, moving Cosette’s hand so that he could grab the mouse to click through the images. He stopped on one of a horse hitched to a post while a man worked a trade. “How about this one?”

Cosette nodded. “Yeah, I like that one.” She smiled at him as she transferred it to Photoshop. “Ready to learn how to work our magic on this picture, maybe switch the man’s face out with oureditor’s?” She winked.

Cody laughed. “Yeah, that sounds like fun.”

Cosette smiled before sliding the mouse over to Cody, catching something out of the corner of her eye. She glanced over. Enjolras? She narrowed her eyes. “Why is my brother here . . . ?” she murmured under her breath, looking the boy’s direction in confusion.

“What was that?”

Cosette snapped back to reality, looking back at Cody before glancing back to Enjolras. “Hey, Cody? Go to lunch, all right? We’ll come back to this in a hour.”

Cody looked over. “You sure?”

The blonde nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure.” The brunet shrugged before pushing up his glasses and straightening his bowtie. He made his way out of Cosette’s cubicle, passing Enjolras as he walked down the hall.

Cosette grabbed her purse before walking towards her brother. Once she reached him, she pulled him into a hug. “Hey, Enj! What are you doing here?”

Enjolras shrugged. “I just wanted to know if you wanted to grab lunch or something with me? I got off work early, so I figured I had nothing better to do then stop by here.”

Cosette gave Enjolras a look before she nodded, feeling as though Enjolras had a deeper motive than simply wanting to see his older sister. “Yeah, that sounds good. Where do you want to go?”

Enjolras shrugged. “Anywhere you want to go is fine with me.”

Cosette thought about it for a moment before leading Enjolras out of the office building and down the street towards an Indian restaurant that had just opened a few days previously. They quickly found seats and ordered their food. While they ate, they talked idly about their day. Once they neared the end of their meal, however, Enjolras finally spoke about what was on his mind. “Okay, so here’s the thing . . . ”

Cosette rolled her eyes as her brother paused. “I knew you had some sort of ulterior motive for inviting me out to lunch. What is it?”

Enjolras raised his eye brow at his sister before shaking his head. “So, apparently, Mia Rose, Jules and the kids are coming for a visit because Jules has a client here. . . .  I may have promised them that they could use the spare bedroom.”

Cosette’s brows rose and her eyes widened as she side, “Enj, you do remember that we don’t have a spare bedroom, right? That’s our office.”

Enjolras nodded. “Yeah, I know that. It just slipped out.” He toyed with his straw for a moment before saying, “They’re coming tomorrow.”

Cosette groaned. Her sister always did this to her. For Mia Rose and Jules, making plans more than one day in advance was complete blasphemy.  It became even worse after they had kids. “All right . . . I guess I will just go to Wal-Mart after work and pick up an air mattress and some sleeping bags, then.” Enjolras nodded, but did not say anything more. He picked at his food before sighing. Cosette looked at him with concern. “Enj, what’s up?”

The boy shook his head. “I don’t know if this should be a concern or not, but what about Eponine? What are we going to say if one of the kids or Mia Rose sees her?”

Cosette laughed before shaking her head. “Enj, do you really think we have to worry about that? We’re the only two people who have been able to see her since she appeared. I think we’ll be fine.”

“But kids are more attuned to seeing spirits, remember? Like when Jackson was little, and Mia Rose and Jules took him to the cemetery, and he wanted to go back and play checkers with the ‘little boy’ that he met there, even though he had never played checkers before, and there was no one else there besides Mia Rose, Jules, and him?”

Cosette shrugged. “That was just a fluke. You know how imaginative Jackson can be.” She paused for a moment. Why were Enjolras and she the only ones who were able to see Eponine? Was there something special about them, or was she just becoming clearer to the world? If so, then they really could have a problem with the kids being able to sense her presence. She forced the thought from her head before saying, “Well, if it becomes a problem, we’ll just deal with it then.”

Enjolras sighed before putting his fork down. “If you’re sure.”

***

The next day, Cosette called in “sick” to work so that she could spend the hours prior to Mia Rose and her family’s arrival cleaning the house and grocery shopping. She had hoped that she would have some company in the form of a brunetteGoddess, but the spirit was, unfortunately, nowhere to be found. She spent the day, instead, in the company of her favorite Social Distortion album.

Four hours after Cosette had started cleaning, she found herself kneeling on the main level’s bathroom floor, scrubbing the tub with a sponge and a bottle of Kaboom. She was halfway done with the tub when she heard Eponine’s voice from behind her, somewhere near the sink. “Hello.”

Cosette glanced behind her,  flashing a smile at the other girl. “Hey, stranger. Where have you been all day?” She spun on her feet, dropping her knees so that she could sit cross-legged and lean against the edge of the tub.

Eponine shrugged before jumping up onto the counter to sit. “I was exploring the foundation of the house.” She winked. “By the way, you have termites in the rafters of the basement. You might want to get that checked out. Oh, and your pipes are leaking. It isn’t bad, but you should call a plumber in for that, too.”

Cosette rolled her eyes before turning back to her cleaning. “Thanks for letting me know, I guess.”

A shock of cold ran through Cosette’s left arm, starting at her shoulder and ending in the tips of her fingers. She glanced over to see Eponine resting her arm against the side of her arm, a look of concern on her face. Cosette sighed. “I’m sorry, I’m just stressed. Mia Rose and her wife sprung this visit on me, so I want the house to be perfect. It’ll be the first time that they’ve seen it, and I want them to feel good about it.”

“Is there anything that I can do to help?”

Cosette shook her head. “No. You just being here is lowering my stress.” She smiled gently at the other girl before looking back at the tub, grabbing the removable shower head and switching on the water so that she could rinse away the cleaning solution. “Okay, the bathroom is done. All that I have left to do is vacuum and clean the kitchen floor.”

The duo made their way down to the kitchen. Once they were there, Cosette went to the supply closet and pulled out a mop and a bucket before plugging her phone into the doc. She began to mop the floor, singing and dancing along with the music as she worked.

Cosette had covered most of the floor before she finally looked up to see Eponine smirking at her from her spot on the kitchen table, her eyes ablaze with mirth. The blonde raised an eyebrow at her. “What?”

“If you were a housewife, you’d make some man very happy,” the taller girl said, giggling as she mimicked Cosette giving her “husband” a blow job. Cosette rolled her eyes before shaking the mop in Eponine’s direction.

“Hey, I’m amazing in whatever position I am in, sweetheart.” She winked, laughing when Eponine’s eyes widened and her mouth gaped. She shook her head at the girl’s suddenly-lustful expression before finishing up the floor and putting the supplies away.

***

Forty-five minutes later, Cosette was completely finished with all of the cleaning. She collapsed on the couch, Eponine beside her. “So, why isn’t Enjolras here helping out with the housework?Eponine asked, turning so that she was facing the older girl.

“He already had plans with his manager for today that he wasn’t willing to cancel.” She rolled her eyes. “It must be such a hard life, getting paid and getting laid.”

Eponine snorted. “Well, at least he’ll be back tonight.” She stuck her tongue out before winking. “Good luck with not laughing when I’m making faces and such at you and Enjolras all night long, when I’m invisible to everyone else here.” She twisted her face into an example, smiling broadly when Cosette found herself unable to help letting out a breathy laugh.

Cosette shook her head. “God, Mia Rose is going to think that Enjolras and I have lost our minds since we left Springfield, with how many times we are going to randomly burst out laughing whenever you are in the room.”

“It is going to be wonderful.” She smiled, shifting on the couch so that her legs were pulled up towards her chest.

“Hey, can you do me a favor though?” Cosette paused, waiting to continue until Eponine nodded. “Can you give us a little time without you, though, so that we can act normal around Meaghan and Jackson? They’re little, and I don’t want to scare them by acting strangely.”

“Yeah, that’s totally fine,” Eponine responded, shrugging. “I’ll just hang out in your room or in the foundation again, no big deal.” She leaned forward and kissed the air in front of Cosette’s forehead, her smile growing when the blonde made a contented noise. “I love you, you know,” she said, looking up at Cosette through her lashes.

Cosette looked back, wishing that she could run her fingers through the brunette’s silky dark hair. “I love you, too, sweetheart.”

The girls looked up at the sound of someone knocking on the door. Cosette glanced at her watch. “Well, that will probably be Mia Rose and them,” she commented, pushing herself off the couch and heading towards the door. Sure enough, when she pulled back the curtain in the window next to the door, she saw the family of four standing there. She glanced over her shoulder to see that Eponine had already disappeared. She nodded before making her way over to the door.

“Hey, everyone!” Cosette said as she pulled the door back, smiling at her sister, her sister’s wife, and their children. She took a moment to study how each member had changed in appearance since the last time that she saw them. Mia Rose had cut her scarlet hair into a choppy pixie cut that accentuated her pronounced cheek bones but, other than that, she looked exactly the same. Jules still had the same light blonde bob, which had grown more grey over the last six months, but other than that, she looked the same, too.

Meaghan and Jackson, however, werewhere the change really took place. Jackson had grown at least two inches while Cosette had been away, and his once-straight blonde hair had seemed to developed waves as it fell down around his ears. Meaghan had shot up, too, her head just barely reaching halfway up Cosette’s thigh as she moved forward to hug her aunt around her legs, the girl’s bright red braids glinting in the sunlight. Jackson moved around his sister to hug Cosette’s other leg. “Hi, Aunt Cosette!”

The blonde reached down to ruffle both of the children’s hair before she crouched down to straighten Meaghan’s braids. “Hello, Jackson. Hello, Meaghan.” She kissed the children on the cheek before straightening up and pulling her sister and sister-in-law into a hug.

Once the women pulled out of the hug, Jules pecked her wife on the cheek before turning and pulling her children into her arms. She straightened up when Meaghan and Jacksonsquirmed away before turning to Cosette. “I am meeting with a client in fifteen minutes, so I won’t be here for dinner, or for several hours, but we’ll have to catch up later tonight, all right Cosette?” She smiled when Cosette nodded. “Good. Well, I best be off now. Be good for Mommy and Aunt Cosette, kids!” She ruffled the children’s hair again before turning and making her way back down to their dark green minivan.

Cosette watched the older woman leave before turning to her sister. “I thought that Jules was on the fast-track to retiring,” she teased, laughing when Mia Rose rolled her eyes.

“She’s only sixty-one, Cosette, she won’t be retiring for at least another five years, yet,” the red-head reminded her sister. She playfully pushed her sister back into the house before herding the children through the door. Once she got inside, she looked around. “Lovely home. I really like how you’ve decorated this front room. You’ll have to give me a tour once the kids go to bed.” She studied the room for a moment before saying, “Hey, where’s Enjolras? That new car of his wasn’t in the driveway.”

Cosette snorted. “He is out with Grantaire, again. He promised that he’d be home by now, though, so he should be back any minute.” She looked down at a pulling on her jeans to see Meaghan pouting, her arms extended upwards. “Oh, do you want to be picked up?” When the toddler nodded, Cosette scooped her up in her arms and placed her on her hip, looking down again when Jackson pulled on her jeans, as well. The boy, though, was holding up a stuffed lamb for her to see.

“Look what Meaghie did to Captain Wiggles!” He turned the toy so that Cosette could see a mess of dark blue lines covering the lamb’s belly and chin.  “She colored him with one of Mommy’s work markers.”

Cosette laughed, turning her eyes towards Mia Rose. “Oh no!”

Mia Rose rolled her eyes before picking up her son and placing him on her hip, mimicking the way that Cosette was holding the toddler. “Yeah. I had Meaghan in the office with me when I was working, and I went into Jackson’s room to check on him. She apparently stuck one in her diaper while I was gone, and decided to decorate Captain Wiggles, the wall, Jackson’s bed, and herself while I was giving Jackson a bath.”

Cosette opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by Jackson exclaiming, “Aunt Cosette, I’m hungry!”

“Well then we better get you something to snack on!” She led Mia Rose and the boy into the kitchen, quickly preparing a plate of apples and peanut butter for the kids to munch on. She placed Meaghan in a chair before sitting in one adjacent, Mia Rose and Jackson doing the same across from her.

Cosette glanced through the archway at the sound of a car door slamming. “Well, that should be Enjolras.”

Sure enough, the dark-haired man came in through the front door a moment later, his curly hair in disarray from his time with Grantaire. “I’m home!” he exclaimed, mostly for the benefit of the children, who squealed and ran to him when they heard his voice.

“Jackson! Meaghan! Come back here!” Mia Rose called, rolling her eyes as the children continued to squeal. “Come and finish your snacks so that you can go and play a game with Uncle Enjolras while Aunt Cosette and I make dinner!”

The children ran back into the room and jumped into their seats, quickly stuffing themselves with the fruit before smiling at their mother and saying, “All done!”

Meaghan and Jackson looked at one another before running back into the living room where Enjolras was waiting for them. They jumped into his arms, laughing as the man carried the both of them into the back yard to play.

Mia Rose watched the trio leave before she turned back to her sister, shaking her head at her children’s hyperactivity. She watched while Cosette began to pull out all of the ingredients to make spaghetti and zucchini. “What do you need me to do?”

Cosette washed the fruit before passing over to her sister, along with a cutting board and a knife. “You can chop that up for me.” She watched her sister for a moment before pulling out a pot and putting the water on to boil. She pulled out a second pot the make the tomato sauce.

“Grantaire is Enjolras’s manager, right? The one that hired him?” Cosette nodded. Mia Rose made a face before continuing her question. “So is their thing still just fucking? Or have they tried for anything more? Last time I talked to Enjolras, he seemed to be hoping that it would turn into more.”

Cosette shrugged. “We don’t really talk about it, so I honestly have no idea.”

“Well, then have you met anyone yet?”

Cosette blushed. She thought about what she was going to say for a moment before answering. “Well, I haven’t met anybody, per say.”

“Ooooh, tell me details!” Mia Rose pushed the cutting board away from herself before propping her elbow on the table and leaning her chin in her palm as she studied her sister. She stared for a moment before picking up the cutting board and taking the zucchini to the stove to sauté. Cosette did not say anything, so the red-head bumped her with her hip impatiently. “Come on, I want details!” 

“Well . . . okay, fine, there is a girl.” She poured the noodles into the boiling water before moving to stir the sauce, her face continuing to grow hotter. “Her name is Eponine.”

“And how long has this been going on?”

Cosette paused to think about it for a moment. “Like . . . four or five months?”

Mia Rose’s jaw dropped, and she moved the spatula to smack at her sister’s arm. “It’s been going on for months, and you are only now telling me about it? The hell, sis?”

“Our relationship is a bit—complicated, which is why I didn’t say anything.”

Mia Rose rolled her eyes. “All right, fine.” She went back to stirring the zucchini, a fond look on her face as she looked at the soft smile her sister was wearing. “So, how did you and Eponine meet?”

“It was kind of an accident.” Cosette shrugged. “We just happened to bump into each other, one day.” Well isn’t that the understatement of the year, Cosette thought, laughing softly.

“Do you have a picture of her?” The blonde shook her head. Mia Rose sighed. “Well, damn. You’ll have to get me one sometime then, so I see this girl that has gotten my sister so sprung.” She glanced over her shoulder when she heard a muffled mommy! came from the back door. She pushed the zucchini around for a moment before waving the spatula in the air. “Well, duty calls.”

Cosette watched her sister wander out to the backyard before she turned back to the stove, taking the zucchini off the burner and putting it in a serving bowl. She also checked the pasta and the sauce before removing them as well, mixing them and putting them in a large white bowl on the kitchen table.

Cosette had just finished putting out the dishes, forks, and knives when she heard a loud crash come from the direction of the bathroom. “Mia? Are you all right?” Cosette asked, registering the noise as the sound of someone falling against the door. When no response came, she poked her head out to see light coming from the room.

The blonde made her way towards the bathroom, concern evident on her face. The concern grew even more when she saw Mia Rose standing in the doorway, her head turning back and forth between the mirror and the hallway behind her. A feeling of dread immediately filled Cosette’s stomach, and she prayed that Eponine wasn’t able to seen through the mirror, if she was exploring the wall behind it.

Unfortunately, exactly what Cosette was hoping wasn’t happen, was, in fact, going on, and she could see the brunette’s back flex as she leaned over to fiddle with the wood.  Cosette knocked on the doorframe, causing both Mia Rose and Eponine to glance around. When Eponine saw the look of shock that Cosette was giving her, her eyes widened before she disappeared from the glass.

Mia Rose looked back at the mirror, her eyes still wide and frightful. When she saw that Eponine was gone, however, she relaxed slightly before turning to her sister and whispering, “Cosette . . . what the hell was that?”

Cosette sighed. “That would be Eponine.” 

10

Mia Rose turned to look at Cosette, her eyes wide and glassy as her jaw dropped. “What do you mean, that’s Eponine?” she asked, her voice tight. She looked back to the mirror before shaking her head. “No, I must be dreaming. My sister is not in love with a hallucination.”

“Uhm, well . . . she isn’t a hallucination, at least?” Cosette supplied, trying to help the situation. When Mia Rose gave her a bewildered look, the blonde sighed before saying, “Eponine, you can come out now.”

A moment later, Cosette heard someone clear their throat behind her. Sheturned around to see Eponine standing in the doorway, her arms crossed in front of her chest nervously. She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “Hi.”

Mia Rose moved behind Cosette and gripped her biceps tightly as she ducked down, peeking over the girl’s shoulder towards the spirit. “Cosette, who is that?” she whispered, ducking down lower. She flinched when Eponine took a step forward.

Cosette sighed. “Mia Rose, this isEponine. Eponine, this is my older sister, Mia Rose.” The eldest Fauchelevent ducked ever lower as she dug her fingers into her sister’s arms. Cosette glanced over her shoulder at the girl. “Mia, she isn’t going to hurt you. Want to go and talk alone for a moment?”

When Mia Rose nodded, Eponine disappeared, only to show up down the hall and next to the front door. Cosette smiled sadly at her before turning to the shaking woman and pulling her into her arms. “Hey, I know this is a lot to take in. I’m sorry.”

Mia Rose let out a unhappy snort. “What, the fact that my sister is in love with some beaten-up corpse that is hanging around her house? No, not hard to digest at all.” She rolled her eyes.

Cosette sighed again. “She’s not a corpse—just a ghost. And she’s really not that horrid looking, anymore. When she first appeared, she was completely black and blue, but now, most of the bruiseshave disappeared.” She shook her head. “Look, Mia, I know that this is hard to understand, but I really love her, all right? I know that we can never have a legitimate relationship, or get married, or have a family, but she makes me happy.”

“How happy can she make you really though, Cosette? She isn’t even alive! What the hell are you thinking?”

“I didn’t mean for it to happen—Enj and I started to see Eponine a few days after we moved in and, while we were freaked at first, we got past it and she became my best friend and, before I knew it, I had fallen in love with her.”

“What’s wrong with you? You do realize that she is dead, right? As in, not coming back, her meat is rotting in the ground, dead!”

“I know that!” Cosette knew that this would be hard for her sister to digest, but why couldn’t she just try to be happy that Cosette had found someone? It was true that their relationship was extremely complicated, and that it was far from conventional. Cosette knew that, and she accepted it. Why couldn’t Mia Rose do the same? She let out a low growl. “Goddammit, Mia, you of all people should know that you can’t help who you fall in love with.”

The red-head’s eyes hardened. “That’snot the same.”

“Why isn’t it the same? I fell in love with a spirit, you fell in love with, and now have a family with, your best friend’s very straight, very marriedmother.”

“Well, at least she’sstill alive.”

Cosette narrowed her eyes. “I’m done talking about this. Either accept that Eponine is who I love, or leave. I can’t control these feelings, and I’m not going to try and make them stop just because we can’t have a normal relationship.”

Mia Rose sighed, her shoulders slumping in defeat. “All right, whatever. It’s your life, do whatever you want.” She looked up at her sister through her lashes. “Are you happy, at least?”

Cosette blushed. “Yeah. I really am.”

The older woman groaned. “All right, fine. You have my blessing. Do whatever you want.” She rolled her eyes before glancing down the hallway to see that Eponine had disappeared again. She looked back at Cosette and made a face. “Make your ghost girl come back.” She gave her sister a pointed look before heading back into the kitchen.

Cosette followed her sister, moving so that she was leaning against the countertop. “I can’t control what she does, I can only ask her to come back.” She waited for a moment before calling, “Eponine?” When there was no response, she tried a second time, calling slightly louder. “Eponine?”

Enjolras stuck his head through the doorway. “I think she’s hiding up in your room. Want me to go and get her?” Cosette nodded. Enjolras nodded back before turning his eyes to Mia Rose. “Jackson and Meaghan are on the couch watching Land Before Time. Want me to try to get them to play more before dinner, or are they good there?”

Mia Rose shrugged. “They’re fine there.”

“Dinner is actually ready,” Cosette interjected, gesturing at the pans sitting on the cool section of the stove. “I just have to reheat it.”

“All right. Well, I’ll go send Eponine down, but she might have heard you calling the second time—I opened your door when I walked by because I could hear her making noise in there.” He flashed his sisters a quick smile before turning and leaving the room, heading back out to entertain the children.

Cosette watched Enjolras walk away, turning towards the stove a moment later when she caught a glance on something shimmering next to the appliance. It was Eponine, her eyes wide and apologetic as she grimaced. I’m sorry, she mouthed, twisting her lips to the side as she twirled a strand of hair between her fingers. The blonde shook her head, looking away.

Mia Rose followed Cosette’s line of sight, her eyes narrowing when she caught a glimpse of Eponine. The red-head sauntered forward, her lips pursing as she moved a hand to her hip. “So you’re little miss Eponine.” She opened her mouth to say more before she turned back to Cosette. “Ow! Did you really have to kick me?”

“Be nice!” Cosette scolded. Mia Rose rolled her eyes before turning back to Eponine.

Her eyes flashed as she let out a tight smile. “Listen, if you hurt my sister, I will find and dig up your grave and make sure you can never get back into this house, got it?”

Eponine’s eyes went wide as she nodded. “Got it. No worries, there.”

Mia Rose nodded back. “Good.” She turned to Cosette. “Well, I think we’ve let Enj and the spawnlingsentertain themselves long enough, don’t you? Let’s eat.”

***

The remainder of Mia Rose and her family’s visit went well, and soon, several days had passed since they had left. Cosette and Eponine were lounging in bed, Cosette’s hair still dripping wet from the shower that she had taken after her run. She was lying back against the dark purple pillows while Eponine was lying next to her, propped up on her elbows.

“So,” Eponine started, dropping her arm so that she was laying down, “has Mia Rose said anything else about me since we met?”

Cosette thought for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, actually. She called me on Monday, said that she likes you a lot.” She chuckled, shaking her head. “Mia Rose still thinks that I am crazy for trying to have a romantic relationship with a ghost, but she says she won’t judge as long as I’m happy.”

“Well, we are definitely in a bit of a complicated situation.”

“That would be the understatement of the century.” Cosette sighed before pushing herself into a sitting position and getting up off the bed. “I should get ready for the day.”

Eponine looked at the blonde in confusion as Cosette pulled on a pair of jeans and a black racer-back tank top and began to French braid her wet hair. “Where are you going? I thought that Jeff gave you today off, since you worked that double on Tuesday.”

“He did,” Cosette confirmed. She gestured with her head towards the bathroom before she walked in, Eponine following close behind. Cosette grabbed her makeup bag from under the sink and began to get ready. “One of my coworkers just had a baby, so I’m going to go and visit her at the hospital and meet her son.”

“That sounds like fun.” Eponine said, smiling. She moved to sit on the counter. She swung crossed her legs at the ankles and swung them idly as she asked, “What about you, Cosette? Do you want any more kids some day?”

Cosette froze, her eyeliner halfway to her eye. She sighed before dropping her hand and pursing her lips. “I’ve thought about it, but I don’t know if I ever could. If I met the right person, maybe, but I don’t know if I could deal with the pain of losing another child. I barely made it through the first time.” She shook her head, trying to force away the emotion that quickly clenched at her heart.

The girls were quiet as Cosette finished her makeup. She glanced at her watch once she was done. “Well, I better get going. I love you.” She smiled at Eponine.

Eponine smiled back. “I love you too. Have fun with your coworker.”

“I will.” Cosette gave Eponine one last smile before she grabbed her purse and made her way downstairs, her mind whirling. She hadn’t been completely honest back there, when she said that she wasn’t sure that she wanted any more children. She had always dreamed of having more than one child, ever since she was a child herself. That desire had only grown when Libby had been born. 

Cosette made her way out to her car. She pulled up the GPS on her phone before driving to the hospital, stopping only once as she passed a Schnucks to buy a bouquet of colorful daisies for the new mom.

Once Cosette had pulled into the parking lot of the hospital, she stared up at the buildings surrounding her in confusion. She wasn’t used to hospitals being divided up into so many buildings—wards, yes, but five different buildings? Where was she even supposed to start? 

She stared at the signs that were outside the buildings before finding one that claimed to lead to the main hospital. She smiled at the worker at the front desk as she approached. “Hello,” she said, greeting the slender blonde woman sitting there.

“Can I help you?” the woman asked, her voice dripping with boredom as she twirled a pen between her fingers.

“Can you direct me to the maternity ward, please?”

The woman sighed before leaning back in her chair, crossing her arms over her belly. “If I must.” She nodded to the elevators across from her desk. “Go up to the 12^th floor, north wing, and it’s the third hallway on your right.”

Cosette raised her eyes at the woman’s rudeness before leaving the desk and walking to the elevators. She shook her head as she pressed the “up” button, pulling open her text messages so that she could figure out what room Taryn was in.She took the elevator up to the floor and, within minutes, was standing in the doorway of Taryn’s room. She knocked on the metal of the frame before walking in.

Taryn was laying in the hospital bed, her thick blonde curls tumbling over her shoulders. She didn’t even look like she was a new mom, with her hair and hair makeup as immaculate as ever as she rested. Next to her, a Latino man was curled up in a red vinyl chair, staring down at a pink blanket with a look of awe and adoration of his face. While Taryn looked up at the knock, the man was far too engrossed in his daughter to pay attention to anything else. “Cosette!” Taryn exclaimed, a smile spreading across her face as she regarded her friend and coworker. “Come in!”

Cosette smiled back and walked into the room, handing Taryn the bouquet before turning to her husband. “Hello, Michael,” she greeted. The man glanced up, his eyes red rimmed and glowing with the joy of becoming a father. Taryn put the flowers on the table next to her.

“Hey, Cosette,” he responded before looking back down at his daughter.

Taryn leaned forward in the bed and patted the empty space by her feet. “Come and meet our daughter,” she instructed before looking at her husband and holding her arms out for the baby. Michael glanced up and handed the baby to his wife before leaning forward in the chair to smooth his daughter’s hair from her new place in Taryn’s arms. “Her name is Eddisyn Diana Frank.”

Once Cosette was seated, Taryn shifted the bundle in her arms before gently placing the baby in the blonde’s waiting arms. “Hello, Eddisyn,” Cosette cooed as she looked down at the child. She stared at the infant for a moment before looking up at Taryn in confusion as a thought crossed her mind.  “I thought that you said that you were having a baby boy?”

Taryn nodded. “Yeah, I did. We thought that we were.” She laughed and shook her head. “On the plus side, at least all of the monogrammed blankets and toys that we received at the showers only had her nickname on it.  She would have been named ‘Edward’ if she was a boy, but we can still use ‘Eddie’ with Eddisyn without a problem.”

Cosette didn’t speak again as she looked back down at the sleeping baby, thoughts filling her mind of when Libby was this small. She had been such a beautiful baby, born with a shock of black hair and bright blue eyes. In the first moments after her daughter’s birth, Cosettehad felt more pride and adoration than she knew she was capable of, and she immediately knew that as much as an accident as the child had been, she would never regret the single night that brought her little miracle into the world. She was sure that Taryn and Michael were just as awed by their little baby as she had been with hers.

***

It only took a half hour or so before Eddisyn had begun to fuss, her stomach empty once again as she impatiently waited for Taryn to feed her. Cosette gave her friend a hug before walking to the door. She stopped in the doorway before turning around to face the happy family. “I wish you the best of luck,” she said, smiling. Taryn smiled back.

“Thank you for stopping by, Cosette,” Michael said, smiling as well before he reached over to rustle his daughter’s hair. Cosette gave the family one final glance before heading out into the hallway and out of the maternity ward.

Cosette had only taken a single step out of the ward when she realized that she could not remember for the life of her where she had parked her car. Was it the East lot? The West? Was she on the first floor, or the second? Did she even come into the hospital on this side of the building, or did the hallways she had walkedthrough take her to a completely different ward than she was in now? She sighed, shaking her head. Guess I’ll just have to keep walking until I can remember.

Cosette paused for a moment before looking to her left and her right. She shruggedand walkedtowards the elevator, staring at the numbers for a moment before pressing a random button, which led her down to the second floor. Once she was out of the elevator, she looked around again before wandering down the hallway to her left. She glanced around as she walked, taking in her surroundings.

On all sides of the girlwere luxurious rooms filled with crying families. Cosette slowed as she passed a room where a young boy was lying in a bed, a breathing tube in his mouth and his body rigid as he slipped into a seizure before his watchful parents’ eyes. The blonde felt her heart clench as the boy’s mother burst into tears from her spot in the armchair in the corner of the room, her hand over her mouth as she watched her son thrash on the bed. Her husband, who was sitting on the arm of the chair, wrapped his arm around the woman before kissing her on the head and wiping away tears of his own.

Cosette pulled her eyes away, unable to look any longer, her memories swirling with thoughts of Libby’s death the longer that she watched. She shook her head, continuing to walk forward until she was out of the hall and back in a lobby. She bit her lip and paused, her brow furrowing as she glanced around. She smiled when she finally caught a glimpse of a map posted against one of the walls. She quickly walked over to the map, a smile beginning to grace her face as she approached it. However, the smile quickly fell from her face when she realized that the map was labeled with a series of numbers and dots that she couldn’t decipher. She groaned, collapsing down on the closest bench, her head in her hands. She sat up suddenly as a thought came to her. She came in on the fifth floor! But which fifth floor?

She made her way back to the elevators, the smile back on her face. At least she had a general idea where her car was now, even if she wasn’t 100% sure where she was going!

She emerged on the fifth floor of the West Wing a few minutes later, her mind a mess once again as she counted the number of hallways and wards on all sides of her. Ten. Ten options. Which one was correct?

“Eeny, meeny, miney, this one,” Cosette muttered, pointing to each hall individually before choosing one at random. She shrugged, figuring that trying this one was better than standing at the intersection in confusion. She began to walk down the hall, trying to keep her eyes focused in front of her. She didn’t want a repeat of the last hall she looked at . . . she didn’t know if she could handle any more sobbing families, couldn’t handle any more dying little ones. Hell, she could barely handle deathin general. She had experienced far too much of itin her life to ever be okay with walking through a hall like this.

While Cosette was facing forward, she could still see large windows in her peripheral vision. Some hadblinds pulled down, but others, had Cosette been paying attention, would have allowed her to see everything that that was going on. Ahead of her, she could see a waiting room and, beyond that, a parking garage. Maybe if I go in there and hit the panic button on the keys I will find the car, she thought hopefully, pursing her lips in a firm line.

Cosette fought to keep her eyes from wandering as curiosity got the best of her.  As the blonde passed a room halfway down the hall, she couldn’t help herself, and glanced through the glass as she walked. She continued to move forward for a few more steps before stopping, her back straightening and her hands curling into fists as her stomach clenched. She slowly took a few steps back towards the room, turning towards the window and glancing in.

Her breath caught in her throat as she stared into the room, her heart beginning to race. “Oh, my God.”

11

Cosette stood frozen in place as she stared through the window at the girl laying in the hospital bed, her dark hair falling over the edge of the bed in a long braid as she slept. The blonde slowly opened the door and walked over to the bed, her heart racing as she approached.

Once she had reached the bed, Cosette’sheart felt as though it had stopped. While she couldn’t be certain, she was 99.99% sure that it was Eponine lying the hospital bed next to her, albeit quite a bit thinner and without the few bruises and cuts that marred her smooth-looking skin. How could that be, though? Eponine was a ghost, stuck in their house. Well, at least they assumedthat she was stuck there, as she hadn’t gone anywhere else besides the rooms and foundations since she had appeared.

Cosette sank down into the chair next to the bed, her legs beginning to tremble as she got an even closer look. This girl really was identical to the spirit, even down to the jagged bump on the bridge of Eponine’s nose from whatever had killed her. The blonde stared in shock for another moment before catching a glimpse of the thick white band that was wrapped around the brunette’s frail wrist. Cosette thought about it for a moment before taking a deep breath and reaching over, pulling the girl’s hand closer so that Cosette could read the information there.

Name: Thernardier, Eponine

DOB: 09-15-1992

Cosette bit her lip, moving her fingers to rub circles with her thumb against the back of the sleeping girl’s hand as she glanced upwards. She froze when she saw the scar that went diagonally across the brunette’s forehead in the exact same location as the spirit’s cut. This is definitely Eponine, Cosette realized, shaking her head slowly in disbelief. The name and cuts prove it. This is her.

The thought hadn’t even finished crossing Cosette’s mind when her eyes shotto the wristband, her grip of Eponine’s hand tightening as she realized that that meant that her ghostly lover, her apparently not-a-ghost lover, had an actual chance of being in a real relationship with Cosette. They could have a real life together, one where they could grow old and be together for the rest of their lives.

Cosette stared at the sleeping girl for a moment longer before pushing herself up out of the chair, hovering over the girl for a moment before smoothing back the edges of her hair and kissing her forehead, directly over the scar. She squeezed her hand again before moving to the foot of the bed to pick up the medical chart that was hanging there, hoping that it would give her some insight about what happened to Eponine. Unfortunately, the chart was wholly unhelpful, listing only the conditions, treatments, and testing that she had undergone during her stay, not the reasons behind it. However, it did state that the day that she had been admitted was June 16, 2012, that she had been in a coma since her admission, and that she was staying in the long-term-care ward.

Cosette pulled her phone out from her back pocket, holding it forward to take a picture of Eponine. She sent the image to Enjolras before pausing and thinking, quickly deciding to send him a picture of the chart, as well. This time, however, she quickly typed out a message to go along with the picture. I think I figured out what happened to Eponine.

The message had barely left Cosette’s outbox when Mika’s “Blame It On The Girls” began to blare as Enjolras called her. She clicked answer, wincing as Enjolras shouted, “What the hell isthat?”

“Hold on a second.” Cosette glanced back at Eponine before walking quickly down the hallway to the waiting room. She shut the door gently before saying, “Okay, I can talk now. Are you outside?”

“No, why?”

“Can you go outside, please? I don’t want Eponine to overhear anything, if we can help it.” Silence came from the other end for a moment until Cosette heard the soft thud of Enjolras closing the front door. The blonde waited for another few seconds before saying, “I came to the hospital to visit with Taryn and her new baby, and I somehow got lost when I was trying to get back to my car. I somehow ended up next to that girl’s room.” She let out a breath. “Enj, I am almost completely certain that that is Eponine. The scars on her body match up perfectly with the cuts on our ghost, and the dates match up with what we know about her.” 

“Why is she still in our house then?” Enjolras paused for a moment before continuing. “Do you think that she’s maybe an echo? Like, maybe she went into a coma at the house before she was admitted, and part of her couldn’t figure out how to leave with the rest?”

“I really don’t know, Enj. I don’t know what to think.” Cosette sat down in one of the blue-vellum chairs and crossed her legs as she leaned back.

Enjolras was quiet for a moment, but Cosette could hear a clicking sound that signified that Enjolras was messing with something on the screen of his phone. Probably looking at the pictures again, Cosette realized. She waited for the boy to say something. Finally, a little over a minute later, he finally said, “Are you going to try and talk to one of the nurses and see if you can get more information? Maybe one of them was at the hospitalthat night.” 

“Do you really think that I should? What about patient confidentiality?”

Enjolras chuckled. “Sis, you were the best actress at Springfield High, remember? I doubt you’ll have any trouble finding a way to convince the nurses to tell you anythingthat you want to know.”

Cosette smiled. “Touché. I’m assuming you want to stay on the line while I talk to the nurse?”

“Obviously.”

Cosette nodded before pulling her phone away from her ear and slipping it into her pocket, the microphone facing out so Enjolras could hear everything that was going on. She slowly made her way out of the waiting room and back down the hall to the nurses’ station, where a middle-aged, heavyset African American woman was filling out paperwork.

“Hello,” Cosette greeted, leaning her forearms against the counter of the nurses’ station. The woman looked up, a sweet smile gracing her ethnic features.

“Hello, sweetie,” the woman greeted, her eyes sparkling as she looked at the blonde. “Do you need help finding one of the rooms?”

Cosette shook her head. “I’m actually here visiting Eponine Thernardier.” She glanced down at the woman’s faerie-covered scrubs to find a nametag. After a moment, she found one. The woman’s name was Yvonne.

“Hold on, let me sign you in to the system. We have to know who is in the hospital at all times. What is your name?”

“Cosette Fauchelevent.”

Yvonne nodded. “All right, Ms. Fauchelevent. You are signed in.” The woman clicked the computer mouse before she paused, squinting her eyes in confusion at the screen before they flicked back up to Cosette’s. “Ms. Fauchelevent, the log says that no one has visited Ms. Thernardier since she was admitted here a year and a half ago. Why are you here now?”

Cosette bit her lip. She tried to think of a hasty lie before she realized that, in this situation, the truth really would work the best. “I didn’t know that Eponine was alive,” she admitted, running her fingers through her hair. “I was under the impression that she had died last June.”

The woman sighed before shaking her head. “I guess her parents called you then?” Cosette paused for a moment before nodding uncertainly. Yvonne sighed again. “Figures. I’m not surprised. I was the one that was assigned to call them about her arrival once she had been stabilized. All they had to say about the matter was that they didn’t have a daughter by that name any more, and that we should just have let her die.”

The blonde let out a gasp. Could Eponine’s parents really be that cruel? The brunette had said that they were straight-edge, but could they really be so disgusted by their daughter’s sexuality that they’d just let her die? Tears began to press at the edges of her eyes. “Please, what happened to her? I need to know.”

“I’m sorry honey, but I can’t tell you anything unless you’re family.”

“But I am!” Cosette blurted out, the tears pressing against her eyes beginning to fall as panic set in. She had to know what happened to Eponine. Just knowing that Eponine was alive wasn’t enough. She had to know if Eponine would be okay, had to know if she would have a chance to ever be able to have the girl touch her. Had to know if there was a chance that she would wake up again. She bit her lip before saying, “Please, Yvonne. I’m her partner. Please tell me what happened.”

Yvonne glanced around to make sure that the hall was deserted before she pushed herself out of her chair. “All right, I will tell you, but let’s go to Ms. Thernardier’s room so that we can talk without being disturbed.” She walked around the station and began to make her way towards the room, Cosette close behind.

Once the door was shut, Yvonne moved to grab the chart while Cosette walked over to the chair next to Eponine’s bed, pulling her legs up to sit in Indian position as she intertwined her fingers with the sleeping girl’s. Yvonne smiled sadly at the duo before she began to speak. “I don’t know exactly what happened before Ms. Thernardier showed up here, but I can tell you what she was like when we first saw her. It was one of my last nights in trauma before I switched to this ward.” She shook her head.“An older man ran into the emergency room with a body in his arms, screaming that he found a girl stuffed in the dumpster behind his apartment building when he went to take out his trash.

“Ms. Thernardier was covered in blood, and had so many broken bones that there was very little of her body that was still intact. The man said that he had been planning on calling 911, but realized once he picked her up that he left his phone up in his kitchen, so he decided that it would be quicker to drive her to the hospital himself. It’s a good thing that he did, too; the few minutes that it would have taken for him to get his phone would have been long enough for Ms. Thernardierto pass on.” She shook her head, a look of sadness falling across her face. “Mr. Anders called every day for a month after Ms. Thernardier was admitted, just to see if there was any news of her progress.”

“Why did he stop calling?”

The sad look on Yvonne’s face grew even more solemn. “He passed away the day of his final call, in this very hospital. He had a heart attack.” She shook away her sadness before continuing on with her tale. “Anyway, we found an ID bracelet on her wrist that had her name, her birthdate, and her parents’ phone number on it. That was how we figured out who she was, and who we needed to call.”

A heavy ache settled in Cosette’s chest. She knew that something violent had to have happened to Eponine for her appear with so many cuts and bruises, so she hadn’t imagined that the girl would have been found as bloody and broken as Yvonne was describing. “Has she woken up at all?” Cosette asked after a moment, turning to stare sadly at her belovedbefore looking back at Yvonne, her heart breaking.

The older woman shook her head. “When we first examined Ms. Thernardier, we thought that she might have a brain injury of some sort, because her skull was littered with tiny fractures, and she wasn’t waking up.”

Cosette couldn’t hold back the sob that ripped through her chest at Yvonne’s words. She pressed her hand against her mouth as the tears began to coat her cheeks. It felt like her lungs were trapped in an iron box. She could barely breathe as she pictured the torture that her beloved must have gone through in order to be in such horrendous shape.

Cosetteshook her head as she forced herself to look at the darker woman. “W-was there a lot of p-permanent damage?” she hiccupped, leaning over to kiss Eponine on the head and squeeze her hand before trying unsuccessfully to wipe away her tears.

Yvonne was silent for a moment before answering. “That’s the weird thing. All of our tests have shown that Ms. Thernardier is perfectly healthy, other than that she is still asleep. Her brain is fine, her bones have all healed, all of her internal organs seem to be working fine—there isn’t anything to suggest that she should still be in a coma.” Yvonne walked over to Cosette and put her hand out, squeezing her shoulder. “It’ll be okay, sweetie. Eventually, she will wake up. There’s no reason why she shouldn’t. I have to get back to my shift, but if you need anything, I’ll just be right out at the nurses’ station, all right?”

Cosette nodded, watching the woman as she turned and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her. Once she door was closedcompletely, the blonde pulled her phone back out of her pocket and pressed it to her ear, leaning forward in the seat to press her fingers against her eyes as she tried to make herself stop crying. “D-did you h-hear that?” she asked Enjolras, her hand shaking.

“Yeah, I did.”

Cosette found herself unable to respond as she continued to cry, the heavy feeling in her chest growing to an unbearable level. “Enj, what if she never wakes up?” she sobbed, pressing harder into her eyes. “Yeah, we can have a life together the way that she is now, but how am I supposed to go back to having only that when I know that there is so much more that we could have together? How am I supposed to deal with it if her body dies, and she goes away forever? She’s not going to come back as a ghost once she’s officially dead!”

Cosette heard Enjolras sigh. “Come home, sis. Everything will be okay.” 

She hung up the phone.

12

Cosette pulled into the driveway an hour later, butterflies filling her stomach. She had no idea what they should do, or what the effects of whatever decision they made would be. No matter what they decided, though, Cosette had a feeling that things were going to change drastically.

She glanced up to see Enjolras sitting on the porch swing, flipping his phone between his fingers as he stared at the ground, only looking up when he heard Cosette honk at him. He stared at her for a moment before pushing himself off the swing and standing next to it.Cosette got out of the car and made her way over to him, accepting the hug that he readily offered.

“Are you okay?” Enjolras asked, pulling back to look at his sister. Cosette shrugged before sitting down on the swing, grabbing her brother’s arm and pulling him down with her.

“Yeah, I’m all right. I haven’t really wrapped my mind around the fact that Eponine is a real person, not a ghost, though.”

Enjolras laughed uncomfortably, nodding. “Yeah, I imagine that would be difficult.” He was quiet for a moment as he stared out at the street. “Do you think that we should tell her?”

“I really don’t know what we should do,” Cosette said, her heart beginning to beat faster as she weighed the options against one another. “I mean, I think that Eponine deserves to know that she’s still alive, but what if us telling her does something that messes up her mind?”

Enjolras bit his lip and shrugged, his expression solemn. “Well, what if this is the whole reason why she hasn’t woken up? If she thinks that this house is all that there is, she won’t try very hard to get back to her body.” He put an arm around his sister. “You heard what that nurse said, Eponine’s perfectly healthy, other than still being asleep. It has to be something with her mind that is keeping her in this state.” He shrugged again.“I don’t think us telling her will have that much of a negative effect.”

Cosette worried her lip before responding. “What if the shock of it kills her instead of waking her up?”

Enjolras shook his head. “Cosette, I don’t have an answer for you, but all we can do is try. I think that we should tell her.”

Cosette sighed. “Okay. We better get it over with now, then.”She stood and followed Enjolras into the house, copying his actions and sitting down on the couch.

Enjolras leaned his head back against the cushions before calling, “Hey, Eponine? Can you come here for a moment?”

The boy moved to sit normally, jumping slightly when Eponine appeared next to him, her eyes bright with excitement at something that she had discovered in her most recent haunt of the house. She sent the boy a large smile before turning to the older girl, giving her a similar smile. When Cosette shook her head in response rather than smile back, Eponine’s happy demeanor fell to one of concern.

“What’s going on?” the girl asked, studying Cosette. When the blonde’s eyes flickered over to Enjolras’s, Eponine turned and faced the curly-haired boy as well. “Enj?”

Enjolras sighed, his shoulders sagging as he looked down at his hands before turning his face back to Eponine, his lip quirking to the side nervously. “Look, Eponine—what we are about to show you isn’t going to be easy for you, but we need you to just stay calm and listen to what we are saying, all right?” He flicked his eyes to Cosette. “Sis, show Eponine the pictures that you sent me.”

Cosette hesitated before pulling out her phone and opening up the gallery. She clicked the picture of the girl laying in the bed, debating once again if this was a good idea.

After a few conflicted seconds, Cosette sighed and turned the screen around the other girl to look.  Eponine looked down at the screen with interest.  It didn’t take long for her curious expression to change, though, and soon a look of terror ran through her eyes. “Cosette,” she coughed, flickering her eyes up quickly before looking back down at the screen. She shook her head and bit her lip before asking in a small, childlike voice, “Cosette, who is that?”

“You don’t know?” Cosette asked softly, scrunching her lips up to one side as she looked at Eponine through her glasses. Eponine glanced back down at the picture before squeezing her eyes shut and looking away.

Enjolras sighed. “Eponine . . . that’s you. I know it’s hard for you to look at, but—”

“That’s not me,” Eponine interrupted, her eyes shootingopen. “I’m dead, and I’m stuck in the house. It’s not possible for me to be in both places at once.” She looked up at Cosette, her eyes still pleading for this confrontation not to be happening. “Please, Cosette. Tell me that isn’t me.”

 “I’m sorry, but it is. You fell into a coma a little over a year ago, and you’re still asl—”

Eponine shook her head, interrupting again. “That’s not me,” she whispered, biting her lip.

“Eponine . . . ”

“That’s not me!”

Enjolras and Cosette looked at one another as Eponine disappeared in an angry wave of energy.Cosette groaned as she leaned forward and put her head in her hands.

Enjolras scooted over on the couch to put his arm around his sister. “Hey, it’ll be okay, Cosette. It’s going to take a while for this whole thing to sink in. I mean, Eponine’sbarely adjusted to the idea of being dead, and now she has to accept that she’s actually alive, just trapped outside of her body.”

Cosette sighed. “I hope you’re right.” She leaned her head on Enjolras’s shoulder, relaxing as he began to play with her hair.

“Hey, look at it this way! At least you aren’t in love with a corpse!”

Cosette let out a dry chuckle. “Touché.” She lifted her head and smiled at her brother before letting out a breath and standing. “Well, I better go and get ready for that work party before it gets any later.” She stood before crouching back down, pulling Enjolras into a hug.  “Thank you for always being there for me, Enjolras.”

Enjolras nodded, hugging his sister back. “Anytime, sis.”

The blonde gave her brother a final smile before she made her way up to her room. She was hoping that Eponine would be waiting for her upstairs so that they could talk more about what Cosette had seen. However, she was quickly disappointed when she arrived to an empty room. She couldn’t blame Eponine for her reaction, though. If she had thought that she was dead, and found out that she really wasn’t, she’s be pretty confused and angry, too.

Cosette took a quick shower before doing her hair and makeup. She made her way into her room and towards her closet, pulling the doors open so that she could get out her black dress and pumps for the party. Rather than clothes, however, Cosette found Eponine curled up in a sniffling, shaking ball on the floor. Cosette let out a breath before crouching down, wishing that she could hug the girl and make her feel better.

“Hey, sweetheart, it’ll be okay,” she urged, her eyes pleading with the other girl to look up at her. Eponine shook her head, burying her face further into her knees. Cosette tried again. “Will you come out of there and talk to me? Please?” 

Eponine glanced up, tears still streaming down her cheeks. She nodded before disappearing from the closet. Cosette glanced over her shoulder to see the girl sitting cross-legged on the bed, her face once again buried in her hands. Cosette stared at her for a moment before moving to the bed and sitting down next to her. “Are you going to be okay, baby?”

Eponine shrugged. “I don’t know. I feel like my mind is suddenly overflowing with all these memories and feelings . . . it’s like finding out that I’m alive unlocked some wall that was blocking everything from the year or so before I went to sleep.” She groaned, pressing her fingers against her eyes. “I don’t know what to do with all of this information.”

“Hey, we’ll get through this.”

Eponine nodded before biting her lip. She cast her eyes nervously at Cosette. “Can I ask you something?” Cosette nodded. The brunette glanced away before looking back. “If I wake up . . . will you be mine? Like be in a real relationship with me?”

Cosette smiled. “Do you really have to ask?”

The younger girl shook her head bashfully. “I guess not.” She smiled at Cosette, looking at her lovingly through her lashes.

“Well, I better finish getting ready so I’m not late for the launch.” Cosette pushed herself off the bed, beginning to feel slightly guilty when Eponine deflated. She blew her lover a kiss. “I love you so much, baby.”

Eponine gave her a small smile. “I love you, too.” She winked before pretending to push the blonde away, a mask of indifference falling over her eyes as she tried to hide her confusion. “Go get ready so your boss doesn’t get all pissy,” she teased, the joking tone falling flat as her eyes lost their shine once again. Cosette sighed and decided to ignore the elephant in the room. If Eponine isn’t ready to talk about this, then we won’t, she decided, moving back to the closet to pull out her clothing. She slipped everything on before blowing Eponine a kiss.

As Cosettewalked down the stairs towards the car, shepulled out her phone to see that she had a voicemail. She opened it after seeing the alert that it was from the hospital. “Ms. Fauchelevent, this is Yvonne Morrington calling. I just wanted to tell you that Eponine is still going strong. We did more tests today, and her brain seems to have increased in activity.” There was a pause. “Your girl is a real fighter, Ms. Fauchelevent, and I believe that we will see her awaken very soon.”

13

The next morning, Cosette woke up bright and early for her run, hoping that she would catch a glimpse of her beloved before she set off on the road. Disappointment filled her gut as the girl was nowhere to be found. She was really hoping that Eponine and she could have a chance to talk. She needed to make sure that the younger girl was going to be all right, now that she knew the truth about what she was.

Cosette checked around the house again an hour later when she finished her workout, only to be left unsatisfied when therestill wasn’t any sign of the brunette in any of the rooms that she checked. She took a quick shower and got dressed before doing one final round of the house. Eventually, though, she gave up on her search, and made her way down to the kitchen to gather ingredients to make apple crumble muffins. She searched through the pantry to find everything before spinning around to put everything on the table, nearly dropping all the ingredients as she realized that Eponine was sitting on the wood, staring at her with sad eyes.

Cosette met the stare nervously before she flicked her own eyes to the ground. She walked over to the table and put the ingredients down, moving to grab a bowl off the counter. She glanced back over at the other girl as she mixed the ingredients. “How are you doing this morning?”

Eponine shrugged. “Better, I guess. I have more of a grip on my memories, but everything is still overwhelming. I keep hearing some high pitched ringing, too. It’s pretty constant, and it’s driving me up the wall.” She shook her head, her eyes beginning to lose focus as she stared towards the refrigerator. “Some things are starting to make sense to me, though.”

“Well that’s good.” Cosette narrowed her eyes as Eponine’s eyes grew even more unfocused before they cleared, her head tilting slightly to the left. “Are you okay?”

Eponine snapped out of her trance. “What?” She shook her head again. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just that ringing sound, you know.” She gestured with her hand towards her head before letting it fall in an annoyed wave. Cosette studied her features, concerned. Yvonne hadn’t called to let her know that anything was wrong, so either the woman in question wasn’t working, or Eponine was fine. She bit her lip as she noticed that one of the bruises on the brunette’s cheek that had disappeared over the last month was back. That didn’t seem like it was good at all.

Cosette forced the thought from her head as she gave her beloved a slight smile. “So, what all do you remember?”

Eponine paused for a moment before responding. “Well, I remember that my parents found out that I was gay, and kicked me out, so that’s why I was living here with Azelma. I, uhm . . . ” she coughed. “I, uh, also know how I landed in the hospital.”

Cosette’s eyes widened as she pushed the bowl of batter away from herself. “Really?! That’s great, baby! What happened?

“Well, uhm . . . ” Eponine began, moving a hand up to play with her hair nervously, “I came home from class and . . . well, there was a man waiting for me here, and he . . . ” The brunette cleared her throat nervously before taking a deep breath to ground herself. “He pushed me down the stairs and then kicked me until I passed out,” she said in a rush, squeezing her eyes shut as she curled her hands into fists.”

“He what?”

Eponine nodded. “I can picture the man, but I don’t know anything about him other than his appearance.” She shook her head. “I just want to forget about all of this. Will you distract me?”

“All right. Do you want to see the pictures from last night?” Cosette asked, grabbing her laptop from the living room and hooking her phone up to it to load the pictures. When Eponine said that she would, Cosette opened the files and turned the screen so that it was facing the younger girl. She made the first image full-screen, smiling when Eponine let out a loud laugh. “That’s my boss and his assistant, dancing.”

“They look like they had a bit too much to drink,” Eponine said, laughing again.

Cosette nodded. “Yeah, they really did.” She flipped to the next image, which was of two women who were nearly identical to one another. “That’s Vivien and Margaret. They’re twins, but they hadn’t seen each other in years until they met again through Jeff. They were adopted separately and, when they were twenty, Jeff helped Margaret use a P.I. to find her sister. Once they found her, he decided to hire Vivien, as well.”

Cosette flipped through more images, only stopping on the ones that interested her. She paused, however, when she noticed Eponine raising a hand to her face out of the corner of her eye, a grimace on her face. Cosette looked at her in concern. “I thought that echoes couldn’t feel pain.”

Eponine didn’t said anything as she screwed her eyes up for a moment before letting them relax. She let out a shaky breath. “I’m feeling weird, but I’ll be okay, don’t worry.” She gave Cosette a tired smile. “Continue on with your pictures.”

Cosette flipped through until she found one of Cody. “Oh! This is our intern, Cody Marks. Jeff is actually considering bringing him onto our team as a permanent member once his internship is over.”

Eponine looked at the image, her head cocked to the side as she studied it. “He looks familiar to me . . . ” She stared at it for a moment longer before her eyes widened in fear, a look of panic covering her face. Her voice was tight and afraid as she spoke. “That’s the man that pushed me down the stairs.”

The blonde let out a laugh. “Don’t be silly, Eponine. Cody is one of the sweetest people that I’ve ever met. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Cosette, I know who I saw. That man hurt me,” Eponine declared. Cosette gave her an oh really?look before rolling her eyes.

“Baby, you are just starting to get your memories back. Let’s give it a few days before we start accusing people, all right?”

Eponine’s eyes hardened in anger. “Look, Te—”

The younger girl’s voice cut off as she let out a strangled cry, her hand flying up to grip at her chest. Her eyes shot up to Cosette’s, a look of pure and utter terror shining in them as she began to hyperventilate, her image beginning to flicker in and out of Cosette’s line of sight.

“Baby? What’s wrong? Are you all right?” Cosette asked, her voice tight and panicked as Eponine let out another cry, her face contorting as she gripped the table, her knuckles turning white from the force of her grip. Eponine let out a louder cry as her entire body turned bright white before disappearing completely.

Cosette felt like her heart had stopped and, for a moment, she was unable to move, frozen with fear. After a moment, though, she came back to herself. She let out a shout, hoping that Eponine would reappear when her name was spoken like she had done so many times before. “Eponine?”

When no response came, and the girl in question did not appear, a stronger surge of panic shot through Cosette’s veins. She sprinted out of the kitchen to check each and every room before she ran towards her brother’s room, banging on the door with both fists once she had reached it. “Enjolras!” No response. Cosette began to cry harder, banging more erratically with her fist. “Enjolras, wake up!”

“What do you want?” Enjolras groaned as he opened the door a crack. Cosette pushed the door the rest of the way open and threw herself in her brother’s arms, not caring that he was only clad in his boxers and wrapped in his dark green comforter as the tears began to evolve into sobs. Enjolras’s annoyance immediately dissipated as he began to stroke his sister’s hair, concern evident on his face. “Cosette? What’s wrong?”

“Eponine’s gone,” Cosette managed to choke out through her sobs, burying her face against the boy’s shoulder. “We were talking and she started to experience a bunch of pain . . . she started clenching her chest and then disappeared in a white flash, and I checked the house, and she’s not here.” The blonde’s eyes widened as she realized what that light could mean. She let out a gasp. “Enj, I think we need to go to the hospital. ”

Enjolras’s eyes widened before he pulled himself out of his sisters grasp. He quickly ran to his closet, pulling on a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt before slipping his shoes on and grabbing the keys to his car. “You tell me where to go, and I’ll drive.”

Cosette nodded before following her brother down the stairs and outside, tears still sliding down her cheeks as she slid into the passenger side. For several moments, the car was silent, Cosette and Enjolras both too lost in their own thoughts to speak to one another. Eventually, though, Enjolras was the one to break the silence. “Hey, Cosette?”

“Yeah?”

The boypaused in thought for a moment before speaking. “Do you think that the reason that we are able to see Eponine is because she is close to waking up? I mean, her cuts and bruises are all nearly gone, so maybe she was just meant to wake up today.”

Cosette shrugged. “Maybe,” she saidsoftly before directing Enjolras to make a left at the stoplight.

Once the brunetwas on route, she turned to stare out the window, her mind swirling. God, if Eponine was dying . . . Cosette didn’t know what she would do. The girl had become such an important part of her life, even in her non-corporeal form, thatCosettewasn’t sure how she’d go on without her. She supposed that she had taken that the girl was always around for granted—if the brunettereally was dead, there wouldn’t be any chance of her “ghost” coming back and haunting the house like before.

But if Eponine was awake . . . would she even remember her time with Cosette? Or would all of the memories that they made together while the brunette was sleeping cease to exist in her mind? Would she even know who Cosette was?

God, neither option was something that Cosette wanted to experience. It seemed that no matter what, she was going to lose the beautiful woman that she had grown to love more than anything in the few months that they had known each other.  She bit her lip and forced back more tears as she struggled to stay positive, reminding herself that she had no real reason for thinking that Eponine was dead or would forget her.

A few directions later, the siblingshad reached the parking lot. Enjolras swerved into the first spot that he saw, his tires screeching as they slid to a stop. Cosette jumped out of the car, her brother close behind. She cast a glance at the elevator before darting towards the stairs. Every minute wasted was another minute that Cosette could be losing the chance to say goodbye, and the few minutes waiting for the elevator wasn’t something that she was willing to give up.Even if Eponine wasn’t dying, and Cosette didn’t need to say goodbye, what if she was waking up and Cosette wasn’t there to comfort her? It had only taken Enjolras and Cosette twenty minutes to get from their home to the hospital, but there were still so many things that could have gone wrong in such a short amount of time. Tears rushed down Cosette’s cheeks in thick rivers as she ran past the front desk, ignoring the voice calling out that they needed to sign in. She shook her head, continuing to run until Enjolras and she had reached the long-term ward, where they were stopped by another nurse, alerting them that visiting hours were not for another two hours.

“It’s okay, they’re with me!” a voice exclaimed from Cosette’s left. She glanced over to see Yvonne shuffling past, her long, dark braids flying in the air behind her as she rushed to get to Eponine’s room. As she neared her destination, she paused, holding her hand out for Cosette and Enjolras to stop. “I would have given you a call, but I just got here, myself.” She shook her head as Cosette tried to lunge around her. “I’m afraid you can’t enter the room until Ms. Thernardier is stable, sweetie, but you can wait right outside her room,” she said apologetically, her eyes gentle as Cosette let out a pained whimper.

Cosette stepped forward, her throat tight. “Please, Yvonne,” she pleaded, her voice choked and raspy, “I have to see her. Please.” Cosette felt Enjolras step behind her and put a comforting hand on the blonde’s shoulder as Yvonne shook her head.

“I’m sorry, sweetie, but the team has to do their work, and I’m afraid that non-medical officials can’t be in the room whilethat’s happening.” Cosette choked back a sob before nodding, her eyes growing wide and panicked as the alarms in Eponine’s room began to wail. Yvonne glanced over her shoulder at the room before giving Cosette a quick hug and saying, “I have to go and help. I don’t know what’s going on, I just know that it isn’t looking good.”

As the chocolate woman rushed down the hall, Cosette let out a pained cry before grabbing Enjolras’s hand and running to the window that looked into Eponine’s room. When she saw what was happening, though, her legs went weak and she pressed her hand against her mouth to stifle her scream of agony.

In the bed, Eponine was seizing, her rigid body convulsing as a nurse injected medication into her IV to ease her suffering. Within moments, the shaking slowing just as quickly as Eponine’s heart rate until the doctors were panicking for a different reason.

“No!” Cosette cried out, rushing towards Eponine’s door. Enjolras grabbed her wrist before she could get even a step away from the window, forcing her back to the window to watch as an employee grabbed the Defibrillator and brought it over to the primary doctor.

“We need to let the team do their work, Cosette. It’s the only way to save her,” Enjolras whispered in the girl’s ear, wrapping his arms around her waist as looks of panic crossed the employee’s faces.

“We’re losing her!” a nurse yelled as she prepared Eponine’s chest to be shocked, working as quickly as possible before jumping out of the doctor’s way.

“Clear!” the doctor exclaimed, delivering the first shock to Eponine’s chest. Cosette let out a sob when nothing happened, the brunette’s limp body only moving in response to the stimuli. The doctor shook his head before he tried again. “Clear!”

As a screeching beep echoed around the room, Cosette’s legs finally gave out and she collapsed into her brother’s comforting arms as the doctor declared, “Time of death, 10:58 AM.”

14

“No!” Cosette cried as she lunged forward, her heart racing. Enjolras pulled her back into his arms again, pressing a kiss to her hair as she continued to shake. She closed her eyes, willing herself to wake up. This had to be a dream. She had only known that Eponine was alive for a couple of days! She didn’t even get a chance for Eponine to wake up and go on a real date with her. She never got the chance to kiss the brunette goodbye in the morning, or hold her close in bed as they fell asleep.

It had to be a dream. It just had to be.

A new set of arms around Cosette and Enjolras’s bodies forced Cosette to acknowledge that this really was happening. Eponine really had just died before her very eyes. She forced back tears as she glanced over her shoulder to see Yvonne’s blurred shape burying her face against Enjolras’s shoulder, her own shoulders shaking softly. The older woman was quiet for a moment before she glanced up and locked her eyes with Cosette’s, her lashes wet as she said, “I’m so sorry, Ms. Fauchelevent, but there was nothing more that we could do for your partner.”

Cosette nodded before burying her face deeper into her brother’s chest, her tears soaking into the threads of his tee shirt. Enjolras hugged her tightly before pulling back and turning her slowly, moving until he had brought the blonde to the oak bench that was directly across from Eponine’s window.

Cosette collapsed onto the wood. She pulled her legs up to her chest and buried her face in her knees, the deep ache in her chest threatening to overwhelm the entirety of her body as the pain spread from her heart to the rest of her limbs .

Once Cosette’s legs had begun to grow stiff, she dropped her feet to the ground and leaned forward to balance her elbows on her thighs. She steepled her fingers and looked through the glass of the window, all of her focus on the prone form of her lover. She could barely feel Enjolras’s hand on her back, could barely hear the boy’s words of comfort. She didn’t look away from the glass until Yvonne walked back over and crouched in front of her, placing a hand on her knee. Cosette looked at the woman with a blank expression.

“Ms. Fauchelevent,” Yvonne began, squeezing Cosette’s knee, “we need to take the body away. If you would like to tell your partner goodbye, then now would be the time to do so. If I could give you more time, I would, but it’s just our procedure.”

Cosette nodded before pushing herself up into a standing position, shaking her head when Enjolras tried to move with her towards the door. “I need to do this by myself.”

Enjolras nodded. “All right. I’ll be right out here if you need me, sis,” he said, leaning in and giving his sister a quick hug. He gave her a sad smile before looking down at the ground. He wrapped anarmaround his waist before he sunk down onto the bench his sister had just vacated, pressing his free hand against his eyes.

Cosette took a deep breath as she dug her nails into her palms, her legs beginning to tremble as she struggled to make her way into the room. She didn’t know if she could do this. Telling Eponine goodbye would mean that there really wasn’t any chance for her to come back, wasn’t any chance that Eponine would haunt the house any longer, either as a spirit or a corporeal body.

 If Cosette didn’t tell Eponine goodbye, though, she would never have any closure, and she would live, day in and day out, just waiting for the brunette to return to her.

 She had to do it.

Cosette mustered up the rest of her courage and entered the room, her heart nearly stopping at the girl’s appearance.  At home, the brunette looked better, but not perfect. At the hospital, Eponine’s physical body had looked perfectly fine, albeit slightly underweight, just two days ago, but now? Everything was completely different.

Eponine’s body now, though, looked anything but healthy: her skin was a pale blue, and she was covered in a light layer of sweat. Her hair, once so vibrant, was laying limp over the edge of the bed and, upon closer look, her nails were dry and cracked. How could this happen? It had only been two days since Cosette had been in this hospital room, only two days since Eponine looked healthy! How could so much change in just forty-eight hours?

Cosette walked slowly over to the bed, trying her hardest to swallow around the lump in her throat and keep the tears at bay. It only took a few steps before she reached the bed, her broken heart screaming against her ribs. She really, really couldn’t do this. She couldn’t just have one last quick, unresponsive kiss from her beloved. Hell, she could barely even look at the girl! How would she tell her goodbye?

Cosette shook her head, forcing herself to stay strong. She  knew that this was the right thing to do. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she didn’t tell Eponine goodbye.

The blonde turned her head and looked at her beloved, the tears she had been trying so hard to keep in beginning to stream down her cheeks as she looked at the brunette’s face. Cosette moved further up the bed until she was sitting directly next to Eponine. She wrapped her arms around the girl and lifted her up, holding her tightly to her chest.

“I love you, baby,” she whispered, kissing the top of Eponine’s head. She ran her fingers through the long, dark hair until it was free of its usual braid. Once the strands were loose, Cosette twirled them between her fingers, sniffing loudly. “I wish we had more time together.”

Cosette began to sob as she buried her face in Eponine’s hair. She pulled the body as close to her as she could, her arms wrapped around Eponine as tightly as she could. Cosette moved a leg under herself before letting the other leg dangle off the edge of the bed as she began to rock the girl back and forth, her tears soaking the dark hair.

Cosette’s eyes widened and she quickly moved her arms so that Eponine was more loosely reclined when she felt a twitch. “Yvonne! Enjolras!” Cosette called out, watching in confusion and shock as the heart rate line began to elevate and decline shallowly.

Enjolras ran in a moment later. “Oh, my God,” he breathed, pressing a hand against his mouthin shock as tears began to fall.  Cosette shook her head at him, her mouth agape, for a moment before looking back down to Eponine. When the blonde saw that the brunette’s eyes were open and darting around the room in panic, she let out a gasp of her own. “Baby, baby, I’m here, it’s okay, you’re safe,” Cosette said in between peppering her girlfriend’s face with kisses.

Eponine’s eyes continued to dart around frantically, her eyes too unfocused to tell if she was ableto see anything. Her chest was heaving from the force of her gasping breaths, and her skin was slowly gaining back a bit of color. She opened and closed her mouth for a few moments, a strangled moan escaping, but no other sounds could be heard. After a few tries, she managed to let out a feeble, “Cosette?”

“I’m here, baby, I’m here,” Cosette said, turning Eponine’s face so that it faced hers.

Eponine blinked a couple more times before her eyes finally cleared. Once it had, and she saw Cosette hovering above her, she let out a small smile. “Hi,” she said, her smile growing when Cosette kissed her forehead.

The blonde looked up as a new nurse came into the room. Cosette recognized her as the woman who had prepared Eponine for the Defibrillator. The woman stared at the bed in confusion before she stuck her head out into the hallway and called for someone to tell the doctor that his patient had just come back. Once she stuck her head back into the room, she looked back and forth between Cosette and Eponine before saying, “Miss, you need to leave so that we can examine our patient.”

Cosette glanced down at Eponine, biting her lip. “All right,” she answered after a moment, reluctantly loosening her arms. Eponine, however, was not okay with this arrangement, and moved her hands to grip at Cosette’s forearms.

“No,” she mumbled, wrapping her arms back around the blonde and burying her face into Cosette’s chest. “Cosette stays.”

The nurse gave Cosette an exasperated look. “Really, ma’am, I must insist that you leave.”

Cosette nodded. She looked back down at Eponine. “It’s okay, baby. I promise that I won’t  go far. I’ll just be right outside the doorway if you need me.” Eponine shook her head again, reaching up and tangling her fingers with Cosette’s hair. A look of terror flashed across her face as the blonde tried to loosenEponine’s grip and lower her back down onto the bed. She pulled the brunette back against her chest before she sighed and looked back up to the nurse. “Would it be all right if I just lie here with her and you look at her like this?”

The nurse made an exasperated sound before throwing her hands up in defeat. “All right, fine. We’ll do it your way, at least for now. When Dr. Abram comes back, though, you’re going to have to leave.”

Cosette nodded. “All right.” She kissed Eponine on the cheek before leaning back against the pillows and pulling the girl back to her. Eponine looked up at the blonde, her eyes full of love as she moved her hand up to gently stroke Cosette’s cheek.

For several minutes, the room was quiet. Cosette and Eponine were lost in one another, both far too happy to finally be able to feel what it was like to be wrapped in each other’s arms, to finally know what it felt like to have their hearts beating in time, their body heat warming one another. They were only broken from their trance when the nurse tapped Cosette on the shoulder. “I’m done for now,” she said. “I gave her a dose of a mild tranquilizer to keep her calm, so she will probably fall asleep pretty quickly.”

Cosette nodded. “All right.” She watched the nurse leave before turning back to Eponine. She run her thumb over the girl’s cheek and kissed her lightly, smiling when she pulled back and saw complete happiness on the brunette’s face before she yawned. Cosette kissed her forehead again. “Sweetheart, before you go back to sleep, there’s someone else here who wants to see you.” She glanced over her shoulder at Enjolras, who was still crying. He nodded at her before pushing himself away from the windowsill to walk towards the bed.

Enjolras moved to the side of the bed, placing a hand on Eponine’s shoulder gently. “Hey, Eponine.”

Eponine gave him a sleepy smile. “Hey, Enj. Good to see you.”

The boy laughed wetly, wiping away a stray tear as he leaned forward to press a kiss to Eponine’s forehead. “It’s really good to see you too, kid.” He pulled a chair from the corner of the room closer to the side of the bed before sitting down, placing a hand back on Eponine’s back. He began to move it in circles as the brunette yawned again.

“Sleepy,” the girl mumbled, shifting her face so that it was pressed against the crook of Cosette’s neck.

Cosette kissed her forehead and wrapped her arms tighter. “Go to sleep, sweetheart. Enj and I will be here when you wake up.” She glanced down, chuckling when she realized that Eponine was already fast asleep. She kissed the top of Eponine’s head lovingly.

“You know, you’re really lucky to find a girl like Eponine.”

Cosette smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I am.” She kissed the top of Eponine’s head again. “Really, really lucky.”

Enjolras paused, his hand stilling on the back of Eponine’s head before he said, “Listen, Cosette—there’s something we need to talk about.”

“What would that be?”

“Azelma.”

Cosette bit her lip and looked up. She really wasn’t sure what to do on that front. Should they try and contact her, or should they let that sleeping dog lie? Would it just reopen old wounds if Eponine, God forbid, slipped back into a coma? Azelma had probably already moved on with her life. Was it really worth uprooting everything that she had moved on from just for this?

Yes, Cosette realized, it is. It was definitely worth it. If something happened to Enjolras, it wouldn’t matter how long the boy had been gone, any length of time would be worth it just to see her brother again, even if it was just to say goodbye.

“We need to tell her,” Cosette said, after thinking over the situation for a moment more. “I’d want to know if it was you lying here in this bed.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Cosette shifted, moving so Eponine was laying on the blonde’s chest rather than her neck. She glanced back over at Enjolras before asking, “How are we going to find her? We don’t know anything about her other than that her name is Azelma.”

Enjolras nodded and stood, going over to the chart at the end of Eponine’s bed. He picked it up before smiling at his sister. “The joy of social networking,” he said, pulling out his phone. He placed the chart back against the bed before clicking away at his phone. “We should be able to find her online, provided that she hasn’t changed her last name since Eponine’s last memory.”

Cosette nodded. “A lot of women keep their maiden name as a way for them to be found, though, so we should be able to find her even if she got married or changed her name or something.”

The room was quiet for a few moments, the sounds of Eponine’s shallow breathing and Enjolras’s typing echoing off the white walls. After a few minutes, Enjolras nodded and mumbled, “Gotcha,” before turning the phone to face his sister. He tapped the screen as he turned the phone, allowing the electronic to zoom in on the profile picture. “This girl looks kind of like Eponine, don’t you think?”

Cosette took the phone from her brother, squinting her eyes as she studied the photo. It was of a young woman who was sitting outside by a pond, her light brown hair and hazel eyes light and clear in the sunlight. Cosette stared at the picture before glancing down at the beauty in her arms, mentally cataloging their similarities. They had the same nose, as well as the same chin. Their mouths and cheeks, though, were incredibly different. The girl in the picture had full, slightly-defined lips and cheeks, while Eponine’s features were more cut and feminine. Their eyes were different, too, as Cosette’s beloved had almond-shaped, inviting eyes, while this other girl’s eyes were larger and more mischievous. “Yeah, she does. Is her name Azelma?”

Enjolras nodded before taking his phone back. “Yeah, it is.” He tapped his phone a few more times before snorting. “What do you know, we have 36 mutual friends. Must know a lot of people from work. Guess I will send her a friend request of my own, then.” He tapped the screen a few more timesbefore stopping and turning the phone around. “Well, this is definitely Eponine,” he said, handing the phone back to his sister again.

Cosette glanced down at the screen in her hand, her eyes widening when she took in the picture. Enjolras was right, it was Eponine. Azelma and she had their arms around one another, their faces full of pure excitement at whatever activity that they had been partaking in. Cosette stared at the image for a moment before clicking back to the girl’s homepage to view the other pictures. She scrolled through for a few moments until she found another picture of Eponine. In this one, Eponine was lounging on the couch in what Cosette recognized as her living room. The brunette was smiling at a young sandy-haired boy, who was sitting on the floor with a pile of Legos.

Cosette smiled at the picture before searching for more. She definitely wasn’t disappointed at the results of her search: she foundimages in Azelma’s albums that spanned from throwback pictures of Eponine and her as young children, to Eponine a few weeks before she had ended up here. She scrolled through for several minutes before shaking her head. 

Although the pictures were exciting, and they did show Cosette a lot about her lover, they really weren’t helping the blonde learn how to contact Azelma. She clicked back to the “about” tab, scrolling down until Azelma’s phone number came into view. She stared at it for a moment before leaning over and kissing Eponine on the head. She glanced up at Enjolras. “Hey, can you watch over Eponine for a few minutes?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Find it?”

“Yeah, I did.” She kissed Eponine on the head again before untangling herself from the brunette’s arms, smiling when the sleeping girl made an unhappy noise. “I’ll be right back, baby,” she whispered, nuzzling into Eponine’s hair before getting up off the bed and shaking the phone in Enjolras’s direction. “Let’s see how this goes.”

Cosette left the room and made her way down to the waiting room down the hall, waving at Yvonne as she walked past the nurses’ station. Nerves filled her stomach as she clicked the number on the screen, her heart beating faster when the phone began to ring. What if Azelma wouldn’t talk to her? What if she didn’t believe her? At least neither Enj nor I told Eponine we were calling her, in case this doesn’t work out.

The phone rang twice before a woman’s voice picked up. “Hello?”

Cosette took a deep breath. “Hi, my name is Cosette Fauchelevent. Is this Azelma Thernardier?”

“Yes?”

Cosette was quiet for a moment before saying, “We need to talk.”

15

A week passed before anything happened with Azelma.

The girls were lying in the hospital bed, with Cosette leaning up against the wall, and Eponine’s head on Cosette’s chest. They were watching a movie on Cosette’s laptop and discussing the errors that the film was made up of, in terms of the way that real relationships between women worked. Well, at least Cosette was. Eponine was engrossed with her girlfriend, and was staring intently at her, a soft expression of love on her face.

“What is it?” Cosette asked as she glanced down, pushing a strand of hair away from Eponine’s face and behind her ear.

Eponine shook her head and smiled. “It’s just really, really nice to be in your arms and be able to feel your skin against mine.”

Cosette pressed a kiss against the younger girl’s head before smiling back. “Yeah, it really is.” She moved her thumb in circles against her cheek before leaning down and kissing her softly. “It’s nice to do this as well.” She kissed her again.

Eponine made a please sound before kissing Cosette back, moving her hand up to cup the blonde’s cheek. “Mmm. I would have to agree.” She kissed her girlfriend again before dropping her head back down and snuggling into her chest.

The duo looked up at the sound of a knock on the door. “Come in!” Cosette called, pulling Eponine closer.

Yvonne poked her head in before stepping through the doorway, a tray of cookies in her hand. “Good morning, girls,” she said, walking towards the bed. She put the plate down on the table next to Eponine’s bed before sitting down on the edge of the mattress. “Ms. Thernardier, I figured that now that you’re awake, you’d like some sort of sweet food that wasn’t made in the hospital, so I made you a tray of my famous white-and-dark chocolate cookies for you and your partner to snack on while you’re still here.”

“That was so sweet of you, Yvonne. Thank you.” Eponine smiled at the woman before reaching over and taking one of the cookies off the tray and taking a bite. She made a pleased noise as she chewed before saying, “These are amazing!”

Cosette reached out and took one as well, letting out a quiet moan when the delectable treat hit her taste buds. Eponine’s declaration was an understatement: Cosette had never tasted anything as rich and sweet as the cookie in her hand. “Wow, Yvonne.”

Yvonne gave a flustered smile, waving her hand embarrassedly. “Oh, you two.” She leaned forward and gave the girls a quick hug before pulling back and saying, “Well, I best be getting back to work. Hit the call button if either of you need anything.” She pushed herself off the bed, giving the duo another smile before she left the room.

Cosette watched the woman leave before reaching to the tray and grabbing another cookie, her taste buds unable to resist. The experience was made even better when a smidge of chocolate attached itself to Cosette’s lips. Eponine leaned forward and darted her tongue out, removing the offending substance before her pupils widened as Cosette lunged forward and kissed her hard. She let out a quiet moan before tangling her fingers in the blonde’s hair, pulling lightly as she bit down on the girl’s bottom lip.

A knock on the door alerted the girls that there were, once again, no longer alone. Eponine let out an irritated groan as she turned to the door. Her eyes widened, however, when she saw a woman and a little boy standing there. Cosette looked up as well, studying the duo. The woman was no older than her early-twenties, and had tears streaming down her cheeks. She was holding a young boy by the hand as they stood in the doorway.

After a moment, a look of recognition came across Eponine’s face, and she shot up like a firework, her eyes wide. Cosette recognized the girl as well, and removed her arms from her beloved to give her room to move. She swung her legs around before pulling one under herself so that she could watch the meeting.

“Azelma?!” Eponine exclaimed, struggling with her strength to launch herself out of bed and towards her sister. Fortunately, she didn’t have to try much, as it only took another moment for Azelma to let go of her son’s hand and sprint across the room to jump into her sister’s open arms. Tears quickly began to run down both girls’ faces as they embraced.

Within minutes, Azelma had gone from simple tears to full-out breaking down as she held her sister tighter. “I thought you were dead,” she sobbed, burying her face in Eponine’s hair. She trembled as she sniffed loudly. “Mom and Dad called me the night that you ended up here. They said that you had been in a brutal car accident and that there was nothing the doctors could do, and that there wouldn’t be a funeral because your body was so disfigured.” She shook her head, pulling Eponine tighter. “God, I’ve missed you so much. When Cosette called me, I wanted to come right away, but the earliest flight I could get back from London was late last night.”

Eponine let out a small gasp before turning to look at her girlfriend. “You’re the one who called her?” When Cosette nodded, Eponine threw her arms around her and kissed her on the cheek. “Oh, thank you, thank you! I can’t tell you how much it means to me for you to have done this for me.”

Cosette smiled and kissed her on the head. “It wasn’t any trouble.” The blonde watched as Eponine and Azelma went back to one another, tears still running down both of their cheeks. Cosette felt a swell of pride for making this reunion happen. If she and Enjolras had been in this situation, she would be so ecstatic to find out that her brother was still alive after she had thought him to be dead for a year and, if she was in Eponine’s position, she would feel much more secure in waking up with knowing that someone from her old life was there for her.

Cosette looked down when she felt a tug at her hand. The sandy-haired boy looked up at her with confusion in his eyes. “Excuse me,” he said, his eyes wide, “but is that my Auntie Eponine? Mommy said we were going to visit Auntie Eponine but Mommy also said that Auntie Eponine was in heaven with Stinky, my kitten.”

  The blonde smiled at the boy before lifting him up and onto her lap. “Yes, it is.”

The boy nodded before turning his dark chocolate brown eyes back up to Cosette. “Who are you?”

“My name is Cosette,” Cosette responded, laughing softly as she shook her head. The boy smiled up at her.

“Are you my auntie’s girlfriend?”

Cosette laughed again, amused by the child’s bluntness. “Why yes, I am!”

The boy’s sandy curls flopped over his eyes as he nodded. “Cool. My name is Lucas!” He held up his hand, shifting on Cosette’s lap so that she could better see how many fingers he was holding up. “I’m this many!” he said, thrusting his hand towards Cosette before shaking it in her face. “I turn six in three weeks. Mommy says I can have a Batman party!”

“That’s so exciting!” Cosette exclaimed, giving the boy a quick hug before she glanced back over at Eponine and Azelma to see them still wrapped up in each other’s arms as they cried. Cosette stared at them for a moment before turning back to Lucas. “Hey, buddy, how about I take you down to the cafeteria for some ice cream while your mommy and Auntie Eponine talk by themselves?”

Lucas thought about it for a moment before nodding enthusiastically. He hopped down off Cosette’s lap before running around the bed and pulling on his mother’s shirt to ask permission for him to go with Cosette. At her answering nod, he moved back to grab the blonde’s hand and pull her off the bed. She had just enough time to kiss Eponine goodbye before she was being pulled out of the room by the excited five-year-old.

It only took a few minutes for Cosette to figure out where the cafeteria was, and soon she found herself staring into the large cooler adorning one corner of the cafeteria while Lucas and she tried to decide what type of ice cream they wanted. Ultimately, Lucas picked out a King Cone, while Cosette decided on an ice cream sandwich made from two chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream. She pulled the treats out for Lucas and herself, unwrapping the King Cone for Lucas before making her way to the cash register to pay.

As they walked back to the elevator, it was silentv for several minutes until Lucas quietly said, “I’m glad Auntie Eponine came back from Heaven. Mommy has been really sad ever since Auntie Eponine left.”

Cosette felt her heart clench at the boy’s words. She definitely understood what Lucas was saying. “I bet she has been.”

Lucas suddenly stopped walking a few feet shy of the elevator. He grabbed Cosette’s hand and pulled it, alerting her to his stop. “What is it, buddy?” Cosette asked, crouching down to the boy’s level. She was shocked to find Lucas’s lashes wet, a single tear running down his cheek. Cosette pulled the boy into a hug. “Lucas, what’s wrong?”

The boy sniffed loudly before saying, “I don’t want Auntie Eponine to leave us again. I really missed her when she left.”

“Oh, sweetie. Auntie Eponine isn’t going to leave again. She’s going to be around for a long, long time,” she assured him, her chest beginning to hurt as she realized just how desperately she hoped that Eponine would stay around for her, as well. Eponine had become such a constant in her life, she didn’t know what she would do without having her to talk to whenever she wanted. Cosette pulled Lucas into another hug before standing up and hitting the button to call the elevator.

Once it arrived, the duo made their way up to the room in silence. Lucas ran into the room and crashed against his mother’s legs, while Cosette stayed a bit subdued, hoping that she wasn’t going to interrupt any bonding time that Eponine and her sister were having.

“Mommy!” Lucas exclaimed, climbing up onto her lap and showing her his King Cone. “Look what Miss Cosette bought me!”

Azelma hugged her son before flashing a smile in Cosette’s direction. “That was so sweet! Did you tell her thank you?’ Lucas nodded. “Good boy.”

Lucas slid himself off his mother before coming back over to Cosette and hugging her legs. He looked back over to the women of his family. “Auntie Eponine, I like Miss Cosette. You should keep her.” 

“I’m thinking the same thing,” Eponine said, winking at her girlfriend. Cosette made a face at her before mouthing, I love you. Lucas let go of the blonde and went back over to his mother to climb back up on her lap, happily eating his ice cream as he began to play with the remote that worked Eponine’s bed.

Cosette stood against the wall for a moment before she walked over to kiss Eponine on the head. “Sweetheart, I’m going to head home for a while and let you three have some alone time. I’ll be back tonight, so call if you want to talk before then or want me to pick you up some dinner.”

After Eponine gave her a quick kiss, Cosette told Azelma and Lucas goodbye before making her way out of the room, pulling out her phone as she walked. She clicked through her contacts until she found her sister’s name. “Hey, Mia Rose,” the blonde said after a moment when the woman in question answered.

“Hey, Cosette. I’m a bit busy right now, so is it okay if  I call you back in a couple of hours?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. I have something important to tell you, though.”

Cosette listened to the sound of something crashing and Mia Rose mumbling expletives before her sister answered her, sighed. “All right, I guess I have time to talk for a few minutes. What’s up?”

“Promise not to get mad that I didn’t tell you when I found out?”

“Cosette, you’re worrying me. I won’t get mad about whatever it is. Spit it out.”

Cosette took a deep breath. “Okay, here’s the thing: Eponine’s not a ghost.”

“What? Of course she is. I saw her with my own eyes, remember, Cosette? She was definitely a ghost.”

Cosette unlocked her car and slid in before answering. “Actually, what you met is just an echo left behind by a coma patient, who is now very much awake.” Another crashing sound echoed through the phone, followed by the sound of Jackson screaming and Meaghan crying.

Mia Rose groaned. “Listen, I have to go, but I’ll call you later, okay?” She hung up before Cosette had time to respond.

Cosette stared at her phone for a moment before opening the template for a new message. She attached the images that she had sent Enjolras the first day of the discovery, as well two pictures that she and Eponine had taken while lying in bed that morning. She sent the text to her sister before tossing the phone onto the passenger seat and pulling out of the parking spot.

The blonde had just pulled onto the main road when her phone started ringing. “Hello?”

“Oh, my God, you weren’t joking. Eponine really is alive.”

The blonde rolled her eyes, putting the phone on speaker so that it was easier to drive. “Why would I joke about something like that?”

“I don’t know, but there is no conceivable reason why I should believe that that is true. How did you even find her?” Another scream sounded in the background. Mia Rose groaned again before saying, “God dammit, I’ll have to call you back later again. Jules gave the hell-spawn sugar, and now they’re destroying everything in sight. Love you.”

“Love you too.” Cosette hung up her phone before laughing, shaking her head. Meaghan and Jackson always turned into little monsters whenever anyone gave them sugar. She expected that it was because of the ungodly amount of energy and moodiness that each child had on their own, without the aid of any sort of stimulant.

She made the rest of the drive in silence, pulling into her driveway and immediately making her way into the living room as soon as she arrived home. She let out an exhausted groan before falling back in a heap, curling her legs towards herself as Enjolras came downstairs and plopped himself next to her feet. “Hey, sis. How’s Eponine doing?”

Cosette gave him an exasperated look before yawning. “She’s fine. The doctors are supposed to do some final tests in the morning to see if she is well enough to come home.”

Enjolras smiled. “That’s great.” He leaned back on the couch and put his legs across the coffee table.  He glanced back over. “Have you guys figured out where Eponine is going to be staying once she is out?”

Cosette was quiet for a moment, the question swirling in her mind. She hadn’t even considered the possibility that Eponine would go anywhere other than with her but, now that she was thinking about it, it was equally as likely that Eponine would make the decision to go live with Azelma and Lucas. “I . . . actually have no idea what she’s planning on doing,” Cosette admitted, biting her nails. “She’ll probably want to go and live with Azelma, to see what all she has missed in their lives in the last year and a half.”

A wave of sadness crashed through Cosette’s stomach at the thought. She had grown so used to falling asleep with Eponine near, and she was really looking forward to being allowed to hold the girl each and every night as they fell asleep together. On the plus side, at least she was still allowed to kiss Eponine whenever she wanted when they were together, which was a lot more than she could say when the girl was an echo. She chewed her lip.

Enjolras glanced at his watch before standing. “Well, I should go and start getting ready. I have a date in an hour or so.” He blushed.

Cosette was pulled from her moping at her brother’s statement. “Wait, what? Who with?”

Enjolras blushed darker before mumbling, “Grantaire. My hiring manager.”

Cosette’s eyes widened in surprise. “Ooh, is your booty-call boss trying to turn you into something more?”

Enjolras pushed his sister playfully. “Hey, don’t tease. And yeah, hopefully.” He let out a bashful smile before ruffling his hair nervously. “I really, really like him, and I’m hoping that he feels the same about me. Besides, he isn’t my manager anymore. He found a job teaching French at one of the local high schools, so he’s working there now.” He sat back down on the couch after glancing at his watch again. He looked over at his sister with pleading eyes. “I’m really nervous, Cosette. I haven’t had a date with someone I’ve had feelings for since Tommy and I went on our first date so many years ago.”

Cosette reached over and squeezed his leg comfortingly. “Hey, it’ll be fine. If he could stand you in a sexual manner for this long, he won’t be put off by your shitty personality.” She winked, laughing when he chucked the pillow at her. “Just go and get ready already!”

Enjolras rolled his eyes but stood anyway to make his way up the stairs towards his room. Cosette watched him leave before she lied back on the couch, falling asleep within minutes. 

***

Cosette shot up, her hand flying out and slamming against the coffee table as she jerked awake. She looked around in confusion and pain before glancing at her phone, realizing that it was her ring tone that had her awoken her from her nap. She shook her head, rubbing her eyes are she reached over and grabbed the phone.

“H-hello?” she said, yawning loudly as she rubbed at her eyes again. The blonde let her head fall back against the pillow as she waited for a response.

“Cosette?”

Cosette shot up as Eponine’s voice reached her ears. “What’s wrong, baby? Why are you calling?” She glanced down at her watch to see that three and a half hours had passed since she had gotten back to the house.

Eponine laughed. “Stop freaking out, Cosette. I’m fine. Actually, I was just calling to see if you could come and pick me up? The doctor came in to look at me a few minutes ago and said that since I had been in perfect health other than not waking up, he doesn’t see any reason to keep me any longer than they already have. He says I just have to come back and get some tests done if I start feeling weird.”

Happiness immediately bloomed in Cosette’s chests. Eponine was going to be all right! “That’s wonderful baby!”

“Yeah. So, are you ready to come and bring me home, or do you have to do anything first?”

“ . . . home? As in, back in with me?”

The other line was silent for a moment before Eponine asked, “Sweetheart, where else would I be going? Home is my home.”

Cosette bit her lip before responding. “What about your sister’s place? I thought that you and her would want to spend all the time together that you possibly could. Besides, we’ve only been together a couple of months, I didn’t want to assume that you’d want to come back and live here with me.”

Eponine chuckled softly. “Goodness, Cosette. I want to come home with you. I want to live with you, all right? Besides, my sister’s house is crowded enough as it is. She doesn’t need to add me to the mix.”

Cosette smiled, moving to hug a pillow against her chest. “All right. I’ll be there shortly. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Cosette hung up the phone before putting it down on the cushion next to her. Once it was out of her hand, she turned towards the front, the reality of what had just happened hitting her. Eponine was coming home! They would be able to have a life together. A real life together! God, a few weeks ago, she thought that she had fallen in love with a dead person, and now here she was, going to pick up her very real, very alive girlfriend and bring her back into their home! She couldn’t believe how lucky she was.

Cosette shook her head in an attempt to calm herself down. Picking up Eponine wouldn’t do them any good if Cosette was too excited to really focus on driving, and ended up crashing.

With that thought in mind, Cosette quickly made her way up to her room to grab clothes that looked like they could possibly fit Eponine before she went down to her car. She grabbed her phone as she walked, listening to it ring for a few moments before her brother answered. “Hey, Enj.”

“Hey, Cosette. What’s up?”

“I’m going to go pick up Eponine, so we’ll be home later,” Cosette said, sliding into her car and starting the engine. After a moment, she ended her conversation with Enjolras before tossing her phone into the passenger seat.

The drive to the hospital passed by in a blur, Cosette’s mind too deep into imagining her life with Eponine to pay much attention to much else. She pulled into a spot before heading up to Eponine’s room.

Eponine was lying in her bed, her head thrown back against her pillows as she stared up at the ceiling, her hair (once again in the hospital’s trademark braid) hanging off the pillows and over the edge of the bed. From the doorway, Cosette could hear the complaining of the stars of Keeping Up With the Kardashians echoing around the room from the boxy white television that was shoved up in one corner of the room for guests visiting their loved ones. She chuckled as Eponine let out a bored groan as Kim went on a tangent about some menial thing, again.

“Nothing else on?” Cosette asked, laughing as she walked into the room. Eponine looked up and smiled before reaching to the remote on her side table to turn off the offending show before tossing the device to the end of the bed.

“That show was pointless when I was awake the first time, and it has only gotten worse in the year and a half I was out of it,” Eponine replied, shaking her head in disgust. She scooted over on the bed before beckoning Cosette over. Cosette smiled before making her way over and pulling her girlfriend into her arms, giving her a quick hug before passing her the jeans and tank top that she had brought along. Eponine gave Cosette a grateful smile before taking the clothes to the bathroom attached to the room to change out of her hospital gown.

Once the girl had returned, Cosette pulled Eponine into a gentle kiss, butterflies filling her stomach at the brief contact with her lover. God, it felt so great to be able to finally feel Eponine’s lips against hers! The few kisses that the girls had shared since the younger girl had woken back up had invoked more feelings of love and arousal than she had ever felt from anyone else. She pulled Eponine closer, winding her arms around the girl’s waist as Eponine wove her fingers through Cosette’s hair.

The girls pulled apart, laughing, when Eponine’s heart rate monitor spiked and a worried nurse stuck her head through the doorway to see what was going on. They ignored her reprimands in favor of making faces at one another. Eventually, the nurse gave up and left.

Cosette watched the woman leave before leaning back on the pillows and pulling Eponine to her chest. “So,” she began, “where did Azelma and Lucas go?”

Eponine leaned her head against Cosette’s shoulder, placing a kiss against the older girl’s neck before answering. “Azelma’s boyfriend called and asked her to come home. Apparently their daughter won’t stop crying, and he didn’t know what to do any more.”

“I understand how that can be. There were some days where it seemed like there wasn’t anything that I could do to get Libby to stop crying.” Cosette paused for a moment before saying, “You know, I don’t remember you mentioning that Azelma had a daughter, or even that she was pregnant when you went into the coma.”

Eponine shook her head. “I didn’t ever mention it. I didn’t know until an hour ago. Azelma started seeing some guy from her job a few weeks before the accident, and she apparently found out that she was pregnant with Kate soon after my parents told her that I was dead.” 

Cosette nodded. “I see.” She moved further down on the bed to stretch out before pulling Eponine in tighter. “I can’t wait to have you in my arms in our bed, as opposed to this cramped, uncomfortable thing.”

“I don’t know, I think we could get pretty damn comfy here,” Eponine teased, her eyes glinting mischievously as she stared at Cosette through her lashes. Cosette rolled her eyes. The younger girl laughed before continuing. “Yvonne told me just to hit the call button whenever I was ready for her to give me the discharge papers and check my vitals a final time. I could have done it all earlier, but I wanted to wait until you got here so that I didn’t have to wait around.” She smiled at her girlfriend before turning away from Cosette to push the bright red button on the side of the bed.

A few minutes later, Yvonne bustled into the room, a smile on her face and a plate of cookies in her hand. “I figured that you girls would enjoy some of my famous white-chocolate-and-peanut-butter-chip cookies as a going home present.” She put the plate on the tray next to Eponine’s bed before she reached her arms out and pulled the girls into a hug. “Oh, Miss Eponine, I’ve really gotten used to your presence over the last year, but I must say that it is a relief to see you out of that hospital gown and in regular clothes.”

Eponine laughed. “Thanks, Yvonne. It feels amazing to be going home.”

Yvonne did a quick, final check of Eponine’s vitals before pulling her into another tight hug. “You girls better check in with me every now and then, you hear?”

“We will, don’t worry,” Cosette said once the hug was over, moving to hug the motherly woman herself. “Thank you for taking such amazing care of my girl during her stay here.”

“It was my pleasure, dear.” Yvonne pulled out of the hug, her hand quickly darting up to her face to sweep away a fallen tear. She shook her head quickly before going to the chart at the end of the bed and grabbing a pen, marking an “x” near the bottom of the page. She held the clipboard out to Eponine. “Once you sign, you are officially discharged from your stay in this hospital.”

16

It was only a few minutes from when Yvonne walked in with the release form before Cosette and Eponine were on the road, the window rolled down and the music blaring. Eponine was staring outside at the passing trees, a nostalgic smile on her face. “It feels so good to have the wind on my face again,” Eponine admitted after Cosette asked her what she was thinking. “I forgot how wonderful it felt.”

Cosette risked a glance over, letting out a smile of her own when she saw the ecstatic expression on her girlfriend’s face. She adjusted her hands on the steering wheel so that she could reach over and take Eponine’s hand in her own, giving it a light squeeze as the younger woman looked over at Cosette, her eyes full of love. Cosette glanced over at her again. “I love you.”

Eponine interlaced their fingers before shifting in her seat, moving so that she was facing Cosette more than the road. “I love you too, baby.” She pulled the blonde’s hand up to her mouth to give it a quick kiss before turning her attention back out the window.

The rest of the drive passed by in a blur, both girls too engrossed with their own thoughts to speak. Once they had gotten into the driveway and out of the car, Cosette pulled Eponine into a tight hug, pressing gentle kisses against her neck lovingly. “So, what do you want to do on your first night home?” she asked after a moment, moving her kisses so that they were pressed against the brunette’s jaw line.

Eponine thought about it for a moment before placing her index finger below Cosette’s chin and tilting her head up to face hers, dropping a chaste kiss on the lips that she found there. “Do you remember how you made brownies right after we first met, and I simply observed? Do you think that we could maybe make those?” She blushed. “They looked amazing, and I’ve been dying to try one ever since that day.”

Cosette nodded. “Of course. Anything you want, we’ll do.” She kissed Eponine’s forehead before intertwining their fingers and dragging the girl towards the kitchen. Cosette pulled out the ingredients from the pantry and started the oven before beginning to make the batter, rolling her eyes when the brunette jumped up on the counter and declared that she was, once again, just going to observe the process.

The room was quiet for a few minutes until Eponine said, “When I was younger, Azelma and I used to make brownies all the time. You know, like a cookie with a brownie baked inside?” She shook her head, rubbing at her stomach. “They were delicious. The last time I made them was when Azelma was pregnant, I believe—my aunt and I made them together at my parents’ house, then we went to that same aunt’s house to drop them off, because Azelma was living there at the time.”

Cosette glanced up before looking back at the bowl. “That must have been hard, living away from your sister. You two seem like you’re really close.”

Eponine nodded. “We are. We always have been. On some nights, I would sneak out of my parents’ house late at night and go and sleep at Aunt Michelle’s house, just so that I didn’t have to be away from Azelma.” She shook her head. “Aunt Michelle and my mom stopped talking when Azelma moved in, so I never had to worry about getting ratted out or anything.”

“Why didn’t they talk? Was it because of Azelma?”

Eponine nodded again before pushing herself off the counter and walking over to the now-completed batter and scooping out some with her finger, letting out a contented sound when the batter coated her taste buds. “Yeah. Mom and Dad told Azelma that her only option was to put the baby up for adoption, and Aunt Michelle thought that Azelma should be allowed to do whatever she wanted, since she was the mother.

“When Azelma told my parents that she wanted to keep the baby, they told her to get out. She packed up her bags as quickly as possible and made her way to Michelle’s house. My aunt took her in, no questions asked. Azelma lived with her until we bought this house.” Eponine scooped out another bit of batter. “Baby, this batter is amazing. I can see where the chili powder and cinnamon really come into play.”

Cosette chuckled. “I’m glad that you think so.” She poured the remaining batter into a pan and slid it into the oven. She set the timer before coming back over to Eponine, slipping an arm around her shoulders as pulling her close. She kissed the girl on the head before asking, “So, do you want to watch a movie and cuddle while the brownies cook?”

Eponine nodded. “Yeah, that sounds nice.”

The girls went into the living room and settled onto the couch, flipping through Netflix until they found a horror movie that looked reasonably decent. Cosette pulled Eponine close, ignoring the movie in favor of focusing on the beautiful girl in her arms. She smoothed out her hair and kissed her cheek, holding her so close that she could hear Eponine’s beating heart through the thin fabric of her skirt.

After twenty minutes or so, the oven timer chimed, alerting Cosette that the brownies were done. She untangled herself from her girlfriend before going into the kitchen. She had just pulled out the brownies when she heard a knock to the front door.

 “Babe, can you get the door?” Cosette called out as she turned towards the counter, kicking the oven shut. She placed the pan on the cooling rack that she placed on the marble before making her way towards the living room to see who their guests were.

It didn’t take Cosette long to figure out who had disturbed Eponine and her baking enjoyment when she heard a little boy squeal, “Auntie Eponine!” Cosette laughed and shook her head as she stepped through the doorway. The little boy ran forward and hugged his aunt around her legs before peaking around them and waving at Cosette.

Eponine, however, did not realize that her girlfriend had entered the room as she tried to call to the kitchen, “Cosette! My sister is—” she looked over her shoulder, trailing off as she saw Cosette standing only a few feet away. She blushed before she continued. “—here.”

Cosette laughed. “Yeah, I can see that.” She chuckled again as she shook her head, smiling at Azelma and Lucas. Next to Lucas, there was a man that Cosette couldn’t remember meeting. He was tall with a shaved head and light blue eyes, and was wearing a black tee shirt and a pair of camouflage pants and work boots. He was holding an infant carrier in his left hand, his forearm muscles straining beneath the skin lightly as he supported the baby girl resting there.

Cosette walked the rest of the way next to the group. Lucas let go of Eponine’s legs to hug Cosette in greeting. “Hi, Miss Cosette!” he said, grinning up at her. Cosette smiled back before ruffling his hair.

“How’s it going, kid?” she asked, moving to pick him up and settle him on her hip. Eponine put her arm around Cosette’s waist and kissed her on the cheek before letting go to take the infant out of her carrier to cuddle.

Azelma gestured to the man. “Eponine, Cosette, this is my boyfriend, Henry.” She turned to Henry, turning her hand to now gesture at the duo. “Henry, this is my sister, Eponine, and her girlfriend, Cosette.” The brunette paused for a moment before flipping her hair over the front of her shoulder as she turned back to Cosette, a look of confusion in her eyes. “You know, Cosette, I can’t say that I remember you from before I moved. Eponine’s only been awake for a few days. I feel like I should have heard about you at some point before the accident if you loved my sister enough to wait a year for her.”

Cosette and Eponine glanced at one another, a worried look passing between their faces. Eponine put the infant back down in the carrier before running a trembling hand through her hair. “Cosette and I made brownies right before you got here, how about she and I go get them and . . . you guys can just wait out here?” Her voice broke as she finished her sentence. She gave Cosette another panicked look before turning towards the kitchen.

Cosette narrowed her eyes at her girlfriend’s retreating back before shrugging at Azelma. The group moved to sit on the couch while Cosette went into the other room.

Eponine was clearly nervous as the blonde came in. She was leaning against the counter with her arms crossed over her waist, her lip pinched between her teeth as she worried it. When she saw Cosette, she glanced up before looking back down. Cosette approached her slowly, speaking in a harsh whisper. “You didn’t tell her?” Eponine glanced up for a moment before turning her eyes back to the floor, shaking her head slowly. Cosette sighed. She stepped forward and pulled her girlfriend into a hug. “Baby, we should tell her.”

Eponine shook her head again. “But . . . does she have to know? Can’t she just think that we got together before I went into the coma?”

Cosette pulled back and looked Eponine in the eye. “Sweetheart, if you really want that, then all right. I will go with whatever story you want to tell her. Don’t you want her to know what really happened to you, though? You know why you were in that coma. I know if I was in Azelma’s position, and Enjolras had been hurt, I would want to know exactly what happened to him. I wouldn’t want to stay in the dark.”

Eponine sighed. “I guess you’re right.”

Cosette gave her a quick hug before pulling her into a kiss. “Do you want me to get her?”

Eponine paused before glancing up at Cosette and nodded. Cosette nodded back before moving to the doorway and calling, “Hey, Azelma? Can you come in here for a minute?”

After a moment, the chestnut-haired girl walked in. “What’s up?”

Eponine gave Cosette a nervous look before reaching her hands out to fiddle with her nails. “Uhm . . . there’s more to Cosette and I meeting than you’re aware of. It might sound crazy, but we—I mean, I, wanted to tell you what really happened.”

 Haley scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Something even crazier than your girlfriend just happening to buy our old house? Or crazier than you moving in with your girlfriend immediately rather than coming home with me?” A sad look crossed her eyes when the last sentence left her lips before it disappeared, hidden behind an air of nonchalance.

Eponine nodded uncomfortable. “Yeah . . . ” she shook her head. “Look, Azelma, Cosette and I didn’t meet before I went into a coma—we met in June, when she moved in here.”

Azelma narrowed her eyes in confusion before taking a seat at the table. Cosette sat down as well, pulling Eponine on her lap and holding her protectively. “I’m confused. I thought that you had been in a coma for the last year and a half? Isn’t that what the nurses in the long-term ward were saying?”

Eponine nodded. “Yeah . . . I was.” She looked at Cosette for help.

Cosette sighed. “Look, Azelma, I know that this is going to sound completely crazy, but Enjolras and my older sister, Mia Rose, can back us up on this.” She shook her head. “My brother and I moved in at the beginning of June, and, like, three days after we moved in, we started seeing weird things around the house, and we started to feel like there was something else in here with us.”

“Like a ghost?”

Cosette thought about it for a moment before answering. “Well, more like an echo, but yeah. It couldn’t touch or move anything like a ghost can, but we could see it in the mirrors and, eventually, it was able to move freely throughout the house.”

Eponine cleared her throat before blurting out, “Azelma, the echo was me. I went into a coma here and part of my consciousness got stuck here while my body slept.” Azelma cocked her head in confusion.

“No, that can’t be right. Mom and Dad explicitly told me that you were in a car accident when Lucas and I were at Disneyworld. Even if I didn’t know that you were alive, I at least knew the circumstance in how you ended up that way.”

Eponine shook his head. “Azelma, no. Mom and Dad lied. They didn’t care what happened to me, as long as I was officially out of their hair. My nurse, Yvonne, told us that when she called Mom and Dad, they said that the doctors should have let me die. If they didn’t care at all about if I was even alive, of course they were going to tell everyone that I was killed in a horrible car crash. If the crash was bad enough, they wouldn’t have to explain why they didn’t have a funeral with my body, or at all.”

Azelma shook her head. “No. I had a ceremony for you, with all of our friends and family. Everyone except for mom and dad was there, and now everyone wants to see you now that we all know that you are still alive!” She shook her head before taking a deep breath. “All right, fine. You weren’t in a car crash. What happened, then?”

Eponine leaned against the table, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes. “I came home from class one day to find a man here waiting for me . . . and he pushed me down the stairs. I don’t know who he is, or anything about him.”

Azelma pushed back her chair and stood, running her fingers through her hair as she let out a huffy breath. “I can’t deal with this right now. You just woke up. Let me get used to the fact that my baby sister isn’t rotting in a hole in the ground before you ask me to accept anything else.” She stormed out of the kitchen, mumbling, “I’m going for a walk,” under her breath.

Cosette watched sadly as Eponine deflated, turning to bury her face in her girlfriend’s shoulder as she sighed. “Well, that sucked,” the brunette mumbled, wrapping her arms around the blonde’s waist and placing a gentle kiss on Cosette’s pulse point.

Cosette rubbed Eponine’s back comfortingly. “Hey, she’ll come back,” she assured the other girl, kissing her on the cheek and moving her hand up to stroke her hair. “Think about how hard it was for you when you found out that you weren’t really a ghost. Hell, think how hard it would be for you if you were to find out that Azelma fell in love with Henry when he was a ghost.”

Eponine shrugged. “I didn’t think about it that way. I knew that it would be hard for her understand, but I didn’t expect that she’d leave.” She sighed. “I don’t know how I would handle finding out that there was a ghost in my house. I think I’d freak out.”

Cosette nudged her with her shoulder before pulling her tighter. “Well, at least my ghost was the sexiest thing that I had ever laid my eyes on.” She gave Eponine another quick kiss before nudging her off her lap and standing, gesturing with her head towards the living room. “We should probably get back in there and keep your family company.”

Cosette walked towards the counter to cut the brownies while Eponine made her way into the living room. She loaded them onto a plate before leaving the kitchen, a smile spreading across her cheeks as she saw the relaxed way that Eponine was sitting on the couch, Lucas sitting happily in her lap and making faces at his younger sister, who was cooing happily in her father’s arms. He glanced over when Cosette walked into the room though, his face lighting up when he saw the plate of brownies. “Auntie Eponine, can I have one?” he asked, turning back to look at the brunette before looking back at the platter hungrily.

When Eponine gave him the affirmative, Cosette went back into the kitchen to grab a stack of napkins to serve the treats on. She handed one to the boy, chuckling when his eyes began to sparkly excitedly. She watched him for a moment before turning to Henry. “So, what is that you do for a living, Henry?”

He gave her a slight smile. “Well, I was in the army up until about six months ago. I’m still used to wearing my fatigues and such, though,” he said, laughing as he waved his hand towards his camouflage pants. “I work in construction, now. I wanted to keep on doing something with my hands, and building seems to be the one thing that I am continuously good at.”

“Well, that sounds interesting.”

Henry let out another barking laugh, cutting himself off when the infant in his arms startled at the noise. “Well, I enjoy it, at least. What do you do?”

“I’m a writer for The Bard of Avon. I work at the store sometimes, too.”

Henry nodded before standing and putting the infant back in her carrier when she started to fuss tiredly. “Azelma loves that magazine. What do you write?”

“Short stories, mostly.”

“I’ll have to keep my eye out for you when Azelma gets the next edition in.”

The next twenty minutes went by in a blur, as Cosette, Henry, and Eponine kept themselves entertained by learning more about one another. They had just finished talking about their most embarrassing moments in high school when Azelma came back through the front door, a large brown paper bag in her arms. She held it up as the trio looked over at her. “I brought dinner,” she said, smiling apologetically at Eponine.

She placed the bag on the coffee table before scooping Kate up from her carrier. “I’m going to go and nurse her.”

“I’ll go and get plates,” Cosette volunteered, standing up and heading to the kitchen while Eponine pulled out several containers of Chinese food from the bag. When she got back, she handed Eponine the utensils and plates. The dark-haired girl scooped out a bit of each container onto the plates, handing them to Cosette, Lucas, and Henry before filling one for herself and one for Azelma.

The group had just begun to eat when the front door opened again. This time, it was Enjolras. He eyed the group in confusion before flashing his sister a thumbs up about his date. He came over and crashed on the couch in between Eponine and Cosette, leaning over to whisper in Cosette’s ear, “Who’s here?”

Cosette gestured to the company in turn. “Enjolras, this is Henry, Azelma’s boyfriend, and her son, Lucas.” She smiled at her brother. “Azelma’s here too, but she’s nursing their daughter in the bathroom.”

Enjolras nodded, greeting Henry before turning to Eponine and pulling her into a quick hug. “It’s nice to see you home, Eponine,” he said, pecking her on the cheek. Eponine hugged him back before pulling away, moving to lean her head against his shoulder as Lucas scrambled off her lap to sit on the floor. Everyone looked up when Azelma walked back into the room, the infant asleep in her arms. She placed her back in the carrier before turning to Enjolras, holding her hand out. Enjolras shook it. “You must be Azelma. It’s great to finally meet you.”

The rest of the meal passed by in silence, everyone too focused on filling their rumbling stomachs to focus on anyone else.

***

By the time that Azelma and her family left, it was already eleven o’clock. Lucas had fallen asleep in Cosette’s room by nine, and Kate had fallen asleep after her eight o’clock feeding and didn’t wake up again. Enjolras fell asleep before the family did, as well, claiming that he was getting breakfast with Grantaire in the morning and needed his ten hours of beauty sleep.

Eponine and Cosette made their way up to their room after they put away the brownies and washed the dishes, both worn out and longing to be in each other’s arms after such a long day. Cosette lied back first before Eponine rolled over on top of her, pressing a soft kiss against her lips lovingly. She pulled back to thread her fingers through Cosette’s hair before lunging forwards and kissing the other girl harder.

Cosette pushed back just as hard before she pulled her head back, looking at the brunette through her lashes. “Baby, maybe we should slow down. You just got out of the hospital a few hours ago.”

Eponine shook her head. “Please, Cosette. I’ve wanted you for so long.” She moved to kiss down Cosette’s jawline and throat, pausing at the dip where neck met shoulder to suck hard enough to leave a mark. She bit down before sliding her hand under the hem of the older girl’s shirt. Cosette hesitated before giving in, moving her hand down to grab Eponine’s chin and pull her back up into a bruising kiss.

Eponine let out a growl before ripping the buttons off Cosette’s shirt and pulling it off her girlfriend’s toned body before pulling back and pulling off her own shirt and bra. The blonde watched in awe as she was finally able to see the full d-cups and soft stomach that made up her lover’s abdomen. She let out a moan as she reached up and captured a soft pink nipple between her thumb and index finger, her other hand moving around to dig into Eponine’s back.

The brunette let out another growl before grabbing Cosette’s hands and forcing them against the mattress, holding them down as she leaned over and licked a stripe of skin from Cosette’s collarbone to her belly button before coming up and sucking on one of the girl’s nipples, pushing up her bra for easier access. The blonde let out a quiet moan at the feeling, a rush of heat growing steadily hotter between her thighs.

Eponine pulled back before reaching around Cosette and unhooking her bra, tossing it to a corner of the room. She paused for a moment to look at the girl and gently run her fingers over Cosette’s sides. “You are so beautiful.”

Cosette snorted. “Baby, you’ve seen it before. We showered together, remember?”

“True, but now I get to do this.” She leaned over to kiss down Cosette’s stomach before digging her thumbs into the girl’s hipbones, her tongue darting out to trace the stretch marks that colored Cosette’s lower belly from when she had been pregnant with Libby. She moved her fingers down, hooking them in the waistband of the older girl’s jeans and panties. She pulled both down slowly, following them in their journey down Cosette’s leg with her lips and teeth.

Once the jeans and panties had been tossed across the room, Eponine moved back up to Cosette’s clit, darting her tongue out to tease as she ran her fingers along Cosette’s soft folds.

Cosette had begun to get impatient when a shock of pleasure ran through her as Eponine thrust two fingers inside of her and sucked on her clit, pulling and nipping at it with her teeth. She twisted her fingers, rubbing roughly against Cosette’s g-spot as she snaked her free hand up the girl’s body to rub at her erect nipples. Cosette moaned loudly, reaching down to tangle her fingers in Eponine’s hair, the other hand moving to grip at Eponine’s shoulder hard enough to leave bruises.

“Oh, please baby, I’m getting close,” Cosette moaned, arching her back when Eponine added a third finger. “Oh God, you’re so good, you’re so wonderful, baby.” She moaned again, her body beginning to tremble as Eponine sucked harder on her clit.

It only took a few more thrusts before Cosette was cumming, her entire body seizing up and trembling with the force of her pleasure.

Once her heart rate had begun to slow, Cosette grabbed Eponine by the arms and pulled her up, wrapping her arms around the girl’s waist and pressing sloppy kisses against her neck. “I love you so much,” she murmured, her breath still coming out in heavy pants.

“I love you too, sweetheart,” Eponine whispered, turning her head to kiss Cosette on the cheek gently. Cosette turned before Eponine’s lips landed, though, and caught her in a sweet kiss before flipping them over so that the brunette was on the bottom.

Cosette gave Eponine once final kiss before running her lips gently over the girl’s ear, her fingers disappearing over the girl’s petite waist and ample hips before sliding them into the girl’s pants and letting them run gently over her inner thighs, a contented sigh leaving her mouth as she heard Eponine moan softly. She pulled back for a moment to remove Eponine’s jeans, as the girl wasn’t wearing any underwear, before moving her lips to kiss gently at the girl’s clit, listening as the girl declared that her favorite thing pressure-wise was when love-making was soft and gentle.

Cosette lapped at her clit for a few moments before moving her tongue to thrust inside the girl’s body. “Ugh, stay on my clit, baby,” Eponine demanded, reaching down to grasp at Cosette’s hair and move the girl’s head. The blonde did as she asked, adding a little more pressure than she had been using earlier.

When Eponine let out a loud moan and began tremble a few minutes later, Cosette gathered that the added pressure was exactly what Eponine needed. She moved her tongue quicker, letting out a moan of her own when Eponine’s arched her back, mumbling, “Oh God, Cosette, right there, oh baby, oh God, oh Cosette,” in a loop as she shook, her climax ripping through her body.

As Eponine’s quaking slowed down and eventually stopped, Cosette moved back up on the bed to pull Eponine into her arms, placing a gentle kiss on the back of her neck as she pulled her back against her chest. “I love you,” she whispered again, moving to place a kiss on Eponine’s cheek.

“Me too, baby. So much,” the brunette answered as she yawned, her eyes dropping sleepily.

Cosette let out quiet chuckle. “Let’s go to sleep, baby.”

Eponine nodded, snuggling her face into the crook of Cosette’s arm as she adjusted so she was spooning the other girl properly, burying her own face into the brunette’s neck.

Within minutes, both of the girls were asleep.

17

Cosette shot awake as the alarm on her phone blared, the device vibrating hard enough to fall off the nightstand. She turned slowly, running her fingers along the floor until she was able to locate and rid the room of the blaring noise. The blonde had scarcely begun to push herself out of bed when she felt an arm pull her back. Cosette glanced over her shoulder at the sleepy brunette. “Baby, I have to get up so I can get ready for work,” she said, chuckling.

Eponine shook her head, pressing against Cosette before kissing her lightly on the cheek, snuggling into her neck. “Stay here,” she murmured, kissing her again. Cosette kissed the brunette on the head before untangling herself and getting out of bed. Eponine groaned before grabbing the blonde’s wrist and pulling her back. “Stay. Here,” the brunettedemandedagain, her eyes pleading as she locked them with Cosette’s.

Cosette shook her head. “Eponine, I love you, and I would love to stay and cuddle you, but I have to go and make us money.”

“Can’t Enjolras just do that?”

“No.” Cosette kissed the brunette’s forehead and tried to pull away again. This time, Eponine let go, choosing instead to pull a pillow to her chest to cuddle. Cosette  watched her for a moment, her heart filled with adorationas she stared at her girlfriend. “You’re beautiful, you know that?” she said after a moment. The brunette cracked open an eye and gave Cosette a sleepy smile before snuggling into the pillow more.

Cosette watched her girlfriend with affectionate eyes for a moment longer before going into the bathroom and hopping into the shower. She made quick work of the task, quickly ready, hoping that she’d have time to cuddle with Eponine a bit more before leaving for work. Luckily for her, Eponine had made the decision to stay awake while Cosette was in the shower, and was lounging on the bed in a pair of shorts and sports bra, a book in her lap.

Cosette sat down next to her, pulling her against her chest and into her arms. She placed a kiss on the top of the brunette’s head before glancing down at the tome in her hands. “Wuthering Heights?” she said, smiling as she recognized the passage. “Did you get that out of the office?”

Eponine shook her head before glancing over with a smile. “Actually, Azelma brought it with her when she was over last night. She had kept it after the move, and figured that I would want it back, since it used to be my favorite book.”

The brunette read a few more pages before putting the book face down on her lap, shifting her position so that she was facing Cosette. She put a hand softly on Cosette’s cheek before leaning in and kissing her sweetly on the lips. “Do you have to go work today?” she asked, her lips moving gently against Cosette’s.

 Cosette kissed her again before answering. “Unfortunately I have to. We need to finish next month’s edition of The Bard of Avonby the end of the week.”  She nuzzled into Eponine’s hair when the girl sighed, her face falling. Cosette pulled back, concerned. She put her hand under the brunette’s chin to meet her eyes before asking, “Baby, what’s wrong?” Eponine shrugged, shaking her head. Cosette tried again. “Please talk to me?”

Eponine bit her lip and let out a breath before answering. “Promise me that you’ll be careful around Cody today?”

Cosette’s eyes widened for a moment before she forced the shock to disappear from her face. She had forgotten that Eponine was under the impression that Cody was the one that had pushed her down the stairs. “I still don’t think that he’s the one that hurt you, love. He’s far too sweet and friendly for him to have ever hurt someone.”

Eponine tried to pull away, her knees coming up to her chest as she wrapped her arms around her lower legs. Cosette maneuvered her arms until they were between Eponine’s thighs and her abdomen before pulling her tight once again. She kissed her before saying, “I promise I will be careful around him, okay? Just in case.”

Eponine let out a sigh of relief before relaxingher body and letting Cosette cuddle her properly. “Thank you,” she breathed, turning to press a kiss against the blonde’s cheek. She nuzzled the side of Cosette’s face for a moment before glancing at the clock next to their bed. “If you are going to go to work, you better get going now.”

Cosette glanced over at the clock to see that, in fact, she should have left five minutes ago. She hurriedly gave Eponine a goodbye kiss and told her that she loved her before darting through the kitchen to grab a muffin and make her way off to work.

Twenty minutes later found Cosette placing her purse and coffee on the desk as she slid into her seat only a few minutes after she was supposed to have been there, her chest heaving as she struggled to catch her breath. Once she had sat down, she opened her purse to pull out the newest addition to her office décor: a framed picture of Eponine and her that Azelma had taken the night previously. They had been sitting on the couch, with Eponine leaning against Cosette’s side and kissing her gently on the cheek, a love-struck look in her eyes. Azelma showed the couple the picture right after she took it, and had insisted that Cosette’s needed to use her photo printer to make a copy for both herself and the older brunette and, as Cosette happened to have an old frame lying around the house, she had decided that the best place for it to be would be the office.

She sighed as she leaned back in her chair. She was exhausted. Having Eponine home had been amazing, but it was terrifying, as well. She constantly found herself waking up every few hours to make sure that Eponine was all right and, if she was being too still in her sleep, making sure that she was able to wake her without too much difficulty. Cosette shook her head before leaning back, her eyes widening slightly when she saw a figure pass by her desk. She called out to him.

“Hey, Cody! Come back here for moment! I need to talk to you about something.”

The dark haired boy stepped back, smiling at Cosette. “What can I help you with?”

“I just wanted to know how the cover was coming along. Don’t forget, I need it finished by the end of the day.”

Cody nodded. “Yeah, I know. I’ll have it done by—” He trailed off, his eyes widening. Cosette looked at him in confusion before following his line of vision to the newest addition to her photos. He shook his head before staring at the picture again. He blinked several times before swallowing harshly and restarting his sentence. “I’ll have it done by three.”

Cosette narrowed her eyes at the tightness in the boy’s voice as he spoke. “Are you all right?” she asked, concern coloring her voice.

Cody ground his teeth and nodded. “I’m just feeling a little bit warm,” he said, reaching up to pull at his collar as sweat began to bead on his brow. He coughed uncomfortably before glancing over his shoulder towards his desk. “I’m just going to go, all right? I’ll have the cover to you before the day is out.” 

Cosette turned her eyes back to picture as the boy left, her thoughts still focused on how weird Cody was acting, especially with the way he responded to seeing the picture of Eponine and Cosette. Could Eponine be right? Was the sweet and personable Cody really the cold-hearted criminal who pushed the brunette down the stairs so many moons ago?

Cosette didn’t believe it. He had been nothing but kind since she met him, and they had begun to develop a friendship during their time working together. It couldn’t be possible that he was the man that Eponine believed him to be.

But what of his reaction? What of the fear and panic in his eyes? If he was innocent of the crime, why was he so quick to try and get away from Cosette? It didn’t make sense.

Should she try and talk to him? She wouldn’t confront him, exactly, but perhaps she could have him over for dinner or something, and try and gauge his reactions to things about Eponine. Maybe that would give her a better idea about if Eponine was correct in her accusation or not. And if she was—well, Cosette would just have to make sure that there was a way that she could protect herself. If Eponine was wrong, well, then what harm would be done? Cody and the blonde would have a few drinks, talk about Cosette’s girlfriend, and keep going on as friends.

Cosette stared at her computer screen for a moment before making a decision. She would do it. She would have Cody come over for a few hours, perhaps with the story of needing to do something for work, and she would find out if he was really the man Eponine thought he was. She pushed her chair and stood up before making her way over to the dark haired boy.

“Hey, Cody?” Cosette asked as she approached the cubicle he was temporarily using. Her eyes widened as she took in the boy’s appearance. He was tapping the fingers of one hand against his desk, the other hand twirling a pen between his digits. His eyes were wide and wild behind his glasses as they darted back and forth across his laptop screen. He seemed to be completely lost in his thoughts, and did not respond when Cosette tried to get his attention. She tried again before snapping her fingers in front of his eyes. “Hey, Earth to Cody.”

Cody startled, a look of fear coming across his eyes as he looked up as Cosette. “Was there something else that you needed, Cosette?” he asked, his voice tight and strained.

Cosette nodded. “I need you to come by my house for a couple of hours tonight to finish up some things for this month’s edition, if that’s all right.” She glanced at Cody to see that he looked as though he might refuse. She thought for a moment before saying, “It’s incredibly important that we get these things done tonight, as the quality of this month’s edition could have a large impact on what sort of review Jeff gives you when you’re done with this internship. Your help with this project was specifically at Jeff’s request.”

Cody said nothing for a moment, his eyes beginning to develop a far-away look once again. “Can’t we just get the work done here?” he finally asked, flicking his eyes at Cosette before they darted back to his computer screen. Cosette shook her head.

“Jeff wants you to finish the projects that he gave you yesterday after you finish the cover, so spend your day focusing on those things. We will just get everything done tonight.”

Cody nodded solemnly. “All right.”

“Good. I’ll see you tonight, then.” Cosette gave the boy a nervous smile before she turned and made her way back to her cubicle, her stomach suddenly bubbling as she realized what she had just organized.  What if Eponine was right, and Cody really did hurt her? He had seen the picture of Eponine, she knew that he had. What if that angered him enough to try and do the same thing to her that he possibly could have done to Eponine? Could she be putting herself in harm’s way by doing this?

Cosette shook her head. This has to be done, she reminded herself. If Cody did attack Eponine, he might come after her again now that he knows that she is still alive. I can’t risk him coming back to hurt her. She let out a breath before grabbing her phone out of her purse and opening it to her text messages.

Hey, Enj, can you do me a favor?

She received a response a moment later. Yeah, sis. What can I do for you?

Can you take Eponine out of the house for a couple of hours tonight? I am having a business meeting at the house. Go get ice cream with her or something. I’ll pay.

All right.

As Cosette read her brother’s response, she clenched her teeth nervously before turning off her phone screen and slipping it back into her purse. She put the purse back under her desk before putting her head in her hands,  her stomach churning.

18

Cosette pulled into the driveway to find that Enjolras and Eponine were on their way out. She hurriedly made her way up the drive to kiss her lover goodbye. Once that was done, the blondesmiled at the duo and asked, “So, did you two figure out what you were doing tonight?”

Enjolras nodded. “Yeah, we decided that we’d just take your idea and go get ice cream and see a movie. We’re picking up Azelma, Henry, and the kids on the way there.” He glanced at his watch before gesturing with his head to Eponine that they needed to get going. “Do you think three hours is enough time for your meeting?”

Cosette thought about it for a moment before nodding. If she had anything to say about it, she would be able to get the information from Cody in a lot less time than that. That way, if she had to, she could go to the cops before Enjolras or Eponine ever knew what she had done. “Yeah, that should be plenty of time. Have fun, you two.” She gave Eponine another kiss before watching them walk to the car, giving them a little wave as they pulled out of the driveway.  She turned back towards the house.

As Cosette stepped through the front door, she felt her knees go weak. What if this went poorly? If Eponine was right, then Cody pushed her down the stairs before she even had a chance to realize what was going on. Hell, she didn’t even know that the man who pushed her was behind her! Plus, Cosette had sent the only two people who had a chance of saving her life, should things go awry, to leave for three whole hours.

Shaking the thoughts away, Cosette went upstairs and changed out of her work clothes and into a pair of jeans and a tank top. She quickly pulled her hair up into a ponytail and slipped on a pair of slippers before going back down to her kitchen.

How was she going to get Cody to talk? Cosette couldn’t just ask him outright if he had attempted to murder Eponine. She couldn’t see that going over well even if the boy was innocent. 

The blonde sighed before dropping down into a crouched position to look in the alcohol cabinet.Maybe some liquid courage will loosen up Cody’s tongue, Cosette thought, shrugging as she pulled out an aged bottle of vodka that she had purchased as a present for herself when she had graduated college several years previously. She looked at the bottle for a moment before putting it in the very front of the cabinet for easy access once the boy had arrived. She stood before grabbing her cell phone and ordering a pizza for herself and Cody to eat while she entertained him.

Once the pizza had been ordered and Cosette had placed the money on the end table by the door, she made her way back to the kitchen, nerves filling her stomach as she realized she only had a mere ten minutes until Cody was due to arrive. She chewed her lip for a moment before steppingtowards the counter. She grabbed the sharpest knife out of the knife-block and placed it on the counter on top of a dish towel thoughtfully.

Cosette stared at the utensil for a moment before folding it up in the towel and sliding it into her jeans against her hip. Once the blade was in place, the blonde stared at the knife block for a moment before making a decision: if Cody was a bad man, then she didn’t want these knives to be anywhere that they could be immediately found. She moved the blockinto a drawer, burying itbehind stacks and stacks of Tupperware containers and plastic cups until she was satisfied that it couldn’t be seen.

Cosette closed the drawer before leaving the kitchen to grab her laptop bag and the folder of assignments that Jeff had given her permission to get an early start on. Have to make this ‘meeting’ believable, she thought to herself as she spread the documents around the coffee table. She had just finished placing everything around when she heard the doorbell ring. 

Legs trembling, Cosette made her way to the door to let Cody in. “Hello, Cody!” she greeted, pulling the door open. The boy stepped in, tipping his glasses as Cosette as he gave her a shy smile. Cosette ledhim to the couch. “I ordered us a pizza in case we got hungry while we are working. Whatwould you like to drink?”

Cody thought about it for a moment before answering. “Could I just have a glass of water, please?”

Apprehension struck Cosette, and she averted her eyes for a moment before looking back. There wasn’t any way that she could mix vodka with water and Cody not recognize the bitter flavor. She shook her head and sighed, saying, “Oh, I’m sorry, but we just ran out of filtered water this morning, and we can’t use water from the tap until we get new pipes. The interior of our current ones are coated with lead.” She quirked up a side of her lip in a mock apology. “I do have soda, though, or pineapple juice.”

“I guess pineapple juice then.”

Cosette nodded before going into the kitchen, glee bubbling in her stomach. The pineapple juice would work perfectly to mask the taste of vodka!

Cosettepulled down two glasses from the cabinet, pouring Dr. Pepper in one and pineapple juice in the other. She glanced back outthe doorway to make sure that Cody wasn’t looking in before grabbing the bottle of vodka from the cabinet, pouring a generous amount into the glass. She mixed the liquids together before taking the glasses back into the living room.

“Here you go,” Cosette said as she walked back into the living room, handing Cody his drink before putting her own on the coffee table. She began to sit down, pausing halfway when she heard the doorbell ring. “And that would be the pizza!”

Cosette stared at her drink for a moment before grabbing it, remembering all the horror stories she had heard as a college student of guys slipping things into girl’s drinks. It won’t help me if I get poisoned trying to find out the truth, Cosette thought, making her way towards the front door to pay for the meal.

A few minutes later, Cosette came back into the living room, her drink in one hand and the pizza box in the other. She set it down on the coffee table, pushing it towards Cody before opening her laptop.

Once the laptop was open, Cosette grabbed her own slice of pizza before turning to the intern. “Let’s get to work.”

***

A little less than anhour and a half later, Cosette and Cody had gotten a substantial amount of work done, from editing submissions to figuring out the images that would be placed throughout the magazine. Cody had gone through five of the blonde’s “special” drinks, and was well on his way to being intoxicated. Cosette was acting as normal as possible so that Cody wouldn’t clue in to what it was that she was doing. She was caught off guard, however, when the boy began to question her motives.

“So, what did you put in this drink to make it so good?” he teased, laughing as he slid off the couch and spilt some of the juice on his lap.

Cosette laughed, reaching out and stealing a sip from his glass playfully. “Nothing! The pineapple juice was made from fresh pineapple with the juicer that I got last Christmas, so it just tastes better than that store-bought shit.” She took his glass and drained it, sending him a wink before gasping in a mock apology. “Oh no, you’re all out! Let me go and get you some more.”

Cosette smiled at the boy before pushing herself off the couch and making her way to the kitchen to mix another glass.

Once Cosette reached the kitchen, she opened up her phone and set it on “record” so that the rest of their conversations could be played back, if necessary. She really hoped that Cody had had enough of the vodka that he’d be more honest without getting violent, if it really was him that committed the crime against Eponine. Her fingers slipped to the knife that was still resting against the side of her leg unconsciously as she made her way back into the living room. She placed the glass of juice on the table in front of him, giving him a smile.

Cody shook his head. “I really should be going.” He pushed himself up off the floor, swaying slightly as he stood. He placed his hand to his head as he tried to get his eyes to focus. “Woah. I’m really dizzy.” His shook his head before momentarily widening his eyes, narrowing them in confusion as he realized that Cosette was blocking the doorway. “What are you doing?”

“I just have a few more questions for you, Cody,” Cosette said nervously. “Nothing major. You can leave after you answer my questions.”

Panic flashed in the brunet’s eyes for a moment before they hardened. “Cosette, I really think that you should let me leave now.”

“Why?”

The boy stepped forward. “Look, Cosette, I’m capable of more than you realize, all right? You don’t want to know what happens when I snap.”

Cosette faked a look of concern. “What do you mean, Cody? I just have a few simple questions, nothing to be afraid of.” She shrugged, pretending to be far more comfortable than she really was. “Besides, I doubt that you could do anything to me, anyway.”

“Hmm, perhaps I should let you see the real me, then.” Theboy’s eyes glinted excitedly as he let out a low growl, his cheeks spreading in a malicious smirk. “Oh, you don’t want to test me, Cosette Fauchelevent. I could snap your pretty little neck before you even had time to think run.” He took a step towards her, letting out a barking laugh when Cosette pulled the knife out from the side of her jeans. “Do you really think that that pathetic little knife is going to protect you from me, Cosette? I could kill you without ever getting a scratch on me.”

He lunged forward, laughing again when Cosette held the knife out in front of her chest in a threatening fashion. “I think that you know more than you should, and that’s why you wanted me to come over tonight. You wanted a confession, didn’t you? Wanted to know what you precious little girlfriend sounded like the last time that we were together?”

Cosette shook her head. “No! That’s not why I invited you over at all! I wanted you to help me with the magazine and then I was hoping that we could get to know each other a little better.”

“Obviouslythe best way to get to know someone is by keeping a knife in your jeans. You need to work on your social skills, darling.” Cody pursed his lips for a moment before shaking his head. “No, no, Miss Fauchelevent, I can tell when you’re being a naughty little liar. Believe me, I am well-versed in acting the part.”

He began to circle her, his steps methodical as he back her up towards a wall. “Do you really think that it made me nervous to see that picture? Yes, I was confused for a moment, because I thought that that silly little bitch was long gone, but nervous?” He rolled his eyes. “I needed you to be suspicious so that I would have the opportunity to make her hurt even worse than I ever could have hurt her physically.” He rolled his eyes. “Lovey, I can hold my alcohol much better than you appear to be dumb enough to believe. Five measly glasses of that aged-vodka-bullshit? Like that could ever do anything to a practiced drinker, like me.”

He laughed before continuing his statement about hurting Eponine. “I saw the way that Ms. Thernardierwas looking at you in that picture; she’s clearly madly in love with you. What would hurt her worse than coming home and finding her filthy little slut hacked up into itty bitty pieces?”

Cosette quickly glanced over her shoulder towards the stairs in hopes of finding a way to escape.Unfortunately, that single glance cost her the knife, as Cody lunged forward and smacked it out of her hand. The blonde let out a shrill scream before taking a risk and running onto the stairs, trying her hardest to stay out of Cody’s reach.

Luck was on her side, as Cody tripped on the bottom step. He let out a loud growl as he fell. Cosette used her running training to sprintup every other step and to her room.

 Once the mahogany door had been shut and locked, Cosette ran over to her bookshelf and pushed as hard as she could until the heavy wood blocked the door from opening. She paused once it had moved, listening for the sound of Cody approaching before darting to the other side and throwing her weight against the armoire until it covered the other side of the door.

Almost immediately after Cosette had managed to place the armoire, the doorknob began to rattle behind the furniture. Cosette movedaway, backing up against the window as Cody growled in frustration, “Oh, that little whore you’re fucking looked so pretty with her hair and the carpet matted with blood.” He chuckled, slamming his shoulder against the wood. Cosette jumped before turning around and unlocking her window.

Cosette had gotten the first screw of the screen undone before Cody started talking again, his voice back to the sweet tenor that Cosette was used to. “Come on, Cosette, open the door, please? I won’t hurt you, I promise. I’ll just kill your lover when she gets back home. You can’t help that you got roped into all of this, can you? Eponine is the one who really deserves to be sleeping with the fishes tonight.”

The second and third screw came out quickly, and soon it was only the final connector that Cosette had to undo. She yanked it out quickly before removing the screen and tossing it to the ground. “I bet Eponine never told you that she murdered my sister, did she? An eye for an eye. She took Dae’s life, so it was only fair that I took hers.”

Cody let out a frustrated growl before ramming his body and his fists against the door. Cosette quickly scrambled onto the sill and swung her legs around, glancing down nervously at the ground below her feet as Cody let out an angry scream. “Dae was perfectly happy until Eponine outted her to every person she fucking knew! One word from that filthy lover of yours, and Dae swallowed the head of my father’s pistol.” He beat the door again, harder, this time. “She would still be alive if that cunt knew how to keep her fucking mouth shut!”

Cosette shook her head, desperate to tune out the daunts. She turned her eyes to the ground hopefully, praying that the boy would give up and go away before the blonde would have to jump.

A loud crack forced Cosette to turn her head to glance back at the door. Her eyes widened at the hole in the door, Cody grinning through the opening. His eyes were flashing with glee and his smile was wide and terrifying, his perfect teeth glinting as the moonlight beamed through the window. “Got you,” he said, winking at Cosette before chopping at more of the door with the knife.

Cosette turned back around and took a deep breath. She had no choice in the matter anymore. Either she jump and possibly break a bone, or she wait it out and die at Cody’s hand. She had to do it. Land on your feet, Cosette. It won’t hurt as bad if you land on your feet.

With that thought, Cosette closed her eyes and took the plunge, holding her breath as she fell. She let out a pained groan as she landed on her ankle, the thin bones snapping as the jointtwisted in the dirt. She reached down and squeezed it before trying her hardest to ignore the pain and pull herself away from the angry screams that were echoing through the window as Cody finished destroying the door. Cosette looked up, directing her body towards her next door neighbor’s house as their light flicked on and a young couple, Ada and Steven, stepped out, their eyes wide and fearful.

“Help me!” Cosette moaned, reaching up towards the duo. Ada and Steven looked at each other for a moment before the dark-haired manrushed down the porch steps and to her aid, scooping Cosette into his arms as quickly as he could manage.

Steven and Cosette looked up as sounds erupted around them. They could hear Cody’s angry growl as he threw open the front door, still bent on killing his target, the public be damned. They could also hear the quickly approaching wailing of sirens as police cars raced through the neighborhood towards the house. “My wife called the cops a few minutes before we came outside to see if everything was okay. We heard a lot of noise coming from your house,” the man whispered, adjusting his hold so that Cosette’s ankle was better supported. She grimaced before glancing up to see that the police had arrived and were rushing towards Cody in all directions, leaving him unable to run.

Cosettesighed in reliefinto Steven’s muscular chest before making a distressed noise again, her ankle stillthrobbing regardless of the new position.  As Steven placed Cosette down gently on the street curb, the girl looked over her shoulder to see a man in uniform shoving Cody into the back of one of the cars, his hands bound together with handcuffs. The last that Cosette saw of him was the glare that he directed at her before his head was pushed down and into the automobile.

Cosette felt a pressure on her shoulder. She glanced over to see a young paramedic smiling gently down at her, his eyes concerned. “Are you all right, miss?”

Cosette barely had time to acknowledge the man before everything went black.

19

Cosette slowly awoke to a sharp stabbing pain in both her ankle and her head. She let out a whimper, sitting up and reaching down to grasp at her foot, tears springing to her eyes when the pain traveled upwards to consume the entirety of her lower leg.

The blonde reached both hands forward to put pressure on the worst of the throbs, only to be pushed back down onto the soft surface she was lying on.  She let out another groan before opening her eyes, blinking away the blurriness as a pale grey ceiling came into her vision. “Where am I?” she asked, her voice as she coughed at another spasm of pain.

“You’re resting in an ambulance, baby,” a voice said from Cosette’s right. She glanced over to see Eponine smiling tightly at her, fresh tears joining the tear tracks on her cheeks as she ground her teeth and squeezed Cosette’s hand.

“L-Eponine?” Cosette asked, trying again to sit up, only to be blocked by a young man in an EMT uniform. He shook his head at her before running a hand over his bald head, his dark chocolate skin reflecting the light of the ambulance before he went back to examining her ankle. He pushed on it gently, causing Cosette to flinch away at the sudden burning pain that erupted from the tip of her toes all the way to her hips. The man grabbed her ankle lightly, pulling it back towards his chest so he could continue to examine it.

“Sorry,” the EMT said, smiling apologetically. He positioned her ankle as gently as he could on a pillow, apologizing again when Cosette whimpered. He looked up at her. “Miss, it appears that your ankle was broken during you fall. We are going to take you to the hospital to get it fixed, all right?” Cosette nodded. The man smiled gently back at her. “Fantastic. First, though, the police need to ask you some questions about the incident. Is it fine if I go and get them now?”

“Go ahead.” Cosette watched the man leave before turning to Eponine, who immediately pulled the blonde into a hug as she started crying again.

“Oh, baby, I was so worried that I was going to lose you,” Eponine said, burying her face in Cosette’s shoulders as the tears raced down her cheeks. “It was a lucky accident that Enjolras left his phone on ring in the theatre, so we got the call from your neighbor that you were attacked. Enjolras and I came home as quickly as possible.” She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her lover’s head before gesturing with her head out the open doors of the vehicle. “He wanted to come and see you immediately, but the police pulled him away to question him about if you had any enemies that he might know about. They let me in without any question, though.” She shook her head. “God, I am so grateful for your neighbors.”

Cosette pulled Eponine into a quick kiss. “I am, too, love.” She pulled Eponine into a deeper kiss as she tried in vain to district herself from the fire that was burning through her leg. The brunette pulled back, though, when Cosette let out a strangled cry as a particularly painful throb shot through her bones. 

Eponine sighed as she scrubbed her face with the back of her hand, wiping away the last of her tears. She sat down on the floor next to the bed Cosette was occupying, choosing instead to trace patterns on the back of the blonde’s hand with her thumb. “The paramedics wouldn’t tell Ada or Steven about your condition, so all they could tell us when they called was that you had been attacked, jumped from your window, and passed out.”

Eponine kissed the back of Cosette’s hand before pulling it to her face and looking up to her girlfriend. “God, Cosette, I was so, so worried that I was going to come home and find out that you had died without me here. I don’t know what I would do if that had been the case.” She bit her lip and looked down, pressing the heel of her left hand against her forehead as she began to sniffle again.

Cosette watched her for a moment before saying, “Baby, look at me.” Eponine glanced up, her eyes locking with Cosette’s. Cosette’s squeezed her hand tightly. “It will take more than a psychopathic intern to take me from you, all right? I’m still here. I’m a little more broken, yes, but I’m still here.”

Eponine let out a wet chuckle. “I suppose you’re right.” She leaned up from her position on the floor to place a kiss on Cosette’s temple. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

The girls looked to the entrance of the ambulance when they heard someone clear their throat. A middle aged man and woman were standing on the street in uniform. After a moment, they stepped into the vehicle, tipping their hats towards Cosette. “Evening, ma’am,” the woman said, pulling a small notebook from her back pocket. She gestured with her head towards the male cop before saying, “My name is Officer Merkin, and this is my partner, Officer Riles.”

“Evening, ma’am,” Officer Riles said, tipping his hat once again. He shifted so that he was crouching down next to the bed, pulling out a notebook of his own. “We have a couple of questions about what happened here to tonight.” He glanced at Eponine before looking back. “Ma’am, would you like to be alone for this?”

Cosette shook her head before reaching over and grabbing Eponine’s hand. She let out a pained whimper as the movement jostled her leg. She clenched her teeth together as she looked back up to the officers, a pained expression coming across her face. “Go ahead and ask anything that you need to.”

Officer Merkin nodded. “All right. First off, what is your name? First, middle, and last, please.”

“Cosette Michelle Fauchelevent.”

“Affiliation to the incident?”

“I was the victim.”

Cosette watched both the officers scribble something into their notebooks before Officer Riles looked back up. “All right. Can you tell me exactly what happened here tonight?” When Cosette didn’t say anything, he raised his brows before pointedly looking at Eponine, his viridian eyes flickering back and forth between the two girls. “Ma’am, if this is too difficult to speak about with her here, don’t forget that there is no shame in asking for this to be a private conversation.”

Cosette shook her head before letting out a nervous breath. “I, well . . . I invited Cody to work on some articles for the magazine that we work for. I, uhm, thought that Cody might have done something to hurt my girlfriend and, when I mentioned Eponine, he snapped.”

A strange look crossed over Officer Merkin’s eyes, and she cocked her head to the side. “Why do you think that Mr. Marks hurt Ms. . . . ?”

“Thernardier.”

“Right. Well, could you explain your reasons for believing that he hurt Ms. Thernardier?”

Cosette and Eponine looked at one another before looking back to the officers. “Someone pushed Eponine down the stairs about a year ago. When we were looking through pictures the other day from my job, she recognized him as the one who pushed her.” She began to wring her fingers nervously. “I, uhm, put a couple of pictures of Eponine and me on my desk, and he freaked out when he saw them.”

“All right.” Officer Riles flipped through his notes for a moment before looking back up. “Could you explain what you mean by ‘snapped’?”

“I recorded the conversation on my phone, if that helps?” When both officers nodded, Cosette pulled out her phone, thankful for the thick case that kept the phone from breaking during her fall.  She clicked the red button in the center of the screen to stop the recording before saving it and playing it back. She breathed shallowly as the conversation echoed against the metal walls. She looked over at Eponine, her stomach churning as she took in her girlfriend’s pained and heartbroken appearance. Guilt filled Cosette’s stomach as she continued to stare. I shouldn’t have let Eponine hear this, she realized as she bit down on her lip.

Cosette continued to watch as tears began to stream down Eponine’s cheeks as she took in everything that Cody was saying about her, everything that Cody had blamed on her. After several slow, painful minutes, the recording finally reached the fall, and Cosette reached back out for her phone to stop the playback. Officer Riles held out his hand for the phone. Cosette looked at him in confusion before he shrugged and said, “Since you took the recording on it, we have to take it in for evidence. We’ll return it to you as soon as we possibly can.” Cosette sighed before handing him her phone.

Officer Merkin flipped her notebook closed. “Ms. Fauchelevent, would you like to press charges against Mr. Marks for assault?” Cosette gave her affirmative. The salt-and-pepper haired officer turned to Eponine. “Since we have his confession on tape, would you, Ms. Thernardier, like to press charges for assault and the pre-meditated murder attempt that he made on your life?” Eponine nodded as well. “All right then, ladies, I believe that is all that we need from you. Is there I number that I can have in case we need any more information?” He looked at Eponine.

Eponine shrugged uncomfortably before shaking her head. “I don’t have a phone.”

Cosette thought about it for a moment before saying, “Well, I guess I could give you Enjolras’s number?” She wrote down the numbers before bidding the officers farewell, wincing again as the ambulance pulled out of its parked position to get Cosette’s leg officially checked by a doctor.

***

A few hours later, Cosette found herself wrapped in Eponine’s arms on the couch as they waited for Enjolras to come back into the living room, a bright yellow cast covering the entirety of her foot and lower leg as it protected the break.

“Hurry up, Enj!” Cosette yelled, leaning back and glancing over the back of the couch towards the kitchen. “Popcorn doesn’t take this long to make!” She rolled her eyes when she did not receive a response before turning to Eponine, who was staring forward with an odd expression on her face. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

Eponine shrugged. “I just can’t stop thinking about Dae. I never knew that her family blamed me for her death.” She began to chew on her nails as she disappeared in her memories, her eyes glazing over until Cosette poked her side.

The blonde moved as well as she could, turning her body to face her girlfriend. “It wasn’t your fault, though. You do know that, right?” Eponine shrugged. Cosette reached out and squeezed the brunette’s thigh. “You didn’t force her to put that gun to her head, did you?”

Eponine shook her head. “Well . . . no . . . ”

“See? You didn’t kill her, then. It wasn’t your fault.”

Eponine remained silent, choosing instead to shift Cosette’s legs back onto the coffee table. She cuddled into Cosette’s side, leaning her head against the older girl’s shoulder sadly. Cosette nudged her until the brunette glanced up at her, her eyes still glossy. Cosette kissed her on the forehead gently in an attempt to comfort her. “You know I love you, right?”

Eponine nodded. “Of course I do. I love you too.”

Cosette kissed her on the head again before putting her arm around the other girl, her heart swelling with love for the melancholy woman next to her as Eponine burrowed her face into the blonde’s shoulder. We’ve come so far since this began, Cosette couldn’t help thinking as she turned her eyes down to her girlfriend before looking back at the paused movie on the television screen, a soft smile appearing on her face when Enjolras came back into the room. I am so lucky.

20

Epilogue

March, 2019

Cosette spread a pat of butter on three plates of pancakes before sliding them onto the kitchen table and making her way into the living room. She glanced around the room, rolling her eyes at the mess, before moving to stand at the bottom of the staircase, her eyes trained on the door that lead to the master bedroom. “Eponine! Hurry up! We only have an hour until we’re supposed to be there!”

She listened for a moment before trying again, rolling her eyes when she finally got a response. “Cosette, I’m going as fast as I can. Chill.” Eponine emerged from the second bedroom, a squirming toddler on her hip and a look of exasperation on her face. She walked down the steps before lifting the girl off of her hip and handing her to Cosette, putting her hands up in defeat. “Weaver decided that she didn’t want to put on her big-girl clothes this morning, and that she was going to kick Mommy so that she didn’t have to.”

Cosette snorted before rolling her eyes at her wife, who glared at her. She evaded the look, choosing instead to turn to her daughter and place a kiss on her side of the girl’s curly blonde hair. “Weaver, say sorry to Mommy for being mean.” The toddler shook her head. Cosette gave her a stern look. “Weaver Grace Thernardier. We don’t kick in this house.”

Weaver pouted before looking at her other mother. “Sowwy,” she said, pulling on her lacey white dress and leaning her head on Cosette’s shoulder.

Eponine sighed before leaning forward and kissing the girl on the head. “It’s fine, sweetie.” She glanced over at Cosette. “Is breakfast ready?”

Cosette nodded, turning on her heel to head towards the kitchen, the toddler still in her arms and Eponine close behind. Weaver started to cry when Eponine began to chew on her nails nervously. Cosette gave her wife a look of exasperation. “Baby, calm down. Your nerves are making Weaver ancy.”

The brunette made a face at the duo before grabbing a fork and stabbing at her pancakes. “Of course I’m nervous, Cosette. Cody was on parole for one day before he decided to start stalking me and trying to get revenge again.” She shook her head. “He killed a security guard to get to me, for goodness sake! This is our family at stake here, if Cody isn’t put back into prison,” she said, looking pointedly at the bulge that took over the majority of Cosette’s abdomen.

Cosette sighed, putting the two-year-old in her highchair before moving over and pulling Eponine into a hug, kissing her on the cheek lightly. “Baby, it’ll be okay. Weaver and Laechan are perfectly safe with us right now, and we’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that they’re safe in the future.”

Eponine nodded uncertainly. “Fine.” She shook her head to clear her nerves before moving to sit down next to her daughter, cutting up the pancakes into bite-sizes squares for the toddler.

***

Nearly an hour later, Cosette, Eponine, and Weaver were finally leaving the house, nearly thirty minutes later than they were supposed to. The youngest Thernardier had spilt Eponine’s coffee all over her pretty white dress and, much like the first time she had to get dressed, refused to put on any clothing when her moms tried to change her.

Eponine was a nervous wreck by the time that the family finally made their way into the courtroom. Weaver was finally quiet, bribed with the promise of ice cream from her favorite creamery on the way home if she behaved. Once the Thernardiers had made their way into the courtroom, they quickly slid into the last row to see that Azelma, Henry, their children, Enjolras, Grantaire, and their adopted seven-year-old, Connor, were all seated.

“You’re late,” Enjolras hissed as his sister sat down next to him, letting out a nervous breath as she shook her head.

“Shut up.” She glanced up to the front of the room to see the jury had already been dismissed to make their decision, and were presently filing back into the room with Cody’s fate in their hands. Cosette reached over and interlaced her fingers with her wife, squeezing tightly when she felt the slight tremble that the woman was trying to hide.

The judge turned to Cody. “May the defendant please rise?” Cody and his lawyer stood. The judge turned to look at the jury as she pushed her dark glasses back up against her curly red hair. “Has the jury made a decision?”

A woman on the far left side of the group stood. “We have, your honor.” She took a deep breath before saying, “The jury has found the defendant, Cody Thomas Marks, guilty of the murder of Charles Jeffrey Watson on night of January the 3^rd, 2019.”

The judge nodded before turning back to face Cody. “Mr. Marks, as this is your third time in my courtroom in less than ten years on accounts of attempted murder and homicide, I hereby sentence you to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

The row of Cosette and Eponine’s family let out a sigh of relief. Tears of joy sprang to Cosette’s eyes as she reached over and kissed Eponine soundly before grabbing the girl on the brunette’s lap and pulling her into a hug. They glanced up as the judge dismissed the court before looking back at one another, pulling each other into another tight hug.

“It’s all over,” Eponine sobbed, gripping Cosette’s shirt tightly as she pulled the two most important women in her life closer to her chest. “Finally, it’s all over.”