The Darkest Night Will End

The Pontmercy-Coste Room In The Gorbeau Hovel, Paris, December 20th, 1831

After an awkwardly spent birthday party with Les Amis (held days after their birthday), Jacquelyn had woken up the next morning to Gavroche cuddling into their side.

They sighed, looking up at the plain ceiling, grateful that the stress of the party had driven them all the way to a full night of sleep.

Slowly they climbed out of bed, tucking the covers back around Gavroche, and seeing that Marius was still fast asleep began to get dressed, going out into the frigid morning to draw water from the well enough to fill the basin.

By the time they had finished tying their cravat Gavroche was awake and poking at Marius to wake him up.

"Stop that." The man muttered, waving the boy away.

"You've got to get up Mar," Jacquelyn called, opening the door and stooping to pick up the tray left outside by Madame Bissonnette, placing the measly boiled eggs and bread onto the table, "You'll be late for work."

Slowly the man dragged himself out of bed, drawing the curtain around his little space and beginning to get ready.

Gavroche started toward the door, "I'll see you later Jack!"

"Ah ah ah stop right there, you need a proper coat my friend. It's far too cold out there for you." Jacquelyn grabbed his arm to stop him.

"I've got a coat!" He protested.

Jacquelyn shook their head, offering out their overcoat to him, "Take this one. I don't wantcha to freeze."

Gavroche huffed, but still pulled the longer coat on, "But what about you?"

"I'm at the bookshop today. And then I'm running a few errands, I won't be out in the cold for long." They explained.

"Are you sure?"

"Course Gav. Now scoot. I'll meet you by the elephant before the meeting." They pushed him gently toward the door.

"And we'll get dinner?" He asked.

"And we'll get dinner." Jacquelyn confirmed.

Enjolras paced back and forth across the back room of the Musain, trying to draft out his speech in his head.

"Hey- where's Jacquelyn?" Gavroche's voice broke the relative silence, "I thought she'd be up here."

Many hours had passed since the morning, and the sky was now drifting toward dark, small snowflakes drifted through the air, and after Jacquelyn had not arrived at the Bastille elephant Gavroche had had the sense to make the journey to Musain, in hopes that they would be there.

"She's late- well- technically if she came in now it'd be on time, but normally she's here early." Courfeyrac said, looking up from his work.

Gavroche frowned, "Well she said she'd meet me by the Elephant, but she never came."

"What do you mean?" Jehan asked.

"This morning she said we'd get dinner before the meeting, and she gave me her coat, and then I headed back out."

About half the movement in the room seemed to screech to a halt as Combeferre asked, "She gave you her coat?"

"Her overcoat, yeah. Said it was too cold for me to go without."

Almost immediately Combeferre was standing, "We need to start looking for her. To make sure she isn't stuck out in the cold somewhere, freezing to death."

"Well how do we know she didn't just get held up at work?" Feuilly asked, "I saw her down by the docks earlier, she said she Madame Moreau had her running errands today."