A Promise

Chapter Thirty-Two

        I held my breath as I sat perched on top of the building, waiting for Vauquelin to appear. The loud thumping of my pounding heart echoed in my ears. If this plan did not work, if my assumptions about Vauquelin were wrong, Enjolras would be doomed. If my plan did work... Well, I decided not to think about the consequences.

        All too soon, Vauquelin rounded the corner, and his eyes fell upon Enjolras' unconscious body. "Well, well, well," he said, rubbing his hands together and grinning. "Look who we have here." He pulled out a pair of handcuffs and walked up to Enjolras.

        "Wait!" I yelled, taking care to keep hidden.

        The Inspector looked up, a bewildered expression on his face. "Who's there?" he demanded.

        "Don't you recognize my voice, Vauquelin?" I said loudly. "You've spent so long trying to catch me. I would have thought you'd recognize me by now."

        Vauquelin frowned, then recognition dawned on his face. "Eponine Thenardier," he said with malice. "Where are you, brat?"

        "You'll never catch me, Vauquelin. Never. No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to put me behind bars."

        Vauquelin looked up at the buildings, searching for me, but I stayed completely out of sight.

        "You can't catch me!" I teased.

        "I will arrest you, you little thief," Vauquelin spat.

        "Funny," I remarked arrogantly. "You've been trying to arrest me for weeks, even months now, yet you're no closer to catching me than you were at the beginning."

        "Get down here, Thenardier. In the name of the law, I will arrest you!"

        I let out a cold laugh. "I don't think so, Vauquelin," I hissed. "In fact, I have a better idea. I think I'm going to go around Paris and pickpocket every bourgeois in sight. And then, I'm going to round up the Patron Minette and we're going to raid more houses than we've ever raided before. If that isn't enough, I'm going to scam all the bourgeoisie out of their money. And I will make sure everyone in Paris knows that the reason they are being terrorized like this is because Inspector Vauquelin couldn't even arrest one little gamine girl."

        Vauquelin's face paled. "Get down here right now!" he demanded.

        In response, I laughed again. I could see the anger and frustration on Vauquelin's face as I continued to tease him. Good, I thought. Get mad at me. You want to arrest me, not Enjolras.

        "Thenardier, if you don't get down here right now, I'm going to-"

        "What?" I interrupted. "What could you possibly do to me? You can't even reach me."

        Vauquelin let out a grunt of frustration. "Listen, Thenardier. I need to go bring this revolutionary to jail, but trust me, I will be back to arrest you."

        "By the time you come back, I'll be gone," I said in a teasing voice. "But I have a proposition for you, Monsieur."

        Vauquelin was silent for a moment. "What kind of proposition?" he asked skeptically.

        I took a breath, my heart pounding. "I will go with you," I began. "I will allow you to arrest me, and I will go to jail quietly, under one condition."

        "What condition?" Vauquelin asked.

        "Let the revolutionary go. Let him have full pardon from the law," I demanded. "Instead of taking him to jail, you will take him to the hospital and let him quietly disappear from the eye of the police. Tell the police he was killed in the rebellion. So many people died that it won't be a difficult lie. Let this man, Enjolras, go free, and I will come with you."

        Vauquelin was silent for a while. "I don't know..." he said uncertainly.

        "If you don't let this man go," I warned, "I will wreak havoc upon the city of Paris. I will destroy all the peace that your law works so hard to maintain. And remember, I will make sure everyone knows that you had the opportunity to stop me, but instead you chose to arrest a harmless idealist who was already destroyed by the failure of his rebellion."

        Vauquelin thought for a moment. Finally, he nodded. "All right, Thenardier," he said. "I'll agree to your terms. I'll take him to the hospital, but you must come quietly with me to jail."

        "Deal," I said. Then, I realized that Enjolras would probably try to break me out of prison if he found out I had taken his place there. That would definitely result in his arrest. I had to make sure Enjolras did not find out I was in jail. "Wait, I have one more condition," I demanded.

        "Yes?"

        "When Enjolras wakes up, tell him I died in the rebellion," I said, my voice faltering I as imagined how much this news would hurt Enjolras. "Don't let him know I traded my freedom for his. He'll only blame himself if he finds out. Just tell him an anonymous person offered a large ransom to bail him out."

        "All right," Vauquelin replied. "Now get down here so I can handcuff you."

        I slowly climbed down the building and held up my hands in surrender. Vauquelin pinned my arms behind my back with the handcuffs. "Now let's go to the jail," he said.

        "No!" I said quickly. "We go to the hospital first. I want to make sure you keep your word and get Enjolras the medical care he needs."

        "Fair enough," Vauquelin replied, scooping Enjolras in his arms. Slowly, we made our way to the hospital. For me, it felt like a death march. I was walking straight to my doom. I did not care much that I was going to prison, but it killed me to know that I would be apart from Enjolras. I remembered the day he had made me promise I would stay by his side forever. I was breaking that promise now, but I realized that some promises need to be broken for the greater good. Still, I held fast to the belief that I would keep my latest promise, the promise that I would somehow return to my lover's side.

        Finally, we reached the hospital. Vauquelin laid Enjolras on the bed and instructed the nurses to take good care of him. He told them that if Enjolras asked for a girl by the name of Eponine, they were to inform him that she had died in the rebellion. He also instructed the nurses to tell Enjolras that someone had anonymously bailed him out of prison. Then, he took my arm and started to pull me away from my beloved.

       I took one last look at Enjolras' sleeping form. A single tear trickled down my cheek. I love you, Enj, I thought. I will return to you. Then, before I could properly finish saying good-bye, Vauquelin began hauling me out of the hospital, keeping an iron grip on my arm. I turned back around to keep my eyes on Enjolras for as long as possible. Then, I noticed a red and gold glint on his finger. My eyes widened when I realized what it was. It was the ring, our ring. I had broken yet another promise when I had taken it off and given it back to him in anger. I wished I could have it back now, so that I at least had something to remember him by, but it was too late. Vauquelin pulled me out of the hospital and out of Enjolras' life.

        As we made our way to the prison, Vauquelin gave me a curious look. "I don't understand you, Thenardier," he remarked. "You're a selfish, greedy thief, and yet you traded your freedom for his. I don't understand it."

        "There are a lot of things you don't understand about me, Monsieur," I replied quietly.

        We spent the rest of the trip to prison in an uncomfortable silence.

        (Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to @Interesting. She made an amazing fanart of this story. She is a talented artist as well as an amazing writer. Check out her stories, they're awesome!)