Javert's Daughter

Lamarque is Dead

***~Marie's POV~***

That same night we were all sitting up in the attic room. I just listened as they all talked, there was nothing I could really say, they'd been planning this revolution for years while I had merely been with them for a handful of weeks. Many of the men were already drunk from the wine but they certainly weren't letting it quiet them down.

Combufree smiled at the others as he sat across the room. "At Notre Dame the sections are prepared!"

"At rue de Bac! They're straining at the leash!" Fuelly took a pull of his wine.

"Students, workers, everyone! There's a river on the run like the flowing of the tide! Paris coming to our side!" Courfeyrac clasped hands with another guy.

"The time is near...So near. it's stirring the blood in their veins! And yet beware...Don't let the wine go to your brains!For the army we fight is a dangerous foe with the men and the arms that we never can match!" Enjolras looked over the men and I could see the displeasure in his eyes at all their drunk faces. "Oh, it's easy to sit here and swat 'em like flies but the national guard will be harder to catch.We need a sign to rally the people! To call them to arms to bring them in line! Marius, you're late."

"What's wrong today? You look as if you've seen a ghost." Jean raised a brow at him.

"Some wine and say what's going on!" Grantaire tried to pass Marius a bottle of wine but he just shook his head.

"A ghost you say... a ghost maybe. She was just like a ghost to me. One minute there, and she was gone!" Right away I knew who Marius was talking about. It was the girl from this morning, the one Ephonie had called Cosette.

"I am agog! I am aghast! Is Marius in love at last? I have never heard him 'ooh' and 'aah,' you talk of battles to be won! But here he comes like Don Ju-an! It's better than an o-per-a!" Grantaire mocked him and made the rest of the men laugh.

"It is time for us all, to decide who we are...Do we fight for the right to a night at the opera now?" Enjolras sat down across the table from Marius. "Have you asked of yourselves what's the price you might pay? Is it simply a game for rich young boys to play? The color of the world is changing! Day by day..."

"Red - the blood of angry men!" He began to sing as I saw his eyes narrow at Marius. "Black - the dark of ages past! Red - a world about to dawn Black - the night that ends at last!"

"Had you been there tonight you might know how it feels," Marius gave a small smile as he defended himself. "To be struck to the bone in a moment of breathless delight! Had you been there tonight you might also have known how the world may be changed! In just one burst of light and what was right seems wrong and what was wrong seems right..."

"Red..." Grantaire laughed as he joined in with Marius.

"I feel my soul on fire!" Marius' smile grew as I spotted Ephonie on the stairs with a small frown on her lips matching the ones in her eyes.

"Black..." more men joined in with Grantaire.

"My world if she's not there..." I could see Ephonie breaking in front of my eyes.

"Red..." all the men were singing now.

"The color of desire!" Marius' voice filled the room.

"Black..." I could see Enjolras frowning with a clenched jaw.

"The color of despair!" Ephonie took a step back so I could no longer see her.

"Marius, you're no longer a child, I do not doubt you mean it well but now there is a higher call Who cares about your lonely soul? We strive toward a larger goal! Our little lives don't count at all!" Enjolras stood back up to his feet as he looked around the room.

"Red - the blood of angry men! Black - the dark of ages past!" Everyone joined in with Enjolras except for Marius who stood silently, watching Enjolras. "Red - a world about to dawn! Black - the night that ends at last!"

"Quiet!" I looked back at the door to see Gavroche standing there with Courfeyrac who had a grim look on his face. Everyone silenced as they looked at them with wide eyes.

"General Lamarque is dead!" Gavroche's words shook the room and I could see people go pale at the news.

"Lamarque's death with not be in vain!" Enjolras was the first to speak as I saw a sadness in his eyes. "We'll honor him! At his funeral we'll rise and speak for the people! Red!"

"The blood of angry men!" People echoed as I saw Marius dart down the stairs where I could see Ephonie was still hiding. They spoke quietly with one another before disappearing together.

"Tomorrow we will rise! The women and children of Paris will no longer be suffering on the streets!" Enjolras grinned as I absorbed his words. He was planning on the men saving the women, that meant he wasn't planning on women fighting, he wasn't planning on letting me fight. I got up to my feet and headed down the stairs with Enjolras on my heels.

"Where are you going?" he grabbed my arm and I turned around.

"You're planning on just men fighting!" I shook my head as anger filled me. "I deserve to fight alongside the rest of you!"

"I don't want you anywhere near the fight Marie," he held my small hands in his. "If you were to get hurt or worse it would kill me, I can't survive without you."

"Have you thought about how I would handle it if you died?" I countered. "Do you really think that I could live on without you?"

"You can," I could hear the uncertainty in his voice. "I've accepted the fact that I will most likely die in this fight. I accepted this before you ever came along, now having you here I feel like part of me isn't in this anymore and I need to be all in."

"Are you calling me a distraction?" I could feel my anger growing.

"No!" he shook his head. "I just can't have you there because I need to be thinking about the other men and not about protecting you. I love you so much that it drives me crazy Marianne."

It was the first time he'd ever used my full first name. It sounded wonderful on his lips but I forced the thought from my mind as I turned and darted down the stairs and out into the night. I could hear him calling after me but I ignored him as I ran through the streets. I didn't realize where I was running to until I'd shut my front door behind me. I was in my house, I listened closely and didn't hear anything letting me know that my father wasn't home.

I made my way up the stairs and skipped my bedroom before walking into my father's room. It was so neat and in order, just like my father had been my whole life. I took the moment to run my hand along his sheets before going over to his closet. I opened in and saw his many uniforms but in the back I found a pair of older gray pants and a dark blue shirt with a pair of large black boots and a matching gray hat.

I didn't waste anytime in removing my dress and pulling on the pants and boots. The boots were too big so I stuffed the toes with socks until they properly fit me. I looked in the mirror as I held the dress up to me and found my problem. My chest. I glanced around the room until I spotted the role of bandages sticking out from under his bed.

I tied layer after layer around my chest to try and flatten it until it looked good enough and then I pulled on the shirt. I looked like a little boy as I just stood there in the mirror as I looked over my long black hair. I took a deep breath before heading down the hall into the bathroom where I found my father's razor. I closed my eyes as I took it against my hair and felt weight leave my head. Tears filled my eyes as I opened them and looked at the hair at my feet. My hair and eyes were what had defined me my whole life and now my hair was shorter than Enjolras.

I tucked the hat on my hear and looked in the mirror to see that I looked like a young boy of maybe sixteen. I took some of the makeup from my room and darkened my eyebrows until they looked like a boys and darkened my jawline as if I had a slight stubble. When I was finally done I made sure it looked like no one had been there and made my way back out onto the street.

I had half the night left before I needed to be on the main road for the rally at the funeral. I made my way through the darkness hoping that I was doing the right thing.