Coming Clean 7

Éponine gripped her knee tightly to keep it from shaking, it was a nervous tick that she had developed recently and it not only drove her crazy, but she had more than enough strangers on the subways complaining as well. Here she was in the middle of Manhattan, waiting, waiting until they called her name.

“Miss Thenardier?” The secretary at Child Services called to her, “Ms. Grandin will see you now, if you would just follow me.”

Éponine slowly rose from her chair in the waiting room and followed the secretary down the narrow hallway lined with offices until she reached the one with the nameplate that read “Holly Grandin”. The secretary knocked on the door and after a beat  she opened it and let Éponine inside. Éponine slowly walked into the office, a woman with honey colored hair was busy typing away on her desktop computer, “Sit down,” the woman directed Éponine.

Éponine walked over to one of the chairs in Ms. Grandin's office and slowly she lowered herself down into the chair which squeaked slightly.

“Let me pull up your file,” Ms. Grandin spoke up all the while she still did not look at Éponine, they fell into silence until Ms. Grandin pulled up Éponine's information on her computer as well as pulling out an actual, hard copy, manila folder. “So you were in the system up until two years ago, living with the Fermet family in Queens, your biological parents are Alfred and Therese Thenardier, you were placed in child services after your mother died of a drug overdose and your father was imprisoned for armed robbery and second degree murder-”

This woman was stirring up many painful memories and Éponine was slowly getting more and more irritated, “Why are you telling me all this?” she spoke through gritted teeth, “I lived through it, and you didn't, why are you informing me of my life story?”

Ms. Grandin looked at her with wide eyes, “Just running through your history, so that we can better understand why you have come here today.”

Éponine clenched her hands into fists where they sat in her lap, “I know why I'm here, I want to talk about my brother.”


“Your brother?” Ms Grandin cocked her head, “well that's another matter entirely,” she turned back to her computer and pulled up more documents, “oh that's right there were three of you! Oh but your sister... Missing persons report, disappeared almost immediately after you went into the system-”

“We are talking about my brother!” Éponine was on the verge of shouting, “not my sister.”

“Right, Gavroche Maximilian Thenardier, currently fifteen years old, residing with the Guelmer family in the Bronx,” Ms. Grandin smiled, “what would you like to talk about?”

“I want him out of the system, I-I I want him to live with me,” Éponine looked down into her lap, “I want to take custody.”

“Take custody?” Ms. Grandin looked up, “I don't know if that's possible.”

“Why not?” Éponine glared, “I'm over age, I have a good job, and an apartment, why the hell not?”

“You see it is all very complicated,” Ms. Grandin folded her hands one on top of the other.

“So?” Éponine shrugged, “I don't care, I want him back!”

“My dear, you are twenty years old, why do you want to take care of your 15 year old brother who the last time you saw was ten years ago? Shouldn't you be going to college?”

The woman had struck a nerve in Éponine, “I can't go to college,” she glowered, “I can't afford it!”

Ms. Grandin offered an apologetic look but it did nothing to sooth Éponine's temper who was practically fuming with anger.

“Dearie, you should quit while you are ahead,” Ms. Grandin sighed.

“Ahead? You call that ahead?” Éponine was fighting the tears that were brimming in her eyes, “I have gotten no where! I'm not going to give up, send me to someone else, because I'm sick and tired of talking with you!”

“Well we could make an appointment with a supervisor next week, you could talk with-”

“FINE!” Éponine shouted, “do it! I just never want to see you again!” she got up from the office and stormed out, she breezed past the secretary, into the elevator and outside where she could feel the slightest warm breeze on her skin as she finally let the tears stream down her face.

She'd held in too many emotions at one time and it felt as if she was having an internal meltdown, her body had gone into overdrive. She decided that maybe a walk through Central park would be just the thing to help her calm down, she traipsed through the park but it was doing nothing to settle her and she walked straight towards a large, old, oak tree. She curled up at the base of the trunk as she let her emotions pour out of her small, thin body. Memories, upon memories flashed into her head and bombarded her mind with awful thoughts and visions, the words “HIV test results” rang in her head as she could perfectly remember waking up in the hospital. She remembered the fear that clung to her as she wondered if it was going to be a disease slowly eating away her immune system that would cause her an eventual and inevitable death, all coming back to the idea of, what if she never saw her brother again?

Quickly she snapped her eyes opened, she couldn't let these feelings overtake her, she had to find an outlet somewhere.... Somewhere.... She leaned against the tree breathing slowly as she let the words, and soft melancholy tone flow from her mouth as she began to compose freely.

“If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song-”

Enjolras had simply been cutting through the park for a change of pace when he heard these sad lyrics being sung and he wondered what had brought someone to such a sad state. He walked over to the old oak tree where he found that the source was Éponine, sitting under the tree with her eyes closed. He stayed still and listened as she sang a little more of her song.

“And I'll be wearing white, when I come into your kingdom
I'm as green as the ring on my little cold finger,
I've never known the lovin' of a man
But it sure felt nice when he was holdin' my hand,
There's a boy here in town, says he'll love me forever,
Who would have thought forever could be severed by-”

“Your song is very sad,” Enjolras spoke bluntly.

Éponine's eyes snapped open and she blushed, “Y-you heard that?”

Enjolras nodded his head, “Sorry for disturbing you, it was rude of me to do so.”

“That's alright,” Éponine immediately became interested with the ragged state of her cuticles.

“What were you singing about?” Enjolras asked, “if you don't mind my asking, I don't mean to pry.”

“Nothing, just another point in my life,” Éponine replied.

“Such as the point when I gave you back that smack?” Enjolras guessed.

“Huh?” Éponine' eyes went wide, “y-you remember that?”

“Do you really think that I haven't noticed you at the bar? Did you think I didn't recognize you?” Enjolras raised an eyebrow.

“Oh,” Éponine looked down again.

“Now are you alright? You look upset,” Enjolras took note of the fact that her eyes were red rimmed, her cheeks were slightly swollen and her nose was running slightly, the girl had obviously been crying.

“Ce n'est rien ,” Éponine replied.

“You speak French?” Enjolras cocked his head.

“All four years of high school, not that it really matters,” Éponine sniffed slightly, “I guess you could just say this day sucks.”

Enjolras wasn't sure what to do, the girl obviously needed comfort but he wasn't sure how to give, his friends and especially Courfeyrac were good at comforting distressed young women. This was not true for Alexandre Enjolras in anyway shape or form.

“Are you sure nothing's wrong?” He asked.

Éponine bit back the stinging words that she was about to lash out at Enjolras, after all he was only trying to help her, and she could plainly see that all he wanted to do was attempt at being kind. Then she remembered that he was a pre-law student, maybe he could help her after all.

“What do you know about Child Welfare Services?” Éponine asked.

“Child Welfare Services?” Enjolras raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Éponine sighed, “I want him out of this system, I went down there today... A fat lot of good that did me.”

“Are you trying to take custody of a child?” Enjolras asked.

“My brother,” Éponine replied, “I want my brother back.”

Enjolras wasn't sure what to do or say, what she was asking for he didn't know if he could solve, perhaps he could find someone who could, “I could try and help you.”

Éponine's eyes went wide, “Could you really?”

“I'll try,” Enjolras replied in his typical cool manner.

Éponine began to laugh, it had a soft musical quality, unlike her rough and tough outward appearance.

“What's so funny?” Enjolras knitted his eyebrows together.

“It's just, I'm sorry, but I can't help but wonder,” Éponine paused, “do you have any emotions or feelings, towards anyone?”

“I have my friends,” Enjolras replied in a slightly miffed tone.

“But you talk to me the way you talk to them,” Éponine replied, “as if there was nothing different,” she narrowed her eyes slightly, “maybe you really are nothing but a great stone dragon.” She then picked herself up off of the ground and walked away casually.