"Sister... The Amis have come to see him and you... Have you... Eaten today?" Who: Éponine and Azelma Thénardier, Enjolras, Bahorel and Courfeyrac. What: The waiting game continues. Hospitals suck. When: 5th July Where: An unspecified hospital Rating: Probably just PG13 for the subject matter alone. The Thénardiers didn't swear for once! TW for medical situations only. Status: Complete. :v One more part to go!
A day's time passed and nothing, no movement or much of anything. Another day nearing the end of visitation time for others pass and Azelma has come back showered and with her stuffed lamb Gav had given her when she got there. She tucked it under his arm and nudged Éponine awake again. “Sister... The Amis have come to see him and you... Have you... Eaten today?”
Why did people always have to wake her up? Éponine was fine with sleeping here, even if it was giving her the mother of all neck pains. It meant she could still watch over him, like she’d promised she would. “I haven’t wanted to leave his side... can you blame me?”
By some miracle, Enjolras, and okay, mostly Bahorel, had managed to convince them that Courfeyrac was fine, that he was already under treatment for ‘severe dream reactions’ and that this was a matter of stress, not a sign he needed to go back to the neurological hospital for another week or so of testing. They’d gotten him home late last night, crashed at Bahorel’s for lack of anything else they could do, and all three had headed back here today, to at least get an update if not see Gavroche. For now, Bahorel was holding Courfeyrac back as Enjolras approached the desk to get information.
Azelma had noticed the car, then them at the ICU desk. She brushed a hand over her sister’s hair before going out to meet them. “They’re with us...” Motioned for them to follow, wondering if she’d forgotten to send the text to them that he was actually in a bloody coma. She knew her sister hadn’t touched her phone since before this all happened so...
In Éponine’s defence, she’d had more important things to focus on than contacting people. Keeping her little brother safe, or at least staying by his side, beat out pretty much anything else... sure, maybe letting them know would’ve helped, but she really didn’t care right now.
“Hey.” Enjolras was at least in the right century today, which helped. “How are things heading?” he asked, stepping forward first to get the information. “I...should we even let Courf through like this? I mean if it’s...” he swallowed a few times. “The last thing I want is to make this harder for any of you or worse for Gavroche. That’s not something he deserves.”
“Him and Courf are close, deserves to know. Did we forget to tell you he’s in a coma... I’ve been running errands for things Éponine needs and trying to force her to eat.” Motioned to the bin full of protein and energy drinks. “... Courf.” Stepped out to take his hand and pull him in. She knew full well Gavroche would want him to come in.
Eating took too much effort when you were so intensely focused on something. Or, in this case, someone. Éponine had refused pretty much everything that was offered to her, just on the off-chance they’d try and make her leave Gavroche for it.
When Azelma pulled Courfeyrac in, she glanced up. “I’m sorry you have to see this, Courf...”
“Azelma.” Courfeyrac knew her vaguely as one of Gavroche’s sisters and a friend of Enjolras in this world, and someone that he himself felt close to when he WAS himself. It made him want to reach out and hug her now, propriety be damned. It felt close enough to hugging one of his own sisters, or what that might have been like had he grown up closer in age to them. At any rate, she was getting a hug now, and then so was Eponine, later on, when he got in the room.
“I...do not know what it means, coming from ME, but I’ve been praying.” he confided. “Gavroche must be all right here. Otherwise, what is the point of...I shouldn’t ramble.” he added, shaking his head a bit. “May we see him then or are we only able to send wishes?”
Bahorel glanced at Azelma, hoping he could catch her eye where Courf wouldn’t see, and tapped his forehead quite significantly. He hoped that made things clear enough.
Azelma was a little confused, but she kept quiet on that matter. “You can see him, Courf. He’s... You know what a coma is, right?” Bit her lip. “He... People assume comatose people can hear and feel but they can’t actually react. It’s... Really awkward to explain but...” Led him further in to see the boy haloed slightly in the setting sunlit hooked up to the wires and machines, the breathing mask still on and the monitor to the side just steadily beeping.
Éponine could assume that Courfeyrac wasn’t exactly in the best mental state. Seeing Gavroche hurt like that... it’d done her enough harm, and she’d been dead by the time it’d happened. Whilst she’d been able to regain herself, she doubted that he’d had quite the same luck. “Be careful with him. Please.”
He’d been through enough already. She’d so hoped that something like this wouldn’t happen to to him...
“Of course, “ Courfeyrac agreed, quite seriously, before he did give Eponine that hug and took a few breaths before he stepped forward to the bed itself, his face drawn as he looked at the boy. It didn’t seem right that this should have happened to him, and in the way it had, it felt even worse. He was going to hold to his composure today through. He already had three stitches in his lip from failing to keep it yesterday.
“So, Gavroche.” He had been told he might speak, and considering he was never GOOD at shutting up, he was going to go ahead and say a few things, mostly inconsequential little bits about people and places they’d known, but still.
“He’s rational as I am, when I’m like this.” Enjolras whispered. “He does know what’s going on and where he is, and he’s been trusting us for information so...it seems to be okay so far. Is there anything you guys need right now?”
“If you guys can convince this one to go spend twenty minutes home to shower, change and come home that would be great.” She may seem cool headed on the outside, inside she was a wreck and just barely keeping herself cool because of the baby. She didn’t need to give this kid any reason to try and come early, much as the universe was trying to force otherwise.
Seriously? Weren’t there more important things to deal with than that? “I’m fine, Azelma. No need for me to go anywhere...”
True, staying here wasn’t exactly healthy for Éponine, but she couldn’t bear the thought of being anywhere else right now. They couldn’t know when he was going to wake up, so why risk it?
“Would Gavroche want you running risk of getting yourself ill?” The stress it was putting on her, the idea of her becoming ill as well was putting a very hard strain on the very thin line Azelma was having for her anxiety level. As such she brought her hair forward and because pulling strands out one at a time.
“Rose.” Enjolras interrupted, stepping forward to put an arm around Azelma’s shoulders. “Hey. I know this is really hard and I don’t know what I can do to fix it but please. Take some deep breaths for me, all right? Can you match your breathing to mine, maybe? I know this hospital. They did really well for me back when...you hadn’t moved here yet, but the flu I had blogged about when I was focusing on end of life stuff this winter? They were able to fix THAT. I’m pretty sure they can get Gavroche back to us.”
“It’d probably be better if you did, actually.” Bahorel told Eponine. “Not trying to take you away from him or anything but...it might help a little. Get you in a better frame of mind to step away or something. You know. Get some air at least.”
Well. If even Bahorel was saying it... maybe Éponine could bow to their demands. It wasn’t like she’d be away all too long, right? “As long as one of you contacts me if anything changes. I know it probably won’t, but... a girl can dream.”
Try as the black haired girl might, she could help the whimper into a sob as she pushed into her friend’s embrace. She’d stayed so strong for Éponine, stayed strong so that neither of them had to start crying again that it was making her sick. Being able to cry was a good thing at least? She pushed close as her stomach would allow and dug her nails into his shoulder blades whilst pushing her face into his chest, her shoulders trembling.
“It will be all right.” Enjolras had no real idea how to handle crying women other than to...try to make them feel better. It had gotten easier to handle this sort of mood given Courf’s panic attacks too, and he pretended it was the same sort of situation only in person now. Everything he wished he could do when one of the amis was in a bad state and he couldn’t reach them, he was able to handle now as he rubbed Azelma’s back a little.
“Of course we’ll let you know.” Bahorel promised, completely sincerely. Hey, he was the oldest one in the room, so it was probably his responsibility and everything. It was probably time to stop entirely avoiding things like that, right?
Courfeyrac continued talking to Gavroche, the French words casually and quietly spilling out, in hopes that anything would make a difference.
Azelma actually acting like that was a surprise... usually, she was so hesitant to go anywhere near men, but with Enjolras... he was different. In the best kind of way. Éponine did have to wonder if he even knew...
“Before I go, though... you’re a lucky man, Enjolras.” As her older sister, it was kind of a rule she had to describe it like that. “Azelma usually has such a hard time with men, but with you... you’re unique. Special, I guess.”
“Éponine wait!” Let go of Enj for just a second to hold tight around her sister, still sobbing. “Hurry back...” Pulled away to look up at the much taller woman and tried her damndest to fake a reassuring smile.
Éponine knew her sister too well to fall for that smile, but the hug was nice. She returned it as best she could, and was almost disappointed when she pulled away... well, she did have to go, so... “I will do, little shadow. I promise.”
Azelma nodded and tried to wipe her eyes off. “Make sure the boys are okay... Tell them he’s still... sleeping.” Swallowed hard and turned to go back to take his hand, much like Éponine had been.
“Enjolras has a hard time with just about everybody.” Bahorel felt the need to cut in, like an embarrassing older sibling discussing this sort of thing. “So, you know. I’ll call if anything happens.” he added. “The second it does.”
Enjolras, for his part, took Azelma’s hand again and squeezed tightly. “Hey. This’ll get worked out. I swear. There’s still good here, right? Looks like we’ve got to try to...believe in that.” Did that make sense? He hoped so.
“Thank you, Bahorel. So much.” He really was like the annoying older sibling that the Thénardiers had never had. Or maybe everyone’s, considering his tendency to do much the same for the others. “I can’t keep the boys away forever... we’ll have to hope he wakes soon.”