Check out time

[merryeccentricities]

Joly looks over the last few sets of readings and nods, satisfied. "You seem to be recovering well, Monsieur. If you'll promise to follow a few instructions and trust yourself to your daughter's care, I think you can move back to your own rooms today."

Comments

[road_to_calvary]

Valjean has no will to object, and little pride. It is alarming how weak he feels; he who is used to feeling strong enough to carry anything. But it lacks the edge of fatality he felt just a few days, so he will trust Joly's assessment that this will not last forever.

He leans as little as he can on Marius's shoulder, knowing that it was injured and not wanting to pressure it.

'Thank you,' he says, to all of them. It seems so inadequate, but he does not know what else will do.

[heartbeneathastone]

Marius begins to edge the wheelchair tentatively forward, but waits for Cosette to lead the way.

[lark_in_flight]

She can do that! With encouraging smiles cast back at both her father and her husband, and indeed, it isn't a terribly long or difficult journey up to Valjean's Milliways rooms.

They're comfortable rooms, and she's cajoled her father into a few nicer touches here or there. But she's already thinking, as she unlocks the door, of little improvements to make for her father's comfort.

[road_to_calvary]

These quarters are far too comfortable by his standards, but when has he ever been able to deny any suggestion Cosette makes? They do not feel like any kind of home, sporadic as his visits here are, but they are familiar enough and it is no hardship to find himself brought to them. When Marius stops pushing the chair he looks around - everything is as it was; a few books, the modern things he has never touched, a wardrobe and neatly-made bed.

He is suddenly aware that it is just the three of them, and if he is well enough to be released from the doctor's supervision, there are probably other things he cannot avoid. It is what it is; he pulls himself up out of the wheelchair and eases his way onto a normal seat without looking at either of them.

'We could send a rat for coffee or tea, if one may be found in the hall,' he ventures after a moment.

[heartbeneathastone]

"I will go," Marius says at once. He glances quickly at Cosette-- does she wish to speak to her father of the things they learned? Is it too soon? Well, it seems best that she decide-- then ducks into the hall.

[lark_in_flight]

Marius ducks out, and it's only Cosette and her father.