Chapter Text
He was not a parent, or a child, or a sibling.
He was not a spouse, in the eyes of the Law.
Javert knew this all too well.
But some things are worse in the eyes of the Law than in the eyes of the soul.
So he mourned.
He tore his clothes and barely slept.
He had a minyan. Strangers. He had not known many people, in his life.
He had trusted even less.
Well-loved books gathered dust on the shelves. He had never read them.
He knew them well, though, from years of hearing their content read aloud, when-
When the world had not crumbled about his feet.
Siete.
Seven days of creation.
Seven days in that carriage to Hell.
Seven days, it would have been, to return.
To return to the life he had built, of garden-paths and old books and knowing and being known.
A life he had never thought he deserved.
A reason to live he had never thought to expect.
One he loved, and loved him.
One who was gone.
And time passed, and a day came when Javert no longer thought of the ocean.