Work Text:
Javert stood upright even so he wanted to crumble.
His eyes were dry even so he felt himself drowning.
His world only grey or dark, never bright.
His light was lowered into the earth, he so adored,
in a casket he lay comfortably inside.
And Javert felt his heart break when the wood touched the ground.
They had many years together after all.
And Jean Valjean had been sick and frail this last winter.
But the summers he had spent in his garden,
reading books to his grandchildren and Javert,
had truly been the happiest of his life.
Javert believed him when Jean had told him on his dying day.
Without him the world felt so empty.
He couldn't bear Cosette's touch
and flinched when Fantine took his hand.
Let me be, he wanted to scream.
You have lost a father, a grandfather.
I have lost my reason for this life.
And he walked away, upright and clear eyed.
His heart so many painful shards in his chest.
The night as clouded as before.
The Seine's song loud and dangerous in his ears.
He had sworn he'd never leave him
and this was as close to together they'd ever be.
But he had to turn away and wait a little more.
First, he had to go back to Cosette and her family.
Keep them all safe and make sure they stayed happy.
Jean Valjean had spent so much of his life providing for others.
If Javert truly loved him, he would do what he could to honor that.
And even so it hurt to walk the streets of Paris to their door,
he would gladly suffer this pain for the rest of his life,
than never have known such bliss at all.