The irritating beeping of the alarm awoke Laura from her fitful sleep. Squinting at the time on her phone, Laura threw away the covers and blearily hobbled into the bathroom.
The shower for Laura had always been a place of contemplation, it was where she had contemplated marrying D'Artagnan, contemplated how to tell him that she was pregnant with their child. But most recently it was where she had wondered how to comfort her grieving husband over the death of his father.
It had been horrendous, a wonderful life ended by a group of muggers who just wanted his money. D'Artagnan had been heartbroken and had detached himself from her and the rest of his life. He'd lost his job as a consequence and in the past few weeks she'd felt like she was losing him too.
She let the scolding hot water run down her bare skin, the soap stinging her eyes. Laura got out of the shower, she took a look at herself. Wet hair, wet skint, bags under her eyes, she looked awful.
After she'd dried herself off, she went back into their bedroom. It was her favourite room in the house. The bed was positioned in the middle of the room, the white wooden floor boards were shining in the morning sun, the large window to the left of the bed, was open and letting in a warm summer breeze. The white curtains danced in the wind, and there she saw d'art, all tanned skin, and toned muscle. A small sun tattoo on his left arm, and on his back, a tattoo saying 'dad'. His brown hair was messy and he looked peaceful for once. Smiling to herself, she opened the wardrobes and grabbed her white shirt, some blue trousers, and a pair of red heels.
She came out of the bedroom, onto the landing, quickly walking towards the kid's room. Five years ago they had born two wonderful boys into the world. One named Alex and the other one named, Gabriel. Both named after their fathers. She remembered d'art's face when he'd seen the twins for the first time. They looked just like him, brown eyes, and brown hair. Alex was smaller like her, and Gabe was more like his father, tall and handsome.
She opened the door to their room, the sight she saw made her smile, Alex had climbed into Gabe's bed and they were curled together, their tiger Pyjamas thrown on the floor, and the window wide open. They must've been hot, she thought. Laura always loved summer in Paris, the flowers, the blue skies, she never thought it was hot, maybe because she'd been brought up in southern France where in summer it was stifling. D'artagnan had been brought up in Montreal in Canada and so was more accustomed to the cold than she was, and consequently moaned about the hotness of summer everyday, all day in the summer months.
Having woken them up, washed them and got them dressed, Laura was standing in the kitchen, making pancakes, it was the only thing the boys ate for breakfast, she wasn't happy about it and her and d'artagnan had tried their best to get them to eat something else, but it was in vain, they simply threw it on the floor or didn't eat it. So pancakes with peaches it was. Having given the twins their breakfast, she made her way back up the stairs, to their room.
"D'art, time to wake up babe", she whispered in his ear. A small groan escaped him and he turned to face her. "Hey" he murmured. She threw a towel at him and pointed to the shower, he gave her a small smile and motioned for her to follow him.
"Sorry, already had mine, I've got to drop the twins off at nursery soon" she said, the smile drifted off his face and he mumbled something incoherent as he neared the ensuite. Sighing she grabbed her bag and called for the twins to get their shoes on.
Laura shouted a goodbye to d'art when she shut the door. She hustled the kids into the car and got in herself. "Seatbelts on" she said, with a smile. As she drove through the neighbourhood, she remembered the old flat they used to live in, they'd recently moved to the four bedroom townhouse, after the flat they were living in got too small, but also d'art had been given his fathers inheritance from Canada and had placed a deposit on the house, claiming that there was a good school nearby and the hospital which she worked at was close too, but she really knew he bought it because it looked the same to his fathers house in Canada and a small part of her knew that d'art wanted to be like his father.
When she parked her car outside the hospital, she sent a quick text to d'art, 'good luck with your interview today xxx L". Locking the doors she walked into the hospital, wondering who'd she treat today.
D'artagnan got out of the shower just in time to hear Laura shout goodbye, he walked over to the window in the bedroom to watch Laura hustle the kids into the car and drive off. She'd taken the Aldi so he'd have to take the Mercedes. He hated that car, it reminded him of his old job. It was the company car, but they'd said he could keep the car as a token of appreciation, but he knew that was bullshit.
He had an interview today, so he grabbed his best black trousers, a black tie, and a white shirt. Brushing imaginary dust off his shoulders he walked downstairs, to find two empty plates on the island and a note in the fridge for him to buy some more milk and peaches from Laura. The peaches must be for the twins, that's all they ate for breakfast, it made him laugh when he thought about how riled up Laura would get when they refused toast, or cereal. It was a mystery and it would always be. Grabbing a pack of breakfast biscuits from the draw, he picked up his bag with his wallet and keys in, and made his way out of the house.
—
Athos was having a bad day, he'd woken up with a splitting headache and to make matters worse Aramis and Porthos were very loud when they were getting ready for work this morning.
After having a very cold shower because all the hot water had been used up, he put on a clean white shirt, black trousers and slung his gun holder over both shoulders and placed a newly pressed black jacket on over his shirt, he hooked his badge on the side of his belt, and made his way downstairs.
That was where he found Aramis making pancakes and Porthos reading a file on a man called D'Artagnan.
"Who's that?" He asked to Porthos whilst getting some coffee from the machine.
"His name is D'Artagnan, well Charles D'Artagnan to be frank, he's the interviewee this morning." Porthos said with a raised eyebrow, usually Athos remembered these things.
"Shit, of course, the guy who might become our fourth." Athos remembered. Athos made his way round to Porthos and read over his shoulder. Apparently this guy had served two tours of Afghanistan and after leaving had gone into marketing. He was married and had two boys, both five years old. His mother was dead and his father was recently murdered.
"Sounds like an interesting guy, but his father only died like three months ago" Athos mentioned.
"Some people take years to recover from a death of a loved one or sometimes they take weeks, it depends on the person" Aramis piped up. He then turned around and slid two plates of pancakes their way, Porthos ate like a man possessed and Athos nibbled gently at his, to be honest he wasn't at all hungry, but pancakes were the only thing Aramis could cook, so he ate them with gratefulness that they weren't burnt or undercooked.
When they all arrived at work in Athos's car, or taxi as Aramis liked to call it, they saw Captain Treville waiting at the entrance for them. "You're late" Treville said as the approached him, "very well follow me" he said again, they obliged and followed him through the many corridors and up many flights of stairs until they arrived in an interview room, with the man named D'artganan.
He looked nothing like the photo in his file, he was more muscular, he looked tired and yet peaceful. But he looked old for his age, maybe that was kids for you. He didn't know.
"Hi, my name is Detective Inspector Aramis for the national security service Code named the musketeers, you must be Mr Charles D'artagnan." Aramis extended his hand to the man, he returned the gesture.
"So lets get started, tell me a bit about yourself D'Artagnan" Porthos asked.
At this the man seemed to relax and he started to tell them about how he was born in Canada, but he moved to Paris when he was eighteen, that was where he met his wife, who was called Laura. They got married when they were twenty one and two years later they welcomed twin boys into the world. He established that the twins were both five years old and went to nursery. He then went on to talk about his army years, he joined when he was sixteen and left when he was twenty six, he was with the Canadian French army for ten years and when he left he went into marketing. But after his fathers unfortunate death he lost his job, moved house and has been job searching ever since.
Athos then explained that the reason they were interested was because not only did he work for the army for ten years, he also left and so his immediate practices had be been toned down a notch for practical purposes. They explained that they didn't want someone fresh from the field as they would be keen to show off and they know from experience that showing off leads to deaths and injuries.
The interview ended and D'Artagnan made his way out of the building. Athos stood there for a while watching the man walk to the Mercedes and drive off. He was a nice guy, but he was troubled, they could all tell that he didn't want his wife to know and that he was hiding it from her. Aramis walked towards him and gave him a pat on the back, "well done mi amigo, I think we may have found our fourth" Aramis said, smiling with glee.
"What do you think Athos, is he good enough?" Porthos said coming to his other side.
Athos sighed, "yes I think he's good enough, he'll fit right in with the right training, he could become one of our best men" Athos said.
As the other two walked towards his car, Athos made a mental note to call d'artganan and let him know the good news.
—
Laura got home and precisely eight o clock, when she entered the house, she kicked off her heels, threw down her bag, pulled her hair out it's tight bun, untucked her shirt, and poured herself a huge glass of wine. After drinking half the glass, she slid open the sliding doors from the kitchen to the lounge and there she saw d'art asleep on the sofa with the twins, the tv was playing toy story and she quietly turned the tv off, snapped a quick photo, and placed a blanket on them all.
Pulling the doors too, she sat at the island under the dim light of the lamp on the side, she checked her emails, payed any bills and ate a ready made curry from the fridge. When she looked at the clock it was ten o clock.
Swearing she entered the lounge to find d'art wiggling out of the pile of legs and arms, "hey, do you need some help?" She asked.
"Yeah please, take Alex and I'll take Gabe." He instructed, she nodded and picked Alex up, when there was a knock at the door, "I'll get it" she said.
Laura shifted Alex onto her hip, and placed his head on her shoulder, she opened the door to find three men standing on the steps, the one at the front was very well dressed and had piercing blue eyes, the one behind him was very handsome and he looked Spanish, he smiled at the sight of Alex asleep on her shoulder, the man the the left of the handsome one was tall, muscular and he had a beaming smile, she would've been scared if it wasn't for that lovely smile. "Can I help gentleman" she asked, "yes, we're looking for your husband, Charles" the man at the front said.
Laura swung around, "d'art, there are three men here looking for you" she shouted, she swung back around and gave a small smile, "I'm Athos by the way, Mrs D'Artagnan' the man at the front said. She gave another smile and then suddenly D'art was by her side, holding Gabe.
"Athos, Porthos, Aramis, can I help you three" D'art said with a smile.
"Yes, could we come in, we didn't mean to disturb you both at this time, it was just your weren't answering your phone." Aramis said.
After placing the twins in bed, Laura went into the kitchen to grab four coffees, she placed them in the tray and opened the sliding doors. She put the tray on the table in the middle, gave them all a smile, kissed D'art on the forehead and whispered that she was going to bed. "Goodnight gentleman" she said and closed the door behind her.
Laura sat at the edge of the bed, waiting for D'art to come to bed, it was eleven o'clock on a Friday evening. Sighing she swung her legs into bed and closed her eyes.
—
D'artagnan had got the job, he accepted it with a cheerful smile and offered the men any drinks, they politely declined and he showed them out of the house. "We'll see you on Monday then D'art" Aramis said with a smile.
He laughed at the use of the nickname Laura gave him, "yeah see you on Monday" he waved and shut the door behind him. He locked up, turned the lights off, washed up the cups and made his way to his bedroom. The door was slightly ajar and he saw that Laura was fast asleep curled up in a ball, the sheets kicked off her legs onto the floor. Smiling he placed the sheets over he legs up to her hips, undressed and quietly slid into bed, placing his arm around her middle he fell fast asleep.