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Tag to 'Sleight of Hand'
by Deana

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Musketeers. Argh!

In 'Sleight of Hand', (season 1, episode 2) the badguys were throwing those old-fashioned grenades that were a ball of metal with a fuse that gets lit and when the fuses burn down, BOOM! So they attacked the king and queen with them in the street, and when Aramis saw a bomb that would kill the queen, he ran over to it and without hesitation, threw himself down on top of it to prevent it from killing her. It blew my mind. The bombs turned out to be duds; a distraction to keep the Musketeers occupied while the head badguy, Vadim, tried to steal the crown jewels from the palace. Later, when they found Vadim after going down a stone staircase, Aramis stayed more than halfway up the stairs, and a real bomb went off, knocking them all down. We only saw Athos and Porthos' unconscious bodies though, so this tag deals with the aftermath of both bombs! Enjoy!

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Aramis didn't think; he just ran. He barely heard the cries of, "Aramis! No!" and he didn't think of the implications of what he was about to do…he simply ran. Seconds later, he threw himself to the ground on top of a live bomb, thinking of everyone's lives but his own. As long as the Queen and his friends lived, that was what mattered.

Seconds later, in defiance to what had really happened, the bomb went off, and his body was filled with incredible pain and everything went black, with his friend's panicked cry echoing through the air…

Aramis sat up in his bed, gasping. He winced and closed his eyes, wrapping an arm around his ribs, which were sending spikes of pain throughout his body. He couldn't hold back a groan, and never heard his door open.

Porthos stood in the doorway, blinking at the sight of Aramis half-sitting up in his bed in obvious pain. He hurried over and reached out to take his friend's arms. "Aramis?" he said.

Aramis' eyes popped opened and he looked at his friend with surprise. "Porthos? What?" His face was pale.

Porthos sat on the bed and took hold of his friend, trying to push him back down flat. "What happened?" he asked, confused.

Aramis sighed, carefully, as his head hit the pillow. "Nothing, I'm fine."

"Are you really gonna lie to me after I saw with my own eyes that something is wrong?" Porthos asked, trying to grab his friend's shirt to lift it up.

Aramis gave up and let him.

Porthos frowned at the bandage that was wrapped around his friend's torso. "Please tell me you weren't stabbed or shot."

Aramis shook his head. "The bomb."

Porthos frowned for a second before he realized that Aramis meant the second bomb, not the first one. "The one that blasted us underground when we found Vadim?"

Aramis nodded. "I was still on the steps when it went off."

Porthos frowned. "Are you sayin' that the blast threw you down the stairs?"

Aramis shook his head. "Back up them, since that's where I found myself when I woke up."

Porthos winced. "Anything broken?"

Aramis shook his head. "No."

Porthos gave him a look. "I'm not sure if I should believe that. You always downplay your own injuries." With that, he stood and headed for his friend's weapons, retrieving a knife and bringing it back.

"What are you doing?" Aramis asked.

"Havin' a look for myself," said Porthos. He pulled up the bandages as much as he could and sliced through them.

Aramis sighed, but winced at the pain that it caused. "It wasn't easy to wrap that around myself," he said.

"Then it's a good thing I'm here now," said Porthos, as he pushed the cloth off his friend. He winced at what he saw.

Aramis looked himself, to see that the purple bruises over his ribs had deepened with time.

"You're sure nothin' is broken?" Porthos asked, his hand hovering over the bruises, reluctant to touch them.

"Yes," Aramis said. "They're just bruised."

Porthos used one finger to press on the darkest spot.

Aramis' entire body flinched and he gasped. "That one…might be cracked," he said, his voice tight.

Porthos sighed.

Aramis tried to breathe slowly and evenly, fighting to not show his pain. "What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

"It's not that late," said Porthos. "I…couldn't sleep."

"Why?"

Porthos looked at him. "Why? You're askin' me 'why'? Did you forget what you did today, Aramis? You threw yourself on top of a bomb! A bomb that should've exploded and killed you!"

"But it didn't," Aramis answered.

"But you didn't know that it wouldn't!" Porthos said back. "You should've died today! You would've died today if Vadim hadn't tricked us and used decoys!"

Aramis knew that he was right, and he wasn't as unaffected by it as he seemed to be to Porthos; his nightmare would attest to that.

Porthos sighed again. "Why did you do that? You scared me to death, Aramis!"

Aramis frowned; Porthos wasn't one to often admit to being scared. "I'm sorry. I had to."

Porthos shook his head. "No you didn't."

"I had to protect the Queen," Aramis told him. "And all of you."

Porthos shook his head again. "No, Aramis, don't ever do somethin' like that for my sake. Don't."

"Wouldn't you do it to protect me?" Aramis replied.

Porthos put a hand over his eyes, and Aramis could see the struggle that his friend was dealing with. He reached over to put a hand on his friend's arm.

"Do you understand, Aramis," Porthos ground out between clenched teeth, not removing his hand from his face. "That I almost watched you get blown to pieces? Do you?"

"I'm sorry," Aramis repeated. "I didn't think of the effect that the sight would have on you. I didn't have time to think of anything!"

"Except for sacrificin' yourself for everyone else," Porthos said. "You had enough time to think of that."

"I had to, Porthos," Aramis said. "Does it make you feel better to know that I'm likewise shaken? I do not wish to die, you know that, but I would rather die than let my friends be killed when I can do something to prevent it."

Porthos sighed again. He felt the same way.

Aramis smiled and started to sit up. "See, you feel the same—ahhh…"

Porthos looked at his friend and grabbed his arms, pulling him into a sitting position to make it easier for him.

Aramis winced, closing his eyes for a moment and wrapping an arm around his ribs when they protested his movement. "I'm fine," he said.

Porthos huffed out a laugh. "Sure ya are." He got off the bed and grabbed a chair and the roll of bandage that he spotted on the bedside table and brought them over, carefully rewrapping his friend's ribs before pushing him back to lie down. "Go back to sleep," he said, sitting in the chair that was now beside the bed.

Aramis took as deep a breath as he was able to, closing his eyes again as he felt sleep pulling at him despite the pain. "You're staying?"

Porthos was silent for a few seconds before replying. "Yeah. I'd rather see you alive than…not."

Aramis suddenly understood; Porthos had come to his room because he'd had a nightmare similar to his own. "All right. Goodnight, Porthos."

"G'night, Aramis…pleasant dreams."

End of Part 1
Part 2 is chapter 17 in this collection!