A few hours later, darkness was falling and Aramis was still unconscious. With the night came more anxiety for his three friends, who all sat around him, never leaving his side. Porthos kept trying to wake him up, occasionally tapping his face and calling his name. When it failed once again, Porthos stood with a sound of frustration and started to pace.

D'Artagnan sighed from where he sat. "What kind of illness would make him just pass out like that?" he said, staring at the motionless Aramis. "And keep him out all this time?"

"I don't know," Athos replied.

"He was tired," said Porthos. "Kept sleepin' yesterday."

D'Artagnan nodded. "Is it possible that Savoy nightmares are the problem and he's been losing sleep longer than we know? Maybe it finally caught up with him."

Athos and Porthos shared a look.

D'Artagnan noticed. "What?"

"After Savoy happened, Aramis couldn't sleep," said Athos. "Whether he had nightmares or not. When he was finally well enough to get around, he used to pass out without warning sometimes. We assumed that it was mostly from the head injury, but there were times that he was so exhausted that he couldn't even tell us his name."

D'Artagnan shook his head. How awful.

"But he could barely function then," said Porthos. "Aramis hasn't acted or looked like that lately. He walks, he talks, he laughs…he doesn't look exhausted."

Athos nodded, reminded of when Aramis had laughed at Porthos the day before, making Athos realize that something was going on other than bad dreams. "There is something else; this is not the result of nightmares."

D'Artagnan said nothing; the two men in front of him had known Aramis for years, and if Athos was sure, then he believed him.

"Aren't you going to feed me?!" they suddenly heard.

Porthos looked towards DeFond, who was tied to a tree. "No!" he bellowed.

D'Artagnan couldn't help but smile.

DeFond didn't quite expect that answer, and sputtered for a moment.

They made the traitor wait a little longer but they eventually fed him, and then it came time to sleep, but none of them could, too worried over Aramis. Athos took the first watch and Porthos and d'Artagnan put their bedrolls on either side of their unconscious friend. Porthos lay on his side and grasped his friend's arm so if Aramis moved, he would know it. When it was Porthos' turn to take watch, the first thing he did was try to wake Aramis up…and to his shock, it worked; Aramis made a soft noise and moved his head.

"He's awake!" Porthos exclaimed.

Athos and d'Artagnan were instantly there, and watched as Porthos started tapping Aramis' face again. "Aramis…stay awake, you gotta tell us what's wrong with you!"

Aramis didn't react.

Athos reached over and grabbed their friend's arm. "Aramis," he said, in a commanding voice. "Open your eyes."

The moon was full that night and a fire was blazing, providing enough light to see his face. It took more prompting, but Aramis eventually opened his eyes halfway.

"Hey there," said Porthos, with a smile. "You had us worried! What happened?"

Aramis said nothing, blinking dazedly, and everyone's smiles of relief quickly faded.

"Aramis?" said Porthos.

Aramis still gave no reaction.

Athos reached over and put a hand on the side of their friend's face, turning his head to look into his eyes. "Aramis, can you hear me?"

Aramis didn't answer.

"He looks dazed," said d'Artagnan.

Suddenly, Aramis' eyes closed again, and Athos tapped his face this time. "Aramis?"

But it was too late; he was once again unconscious.

Porthos put a hand on Aramis' forehead again. "Still no fever."

"He looked exhausted just then," d'Artagnan said, wondering again if it was a lack of sleep that was causing this.

Athos sighed. "There's nothing else we can do until he wakes again…whenever that may be."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It wasn't until an hour after dawn that 'whenever' finally came. Aramis woke again with a groan, and all three of his friends surrounded him.

"Aramis," Porthos said. "Tell us what's wrong, and don't you pass out again!"

Aramis opened his eyes slightly and looked up to see his three friends staring down at him. His vision wouldn't stay still and it was disorienting. "What…happened?" he weakly asked.

"You lost consciousness and fell from your horse," Athos told him.

Everything was spinning around Aramis and he realized that he finally had a new symptom: a throbbing headache. He closed his eyes with another groan.

Athos frowned. "Are you in pain?"

Aramis tried to reopen his eyes, realizing that he couldn't keep his problem a secret any longer. "Dizzy," he said, feeling dazed. "Headache."

"Why?" D'Artagnan asked. "What happened?"

Aramis was finding it hard to concentrate. "Don't…don't know," he mumbled, closing his eyes again.

The others shared a look of shock and dread.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Porthos asked.

"How long have you been feeling this way, Aramis?" Athos asked.

For a second, Aramis didn't know how to answer that, not sure how much time had passed. "Since two days…before…we left."

Everything finally made sense, but now was not the time to scold him for keeping the secret. "You have no idea what is causing it?" Athos asked.

"No," Aramis answered. "Thought it would…go away…headache is new."

"So you only had the dizziness until now?" Porthos asked.

Aramis stopped himself before nodding. "Yes."

Everyone seemed to sigh in unison, before d'Artagnan asked, "What can we do for you?"

Aramis had no answer to that, either. All he knew was that it was torture to stay awake while everything in sight was moving. He thanked God that his stomach felt fine.

"Can you eat?" Porthos suddenly asked.

"Maybe we should find out if he can sit up first," d'Artagnan said.

Sitting up was the last thing that Aramis wanted to do. "Not sitting," he said. He suddenly heard a canteen being opened.

"Can I pull you up a little to give you some water?" Porthos asked. "Your stomach all right?"

Aramis thought about it for another few seconds before answering, "Yes." He kept his eyes closed when he felt an arm slide under him and lift him up just high enough to drink. It wasn't enough to make the dizziness much worse, and he drank from the canteen after it touched his lips.

The others were relieved to see him handle that fine, and Porthos gently started to lie him back down.

"Wait," Aramis said.

Porthos obeyed, and Aramis opened his eyes.

"Wanna stay up like this?" Porthos asked.

Aramis knew that they couldn't remain where they were for long; Treville was waiting for them to return with DeFond. "Yes," he said, hoping that he could make it upright by degrees.

D'Artagnan grabbed one of their saddles and placed it behind Aramis, throwing a blanket over it to make it soft. Porthos reclined him against it, and they all stared at him.

Aramis kept his eyes closed as he got used to the new position before opening them. All three of his friends looked very worried. "I'm all right," he said.

Porthos huffed. "All right? You pretended to be 'all right' until you fell flat on your face!"

"I mean I'm not dying," Aramis told them.

"How can you be sure?" D'Artagnan asked. "When you don't even know what's wrong?"

"Poison?" Athos asked.

Aramis had considered that. "No," he said. "It grew worse after we left...we've all been eating the same food..." Suddenly, his eyes trailed off to the side, and the others got the impression that he was following his spinning vision. Their assumption seemed correct when Aramis winced and closed his eyes again.

Porthos looked at Athos. "He can't travel all the way to Paris like this."

"Back to the inn?" said d'Artagnan.

Athos sighed. What Aramis was suffering was obviously very serious, and there was no way that he was going to leave him behind...plus, the inn was only a little closer than Paris anyway, so if they were going to take him anywhere, it was better to take him home. "No," he said. "If we head back in that direction, we might encounter more of DeFond's men, and Aramis wouldn't stand a chance against them. We'll stay here for a while to see if he improves, but we must get him back to Paris."

The others nodded.

"Did you forget about me, Mouseketeers?" DeFond's voice suddenly shouted. "I'm hungry!"

Porthos sighed. "Now we're mice. Can't we just kill him ourselves? Then we won't have to hurry to get back."

Athos knew that he wasn't serious, so he didn't bother to answer him. He reached over and touched Aramis' arm. "Are you feeling any better?"

Aramis opened his eyes halfway and blinked for a few seconds. He was very pale. "Not yet."

The fact that Aramis told the truth rather than even saying 'a little' showed them all how serious this was. "Just rest," Athos said, glad at least that by saying 'yet', Aramis was being optimistic.

Aramis nodded ever so slightly and closed his eyes again.

"Hey!" they suddenly heard. "Food was meant to be eaten!"

Porthos stood with a growl. "I'm gonna kill him myself!"

Athos stood too and grabbed his arm.

Porthos sighed. "Aramis needs a doctor and we're stuck carting a traitor's rear-end to Paris!"

"We cannot kill him, Porthos, no matter how much we wish to," Athos told him.

"Actually," said d'Artagnan, from where he still sat watching Aramis. "Maybe we can..."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

DeFond looked up as two of the Musketeers walked over to him. One of them drew his sword as they neared, and he frowned. "What are you doing?"

"Killin' you," said Porthos, raising his sword.

"What!" DeFond exclaimed. "You can't do that!"

Porthos stopped, sword still raised. "Why not?"

"I've had no trial!" DeFond exclaimed.

Porthos shot Athos an amused glance. "He thinks he'd gettin' a trial," he chuckled.

DeFond's eyes opened wider.

"We are growing tired of you," Athos said. His dry monotone was more scary than if he had yelled it.

"Right," said Porthos. "And since you're gonna die anyway..." He raised the sword again.

To their surprise, DeFond fainted.

Porthos and Athos stared.

"That was unexpected," said Athos.

Porthos laughed. "What do you expect from a former Red Guard, eh? Think it worked? You think we scared him enough into shutting up?"

Athos nodded and gestured to the unconscious man. "I would say so."

With that, they turned and went back to Aramis and d'Artagnan.

TBC