Aramis lay awake in his bed. The morning light was beginning to seep through his window. He was quite right, a good night's rest as well as the rum he had consumed when he got home did wonders for his ego. The red head lying next to him didn't hurt matters either. He got up and began to dress himself while his companion slept peacefully.

He had just fastened his trousers when;

"Aramis, it's time. Nancy is on her way." Athos walked in unannounced as he so often did but was not expecting to be met with the nude woman. She awoke at the intrusion and gathered the bed clothes around her quickly. "Oh, I apologise Mademoiselle." He turned to Aramis, "I wasn't aware that Aramis had company." There was a slight disapproving look in his eyes but when he saw humour dance in Aramis' he dropped his resolve and smirked slightly. Athos was no prude, but he began to feel embarrassed for the woman who was caught in quite the compromising situation. But rather than cover her modestly, she relaxed and said;

"That's no problem Monsieur, perhaps you could stay a while?" The sheet covering her body was falling away; first she revealed her leg then her thigh, it was getting higher and higher when Athos snapped out of his hypnotism and said "I don't think so Mademoiselle. We have somewhere we need to be." He bowed his hat to her and walked from the room. Aramis had finished dressing in this time and after bidding his companion goodbye and promising to see her soon, followed Athos.

They stood in the doorway and while Aramis made adjustments to his uniform, Athos gave him a condemning look.

"Oh don't look at me like that; like you've never given in to a bit of temptation." Athos continued to give him the look. He clearly hadn't. "Right, well let's go." Aramis was keen to move on but he couldn't help but smile at last night's conquest. She was a widow of one of the merchants that frequently left Paris on business, if he was being honest, it wasn't the first night that they had spent together, but it was the first night that they had done so with her being single. "I'll tell you one thing Athos, you will find someone someday who you won't be able to resist." He was trying to tease his friend, but it was having no effect.

They reached the morgue and found that D'artagnan was already there. He greeted Athos but was purposefully offhand with Aramis. But he was in high spirits did not even notice. D'artagnan sneered at his attitude; he was not even being coy about being with Evette. He was flaunting it and he calls himself a gentleman.

Within moments, Porthos arrived accompanied by Nancy. She was looking morose and tired.

"I couldn't sleep last night."

Athos motioned to the door for her to enter the building. The familiar cold enclosed on all of them and Athos guided Nancy to the table they visited they day before. They stood around the body and had a moment of silence before Nancy was ready to face her fear. When she nodded at Athos, he removed the sheet from her face. They didn't need to wait to find out whether it was indeed Joy who lay there. As soon as her face was revealed, Nancy expelled a weep that would break even the most callous man's heart. She turned her body into Porthos' and he held her while she cried. They covered the body and escorted her from the building.

They were back at the Bonacieux house, they wanted privacy from the rest of the musketeer regiment and D'artagnan offered the home. Nancy sat at the table holding hands with Porthos, Constance poured them each a drink while Evette handed them out.

"What kind of person would do this? What kind of animal-"

"Here, take a drink" Porthos put the cup in her hand and waited while she drank from it. Evette handed Aramis his drink and they acknowledged each other cordially, D'artagnan watched from the other side of the room seething with betrayal. She handed him his drink and he snatched it away. She rolled her eyes at his childishness; it really was beginning to get old. She handed Athos his and he gently accepted it. She felt the cold touch of his finger tips on hers which caused her to look up at his face, where she was surprised to see he was staring right back into her eyes. Not one usually to be bashful she didn't expect the feeling of embarrassment to rise into her cheeks, but with the sting of last night's rejection fresh in her mind, she moved away from him quickly.

"We need you tell us what you know about her banishment from the brothel." Athos said coolly from his position across the room.

"I don't know very much about it. Really." She turned pleadingly at Porthos to make sure he believed her. He nodded in reassurance.

Athos moved and sat across from her, "Anything you can tell us will be useful. Start with when she first came to the house, what can you remember of her?"

Constance was wiping down her tables and arranging various objects trying to make her way casually over to D'artagnan.

"Is that where you were last night?" she viciously whispered to him, "A whore house?"

He was trying to listen to Nancy and didn't have time nor the inclination to explain himself in front of everyone. Instead of answering her he too moved and sat in the seat next to Athos.

"She was lost when she came to us, most of them are. But it's what she wanted to do; no one forced her into it-"

"Derrell?" Aramis asked.

"No, he's not like that. Every girl in that house is there of their own accord. We truly are. We're looked after there and it's a better place for us than the streets. Derrell isn't the owner you know, he's just there to care for us-make sure the men don't get too...well, you know."

"What was Joy like when you first met her?" D'artagnan was beginning to get enthralled in her story.

"She was nice enough. A bit naive maybe, but most are when they're just starting out. She had her regulars and spoke fondly of them. I don't think it would have been one of them. The girls liked her too, there's always some competition between everyone you know. How much one earns in a night, who's got the most handsome customer, who gets the musketeer..." she looked at Porthos who put his head down. "But she never got involved in petty things like that. She was nice to everyone, some girls even whispered that she was raised a nun and escaped to the dangerous streets of Paris to become a whore. It's all fantastical nonsense of course, she told me that her father had died and her mother was remarried. There was no room for her in her family and she didn't want a husband. She said she felt invisible."

"Why was she expelled from the house?"

"All I can tell you, is I awoke one morning and the girls were in the room downstairs, you know, the one where you pick who you want, and lying on the table was Joy's dress. We each get one made for us when we're accepted into the house. The first one is paid for, and we are able to get more based on merit and earnings. The most ambitious of us have wardrobes that would make the Queen herself envious. Claudia, one of the older ladies of the house was auctioning the dress. You saw Joy, she was such a little thing that only a few could even consider bidding on it. I tried to ask Claudia why Joy didn't want it anymore, and she just told me that she wouldn't be needing it." She wiped her eyes and found it difficult to articulate her words, "I didn't even think that it would be because...because..." she couldn't finish her sentence.

"We need to talk to Claudia." Athos stated but Nancy just shook her head violently.

"She won't talk to musketeers. You'll find it difficult to find someone who will."

"There seemed to be more than a few willing to last night." D'artagnan said dryly.

"I don't think it was talking they had in mind Monsieur." Nancy retorted.

"You need to find out for us." Porthos said to her, it didn't sound like an order but she knew there was no use refusing.

"Won't it look suspicious? Me asking about a murder, about a girl who left us weeks ago?"

"Make it seem casual. If they're innocent, they won't have anything to hide."

"And if they're guilty?"

They couldn't answer her. She wiped her tears away and pushed her seat out ready to leave.

"You know where to find us." Athos said and she nodded in response and was walked out of the house by Porthos.

"I'll come by and see you every night."

"Don't be silly. You couldn't afford that." He smiled at her humour.

"I'll bankrupt myself." She laughed through her welling eyes, "You're worth it." He wiped her fallen tears from her cheeks and kissed her. He watched as she walked away and got lost in the morning's growing crowd.

"Think this will get us anywhere?" Aramis asked taking Nancy's seat.

"Well, we're closer than we were this time yesterday." Athos answered.

"Do you think we need to look closer at this Derrell?" D'artagnan wondered aloud as Porthos re-entered the room.

"Nah, he does his job well. He protects those girls. I've seen him do it." Porthos explained.

"Could his temper have run away with him? Been misdirected onto Joy?" Aramis suggested.

"I doubt it, his lively hood relies on those women and he understands that. If there's less girls, there's less money."

"Is she reliable, Porthos?" Athos asked the question no one had dared ask before now.

Without any hesitation and as if he was expecting it he answered, "Yeah, yeah she is." That was enough to eliminate their worries. They needed to get back to the garrison and report to Treville the developments in their case. With some hustle and bustle and a lot of thank you's to Constance and cordial farewells to Evette, Athos, Aramis and Porthos left. D'artagnan said he would meet them over there as soon as he retrieved something from his room.

"Well, first an affair with a married woman and now you're visiting whore houses. You really have changed D'artagnan." Evette stood in his doorway as he was collecting organising some of his belongings. "And you preach to me about respectability?"

"It's different for me-"

"Why? Because you're a man? Oh, you disappoint me." She looked at his disgusted and left him standing there. And for the first time, he felt ashamed.