A/N Sorry! I hoped this chapter would be quicker, but it wasn't to be I'm afraid! We shall see what happens with the next. Thank you so much to all of you who have favourited and followed this story, and for all the reading! I cannot believe how many times each chapter is being read. Makes it all worthwhile!

Thanks to thedragonmepress, Awesome-Sauce-Eater, NicoleR85, 23, Mcvities22, WildChildALR, torres81, obh614, Flo, Tianne, Psycho17 and Ookami Sakura for you amazing reviews! I'm guessing you quite liked the last chapter... ;)

Chapter 21

"Lie still woman, for the love of God!"

Charline huffed and settled back onto the bed of blankets Aramis had quickly put together for her in one of the stable stalls. Aramis glared at her as she finally lay still, muttering about impatient patients, and the fine art of treating wounds. She ignored him. She even ignored the sting of him working on her head, unable to be distracted from her panic about what was going on outside.

Athos had seemed unconcerned about Alain marching towards them across the yard, his face grim. Instead he had called over to Aramis, indicating that he had a patient to be looked at. He and Porthos, both of whom had begun to walk towards them when Alain did, arrived at their side first, and crowded around her a little, blocking Alain's access.

Athos had quickly taken charge.

"Aramis, take d'Artagnan back to the stables and check her head please," he said. "It's stopped bleeding, but she lost consciousness. Porthos and I will be here should you need anything."

With that he stood, gently pulling Charline to her feet and passing her over to Aramis, who placed an arm around her shoulders and led her out of the yard and through the field behind. As they left she heard Alain blustering.

"Now wait just a-"

"Monsieur, Charline requires medical treatment. Please do not get in the way, or I will have to remove you from her land," Athos had slipped into command mode.

"And how exactly...?" he began to ask, before she heard the slight scraping that told her Porthos had just unsheathed his sword.

She had heard nothing after that, and now she was desperate to get back and find out what was happening.

"There, all done," Aramis pronounced, holding her down when she automatically tried to stand. "Slowly! If you faint I will make you stay in bed all day."

"I'm fine Aramis, I don't feel dizzy anymore," she growled at him, beyond frustrated.

"Now, now," he admonished, eyes twinkling. "Is that any way to speak to me when I have just checked the safety of your skull? Now I will let you go, God knows I want to know what is happening out there just as much as you do, but you will stand slowly, and once you are up if you feel no dizziness then I will pronounce you fit to go, alright?"

She closed her eyes briefly, to avoid rolling them at him, before she spoke. "Thank you, Aramis."

"That's better," he grinned at her before letting her go and watching carefully as she pulled herself slowly to her feet.

Reluctantly, she took a couple of seconds once standing to make sure her head wasn't going to spin, then smiling at Aramis in triumph she marched towards the door. He quickly fell into step beside her.

"So do you think your men will be fighting over you?" he teased.

"Oh shut up," she groused, not admitting that was almost what she was expecting to find, until she remembered that Athos was Athos, and he would not get carried away like that.

"Well from what it looked like earlier we've definitely moved on a step or two from a few days ago..." he nudged her with his elbow, nearly sending her flying.

Groaning, she picked up her pace and walked ahead of him, trying to hide the blush that was rapidly spreading all over her. She heard him laughing behind her as she stepped out of the stables and stalked away. This was exactly why she had been glad she only had sisters when she was growing up.

An interesting mixture of relief and disappointment hit her when she arrived in the yard to find Athos and Porthos had gone back to working on the house, and Alain was nowhere in sight.

She stopped short, Aramis almost stumbling into her when he arrived a few moments later.

"Damn, did I miss it?" he shouted, walking over towards the house.

"Miss what?" Athos asked, dragging some debris from the building.

"The duel!" Aramis exclaimed, earning him a raised eyebrow and such a look of derision from Athos that Charline found herself giggling behind her hand. She walked over to meet them, just as Porthos also appeared from inside the building with a pile of rubbish.

"That comes later," Porthos said as he dropped his pile on top of the rest.

"Sorry, what?" Charline asked, entirely confused.

Porthos grinned at her while Athos just shook his head and went back into the building.

"He left pretty quickly when he saw my sword, but he'll be back later with his own."

"What makes you say that?"

"I didn't. He did, as he left," Porthos' grin got even wider.

"Oh for the love of-" d'Artagnan cut herself off and threw up her hands in exasperation before she began pacing across the yard, fully aware that Aramis and Porthos were both watching her in amusement.

"Problem, d'Art?" Aramis asked casually.

"Yes!" she shouted, rounding on them both with her hands on her hips. "Men! All of you! All of this male posturing nonsense gets you nowhere. Why on earth would Alain think that charging up here with a sword was going to do anything other than get him into trouble?"

She stood glaring at both of them, eyes narrowing when they both burst out laughing at the same time.

"Probably for the same reason you thought it would be a good idea to arrive at the musketeers' barracks and challenge our best swordsman to a fight to the death," Porthos pointed out.

Blushing furiously, she kept her defiant stance and spoke steadily.

"And what 'reason' do you think that would be?"

Porthos shrugged. "Love? Defence of what you see as yours? Pride?"

She sighed. "Fine," she gritted out. Suddenly she was pointing a finger at both of them. "But if he comes back, I speak to him first, got it?"

They both held their hands up in a gesture of surrender, but ruined it slightly by grinning at her.

"Am I the only one around here with any work to do?" Athos said as he appeared back out of the house with yet more rubbish for burning.

Aramis and Porthos jumped to work, announcing that they were going to continue to fix the roof as they disappeared round the other side of the house to the ladders.

Athos was still standing in the yard, looking at her carefully.

"Alright?" he asked.

She smiled back at him. "Absolutely."

He flashed her a quick smile and her whole body warmed over in an instant. She hadn't realised in the distraction of Alain that underneath there had also been fear of seeing Athos again, away from the moment they had shared earlier. She was used to him changing so quickly in both his moods and his attitude towards her that she wouldn't have been overly shocked to come back and find him cold and distant. This didn't seem to be the case though, if the warm expression on his face as he made his way towards her was anything to go by.

When he reached her he wrapped an arm loosely around her waist, his other hand pushing her hair back gently to inspect her head. She wound her arms around him, her hands clasped lightly at his back, still a little nervous about what exactly their situation was. He made her feel a little better when his hand clasped the back of her head and he held her tightly to him.

"You're not running away," she said softly.

"No. I'm not," he said simply, tightening his grip on her. She sighed happily, burying her face into his neck and breathing him in. "It's not going to be easy."

"Which part?" she asked sweetly, pulling her head back to look at him. "Your mood swings, my stubbornness, the fact that we still need to deal with your murderous ex-wife, the way we're going to fight at least once a day, my would-be suitor, or the huge factor that when we get back to Paris I have to go back to being Charles?"

She waited a beat for him to react, not quite sure what she was going to get, then his mouth split into a wide smile and he laughed. He actually, fully and joyously laughed. She gaped at him until he caught her mouth with his in a sweet kiss.

"I think you just about covered it," he deadpanned.

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Alain never reappeared for the rest of the day. Porthos was quite convinced he had been bluffing, and Aramis agreed with him. Charline was sure that something had come up, but he would be back as soon as he could. Perhaps he was trying to persuade his father and brother to come with him.

The only challenge that faced d'Artagnan for the rest of that day was dealing with Aramis.

She was immediately suspicious when he kept yawning through dinner. It was late and they had been working hard, but as he had been fine about five minutes before she was instantly sure he was up to something. A glance at Athos, sitting across from her, confirmed that he also had his suspicions.

The yawning, it emerged, were just a prelude. They were his excuse to go to bed first, while everyone else finished up, washed dishes in the stream, and dampened down the fire. Porthos was the next one ready and he quickly slipped into the stables without offering to help d'Artagnan and Athos.

"What do you think we're going to find when we get in there?" she mused quietly as they walked slowly towards the building a few minutes later.

"Knowing Aramis?" Athos smiled at her. "I have absolutely no idea."

"Porthos obviously didn't know either. He looked like a little boy off to sneak a look at a birthday gift."

Athos chuckled then reached out to take her hand. "Well, let's face it then shall we?"

She nodded. "Whatever it is, we just act like it doesn't bother us,"

He squeezed her hand in reply and they opened the doors to the stables and walked in. Closing the doors carefully behind them, by unspoken agreement they took their time wandering around to check on all of the horses before they made their way to the ladder. With a nod of his head Athos indicated that she should climb first, but she frantically shook her head. He was going to get to deal with whatever was up there first. Besides, this way she got a nice view as she climbed.

Laughter was her first instinct when she stepped into the hayloft. She looked to Athos, who was standing to the side of her surveying the scene, and saw that he'd had the same instinct. It was when she thought about the ramifications of it that the smile slipped a bit.

Aramis had completely reorganised the hayloft. In the half hour or so that he had been up here alone, he had managed to create two separate areas, one of which was basically two beds against the back wall, which appeared to have a 'sleeping' Aramis and Porthos in them. On the other side of the loft Aramis had piled up hay to create what could only be described as a bedroom, with a newly made double straw bed, on which were spread out her and Athos' blankets in case they were in any doubt who was to sleep there.

How on earth was she going to get any sleep tonight, so close to Athos?

Athos shook her out of her worry by taking her hand once again, and leading her over to their bed. Aramis had obviously assumed that they would separate it into two beds again as he had left plenty of space to do so. Charline, however, knew that both she and Athos were far too stubborn to do any such thing.

She had a mild panic at the thought of undressing in front of him, but Athos turned his back when they arrived next to the bed and began undressing. Quickly, she did the same: stripping off her skirt, untying the corset and removing it and the petticoats until she was clad in just the long underwear and chemise. A glance behind her told her that the shirt she had been wearing at night had been oh-so-helpfully left out for her. She grabbed it and slipped it on.

"Ready?" Athos asked softly behind her. Charline turned round and saw he still had his back to her. He had apparently been waiting for her to give the all-clear before he turned round.

"Ready."

He turned and gave her an encouraging smile, which she returned before crouching down to slip into the bed. Athos lay down next to her, lying on his back as she had.

Well, this was awkward.

They lay in uncomfortable silence for several minutes. Charline really wanted to turn around and wrap herself around Athos, but he was being so gentlemanly about the whole thing that she wasn't sure how he would react. She also wasn't sure if hugging him wouldn't make what she was feeling worse.

"Oh, forget it," Athos suddenly whispered beside her, before he reached over and grabbed her furthest away arm and rolled her over until she was pressed into his side, an arm wrapped around her and her head resting on his chest. "Alright?" he asked quietly, clearly unsure.

"Perfect," she whispered back, looping an arm across his waist and squeezing him into a hug.

"Good," he said, pressing a kiss onto the top of her head. "Now, go to sleep."

The smile on her face stayed there until she did.

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Warmth was the first thing she was aware of as she woke the next morning. The next was Porthos, loudly announcing from somewhere in the distance that he and Aramis were going to make breakfast. That was when she remembered that sleeping arrangements had been altered somewhat the night before, and realised that the warmth was in fact Athos, whose front was pressed against hers as they lay facing each other, arms slung across each other.

She opened her eyes and saw that Athos still had his closed, although he was smiling at Porthos' attempt at subtly waking them up. She grinned at the peaceful look on his handsome face.

"Morning," she said, forcing him to stop pretending to be asleep and open his eyes. He smiled at her when he did. "I suppose we should get up too."

"I suppose so," he said, closing his eyes again.

"Hey!" she said, swatting him on the shoulder. "You've got a house to rebuild, remember?"

"Hmmm, yes," he mumbled, reaching up to pull her face to his and kissing her. "Morning."

She giggled softly. She could get used to sleepy Athos; he was very, well, cuddly. Somehow she knew this wouldn't last long once they were up and about.

"So, time to get up?" she asked, laughing when he shook his head and pulled her in for another kiss. "What is wrong with you this morning? You're usually up before everyone else."

He opened his eyes and looked at her softly. "I'm not usually this warm in the mornings."

"Oh."

She thought of him, waking alone every morning to the memory of Milady and what she had done, determined to stay alone and miserable forever. She smiled sadly at him and reached forward to lean her head against his. She let out a squeak when he suddenly rolled onto his back, bringing her with him to lie on his front. He reached up and cupped her face in his hands before kissing her deeply.

D'Artagnan decided to take advantage of this carefree and affectionate Athos before he woke up properly and disappeared. After all, she was in no hurry.

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It was another four days before Alain returned to d'Artagnan's farm. Four days of peace, and work, and finding out how considerate and affectionate Athos could be when he was relaxed. They slept side by side every night, waking wrapped around each other in some way, and he had taken to splitting his time between working on the house and helping her in the fields and with the animals. She was coming to love their time working side by side; doing something together that didn't involved swords and pistols was making a nice change.

On the day this welcome peace was finally shattered, the roof was finally rebuilt and Charline had finished with the little amount of livestock she had left and come down to the yard to join the musketeers while they watched the thatchers Porthos had found in the village working on making the roof secure.

"How long did they say this would take?" she asked as she came to lean on the cellar wall beside them.

"Anything from five days to a week," Porthos answered.

She opened her mouth to ask Porthos what he had promised to pay them but stopped as she heard a horse making its way up the road towards the house.

With a sigh Charline pushed herself away from the wall. "If that is Alain, let me deal with him," she said, her orders clear. It didn't stop them following her as she made her way around the house to meet him just as he dismounted. She stepped forward, the others hovering at the corner of the building, swords and pistols attached as they had been since his last visit.

"Good afternoon Alain," she said as he approached her. She placed her hands firmly on her hips. "Can I help you?"

"No," he said rudely. "I am here to settle a score with the man hiding behind you." His eyes slid over to glare at Athos, who chuckled in response. She turned to see Porthos and Aramis both grinning at Alain.

"I'm not entirely sure which gentleman you are referring to," she said innocently. "But I can assure you that none of them are hiding behind me."

He looked at her stupidly.

"In fact, they are standing over there because I insisted on standing in between you and them, but believe me it is not for their protection, but yours."

He laughed at her, but she ignored it.

"Perhaps if you told me the problem, we could deal with it in a more civilised fashion?"

Alain's eyes narrowed. "That man over there," he sputtered, pointing his finger harshly over her shoulder. "Had his hands on you, even though I told him that you and I were betrothed. It is a matter of honour Charline, my honour."

"Alain, do you really think that after you left I didn't tell them the truth?" she asked incredulously. "Do you think I let them keep thinking you and I were to be married when it was most definitely not the case?"

"But he, he thought we..."

"No he didn't Alain, and you know that. Your problem is with me, not with them."

"Who the hell even are they? You show up here with three men in tow, and no explanation?"

Charline flushed in anger. "They are my friends, Alain. My brothers, and my protectors."

"You expect me to believe that you travel the country with three men, and all of them are nothing more than brothers to you?" he asked sceptically.

"I expect you to believe what I say, and not to automatically think the worst of me because I turned you down."

"You humiliated me," he practically spat at her.

"Your own fault, Alain. I am sorry though, for what it is worth," she said softly. She could see that he was hurting, and she couldn't help but feel saddened that she had apparently lost such an important friendship.

"I cannot believe that you turned me down for him, for them."

"That is not why Alain, you know that. You need to stop this."

"I'm glad your father is not here to see you like this Charline."

She saw red for a split second before she let her fist fly and caught him hard on his left cheek. Eyes burning with tears, she ignored his pained expression as he regained his feet and stood to glare at her.

"Leave Alain, now."

She turned and walked away, letting Aramis wrap an arm around her as she reached him, while Athos and Porthos both stood and glared at Alain. A glance at Athos was enough to show her that he was having difficulty holding himself back, but she was grateful that he was trying so hard to do so.

"So you're onto the second one already?" Alain's pained voice cut across the space. "When does the third one get his go?"

Everyone froze for about two seconds, before Athos broke out of it and launched himself across to Alain and grabbed hold of him fiercely by the collar.

"You speak to her like that again and I will break you, do you understand?" his voice was low and menacing. Alain nodded once. "Now, when you wake up you will get back on your horse and leave, and we will not see you here again until you are ready to apologise. Remember it."

With that he let go of the collar and swiftly knocked Alain out with a punch that would've felled Porthos. She winced as he fell like a sack of vegetables at Athos' feet, but she was surprised to find that she felt nothing but satisfaction about it. Well, satisfaction and a sudden need to kiss Athos like she had never done before.

Porthos and Aramis seemed to melt away from the scene, leaving Athos and d'Artagnan staring at each other in silence. He stepped over Alain and moved to make his way towards her, but she didn't let him. Instead she ran the few steps until she could launch herself into his arms, where he caught her and lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around him as well as she could in the cumbersome dress she was wearing and smashed her lips to his, making him laugh even as he returned the embrace.

"If he wakes up you are going to negate everything you said to him you know," Athos pointed out between heated kisses.

"Don't care," she answered breathlessly.

"I thought you'd be angry," he said, and she pulled away from him to look at him in puzzlement. He shrugged. "You like to fight your own battles, and you're not too fond of chivalry."

Grinning, she kissed him once more. "I'll let you away with it this time. Besides, you would've done that for Aramis or Porthos."

"If Aramis or Porthos rewarded me like this I might think twice about it," he said. She threw back her head and laughed. He gently put her down then pulled her face to his for a long kiss. "Come on. We better move, or I won't be able to stop."

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask if that would be so bad, but instead she let him lead her by the hand back round to the yard, fighting down the heat that had pooled in her stomach just a few moments ago.

They took their place against the cellar wall beside Porthos and Aramis once again. If the thatchers had heard anything they were giving nothing away, and Porthos and Aramis said nothing about the blush on Charline's face, or the swollen lips on both their faces.

They didn't even say anything when Charline moved away from the wall to stand in front of Athos, leaning against him as he wrapped both arms around her waist and pulled her against him, burying his nose in her hair.