Evening My Lovelies

I'm really proud of how this chapter turned out so I'm really hoping you all like it to. We're flicking between viewpoints at several points during this chapter, I'll break them up with like usual so fingers crossed it shouldn't be too difficult to follow :)

Also there's been several people asking ... or recommending, that Durand gets killed off. Is there any specific way you guys would like this to go down? I have ideas for both Marcel and Daviau but I was planning to have Vivienne find out about Aramis and Marsac a completely different way so Durand was never in my original plan. I'm sure I can come up with something but if you have something specific in mind let me know.

Also Porthos might come across a bit out of character with his interaction with Durand but just remember Durand was pretty much responsible for one of Porthos's dearest friend's almost dying.

Notes On Reviews:

Deana: Thanks for the review - Porthos's conversation with Vivienne was my favourite part of that chapter so I'm really glad you liked it :) Enjoy the new chapter! x

criminally charmed: Thanks for the review - Porthos is well and truly pissed off with the pair of them (justifiably so) We're seeing a bit of him and Durand today but we'll probably revisit it tomorrow as well. I'm sensing an evil mind kinship there with that review lol The wolf idea aint bad, I could definitely work that into the story, thanks for the suggestion :) Enjoy the new chapter! x

Debbie (Guest): Thanks for the review - We get to see a bit of Porthos and Durand today, needless to say Durand's gonna be beyond terrified :) Viv definitely got a scare from Porthos, he can be very scary when he wants to be :) I'm really looking forward to writing Viv and Aramis chat, poor Aramis doesn't even know at the moment, too busy sleeping though considering what he's been through we'll let him off :) Enjoy the new chapter! x

watlocked: Thanks for the review - The mental image I had for that scene had me a bit scared too so I'm really glad he came across as scary :) Our lovely foursome will sort everything out soon, got a bit more drama coming there way first ... My mind is literally in a "what else can we have happen to them" mode so I can't say when they'll sort everything out but it will happen. I'm really glad you're enjoying the story so far, feel free to say it in reviews as many times as you like it always makes my day to hear people are enjoying what I'm writing :) I did have a plan once to kill Henri but he's grown on me far too much so I don't think I could kill him anymore (and part of me is annoyed at that lol) I loved writing Porthos's conversation with Viv but unfortunately Durand is male and in Porthos's mind that means they can have more of a ... physical conversation so I can't promise there'll be much actual talking happening (though having said/typed that there is some today) Enjoy the new chapter! x

Jmp (Guest): Thanks for the review - Porthos was very very tempted and I think had he stayed in there for longer he might have. Enjoy the new chapter! x

Maryg (Guest): Thanks for the review - First off we're in for the beginning of some D'Art stuff so I hope you enjoy it :D I absolutely adored writing Porthos in that last chapter, I usually have him as almost the joker of the group (especially if Aramis is around) so it was really nice to write him pissed off and protective :D Hopefully today's chapter goes some way to explain why this whole thing has hit D'Art hard. When I read your review I realized I hadnt really explained the whole idea I had behind it so i've tried to answer that in the latter part of today's chapter (i hope) Enjoy the new chapter! x

Issai: Thanks for the review - Oh I think he would have hit her had she actually managed to hit Aramis, regardless it was a lot of fun writing Porthos all pissed off and protective :) Yeah I'm kinda regretting not writing their reactions to Aramis passing out, though I might address it when he's up again. Glad you enjoyed Porthos's chat with Vivienne, that was a lot of fun to write :) Enjoy the new chapter! x

f1gymnast: Thanks for the review - I think pissed is a better word then not happy lol I'm quite liking the idea of both Athos and D'Art being bedridden at the same time, both trying to convince the other to stay in bed whilst also trying to get out of their own beds at the same time and then theres Aramis and Porthos just exhausted from yelling at them to go back to bed lol. Durand has some very furious musketeers after him and it'll only get worse if he makes it back to Paris and the rest of the regiment finds out. Viv's and Aramis's conversation is something I'm really looking forward to writing, on one hand I feel he would be sympathetic and forgiving, especially with the guilt he feels for Marsac's death... but on the other she did almost kill one of his best friends so he's pretty angry and vengeful about that so we'll have to wait and see how that goes. Enjoy the new chapter! x

Helensg: Thanks for the review - Yeah whole might've been the wrong word ... maybe we'll just stick with alive as I love them too much to properly kill them off. Hmmm there's the beginning of evil plans at work today, hopefully that'll do for you :) Enjoy the new chapter! x

MicheeO: Thanks for the review - Oh gods could you imagine what this part of the chapter would look like if I could respond to reviews that way lol Porthos is pretty pissed at Durand but all I can say is he wont be killing him. Enjoy the new chapter! x

Lilac Lavender: Thanks for the review - I loved writing Porthos in protective mode so I'm really happy you enjoyed reading it :) I think with Aramis and Athos asleep it kinda fell to Porthos (not that he wouldn't do it anyway) to be the caring big brother to our troublesome pup. We're getting to the break down today... i wasnt going to include it today but decided a few hours ago that I really really wanted to write in and couldnt wait another day to do it (it's my favourite part of the chapter) hence why this chapter is so much longer than usual :D No one messes with Porthos's family and Vivienne and Durand are going to learn that the hard way. If I have her and Aramis alone together when they talk then I can't see her not bringing it up in an attempt to guilt him further (cue angry muskys :D ) Enjoy the new chapter! x

As always many thanks and much love to you epically awesome people who follow/favourite/review/read

Enjoy!

xxx

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Reaching The Limit

D'Artagnan sighed as he dabbed a cool cloth on Athos's skin, the man had developed a slight fever and the Gascon was determined to stop it from getting any worse. Aramis had warned them that a fever would likely appear as his body's way of reacting to the trauma it had endure so D'Artagnan didn't see the point of waking his sleeping friend.

Looking over at the sleeping marksman D'Artagnan couldn't help the twinge of guilt that gripped his heart, he really hadn't meant to cause the man any more stress then he knew he already had, but he honestly didn't think it would have mattered if he had waited until they were sure Athos was going to survive before he took his medicine. He just wanted to be conscious and lucid enough to help, was that so wrong?

A small whimper pulled the Gascon from his musings and he felt a frown tug at his lips as he watched Aramis squirm slightly in his sleep. Deciding that helping his friend to become more comfortable might help mend the bridges he damaged during Athos's treatment D'Artagnan shakily stood and moved closer to the sleeping medic, completely unaware of the eyes on him.

Treville had woken the night before when Athos's pained screams had filled the air, his body had reacted out of instinct at the sound of one of his men in pain and it was only thanks to Alain's grip on his shoulder that stopped him from doing himself further harm.

The young musketeer had then quietly explained what had transpired since he had fallen unconscious, he had neglected to mention the identity of the shooter but Treville could tell by the hardness in the young man's eye that they were being dealt with.

Now awake once again Treville watched with growing fascination and fondness as D'Artagnan tended to the two men.

D'Artagnan had never been squeamish around blood before and now, looking at the completely blood drenched shirt Aramis was wearing, he was extremely grateful for that. Immediately knowing the shirt was beyond saving he took the throwing blade Athos had returned to him when they reunited days earlier and cut open the sodden shirt.

The Gascon growled a little at how much of the blood had soaked through the shirt and stained his friend's skin, crackling in places where it had dried and Aramis had moved. Taking a now slightly stained cloth D'Artagnan used the lukewarm water in one of the buckets the very gently wipe away the red stains on his friend's chest and found himself smiling softly for the first time since Athos's attack when he heard the small sigh of contentment that escaped his still sleeping friend.

Once he had cleaned up as much of the blood as he could D'Artagnan turned his attention to the bloodstained bandage covering the wound that nearly killed the medic not too long ago. Alarm suddenly ran through the Gascon as he remembered Athos falling against Aramis's chest, there was now every chance that the blood on the bandage was the medic's own rather than Athos's given the force of the hit could easily have forced a stitch or two to rip.

Picking up his blade again D'Artagnan gently cut away the stained bandage, pausing momentarily to soak it with warm water so it would not hurt his friend when he tried to remove it. With the bandage clear D'Artagnan could tell that his earlier assumption had been both right and wrong. Aramis had indeed ripped a stitch, not one or two but all of them, leaving the wound angry looking and bleeding.

"And you guys moan at me for hiding injuries," chided D'Artagnan under his breath as he removed the torn stitches from Aramis's skin, pausing only when he heard Aramis whimper in his sleep, though it appeared the medic was too exhausted to wake.

Once the stitches were removed D'Artagnan cleaned the slowly bleeding wound with a gentleness that might have surprised people given the pairs animosity only hours earlier. With the wound clean and clear D'Artagnan began setting up to re-stitch the wound, grateful that it was the one medic thing he had some confidence in. It took several infuriatingly long minutes for the Gascon to manage to thread the needle, given the lack of use of one of his arms. Once everything was ready he sent his still sleeping friend an apologetic look before starting his stitching.

Back in the compound Blaise watched the closed door open with raised eyebrows, "That sounded like it got a little heated," he remarked cautiously. He knew the woman was close to Aramis and that, that immediately made the rest of the inseparables protective of her, so for her to have done this Blaise didn't know how Porthos was handling it.

"No less then she deserves," grunted the large man as he slammed the door shut, successfully silencing the sound of her sobs.

"No disagreement here," nodded Blaise, his eyes hard as he glared at the now locked door, "Any idea what's going to happen to her?"

Porthos shrugged, he had several ideas what he wanted to happen to her but he doubted Aramis would sit by and let any of them actually happen. "Captain will probably let 'Mis have a say in whatever he decides."

"Do you think he can handle that? They were friends were they not?" asked Blaise, worry and concern evident in his voice.

"Had she hit him instead of Athos I think he'd be a lot more forgiving then he's going to be. It'll be hard but 'Mis really doesn't take too kindly to people shooting his friends."

Blaise nodded, sympathy filling him as he thought of the decision the medic was soon going to be forced to make. "And Durand?"

Blaise's eyebrows rose once again at the feral look that plastered itself on the larger musketeer's face.

"He'll lose his pauldron and commission at the very least," growled Porthos knowing that even if the man somehow managed to weasel his way into keeping his commission that no one in the regiment would ever be willing to trust or work with him again. "But first…"

Seeing the anger sparking in Porthos's eyes Blaise quickly stepped out of the way, a strange feeling settling within him as he willingly stood aside and ignored what he knew was about to happen in that room.

Once he entered the room Porthos felt his anger at the disgraced musketeer grow to new levels as he saw the man was sleeping, quite peacefully by the looks of it. Porthos found himself taking great offence to the fact that not only had the man before him been the catalyst for his friend being shot but he also had the audacity to sleep when Athos fate was still unknown.

As the door to the room was still open Porthos made sure to slam it shut with as much force and as loudly as he could possibly make it, relishing greatly the groan of pain that escape Durand as the man rolled onto his knees, his head cradled in his hands as his hangover protested against the loud noise.

"Morning Durand," remarked Porthos with icy coldness, his voice making the man instantly freeze up in fear.

"P-P-Porthos," stammered Durand as he tried to get up onto his feet but failed as fear and remnants of the previous night's alcohol consumption took hold.

"Have a nice nap?"

"Look," stammered Durand, scooting back as far away from the advancing, furious musketeer as he could. "I didn't know she was going to shoot okay!? The bitch is crazy!"

Porthos silenced any further insults by the man with a swift punch to the man's stomach that knocked the air out of his lungs and left his gasping.

Whilst Durand was still curled over his fist Porthos leant down so his mouth was next to Durand's ear and whispered. "I've just spent hours fighting to save the life of a man who would never have been injured had you been doing your damn job instead of drink and running your mouth," flinging the still gasping man to the ground he added, "Don't think you can talk your way out of this Durand."

"Y-You can't do this," wheezed Durand pitifully, a scream of pain escaping him as Porthos kicked him just a tiny bit harder than was necessary to roll him onto his back. "T-The C-Ca-Captain,"

"Wouldn't protect you even if he was here," spat Porthos as he grabbed the man by the shirt collar, pressing his hard against a wall.

"How's he doing?" asked a voice, startling D'Artagnan from where he had been tying off the last stitch of Aramis's wound.

"Captain!?" exclaimed the Gascon, both surprised and worried at the sight of the injured Captain standing beside him.

"Did he sleep through it all?" asked Treville, ignoring the Gascon's surprise as he eased himself onto the ground, barely suppressing a groan of pain as he did so.

Too shocked to verbally respond D'Artagnan nodded, his eyes locked on where Treville's hand was lightly covering his wound.

Noticing the look Treville offered the boy a rare smile, "I'm going to be fine… Won't be riding out on missions for a while but Aramis does good work."

D'Artagnan fought to keep the guilt from showing on his face at the mention of his friend. No matter how much he stood by his decision of wanting to wait until Athos was clear to take any medication he couldn't help but feel partly responsible for the medic's collapse, he certainly hadn't been making things easy for him after all.

Treville caught the look and although curious he was more concern with how quickly it returned to an emotionless mask.

"Captain!" exclaimed a voice, successfully silencing any further inquiry from Treville as he slowly turned to find a panicked and slightly angry Henri approaching him.

"I needed to check on my men," declared Treville as soon as Henri was close enough to hear. Treville made sure to fill his voice with as much authority and command as he could, not allowing the musketeer to say anything against his decision.

Henri sighed as he flung himself onto the ground next to him, "At least say something next time, I thought you'd been abducted or something!"

Treville let out a chuckle at the man's worrying. Henri wasn't known for his mother-hen tendencies though it seemed that this situation was brining it out in him.

"D'Artagnan," Treville said, catching the young man's attention, "Why don't you go and clean yourself up a bit, myself and Henri can keep an eye on these two for a while and no doubt you wish to be rid of all that blood on you."

At his words D'Artagnan blinked, seemingly noticing for the first time that his hand was covered in the blood of two of his dearest friends and his shirt was spattered in blood. Grimacing at the state of himself D'Artagnan nodded, rising shakily to his feet and went to leave, only to freeze as he heard Athos groan in his sleep.

"Go D'Artagnan," said Henri softly. He knew the boy was fighting to keep himself together and he would never let himself seem weak in front of the inseparables or the other musketeers out of a belief that they would see him as weak and deem him unworthy of their brotherhood… A ridiculous belief but one the inseparables hadn't been able to knock out of the boy quite yet. As such Henri surmised that the Captain was trying to give the boy the opportunity to release all his pent up emotions away from the prying eyes of the rest of the camp, something they owed the boy given how hard he worked in the condition he was in.

"Aramis wouldn't be resting if Athos wasn't okay and nor would Porthos have left for the compound. I will personally come and get you if something changes." Henri added upon noticing the boy's hesitance to leave. After hearing the promise in the musketeer's words however D'Artagnan finally forced himself to leave, taking the blade Henri offered to him as a means of protection as he went.

"… Should we really be letting him go off on his own?" Henri asked Treville quietly once D'Artagnan had passed from their sight.

"The river's close enough to camp to give Daviau's men pause, we've defeat quite a lot of their numbers, no doubt they'll be rethinking their loyalty to the man anyway."

"Still…"

"If it'll make you feel better you can follow him in a few minutes, give him that alone at least."

Henri nodded, still slightly uneasy by the whole thing so decided to distract himself by bandaging Aramis's recently re-stitched wound.

"…W-What're y'u doin'?" slurred Aramis tiredly as his hands clumsily tried to bat Henri away

"Bandaging your wound," explained the musketeer bluntly, slapping one of Aramis's hands away.

This woke the medic up slightly as he stared at the musketeer in confusion, he definitely didn't remember getting injured further, his only wound being the one he had sustained after the ambush following his and D'Artagnan's release from the compound and that was still bandaged up fine, seeing this Treville explained that D'Artagnan had re-stitched it after noticing the stitches had ripped.

A strange look passed over Aramis's face and the medic was quick to try to get to his feet, no doubt in an effort to get to D'Artagnan. Only Aramis's body wasn't ready to move yet and so he quickly collapsed back to the ground.

"Careful," scolded Treville as he watched Henri force the medic back onto his back, "The lad spent quite a while making sure they were neat and would hold, don't go ruining his work now."

As Treville finished speaking it became increasingly clear to the two men that Aramis was about to try to find the young Gascon again, though both Henri and Treville stilled the man with a firm glare.

"Your pup's fine," assured Henri as he finished tying off the bandage, "He just left to clean up so you two can talk later. I'd recommend getting some more sleep before that though, you look like shit. Try talking to him now and your face will probably scare the kid."

Aramis tried to glare at the man but quickly found his eyes closing as exhaustion pulled him under once again.

Down by the river D'Artagnan's hands were shaking as he desperately tried to get the blood off of his skin, his eyes burned with unshed tears that wanted nothing more than to fall but he refused to let them. If Aramis and Porthos could handle it, when Athos was much dearer to them, without bursting into a flood of tears like a child then so could he.

He just needed to get the blood off of him… Athos's blood.

Choking back a sob D'Artagnan scrubbed harder, the water becoming tinged with pink and a growing ache settling in his broken hand that his mind didn't truly register.

Stuck by a sudden need to be clean D'Artagnan struggled to rid himself of his shirt, throwing his blood-spattered shirt to the ground with more force than what was necessary. Then, after a near tumble as he removed his boots, he climbed into the river, ensuring he kept his breeches on, just in case he needed to get out in a hurry.

The cold water felt amazing against his burning skin but even that did little to stop the sharp, shallow breaths escaping the Gascon as his eyes stung with tears and his mind became assaulted by memories.

Struggling to both breathe and see D'Artagnan had just enough forethought to wrap his good arm around a low hanging branch as his knees gave out, momentarily causing the Gascon's head to go under the water.

Thankfully the panic at nearly drowning was just enough of a shock to his system that D'Artagnan could regain some of his mental functions. He knew he was suffering a panic attack, one that was rapidly growing and threatening to overtake him. In his minds eye he saw two of the people he cared about most getting shot as the memories played on a loop, each time the pain growing stronger. He saw himself cradling his father as he bled out, his hands becoming saturated with his father's blood… Then the image quickly warped into him skidding to the ground next to Athos's prone form, his hand accidentally landing in the growing blood pool as he tried to wake his friend but to no avail.

Knowing he couldn't risk trying to get out of the river right now in case his legs gave out on him again D'Artagnan used the last of his lucid mind to order his body further onto the overhanging branch, it was thick enough that it would hold most of his weight and the current of the river was weak enough it wouldn't be able to pull him away.

This was done just in time as after another round of painful memories, this one including Porthos's near fatal wound that led them to Athos's childhood home and the thought of Aramis throwing himself on top of, what he thought to be, a bomb during the whole Vadim incident, D'Artagnan couldn't handle it anymore and he felt darkness overtake him.

From his spot by the river the man couldn't help but smirk. He had been loitering near the camp for at least a day now, waiting for the perfect time to put his plan into action. He had been beginning to think that he would have to reconsider the entire thing when he saw how closely the men watched each other and their surrounding following the Athos's shooting, only for the perfect opportunity to find him mere hours later when D'Artagnan came stumbling his way… alone.

Things got even better for the man as he witnessed the young Gascon's breakdown and subsequent faint.

A large smirk settled on the man's face as he knew that now was the time, checking his supplies once more and giving the area one last minute of surveillance, he crept out, moving stealthily but with purpose to the limp Gascon hanging over a tree branch.