Evening My Lovelies

Look who's uploading early! :D

I've decided that, in an effort to stop missing my upload schedule, I'm going to do an hour's writing every day (usually I only write on the day, uploading when it's finished.) I've decided that if I manage to finish the chapter in that hour then I'll publish it that day, if not then it'll get uploaded whenever it ends up getting finished, meaning uploads may end up being more frequent (no promises though!) but at least this should help me meet my set (at least in my head) upload schedule of at least 2x a week.

Notes On Reviews:

beeblegirl: Thanks for the review - I have recently had an idea for our lovely Marin which I'm very excited to write. I currently have no plan to kill him off but we'll have to see, my evil side might come out to play again. Enjoy the new chapter! x

pallysAramisRios: Thanks for the review - Haha, I imagine Athos being quite the comfy pillow, something D'Artagnan is, at least subconsciously, taking full advantage of right now :D I don't think Henri's going to be making friends with Marin any time soon, though today's chapter will definitely help with that. Enjoy the new chapter! x

Debbie (Guest): Thanks for the review - Bwhaha, Oh I'm sure at least part of him wanted it to be in his head :D Henri's not going to be too comfortable around our lovely Marin any time soon, though he'll get there :D I do love the way you think :D I do think our boys need to have something happen sometime soon... They've had it too good too long :D *cackles* so we'll see :D Enjoy the new chapter! x

As always much love and many thanks for following/favouriting/reviewing/reading

Love you all!

Enjoy!

xxx

Chapter Fifty-Five: The Next Step I

Tristan and Aramis had not taken the offer of help lightly and both men quickly began instructing the pair on how they could help with the injured members of their party. Henri had been reluctant to work with Marin but forced down his distaste for the younger man after realizing just how bad the conditions of the injured men were, his loyalty to his brothers more powerful than his hate of the young man's regiment.

To his surprise, he found Marin to be quite a hard worker, the red guard doing whatever was asked of him with no word of complaint or reluctance and the amount of trust both Aramis and Tristan appeared to have in him helped ease Henri's wariness of the young man to the point where they were able to work alongside each other for several hours.

Athos was the only person in their group, aside from those still unconscious from their injuries, who hadn't helped with the preparation of the supplies, although this was largely due to the fact that D'Artagnan became increasingly restless whenever the swordsman moved away, much to the amusement of his brothers who couldn't help but grin cheekily at their brother's predicament.

It quickly became apparent that it was better for Athos to remain where he was given how D'Artagnan didn't need to make it any harder for himself to breathe.

Hours later saw the group feeling exhausted by accomplished as they sat around the small campfire. Once they had created an abundance of poultices and draughts Tristan had set to work, the physician's assistant forbidding Aramis from helping any more than he already had as the amount of pain the marksman was in had become clear for all to see on the man's face.

Tristan had started with D'Artagnan, the boy's trouble breathing along with his other, worsening symptoms, having been a significant cause of concern among the group. The Gascon was also the quickest to treat as there was little more Tristan could do for him than to give him a few draughts for the fever and pain before moving on to check and re-wrap the boy's injured fingers.

Athos didn't look overly pleased when informed there was nothing else Tristan could do for his protege right now and that a lot of the fight would be on the Gascon himself, however, that frustration quickly turned to guilt when he watched the physician's assistant move to tend to both Glenn and Fredrick, both men suffering from grievous wounds which had begun to show signs of infection over the last few days, much to the alarm of both Tristan and Talbot, both fully aware that they didn't have the supplies to treat it.

Thankfully the herbs Henri and Issac had grabbed abundance of were those which were very effective in fighting infections so Tristan was now more confident about being able to get both infections under control before they posed a true risk to either gravely injured man.

Unfortunately treating the wounds meant opening them up again in order to clean out the infection, something which was not a pleasant process for all those involved but especially for the injured men themselves as they screamed and cried out in pain as Tristan worked as quickly as he dared to clear their infected wounds before applying the poultice and re-wrapping the wound.

While Tristan worked Aramis had taken it upon himself to treat his own wounds. He knew that, thankfully he had not gained an infection of his own to deal with and that his only problem came from the number of wounds he was still recovering from after his own ordeal. Thankfully the ride from the church hadn't resulted in any torn stitches, the marksman had no intention of asking someone like Porthos, who was once again by his side, to stitch him if they had torn, although thankfully the journey had pulled them, adding to his pain, but not torn them and as such he was able to gingerly apply an ointment onto the inflamed wounds before taking one of the prepared pain draughts and count himself done, absently leaning back into Porthos's warm side as he desperately waited for the pain draughts effects to kick in.

"We should discuss our next steps," spoke Henri sometime later once the treatment was over and the men were resting by the fire with a simple meal.

Athos rose an eyebrow in question but it was Issac who nodded and spoke up, "Treville will need to be informed of your location, the sooner we're all reunited the sooner we can get back to the safety of the garrison, given all that's happened I don't like the idea of being out in the open any longer than we have to… I'll ride out at dawn and backtrack to find him."

Now it was Henri's turn to raise an eyebrow as he caught on to his friend's wording, "I hope you don't plan on riding out alone," he lightly scolded, scowling when Issac nodded. "You just said it's not safe and now you want us to let you go out alone?"

Smiling at his friend's concern Issac patted the man gently on the shoulder, "Athos and the others are already down several strong fighters, they are clearly the target of this author's plans, they'll pose the biggest target and will need all the help they can get."

Athos and the other inseparable's ears pricked up at the mention of their mysterious author as none of them had mentioned the letter from him they had received.

With a look of confusion and wariness on his face, Athos decided to press for answers, "Did our letter to the Captain actually get through? I thought they would have destroyed it."

"Letter?" Issac asked as he tilted his head to the side, "As far as I know the Captain never received a letter from you. He likely would have been here sooner if he had."

"Then how are you all here?" asked Aramis, his voice still slightly pained sounding, although it was clear the draught was beginning to take effect.

Issac and Henri shared a look before the latter reached into his jacket and passed over a note written in a now all too familiar handwriting.

You musketeers sure like to scatter and split from each other, even when you have already found trouble.

Are you sure that's wise, who's to say trouble won't return when you're alone?

Yours,

A Concerned Friend

Athos bristled as he took in the taunt written in the note, anger rising as he became aware of how Aramis had actually unintentionally flinched at the sight of the handwriting, his mind and body associating it with a great deal of pain.

Knowing anger wouldn't help him now Athos took a moment to take several heavy breaths before he lifted his head and stared hard at the two musketeers, "Explain." He demanded, "Now."