Chapter 1 - Day 1

Monday morning and Athos was sitting at his desk in the office that he shared with his three fellow officers, trying to finish his paper work from the day before, whilst Aramis and Porthos were engrossed in their game of 'rock, paper, scissors'.

Athos loved his friends, they were more like brothers really, and he would do anything for them, but they didn't half annoy him sometimes. And best of 57 was a bit excessive.

"Gentlemen," Athos put down the notes he had been reading, "I do believe you are paid to work, not to play childish games."

"I'll have you know," Aramis started, "Rock paper scissors is no child's game."

"And anyway Mr I'm-Too-Professional-To-Have-Fun we are about to start working, just as soon as I win." Porthos sniggered.

"Porthos, it's 43-8 to me, you're never going to win!"

"Oh yeah? Well we'll see about that! Best of 100!"

Athos groaned inwardly, where was d'Artagnan when he needed him? If not to be a distraction from the two idiots in the corner, then at least so that some work would be completed in his department.

Looking at the clock hanging on the wall opposite him, Athos noticed that d'Artagnan was 47 minutes late. Sounds about right he thought to himself. The boy really needed to start getting in on time if he wanted to keep the job he'd worked so hard for.

Just as Athos was about to continue reading, the door came crashing open to reveal a rather dishevelled d'Artagnan struggling with the pile of paper work he had spent the whole night reading.

Dumping his stuff on his desk, Athos greeted him, "50 minutes d'Artagnan."

"Sorry, sorry, sorry. I know I'm late, but I think you'll find I'm improving! I mean I was an hour late every day last week."

Smirking slightly, Athos simply rolled his eyes at the comment and got back to reading.

Watching this interaction between the two, Aramis was still amazed at the difference to their lives d'Artagnan had brought. Athos was a lot less uptight that's for sure! I mean he and Porthos had been in an hour already and had gotten absolutely nothing done, yet Athos hadn't been angry. The lad had unlocked a soft spot inside of him.

Happy that his Superior Officer wasn't cross with him, d'Artagnan sat down and got to work filing the notes away. Most people would think this was the boring part of the job, especially compared to all of the undercover assignments and fights and car chases, but to d'Artagnan some filing workgave him time to appreciate how lucky he was to finally be accepted into the Musketeers.

It had been quite a rocky start for him, having accused Athos of the murder of his father – and consequently the murder of several others – he was fully prepared to kill the man for revenge, but instead he had ended up proving Athos' innocence and catching the actual murderer. The fact that he had stayed with the Musketeers after this was as much his decision as it was theirs. He needed a reason to carry on, and they quite liked the idea of having someone around with his talent and determination.

A loud knock brought d'Artagnan's attention to the door as it opened to reveal their Captain, Treville. "Meet me in my office in 5 minutes. I've got a job for you all."

Aramis and Porthos shared an excitedlook, their eyes twinkling with excitement. A four man job meant that it was going to be big, and those jobs were the best. Athos and d'Artagnan packed away their work and proceeded to make themselves presentable for their Captain before the four of them left their desks and headed towards Treville's office.

. . . . . .

Now Vadim wasn't like the normal criminals they took down. He was clever. Well, more clever than most. Having a good plan was his forte, and this meant that the Musketeers hadn't been able to catch him so far, but now with this new idea, they were fairly confident they could take him down for sure.

D'Artagnan was to befriend the man, getting amongst his crowd of people, finding out his plans for the next robbery or murder, then the Musketeers would know when to expect him and catch him in the act. Easy. Only Athos didn't see it as that easy.

When Treville had revealed the plan to everyone, d'Artagnan, as hot-headed as he is, was fully prepared to take on the job, excited even. But he was young, and more importantly inexperienced. Athos had been on missions to take down Vadim before, he knew what Vadim was capable of, and he knew that d'Artagnan's impulsiveness could be his downfall. He had to be careful around this felon.

"No. We need a new plan." Athos' suddenly declaration surprised the four other men around the table, each of them looking up from the plans that had been laid out to hear what he had to say. "We can't put d'Artagnan in this situation, it's too dangerous."

"What?! No Athos, we don't need a new plan, I can do this!" D'Artagnan could admit to himself that he was a little nervous with the idea, but he still wanted to prove himself to his fellow musketeers, prove that he was capable of completing one assignment without something going wrong.

It was actually rather surprising that he even received his commission into the regiment, seeing as nearly every assignment during the months beforehand ended in him breaking what they'd been sent to recover, or letting the criminal they'd managed to capture get away.

He was not going to let that happen again. He needed to prove to Athos that he was capable. "Please, Athos, I know I can do this. I won't fail you again."

Before Athos could even think of a reply Aramis was the one to answer the young man.

"D'Artagnan you haven't failed us, yeah assignments have gone a bit awry sometimes in the past, but you've never failed us."

"And we know that you can do this," Porthos began, "We just don't want anything to happen to you. This assignment is the most dangerous that we ever asked you to complete, let alone complete by yourself, we just want to make sure that you'll be safe."

"But if you're willing to go ahead with it, then we'll let you" Aramis continued, aiming his words more at Athos than d'Artagnan.

D'Artagnan then turned back to his mentor, looking at him with his big brown pleading eyes, "Please Athos."

Despite every inch of his being telling him not to let d'Artagnan go through with it, he knew he had to let the boy do this. "Fine. But no more of this impulsive behaviour of yours. Your recklessness could mean the failure of this assignment" he reprimanded softly.

As Athos reached his decision d'Artagnan was grinning like a Cheshire cat, "Thank you! I won't let you down, I promise!" and Athos couldn't help but roll his eyes at his friend's enthusiasm.

. . . . . .

After the meeting with Treville the four men returned to their office in order to prepare d'Artagnan. He had been given a new identity to memorise and the outline of the timetable for the next day.

Athos was at his computer collating all of the information they had on Vadim. He wanted d'Artagnan to know everything about the man he was to be getting involved with.

Looking over at where d'Artagnan was reading his notes, Porthos couldn't help but notice the tension radiating off the boy, as much as his friend was trying to hide his anxiety about the part he was to play in the assignment.

"So, Christophe."

D'Artagnan let out a breath of a laugh at the use of his undercover name but looked up to make eye contact with his friend, "Yes Porthos?"

"Where were you born?" Porthos started quizzing his friend.

"Gascony," d'Artagnan answered confidently. It was a potential risk, using d'Artagnan's original home town as his undercover one, but if questioned, it was the place d'Artagnan knew about the best.

"Good, good, when were you born?" Porthos continued.

Trying to remember the date he had just read, d'Artagnan answered, "22nd September 1994?"

"Wrong!" Aramis suddenly exclaimed.

Panicking, d'Artagnan dropped his eyes to look back over his notes.

"Ah ah ah! No looking! You need to know this!" Aramis chided.

"Dude! I've had this for literally two minutes!" d'Artagnan retorted.

Aramis tried his best to keep a straight face while Porthos did his best to wind the Gascon up, "Look d'Artagnan, if you're not up for the job…"

Grabbing the first thing he could see on his desk, d'Artagnan flung his pen towards Porthos, hitting him right on the forehead, causing him and Aramis to burst out laughing at the stunned expression on Porthos' face.

"Good shot," Aramis sniggered, "But seriously though, it's the 24th, not the 22nd."

"Okay well I was close, and by tomorrow I will know it for definite." D'Artagnan promised, and Aramis had no doubt that he would.

"You happy with the timetable for tomorrow?" Porthos questioned.

"Yep, get here by 9:30am," d'Artagnan began, making a mental note to actually arrive on time for once, "Leave at 10:00am to be in position at 10:15am, get taken in by Vadim, spend the day there gaining as much intel as possible, leave by 5:30pm, check in by 6:00pm."

"Now remember, we can't be seen anywhere near your house just in case he has people watching it." Aramis reminded him, "Oh and when you check in, take off all the clothes you've been wearing and leave them in another room just in case he's bugged you at all and is listening in."

"But put some clothes back on first! I know what you're like; we'll turn on the webcam and suddenly see you pop up completely naked!"

D'Artagnan snorted at Porthos' comment, realising that that was something he would probably do.

. . . . . .

The remainder of d'Artagnan's afternoon consisted of alternating from calmly reading his notes, to internally panicking that he was going to mess everything up.

Looking up, he watched as Athos walked over to his desk with what he presumed to be the documents that the printer had been slowly discharging noisily for the past half an hour.

D'Artagnan eyed the stack of notes as Athos abruptly dumped them on his desk.

"What is that?"

"That is everything that we have on Vadim. If you want to be prepared for tomorrow then you should know everything that we've ever found out about him, everything we've arrested him for, everything known about his background."

D'Artagnan nodded in response.

"Go home d'Artagnan, there's nothing else for you to do here. Read through this, memorise your identity, get an early night." Athos suggested gently, but the look on his face told d'Artagnan that the matter was not up for discussion.

"Okay." D'Artagnan nodded again before packing up his things and bidding his friends farewell for the night.

For a few moments, Athos stayed where he was, watching the door that his young friend had just walked out of. He still had his worries about letting the boy complete this assignment alone, but if that's what d'Artagnan wanted he'd keep his mouth shut for the time being.

One look at his friend and Porthos could see practically everything that was going on in his head.

"He'll be alright, Athos."

"I just don't think he's ready." Athos started pacing the room in an attempt to disperse the worry that was flowing through him.

"Why not? Don't you think he's proved himself enough already." Aramis questioned.

"Of course he has! But it's not that. He doesn't have our…background…we know how to deal with someone like Vadim, but he's never had to before."

"I know Athos, I know. But I don't think we have a choice. D'Artagnan's the only one of us that Vadim doesn't know, so he's our only hope of this mission being a success. And I'm sure he'll be fine." Aramis reassured his friend.

But he knew that Athos had a point. Their background had provided them all with a range of skills that could come in handy when taking down someone like Vadim.

Gun fire and explosions. That's what first comes to mind when Aramis thinks of the time when he first met two of the closest friends he's ever known.

It was 10 years ago when the naïve, adventurous 22 year old joined the army. He hadn't known what to do with his life, so it seemed as good a job as any. Unfortunately it was more traumatic than he could have possibly imagined, and even now he knows he could not have gotten through it without his two friends.

Aramis had been put in the same regiment as Athos and Porthos, and the three of them quickly formed a seemingly unbreakable bond.

It was during their time serving together that they realised that they each held the others' lives in their hands. One slip-up or miscalculation could cost someone their life. This brotherhood strengthened over the 3 years, and when they returned home for good, it was the bond remaining intact that helped keep the nightmares at bay.

After returning they had been unsure of what to do for a while. To them, their abilities seemed only to consist of how to go to extreme measures to kill their enemy or defend themselves and their friends.

It was Athos - the eldest of the three by 7 years - that took the first step back to normalcy by joining the police. However, it hadn't been long before Aramis and Porthos had followed Athos' lead into the profession. Having a relatively normal job helped to stop them feeling quite so lost after the army, but if certain missions had their blood pumping and adrenaline running high – just like in the army – well, they didn't complain.

It was this fact that allowed doubt to start seeping into Aramis' thoughts. D'Artagnan may be bold and brave, but he was still just a boy.

. . . . . .

That night d'Artagnan was sitting on his bed, all of Athos' notes laid out in front of him, coffee mug close by. Reading through everything, his mood had gone from definitely prepared to absolutely terrified. Vadim had been arrested 37 times over the past 6 years that the Musketeers had known about him, his list of crimes ranging from the theft of priceless jewels to the brutal torture and murder of innocent civilians.

But it wasn't the list of crimes that had him worried. He'd been with the Musketeers long enough to see his own share of the horrors in the world. No, it was that not a single crime had been proved. Vadim had been guilty every single time, he knew that, the Musketeers knew that, but all 37 times Vadim had gotten away with it.

Vadim was too smart.

D'Artagnan only hoped, this time, he was smarter.