Thank you to everyone who reviewed my work, I am immensely happy and will continue for five more chapters after this, there might be more but it'll all depend on my ideas for this plot,any ideas or input would be welcome.
Helensg- I know I was forcing myself to write it, you will continue to be like that towards Athos for a while, but it will get better their relationship.
He couldn't breathe. His wife was dead, his children wouldn't talk to him, they didn't talk to anyone. As he carried his wife's coffin down the isle, he thought back to when she was walking down the isle, flowers in her hair, eyes and hair glowing and how she was so young and innocent back then and how he wished he could go back.
Why wasn't Athos here, he was so angry, Athos had received so many letters asking him to come and honour Constance but why wasn't he coming. There was a pit of worry settling in his stomach but he pushed through it and looked to his left where d'artganan was carrying the coffin tears rolling down his face, heartbroken. He didn't know where d'artganan was right now, but from his guess the wedding, only five years they had been married and now she was gone.
After the funeral they all conveyed in a pub and talked about the memories they all had with Constance. Then all of a sudden a man soaked to the bone with the all familiar body and hat of a man they hadn't seen in a long time entered.
D'artagan looked up and saw the ice blue eyes and all he could feel was a complete suffocating anger that overwhelmed him like an inferno.
As porthos watched Athos walk in, d'artagan storm over to him, he knew that he had to do something, as he got up to pull one of the stubborn mules away from each other there was a hand on his chest telling him to wait and let d'artagan do this. It was Aramis he saw the much needed burst of anger that d'artagan needed to let go and he knew that Athos knew too so he stopped porthos in his tracks. As d'artagan got closer to Athos, realisation suddenly dawned on porthos and as d'artagan' fist found its mark and Athos went flying to the floor he let the man carry on knowing that if he didn't let all his anger out now, the anger would come out on someone else.
He definitely was expecting this welcome and the fact that d'artagan punched him wasn't shocking. He hadn't had any letters from him in the past year and that really hurt him, he had moved away when sylvie and Pierre died of the fever. He took charlotte and Anne away with him and was now living in Paris. His two girls were the spit of him blue eyes and black hair with brown streaks. Stubborn and very clever. He loved them and his thought was that he needed to get back to the flat he was staying at.
D'artagan got up grabbed his kids and went home to be a daddy for they were his last link to Constance and he was going to be there for them forever. As d'artagan walked out with his three children in his arms he felt deeply saddened they would never know the courage of their mother from her point of view and although they would grow up with so many memories from d'artagan they would never meet her, and he didn't know how d'artagan would cope, but he knew he wouldn't risk the life of his children over his ever.
TWO DAYS LATER
Waking up from a bad sleep was the worst thing, that could ever happen. Athos had been having a hard time adjusting to life without his brothers for the last two days after they had told him to sort his life out before he goes accusing people of being rubbish dads because they couldn't look after their wife, which in truth as what he was thinking about himself and he was so drunk it just came out. He was a bad father because he couldn't save their mother and he couldn't save d'artagnans mother. Sylvie had been buried three days before he arrived in Paris and he had sorely missed her for a long time, he had seen Aramis going towards the new garrison some mornings from his window but he had never wanted to say hello because he was too busy with grief that he couldn't speak to anyone. With Charlottes being ten she was old enough to look after Anne for a while but until he was better with coping without Sylvie and Pierre then they would have to cope on their own in their own way.
Waking up to no wife was the worst thing, having no wife to smile at you and tell you what is happening today or having all the children bounce on your be in the morning excited to be going to the market with mother. But now he woke up to three young grieving children sleeping next to him, determined to sleep in his bed for they felt alone and sad without the comforting smell of their mother, so they slept in her side to keep her smell. Looking at Francious, god she looked like her mother with her bright orange hair and huge eyes, she was stubborn now and always put up a fight with her brother, who was just like him, brown hair tanned skin and huge brown eyes that he could never resist, then their was Thomas who was pale, he had blue eyes and brown hair and was more stubborn than his sister and was hot headed too. He was small loved to be hugged in his father's warm embrace, Alexandre who was the oldest always insisted that he was old enough to not be hugged and always pushed away his mother and fathers hugs, which he could now see was eating away at him because he took his mother for granted and he could see it in his sons eyes that he wanted more than anything to be hugged by his mother right this very moment, Francious was shy at times but when she was around company she knew she was loud and bossy and was just like her mother in character and looks. Thomas was three and loved to play swords with daddy and loved being swung around on uncle porthos' shoulders, this was his new craze and all though he was so young and probably didn't know why mummy had gone away he understood that she was never coming back and that broke d'artagan' heart because he understood that and he did not cry. Aramis said that was his way of dealing with it and if that worked for him, let him get in with it. He said the dauphin did that with Louis and now even though he knows Aramis is his father he says that Louis will always be in his heart for carrying on and bringing him up despite the rumours, that were now hushed for it would be treason to insult the dead king.
Waking up to a load of paper work was unpleasant to say the least, but at least he had his family and Aramis at this very moment was pleased with that. The paperwork would go and come back but his family would one day go and never come back and that frightened him more than his death. Being alone after all of his brothers, his love have gone was just not a nice thought and why he was thinking about that now when one of his brothers has just lost his love was selfish of him. He must get this paper work done and visit d'artagan and have a meeting with the councillors on why the captain of the musketeers hasn't been in work for four weeks, he didn't tell the council because he felt it wasn't right without d'artagan consent and with him not being in the right mind for weeks , there wasn't really a good time, but now he felt that d'artagan was seeing the light and that he would consent to the idea, for eventually they would find out from a rumour and they wouldn't be happy about the fact that the first minister lied to them.
Waking up to four bottles of wine on the floor surrounded by bags of money and a banging headache shouted, a card game, him winning, getting drunk and dragging him self home at god knows what time in the morning. He definitely didn't miss this and porthos knew that if elody were here she would walk him round the head with her apron and moan at him that he is a general and although he might not fight he still has a job to do and that isn't betting and drinking into the early hours of the morning and he also had children and that he isn't setting a good example to them. How he missed her and how he wished he could be with her right now, but right now his friend, his brother needed him and he couldn't deny a friend in need.
Seeing all his friends, well almost all of them together was comforting even in this time of sadness he felt like he had a family that had his back, he missed Athos but after what he said and how Aramis and practically shouted at Athos for being such an irresponsible father leaving his children while he got drunk was ironic. Anyway they were here now and so he picked up Thomas and his wooden sword and called for Fran and Alex and walked down the stairs to smacking faces at seeing the happy father and his children. All that was missing was the bubbly mother who was usually flapping at her hair, but he had to move on and build a life around that gap and fill it with family.