The first thing Aramis became aware of was a pounding in her head. Blinking sluggishly, she went to move her hands only to find they were tied behind her back. Groaning, Aramis blinked though the black dots swimming in her eyes as she tried to bring the world around her into focus. Finding that moving her head to fast caused the pain to get worse, Aramis resigned herself to sitting motionless as her blurred vision cleared.
When she could finally move around without her head swimming, she started to struggle with the bonds tying her hands behind her back. It was plastic and as she struggled, Aramis could feel the plastic dig into her wrists. Groaning, Aramis let her head fall back, regretting it instantly when it came into contact with the metal pole she was tied to.
It took longer this time for her vision to focus. The room she was in was plain. Plain grey walls and a thick wooden door in front of her. The floor was made of stone and a cold draft came up, making her shiver a little. Testing the binds in her hand again, she had a sudden blinding panic as she remembered D'artagnan lying unconscious on the floor. Hopefully he was alright and with Athos and Porthos because if he wasn't, they were both in a lot of trouble.
The day before ….
D'artagnan and Aramis were late out of the office, having been relegated the job of finishing the paperwork off for their current job. Porthos and Athos had left about an hour ago, leaving the two to finish off. "So, how is Madame Bonacieux?" Aramis asked as they ducked into an alley, taking the short cut to the bar. They'd stayed at Athos' the night before, meaning they'd car piled the next morning. And said car was currently with Athos and Porthos, leaving the two of them to walk. Not that Aramis particularly minded it was a nice night if a little cold.
"Constance and I are fine." D'artagnan replied.
"You should ask her on a date." The younger man stopped in the middle of the alley and stared at Aramis incredulously.
"She has a husband."
"So, you like her and she obviously likes you." Aramis replied, not seeing the problem. Anyway, it wasn't like Constance's husband was worth sacrificing a guy like D'artagnan for anyway.
"She likes me, how do you know that?"
"Woman's' intuition." Aramis replied, wrapping an arm over D'artagnan's shoulder. "The way Constance looks at you, well you'd have to be blind not to notice." D'artagnan looked a little daze but a happy grin was forming on his face and Aramis laughed a little. "Or a guy apparently. Ask her on a date and I promise you she won't say no."
Neither of them noticed the sound of footsteps following them as they continued talking. That was until it was too late. A hand grabbed Aramis' shoulder as a gun whacked her across the face. She collapsed onto the floor just as another man appeared and tackled D'artagnan to the ground. That was the last thing Aramis saw before blackness claimed her.
….
D'artagnan woke up tied to a chair. Groaning a little at the light, he opened his eyes to come face to face with a man he'd never seen before. "D'artagnan, right?" The man asked.
"My name is Elijah, I'm an old friend of Athos' and I need you to record a little message for him." D'artagnan frowned, utterly confused at what the man was talking about.
"I'm not doing anything for you." He spat out, glaring at Elijah as he spoke. The man didn't reply, only motioned for one of the men to start recording.
"Did I say I needed you o say anything." Elijah asked, punching him in the stomach as the red recording light flicked on. D'artagnan refused to say anything as Elijah kept hitting him over and over again. When he was done. D'artagnan's ribs were aching and they untied him from the chair and dragged him out of the room. Black dots were dancing in his vision but he forced them away. Stay awake. That was a must.
"Where are we going?" He groaned out, confusion running through him as they walked down a corridor. Thinking quickly, D'artagnan made a mental note of the doors they passed until they reached on at the far end of the corridor. The man opened the door and pushed D'artagnan unceremoniously inside, locking it before he could even stand up again.
The younger man groaned, falling back onto the floor intent of succumbing to blackness when a very familiar female voice said, "D'artagnan." The voice started the young man awake and sitting up with a groan, D'artagnan saw that Aramis was in the room to. "Are you okay?"
D'artagnan only shrugged standing up on shaking legs to go closer to Aramis. She was tied to a metal pole and blood was moving sluggishly from an open wound on her head. "Fine, what about you?" Aramis didn't look convinced but nodded her head to show she was fine.
Shaking the pain in his ribs, D'artagnan went behind Aramis to work on the plastic cuffs binding her hands behind her back. "I can't cut them." He said, after looking them dumbly for a minute.
"It's fine, D'artagnan." Was it him or was Aramis' voice a little slurred. "Now tell me where it hurts."
"A man name Elijah kidnapped us, said he knew Athos." D'artagnan said, trying to distract Aramis.
"Never heard of him, where are you hurt?" She asked a little more forcefully this time.
Seeing no way of arguing, D'artagnan answered. "My ribs are aching but I don't think their broken." D'artagnan said, leaning a little into Aramis' side. "What about you?" he asked, moving his hand to Aramis' head. When his fingers touched it she hissed a little and flinched away at the touch. "How bad?" D'artagnan said, motioning to the head wound.
"Probably a concussion, nothing serious." She brushed it off, leaning a little into D'artagnan's shoulder, at least as much as far as the bonds allowed her. "Did you see where we were?" D'artagnan shook his head and Aramis sighed. "Then it looks like we're stuck here until Athos and Porthos come and get us."
"Really?" D'artagnan asked, not believing Aramis.
"Well, unless you have a knife under that shirt." Aramis replied, shaking her hands a little behind her back. "Get some rest, I'll wake you if the need arises." D'artagnan wanted to argue but nodded anyway when he moved a little. Maybe rest would help with the pain, he thought as he rested his head on Aramis' shoulder.
….
Aramis and D'artagnan were nearly 2 hours late. The paperwork was done so Athos had thought they deserved an extra hour away from the office but 2 hours later, he was starting to worry. "Are they still not picking up?" Porthos shook his head as Treville walked into the office.
"Where are D'artagnan and Aramis?" Athos shrugged.
"We don't know." Athos said, seeing that they would need to tell Treville what had happened.
"Meaning, we haven't seen them since yesterday." Porthos replied. "They're not answering their phones either." Treville frowned.
"Try to find them." He said, going to leave the office when a ping came from Athos' laptop. The older man went to open it and froze. On seeing this, Treville raised an eyebrow.
"You best look at this." Athos said, anger lacing his tone as he motioned for Porthos and Treville to look at the video on the email. When he pressed play, D'artagnan appeared on the screen, tied to a chair. There was a man in the video, though none of them could see his face. The man was hitting D'artagnan over and over again in the stomach and when the video stopped all three men were full of anger.
"Who sent it?"
"I don't know." Athos answered Treville's question.
"Then find out who sent it and find D'artagnan and Aramis." Treville said, turning from the office. "If you need anything come and get me. I'll see what I can find in the meantime."
They didn't need to say anything as Porthos pulled out the security cameras for the night before. "Who do you think took them?" Porthos asked as he got the security videos set up and pressed play.
"Someone who wants revenge." Athos replied, going to grab a pen and paper. "It'll be a long list." The older musketeer replied, starting to write down the names.
About an hour later Porthos shouted for Athos to come over. Pressing play, Athos watched as Aramis and D'artagnan walked into an alley and about a minute later a group of 4 men followed. "Can you enlarge that?" Athos asked, pointing to one of the men who looked towards the camera. Porthos nodded and did so, brining into view a man that Athos recognised all to well.
"You know him?" Porthos asked.
"Elijah Asor, I arrested him once on charges of kidnap and murder. He was let out of prison a few days ago when there was a retrial. One of the witnesses didn't turn up. I guess he wants revenge."
"And how dangerous I he?" Porthos asked, seeing what Athos wasn't saying.
"The woman he kidnapped was tortured to an inch of her life before he finally killed her. We need to find Aramis and D'artagnan fast."
…
D'artagnan woke with a start as the door opened. His ribs were aching still but D'artagnan didn't show the pain as a man walked in. "What do you want with us?" Aramis asked but the man ignored her as he took out a knife and a gun.
"Move." The man said, aiming the gun at D'artagnan. When the younger man hesitated, Aramis pushed him away with his feet. "Don't move." He said, cutting the ties around Aramis' wrists. Her wrists dropped a little as feeling came back into his arms. "Up." He said, pulling Aramis to her feet. Her head swam as she was forced out of the door.
"Where are you going?" D'artagnan shouted as the man pulled the door shut.
Aramis felt a certain amount of fear well up as she was shoved into a chair. The room was nearly the same as the one she'd been in before, the obvious exception being there was more furniture in here. That and a man and, surprisingly a video recorder.
"Elijah I presume." She said, keeping her voice as calm as possible. The man turned and there was a glint in his eyes that hinted at the maniac underneath. This was not good.
"René Aramis d'Herblay, a friend of Athos'." He said as Aramis hands were tied to the chair arms. "Your friend didn't' scream when I hurt him. Will you?" Elijah asked, pressing a button on the recorder as the door closed behind the other man.
He lifted up a metal bar as he walked over. "Every time I bring one of you in here, this will get worse." Elijah stated and Aramis didn't know if it was for the benefit of her or the recorder.
Aramis bit her tongue as Elijah drove the bar into her stomach. She doubled over as the bat hit her hand with a crunch of metal and she bit her tongue so hard it started to bleed. Spitting out the blood, Aramis felt tears pinprick her eyes as the metal bar hit her stomach and then her hand again and again until she lost consciousness. When she came to again she was being dragged back to the room. The door opened and she was thrown in and this time a groan of pain came out as pain jumped up his ribs and wrist.
"Aramis?" D'artagnan jumped to his feet and ran over to the woman, lying prone on the ground. He picked up her wrist and grimaced at the crushed quality to it.
When she coughed and blood came out he panicked until Aramis said, "I bit my tongue." D'artagnan couldn't help the sigh of relief as he pulled Aramis towards the wall of the room. "We need to get out of here." She coughed again, her uninjured hand wrapped around her waist.
"Athos and Porthos will come for us."
Aramis shook her head. "They will but if we stay any longer, he will kill us. As it is this is going to get a lot worse." D'artagnan stiffened at what Aramis said. He knew she was right but as it was his own ribs were on fire and he imagined Aramis was feeling as bad, if not worse. They couldn't escape even if they got the chance.
"Get some rest." Aramis hummed a little as her head dropped onto D'artagnan's shoulder. Her hair had pretty much fallen out of its custom knot so D'artagnan undid it and re-tied it for her, hoping that Athos and Porthos would get there soon.
Because I'm a sucka for angst, especially concerning Aramis and D'artagnan
As always thanks for reading and please review, this one shot should only last 2 chapters :)