Authors note: Thanks for the comments, favourites and follows.

Chapter Nine - Stranded

Aramis (with d'Artagnan, Athos and Porthos).

D'Artagnan ducked down as another ball whistled passed. The others were keeping low as well. He glanced up, they were about to round a rocky outcrop, they would have a few seconds respite from the firing guns. As their pursuers were also mounted the chances of them actually being hit was slim, but it was there.

A startled yell from Aramis and the sound of horses' hooves clattering to a halt on the stony path caused d'Artagnan to pull his own horse to a stop. He looked around in time to see Aramis' horse rear up. Aramis could not stop himself being thrown from the beast's back. He landed awkwardly on the hard ground. But immediately started to struggle back up. Finding his feet Aramis stumbled forward a few paces only for his still startled horse to bolt away.

Porthos was off his horse, heading towards Aramis who seemed a little uncoordinated after his fall. Athos tried to catch the mare before she got too far away, but the horse had other ideas and was already disappearing out of sight. D'Artagnan glanced back, there was no sign of their pursuers. He guessed they were reloading before continuing, making use of the narrow ravine. The Musketeers had no choice but to follow the path, there was no other way.

'You alright?' asked Porthos as he reached out to Aramis who was still trying to steady himself.

Aramis had wrapped his right arm across himself and was obviously in pain.

'Landed badly,' he said, 'must have hit my ribs. I think it's just bruising.'

D'Artagnan saw Porthos nod his appreciation of Aramis' candour about his injuries.

'You'll ride with me,' said Porthos, glancing back along the road.

'That will not work,' said Athos, who had returned from his failed attempt to retrieve Aramis' mare. 'We cannot move slowly enough to prevent him from passing out.'

Aramis was about to protest but Athos shook his head.

'Up there,' said Porthos pointing ahead of them, 'there's a path. We'll have to go on foot, but if we get the horse to carry on they might be fooled.'

D'Artagnan looked in the direction that Porthos was pointing. A narrow ledge led up the side of the ravine. There was a rocky overhang in places and the path narrowed and widened frequently. He did not like the idea of having to move up the path at speed, but their options were limited.

'You three go, I'll hide, they'd miss me,' said Aramis who had recovered his wits.

'We are not leaving you behind, it could be hours before we could come back for you if we even managed it today,' said Athos decisively.

Athos led the way forward, Porthos followed keeping an eye on Aramis. D'Artagnan slapped each of the horses to get them to continue forward around the ravine. He hoped they would stop when they reached open land again. D'Artagnan did not like the idea of having to find their way back to Paris without the beasts. As he followed Porthos and Aramis, d'Artagnan glanced around wondering what it was that had startled Aramis' mare. The horses were usually well behaved.

Porthos had moved ahead of Aramis as they negotiated a narrower section of the pathway. Aramis was still holding his arm across himself, clutching at his ribs. He had not changed his position since he managed to get to his feet after the fall.

D'Artagnan got a little closer to his brother before asking quietly, 'are you sure you didn't hurt yourself?'

Aramis glanced back, wincing as he did so, 'I'll admit it might be more than bruising. Can't really tell yet.'

D'Artagnan smiled, hoping his expression was an encouraging one. Aramis turned back and continued along the path which had widened out enough for them to walk two abreast. Athos had just disappeared out of sight following the pathway around the ravine.

'We have to go back,' said Athos as he came to an abrupt stop. A wall of rock in front of him.

'They haven't gone passed yet,' said Porthos glancing down towards the ravine floor.

'We can head back some of the way and wait for them to pass,' said Athos as he turned back.

A shot pinged off a rock close to d'Artagnan. All four men fell to the floor. Aramis stifled a cry of pain.

Their pursuers were following them up the pathway. Porthos and Athos scrambled up, drawing their weapons. D'Artagnan was quick to follow. Aramis managed to twist himself over to sit and pulled out one of his guns with his left hand, holding it out shakily. D'Artagnan knew that even injured Aramis was still a very good shot.

They were in a standoff with their pursuers.

MMMM

Being careful not to all fire at once the Musketeers shot back at their pursuers. Athos knew they had a fair amount of ammunition on them and could hold the men off for some time. But not indefinitely.

There were at least ten men, but due to the nature of the pathway, the men could not approach their prey very easily. Athos hit the man at the front of the group who screamed and toppled to the side, falling to the ravine floor below. The walls of the ravine were not sheer but were still very steep. There was no practical way to reach the spot they were other than the pathway they were all occupying.

Another man was hit, stumbling back. Athos guessed the shot had been d'Artagnan. Aramis shot next, hitting a third man. Neither d'Artagnan's or Aramis' shots would prove fatal but would put the men out of action. Athos was pleased to see the rest of the men retreat a little, dragging their injured men with them.

Athos was not pleased when a tall, broad man paused in his retreat and reached up to tug at a protruding rock.

'They are not gonna do that?' asked Porthos, unable to hide the shock from his voice.

'I think they are,' said Aramis from his place sat in front of Athos.

The big man worked the protruding rock loose with a grin towards the Musketeers. Porthos raised his gun, aiming at the man but it was too late. The pulled rock had been the only thing keeping one of the overhangs from crashing onto the pathway. With a ground shuddering thud, several large rocks smashed into the pathway leaving the Musketeers stranded.

Once the dust had settled a sarcastic voice could be heard calling to them.

'Musketeers,' said the man, 'you are now our prisoners. We have sent for reinforcements and explosives. When they return we will blast you off the rock. Then you will be no further annoyance to us. Have a good last night.'

There was general laughter from the men on the other side of the rock fall.

'We should not have come up here. We should have stayed with the horses,' said Athos. 'Now we are trapped.'

Athos looked at Porthos, unable to help an accusatory stare.

'Don't blame me. It might have been my idea, but you led the way. You're the one that said Aramis could not continue on horseback,' said Porthos rounding on his brother.

Athos shook his head, 'I thought you were supposed to know the area? Why didn't you say you were not sure where this path went?'

'I'm familiar with the area 'cos I fought a battle here ten years ago. I don't know every inch of it.'

Athos looked away, annoyed that they were stuck, annoyed that he had blindly followed Porthos suggestion without questioning him further about the pathway.

MMMM

Porthos was seething at the accusation that their predicament could have been down to his choice. If Athos was not sure about the path, he should have asked. Porthos had seen it as an opportunity not to be missed, it was not his fault if the pathway led to a dead end.

D'Artagnan had watched the two men argue impassively, Porthos turned to the younger man.

'None of this would have happened if you hadn't let them all know we were there…'

'What?'

'You, blundering into the wrong room in the chateau. You had the plans-'

'Plans that I'd had exactly two minutes to look at before you started to insist that we start the search,' d'Artagnan snapped back. 'And we wouldn't have even been out here if Athos hadn't annoyed that Comte.'

Athos glared at d'Artagnan. Porthos turned away from them both. It was true that the only reason they had been given the mission was to get them out of Paris for a few days because Athos had talked back to a disagreeable Comte at the Palace. The King had overheard the exchange and ordered the Musketeers away. Treville had decided that the four of them needed to go completely away. He had given them three days to retrieve some information from a Chateau that was believed to be heavily guarded. At the start of the mission, they had teased Athos about it being his fault. Now, thought Porthos, he wished he had protested about them all being punished for something that Athos had done.

'Can you all just stop?' said Aramis from behind him. The Musketeer had managed to get to his feet and taken a few steps towards the rockslide before turning back to them.

'We're going to be stuck here for at least a few hours. Treville is bound to already be looking for us. We're already late back,' Aramis continued, blinking a few times as he spoke.

Porthos looked at Aramis carefully. The man had paled quite a bit and did not seem comfortable. Porthos looked at Aramis' hand, which was still clutching at his side. His eyes widened when he realised there was blood seeping between the fingers of Aramis' gloves.

'Aramis? You're hurt.'

Aramis looked at him with confusion before taking his hand away from his side for the first time since he had fallen from the horse. The marksman had been holding his arm firmly across himself since the accident. Porthos had guessed Aramis was trying to keep his potentially broken ribs still.

Aramis looked at his hand for a few seconds, the shock and confusion obvious on his face. He looked back up at them.

'I didn't...I didn't realise...honestly I didn't know...I wasn't hiding it...I don't know how…'

Aramis stumbled to the side, closer to the ravine's edge. Porthos shot forward, but d'Artagnan was quicker, grabbing the injured man before he toppled over the edge. But d'Artagnan's own forward momentum started to carry them both over. Porthos grabbed them both, hauling them backwards roughly.

MMMM

D'Artagnan cursed to himself as he felt both himself and Aramis falling over the edge of the ravine. He had been so quick to grab Aramis he had not thought the action through. When he was grabbed by Porthos and pulled back he was grateful, despite the hard landing they all suffered.

It took him a few seconds to untangle himself from both Aramis and Porthos. Aramis was very still.

'He's passed out. It's a wonder he was still able to stand up,' said Porthos as he pushed d'Artagnan up to sit.

Between them, they turned Aramis onto his right side. D'Artagnan undid his doublet and pushed it aside. The dark red staining on Aramis' shirt told them all they needed to know.

'It cannot have been his ribs that were causing him pain when he fell,' said Athos.

'He must have been hit as we rounded the bend in the ravine,' said d'Artagnan as he pulled Aramis' shirt loose and pushed it up.

A graze across the side of his chest and a second wound a few inches lower were revealed.

'It's no wonder he was in pain,' said Porthos, 'that one would have made him think he'd hurt his ribs and that one would have made it feel worse.'

'Do you think that's why the horse reared up? Did one of the balls hit the horse as well?'

Athos nodded, 'I expect so...there's no exit wound for the shot to his side though.'

D'Artagnan gently passed his fingers over the injured man's side, finding the tell-tale lump of the ball embedded in the flesh.

'It's not buried deep, we should be able to cut it out. Be easier than digging it out through the wound.'

Porthos nodded, 'trouble is we ain't got anything with us. The medical bag is on Aramis' horse and I didn't bring anything, not even water with me when we ran for it.'

D'Artagnan glanced up to Athos who shook his head.

'What do we do? We can't clean the wound properly...but we need to get that ball out.'

'We do what we can with what we have,' said Athos as he reached down to his boot and pulled out a slim dagger, handing it to d'Artagnan.

Porthos had undone his own jacket, untucked his shirt and was busy ripping strips off the bottom to make into bandages. He wadded one up and handed it to d'Artagnan.

'Do you want me to cut the ball out?'

D'Artagnan shook his head, 'I can manage, he's shown me what to do. Remember when Marc got hit with a stray ball when the cadets were practising? I cut that out...under careful supervision.'

D'Artagnan glanced up at their unconscious brother before looking back at Porthos who nodded his ascent.

Athos crouched down and took the wadded-up bandage and prepared to apply pressure once d'Artagnan had cut the ball out.

'Hold him still,' said Athos, 'the pain might wake him up.'

Porthos gently lifted Aramis up and wrapped his arms around the still unconscious man as d'Artagnan made his incision. None of them spoke for a few minutes, as d'Artagnan worked, he was careful to remove the ball and the piece of fabric pushed into the wound with it. Athos pressed the torn shirt over the bleeding wound as Porthos pushed Aramis up slightly so that d'Artagnan could wrap a second piece of Porthos' torn shirt around the injured man to hold their makeshift bandage in place.

'Nothing else we can do...we can't clean it...we can't stitch it,' Porthos said as he pushed some hairs off Aramis' face.

The three men settled down for a silent vigil, waiting for the hoped for help from Treville and for their brother to regain consciousness.

MMMM

'Before he passed out,' said d'Artagnan, as the night wore on, 'he was worried we would think he'd been hiding the injury.'

'I know,' said Athos who had been dwelling on the last confused words that Aramis had said before he collapsed. 'I think he did not want to add fuel to our argument.'

D'Artagnan, who was sat closest to the rockfall, listening out for movement on the other side looked back at them.

'We're all tired,' he said, 'this has been a rather fraught mission from the start.'

The three men looked at each other for a few seconds before all smiling apologetically.

'It 'appened,' said Porthos, 'shame it took him getting injured for us to start working together again.'

'I'm glad...I could help,' said Aramis quietly.

'Do not move,' said Athos firmly as he moved closer to Aramis who was still being held by Porthos.

'Wasn't planning on it,' replied the injured man as he slowly opened his eyes.

'Just so as you know,' said Porthos, 'we believe you.'

Aramis managed to tilt his head to look at Porthos with confusion.

'Before you passed out, you were worried we would think you'd been hiding the injury.'

Aramis looked away, obviously recalling the moments before he became unconscious.

'I'm annoyed I didn't realise myself,' he said.

'I think the conditions conspired against us all,' said Athos with a smile.

Gunshots coming from the ravine floor drew their attention. Athos and d'Artagnan leaned forward as far as they could to see what was happening. The full moon casting its dim light over the path below.

'It's Treville,' said d'Artagnan glancing back.

'Guess we ain't gonna be blown up after all,' said Porthos.

The End.

Authors note: sorry, bit of a cheeky turn around on the 'I'm fine' trope we all love when writing Aramis whump!