Evening My Lovelies
I'm SOOOOOOOO sorry there was no update yesterday. My computer was playing up and generally causing me all sorts of problems - all of which seem to be gone today (though now I've gone and jinxed it!) Hopefully today's chapter will make up for it!
Notes On Reviews:
Debbie (Guest): Thanks for the review - Who wouldn't want an Athos pillow? lol :D The nightmare definitely scared our little pup, though he had his big strong brothers to protect him :D Claude's gonna get a teensy bit of punishment today but he's real punishment will be coming tomorrow. Treville had to be harsh as if he wasnt and the King found out that he just let the boy off the hook things would be a lot worse for them all. That and the fact that he does have a garrison to run and has just been shot which may have had a tiny bit of an impact on his mood lol. Enjoy the new chapter! x
Katie (Guest): Thanks for the review - I know but I just can't help but be mean lol :D Enjoy the new chapter! x
Tidia: Thanks for the review - Figured, given the circumstances, that Treville wouldn't be tolerating any reckless behavior from any of his men, though he'll be feeling slightly bad for how harsh he was when he learns just why the pup left. Enjoy the new chapter! x
pain in the mikta: Thanks for the review - Oh Da Man is going to be pissed when he learns of Claude and his cronies actions/words :D We'll see a brief glimpse of it here but it'll mainly come out tomorrow. We may have Louis find out, just because I quite enjoy the reviews I get whenever he appears lol :D Glad you liked it. Enjoy the new chapter! x
Deana: Thanks for the review - I do love me some snuggly muskys :D ^.^ Enjoy the new chapter! x
Teddy2104: Thanks for the review - Claude will be getting dealt with tomorrow and Ortiz will be returning very soon :D *laughs evilly* We get to see some more brotherly moments today which hopefully you'll all like :) Enjoy the new chapter! x
A reader (Guest): Thanks for the review - Don't know why but I see Aramis as being quite the clinger when it comes to sleeping next to people lol You'll get to see your Athos moment sooner than you think ;) Enjoy the new chapter! x
Bombadilo Baby: Thanks for the review - Pretty much nailed it there :) Not that Treville would ever admit as such... we'll let him believe what he wants while we know the truth :D Claude's fate is coming very soon (tomorrow in fact) Enjoy the new chapter! x
Issai: Thanks for the review - Gotta love the nightmares when they lead to cute brotherly moments :D Treville's 2nd in command (at least in this fic) is Athos which makes telling someone a little difficult but Athos will be dealing with that today. Yeah Stables and training will be after Ortiz... Plus D'Art has to heal a bit before he can handle that sort of work. Enjoy the new chapter! x
Lilac Lavender: Thanks for the review - Glad you liked the nightmare, I was tossing up having the shadow figure being either Ortiz, himself or one of his brother as a ghost coming to haunt him but thought the figure being him worked best seeing as how he's slowly beginning to believe his brothers don't blame him. I loved writing that little after nightmare scene with Athos so I'm really happy you enjoyed it :) I imagine Athos makes quite the pillow, though I may need to try that out for myself before I commit to that fact lol :D *drifts off into fangirl fantasy* ... Oh right! back now :D Claude gets a little bit dealt with today but it'll mainly happen tomorrow. Enjoy the new chapter! x
Again 1000 apologies for not being able to update yesterday
As always much love and many thanks to everyone who follows/favourites/reviews/reads. love you all!
Enjoy!
xxx
Chapter Fifty-Five: Back At The Garrison
Watching D'Artagnan sway and stumble his way down the stairs by Treville's office was painful for the three senior members of the inseparables but they knew the boy's pride would not take kindly to their interference, especially in front of Claude and his friends who took great delight in tormenting the boy.
"D'Art?" Aramis asked cautiously, leaning heavily on his crutches so he could lean forward to give the Gascon a visual assessment, not liking what he saw he sent his brothers a meaningful look.
"…m'good," wheezed the Gascon, his undamaged hand coming up to massage his forehead in an effort to relieve some of the tension building up behind his eyes. His other hand rose slightly to rest lightly against his loose tunic, the pain from his chest wound becoming nigh on unbearable.
"You're as far from good as you can get," sighed Porthos fondly, gently swinging D'Artagnan's undamaged hand over his shoulder he added, "Let's get you back to the infirmary and 'Mis can get you something for the pain."
D'Artagnan looked ready to protest when another wave of pain had him sagging against the larger man until it passed. Looking up at the worried eyes of his brother he gave a meek nod and the pair began their slow walk to the infirmary.
"You're not getting off so easily 'Mis" teased Porthos as he turned to look over his shoulder, "I know that leg's paining you so come on."
"And he calls me a mother-hen," huffed Aramis good-naturedly
"Because you are," deadpanned Athos, though a slight twinkle in his eyes spoke to his amusement, "Go," he gestured to the waiting forms of their brother, "I'll fill Treville in on what happened and meet you there."
Aramis nodded and began heading off before a mischievous twinkle appeared in his eyes and he turned back to the unsuspecting musketeer.
"Don't take too long Athos, the boy'll be wanting his pillow!" he teased, cackling when Athos scowled at him. Waving back to his friend Aramis readjusted his crutches before meeting up with his brothers, one of which was trying not to laugh and the other was staring at the ground with the hopes it would open up and swallow him whole so he didn't have to deal with the embarrassment.
"You know 'e's gonna get you back for that right?" grinned Porthos, slowing their pace further so Aramis was more comfortable.
At his words the medic grinned brightly, "Totally worth it though!"
Athos stood rooted to the spot for several moments while his mind worked to devise a way to get back at the Spaniard, having decided he didn't have it in him to do anything whilst the man's leg was healing he pushed the idea to one side and was about to make his way up to Treville's office when the conversation going on behind him finally registered in his mind.
"…Looks like the runt didn't get kicked out after all."
"Wonder what he had to offer the Captain to get that sort of preferential treatment," scoffed Claude and the second Athos heard it all thought of speaking to Treville and refraining from confronting the man flew right out of his head.
"Want to say that again Claude?" growled Athos as he moved menacingly towards the group. Claude's friends saw sense and quickly backtracked as far away as they could from the furious swordsman who looked like he was plotting their murders as he approached them.
Claude however smirked, seeing this as the perfect opportunity to rile up the musketeer. "Nothing Athos," he said mockingly, "just wondering what… 'services' that boy of yours provided to keep himself in the regiment… Tell me, are you the jealous type or are you happy to share?"
Athos saw red at that moment and within a second he had the now wide-eyed musketeer pinned up to the wall with his blade at his throat.
Silence descended over the garrison as all stood in shock at what they saw, Claude's comments had been said quietly enough so only those in the direct vicinity heard it but every other musketeer knew something serious had to have happened to make Athos point his blade at a fellow musketeer.
"ATHOS!" bellowed Treville who had come out to demand a report from his lieutenant to find the man pinning another musketeer by the throat.
"Sir," growled the swordsman making absolutely no move to remove his blade from Claude's throat and nor did he allow his eyes to stray from where they were glaring murderously at the man before him.
"Release Claude," ordered the Captain, though his gaze was hard on the pinned musketeer, knowing that despite Athos's general disposition he would never raise his blade at a comrade without a damn good reason.
When Athos made no move to follow his order Treville's thoughts on Claude were cemented in his mind.
"Farrin!" he called, getting the attention of the musketeer who had just entered the garrison and was now looking thoroughly perplexed at the situation that greeted him.
"Watch Claude, I'll deal with him in a moment," ordered the Captain, waiting for the man to nod and move into position before ordering Athos to come up to his office. It took several moments and a few clear deep breaths on the swordsman's part but eventually he lowered his blade and released his grip on the musketeer.
"He attacked me why am I being watched!" screeched Claude as he waved his arm manically at Farrin who was now watching the man with his hand lightly resting on the pommel of his blade.
"You know damn well why now stay still and shut up!" snapped the Captain as he all but dragged Athos into the room.
"I'm really sorry," came the mumbled voice of D'Artagnan as he tried not to wince while Aramis checked over his wound
"For what mon ami?" asked the medic calmly, taking extra care to be very gentle with the still incredibly sore burn.
"Didn't think my leaving would put you all at risk. The last thing I wanted was for any of you to suffer or to lose your commissions because of me."
Aramis smiled softly at the young man before him, a thoughtful look coming across his face, "It's alright D'Art, not sure if myself or Porthos actually have commissions to lose at the moment."
"What?" asked D'Artagnan sounding a cross between surprised and concerned.
"'Mis may or may not have dared the King to actually strip our commissions when he threatened to do so," stated Porthos as he passed the Gascon a new shirt now that the marksman had finished his examination.
"WHAT!"
"In my defense," began the medic, looking completely unbothered by the whole thing, "We'd just heard Athos's call for me after you'd been injured and the King was trying to delay us leaving because I hadn't finished bandaging his wound."
"The King was injured?" asked D'Artagnan, surprised at just how he had missed that piece of information.
"If you can call it that," scoffed Porthos jokingly as he held up his fingers to show how long the 'wound' was, "We've suffered worse things in training and gone on to train from hours after. He was so panicked about it he threatened to revoke our commissions and 'Mis told him 'e could then we ran to find you and 'Thos" shrugged the larger man.
"You don't think he'll really do it do you?" asked the Gascon, the worry in his voice making him even more childlike and the musketeers couldn't help the smiles that graced their faces in response.
"Nah," grinned Porthos as he ruffled the boy's hair, "'e's probably forgotten all bout it now, 'sides, with Ortiz about 'e needs all the men 'e can get."
"Enough talk," interrupted Aramis when he saw the yawn that escaped the younger man, "you need to rest."
D'Artagnan felt his heartbeat increase in fear of the idea of sleeping, sure he had slept better the night before when they were all together but what would he do now they were all back at the garrison.
Porthos and Aramis saw the look and frown, not liking the fear in their baby brother's eyes… Then they remembered what Porthos had prepared and smiled, "come on whelp," Porthos said, holding out his hand to the younger man.
"So…" sighed Treville as he moved to stand behind his desk, "should we start with why you just had another musketeer at sword-point or why the three of you disappeared without permission?"
"Apologies for leaving sir but we had to find D'Artagnan and time was of the essence," said Athos and it was abundantly clear to the Captain that his lieutenant was still working on calming himself down and as such was trying to avoid the subject of Claude for as long as possible.
"It was so important you couldn't stop to inform anyone of where you were going?" Treville snapped, though it had lost significant anger since dealing with D'Artagnan.
"We didn't know where we were going," Athos stated through gritted teeth, "I believe Aramis made several other musketeers aware of the fact we were going to search for D'Artagnan by his loud ranting by the stables alone."
"This is no joking matter Athos," reprimanded he Captain, though he did concede his point, several men had come to him when he was awake to let him know what was going on. "You're the lieutenant, that means you're my second in command. You should have been here to take care of things after what happened with my patrol."
"With all due respect sir," Athos stated, his voice hard and unwavering as he spoke, "There are many men here who could have filled in for the days we were gone but they would have had no luck in either finding D'Artagnan nor of persuading him to come back to the garrison."
This caught Treville's attention, "he was debating whether or not to come back?"
Athos nodded, "Things have been… difficult for him since our rescue and he has recently made us aware of some issues in the garrison that made his decision even harder and are impacting his recovery."
Treville's eyes narrowed as he caught on to what Athos was hinting at, "These… issues. Would they have anything to do with why I found you with your blade at Claude's throat?"
"They would," nodded Athos, anger returning in his eyes and Treville could see he carried no guilt or remorse for what he had done.
"You're a rational man Athos, you would never attack a brother-in-arms –"
"He is no brother of mine!" spat the swordsman, the anger and hate in his words startling the Captain slightly.
"Comrade then," amended Treville, "So what has Claude done that's so bad you couldn't settle for simply reporting him to me but had to try to take matters into your own hands."
Athos took several deep breaths to calm himself down enough to talk rationally with his Captain. Once he deemed himself calm enough he began to explain what D'Artagnan had told him regarding Claude's treatment of him and then moving on to explain the conversation he had overheard before attacking the man.
"He said that?" exclaimed Treville, both horrified and disgusted at what Claude had all but stated of both himself and D'Artagnan. He could now completely understand why the swordsman was so dead-set on murdering the man and to be totally honest, part of him was now wishing he had let him.
"Leave Claude and his friends to me." Treville stated, his eyes hard and cold as he practically spat the musketeer's name. "I will deal with them, you handle your brothers, from what you've told me they need you more than I do right now."
Athos looked slightly reluctant to let Treville handle Claude but he nodded regardless, wanting to go and check on D'Artagnan. Bowing once to his Captain he made his way down the stairs, a devilish smirk coming to his face as he heard the Captain's furious voice bellow for Claude to enter his office.
Entering the infirmary Athos was slightly panicked when he noticed the room D'Artagnan had been staying in prior to his departure was empty, he very much doubted his brothers would let their little Gascon go back to his rooms so the swordsman knew they must be there somewhere.
A thought striking him had the swordsman moving to the small room the four of them had shared during their initial recovery after being rescued.
Entering the room he was not disappointed, though it took a second to register that one of them, most likely Porthos given Aramis's injury, had pulled off the mattresses from all the beds and had positioned them on the floor to form one giant bed.
Seeing his brothers embracing their youngest in what appeared to be a protective cocoon Athos couldn't help but smile fondly at them. Moving as quietly as he could he stripped himself of his jacket, boots and belt before making his way to where their heads were situated, lying horizontally across the length of the mattresses Athos closed his eyes and allowed sleep to take him.