Evening My Lovelies
This story has now reached 50k views! How awesome is that XD
Notes On Reviews:
Deana: Thanks for the review - I know, our poor boys have been put through so much, just a little more then they can relax :) Aramis is having several mini breakdowns thanks to the stress but things will hopefully be looking up after he gets to our trapped boys. Enjoy the new chapter! x
Tidia: Thanks for the review - Yep, lots and lots of stress and unfortunately its landing all on Aramis's shoulders, though apart from the odd mini breakdown/rant he's actually handling it quite well :) Enjoy the new chapter! x
pain in the mikta: Thanks for the review - *Sighs, pulls away from wall, bandages bruised head and gives cookie* :D Enjoy the new chapter! x
Debbie (Guest): Thanks for the review - Haha very true :) though Aramis is trying to be responsible as he's got all the musketeer's to organize. Enjoy the new chapter! x
fariedragon: Thanks for the review - Worry not I can't kill our boys :) Enjoy the new chapter! x
Guest: Thanks for the review - I'm honored you think so, thanks for the kind words. Enjoy the new chapter! x
Katie (Guest): Thanks for the review - Can't keep the drama down even as we near the end :) Enjoy the new chapter! x
Teddy2104: Thanks for the review - Hmmm Kingy hasnt completely forgotten but Aramis gives him enough to ponder. As for me writing a new story... I may or may not have a couple of ideas in the works :) I wont say for definite when they'll be posted as I'm still working out a few issues and ironing out the plot a bit before I start doing any writing but knowing how addicted I am to writing I can't see it being too long until the next story starts getting published. Enjoy the new chapter! x
Issai: Thanks for the reviews - (chapter59) In Claude's defense... He was very drunk ... and I needed someone to attack D'Art and he seemed the most logical person lol :) Aramis is thankfully being kept busy enough so he can't start digging. (chapter60) Hehe glad you liked the line, I'm loving writing ranting Aramis lately :D Porthos is in bad shape but thankfully helps on the way :) Enjoy the new chapter! x
Lilac Lavender: Thanks for the review - I loved writing that moment between the two of them so I'm really glad you enjoyed reading it :) Help is on the way for our boys so they wont be trapped for too long :) I'm liking the encounter between our medic and kingy so hopefully you'll like how I've taken it. Enjoy the new chapter! x
A reader (Guest): Thanks for the review - I really dont want the story to end but I have no idea how to continue it :( On the plus side though I have a couple of different story ideas in my head that I've been toying with these last few weeks so it probably wont be too long until I make a start on writing one of them :) Enjoy the new chapter! x
As always much love and many thanks for following/favouriting/reviewing/reading
Enjoy!
xxx
Chapter Sixty-One: Crushed & Buried II
As he hobbled over to where the King was recovering Aramis was praying that the monarch had forgotten the incident from a little while ago where he had threatened to strip the musketeer of his commission, the last thing the medic wanted to deal with was the added stress of a rant from the King.
Unfortunately it seemed that his prayer would not be answered as he could see the recognition in the King's eyes as he approached, the only plus side to the situation being that he was able to see Queen Anne. With everything that had happened he had been forced to rely on updates from his men as to health status of the royals, to see the young Queen alive and well did wonders for his soul.
"What are you doing here?!" jeered the King, pointing at the medic.
Aramis sighed, willing himself to not do anything that could impact his brothers when they got them out. "I was told that Your Majesty wished to see who was in charge," explained the medic, doing his best to not let his frayed nerves cause him to snap at the royal.
"I was expecting to see Captain Treville," sneered the King, "Where is he? This is highly inappropriate, even for him."
A dark look passed over the medic's face at the King's words though it appeared the King was too busy in his rant about Treville's unprofessionalism to notice. "If you want him to die I'm sure I can get him for you," snapped the marksman, effectively silencing the surprised monarch, though whether the surprise came from his news or because Aramis had interrupted him he didn't know.
"What?" breathed the King, eyes widening in horror as his mind registered the musketeer's words.
"Captain Treville was severely injured in the blast. I have managed to stop the bleeding for now but he is very weak and moving too much too fast risks the wounds opening up again and I fear that any help would come too late should that happen."
King Louis opened his mouth to say something but Aramis was on a roll and didn't notice, all thoughts of keeping his tongue had long since disappeared from his mind.
"So with Treville out of commission it would normally fall to our lieutenant and the Captain's second in command to take control of the men but unfortunately Athos, as well as Porthos, are currently trapped within the palace thanks to a ceiling collapse. Without our Captain or our lieutenant it fell to our next highest ranked musketeer who just so happens to be me so please tell me why I was summoned so I can return to the men who need me."
"Is that any way to speak to your King!?" spluttered Louis, eyes wide with shock at the medic's rant.
Aramis sighed, "I apologize for my tone but the words still remain, why have you summoned me?"
"Don't think I wont strip your commission musketeer," warned Louis as he glared at the annoyed musketeer in front of him.
"Perhaps we should go into why you summoned him My Lord," suggested Anne kindly as she placed a gentle hand on her husband's shoulder. "I would hate for you to push yourself too hard while you're recovering, you should be resting."
"Such a kind heart you have My Queen," smiled Louis, all traces of his earlier annoyance gone from his face as he looked at his wife.
"I need to know the status of things here," Louis explained as he turned back to Aramis, "How many dead and injured and what's the damage to the palace?"
Aramis nodded, sending the Queen a brief and barely noticeable thankful smile before answering the King's question.
"The entire east wing has been plagued with collapses, my brothers are having to move slow and careful as they work on trying to get our missing brethren out. We have around thirty injured and around half of those were serious. The amount of dead seems to be at least double that though," he admitted, his head hung low as he thought of the sea of deceased faces he had seen as the musketeers worked to clear out as many as they could so they could get a proper burial.
"There was one thing though Your Majesty," Aramis added, pulling the royals from their horrified stupor.
"Many of the guards that were among the deceased showed signs of being killed before the blasts."
"What!?" gasped the Queen as her hand shot up to cover her mouth.
"From what Treville told me of the events leading up to the explosions it would explain how Ortiz was able to enter the palace and get as close to you as he did. I would advice that you have interrogations conducted on all remaining guards as soon as possible, no one man could have killed as many as he did without someone else noticing."
Louis scowled as he took in what the medic was saying to him, if he was true then it meant that one of his personal guards had just tried to kill him.
"It will be done at the first opportunity," nodded the King, "you may return to your post musketeer, my men know where to find you should I need us to speak again."
Aramis felt the need to offer a smart-ass retort back but wisely held his tongue as he remembered who he was dealing with. Instead he offered as best a bow as he could with his crutches before heading back to Treville and D'Artagnan, who he was honestly surprised was still waiting there. It did amuse him to see how much the boy clearly wanted to be within the palace looking for their brothers. The marksman had barely contained his laughter at the look on D'Artagnan's face, he could tell that it was only a matter of time though until the boy ignored his request and charged into the palace regardless.
"Looks like some of our teachings have finally sunk into that head of yours hey D'Art?" grinned the medic as he ruffled the now pouting boy's head.
"ARAMIS!" called a voice, the urgency underlying it immediately capturing the medic's attention.
"Etienne?"
"We've… found them…" panted the musketeer, as he leaned forward with his hands on his knees. "They're… alive."
Once Etienne's words had sunken in Aramis was demanding to be taken to the trapped men.
"Are you sure Aramis?" Etienne asked for the fifth time since they had left Thierry and Treville to head to the palace. "This aint gonna be pleasant on that leg."
"I'm fine," grunted Aramis, refusing to even acknowledge the part about his leg. "They're probably injured, I need to assess how we go about getting them out safe"
D'Artagnan said nothing during the exchange and simply worked to help his brother over the rubble while ignoring the pain in his own body.
"Athos! Porthos!" cried the two men once they had reached the small gap in the debris that separated them from their brothers.
"'Mis? Whelp?" croaked Porthos; there was a weakness in his voice that worried the medic though he could tell that D'Artagnan hadn't noticed it in his relief over hearing his brother's voice.
"It's us," confirmed the medic, "How are the pair of you doing?"
"Peachy," answered the larger man sarcastically before grunting in pain, something not even D'Artagnan missed.
"P'thos?" croaked the boy as he moved to stand closer to Aramis's side.
"Jesus whelp what 'appened to your voice?" asked Porthos, both hoping he could divert attention from his and Athos's predicament as well as being genuinely worried about the boy.
But of course Aramis cottoned onto his plan, "He's fine," dismissed the medic, "What about the pair of you?"
"Porthos is injured," Athos answered before the larger man could say anything different. Aramis's eyebrows rose at the odd tone in Athos's voice, something was off about his brother as well.
"'Thos!" exclaimed the young Gascon brightly, though his joy was heavily masked by the hoarseness of his voice.
From where he was Athos could only frown as he heard what appeared to be Aramis slapping D'Artagnan and mumbling something about how he shouldn't be talking.
The concern quickly disappeared as he couldn't resist the urge to smirk at his the glare Porthos was sending him as Aramis continued to rattle of medical questions quicker than the man could respond.
"…'Mis I'm fine," sighed Porthos tiredly as he tried valiantly to interrupt his friend's worried rambling.
"If I don't believe D'Art when he says he's fine what makes you think I'll believe you?" snapped the medic, though it was full of concern and worry rather than malice and hate.
"Oh don't give me that look," added the marksman when D'Artagnan glared at him.
"Athos, seeing as you're being honest, how bad is he?"
"…He's bleeding pretty bad," admitted the swordsman, ignoring the 'traitor,' hissed at him from the larger musketeer. "He's managed to put pressure on it but I have no idea how serious it is."
"Probably because your slowly being crushed and can't move," retorted Porthos, having decided that he wasn't going to be subjected to Aramis's mothering on his own.
"WHAT!" exclaimed their two brothers, though D'Artagnan's was significantly quieter and hoarser.
"There's a large piece of rubble compressing my left side," informed Athos, sounding so nonchalant about the whole thing Aramis was beginning to get concerned about his mindset.
"How long until we can get in there?" asked Aramis as he turned to one of the men working on clearing the rubble.
"Get in or get them out?" asked the musketeer.
"In," nodded the medic, already working out what supplies he would need to get sent for.
"Hour," shrugged the man wiping away the gleam of sweat on his forehead, "we're having to move really slow, especially if Athos is pinned, we don't want to risk another collapse."
"Yeah we don't want that," snapped Porthos sarcastically
"Glad to know your still well enough to be snippy my friend," shot Aramis, a small grin on his face at the familiar banter.
"Bite me," growled the larger musketeer
"With all that dust coating you? No thanks" grinned Aramis
"Gentlemen," scolded Athos, very much enjoying the sheepish look he saw grace Porthos's paling face.
"Right," nodded Aramis, despite the fact that neither trapped musketeer could see it. "I'll see about getting some supplies, get this opened as quickly as possible." Turning to D'Artagnan he added, "keep an eye on them while I'm gone okay?" and the medic almost burst out laughing at the enthusiastic nod he received in response.
Just under an hour later and Aramis and D'Artagnan are able to maneuver into the collapsed area, thankfully the clearing had gone better than expected and the men doubted it would be much longer until the hole was big enough and stable enough to carry the injured members through.
"D'Artagnan see if you can help Athos while I look at Porthos," Aramis instructed, already hobbling over to his now alarmingly pale friend.
"You still with me Porthos?" asked the medic; almost afraid he wouldn't receive a response.
"Can't get rid… of me… that easy," quipped the larger man, a faint smile on his face as he looked at his brother.
"True," shrugged the medic teasingly, "nothing I do seems to work, guess I'm stuck with you."
Porthos's only response was to hiss in pain as Aramis lifted up the bloodied cloth that had begun to dry over the wound in his torso.
"What did this?" Aramis asked, his voice hard as he observed the jagged entry wound that was still slowly seeping blood.
By this point Porthos was beginning to lack energy and so to conserve what little he had he simply picked up the bloodied shard of glass that was lying on the ground near him.
"Please tell me you didn't absently pull it out?" questioned the medic, his stern gaze on the injured musketeer before him who did little more than send him a sheepish smile.
"If you weren't injured and bleeding on me I'd smack you for that," warned the medic, "who knows what you could have done."
Aramis was distracted from his rant by a loud grunt followed quickly by a thud.
Looking over at his other brothers he couldn't stop his eyebrows shooting up in surprise at the fact that his little brother had managed to move that piece of rubble off of Athos's chest.
By the look of pain on Athos's face the rubble had done more damage then he had either admitted or noticed. The medic noticed with a worried look at how Athos seemed to gripping the shoulder of the arm that had been trapped.
Looks like he was going to have his work cut out for him.