Back to the carriage. Now

"This is Marie-Cessette," said Elodie, holding up her daughter.

"Named after Porthos' mother," added Aramis.

"A lovely name for a beautiful baby," said Anne, looking into the bundle. "May I hold her?"

Elodie's lips parted in surprise but she quickly shook herself out of her momentary stupor. "Oh, um, of course, Your Majesty."

Once the baby was in her arms, Anne stepped back and rocked her a few times to settle her. "I miss when the King was this small," she stated, and smiling, gave the tiny hand that had reached out a finger to grasp.

She took a few more steps away from the group while she continued to gaze down at little Marie-Cessette, who yawned and wriggled around in her swaddling until she was comfortable again. Anne sighed softly; she had always thought that a daughter of hers would bear the name Marie.

"I have some things set aside for her," Anne informed Elodie, turning back to the group. "Toys and clothes and such." Relinquishing Marie-Cessette into Aramis' open arms, she then led them further into the nursery where she had the items laid out.

"Your Majesty, these are so fine," Elodie began, tentatively laying her fingers on one of the folded gowns. "I couldn-"

"Please take them," Anne insisted. "They will sit collecting dust otherwise." There were some items she had to keep to pass down to Louis' children, and a few had sentimental reasons, but besides that she saw no point in keeping the rest, and rather they were used and enjoyed by her extended family, with items set aside for Athos and Sylvie's child as well. There were even a few items she had marked for Constance and d'Artagnan in case things changed for them.

With some encouragement from Aramis and Constance, Elodie accepted, and while Aramis laid Marie-Cessette down on a blanket to show her and her mother some of the toys, Anne lightly touched Constance's hand so that she could talk to her in a far corner of the room.

"Is everything all right, Majesty?"

"I was only wondering…" Anne began in a low voice. She glanced over to Aramis and Elodie happily playing with Marie-Cessette. How many times had she dreamed of Aramis playing with their own child like that? As much as she ached for it though, it couldn't be, and so she turned back to Constance. "It is a delicate matter and I hope you forgive my impropriety, but you and d'Artagnan are sleeping together, yes?"

Constance, understandably, looked taken aback by the question. "Yes…"

"Then what are you doing to prevent conception?"

Constance blinked, her expression relaxing. "Oh." She too then glanced over to Aramis, her eyes sympathetic when they looked back at Anne. "I add something, a herb, to my drink. One of the refugees was a midwife, and she told me of it and how much to take. It, erm, keeps your courses regular."

"I see. And, well, I hate to ask this of you, but could you get me this herb? Something like this can't become known to the Church and I can't trust the people in my household with it."

"Of course. I'll bring you some of mine by tonight though to get you started."

"Oh, you don't have to do that. I know you're a busy woman."

Constance gently grasped Anne's forearms. "Majesty, after Bonacieux died, you told me not to let anything stop me from finding happiness, to be with the man I loved. You and Aramis have done enough waiting, and I will not be the one to make you wait any longer."

MMMMMMMMMM

He was looking through some of the many scrolls on the shelves when he heard the hidden door open and then saw Anne appear, smiling softly.

"Have you ever tasted chocolate?" she asked, holding her hand out.

Following her through the passageway, she led him back to her room, where a small table and chairs were set up.

"Constance couldn't stay long," she explained, and sitting down, added, "And I don't think it was to her liking either."

"Too bitter for our sweet Constance?" he quipped, taking Constance's empty seat next to her. He had tasted chocolate before at the monastery, towards the beginning of the war when a group of Spanish monks stopped at Douai and offered some to Aramis and his brothers in thanks for their hospitality. It was a bitter and grainy drink, but adding spices to it as the Spaniards suggested greatly improved the taste.

Looking across the table, he spotted a small drawstring purse. "Her delivery?" he asked, to which Anne nodded. He picked up the purse and opened it to take a look at the bottle of dried leaves. He had been hesitant when Anne first suggested the idea, but she assured him she was willing to do it. He knew from the brothel how the women would use rags or sponges soaked in vinegar or sometimes wine to cleanse themselves of men's seed, even Adele had used the method, but this was the best option if they wanted to continue to be intimate and leave as little evidence behind.

"I only have to take a little," Anne told him, "and the chocolate is so thick I hardly know I'm having it."

Closing the bag, he put it in his pocket. "I'll keep it in my desk, and I can bring it over when we have our small council meetings." Considering his knowledge of medicine and the work he did in the gardens of Douai, along with his reputation with women, it wouldn't be questioned as much if it were found in Aramis' rooms.

"Yes, that would work nicely; evening drinks while we have our small council," she said with a small smirk.

He gave her a half-smile in return. They were calling it their small council, but it was really only going to be just the two of them, like now, only they'd leave the doors open for propriety's sake. After all, Aramis was new to his position and there was a lot of work to do, or at least that was what they told themselves.

"So how did your first encounter with chocolate happen?" Anne asked.

He told her of the Spanish monks then, and she in turn told him about having chocolate growing up in Spain. She loved the drink; so much that she had her own special silver pots and tools brought to France when she married so it could be prepared correctly. He supposed part of her fondness for it derived from a reminder of home, of her family.

"Louis, does he like it?"

"Only to dip biscuits in," she replied. "Though we haven't really had the chance to try different flavors."

"The children at the monastery liked it with some sugar."

"Would you tell me more about them, about your time at the monastery?" Anne prompted, though she sounded hesitant at the end.

She knew why he had gone there, and he had already alluded to how hard it had been for him at times, but there were plenty of good times too, especially with the children, and his experiences there were a part of him now, a part that he wanted to share with her.

He talked a bit about the work he did with Brother Valerius his first year there before getting to the orphans, describing what each one looked like, their story, their personality. It was nice to talk about them, to laugh about some of the pranks they pulled on him and the games they'd play. It made him miss them though, and wonder how they were doing.

"Little Marie, she thought Porthos might have been a giant," he said as he recounted his brothers' most recent visit to the monastery. "But that girl has the courage of David. She went right up to our Goliath Porthos and kicked him in the shin." He smiled into his cup as he listened to Anne's soft laughter. "So naturally they became the best of friends," he added, and went to take a sip of his drink, but he was taken by surprise by the unladylike snort that escaped Anne and he instead sputtered into the cup.

Lurching forward, he set down his drink and looked over at Anne, who had clapped a hand over her mouth, before they both started to laugh anew.

Once they started to calm down, Anne gestured at his mouth, smiling. "You have chocolate…" He ran a hand over his mouth to get any droplets out of his beard, but she leaned over anyway and reached out to wipe her thumb along his mustache.

He then watched as she brought her thumb to her lips and licked it clean while she looked at him from under her eyelashes. He licked his own lips, which had suddenly gone dry. "Are you...sure you got it all?" he slowly asked, holding her gaze.

"Let me see," she said, and so he pushed his chair back further to face her more, and before he knew it she was sitting astride him, her lips hovering over his.

He blinked a few times, taken aback by her boldness. Tearing his eyes away from her chest, he looked up into her eyes. "Your Majesty, are you trying to seduce me?"

"Is it working?" she whispered before lowering her lips to his.

"It's unnecessary," he answered, and grasping her hips to pull her closer, he deepened the kiss, his tongue pushing past her lips to massage her own. He could taste the chocolate on her tongue.

MMMMMMMMMM

"Don't even think about moving."

She felt him smile into her shoulder. "Couldn't if I wanted to," he mumbled. "I've melted into you."

Anne hummed in agreement and stroked his back once more before letting her hands still. Closing her eyes, she took as deep a breath as she could and lay there, reveling in the weight of Aramis on top of her, and the feel of his still rapidly beating heart against her chest.

They had made love with abandon the night before, and the joy in their newfound sexual freedom had carried over into the morning. Aramis had taken his time in waking her up though; trailing soft kisses along her jaw while his hands started to roam her body. He had whispered in her ear that he was going to be easy on her, but apparently to him that meant teasing touches and drawing out his ministrations until she was repeating "Aramis, please," over and over again like a mantra.

"Are you ready for your first official engagement as First Minister?" she asked, remembering that they would have to get out of bed eventually. Louis was going to ceremoniously lay the first stone of the new garrison and she would be presenting Aramis to the public in his new role.

Aramis lifted himself up onto his forearms. "I don't know, smiling and waving," he joked. "Sounds like a baptism by fire to me."

MMMMMMMMMM

"That wasn't so bad," Aramis murmured to Anne out of the corner of his mouth as they began their way to the carriage. He really didn't have to do anything except follow Anne and Louis as they were shown around the garrison, same as a musketeer, only he was meant to pay more attention to the architect's plans for rebuilding rather than the onlookers. He did also have to smile and wave, but there were plenty of things to smile about; watching Anne help Louis place the first cornerstone (though really it was the other way around), thinking about how Anne had Louis rehearse his short statement to Captain d'Artagnan back at the palace with Aramis as the audience, and remembering the softness of Anne's skin as he caressed her with kisses that morning.

Anne flashed him a small smile before turning it onto the cheering crowd, who were in especially good spirits since they had just heard news of a great victory at Rocroi that morning. "That is what going easy on someone means," she said in a low voice. "Your interpretation has left me barely able to walk."

Reaching the carriage, Aramis wanted to tell her that she definitely wouldn't have been able to get out of bed had he not gone so easy, but just then an old man holding a bouquet of flowers fell onto the ground on the street ahead, right in the path of the carriage. A royal guard came to his side to help him up, but the man remained down on one knee, his head of white hair bowed. "My Queen!" he called out, holding the flowers up in offering.

Aramis met Anne's eyes and she nodded before holding up a hand to the guard that it was all right.

"Go inside, I'll be right back," Anne gently told Louis. She looked to d'Artagnan, who had accompanied them over. "Captain," she prompted for him to help the King up.

Resting a hand on the pommel of his sword, Aramis turned to d'Artagnan and gave a nod of his own, indicating that he would accompany Anne while d'Artagnan stayed with the King.

When he saw Anne begin her approach, Aramis a step behind, the old man grimaced and lowered his raised arm, bringing it closer to his body, and clasping his wrist with his right hand. Aramis wondered if he had sprained it when he fell, but then he noticed the man's hand move further up his sleeve...

Aramis reached out to touch Anne's arm and watched as the man diverted his eyes from Anne to him, his grimace falling away as his expression quickly changed from surprise to determination.

And then the man turned his hardened gaze back onto Anne before flinging the flowers backwards into the guard's face and then lunging upward.

"Stop!" Aramis yelled, stepping over and throwing his arm out in front of Anne to get her behind him while he began to swing his left arm over to try and make a grab at the man's hand, now brandishing a small knife that had been hidden in his sleeve.

The old man crashed into him with a surprising amount of force, knocking Aramis backwards into Anne as screams erupted from the crowd. He felt Anne grab at his waist and try to stop his fall, but the attacker's momentum and weight on top of Aramis' proved to be too much and she was pulled to the ground with them.

The attacker landed on his side next to Aramis, where he laid partially in Anne's lap. Scrambling to his knees, the man started to climb over Aramis's torso, still trying to get to Anne. Aramis tried to raise his left arm to stop him, but couldn't, so he reached around with his right and grabbed the back of the man's doublet just as the royal guard got there and did the same, wrenching the man back. The attacker got a hold on the hilt of Aramis' sword though, and pulled it out of its sheath as he was yanked back. He swung it at the royal guard's legs, slicing into the man's calf, but before he could make another move, two shots rang out and he fell to the ground.

D'Artagnan slid to his knees next to them seconds later, putting his pistol back on his belt as he did. "Majesty!"

Anne paid no attention to him though, her eyes were staring down at Aramis' midsection in horror.

He followed her gaze, and that's when Aramis saw the knife sticking out of his hand, and pinning it to his hip. Bile rose up his throat, and he closed his eyes and threw his head back as he swallowed it down. His hand was throbbing and the stinging pain was becoming increasingly sharper as his brain processed the injury.

He tried to push himself into a sitting position but immediately regretted it as the movement caused the knife to cut against his hand and side. Crying out, he fell back onto his elbow.

He heard d'Artagnan say his name and he opened his eyes to see him and Anne still looking down at him. Why was she still there? Was the King safe?

"Get! Them! Away!" he commanded d'Artagnan through gritted teeth. His brother looked at him sharply, conflict in his eyes, while Anne's head whipped towards the carriage where she had left their son. "Go," he breathed, and was relieved to see the shift from brother to captain in the blink of d'Artagnan's eyes before he went and started to pull Anne away.

It was then that Aramis caught a glimpse of the barrel of a gun behind her in a window high up overlooking the crowd.

"Go!" he urged as he tried to push himself up again. Pain erupted from his side once more but this time his cry was cut short as another shot went off and he was thrust into darkness.

A/N:

Now we're cooking with gas!

So the previous chapter was still a bit of an extension of We are the Garrison, but now we've really departed from season 3. Now, obviously, I don't have episodes to build my missing scenes off of, so I've created my own narrative, but I'm building off of and including threads from my previous installments, so I still consider it a part of my series. And while this story is very much Annamis-centric, we'll still see and hear from the rest of the guys and their respective partners. Each chapter won't correspond to an (imagined) episode as before, but I've tried to keep up the double-meaning theme with the titles as the show often did *eyes emoji* and I'll use quotes from old episodes (with the exception of the first chapter) to still hint at what's about to happen.

Hope y'all enjoy!

Historical background/inspiration:

- Chocolate had been brought over to Spain by their conquistadors from Central America, and was enjoyed and kept secret by the nobility. Most historians credit Anne with introducing the drink to the rest of Europe. "The Spanish princess Anne of Austria, daughter of King Philip of Spain, presented her husband-to-be, Louis XIII of France, with samples of chocolate in 1615. She also shared samples with other powerful men in the court. The beans, by then, had been spilled" - Kay Frydenborg, Chocolate: Sweet Science and Dark Secrets of the World's Favorite Treat

-"According to a second theory, the transmission from Spain took place when Spanish monks sent gifts of the stuff (presumably cacao tablets or bricks) to their French confrères. This is possible, but again we are dealing with pure conjecture" - Sophie and Michael Coe, The True History of Chocolate (I'm of the belief that even if Anne wasn't The First person to take chocolate outside of Spain, she was the one who made the formal introduction and spread the news about it)

-"we learn from the memoirs of the duc de Saint-Simon that Louis XIV was told by his Jesuit advisors to drink chocolate on fast days, as they did themselves, but to desist from his custom of dunking bread into it" - Sophie and Michael Coe, The True History of Chocolate

-"Every evening Mazarin met with the queen for what was called the small council. It was very small indeed, just the two of them in the queen's private cabinet, with the doors left open for the sake of decency, and her women within call" - Ruth Kleinman, Anne of Austria

-"When it became apparent that the existing buildings [of the Val-de Grâce convent] were inadequate, she [Anne] promised to pay one half the cost of a new convent. Construction on that began in 1624 with Anne herself laying the cornerstone" - Ruth Kleinman, Anne of Austria

-The Battle of Rocroi was fought on May 19th 1643, five days after Louis XIII died