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[afineseamstress]

He loses track of time again.

The room is well lit, loud beyond the door and bustling with activity when doctors or nurses enter, but Aramis drifts. In that damnable basement, his only knowledge of passing minutes was the degree of his own thirst, and here in his bed, he can only count the continued ease of his breaths, and the pass of familiar calloused fingers over his own knuckles where his hands lie in the sheets.

There is some sort of brace on one of his wrists. Aramis has not yet recovered the nerve to ask if his hand can still pull a trigger, even if he could speak without effort. His head is too heavy to turn away from the sight, and Aramis shifts his eyes, fighting sleep to discern the new shape in the door.

He hopes it belongs to someone without a clipboard.

[open post if the spirit moves you]

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[theresalwayshope]

"Not much, but you know them." she sighs with a small smile as she reaches for the plastic cup, filling it from the pitcher. "You're all loyal to the end...and stubborn as mules."

Shifting a little closer, she slides a hand under the back of his head and helps him sip the water from the cup.

"And I'm pretty sure your level of stubbornness runs in direct correlation to your size...makes Porthos the worst, and you...well, still too stubborn to be allowed, but not quite as bad as Porthos."

[afineseamstress]

"The size of my what?" asks Aramis with all the innocence he can muster, for it feels good to tease her, rather than simply lie here helpless in this bed. He is exhausted beyond the telling of it, but he has spent too long alone in the dark to wish to be left to sleep.

"I'm certain you can harass them both into eating a proper meal. In fact I charge you with it - you are my only lieutenant in this matter."

[theresalwayshope]

Allison is genuinely taken back by the wisecrack, jaw dropping with a startled laugh before pretends to glare at him through her grin.

"You're gonna put me in therapy yet with dirty jokes like that." she admonished good-naturedly, feeling a strange sort of relief at being able to smile and laugh again. She hasn't, not really, since Jason left the city.

She's not surprised that Aramis is the one to return that to her.

His request she agreed to with a nod, helping him with another sip of water before she helped him ease back against the pillows.

"That's the beauty of having friends in low places." she assured him, alluding cautiously to her alter ego in a playful manner. "They can be used for intimidation...although, to be fair, it can be difficult when all of my uncles have the same friend."

Softening a little, she set the cup of water aside and leaned forward to kiss his cheek.

"I'm looking after all of you." she whispered in his ear. "I promise...at the rate my loved ones keep disappearing, you're all I have left."

[afineseamstress]

"I'm not going anywhere," Aramis promises her. He has clung to life with all he has and won more years with them - Aramis will not give that up, especially when he knows what awaits him at home. Turning his head with some effort, Aramis meets her eyes. "I promise."

He would put an arm around her if he could, but the cast on his wrist unnerves him, and he hardly has the energy besides. Left largely immobile, Aramis' thoughts race, and it occurs to him that Allison may know more than any of his brothers in Darrow.

"Allison," he says, "What do you know of Louis the XIII's son? His eldest."

[theresalwayshope]

Allison frowns a little at the strange question, but shifts back to tip her head towards the ceiling, thinking.

"Not a lot, I mean...I know a little about some of the royal family, because of you. Uhm...he held the title of dauphin as the heir to the throne when he was a baby, he was super close to Queen Anne..."

She trails off for a second, then comes alive again with fresh memory. "Oh! He was named Louis-Dieudonné, 'God-given,' because his birth was considered a miracle. Anne had, like, three or four stillborn kids before him. I guess they thought she was barren until the little guy came around. Why?"