162 - First Blood
*We all have our secrets. Some of us are better at keeping them. While others are well-known but never spoken of. - Porthos*
As was the tradition with the Musketeers and their friends, they went hunting a few days after Christmas. This year, Priscilla did not plan to go since she deemed her baby was still too young. Her husband took the baby, gave his wife a kiss and placed a long barrel musket in her hands.
“You missed it last year,” he told her with a gentle caress of her cheek. “You’re not missing it this year, too.”
Camille loved how the man took care of her friend. Someone needed to. Over the past year, she has learned so much about her friend. She and the musketeers knew Priscilla better than anyone else. Not even they knew how deep her depression went.
Postpartum depression had been a concern after her family had learned about her struggles. The secrets that were hidden beneath her hoodies were exposed and Camille felt guilty about not seeing it sooner. More than once, her friend would remind her that she had learned to hide, and Camille was not the only person that Priscilla had deceived.
As Camille watched Priscilla help Mitch hold the long barrel gun, she could see a difference in her friend from before and now. It was old habits and second nature that had her leaning back into Porthos’ chest as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. After a quick press of his lips against her hair, he rested his chin on the top of Camille’s head.
“She looks really good,” Camille murmured.
“She does,” he agreed. “You look really good yourself. Naughty Claus must have brought you something good this year.”
Giving a small laugh, she grinned, “Don’t know yet.”
“What?” he asked in surprise. “Why the hell not?”
“I haven’t been allowed to open them yet.”
“Allowed?” this time anger tinted his voice, and he let her go to walk towards his friend’s husband.
“Porthos,” Camille said softly as she grabbed his gloved hand.
He turned back to look at her and she flinched at the anger on his face. Stepping back closer to her, he hissed out a quiet question, “You want to give me a really good reason why he thinks he has the right to forbid you from opening something from Naughty Claus?”
“You really haven’t figured it out?” she asked him with an amused grin.
“Figured out what?” he demanded.
She gave him a small laugh, “Porthos, he’s my Dom.”
The confusion on his face had her giggling. It was obvious that although he understood what she was saying, he did not understand the complete implication. He looked from her to where her husband stood with their adoptive daughter and one of Trigg’s front-load muskets.
Looking back at Camille, he asked, “Like mohawk and tattoos Dom? Or…?”
She gave another small laugh as she blushed, “Like I’m his bratty sub, Dom. He controls what happens in the bedroom, and I consent to that. I enjoy it. You remember the whole BRAT written on the back of my thighs?”
Color drained from his face before it rushed back into his cheeks. He shook his head and gave her an embarrassed smile. Shrugging his shoulders in the thick camo jacket and high visibility safety vest, he admitted, “I never really thought about it.”
“I never thought about you being with a man,” she admitted with a smile and a cocked eyebrow.
Chuckling, he pulled his old friend into a tight hug, “It was my secret for the longest time. I knew that you guys would accept me. It was everyone else…”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and slid her cold hands under his jacket. Even with the thick gloves on, her fingers ached with the cold. The ache that would settle into her joints and bones when she was cold was not missed while she was down south. However, she did miss her friend and his hugs.
Resting her cheek against his chest, she savored being home, even with the light snow that just started to fall around them. The sound of a musket firing had them jumping in surprise. Turning to see a shocked Nicki staring off through the trees, they watched a whole range of emotions cross the teens’ face.
Schock gave way to excitement. Which was followed by a brief moment of sadness. Pride quickly followed. As she squealed, excitement settled back around her.
“Oh my God!” Nicki squealed and Darkness took the gun from her with a giant smile on his face. “Did you see that? I shot Bambi!”
“Please don’t tell my sister that,” Camille teased as she let go of Porthos and walked over to her daughter. “Now we have to dress it.”
“I don’t know if I can do that, *moeder*,” the teen admitted as they began to move to where the deer fell.
Throwing an arm around her shoulders, Porthos offered, “I’ll help you, if I can mark you for your first blood.”
“What’s that?” Nicki asked as they approached where the deer was.
Porthos, Darkness and Camille helped Nicki to ensure that the animal was put down humanely and did not suffer. The ear tag from her hunting license was attached with the appropriate information added. Camille entered the information on the state’s website for the Harvest Report. She gave Nicki the confirmation number to write on the tag.
As the deer was pulled up into the tree to finish processing, Porthos swiped his fingers through the blood. Smiling at the teen that he claimed as a niece, he used two fingers to smear the blood across her dark cheeks. Nicki scrunched her face and fought against the urge to wipe it off.
He gave her a hug and told her how proud of her he was, “You did something that yesterday you did not think that you could do. You did it. You did it well. And I am so damn proud of you.”
There was a loud bang as someone else fired their gun. Nicki jumped a little as the sound surprised her. She buried her face in his chest and refused to look up.
“I’m still proud of you,” he assured her as Camille and Darkness headed over where Priscilla was indicating that Mitch had hit a deer.
They went through the same process and Aramis insisted that he got to do the marking of the first blood. Mitch also had the same urge to clean the deer blood off his cheeks. Keeping their promise of making sure that all three kids got a deer, Clay and Athos had taken Vin off to another area to hunt. Clay called to tell them that they were headed back to the day camp with Vin’s deer.
Before they left for the day, the kids posed with their deer, the adults stood behind them and the day was memorialized with a picture taken by one of the local wildlife wardens. After checking the licenses and tags, he sent them on their way, each with a congratulatory first blood free meal ticket for a local café.
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