Homeward

Chapter Seven

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My heart is beating from me

I am standing all alone

Please call me only

If you are coming home

- 'Homecoming' by Green Day

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"Alexander, be reasonable!" Cassander's fist landed with a demanding thud on the surface of the table. "You are acting a fool and slowly destroying your own army!"

The King surveyed his general like one watching a child throw a tantrum.

"So you call your King a fool now, Cassander?" He asked.

It was Nearchus who spoke up next, "We all know you are not a fool, Sire. But you are doing a pretty impressive imitation of one."

Alexander looked about the room where his generals had cornered him. They stood around the table he was seated at and stared at him with stony faces.

They thought they had surprised him. But he knew this was coming. He knew that they would come to doubt, come to question, come to challenge him.

Ptolemy came forward, "Alexander, we know that you have lost someone dear, but lingering in this place is only putting a strain on supplies, agitating the men, and putting the forces as a whole at great risk."

The King sighed, "I know what you say is true. But I don't think you realize how true your words are. I have lost someone. Hephaestion is lost. Not dead."

Cleitus burst forward in a surge of frustrated anger, "Hephaestion is gone, Alexander! We have no reason to believe him alive! It is daft to wait here like a herd of cattle waiting for the slaughter! If it had been anyone else-"

"It was not anyone else!" Alexander suddenly snapped.

His tone silenced the whole room.

He continued, "I can hardly believe how disgusted I am by you. All of you. You are worried about what I have lost, but you forget what you have lost. Your comrade, your companion, your brother in arms. Did you all not ride into battle with him at your side? And you are willing to give up on him so easily? Give him time."

'Wait for me.' The words floated through his mind as if Hephaestion were there, whispering them into his ear.

"It is not something we want to do, Alexander. But it is the only logical course of action." Ptolemy spoke gently to the angry and troubled man.

Alexander shook his head.

"We remain here for a dead man." Craterus said, a little harshly.

Alexander fixed him under a cold stare, "We remain here until the King gives the order to move. I stay, and the army stays with me."

"Perhaps not."

The whisper filled with a certain venom reached Alexander's ears and he sat up straight as a rod and pinned the speaker under his gaze.

"You talk of mutiny, Cassander?" He seethed, "You best watch that tongue of yours, boy. For I have little patience for it, you traitorous swine."

Cassander's face was red with anger and frustration. And he took no heed of the warning, slamming another fist down he yelled, "We are waiting for a ghost!"

"I have been called many things my lifetime, but 'ghost' is definitely a first."

Every head in the room swiveled around to the entrance where the voice that spoke those words had come from.

And there he stood, the red light of the setting sun streaming in behind him, creating a dramatic shadow around his form. He looked like a mixture between a hero of the myths and a valiant, battle-worn warrior of the Poet's epics.

His hair, long and matted, was caked in dirt and sweat. Grime covered his skin; and perspiration gleamed on his brow, mixed with the blood streaming from a newly reopened head wound. His clothing hung on his dramatic, muscular frame torn and soiled and the bandages wound around his leg were filthy and awash with blood.

But his head was held high, and his eyes shone bright and clear.

The whole room seemed to hang in suspended animation. Until someone breathed, "Hephaestion."

Then the entire assembly lurched forward towards the resurrected man.

What seemed like a thousand voices rose up at once, exclamations and questions of disbelief. Hephaestion was pulled into the room and embraced by the whole of it. Some clapped him on the back as if to affirm if he were really there.

But suddenly the din waned and the throng that encircled the lost General separated. Alexander came forward and stood a few feet away.

Hephaestion's focus had been jumping sporadically around, but now it suddenly landed and was completely monopolized.

The two stared at each other for a very long moment in the hushed silence of the crowded room.

But the audience melted away into the fuzzy edges of a dream as they moved together, Alexander walking, Hephaestion hobbling. Each one's heart hammered against their ribs, their breath frantic with anticipation.

Finally they stood nose to nose. Both of their eyes were holding the same expression; a knowing sort of wonder, like seeing something you have been waiting your entire life for and finding it to be even better than you could have imagined.

The King reached a single hand out and rested it against his Phai's chest just above his heart to make sure it was still beating strong and true. Hephaestion reached both grimy hands out and placed them on either side of his Xander's face and brought his lover's forehead forward to meet his own.

And they rested there; forehead to forehead, eyes closed, breathing in each other's breath, just existing together.

"I knew you would come." Alexander sighed, barely audible.

"I knew you would wait." Hephaestion answered.

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Alexander paced like an anxious dog as the physician looked over Hephaestion's wounds.

He would stop every so often, sigh in exasperation that the physician was not telling him anything, and then resume wearing a trail in the floor. Sometimes he would bite his lip and suck in his breath at the sight of his Phai's pieced together leg.

They were in Alexander's own quarters, where the King had ordered him to be taken once the two had pulled away from their long moment of reunion.

Alexander had taken a small step back, looked his General up and down once, and then snapped at the rest of the room, "Go get a doctor, you idiots!"

And now said doctor allayed all of Alexander's fears and told him that Hephaestion had been well cared for early on in his injuries and would be perfectly fine. He was now just suffering from the early stages of starvation and thirst, as well as exhaustion. The physician also looked a little annoyed when Hephaestion handed him the herbs that had been prescribed to him by a rival medic.

A bath was drawn for him, and Alexander helped him scrub at his hair to restore it to its former glory. Hephaestion ran his finger gently over the neat rows of stitches covering his leg and swallowed back the emotion that rose in his throat.

An hour later, Hephaestion was clean, his stomach was full, his wounds were bandaged, and his eyelids were heavy.

He slipped easily between the blankets of Alexander's wide bed, and then just as easily into the same man's arms. They held each other so close that each lost track of his own skin.

"Will you tell me what happened?" The King whispered through the soft darkness.

"Yes," Hephaestion answered with a smile at his love's impatience, "But in the morning. Right now, just hold me."

They nestled more securely into each other's embrace and were taken by Hypnos, dreaming of the open, grassy field where they had once lain together under the same radiant sun, except this time they were in each other's arms.


This is the last 'official chapter' only the epilogue left. Honestly it kinda depresses me that its almost over. I have had sooo much fun writing this!

Lyrics are from "Homecoming" by Green Day, a special band for me.

This was a rather short chapter, but I hope you liked Phai's dramatic entrance...in my head it was SO badass! :D

Lots-a-love for those that reviewed last chapter! Thanks you guys!

Reviews make my world go round, so let me know what you think!

xxcrazymacxx