Disclaimer: It's not mine. The characters belong to Homer and the movie rights belong to Wolfgang Peterson and Warner Bros.
A/N: I'm sorry about the slow update…school and RL keep me very busy! This chapter is the only one that I'll be using a scene from the movie…all the rest will be completely original.
Red Cloud Phoenix: It's good to hear from you! Yes, it's not all fun and games being beautiful as Helen knows. But she's got Paris now! But the world's getting in the way of their being together. But they'll do their best to find away to thwart the bad guys and let love conquer all! Good luck in school this year!
Kero: Thanks…I'm glad you liked the Oracle. She was one cool babe. Wouldn't that be a fun job to have? But I'd get tired of it after awhile I guess. Keep reading!
Sara: Wow, that was a real ego boost there, hun! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Yes I know Helen and Paris aren't the most popular pair, but I think that's because the movie didn't really center on them. Which irked me by the way…it had to all be about Achilles. Ah well, that's what fanfiction is for! I don't mind not getting that many reviews, I know that I'm writing for a few people that really enjoy it, and that's what counts. But hey, don't let that stop you from reviewing! ;)
Chocolatrouxluv: Yes, I'm going to continue this all the way. I promise! School's just being annoying right now. But during fall break I'll get a lot of fanfic stuff done (That's the Monday and Tuesday before Elizabethtown comes out on Oct. 14.) Which of course I'm looking forward to seeing and I'd love to go w/you sometime! I'm glad you liked this…yes Paris is a sweet guy, and hopefully I'm going to help him grow up a bit.
Senator Solo: Thank you so much! I put a lot into that first chapter…I researched the Delphi Oracle and all. It was really interesting…scientists say that the ground might've been emitting a gas that made her go into a trance-like state. Cool stuff. Yes the Paris/Helen parts are fun to write! I like making Helen into a strong female character because after all we don't know how she was like… Of course I can't really blame her for wanting to run off w/Paris. ;) Especially if he looked like the Bloomster. Haha that was silly…I'm really tired and slap happy. I'm going to stop typing now.
Ch. 2: The Plan
One week later
Helen lay naked on her bed, her body illuminated by candlelight. She watched her lover Paris, who was pulling on his clothes over his glistening, sweat-drenched body. The past week had been the best week of her life…every night she and Paris would find each other, not caring about the consequences if they were found out. Also their days would be spent together in the garden, or out riding away from prying eyes. Who was she to deny such powerful love? Resistance was futile, she realized so she initiated their first coupling. They'd been inseparable ever since.
"I have something for you," he told her.
From his tunic he pulled a necklace of baby pearls threaded with silver. He sat beside her in bed, comfortingly placing his arm around her shoulders.
"Here. They're pearls from the sea of Propontis." Paris gently strung the pearls around her neck.
"They're beautiful," she breathed, touched by his kind gesture.
"But I can't wear them. Menelaus would kill us both."
"Don't be afraid of him," Paris urged her.
"I'm not afraid of dying," she confessed. "I'm afraid of tomorrow, watching you sail away and knowing you'll never come back. She lightly ran her fingers across his jaw line, and across his defined cheekbones.
"Before you came to Sparta I was a ghost. I walked and I ate and I
swam in the sea, but I was a ghost. That all changed when I met you. You made me feel alive again; something I believed I'd never feel again after my marriage to Menelaus." Paris gave her a soft kiss on her brow and she sighed contentedly.
"You don't have to fear tomorrow." Helen watched him warily, unsure what he meant.
"Come with me."
"Don't play with me, prince of Troy. Don't play. Me come with you…that's impossible," she whispered. The very idea was ludicrous. But Paris wasn't about to give up.
"If you come, we'll never be safe. Men will hunt us and the gods will curse us. But I'll love you. Until the day they burn my body I will love you." Helen stared into her prince's adoring eyes, contemplating his declaration of love.
"I…I can't" she whispered. He asked her if she didn't want to leave her homeland. Sparta's Queen laughed bitterly.
"Oh Paris, that's not it at all. Sparta was never my home. My parents sent me there when I was sixteen to marry Menelaus, but it was never my home."
"Then it should be easy for you to leave a place that you hate, one that you never called home. Please come with me tomorrow, when Hector and I sail for Troy." He looked at her, pleading with his doe eyes. But she sadly shook her head.
"Menelaus will know where I've gone; he won't leave us alone until he's found me. He'll
track us to the end of the world." Paris began to protest, but she gently cut him off.
"You don't know Menelaus. You don't know his brother, King Agamemnon. They'll use us as an excuse to finally go to war with your country. Even Troy cannot withstand the onslaught of all the armies of unified Greece. I will not be responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people." Paris looked at her, hurt by her words, even if they spoke rationally.
"Does my love mean nothing to you, then?" Helen closed her eyes in anguish.
"Your love means everything to me. I've never before had a more enticing offer – I'd love nothing more than to leave this wretched place and Menelaus." She re-opened her eyes and pulled Paris to her, as if emphasizing her point. They clung to each other for a long moment, staying silent until he whispered his confusion.
"Then what's stopping you? I'd give you everything you ever wanted, Helen. I swear I'd be faithful; we could start a family together and live in the comforts of my father's palace…"
"Oh Gods," she whimpered. "This is what she meant. You are my temptation." Helen then told Paris all about her visit with the Delphi oracle. Paris stared at her in consternation.
"Troy is the patron country of Apollo. Isn't it?" He looked at her in surprise.
"How did you know?"
"The oracle…" she trailed off.
"If I went with you, Menelaus would use my 'abduction' as the perfect excuse to start a war with Troy. He'd go running to his brother Agamemnon, who has wanted to destroy and conquer your country for years. Agamemnon would summon an army of Greeks so large that not even your skilled army could repel them from Troy's shores."
"The oracle mentioned this?" he asked, skeptically.
"In a round about way, yes she did. She prophesized that I'd have to make a most difficult choice. I won't be selfish and make the wrong decision." She kissed him again. "Now do you understand why I can't go with you to Troy?" Paris nodded slowly.
"I do, love. I don't want to start a war either – but I can't give up on us that easily." He held Helen's hand, grasping it firmly. "I won't. You shouldn't have to be alone."
"We can't be together in this life without causing destruction; we might as well face it," Helen stated, all the while trembling in his arms.
"It's not fair," said Paris, frustrated. "I wish you weren't a queen, but someone whose presence wouldn't be missed. Then you could come with me without any dire consequences following us." Helen stopped shaking and sat straight up.
"That's it!" she squeaked. "That's how I can go to Troy!"
"What?" Paris looked at her hopefully.
"I simply won't be queen anymore." She gave a very confused Paris a long kiss. "Thanks to your comment, I have a brilliant beyond brilliant idea.
"Please tell me," he urged.
"Alright, but first off I need your word that you'll return for me – in order for us not to cause a war I can't leave with you tomorrow."
"I'd wait forever for you."
"Paris!" she giggled, rolling her eyes at his ardent declaration.
"Well, I would!" he insisted. "Are you making fun of me?" He stuck out his lower lip into the most adorable pout.
"Never," said Helen, still chuckling. "So here's my plan. You will sail home with your brother as planned. Menelaus and I will send you off, so there can be no way he can blame the Trojans when I disappear."
"Hold on," Paris said slowly. "So you're just going to disappear? Won't that look suspicious?"
"No dear, Paris, where's your sense of imagination? I'm going to commit suicide!" she told him brightly. His confusion turned to admiration as she explained her plan.
"…after I fake my own death, I'll hide out in the city somewhere. Menelaus will never come looking for me if he thinks me dead. And then you'll return to Sparta and…"
"I'll bring you home," he finished. "It's brilliant. But how will I find you?"
"Come to the palace and ask for Penelope. She'll lead me to you. She's the only one who can help us…I know she will." Helen didn't seem completely convinced. Paris thought hard and came up with a solution to their dilemma.
"Would it help if I left a letter for her, promising to return for you?" Helen looked at him gratefully.
"Oh, would you?" He just smiled at her lovingly. Helen grinned back.
"Okay lover boy, start writing." Paris did, but in the middle of writing, he paused.
"Could you do the same for me? Explain to Hector about all this?" Helen raised her eyebrows at him.
"I don't know…the less people we tell the better. Are you sure we can trust your brother?" Paris nodded firmly.
"He will be happy that I'm finally going to settle down. I promise you, he'll be on our side. All the same, I'm going to wait until we reach Troy to tell him."
"Then I shall write to him." All was quiet except for the scratching of quills against papyrus and the slight whistling of the wind.
"Mm, Paris, could you close that window all the way? It's a bit drafty in here," Helen pointed out.
"Sure, love." Paris signed his letter with a flourish and closed the window with a faint clunk. It wasn't long before Helen had completed hers as well. They stared at each other not wanting to say the inevitable.
"This isn't goodbye, you know," she said, holding back tears. "We'll see each other soon." She melted into his waiting arms and he stroked the back of her head, lovingly smoothing her stray golden strands away from her face. Helen never wanted to leave his safe embrace, but she knew that in order for them to be together she had to let him go. No matter how much it tore her apart inside.
"I'll miss you every moment of everyday that we're apart," Paris solemnly vowed.
"I love you, Paris," she breathed into his ear.
"You know I love you." They indulged in one last passionate kiss, leaving Helen as dizzy as ever. The forbidden lovers held each other for awhile until she finally broke away, allowing him to slip away into the night unnoticed.
At least they thought Paris' arrival and departure went unnoticed. Unbeknownst to them, most of their conversation had been overheard when the window was left cracked open. The manservant Darius cackled evilly as he wondered how he could benefit the most from telling this information to his master, King Menelaus.
"Queen Helen is having an affair with on of the Trojans that we've made a peace agreement with? This is just too perfect," he mused aloud. "The queen will most definitely be punished and that little weakling Trojan Prince will be killed before his brother's eyes!" He laughed coldly, not concerned about anything other than getting his reward.
"I'll go straight to the King, that's what I'll do!" Darius skipped around his room, which was just under the one that Paris and Helen had shared. In his mind he was already planning how to spend his reward money. Unfortunately for him, his greed had made him careless, as he was completely oblivious to someone stalking him down the corridor to the King's chambers. Before he knew what happened, Darius felt a club to his head, an explosion of pain, and then felt nothing.
"Help me take him away," the attacker asked his companion under his breath. Two men grabbed the unconscious servant and removed him from sight. "Not a word to anyone about this." The other man agreed.
The next morning was pure torture for Helen. She had to go down to the docks to see Paris and Hector off, and she couldn't show any emotion! Her sweet Paris was leaving and she couldn't run to him. Walking next to her husband, she inwardly coached herself to act normally when Paris spoke to her. That was going to be tough because Paris had made her forget what normal meant. It had not been a normal week, and their secret meetings were no ordinary love affair.
"Goodbye dear friends and colleagues." Hector spoke with all of the authority that the crown prince should wield. "It has been a pleasure setting up this peace treaty." All of the Greeks murmured a farewell; many were sad to see him go as he'd been an excellent mediator during the peace talks.
"Thank you for an unforgettable visit to your fair country," commented Paris. "I've learned much over the past week." They both stepped onto their ship amidst loud cheers from the crowd. Helen had to stifle the urge to roll her eyes…trust Paris to say something like that. Well his visit certainly was unforgettable, he's not lying! She inwardly thanked him for trying to lighten the mood when he left her. Then the ropes were untied and slowly but surely, the Trojan ship drifted away from Sparta.
When their faces could no longer be seen, Menelaus signaled for the crowd to return to the palace. Helen found Penelope and was able to wrestle her away from her husband without too much trouble. Odysseus merely nodded at her and went back to his intense discussion with his countryman. Bursting to the seams with her secret, Helen dragged her cousin back to the privacy of the women's quarters.
"Alright, out with it," said Penelope. "You've been acting strange all week… what's going on?" Helen reached for her cousin's hand and Penelope squeezed it. "You can tell me, Helen." Still, the Spartan Queen hesitated.
"I'm in love." Penelope's hand flew to her mouth, covering it in shock.
"Oh no, Helen. Who has deluded you into thinking they love you?"
It's not like that! We love each other more than anything." Penelope winced. She'd seen too many young girls' hearts be broken by men after their wealth or power, etc.
"Who is it, Helen? Who has made you risk everything and break your marriage vows?" she asked, dreading the answer. Helen looked her straight in the eye.
"Paris. I'm in love with Prince Paris."
End Ch. 2
Wow that took me forever to write. Hopefully the next update won't be so long! I love you all!