John sat back, nodding at the end of Anna's story. "I can't imagine what you're going through right now."

"It's part of the reason I came to Beijing. To escape it all." Anna's fingers tightened on her abdomen. "I probably shouldn't have been competing when I'm four months pregnant but I qualified for this competition long before I knew I was and…"

She let out a sigh. "By the time I realized what it was, and confirmed it, it was too late to drop out."

"You'll get no judgment for me." John arranged himself on the bed, carefully to keep the distance he could between Anna and himself. "What'll you do now?"

"I've no idea." Anna put both hands to the sides of her head and pushed back into her hair, following the trail of it to her neck. "I thought I'd come here and clear my head… Or get someone to kick some sense into me but…"

"Tragedy of being the best isn't it?" Anna raised an eyebrow and John shrugged. "You're so good at kicking the shit out of everyone else they can't compete."

"Double edged sword." Anna nodded. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"What are you going to do now?"

"Raise her." John pointed toward the other room. "And try to balance being a single father with a very demanding job."

"Good luck."

"Thank you very much."

"I was being genuine." Anna bit the inside of her cheek. "Parenting's not for everyone, if we're being honest."

"No, it's not." John paused, "It could be for you, you never know."

"I don't want to test it out just to discover I'm shit at it." Anna chewed at the insides of her cheeks. "This child doesn't deserve that."

"Maybe you deserve the chance to try." John shrugged and looked over the bed. "But that's none of my business, at the end of the day."

"I probably shouldn't have put you to-"

"No," John held up a hand. "Whatever you needed from me, I just hope I could give it… In whatever form you needed."

"I think you've gone above and beyond your duties as my fake husband." Anna slid down the bed, resting almost perfectly still as she settled on the pillows. "I am curious about one thing though."

"What's that?" John struggled to match her level of comfort and held back of huff of disappointment when he had to scoot the chair away from the bed to make sure his leg had room but left a strip of his under calf exposed.

"What book was your daughter reading that she thought I looked like a fairy?"

"Oh," John snorted a laugh, dragging a hand over his face. "It's… It's a children's story. Something about a Fairy Queen. Or a woman who became a Fairy Queen when she married a fairy prince or something. It's a few years old now but the author's some women living in Scotland who got inspired by the stories of changeling children or something."

"She's Scottish?"

"I think she's married to someone who's Scottish but I've no idea."

"Huh." Anna mused a second and John forced himself to continue staring at the ceiling instead of risking looking over at her. "I think I read that one."

Now he could not help himself, "You read children's books?"

"I teach a children's wu shu class two nights a week. I'm informed on a number of recent developments in the world of children's literature." Anna settled, her eyes falling closed as she steadied her breathing. "It's soothing."

"It was definitely more age-appropriate for her than Gladiator."

"Gladiator?"

"Yes."

Anna almost sat up, half twisting to turn toward him. "As in the movie that won the Oscars and had Russell Crowe in it?"

"Yeah." John cringed, "She's in love with it. Rome's her favorite subject now. After fairies, of course."

"You let her watch that?"

"She watched it on TV when she was here in Beijing." John shrugged into the unforgiving mattress. "Her nanny didn't speak much English and the TV content here is highly edited so…"

"So?"

"So her nightmares didn't last very long and once they stopped she found it highly educational. I think, anyway."

"She's not even five."

"I wasn't there." John held up his hands in surrender, even with them both laying horizontally. "And she's the kind of obsessed a child gets about things."

"Those weren't the things that obsessed me as a child." Anna shook her head, eyes closing again. "I was still obsessed with horses at that stage."

"Regular horse-girl were you?"

"Every girl is." Anna's breathing steadied again but John could not stop himself watching the peace that came over her face. "Everyone wants a bit of freedom a horse promises. The idea of a gentle friend with power. That's intoxicating to a girl."

"Do you still want that?"

Anna's eyes opened but they focused on the ceiling. "No. Freedom wasn't for me in that way. Not the freedom I need."

John opened his mouth but closed it again, turning his head on the pillow to face the ceiling. "I wonder what kind of freedom I need."

"We all do."

They stayed silent, John losing his thoughts in the sounds of Anna's steady breathing until he recognized she finally fell asleep. It took him a bit longer, the dimensions of the bed and the ratio of space to the chair he used to elongate the comfort space for his leg proving less than adequate, but eventually he joined her in sleep. The discomfort of the bed aside, John could not claim it as restful as he found himself waking every few hours to ensure he had not breached the invisible line that he enforced to ensure he did not encroach on her space. But it left him exhausted and in the early hours of the morning he forced himself up enough to reattached his prosthetic and work his way back out into the sitting room.

The arrangement was not much better but he did find a few more hours stretched between the chair and the ottoman. Mostly the rest came from the steady breathing of Emmy on the sofa. Even her occasional snuffles and the snorting snores of a child sleeping set John dozing again. Dozing into dreams where he found himself sleeping next to Emmy's crib as a baby. Or holding her in the hours of sleep when she had insisted only his rocking her would do to keep her peacefully snoring.

When John opened his eyes, sneaking slits of light escaping through the gaps in the curtains to blind him momentarily like nature's unique torture, he pushed himself up and readjusted his prosthetic so it would not chafe. All the while he tried not to wake Emmy as she slept, face mashed into the blankets with her body contorted into positions bound to leave John sore and stiff for weeks. A check to his watch confirmed the hour still early so John shuffled quietly into the bedroom and stopped when he noted Anna already up.

She turned, her hands pausing in a form he thought might be yoga, to meet his eyes. "You were up earlier than me."

"The bed proved unfriendly." John shrugged, leaving the door cracked to hear if Emmy woke up. "The chair wasn't much better."

"If you'll be here for the better part of a week then you should see if they've got a bigger bed for you." Anna returned to her motions, dipping low and drawing back as if to imitate the stance of a praying mantis. "And a real bed for Emmy."

"What about you?"

"I think I should get my own room." Anna drew upright again, bringing one of her legs up to a stance before kicking out so slowly John marveled at the muscle control it took her to then contort into another form. "One where you're not afraid to move on the bed."

He cringed, "You noticed that?"

"I'm… I've become a lighter sleeper." Anna met his eyes, shrugging in the middle of her set before returning to a static pose and letting out a breath to signal her finish. "I think you were nervous."

"It's been a bit since I slept in the same bed as a woman."

"And what I told you didn't exactly leave a gentleman, like yourself, comfortable admitting what could happen in the dark of the night?"

John nodded, "I hope I didn't offend you."

"I thought it rather sweet, actually, and a bit awkward." Anna bent, stretching out. "But I guess that's what you deal with when you meet a complete stranger."

"I wouldn't call us strangers anymore." John sat on the edge of the bed and nodded at her. "What kind of yoga was that?"

"No kind of yoga since it was tai chi." Anna stretched out one leg and then the other before pulling into a set of splits. "It's relaxing and I do it every morning to help me wake myself up."

"Do you also run five miles?"

"Some days." Anna gave him a little smile. "Why, suspicious about something?"

"There's a saying that the people who run to wake themselves up in the morning are usually serial killers or something."

"You're in luck, I'm not." Anna finished and folded her legs toward herself to face him from the floor. "But I do think I should get my own room."

"I don't mind sharing."

"Then you'll allow me to demand a larger bed, a better bed for Emmy, and split costs?" Anna watched him and John relented, sagging slightly as he nodded. "Good. I was afraid you were about to suggest something noble."

"I was but…" John clacked his teeth together. "Not about that."

"No?" Anna frowned and stood. "About what?"

"In my dozing in the sitting room I had… It's a half-baked idea and not one I've considered long so it's not supposed to be offensive but if it is offensive and you-"

"I'd rather you tell me without an introduction that'll just make me more nervous than I already am."

John took a breath and met Anna's eyes, noting the way her arms folded over her chest. "I'd like to suggest a solution to your pregnancy."

"If you're talking about an abortion-"

"No, I wasn't. If that's your choice then…" John trailed off before abandoning the tangent entirely to return to his former comment. "I'm talking about a private adoption."

"You know someone who wants a baby?"

"Me." John held her gaze as Anna looked as if she might laugh a moment before her face grew serious. "I'd be willing to adopt your baby."

"You can't be serious."

"As a global pandemic."

Anna eyed him, her jaw shifting for a second and her arms tightening around her. "Why? Because I won't take charity and if this-"

"Because I always wanted children. Getting Vera to agree to have Emmy was like pulling teeth and…" John let out a sigh, "She's my world. I love her to death and if she was all I had that would be enough. But Emmy deserves more than just me in her life. She's always wanted a sibling and since that's no longer possible with her mother and I…"

"I feel very convenient right now."

"Not at all." John shook his head, "I'd call it fortunate circumstance, for me."

"Because you happened to find the only pregnant woman in this country who speaks English and isn't sure about her baby?"

"Because if I tried to do this the old-fashioned way, through adoption or even trying to meet someone and marry them and have a child with them, that would take years. Years Emmy would be too young to appreciate and then, when she did have a sibling, she'd be so much older that…" John stopped himself, shaking his head. "You're right. The longer I say this out loud the more ridiculous and offensive it sounds."

He held up his hands, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."

"I think…" Anna took the chair John abandoned as a support to his leg the night before and finally sat, leaning toward John. "I think you're not telling me everything about why you'd want to adopt my baby."

"I…" John met her eyes again, nodding. "I was out there, listening to Emmy breathing, and I remembered what it was like when she was small. Smaller than now, I mean. When she could curl into one of my arms and sleep there. When I could hold her close as she slept and just listen to her breathing. And… And I wanted that again."

Anna stayed silent a moment before leaning back in the chair. "I don't think I've ever met a man who was baby hungry before. It's normally only something women get."

"I think men get it more than we realize but they aren't comfortable admitting it."

"True." Anna sighed, running her fingers down the stitching on the arms of the chair. "But I'm not offended by your offer, if that worried you."

"I didn't want it to come off like I was saving you from something."

"You are, in a way, but it didn't come off that way." Anna shrugged. "But why not try adopting when you're back in England. Or from here, even?"

"What adoption agency, in their right mind, approves the adoption of a child to a single-father?" John waited but Anna biting the inside of her cheek told him everything. "I fought for three years to get sole custody of Emmy for almost the same reasons. The government almost trust her alcoholic, abusive mother over me because, as a man, I represent a high risk for being a pedophile or something."

"The same government that wouldn't have believed you if you'd claimed she abused you?" John nodded and Anna let out a breath. "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry that there's no law in England that says a woman can rape a man. The worst you could ever get her for is sexual assault." John shook his head, "It's all cocked up. Has been for a long time and it made the fight just to keep Emmy a herculean effort. In the end I don't think they would've awarded me custody if Vera hadn't committed technical kidnapping by bringing her here to Beijing."

"And now you want to complicate being a single father by adopting another child? And this one comes with diapers, midnight feeds, and irregular sleep schedules."

"I never minded those. I do most of my work virtually anyway and I can set my own hours." John leaned back on the bed. "It's the benefit of being your own boss."

"I thought you built plane engines."

"I do, as an aeronautic engineer."

Anna snorted a little laugh, shaking her head. "And here you were all worried about feeling under accomplished next to me."

"I don't wake up at the crack of dawn to practice tai chi."

"Fair." Anna rubbed her palms against the legs of her pajama trousers. "Then you could take on the obligations of a newborn?"

"I could." John chewed the inside of his cheek a moment. "And, if you'd like, it would be an open adoption. You'd have access to your baby and still be its mother."

"You'd do that?"

"I'd even make it more of a legal guardianship if you wanted."

"You would?"

John nodded, "If your worry is that you don't feel adequate in the raising of your child because you've no experience then… Then you're like a million other parents out there. But if your worry is something else, something a bit more mental than physical, perhaps being physically separated from the baby would allow you the healing you'd need to really be its mother when you were ready."

"I'd want that." Anna dropped her gaze to her hands, John noting how her fingers curled in and out of one another. "I'd want to be ready for that someday."

"I think you will be. When the circumstances are better." John stopped tilting his head toward the door. "I think she's about ready to be up."

"What happens then?"

"Chaos, I'd imagine." John pushed himself to his feet. "I'll take a minute in the bathroom, if that's alright, and then see about the breakfast situation here."

"I doubt they've got the kind of thing you'd feed her at home."

"She's flexible with food."

"Really?" Anna raised an eyebrow. "No child I've ever met in my life is anything less than a picky eater."

"Emmy's picky about other things." John gestured toward the bathroom. "Unless you've got anything-"

"No," Anna waved her hand. "It's all yours. You've got to suit up for battle and I'm going to go through my routine again."

"Perfect." John grabbed his things and moved to the bathroom, "Won't be a minute."


Roman Spain – Distant Past

He held the rope with enough slack to allow the animal to circle in the pen but not enough so a quick tightening of his fingers would not tug the rope taut. Small puffs of dust came up at each careful placement of the horse's hooves and he tracked the beast with his eyes while keeping a careful watch over the boy riding on its back. Only a bridle kept the boy attached the animal as its massive sides bulged out enough to spread the boy's much smaller legs out.

"Keep a good grip. Let him move his head and choose the pace but do not allow him to forget who is in control. You are the master and he is the servant. Treat him well and he will respect you." He let more of the rope loose, stepping back to give the horse more distance to roam the pen as the boy's fingers tightened on the reins to guide the horse's direction. "Good. Now pull him to a stop and remember, dig in enough with your heels so he knows that you are sure. Do not be tentative with him."

The boy pulled firmly on the reins and the horse stopped. Smiling, the man looped the slack in the rope into his hands and came to the horse's side. He patted there gently before removing the bridle and nodding at the boy. "Now, climb down."

In the end it was more of a sliding motion but the boy landed on both bare feet, kicking up a plume of dust as he did. Handing the bridle and the rope to a younger man, the older one patted the boy on the shoulder and pointed him out of the pen. "You did very well today. Better than the last time you tried to ride him."

"He did not try to buck me this time Father."

"Last time you rode him without me nearby. Had you tried that again he would have taken you for a thief and attempted to crush you with his hooves." The man stopped the boy. "You do understand, Adrian, that Aarón is trained for battle. He is not a toy. No animal is. We respect them and use them for our work, not for play."

Adrian nodded, "I understand."

"Good." He clapped the boy on the shoulder and guided him toward the house. "One day you'll ride the seed of Aarón. You'll sit on the back of a charger and lead armies in the name of Rome."

"Do not fill the head of my son with visions of war." A woman's voice chided at them, coming from a vineyard and handing her basket to another woman. "I'll have none of it in my house or at my table. Do you understand husband?"

"I live only to serve the lady of the house." He bowed before her, sharing a smile with the giggling Adrian before the woman's hand shoved slightly at his shoulder.

"I'll have none of your false modesty here, Juan." She turned to Adrian, "Prepare yourself for supper. We're expecting guests so find something suitable to wear."

"Yes mother." He bounded off into the house, the echoes of his feet on the tiles reaching back to his parents.

"Are you truly so worried that he'll grow up to be like me?" Juan took his wife in his arms, rocking her slightly and ignoring the chittering giggles from the girls leaving the vineyard as they watched them. "That he'd be a warrior?"

"I only worry that war would last so long and that the world would not be done with it." She flicked some of his hair out of his eyes. "I know why the Senator arrives here this evening. I know that he brings General Robertus with him and they'll ask you to join the fight in Gaul."

"It will not be long, Ana." He took her hands, kissing them. "I won't let them keep me away from you for that long."

"Will you have a choice?" She sighed, looking over their house and grounds. "All this is a gift for your skills. If you refused we would lose it all."

"I would give up the world and live in a shack with only pigs for company if it meant I made you happy for even a day." He kissed her hands again, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. "How long until the Senator and the General arrive?"

"Not long. One of our guides met them on the road. The forward messenger arrived not long before you finished teaching Adrian to ride." She paused, her eyes narrowing. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I feel my wife might be afraid that I've neglected her." Juan leaned forward, running his lips along the edge of her jaw as Ana's fingers dug into the fabric of his shirt. "And I would hate to prove a disappointment to her."

"Is that so?" She made a show of looking around them before guiding both into the house. "Then, General, I am sure there are ways you can prove yourself to me."

"I am your servant." He trailed her into their room, drawing the curtains before pivoting them to put Ana's back against the nearest wall. "What would the lady have me do? I eagerly await your command."

"And here I thought the good General could interpret the needs of his lady." She let her fingers track up his arms before skimming the back of his neck. "It would be such a shame if he had to be commanded in all things."

"Then allow me to investigate." He leaned into her, retracing the path his lips already took along her jaw. "Tell me if I miss something."

"I am sure you will be thorough."

Juan let his hands run down Ana's torso to her hips, slipping over the skirt of her dress to pull one of her legs up and over his hip. She gasped slightly when he settled his weight onto her and pushed more firmly against her. It only made him grin as he ghosted his lips over hers.

"Is this what my lady desires?"

"Yes." She breathed against him, her fingers firming against the skin at the back of his neck before digging her nails into his shoulders to draw him closer. "Please continue."

He did not respond with words. Instead he brought their lips together, kissing her deeply when her tongue graced the edge of his bottom lip. They guided one another along as their hands tugged and yanked at cloth preventing them from feeling the skin of the other. And once they were skin to skin, Juan took his lips from Ana's mouth to leave a trail of kisses down her body.

Tracing her breasts, lavishing them with affection as her fingers dug furrows into his hair, and running to her abdomen as his hands ran over her thighs. With wordless urging he managed her leg over his shoulder and buried himself between her folds. Her fingers tightened in his hair, guiding his speed and direction until she quivered and trembling about him. But it left her just lax enough that his swift stance lifted her against the wall and wrapped her legs about his hips. A moment later he entered her.

They slowed. Taking a moment to bask in one another as the long, deep strokes of him inside her brought Ana back from the pinnacle. Her grip on his hips tightened and she took his face in her hands to kiss him again as she gyrated her hips against him, using the wall behind her for the leverage she needed to meet his increasingly desperate thrusts. And with his hands occupied holding her open to him and pressing along her sensitive nerves, he could only surrender to her kisses.

When she nipped at his bottom lip, Juan sped up. His thrusts drove just as deeply and his fingers pressed all the more furiously against her as Ana's breath caught in her throat. The keening noises that escaped could not be contained by kisses that would rob him of the air necessary to continue so Juan pressed his forehead against her shoulder. Driving into her, his fingers digging into her skin in direct proportion to the scratch of her nails across his shoulders, Juan scrunched his eyes as her vaginal walls clung to him. Clung to him and clenched as if to wring his climax from him.

So he gave in to it. Releasing with a grunt and half-muffled groan into her damp skin, Juan sagged into his final thrusts as his fingers artlessly sought to encourage Ana with him. She followed, not as powerfully as before, and held tightly to him as they slumped against the wall that now bore the spots of damp from their exertions.

"My husband never disappoints." She sighed into his ear, her fingers trailing out of his hair as they untangled and worked themselves the few steps required to reach their bed. The ropes held under their weight as they lay across it, chest rising and falling in sync with one another. "Which is why you will accept their offer."

Juan sat up enough to see Anna's face. "We do not know they will even make an offer, Ana. Let us not be foolish enough to count chickens that have yet to hatch."

"Why else would they come all this way?" Ana sat as well, taking Juan's hand. "They need you. General Robertus needs you."

"And the Senator?" Juan raised an eyebrow at Ana. "Do not think I do not know what his presence will mean."

"If you believe he intends to drag you away so he might seduce me himself," Ana kissed Juan's hand before standing. "Then you have not met my husband."

"And what would a husband have to say about his wife when he is in Gaul and she is here?" Juan leaned back on his arms, watching Ana move about their room.

"Whether my husband is beside me, inside me, or far from me it is no different." Ana picked their clothing off the floor and draped it over a chair before coming back to where Juan waited. "No one could lure me from you."

"Not even a Senator?"

"He could be Emperor Aurelius himself and I would refuse him all the same." Ana moved her hand through his hair again. "I chose you and only you."

"I was lucky you even looked twice at me."

"It was hard not to." Ana bit her lip, her eyes flicking down a second before meeting Juan's again. "You always stood a little taller when I was there."

"How could I not?" Juan let one of his fingers catch a lock of her hair, escaped from her carefully maintained headpiece. "When you shined like the Goddess Venus herself?"

"I always preferred Minerva." Ana drew away, "The wisdom of a woman to wage war on her own terms is a very heady thought."

"What of Diana?" Juan asked as Ana moved away from the bed and toward their washcloset, selecting a towel as she entered the room.

"What of her?"

Juan moved quickly, closing the distance between them and wrapping Ana with his arms from behind as she bent to check the water. "She's a huntress. Always managing to acquire her prey."

"Are you my prey?" She shivered in his grip as his hands moved over her again. One sliding to cover the delicate folds between her legs as the other crossed her chest to knead carefully at her breasts. "I feel rather like yours."

"We are both hunter and prey in this game." He kissed behind her ear. "I was at your mercy the first time I accepted an invitation to dine at your father's house."

"And I at yours when you offered your hand to me." Her hand covered his and guided it further between her legs, spreading them to offer more of herself. "And that first night… When we had to be so quiet."

"I was nervous." Juan kissed where her neck met her shoulder. "I had never bedded a woman before."

"You have improved with experience." Ana gasped out as his fingers worked deeper inside her. "And I have been the sole beneficiary."

"To my great pleasure."

"I rather think it is to mine." She tensed under his efforts as Juan sought the delicate bundle of nerves inside her. "More times than I can count."

"I am sure," Juan kissed over her spine and back to her neck, "There is a god who keeps count of these things."

"Whatever god of love does, they could learn from you." Ana let her head fall back onto Juan's shoulder and they turned their heads to kiss as she came in his arms.

"Or from you." He slid his fingers from her, bringing them to his mouth as he broke the kiss. "You prove a capable temptress."

"You are too easy to seduce." Ana gasped out as Juan pivoted them to the wall, her hands pressing against the tile until his joined hers there, slotting between her fingers.

"As do you." He ran himself along her slick folds, moaning into her skin when she twisted against him.

"Finish it."

Juan thrust forward, one of his hands abandoning its position at the tile to hold to Ana's hip. Faster than before they moved together. Noises from outside, calls of servants and the pounding of hooves alerting them to their lack of time. But it only heightened the desperation and sensations they shared as they moved and moaned with one another. It took only a few thrusts for Juan to surrender, Ana's fingers taking over for his flagging ones to bring her with him in the last throes of their passion.

He kissed over her back and shoulders as he recovered, sliding from her carefully to lead them both into the bath. One where they basked in the pleasant kisses the cool water encouraged. Basked until they heard the voices of their servants at their door and sighed back to their duties. Duties that had Juan fixing the delicate trappings of Ana's hair and she fitting his ceremonial armor to him.

Taking her hand, before she could draw the curtains aside, Juan kissed it. "Whatever happens, I'll never leave you."

"Nor I, you." She put her hand to his cheeked and kissed him before drawing back. "No matter what."