A/N: This chapter is most definitely about Hephaistion and his relationship with Heshaylae and his children. I must worn you that there is a reason that this chapter is being rated as M, but it is not gratatious.

I don't own any names that you recognize, but original characters belong to me. Please ask before using for your own devices.

Reviews always welcome.

Chapter 9

The next morning, as promised, I rode as far as I could before both my horse and I tired. It was not for another year that I completed my journey back to Macedonia. I had not brought Heshaylae with me to Babylon, and as such I did not know if she had explained to our children that I was away and that I hoped to be back to Macedonia soon. In fact, I was not even sure that she would recognize me.

But Heshaylae and the children were not my first order of business. It was absolutely imperative that I seek out my father and have a word with him.

Around the buildings I went, until I found my father's quarters. Through the curtain I went, and I was faced with my father's page.

"My lord Hephaistion!" the boy nearly shook in his sandals. "So soon you return to us!"

"I have been gone seven years, boy," I snarled. "Seen you my father?"

Suddenly, my father appeared from the shadows.

"Hephaistion…" he breathed, embracing me.

For all the times I had been glad to see him, this time, I could not help but feel nothing for my father. He was not the same person; I was not the person he would remember me as. When I left he wished me strength, knowing full well I did not have the stomach for war.

I embraced him as well.

"Father," I acknowledged him.

"Back without Alexander?"

He touched a nerve, but I could see by the sincerity in his face he did not mean to do so.

"Alexander is dead to me now," I hissed through gritted teeth. I bowed to him as a sign of respect. "I shall leave you now, Father. I must go see my children."

With that, I left him. My father was an extremely fair man, but now, as a grown man, I was not willing to heed what advice he had for me. It did not matter to me now. My father, Amyntor, could indeed be a fair, honest, and wise man, but I, his son Hephaistion, was no longer willing to hear of it.

I walked away from the palace and mounted my horse again. I rode to the home I had grown in, just on the far reaches of town. As I approached the home, I noticed a young girl playing in the sand with a doll her mother must have fashioned for her.

Her eyes meeting mine, I realized this young girl could be none other than Media. She turned, ran into the house, and I heard her cries.

"Momma!" she bellowed.

Suddenly a young woman ran out the door, fearing the worse it seemed. I dismounted my stead and fussed with the bit and bridle. Catching notice of her, I turned and looked at the woman standing in the doorway.

"Heshaylae," I whispered.

Her legs seemed to give out underneath her, and I saw tears form in her eyes. Tiny cries erupted from the very depths of her soul as she lifted her skirts to run to me.

I was not standing so far away, but it seemed a lifetime before she reached me and jumped into my waiting arms.

"Oh Hephaistion," she cried on my shoulder. Her tears ran down my shoulder. "I feared you may never return."

She pulled away slightly to look me in the eyes. The shade of brown surrounding the pupil was what had me so captivated with her. Bending my head, I caught her lips in a kiss.

How I had forgotten the touch and taste of a woman. Suddenly I wanted more. She tasted of the Macedonian fruit trees that grew aplenty.

Gently pushing her hand against my chest plate, she smiled at me and led me into the house. Hardly anything had changed. The hand woven carpet my mother had made when I was first four still adorned the floor in the bedchamber. The curtains from my childhood still adorned the hallways. The only thing that had indeed changed was the fact that I had two children sitting on the couch in the aptly named sitting area. As I looked into their eyes, I saw their mother. If Heshaylae had not explicitly stated that I had sired Arties and Media, you would not have been able to tell.

That night I lay with the woman I had left behind for the first time in nearly seven years. I had forgotten what penetrative sex felt like. I had always the receptive partner, only once had I not been. I kept my eyes upon her as she moaned her pleasure into my mouth. She had become so beautiful, maturing from the shy fifteen year old girl I had known to the fiery mistress I now held in my arms as she reached her peak.

"Oh by the Gods, Phai!" she whispered hoarsely as I pleasured her breasts, gently caressing her nipple with what she came to call my 'skilled tongue'. I continued such delightful torture upon her as the sensations overtook her body and she thrust her hips forward. This motion only made my abstinence from gratification impossible as we joined as one, and soon the same feelings took over me. Sleep overtook us soon after, Heshaylae still held tightly in my grasp. When I awoke in the morning, it was not by my own will. The children had come from their chambers to awaken us. Opening my eyes, Media smiled, bent down, and whispered in my ear.

"I hope you make my Momma happy."

Smiling through sleepy eyes, I promised her I would never do anything to bring harm to her mother or her brother and herself.

I spent nearly a year getting to know my children and their mother again. Arties would tell me all the things he had learned from the teachers who had been influenced by Alexander and his desire to build an empire worthy of the name of Alexandria.

"Papa," he would ask. "Teacher says that you were boyhood friends with the Great King Alexander…"

"Yes I was, my boy," I answered.

"But you are not anymore…"

I grit my teeth. He was an innocent child, what did he know of the complexities of relationships between two people?

"You are right, my son," I answered.

"Does he no longer make you happy?"

I stopped. "What do you know of such things?"

"Momma says that you and Alexander were great boyhood friends," he insisted. "But now you say you are not, what did he do to wrong you so?"

Such an inquisitive child. Media would sometimes ask why the 'Great King' Alexander was not here in Macedonia to watch over the kingdom, and why was it that girls could not attend school with the boys? Her insistence that she was equal in intelligence to her brother and his friends ended in private tutoring for her. For only six years of age they were incredibly bright; like their mother. Shaye had only been carrying the children one month when I had left, so they were just reaching their seventh year.

As I rode home from the town council, where I had accepted a post, I saw another horse standing in front of the house, the man on the horse's back speaking to Shaye and her attendant.

Worried for the safety of my family, I jumped off my horse, drew my dagger and charged toward the intruder. I wrapped my arm around his neck and whispered harshly in his ear.

"Just one more step and so my dagger shall meet with your throat…"

In the grip of mine arm the figure turned to face me.

The eyes. The eyes bore into me like a thousand arrows to my heart.

"What business could you possibly have here in Macedon?" The person standing in front of me, one I had never expected to lay eyes on again?

Cassander. Yes, Cassander, son of Antipator, had returned to Macedonia… what I did not understand was why he had returned.

"Hephaistion…" he was just about to tell me, my young daughter came rushing from the sitting room, her tutor following close behind.

"Papa!" she shouted with glee as I bent down, held out my arms, and enveloped her in an embrace. Picking her up, I placed her on my hip.

"Hello, my dear," I greeted her, intent on making a small show for Cassander. "The man in front of you, he goes by the same of Cassander," her eyes diverted to look him in the eye. "Might you speak to him well?"

I let her down so that her feet touched the ground again. Crossing one leg behind the other, she bent her knees and bowed her head.

"Pleased to meet you," she smiled, bringing herself back straight again.

Cassander returned the welcome. He bent to one knee, took her right hand in his, and gently kissed it. "And you as well, m'lady."

"Papa, may I show you what I learned today?" Media inquired, taking her piece of slate from Lydia, her tutor. Twas very rare to see women as teachers, but Heshaylae insisted on paying a female 30 talents a day to teach our daughter. I, being a lover of knowledge and books, agreed.

"In a few moments, Media," I answered, turning to her tutor. "Thank you, Lydia, I pray you, go home to your family."

"Oh thank you sir!" she bowed in respect and quickly made leave.

Once she had taken leave for the night, I invited Cassander into my home and sat with him on the couch in the sitting room. Heshaylae soon brought us goblets of wine and a plate of fruit, cheese, and leavened bread.

"Thank you, my darling," I angled my chin as to kiss her. My lips met her cheek. "So, my dear Cassander," I returned my gaze to him as Shaye busied herself with Arties and Media within another room of the house. "What brings you back to Macedon?" I took a tentative sip of wine, studying his features.

All signs of joy and pride faded from his face.

"Alexander has died, Hephaistion," he told me with a sad glint in his eye.