Chapter 6:She loves touching me too

Ares POV

Minutes later I was back to the fortress, with the girl's tiny body in my arms. I carefully placed her on a bed in the chamber that was right next to the one in which my Princess was resting and then I rushed to my raven beauty's room, anxious to see if she was feeling any better.

Leaving that charmingly little creature proved to be an impossible task though, since the moment I took two steps from the bed she began crying...I did the first thing that came into my mind and took her back into my arms...

"What's wrong Darling? What's all the fuss about? Shhhhh...You miss your Mommy don't you? Well don't worry, as soon as Mommy gets better I'll take you too her..."

Surprisingly enough, she seemed to gradually calm down, and I was ready to congratulate myself for my inborn paternal abilities when I finally realized what had distracted her attention in the first place.

"Evie...what are you doing Love? "I asked her eagerly, given the fact that she was obviously struggling to leave me earless. She was mercilessly pulling at my earring.

"Hey! ..Didn't Mommy tell you that's not polite to do this to strangers...well...to anybody?" I insisted on a harsher tone this time, doing my best to prevent her from ripping my ear apart.

To my distress, she instantly started crying again-louder this time- when the silver object was not her plaything any more... .

"Ok...ok fine...Have it your way" I finally gave up, realizing that there was no other way to stop the crying ..."You're just like your Mother you know that? You never know when to give up..." I murmured, placing her hand on the earring, just to discover that she was no longer interested in it. Now, she was looking at the pendant?

"What? This old junk? You can have it if you want it...You could only buy half a planet with it...Then you could be a real Princess..."

The girl giggled happily while gently touching my chest.

"You definitely take after your Mother...She loves touching me too...The only difference is that she likes to do it rougher, you know? "

She got another merry giggle in response...

"Ok..."

Looking at that unbelievably sweet child I couldn't help thinking how I could ignore it all those months, at the beginning, while she was in Xena's belly...

To tell ya' the truth, I was beyond furious when I first found out that she was pregnant...I was outraged...My Princess was having a child with another man? But a couple of months later I heard that Eve was far from being a normally conceived child, so it didn't matter anymore...And later on, after she was born, I saw her... so tiny and precious in Xena's arms...One had to love her...My first thought was that I wanted her to be my daughter so much...I wanted us to be a family...No matter what, I was absolutely certain that I would protect her with my life. Prophecy or not, that girl would be safe...

In a blink I put her back on the bed and materialized in Xena's room.

"Myra..I'm back."

"My Lord..."she whispered, careful not to wake my sleeping Princess.

"So how is she?" I asked worriedly, while lightly caressing Xena's silky strands.

"After you left I came here and she was already asleep so I kept an eye on her as you said… I can't tell anything about her health though..."

"Ok...In the adjoining room there is a baby. Go feed her. Give it some milk...or whatever it is that babies eat..."

"Of course, my Lord! " she replied, heading for the door.

"My Lord?" she hesitantly inquired right before she left the room. "Can I ask who she is?"

"No, you can't. And believe me, I don't need to tell you that if she is harmed in any way your head is on the line."

"She will be fine with me... my Lord."

Pulling a chair at the edge of the bed I took a better look at my Chosen. She was tired,-the dark circles around her eyes were more than suggestive- and still a bit too pale for me to stop being concerned about her condition.

I've never felt so guilty about anything else in all my life as I was feeling right very then...

I silently opened a portal in the vain attempt to try and take my mind off the problem for awhile, thinking that maybe , just maybe a good enough fight and the sight of blood spilling would somehow distract my attention to the point where I would somehow forget...

Given that there was nothing interesting going on Greek territory though, I strangely decided- just for fun I guess- to take a peek at how that dumb Wannabe Warrior was coping with the reality of having taken the Love of his life away from him..."It should be entertaining " I said to myself with a grin...The dumbass was crying his eyes out. No fun there. It was rather pathetic.

Xena's voice brought me back to reality two hours later though.

"Eve?..Gab.."she whispered right before opening her eyes.

"Finally, sleepy head.."

"You're back. Where's Gabrielle.?"

"She's in the other room..."

"My Lord..? Sorry to interrupt but she wouldn't stop crying..." Myra uttered walking into the room with a very noisy Eve in her arms.

Needless to say that Xena almost had a stroke.