Pardon the delay, got busy. I want to reinstate my old habit of leaving a message to my reviewers at the start of every chapter. Also, I forgot to explain something I meant to at the end of the last chapter. The inspiration for Herc giving Meg a nice punch in his sleep was based off something that happened to me. I was sleeping, and my sleeping boyfriend (who must have been having a nightmare) socked me in the jaw. He had no friggin' clue, kept on sleepin', and then felt TERRIBLE for the week it took for my jaw to heal
CyberFlaneuse: Thank you for following my stories so loyally, you guys are my motivation to actually write these things =P
Becky: Your review confused my slightly, if you mean his nightmare? Yeah, Meg is usually the one who would be more likely to get them, and thus handle them better.
Queenbeautyhair: Here is your update!
Demi Brackensick: Thanks again for bein such a loyal reviewer, here is the update. I hope you enjoy! Like I said to Cyber, my loyal reviewers are what keep me postin!
The couple didn't venture very far into the gardens spread before their villa, the cloudy sky filtered most of the light from the moon leaving the outside dark, and difficult to travel. They sat down on a wooden bench, and gazed at the pale light of the city Thebes in the distance as if every torch and candle were lit. Meg's gaze traveled over to her husband who was still fidgeting nervously. She reached over and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Care to try again to tell me what that dream was about? You didn't really make much sense hon," Herc paused, furrowing his brow giving her that look he always gave when he was trying to think,
"It started with that night, the battle with Hades… it's all blurry and didn't make much sense. You died, but then your body turned into smoke or something, and the smoked turned into Hades, then I was in the underworld, then back in Thebes. The smoke turned into some weird black lion and the Erinyes came out of its mouth." He sighed, rubbing his face, "Stupid that I'm still so freaked out over a dream I can't even really remember anymore," He paused, holding her hand in his. "Umm… are you okay though? That bruise looked bad…" Meg did her best to put on a reassuring smile, trying to hide how sore she really was,
"It's just a little revenge for all the times I gave you a nice punch in my sleep."
"Meg," She sighed, even if she had so much as a thorn in her finger the boy worried, and wouldn't drop the subject. While endearing to know he cared for her so much, it could get frustrating.
"It's a bruise, I'll live," She tried to joke,
"That's not why I asked,"
"Hon, stop worrying so much. Yes, you punched me in your sleep. Yes, it left a bruise. Yes, it hurts. But you didn't do it on purpose."
"I know, but Meg, growing up… my strength… not controlling it always made bad things happen. I mean, I collapsed an entire agora! I destroyed my high school graduation, catapaulted our mule Penelope... don't worry she was fine. Everyone hated me, I was a freak. But I spent years training with Phil to control it, learn how to use it. Whenever I do something like this, it makes me wonder, do I really have it under control…"
"If you didn't have it under control I'm pretty sure you would have knocked me clear across the room," Her response managed to finally get a chuckle from him, "Come on. Let's go back to bed. It's pretty cold out here." Herc nodded, taking her hand and leading her back inside. She hadn't worn much when she had gone outside, and was shivering by the time they got back to their bedroom. She slipped into the bed, curling into the blankets until she looked like nothing but a mount of fabric and pillows. Hercules laughed, sliding into bed beside her.
"Cold honey?"
"No… I just felt like making a blanket fort." Hercules laughed at her again, until she narrowed her eyes and pushed her feet up against his thighs.
"Ah! Wow! Guess you are cold! Your feet could freeze water!" It was Meg who laughed this time, before lying back in the bed. Hercules seemed more at ease as he came to bed.
"Feeling better?"
"A little."
"Only a little? Hmm… seems I'll have to rectify that" Meg gave him a coy smile before leaning over him and stopping his thoughts with a deep kiss. "It is cold after all, why don't we try to warm up a little?"
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hades sat in his frozen stone throne, nursing his headache with a second bottle of absinthe. The remains of the first were still lying scattered across his map of the earth. The fates had called upon him unexpectedly. The news of Megara's pregnancy hit him harder than he expected. Not that he thought the girl would be barren, but he still couldn't picture her actually settling down with that ignorant oaf of a man, let alone letting him knock her up. There was a glimmer of hope hiding behind this, and behind that lie more troubling warnings. He wanted to be happy, hopeful, but past experience had told him that while Hercules still lives, he can't win.
"The thread we spun, is now undone-" Atropos began,
"Lades, I can't handle the rhyming today. Please, just… just don't use the rhymes." Clothos clicked her tongue at him, tearing her eye away from Atropos.
"So be it. Some events can go in different directions, such as the battle for Olympus. When we spun Hercules's thread he was destined to die under that pillar, but Megara changed that when she sacrificed herself. We took her thread instead. That is how we fixed that change in the design. One thread for another. When Hercules brought her back, we had no place for her thread, so we simply tied the ends of her thread back together, and shoved it into the cosmos. The hero, he was not pleased." Atropos dropped her fist onto Clotho's head, taking the eye back and taking over the tale,
"He demanded we fix it. He took our eye, we had no choice! But her thread is not supposed to be in that tapestry, we had to put it back in. It is unraveling a part of the tapestry. The Titans… are returning. They were killed by a man who's destiny had changed to one of death, but he was saved by a woman who's destiny had also been death. I do not know when they will return,"
"Enough with the cryptic syntax. Just spit it out!" Hades was not in the mood to prim and flatter the fates, their rhymes and riddles were edging on his already shortened nerves
"The Titans died at the hands of a man who was supposed to die. He wasn't supposed to defeat them. We fixed it by taking Meg's thread instead of Hercules's, and then he was alive to defeat the Titans. But when he brought her back and forced a new thread, we had to put a thread in a place where there is supposed to be none. It is making it unravel."
"I thought a pulled thread caused a rug to fall apart, not adding an extra,"
"This is the cosmos Hades… not a sweater." Clothos, sick of listening to her sister, took the eye back once more,
"The planets, they are moving back, to line up in a great conjunction once more. I warned him, that the entire cosmos would feel the repercussions of his actions,"
"Wait wait wait," Hades held his hands up, furrowing his brow, "This doesn't add up. Didn't that musician guy come down here and bring some dead chick back up there? Him and that dame music of his. "
"Yes, but his wife only died from a snake bite. Also, he did not force us to spin a new thread."
"But little Nut-Meg up there was a poltergeist with everyone fighting to get in her body, that didn't happen to that musician's wife?"
"I said he did not force us. We were able to spin a new thread. The –" Lachesis cut in, pulling the eye away from her stout sister.
"You are too confusing sister! Be more concise, we have work to do. Her death involved a snake, Megara died because of saving Hercules from the Titans. A lot more complex. The Cosmos fixed the run in the fabric by hatching a new snake to poison another person, to replace the snake bite death that was taken from it. The Cosmos needs the deaths the Titans were supposed to cause back. Level the playing field. You stole my cookie so I steal one back from someone else, got it? The Cosmos wants to push reset on the even!"
"Alright. So, let me get this strait, Hades versus the reigning champ Zeus round two?"
"Be weary, for our first warning still stands. Should Hercules fight, you will fail." Lachesis warned
"Alright, back to square one. How to kill a bozo in 90 days,"
"We do not-"
"Yes I know! I know you didn't tell me when this will happen, it's an idiom! So what does Meg's being knocked up have to do with anything."
"She was never supposed to be able to have children. Her thread was removed from the tapestry before she would bear children. They were never meant to be. She is adding more lives to a Cosmos that is still trying to take some away"
Xxxxxxxx
There were no birds outside to wake the couple, just the feel of wind breaking through the heavy curtains that were the only barrier to the chill outside. Meg shivered, pulling the blankets tighter over her shoulders. She looked at her discarded clothes that had made it halfway across the room and wished she had maintained the sense to redress so she wouldn't be so cold. Her gaze shifted to the empty bed beside her, a small piece of parchment on the table weighted down by a silver candlestick.
Honey,
Left early for some training with Phil. I'll be home in time for dinner, I just need to clear my head after last night.
Love,
Hercules.
Meg frowned a bit at the letter, and placed it back on the end table. Sitting up she felt a sharp pang of pain shoot through her side, catching her breath in her throat. She looked at her ribs, and saw that the bruise had gotten much darker, and the area looked swollen.
"Gods…" She was suddenly glad Herc had left early, she never would have heard the end of it if he had seen this bruise. She slid out of bed carefully, stifling a yawn as any deep breath made it feel as if she was being punched again. "Kid's got quite an arm…" The winter clothing was still stashed away in a storage room, forcing her to dress in lighter clothing. She walked over to the balcony, putting her thumb and finger under her tongue to let out a shrill whistle. In a few moments there was a blue blur, and the blue God appeared just behind her on the balcony.
"'Mornin' babe, what's cookin'?" After the wedding Hermes had taken to offering help to the young couple, saying it was the least he could do for his half-brother and his wife.
" I need you to look at this bruise for me, I think I might have cracked a rib…"
"How did you manage that? Wrestling monsters with Herc?"
"Kind of actually, he was having a nightmare with some sort of monster and must have dreamed he was punching it, and his fist found my chest."
"Ouch, babe, really man like ouch…" The beatnik adjusted his glasses, and fluttered past her into the bedroom as Meg followed. She wrapped a blanket around her waist to hike up her dress so Hermes could see what she was talking about. "That's some serious bruising babe, " He lightly touched his cassidus to her , and clicked his tongue at her, "Yeah, you got some cracked ribs. But I should be able to help. I can't cure you, but here," Hermes produced a pouch filled with a white powder, and a second filled with small bits of a strange brown root
"It's dried powdered white willow bark. It should help the pain and the swelling, it's really bitter but take about two pinches of it. The root is ginger, just boil it up in some tea it works great for welling."
"Thank you," Meg smiled gratefully, accepting the treatments from the deity. She then realized that they had never told anyone the news of her pregnancy, and wondered if these herbs were a danger in any way. "Can you keep a secret?" She asked, lifting a suspicious eyebrow
"Of course, anything for my favorite mortals."
"Well… I'm pregnant. I just want to make sure that these things aren't bad for a baby. Me and Herc haven't had the chance to tell anyone, and I'm sure he wants his family to hear it from him. I'm only tell you like this so I don't take something dangerous," she found herself blushing, feeling meek having to discuss such a mortal matter with a God.
"Congratulations babe! No no no these won't harm you at all, and I promise, it's our secret until Hercules tells everyone," Hermes lifted a hand to his mouth as if to gesture his promise.
"Thank you Hermes." Meg was never sure how to talk to the Gods, they treated her like family but these were the Gods, the ones you bowed and prayed to, the ones you feared and loved. And here she was chatting about her pregnancy with one.
"Anytime babe. I have to get back to the big guy or he'll have Hephaestus tan my hide," The God kissed the back of her hand in an gentlemanly fashion and flew off, a blue blur disappearing through the curtains. Meg pushed her dress back down past her waist and looked at the medicine pouches. Her ribs were throbbing worse now, talking had not made the pain feel much better. She stood, wrapping a blanket about her shoulders again and went to the kitchen to prepare some tea.
Xxxxxxxxx
Umm… not my best work I'll admit. I hope it was up to par.
I hope that wasn't TOO confusing. I had to write the part with Hades and the Fates about 3 times and I'm still not satisfied I got what's in my head into words.
White willow bark is what you make Aspirin out of
I hope you enjoyed.