Megara must have walked the shadowed courtyard a hundred times or more. How late was it? Someone, someday, had better invent a moon dial.

Their guests had bid her good night and gone to sleep with promises that Hercules would soon return. None of them knew that for sure. He'd gone to his family, and now he was on Olympus. What would they decide up there? Was he getting some form of punishment? Would they let him leave? Had they changed their minds about her after letting him play house with a mortal girl?

She chastised herself for those ridiculous questions.

The gods had invested so much in helping them get started that it made no sense for them to make such a quick about-face.

Frustrated, she rubbed her face. Her hands were cold in the night air. She ought to go inside. She ought to go to sleep. If nothing else, she ought to get a shawl. At the very least, she could sit on a bench.

Malaka!

The marble bench was so cold she hopped up immediately.

Teeth clenched together, arms wrapped tight against her chest under the shawl, and head down, she made another loop around the courtyard, then ducked into the atrium and followed the circuit of rooms that encircled the courtyard.

There were so many cavernous rooms in their new house, standing empty aside from trophy after trophy. She didn't think she could ever do enough in the lifetime left to her at his side to compensate for the massive imbalance. He'd accomplished so much in a year's time, or had it been less? She couldn't even think straight anymore if she was losing touch with the passage of time.

She had to walk away from the courtyard, with its now seemingly mocking statue of them together. A familiar shadow drew her into one room overlooking the sea. The moonlight through the window cast the statue she found there to its greatest advantage.

Someone had captured his smile and the tilt of his head that invited trust from everyone who saw him. There was another one upstairs. He was everywhere, yet nowhere at the call of everyone who beckoned him away.

But what about when I need him?

Dwelling on that question would take her to a dark place that she already knew better than to explore. Standing here gazing at his face was only going to play tricks on her the more exhausted she became waiting up for his return.

She started off again. By the time her hero returned, she'd have worn a rut into the floor, and he'd have to replace it.

An ache traveled from her heels to her ankles, but she went on unrelenting. It was no worse than the twisting in her stomach or the fluttering of her heart.

There was no time to slow down now. Her thoughts would catch up with her and consume her.

She'd thought in some selfish, deluded corner of her heart that his choosing her meant she could have him for herself. All it really meant was he belonged to the world first and then to her.

A thought struck her then. He was a god, wasn't he? He was allowed on Olympus and everything. If the broader public knew he was still a god, there'd be a temple she could visit and beseech him. Her eyes flitted back to the room with his statue standing guard within. Hadn't he essentially turned their home into a temple since it was filled with statues and paraphernalia of him?

She was halfway to a beseechment if only talking to one of these would get his attention.

Guilt wrenched at her stomach. He was clearly still deliberating with the other gods, maybe even facing punishment that had to do with her. She couldn't interrupt that… maybe another time, though.

Megara leaned against a column, her heart racing and her head spinning. What was the matter with her? Hadn't she gotten past this hurdle already? It wasn't as if she made him drag her sorry psyche out of the River of Death. It wasn't her idea to fly down from Olympus with a slightly less shiny Wonder Boy.

She couldn't blame herself for his decisions, and she couldn't begrudge him his duties. He was so important to all of Greece, of course the gods needed him for a full day. Could they even perceive the passage of time? Maybe it was always light out, and they couldn't see the sunset. But then, if Apollo was there…. She couldn't process these thoughts anymore. Not when she was so tired.

Megara grimaced into the shadows.

She thought she could see eyes in the dark. Cold, yellow eyes that mocked her. No, she must be imagining it. She sped up and no longer saw the eyes.

Her breath had started puffing out of her in such a rapid, ragged tempo that she remembered what it had been like when she had her torso smashed in.

Voices screamed in her ears. Condemnations from Hades and Hercules screaming her name. It intermingled until she could scarcely detect the boundary between the two.

She was losing her mind.

Hand pressed to her chest, Megara sank against a column, even as feeling it against her back sent a shockwave of unpleasant memories.

It wasn't as if she could dodge columns for the rest of her life. She'd have to get past that memory, eventually.

The breeze whistled through the courtyard, and Megara resolved to keep walking. It had to be warmer than sitting still against cold marble. Head down, Megara resolved to ignore how her hips had begun to ache. She'd rather walk until her entire body went from sore to numb than pause and let herself drown in her thoughts.

In her hurried bid to distract herself, she slammed into something warm and solid, forehead first.

That wasn't a column.

Megara looked up, dazed, at the equally baffled Hercules.

"Meg?" he gripped her by the arms as if afraid she'd tip over.

Maybe she would.

"What are you doing up?"

What was she doing up?

Megara emitted a mumble that was no answer whatsoever. She cleared her throat. His hands were so warm… "Couldn't relax," she muttered.

"It's so late! I snuck back indoors so I wouldn't wake you…" One of his hands left her arm to cup her cheek. "Meg? What's the matter?"

Megara leaned into his hand. Her face was so cold…

"I gotta get you inside!" Hercules decided. He scooped her up into his arms and carried her toward their room.

Was she dreaming? Had she passed out somewhere in an empty room?

Hercules set her down on the bed and knelt to remove her sandals. "Theoi, Meg! Your feet are so cold they could snap off!"

Megara curled her toes and retracted her legs onto the bed. "I'll be fine," she whispered.

"Are you gonna tell me you're fine when you're pacing around in the dark without looking where you're going? You didn't even light a lamp…" Hercules placed his hands on the bed to either side of her hips. "Hey. This is because I was out so late, right?" He waited until she met his eyes, and he took hold of her chin when she didn't. "Do you know what I was thinking the whole time I was gone?"

"How not to make the gods even angrier with you?" she guessed lamely.

"That it didn't matter what I had to put up with out there if it meant you'd be safe at home, and I could crawl into bed with you when it was all over."

"You can still join me," Megara reminded him.

She could only half perceive his features in the darkness, but she knew he would not be deterred.

"I will." He settled on the bed and kicked off his own sandals. While she was wondering how she would address her late-night pacing, he spoke up again. "This place can feel really empty, can't it?"

"Yeah." It was an understatement but an easy remark to agree with.

"Before you, I used to kind of hate coming home." Hercules unpinned his cape from his shoulders. "It's pretty, right? In the daylight. Shiny. And I mean, I did most of the decorating in our new place, so…"

"You sure did," Megara noted with muted amusement.

He caught the ghost of a laugh and half-smiled. He was learning from her. "I know, I know. Not very homey." His cape had that horsey smell that radiated off Pegasus, a hint of the undeniable hero-sweat scent that she was growing accustomed to. He draped it around her shoulders. "But we have time to change it. The next time I'm called away, I don't want to find you in danger of harming yourself."

Megara placed her hand on his arm. "It only works when we're here together."

"I think you're right," he nodded. With one gentle movement, he lifted her legs off the bed to roll the blankets down. "One day, this will stop happening. There has to be a way to keep you up to date and stop leaving you with nothing.."

"Hm… it's so cold… Maybe some more blankets or tapestries. And the benches are so hard, why not some cushions?"

"Good starting ideas." Hercules moved to his side and tucked her into the arch of his body. "Do you want to hear what we talked about in the meeting? Or would you rather fall asleep?"

"Tell me enough to stop worrying," Megara reached up and trailed her fingers along his jaw. "Are they taking you away from me?"

"Never." Hercules kissed her palm. "I stayed up there so long because I kept arguing for letting you become a goddess. Father hates being proven wrong. He made a law. He won't change it, even for us."

"So… is that the end of it? Will life always be like this for us? You get called away, and we don't know when you'll return?"

"Not forever, I'm sure."

"If you weren't Greece's king of all heroes, I would have an easier time believing that."

"I'm not a king. Kings tell other people what to do instead of doing it themselves."

"But you don't have anyone like that," she sighed. "When we have children, they're going to miss you as much as I do. I can't imagine what my life would be like without you, but I can come pretty close. I worry about what will happen next time. What if you're gone for weeks? I know the cosmos needs you, but…"

"I made a promise to you."

Megara closed her eyes. It was the only way she could push the words out. "It's not your fault…" no matter how true the words were, she wished he would say no, just once. But he couldn't. Any denial of the world's greatest hero could cause innumerable deaths.

Hercules stroked her hair. "You're brooding."

"I want to contact other heroes. They need to take up some of this burden so we can have time to build our family."

"That'd be great! I already earned my place on Olympus. I don't have to be a glory hog." He traced up and down her spine, making her shiver despite his warmth. "No matter what someone else out there accomplishes, they'll never have the ultimate reward. You're all mine." He wasn't that tired, after all.