Was this what it felt like to be rescued? Hurtling into the sky, Megara screamed, unable to restrain the sound even to respect Hercules's hearing.

"It's ok!" Hercules rubbed her back. "I gotcha, you're safe!"

No way was she safe! Megara's mind reeled, coming unraveled as her heart thrummed so hard she thought it might burst.

Hercules kept his arm locked around her and used it to nudge her to look at him. He smiled and then kissed her lips.

The soreness of her face couldn't overwhelm his gentle warmth or the sweetness of not just his skin but the scent of it. He held her to him until her screams turned into a soft moan. Then he pulled back and smiled gently. "You're safe. Nothing can hurt you up here. I've got you, and I won't let go."

Megara wrapped both arms around his neck and pressed her face to his shoulder, no matter how it hurt. Her heartbeat gradually slowed, and her mind clung to his words to hold her in that moment of peace. "I'm sorry for screaming at you."

"No, no… I'm sorry you were scared. I should've tried to get you ready for it. I just wanted to get you out of there."

"I wanted to get out of there, too." She paused, taking a chance to breathe him in. She wanted more of him… She wanted to lose herself in him and never undo it.

"I still need to know who hurt you, Meg," he told her.

Now that they were separated from Thebes and all its clamor, she sighed. She could let the secret go. "It was my cousin."

"The same one who wanted to marry you?" Veins popped out along his muscular arms, and she felt the blood rush through them. "What kind of creep is he? It can't be the same one, right?"

"Oh, it's the same one." Megara laughed bitterly into his shoulder. "I said no, he said yes, then I told him exactly how worthless he is."

"And he punished you."

"Yeah."

"Theoi, Meg!" He started shaking. "Where were your parents?"

"They were right there, trying to calm him down."

"So… to help you, right?"

"They said he couldn't marry me if I died, so maybe?"

Hercules made a disgusted noise in his throat. "I'm glad I got you out of there. I'm going to take you somewhere safe where you can get cleaned up, all right? Then I'll make this problem go away."

"How do you mean?"

"I've got connections with the gods. I'm going to protect you and everyone that matters to you. But this isn't something you have to worry about anymore. You're going to take a break and let me help."

Megara tried to parse this in the silence that followed, but she was too exhausted to piece together a plan on his behalf. She'd rather cling to him and take a nap, and so she did.

When she woke, it was because she felt herself descending, but she wasn't falling. It was more like someone softly placing her in a bed. When she opened her disoriented eyes, she found herself no longer on horseback. Hercules was carrying her toward what looked like a shepherd's hut.

"Oh, great! You're awake!" Hercules smiled. "I promise, even if it looks like a step down from home, you're going to love it."

Megara mumbled incoherently for a moment until she woke up enough for her mouth to function. "Where are we?"

"This is where my parents live," he explained. "Do you mind sheep? There's a lot of sheep."

"I like to… eat sheep…" she offered lamely.

"Heh, well… while you're here, you'll meet a few. They're good people, and nobody will look for you here. You can take however much time you need. Phil isn't here to say you can't stay, and they know how to take someone in when they need it."

"I don't mind, but what if they hate me?"

"They don't know the meaning of the word."

"I'm pretty sure I can teach them."

"I could walk, you know. I don't want your parents to think I'm an invalid when they meet me."

"But they'll know you're important." Hercules set her down and supported her while she steadied herself on her feet. "I don't know how long it'll take me to solve the problem in Thebes, but… tell me if you don't like it, and I'll find another solution."

"I don't mind being here as long as you won't be far. How far is it to Prometheus Academy?"

"Not far, I promise. But I live on Phil's island, so there's no impropriety about us staying together."

"I don't want you to leave." She wrapped her arms around his waist and looked up at him. "Don't you want to stay with me?"

"Yeah… I really do…" Hercules said with a lovesick sigh. Then he shook himself. "But I remember what your brother said. It's kind of dangerous to be together right now… but someday…"

The door opened, and a plump old woman with a sweet face stood in the doorway. "Hercules!" she gasped. "I thought I heard your voice… and who is this?"

"Ma, this is Meg," Hercules said, standing up a little taller. "She's my girlfriend!"

The woman's eyes widened. "Girlfriend?" she repeated breathlessly. "Come in! Please, do come in!"

Megara looked to Hercules for reassurance, and his smiling nod urged her through the door.

While it was a modest home, it was elegant enough for a fresco of birds and crocuses covering an entire wall behind the hearth. Megara found herself focusing on it so she wouldn't have to think about the way her hostess ogled her bruises.

"Do you like it?" the woman asked. "I spent a whole five years perfecting it. I always thought I'd have a daughter, and she'd love flowers and birds. I didn't know the gods would give me a son who enjoyed them just as much."

Hercules and his mother settled Megara onto a bench that sat in the middle of the mostly empty room. "Can you do anything for her, Ma?" he asked while rubbing Megara's unmarked arm as if he knew she needed something to anchor her into the moment.

"These bruises are…" Alcmene shook her head. "I've not seen anything like them on a face, but… You used to get plenty of bumps and scrapes when you were little. It won't take me long to get something ready." She patted Megara's hand. "Wait here, dear."

"What do I call her?" Megara asked when she and Hercules were alone. "I'm guessing her name isn't Ma."

"Alcmene," Hercules whispered back.

"The way she reacted to me, I'm guessing you don't introduce her to a lot of your girlfriends."

Hercules laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. "About that… I haven't had more than one real girlfriend, and she was so short-lived I never got the chance to bring her by. I totally would've if she gave me the chance… but she got bored of me after a couple of days." He glanced at her, then away at his knees.

Megara bumped her knee against his. "So I've already outdone her, is that it?"

"It's been… one more day? I think. Then again, that's just how long we've known each other. We haven't actually been with each other for that long…"

"You saw what my life is like in Thebes. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I'll always be grateful for that."

"Is this the part where you have a caveat?" He looked a bit queasy asking it.

"No." Megara covered his hand with hers and squeezed his palm. "This is the part where I tell you that with everything that happened, thinking of you has been the only thing that got me through it. Now that I'm with you, I know that I don't have to dream anymore because you're real. I want to go anywhere with you, wherever you want. I just can't be without you again."

"Anywhere becomes the best place on earth if you're in it," Hercules whispered. He leaned in close, his lashes low, and his eyes focused on her mouth. "It won't matter where we are…"

"I've got poultices!" Alcmene announced. As she walked into the room, Hercules and Megara scooted apart, both looking at the woman and smiling through intense blushes. "Oh… have I interrupted something?" Alcmene asked.

"No, we'll get back to it later," Megara said. "I'm truly grateful for your kindness, Alcmene."

"Oh, of course, dear!" Alcmene's eyes tracked their way across Megara's bruises, and she clicked her tongue. "You'll have to tell me this story." She looked sharply in Hercules's direction.

"Ma! Of course, I didn't do it!" Hercules put his hands up. "Meg's got a… complicated family…"

"Hercules got me away from those… complications. For now," Megara said. "We'll have to answer to them, eventually."

"I will answer for you," Hercules said, puffing up his chest, helped by his armor. "Don't worry about them anymore."

"I still have three brothers and one cousin I care about," Megara said. "My cousin Ismene hasn't done anything to anyone. She's the only girl in Thebes without a backbone."

"Ouch," Hercules winced.

"Yeah. That's how she avoids ending up like me. She never says no. Thankfully, my brothers are more decent than hers. There are things her brothers do to me that they won't do to her. By the grace of the gods."

"Do you mean your cousins did this to you?" Alcmene asked. She pressed a wadded-up woolen cloth against the worst of the bruises on Megara's throat. It smelled of dainty flowers, nothing too bold.

"One of them… He's the king of Thebes right now… He was supposed to trade off with his brother, but he refused to. Now, the brother is going to invade Thebes with seven armies. But he and everyone else knows Thebes is cursed, so we can never win a war. So this is overkill. He just wants us dead."

Alcmene and Hercules sat still and quiet, Alcmene pressing the warm wool against Megara's skin and Hercules sitting just out of reach.

"I think killing a king is called regicide, isn't it?" Hercules asked.

"Hercules!" the peasant woman chastised him. "How could you even suggest such an impious crime?"

"Because I keep imagining it. Over and over."

"Your mother's right, though, Wonder Boy. The Furies would pursue you to the ends of the earth."

"Then I'll pluck out all their feathers and make them eat them!" Hercules hopped off the bench and started pacing. "I can't believe they'd let this guy stay king after this!"

"You're overestimating how much I matter."

"No! They're underestimating you!" Hercules folded his arms. Megara suspected it was for the same reason he'd just started shaking.

"Hercules, stay calm," his mother urged him in her gentlest voice. "You're going to make your girlfriend anxious."

"Look at her face, Ma!" Hercules's voice broke halfway through his sentence. "I keep looking at her and thinking it's my fault that I wasn't there to clock the guy before he could touch her."

"You're not responsible for everything that happens by virtue of caring about it," Megara said. "You brought me somewhere I'll feel better. I'm feeling better already. Thank you."

Hercules nodded sharply, and that one free curl bobbed. "Yeah, I've done that part, but I have to wonder. You talked about the choking, and I'm guessing he also struck you?" He tilted his head toward her bruised arm. "Was the arm his work, too?"

"No. That was my costar. The one you threw into the chorus."

Hercules let out a heavy puff of air through his nose, much like his horse might do if he were frustrated. "Then I'm glad I hit him. Ma, do you think you and Pop could keep her here for a few days? I need to sort things out before I'm comfortable taking her anywhere she could be seen."

Alcmene nodded. "Of course. It may be a little tight around here, but if we can put her to work…" The woman looked down at Megara's hands and pursed her lips. "Have you ever… done work?"

"I do fine work. I can weave, and I've learned the fine points of diplomacy. I've even learned how to act and sing, and I play three instruments. But what you'd call work, I'd call peasant drudgery. I don't believe in lying to honest people. That's just how it is."

"We could teach you to do some peasant drudgery in the garden," the woman replied, unphased. "Maybe we could teach you to groom Penelope. Do you have any experience with donkeys?"

"Ma! She's a princess!" Hercules protested.

"A worthless one my dynasty doesn't want except to prop up an overgrown child," Megara replied. "Maybe I should learn to do something humble for once."

"If you want," Hercules relented. "I'm going to the temple of Athena. She's going to have some kind of solution for this war, and from there, I'll try to fix everything else. Someone has to, and if your family won't do it, then I will. I won't rest until the world is safer for you to live in." Hercules started to march toward the door, then. "I'll come back soon to see you though."

Megara wasn't fast enough to grab his arm, but she caught his cape. "Please don't leave me again…"

The look on Hercules's face revealed he was still that innocent kid she'd met at the Speedy Pita a couple of days ago, despite his newfound bravado. "I-it's only long enough to take care of what I've got to do," he reassured her and walked back within arm's reach of her. "Don't worry. The whole point of you being here is so you'll be safe."

"I'd rather be with you than safe. Your mother is kind, and this place is lovely, but I can't let you go again. Let me help you. You don't know the situation in Thebes as well as I do, and after all, this is my dynasty. I can't sit back and let you do everything for me."

"Actually, you can. It's part of being a hero…" But his eyes were glistening with tears. "You'd… want to help me?"

"I do." Megara wrapped her arms around his neck. "There's no flying horse and no angry god that can put me off helping you. Please, let me try."

Out of the tail of her eye, she noticed Alcmene with a hand pressed over her heart.

Hercules gave her a squeeze and pressed his forehead to hers. "All right, Meg. You've won this round. But the moment things get dangerous–"

"We renegotiate, and then I win again." Megara kissed the bridge of his nose. "Let's get out of here. That siege won't wait for us."

"Wait!" Alcmene fluttered around the room and brought them half a loaf of bread and a hunk of cheese wrapped in cloth. "For the road!"

"Thank you," Megara said, bowing her head. "And… I'll help you in the garden next time or with the donkey. For everything."

"You're already doing so much, dear," Alcmene promised and pushed the food into her hands. "Take care of him for me."