Everyone looked at Helena and smiled. She blushed, and pulled the edges of her robe near her breasts tighter together, not that she was showing much before anyway. She looked around awkwardly before settling on the floor. Santino reached out and nudged her knee playfully, but she ignored him.
“Please understand,” Gaius said, rising to his feet again. “We do not have much time. We need to get back or our unit will become suspicious.”
I stood as well.
“Gaius, listen to me. I don’t know what Agrippina has told you about the orb, but it’s dangerous. It’s the reason we’re here in the first place. You know this. You were there the night we arrived. We…” I checked myself before continuing, looking at my friends first, remembering that whatever we decided tonight would affect them both as well. Maybe Helena was right and I was learning.
I turned to Santino first, whose expression was blank, no emotion either serious or juvenile evident, but when I looked at Helena, all I saw was how tired she was. Not from the day’s exertions, but from years spent on the run, with no hope. Her face had to be a mirror of my own.
I felt it too.
She gave me a supportive smile.
I turned back to Gaius. He was waiting respectfully, but expectantly.
“We want to go home,” I said in a dour tone. “We’ve overstayed our welcome. Had Caligula survived, we may have found a place here, but instead, we’re public enemy number one, with nowhere to go. All we can do is run, and we can’t do that for much longer.”
I looked at my hands, palms up, and felt for the first time just how much I wanted to go home. To see my sister again. My SEALs. Hell, even my father. I had to imagine there was still hope left, time to fix what we’ve broken and somehow find a way back to the world we left. A way to control my future. But, as I stood there, that hope was becoming harder and harder to recognize. For all we knew the orbs were useless and the future, unrecognizable.
Helena got up from the bed, standing on the sides of her feet gingerly, and waddled over to where I stood. She moved to my right, gripped my hand in both of her own, and gave it a squeeze. I looked at her and saw nothing. I didn’t need to. I turned back to Gaius.
“We need your help,” I told him, wrapping my arm around Helena’s waist. “If you find out anything about the orb, please, come to us first. We need to at least try and make it work. If it doesn’t…”
I couldn’t even think of what else to say. If it didn’t work, we had no other choice but to destroy it, therefore eliminating our chances of ever getting home.
Gaius looked thoughtful, as did Marcus, but they didn’t even take a second to consider what I’d said. Instead, Marcus moved towards the door, while Gaius approached Helena and me. He stopped an arm’s span away, reached out, and gripped Helena’s right arm and my left. The small Roman stood well below my chin and Helena’s nose, but I thought no less of him because of it.
“My friends,” he said, “we know you had nothing to do with Caligula’s death, despite Agrippina’s thoughts otherwise, and have wanted to help you ever since. If we find it, we will tell you.”
“Just like that?” I asked. “No strings attached?”
He cocked his head to the side. “No, no strings. Why would there be? But yes, ‘just like that.’ Marcus and I have heard reports of your deeds over the years, and while we would like nothing more than to have you continue your kind work, we understand how much you must miss wherever you’re from, especially with the Empress searching for you. We want to help.”
With that, he stuck out his forearm, which I slowly gripped just before the elbow.
“Thank you,” I told him, still shocked by how easy that was.
“You are welcome, Hunter.”
Santino’s face remained blank, but I knew he wanted to go home just as much as any of us, but Helena’s was filled with emotion as she tried to contain just how happy she was at the news. To show her thanks, she leaned forward and kissed Gaius on the cheek, smiling as her lips parted his skin. Gaius was smiling as well, having finally received that kiss I knew he’d always wanted. Every Praetorian or legionnaire alike had a bit of a crush on her, despite concealing it behind all that “Mother of the Legion” garbage they’d used four years ago.
Marcus didn’t seem too happy by the door.
Gaius let go of my arm and moved to join him.
Before they left, he glanced over his shoulder.
“Do not leave the city and don’t wander about it. We will find you.”
And with that, they left.
Helena and I stood there, transfixed by the possibility of going home. We still had some history to fix and rewrite, but maybe we could really go home after all.
“Santino,” Helena called, waiting a second for his attention to focus on her. “Maybe you should follow them and gather as much intel as you can.”
“What? Gaius just said to stay put.” He looked exasperated as Helena’s expression failed to sympathize, and he continued. “Why am I always the one who has to go do this? Go do that? I’m a person too, you know!”
“Because Jacob and I are too hurt to do it,” she answered.
“It sounds dangerous,” he whined. “I thought we were on vacation.”
“Aren’t you the one always claiming that you can sneak up on God?” I challenged, playing along with whatever Helena was thinking.
That got his attention. “You’re goddamn right. Fine. I’ll see what I can see.”
He moved over to his wardrobe.
“What to wear, what to wear?” He wondered to himself, before automatically grabbing his night ops combat fatigues. He quickly slipped them on, pulled over more local wear, found his gear bag and left without another word.
I watched him go. “Why did you tell him to follow them?” I asked Helena. “We can trust them.”
“I know we can,” she said as she maneuvered herself to front of me and look up at me with large eyes, “but he’ll be gone for hours. Hours…”
I looked down at her and watched as she slowly dropped her robe to the floor. As the heavy fabric pooled around her ankles, I tracked my gaze up her long legs, past her strong abdomen, and up into her eyes, strangely feeling those same butterflies I’d felt the very first day I’d met her. I saw every single scar on her body, the two major ones, as well as the other smaller ones she’d accumulated over the past four years, and couldn’t care less. In my eyes, the woman was perfection personified. A true Aphrodite. I looked into her eyes as she unraveled her long hair, shaking loose her mane in a tumble of confusion. I hadn’t seen her so exposed and with that look on her face in maybe a year.
“Wow,” I managed to croak, still trying to reboot my brain. The only thing going on in there was a giant, red “Error” message flashing brightly and insistently.
She wrapped her arms around my neck, and pulled herself close, pressing her midsection against my abdomen.
I placed my hands on her hips and held her back just slightly.
“Helena, wait. Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, we still need to…”
“Will you shut up and take hint,” she said, shaking her head inches away from my own. “I’m here, Jacob. Right now, and I’m not going anywhere. If you want to help yourself, now would be the time to start.”
“I know, Helena, but you’re the one who…”
“Jacob, just shut up!” She said stubbornly as she jumped off her bandaged feet and into my arms. Her grip tightened around my neck and I felt her long legs wrap tightly around my waist. She secured herself against my body and pressed her lips roughly against mine. She worked them against my own for a few minutes, and I felt more tension than I could ever hope for fall from my shoulders in droves. When she finally pulled away, she looked at me with her wonderful eyes and smiled brilliantly.