Sons of Sparta - A Story of the Spartans, Book 3
(inspired by the story 'Spartan' parts 1 through 4)
by argouru
Note: All credit for the creation of the Spartans and Amazons, as well as the Spartan mythos belongs to the author 'CF', to whom I owe special thanks for his allowing me to write about these incredible people.
WARNING: Portions of this installment of the series includes a section regarding mental illness.
Henry groaned in satisfaction, looking down to make sure his aim was true, which it was. He leaned back on his lower legs, the Spartan's abs already wet with his husband's sperm, then carefully climbed off and moved around to lay down beside John, who laid there in post orgasmic bliss, his butt tingling pleasantly from their lovemaking before Henry had pulled out to finish on his husband's torso. Henry rubbed John's stomach, covering it with his seed as they laid and cuddled in afterglow. Life had been good, now that John had gotten used to his new life as a Spartan. He made sure to meditate every morning, usually with his guy, his martial arts training was flying along beautifully, the last few doubters at the temple and among the local Spartan community had finally begun to accept John as their equal and Glenn was progressing nicely, having mastered the art of crawling as well as having moved up to puréed food. The quest to find food that he liked had been a long and hard - not to mention expensive - one, but now they knew what the boy liked and bought only the correct kinds. Glenn, as it turned out, was a rather picky eater in the same way as his siring father John, who had a rather limited taste range of foods that he liked.
They laid together until John dozed off, but Henry remained awake, staring at his husband and partner for some time, admiring his face and body. As John settled into a deeper level of sleep, Henry reached forward and stroked a fingertip gently across the part of the scar along John's throat that was visible to him. I still can't believe he did that... All just to avoid hurting me or Glenn with his feelings of jealousy and inadequacy. He honestly thought he would be dead forever, but Lord Apollo brought him back. Did He do that for me? For Glenn? For both of us? Did He do it for John himself? I wish I knew... All that matters, though, is that he's here now with both of us. I'm still surprised that I was able to punch him like that, what with the oath I took to avoid hurting him. Maybe Lord Apollo thought he needed some sense knocked into him, Henry added with a smile.
John shifted in his sleep and unconsciously reached for Henry's hand. Henry offered it freely, John's fingers wrapping around his hand and squeezing gently. Henry smiled at that and reached over with his free hand to stroke John's hair softly. John sighed in his sleep and laid still. Henry sighed in contentment and gazed at the man he loved further. He's come so far from that sad, lonely and scared man I met. All he wanted was for people to want him around... To care about him and his feelings. He's not perfect. I still have to force him to talk sometimes, but he has a strength and confidence that he didn't before. He's happy now. Henry noted that the faint lines of emotional pain that had been around John's eyes and mouth were gone, replaced with a stillness that hadn't been there before his transformation. That and the darker, imbedded tan that all Spartans had were the only changes in his face since his transformation.
His body, on the other hand, was almost entirely different. Now possessing the well-defined 'swimmer's build' of muscles and the equally tanned skin, John had swelled in height so that he was now an inch taller than Henry, much to that naturally-born Spartan's surprise. But the changes had also been in the way he carried himself. John no longer slouched over, as though trying to make himself either invisible or as small a target as possible. Now he stood tall and proud, his every motion showing a level of self-confidence and readiness for anything he had never had to call his own during his time as a human. He was confident without being arrogant or cocky and Henry felt a sense of pride in John that he hadn't been able to feel when the man had been human. Henry had still loved him, but it had been a tricky balancing act of love and support versus protectiveness and care not to make the human feel like he needed to be watched over. That had been very stressful on Henry, who had always feared he'd go too far, which he occasionally did, making him feel both terrible about himself, as well as guilty, not to mention exasperated that John had always been so defensive. Now John was Spartan, feeling happy and self-assured, which took the strain out of their bond and allowed them to live happily together as husband and husband.
It's strange... Every time I think of him, I think 'husband' instead of 'partner' like lots of Spartans do, even the married pairs. We really do fit together so well as a married couple, even if it isn't a legal marriage, he thought, examining his wedding ring, turning it slowly on his finger with the thumb of the same hand. It was sad that California was one of the holdout states on legalizing gay, Spartan and Amazon marriages. Hopefully one day they could be legally married. Then they would renew their vows and make their union legal in the eyes of all. It was one of Henry's goals in life, one that John shared with him.
He stared at John's chest once more, looking at the scar down its center. While Henry knew that John was ashamed of the scars, seeing them as a reminder of his own unnecessary stubbornness and inability to open up to others, Henry saw the scars differently. He saw them now as an act of love. He would rather die than hurt us... That only makes me love him even more. He reached over and traced the chest scar with a finger, feeling a twinge of sadness that John had been unable to talk to Henry about his feelings then. He'd had to die then be brought back before he was able to talk about what had bothered him... Henry could understand John's reasons. "'What are you supposed to do, Henry?!? Stop being Spartan?!?'" he had said, showing Henry the true depth of his pain and suffering. John had been jealous, plain and simple. And now he's Spartan too. Henry realized that he had already forgiven John over his actions on that horrible night. Now they focused on the future at didn't talk about the night of John's death, return to life and transformation except rarely. I'm still shocked that Lord Apollo adopted him, though. Man... It's weird to think that my grandfather is my husband's father. I guess that each man's relationship with Him is unique...
Just then, Glenn woke up and began to cry. John startled awake, but Henry soothed him with a gentle hand. "I got it. You go back to sleep."
"Okay," John said sluggishly. "Love you."
"Love you too," Henry said, kissing John gently before rising and going to tend to their distressed child...
John went for a morning jog, a practice he had started shortly after his transformation. He found that it was helpful for burning off excess energy in the mornings and helped him to keep his cool throughout the day. As he trotted along, wearing only silver spandex shorts and sneakers, he was once more amazed at just how much his body had improved. Back when he'd been human, he could never have jogged like this. His stamina had been woefully pathetic, being unable to jog two blocks without getting a stitch in his side and end up exhausted and gasping for breath. John's stamina as a human had always been low and he'd never been able to build it up, but now he was a virtual powerhouse of strength and stamina... He reveled in it. John put on a burst of speed and leaped over a planter box, lifting himself eight feet in the air to clear it easily. Laughing with pride and satisfaction, he continued on around his circuit, ignoring the frown of distaste from an elderly woman at his behavior, before returning home, jogging swiftly, yet quietly up the stairs to their second floor apartment so as not to disturb the neighbors.
He stood on the balcony for a minute, looking around. Once we have more kids, the apartment will be too small... Also, I'm sick to death of all the neighbors staring at us all the time. Maybe it's time for us to start looking into a house... He entered to find Henry coming out to the kitchenette, stretching and yawning hugely as he walked nude over to the coffee maker. "Fuck," John muttered, keeping his voice down to avoid disturbing their son, "Not more of your dirty, stinking bean-water again!" he said, seeing Henry head over to the coffee pot that only he used, seeing as how John hated the stuff with a passion.
"It's called coffee," Henry grumbled.
"But it's pronounced 'Kaw-wah-fay'," John corrected in an over-the-top Brooklyn accent.
Henry growled. "It's too early in the day for jokes that bad. Besides, we're on the wrong side of the country for cheesy accents like that."
"That stuff's completely unnatural, you know," John said, opening the fridge, pulling out a can of Cherry Coke and opening it.
Henry glared at him with bleary eyes at that. Two cups of the steaming beverage later, he felt somewhat Spartan again. He noted John looking around at the kitchen and living room areas of the apartment thoughtfully. "What's up?" he asked.
"Hey Henry... Do you enjoy living here?" John asked slowly.
"It's alright. The rent is somewhat reasonable, there's a pool and hot tub, it's on the bus line just in case, and not too horribly far from work. Why?"
"It's just that when we have more kids, this apartment will get very crowded. That and the neighbors aren't very sympathetic to us."
"Well, before you and Glenn came along, I admit that I never paid much attention to the neighbors... They don't seem that friendly, do they?"
"Not really, to be honest," John said with a sigh. "I'm sick of all the stares and such. What's worse, I had a guy the other day try to accuse me of hooking Glenn up with his two year-old boy!"
"What?" Henry asked with shock. "That's crazy!"
"I know!" John countered bitterly, reflecting back on the incident. "Humans are so damned stupid sometimes! I'm glad I'm not one of them anymore," he said, sighing with disgust. "I mean it's been over forty years since Spartans and Amazons became public knowledge and there's still so much ignorance against our kind!"
Henry noted his husband's wording and reflected on that. After the way he was treated growing up, it's no wonder he prefers to think of himself solely as Spartan now. It's still a bit funny to see just how easily his mind has adapted... But he was discriminated against all his life, so I guess trading one prejudice for another wasn't too hard for him. The truth was that Henry didn't mind... In fact he rather liked it. "Well," he said. "What did you have in mind? We could always try to move closer to the dads' house. Their neighborhood has been half empty for years."
"Why?" John asked with concern.
"Too many people are nervous about the temple."
"That's stupid," John said with a frown.
"Well, my heart's not set on this place, if you're asking," Henry added. "I wouldn't mind looking into moving once we've saved up some."
"I wouldn't mind being closer to work if you don't mind an extra ten minutes of commute time."
"Well... It would be nice to be closer to everyone and the temple too... We could see about looking around the area next weekend and start saving up, but it'll probably be another year or so here, I'd think, before we could manage it." He watched John lean back against the counter thoughtfully, absentmindedly picking at his navel. "What are you doing? Your filaments won't come out sooner that way, you know," he finished with a smile.
"Huh?" John asked wisely, coming out of his thoughts. "Oh," he said, looking down at himself. "Sorry, it's just weird to think of my navel as an orifice now."
"Well, in the case of Spartans, it's always that way. A small ring of muscles keeps the opening clamped down except during the reproductive cycle. For humans, it was your primary orifice during gestation, um, pregnancy, rather. In their case, the orifice seals shut shortly after birth."
"It's just still odd, is all. Guess there's some things I'm still not used to yet."
"You want to become a birth dad that much?" Henry said, taking the man he loved into his arms.
"Kinda," John replied with a wistful sigh. "Guess my biological clock is ticking." He chuckled. "But we still have Glenn in diapers, so there's no rush. Speaking of which, you taking him today?"
Henry nodded. "Yeah, I should go shower. Wanna get him ready to go?"
"Sure," John said, kissing Henry deeply with a sigh of regret that they didn't have time to make love before the day began.
As he walked down the hall, Henry drank in the view of his husband's ass framed in silver spandex and wolf-whistled, making John chuckle and pose for a moment before going into Glenn's room...
Six months later, John was called into Keith's office early on in the day. As every past time John had been called into his superior's office at prior jobs, such meetings had never been pleasant, he was understandably nervous. In a high state of tension, he knocked, then entered at the verbal invite. Keith looked up and saw the firm set of his jaw and the tenseness in John's muscles, then chuckled. "Relax John," he said soothingly. "This isn't a bad thing. Come sit down."
Letting the tension drain away, John sat down gratefully, glad that he didn't have to keep trying to figure out what he had done wrong to warrant this meeting. "What's up?" he asked.
"Well, Reggie is moving back to Pennsylvania early next year, as you well know." John nodded.
Reggie served as secondary head of security under Keith and had talked about missing being close to his family. He had originally moved out here from the east coast to attend college, had visited the temple, then feeling the need to serve his god, taken a job at the temple. He had been here for the last ten years, but admitted that he was lonely for his relatives. Sam had spoken to the head priest of the New York temple and the man had said that there was an available position there if Reggie wanted it. He was planning on moving next month and the whole staff was organizing a send off party for him.
"And with him gone," Keith continued, "I need to reorganize the rest of the security staff. I know you've only worked here for about a year and a half, but in the last several months, your skills have improved drastically. Who knew that your becoming Spartan would increase your talents so much? Anyways, I've decided that I want you to become my secondary head of security."
John's mouth fell open in shock. "What? Why me? Why not Zack or Herman? They've been here way longer than I have. Wouldn't experience come first? And what will they say when they learn that I was promoted over top of them? It's not very fair to either of them, you know."
Keith smiled at that. "I already discussed it with both of them and Wally and all three feel fine about you taking up the post. Zack is a good fighter, but not in either of our leagues and Herman has difficulty making hard decisions in stressful situations. Wally hates being the one in charge, so that leaves you. We're all very impressed with how you handled the situation the other day.
John remembered what had happened on the day in question...
~~ He had been working in the main hall, just outside of the altar chamber where he had been trying to fix a faulty wall socket when a man barged in and started yelling. "Where is she?" the man had shouted. "I know that bitch is here somewhere! This is where all you freaks bring your converts, right?!?"
"I'm not sure what you mean," John had said." We're a non-evangelizing faith. Who are you looking for?"
"My wife, dammit! You freaks stole her away from me!"
"No offense," John said with a confused expression, "but I find that highly unlikely. While there are bisexual Spartans, no Spartan here at the temple likes women. Are you sure it was a Spartan your wife is with?"
"One of the bitch ones, those Amazons! You freaks conspired to take her away from me and I want her back! She's mine!"
John frowned at that, Keith coming to the doorway of the room. "I'm sorry if your wife left you, Sir," John said slowly, "But if she turned out to be bonded to an Amazon, that's not something that anyone can control."
"Bullshit! My wife would never leave me. Women are supposed to be loyal to their husbands! I know you all tricked her into it!"
"Sir, I-"
"No! No more lies!" the human screamed, pulling out a gun.
Seeing the motion, John leapt forward and grabbed the man's wrist, squeezing and tilting upwards carefully, using only enough pressure to cause the human to scream in pain and loosen his grip in the pistol, which Keith dashed forward to snatch from the man's hand. The human began to sob with grief. "It's not fair! I never hit her or nothing. Why'd she leave me like that?"
"It's not her fault," John said sadly. "...It's not your fault either."
The human's anger broke and he collapsed to his knees, crying uncontrollably. Keith looked at John with a thoughtful expression. "I'll watch over him, you go call the police. ...And John," he said, making him stop and turn back as he had started to walk away, "nice job."
John nodded with a sad smile as he looked back towards the human before he left...~~
"You handled yourself very well then," Keith continued. "It's judgment and skill like that in tense situations that make one a great warrior. Spartans admire strength, warrior instincts and skill and you have those in spades. It's not just that you're Spartan now, either, although it's helped to increase your abilities sizably. Even as a human you displayed the mind of a skilled fighter and that's only become stronger since your transformation. I want to start training you to the position... Assuming you want it, of course."
"This is a big decision," John answered slowly. "I feel that I should talk it over with Henry before I make up my mind."
Keith nodded sagely. "I understand. Let me know what you decide..."
"What? Really?" Henry asked with shock that evening. "John! That's great!"
"I thought you'd be worried," John replied, stunned by his husband's reaction.
"If you weren't half the warrior I know you are, then yes, but between that and the fact that you're working at Lord Apollo's temple, there's not much to worry about. I say go for it!"
John gave his answer the following morning and Keith began his training as deputy head of security...
Two months later, John awoke to stabbing pains. "Hey," Henry said painfully from beside him. "Guess it's time. Still want to become a birth-dad?"
"Yeah," John said though his discomfort, kicking the blankets off of him and thus freeing his Emerged filament tips from the painful contact with the fabric.
Everyone was overjoyed at the news, the twins taking the news gracefully and a week later, John let out a shuddering sigh of relief as the burning agony of conception faded away as the process came to an end. "Fuck," he moaned weakly. "I can't believe it hurt so much! I don't think anything can possibly hurt more than that!"
Henry chuckled as he gently washed John's sweaty body with a damp washcloth. "If you think that's bad, just you wait until you give birth!"
John groaned with regret for the pain and humiliation to come...
They were at the mall three months later, Henry walking slightly ahead of John, pushing Glenn along in his stroller, to make sure no one bumped into John and harmed his fragile womb, when Henry turned a corner and stopped dead in his tracks. John followed him around the corner and came to a halt, staring at two of the last few people he'd ever thought he would see again. He stood there, staring speechlessly at the pair.
"Barney?" Karen said with shock, staring at her son in disbelief.
"No, my name is Johnathon Apolloson now," he replied with irritation. "I legally changed it over a year ago."
"That's not all you changed, Ass Bandit," Jerry replied with a sneer of contempt, taking in John's transformed body. "What's wrong? You weren't enough of a freak before?"
John's emotions, already easily swayed by his gestation hormones, spiked sharply. "You homophobic pig fucker! I'll wipe that inbred smirk right off your filthy face!" He went to lunge at the human, years of hatred and resentment at the near constant verbal abuse he had been subjected to over the years by this thing bubbling in his Spartan blood, triggering his warrior's aggression and making him go on the attack.
"JOHN! NO! THE BABY!" Henry shouted, trying carefully to restrain his man from getting into a fight and risking harm to his unborn child. John stopped at that, not wanting to risk the life inside his filaments.
"You're pregnant?!?" Jerry sneered. "What kind of mutant are you?!?"
"Just ignore him, John! He's not worth the effort!" Henry said to sooth John's temper.
"Yeah you'd better hold him back before he has his period or something," Jerry sneered. Henry growled, his own aggression rising at the human's words. Glenn was crying in his stroller, upset by all of the yelling. Around them, the crowd had stopped to stare at the tableau in curiosity. "You wouldn't want him go break a nail, would you? You faggots always get so worked up over the least little thing," Jerry said in a nasty tone. "Don't hold -her- back! I can beat the shit out of any woman!"
Henry spun around and slugged the human in the face, sending the man sprawling to the ground unconscious. Karen screamed in shock as the security officers for the mall rushed up and grabbed Henry by the arms. He tensed up, ready for a fight, but John stopped him. "Henry! Don't! You're right... They're not worth it!" Henry sighed and relaxed his muscles, not wanting to risk harm to his family. He nodded reluctantly and stood down.
John sighed with relief, then walked over to sooth Glenn and let him know he was safe, wincing in pain from his growing womb as he knelt down to comfort the child. "What's going on here?" one of the security officers asked. John rose painfully and went to explain the situation, but his mother started shouting.
"They attacked us!"
"What?!?" John exclaimed in shocked disbelief. "That asshole started insulting us the second he saw us!" he retorted. "Henry was provoked!"
"You both wanted to assault us!" she countered.
"No, he's the one I wanted to hit, but my husband stopped me."
"Husband?!?" the woman retorted, looking at Henry in disgust. "That's stupid. Two men... Or whatever, can't be married! You don't know what you're talking about!"
John's mouth fell open in shock as one of the security officers stopped to stare at the woman with his mouth hanging open in disbelief at her words. John looked at the woman who had given him life with sadness. Even after all this time, she was still treating him like a fool who never knew what was right. "You'll never see me as anything other than a stupid child, will you?" he asked quietly. "Even after all this time... I'll never be good enough for you, will I?" he added, misting up in emotional pain.
"It's always about you, isn't it?" she answered sourly. "You always have to be the center of attention."
"No, but maybe just once it would be nice," he snapped. "Just once! I only say that because it's never happened! I'm always some selfish little brat just because I want a kind word, a smile, a fucking hug once in awhile! But even that is too much effort for you, isn't it?"
"I can't spend my entire life coddling to you!" Karen replied waspishly.
"You can't call a lifetime of neglect coddling if you never do it even once! I don't want that all the time, dammit! Just once in awhile... Just to know you cared about someone other than yourself."
She stared at him. "You'll never be a man if you can't learn to take care of yourself," she replied coldly. "I've got better things to do then cater to your insecurities all the time. Try acting like a grown man for once in your life."
"Well I am a man and I've never had any choice BUT to take care of myself!" He shook his head. "I was suicidal... And a good part of that was because you never loved me. All I wanted was to be loved... To be wanted... But that was too much effort for you. Well, if that's the kind of person you are, then I see no point in even trying anymore."
"You little bastard," Karen snarled. "I gave you life and this is how you treat me? I'm your mother, dammit! You'll treat me respectfully!"
John wasn't the only person to stare at the woman in disbelief. Henry gazed at her, dumbfounded. "Respect is something you earn, Lady! And you earn it by giving it in return!"
"He has a point," one of the security men said, nodding in agreement.
"Fuck you!" Karen snapped. "And you," she said, turning to Henry, "Mind your own damned business! This is about family!"
"I'm his husband! That makes me family!" Henry snapped back, showing the woman his wedding ring.
"Alright," the security guard said. "Let's take this elsewhere."
Jerry groaned as he came too and lumbered to his feet. "Butt-fucking son of a bitch!"
"Don't call my birth dad a bitch!" Henry growled, staying in place. "And trust me, I could've broken your jaw if I wanted to."
"No faggot lays their shit-covered hands on me!" Jerry snarled savagely, rising up. The guards tried to stop him, but he knocked one of them aside and punched another one, determined to get to Henry. The other two of the four security men moved to intercept him, but the enraged man fought against them. One of the men tried to grab Jerry around the waist and ended up ripping the back pocket of the man's aged jeans, causing a small Ziploc of white powder to drop to the floor. One of the men saw the package and picked it up. "HEY! THAT'S MINE!" Jerry screamed in rage.
"Coke or Speed, from the looks of it," the officer holding the baggie said. "Alright, Pal. You're under arrest."
"Like fuck I am!" Jerry growled. The security detail, however, felt otherwise and dragged the protesting man away, him kicking and screaming obscenities, calling them all 'faggot-lovers', much to their chagrin.
John had watched his mother throughout the entire ordeal, but she refused to look at him, wearing an expression of revulsion. He realized that she no longer wanted anything at all to do with him and the man felt the last traces of any connection between them wither away. He felt somewhat sad about that, but he also felt angry with her for behaving that way. Deep down inside, he realized that this would be the last time they ever saw each other, but he was unable to feel any strong emotions over that, even with his gestation hormones.
Disgruntled, the Spartans were allowed to leave and went home to worry about the consequences of Henry's hitting the man, but after two months of no word, no cops coming to the door to serve a subpoena on Henry and no phone calls as to such, they relaxed, realizing that in the human's drug-influenced state, he had most likely forgotten the punch. Four further months helped to support this belief...
In the meantime, John's womb continued to grow to the point where he was reduced to deskwork, as moving around was both painful and difficult to do more and more as time went on. Finally, he entered the fifth month and they all moved into Sam and Daniel's house next door to the temple. Fred, Ash, Will, Dennis, Walter, Nathan, his partner Howard, Keith and Ralph helped out as well, especially once John became bedridden in the seventh month.
He meditated four times a day to maintain a non-hostile demeanor, dealing with the pain and humiliation of being a strong and self-sufficient warrior who suddenly found himself completely helpless and dependant on others for even the simplest of things. It was only the near constant meditation that kept him for punching people. Then in the third week of the eighth month, Henry and Daniel went out shopping for the baby's things while Sam kept John company, seeing as it was the weekend and Daniel had the day off from the realty office. The father and son arrived home later to show John what they had bought, the gestating man shocked and confused as to how small the baby would be despite the size of his womb of filaments, even after having shopped for Glenn's things before his birth.
The pain finally ebbed enough so that they could touch the outside of the womb, but no one could do so for long as the filaments, which were still fairly sensitive, began to cause him pain. He went into labor two days after the end of the ninth month, but only groaned in agony as he was moved to the floor. When the time was right, Henry reached inside and pulled forth their second son. John felt that the worst was over... Until the cord was tied off. When the knife sliced through the umbilical cord on the baby's end, the world went solid white, John unable to comprehend the worst pain anyone could ever endure as the nerve endings were severed. He would've screamed hard enough to ruin his voice for life if he hadn't passed out instantly from the pain. He was half-way back into bed before he became aware of his surroundings again and rational thought returned. His navel was still in agony and his stomach region still suffered from the burning phantom pain of his now removed filaments. He was panting with pain and effort from his ordeal, Henry smiling down at him as he offered their child to the new birth dad, who took the bawling infant into his arms, then gasped in pain as the bottom of the blanket brushed against the end of the umbilical protruding from his navel, but bit back a violent phrase spurred on by a burst of justifiable negative emotion. He calmed himself and moved the boy into place, who began to nurse away from him.
Henry smiled down at the newest member of their family and stroked his head gently. Daniel and Sam smiled at them for a few minutes, then left to give the husbands time together alone with their new baby boy. Henry kissed John's forehead gently. "You handled that really well... Better than I did, in fact! I'm proud of you."
"Thanks," John said softly. "Man! I cannot believe how painful that all was. And the cutting!"
Henry winced in sympathy and past personal experience. "Yeah... The cord-cutting really sucks." They stayed silent for some time before Henry looked to his husband then their newest child. "We still need to name him."
"I want to name him Wolf," John said thoughtfully. "No one in the family has that name."
"I like that name. It's certainly unique in the family. Oh fuck... My brothers will be pissed. We're running out of names to give our kids in this family. Will's going to hate all of us with a passion once his kids come along because every possible name will already be taken!"
"Well, there's always Jethro and Nefertiti," John teased.
They laughed at that for awhile...
Henry was showering later that day when John felt a presence in the room with him and baby Wolf. "Come in, Dad. It's alright, this is technically Your grandson and You have every right to see him too." Apollo faded into visibility and sat gently on the bed, smiling down at Wolf.
"Thank you, Son... He's so cute." Apollo beamed happily at the child and stroked his head tenderly. "I'm proud of you, you know," He said to John.
John smiled. "Thanks. You can come visit whenever You want to. You're my dad now and this little guy wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for You. He is Your grandson and You can see him any time You want to." John stared down at Wolf with a slight smile of contentment for awhile before looking up at his divine parent. "I want to thank You... For everything." Apollo smiled at His mortal adopted son. "I keep thinking back on my life," John continued thoughtfully, "remembering how I used to be. Seeing the woman who gave birth to me, not even trying to defend me against Jerry... All I ever wanted was to know that I mattered... But even that was too much effort for her. I wanted to die, simply because I felt like no one cared about me and still she didn't give a shit. She always acted that way... Like I was nothing more than a burden... I'm glad she's out of my life... -It- too."
Apollo looked him in the eye. "To want to be loved and valued is a concept we all share. Whether immortal or mortal, we all need to know that there are people who care about us. It's part of who we are as sentient beings. Although I feed on death, I also crave love."
The mortal nodded slowly. "Is that partner of Yours treating You alright?" he asked.
Apollo chuckled. "Yes. I love Gabriel very much, as he loves Me. I know it's difficult for him to have a god for a partner, but he handles it well enough most of the time. It's only natural for us to argue at times." He chuckled. "He gets away with things I've killed lesser men for, but I honestly do love him. It's funny sometimes, but I wouldn't give that up for anyone. What about you? Are you happy?"
John nodded in agreement. "I still can't believe how everything, me included, is so different from before. I never thought I'd have all of this. A family who loves me, children of my own, a father who cares about me." John began to cry, not with sadness exactly... He was finally releasing the last of his pain and at the same time, feeling happy for all the good things he now had... Things he had never believed he would have. Apollo moved over and held His son as the man went though more emotional cleansing, offering silent support and comfort.
John finished some time later and wiped his eyes with his free hand. "Sorry."
"Don't be. You can always cry on My shoulder whenever you don't want to burden others, even Henry with your pain, although I'm sure he wouldn't mind doing the same for you as I."
"True," John said quietly.
After several minutes of quiet time, John sighed. "What is it?" Apollo asked, not reading His son's mind.
John chuckled. "Now Henry and I -really- need a bigger place!"
Apollo laughed at that with humor, knowing that for His newest son, the best was still ahead for him. Now, John could live a happy, fulfilled life.
In the end, that's all that mattered to Him.
END OF BOOK 3 - BOOK 4 TO COME
Author's note: Thanks to all the fans for your fan mail, We're glad you love the series so much. I apologize for the delay in posting this, as I have recently begun a serious relationship that has taken a fair portion of my free time, causing the delay in finishing this. Do note that Sos of Sparta - A Story of the Spartans, Book 4 IS in the works, but will be quite a few months at least before I manage to complete it, so I ask for your patience.
Also, be on the lookout for another Spartan story entitled "Life of the Nomad", which includes a new set of characters and takes place at the beginning of the Dark Ages, coming soon.
Thanks again for your support! :)