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.
Henry called in sick to work, saying that he'd be out at least a week and asking to use some of his time off to cover for his absence. His supervisor Barry wasn't very happy with him, but allowed it as Henry had only called in sick once before during his five years at his job. He laid there in his recliner and dialed the phone, looking haggard. He hadn't been sleeping well ever since the day he'd met John and had been avoiding everyone, including his own family. Truth was, he didn't want to talk to anyone, but he dialed anyways. There was something he needed to know.
"Hello?" a male voice said as he picked up.
"Hey Uncle Ryan, it's Henry. Are you busy at the moment?" He asked in what he hoped passed for a normal tone of voice.
"No, I can talk. What's up? You okay? You don't sound very good," Ryan asked his nephew with concern.
"A little under the weather, is all. I'll be okay. There's something I've been wondering about and you're the best person I can think of to ask..."
"What is it? What do you want to ask?" Ryan inquired.
"...What was Dad Daniel like before he met Dad Sam?"
"...Why do you ask? Henry? Has something happened?" Ryan asked in shock.
"No," Henry fibbed quickly, hating himself deep inside for lying to his uncle, yet unable to face the truth. "Nothing... I was just wondering."
"Well," Ryan said, taking a deep breath. "Daniel seemed to be okay, I guess... But lonely."
"Lonely?"
"Yeah... I had Liam already and Dad Matthew had Dad David, hell, even Uncle Martin had his own partner Brian... And that kind of left Daniel the odd man out. He never talked about it, but I could tell. It was really hard on him to be partnerless and surrounded by family who all had found their guys while he was still alone. Then the day came when we were at the park and he and Sam met for the first time... Man, you should've seen the look on Daniel's face. It was like his dream had finally come true... In that moment, he looked happier that I'd ever seen him before."
"But what about before Dad Sam? Didn't Dad Daniel go out on dates?"
"Oh yeah, most definitely. He'd burn his way through every bar, club and social event he could get himself into, hoping to find his partner. I guess he was a little obsessed about finding him. Every time he'd come home looking heartbroken. I asked him repeatedly why he didn't try going on more than just a single date at a time and his answer was always the same... 'I'll know him the instant I meet him', he'd say. He was right, in the end. The moment he and Sam met, it hit them pretty hard."
"But then Dad Sam ran away," Henry said.
"Sam was a man in deep pain then. He was being offered all of the love he could ever want after years of being alone and unwanted. It's no wonder he freaked out and took off. Daniel forgave him a long time ago. I did too."
"After Dad Sam took off, what happened to Dad Daniel?"
Ryan sighed into the phone. "He took it really hard. He sank into the deepest depression I've ever seen... It was like he'd lost the will to live... I was never more scared in my life. We were all convinced that if we left Dan alone, he would've killed himself rather than be without Sam. --"
Henry felt a wave of horror and sickness fill him, almost throwing up then and there. Whatever Ryan said next was lost to him, something about being in prison, he thought, as he fought against his own fear. Ryan spoke without knowing how Henry was taking this revelation. Henry struggled to control himself as Ryan continued.
"--And Sam stood up, took one look at Dan and passed out right there on his feet. Dad Matthew talked with him and Sam let go of his pain some, then Daniel took Dad Matthew's place after Sam had cried himself to sleep. When Sam woke up, he and Daniel began to talk and Sam began to accept the bond. After that, they were always happy. Still are, in fact."
"Is it right for them to be attached to each other that strongly? It doesn't seem very healthy."
"Well I'll admit that Dan and Sam's bond is a very powerful one. I mean look at what Sam did for you and Dan. I've never heard of anyone willing to go that far for his partner. I love Liam with all my heart, but I honestly don't know if I could ever go through with something like that. My own bond seems really tame compared to that."
Henry knew the story. Ryan and Liam had met at a music store and felt a strange mild draw to one another, each feeling as though they knew the other from somewhere, but feeling as though they had forgotten that they'd met before, even though they hadn't. They went out for a drink, liked each other and began to date. Four months later, they had decided to move in together. A year to the week later, they had become Emergent and knew that they truly were each other's partner.
"But still," Henry pressed. "I mean look at Marcus and Jason, and Uncles Walter and Dennis. Shit, even Aunts Tracy and Alice! Then there's Great granddads Mike and Bart. I never knew them, but still..."
"I know," Ryan said, his voice trembling. "I miss them so much. I wish you'd had the chance to meet them. They would've loved you guys... What happened to them was a true tragedy. I'll admit that stronger than normal bonds seem to run thick in our family and friends, but not all bonds hit that hard, Henry. There's no guarantee that your own bond will be-"
"I'm not getting into this again!" Henry all but shouted into the phone. "Fuck! Why can't you all just stop trying to ram it down my throat?!? I don't want a partner, alright? Stop trying to force it off onto me!"
"Henry..." Ryan said weakly. "I didn't mean it like that. It's just that we're all scared of how you seem to be so vehemently opposed to the idea, is all. I'm sorry if I made it sound like-"
"No," Henry interrupted. "I just don't want to talk about it... I gotta go."
"Henry? Call if you need anything," Ryan said gently, feeling afraid for his nephew.
"Okay," Henry said, his voice trembling and hung up. Then the phone dropped out of his limp hand as he began to cry...
Sally Mayweather, Henry's best friend, came over the next day, the Amazon worried about her friend because he hadn't been answering his phone for days. She knocked again, growing even more worried when he didn't answer.
"Henry? Are you home? It's Sally," she called out. Finally the door opened to the Spartan, who looked half dead. His hair was a mess, he hadn't shaved in days and his eyes were bloodshot. A sour smell came off of him and Sally knew that he'd been drinking and crying for days as well as not bathing. "Henry! What's wrong?" she asked, her blue eyes bulging.
He sighed and let her in, then sat her down and told her. Out of everyone he knew, Sally was the only person Henry had told his fears to and the Amazon hugged him tightly as he cried anew, not knowing what to do for her friend or what to say. Instead, she allowed him to cry out his pain on her shoulder for several hours. By the time she left, Henry was put in bed, but there seemed to be no solution to his dilemma, leaving the Amazon feeling helpless for her friend...
Daniel knocked again, his anger growing. Ryan had called him, feeling worried, after Henry had talked with him and told his younger brother what they had spoken about. Concerned, Daniel had tried calling several times over the night and this morning, but Henry wasn't answering the phone. Henry had been avoiding everyone for well over a week now, even missing two Saturday dinners in a row and missed Saturday services both times as well. Daniel had grown afraid and driven to his son's apartment, saw that Henry's car was still parked in its slot and the window curtains were drawn. He'd walked upstairs and knocked, but there was no answer.
Growing frightened, he took out his keys and used the one Henry had given him to unlock the door and enter. He let himself in just as Henry, hearing the key in the lock, had barged out from his room, brandishing a stone bookend like a club and wearing only a pair of loose shorts. Daniel stared at his eldest son in horror at the thin, drawn and unkempt look of his child. In the back of his mind, there was a nagging sense of familiarity to what he saw... Henry looked just the same way that Sam had after he had run away when they had first met. He pushed that sensation away and spoke. "Henry! What's happening to you?" he asked his son in horror. "Have you looked in a mirror lately? You look horrible!"
"I haven't been sleeping well lately, alright?" he said with annoyance. That much was true. Ever since he'd found out the truth about John last week, he'd slept erratically and only for a few brief hours at a time, hugging his body pillow, wishing that it wasn't a pillow he was hugging and hating himself intensely for thinking that way at the same time. "I'm just a little sick, is all," he said, setting the bookend down on the bookshelf.
"Sick?" Daniel asked weakly. "Henry... You're not positive? Or... Brittle?" Daniel asked weakly, using the slang term for a Spartan who was SRV positive.
"What?" Henry asked with shock. "No! No, I'm okay."
Daniel sighed with relief for a moment, then looked at his son with confusion. "Then what is it? What's happening to you?"
"Nothing! I'm just... Not sleeping well."
"Bullshit!" Daniel swore, sick of all of his son's evasiveness. "What is it, Henry? What is going on? Talk to me!" Henry hesitated. "DAMMIT HENRY! TELL ME!!!" he shouted fiercely.
"I FOUND MY PARTNER!!!" Henry shouted back, feeling like the words were being ripped out from the core of his being.
"You... You what?" Daniel asked in shock. Henry looked down at his feet. "Henry," Daniel said gently, stepping forward slowly and wearing a confused smile. "This is a good thing."
"No! It's not!" Henry protested.
"What are you talking about?" Daniel asked, coming to a standstill, the smile faltering. "What's so horrible about having a partner?"
"BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO END UP LIKE YOU!!!" Henry bellowed with tears in his eyes.
Daniel stood there feeling numb and confused for several moments before a deep anger built up within him. "AND WHAT THE FUCK IS SO HORRIBLE ABOUT ME THAT YOU CAN'T STAND TO BE LIKE ME?!?" He stopped for a second and took a deep breath before he continued. "In case you haven't noticed, young man," he said before Henry could answer him, "my life is pretty damned good! I have a great partner, seven, count them, seven wonderful sons, both of my parents, a brother and his partner as well as several nephews, a great job, a steady home, a real temple in which to properly practice my faith right next door and lots of friends! What's so horrible about my life that you can't stand to be like me?!?"
"Because your partner bond has obsessed you!" Henry replied thickly, hanging his head. "Without Dad Sam, you can't find the will to live, not even for us, your own children... Uncle Ryan told me the truth about how you were when Dad Sam rejected the bond and ran away. He said that they had to keep a suicide watch on you because you couldn't bear the thought that Dad Sam had rejected you. Yeah, things worked out... Until he was going to die because of the tumor he had when I was a baby. Dad Sam sacrificed himself to Lord Apollo because he knew you would rather die than live without him. You loved him more than you did me... You remember when I first entered school and got suspended for fighting, then made that stupid remark about Dad Sam? Apollo showed me the farewell video Dad Sam had made for me. In it, there was a part about you committing suicide. He hadn't wanted me to watch that part if you were still alive, but I did anyways...
"A partner bond isn't a good thing, Dad Daniel... It consumes us. I can't be happy like that. I can't... He... John... He's suicidal, Dad! He tried to slash his wrists once. The scar is plain as day on his wrist. And from what I heard, he wanted that car to hit him. How can I be happy with a partner who can't even stand to be alive?"
"Henry..." Daniel said weakly. "I'm sorry I'm not as strong a parent as you deserve. You're right... I was suicidal, both when Sam rejected me and when we learned that he was going to die. I let my love for him and fear at his loss cloud my judgment and because of that, you nearly ended up an orphan... The very thing that Sam had never wanted for you, because he knows what it's like to grow up all alone. After Lord Apollo brought him back and made him a Spartan like us, Sam made me promise to live for you and your brothers no matter what happened to him. I'll keep that promise, both because I know that the last thing he'd want is for all of you to lose both of your fathers, as well as that to do so would be very cruel to you guys. I'm sorry... You're afraid of having a love that you can't bear to live without. That's why you don't want a partner, isn't it? You'd rather be alone all your life rather than love someone so much that it hurts to not have them with you."
"I don't want to be bonded, Dad! The rest of you may love it, but I hate it!" he said passionately.
Daniel didn't know how to answer that, so his eyes wandered around the apartment. They came to rest on three empty tequila bottles on the kitchen counter. "Henry... Please tell me you're not turning into an alcoholic!" Henry remained silent. "Dammit, Henry! Getting drunk all the time won't fix anything! That's no way to live!"
"It doesn't work anyways," Henry replied dully. "Guess it's pretty stupid..."
"Finally! Some sign of rationality out of you," Daniel said with sour humor. Henry gave him a pained look. "If you turn into a drunk, Mister, I swear I'm going to spend the rest of my life breaking every last bottle you empty over your thick skull! You ARE NOT turning into a boozer!" Henry moved silently to collect the bottles and dumped them into the trash can. "You're supposed to be recycling those, you know," Daniel said with a frown. Henry shrugged to show that he didn't care at the moment, making the father sigh with disgust. "You missed two Saturday dinners, you know."
"I know... I... I haven't felt up to being around people lately."
"Well you're coming this weekend, even if I have to knock you out and drag you to it! ...We miss you," Daniel finished sadly.
"I need more time," Henry said, shifting uncomfortably.
"Henry... You're not alone. We'll all help you as much as we can."
"Don't say anything to anyone!" Henry pleaded. "Please! I... I just need some time to sort this out."
"Alright," Daniel said.
He left some time later, feeling very worried for his son. He returned home, went into the temple's altar chamber and prayed for his son and the man he was bonded to that everything would work out for them...
The more Henry thought about it over the next several hours, the more his mood changed... He began to grow angrier the more he thought about it. He paced his apartment restlessly until he found himself in his room, his eyes falling onto the sword on its wall-mounted rack. Furious, he barged over, yanked it off the rack and walked over to the trash can. He paused, his arm ready to toss the blade into the waste receptacle, but paused. The sword was a gift from his Dad Sam, being the very blade his formerly human father had used to sacrifice himself to Apollo for the sake of Henry and his Spartan-born parent. He couldn't throw it away, the blade meant too much to both him and his father Sam.
Instead, he took down the leather sword belt and scabbard, housed the blade within its sheath and looked at the clock. It was well past two thirty in the morning, but he felt that this was a good thing. He got dressed and left, taking the extra key ring with him. Twenty minutes later, he had reached his destination and parked across the street on the opposite side of the building from his family's home. Being the eldest son of the head priest had its advantages as he had been entrusted with an extra set of keys to the temple, just in case he would ever need to get in there for any reason. He unlocked the right side door and entered.
The temple was completely closed down for the night, so he was entirely alone, just like he wanted to be. He walked left down the hallway and came out into the main lobby, then moved to the receiving room just outside the altar chamber. He removed his clothes, then faced the doorway into the altar chamber itself, sword belt in his hand. He strode forward without donning the swordbelt first as he normally would.
He strode forward with determined footsteps, not pausing when he stepped onto the smooth floor of the altar chamber, the floor comprised of a single, unbroken slab of white marble. The power of Apollo enveloped him, but he walked forward as though he didn't notice. He came to a stop at the center of the chamber, his eyes taking in the ever-burning flame of Apollo which showed His power and presence, then to the twenty-foot tall bronze statue of the god.
His hand tightened around the scabbard as his feelings spiked higher. "YOU BASTARD!" he shouted, his voice trembling with fury and grief, ringing off the walls. "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?!? ...There was only one thing I asked You never to do to me, but You did it anyways! I worshipped You for most of my life... And this is how You repay my devotion? By stabbing me in the back and forcing me into the one thing I never wanted? ...I thought You cared about me..." Henry's grief overcame him and he dropped to his knees, sobbing. He went to pound the floor with his fist, but the arm dropped limply. "I thought You cared... You always talk about freedom of choice, but You don't care..." He trailed off sadly.
"I do care," a firm, yet gentle voice said to him softly.
Henry looked up in shock to see a nude man standing before him... Well built, blonde haired and clean-shaven with a youthful face. Henry's mouth fell open in shock as he stared at the figure. He didn't need to look up at the statue to confirm what he already knew. The person who stood before him was none other than Apollo Himself. Henry was stunned. Even though he knew that the god could appear as a solid person, the Spartan had never seen the god with his own eyes. Apollo had always before manifested His presence to Henry as an invisible force. He had felt the touch of the god many times in his life, but this was the first time he had actually seen the immortal being with his own eyes.
Apollo stared at Henry with a sad expression. "Am I no longer your Lord?" He asked sadly.
Henry hung his head. "I don't know," he answered honestly.
"Fair enough I suppose," Apollo answered quietly, "given your feelings on the matter. Henry... I'm sorry that this bond is so painful to you."
"Then why did You force it onto me?!?" Henry exploded, feeling betrayed. "I -don't want- to be bonded! And yet You shoved it off onto me knowing full well that I didn't want it! Now look at me! I can't sleep, I can't eat, I-I-I can't do anything except think about John! I can't get him out of my head! How could You do that to me?!?"
"I didn't!" Apollo bristled, His voice showing that Henry's words stung.
"Wh-... What?!?" Henry gasped, shocked and confused.
"Henry," Apollo said slowly, "your prayer was impossible to answer. To do so would have meant that I would have had to violate the free will of another. A partner bond is about -everyone- involved in it, not just one person. To answer your prayer would have meant violating John's free will and that is something I never want to do. You put me into an impossible position by asking for something that I, in good conscience, could not do. So I did the only thing I could... I stayed out of it. ...Henry, you found John on your own."
Henry hung his head as that sank in. His bond had been inescapable. "Then I'm doomed," he said sadly.
Apollo stood there, staring at the mortal in shock as His mouth fell open. His mouth quirked after a moment. "Let me see if I understand you..." He said slowly. "You, Henry Danielson, are doomed... To LOVE?!?" He couldn't help Himself. He began to laugh. The sound of His humor rang off the walls gently as the immortal being laughed harder than He had in several ages.
Henry stared at Apollo for several moments, watching the god as He stood there laughing in an almost hysterical manner. Henry finally saw just how absurd his words had been and shrugged sheepishly.
Apollo sighed as He recovered. "In all my centuries I have never heard anything so ridiculous... Henry... You're a fool," He said with a kindly smile.
"I guess..." Henry said slowly. "What am I going to do? I'm not strong enough for this..." He hung his head sadly.
"You are stronger than you think you are," Apollo said gently. "You see the bond as a weakness, but it is not. Can you honestly say that you were happy being alone?"
"No," he said sadly. "But how can I love a man who doesn't even want to live? I don't know what to do. He doesn't even want to be alive... What do I do?"
"Give him a reason to live," Apollo said softly. "John has been through a great deal of emotional pain. All he wants is for someone to love and accept him as he is. You must be that man, Henry. You are stronger than you think you are... If you will allow it, I will help you as much as I can."
"I'll try..." Henry said weakly.
"I promise I will do everything I can to help you, Henry... Am... Am I still your god?" Apollo asked sadly.
Henry looked up to see the look of pain upon the deity's face and felt moved by it. He reached for his sword belt, pulled the blade free and assumed the prayer position by kneeling in his right knee and holding the blade with the tip pressed to the floor, his forehead resting on the pommel of the weapon that was a symbol of his faith as well as his Dad Sam's devotion to him. He felt the hand of his Lord upon the back of his bowed head.
"Thank you," Apollo said softly...