Chapter Sixteen....Empire of Three (continued)
She loved him. More than her next breath.
And she got an inward chuckle out of the thought that - in about nine months he was going to have someone in his
life that would break his obedience streak cheerfully and probably on a regular basis. She so wanted their child to
have his eyes. If only so that he could see what mischief in their darkness looked like.
It was strange. She knew how to take care of pregnant women. Being one however was an entirely different story.
And considering how miserable she'd been the entire trip...
"Well," she seemed to be giving it some thought. "A nice warm bath would be good. But first you have to set your
wife on the bed and curl up with her for a while. Its important to the baby you see." she explained. Realizing already
that she was going to take merciless advantage of that phrase as the pregnancy went on. Lips curving, she pressed
a kiss to his shoulder. "And then you need to eat something yourself. Because that's important to your wife." She
could have been blind and deaf and still known that, while she'd been miserable, he had too. If he'd eaten anything
at all these last few days, she already knew it hadn't been either enough or healthy. She already intended to use
her own tiredness to lure him into sleep himself shortly.
Hector chuckled. “And the manipulation begins.” He teased her as he crossed the room and up the couple of steps
and placed her on the bed. His mother had servants beat them to the apartments, not hard since they got to take
the direct route, and had water and simple foods already set up at the bedside, at which point he promptly handed
her a glass of water. “I promised Timo you’d float, remember?” He said with an arched eyebrow as he grabbed a roll
and sat on the bed beside her.
She was correct, he hadn’t been eating like usual. Hard to do so when the simple thought of food made her run for
the porthole and he wasn’t leaving her side, not sure at the time if she’d still be there when he returned. So it was
grab and go when he had to leave to attend to ship business.
“Drinking is very important to your husband and father of your child, so drink up.” He said, a light dancing in his
dark eyes, just at the sound of saying that out loud.
She liked the sound of that. And she liked the way his face changed when he said 'father of her child'. It poured a
warmth into her and she shifted to snuggle against his side, looking at the food they'd been left.
It was - bland. Fairly scentless too. Even the bread had cooled enough that she couldn't smell the yeast from where
she was. She waited but they'd already put some food in her earlier and it seemed as if it was going to stay down.
She wasn't at all eager to tempt it with more though. Not yet. The misery of the trip was a little too fresh in her mind.
Dutiful, she sipped at the water. Not about to finish the entire drink but willing to work at it for a while. For herself.
And for the baby. She started smiling automatically at that thought. A baby. A little life that had been born wrapped
in the love of its parents. They couldn't have given their child a better beginning.
And they'd keep that child safe, she thought, hand shifting over her still flat stomach. Now. And always.
"Despite everyone feeding you in Thebe, it looks like I'm the one that's going to get fat from that journey." she
teased with a soft, happy laugh, deciding to risk it and stealing a chunk of the bread he was working on.
He chuckled. “Looks like you’re going to work on me anyway.” He said. “And you won’t be fat, you’ll be...baby.” He
pronounced. He tore the rest of the roll in half and handed it to her, seeing that so far it was staying down. “Come
on now, if this child is anything like the father, he’s hungry. Always hungry.”
He leaned back against the bed on his hands after easily finishing his roll. “Thank you.” He said simply.
She looked over at him with a soft, warm smile, eyes full of the way she loved him. Setting her drink aside she
shifted over and cupped his face in her hands. Brushing her thumbs gently across his cheeks. He was... all she'd
ever wanted, or needed, or not even dared dream for. And he was her husband. And he'd given her a child. And he
was thanking her for that.
"I love you." she answered softly.
He smiled a bit and kissed her. When the kiss broke, he laid back, but when she went to lay down beside him, he
sat her up with his hand at her back and gestured to the glass of water. “Its more than half full.” He pointed out. He
had, after all, made a promise. He waited patiently until she picked the glass up.
“I am going to try hard not to, you know, go overboard.” He said. “But no promises.” Besides wanting to celebrate
and announce to all of Troy, there was this overwhelming need to protect her, more than he had before. If it were
possible.
She made a soft noise that sounded like it could have been the beginning of something her father might have
commented as she took her drink but her lips were curling at their edges.
"I'm going to add 'tyrant' to your list of names" she told him. But she drank the rest of the water. The look she gave
him over the rim of the glass told him that there was a fine line between the water going in her or over him. But he
was right. And so she did finish it before she lay down next to him and snuggled close.
"You're not going to get away with that forever, you know" she informed him, head on his shoulder. The food, and
the water, seemed like they were going to stay put for the time being and she relaxed against him with a sigh. "I
hope you're enjoying your evil reign" she murmured.
"So far its going along pretty good." He said with a grin as she drained the glass. "But I just need my evil reign to last
until the baby is born, and then I can expand my evil empire." He chuckled at the whole thing.''
But if he listened to the tales from his father and Timo, within months he'd have a son with dark curly hair. Amazing
thought, really, life beyond one's self, a complete expression of love and devotion.
"Course that makes you my evil queen." He said. "This could seriously undermine my popularity across the world
you know, this evil label."
"I don't know" Andromache gave it some thought, fingers moving absently across her husband's chest in slow, lazy
circles. "I kind of like the 'evil queen' title." She shifted her head against him to look at the profile of his face. Added
softly:
"Especially the empire of three."