Fanfic: A Little Problem - Chapter 4
Title: A Little Problem (Chapter 4)
Author: Yassandra
Fandom: Atlantis
Pairing/characters: Jason/Ariadne, Pythagoras/Icarus, Hercules, Cassandra
Rating: G
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: Not mine. BBC and Urban Myth Films own them.
Word count: 25317 (This chapter - 6136)
Summary: A routine mission away from the Argo goes awry when Hercules makes a mistake and triggers a curse. Now he's left with a little problem - well, two little problems really...
A/N Written for round six of the Small Fandoms Bang, and also for Hurt/Comfort Bingo for the 'de-age' prompt.
Chapter 4 - Paints and Board Games
It was far too early in the morning to be up and around out of choice, Hercules decided morosely as he trudged through the dusty streets of a marketplace in a town whose name he didn't even know. He had been roused from bed at an ungodly hour by an overly enthusiastic Pythagoras who had been sent to get him up by Ariadne. Hercules was seriously beginning to think that the Queen had a thoroughly evil streak for employing such an underhand trick to get him out of bed.
Once he had managed to stumble out of the bedroom, brain still fuzzy from sleep, he had been met by Ariadne, who had told him that she felt it would be a good idea for someone to go to the local market to replenish their supplies before they set off again and informed him in no uncertain terms that, as everyone else had other jobs to attend to, he had been nominated to do it.
So here he was, still grumpy at being woken up so early, plodding around the market at the Queen's behest. He'd finished sorting out fresh supplies for the Argo fairly quickly actually, and hopefully the stallholders he had dealt with were even now packing up the goods and arranging for them to be delivered to the ship. So here he was with some time to kill before he had to head back to accompany the goods back to the boat.
What should he do with his time? Hercules reached into his money pouch and withdrew the handful of coins he found there - his own money (left over from one of the jobs they had taken on to raise a few funds) not part of the shared purse he had been sent out with this morning. There was more than enough for a decent sized pie and a few flagons of wine, Hercules realised with pleasure.
The two boys were still on the ship, under the watchful eyes of Acaeus. They had been playing with the spheria Ariadne had bought when Hercules had left them, so deeply engrossed in their game that they had not seen him go. Hercules was glad of the respite, although he felt more than a little guilty for thinking it.
He headed off across the market in search of a stall selling pies. There was bound to be one around here somewhere after all. As he passed one stall, however, his eye was drawn to a series of small pots of pigment in various colours. He hesitated. Pythagoras had been right the other night: Jason did keep drawing. Hercules had watched both boys over the past few days and had spotted the child with that bit of charcoal and a piece of parchment on multiple occasions - although he never seemed to let anyone see what he was drawing. Perhaps he might like to add colour to his pictures?
Hercules shook himself and started to move on. What was he thinking really? After all both boys would hopefully be returned to their adult selves before much longer, so what was the good of spoiling them now?
As he went to step away from the stall, however, his eye was caught by a game board behind the paints. If Hercules wasn't mistaken it was a board for playing diagramismos. He was sure he had heard Pythagoras enthusiastically describing the game to Jason one night over supper back in their small house in Atlantis (before Pasiphae had been exiled and Minos had died and the world had gone mad). As far as Hercules could remember, the young mathematician had declared a liking for it.
He mentally shook himself again. This was ridiculous. There was a flagon of wine somewhere in this town calling his name after all.
"How much for the game board and the paints?" he found himself asking. "And I'll need a brush too," he added.
The figure that the stallholder named nearly made him wince. It would take nearly all his money to purchase the items and he really had wanted a pie; just thinking about it made him start to salivate. He grimaced and handed the money over before he could change his mind, waiting while the stallholder wrapped the game and the painting set neatly in a cloth bundle.
He walked away with the bundle tucked under his arm, shaking his head at his own behaviour. Yet the thought of the surprise and pleasure he would see on his boys' faces made it all worth it. With a smile that he wasn't even aware of, Hercules set off to the place where he had agreed to meet the carriers to escort them and the supplies back to the ship.
"You are making that up."
"I'm not."
"You are."
"I'm not."
"Mother has always told me that it is wrong to tell lies!"
"I'm not lying."
"You are."
"I'm not!"
Hercules walked into the room and nearly walked straight back out again. He had known that sooner or later the boys were bound to argue about something; in his experience (which admittedly wasn't that much) children always bickered about something sooner or later. He'd have been happy for it to be later though; to avoid any argument that he might be called upon to break up.
It was too late to make his escape now though. Pythagoras had spotted him and rushed over, scowling.
"Hercules, Jason is telling lies," he announced.
"I'm not!" Jason protested loudly, trotting over equally quickly with a dark scowl on his face.
"He said…"
"I wasn't lying…"
Both boys tried to speak at the same time (well, yell would be closer to the truth than speak). Hercules held up one hand to stop them both.
"One at a time," he growled. "Pythagoras, what is the problem?"
"Jason was making things up," Pythagoras said crossly. "He told me that where he comes from they have boxes with pictures that move that he calls a 'te-llie', and carts that are not pulled by horses or oxen called a 'karr'… and there is no such thing. So I told him to stop making it up but he wouldn't stop… my Mother always told me that it is wrong to tell lies. It is wrong, isn't it Hercules?"
Hercules raised an eyebrow and looked at Jason.
"Now you," he said.
Jason bit his lip.
"Pythagoras asked about what it was like where I came from and I told him and he said I was lying… but I wasn't."
"He was!" Pythagoras burst out. "He said that where he comes from is called In-ger-land… but Crattipus the merchant's son Biton was learning all about geography from his father and he was teaching me and there is no such place in the whole of Hellas."
"Did you ever think that perhaps this In-ger-land is not in Hellas?" Hercules rumbled.
"Do you mean it is in Persia?" Pythagoras sounded horrified. "He is Persian." He stared at Jason and sidestepped away from him.
"I'm not a cat!" Jason objected loudly.
Both Hercules and Pythagoras stared at him for a moment, clearly nonplussed by the apparently random statement.
"I didn't precisely mean Persia," Hercules said, choosing to ignore Jason's comment. "There are many places that are not in Hellas but are also not in Persia." He looked sternly at the two children. "Now you two are both big boys of eight so I expect you to sort out your differences."
"He's not eight," Pythagoras snorted. "He's only seven. He's just a baby."
Hercules looked at Jason in surprise. Somehow he had always assumed that Jason was older than Pythagoras.
Jason went white and then red.
"You promised you wouldn't tell," he yelled at Pythagoras. "You promised."
He reached out and smacked Pythagoras hard across the cheek and then turned and ran out of the room towards the deck before Hercules could stop him.
Hercules stared at the door open mouthed before turning back as Pythagoras began to sniffle. He held his arms out to the child and wrapped them around Pythagoras as he ran into them. For a moment they stood there with Hercules rubbing the young boy's back to try to comfort him.
"What's wrong?" Icarus sounded confused and concerned.
Both Pythagoras and Hercules jumped slightly and looked up in surprise. Neither of them had heard Icarus come in.
"Jason hit me," Pythagoras answered, still sniffling.
"He did what?" Icarus demanded.
Hercules couldn't help but see the way the young man's eyes hardened angrily. Given the relationship between Icarus and the adult Pythagoras, he supposed he could understand it.
"The boys had a bit of an argument," the burly wrestler said.
He sat down so that he was more at Pythagoras' level and pulled the child onto his lap.
"I'm not saying Jason was right to hit you, because he wasn't… but you weren't being overly kind to him, were you?" he said seriously. "You kept on calling him a liar for a start."
"But he was making things up," Pythagoras protested miserably. "The things he was telling me about do not exist. He was making fun of me."
And that was what was at the heart of their argument, Hercules suspected. He hesitated for a moment, working out what he was going to say to try to put matters right. This was usually more Pythagoras' forte than his; his old friend was a born peacemaker - or at least he was when he was in his adult form.
"Now I am pretty sure that Jason comes from somewhere that is a very long way from here… this In-ger-land that he was talking about," Hercules rumbled. "And maybe they do have the things he was talking about there even though we have never heard of them here… or maybe, just maybe, it's just the way Jason describes things that is different. Did you ever think of that? After all, he refers to spheria as 'marbles' and ostrakinda as 'tag', so you know he has a strange way of putting things."
Pythagoras frowned, still snuggling in to Hercules.
"Maybe," he said dubiously.
"This 'horseless cart' might be pulled by slaves for all we know… and the box with moving pictures might be some kind of theatre," Hercules continued. "And how do you think it made Jason feel to have you saying he was lying? How would you have felt?"
"Sad," Pythagoras answered. "And angry... but I did not mean to make Jason sad or angry, Hercules." He sounded more than a little distressed.
"I know, Hercules replied comfortingly. "You are too kind a boy for that. You are one of the kindest people I have ever met. You just lost your temper just like Jason did and it made you say some things you did not really mean. Calling Jason a baby wasn't nice though… and it isn't true… and if you made a promise you shouldn't have broken it."
"I need to say I am sorry," Pythagoras said softly.
"Yes," Hercules agreed. "But so does Jason. No matter what you said there's still no excuse for him smacking you." He looked at Pythagoras seriously. "Now do you think you will be alright here with Icarus if I go to find Jason?"
"Yes," Pythagoras answered. "Do you think Icarus knows how to play diagramismos?" he asked hopefully.
Hercules grinned. The boy had been almost obsessed by the game ever since the burly wrestler had brought it back from the market.
"I'm sure that if he doesn't you can teach him," he rumbled, setting Pythagoras back onto his feet and sending him off to play with Icarus.
The sea air was definitely bracing as Hercules made his way up onto deck. He paused for a moment, thinking. Where would he find Jason? The Argo wasn't all that big (although she was definitely the largest ship Hercules had ever been on) and there really shouldn't be all that many places he could be, but both boys had shown a definite skill for finding little hidey holes and squeezing themselves into them.
"Hey," a gruff voice called.
Hercules turned to face Acaeus.
"He's over there," the surly helmsman growled, gesturing with his head towards the side rail.
Hercules heaved a sigh of relief; Jason had shown a worrying propensity for wanting to climb everything (which Hercules supposed he shouldn't have been surprised about given his adult behaviour) and twice now had been dragged back down from halfway up the main mast to face his angry and worried guardian (because that was what Hercules supposed he was to the two boys at the moment). He had half thought that Jason might have tried for a third time now.
Instead, he could just make out the shape of the boy, sitting in the shadows, tucked up against the side of the ship, curled into a ball with his arms around his legs and his face buried in his knees. Hercules walked purposefully over to him and sat down with a grunt, carefully slipping one arm around the boy's thin shoulders. For a moment he felt the child resist his attempts to offer comfort. Then Jason gave in; all but hurling himself into his larger companion's arms.
"I'm sorry," the boy said, almost inaudibly. "I didn't mean it."
"I know," Hercules rumbled, "and I understand… but you still shouldn't have hit him."
Jason sniffed wetly.
Hercules rolled his eyes and grabbed a cloth from the top of a nearby stack of crates and held it out for the boy to blow his nose into.
"Better now?" he asked.
The child nodded against Hercules' broad chest.
"Am I in trouble?" he asked, his voice small and sad.
"No more than Pythagoras is," Hercules said gently. "You were both in the wrong and I have already spoken to him. He should not have said what he did to you but he thought you were teasing him; making up things that were not real to make fun of him."
"I wasn't, Hercules," Jason said sadly. "I really wasn't."
"I know that," Hercules answered. "I know you wouldn't do that to him… and Pythagoras knows it too. He lost his temper and so did you." He pushed the boy back a little so that he could look him in the face. "Hitting Pythagoras was a bad thing to do though… you do realise that, don't you?"
Jason sniffled faintly.
"It was naughty," he replied quietly. "I was naughty."
He looked appealingly at Hercules. If Jason's 'puppy dog' eyes were devastating as an adult, they were doubly so as a child, Hercules noted clinically - even as he felt his heart melting at the sight.
"Please don't send me back," Jason implored. "I am sorry… and I don't want to leave."
Hercules frowned deeply, trying to work out what was going through the child's head.
"What are you talking about?" he demanded.
Jason shook his head but didn't reply audibly. He brought his hand up to his mouth and started to bite the side of his forefinger.
Hercules' frown deepened. He reached out and removed the boy's hand from his mouth.
"Don't do that," he admonished gently. "You'll hurt yourself."
Jason bit his lip and looked down.
"Once you have apologised to Pythagoras it will all be over," Hercules continued. "Forgiven and forgotten." He placed two fingers under the boy's chin and tilted his head back up. "Will you tell me something though?"
"What?" Jason asked.
"Why you didn't want me to know that you were seven and not eight?" Hercules rumbled. "Why was it so important that Pythagoras had to promise not to say anything?"
Jason sighed against him.
"You were happy thinking I was eight," he mumbled. "And I thought that if I was littler than you thought maybe you wouldn't want me anymore; that you'd send me away." He looked up at Hercules pleadingly. "And I'm nearly eight… I promise I am. It's just a few more months."
Hercules pulled the boy a little more tightly into his arms.
"I don't care if you are seven or forty-seven," he said firmly. "You are one of the people I care about most in this world and I do not want you to be anywhere but here… and there are other people here who feel just as strongly. Ariadne would gut me like a fish if I even thought of sending you away anywhere so you can get those thoughts out of your head right now."
"But you keep calling me 'trouble'," Jason almost whispered. "I don't mean to be trouble Hercules. I know I'm bad but I don't mean to be."
Hercules' arms tightened even more around the child.
"You are not bad," he growled. "I don't know who's told you that you are but they're wrong. You're a good boy… and as for calling you 'trouble'… well I never meant it seriously. It was just a nickname because I am fond of you… but if you don't like it then I won't call you it any more."
Jason offered him a shy smile.
"You can call me 'trouble' if you like," he said quietly. "I don't mind. It's sort of nice to have a name that's just mine and that only you call me."
Hercules smiled back at the lad, enjoying having a little one to one time with one of his boys. After a while though, he shook himself - they really did need to go and find Pythagoras so that things could be put right between the children.
He stood up and swung the child up into his arms, draping him over one shoulder and spinning in a circle until he heard Jason giggle.
"Come on," he said fondly, dropping the boy down to stand on his own feet and taking his hand. "Let's go and see Pythagoras and the two of you can make friends again."
Ariadne wandered back into the main cabin without any real purpose in mind. They were still several days away from landing in Cyprus and had been back at sea for nearly a week. Because there really were only so many places you could go on a ship, they were pretty much all in one another's company constantly and beginning to get on each other's nerves. A sort of universal irritation seemed to pervade the Argo and Ariadne had found herself growing increasingly waspish and snappy over the last couple of days. The only ones who seemed immune to the bad mood were the two children who, apart from the occasional small squabble, were both sunny natured enough to be largely oblivious to the bad mood of the adults.
Ariadne wished she could be a little more like that to be honest. As it was, if she heard Hercules belch one more time, or Cassandra make one more vague pronouncement, or if the master of the ship tried to tell her pessimistically about the potential for sprung seams, she thought she might scream.
So she was making a concerted effort to avoid most of her companions this afternoon, feeling that she would not be particularly good company for anyone. The only problem with that was that now she was bored. She stepped into the cabin feeling decidedly grumpy.
For a moment she thought she was alone in the room. Then she spotted Jason at the table, head bent over a piece of parchment he was working on, small pots of pigment and a bowl of water laid out before him. He seemed to be drawing again - something that he clearly enjoyed and did whenever he got the chance. Where Pythagoras was, Ariadne didn't know; she presumed the little blonde was outside enjoying the bright sunshine and was a little surprised that his dark-haired friend wasn't with him.
She hadn't really spent much time with Jason since Hercules had activated Aphrodite's curse. To be honest she wasn't entirely sure how she should behave around him. It was hard, after everything they had been through, to know that this child didn't really know who she was; didn't know what she was to him. Part of her wanted to be the one to look after him until he returned to his adult form - wanted to show him how much she loved him no matter what - but the more rational side of her realised that that would only cause more problems in the long run; would only confuse things.
As she moved past the end of the table, her dress caught against a flagon Hercules had left there, making it wobble noisily. Jason jumped and looked up at her, thoroughly startled, his hazel eyes huge.
"I'm sorry," Ariadne apologised. "I did not mean to make you jump." She gestured to the bench next to Jason. "Is it alright if I sit down?" she asked.
Jason shrugged.
"I guess so," he muttered.
As she sat down, Ariadne peered at the drawing the boy had been working on. She had to admit that for such a young child it was rather good - although it was still clearly a child's drawing. It was a picture of buildings and trees, but they were not like any buildings Ariadne had ever seen.
"That is a very good picture," she said softly. "What is it of?"
Jason looked up from the picture again. He had been colouring the sun yellow, but now he carefully put his brush back into the pot of water and gave the Queen a peculiar look.
"It's home," he said as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
As he was speaking, Ariadne spotted Hercules coming into the room, obviously searching for his other young charge. The burly wrestler spotted the Queen talking to Jason and stood in the doorway, listening.
"This is your home?" Ariadne asked. "Is it a good home?"
"It's alright," Jason shrugged.
"What is this building?" Ariadne enquired pointing to a building on a hill in the background of the picture. It was grey and had a tower at one end.
"That's the church," Jason replied, giving her that peculiar look again.
"What is a church?" Ariadne asked.
Jason looked at her blankly.
"It's where people go to talk to God," he said, as though the answer should have been obvious to her.
"You mean a temple then," Ariadne replied.
"No," Jason said. "A church."
"Of course," Ariadne murmured awkwardly. "It must just be another name for it." She pointed to a large building in the foreground, much larger than the other houses in the picture. "This must be a nobleman's house," she said.
Jason shrugged again and looked down at his shoes.
"That's where I live," he said.
Ariadne exchanged a surprised look with the still watching Hercules.
"Your father must be an important man," she said. "He must have plenty of money to be able to afford such a large house."
"My Dad's gone," Jason muttered, still looking down. "He went away and didn't come back. I didn't live there before he left."
Ariadne frowned.
"So whose house is it then?" she asked. "Does it belong to the person who looks after you?"
She was genuinely interested in Jason's answer. In all the time she had known him, he had never really spoken about his life before coming to Atlantis and she had to admit that any chance to learn a little more about his past intrigued her.
Jason bit his lip and shook his head.
"It's where they send children that nobody wants," he whispered. "There's lots of other children there too and you have to keep hold of your stuff so no-one nicks it."
Ariadne exchanged a startled look with Hercules. This was not what she had expected to hear.
"You don't live with your family?" she asked.
With hindsight, she knew that was probably a silly question; everything she knew about what had happened indicated that Aeson had run as far and as fast as he could from Atlantis with his infant son and it hardly seemed likely he would have stopped to find family on the way.
Jason shook his head.
"I don't have a family," he muttered. "There's Mac… but they won't let me stay with him."
"And who is Mac?" Ariadne asked gently.
"My Dad's friend," Jason answered. "He's my godfather."
Ariadne decided not to ask what a 'godfather' was.
"Do you like this Mac?" she enquired.
Jason smiled brightly at her.
"Yeah," he said enthusiastically. "He's got this really cool boat and he says that when I'm bigger he'll take me out on it. He works away a lot but when he's in town he takes me out and buys me stuff and all sorts."
"But you don't live with him."
Jason bit his lip again.
"Nah," he said. "They won't let me."
"Why?" Ariadne asked.
"Dunno," Jason answered. "Mac says he's sorry and he's tried but they won't let me stay with him. It doesn't matter… he's not home much anyway."
"And do you like living here?" Ariadne pointed to the big house in the picture.
Somehow it was important to her to know the answer to this.
Jason shrugged, playing with his necklace.
"'S'alright," he mumbled.
Ariadne glanced sadly at Hercules, reading an awful lot into that monosyllabic response.
"Jason!" Pythagoras' bright voice was more than a little breathless as he burst into the room. "Come and see! Acaeus says he is going to show me how to steer the ship and maybe let me have a go. He says he will let you try too. Come on!"
Jason looked at Ariadne for permission to leave. Ariadne tried to smile and nodded.
The little brunette grinned and raced out through the door after his blonde friend.
Hercules let out an explosive breath.
"His damned father abandoned him with no one to care for him," he growled angrily.
"I know," Ariadne replied.
"What sort of man does that?" Hercules ranted. "What sort of father does that?"
"Perhaps there was a reason."
"Don't try to defend him," Hercules raged. "Aeson doesn't deserve your kindness." He looked at the door that the two boys had left through. "And the worst of it is that that boy idolises him." He shook his head despairingly. "Even now, as an adult, he idolises a man who walked away and left him with nothing."
"Hercules," Ariadne began.
"How do you do that to a child?" Hercules asked, suddenly becoming quiet and sad. "Especially one as bright and happy and loving as that one?"
"I do not know," Ariadne answered with a sigh, coming over and putting her hand on Hercules' shoulder.
The burly wrestler patted her hand and tried to smile.
"I'm alright," he said. "It's just…"
"I know," Ariadne replied.
Before either of them could say anything else a loud thud came from the deck overhead.
"Jason! No! Get down from there!" Icarus' urgent voice came wafting down to them.
Hercules rolled his eyes and turned to the doorway.
"I'd better go and see what the little bugger's climbing on now," he said. "I swear, if he's up that mast again I won't be responsible for my actions…"
With one last pat of Ariadne's hand, he hurried back up towards the deck, leaving the Queen of Atlantis alone with her thoughts.
A terrified scream ripped Hercules from a pleasant dream about Medusa. He loved those dreams when he got to be with her again, and for a few moments when he awoke in the morning he would lie there in blissful peace until the harsh reality that she was dead and gone would hit him. Despite the pain that invariably caused though, he would not exchange the dreams and the memories for anything. He had loved his beautiful girl with all his heart and dreaded the day the dreams began to fade; feared that with time he would start to forget her.
Tonight's offering had been particularly nice. They had been together on the steps of the Temple of Poseidon (as they had been on that night so long ago now when he had enchanted her with the song of the sirens - he shuddered to think of how foolish he had been back then) enjoying sweet conversation and a picnic of wine and pies that Medusa had packed for them.
Now though, he lay in the darkness in confusion, trying to work out where the scream had come from. A desolate whimpering came from the bed on the other side of the room. Hercules was up out of the makeshift bed he had made from an old mattress and several blankets and across the room in a flash.
Jason was thrashing in his sleep, whimpering desperately and crying out in fear. He woke Pythagoras with a kick, setting the little blonde off crying. Hercules swore under his breath. Behind him, the door opened and the faint light of an oil lamp appeared.
"What is going on?" Icarus sounded confused.
"Jason's having a nightmare," Hercules growled. "He kicked Pythagoras in his sleep. Can you take Pythagoras for me while I sort out Jason?"
Without waiting for an answer, he picked Pythagoras up and turned to hand him to Icarus. Icarus nodded quickly and handed the oil lamp he was carrying to Ariadne, who had also appeared to find out what all the noise was, before taking Pythagoras off Hercules and balancing the boy on his hip.
"It's alright," Icarus said comfortingly to the blonde child. "It must have been a shock waking up like that but everything is fine now." He looked at Hercules. "I will take him back to my room until everything has calmed down a little."
Hercules nodded tightly. He sat down on the side of the bed and reached out to gently shake Jason to wake him up. As his hand touched the little boy's shoulder, however, Jason jerked awake. He hurled himself into Hercules' arms, sobbing.
Hercules rocked the child back and forth in his arms, murmuring nonsense in his ear, trying to calm Jason down as best he could. The child clung to him, small frame wracked by despairing sobs.
"It was just a dream," Hercules rumbled softly. "Just a nightmare. Calm down lad. You're alright now."
Eventually the child's sobs subsided, turning into hitching breaths. He didn't stop clinging to Hercules, however, and every time the big man went to pull back to look at him, he tightened his grip on Hercules' tunic almost desperately, small face buried in Hercules' broad chest.
Hercules glanced back over his shoulder at Ariadne, still hovering uncertainly in the doorway with the lamp in her hand, wanting to help but not sure what to do. To be honest, Hercules wasn't sure what to do in this situation himself; he'd never had to handle a distraught seven-year-old just waking up from a nightmare before.
"You're fine," he murmured to the child. "Nothing is going to hurt you. I won't let it."
"I'm sorry," Jason between breaths. "I didn't want to hurt her."
"Who?" Hercules asked with a confused frown.
It was plain that the little boy was still caught up in his nightmare; mind temporarily unable to distinguish the difference between dream and reality.
"The snake lady," Jason said. "She was nice to me… even if she did have snakes on her head instead of hair. I didn't want to kill her."
Hercules felt the breath catch in the back of his throat. Behind him he heard Ariadne give a startled gasp.
"I know lad," he said soothingly. "I know you would never have wanted to hurt her."
He had been angry at Jason over Medusa's death (still harboured that anger at times although he tried to get past it) but right now, faced with this innocent child, he didn't have it in his heart to blame him for what had happened.
"She was crying and begging me to help her… to kill her," Jason said, still sobbing slightly. "And I was crying too because I didn't want to do it… but she was begging me and I didn't have a choice."
He curled into Hercules' chest, clinging to the burly wrestler even more.
Hercules sighed and rocked him back and forth gently.
"It was just a dream," he rumbled. "Just a dream…"
"It seemed so real," Jason answered.
"Sometimes nightmares do seem real," Hercules replied. "But they can't really hurt us… not if we don't let them."
He sat there with the little boy in his arms for a little while longer. At some point Ariadne had come over and joined them. She had put down the lamp on the floor and was gently stroking Jason's back soothingly. Eventually the burly wrestler felt the child beginning to nod off to sleep against him and looked down to see Jason yawning and blinking sleepily.
"Hercules?" the boy mumbled.
"Yes?" Hercules asked.
"You may not be the Hercules from my books," Jason murmured drowsily, voice on the edge of sleep, "but you're my Hercules." He yawned again. "I love you," he added softly.
Hercules' heart clenched.
"And I love you, lad," he muttered thickly, dropping a kiss down into the dark curls. "More than you know."
He looked up to see Ariadne watching him with suspiciously bright eyes.
"He's a good boy," he murmured to the woman.
"Yes," Ariadne agreed, "and you are a good man."
Hercules looked away from her and back to the sleepy little boy he was holding, not sure how to answer her comment.
"Is it alright to come back in?" Icarus' voice was very quiet and gentle.
Hercules looked up to see him standing in the doorway with Pythagoras in his arms, the little blonde's head resting on his shoulder.
"He is nearly asleep so I thought I should see how everything was going," Icarus went on.
"It's good timing," Hercules replied softly. "This one's about ready to drop off too."
In pretty short order, the two children were settled back into bed and sleeping peacefully. Hercules pulled the blankets up and smoothed them out before motioning to Icarus and Ariadne to join him out in the main room. When they got out there he was not entirely surprised to see Cassandra waiting for them.
"I need a drink," he growled, reaching for a flagon of wine.
"What is wrong?" Icarus asked, looking from Hercules' tense face to Ariadne, who seemed equally worried. "I know Jason had a bad nightmare but I am told that it happens with young children at times."
"If it was just a simple nightmare it wouldn't be a problem," Hercules said. "I'm surprised that both the boys don't haven't had them more often to be honest." He paused for a moment and sighed deeply. "It was not just a nightmare," he said quietly. "He dreamed about killing Medusa."
"What?" Icarus demanded. "What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said," Hercules groused. "Jason had a dream about killing Medusa. It seems that some of his adult memories are beginning to creep through… only he's too young to really understand them or deal with them."
"So what does that mean exactly?" Icarus asked again.
"I don't know," Hercules replied testily. "I do know that they're both far too young to cope with some of the things they have been forced to do in their lives though."
"It is as well that we are only a few days away from Cyprus," Ariadne interjected. "Then we can end this - hopefully before either of them have any more of their adult memories come through."
"Yeah," Hercules said, draining his cup. "Since there seems to be little point discussing this any further though, I for one am heading back to my bed."
He went to stand up only to find Ariadne holding his arm.
"Hercules," she said softly. "What he was saying about Medusa…"
"It's alright," Hercules answered. "I will always miss her. Always… But that little boy in there isn't to blame. Whatever he did as an adult… whatever he felt he had to do… that child is innocent." He patted the Queen's hand. "Medusa made her own choices… she didn't really let anyone tell her what to do. I know that better than anyone. She knew what she was doing."
"I just thought that this might have brought it all back," Ariadne murmured.
"It never really goes away," Hercules admitted. "There isn't a day that goes by when I don't think of her… but most of the time it's happy memories or pleasant dreams." He smiled softly. "I prefer to think of Medusa as she was when we were happy. Nothing that happened tonight will change that."
Ariadne smiled.
"I am glad to hear it," she said. "And now that everything is calm again I will bid you all a good night."
Author: Yassandra
Fandom: Atlantis
Pairing/characters: Jason/Ariadne, Pythagoras/Icarus, Hercules, Cassandra
Rating: G
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: Not mine. BBC and Urban Myth Films own them.
Word count: 25317 (This chapter - 6136)
Summary: A routine mission away from the Argo goes awry when Hercules makes a mistake and triggers a curse. Now he's left with a little problem - well, two little problems really...
A/N Written for round six of the Small Fandoms Bang, and also for Hurt/Comfort Bingo for the 'de-age' prompt.
Chapter 4 - Paints and Board Games
It was far too early in the morning to be up and around out of choice, Hercules decided morosely as he trudged through the dusty streets of a marketplace in a town whose name he didn't even know. He had been roused from bed at an ungodly hour by an overly enthusiastic Pythagoras who had been sent to get him up by Ariadne. Hercules was seriously beginning to think that the Queen had a thoroughly evil streak for employing such an underhand trick to get him out of bed.
Once he had managed to stumble out of the bedroom, brain still fuzzy from sleep, he had been met by Ariadne, who had told him that she felt it would be a good idea for someone to go to the local market to replenish their supplies before they set off again and informed him in no uncertain terms that, as everyone else had other jobs to attend to, he had been nominated to do it.
So here he was, still grumpy at being woken up so early, plodding around the market at the Queen's behest. He'd finished sorting out fresh supplies for the Argo fairly quickly actually, and hopefully the stallholders he had dealt with were even now packing up the goods and arranging for them to be delivered to the ship. So here he was with some time to kill before he had to head back to accompany the goods back to the boat.
What should he do with his time? Hercules reached into his money pouch and withdrew the handful of coins he found there - his own money (left over from one of the jobs they had taken on to raise a few funds) not part of the shared purse he had been sent out with this morning. There was more than enough for a decent sized pie and a few flagons of wine, Hercules realised with pleasure.
The two boys were still on the ship, under the watchful eyes of Acaeus. They had been playing with the spheria Ariadne had bought when Hercules had left them, so deeply engrossed in their game that they had not seen him go. Hercules was glad of the respite, although he felt more than a little guilty for thinking it.
He headed off across the market in search of a stall selling pies. There was bound to be one around here somewhere after all. As he passed one stall, however, his eye was drawn to a series of small pots of pigment in various colours. He hesitated. Pythagoras had been right the other night: Jason did keep drawing. Hercules had watched both boys over the past few days and had spotted the child with that bit of charcoal and a piece of parchment on multiple occasions - although he never seemed to let anyone see what he was drawing. Perhaps he might like to add colour to his pictures?
Hercules shook himself and started to move on. What was he thinking really? After all both boys would hopefully be returned to their adult selves before much longer, so what was the good of spoiling them now?
As he went to step away from the stall, however, his eye was caught by a game board behind the paints. If Hercules wasn't mistaken it was a board for playing diagramismos. He was sure he had heard Pythagoras enthusiastically describing the game to Jason one night over supper back in their small house in Atlantis (before Pasiphae had been exiled and Minos had died and the world had gone mad). As far as Hercules could remember, the young mathematician had declared a liking for it.
He mentally shook himself again. This was ridiculous. There was a flagon of wine somewhere in this town calling his name after all.
"How much for the game board and the paints?" he found himself asking. "And I'll need a brush too," he added.
The figure that the stallholder named nearly made him wince. It would take nearly all his money to purchase the items and he really had wanted a pie; just thinking about it made him start to salivate. He grimaced and handed the money over before he could change his mind, waiting while the stallholder wrapped the game and the painting set neatly in a cloth bundle.
He walked away with the bundle tucked under his arm, shaking his head at his own behaviour. Yet the thought of the surprise and pleasure he would see on his boys' faces made it all worth it. With a smile that he wasn't even aware of, Hercules set off to the place where he had agreed to meet the carriers to escort them and the supplies back to the ship.
"You are making that up."
"I'm not."
"You are."
"I'm not."
"Mother has always told me that it is wrong to tell lies!"
"I'm not lying."
"You are."
"I'm not!"
Hercules walked into the room and nearly walked straight back out again. He had known that sooner or later the boys were bound to argue about something; in his experience (which admittedly wasn't that much) children always bickered about something sooner or later. He'd have been happy for it to be later though; to avoid any argument that he might be called upon to break up.
It was too late to make his escape now though. Pythagoras had spotted him and rushed over, scowling.
"Hercules, Jason is telling lies," he announced.
"I'm not!" Jason protested loudly, trotting over equally quickly with a dark scowl on his face.
"He said…"
"I wasn't lying…"
Both boys tried to speak at the same time (well, yell would be closer to the truth than speak). Hercules held up one hand to stop them both.
"One at a time," he growled. "Pythagoras, what is the problem?"
"Jason was making things up," Pythagoras said crossly. "He told me that where he comes from they have boxes with pictures that move that he calls a 'te-llie', and carts that are not pulled by horses or oxen called a 'karr'… and there is no such thing. So I told him to stop making it up but he wouldn't stop… my Mother always told me that it is wrong to tell lies. It is wrong, isn't it Hercules?"
Hercules raised an eyebrow and looked at Jason.
"Now you," he said.
Jason bit his lip.
"Pythagoras asked about what it was like where I came from and I told him and he said I was lying… but I wasn't."
"He was!" Pythagoras burst out. "He said that where he comes from is called In-ger-land… but Crattipus the merchant's son Biton was learning all about geography from his father and he was teaching me and there is no such place in the whole of Hellas."
"Did you ever think that perhaps this In-ger-land is not in Hellas?" Hercules rumbled.
"Do you mean it is in Persia?" Pythagoras sounded horrified. "He is Persian." He stared at Jason and sidestepped away from him.
"I'm not a cat!" Jason objected loudly.
Both Hercules and Pythagoras stared at him for a moment, clearly nonplussed by the apparently random statement.
"I didn't precisely mean Persia," Hercules said, choosing to ignore Jason's comment. "There are many places that are not in Hellas but are also not in Persia." He looked sternly at the two children. "Now you two are both big boys of eight so I expect you to sort out your differences."
"He's not eight," Pythagoras snorted. "He's only seven. He's just a baby."
Hercules looked at Jason in surprise. Somehow he had always assumed that Jason was older than Pythagoras.
Jason went white and then red.
"You promised you wouldn't tell," he yelled at Pythagoras. "You promised."
He reached out and smacked Pythagoras hard across the cheek and then turned and ran out of the room towards the deck before Hercules could stop him.
Hercules stared at the door open mouthed before turning back as Pythagoras began to sniffle. He held his arms out to the child and wrapped them around Pythagoras as he ran into them. For a moment they stood there with Hercules rubbing the young boy's back to try to comfort him.
"What's wrong?" Icarus sounded confused and concerned.
Both Pythagoras and Hercules jumped slightly and looked up in surprise. Neither of them had heard Icarus come in.
"Jason hit me," Pythagoras answered, still sniffling.
"He did what?" Icarus demanded.
Hercules couldn't help but see the way the young man's eyes hardened angrily. Given the relationship between Icarus and the adult Pythagoras, he supposed he could understand it.
"The boys had a bit of an argument," the burly wrestler said.
He sat down so that he was more at Pythagoras' level and pulled the child onto his lap.
"I'm not saying Jason was right to hit you, because he wasn't… but you weren't being overly kind to him, were you?" he said seriously. "You kept on calling him a liar for a start."
"But he was making things up," Pythagoras protested miserably. "The things he was telling me about do not exist. He was making fun of me."
And that was what was at the heart of their argument, Hercules suspected. He hesitated for a moment, working out what he was going to say to try to put matters right. This was usually more Pythagoras' forte than his; his old friend was a born peacemaker - or at least he was when he was in his adult form.
"Now I am pretty sure that Jason comes from somewhere that is a very long way from here… this In-ger-land that he was talking about," Hercules rumbled. "And maybe they do have the things he was talking about there even though we have never heard of them here… or maybe, just maybe, it's just the way Jason describes things that is different. Did you ever think of that? After all, he refers to spheria as 'marbles' and ostrakinda as 'tag', so you know he has a strange way of putting things."
Pythagoras frowned, still snuggling in to Hercules.
"Maybe," he said dubiously.
"This 'horseless cart' might be pulled by slaves for all we know… and the box with moving pictures might be some kind of theatre," Hercules continued. "And how do you think it made Jason feel to have you saying he was lying? How would you have felt?"
"Sad," Pythagoras answered. "And angry... but I did not mean to make Jason sad or angry, Hercules." He sounded more than a little distressed.
"I know, Hercules replied comfortingly. "You are too kind a boy for that. You are one of the kindest people I have ever met. You just lost your temper just like Jason did and it made you say some things you did not really mean. Calling Jason a baby wasn't nice though… and it isn't true… and if you made a promise you shouldn't have broken it."
"I need to say I am sorry," Pythagoras said softly.
"Yes," Hercules agreed. "But so does Jason. No matter what you said there's still no excuse for him smacking you." He looked at Pythagoras seriously. "Now do you think you will be alright here with Icarus if I go to find Jason?"
"Yes," Pythagoras answered. "Do you think Icarus knows how to play diagramismos?" he asked hopefully.
Hercules grinned. The boy had been almost obsessed by the game ever since the burly wrestler had brought it back from the market.
"I'm sure that if he doesn't you can teach him," he rumbled, setting Pythagoras back onto his feet and sending him off to play with Icarus.
The sea air was definitely bracing as Hercules made his way up onto deck. He paused for a moment, thinking. Where would he find Jason? The Argo wasn't all that big (although she was definitely the largest ship Hercules had ever been on) and there really shouldn't be all that many places he could be, but both boys had shown a definite skill for finding little hidey holes and squeezing themselves into them.
"Hey," a gruff voice called.
Hercules turned to face Acaeus.
"He's over there," the surly helmsman growled, gesturing with his head towards the side rail.
Hercules heaved a sigh of relief; Jason had shown a worrying propensity for wanting to climb everything (which Hercules supposed he shouldn't have been surprised about given his adult behaviour) and twice now had been dragged back down from halfway up the main mast to face his angry and worried guardian (because that was what Hercules supposed he was to the two boys at the moment). He had half thought that Jason might have tried for a third time now.
Instead, he could just make out the shape of the boy, sitting in the shadows, tucked up against the side of the ship, curled into a ball with his arms around his legs and his face buried in his knees. Hercules walked purposefully over to him and sat down with a grunt, carefully slipping one arm around the boy's thin shoulders. For a moment he felt the child resist his attempts to offer comfort. Then Jason gave in; all but hurling himself into his larger companion's arms.
"I'm sorry," the boy said, almost inaudibly. "I didn't mean it."
"I know," Hercules rumbled, "and I understand… but you still shouldn't have hit him."
Jason sniffed wetly.
Hercules rolled his eyes and grabbed a cloth from the top of a nearby stack of crates and held it out for the boy to blow his nose into.
"Better now?" he asked.
The child nodded against Hercules' broad chest.
"Am I in trouble?" he asked, his voice small and sad.
"No more than Pythagoras is," Hercules said gently. "You were both in the wrong and I have already spoken to him. He should not have said what he did to you but he thought you were teasing him; making up things that were not real to make fun of him."
"I wasn't, Hercules," Jason said sadly. "I really wasn't."
"I know that," Hercules answered. "I know you wouldn't do that to him… and Pythagoras knows it too. He lost his temper and so did you." He pushed the boy back a little so that he could look him in the face. "Hitting Pythagoras was a bad thing to do though… you do realise that, don't you?"
Jason sniffled faintly.
"It was naughty," he replied quietly. "I was naughty."
He looked appealingly at Hercules. If Jason's 'puppy dog' eyes were devastating as an adult, they were doubly so as a child, Hercules noted clinically - even as he felt his heart melting at the sight.
"Please don't send me back," Jason implored. "I am sorry… and I don't want to leave."
Hercules frowned deeply, trying to work out what was going through the child's head.
"What are you talking about?" he demanded.
Jason shook his head but didn't reply audibly. He brought his hand up to his mouth and started to bite the side of his forefinger.
Hercules' frown deepened. He reached out and removed the boy's hand from his mouth.
"Don't do that," he admonished gently. "You'll hurt yourself."
Jason bit his lip and looked down.
"Once you have apologised to Pythagoras it will all be over," Hercules continued. "Forgiven and forgotten." He placed two fingers under the boy's chin and tilted his head back up. "Will you tell me something though?"
"What?" Jason asked.
"Why you didn't want me to know that you were seven and not eight?" Hercules rumbled. "Why was it so important that Pythagoras had to promise not to say anything?"
Jason sighed against him.
"You were happy thinking I was eight," he mumbled. "And I thought that if I was littler than you thought maybe you wouldn't want me anymore; that you'd send me away." He looked up at Hercules pleadingly. "And I'm nearly eight… I promise I am. It's just a few more months."
Hercules pulled the boy a little more tightly into his arms.
"I don't care if you are seven or forty-seven," he said firmly. "You are one of the people I care about most in this world and I do not want you to be anywhere but here… and there are other people here who feel just as strongly. Ariadne would gut me like a fish if I even thought of sending you away anywhere so you can get those thoughts out of your head right now."
"But you keep calling me 'trouble'," Jason almost whispered. "I don't mean to be trouble Hercules. I know I'm bad but I don't mean to be."
Hercules' arms tightened even more around the child.
"You are not bad," he growled. "I don't know who's told you that you are but they're wrong. You're a good boy… and as for calling you 'trouble'… well I never meant it seriously. It was just a nickname because I am fond of you… but if you don't like it then I won't call you it any more."
Jason offered him a shy smile.
"You can call me 'trouble' if you like," he said quietly. "I don't mind. It's sort of nice to have a name that's just mine and that only you call me."
Hercules smiled back at the lad, enjoying having a little one to one time with one of his boys. After a while though, he shook himself - they really did need to go and find Pythagoras so that things could be put right between the children.
He stood up and swung the child up into his arms, draping him over one shoulder and spinning in a circle until he heard Jason giggle.
"Come on," he said fondly, dropping the boy down to stand on his own feet and taking his hand. "Let's go and see Pythagoras and the two of you can make friends again."
Ariadne wandered back into the main cabin without any real purpose in mind. They were still several days away from landing in Cyprus and had been back at sea for nearly a week. Because there really were only so many places you could go on a ship, they were pretty much all in one another's company constantly and beginning to get on each other's nerves. A sort of universal irritation seemed to pervade the Argo and Ariadne had found herself growing increasingly waspish and snappy over the last couple of days. The only ones who seemed immune to the bad mood were the two children who, apart from the occasional small squabble, were both sunny natured enough to be largely oblivious to the bad mood of the adults.
Ariadne wished she could be a little more like that to be honest. As it was, if she heard Hercules belch one more time, or Cassandra make one more vague pronouncement, or if the master of the ship tried to tell her pessimistically about the potential for sprung seams, she thought she might scream.
So she was making a concerted effort to avoid most of her companions this afternoon, feeling that she would not be particularly good company for anyone. The only problem with that was that now she was bored. She stepped into the cabin feeling decidedly grumpy.
For a moment she thought she was alone in the room. Then she spotted Jason at the table, head bent over a piece of parchment he was working on, small pots of pigment and a bowl of water laid out before him. He seemed to be drawing again - something that he clearly enjoyed and did whenever he got the chance. Where Pythagoras was, Ariadne didn't know; she presumed the little blonde was outside enjoying the bright sunshine and was a little surprised that his dark-haired friend wasn't with him.
She hadn't really spent much time with Jason since Hercules had activated Aphrodite's curse. To be honest she wasn't entirely sure how she should behave around him. It was hard, after everything they had been through, to know that this child didn't really know who she was; didn't know what she was to him. Part of her wanted to be the one to look after him until he returned to his adult form - wanted to show him how much she loved him no matter what - but the more rational side of her realised that that would only cause more problems in the long run; would only confuse things.
As she moved past the end of the table, her dress caught against a flagon Hercules had left there, making it wobble noisily. Jason jumped and looked up at her, thoroughly startled, his hazel eyes huge.
"I'm sorry," Ariadne apologised. "I did not mean to make you jump." She gestured to the bench next to Jason. "Is it alright if I sit down?" she asked.
Jason shrugged.
"I guess so," he muttered.
As she sat down, Ariadne peered at the drawing the boy had been working on. She had to admit that for such a young child it was rather good - although it was still clearly a child's drawing. It was a picture of buildings and trees, but they were not like any buildings Ariadne had ever seen.
"That is a very good picture," she said softly. "What is it of?"
Jason looked up from the picture again. He had been colouring the sun yellow, but now he carefully put his brush back into the pot of water and gave the Queen a peculiar look.
"It's home," he said as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
As he was speaking, Ariadne spotted Hercules coming into the room, obviously searching for his other young charge. The burly wrestler spotted the Queen talking to Jason and stood in the doorway, listening.
"This is your home?" Ariadne asked. "Is it a good home?"
"It's alright," Jason shrugged.
"What is this building?" Ariadne enquired pointing to a building on a hill in the background of the picture. It was grey and had a tower at one end.
"That's the church," Jason replied, giving her that peculiar look again.
"What is a church?" Ariadne asked.
Jason looked at her blankly.
"It's where people go to talk to God," he said, as though the answer should have been obvious to her.
"You mean a temple then," Ariadne replied.
"No," Jason said. "A church."
"Of course," Ariadne murmured awkwardly. "It must just be another name for it." She pointed to a large building in the foreground, much larger than the other houses in the picture. "This must be a nobleman's house," she said.
Jason shrugged again and looked down at his shoes.
"That's where I live," he said.
Ariadne exchanged a surprised look with the still watching Hercules.
"Your father must be an important man," she said. "He must have plenty of money to be able to afford such a large house."
"My Dad's gone," Jason muttered, still looking down. "He went away and didn't come back. I didn't live there before he left."
Ariadne frowned.
"So whose house is it then?" she asked. "Does it belong to the person who looks after you?"
She was genuinely interested in Jason's answer. In all the time she had known him, he had never really spoken about his life before coming to Atlantis and she had to admit that any chance to learn a little more about his past intrigued her.
Jason bit his lip and shook his head.
"It's where they send children that nobody wants," he whispered. "There's lots of other children there too and you have to keep hold of your stuff so no-one nicks it."
Ariadne exchanged a startled look with Hercules. This was not what she had expected to hear.
"You don't live with your family?" she asked.
With hindsight, she knew that was probably a silly question; everything she knew about what had happened indicated that Aeson had run as far and as fast as he could from Atlantis with his infant son and it hardly seemed likely he would have stopped to find family on the way.
Jason shook his head.
"I don't have a family," he muttered. "There's Mac… but they won't let me stay with him."
"And who is Mac?" Ariadne asked gently.
"My Dad's friend," Jason answered. "He's my godfather."
Ariadne decided not to ask what a 'godfather' was.
"Do you like this Mac?" she enquired.
Jason smiled brightly at her.
"Yeah," he said enthusiastically. "He's got this really cool boat and he says that when I'm bigger he'll take me out on it. He works away a lot but when he's in town he takes me out and buys me stuff and all sorts."
"But you don't live with him."
Jason bit his lip again.
"Nah," he said. "They won't let me."
"Why?" Ariadne asked.
"Dunno," Jason answered. "Mac says he's sorry and he's tried but they won't let me stay with him. It doesn't matter… he's not home much anyway."
"And do you like living here?" Ariadne pointed to the big house in the picture.
Somehow it was important to her to know the answer to this.
Jason shrugged, playing with his necklace.
"'S'alright," he mumbled.
Ariadne glanced sadly at Hercules, reading an awful lot into that monosyllabic response.
"Jason!" Pythagoras' bright voice was more than a little breathless as he burst into the room. "Come and see! Acaeus says he is going to show me how to steer the ship and maybe let me have a go. He says he will let you try too. Come on!"
Jason looked at Ariadne for permission to leave. Ariadne tried to smile and nodded.
The little brunette grinned and raced out through the door after his blonde friend.
Hercules let out an explosive breath.
"His damned father abandoned him with no one to care for him," he growled angrily.
"I know," Ariadne replied.
"What sort of man does that?" Hercules ranted. "What sort of father does that?"
"Perhaps there was a reason."
"Don't try to defend him," Hercules raged. "Aeson doesn't deserve your kindness." He looked at the door that the two boys had left through. "And the worst of it is that that boy idolises him." He shook his head despairingly. "Even now, as an adult, he idolises a man who walked away and left him with nothing."
"Hercules," Ariadne began.
"How do you do that to a child?" Hercules asked, suddenly becoming quiet and sad. "Especially one as bright and happy and loving as that one?"
"I do not know," Ariadne answered with a sigh, coming over and putting her hand on Hercules' shoulder.
The burly wrestler patted her hand and tried to smile.
"I'm alright," he said. "It's just…"
"I know," Ariadne replied.
Before either of them could say anything else a loud thud came from the deck overhead.
"Jason! No! Get down from there!" Icarus' urgent voice came wafting down to them.
Hercules rolled his eyes and turned to the doorway.
"I'd better go and see what the little bugger's climbing on now," he said. "I swear, if he's up that mast again I won't be responsible for my actions…"
With one last pat of Ariadne's hand, he hurried back up towards the deck, leaving the Queen of Atlantis alone with her thoughts.
A terrified scream ripped Hercules from a pleasant dream about Medusa. He loved those dreams when he got to be with her again, and for a few moments when he awoke in the morning he would lie there in blissful peace until the harsh reality that she was dead and gone would hit him. Despite the pain that invariably caused though, he would not exchange the dreams and the memories for anything. He had loved his beautiful girl with all his heart and dreaded the day the dreams began to fade; feared that with time he would start to forget her.
Tonight's offering had been particularly nice. They had been together on the steps of the Temple of Poseidon (as they had been on that night so long ago now when he had enchanted her with the song of the sirens - he shuddered to think of how foolish he had been back then) enjoying sweet conversation and a picnic of wine and pies that Medusa had packed for them.
Now though, he lay in the darkness in confusion, trying to work out where the scream had come from. A desolate whimpering came from the bed on the other side of the room. Hercules was up out of the makeshift bed he had made from an old mattress and several blankets and across the room in a flash.
Jason was thrashing in his sleep, whimpering desperately and crying out in fear. He woke Pythagoras with a kick, setting the little blonde off crying. Hercules swore under his breath. Behind him, the door opened and the faint light of an oil lamp appeared.
"What is going on?" Icarus sounded confused.
"Jason's having a nightmare," Hercules growled. "He kicked Pythagoras in his sleep. Can you take Pythagoras for me while I sort out Jason?"
Without waiting for an answer, he picked Pythagoras up and turned to hand him to Icarus. Icarus nodded quickly and handed the oil lamp he was carrying to Ariadne, who had also appeared to find out what all the noise was, before taking Pythagoras off Hercules and balancing the boy on his hip.
"It's alright," Icarus said comfortingly to the blonde child. "It must have been a shock waking up like that but everything is fine now." He looked at Hercules. "I will take him back to my room until everything has calmed down a little."
Hercules nodded tightly. He sat down on the side of the bed and reached out to gently shake Jason to wake him up. As his hand touched the little boy's shoulder, however, Jason jerked awake. He hurled himself into Hercules' arms, sobbing.
Hercules rocked the child back and forth in his arms, murmuring nonsense in his ear, trying to calm Jason down as best he could. The child clung to him, small frame wracked by despairing sobs.
"It was just a dream," Hercules rumbled softly. "Just a nightmare. Calm down lad. You're alright now."
Eventually the child's sobs subsided, turning into hitching breaths. He didn't stop clinging to Hercules, however, and every time the big man went to pull back to look at him, he tightened his grip on Hercules' tunic almost desperately, small face buried in Hercules' broad chest.
Hercules glanced back over his shoulder at Ariadne, still hovering uncertainly in the doorway with the lamp in her hand, wanting to help but not sure what to do. To be honest, Hercules wasn't sure what to do in this situation himself; he'd never had to handle a distraught seven-year-old just waking up from a nightmare before.
"You're fine," he murmured to the child. "Nothing is going to hurt you. I won't let it."
"I'm sorry," Jason between breaths. "I didn't want to hurt her."
"Who?" Hercules asked with a confused frown.
It was plain that the little boy was still caught up in his nightmare; mind temporarily unable to distinguish the difference between dream and reality.
"The snake lady," Jason said. "She was nice to me… even if she did have snakes on her head instead of hair. I didn't want to kill her."
Hercules felt the breath catch in the back of his throat. Behind him he heard Ariadne give a startled gasp.
"I know lad," he said soothingly. "I know you would never have wanted to hurt her."
He had been angry at Jason over Medusa's death (still harboured that anger at times although he tried to get past it) but right now, faced with this innocent child, he didn't have it in his heart to blame him for what had happened.
"She was crying and begging me to help her… to kill her," Jason said, still sobbing slightly. "And I was crying too because I didn't want to do it… but she was begging me and I didn't have a choice."
He curled into Hercules' chest, clinging to the burly wrestler even more.
Hercules sighed and rocked him back and forth gently.
"It was just a dream," he rumbled. "Just a dream…"
"It seemed so real," Jason answered.
"Sometimes nightmares do seem real," Hercules replied. "But they can't really hurt us… not if we don't let them."
He sat there with the little boy in his arms for a little while longer. At some point Ariadne had come over and joined them. She had put down the lamp on the floor and was gently stroking Jason's back soothingly. Eventually the burly wrestler felt the child beginning to nod off to sleep against him and looked down to see Jason yawning and blinking sleepily.
"Hercules?" the boy mumbled.
"Yes?" Hercules asked.
"You may not be the Hercules from my books," Jason murmured drowsily, voice on the edge of sleep, "but you're my Hercules." He yawned again. "I love you," he added softly.
Hercules' heart clenched.
"And I love you, lad," he muttered thickly, dropping a kiss down into the dark curls. "More than you know."
He looked up to see Ariadne watching him with suspiciously bright eyes.
"He's a good boy," he murmured to the woman.
"Yes," Ariadne agreed, "and you are a good man."
Hercules looked away from her and back to the sleepy little boy he was holding, not sure how to answer her comment.
"Is it alright to come back in?" Icarus' voice was very quiet and gentle.
Hercules looked up to see him standing in the doorway with Pythagoras in his arms, the little blonde's head resting on his shoulder.
"He is nearly asleep so I thought I should see how everything was going," Icarus went on.
"It's good timing," Hercules replied softly. "This one's about ready to drop off too."
In pretty short order, the two children were settled back into bed and sleeping peacefully. Hercules pulled the blankets up and smoothed them out before motioning to Icarus and Ariadne to join him out in the main room. When they got out there he was not entirely surprised to see Cassandra waiting for them.
"I need a drink," he growled, reaching for a flagon of wine.
"What is wrong?" Icarus asked, looking from Hercules' tense face to Ariadne, who seemed equally worried. "I know Jason had a bad nightmare but I am told that it happens with young children at times."
"If it was just a simple nightmare it wouldn't be a problem," Hercules said. "I'm surprised that both the boys don't haven't had them more often to be honest." He paused for a moment and sighed deeply. "It was not just a nightmare," he said quietly. "He dreamed about killing Medusa."
"What?" Icarus demanded. "What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said," Hercules groused. "Jason had a dream about killing Medusa. It seems that some of his adult memories are beginning to creep through… only he's too young to really understand them or deal with them."
"So what does that mean exactly?" Icarus asked again.
"I don't know," Hercules replied testily. "I do know that they're both far too young to cope with some of the things they have been forced to do in their lives though."
"It is as well that we are only a few days away from Cyprus," Ariadne interjected. "Then we can end this - hopefully before either of them have any more of their adult memories come through."
"Yeah," Hercules said, draining his cup. "Since there seems to be little point discussing this any further though, I for one am heading back to my bed."
He went to stand up only to find Ariadne holding his arm.
"Hercules," she said softly. "What he was saying about Medusa…"
"It's alright," Hercules answered. "I will always miss her. Always… But that little boy in there isn't to blame. Whatever he did as an adult… whatever he felt he had to do… that child is innocent." He patted the Queen's hand. "Medusa made her own choices… she didn't really let anyone tell her what to do. I know that better than anyone. She knew what she was doing."
"I just thought that this might have brought it all back," Ariadne murmured.
"It never really goes away," Hercules admitted. "There isn't a day that goes by when I don't think of her… but most of the time it's happy memories or pleasant dreams." He smiled softly. "I prefer to think of Medusa as she was when we were happy. Nothing that happened tonight will change that."
Ariadne smiled.
"I am glad to hear it," she said. "And now that everything is calm again I will bid you all a good night."