©2002 by WILDBEARIES

This story is based on characters created in the film, "Gladiator" and in no way intended to infringe upon those characters or the story of that film. References to real people are strictly the product of the writer's imagination and meant to entertain the reader.
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Three years later - Trujillo, Hispania - March 15th

"Is that the place, Tata?" The sweet piping voice of the small boy sitting in front of him in the saddle sounded clear and strong, unaffected by the emotions temporarily choking the voice of his father, who held him securely.

"Yes, son, yes it is," Maximus finally managed.

The boy, blue eyed, with his mother's dark auburn hair and his father's cleft chin, turned to look up at his sire. "Are you all right, Tata?"

Maximus nodded, giving his son a reassuring pat on his leg. "Fine, son, it's just that when I visit here, I miss them. It's perfectly all right to be sad when you miss someone."

Little Decimus wriggled, signaling that he wanted to get off the horse. "Down, Tata!" he announced.

Maximus laughed and dismounted, reaching up to lift his son down from Scarto's back. "Patience is also a virtue," he said to the lively three-year-old, but he was already making his determined way up the small hillock to put his gift to the brother he would never know on the place where he slept under the soil of his father's farm. "You're giving him your toy horse?" Maximus asked, surprised.

Decimus placed the carved wood horse reverently on the ground and nodded, "Yes, Tata, I think he'll like it, don't you? It's his birthday - he needs something special."

Maximus passed a hand across his face with studied casualness, not wanting Decimus to see the glint of the tears that had sprung almost instantly with his words. "Yes, son, he would love it - he loved horses as much as you." He would have old Lucullus carve another horse for Decimus - perhaps two, since he was so generously giving away his most prized possession.

"Good," the little boy said. He stood, sturdy little legs parted, his stance such a close copy of his father's that Maximus had to chuckle. The acorn didn't fall far from the tree at all. The winter wind kicked up, and Maximus bent down to tuck his son's cloak - exactly like his own - around him. "Pick me up?" Decimus asked, holding up his arms.

Maximus couldn't resist. He scooped the little boy up, much to his delight, and set him back on Scarto. "Home now, your mama will have lunch ready - in fact, she's probably wondering where we are." He swung into the saddle and turned Scarto toward the villa.

The big horse made his way over the hillocks through the snow, snorting at the wind that ruffled his mane, but resisting the urge to dance or misbehave. The little master was on his back and the horse loved the little boy, finding him fascinating because he smelled just like Maximus, yet was so small. When either human touched Scarto, he went still as a stone under their hand, a frisson of electricity shooting through him from the force of their personality. Of course, Maximus didn't understand that, he merely thought his horse was uncommonly well behaved and demonstrated exceptional good sense around little Decimus. Many retired war horses could not be trusted around children at all. His were an exception.

He dismounted, handing over the reins to his head groom before lifting Decimus down. The little boy went scampering up the steps into the front door, leaving the two men laughing in his wake. "I'd say he's eager for his food, sir," the groom commented, then led Scarto off to the stables for a nice rub down and some oats.

"As am I," Maximus said softly, making his own, more decorous, way up the steps and into his house. He loved this house. It had taken him a while to get over the haunted sensation that had almost overcome him when he had first visited the rebuilt villa where he had once lived with Selene and their son Marcus. Now, with the house expanded, staffed with happy people, filled with his wife Ana's joyful personality, he couldn't imagine living anywhere else.

Ana met him as he came into the atrium. She leaned up and kissed him, exclaiming at how cold his bearded cheeks were. "It must be freezing out!" She helped him untie his cloak and took it from him, handing him a cup of warm, spiced wine to take the chill out of his bones. "Cena will be in about half an hour. I've sent Decimus off to clean up the mess his puppy made, and clean himself up as well."

Maximus grinned at her. "My little general," he teased her, dropping into a comfortable chair near the large brazier that warmed the room. "Ah, this is good," he said, warming his hands. He sipped appreciatively, "this is also good."

Ana sipped from her own cup and stood in front of him, eyeing his lap until, with a soft chuckle, he pulled her down onto his thighs. "Ooof!" he pretended shock at her weight, one big hand going to the small rounded bulge of her belly. "This child is going to be bigger than you!"

She giggled, and leaned into him, enjoying the warmth radiating from his much larger body. "I don't think so, but she's going to be active - she kicks me like a cavalryman already."

"Are you so sure this one's a girl?" It had amazed him when she had announced to him several weeks before that she was carrying a daughter and ever since, she had only reinforced her certainty.

"Yes, no question. She talks to me in my dreams." She peeked at him to see how he took that. She hadn't told him that part of it. Every night, the dreams about their daughter-to-come seemed more and more real. She could swear she actually heard her voice, spoke to her. "Her name will be Marcia - after the late Emperor."

They exchanged a long, serious look before Maximus nodded. "All right - I'll trust you on this, little one." He stroked her silky hair and kissed her. "Have I told you yet today how happy you make me?"

She pretended to have to think about it, "Yes, I believe something was mentioned this morning after I made you yell out my name so loudly the maids on the first floor no doubt heard you." She giggled at his suddenly-reddened cheeks. "Husband, you blush so easily - are you sure you're not a virgin?"

He laughed loudly, "Yes, of that I'm most definitely sure!" He shifted a bit, the warmth of her backside and the recollection of that morning's activities causing a resurgence of interest below his belt.

Ana, of course, felt his hardness under her bottom and purposely wriggled against it, making him gasp a little. "We could go upstairs right now - there's time," she invited. He didn't argue, just stood up, set her feet on the floor and led her swiftly up to their bed chamber. To his chagrin, one of the maids was just finishing dusting, but Ana shooed the girl out, and he promptly dropped the latch in place on the door. "Now, I've got you," Ana teased him.

"That remains to be seen," he countered, but he was advancing on her where she stood by the bed, reaching under his wool tunic to undo the opening of his trousers.

"Aren't you even going to take off your boots?" Ana bounced back onto the bed, propelled by a gentle push from his hands. She giggled as he climbed onto the bed and moved between her thighs, shoving her stola up in the process.

"No," he answered briefly, guiding his erect shaft into her warm, wet channel. "Oh, yes, there's the place," he groaned, and drove it home. She drove him wild, more now than ever. He had thought that passion might ebb once they had a child and were more settled in their marriage, but the exact opposite had happened. He found himself waylaying her whenever he could, even dragging her up into the haymow of the stables one sunny afternoon to have his way with her. Although, he had to admit, she enjoyed it as much as he did. Just as now, she had her arms and legs wrapped around him, urging him to move faster, do it harder - he hesitated in that, not wanting to do anything to jeopardize their child. Instead, he ducked out of her grasp, seized her wrists and imprisoned them flat on the bed over her head, taking charge of her more directly.

"Oh-ho," she commented, ending on a gasp as he slowed his movements and became deliberately thorough in how he worked his penis inside her. "Isis!" she said on a rising note, and went into an unexpected orgasm that had him spilling his seed as she contracted around him. They both groaned loudly and lay across the bed, panting. Ana moved to get out from under his weight and Maximus reluctantly sat up. "Well, that was almost as good as lunch is going to be," he stated, ducking when she aimed an elbow into his ribs. "Peace! I was only teasing."

"Harrumph," she teased back, jumping off the bed to dance back out of his reach when he went to grab her. "Come on, they'll be waiting to serve the midday meal and Decimus will be looking for us."

Maximus rose, smoothed his rucked up clothing as best he could, all the while grinning like a big satisfied cat. Ana thought the lions in the Coliseum in Rome probably looked like that after they ate up a criminal. He saw her looking. "What?" he glanced down at himself. Naught seemed amiss, although he was still semi-erect and if it hadn't been for the layers of fabric - trousers, under tunic, tunic - he would have had to hide himself or risk shocking the staff. He cleared his throat, hoped Ana wouldn't notice, and of course, she promptly did. The minx giggled all the way down the stairs into the triclinium.

"That's all right," he informed her when the servers had left the room and she was spooning up the rich vegetable soup in front of her. "Some day I'll laugh at you when you're in a state similar to this - we'll see how funny you find it."

Ana merely smiled, swallowed her soup, and looked up at him, the tip of her little pink tongue darting out to get a stray drop or two of soup off her lips.

Maximus stifled a groan and shifted in his seat, trying to ease the ache in his genitals. The woman drove him wild, and she knew it very well. He thanked the gods for it daily.

They were living permanently on the estate now. Maximus had retired as military governor and as general of the Felix Legions six months before. Tired of the demands of both jobs, he had been monumentally relieved to be free for the first time in his adult life. No uniforms, no armor, no drills, no endless meetings trying to work out provincial disputes, no politics - it was Elysium on earth.

He had half expected his letter of resignation to the Emperor to be refused, but was grateful when Septimius Severus instead sent an official envoy to Emerita with his reply. He accepted the resignation with regret, but he knew Maximus would always be there in case the Empire had need of him, so he wished his general well. In earnest of that, came a deed to further lands surrounding the already expanded farm, rich gifts of finely woven fabrics, a pair of pure white Arabic horses - a stallion and a filly - and a chest containing the wooden sword that, much delayed, proclaimed that Maximus Decimus Meridius, though falsely made a slave and deprived of his property, almost murdered by the unlamented former emperor, Commodus, was officially and forever free. In the chest with it was a grand white toga with the purple border of a member of the Patrician class - thanks to his adoption by a wealthy Patrician family years before as a favor to Marcus Aurelius. With those two items were several fat sacks of gold aureii bearing Severus' profile stamped in the bright metal.

"Now we have two emperor's coins," Ana had commented as she put the coin bags safely away with those from the late Marcus Aurelius himself.

"We need not worry about money ever again," Maximus pointed out unnecessarily. He thought about that. "I've gone from living on a soldier's pay, although granted I was a fairly exalted soldier, to being a slave, bereft of everything, to being more grand than I ever thought to be - and the best part of that is having the money to not have to worry about money. Is that hopelessly shallow?"

Ana shook her head, "Not at all - I know you better than that. You're anything but shallow, my darling."

"Well, that's a relief," he teased, laughing and wiping his brow as if he'd been sweating over her reply.

He missed his loyal soldiers, but as close as Trujillo was to Emerita Augusta, Drusus and the others could come for visits, and visit they did. They had built on more rooms - most all of them guest quarters - and added onto the stables the first year. With the increase in acreage came the need for another olive press, and storage for more jars of olive oil, olives packed in various herbed oils, and storage for the fruit and vegetables they grew. They produced more than enough to feed everyone on the farm and still have a lot left to sell in the various marketplaces. And horses - Maximus was able to indulge his love for blooded horses and besides Scarto and his get, there were the smaller, more dainty horses he had begun to breed off Ana's mare Pulcher and the white breeding pair from Severus. He also began to breed the large, heavily muscled draught horses that pulled wagonloads of goods to market, pulled plows, and did all the heavy work of a busy farm.

His little son Decimus Meridius Iunior, was enthralled with all the horses, and rode before he could walk all that well, often riding on the saddle with his proud father. He was a lively, laughter-prone little boy and the servants, of course, spoiled him shamelessly. Well, as shamelessly as his parents would let them. Ana was fairly strict with him and did not let him whine or throw tantrums. Maximus made sure he learned that the horses and other animals, although wonderful, must be cared for in order to live happy, useful lives. He learned that it's all right to get dirty, just as long as he was amenable to getting clean and being presentable at his mother's table. She was already teaching him to read the classics - Homer, Socrates, Plato, Ptolemy - and the Roman poets such as Catullus, Ovid and others less well known. He would have a well rounded education, would young Decimus, and not just be allowed to run wild over the green hills of the farm.

They heard from Lucilla several times a year. She was married to Valerian, as Ana had thought she might be once she saw the light in their eyes during their stay with them in Emerita when Valerian was recuperating from his wounds. Everything he had claimed had been proved correct, and his mentor had come forward and given all the information on the outlaws, rebellious auxiliary army units and the like to Maximus to be handled. They had spent some weeks rounding up everyone, having to track some of them as far out of the area as southern Gaul, but they had eventually all been arrested, tried and punished according to their guilt. There were no further raids on helpless farmers, no midnight burnings of houses and barns, and no more fear of being murdered in their beds. The citizens of Emerita and the whole area wanted to erect a statue of Maximus in the town square for that alone.

He had, characteristically, declined that honor. "Just make a donation to the care of the poor, or some other worthy cause," he had told the group of city fathers come to tell him about wanting a statue of him by the main well. "A statue of me is just another object for pigeons to shit on - but an act of charity or kindness breeds more of the same - I'd much prefer you did that."

They had left, chastened but determined to do something. So they had built a small facility for giving free medical care to people too poor to afford it. They endowed it in Maximus' name and his name was on a plaque over the door. It was embarrassing, but in a good sort of way, so he was content. When he had left his post as governor there were dire predictions that nobody could fill his shoes, but as it happened, Severus had chosen a soft-spoken yet firm and honest man named Icarus Claudius to succeed him, and he was quite able to keep things running smoothly after Maximus left.

Ana busied herself teaching her son, and, when asked to help with a school for the children of the farm workers, she had badgered Maximus until he had workmen build a special building just for that. Ana found teachers in the surrounding countryside - a Greek scholar and mathematician one place, a poet who could make learning to read and write an enjoyable experience because of the silly rhyming verses he taught the children, a painter who taught them about drawing and color and the beauty that surrounded them. By the second summer of their "retirement", they had fifty children attending their school, although not all of them could attend all the time because they had families in need of them to help with harvesting crops and so forth. It made Ana very proud that the people working for them needn't worry that their youngsters would grow up ignorant and unlettered.

She also had a small clinic where she kept her medical skills honed. She mostly took care of such things as beestings, cuts and bruises, the occasional head cold and catarrh, and even helped midwives with deliveries there. She was training a promising young woman, Marcella, who showed great skill at mixing herbal remedies and soothing fretful patients. She and Marcella had a large herb room filled with every kind of herb, weed, grass, flower and fruit that was thought to be any sort of treatment for anything at all, and they were both cataloguing these and writing a treatise on their use. Her father, she thought, would have been proud.

All that was missing was a second baby. Little Decimus' birth had been surprisingly easy. She had felt her water break just before dawn, and by noon she was sitting on the birthing chair, pushing once, twice, three times and out popped a handsome son, screaming his lungs out. Maximus had been frantically pacing in the anteroom, but once he heard their son's squalling cry, he came into the room despite the maids' trying to keep him out. He had strode over to Ana, kissed her thoroughly, and taken up his son, still bloodied from his birth, lifting him in the air, acknowledging him for all to see. "The first son of our house!" he had announced, and thrown a celebratory feast for everyone within miles.

Privately, that night, he had knelt in front of his old portable altar and made a special prayer that the shade of his dead son Marcus would know that he was still first son of his house, and would always live in his heart. He had felt great comfort come over him as he prayed, and thought perhaps his prayers were heard and answered. He had kissed the little wooden figure of his son and set it back in its place inside the shrine before blowing out the small oil lamp and closing the doors of the altar. He had a very happy dream about Marcus that night, seeing him grown up and happily galloping over the hills of the farm on a horse greatly resembling the white stallion sent by the emperor. Marcus had pulled the horse up, turned in the saddle and waved, smiling widely. It was one of the last dreams he would ever have about Marcus, but the vividness of it would always stick with him.

The following spring, they got word that Lucilla had borne a daughter, so that young Lucius Verus had a sister. Lucius wrote to his father, telling Maximus that Aurelia Diana was kind of funny looking, but she didn't cry too much, so he thought maybe she could be allowed to stay. He read that part to Ana that evening, and they had a good chuckle over it. "I would bet you she will have him wrapped around her pink little finger before too much longer," Ana commented.

Maximus had to agree, "No doubt she'll be spoilt beyond belief," he added dryly.

"I'm sure she'll take after her mother in that regard," Ana said diplomatically. They had a good laugh over that since they both felt Lucilla was still spoiled and indulged, although she had matured greatly since marrying Valerian. As for that army officer, he, too, had resigned from military service. He had purchased property north of Emerita and they were raising fine cattle on it, also horses and crops of peaches and pears. They were even less politically involved than Maximus - wanting to keep a very low profile and remind no one that Lucilla was the daughter of an emperor, one time wife of the co-emperor, Lucius Verus, and mother to a boy that most people thought was the son of that emperor. He could be considered a threat to Severus' hold on the Imperial throne. Hence, a low profile was the key, and they lived very quiet lives because of it.

"I suppose," Maximus said to Ana after they rolled up the letter from Lucius and put the scroll away, "you'll spoil our daughter shamelessly, just as Lucilla no doubt does young Aurelia."

Ana grinned delightedly at Maximus. "What?" he wanted to know, sure there was a joke he was missing.

"That's the first time you've referred to the baby as 'our daughter' - I thought you were convinced it's another boy?"

"I bow to the force of your knowledge of such things," he answered, a twinkle in his eye. "Besides - what if we're both right?"

Ana blinked, "Both right - how could that be?"

"Well, there are twins in my side of the family - one generation back - what if we have one of each?"

She threw six cushions at him for that impertinence.

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Copyright 2002 by wildbearies

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