©2003 by WILDBEARIES

"Well, I'm certainly glad that's over!" Ana exclaimed, sinking onto the cushioned bench at the foot of their bed and sliding her feet out of her jewelled sandals. "Oh, gods, that feels good!"

Maximus, busy handing his toga to his valet and standing still while the man unwrapped the fancy sash around his waist, glanced over at his wife and grinned in agreement. "It was a long day."

"Wedding days always are - in one way or another." She winked at her husband, scandalizing his very proper manservant. The man was more prim than any ten old maids, she thought. Look at him blush! "I'm ready for bed," she added, watching the servant as he scuttled out of their bed chamber.

"You shouldn't tease Rufus," Maximus chided her, "he gets very clumsy when he's trying to run away from you."

She giggled, standing up so he could help her remove the heavy gold necklace from around her neck. The garnets and moonstones flashed as he let the links of the chain spill from one large hand to the other. She felt a tightening in her body, down low, and felt the moisture start. Amazing how, after all this time, just watching him handle a piece of her jewelry could set her to wanting him. "They'll be in bed by now," she commented.

Maximus, having put her necklace away in her jewel chest, turned to find her eyes on him. He read her instantly, well used to her every facial expression, even when it was only her large, pansy eyes that communicated her thoughts to him. "Ninus and Marina? I should hope so - I was afraid we were going to have to drag her off him during the banquet."

They chuckled together. Marina was definitely passionately in love with her new husband, and thank the gods, it seemed Antoninus was almost as hot for her as she was for him. It had made the arrangements much easier since they were Marina's guardians and Antoninus had no senior family members to interfere with the wedding plans and settlements. Marina had made a good marriage, despite her rather impetuous way of landing her new spouse, and Ana was sure they would be happy.

"No doubt, we'll have a new babe to name in 8 months or so," Maximus commented, climbing into bed next to his wife. He pulled the silky sheets up and made himself comfortable, head sinking into the goosedown pillow.

"No doubt," Ana agreed, and got in beside him. Only, instead of lying sedately by his side as he expected, she climbed on top of him and seated herself astride his hips. "Hello," she said in a throaty tone that informed him of her mood. Not that he'd been totally ignorant of it since he'd intercepted her look earlier.

He grasped her hips, stroking the silky skin of her buttocks and thighs, "Hello, little Venus - have you come to sacrifice yourself on my altar of pleasure?"

Ana giggled and rocked her pelvis a bit so he could feel the moisture leaking from her body, "Indeed - I seem to be quite eager to sacrifice myself - it's very scandalous."

Maximus adjusted her body so his erection was caught between her body and his, the pulsing head of his shaft against her opening. "Ah, nothing like a willing sacrifice - and you a virgin, too."

She lifted slightly, taking hold of his shaft and aiming herself down onto it in a slow, delicious slide, taking him all the way in until she was full of him and he was thoroughly, completely impaled in her body. "Not a virgin, alas," she mourned, licking her pouting lips and leaning down to kiss him. "I'm afraid I'm quite wanton where you're concerned, Maximus."

"Thank the gods!" was all he had time to say before she took things over and wrecked him totally. By the time she was finished with him, Maximus could barely string two words together. But he was smiling as he fell into a well-earned rest. And his dreams were happy. Ana, very satisfied herself, just snuggled into the warmth of her husband's body and slept dreamlessly.

"The Emperor! Hail to the Emperor!"

Multitudes of voices were shouting, acknowledging someone - he couldn't quite see who, he just heard their voices, felt by the volume that it was a large number of people. Maximus shaded his eyes and walked forward onto the portico. When he emerged from the shade of the palace, he stopped dead. There, below him, were ranked thousands of people - soldiers, aristocrats, Senators, the Praetorian Guard - ordinary folk as well. There was Juba, and there, appearing quite well and alive, were officers and soldiers, gladiators and farm people he had known from boyhood on.

It was confusing and he looked around himself, curious who they were shouting for. And then he heard it, "Maximus! Maximus! Maximus!" as he had once heard it in the arena - and on the battlefields of Dacia, Germania, Hispania, and Gaul - only now it was louder. And interspersed with his name were the words "Imperator!" and "Ave! Ave!"

"They shout for you, Maximus," came a familiar voice, and he turned completely around to find Lucilla, decked in gold and green silk, gems winking in her hair and at throat and ears, looking as she had when he'd seen her from the arena that first day he'd fought in Rome.

"How can this be?" he asked, confused. The intervening years had done nothing to ruin her looks, in fact, she looked younger than she had the last time he had seen her in Hispania before she had returned to Rome. And there, behind her, was their son Lucius, in full military uniform, looking exactly like who he was - the son of a princess and a general, grandson of an Emperor. He smiled at Maximus and Maximus found himself embracing him. "It's been a long time, son."

"I know, father," Lucius answered in that voice so like his own. And then Maximus remembered. Lucius - and Lucilla - were both dead. Killed by agents of Septimius Severus, who, in an excess of zeal, had not only escorted the royal lady and her son into exile on Capri, but who had finished the job by shoving them both off one of the high cliffs into the rocky sea.

"What is this?" he asked, totally flummoxed, "How can this be?"

The multitudes continued to shout his name and he glanced down once again, realizing that there, among the mass of people, were many who had long since crossed the Styx into Elysium. Even his older brother, dead since childhood, was there. . .and, he realized, his parents, aunts, uncles - men he'd served with, men he'd led into battle. . .and he realized at last what was happening, where he was.

"This - this is Elysium? I'm dead?" He touched his chest, his belly, his left hand with his right - he didn't feel any different. He was breathing, wasn't he? He felt the breeze in his hair, the air against his skin. . .he could smell Lucilla's perfume, for the gods' sake!

But she was nodding, looking a trifle sad, and there was pity in her eyes as she added, "I'm afraid so, Maximus - but - look - here things are as they should have been all along. Here, you are Emperor as my father wished - look, even now, the crowd hails you!"

He shook his head, totally confused and unhappy, "But I was fine! I was not ill or old or anything - I wasn't ready yet for this!"

"Nobody ever is," said a wise, gentle voice he had not heard in years.

He turned and found the source of it, "Marcus - sir - I - I've missed you!" He knelt at the feet of the man he respected above all others, marveling at how young and healthy he looked. "Sir - you look so well!"

Marcus Aurelius chuckled and squeezed Maximus' shoulder, "I am well - and you are well - and things are as I wanted - now acknowledge the crowds before they grow too impetuous and come up here after you."

"But, I don't understand," Maximus said in puzzlement, "What is happening? How can this be? And where - where is my wife?"

Lucilla took his hand and led him a few steps aside, "She is not here - not yet - but if you will be patient, she will join you before you know it."

"She lives then? She is at home - at our farm in Spain?" She would be devastated! "Ana - I have to go to her - she needs me!"

Lucilla held him in place by main force, assisted by her father, who now stood at Maximus' other side. "She will be fine - your children are with her and she knows she will be with you one day. She will miss you and mourn you, as is her right and her duty, and, before you know it, she will be here. Time passes much more swiftly here, Maximus - it will only seem like days to you, but it will be years for her."

Lucilla's words held no comfort. He was confused, angry, frustrated. "Years! She will mourn me for years? That is no comfort to me! I know what that's like - it's like fire and acid in your belly. I would not have her suffer that!"

"What? You would deny her the joy of seeing all your children happily wed and living their lives, of holding your grandchildren, of seeing all you set in motion there in Hispania take root and flower?"

He absorbed that and finally shook his head, "No, I would not deny her that - but I had hoped to - to - " his voice failed him and he fell silent. He looked down at the multitudes and lifted one hand slightly, acknowledging their yells and cheers. That seemed to satisfy them and the crowd dispersed into small, celebratory groups bent on eating and drinking the feast spread before them by royal servants. He still wasn't sure of his connection to all of that and turned back to Marcus and Lucilla.

"It will be soon, you say? She will be with me soon?" He could bear this if he knew Ana would be by his side before too much longer. He'd been with her so long now, he wasn't sure he could cope alone.

Lucilla nodded, smiling softly, squeezing his hands, "I promise - it will be very soon." She drew him back over to the center of the portico, "See? Rome is as it should always have been - it flowers under the sun of rightness and truth, Maximus. It flourishes under your guidance - as my father intended it to do. All is well. All will always be well. Rome is yours to command and guide - as it was meant to be."

Finally, accepting this, Maximus nodded slowly. "As it was meant to be," he answered, and with his words, he felt the wind rise and he felt lifted up as if on eagle's wings, and then, he was back in his own bed with an ungraceful thump. "Gods!"

Beside him, Ana stirred, disturbed by his flailing arms and legs and then his loud exclamation. "What is it, husband, a dream?"

Clasping her close, Maximus burrowed into his warm, familiar bed and rejoiced that he could hug and kiss her, that he was not, after all, dead and in Elysium - that there was yet time to savor all the things life held in store for him. And at the end - if that dream was as prophetic as he felt it must be - Elysium awaited.

Heaven for him, and for his darling Pocket Venus. And in the meantime, life and all its riches was spread before him. "Te amo, Cara," he whispered into her ear, kissing the silky hair at her temple.

Ana snuggled closer, sleepily answering, "And I, you, dear one."

"Life is going to be wonderful," he told her.

And it was.

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Copyright 2003 by wildbearies