Godsend

"Stefanos."

"Stefan."

"Stef."

The voice called to me, but I couldn't place it. It wasn't Cade. Cade was...Cade was...

"Stefanos Kereanoi, snap out of it," the voice commanded. Something stung my face, bringing my mind crashing back into the world I so desperately wanted out of. Someone had smacked me. I turned my head and glared at the offender.

Hades was tall and decently built, with dark hair and olive skin. A goatee and sparkling eyes completed the new look he had adopted: gay and slightly dangerous, but in an erotic way. A good look for any god of the underworld, or a dungeon master. It was now twilight, and he and I were the only ones at the rose arch.

"Why did you slap me?" I asked, rubbing my cheek.

He gave me an `are you completely stupid?' look and shook his head. I took a deep breath to start yelling, but he held up his hand and the air left me. "Stefan, you have to listen to me," he said. "This is very important."

I looked at him, unable to speak, so I nodded. He was about to tell me that I had to move on, that the world needed me. Now was the time for strength, not the time to fall apart.

"Don't fall apart now," he told me, verifying what I was expecting. "Cade's not gone yet."

That got my full and complete attention.

"I stopped him before he went into the light. I gave him what he needed to go to the underworld instead. He should be arriving at my house now. His father is protecting his body, so all you have to do is take it to his soul, with a minor stop in between."

My breath returned to me. "Don't get me wrong," I said, "I'll go through whatever it takes to get Cade back...but I'm guessing that minor stop isn't quite so minor. What`s the catch?"

"Very astute," Hades said with a chuckle. "Very well. Cade's soul cannot inhabit a dead body. He will reanimate any body for only a few moments, enough to get it running again, but if it doesn't work, he'll be expelled back into spirit form. His body was shot. Animating it will only make it die again moments later. It'll be painful for him and a waste of time for everyone.

"Somewhere in the underworld is Asclepius, the healer. He's the best there is, was, and ever will be. He can bring Cade's body back into working order so Cade's spirit can reclaim it. Bring Cade's body and spirit to him, and you'll have a living, breathing fiancée again."

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He was trying to suppress a grin, but doing poorly at it. "What aren't you telling me?" I asked.

"Do you know why the living aren't allowed into the underworld, why Cerberus protects the gates, really?" Hades hinted.

"To protect the natural order of things?" I guessed. "If people just wandered in and took their loved ones out, there'd be no one left."

Hades laughed. "There'd be no one left is right. No one left on Earth. You know those stories of things that look like people, but feast on the flesh and blood of real humans? Well, those are souls that have gotten out of the underworld somehow. They eat flesh and drink blood. It's really quite tasty to them."

"And you want me to take Cade's body through them?" I asked, repulsed by the idea of dead things snacking on my boyfriend. That was my job. "I have a better idea," I told him. "We grab Cade's body, pop over to your place in the underworld, and Cade's spirit and I go out looking for Asclepius. When we find him, we bring him back to your home and he works his magic there. How's that sound?"

"Boring," Hades said with a pout. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Left it on O'onerut's ship," I said. "Maybe I'll get a new one some day, but I'm kinda over adventuring for a while."

"Fine," Hades sighed. "We'll do it your way, and my undead will stay hungry. No hottie boy bits to snack on."

"You're a little sick and twisted," I said to him.

"You baby-sit corpses for a few thousand years and see how sane you turn out," he pointed out.

I chuckled, though a bit hesitantly. He was still being a little too creepy. "Yeah. Dad's SO staying with Cade's body down there. Ready?"

Hades gave me an innocent look and then nodded. I walked out to the amphitheater where Cade was laid out like sleeping beauty. Climbing onto the stage, I leaned down and placed my lips to his.

"If that could only bring him back," Cade's dad said sadly.

"Nothing's that easy," I told him. "It's going to be more work than just a kiss."

"Excuse me?" he said. "That sounded like you were just saying..."

"I'm bringing him back," I interrupted. "Hades headed him off before he could cross over, and his soul is in the classical underworld. I need to take his body down there so it can be healed and reunited with his soul."

"I'd forgotten why I liked Hades so much," my dad said. "He definitely delivers when you need him the most."

"You people are talking about bringing back the dead like it's nothing," Cade's dad said, almost in hysterics.

My dad put his arm over Cade's dad's shoulder. "We know how amazing it is," he told the man, "but we also know it won't happen unless we make it happen. If we stand here open-mouthed about what our powers can do, nothing is going to be accomplished. Stef, is there anything we can do?"

"Yeah," I said. "Hades is being a little creepy and pervy. Could you stay with Cade's body at Hades' place to keep it safe?"

"Sure," dad said. "Come on, Tristan. You're about to see what few mortals have ever seen." His arm was still around Cade's dad's shoulders, but he placed the other one on Cade's body, and the three of them vanished. I followed close behind.

And appeared in a wood-paneled, dimly-lit, smoke-filled bachelor pad. There were even three guys playing poker on a green velvet card table. "Oh dear god, Hades, did Persephone let you live like this, or did you do this after she died?" Dad asked. I'd never seen his place while she was alive. Actually, I never really formally knew Hades until the women all died. I'd never seen his home in any other state.

Dad set Cade's body on the pool table, then conjured a pillow and placed it under Cade's head. "Persephone would never have let me do this," Hades said. "But she was a bit of a shrew sometimes. Got that from her mother. Demeter was a royal bitch."

"True or not, let's not talk about the dead like that," Dad said. "Now where's Cade's spirit?"

One of the guys pointed at the front door without looking away from his cards. "If Cade's the name of the boy, he wandered outside muttering about a gift for Stefanos. Can't think of anything anyone would want from out there, though."

"Who are these men?" Tristan asked my dad.

"They're the judges, Kings Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Aeacus," dad told him. I could only ever remember Minos's name, but dad had a few thousand years of practice. "They determine which part of the underworld a soul is to spend the rest of eternity in.

"And we thought we'd actually have some work again, till that boy told us Hades wanted him to wait in the house for him," another of the men said. I had no clue which was which. "No soul has come to us to be judged in over a thousand years, since the current religions caught on. They have their own afterlives to go to, and ours just sits here unused."

"Seriously," the third one piped in. "A lot of those people who get sent to hell for not being an "ideal" Christian would probably spend eternity in the Fields of Asphodel, which is a fair sight better than burning over a fiery pit for the rest of eternity. I could be wrong, though. Maybe the sulfurous depths of Hell are nice this time of year. Never been there to find out."

The front door opened and my heart took flight. I ran over to Cade and swept him up into my arms. "Oh god oh god oh god, Cade. I'm so glad to see you. I thought I lost you." I was openly sobbing on him.

"You did, hun. I'm a bit on the dead side," he replied.

"Bah, that's nothing a really good doctor can't fix," I said, sniffling. "From what Hades tells me, the best one of all time is down here."

"If he's so great, and can cure being dead," Tristan asked, "why I he dead?"

"Overstepped his bounds," dad told him. "People die. It's a part of the life cycle. We gods can each have one person we are allowed to snatch from death until their life cycle has fully completed, but after that, we have to let people die. Asclepius wasn't a god and didn't have that luxury, and he snatched hundreds from death. So Zeus split his skull with a lightning bolt and made sure that Asclepius's spirit never had access to his body again, by incinerating it."

"He was treading on your territory and you killed him for it?" Tristan asked, appalled. "Isn't that a bit barbaric?"

"Not when it's decreed by God Himself," Hades said. "He said that the cycle of life and death was His creation, and was not up to the will of man to counteract. Man can heal man, and man can extend the life of man, but man must die in the end. We are saving Cade right now because we are allowed to on your behalf, Stef, but at the end of his life span, he will die."

That really put a damper on things for me. I would live forever, but Cade would still grow old and die. I would still lose him, just not now. "I don't mind dying of old age," Cade said softly in my ear sensing my discomfort. Then his voice addressed the room. "I just don't want to die because some bigots wanted to make an example out of me. You guys send Victor and his friends to find out what happened?"

"Yeah," dad said. "But it was less sending them to do it as it was eating their dust as they tore out of there to catch the people responsible. Victor's not one to sit back and let someone else do the job." I'd noticed, seeing as the man was never home with his pregnant boyfriend. However, at that moment, I was thankful for Victor's dedication to his work.

Cade stepped back from me and walked over to his dad and his own body. "This is just freaky," he said. His father slipped his arm around Cade's waist and Cade tilted his head to rest on the man's shoulder. "I never thought I'd be looking down at my own corpse."

"It's not so bad," Tristan said. "Now that you're standing here with me, it's like this is just a dummy. So this Asclepius is going to make your body able to take your spirit back in again?"

Cade shrugged. "You've heard more about the process than I have," he said. "The light was open for me to go to, but Hades stopped me and said he could bring me back to life if I didn't go in, so I didn't. Then he gave me two gold coins and directions to his house. I have to say though, Charon's a little creepy."

"I think it's the setting that does it to people," I told Cade. "Anyway, do you want to go find this Asclepius with me? Our dads will watch your body, maybe play some cards with the judges."

Hades laughed. "I doubt that. The cards they're playing with have over a hundred-fifty-suits, and three-hundred-twenty-five numbers per suit, and they're using sixty-two decks. That's over three million cards. For the game they're playing, the rule book itself takes three days to read and over fifty years of constant playing to really get. They're also using several house rules. You'll probably be back with Asclepius before they're done with this hand."

"Which house rules?" dad asked with a raised eyebrow. "I invented Sirax, the game they're playing, after all."

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Hades said. "It's been so long. They're using the Ninth Circle Blitz and the Elysium Shuffle"

Dad shook his head. "Wimps," he said. "The Elysium Shuffle makes over three hundred thousand cards wild. Ares, Poseidon, Zeus and I would always use Thunder Wave rules."

"You're kidding me," Hades said. "I always thought those rules were a running joke to make the game into a frenzied melee. You're telling me you guys actually used them?"

I walked up to Cade and kissed him on the cheek. "Let's get out of here," I suggested softly to him. "They'll be reliving old memories for the next six hours. We're going to have to find a guide outside." He nodded to me and took my hand. We headed for the door and I gave a nod to Tristan, who seemed to be the only one not engrossed in the gaming conversation. He'd fill them in if they ever came up for air.

We walked outside into what looked like a cavern. The ambient light was tinted crimson, but didn't seem to be coming from any real source. "What did you come out here to find earlier?" I asked him.

He hesitated. "I'm not sure if I should tell you. I didn't find it, and it might depress you."

I slid over into his embrace. "You can tell me. The fact that I'm not losing you after all makes up for any bad news you found."

His eyes looked sad. "I was looking for Kelly," he said. "I thought she might be here."

"Say no more," I told him. "I already knew she wasn't here. Gods don't die. When O'onerut destroyed those gods, he eradicated every trace of them. Anything less and we'd come back. Besides, this underworld is part of the Earth realm. O'onerut's power hit here, too. Otherwise, I would have been born with the power to raise the dead, and not the power to make men have babies. Simpler to bring the women back from the underworld than it is to change human physiology."

"Oh," he said simply. "Then you're not upset that I couldn't find Kelly?"

"Still hate O'onerut for destroying her, but not upset at you, no." To make sure he understood, I kissed him gently. "The fact that you tried to find her for me is very sweet and just makes me love you more."

He smiled at me and I could feel his love radiating from him. "Shall we find Asclepius?" I asked him. "I'd really like you to have your body back so we can finish our wedding, maybe on Olympus this time so we don't have any more party crashers."

"Excellent idea, love," Cade said. "Any idea where to start looking?"

"Shouldn't be too difficult," I remarked offhandedly. "The underworld can't be that big, can it?"

The laughter behind us made me pause. Cade and I turned at once to see and old man with a cloth wrapped around his head, covering his eyes, coming toward us. "Dear boy, the underworld is at once both bigger than the world and smaller than the head of a pin. If you know the ways, you can be anywhere in moments. If you fumble around blindly," at that word he chuckled a bit, "you will wander forever within its depths."

"Can you teach us the ways?" Cade asked him.

"One needs only the strong desire to be somewhere or with someone, and one can be there. Only the segregated cannot travel such." The man was giving me a headache, but Cade was better with words.

"The segregated being those that have been sent by the judges to the different sections of the underworld?" Cade asked.

"Young godling," the old man said, "your heart is wiser than your head."

"I wasn't the one who spoke to you," I said. "That was Cade."

Cade placed his hand on my shoulder. "He was talking about me. I'm your heart. He said I was smarter than you." The old man chuckled and nodded.

"The ghost minces no words. He is delightful. Ask and I shall lead you to your destination," the old man offered.

"We need to speak with Asclepius, the healer," I told him.

The old man brushed off his toga. "No," he said.

"What do you mean, no?" I asked. I think I might have been shouting at that point, because Cade placed his hand on my arm.

"Asclepius will unleash terror upon the mortal world in exchange for his assistance. You will have your love, but the price may be too high. Those who die will be fortunate. The living ones will be in torment."

"How many people will he kill?" Cade asked.

"None," the old man said. "He will cause no death and hurt no living souls, but he will spread a horror unimaginable."

"Please, just take us to him," I pleaded. "Just because you think he's going to be evil, doesn't mean we'll let him. We'll just be careful."

"Then it shall pass," the old man said. "This way to the healer." He pressed a hand against the rock wall and it parted for him, revealing a dark passage with a cold wind emanating from it. The old man stepped inside and we followed. Cade placed his hand on the man's shoulder and I held Cade's other hand. When the wall closed behind us, we were plunged into complete darkness.

"These are the ways?" Cade asked?

"Yes," the old man said simply.

"How do people use them?" I asked. "I can't even see."

"You rely on your eyes," he told me. His voice echoed strangely hollow off the stone. "One's eyes and ears are liabilities in the underworld until one learns to interpret what is seen and heard correctly. We are in a world of illusions and lies."

A sudden light burst forth and blinded me. I felt Cade jerk back as well. "Why didn't you warn us it was going to get so bright?" I asked.

"The blind are poor judges of light and darkness," he replied with annoyance in his voice, and Cade punched my arm. The old man held his arm out and pointed down the corridor. "The one you seek is around that corner. I will have no part in the proceedings."

"How will we get back?" I asked him.

"Asclepius will know the way to the home of Hades. He is allowed to roam there as a part of his punishment."

The old man clutched his head suddenly and cried out. He ripped the cloth from his eyes and gripped both of my arms. I stared into two empty sockets, like pools of the darkest night. Inside, I felt the cosmos unfurl before me. This old man had no eyes, but he could see infinity clearly.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

"Power comes," he said, his voice coming through both male and female, in dissonance and harmony at the same time. It made me want to weep and cower, and also sit rapt in awe. "The power wishes to rival the gods, but the gods cannot stop it. It can only be stopped by a mortal, a warrior unmatched by any other."

"Is this what we will unleash by speaking to Asclepius?" I asked.

"The power builds already. You did not start it and you will not finish it. Only the warrior can stop it. What Asclepius does is nothing. It is no horror in comparison to the power that grows. The power is nearly ready to be borne into the world. It was a cancer. Stop it...please." The end was evocatively pleading. Whatever was talking through the old man was terrified of this power and what it saw happening. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen the universe in his lifeless sockets.

The old man put the cloth back over his eyes. "Go now, please," he said wearily. "You only heard a plea for help. I saw what was happening. The cost of Asclepius' help is trivial compared to that, and you'll need all the help you can get. Bring your lover back to life and prepare yourselves for the worst."

"What's coming?" I asked.

"Madness and death," he said. "Madness and death." He faded away.

"Thousands of years and the man is still impressively flashy and unhelpful," said a voice down the passage. We walked down and came upon a ledge overlooking a field of flowers far below us, which stretched as far as the eye could see. Above, the sky was a hazy blue. On the field, spirits passed each other, stopping to pick and eat flowers and occasionally interacting with each other. We were too far away to hear them. On the outcropping at the end of the cave sat a man in a toga, this one whiter and cleaner than the old man's. He was looking out over the field with his knees pulled up to his chest.

"You are new," he said softly, distantly. "I know the old gods, but you are new to me. Who are your parents?"

"Aphrodite was my mother. She raised me with Hephaestus, but Ganymede is my birth father."

He still didn't turn around. "Was?" he asked.

"The female gods and mortals are dead, along with several male gods and nearly all the Norse gods," I told him. I wasn't sure why. The man just had a certain sadness and loneliness about him, like he was starved for news and contact. "I was born to keep mankind alive without women. Now Im Heras replacement."

"So Zeus has a new male lover then? I knew he wouldn't stop with Ganymede."

"No, I'm her power replacement," I corrected. "My love is Cade, who is right next to me right now."

"Your love is dead," the man said. "That is a ghost next to you."

"His body is at Hades's home, and he won't be a ghost when you reunite them," I told him.

"Then you already know who I am," he said.

"Yeah, the old man with the blindfold told us Asclepius would be down this way, and you're the only one here," I informed him.

He stood and turned around to face us. He was taller than I was, and has a neatly trimmed dark beard to go with his dark hair. His face was a mix of pain, loneliness, and joy. "You know who I am because you were sent for me," he said with a sigh, shaking his head, "but you don't recognize anyone else, like the seer, Tireseas."

"Shit, that was Tireseas?" Cade asked. "Then those loony ramblings of doom were real? Stef, maybe this is a bad idea bringing me back to life. You can visit me down here if I stay."

"Did he tell you bad things would happen if I helped you?" Asclepius asked. He looked more annoyed than interested in the answer. "Why is he always telling people that I'm evil and I'm going to cause devastation." He turned his head upward and started yelling. "All I ever tried to do was help people! You all treat me like a criminal and keep me secluded from everyone just because I did what you refused to do! You let people die! I was the one saving lives! This is my reward? Eternal solitude?"

"Were you trying to speak to all the gods just now?" I asked.

Asclepius looked at me confused. "Yes, why?"

"I didn't hear you in my mind. Only in my ears. They have you blocked so they can't hear you," I told him.

He let out a primal roar, then dropped to the ground, sobbing. "All this time," he said softly. "All this time and they never let me know they couldn't even hear me, that they shut me out completely. They just left me to rot for all eternity."

"The old man, Tireseas," Cade said, "told us that you're allowed to go to Hades' house."

"To yell at his door and be ignored there, too," he replied, sulking. "Since I got here, only you two and Tireseas ever talked to me, and I don't think he even likes me. He just feels bad for me. You know the gods struck him blind for something he did on accident, they turned him into a woman and back again, and they killed him for speaking his visions, which they gave to him? I think he just feels a kinship between us."

"The gods haven't done that sort of thing in ages," I told him consolingly. "I think you guys were some of the last. Dad and Hades said that you broke God's will, so they had to kill you."

"Whose will?" Asclepius asked. "You're all gods, but you actually have one called God? Is he new?"

I shook my head. "No, He's the creator of the gods, of the universe, of life and death. He is what the mortals now worship. We were never more then His assistants. My family made a lot of mistakes and acted like children for a long time, but they have grown up."

"Wait, you all have a master?" Asclepius asked. "And it was his desire that I be killed? Death was his plan? Can I meet him and ask him why?"

"Only Zeus is allowed to meet with Him, and only at His bidding," I said. "He wants us to have free will, and taking orders from Him all the time removes that free will. He only gives Zeus orders when the natural balance is threatened, like when you were reversing the natural process of death indiscriminately."

"So you have no one's word to go on except Zeus' that this God even exists." Asclepius surmised. "And you all blindly follow commands issued in his name. Also, it was Zeus, in the name of this God, that killed me, and no one else - and no one interfered because you all believe that the word of this God is law. Interesting. Does anyone question whether Zeus is making it all up and holding this over you all as a means to control you?"

"My existence is enough for me to believe," I told him. "I live because he willed me to live."

"Fair enough in your case," Asclepius said. "I'll have to talk to one of the older gods for a more detailed reason of why they believe. For my next question, I ask this: if it's so wrong for me to raise the dead, why am I being summoned to revive your mate?"

"Honestly?" I replied.

"Please," he said. "I despise lies of any form, and seek the truth when and where I can find it."

"I don't see any distinction between what they're punishing you for and what we're doing," I stated. "But I'm not going to call them on it, because I want Cade back so badly. If it were my call, I'd say to let you come back and do what you do, but on a limited basis. Eliminating death goes against nature, but what would saving a few here and there hurt?"

"You don't agree with the ruling against me, and you believe in situational rules as opposed to absolutes," Asclepius said. He smiled. "I think I like you, godling."

He reached into his toga and pulled out two wineskins, along with tubes and needles. "I'm going to propose something, but you have to promise not to tell the other gods until we have finished, or they won't allow it, and I'll need two pints of your blood."

"And what makes you think I'll do something I know the other gods wouldn't allow?" I asked him.

He laughed. "Because it's a reward you'd never pass up."

We reached the home of Hades rather quickly after that. Asclepius was, in fact, able to reach it with no problem. Tristan looked remarkably pleased to see us. Dad and Hades were still talking about cards, and now the judges were a part of the conversation. I think the five of them were setting up a card game, but arguing over the rule set they would be using.

We made our way to the pool table where Cade's body lay. "This looks like a projectile wound," Asclepius noted. "Where's the arrow?"

"New variety of projectile from when you were around," Cade told him. "It's a small metal object propelled at a much higher velocity than anything you've ever encountered."

"So there's an exit wound on the other side?" he asked. He turned the body over to examine, ripping the tuxedo jacket and shirt from around the holes in the fabric. "Messy," he noted. "But it's pretty clean inside. The repairs shouldn't take long, and then we can transfuse him with blood and spirit. You're his father, correct?" Tristan nodded. "I'm going to need to transfuse some of your blood into Cade. You're the only mortal in the room, and the only one with matching blood."

I walked up to Hades. "Is there a more medically appropriate area we could do this in?" I asked him. He waved his hand dismissively at a wall and a door appeared. I opened it and walked into a fully equipped surgical suite. That would work.

"This way," I told those who weren't engrossed in the gaming talk. Cade carried his own body in and set him on the table inside.

"I think I'm going to need a new tux," he said, ripping the jacket and shirt the rest of the way off. His body was having its usual effect on me. Even wounded and lifeless, my love was hot. The gunshot wound was directly between Cade's two Vaneel stripes. A couple inches higher or lower, and he wouldn't have even been hurt.

"Sit in this chair," he instructed Tristan. When Tristan complied, Asclepius rolled back Tristan's sleeve with skilled hands, then quickly inserted the needle and tubing, drawing blood before any of us had time to think about it. I'd been to hospitals before. No nurse was that skilled and quick. Asclepius was good. In short order, the bag was filled, and Asclepius had Tristan nursing a tiny puncture wound with a gauze pad.

"All of this is sterile, too," Asclepius mused, looking around the room. "It seems your current medical knowledge has progressed beyond primitive finally. Now it's only slightly backwater. There may be hope of the human race catching up to me at some point."

"Do any of you have medical training?" he asked. We all shook our heads no. "Alright," he said. "Then you all might wish to leave the room. I was going to offer some prime medical knowledge, but without the background, you'd all be lost. To people who don't know the basics, this is just gore that would empty your stomachs. So, just leave me to this, and I'll call in Cade's spirit when I'm ready to reunite him."

He smiled warmly at us. "You've already done all that can be done on your side. I'll take care of the rest. All you have to do now is rest and wait. In a few hours, you will be reunited as a family once again."

There was another door, and I looked in to see a waiting room with recliners and refreshments, and no gods arguing over cards. We could actually relax in there. I motioned to Cade and Tristan with my head that they should come inside, and they calmed down when they saw the room.

Inside, Tristan sat in a recliner, and Cade and I shared a plush couch. I sat with my back against the arm of it, and Cade reclined into my arms. It was difficult to believe, with him sitting there solid in my arms, that this was his ghost and not his body. We were both in tuxedos still, and he was beyond stunning. I ran my fingers through his hair and he snuggled into me.

I knew that we were making the right decision at that moment. There was nothing evil about our love. It was pure and good. Everything would work out fine.

In about two hours, Asclepius called us back in. The wounds on the body were healed seamlessly. "Cade, lie down inside your body. When your father's blood finishes replenishing your body, it will merge with your spirit and you will live once again." He complied, and I watched as the bag became less and less full. When the last drops of blood had passed through, Cade's body sucked in a deep breath.

Cade was alive.

I bent down and kissed him, crying with joy. Tristan was hugging Asclepius, thanking him. I shouted out with happiness.

The door to Hades' home opened and Dad and Hades walked in. "We heard the commotion," Dad said. "Sounds like everything was a..." He looked carefully at Cade and Asclepius. "What have you done?" he asked.

"We used my blood instead of Tristan's to bring back Cade," I said. "He's immortal now."

Dad shook his head. "You should have asked permission for that, first," Dad said. "But that's not the problem. Asclepius is a god now."

I turned to Asclepius and finally felt the power coming off of him that I'd been ignoring. He shrugged his shoulders. "You tricked us," I said to him.

"No," he said. "I had leftover supplies and chose to help myself to them. Consider it payment for isolating me for all those years. Now we're even."

"We can't control him now," Hades growled. "Do you know what kind of trouble he's going to cause?"

"What about talking to him and establishing rules and limits," I suggested.

"No need," Asclepius said. "I'm going to be careful. I have no desire to bring about death and destruction, nor do I want to upset the balance. I just want to help people."

Hades closed his eyes and within moments, Zeus stood before us. "You get one chance, healer," Zeus told him. "If you cross the line, we will imprison you, and it won't just be isolation. Just think of Prometheus. He was just trying to help the humans, too."

I think I shuddered on Asclepius' behalf. "Stefan," Zeus said calmly. "Had you come to us before following through with Asclepius' plan, we would have controlled him while he made Cade immortal, so we wouldn't be having this conversation. In fact, my wedding gift to the two of you was going to be Ambrosia for Cade so he would be part of the family. This is why it was acceptable to bring him back. He was slated to become one of us since your acceptance of him as your mate. You are the god of lasting love and marriage. Your heart is constant and permanent. There would never be any other after Cade, so Cade had to become immortal."

Zeus sighed. "The result is the same, but the means left a lot to be desired. Now we have a god we don't trust in our midst. Stefanos, in the future, will you trust us and not go behind our backs?"

"Yes, sir," I replied, chagrined. I felt like a colossal fool for sidestepping the authority like that. Then I looked to Cade, next to me. He was immortal. He was mine forever.

I was the luckiest fool ever.

"Ready, honey?" I asked Cade, who was fussing with his tie in the mirror. We'd been married for two months now. The ceremony had been on Olympus this time, and went off without a hitch. I had a husband. I had the best husband ever. I giggled every night as I lay there with him in my arms that I actually had him.

He was happy, too. The gods had given him his dream job. He was now the first of the new Muses. I was happy for him. Now he was just as occupied with god work as I was, and we both still had ample time to spend with each other. He was also making friends through his new position. They were all writers, but they had things in common with Cade that they were all passionate about. Cade Marriott, Muse of suspense and mystery. It had a nice ring to it. Sorry, folks, we kept our own last names. We agreed that no one was going to be the "wife" in our marriage.

"Yeah, I think I'm ready," he said turning to face me. He was in a crisp white shirt with a black necktie. His black pants were fitted to him and made his behind perky and round. I gripped said behind as we kissed and ground my pelvis into his.

"You're so hot," I growled into his ear.

He licked mine in response. "And you're making me hotter," he told me softly, giving me a chill. "Any hotter and I'll be in no shape to go out in public. So behave - for now."

I pulled back with a feigned pout that he could see right through. "Ok, fine. Do you want to drive, or shall I?"

"I need the practice," he told me, taking my hand. Within moments, we materialized in the hospital corridor. Asclepius was standing there waiting for us, a personalized lab coat for each of us in each hand. He'd shaved off the beard to fit in with the times, and looked every inch like a doctor. He was even in scrubs under his lab coat.

"I had these made for you," he told us with a smile. "It was the least I could do for releasing me from my prison." We smiled back as we accepted the gifts, putting the lab coats on over our business wear. We looked like doctors now, too. It was kinda fun.

"Is Eros inside?" I asked.

Asclepius nodded. "He said he didn't want to miss this. He's in there right now trying to convince Marlon to let him make them fall in love. Marlon is still refusing. Brent is still mad at him for not committing. Just the way you left it."

"I'll be glad when this is over," I said. "Those two are exhausting. Marlon's still going to support the child, right?"

"To the bitter end," Asclepius said. "Did you know that his father left his mother to raise him and his sisters alone? He says he's not going to be like his father, no matter what. He just doesn't want to be tied down to Brent."

"A dad, but not a husband," Cade said. "Fair enough. I really can't blame him for not wanting to get involved with someone who was supposed to only be around a night. I had several of those during those two years when I thought Stef was dead and gone."

Asclepius shook his head. "These are strange times. People tolerate so much and have completely different views on what's acceptable and what isn't from the time when I was alive. But that's not why we're here, is it." He opened the hospital room door and walked in.

There was no fighting this time, but there was a camera man. Brent allowed the man to film the first male birth for a cut of the profits. It would be on every news station in the country. Brent just wanted to make sure his baby was taken care of. Marlon was pretending to care for Brent, but his eyes kept wandering over to Eros, who was ignoring the man's lust. Eros made me hard instantly, as always, and I'm sure he had the same effect on Cade.

"He could be your twin," Cade said in my ear. And I thought I couldn't be any deeper in love with Cade.

Brent lay on the bed with pajama pants on, but no shirt. All of the focus was on his stomach. "I think you're just in time," he said. "My son wants out." With that, he let out a yell and strain showed in his face. I watched as his belly button pulsed and stretched, and soon it began to widen. Asclepius reached down and easily plucked the baby from Brent's open stomach. The navel closed rapidly once the baby was out and snapped the umbilical cord off at that point.

Asclepius cleared the baby's mouth and nose and it started to scream. I released the breath I'd been holding. "You've made this process too easy," Asclepius said to me. "You don't even need a doctor for this." He was cleaning off the baby and snipped the umbilical cord like it was second nature as he spoke. Within moments, he had a cleaned and bundled baby boy, ready to present to the parents.

He handed the baby to Brent, who held him as tears rolled down his cheeks. "My son," he said, almost choking on the words. "My beautiful son." He looked up at the other father. "Do you want to see him, Marlon?"

Marlon nodded and walked over. He sat on the edge of the bed and looked the baby in the face. He smiled and cried at the same time. "I'm a dad," he said. His hand found it's way into Brent's. "What's his name?"

"What do you think of Marlon?" Brent asked. Marlon turned to Brent and blinked. Then he suddenly leaned down and kissed Brent full on the lips.

He turned to look at Eros after the kiss ended, but this time without lust in his eyes. "Do it," he said. Eros nodded and walked over to Marlon. He placed his hand over Marlon's heart and his hand began to glow a soft pink color. As Marlon looked at Brent, his eyes filled with love.

Eros then walked back to where Cade and I were standing. "What did you just do?" Cade asked.

"Absolutely nothing," Eros said softly, just to us.

Fin

Oh ye's of little faith. What would Christmas be without Stef rescuing Cade? (Side note: I'm sending this to the archivist on Christmas eve, and he may have plans 'n stuff, so there's a chance it'll be a post-Christmas miracle. My fault for sending it so close to the holiday if this is true.)

This story marks the end of the trilogy, and the end of this portion of the short story series. The next part will deal with the mysterious power Tireseus foretold. Some stories, as with the first part, MAY involve regular Godsend characters, others will not. In 2008, we will see a suitor for Hektor, a promotion for Victor, several people getting severly fucked up, and, quite possibly, a return of the Blue Maiden.

I will be taking a week off to recover from the first section of stories, so the next update should be on Jan 7th, 2008.

The blog update for this story has a bonus feature for those out there who wondered about the biology of the changes Stef made. Warning: it is not a story, and is very technical...but it isn't a mountain of info, so it's entirely readable.

The blog: http://geocities.com/waterbearer99/blog.html My email, for those who wish to talk only to me: academygm@hotmail.com