Wait For Me

Part 3 [chapter 7]- I'm Gonna Hold You

"I wish." Eurydice sighed. "I never wanted to love your son."

"Oh?"

"I fell, despite of myself." she said, standing in the center of the room, trying to figure something to do with her hands besides fiddle with the hem of the dress. "If I hadn't, none of this would've happened. But I tried to stop myself from loving him, and I couldn't."

A silence, for several beats that Eurydice counted in her head.

"Maybe-" Calliope began before she was interrupted by a knock at the door. Cal answered it, swinging it wide open out of habit. "Orph, need anything? We're just getting ready in here."

Her voice was tight and Eurydice knew that Orpheus could pick up on it, he was good at perceiving people's emotions, even if they weren't trying to show them.

Orpheus stepped inside just as Eurydice swung her eyes up to meet his. His eyes swept up her body once, taking in the brightness of the yellow and the familiarity of the dress.

He cleared his throat.

Calliope, mercifully, but in before the silence could stretch too long. "Did you need anything, Orpheus?"

"Yeah... Hermes wanted to talk to you." he said, his eyes still locked on Eurydice. She knew how jarring it was for him, to get her back and then see her in her wedding dress all in the same day.

"I'll be back in a couple minutes then." she said hesitantly.

"okay."

The door closed behind her.

She spoke immediately, as if defending herself. "It was the only thing in the drawer, I couldn't just wear what I slept, I-"

She stopped talking suddenly, he had sat down on the couch, his shoulders shaking heavily.

And so she went to him. She went to him because the pull in her stomach was too much, that there was too much of her that loved him. That it was already consuming her, head to toe. In this room, in this dress, she couldn't help but love him.

She went to him, crouching down to sit on her heels before him.

Wiping away his tears with her bare hand, she looked into his eyes. Trying to see deep down into that endless blue and decipher what he saw when he looked at her, why he was crying.

"You look so beautiful." was what he said.

"Orpheus..."

"Say what you have to say, Eurydice." he sniffled, wiping his nose. He looked an awful lot like the child he actually was. How young they both still were. How young they always have been. How young to be this damaged. "And then I'll refute it."

She took a deep breath. She knew these words, this apology inside and out. It was the response she had tried to figure out. What would he say? How would he react? It was what she fantasized about in Hadestown, torturing herself with the idea of seeing her Poet again.

"I left you." her fingers find his. "I left without a word, without an explanation, and- and I'm so-"

"My mother always asked me why I was never angry at you, and I didn't really have an answer. Until now; I love you. That's why, I love you... too much to be angry for something like that."

Turning her head to the side, as if to avoid his gaze, she chewed on her bottom lip. She watched the door. "I never blamed you for turning, by the way." she murmured, squeezing his fingers tightly. "Not for even a single moment."

She doesn't look, but she could hear a small sob somewhere in his throat. So full of tears, are they these days. She sat back down on the floor, crossing her legs so that she lean her head against his knees.

"You still love me?" she asked.

"Very much."

"I-I still love you. More than I can even let on." she lifted her head, resting her chin on his knees but keeping her eyes up.

"You look so beautiful." he repeated. She knew that he would love her with or without her beauty. That no matter how un-beautiful she was, he would always say she was beautiful, he would always see her as beautiful. His hands pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "I didn't know hair grew in Hadestown."

She leaned into his touch. "I didn't know anything grew in Hadestown."

 His thumb brushed across her lips, a moment far more intimate than anything she'd experienced in the past year. He was warm, and he loved her, and for a brief moment, the world came back into tune, and-

Another knock.

She sprang up from her place on the floor, tripping over her bare feet, toes catching on the carpet.

Before she could even get the door all the way open, she was wrapped up in a tight hug. Somewhat motherly. The smell of this woman was familiar, like jasmine perfume and the soap they gave them in Hadestown.

"Katia." she sighed, relieved.

"Your friend Hermes told us you were finally awake, so we came to see you!" she said, pulling back enough for Kryos to fit between them and wrap an arm around Eurydice's shoulders. It felt strangely comfortable in these people's arms, the smells overwhelming, the touches gentle and making sure not to be too invasive.

"And you never told us your father-in-law was a god? You didn't think to mention-" Kryos began.

"Father-in-law?" Orpheus piped up from his place on the couch, they all turned in unison to his voice.

"That's what he introduced himself as." Katia said, her eyes roaming up and down the boy before her, making the connection quickly between this boy and Eurydice's boy. "Is that not true?"

"It is, somewhat." he rose and walked to greet the two new guests. "My name is Orpheus... thank you for keeping her safe."

Katia smiled, smoothing Eurydice's hair and brushing the wisps away from her face. "she kept herself safe. Kept us safe more than we did to her."

"Ah," he said . "That seems right."

"How are you feeling?" Eurydice asked, taking Katia's hand and placing it on her swollen stomach.

"Ready to pop." Kat laughed. "I can feel it, any day now."

"I can't wait to meet them." Eurydice's words were genuine, she wanted to meet the child that could be born up top. A child that would be born with spring every year, and a loving family.

"me too." Katia replied softly.