There was so much I could not make sense of in all of this. I wondered how Max had put it together - that this Luke Ferris offering me a dream was someone from his own time, someone who bore a grudge. Luke told me that Max had figured it out, had run a background check ... and I remembered Max telling me he was planning to check out this man who through some unbelievable coincidence had ended up in a tavern in Folsom the same time I had.

And this was why Maximus was gone. Luke had known he'd go when he figured it out ... that he'd go to where Luke had set up a headquarters for his team in Connecticut. And once he'd made his reservations, Luke knew the coast was clear on the farm. A clear shot for them to come in, take me hostage, prove their ruthlessness to Maximus ... and then make a deal with him, one that he'd take very seriously.

So this was how Max found out there was someone from his past times now in the present. I wondered ... why had their paths in this time crossed in the first place?

Had Luke always known Max was out there somewhere? Had he been searching for Maximus? Or had it ... no ... it seemed so impossible ...

"It was a coincidence," Luke said, looking at Tony as the meal I had fixed for them was turning to dessert and I was handing them plates of mint chess pie.

"That's all it came down to? Just chance that we were in the same restaurant at the same time?" I asked, incredulous.

"The gods still enjoy a good game," Tony said, looking into my eyes to see if I shared his belief that gods and goddesses could control anything in this modern age.

"It had never occurred to me that anyone else from that time would later come to this one," Luke said. "Had Maximus ever given such a thing any thought?"

"I don't know," I said and knew he hadn't. "But ... you recognized him and he never noticed you? Doesn't that seem unbelievable?"

"His attention was on you, Ann."

"And yours was on him?"

"He did seem familiar. I felt disturbed but knew not why. I would venture that he had similar feelings of something on edge."

I thought about Maximus and his overly aggressive reaction to the table of American loudmouths. "And you think he sensed you?"

"I think he sensed something was disturbed." Luke sat back from the table. "And then I heard you say his name. That was when I realized, as unlikely as it was, that he was the very Maximus I knew and despised."

"Just like that?"

"It was." 

I was running through that evening in my mind; something leapt to the forefront. "You had my purse. You said you'd been keeping it safe for me. Did you ...?"

"I did. Of course I looked inside."

It's how he learned my name. Our address. Where we were staying in Rome. From there, it had been simple ... he just had to figure out the way to worm into our lives without revealing himself to Maximus, who would have recognized him eventually just as Luke had recognized Max.

"Now what?" I asked as I poured him coffee and thought about Ralph, tied up in the stable, now eating dinner under William's watchful eyes.

"Now you must call him and tell him I wait here for him."

"If I call him ... I won't bring him just so you can kill him."

Luke clicked out a rough "tsk" at me. "I will not kill him. I am offering you his life ... the decision is yours. If he does not go with me to Rome and there does not take me across this rift in time so that I may be restored to my own life, then you die first. He dies second for then you force me to hunt him down and kill him with my own hands."

He flexed his hand open and then slowly shut it, fingers curling around an imagined neck ... Max's neck.

"He will live if he takes me to our past, Ann. He will live a long and fruitful life. The one he was meant to live. I promise I will do all in my power to assure that for him."

I walked to the sink and put dishes there, awaiting their washing. My back was to Luke. My voice was soft but I knew he'd be listening so hard for my response that he'd catch it first time through. "And you want me to convince him this is the best thing for him to do."

"No. I want you to convince him to come here so I can prove to him that he has no real choice this time. I want him to understand that if he loves you as he claims, he must do this."

"He doesn't have to prove a thing. Not to me." I turned to look at Luke. "There's a catch, isn't there? Or else you wouldn't have to gone to all this trouble."

"If we go back, then everything changes, does it not follow?"

"Are you taking him back there just so you'll have a way back but then you'll kill him? Tell me the truth."

"No. I will consider us even. For you see, I will be taking something from him that will be in return for what he took from me. If you think this through, logically he will never come here to meet you if he does not die in the arena. So just as I was robbed of the chance of a full life with Lucilla because of him, he will not have the chance of a full life with you because of me."

It had already occurred to me, you see, so maybe I was having active premonitions.

But the truth was this: if Maximus went back, if his life changed ... if he had a long, happy life as he deserved with his wife ... then he would never meet me. Or, egocentric as always, what I really thought was this: time from that moment of his return would be changed ... my life would be re-written and I would never meet him. I'd never know love.

I'd lose the life Max and I had already created together. I'd have not even memories because none of this would exist anymore from the moment he went back.

So I would have nothing.

Maximus, though, would remember. He would go back with all the memories of his time after he left Rome. He would remember me. He would remember us.

He would be the one left to mourn the loss of life begun but not yet fully realized. On the other hand, he would be given the gift of living the life he would have lived with his wife and son had Commodus not had them murdered.

Is it any wonder that I now believe the gods are not done torturing Maximus? Even from obscurity, they reach across to block his dreams.

For whatever time I know is mine to remember, I will try not to cry. It would be wasted time. I prefer to lie here, immobile, and it is enough to breathe and remember him. To cling to whatever time I have left with this life that we wanted so much.

I wonder if he will grow grapes on his farm and think of me. I wonder what will become of Ralph and Pete. I wonder if I will come home and find I should never have left. I wonder if Buck will wait for me to find him. The next time through, I hope I'm smarter on my choices and that I protect my heart better.

Will it all change for our friends if Maximus never comes here first or will the second of the men be the magnet for the others to be drawn to Uma's pub?

I remember the first time I saw him. 

And I remember the look on his face when he walked into our home, knowing he walked into a trap but that he did it because he would never have not come there to save the lives there that depended upon him.

But, as I've said, neither of these are the one slice of memory I most want to cling to, to hide it away somewhere in my soul so that even when time changes things for me so we never meet, that a remnant of this life keeps me searching for him ... even if I am destined to only find him in his afterlife, although without knowing him in life, how would I know to search for him in death?

In the morning, Luke sat across the table from me. It was not even daylight yet. The only concession I'd gotten from him was that he let me see Ralph first. I wanted to make sure he was okay. Ralph told me to tell these guys to fuck themselves.

This happened after they shot Neva.

I had held out as long as I could. But when Luke made me watch them shoot Max's young mare, the one bearing the future inside her ... I could see no other answer than to give them what they wanted and then to put my total faith in Maximus.

When I came out of the stable after telling Ralph it would all be okay soon, William prodding me before him, I was momentarily blinded by the glare from the spotlight that lit the broad expanse between the stable and the house. But then I heard Buck ... and my heart sunk as my vision cleared and I saw that Tony had tied Buck's leash to the fence near the stable.

"Another example," Tony said as I tried to break away from where William suddenly held me clamped to his body.

"Please ... no, please! I'll call Max ... please ... I promised you I would call ... I just wanted to make sure Ralph was okay ... Don't kill my dog. I swear I will do everything you tell me ... Just don't kill him," I pleaded to this man who was pointing a gun at my precious dog as Buck strained at the end of his leash. He wanted more than anything to run to my side, to defend me ... and I wanted nothing more than to save his life.

This then was my state of mind as I sat across the table from Luke a short time later. I had been given a small taste of how one Roman man will torture another ... how vengeance can be many things but in Luke's hands, it revels in the needlessly cruel.

It took me a moment to speak when I heard Max's voice after only one ring. "You have to come home," I said to him. I tried to be calm but I know there was a timbre in my voice that he'd never heard before.

"He is there?"

And this was when I knew ... he had not really expected that this was a possibility. He had really thought he was going to surprise Luke ... he had not had any real reason to think it would explode like this. I had never heard that timbre in his voice. "Yes. He's here."

"Let me speak to him."

"No. He won't. He wants me to tell you ... Max, come alone. Come unarmed. He says you're being watched so not to call anyone or do anything but get on the next flight back here. You're not in any danger because he wants something from you and he needs you alive. What he wants, Max, it's not so bad, really."

"Has he hurt you, Ann?"

"Not yet. He promises he won't as long as you come here and then do what he wants. He doesn't want to kill either of us if ..."

And just then ... I heard a gunshot. The report seemed to echo forever and ever. I know I screamed. I dropped the phone. Tony was looking out the window, the one that looked toward the stable. He glanced back at Luke as he shoved me back down into the chair from which I'd bolted.

"That is two lives under his protection gone. Tell him that his time for saving your life is running out," Luke said. When I sat there, shaking and crying, he picked up the phone and placed it down on the table before me. When I still didn't pick it up, he leaned in and shouted in my ear, "Tell him!"

I jumped in response. My hand shook as I picked up the phone. "Maximus ... I'm okay. They haven't hurt me ... I'm just scared but I'm okay."

"I am on my way home. Trust in me, Ann."

"He wants to go home, too."

When the traffic is light, it takes about 90 minutes to drive from the New Orleans airport to Folsom. Before Katrina, the trip usually only took about 45 minutes unless it was rush hour or there was an accident.

They had some way of tracking Max's flight. I asked about that when William came in, looking at his Blackberry, announcing that the flight had landed. Tony said, "We aren't alone in this."

And I presume I was supposed to infer from that that they had some network of men, waiting for orders, out there in the vastness of the world, operating in the shadows and just waiting to do bad things to people like us if we did not cooperate. But what I contemplated was how alike in many ways the instincts of men such as Maximus and Lucius were. They had both been military men, leaders, generals. They both gained positions in this new time with many of those attributes ... leaders of men, quasi-military chain of command structure.

Really, I was occupying my mind. I wanted to sink inside the memories of my time with Maximus but I kept coming out of them, too fast, and feeling the trauma. Buck. Every time I thought of him, I recoiled. Bitter bile was in my throat as I fought with everything inside me to not cry, to be in control ... to not feel. To not let them see me suffer.

"Make up a tray for Ralph," William said to me as I was cleaning up the clutter of a breakfast I didn't really remember making for them.

"Ralph?" I asked, numb, unable to register what this meant for a moment.

So it had not been Ralph who'd been shot a few hours earlier. And then I remembered who it was they said they'd shot, the second life taken.

"I'll make up a bowl of Buck's food as well," I said. William glanced at Tony. "Will you let me take it to him? He'll be starving by now. He needs water, too."

"No need," William said.

Oh. That's right, I thought, and tried not to feel anything.

Perhaps they thought I was already saying goodbye, already resigned, already putting emotional distance between Max and me. Luke and I stood at the top of the landing that led to the house and watched as Max's car approached the house. It was not even noon. I felt old.

"Go to him," Luke said softly as Max's car drew to a stop. "He would like that."

"I won't break down in front of you," I said tightly.

"I was attempting to be kind," he said as we watched Max slowly leave the car, look about him, study the two of us on the landing, note the other two men ... William by the stable; Tony at the bottom step. "Your time together is very limited now. If you have things to say to him, you would be wise to use every opportunity I grant you."

It took every fiber in my being but I held out for a while. I waited as Tony frisked him, checking for hidden weapons, finding none. I waited as Max fixed Tony and then William with that disdainful look of his, so potent with threat and the self-assurance that he will kill them. I waited, in fact, until Max began walking up the steps toward me. Every muscle in his body seemed tense, ready to react. He looked impossibly formidable as he studied the man next to me. And I thought about how it was possible this was the last time he came to this home. Just at that moment, his eyes looked into mine.

This was when I sped down the three steps that separated us and let him catch me in an embrace. His mouth was quickly at my ear, saying soft and strong, "I will not allow him to do this. Trust in me, cara."

"Whatever happens, I trust in you first, last, always," I whispered back. "I know you'll do everything you can to protect this life ... but I am prepared to lose it if it means you survive."

When we released, there was a strength of purpose in our movement. I followed in his wake as he ascended the remaining steps. I could not look toward the stable. I concentrated on Max's back. On his hand that rested on my elbow, as if he thought keeping me tucked behind him was all the protection that would ever be needed.

They greeted each other warily. Said each other's formal names. There was a slight pause and then Max said, "Welcome to my home, Lucius Verus. I am pleased to offer you shelter as my guest."

Luke chuckled. "You were always known for your sense of humor," he said.

"And you were much loved by Marcus Aurelius. I shall remember this."

"Time has a way of changing a man's bearings, don't you find, Maximus?"

"Is time what we have to discuss, Lucius? Come, enter with me ... let us find respite within these walls."

This was the thing about what was happening. Maximus was not cowed, not in fear, not about to let any man come in and take over. He was the lord and master here, this was his home. He was re-establishing ownership of the home ... and his place as protector of all who lived here. In this simple demonstration of his confident sense of self and place, he gave me strength.

It was not so much that just because he was here, I was being rescued. It was more that he made me believe he could deal with this. That all I had to do was trust in him.

And really, I did. But I was also pragmatic enough to clearly catalog every word, every movement as if it was the last I'd have of him ... just in case things went bad. Just in case he went off with Luke, to Rome, to the past, out of my existence forever and always. But even if that happened, I was left knowing the depth of his love for me, the strength of our hold on each other for whatever time I would have left to remember.

"You may serve our guests refreshments, Anna," Max said to me, softly, as he entered the living room.

Any other time, I swear, he knew I'd have argued at the insanity of these gestures of respect for an enemy. But into the kitchen I went, strolling as if I was at leisure and not facing the dissolution of my past and present. As if a life did not hang in the balance. As if two lives were not already lost in a cold demonstration for Maximus that what he loved, he could not really protect from this enemy.

William shadowed me as I made coffee and lemonade. I frosted tiny clusters of green grapes. I took inordinate care. What if this was the last bit of food I ever made for Maximus?

"Will he do it?" William asked me.

I looked over at him, standing awkwardly next to the kitchen table. "I think he will. What other choice does he have?"

"I was expecting something else from him."

"Like what?"

"Thought he'd pull out a gun, try and take us out."

"He wouldn't need a gun to take you out," I said.

William chuckled. "They're not bad guys. Not really. They just want to go home."

"They?"

"Luke and Tony."

"Tony? He's from their time?"

"Served with Luke. Think maybe something more but ... anyway, they came over together. They want to go back."

"What about you?"

"I'm in it for the money."

"You won't have long to spend it."

"That's already taken care of. It's in the bank; Luke'll call just before he goes over with your husband. When he calls, I'll get the code to retrieve the money. And you'll get to live. But if he doesn't call, you'll die, because that will mean Maximus double crossed him."

Should I have pointed out to him that his future would change just as surely as mine if Luke went into the past? Because time would change and not only would Max never come here, but neither would Luke or Tony. So who was going to give William his money? But I kept my mouth shut because maybe I didn't want to know if they'd made provisions that circumvented all of that.

When I entered the living room, carrying a tray as if all life depended upon its safe transport and delivery, they stopped talking. I knew what they'd been saying. Or, rather, I know what Luke had been saying. Max, I imagine, was doing more listening than talking. He watched me closely as I set the tray down between where they sat, on opposite sides of the coffee table.

Maximus gestured me to where he was and so I went to sit next to him. "Where is Ralph?" he asked me.

"They have him tied up in the stable," I said. "They shot Neva. And Buck. Did he tell you that he had them do that?"

"No, he has not yet told me that part of it."

"None of that will matter later," Luke said, his voice cold. "None of this will even exist for you when it is done."

"You bastard," I said softly. "Then there was no reason for you to kill either of them. You did it for sport ... and to torture us."

He shrugged and sipped lemonade from a glass that Maximus had bought long before he knew me.

"Has he told you what he wants?" I asked Max, our eyes meeting. For me, the world could have disappeared. "He wants you to take him back to when he was alive. To change what happened to both of you. Since he'd not die when he did, he'd be alive to take over for Marcus Aurelius and you'd be free to go home after that final battle. He even offered to throw in killing Commodus in the bargain."

"Did he?" Max said softly, his eyes flickering toward Luke for a fraction of a second before returning to me. "Yes, he has told me of his desire to return to his former life. And of the possibilities for me."

"So, I guess that's that, then."

"I did not say I was considering it, Anna."

"You have to, Maximus. We'll both die if you don't. And I would quite like knowing you were alive, even if you were not with me. I'd like knowing that you were with them ... and happy."

"I have a company jet waiting at the airport in Hammond. The sooner we leave, the faster her ordeal will be over," Luke said smoothly.

"How would I be guaranteed that you will not have your men kill her the moment I leave to go with you?" Max asked him. 

My breathing grew rapid. It was coming true then. It would happen. Our time together was over. I closed my eyes and told myself to not feel. To go numb again. To keep trying to memorize that memory I wanted to smuggle out of here. To not panic.

"I will leave my men here to guard her. When we are in Rome and you have taken me to where we can cross over, I will call them. You can speak to her, know she's alive. I will give them instructions to release her. And only when you are assured of her safety, we will we leave this plane of existence together."

"What is to stop me from killing you here, now?" Maximus growled, his voice changing to menace, his body tensing in preparation for attack.

"Did you think me such a fool as to have come here alone with only two men in such an endeavor? Think, Maximus. I know you investigated me. I wanted you to do that. Surely you learned enough to realize I was not in this alone? Is that not why you headed to Connecticut, where you went in search of my stronghold? This was all I was waiting upon before coming here, to challenge you by threatening your family."

"It's true then?" I asked Max, his eyes sliding over to mine. "I thought he was making it up about some group of men watching you."

"So it appears," Maximus said.

"The time for decision is at hand. Maximus, what shall it be? Your former life restored, your wife and son saved from murder, Rome's greatest general rewarded with a comfortable life on his lands in Spain? A friend on the throne following Marcus Aurelius? The line of good Caesars continued? Or do you consign this woman to death at my hands?"

Outside, I heard a mockingbird begin his trilogy of songs. He was imitating a robin, a cardinal and a canary. I had the fleeting visual of Max's hands ruffling the tops of wheat stalks that danced in response. I heard a child's laughter flicker in the distance of time. I pictured my face that morning, standing in the bathroom after I'd called Max and how I'd been unable to cry over them shooting Buck. All I had wanted was vengeance. It was the only emotion I'd felt.

But in this fraction of time, I knew another emotion. It was trust. It was blind faith. It was stubborn passion to fight for a life I had helped create and could not simply let dissolve without trying to protect it from this assault. It was also an open pit inside that already missed this man who was everything to me.

"Your woman, Maximus, has already made her decision," Luke said.

Max turned slightly, nudging his shoulders round until he was looking directly at me. His hands gathered mine together and he drew them to his mouth to kiss lightly. It passed instantly through my mind what this gesture was meant to convey to me ... and what it was meant to convey to Luke.

"I want you to go back to that time," I said softly, slowly. As if this was just between us, as if the others were not eavesdropping. I concentrated on keeping the panic at bay. "I will love you always, Maximus. You know that. And I know now just how love me. He told me ..."

"What did he tell you, Anna? What could he possibly know of us?"

"Luke heard your prayers at the Mausoleum of Hadrian."

His eyes reflected how this both troubled him ... and how in some way, it also pleased him to understand that I knew this secret he'd never have shared with me. That secret that he'd only ever uttered in Latin to his gods as he prayed in the Mausoleum, telling them he was staying in this life rather than joining his wife and son. Asking his gods to watch over his wife and son, to explain to them his choice. He would never have told me of this choice he'd made upon finding that rift in time in the Coliseum ... except for this fact that Luke had overheard him talking about it to his gods and Marcus. But now that this might all end for us and he might have to go through the rift with Luke to save my life, he would at least leave with no other symbol of his love for me ever needed between us.

"So I know you had to make a choice to stay with me or go to them. And you wanted to stay with me, to live out our life. But everything is different now, Maximus."

"How could I leave you, Anna? Do not place this burden upon me."

"It isn't a burden. It's absolution. Just promise me something? Promise to love me always. Promise to love me so hard, so complete that when I do die, I'll come join you in Elysium. At least that gives me some hope that I'll see you again."

He licked his bottom lip and his eyes unfocused. I whispered his name; my hand stroked his cheek, his beard. "You would have me do this? Leave you?"

"I'll have it easier because I won't remember you. I couldn't do this any other way. It's you who will remember and that will be painful for you. But it won't have been in vain, Max. Some part of me will always feel your love. It's the best we can expect."

His eyes studied mine now, sharp and searching, reading everything unsaid that he knew should have been spoken but for once was not needed to be verbalized for us both to understand the other.

Finally, he nodded at me and sighed hard. "Very well, then. I do this, Anna, solely to save your life. I make you two solemn promises ... I will live my life to its fullest and make it a finer thing than I could have imagined before. I will do this to honor the life we made together. And I will never forget you, will always love you ... and it shall be love strong enough to bring you to me upon your natural death so that we may finish what we have started in this life."

"Then we can do this, Maximus. For each other. For us. As you always said."

"For us."

My hands were on his face. We were so close. Our final words were gentle whispers that co-mingled our escaping breaths. And then I leaned forward, to hold him, to kiss him for what seemed the last time. I couldn't stop the choking sob that came out of me with no notice. I shut my eyes; squeezed the tears that fell until they stopped.

"Trust in me," I heard him say and I wondered if he'd actually said it or if I'd only wanted to hear it.

And then, once his mind was decided, he moved swiftly. He gentled me out of the embrace, kissed the top of my head, stood and began walking to the door.

"Touching," Luke said sourly as he rose to follow. To Tony he said, "Call the pilot. Tell him we'll be there in 30 minutes. I want to be airborne 10 minutes after we arrive. Remember the plan ... keep her in the house. I'll check in with you every two hours until I call from Rome with final instructions."

 Maximus never looked back. Not as he descended the steps. Not as he got in the car. His eyes were anywhere but on me, where I stood in the doorway and watched him until the car was out of sight down the lane that led from our former haven.

I knew what he was doing, that he had gone within himself, to the Stoic who would need to be in control. I know he had a plan. I know our words to each other were mostly a play for the audience that watched us and expected some human frailty, sacrifice and emotion.

If I had been a less prideful person, I would have sobbed in Max's arms as we parted. Even trusting in him to find a way to keep this from happening, I knew it could very likely end just as Luke wished. When he was at last out of sight, I regretted the foolish decision to not run to him before he got in the car, to hold him, to kiss him, to force them to pry me from him. But I hadn't done that because I believed it would have weakened Maximus. He would need every fiber of strength if he were to find a way to win this battle.

Really, what could Maximus do all on his own? If he killed Luke, his men would kill me. He would not have time to prevent it. And the others, those other members of Luke's group, they were out there, watching. It seemed the logical prognosis was grim. And I would be prepared for that.

But I believed in him. I trusted in him.

I just feared for him.

Two hours went by in a blink. William's cell phone rang. "Yes, sir," he said as he answered. "Everything's quiet on this end. She's being a good little girl ... Roger that."

He shrugged at Tony as he closed the phone. "They're on the way to Newark."

I imagined Maximus, riding in some big corporate jet, saying nothing to Lucius. Biding his time for something ... sure that it would happen before they left U.S. airspace. But two more hours and another phone call from Luke to check up on us ... and it didn't seem likely. I couldn't figure out what he was waiting on. I couldn't believe he didn't have some plan, some way to stop this.

By then, dusk was upon us. I was in the kitchen, grimly angry that this was how I might spend my final hours in this life ... as the scullery maid to men who'd kill me without remorse if their boss said to do it. I contemplated putting something disgusting in their food. Or a narcotic to make them pass out. Better yet, I thought, rat poison to kill them. But if I killed them, how would I get word to Maximus so he could kill Luke before Luke sent some of his other men to the farm after me?

But mostly, I admit, I re-lived the first night of our honeymoon. I escaped into those memories. I tried so hard to make them so permanent that I'd somehow transcend this reversal of time and that when my life began again, I would always know he was out there waiting for me ... somewhere. And I would always know what it felt like to be really loved.

"So what's for dinner?" William asked, his entire demeanor looser than it had been when Luke was around. "Smells good. Y'know, I still find it hard to imagine a woman with your background just passing her time as a housewife. Then again, if you'd asked me a few years ago if I believed Roman generals were walking around in our time, I would have said you were crazy."

I glared at him. It seemed to catch him off guard. "Do not ever dare come around me thinking you can make small talk. This is not fun and games time for me. You and your friends are about to murder ... no, I take that back. You've already murdered."

"No one's been killed and if you just do as you're told, you'll survive."

"You killed a pregnant horse just frighten me into submission. You killed my dog despite my pleading ... You're about to steal my life from me. What the fuck is your problem with understanding that I don't want to chat with you? You wanna know what's for dinner? You're lucky it's going to be edible, you bastard. If I could find glass to grind up, I'd stir it in your food and sit watching you both bleed to death from the inside out."

"Jesus."

"Pray to a different god."

He backed out of the kitchen. I took stock and realized I'd been pointing the big cleaver his way as I'd been making my points. He must have thought he was going to have to shoot me in a moment ... and that wouldn't do, would it? Not if I was to be around to talk to Maximus at the end, to let Max know I was alive so he would take Luke through ... if it came to that, which it could, of course.

When I finished their meal, it was not much. Canned stew I'd found back on a shelf from who knows when ... mixed with boiled chunks of potatoes and a few new carrots and celery pieces.

Apparently the idea of me poisoning their food or adding glass chunks was something they decided to take seriously. Before they ate, they wanted me to feed some to Ralph. If he survived, they'd eat their food. I fixed up a bowl for Ralph. Tony and William got into a little snit about which one would traipse down to serve Ralph. I finally got exasperated, picked up the bowl myself along with a bottled Coke and headed out the door.

It was Tony who came striding briskly along to catch up with me, reminding me I was supposed to stay in the house.

"What, you think I'm going to tattle on you when your boss calls the next time?" I scoffed. "I'm not going anywhere. I wouldn't leave Ralph behind."

"Just so we are clear ... from now on ..."

"From now on, what?" I said, instinctively turning to look at him when he didn't answer me.

He had stopped, stone cold. He was not looking at me. He was looking to my right and turning in that direction, his entire body tensed for action ... I turned to see what it was that had made the blood drain from his face and his hand drop instantly to where his gun was stuck in the waistband of his jeans.

There was a figure that had come around the front corner of the house. It was moving in a silent blur ... arms raised to one side ... a flash of metal ... the slick "whoosh" of metal arcing through air ... and then the sick, wet thud of Tony's body ... and Tony's head ... falling ... both falling but falling separately... to the ground near me.

Everything stopped for a frozen moment of terror ... and stunned disbelief. There is a part of me that went blind. And deaf. I am not sure I existed anymore but that there wasn't another person in my place now, upon the walkway between the house and the stable.

"You okay?" the figure said to me, his voice impossibly soft, his eyes not looking at me but at the man he'd just beheaded with no hesitation and brutal efficiency. When I didn't say a word, didn't move, didn't breathe, he grabbed my shoulder with the hand not holding a Roman short sword and said, "Wake up, Annie. We got work to do. C'mon."

"Am I dreaming?" I asked, blinking up at the apparition, afraid to even move. It was Hando who stood before me ... and if you'd asked me who I ever thought I might see on this day, who it was that may suddenly appear as if he were a true blue hero ... Hando would never have occurred to me no matter how many hints you might have given. I thought I might have been hallucinating.

"I'm saving your arse. Let's go." He shoved me ahead of him, toward the stable. I stumbled. He steadied me by gripping my arm and keeping me from falling. His touch was surprisingly gentle and I will never forget the way that made me feel as if I really was in some delusional dreamscape.

And I will also never forget that through it all, I was still clutching a bowl of stew and a bottle of Coke.

Ralph stepped out swiftly from just inside the stable as Hando rushed me toward it. I dropped everything I was carrying and reached for Ralph; Ralph who was now free, no longer tied up, still alive ... not dead because of me and the way I'd hesitated, not trusting my own instincts. He wrapped his arms around me as he dragged me inside the darkness of the stable.

"One down," Ralph whispered to Hando.

"One to go," Hando replied.

I have never been one to swoon. I hate women like that, mostly because they make me jealous ... they always seem to go into some soft faint within easy reach of a man so he can catch her to keep her from falling on her tiny ass. I have told Maximus before that I wish I'd learned how to do that when I was just becoming a teenager because I think it would have been a quite useful talent. He has rolled his eyes at me every single time I've said that. Yet I harbor a firm conviction that Maximus has had more than his share of women who faint in his vicinity with the express purpose of ending up being caught by his big strong arms and for just the chance to stare up into his blue-green eyes as they regain awareness.

It was eyes very like Max's that I was staring up into, worry etched there before he realized I could see again ... I was sprawled on the dirt of the stable's floor.

"Don't do that again, woman," Hando said to me, his voice pitched to a hissing whisper.

"I didn't faint," I said as I struggled to sit up.

He didn't extend a hand to help me to my feet and if he had, I would have slapped it away. It was Ralph who pulled me up and steadied me until I regained my balance.

"Are you insane?" I asked Hando, finally.

"Hush," Hando said, his back turned to me as he studied outside the stable entrance.

"Do you have any idea what you've done, Hando? You just killed a man and you've just walked right into ... into ..."

"Into?" he turned to look at me, his chin high, his eyes narrowed. "Almost as if I'd walked in to save your life, ain't it? As if someone told me to do what it took?"

"You did this on ... on Max's instructions? Impossible. He would never turn to you."

He walked toward me, taking measured steps, expecting me to back up but I did not. So he finally just loomed over me. His hand reached out toward me and I know I flinched but all he did was pick a twig from my hair.

"I'm here to take you from them and eliminate all threats," Hando said, his thumb stroking along my chin. "These are the wishes of Maximus Decimus Meridius."

"Stop it ... both of you," Ralph said, his hand taking mine and leading me toward the stable door. "Ann, whatever you think of him, he's here and he's set us both free. I think maybe we should do it his way."

I looked back at Hando; for the first time, I really saw the blood smears on the sword. And the flecks of blood on Hando's arms, along his neck. He was dressed all in black; maybe it's why it seemed surreal to me.

"You can't kill William yet," I said into the air between us.

"Why not? And bear in mind, Max says to take 'em all out ... them I can see and them who'll come later."

"Because every two hours, Lucius is calling in. He speaks with William, gets a status report. The final call comes when they are in Rome ... he will apparently give William instructions on a bank account he's set up to pay for his services. As for Tony, he wasn't after money ... he's from Luke's time so he'd be living then, not now, after Luke went back and changed things."

"Ralph can fake it that he's William. Same stupid Yank accent."

"What if there's a code or some other agreed upon wording they will use in that last phone call? We just don't know ... and I won't risk Max's life that way."

"So what are you suggesting, Annie?"

"We take William hostage. You can kill him after the final phone call."

Hando's brows knit at this. He considered what I'd said. Then: "Max said there might be others we won't see."

"All the more reason to not kill William right away ... I'm sure you can figure out a way to get his cooperation so he'll tell us about the others who may or may not be out there as back up. If they have some signal ... or plans."

Ralph poked his head out of the door and scanned about before saying, "Whatever you're gonna do, do it. You wait any longer, William'll get antsy about what's taking Tony so long."

Hando gave us our orders. I was to go into the kitchen and call William to come in there if he wasn't there already. I was to say that Tony was re-tying Ralph's ropes and then serve up their dinner. Meanwhile, Hando would circle the house and enter from the back deck, through the living room ... coming behind William, armed with a handgun to convince William to surrender when surprised by the intrusion. He and Ralph figured the gun would be better than the sword in this situation.

Ralph was to hide the body, tidy up the evidence of that death, just in case someone else came on the property.

I was walking out of the stable to do my bit; Hando's hand gripped in on my elbow. "Don't take any chances," he said softly.

"They messed with the wrong person," I replied but I admit, I was touched at this show of concern.

"Anything happens to you ... Max made me swear ..."

I slowed my pace; we had reached the corner of the house. Hando would go one way, me the other. I put my hand on his chest. "He trusts you, Hando. Don't second guess yourself or your plan. Whatever happens, I do this willingly. Okay?"

"Yeah. Okay."

Have you ever been so scared that the only thing you feel is angry? Ever feel so angry that you don't feel like you? I hear people talk about living in the moment. Maybe that's all I was doing.

That would make sense. After all, I was already more than convinced that my life might have no future and that even as I struggled through the end of it, the past was being re-written. What else was left but to live fully in the present?

I had so much to lose. I had so much for which to be forgiven.

William was already inside the kitchen, bending over the stew pot. He looked up as I opened the door. At first, he looked guilty ... probably gave his mother that look every time she caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. Then he realized I was alone. I didn't wait for him to ask the question. Whoever this was in my body, I think she seized the moment and trusted in herself.

I walked briskly to the sink and tossed the empty bowl there ... but with a following action, I picked up a wooden spoon on the counter and slapped his hand ... the one holding the cover of the stew pot. He dropped it instantly and it clanged in the eerie silence of the gathering evening.

"Don't you know it's impolite to sniff into a cooking pot like that? Who wants to be eating your drool, boy? Now get away while I finish up."

"Where's Tony?"

"Re-tying Ralph. Something about your ability to tie knots not being so great."

"He said that? Bastard."

"Takes one to know one," I said, shoving him out of my way so I could open the cutlery drawer. "You want to be useful, then set the table."

I thrust three spoons, forks and knives in his hands, then plopped napkins on top. I think it's an odd remnant of everyone's childhood ... you give a grownup a task like that and you just stand there, watching as they put their heart and soul into it. Is it because every parent brainwashes every kid that setting the table is a status thing, proof you're no longer a 'little kid'?

For a very hard moment, I pictured Maximus performing this chore for me. I shook my head to drive the image out.

Since Hando had not shown up yet and William was almost done putting out the utensils, I tossed him a loaf of bread and told him to butter up a few pieces for everyone. I don't know why I thought of that. Guess that came from somewhere in my childhood but I don't honestly remember it ... it was just something to keep him over there, busy, his hands occupied.

This was when Hando materialized in the entry to the kitchen. I was listening for him but I never heard him. It was more like I felt another presence. When I looked up, he stood there with a gun pointed at William, who had a piece of bread in one hand and butter knife in the other. When he put his hands up, it was only after he'd dropped the bread and knife ... resigned now, biding his time, believing he could outrun his fate.

I went to the outside door and flashed the lights three times quick. Ralph was there with lengths of rope in seconds flat.

All this time, the only thing that had been said to William was said by Hando after Ralph had lashed William securely to one of the kitchen chairs. Hando's voice was soft, utterly menacing. "New order to the world," he said to William as he leaned in close, eye to eye, from a position of power. "I'm gonna tell you something. You listening? Good. Here it is then: you cooperate, you live."

In the end, it was that simple. Rather as simple as the choice Maximus had been given.