Unconditionally (Spartacus FANFIC -- Gannicus/Caesar/OC)

Chapter LVI - Gannicus

Laying in bed with Gannicus' arms tightly wrapped around me I felt at peace. I felt at home, like a weight was lifted off my heart. Agron was with me, he was healing with Nasir's watchful eyes upon him. Naevia was safe even though her entire soul was ignited with a fire I'd never seen in her before. Though the thought of seeing Pietros again had never even entered my mind, seeing him brought back so many memories of the ludus. 

"I don't remember you tossing so much in your sleep." Gannicus' tired voice filled my ears as my head bounced upon his chest as he laughed softly.

"I couldn't sleep, so much going on in my head I just feel so lost yet...found." I told him as he sat us both up his hand moving to my face as he caressed my cheek. "You are where you belong, Jana. Sleepless nights are bound to happen. I know when you were gone the only way my eyes found sleep was at the bottom of... a lot of wine." He explained as I softly rolled my eyes.

"I know what happened was bound to happen; I was always going to end up with the Roman, I was always going to fight with Crixus. Yet I feel like I've wronged you." I told him as he just laughed.

"We all make mistakes yet, you my love... made only one."

"One?" I questioned him. "Yea, you left with the Gauls. We all knew that was the march of death. I'm shocked we had so many returned to us. Even more so that Crassus let you and Agron live." He told me.

"I was too..." I sighed as I looked around the tent. "You kept my things?" I questioned him as I got out of the bed and began to look at my old daggers, robes that I had brought with me since we left Sinuessa. "Why wouldn't I? As you always say... in this life or the next... I had to be prepared if it was this life." He told me as I turned to smile at him.

"This life it is." 

"Come, Saxa made word that we was going to get you new weapons made. Knowing her she got one of the woman to make you proper warriors robes too. We are to take a village today..." He told me as I just nodded, "Saxa... a name I never thought I would ever care to hear again yet... I am relieved it is one still spoken." I told him as he wrapped his arms around me pulling me close to his chest. "What of mine?"

"I think it would crush my heart if yours was a name I never heard again." I told him softly as he kissed my neck. 

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Spartacus had made me stay behind rather than going with the army to take a nearby town. I could see the fires roaring into the sky as I watched and waited for my friends to hopefully return. I was accompanied by Pietros who had elected to stay behind with me. The silence between us being filled by the screams and distance sounds of steel clashing against steel.

I turned my head slightly to look over at him; "I joined to preserve the memory of Barca." He spoke softly as his eyes were firmly set on the scene before us. "You gave me the gift of freedom. I do not want you to think that I just pissed it away... this was something that I needed to do." He added.

"We do but honor those we've lost. You are doing exactly what you are meant to be doing, my only wish was that you did not die within those walls like so many have." I told him as he turned to me with a soft smile on his lips. "It lifts heart knowing that you are yet still of this life. I often like to think Barca would be proud of the man I have become." He spoke.

"I think so too... How long have you been apart of the cause?" I questioned him. "I happened upon the army when I was on my way to fight with Crixus. None recognized me, not as quickly as you had." He told me with a soft laugh.