Chapter Text
Three days after the incident, Octavius had finally decided to pay Jedediah a visit again to confront him about the matter, hoping that they could talk things out and then forgive and forget. He had wanted to give the man his own space, since Jedediah had clearly seemed to have wanted to be left alone, but now he wanted from the bottom of his heart to see him again and make it up to him for whatever he had done to make him run away from him, tears in his eyes. He couldn’t understand what had made Jedediah so upset and clearly heartbroken after such a wonderful day spent together. Had Octavius done something that had made him feel that way or had he been perhaps too meddlesome with him that had made Jedediah uncomfortable, and thus wanting to distance himself from him? He pondered those thoughts in his head over and over again, the sand crunching under his caligae as he walked the dusty and unkempt road towards Jedediah’s house. When he arrived there, the first thing he noticed was that Jedediah had left the door of his house open. That made Octavius immediately feel odd, like something was wrong. He knocked on the doorframe and announced his presence out of politeness, even though he was quite certain that Jedediah wasn’t there. He stepped inside the modest, but still very cozy looking farmhouse and looked around to see any signs of something unusual that could have happened, but instead he only saw a one lone half-eaten fig on the table. He went to inspect it closer, and judging by the fact that insects hadn’t begun to swarm around it yet, he came to the conclusion that Jedediah had been there just mere hours ago. He walked out of the house and closed the door behind him this time and went to look for Jedediah in the meadows. When he arrived there he only found his sheep there and his hat and staff under the olive tree where he used to sit under. He didn’t get to wonder too long what would be the next place where Jedediah might be, when he heard the noise of a clearly distressed sheep coming closer, and saw Penelope´s mother running towards him her eyes wide.
- ”Hey girl, what is wrong? Where is your child? Where is Jedediah?” He approached the distressed mother trying calmly to ask her what was wrong, but she just kept urging him to the direction she had come from, where Octavius knew there were high cliffs there.
The cold realization hit him like a sharp pilum thrown right in his chest and he began running to the cliffs as fast as his legs could carry him, Penelope’s mother leading the way. He prayed for Jupiter with his whole heart that Jedediah would be fine.
-
What felt like an eternity of running, that only really took him about ten minutes, he arrived at the edge of the cliffs and immediately started looking for Jedediah with his eyes. He felt the desperation rising in his chest when he couldn’t find him, but then he saw Penelope’s mother standing a bit further in his right, and he went to look for her child and Jedediah there. What he saw beneath almost stopped his heart from beating. Jedediah was there limp and unmoving with Penelope beside him, baaing for her mother who baaed back at her trying to get to her child.
- ”Jedediah!” Despite Octavius shouting his name Jedediah stayed silent and still, only Penelope’s cries were echoing from below.
It was too dangerous to get to them from where they were standing. Octavius searched desperately for a safe place to descend with his eyes. When he found a relatively safe place to get to them not too far from his left, he wasted no time and slid the precipitous incline down; Penelope’s mother following him to her child. Once he was down he ran to Jedediah as fast as he could and took him in his arms ever so gently, as if he could break like glass. Jedediah had a nasty wound on his forehead that was bleeding a lot and his right leg seemed to be broken judging from the grievous looking bruise that covered it. He tried to shake him awake, but to no avail. He stayed limp and unmoving against his touch, eyes closed and mouth slightly open.
- ”Jedediah! Jedediah please wake up! Oh gods! For the love of Jupiter, please let him live!” He prayed, tears rolling down his cheeks like rivers. He held Jedediah close, rocking him back and forth in his arms like a mother would her newborn child. He prayed to every god in existence for Jedediah to be alright, and it looked like some of them seemed to have answered his prayers, because Jedediah stirred slightly in his arms.
- ”Oc...tavi..us?” Jedediah’s voice sounded fragile and quiet and it hurt Octavius’ heart even more despite him being happier than ever that he had woken up.
- ”Yes Jedediah, it is me; Octavius! I am right here. Do not worry, I will bring you to safety. You will be alright, I promise.” He said voice shaky from crying and hugged Jedediah giving his hairline a quick kiss.
- ”My leg…hurts. I…can’t…move it.” Jedediah said deliriously, trying to raise his head to see the state of his leg.
- ”Do not worry, Jedediah. The medicus will take care of your wounds and your leg will be alright in no time.” Octavius said to him and gently lowered him to the ground to inspect his leg.
It looked clearly broken and the bone was a bit out of place under the skin, which had caused a huge bruise to form. Octavius had seen far worse injuries in his life as the general of the Roman army, but he still couldn’t help grimacing at the wound.
He took the pugio that was hidden under his tunic against his thigh, and undid the clasps holding his paludamentum. He let it fall to the ground and started cutting the expensive red silk to make Jedediah’s leg a makeshift bandage and splint from the pugio, to keep it still. He gave Jedediah a heads up before tightening the bandages around his leg and the splint, and despite him trying to do it as swiftly and gently as possible, Jedediah was still gritting his teeth and groaning in pain. After the unpleasant first-aid session he lifted him gently into his arms, and started making his way to the military camp where he knew Jedediah would get the best treatment he deserved. He took a final glance at Penelope and her mother, knowing they would be fine and would soon return to the meadow with the rest of the sheep, and turned around to continue walking.
-
The walk to the military camp was agonizingly the slowest and most torturous half-an-hour Octavius had ever had to walk anywhere. He had to stop once when Jedediah vomited out all the food he had eaten that day from the concussion he was suffering. When he finally arrived to the camp, what felt like having to go trough all the thirteen trials of Hercules, he went to the first soldier he saw and ordered him to bring the medicus immediately to his tent. Once inside his tent, he lowered Jedediah as gently as he could on his bed to rest; putting a pillow under his head for comfort. The medicus arrived a minute later and began carefully examining Jedediah’s state. After a few minutes of the medicus looking Jedediah silently over, he opened his mouth to speak, and Octavius prayed that the news wouldn’t be as bad as he had feared them to be.
- ”He has a concussion. He has hit his head quite badly and needs a lot of rest to recover. His right leg is broken and the bone has moved a bit out of place. He also has a bruise the shape of a handprint in his right wrist. Setting the bone back in his leg will be painful, so we need to make him drink poppy juice first to ease the pain.” The medicus stated coldly and began gathering his tools for the procedure.
Octavius went quickly to Jedediah’s side and took his hand in his own, gently stroking his hair. He hadn’t noticed the bruise on Jedediah’s wrist before the medicus had mentioned it, but he knew Jedediah couldn’t have caused it himself. Someone had hurt him, and Octavius was eager to strike down whoever that person was with his gladius, but right know he needed to be by Jedediah’s side to console him, so his wrath had to wait. The medicus made him drink two spoonfuls of poppy juice, and then they waited a moment for the effect to kick in, before starting to painfully set his bone back in place.
- ”It is alright Jedediah. You don’t have to act strong in front of me; I’ve seen many men cry out in pain from less serious wounds. Try to lie still and take deep breaths, the pain will not last long.” He said while continuing stroking his hair and holding his hand, whispering encouraging words in his ear with a gentle tone.
When the medicus started moving the bone back in it’s place, Jedediah inhaled sharply and whimpered in pain, tears rolling down his cheeks and squeezing Octavius’ hand.
To Octavius’ surprise the medicus did his work quickly and efficiently, so Jedediah didn’t have to suffer any longer than needed, and after the procedure was over Jedediah slumped on the bed panting heavily. The medicus also treated his headwound and other minor injuries before gathering his tools, ready to leave for the other waiting patients needing his help.
- ”He will make a full recovery if treated right. He needs at least five whole days of bed rest to recover from the concussion, and another three months to be able to walk again. Inform me immediately if his condition worsens. Until next time.” The medicus said before exiting the tent. Octavius slumped down from the amount of relief washing over him like a tidal wave. Jedediah would be alright and able to walk and run free in the meadows with his sheep in no time.
He felt like now would be a good time to make space for his anger and he was about to leave and go hunt down whoever had caused the bruise on Jedediah’s wrist -having actually quite a good suspicion of whoever that person might be; his pointing finger showing in the direction of a certain centurion-, but before he could have made is way out of Jedediah’s bedside, he was suddenly stopped when he felt him tugging on his paludamentum.
- ”Please, Octavius,- don’t leave. I need to tell you something.” Jedediah said, his voice delirious from the poppy juice. Octavius was beside him in a second, ready to listen to whatever he had to say.
- ”Yes, Jedediah I am here to listen.” He said taking his hand in his own. Jedediah’s eyes were unfocused and he was clearly fighting to stay awake, so he could tell him whatever was on his mind that needed to be said right now.
- ”When I was here few days ago, there was this centurion who doesn’t like me, and he said that you were only going to take advantage of me and I believed him. I was afraid that you really didn’t mean all those words you said to me, and that you would be just like the rest of them noble people” Jedediah said, sluggishly speaking every word. He tried to focus on Octavius’ eyes as best as he could in his delirious state, and continued.
- ”I was afraid of admitting to myself how I feel about you, but now I’m not anymore. I…I love you Octavius.” He whispered those final words so quietly that Octavius could barely hear them, but he did. Tears had started to run down Jedediah’s face and he let out a quiet sob. Octavius cupped the side of his face, stroking his teary cheek with his thumb, consoling him.
- ”Oh, Jedediah. If only you had known how deeply I had fallen for you when I first met you in that pond. I chose not to tell you, because I did not want to frighten you like I had that day. But now that I know you love me back, I can finally say it: Te amo, Jedediah.” And he leaned in to kiss him.
Their lips met, and for the first time in their lives, they could feel the time stopping just for them; to share this tender moment of love together. Jedediah’s lips felt weak and sloppy against Octavius’ and he tried his best to press his lips to his as gently as he could, even though he felt like there was a wildfire burning inside of him. He tasted bitter, like the poppy juice that they had made him drink in order to ease his pain. He broke the kiss when Jedediah had to pull away for air, and after a short moment, Jedediah’s eyes closed and he fell asleep. Octavius rested his forehead against Jedediah’s bandaged one and gave it a gentle kiss in hopes it would make the wounds heal faster.
- ”Somnum bene, Jedediah.” He said and brought a chair to his bedside. He had wanted to approach the treacherous centurion, curse him to the lowest pits of hell for treating Jedediah so shamefully and hurting him, and to make sure he would never command a legion in his life again. But he would spare all of that tongue-lashing for later, because now he would be here in his tent, guarding his beloved man with the wind in his hair.