Fantasy As Day Follows Night by TMaskedWriter

[Ramesh_Rocky]

"People are looking at us to start dancing, Helen," Troy whispered into her ear.

She inhaled deeply and replied as a sigh. "Emay e Komissa, Troy. Thah perimenateh."

"You ARE the Countess, and they WILL wait, it's just getting a little weird."

"Dammit, Troilus, just fuckin' hold me a second here."

"Ok."

She took two more deep breaths before leaning back, taking one hand from around him, and holding his with it. A nod, and the dance began.

"So, what you did with the crowd at the end of your speech? We both caught that."

"That was for you. Julie can take care of herself in a room like this. You're a decent person, Troy; and these people are sharks."

"I know you'll save me."

"Hey, I'm not locked in here with them, they're locked in here with me."

"Just like Maria?"

Helen lost half a step, then recovered.

"It's not like that at all. Maria is happy and I'm happy to have her."

"So she says. In fact, she's the first to defend you. You've taken everything from her and she still defended you when Julie... well, it was the kind of joke she'd tell to your face anyway; it wouldn't really work now."

"Hostility has never become you, Troy. What else is wrong?"

It was Troy's turn to lose a step. He swallowed before continuing.

"Susan, the other woman at the bachelor party; the one who didn't come here with us."

Helena leaned back and looked in Troy's eyes.

"She's important to you."

"And to Julie."

"Yeah, but she's more important to you. Ok, I'm sorry; she's off limits."

"Thanks. That was easier than I expected."

"For one of us, anyway. You used to get that look in your eye when you talked about me. It's not the Julie look, but it's still nice. I wasn't able to accept settling for it; maybe she can."

"Helen, she's had the kind of life you might have if not for an old Greek man with strange fashion sense who loved you just as much as he loved his great grandson; and two friends who taught her how to do this thing they learned." Helen stopped dancing and stepped away from him at that.

"You're going to teach her, aren't you?" Troy nodded. "You love her."

"Not as much as Julie, but yes. They're both ok with that."

Helen put her arms around him again with a small laugh.

"Troilus, any woman who loves you understands what I figured out years ago: If there was a fire and you could only save me or Julie, I'm dead."

"I'd go back for you."

"No you wouldn't. Because Julie wouldn't let you go back in without her and then you'd both die. Whatever you two think of me, I couldn't have that."

"We love you, Helen. We wish you'd come back to us."

"I can't now. I'm in too deep here. They made me a statue, there are oil paintings of me in galleries; tourists buy pictures and postcards of them. I don't have the luxury of just handing it all to Maria and walking away and becoming a 'Hey, Whatever Became Of' joke on VH-1 in 10 years."

"So, you do plan to give Maria her due?"

"If anything ever happens to me, yes. Hopefully, I've taught her something about how to be a decent ruler and take care of the people."

The song ended and the dancing stopped. Troy hugged Helen again.

"Helen, I know that by your own twisted definition of the word, you love Maria. You're HER Proyiayia now. Propappou would be proud of what you've made of yourself, but not how you've gone about it."