The drive home had not been nearly so much of an ordeal as the drive out, though it had still been a very long day. Melpomene had spent it all in the back seat of Ares car, leaning up against the baby pod strapped into the middle, one hand on Telos at all times. She spun him stories when he was awake, her heart lifting as nothing else could lift it whenever he turned his head toward her voice. She sung him songs to lull him back to sleep, songs from all the world's history and sometimes songs of her own invention, about the strength and the prowess and the honour of his father.
The singing and the stories helped to keep the fear at bay. She would be home, soon, and alone. Thought she could beg company from her sisters sometimes (well - a select number of them) and protection from Apollo (after he'd fetched her car) she didn't really feel reassured by any of it.
She knew for sure asking Ares to stay was out of the question, she could want it, but she wouldn't even consider asking. He'd done enough, more than enough, how could she ask anything else of him?
Melpomene let them both into her apartment, her heart thumping nervously as she looked around. She hadn't been back since. She'd stared at it from across the road for so many hours, but she hadn't been back.
She didn't let herself look at the floor near the bookshelf. She didn't let herself look at the floor in the kitchen. She didn't let herself look through her bedroom door to the bed. She didn't let herself look at her knife block. The only thing she needed to look at was Telos. "Will you bring the things in here?" she asked Ares, leading him through into her spare room. Maybe she should sleep in here tonight, just... until she could bear to step back into her own bedroom.