A/N: This is my remedy for the shortness of Iolaus' and Gabrielle's reunion in "The Quest." I'm starting it just at the point before he leaves and twisting the storyline from there. Maybe there were a few things that didn't get said—I'm making them say some of those things. This story can be read as a depiction of a close friendship or a romance—there's a pretty thin line, I think, and anyway, their relationship is what it is and doesn't need to be classified. This means, for those of you who were wondering, that they're not gonna jump in the sack or anything :) Xena will also surface later in the story; those of you who have seen "The Quest" will also know that, like every good hero, she doesn't stay dead for long.

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"I'd better get back to Hercules. Before the word of mouth does." He looked back at Xena's sarcophagus, taking a long, shuddering breath, silently burying her in his heart. When his eyes met Gabrielle's again, hers were filled with concern. He kissed her gently on the cheek, and she smiled slightly.

"Thank you." He nodded and turned to leave, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Gabrielle open her mouth to speak, then hurriedly shut it again and clench her hands on the lid of the coffin. He stood undecided for a moment, then turned back to her.

Placing a hand on hers, he asked: "What is it, Gabrielle?"

"I can't..." she whispered in a tone that—in a more self-centered person—would have been a whine.

"Tell me," he insisted, pulling her hands off the cold metal into his own. "What do you want to say?"

"I want to ask you to... to stay with me. Just 'til morning. You see," she added hesitantly, almost fearfully catching his gaze, "I have these dreams. Nightmares," she corrected decisively. "No, not even nightmares," she whispered to herself, her voice breaking as she recalled her nightly torment. "I see it. Again and again, every night, I wake up and I know she's dead. I know it. It's not the same as knowing it right now," she explained at his worried and puzzled expression. "Right now I feel she's gone, I can feel the pain, but I can realize it as a fact, to some degree even see myself accepting it. But in the middle of the night, I... I can believe it was a dream. I see her die and I think I'm dreaming, that she's lying there next to me, that we'll both wake up in the morning. And then I wake up. She stays in the box. And then I know she's really gone." Gabrielle paused for breath, smiling slightly when his hand started running soothingly through her hair. She blinked away the tears that were starting and continued. "I know you have to leave. It's just..."

She wanted to tell him how alone she felt, how much she needed Xena, how wonderful it was to have someone near again who cared about her. She couldn't finish the sentence, but Iolaus seemed to understand. "I can leave in the morning," he said simply and smiled warmly at the relief and gratitude that welled up in her eyes at his words. "Come here," he said softly, pulling her into his arms and holding her tightly for the fourth time since he'd arrived. She held on to him just as tightly, and both were reluctant to let go. "There's not much daylight left. We should make camp," he suggested, and she nodded, wiping hurriedly at her face.

Iolaus turned to scout out their surroundings, but he whirled around, amazed, at the sound of her giggle. "Looks like Argo's found us a spot," she laughed, pointing down the road at the horse, who was attacking tuft after tuft of grass with an almost vengeful appetite. Her laugh was lovely and unexpected; he could only stand and stare at her, motionless and admiring. She gave him a strange look and faltered, blushing slightly, making him feel guilty for emphasizing the incongruity of her laughter in the midst of their grief.

He tried to recapture the light mood she seemed to have woven around them. "Yeah, if Argo is anything like her mistress, she's staked her claim. We might as well accept it; we're slaves to a horse," he smirked.

It was Gabrielle's turn to look pleasantly surprised. She had been convinced, only two seconds ago, that it was too soon to talk about Xena in that way, that intimate, affectionately mocking way in which people remember their loved ones who have left them. Her laugh sounded... free. "Tell me something new. I've been Argo's lackey since the day we met. I guess she thinks she's too good for me." Iolaus snorted.

"Aristocratic little thing, aren't you," he crooned in a deceptively tender voice, stroking the horse's ears. Argo wasn't fooled, however, and gave him a look that pointedly said: 'If you think I'm falling for this one, think again, friend.'

"Uh oh," Gabrielle teased, "that's her 'I'm gonna get ya' face."

"Yes, well," and Iolaus' tone suddenly softened, "like her mistress, if you treat her like a lady, her bark is worse than her bite." Argo looked mystified, perhaps wondering if she had a double that was going about the countryside fooling people into thinking she had a softer side. Gabrielle, however, looked sympathetic.

In an equally soft tone, she replied: "You loved her, didn't you." It wasn't a question.

He flinched slightly. "I thought I did. Maybe. I never got the chance to find out. It wasn't real."

Gabrielle sighed and sank down on the grass, waiting for him to join her before she spoke. "Some part of it was. Xena was never one for girls' chats, but there was one night after a very, very long day. We were both so tired that we felt we needed something, some sort of connection, I guess, rather than sleep. We talked about so many things, things I had never told anyone before just flowed out of me, and I think it was the same for her. Anyway, we talked about what happened. She told me that she felt guilty for what she did to you, that she wished she could find some way to apologize that would be enough. She said—she said she wished she had had it in her then to give you what you really wanted."

Iolaus froze. "Xena said that?"

Gabrielle smiled ruefully. "I know." There was silence between the two for a long while. Iolaus stretched out in the grass, thinking, his hands behind his head. Gabrielle sat staring up at the darkening sky, watching the clouds turn different shades and blow away on the evening breeze.