Impulsive

by lwbush

Another lyrics challenge story. A certain blonde Amazon contemplates her new love.

Impulsive

By Lori Bush

Disclaimer: Blah, blah. I want 'em, but can't have 'em. I do own a couple of these characters, however. The rest are the property of RenPics and Universal/USA Studios. No money will change hands here.

Rating: G (only a kiss here, folks)

Characters: Xena, Gabby, Joxer, Eve and a couple of surprises…

Summary: A certain blonde Amazon contemplates her new love while heading back home.

~*~

Please allow me a moment to get my foot out of my mouth. Greg, Nancy, I'm sorry. I complained about the songs I got the last two Lyrics Challenges. They were impossible, I whined. I wanted something that wasn't so hard to drag a story out of, I complained. But once I wrote the stories, they ended up being some of the more creative things I had ever written.

So Jag sent me these wonderful lyrics. A beautiful Relationship song. Not hard to imagine a story for these, at all. Gulp.

This is story number three. The first one I didn't think was good enough, so I wrote another. I liked it better, but still it wasn't unique enough. So, the story you see before you came about.

Read all the way to the end before you throw anything at me, okay?

~*~

Impulsive

by Stephen Kipner, Clif Magness
Performed by Wilson Phillips

The Secret Of Love
I Thought I Understood
The Way It's Supposed To Be
I Never Imagined You Could
Blow My Theory Apart
And Now You're Running Away With My
Heart

I Don't Wanta Think About It, Don't
Wanta Think Clear
Don't Analyze
What I'm Doing Here
Wanta Be Impulsive
Reckless
And Lose Myself In Your Kiss

Arrows Through Hearts
Drawn On A Misty Window
You're Taking Me Home In The Rain
My Heart Is Beating
Don't Say No
My Head Keeps Saying Take It Slow

I Don't Wanta Think About It, Don't
Wanta Think Clear
Don't Analyze
What I'm Doing Here
Wanta Be Impulsive
Reckless
And Lose Myself In Your Kiss
You're Giving me A Feeling
It's A Sudden Rush
Acting On The Moment
Spontaneous
Oh This Is Not Like Me
To Follow My Heart So Easily

I Am Reckless...Impulsive
I Never Imagined You Could Blow My
Theory Apart
But Now You're Running Away With
My Heart,
My Heart.

I Don't Wanta Think About It, Don't
Wanta Think Clear
Don't Analyze
What I'm Doing Here
Wanta Be Impulsive
Reckless
And Lose Myself In Your Kiss
You're Giving Me A Feeling
It's A Sudden Rush
Acting On The Moment
Spontaneous
Wanta Be Impulsive...Reckless
And Lose Myself In Your Kiss
Impulsive
I Want To Be Impulsive
I'm Gonna Be Impulsive
Reckless
And Lose Myself
Lose Myself

The blonde Amazon moved surely through the forest, every sense aware of her surroundings even as her mind was on the encounter she'd just had.

Her skin tingled as she thought again of his touch. He was handsome, but not in a traditional way. His hair was unruly, his eyes a bit too far apart, perhaps. He was certainly nothing like she ever expected the man who would capture her imagination might be, but capture it, he had.

Still, when he had pulled her into his arms, all she, who had always been disciplined and so controlled, could think was, I don't wanta think about it. I wanta be impulsive, reckless. And then he pressed his lips to hers, and she lost herself in the feeling.

Now she was headed home, somehow needing to be in a familiar place to sort it out. She'd told him she'd find him again, but that she needed some time to think. The safety, the warmth of her family's welcome, her old bed – these were the things that would free her mind to sort her feelings.

She was tired of being alone. She missed her former traveling companions, but it had been her choice to leave them. Their pictures flitted across her mind's eye – both tall, dark. Similar in some ways, so different in others. Then his picture intruded again – his hair like spun sunshine, his eyes the deep blue of a clear mountain stream. He was beautiful.

And the way he said her name. "Gabrielle." No one called her that anymore. They hadn't for a long time. Even her family seemed to have forgotten that was her real name. But he made her wish everyone called her that again. It was like music when he said it. Her smile widened.

Her thought went back to her former companions. Xena still called her "Gabrielle" once in a while. She said it brought back memories, good ones. But the shadow in her eyes when she said that hinted that the bad ones surfaced occasionally, too.

Gabrielle. She liked thinking of herself as that again. Gabrielle set up her camp for the night, spreading her pelt and building a fire. She didn't cook that night, however. Soon she would be home, and those meals would put to shame anything she could produce out here. She pulled some hard bread and a hunk of cheese out of her bag, and put to rest the little snarling creature in her stomach. She could eat much more, but she just didn't want to be bothered. She could stuff herself silly tomorrow. Her appetite always brought smiles to the faces of her family, and shock to the faces of strangers. For such a little thing, she really did pack it away. Her father always said she came by it honestly.

She lay back on her pelt and stared at the stars. Was she in love? She'd been in love a couple of times before. The first had been a very long time ago, and he was dead now. It hurt like fire still inside of her when she thought of it. But she didn't think of it very often, and the constant pain had faded to a manageable dull ache.

And the other? They'd been close, and he cared a great deal about her. He even said he loved her. But she had let him drift away, never making the effort to keep him, and she heard he had married, now, and there were children. When she thought of him, the ache of what might have been burned, too.

That was why, this time, she wasn't going to fight it. If her feelings really were love, she would face it, and not wait until it was too late to discover she felt something, after all. Something she could then not act on, because he would be gone. She wouldn't analyze it. But she would talk to her mother about this – she would understand. She fell asleep with the joy and the ache intertwined in her heart.

The sun was almost directly overhead when Gabrielle awoke. She shook her head – she hadn't slept like this in a long time. Not since she had traveled with Xena, and been secure that the Warrior Princess would watch over her if danger were nearby. A woman alone in the woods could not be so careless. It was a good thing she was almost home – she was losing her edge.

The woman packed her things, her mind blank for a while as she prepared and set off towards her home. But soon the thoughts came of her time at the Amazon Village, where she had gone before setting out alone.

She was already strong and capable due to all she had learned from Xena, but there were things she needed to be able to do on her own she felt she could only learn there. They had welcomed her back with open arms, even though it had been a long time since she had last visited. She stayed for two months, and learned things she was amazed that she didn't know. It occurred to her, not for the first time, that she could probably go back every year and never run out of new things the Amazons could teach her.

Before long she recognized the trees she and her sister had played among as children and felt the small tingle of excitement that she always felt when returning home. As she cleared the tree line, she looked up and saw him, waiting as he always was.

She never knew how her father did it – he could always sense when she was approaching. The first time she came back home after she had left with Xena, he was standing there, right where he stood now, waiting for her to emerge from the woods, his arms open wide. She began to trot. "Daddy!"

She reached him in moments, and his strong arms swung her up and around like she was a little girl again. She giggled, feeling as free as a breeze for just a moment. As he set her back on her feet, she studied him. His dark hair was a bit grayer than it had been last time she left, his eyes crinkled a bit more at the edges. But he still stood tall and smiled easily, and he still made her feel like she was the most special person in the world.

He turned towards the house and called out, "Gabby! Honey, Ellie's home! Xexe, your sister's back!" He wrapped his long arm around her as they walked towards home.

"Daddy, when did you guys start calling me Ellie? I mean, I know Xena," he looked at her with a lifted brow, and she realized that as his little girl, he expected the title of respect from her, "Aunt Xena," she corrected herself, "calls me Gabrielle sometimes, but no one else ever does. Why is that? And you don't call Mom that, either, but she does."

"We did when you were born, honey, but when Xexe came along, she couldn't wrap her mouth around all that, so she called you 'Ellie'. It just stuck. And you were the one who shortened her name from Xena to Xexe. Your Mom's always been 'Gabby' to me. What's wrong, don't you like it anymore?"

Her answer was delayed by the arrival of her mother and sister, with hugs and words of happy surprise all around. Little Xexe was now taller than she was, having been the one to inherit Joxer's height and coloring. Her mother looked wonderful, and Ellie told her so. She watched the look of love in her father's eyes as he viewed his wife of many years, and she knew it was the same as the look she had seen in the eyes of her own young man just days earlier. Her mother's expression was one of bemused affection as she looked back. Theirs was the model for what she sought in a relationship.

"Aunt Xena and Eve were by last week, Ellie," her sister chattered eagerly. "Mom and Dad say that after I turn seventeen, I can go out for a while with them like you did." She looked at the happy girl. She was so much younger than Ellie she sometimes seemed almost like a second mother to her, but they shared a sisterly love and understanding between them.

She took a deep breath. No time like the present. "Mom, Dad, Xexe. You know it's not like me, to follow my heart very easily, but, I've met someone special…"