Chapter One: Best Friends

"We can get across," the small blonde haired girl said confidently.

"I don't know, Faith… look at how far apart those rocks are. If we go back there wet – your mother is gonna' kill us."

"Eh what are you worried about? She won't kill YOU."

"Yeah… well maybe Grandma won't kill me, but when she tells Grandmother - my mother will."

Faith laughed. "It's water, Grace…it dries."

"Okay… but if we get sent to the stables – YOU are baling the hay!" The dark haired girl cautioned.

Faith and Grace were best friends; an inseparable and unlikely pair. At 10 years old they had spent their childhood in each other's company almost daily. The pair were born almost exactly three weeks apart and were like sisters, though in truth Faith was Grace's aunt. Faith was the taller of the two. The young girl looked a great deal like her mother; the bard. Her hair was reddish blonde and it glistened in the sun and her eyes were a striking green. But, she was taller than the bard; and built much more like her older mother; strong and athletic. And, she was blessed; or perhaps her parents were cursed; with the reality that her personality was an equal blend of both. She was confident and intelligent and she loved adventure.

Grace was three weeks older but a bit shorter than her best friend and a tad more reserved; though her demeanor was deceptive. She loved exploring and she would follow Faith anywhere. From the moment Faith was born the two seemed to be connected; always wanting to be close to one another; like twins. Grace had grown to look like her mother although her mother insisted she was her father's daughter. She had dark hair; but her eyes were hazel more like his and they occasionally appeared green just like her friend's. Many times people asked if the two were sisters. The girls found it amusing and sometimes would simply nod and smile. The smaller of the two also served as a compass for the pair. She grounded Faith who was at times fearless to her own detriment. The smaller girl tempered her friend's desire to explore, while Faith encouraged Grace to see the possibility in everything. They were a perfect pair.

"All right," Faith said stepping out onto a flat rock and gauging the distance. She framed the scene with her hands and smiled with delight. Any challenge was welcome. "Okay…so you follow me, Grace…all right?"

"Yep." Grace stood dutifully behind her best friend. "Are you sure we can make this?"

Faith turned to Grace. "Just look over there at that bush? We bring back this bucket full of berries and we won't have to wash dishes for a week!"

"Maybe you won't," Grace said.

"Nah – you won't… Mother will be so happy she'll make Eve give you a break and you know she'll do whatever my mother says."

"Maybe….IF we make it," the smaller girl laughed.

"Ah – we'll make it." With her final declaration Faith set out on her mission. In her mind it was not simply a berry picking effort. She was off to save a village, rescue some helpless traveler or she was defending the Amazon Nation. With an almost effortless jump Faith landed squarely on the next rock. Grace steadied herself to follow and put her body into motion when a deep voice startled her.

"What on earth are you two doing," the voice yelled. In an instant the young girl found herself in the river; muddy and wet; a hand reaching down to her and pulling her up.

"Great, Gabriel… thanks a lot," Faith called back from a few feet away on the rock.

Gabriel shook his head. He often found his sister and his aunt in the middle of some scheme that they knew was ill advised; but that never seemed to stop them. He tried not to snicker. "What…" he began to ask what they were doing when Faith pointed to the berries across the water on the other riverbank. "You're trying to cross the river for berries?" He asked with skepticism. Faith lifted her hand to the sky as if to say 'of course'. "Yeah… well…Let's go. Faith…" he called her back to him.

Faith grumbled to herself. Gabriel had become less and less fun over the years, she thought. He was eighteen now and he had become more protective every year. She loved him but she wished he wouldn't constantly try and shield them. That seemed to be Gabriel's mission in life and it drove Faith insane sometimes. If her parents weren't around or her sister wasn't keeping an eye on them; you could be certain Gabriel was not far off. She huffed again and went to make her jump. She slipped on some moss that had gathered on the rock and tumbled into the water. When she tried to stand she found that she had twisted her ankle and it was lodged between two tocks beneath the surface. The girl winced slightly and struggled to free her foot; though she had to admit she was concerned how she would walk back even if she managed to break it lose. "Come on," Gabriel called as he offered Grace a hand out of the water. "Faith…. Quit playing around… let's go."

Faith couldn't move and she fell squarely back on her bottom. "Great!" She screamed in frustration and embarrassment.

Gabriel realized the girl was stuck. "Stay here," he looked at his younger sister who nodded sheepishly. The young man made his way carefully through the rocky water to the spot where Faith had become entangled. "Are you all right?" He asked genuinely. She nodded. "Okay… hold onto my shoulder; I'll get you out." The girl had no choice but to accept his help. He spent several minutes working her foot free; receiving a grimace of pain every now and then. "You sprained it," he said.

"Yeah… GREAT," Faith muttered as he carried her to the shore. "So… go on give us the lecture," Faith said.

Gabriel laughed. He was a handsome young man. His blonde hair and his piercing blue eyes drew nearly everyone to him on sight. But, it was his nature that made people want to linger in his presence. He was kind, gentle and always concerned with others. And, as much as Faith sometimes hated to admit it, she loved him every bit as much as she knew he loved her. "No lecture. You'll get enough of that when I get you home." Faith sighed. Gabriel laughed. "Hop on…you can't walk back." Faith was happy to comply although she would never have told him that. Piggy backs had become a thing of the past. The girls were getting older now. Faith would hate for her nephew to know it, but she missed the piggy backs and the tickle fights. He was busy with the Elijans and busy helping with village affairs now. She missed him.

Grace walked alongside her older brother occasionally looking up to him. She worshipped him and she was secretly glad he had shown up when he did. "Are you gonna' tell Mother?" She asked him with a tinge of fear.

Gabriel smiled. "Grace…Faith is hurt…I don't think we can avoid Mother finding out."

"Maybe Grandma won't tell her."

The young man shook his head as they approached the tavern. He looked at the innocent face before him. Grace reminded him of their father; a father his sister never knew; and his heart always melted when their eyes met. "Just be honest…..Both of you," he sweetly suggested as he walked through the door.

"What in Tartarus happened?" A woman emerging from the kitchen asked as the young man deposited Faith in a chair. The young girl looked up to eyes that matched her own and bit her lip. "Ummm… I see," Gabrielle looked at her daughter and then at her granddaughter. No matter what befell them the bard's eyes always twinkled in the presence of her children and grandchildren. She let out a strong sigh and turned to Gabriel. "The river, I take it?" He nodded. "So…what happened?" There was no answer as Faith looked to the floor and Grace shuffled her feet.

"Berries," Gabriel lifted an eyebrow to his grandmother.

"Berries?" She asked for clarification.

Grace took a step forward as Gabrielle knelt next to her daughter to look at the sore ankle. "There's a lot of them on the other riverbank, Grandma… we found a place with a lot of flat rocks," her granddaughter started to explain.

The bard shook her head. "Faith… this is badly sprained… your mother will want to look at it."

"But….."

"Look at what?" A voice questioned from the doorway. Gabrielle's eyes met her partner's in an instant. No more words needed to be said. "Another adventure?" Xena inquired. Gabrielle nodded. Xena looked at Grace who was sopping wet and exhaled with some force. "River?" The warrior looked at her granddaughter. Grace looked at her feet. Faith waited for the lecture. It didn't come. Now the tall woman resumed the task her smaller mother had begun and her mother went to her best friend.

"Grace… you come with me… let's get you cleaned up and changed. Your mother will be here in a while for dinner….Gabriel… can you..."

"Not a problem," he beamed. "I'll make sure everything is ready for the dinner crowd.

"Thank you, my love," she said to him. In all his life that had never changed. Gabrielle was his hero and he was her Gabriel; forever. He would walk through the fires of hell if he needed to for her. And he knew she would do the same; for any of them. As he grew he understood more and more; just as his mother did; that he and his sister, his mother and his niece; this family owed its life and its soul to the woman he called Auntie for so many years.

"We need to get some cold water on this and get it elevated," Xena said to her daughter.

"You're mad," Faith said quietly to her mother.

"I'm not happy," Xena admitted.

"I could have made it … Gabriel showed up and he…"

"Well… I'm glad that he did. What if Grace couldn't have made it? What if you really got hurt?"

"Mother…I was all right."

"Oh yes… I see THAT, Faith."

"I'm not a little kid." Xena tried not to laugh. "You don't have to always worry about me, you know?"

"Too late. Now, come on… let's soak that in some cold water and get you to your room so we can prop it up."

In the back of the tavern Grace slipped out of her wet clothes and Gabrielle handed her a dry set of Faith's which hung a bit looser than her own. Nevertheless, Grace was grateful to be dry and happy to be with her grandmother. "I'm sorry, Grandma," she said quietly following the bard into the kitchen where her brother had been supervising some of the afternoon tasks.

Gabrielle smiled at the young man. "We're going to take a little walk," she winked at him. He nodded and caught the nervous expression on his sister's face. It made him chuckle as he watched them walk out the back door; his grandmother grabbing a small basket as she left.

"Grandma? Where are we going?"

The woman put an arm around small shoulders and prodded the girl along. "Well, I thought we would just go talk for a little bit before dinner."

"I'm in trouble, huh?"

Gabrielle laughed. She led the girl to a large clearing some distance away where a large tree sat and motioned for her granddaughter to sit. She pulled a small bundle from the basket and as she opened the cloth surrounding it the girl was surprised to see a loaf of nut bread. "Go on," Gabrielle smiled.

"I am sorry, Grandma," the girl said accepting the offering with guilty eyes.

"I know you are. You two need to be careful, Grace. It isn't as if we ask you NOT to do things to make your life boring."

"I know," Grace whispered.

"Mmmmm…Faith likes adventure," the bard said and her granddaughter nodded. "And you love to please Faith." Grace looked down. "Oh… Grace…you two come by that naturally. BUT, you have to be careful. Adventure will find you in its own time. Believe me."

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"OW!" Faith yelped as Xena propped her foot on a pillow.

"Hurts, eh?" The warrior asked receiving a sideways glance in response. "What were you thinking, Faith?"

"I just thought if we got the berries…"

"Oh…berries…. Was it warlords or bandits this time?" The warrior raised an eyebrow.

"You used to jump across the rocks….I even heard you….."

Xena sighed. "Yeah…I did a lot of stupid things. And I paid the price more than once….believe me."

"I could have made it…"

Xena shook her head. "I'll bet that's true." Faith looked at her mother in surprise. "But even if you could that doesn't mean Grace could. And…it doesn't mean you couldn't have an accident either. Just like you did….and don't blame Gabriel," Xena cautioned. "You should be glad he found you."

"If we'd come home with…."

"If you had come home with a bucket of berries your mother would've asked where you got them…. And then you would have either had to lie or she would have been furious….and you know it." Faith huffed. "Faith… we just want you to be safe….and to be smart."

"Mother…I want to do all those things you did…"

"No. You don't. You just think you do," Xena said sitting next to the girl on the bed. "I wasn't always smart either."

"Yes you were," her daughter said with confidence.

The warrior laughed. "No. I wasn't; not at all. I was careless and reckless for a long time. Even when I finally learned….there were times when I got hurt…or someone else did. Adventure will find you Faith…believe me…you can't be who you are without that being the truth."

"Yeah when I'm old," the girl grumbled. "Aren't you bored, mother?"

"Bored?"

"Yeah…I mean you go off sometimes and fight…but mostly you are here…I mean with mother and me…It's not like fighting giants and stuff….it's not an adventure."

Xena shook her head. "Oh, Faith… you remind me of your mother."

"What?"

"Yeah… you do… you sound like her when we first met," Xena shook her head with a smile. "She was looking for adventure."

"Mother was?"

"Oh come on…you've heard the stories."

"Yeah, but she's mother….I mean she's…."

Xena laughed. "Faith…I know this will be hard for you to believe…but you are the biggest adventure we have ever had," the warrior's laugh continued.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The girl asked sensing her mother's teasing.

"I'm not really the storyteller in the family," Xena admitted. She looked at her daughter now tenderly. "You don't really know how special you really are, Faith. Someday you will."

"Because my mothers are…"

"Not because of anything we ARE, no….because of what you mean to us." Xena was not generally the one to have heart to heart chats with Faith, but it seemed to the warrior that it was time for a talk. She suspected that Gabrielle would be doing the same thing with Grace. The warrior and the bard often talked about how the girls were so much like both of them. They excelled at finding trouble and they reveled in anything they thought was adventurous. It was just part of who they were. But, they were at an age where they needed more discipline and to understand that the stories they grew up hearing were not simply romantic tales. Amidst the adventures in life there was real emotion, real reward and real consequence. The family that Xena and Gabrielle had now had seen more than its fair share of loss and grief. They hadn't really tried to shield the girls from it, but they did not want to dwell on those things either. In time both knew that the truth would be revealed in very tangible ways to Faith and Grace. The girls both knew that they were special; but their parents had decided early on that they would wait to explain just how special they really were. Xena and Gabrielle and Eve all agreed that the children deserved a childhood that was as free from the chaos that often plagued their lives in the past as possible. "I remember," Xena said quietly, "when we found out that your mother was going to have you."

Faith was curious. Sometimes one of her parents would make a remark or travel into a memory but most of the stories they told about the girls were about when they were born and when they were babies. She looked at her mother. Xena was as confident as she had ever been. Her eyes remained a brilliant blue and they carried within them years of both joy and pain. The warrior was extremely tender with her family; albeit strong and assertive when necessary. She had laugh lines that graced the corners of her eyes and there was just a hint of gray beginning to show itself in her hair. Gray, the warrior often mused that was largely due to the small form in front of her. "Were you glad?" Faith asked surprised that she was almost afraid to hear the answer.

Xena smiled broadly. "Glad? About you?" The woman shook her head. "Well…I was surprised. But yes, Faith…of course I was 'glad'."

"Was mother?'

The warrior looked intently at her daughter. "Faith…our life has never been like other people's. Never. I think you know that." The girl nodded. "Ummm… your mother…. Well… I have never seen her happier or more beautiful than when she was carrying you." Xena's voice softened and her daughter watched in amazement. She often would sit and watch her parents and marvel at them just like her sister always had. Her parents drove her crazy at times but she longed to impress them both. She knew that she and her sister were different somehow. They had two mothers. It was something everyone in Faith's life just seemed to accept but it was not something that anyone else she knew could lay claim to. Eve told her it was a miracle that Eli gave to them all. Faith somehow knew that was true. Just like everyone in her family she understood things intrinsically that others struggled with. But, she was curious and her mother saw the glint in her eye. "So… so you want me to tell you?" Xena asked. Faith nodded.

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"Grandma?" Grace looked across to the bard.

"Yes, Grace?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course you can," the bard smiled.

"Well… Mother is Faiths sister, right?' Gabrielle nodded. "Okay… and Gabriel is my brother…"

"Yes…."

"But Gabriel calls you Auntie… but Faith is really my aunt and you are really Gabriel's grandmother because if you are my…"

Gabrielle laughed heartily. "Oh Grace… it seems like a complicated family sometimes, doesn't it?" The girl nodded. "Come here," Gabrielle gestured. This was one of Grace's favorite things; spending time with her grandma or her grandmother. They were very different and she loved them both. Gabriel told her many stories. Grace had always been a bit closer to Xena. It was strange because she was very much like the grandma whose lap she now placed her head in. Maybe that was why she loved being with the warrior so much. But as the years passed Grace found that more and more she liked to spend time with Gabrielle. Her brother spent a great deal of time with her grandma. Her mother told her it had always been that way and at the end of the day Grace was her mother's daughter. Eve was Grace's hero and she loved her mother beyond measure. She would often beg her grandma to tell her stories about her parents and Gabrielle was always happy to honor the request. Grace was intuitive just like her brother and she loved to watch Gabrielle's face when she told her stories; particularly about her mother. She never really understood why but it seemed to her that whenever the bard spoke of her mother; her grandma's eyes would glisten with tears.

"You know… your brother asked me a similar question once."

"He did?"

Gabrielle gently brushed the dark hair from her granddaughter's eyes. She loved Grace. The girl looked like her mother but her eyes were Virgil's. Gabrielle missed him. Every time she looked at Grace she saw him there. "He did. Sometimes I think we should all just call each other some crazy made up name like… I don't know ish kabibble… something like that." Grace giggled. "It doesn't really matter what we call each other; does it?"

"I guess not." Grace said.

Gabrielle sensed what she expected was true. Labels didn't matter and yet they did in some strange way. Everyone had a need to know where they fit in a family. If anyone could understand that it was the bard. She still remembered the first time Eve called her 'Mother'. She told herself that didn't matter; but it did. 'Auntie' was the title they had chosen for Gabriel and she had grown used to that and embraced it. But, on the occasions that he called Grandmother or when she heard him refer to her that way in conversation with others; it made her heart sing. The labels didn't change the love, but sometimes thy helped a person understand where he or she fit into everyone's life. "Sometimes it does," Gabrielle admitted. "I understand."

"Is it weird?" Grace asked looking up into green eyes. Gabrielle had changed very little over the years. She was a bit older and she had cut her hair to fall just above her shoulders, but her eyes and the gentleness of her face remained unchanged. It was a youthful expression that held within it a maturity far beyond the years that showed physically.

"Is what weird?"

"Well….Mother is your daughter."

"Yes..she is…"

"But it's like Faith being my aunt….people think we are sisters."

Gabrielle smiled. "Ummm… that is a little strange isn't it? Crazy things happen in our lives sometimes, Grace. Your grandmother and I were gone for a long time… you know… long before you were even a thought…."

"Because of the ice and Ares…."

The bard chuckled, "Yes…"

Grace considered that story in her head. "Do you wish you were never gone?"

The bard smiled and continued to stroke the young girl's hair. "Well.. once I thought so…but if we hadn't been gone… we wouldn't be here…we wouldn't have Gabriel….or you….or Faith." Gabrielle took a deep breath and sighed. "Grace…I remember when your mother told us she was pregnant with you."

"You do?"

"Yes…I do," Gabrielle smiled. "She was so happy. You know…your father and mother always wanted to have a big family….but your mother, well….she had a tough time with your brother….she got very sick."

"I know…but then she got a miracle."

Gabrielle laughed. "We all did."

"You did?" Grace was curious.

"We did. Your mother was blessed by a very special sacrifice and she got you….and your grandmother and I….well…my best friend gave herself to us and we had Faith." The girl looked at her grandmother in confusion. "I know…it sounds strange, doesn't it? Well, Grace...those who love always go on. Love can never die…it has to go somewhere….and you and Faith – you are proof of that. I think maybe it's time that you understand that a bit more."

"Is that why you are always worried about us?"

The woman laughed. "Oh, Grace….we worry about you because we love you. And, because if anyone knows about adventure and all that it offers; god and bad; it is your grandmother and me. Your mother will tell you that. I swear… you and Faith are more adventure than either of us ever imagined," she laughed harder.

"Is that bad?" Grace asked wondering if now was the time for the lecture.

"No…it's wonderful, my love….it started the day your mother told us she was carrying you. After that, everything changed."

"Will you tell me?"

"Ummm…I remember that day all too well….."