Disclaimer: not mine.

Chapter 2

Thessaly.

Even lit by the dim light of the moon, the landscape was beautiful. Xena looked down, trying not to see it, her memory fresh with the sight of the valley, which she had crossed on her way to Meteora, Solan's death tearing her apart.

Gabrielle had been respectfully silent, noticing Xena's tension as she sat behind her, from time to time softly rubbing the warrior's hands with her thumb, receiving a squeeze right after.

Rain was still pouring, and Xena had forced her mind out of the memories, gently nudging Argo to walk faster so they could get to the shelter sooner and the three of them could finally rest. After a few miles, she recognized the rocks. "We're almost there," she told Gabrielle.

OOO

Ares' lair.

Day had been boring. With the Persians gone from Greek soil, Ares' only hope for some entertainment was that the seemingly unstoppable forces of Rome could start an invasion so he had something to do other than sitting down. He had considered Artemis' new obsession with Xena and Gabrielle as a past time, but so far nothing had happened other than Artemis' laughable appearance before that amazon. Speaking of whom… "A visit to amazon land, is that the best you can do?," he said receiving his sister with a disinterested look.

"I planted a seed, Ares, and believe me, I know how to make it grow."

OOO

The rock shelter opened before them on the limestone wall. Still under the heavy rain, Xena dismounted Argo, yet signaling Gabrielle to remain up on the mare. "Here it is," she said as she gathered the reins and walked towards the entrance, directing the mare through the safest path for her hooves.

Gabrielle looked around, marveled by the dimensions of the cave, more than enough for the three, but knew that Xena was haunted by the place. "Xena, I feel alright," she said. "We can wait inside until it stops raining and then go somewhere else." She saw Xena stop for an instant, probably to force the smile she saw on the warrior's face when she turned her head and looked at the bard.

"It's ok, Gabrielle, and I need to check your wound."

"Xena, the wound is fine," insisted Gabrielle, "and doesn't even hurt anymore." Gabrielle moved her arm in circles. "See? No pain."

"Let me be the one to decide that, ok?," said Xena right before stopping and walking towards Gabrielle. Satisfied with the spot, the ground even enough not to cause Gabrielle's ankle further harm, Xena extended her arms to give the bard support to descend from Argo.

Taking the cloak off as she walked, Gabrielle looked up the ceiling with round eyes. "It's enormous, Xena," she said as the warrior accompanied her towards the wall, extending the furs before she helped her sit down.

"Big enough to cover us, Argo and half of Greece," said Xena in an attempt to lighten her bleak mood and not burden Gabrielle with more darkness than they already had hovering on them. "Stay here," she said, "I'll go fetch something we can burn to make a fire and–atchooo!" A sigh. "Damn."

"Xena, you're sick, and I don't think you'll find any dry wood out there."

Somewhere, Xena found a smile. "Is that a challenge?"

"Gods, Xena." But she smiled, grateful too for the light moment, even if it was just for an instant.

"We need to get dry, you said it yourself," reminded her Xena.

"We have the furs and an extra shift," challenged Gabrielle, who raised her index finger warningly when Xena began to protest. "You're stripping off your armor and changing your clothes, Warrior Princess, no way you're getting outside in the rain again."

"I'm not?," asked Xena with two raised eyebrows reminding Gabrielle who she was talking to.

"You're not."

Apparently someone to whom the bard paid no respect anymore.

"Come on, Xena, you have to take care of yourself. You're sneezing, you're drenched and you're starting to look a bit pale." Gabrielle poked her lip, baby style, and looked at her friend innocently. "Humor me?"

Xena rolled her eyes. Truth was she was feeling sick. Had been all day, but worrying about Gabrielle had been the perfect excuse to ignore herself. She spared a look outside. It was raining even harder. Finally she sighed in defeat. "I guess the smoked trout will have to do," she said as she went to the mare, unsaddling Argo and taking their bags with her.

"I put the bags under my cloak, like the furs," said Gabrielle, "they should be dry."

Xena took the clothes and her sleeping fur, unrolling it by Gabrielle's. "They are," she confirmed with a smile, and then started to take off her armor. "Do you need help with that?," she asked looking at Gabrielle's hurt shoulder as the bard started to unlace her top.

"No," said the bard. "It really doesn't hurt." Then she stopped and looked at the warrior, silent and serious unbuckling her breast plates but staring at her, quickly making up a smile when the bard's orbs met hers. "But thanks."

Xena's smile widened slightly and they both continued their respective tasks, wondering when would the time when they didn't need to ask or propose, when body contact came natural and not with fear of intruding.

OOO

"You know, sis, I still wonder how you plan on ending Xena's life with a bunch of amazons." Ares turned lazily on the throne, giving Artemis a smug look. "I mean, warrior women armed to the teeth…maybe two dozens? Home many of them can you gather that Xena didn't leave crippled in some way?"

"Enough."

Ares pursed his lips in mockery. "Enough to beat the woman who single-handedly defeated a whole Persian army?" Ares smiled and sat up on the throne, crossing his legs at the ankles. "I think I am really going to enjoy this, after all."

"No you won't," said Artemis suddenly, in no way bothered by her brother's try at irritate her. "Especially considering your talks with the blonde and with the Fates."

OOO

Xena examined carefully Gabrielle's wound. "It's closing up nicely," she said satisfied with the results of her cares. "You didn't pull any stitches."

"Wonder how could I," answered Gabrielle, earning a look from the Warrior Princess and rolling her eyes at it. "Come on, Xena, you haven't let me do anything. Can't walk, can't fish, can't cook..."

"To keep you safe and help recover."

Gabrielle stared at her. "You're worse than my mother, you know."

Xena ignored her. "Lay down, let me see your ankle." Gabrielle did as told and Xena gently took the body part in her hands. "It's still swollen," she said frowning as she probed it. "Does it still hurt?"

"A little," admitted Gabrielle.

"If you'd been walking it would hurt a lot." Xena took a clean bandage and gently placed it around the swollen area. "Damned Persian."

"I saw him coming," revealed Gabrielle, making Xena stop her task and look at her. "From the roof. But I was too weak to move, I guess, or too tired. I don't know." A finger caressed her foot. A pair of green orbs followed it to seek Xena's blue eyes. "I was so worried about you that I barely noticed him." Gabrielle paused. "I didn't want you to die," she said very quietly.

I would have killed myself if you'd had died in that barn. "We lived. That's what matters."

Gabrielle was pensive, but chuckled, albeit sadly. "We seem to hang on to life quite well". Tired of the distance, Gabrielle extended her arm and caressed Xena's cheek, and they shared a silent moment, Xena lost in green, Gabrielle on a pool of crystal blue. "Thanks for taking care of the wound," said Gabrielle softly. Then took Xena's hand on hers. "Now come on, lay with me, you should really rest."

"I'm not really–" But she shut her mouth. Gabrielle wasn't asking her to sleep. She wanted to go back to normalcy, not to respect through distant courtesy, and so did she. Gods, how she wanted her friend back. Swallowing back her stoic, many times stupid pride, Xena did as told, and bit back a protest when Gabrielle placed her hand on her forehead to check for a fever.

"You're a little warm."

"I feel fine, but a little rest will do no harm." Xena looked outside. It wasn't raining, it was pouring. And she was comfortably wrapped in furs, with Gabrielle by her side. "Definitely not harm." Tentatively, she took Gabrielle's hands in hers, thanking the fact that the bard didn't shy away from the touch, and even move closer to Xena, timidly but without hesitation claiming her spot, with her head on Xena's shoulder and her hand wrapped around her stomach.

"Some extra warmth won't raise your fever, right?"

The innocent remark almost made her burst out in laugh. "This body's warmth in particular you mean?," she asked, looking down to the suddenly blushing bard.

"Oh gods," she said burying her head on Xena's shoulder and shaking from silent laughter.

Xena held her closer and kissed the top of her head. "Thank you," she whispered, finally closing her eyes and letting her body cave into the fatigue, hoping she would start dreaming again. Maybe, if she was lucky, with Solan, and all those times where he had surely smiled during his life.

OOO

Kaleipus' centaur village. A winter and six moons ago.

"Solan!"

Kaleipus called the boy a couple of times.

"So this boy…he lives with you?," asked the amazon as she corrected the young centaur's hesitant walk.

Kaleipus nodded and told her the story, thoroughly practiced in his mind. "We found him in his dead mother's arms during Xena's siege on Corinth." The centaur felt the amazon stiffen when she heard her name, absentmindedly caressing her child protectively. He had heard the story of the centaur's miracle birth. "Phantes' brother was a friend of mine," he said, carefully studying the amazon. "Your late husband did not send you here without reason. He knew this was a safe place to raise a child. Especially if it was a boy and her mother could not keep him with her," he added quietly.

The truth hurt, as much as Ephiny had nailed it on her conscience. She was an amazon and her child, centaur or not, was a boy, there was no discussion around that. "At least he'll have someone to play with," she said looking at the boy.

"And other centaur boys too," said Kaleipus. "Your son's name…"

"Xenan," said Ephiny. "And the rumors you've heard on his birth are true. I have a scar to prove it."

"And the woman who performed the miracle?"

"The woman I named my son after." She paused as she smiled at her son, who was stubbornly trying to trot on his own, yet never losing sight of her. "I know of your history with Xena," she told Kaleipus. "But she's changed."

"I heard stories," replied the centaur, "yet never believed them. Bards are quite the liers."

The remark brought a smile into the amazon. "Not the one who goes with her," she said with Gabrielle in her mind's eyes. "She's our queen too."

"Xena?," asked Kaleipus hardly hiding his disbelief.

"No. The bard. Gabrielle. Xena is her champion."

"You should beware of who you–"

"Kaleipus!"

Solan's arrival cut the conversation short, but the amazon's conviction and faith on Xena was overwhelming. And that was not the only rumor he'd heard about the now called Warrior Princess. Was the change real, indeed? Had she been turned into some kind of a heroine?

Ephiny watched the boy coming towards them, a grin filling his face when he saw Kaleipus.

"I finished another of the new geese egg!" he said triumphantly.

Ephiny studied the boy closer, his features somewhat familiar. He was grinning with expressive blue eyes opened as he explained with pride some kind of achievement involving a goose egg.

Xenan saw the scene and trotted carefully but without falling, back to them, grinning and signaling to the boy with his finger. "'Look Mama, 's a boy!"

Ephiny smiled. "A boy, sweetheart, just like you," she said ruffling the child's hair.

"His name is Solan," said Kaleipus. "Solan, this is Xenan, he'll come live with us very soon."

Solan eyed the small centaur, cocking his head to one side. "You're really small."

"Mama said one day I will be dis big!," he said raising his arm upwards in all its extension, provoking a chuckle in both Ephiny and Kelaipus.

"He'll be your brother, Solan," said the centaur, who then turned his eyes to Xenan. "Would you like that, Xenan? Would you like a brother and many other friends to play and learn with?"

The boy, oblivious to the pain that the situation was causing his mother, grinned at the prospective opening before him and nodded enthusiastically.

"Go play, boy." Xenan, still clumsily in his trot, followed Solan, leaving both adults alone. "I know it must be hard for you."

Ephiny swallowed twice. "I try not to think about it. It is what it is."

Kaleipus then decided to change the course of the conversation, trying to lift some weigh from the young amazon. "So the rumours on Xena, they're true then."

Ephiny simply nodded. "She saved my life, brought her best friend from the dead and stopped a war. If that is not change, may the Gods come down and strike me for lying."

OOO

Thessaly. Rock shelter. Present time.

"Damn cold," she hissed. It was still raining, and her cold was not getting better. Luckily Gabrielle was a heavy sleeper, but if she sneezed once more she would end up waking up the bard, and Xena knew that despite her feeling better, Gabrielle needed to rest, so she decided to move away. There was just a problem. Gabrielle was using the warrior princess as pillow. And damn her, but she was comfortable and warm, and it was damn cold outside.

Well, she could deal with a headache and stifling a sneeze or two, even if that added to her migraine, right?

She decided to do so. Some herbs in the morning would definitely help her feel better, but for now, a good night sl—

"So sorry. So sorry."

Xena turned. "Gabrielle? What?-"

But Gabrielle wouldn't hear her. She was talking in her sleep. Or rather, nightmare. Xena shook her. "Gabrielle, wake up, it's just a–"

But what she heard next froze her.

"I didn't want to do it, Xena, it..I'm so ashamed, please forgive me for being jealous, I…if I hand't let Ares convince me, if-"

Ares? Xena feared to speak, to move, to do anything. "Gabrielle…"

"I didn't want you to go, I…why would you waste everything for a woman…and I didn't know you owed her that much, Xena I…"

Her suffering evident, the secret Gabrielle was keeping from her finally revealed before her eyes. The reason and why had Gabrielle been able to arrive in Chin before her. She'd been jealous of Lao Ma and had let Ares take her there?

"Gods, Gabrielle, how…?" No, no more reproaches. Xena decided. And no more lies. Please, Gabrielle, you have to get through this, you have to. For us both. For you. The warrior held her friend close. "I am sorry too, Gabrielle," she whispered as the nightmare seemed to recede. "We'll get through this, I promise. I promise."

OOOOO