A/N: So here's chapter four. Think it's more of a filler than anything. Thanks to the lovely tazvlr2001 for beta reading! Please enjoy and R&R! :)


Hey honey, you're home late!"

Emily heard her girlfriend shout from the kitchen when she walked in.

"Hi babe! Um, I don't really know how to put this, but we have guests."

As she suspected she soon heard footsteps come closer. Trying to stop her heart from racing like crazy, she couldn't help but to make a face of nervousness over her lover's reaction to her new 'friends'.

And true enough, as soon the girl walked into the hallway the smile on her face soon faded and became a sight of almost horror. Giving Emily an ice-cold glance for a second, she quickly rushed forward to a blonde woman, about to fall.

"Wow, there you go," she said, taking her into her arms. "Why don't I take you to the guestroom?" With one last stern look at Emily saying 'you owe me big time', she was soon gone again, blonde in her arms.

"We don't you sit down?" Emily asked friendly, placing a hand on the brunette, gesturing toward the couch before them. "I'll get you some water."

Hesitating for a second, the brunette finally nodded and sat down, while Emily moved toward the kitchen.

She couldn't help but to glance back at the woman before her, though. It had been too dark to see anything outside. She must've been about 6 feet tall, with long dark and almost completely black hair. Her face was serious, hard and mysterious, with ice blue eyes, looking suspiciously around, but what had Emily concerned the most was probably her outfit. She was wearing what looked to be a small leather dress, with breast plates, leather boots and arm protectors - the whole 9 yards. On her back was a sheath with what looked to be a real sword in it, and hanging on her side was what looked to be a metal ring with knife-sharp edges on the outside. What she was wearing it for, Emily couldn't really tell. At first, she thought a costume party, but with a trained eye on her side, it actually looked like the real deal.

Emily knew this wasn't any time to make suspicions. Because walking back with that glass of water in her hand, Emily saw the bruises forming, a deep cut in her arm and rifts on her legs. Some of them even looked to be made by hands clawing down, but what on earth had happened?

"I don't think I've introduced myself yet," Emily said, sitting close beside the other woman so she could put her hand to her shoulder, to calm her down and make her feel welcome. "My name is Emily Prentiss. This is my apartment. The other woman is my girlfriend. I'll let her introduce herself later." Emily held out her hand for her to shake, but instead of taking just the hand, she gripped her under the elbow and shook their arms carefully.

"The name is Xena. I don't know if you've heard of me, but I come in peace." She tried to smile, be a bit friendlier.

"No, I don't think I have." Emily smiled back lightly. "But it's always good to know that you can be safe in your own home," she chuckled lightly, looking down, but when her eyes met Xena's again, they were serious and concerned.

"Can I ask you something?" Xena said; seriousness and suspiciousness written all over her face.

"Sure," Emily answered, straightening her back.

"Where in Tartarus are we? This place almost looks like Illusia, just without the singing."

Emily was slightly taken a back, both by the question itself but more so by the mentioning of Tartarus and Illusia.

"You don't remember? You're in the center Washington DC."

"Great… How long is there from here to Rome?"

"Rome? Why do you want to go to Rome?" This was getting weirder by the moment.

"I was on my way to visit an old friend of mine. Caesar."

When Emily chuckled lightly, Xena shot her head up, not liking being laughed at.

"What so funny?" she asked. Emily searched deep within the blue eyes, shock hitting her slightly when she saw nothing but truth and seriousness.

"You mean as Julius Caesar?"

"Uh huh. That's the guy. King of Rome. Ruler of the Empire."

"Well, I'm very sorry to say this to you, but Caesar was killed over 2000 years ago."

Standing up Xena in confusion and shock, she drew her sword, looking desperately around.

"What the hell is this place?" she said firmly, keeping her voice down.

"Wow, hey, calm down. I'm not trying to do you any harm here." Xena looked at her with a demanding look. "You're in Washington DC, in USA, America. It's the 5th of august, 2009. You're miles away from Rome."

But this only seemed to make Xena even more suspicious about it.

"Just hand me the sword. We can just talk. No one has to get hurt."

Xena pulled the sword close to her chest for a second, not sure if she should trust the strange. She squinted her eyes hard in a look of dismay before finally giving up and placing the sword in Emily's hand. And Emily, thinking it was nothing but a fake sword with no real edges just gripped it hard on the blade, just to drop it again as she felt her hand sting and saw the blood running down.

"What the hell?" she said as she walked hurriedly to the sink, turning it on to wash the blood away. She made a deep, long cut in the middle of her palm.

"Hey! You have to be careful with that!" Xena said, rushing to her side. "Let me have a look at that."

"No need, I'm fine. Really. Just a bit of bandage and cleaning and it'll be alright," Emily said, drying the now wet hand of in a towel before picking the sword and placing it a bit more safely.

"The real question is why do you even have that thing on you?"

"Well, you never know when you might need it."

"Apparently not…" Emily whispered to herself, sitting back down. "But tell me, what happened to you."

"Well it all started like any other day. Gabrielle and I were walking quietly along the road on our way through the woods…"


"Hey there," Gabrielle heard a soft voice whisper. "I'm glad you're back with us," it said. But she couldn't really concentrate. All she could do was to think of Xena. Where in Tartarus were they?

"Xena?" she heard the raspy voice, but barely recognized it as her own.

"She's in the living room with Emily. Do you remember her?" the voice answered.

"Is she… okay?"

"Don't worry too much about it, okay? She's alright. Right now the most important thing you can do is try and relax, okay?"

Gabrielle nodded slightly, too tired to argue, her whole body aching in pain.

"I'll get some water to clean your wounds. Just try and lean back and relax."

And after that, everything went blurring and she led Morpheus lead her into dreamland.


"… And that's when we met you," Xena finished, just as the other woman from before walked back out of the room for the second time. In her hands was a bowl of red water, from cleaning the wounds.

"How is she?" Xena eagerly asked, concerned after not having heard a word since they arrived.

"She's sound asleep right now. It would be a bad idea to wake her up."

"Good, she needs to rest," Xena replied.

After cleaning the blood from the bowl, the other woman slowly approached the couch.

"I don't think I got the chance to say hello before," she smiled lovingly. "My name is Jennifer, but just call me JJ," she offered her hand out.

"Xena. It's a pleasure to meet you." And just as before, Xena grabbed her by the arm and shook it quietly.

"I've set up the other room for you to sleep in for tonight. It's late and it seems that both of you need some rest. Tomorrow morning we'll drive the two of you to the hospital."

"Thank you for the offer, but you have already done so much. I promise we'll be out of here by sunrise."

"No, we insist. It's just on the way to where we work; it's no big of a deal," Emily answered, waving Xena's comment off.

Xena was just about to argue, when she realized that there was probably no use in it anyway. Instead she just smiled warmheartedly at the two of them, trying to show them gratitude.


Later that night Emily lay naked in her bed with JJ in her arms. She was playing lovingly with her long golden hair, curling it in her fingers.

"I'm really sorry for all this," she whispered quietly in JJ's ear, making the blonde turn around to face her lover.

"It's okay. I know you have a big heart when it comes to helping others. That's one of the things I love about you." She smiled. "But what do you make of all this? What did she tell you?"

"I don't know, but something's really off here. First of all, their clothing and why carry real weapons with you? I talked to Xena about how they good here. She told this long story of Greek Gods and warriors, warlords. She even said something about meeting Caesar in Rome, and she has absolutely no clues whatsoever about where she is. She even asked me at one point about how the fire got in the lamps, making them glow that much."

"Maybe she just hit her head really hard sweetie?" JJ stroked Emily's cheek lovingly, trying to wash the stern and concerned look away from her girlfriend.

"But it was just the enthusiasm, the realness. Everything looked to by authentic, and she even had wounds on her to confirm her stories. Well, I just don't know… I guess we'll find out tomorrow," Emily finished with a small smile.

"Good," JJ said, glancing down at Emily's lips. "Cause right now, I have other plans for us," she said it teasingly, leaning in and capturing the brunette's lips with her own. And when Emily deepened the kiss and rolled JJ over on the back, she knew that they were going to figure things out on a later time.


A/N: Forgot to say:

Tartarus: Hell (It's just what they called it in acient Greece)

Illusia: The weird and magic land Xena & Gabrielle visits in 'The Bitter Suite' (3X12)