Usual disclaimers apply.

Chapter 21

Waking up, I winced at the ache around my eye. I suddenly felt a familiar weight next to me, and forgetting for a moment where I was, I muttered. "Hi Mama."

"Hi little one." The familiar voice and endearment came but I started when I finally woke up enough to realize that this wasn't my Xena.

Sitting up, I was surprised when she pulled me into a hug. "Care to tell me what happened out there?"

"It's hard." I began. "You look just like my moms, but you aren't them. You're Eve's moms, not mine."

"According to those letters, we're your mothers."

"I guess." I sighed. "It's just that I know you aren't them and I'm really missing them right now."

She pushed me back and looked into my eyes. "I can understand that Sam. Gabrielle and I just got a big shock in finding out about you." She paused. "We will figure this out."

"You believe me?"

She smiled. "How can you not be our daughter? You look so much like me, and have Gabrielle's expressions when you watch people. Besides, I don't tend to lie to myself."

"Huh?"

"The letters. I don't think I'd lie to myself about something like this."

I smiled at her. "Guess not." I looked at my hands before looking up at her. "Is Gabrielle okay, what happened at Cleopatra's?"

"Gabrielle is fine. She got into a fight as well, and despite how she looks, she won."

"How could she not? I mean she is an Amazon queen." I smiled.

Xena ruffled my hair and held out her hand to me. "Ready for some dinner?"

Standing, I nodded. "I could eat."

"Good." She kept hold of my hand as we headed toward the door. Suddenly stopping, she turned and looked down at me. "What did you call me in your time Sam?" She asked quietly.

"Mama."

"And Gabrielle?"

"Mom."

She nodded and kissed the top of my head. "Then I expect the same respect for Gabrielle and me here as well." She directed quietly before leading me from the room.

***XENA****BARD****XENA*****BARD****XENA*****

I ate quietly, trying not to watch as Mama fed Eve. As happy as Eve had been since I'd been here, she was even happier to be on her Mama's lap. I couldn't help the tingling of jealousy creeping up as I stole glances their way.

Finally, I turned my attention to Mom. She had decided to join us for dinner, despite Mama's protests and I observed her wincing every time she had to reach for something. Even bringing the fork to her mouth seemed hard.

"How badly are your ribs hurt Gabrielle?" I asked.

"Didn't I have a conversation with you about respect before coming to dinner?" Xena asked. The tone was familiar, but the woman delivering it was not. I knew she wanted an answer, but I was unable to give her what she wanted so I merely nodded my head before staring at her.

"Samina," the tone was a warning and I lowered my eyes briefly before looking at Gabrielle once more.

"Xena, what's going on?" Gabrielle's face held a question and Xena looked back at her with a small small.

"I'll explain later, Sam knows what I mean."

Ignoring Xena, I addressed Gabrielle once more, "So, how badly are you hurt?"

She sighed. "I'm fine."

I rolled my eyes. "Sure you are. That's why you're wincing every time you move and can hardly stand alone." I shook my head. "My mama was right; you're more stubborn than she is." I muttered standing up.

"Sit down Sam." Green eyes flashed at me and I hesitated one moment too long.

"Sit down Samina," this time I didn't hesitate and did as she said.

"You don't need to worry about me, or what happened. I will be fine."

"If you say so. I figured your injuries something to do with the naval battle and Brutus." Realization dawned on me. "He did this to you didn't he?"

Xena looked at me hard. "How did you know?"

I rolled my eyes again. "My mom's a bard, I've heard the story of how you pretended to be Cleopatra." I paused. "Mom always left out how badly she was hurt and all the naval battle details though. Now I know why."

Eve clapped, breaking the silence and smiled at me. I couldn't help but smile back. I knew it wasn't her fault I was jealous, but it still hurt to see her so comfortable on Xena's lap. Even if it wasn't my mama exactly.

"Hey Evie," I said quietly. "Did Mama feed you enough dinner?" She grinned again and shoved a piece of sweet potato in her mouth. "Guess not." I giggled. "Looks like we both have Mom's appetite."

I noticed Mama and Mom looking at each other after I said that and I realized I hadn't once heard either of them refer to Gabrielle as Eve's mom. Trying to block the thoughts in my head, I looked at Yaya. "Yaya, is it okay if I go to my room now?"

She looked at Xena and Gabrielle before nodding. "Go on, little one. I'll be in to talk to you later."

Standing, I quickly put my dishes in the sink before racing to my bedroom. Getting ready for bed, I once again thought about finding comfort in my music player but was interrupted by a soft knock at my door.

"Come in," I called sitting on my bed. The door opened and I was surprised to find Gabrielle standing there rather than Yaya.

She entered my room, and sat on the bed gingerly. "I think we need to talk Sam."

I shrugged at her and decided to stare at my hands. She was the bard, let her do the talking.

Taking my hands into hers, she began. "Sam, Xena told me about your conversation. That she told you to call us Mom and Mama. I wanted to let you know though, that it's okay with me if you don't want to do that yet."

I pulled my hands out of hers and looked at my lap once again. Blinking, I willed the tears to stay away. I knew this wasn't my Gabrielle, and now I had proof. She was rejecting me.

"Oh, Sam," she sighed. "You really are so much like Xena. So strong, yet I know that you're hurting inside."

"You know nothing about me." I spat. "How could you? You aren't my mom and Xena isn't my mama. You belong to Eve, not me."

"You're right, I'm not the mom you knew and I don't know much about you, but I can tell how much you are hurting right now." She took my hands again. "I want to get to know you Sam, I can tell by the letter that your Gabrielle wrote, she loved you very much."

I looked up into her face and saw my mom looking back at me in her eyes. Remembering our conversation in the woods, I took a chance on trusting her. "Would you tell me a story?"

She smiled. "I'd love to tell you a story."

I allowed her to help me under the covers and she lay next to me. "Any requests?"

I smiled. "Tell me about the first time you met Xena."

She squeezed my hand and I began to drift off as she began, "It all started the day my sister Lila and I….."

I had closed my eyes and had almost fallen asleep when I felt her kiss my forehead. I didn't move, not wanting her to think that I was still awake. I then heard her leave, quietly closing the door behind her.

****XENA***BARD****XENA*****BARD****XENA****

Entering her bedroom, Gabrielle walked silently to her bag and removed her shift. Trying to change into it, she winced and stopped to catch her breath.

"Here, let me help you with that." Xena's voice was gentle as she helped the bard change into her sleeping shift. "You're going to be sore for a while and need to take it easy."

"I know Xena." Crawling into bed, Gabrielle got comfortable as Xena joined her.

"Did you and Sam have a nice talk?"

"I think so, she asked me to tell her a story." Gabrielle answered reaching over and lacing her fingers with Xena's.

Raising an eyebrow, the warrior probed, "And?"

"She requested the time we first met. She was falling asleep before I even got to the part about me begging you to take me with you."

Xena chuckled. "This is hard for all of us."

"Yes, it is." Gabrielle sighed. "You know, Sam asking for that story brought back a lot of memories. I don't know if I'm done being mad at you Xena. What you did at Cleopatra's…" The bard trailed off leaving the thought unsaid.

Xena sighed as well. "Would it help to say I'm sorry?"

"It's a start, but I honestly don't want to think about it anymore. I know you were doing what you had to do, and we've never dwelled on the past before. Why start now? Besides, with Sam here we need to look toward the future."

"Yeah, Fate has really thrown us an interesting challenge this time." Xena agreed.

"Xena, why did you tell Sam to call us Mom and Mama?"

Xena sighed. "It's something I wrote myself from the future. Sam needs to know we want her, that we aren't going to reject her in favor of Eve or our lives now. Having her call us Mom and Mama will help her to know that we do want her, even if it's hard for all of us right now."

It was Gabrielle's turn to chuckle. "That's funny. In my letter I told me to take it slow and not to push too hard. That I'd need to give Sam time to adjust."

"Did we even discuss what went into our letters?" Xena smirked. "I'm thinking that we need to read each other's letters in the morning and talk about this some more."

"I think that would be a good idea warrior." Gabrielle yawned.

"It'll all work out my bard." Xena responded allowing herself to yawn as well.

"I know that it will. I don't doubt for a moment that Sam is our child." Gabrielle quietly commented. "If I were to have a daughter," she paused, "if we had a daughter together, she is exactly what I imagined she would be."

"Gabrielle, we already had one daughter. Now we have two."

Gabrielle sighed. "We should get some sleep." No sooner had the words left her mouth when Eve began to cry.

She felt Xena shift, "I'll get her, you need to rest."

The bard sighed again, wincing as she rolled over on her side. "Night, Xena."

"Night, Gabrielle."

***XENA****BARD****XENA*****BARD****XENA***

I awoke to the sound of clapping coming from my floor. I slowly opened my eyes and looked down. Eve was clapping non-stop as she looked at me on the bed.

"Morning Evie," I grumbled. "How did you get in here?"

Looking out of my window, I realized the sun was barely up and figured that Xena must be up somewhere. Slowly rising, I tickled Eve before picking her up and heading down the hall.

Hearing noise in the kitchen, I entered to find Xena humming as she stirred something on the stove.

"Aren't planning to poison your daughter are you?" I asked, placing Eve on the blanket by the table.

Turning, Xena smiled at me. "You're up early."

I shook my head and pointed. "She's up early. I found her clapping at me a few minutes ago in my room."

Xena chuckled. "I must not have shut your door tight after I checked on you this morning."

"You checked on me?"

"Of course," placing the bowl of cereal on the table Xena raised an eyebrow at me. "And what do you mean about poisoning my daughter?"

I shrugged. "We lovingly called it the ham and cheese on white bread incident of 2011. My mama almost poisoned me with a sandwich. We still aren't sure how she did it. Though I believe her many skills must have been involved."

Sitting down, I looked warily at the porridge in front of me. "You made this?"

"I reheated mom's." She chuckled. "You honestly think I'd feed my kids something I made?"

Picking up my spoon, I sampled it and then dug in. "I should hope not."

Hearing clapping again, I turned and looked as Eve began to scoot towards me. "Okay Evie, just a minute." I bent down and pulled her on my lap. "Don't worry, Mama didn't make this, Yaya did." I said as I shared my breakfast with my younger sister.

I carefully blew on the spoon before offering another mouthful to Eve. Looking up, I saw Xena smiling at me. "What?"

"It's just nice seeing you two getting along." She grinned again before tucking into her own breakfast.

"Yeah, just wait until she starts speaking in English and you have no idea what we're saying." I teased.

"English?"

"The language people speak where I come from." I demonstrated by saying a few words to Eve.

Xena shook her head. "You should teach that to Gabrielle and me, might come in handy."

"Maybe," I replied finishing up the cereal. Standing, I handed Eve to Xena. "I'm going to go get dressed, take care of Mavri and do some drills with my staff." I announced.

"Hold on a minute young lady."

"I stopped and turned toward Xena. "Yes?"

"After I take care of this one," she tickled Eve's stomach. "I'll help you with the horses and we'll spar together. I'd like to see your skills."

I nodded. "Fair enough, but be warned. I've been trained by an Amazon Queen and a Warrior Princess." I smirked before heading to my room to get dressed.

Xena and I had tended the horses and were now circling in the courtyard. It had been a while since my last match and I wondered if all my training had paid off. Finally, the wait was over as Xena came at me with her staff. Grinning, I flipped back and countered with a sweep of my own.

She grinned at me and then began a series of easy moves that I had no trouble countering. Getting bored, I advanced on her and snickered as she raised an eyebrow in surprise. Finally taking the hint, she began to use more advanced moves on me, finally challenging my skills.

I'm not sure how long we spared, but I hadn't landed on my backside more than normal and even managed to get a partial strike on Xena's thigh. Panting, I sat under the lone tree in the courtyard and took a big drink from the water skin.

"Nice workout."

"I could say the same to you Sam. How long have you been doing that?"

"I got my first staff at three." I answered. "Training in earnest began at four. Mom thought it was important for an Amazon to know how to wield a weapon and the staff was her weapon of choice for me."

Xena took a drink and nodded. "What other weapons can you use?

"Well, Mama was teaching me how to use the chobos. I just got them for my birthday, and I'm pretty good with a dagger and bow and arrow."

"Bow and arrow?"

"Yeah, Mama said it wouldn't do well for me to come back here and not be able to use a bow and arrow around the Amazons."

Xena nodded. "That's true."

I grinned. "Besides, before I left, it was up to me to catch most of our meals. The bow and arrow came in handy when my snares didn't work."

"And the dagger?"

Without thinking, I pulled the dagger from my boot. "Used this to kill a copperhead, a poisonous snake, that was about to attack Mom before I left. Managed to get it right through its head."

Taking my dagger, she looked at it strangely as her face clouded. "Sam, where did you get this?"

"From uncle…" I trailed off. "Sorry, I promised Mama I wouldn't say his name."

"Ares?" She growled.

I nodded. "He's like an uncle there. He gave it to me for my birthday." I slowly held out my hand and she reluctantly handed the dagger back.

"I know he's different here and I won't contact him or trust him no matter what."

She nodded curtly. "I'll trust you on that Sam."

"Thank you." I looked over at her. "I know trust has to be earned, and I promise you, yours isn't being misplaced."

Her eyes met mine and she smiled. "So I take it you've trained a lot?"

"Yeah, but after knowing I'd be coming back, I got a crash course in ancient survival with the Warrior Princess and the Battling Bard."

"Battling Bard?" Xena's face split into a grin.

"It's what Gabrielle is known as in the future." I said vaguely.

Xena chuckled. "Oh Gabrielle is going to love hearing that."

I grinned. "Actually she does. Her future self anyway. I think she kinda likes it."

I stood and stretched. "Can we go for a ride later?"

Xena smiled at me. "I think tomorrow morning would be better. It's cooler then."

I nodded. "Okay, just don't leave without me if you go." Turning to go into the house I stopped. "Mama always took me on early morning rides with her." I said before disappearing through the doorway.

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I awoke early the next morning. Looking out the window, I realized that it was the perfect time to get up if I was going to remind Xena of our early morning ride. Quickly getting dressed, I quietly walked down the hall and stopped at Xena and Gabrielle's door. It was slightly ajar and I gently pushed it further so I could see if Xena was awake.

Peeking in, I stopped at the sight that met my eyes. Gabrielle was still asleep in the bed. Xena was sitting next to her, breastfeeding Eve. I began to slowly back out of the room when a soft voice stopped me.

"It's okay, come on over and sit by us." She patted the bed next to her and I slowly made my way to the spot.

I made sure to look at her eyes as I spoke. "I thought you might want to go for that ride today."

"Sounds good. Let me finish with Eve and I'll get ready." She looked at me and then down at Eve. "You've never seen anyone feed their baby before?"

I shook my head. "Most women breastfeed in private or with a blanket over them, and some people use bottles instead." I looked at Eve and smiled at the noises she made. "She's not too old to be fed like this?"

Xena shook her head. "Not yet. It's not constant like it was when she was younger, but still something I do a few times a day with her. I'm just glad that I wasn't gone too long, so I can still feed her this way."

I didn't really understand what she was talking about, but decided to let it go, as Eve suddenly opened her eyes and spotted me. She quickly let go of Xena and smiled at me before letting out a squeal so loud that caused both Xena and me to wince.

"What's going on?" Gabrielle slowly turned over and opened her eyes slowly. Seeing Xena try to get Eve interested in eating again and me sitting next to them, she smiled. Slowly sitting up, she leaned against the pillows, "Can anybody join this party?"

Xena nodded. "I think somebody was happy to see her big sister."

I smiled shyly. "I guess."

Eve finally became interested in eating again and latched back on to Xena. Gently stroking her head, I suddenly remembered a long ago picture. "I have a picture that Mama took of Mom feeding me like this when I was really tiny."

"A picture?" Gabrielle asked.

I stood and smiled. "Just a minute, I'll be right back."

Returning to the bedroom, I sat down and pulled out the photo of Mama, Mom, and me at my apple tree. "This is a picture. It's taken with something called a camera and puts the image on film. Then you put the image on paper to keep it."

Xena took the picture from me and studied it from all sides before handing it to Gabrielle. "Amazing." She handed it back to me. "Simply amazing, it's like a portrait, but so much more lifelike."

I nodded. "This is one of my favorite pictures of me with my moms." I offered.

Eve had stopped feeding and Xena began the process of burping her. "Tell us about that picture."

"It was taken when I was eight. Mama and I had gone riding that morning and Mom met us with a picnic at my apple tree. She'd brought the camera and we set the timer and took this."

"It looks as if you were very happy that day." Gabrielle stated quietly.

I nodded. "Yeah, it was a great day." I sighed. "I'd better put this away while you get ready."

Xena put her hand on my arm. "It's okay to miss your life there Sam. I know this is hard, but we'll work it out."

"Thanks, I'll meet you in the kitchen when you're done." I responded heading out of the room.

****XENA****BARD****XENA*****BARD****XENA****

"Show me one more time!" I begged as Xena dismounted from Mavri.

She shook her head. "Nope, I want to see your flip first, then I'll see if you're ready to try flipping onto Mavri."

Kicking up the dust in the field we were in, I nodded. Running toward a lonely tree in the distance, I made sure to take off on my right foot and completed the flip. Returning to Xena, I patted Mavri as I looked up at her. "Well?"

She stroked her chin and studied me closely. "Well, I think you're about there. I'll start showing you the basic steps, but you won't be flipping onto his back anytime soon, and I don't want you trying to do it without me. Understand?"

I stopped myself from hugging her as I nodded. No matter what she looked like, this still wasn't my Mama. "I understand." I turned to my horse. "Hear that Mavri, pretty soon I'll be able to flip onto your back just like Mama did to get on Argo."

Ruffling my hair, Xena patted Mavri. "I still can't believe you had to tell him to be nice to me."

I laughed. "He and I are close, he was just protecting me."

"Uh-huh." Mounting Argo, she motioned for me to do the same. I whistled and ran at Mavri using his leg as my step up onto his back.

"How did you learn to do that?" She asked shaking her head.

"From Mama. We trained Mavri like she trained Argo."

"Will he protect you if needed?"

I nodded and gave the command. He thrust out his back legs quickly and I patted his neck before giving him another. Holding on tightly, I kept my balance as he reared before putting his front legs back on the ground. I looked at her, "He can also lie down on command and lower his neck." I giggled. "Mom didn't find that so funny when I had him do it when she was riding him."

"I bet not." Xena smirked and began to walk Argo toward home and I brought Mavri up next to her.

"So why is the tree in the picture you showed us called your apple tree?" She asked.

I grimaced. "Mom named it that when I was six. I'd had a lousy day at school and had come home, and taken off for the tree. It was good place to think. From then on, it became one of the places I'd go to work things out, or if I just needed a break."

"It's good you had a place like that when you needed it."

"Yeah, I guess it was." I agreed as we slowly made our way home in silence.

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