A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the late update, but my muse abandoned me recently and I had to wait for her to come back with inspiration :D I'll try and update more often xD Happy Reading folks!

Juliette's people laughed and smiled as they carried the wine and food from their stalls after closing them for the night, chattering to each other as they made their way back to the encampment in the woods.

From where he stood, Leandros could see the faint glow of their fire burning safely from within the trees. He paced. He felt so useless. Everyone else seemed busy, while Leandros felt the itch to make use of himself; to lend his skills, no matter what for. At least back at camp he held position; he knew what his place was. In the town, he didn't know where he should be or what he was doing. Being idle wasn't something he was used to.

Absently, he reached up to rest his hand on the hilt of his sword, only to remember it missing when his hand fell through empty air. Xena still had it. A reminder of the trust he still had yet to gain. But Leandros couldn't help but wonder if he would ever get it. Though she was civil to him, he didn't believe that the woman trusted him around her, Gabrielle or the rest of the people. He wondered if she expected him to attack the townsfolk and cringed. He would never do that. He wasn't a cold blooded, merciless killer. He wasn't Ivan.

Ivan

He would come tonight. He knew as soon as he woke up that the day would mark the end of his life. He still hadn't found anything out; he hadn't noticed any weaknesses or secrets of Xena's that he could tell Ivan to spare him. He would have to come up with a plan. The stress of the whole situation was getting to him. He found himself becoming weary, everyday seemed to be becoming a chore and he spent most of his time looking over his shoulder watching for either Ivan or a suspicious Xena.

He sighed and rubbed a hand down his face.

"What troubles you?"

He spun quickly on his heel, expecting to see the face of the man who had promised to return, but came face to face with Juliette. She smiled as she slinked out from the tavern.

"You seem a little jumpy. Is something the matter?"

Leandros shook his head. "No," he replied, turning his face away to hide the lie in his eyes. "I just feel…out of sorts, that's all."

"Out of sorts? I sense there is more to it that weighs on your heart as well as your tone." Juliette moved to stand before him, the hem of her earth-coloured dress sweeping the ground. She stared at him for a moment, tilting her head curiously. "Have you spoken to Gabrielle of your feelings for her?"

Leandros froze, his insides turning to ice, but his heart racing. He looked up slowly, seeing the smile in the young woman's eyes. "My feelings?" he said, feigning ignorance.

"You can't fool me. There are things that stand plain and obvious, even without the need for powers or the gift of sight. Though my time here has not been long I have witnessed your eyes upon her many times, lingering."

Leandros shook his head, dismissing the claims with a wave of his hand. "You mistake what you see for admiration."

"Admiration?" she echoed.

"Yes, the woman is kind, but fierce with her fighting. A loyal friend and forgiving." Leandros moved, lifting his boot onto the pile of firewood stocked beside the tavern and rested his elbows atop his knee. He brushed his fingers through his beard as he looked out at the town and saw Xena and Gabrielle conversing near the edge of the woods. "I admire her, as I do Xena. Though I do not understand why they keep me, I am glad I am not dead."

"What do you mean by they keep you?"

Leandros sighed, forgetting that besides Xena and Gabrielle, no one else knew of his truth. He turned to look over his shoulder.

Instead of answering, he replied with a question of his own. "When we first met, you told me I had a shadow eclipsing my heart. What did you mean by that?"

Juliette smiled slightly. "I felt something when I first met you, but what I saw was in your eyes. I looked at your face and it was as though I was reading from a scroll. You lay your emotions bare, easily readable, and easily detected. The fear and anger I saw did not seem to be from the people around you, but rather from people closer to your heart." She moved to him

He shivered when she brushed her hand over his shoulder. "Closer?"

"Family perhaps?"

Leandros's mother and Darius's faces flashed before his eyes. He stood abruptly, frowning. "You don't know what you speak of."

"Yet it arouses such a reaction in you, like touching a bare nerve with the point of a dagger."

He scowled and turned away again, casting his eyes on Gabrielle across the square. "I'm a thief and a warrior. Even if I were to have feelings for the woman, she would not want someone like me. She deserves better," he said sadly.

"You're a thief? That is why you doubt yourself?" Juliette touched his face, forcing him to gaze at her. "You only believe so because you do not know her feelings. Maybe she would return yours."

"I don't deserve her love, and I fear the darkness that presses upon my heart would refuse me to accept it even if it were so." He tugged his face out of her grasp and turned away, removing his eyes from the blonde that caused his heart to swell, flip and plummet all at once.

He paced again, brushing his hand over the top of his head. He grunted in annoyance when his fingers got stuck in his thick hair. "Blasted hair. I would see it all gone!"

"You needn't do that, Leandros. One of my people is experienced with cutting hair. Perhaps she could see you hair put to better use, replacing the errant tresses and tidying your appearance to make it more manageable?"

"You would do that?"

Juliette smiled, moving to him and placing her hand at the crook of his elbow. "My people favour you. They think you are kind and sociable. Even the children are quite taken with you and your music. Even I found myself enchanted."

"But I have nothing to give in return," Leandros said as they moved to walk with her people still carrying their stalls contents to their camp.

"If you want to return the favour, perhaps you could help me with a small task?"

He furrowed his brow curiously. "What task would you ask of me?"

~X~

"I hope she'll be alright," Gabrielle said, casting a worried look up at the tavern.

"Me too. There is nothing I can do to help her in her dreams. That is the only place I can't reach to save her." Xena pursed her lips.

"I feel for her. I know how much dreams can affect you. Meridian haunted my dreams for months after what happened in Britannia," Gabrielle said softly.

A coldness washed over Xena, making her shiver to the core. What happened in Britannia held scars that would forever remain on her own heart and in her dreams as well. She reached out protectively, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. Gabrielle had tortured herself after she'd killed the priestess. Many nights after the incident Xena would stir to hear her mumbling in her sleep or crying over what she had done, asking forgiveness. It had killed her, being so close by her side, but remaining so far away, unable to help.

"Our inner demons are sometimes our most dangerous foes. She dreams of death, the lives of her friends from her village." Xena sighed, noticing Juliette and Leandros moving toward the woods. Patting Gabrielle, she moved, starting toward them with her friend in tow.

"Good evening, Xena," Juliette said brightly, noticing their approach.

"Hey," she nodded towards the woods. "What's going on? I can hear music and your friends are taking quite a lot into the woods. You planning something?"

"We decided to delay our performance to respect the dead man's passing. Now that the night is free of death, we can return to our regular festivities and lift the melancholy that presses down on the town and replace it with hope."

Gabrielle listened carefully, trying not to let her eyes linger on Juliette's arm on his. She seemed to be holding him closely; her chest brushing against his arm as they moved. She glanced up at Juliette silently wondering whether the young woman might be attracted to him, and then mentally hit herself, looking away. She shouldn't care. Why should she? It didn't make sense the tinge of jealousy she felt and the blush in her cheeks when she looked up and met his deep blue eyes. As he stared at her, she detected a strange look in his eyes. One she could not read.

"Festivities? The show Selena mentioned?" Gabrielle asked distractedly.

Juliette nodded. "My people dance, sing and play music, then offer the wares we've collected on our travels. It's a little like a thank you for allowing us to stay and do so."

"Sounds fun," Xena said. She quirked an eyebrow, noticing the two standing close together. "Where are you going?"

Gabrielle stood straight, interested to know too.

Juliette smiled, tightening her arm around Leandros. "Leandros is going to help me with something, in return for a favour."

"What kind of favour?" Xena asked.

Gabrielle tightened her hand around her staff as Juliette reached up to brush her fingers through his hair. "Little more than a restoring the man beneath the mask," the Seer said.

Leandros smiled uncomfortably, looking away from all three women. "It's merely to get rid of the nest of hair atop my head. It's become too unruly for me to appreciate so Juliette offered to tidy it for me."

"In exchange for what?" Gabrielle asked.

Juliette smiled, tugging at Leandros's arm, her voice teasing and ambiguous. "I'll think of some way to make use of his skills." She winked.

Leandros gaped at the young woman. The blush heated his face but he remained silent as she pulled him along, continuing on their path to her camp before they'd been stopped by Xena and Gabrielle.

When they left, Xena turned to Gabrielle, a strange smile on her lips. "Well, that was unexpected but not surprising."

Gabrielle remained silent, watching until the two forms disappeared into the trees. "What do you think she meant? By the favour?" she glanced up at Xena.

Xena shrugged. "She might have him help out with the stalls. He seems bored, but as long as he isn't stealing, killing or trying to get back to Darius, he's welcome to helping others."

"Helping others, huh?" Gabrielle muttered. She turned away and started walking toward the tavern.

The sun was fading; the remaining light colouring the cloudless sky in streaks of fiery gold and red. The cool breeze lifted her hair, signalling the oncoming cold that would descend upon the town as usual. When she reached the tavern, Gabrielle sat down on the bench, resting her staff against the wall. Xena sat down beside her.

"Do you want to go? To the show I mean?" Gabrielle asked.

Xena looked to the trees. "I guess we could. It would give us the chance to get to know Juliette and her people a little better. It might also help, as Juliette said, to relieve some of the depression on the town. I've noticed that the people have been a little more sociable. Juliette's people seem familiar to them. Maybe it would help us to get to know them a little more too – they haven't exactly been accepting of us, have they?"

"I guess you're right." Gabrielle glanced up at the tavern to the window that she knew was to Selena's bedroom. "What about Selena? Are we going to ask her to come?"

Xena stood, rubbing the back of her head. "Selena needs all the rest she can get. I've already spoken to Silas and Dantorix and they'll watch over her tonight. The healer said he wanted to check on her anyway."

"Have we got any more suspects? I feel bad that we haven't found out who put the bounty on Selena's head yet."

The thought that there was a bounty of one of Xena's friends filled her with a protectiveness; she wanted to stay by Selena's side and help look after her, to protect her from harm as Xena would for one of her friends. But there was something that struck her as odd. Since arriving at the town there had been no attempts on Selena's life. She thought that there would have been at least one. One that Xena would stop and warn the attacker not to try again. During their travel to the town, not once had she heard even the littlest inkling of a bounty on the head of a woman from Dreyas. It was like…there wasn't one.

But that would mean that Selena had lied.

Gabrielle rubbed her forehead, feeling a slight throbbing that doubt and discomfort usually brought on. She looked up at Xena and saw the sad, almost withered look upon her friend's face. Trying to get to the bottom of this was stressing Xena more than she was letting on, even to Gabrielle and she knew it. But the woman was too stubborn to admit it.

The investigation into the whole situation was making them go in circles. Just when they thought they had a lead, a suspect, the rug would get pulled out from under them and they started back where they began. It annoyed and saddened Gabrielle knowing that they didn't have anything to work with.

Xena shook her head. "No new ones. The only other one that Selena mentioned was Moris and the rest of the zealots from the temple."

"Well, just throwing it out there but, what about Juliette?" Gabrielle said.

"Juliette?" Xena rubbed her chin, eyes narrowing as she looked toward the trees. "It was a little convenient that she and the rest of her people turned up, just as this was all going on."

"Maybe they've come to collect the bounty? There are more than enough of them."

"They could overpower anyone that tried to protect Selena-"

"-and kill her whilst they were distracted," Gabrielle finished.

Xena and Gabrielle shared a look, their features decidedly brighter now that they had a new theory. "Do you think Juliette could be capable of doing such a thing?" Gabrielle asked.

"Anyone is capable of anything given the right motive. There are many reasons why people kill; desperation, money, hate, love, jealousy," Xena said, marking them off with her fingers as she said them.

"But what would Juliette kill for?"

Xena thought back, remembering the story Juliette told her about her parents disowning her and attempting to end her life – the branding on her shoulder they had given her and her friends running for their lives because of their gift.

"Revenge," she whispered.

Gabrielle stood, grabbing her staff and moved to stand beside her friend, looking over at the woods. From where they were, they could see the figures of Juliette's people moving about the trees, getting ready for their show.

"What would Juliette have against Selena that would make her consider killing her for the bounty? They seem to be good friends."

"I don't know, but like I said, anyone is capable," Xena said ominously. "Maybe there's dark intentions behind that smile."

Thanks for reading. If you have any comments/reviews or feedback, they are appreciated and welcome. I like to hear back from my readers - it helps the story and helps me get to know you :3 If you have any issues regarding spelling or grammar, please don't hesitate to tell me so in a PM. Thank you =]