"Are you serious right now?" Amarice called at Xena across the back of the rented town car Artemis had gotten for them that was talking them back to their hotel in Stanford. "You are taking Gabrielle on a date right now?"

Xena sighed. "I am just going out somewhere with her."

"Xena, that's a date," Amarice stated. "You clearly like her. She is a child, who has the hots for you."

"She is literally three years younger than you," Xena stated.

"Bwahh," Amarice blurted. "That's not the point. She has had a serious high school boyfriend and a single fling with one of her college teammates."

Xena raised an eyebrow at her, not previously realizing how close the two of them had become.

"She isn't ready for this, Xena," Amarice said, still with heightened animation but sounding a touch more serious than usual.

Xena huffed. "I'm not going to marry her, Amarice. We are just going for…I don't know, drinks probably," she said as she aimlessly motioned back toward the campus.

"Probably?"

Xena shrugged. "I told her to pick a place she likes."

Amarice gave a guttural laugh. "Okay," she paused to laugh more. "Okay, fuck. Nevermind. I overacted. Ya'll are probably going to a restaurant with wine pairings on the menu or a goddamn literary festival."

"Huh," Xena grunted in reply.

"What were you expecting?" Amarice questioned her.

Xena shrugged again. "I don't know. You got me feelin' like I really don't actual know her that well."

"Yeah," Amaraice stated with a dramatic nod at her team captain. "She's a good right back, and cute and hot and smart, but she is much more than that. So, like…" Amarice trailed off, clearly feeling nervous about saying what was on her mind.

Xena nodded at her approvingly.

"Don't fuck this up, Xena," Amarice told her.

The back of the town car was quiet for a moment. Xena could feel that Amarice wanted to say something more.

"Just say it," Xena grumbled without looking at her.

Amarice took a deep breath. "Nah," the goalie said, shaking her head. "That's all I wanted to say."

"All right," Xena replied as they reached their hotel.

They were silent as they made their way through the building and up to their separate rooms that were adjoined by an internal door. Xena was in the midst of changing when she heard her phone buzz on the dresser and went to read the message.

Ephiny: Please do not damage our young right back. I would like her intact going forward.

Xena: Why does everyone think I am going to marry and wreck Gabrielle?

Ephiny: Um…because you got coffee in the Olympic village with a certain player from the Chinese team in 2012

Xena huffed down at her phone. She thought of sending some sort of biting comment back but then just tossed her phone on the bed and finished getting dressed.

"You're what?!" Thalassa called as the turned to Gabrielle after pulling on her shirt in front of her locker after the game.

"She asked me to take her somewhere," Gabrielle answered with a shrug. She was sitting on the bench in front of her neighboring locker, fully dressed in a green crop-top and brownish jeans. "I was thinking that brewpub by the park that hosts all those outdoor plays."

"I think that sounds lovely," Ngara replied from her spot on the bench beside Gabrielle.

"Ngara?" Thalassa called at her confused.

She peered up at her quizzically.

"You don't have a problem with this?" Thalassa called. "It's Xena! She's been famous since we were in middle school. She just got divorced. And…and…and"

"It's weird," Gabrielle added with an agreeable shrug.

"Yes," Thalassa blurted in reply.

Ngara pressed her lips together and gave a small laugh in the center backs direction. "I think you are jealous."

"What?! No. I don't even like Xena."

Gabrielle and Ngara laughed in unison.

"Sure, sweetie," Ngara directed at her with a smug grin. She turned to Gabrielle. "Good luck on your date."

"Thank you," Gabrielle called as she stood and pushed everything she needed into her pockets.

The place Gabrielle had chosen was rather close to Xena's hotel. On the short walk over, Xena was hoping she did not do that for her sake. Stanford's game at been at 4 p.m. so it was barely 7 p.m. when Xena reached the brewpub. There was crowd of people gathered in the nearby park. The fountain area seemed to be attracting all the children, while people mingled throughout the park among its various art installations and gazebo that seemed to have a bar in it.

"Hi," Gabrielle awkwardly uttered as she approached Xena.

Xena turned her attention away from the back and toward her teammate. "Hey," she stated. "Nice choice."

Gabrielle blushed slightly, partially from the compliment and partially from Xena's outfit of tight-fitting black jeans and a black shirt with a gold geometric pattern printed on it.

"Thanks," Gabrielle uttered as she led the two of them inside. She asked for a table on the rooftop patio, which Xena assumed was her plan all along.

"Damn," Xena replied at the view of the city as they were seated, and the waiter had left with their drink orders.

Gabrielle peered at it as well. "Yeah, I mean it's nothing like…no," she uttered to herself and shook her head at embarrassment at her own thoughts.

"Ah, come on, Gabrielle," Xena called encouragingly. "'It's nothing like' what?"

Gabrielle gave a nervous laugh and shrugged her shoulders. "My home, my parents' land in Texas, it stretches for miles and its so flat you can almost see for miles. There is something about the vastness of that. It always seems greater to me than cities like this," Gabrielle gestured to the skyline but then shrugged again. "Or even bigger ones, like Atlanta or Chicago, something about them just didn't feel as meaningful, I guess."

Gabrielle peered over at Xena nervously and was thankful when her drink was placed before her to her something to do with her hands.

"You probably think I sound insane."

Xena laughed as she shook her head. "Nah," she replied. "Not at all. My brother and me, we used to lay on the grass behind our parents' country inn and look up at the stars. They seemed to go on forever out there. We used to lay there and dream about where we'd end up." Xena inhaled sharply as tears raised in her eyes.

Gabrielle was unsure what to do and her mind ran through a series of options in a split second. She could have ignored her emotional display. She could have asked where her brother had ended up. She could have apologized for Lyceus' death, which she had first learned about from a trashy tabloid while in a grocery store with her mother as a high schooler, but about a year ago had read a rather good in-depth feature about Xena's childhood from The Athletic. She settled on grabbing her hand that was resting on the table.

Xena scoffed. "There ain't no reason for me to be pretendin' around ya, is there?"

Gabrielle sighed. "I want to know the real you, Xena. If you'd let me."

Xena chuckled. "You ain't been talkin' to the rest of the team about me, have ya?"

Gabrielle scrunched her face at her confused. "No."

"Well, they've been talkin' to me about you. They are all worried I'm going to hurt you somehow. In… I guess in talkin' to them, I realized I don't actually know you that well."

"Would you like to?" Gabrielle questioned, anxiously from across the table.

Xena peered up at her with a pressed smirked as her crystal blue eyes met Gabrielle's. "Yeah, Gabrielle. I would."

"Good," Gabrielle stated with a smile as the waiter returned to take their food order. "Um," Gabrielle uttered a few minutes later, looking up from her food. "How do you feel about Orpheus and Eurydice?"

"Like the Greek tragedy?" Xena questioned. "Which long dead dude was that written by? But we talking readin' it or like see a performance of it?"

Gabrielle laughed nervously. "Yes, it's originally by Virgil. But one of my friends, Euripides, he is directing a performance of it in the park in about 40 minutes."

Xena peered over the edge of the rooftop patio. "Huh," she replied.

"They sell beer out of the gazebo," Gabrielle told her nervously. "We could totally do something else. I..I just thought. It's an okay park, I guess and…and I…I don't know—"

"Gabrielle," Xena said breathily as she leaned across the table. "Let's watch your friend's play down in the park."

"Okay," Gabrielle told her with a relieved smile.

About 30 minutes later, Xena had ushered Gabrielle out of the gazebo and to a soft, dry patch of grass close, but not too close to the stage in the park beside the brewpub. She and Gabrielle sat down. As a serious looking young man walked into the stage and asked everyone to remain as quiet as possible for the duration of the performance, Gabrielle's face lite up with a smile and she assumed he was her friend. When he walked behind the curtains, Xena placed her arms around Gabrielle's shoulders and she repositioned herself until she was leaning ever so slightly back against Xena.

It took Xena a few minutes into the play to realized that both the leads in this version were being played by men.

"Huh," Xena called deadpan. "I don't remember this from my 10th grade English class."

Gabrielle turned to her and gave a small laugh. "I had hope you had inferred that much."

Xena gave a small nod. "Inferred about you. But you haven't introduced me to any of your friends yet."

"Well, wait until he is done with the play," Gabrielle told her quietly.

As the play got more romantic and focused more on the undying longing between its two leads, Xena felt Gabrielle pushing herself further and further back into her chest. Xena tried, truly tried for the longest time to keep her hand on Gabrielle's shoulder and no where else. But there were few people around them and the gazebo staff had basically started doing table service to lessen the amount of people walking around during the performance. Xena began to slide her hand down Gabrielle's shoulder but stopped above her chest. The action so reminded Gabrielle of their encounter in the small office of the locker room after the Canada game. She knew Xena wanted to touch her more, wanted to advance whatever was happening between them but something was stopping her.

Gabrielle twisted her body in Xena's embrace until she was facing her. From somewhere she had gathered the confidence she needed to tell her, "What is holding you back, Xena?"

"I'm not the best person for you to be with. A few of our teammates are worried I'm gonna destroy you," Xena pointed out.

"I'm not Lao Ma," Gabrielle stated.

Xena snorted. "Oh, I know that."

"Do they?" Gabrielle questioned.

"No," Xena stated shaking her head. "I mean maybe Amarice, but they are making too many generalizations. They all assume that since I started everything with Lao Ma and it all eventually went to shit, that the same will happen with you."

Xena was still holding Gabrielle against her chest. They younger player twisted and looked up at her. "It won't," she stated seriously.

"You can't know that," Xena stated.

"Well, why don't you promise me?" Gabrielle told her. "Promise me you will do everything you can to make sure it doesn't go that way?"

"Okay," Xena replied with no hesitation.

"Okay," Gabrielle replied as she twisted up against Xena's body until her lips were at her. She closed the last few inches between them and began to kiss Xena passionately but pulled back as she was getting only a temperate response. She peered at her intensely, but caringly. "What is it, Xena?"

Xena shrugged her shoulders uncomfortably. "I don't know, Gabrielle. I don't know what I'm doing. Maybe you are too…too young for me and inexperienced for me.

"Glad I know Amarice can't keep a secret," Gabrielle grumbled.

"And I'm only recently divorced and apparently not very good at it."

"Whose standards are these?" Gabrielle questioned.

Xena was sternly silent for a moment.

"It feels like Amarice and Ephiny's," Gabrielle answered.

Xena sighed.

Gabrielle shook her head. "I know they mean well, but they have no right to be meddling in our lives."

Xena scoffed. "You haven't known them very long. That ain't going to stop them."

Gabrielle shrugged against Xena's chest. "Maybe they are right. Maybe we are in different points of her lives and maybe you've been married, and I haven't graduated college yet, but…" she trailed off.

"You tryin' to make me feel old, Gabrielle," Xena joked without looking at her.

"But I've been with more people in the last eight years than you have," Gabrielle pointed out.

After that, Xena leaned down and kissed her with the passion Gabrielle had missed the first time. She felt like her mind was going to explode and she was lifting out of her body. A pained scream from the stage before them reminded Gabrielle that they were still in the middle of Euripides' play.

She pulled away from Xena and took a strained breath. "Maybe we should delay this activity for a while?"

Xena smiled down at her warmly and nodded. "Yeah," she replied feeling multiple eyes on her. "There is already a show happenin' in this park."