Gabrielle groaned as she awoke in what felt like the middle of the night. She reached for her phone on the nightstand. The movement reminded her that she was naked from the waist up and a fully-naked Xena was curled against her back. She smiled at the thought of all that as she grabbed her phone.

5:34 a.m. was the first thing she saw but under the time display was an absurd number of social media notifications and far more texts than she usually had. There were 10 messages from the group text she had with Ngara and Thalassa.

Thalassa: Dude, you are all over tumblr

The next nine messages were photos and screenshots of tumblr posts. They had all been sent at about 2:30 a.m.

Gabrielle gasped and shot into a seated position. Xena groaned in sleepy annoyance at the movement beside her.

"Oh my god," Gabrielle uttered while peering down at her phone. "Oh fuck," she said in such a panicked tone that it fully stirred Xena awake.

She sat up as she rubbed at her face. "What is it?"

Gabrielle had moved on to Twitter and almost threw her phone down on the bed in shock.

She turned to Xena, who had ran a hand through her unkempt hair but hadn't bothered to cover herself in any way.

"Somebody got a picture of us," Gabrielle told her frantically. Xena peered back at her blankly. "Kissing. And you're shirtless. Thalassa saw it on social media."

"That's not a big deal," Xena replied nonchalantly.

Gabrielle anxiously exhaled. "You are one of the greatest players in the world! And you just got divorced from one of the other greatest players in the world! And your rebound in me?" she rattled off as she dramatically gestured to herself.

Xena rubbed her face again, still not feeling fully awake. "Just calm down. And ya know ya ain't just a rebound, Gabrielle," she told her as she twisted to get her phone off the other nightstand. "Thalassa's like a superfan, isn't she?"

Gabrielle turned to show Xena how easily she was able to find it on Twitter but Xena was peering down at her phone with a concerned expression.

"Fuck," she said softly. "It's everywhere. Aphrodite wants me to call her."

Gabrielle inhaled sharply and cover her face with her hands while taking deep breaths.

"I'm sorry, I really didn't want it to happen like this, But it's not that big of a deal. She'll help us figure out some sort of, I don't know media strategy," Xena told her as she began typing something on the phone.

"Xena, my parents don't know I'm gay," Gabrielle blurted.

She lowered her hands from her face to see that Xena had dropped her phone on the bed and was peering at her in shock.

"Why didn't you tell me that?" she questioned urgently.

"I don't know," Gabrielle replied. "It didn't come up. It didn't seem to matter."

"I just went through a super public divorce," Xena pointed out. "Of course, you would—I mean whoever—fuck. If I had known that I wouldn't have kissed you in the middle of Memorial like that."

They sat in tense silence for a moment before Xena reached over and took Gabrielle's hand in hers and shot her a shy smile with a tiny shrug. Gabrielle laughed and relaxed.

"What are we going to do?" Gabrielle asked.

Xena exhaled and shrugged. "We'll gonna call Dite."

"It's barely 6," Gabrielle pointed out.

Xena scoffed. "She'll answer. She always does."

After both putting their discarded articles of clothing back on, Gabrielle began making coffee from the small machine atop the mini fridge. Xena pulled her laptop out of her bag and set in on the desk-like table. Once the coffee was ready and Xena had pulled up the armchair from the corner of the room, they Skype called Aphrodite.

Once both their video feeds came into focus, Aphrodite began shaking her head. "Xena, Xena, Xena, how often are we going to have to have these calls?"

Xena began to laugh but remembered the situation she had put Gabrielle in and turned more serious. Of course, Aphrodite noticed.

"Oh, now what is that about?" Dite asked pointing at her.

Xena turned to Gabrielle, who sighed and turned to Aphrodite. "I'm not out to my parents."

"Oh," she replied in genuinely shock. "But your sister works for the Dash. She is dating one of our nutritionists. Your family just seems very plugged into all of this."

Gabrielle shrugged. "They are, but they are also good Southern Baptist."

She nodded seriously. "Okay, well I can't do anything about the social media posts. They are already out there and spreading but only in the superfan circles. I doubt your parents will see them, Gabrielle. It will take a couple of days for it to reach the likes of Hercules or even the good soccer journalists. So, I probably can't make this go away completely. But I do have some sway and I'm sure people will be understanding."

"What are you sayin'?" Xena asked for clarification.

"I am sure, Nigel?" Aphrodite offered up with a shrug, "will wait a few days for me. But I would say within the week, it'll reach the likes of Hercules and the mainstream tabloids."

Xena bit her lower lip as she peered over at Gabrielle. She reached over and placed a hand on her thigh. Gabrielle grabbed it and squeezed it tightly. "Okay," she said with an anxious nod. "I'll just have to do it then. I mean it's stupid that I haven't already, right?"

Xena pressed her lips together and peered at her guiltily.

"Oh sweetie," Aphrodite said shaking her head. "My father died without knowing I was bi, and I thought it was blatantly obvious. Everyone's circumstances are different, Gabrielle. And this call is nothing new for me."

"Really?" Gabrielle questioned, sounding relieved.

Xena shrugged. "She's been at this a long time."

Dite shook her head. "I have, Xena, but don't make this about the past. It is 2019 but not all of us were raised by progressive tavern owners."

Gabrielle laughed.

Aphrodite smiled. "Might want to reign that in, Gabrielle. I am sure someone's parent has seen the tumblr posts."

Xena sighed.

"Oh fuck, really?" Gabrielle questioned turning to Xena. "We are getting breakfast with her in an hour and a half." She paused for a moment. "Well, I guess she already knows and said she liked me."

"What?" Xena blurted quickly turning toward Gabrielle.

"Eve or Varia said something," Gabrielle offered up in her defense.

Dite warmly laughed. "Well have fun with that, sweetie. Talk to your parents before the end of the week if you want them to find out from you, okay?"

"Yeah," Gabrielle uttered turning back to the screen. "Thank you."

She nodded. "Of course, good luck."

Dite ended the call and they sat beside each other in silence for a moment.

"Uh, it's Seattle," Xena said breaking the silence. "So, it's gonna take us like an hour to get there."

Gabrielle nodded nervous. "Okay. Okay. I'll get changed."

She was about to stand but Xena reached over and grabbed her hand to get her attention. Gabrielle turned to meet her gaze. "I am really sorry that this happened like this," Xena told her. "And if you want like support when you tell your parents, I'll do it. I'll do whatever you want, whatever ya need."

Gabrielle felt a heat rising in her chest and leaned over to kiss her. She seemed a bit surprised at first but then softened into it. She slowly pulled away. Xena huffed in elated frustration.

"We have to meet your mom," Gabrielle stated as she got up. "All my clothes are back at my AirBnB."

"Oh shit," Xena stated not having thought of that.

"It isn't far," Gabrielle told her.

Xena nodded. "Okay, uh, meet me at the Westlake light rail station in like 40 minutes?"

Gabrielle nodded. "Okay," she said as she leaned down and gave her a quick kiss.

She then left the privacy of Xena's hotel room and Xena felt like the entirety of the outside world had changed for them. Xena began to get ready and felt a bit stupid about fussing so much about going to meet her own mother at a brunch spot she had been to multiple times in the neighborhood she had always stayed in when she visited the city outside of USWNT and Red Stars business. She eventually landed on a plain grey t-shirt under a black sweatshirt jacket and the only jeans she had brought with her. They were the only things without logos for either the Red Stars, the national team, or her mom's bottle shop. It probably didn't matter but she wanted it to be harder for people to recognize her.

She walked to the downtown light rail station and met Gabrielle on the crowded street outside before riding it to the rather quaint neighborhood, where her mother had befriend multiple of the brewers after attending a few West Coast brewing competitions. Cyrene was standing on the sidewalk outside the neighborhood's clearly most popular brunch place with numerous others when Xena and Gabrielle arrived from the light rail stop.

"Xena," she called excitedly with a wide smile as she stepped away from the others. "It seems that you neglected to tell me something the last time I saw you."

Xena blushed a deep red. It was so unexpected that Gabrielle found herself gawking at her.

"Darling?" Cyrene questioned sternly.

Xena pointed at Gabrielle, opened her mouth to say something but stopped herself. She began again, "Ma, can we not? For Gabrielle's sake."

Cyrene raised her eyebrows at her but then nodded in agreement.

Gabrielle felt overwhelmed by the tension she was creating. "My parents don't know," she admitted.

Cyrene peered at her and smiled. "Well, it has not been very long, now has it Gabrielle?"

Xena scoffed.

"At all," Gabrielle added. "I mean, my parents don't know at all. I'm not out to them."

A guilty expression washed over Cyrene's face. "And here I am making careless jokes. My apologizes, Gabrielle."

They all fell silent again. "Well, I haven't said anything to everyone else," Cyrene stated. "There should be enough catching up to do that too much focus will not be placed on you two. I'll stir the conversation away from it when I can."

"Thanks, Ma," Xena grumbled as she nudged Gabrielle with her elbow the three of them followed Cyrene to a cluster of people closer to the doors.

She introduced them to her friends from the brewery. Two were a straight couple in their thirties that worked for a brewery down the street and the other two were regulars from that brewery, both in their sixties. None of them seemed to have much knowledge about women's soccer or the USWNT, save for Xena being their friend's daughter. Gabrielle was relieved by that.

After a pleasant breakfast and an offer of being shipped beer from the two brewers, Cyrene walked with Gabrielle and Xena back to the light rail station.

"Are you heading back to Stanford today?" Cyrene asked Gabrielle as they made their way down the tree-lined street to the station with their coffees in hand. They had stopped at a bakery across the street from the restaurant because Xena insisted on getting some pastry for later and they had all gotten coffee for the trips home.

The bakery had a large Pride flag in the window and all the workers were wearing pins displaying their pronouns. It all made Gabrielle feel a bit stupid about her current situation. She tried to remember what Aphrodite had said, but Cyrene being so nice and so accepting was almost making it worse.

"Gabrielle?" Xena called to get her attention realizing she was too caught up in her own thoughts.

"What?" Gabrielle uttered. "Oh yes, we are heading back today. Stanlous, my roommate, he has an evening class."

"I am glad you came," Cyrene told her. "It was very nice to meet you."

"Yeah," Gabrielle replied with an overwhelming feeling of awkwardness and nervousness she could not shake. "You too."

Xena seemed to notice and peered down at her for a moment. Gabrielle shrugged unsurely. She nodded at her and it seemed did not need to say anything more to her mother.

"I hope the both of you get home safely," Cyrene told them. "Xena, text me when you do. And good luck against Costa Rica."

Xena nodded at her. Cyrene smiled at them, turned, and walked away.

Xena placed her hand softly on Gabrielle's shoulder. "Ya doin' alright, Gabrielle?"

Gabrielle exhaled and shook her head. "I…I don't know. I am possibly more nervous about telling something that should be obvious to my parents than I am about playing against Costa Rica."

Xena laughed and shrugged. "Yeah, me too."

Gabrielle laughed and shook her head. She reached out and took her head in hers. "I haven't decided how I'm going to do it yet, but whatever it is, will you be there?"

Xena raised an eyebrow at her in question despite her warm smile. "You know I will."

Gabrielle nodded. "Thank you."

"Yeah," Xena replied. She took a moment to peer around the empty station and leaned down and kissed her.