Disclaimer: I own nothing! Story takes place AU, where Xena and Gabrielle have stayed with the Amazons.
Disclaimer part B: This is my first ever publish, it was not reviewed by anyone else. I had this concept in my brain and wanted to see if I could develop it. I am not a writer, nor claim to be one. Be kind
Thanks for the reviews!
Chapter 2
Sam begins to stir, she tries to recall how they landed where they did, the last thing she remembered was her mom dragging her away and feeling as if she was all of a sudden flying through the air.
She opens her eyes to take in where she is, and take stock of herself and Gabrielle. Sam sits up, the movement brings on a wave of dizziness and she scoots herself so her back is resting on the rock wall. She tries to lift her left hand to her head, but winces. Switching to her right arm, she feels around her head and finds a combination of fresh and dried blood. Once convinced she is mostly fine, Sam looks over at her mom and finds Gabrielle lying awkwardly on her side/stomach, her one arm hanging limply behind her back, while her other arm is tucked under body. Sam peers closer and sees a gaping wound in her shoulder that continues to bleed. Brushing back the hair on Gabrielle's face, she sees a myriad of cuts and bruises, leaning closer with a little panic in her voice "Mom, can you hear me." She checks to ensure she is breathing, and releases a breath she didn't realize she was holding when she is able to feel Gabrielle's breath.
Seeing Gabrielle lying there, severely injured, recalling everything her mother endured to ensure Sam was not hurt, how she kept Sam relatively safe, Sam is overcome by everything that has just occurred. Sam glances down and see's that Gabrielle still has her Sai's, at least one, and knows what she must do. It is every Amazon's duty to protect their Queen with their lives if needed, Sam was unable to do that earlier, she will not fail a second time. Grabbing the Sai, she stumbles to her feet, she closes her eyes and swallows hard, trying to keep from throwing up. She tucks her injured arm into her waistband calms herself, and takes up guard in front of the Queen. "Do not fail again, she whispers to herself."
Minutes, hours, seconds later, Sam is unsure how long, but can feel the impending danger approaching, taking up a more aggressive stance and needing to will herself to not focus on anything but protecting the Queen, Sam does not realize the 10 soldiers in front of her are fellow Amazons.
One approaches "Princess are you alright?" Sam lunges at her, "Stay back, I must protect the Queen," Sam says swiping the Sai at her head.
She jumps back, "Sam, it's me Sarah." But nothing is registering with Sam.
Sarah looks at another of the guards "Go get Ephiny and the General" peering in at the Queen "Hurry!"
The guard runs off. "Guys, just don't make any sudden moves, and do not try and approach the Princess."
"Lieutenant" Ephiny yells out as she is running towards the group "they said you found them" Ephiny skids to a halt seeing Sam looking as though she will attack them any second.
"She won't let us near her or Queen Gabrielle."
Ephiny takes a slow step forward towards Sam "Sam, it's me Ephiny. You can stand down now"
"Get back!" Sam yells as she lunges towards Ephiny, the regent is only barely able to jump out of the way.
"Lieutenant, take everyone and create a perimeter 20 paces out, shield this area of any additional on lookers, then go get Mariska so she can treat the Queen. Keep whatever you are seeing here to yourself."
Saluting Ephiny, Sara carries out the order. Ephiny turns towards the General almost running through the group before she gets to Sam and Gabrielle "Xena, I need to prepare you, well sort of, I have no idea how injured Gabrielle is, Sam is standing guard and tries to attack us when we approach. Sam looks like she herself is hurt." Xena pushes past Ephiny and strides over to Sam, when she looks over her daughter, she sees the way her arm is hanging down, blood coming down her arm. The dried blood on the side of her face and bruises starting to form. She looks past Sam and see a very still Gabrielle, fear griping at her as she is not sure what condition Gabrielle is in.
"Ephiny, by Ares as my witness, there better not be one of them left alive." She says with gritted teeth.
"Xena, I agree completely and we will make sure anyone foolish enough to continue their assault will not return to their homes, but let me take care of that. Right now we need to get Sam and Gabrielle medical care. I pushed the guards back and they set up a perimeter. I can rush Sam from the right, draw her attention towards me."
Xena shakes her head "She will injure herself more and you as well, look at her eyes, she is not seeing us, she is in shock." Xena turns towards Sam and takes a step forward, Sam raises the Sai ready to attack.
"Princess, I need you to stand down" Xena takes another step forward
"Sam, Stand Down" taking another step, she is now only a stride away from Sam
"Amazon" she sees a slight flicker in Sam's eyes "I am giving you a direct order, your General says stand down" Sam looks up, recognizing for the first time who is in front of her.
Lowering the Sai, kneeling she begins to tremble "General"
Xena kneels in front of her taking the Sai from her hand and placing her hand upon her knee, "Sam are you okay?"
Sam looks up, her eyes are big, almost childlike with unshed tears, "Mother, I tried to protect her, like she did me."
"Sam, sweetie, you did. Ephiny and I are here, let us take over" she pulls Sam closer "Sam, I got you."
"I'm, I'm So sorry" Sam says, her eyes rolling back, collapsing into her mother's arms.
"Xena, take Sam, Mariska's here to tend to Gabrielle," Ephiny states, always impressed by how Xena can always get through to Sam. Xena picks Sam up, cradling her much like she did when she was a much smaller child, turning and staring at Gabrielle's very still form. She hesitates and is struggling between taking care of her soul mate and caring for their daughter. She knows that Gabrielle would want her daughter cared for before herself and takes Sam to the medical tent so she can tend to her injuries.
Ephiny places her hand upon Mariska's shoulder "She will be okay, Xena is going to tend to her injuries. We need you to tend to the Queen."
"Yes, of course," Mariska shakes her head as she approaches the Queen.
She takes a moment to look the Queen over, she sees the large wound on her thigh, reaches into her bag and pulls out a cloth and places it on the open wound. She then sees the hole in her shoulder blade, and repeats placing the cloth on it. Rolling the Queen onto her back, she sees the matching hole on her shoulder. Taking a moment to examine the injured shoulder
"She was shot with an arrow, then it was forcibly removed, it would have hurt like hades. It is still bleeding and with not knowing how long ago the injury occurred, I have no idea how much blood she lost, but I have to believe it was a fairly significant amount." Mariska says as she applies pressure to the wound. "Ephiny, can you come here and put pressure on this? We need to slow the bleeding down and I can't stitch it up until we have a chance to clean it."
Mariska then dabs at the cuts on her lip and head, pausing to take a deep breath. Sensing Mariska's struggling, Ephiny places a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"I know this is tough, this is a lot different than treating accidents and cooking injuries, and I know seeing Queen Gabrielle and Sam like this is especially difficult, but they are both going to be okay."
"I've done about all I can for right now, we need to get her back to the village. Let me take over on applying pressure, you," but Mariska is interrupted by Gabrielle beginning to stir.
"SAM!" She yells, trying to push herself up and looking around.
"Where's Sam?" She doesn't understand why she can't find her
"Gabrielle, we have Sam, she is okay and safe" Ephiny tries to assure her placing her hands on Gabrielle's shoulders pushing her back down, but Gabrielle continues to thrash and trying to get away from her captures, she punches Ephiny in the face and begins to try and stand up. Ephiny stumbles back from the force of the blow.
Xena, sensing the change sprints towards Gabrielle "Gabrielle, hey, look at me, I have Sam. I have Sam, she is safe" taking Gabrielle's hands into her "I have our baby girl, she will be okay."
Calming down a little hearing this, Gabrielle looks at Xena and begins to sob "Xena, I'm so sorry, I tried to keep her safe, I tried but I just wasn't good enough." Repeating "I'm sorry" over and over again.
"Bri, honey, it's okay, you did protect her, she's gonna be fine. You both are gonna be fine." She assures Gabrielle, trying to get her to calm down, realizing at one point that Gabrielle has managed to stand up "Bri, you need to calm down honey, I need you to calm down, Sam needs you to calm down so we can take care of you. Honey, you are really injured, I need you to let Mariska take care of you." Upon hearing that, her injuries finally register with her, she can't hear anything else that Xena is saying. Xena sees the almost terror in her eyes, her face begins to pale, her eyes roll back in her head and she begins to fall forward, Xena is able to catch her before she hits the ground potentially injuring herself more.
Xena places her onto the awaiting litter. Gabrielle, Mariska, and the Amazon guards head back to where they have set up a temporary camp.
Waiting behind to gather herself, "Ephiny, I almost lost both of them today. And they are both so stubborn, and so much like one another. Neither one worrying about themselves, only upset with themselves for not ensuring that the other wasn't injured." Xena's temperament and pacing increasing "And I should have insisted on tagging along, I knew that this wasn't a good idea."
"Xena! Stop! You sound just like them. You being with them wouldn't have stop this, and them not going wouldn't have worked either. They are alive, they stopped the attack. Did you see the grove, not everyone died from our air attack of by the main cavalry. Gabrielle and/or Sam took out almost a dozen soldiers and your daughter needs to be commended for standing guard like she did, injured, to protect the Queen, her mother. Now you just have to make sure they both see that."
Xena and Ephiny walked back to where Gabrielle and Sam were being tended to.
"Any change Mariska"
"No General, Queen Gabrielle has not woken back up, I gave her something to keep her still, she was unconsciousness but whimpering in pain a good bit. As for Sam, we have patched up her shoulder wound and placed her arm in a sling, she will need to keep it immobile for several weeks. The arrow did not completely penetrate her shoulder but appears as if someone grinded the arrow head into her shoulder. She will need to let the muscles heal as well. I can't be certain until she wakes up, but it appears she banged her head pretty good. As for the Queen, she has lost a good bit of blood, I was finally able to get the bleeding to stop, but still can't place any stiches until we can clean out the wounds. I also can't assess the internal damage to her shoulder right now, the wound is significant and to me it looks like the arrow was removed with a great deal of force. We will know more after she wakes and I can assess her range of motion. While it appears to not have impacted any bones, her shoulder looks to be dislocated. I have it stabilized right now but will need to set it later. She appears to have at least one broken rib, which I have wrapped her ribs. I am sure there are some additional injuries, but these are all the ones I can tell right now. They are both able to be taken back to the village."
"Let's get them loaded up, break down camp, and prepare to return home. Were there any survivors?"
"One General. We have a group heading out to assess those that were on the other side of the ravine, but are doubtful anyone alive will still be there, as long as they head back the way they came. Anyone heading this way, will be dealt with. The one that we found on this side he says his name is Dasani and demands to speak with "the blonde little witch."
"Take him back and place him with their scout, I will deal with them later. I will ride in the wagon with the Queen and Princess."
"Yes General" and Sarah heads off to carry out the General's orders.