Happy New Year everyone! The story's finished. I scrapped the ending I had before and started from scratch. It just wasn't believable – to me anyway. I know most of the things that happened on Xena were sometimes unbelievable, but I wanted the ending to be as believable as the beginning.

Right now I'm just editing. I'll be posting as often as I can.

Thanks for all the reviews. Makes me feel appreciated.

Stagette Party

"Now that they've gone we can have our own party!" Dite said excitedly when the men had disappeared.

"Party? Like the one Ares is getting?" Gabrielle asked struggling to ignore the fact that she already missed him.

"Yes, but ours will be better," the goddess vowed, "Let's go."

She grabbed the bride-to-be and orbed out.

"Where are we?" Gabrielle asked trying to stop the world from spinning. Funny, she never got dizzy when Ares did it.

"In one of Artemis' forests,"

Sure enough the Goddess of the Hunt was there with several other goddesses. Dite led Gabrielle into a house made of fabric. The interior was lighted with candles that didn't seem to burn the fabric considering how close they were. There were sofas for lounging and a table groaning with food and drink.

"Since this has never been done before I'll be tweaking as we go along," Dite said as she sank gracefully onto her sofa.

There were muscular men dressed in loin cloths with a piece of black leather around their neck fashioned like a butterfly. There was one assigned to each woman. He fed her, massaged her, and generally saw to her comfort.

"This is great," Athena moaned as her man worked his magic.

"I agree," Aphrodite sighed as her man massaged her feet, "This was one of my better ideas."

Gabrielle just moaned.

----

"Nobody move!" the voice intruded into Gabrielle's pleasant haze.

The women all froze in shock as they saw two men in army uniform burst into the tent.

"This is a raid! We're looking for someone named Gabrielle Potedia,"

There was only one Gabrielle in the room and she had adopted the place of her birth as her bard name.

"I'm Gabrielle," she said as strongly as she could. Inside she was shaking like a leaf. The relaxing feeling of a moment before had evaporated completely. She cursed the fact that she'd let Dite talk her into leaving her weapons at the temple. "What seems to be the problem?"

"There's a poster for your arrest," the one that seemed to be the spokesperson said. She had to admit that he was a beautiful man. In fact besides the gods, he might be the best looking man in the world.

"What for?" she was starting to feel frantic. She was getting married tomorrow dammit!

He didn't answer. He turned to the man next to him and commanded, "Take her."

Gabrielle struggled. She could fight and escape, but with her luck they'd show up at the wedding. That was not an option. She decided to get everything settled tonight.

"What am I being arrested for?"

Neither of them answered.

"You have to at least tell me that!" she shouted in frustration. Suddenly music filled the air.

"You, Gabrielle Potedia, are under arrest for being too beautiful,"

The two men started rubbing against her removing their clothes while Gabrielle stood in shock. Her mind blank. Then she realized what must have happened.

She was going to KILL her bridal helper! She was going to steal one of Cupid's arrows and…

All thoughts of murdering the Goddess of Love disappeared from her mind when Adonis started nuzzling her neck.