On with the show.

Still, nothing is mine.

Xena was fighting panic and a splitting headache as she walked Argo to a high place and turned her loose there. She'd rode through the night, calling for her friend, and had found no sign of her. It had started pouring again and parts of the forest were underwater. Argo needed a rest and a way to get out of the forest if the floodgates broke at the river. Because flood or no flood, Xena would not be leaving the forest unless she had found Gabrielle. Xena combed through every piece of ground she could, crawling or swimming through the cold flood water in case Gabrielle was unconscious and in the water somewhere. She knew she should have stopped and built a fire to dry herself off when the rain stopped, but every moment wasted was another moment closer to failure, and she ignored her body's pleads for warmth. She had to find her friend.

The moon the night before had given her a sense of peril. According to its stage, Xena had lost almost four days. Any number of things could have happened to them in that time, and it wasn't helping her nerves at all. As the sun began to set she noticed she was shaking, probably going into hypothermia, but she refused to rest. The growing darkness brought a growing sense of doom as Xena searched meticulously through every bush she saw for a sign of Gabrielle. In the flowing flood water she stood in, Gabrielle's necklace washed up and wrapped itself around Xena's leg. She blinked unwelcome tears away as she picked it out of the water and pushed onward, willing herself to think positively.

The rain stopped briefly as the sun swept low on the horizon, lighting the shimmering forest in a crimson jeweled fire, and without the roar of raindrops, Xena could suddenly hear the sound of Joxer yelling. She ran towards the sound, up a hill to reveal Joxer wading through waste-deep rapids that had formed in the valley. Argo was behind him, helping him to push against the current with her grand head at his back, and in his arms lay a limp and battered Gabrielle. Xena flew down the hill towards them, helping Argo pull him out of the unstable banks and up onto high ground.

"Joxer," she said as he laid Gabrielle down on the ground and collapsed beside her in exhaustion. "How did you find me?"

"Argo found us," he said, panting. "Xena, the floodgates have broken, everything is under water. If Argo hadn't come, we would have drowned."

"Where did you find her?" Xena asked, taking Joxer's shirt off of Gabrielle and assessing her wounds quickly.

"Couldn't tell you. She's been unconscious for a while, but she was awake when I found her."

"Did she say anything about where she's been?"

"No. Xena, she just clung to me and cried like a little baby. I've never seen her that afraid."

"Her leg is dislocated and broken," she said, almost to herself, and put the pinch on Gabrielle's hip to cut off any sensation as she shoved her leg back into socket and then set the bones at her shin. She took off her arm guards and tied them together, fashioning a splint for Gabrielle's leg. In doing so, she revealed dark bruises on her wrists that looked unmistakably like ligature marks.

Joxer noticed her looking at her wrists with confusion. "Xena what happened to you guys?" He asked.

Almost as an answer to his question, the sky let loose.

"We need to get her out of the rain." Xena said and struggled to lift Gabrielle up off the ground. She was weaker than she expected and it occurred to her that she probably hadn't eaten for days. Joxer reached in quickly and helped her put Gabrielle onto Argo. Xena looked at him in a way that conveyed unspoken thanks and then mounted behind her friend to hold her on the horse. Joxer took the reins from Xena and led the two out of the forest onto the high plains and back towards the village.

"I've got a cottage in that town," he explained.

"Joxer, where's your armor?" Xena asked, fighting to stay awake as they trod weakly through the rain, just now noticing that he was bare-chested.

"There wasn't time to go back for it. It's under water somewhere by now." There was a tone in his voice Xena hadn't heard before. It wasn't one of sadness, but of duty, and Xena looked on him newly with great respect as the village came into view.

Commercial break. :)