No apologies for this one. yay! (I think) Thanks to all my faithful reviewers! You are da bomb. I promise to keep this going strong for you!

I own no characters except the characters I own.

:)

Xena awoke to find Gabrielle watching her. She grumbled, "I hate when you do that."

Gabrielle just smiled, a million thoughts flying across her eyes. "What were you dreaming about?"

"I don't know, why?"

"You were smiling."

"Hm." Xena grunted, not really interested, and stretched. "You hungry?"

"Not really," she said. "But Xena, when do I get to bathe?" She expected Xena to have some sort of complaint or quip or something, but the warrior surprised her by getting out of bed, coming around to the other side, and holding out her arm.

"Today," she said. "After lunch."

"Really?" Gabrielle was surprised. "How will we get there -- I mean, I don't think I can walk at all."

"I had a feeling you'd want one as bad as I did once you were awake long enough, so I did some trading in town last night and I got us a cart we can put you on until you're strong enough to walk. It should be delivered this afternoon." She braced Gabrielle with her outstretched arm and helped her sit up, then abandoned her. "I'm gonna find us something to eat."

"Xena, I'm not hungry." Gabrielle called out. In truth she was starving, but last night's stew was threatening to kick into reverse.

"I know," Xena said, returning with a couple of pieces of fruit and some bread. She stuck a hunk of bread in Gabrielle's hand. "Just have that, it won't hurt you."

Gabrielle pretended to scowl at Xena as Xena sat down on the bed beside her. "You are so stubborn sometimes."

"Likewise," Xena returned, talking around the hunk of pear in her mouth. "Where's Joxer?"

"I think he went out back to do something in the garden."

They were sitting there, delighted in each other's company and wrapped up in the normalcy of chatting over breakfast, when the door suddenly swung open and a whole new world came bursting through.

Two children -- a towheaded boy of about nine and a brown-haired girl of about six darted into the cottage, squealing, from under the arm of a curly-haired woman with an infant in a sling at her hip.

"Maxius, stop chasing your sister. I won't ask you again." She said, then looked up at the startled women in the cottage and blushed wildly. "Oh, dear, I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to just barge in..."

Xena spoke up. "It's fine," she said, standing to welcome her. Gabrielle looked over at Xena, not knowing what was going on. "We were just having breakfast. You must be Joxer's sister."

"That's right, I'm Mira, pleased to meet you." She shook Xena's hand hard enough to make the warrior wince. "You must be Xena," she said, then offered her hand to Gabrielle, "and Gabrielle." Seeing the bandages on the bard's wrists she merely took her hand and gently patted it.

Gabrielle decided she liked Mira almost immediately for her warm voice and bright smile. Xena took in that her children had stopped squealing the moment she'd raised her voice and were standing aside very politely waiting to be introduced. She was impressed. She and Gabrielle both acknowledged them with a smile.

"Oh, yes," Mira said, holding up her arm for her kids to gather in front. "This is my oldest, Maxius, he's nine and thinks he's old enough for the army."

Maxius tipped his head back to look at his mother. "I am, Mother, Uncle Jett said so."

"Your uncle Jett is a fool." She said as kindly as she could, squeezing the back of his neck playfully. "You are going to school before you do anything else."

Xena saw the boy scowling and spoke up. "You know your mom's right. Armies don't hire people any more who haven't been to school."

"That's right," Mira said, "And Xena would know better, she used to have an army. Your uncle only served in one."

He turned, wide-eyed to Xena, missing the point. "You used to have an army??"

"Alright," Mira said. "Go find your uncle Joxer and tell him we're here."

The boy scampered off and Mira took a deep breath and moved on to the next child. "This is my little Gwynnie." She said, putting her hand on her daughter's head. "She's six; my little songbird."

Gabrielle smiled at her. "Do you sing?" She asked.

The girl stared at her stubbornly and didn't answer.

Mira spoke up, smirking. "She sings. Don't you, Gwyn?"

"Yes Mommy."

"She just doesn't speak to strangers." She said, smiling apologetically at the women. "Gwynnie, these are your uncle Joxer's closest friends. This is Gabrielle, and Xena. Remember? From the stories?"

The little girl smiled sheepishly, curtsied, and then ran away.

"Give her 'til dinner and she'll be crawling in your lap." Mira said, sparkling with humor and love. "And the creature at my hip is the newest, and the most popular at the moment with all the screaming she does."

For some reason Gabrielle was enthralled with the child, and hid it poorly. She wanted to hold that baby, but she didn't dare ask. Xena simply flashed the baby-smile down at her and put a steadying hand on Gabrielle's shoulder. "What do you call her?" Xena asked.

"Creature." Mira said. "No, only joking. She's called Chloe."

"She's beautiful," Gabrielle spoke up, then suddenly turned into her mother. "I'm so sorry about the mess," she started, but Mira cut her off.

"Oh no," she said. "Trust me. For Joxer, this is very clean. Speaking of the youngest brother, is he around somewhere?"

"He's out back." Xena said, and started to escort her.

"Oh, don't worry, I know my way around." Mira told her, shooing her. "Please, finish your breakfast." She turned and left, giving no chance for either of the two women to argue with her even if they had wanted to.

--

Outside, Joxer had been ambushed by his niece and nephew and was "trying very hard" to escape from their restraint. He was a sight - hair completely disheveled, tunic turned sideways, and a couple of stray bundles of weeds were sticking out of his armpit on one side. Mira felt her heart go warm at the sight of him. The children spent a lot of time with their uncle Jett, much to Mira's dismay, and would never get this kind of warmth and affection from him. And it had been so long since she last saw her favorite brother.

Joxer peered between the two children and saw his sister walking up. His face changed for an instant when he first saw her, and then went back to glowing at her children. In that split second, though, Mira had picked up all she needed to know. She laughed quietly and said, "Alright, children, stop beating up your uncle. Maxius, why don't you go to the stables and finish teaching your sister about horses?"

Gwyn squealed in delight and Maxius let out a long sigh. "Oh, alright," he said begrudgingly, and taking his sister's hand, sauntered across the alley and into the stables.

Mira turned to Joxer and hugged him with her baby-free arm, and then cut to the chase. "What's the matter?"

Joxer took a deep breath, trying to fix his hair. "Did you get my message?"

"I did. Joxer, I'm so sorry. I know how you feel about her."

He hated that she was offering him condolences when she was the one who just lost a child. But his mouth ran ahead before his mind had figured out how to express this. "It's worse than I thought."

"I know," Mira crooned, picking the weeds out of his shirt. "She was raped."

"How did you know?"

"I met her inside. She had that hollow look in her eye I saw all the time in the hospital while the village was occupied. You know how I am ... she just had that look." She helped him brush the final crumbs of soil from his shirt and said very carefully, "You've got a look right now too, one I never thought I'd see on you."

"What's that?"

His sister waited a beat and looked him in the eye, almost as though insisting he keep in mind who she was before she answered. "You've got murder in your eye."