Chapter Fifteen

Too Late, But Not

"Sorry, Ares," Xena said, "but you're too late. I changed my mind."

"No way! Not in such a short time."

"You snooze, you lose," Mattie said as she and Gabrielle positioned themselves on both sides of Xena in support. "You had your chance, and you blew it," Gabrielle said

"Damn it!" he exclaimed. "I should have known better to leave you two, three, alone. Twice the influence on Xena, and twice the aggravation for me."

His anger was beginning to grow. "I don't know WHY I put up with it all those years."

Ares put his hand up and a blue energy ball appeared. "I should have done this a long time ago."

But before he could do anything, Annie came from the hallway with the Chakram Mattie had hidden under their mattress. She was slowly spinning it on her finger, with a no-nonsense look on her face.

If anyone had ever interviewed Ares, and if he was one hundred percent truthful, he would have admitted that he feared only two things, the only two things that could kill him -- a dagger dipped in hind's blood, and the dark Chakram. He didn't know if the new, combined Chakram could kill him, but he suspected at the very least, it could cause some very painful damage. But he wasn't willing to find out.

He angrily closed his hand and the energy ball dissipated. "I don't need to be here," he said. "I've got business elsewhere."

"Causing more bloodshed and suffering, no doubt," Annie said.

"Well yeah, if must know. Things have gotten too quiet on the Indian-Pakistani border. And while I'm in the mood, maybe I'll pay another visit to the Israelis and Palestinians."

"Don't let us keep you," Gabrielle said. "You're not wanted here."

Without any parting words, Ares disappeared.

"I see you got it pretty quickly," Xena said. "What, was it under your mattress?"

"It was," Annie answered with a smile, then held out the Chakram to her.

"I guess this is yours."

Xena took it, ran her fingers around it's razor-sharp edge, then said, "Actually, it belongs to all four of us. As I recall, after we died in Japan, it was passed on to Gabrielle." She handed the Chakram back to Annie. "Maybe you can find a safe place for it until we need it."

"So, what was it like?" Harry said, not wanting to be left out. "All four of you together?"

"Kind of strange," Mattie answered. "It was like all of our feelings and thoughts were together, but still separate when we were in our past bodies."

She looked for confirmation from the rest of them.

"That sounds about right," Xena agreed. "We were together, but apart. I could feel, sense, experience all the anguish, and the worry, and especially the love each of us had for the other."

Mattie and Gabrielle concurred.

"And it was also exhausting," Annie added. "I know it's early, but we didn't have much of a lunch. So, Harry, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind fixing supper now?"

"Not at all," he replied. "I can make baked chicken, or spaghetti. Which would you prefer?"

They decided they would like spaghetti.

"Okay. So, why don't the four of you relax, put your feet up, watch some TV, and I'll call you when supper's ready?"

Harry went into the kitchen and started the browning the ground beef, put in the spaghetti to boil, then took out a loaf of French bread to make garlic toast. As he started to slice it, he said to himself, "I wonder if they would like Parmesan cheese on the garlic toast."

He walked back through the dining room to the living room and saw that they had taken his advice to relax, but not exactly the way he expected. Annie was sitting on the love seat with Gabrielle. Her arm was around Gabrielle, and Gabrielle had her head down on Annie's shoulder with one leg across her lap.

Xena was in her usual spot on the end of the sofa, her feet on the coffee table and ankles crossed. Mattie was lying down with her head on Xena's lap, and Xena's fingers were entwined in Mattie's dark red hair as if she had been running her fingers through it. All four of them were asleep.

Harry stood there for a few seconds, trying to figure out how that had happened, then quietly went back into the kitchen. He stirred the spaghetti, then the ground beef, and picked up the knife to start slicing, but put it back down. And with a sigh, and in a sad voice, he said, "Oh, Meg. You're just like a cop -- never around when you're needed."

For most of a minute he let himself think back on the faint and fleeting images of himself and Meg -- drinking and laughing together in Meg's tavern, drinking and laughing when they got married, the drunken wedding night, and the farm and their kids being born and growing up. Then shaking himself from his reverie, he picked up the knife again and began slicing the bread to make the garlic toast.

THE END