a/n: The casting of Lycea was very hard to do, but I finally made my decision of making her Olivia Wilde. I hope you all are enjoying! Review, rate, follow, favorite. Etc. Thank you for your support!

Chapter 2

A day or two later

"Gabrielle...Gabby... Come on sweet pea, wake up!" Aphrodite huffed and puffed in a hasty manner.

"Fine. The hard way." The goddess muttered to herself and snapped a splash of water onto the bard's face.

"What in Tartarus!" Gabrielle yelled and shot straight up.

"Sweetie...you've gotta get up! Xena is on her way back to the tavern and boy will she flip if she finds out you're missing." Aphrodite put her hands up in attempt to show that was something she didn't want to see.

Gabrielle groaned at waking up. She was trying so hard to remember why she slept so hard. Then she remembered, she didn't remember anything at all. And in no time she was looking at her surroundings.

Next to her laid the same woman that danced beside her that night at The L.C. And when her eyes moved back to her own body she shot out of the bed and wrapped the covers around herself.

"Sweet, Aphrodite!" Gabrielle stood wide-eyed and shocked.

The commotion seemed to quickly bring the sleeping woman to life.

"What's going on?"

"We didn't...did we?" The naked Gabrielle started to frantically pace back and forth.

The blue eyes lit up and the woman blushed. "Well...yeah."

"Oh dear Zeus. I don't even remember what happened. All I know was one moment I was dancing and now I'm standing here naked with a woman I don't even know!" The infamous squeal sounded throughout the room.

"The name's Lycea. You've been in and out of sleep for two days, I figured you needed your rest...after all it was a pretty eventful night." Lycea joked, but her voice was so sweet to hear.

It was all so strange to the Bard. She felt so embarrassed and outraged but at the same time she felt so connected to the woman in the bed.

"Well, no time to figure it out now. Xena's almost back!" Aphrodite reminded her that they were in a hurry.

Gabrielle bit hard on her lower lip and tried to quickly figure out something. Anything. She didn't want to leave the situation without knowing what really went down, but she also didn't want an angry Xena.

Although, why in tartarus does she care whether I am there or not when she gets back.

Lycea was now standing in front of the panicking young blonde. She slowly placed her hands on Gabrielle to try and calm her down. The touch was so calming that it stopped Gabrielle dead in her tracks and made her look deep into Lycea's eyes. "It's okay, let's get dressed. I'll go with you." She reassured the Bard.

"Are you sure? I-I mean I don't want you to go out of your way just for me."

"Look. When we get to the tavern we can talk about things and what happened. Maybe, I'll even travel with you some if you'd like?"

For some reason the offer made Gabrielle smile. She nodded, got dressed, and in no time was zapped back to the tavern.

"Gabrielle!" Xena called out from the tavern door.

The three women sighed at the perfect timing.

"Lycea, take care of this one." Aphrodite mentioned. "Gotta go."

The pink shimmer blinded the two and when they finally opened their eyes, a tall figure was hovering above them.

"Oh..." Gabrielle tried to played cool. "X-Xena. Hi." She smiled and then gave a nervous grin to her new companion. Lycea smiled back with full intentions of playing along.

Xena took notice of the exchanging looks between her bard and the other woman. "Who's this?" She asked. For some reason the warrior wasn't impressed with this new 'friend'.

"This..." Gabrielle giggled nervously. "Oh, ha. This is Lycea. We...uh.."

The bard was struggling under the interrogating blue eyes of Xena, and Lycea could tell she was about to crack.

"We're...old friends." Lycea intercepted the attention of Xena; Gabrielle blew out a sigh of relief. She was not ready for Xena to find out what actually happened. Although, with the way Xena left her at the tavern it didn't seem to be any of her business anyway.

"I didn't ask you." Xena snapped back harshly.

"Xena!" Gabrielle gasped taking a defensive stand beside Lycea.

"It's quite alright, Gabrielle." Lycea assured her with another gentle touch.

Xena caught sight of the touch and took a mental note of how Gabrielle reacted. She didn't understand what in Lycea made her blood boil, but she knew that whatever control she had over Gabrielle was a start. Whether it was jealousy or warrior senses tingling Xena was going to get to the bottom of whatever was going on.

"Don't you dare take this out on her, Xena. She did nothing to you."

"Alright." She accepted the challenge. I can play this game too, Gabrielle. "Xena, and you are?" Xena extended her arm out.

"Lycea. Nice to meet you." They shook hands and left it at that.

"Let's go, Gabrielle. We can make it back to Athens in three days if we go now."

She turned to walk away but when she caught a glimpse of the new girl following Gabrielle, she spoke over her shoulder. "She's coming as well?"

"Yes, Xena. Hope you don't mind." Gabrielle grabbed Lycea's hand tight in hers and rushed past the Warrior Princess. She was so furious that Xena kept going with this bitter attitude, and she was about to reach a breaking point.

Xena noticed the angry flee and rolled her eyes.