Chapter 19:Blue matches your eyes

Gabrielle POV

"So Evie, what do you think sweetie, does your mommy looks gorgeous in that dress, or what?" I asked little Eve who was on the bed looking at us with her wide open baby blue moons.

"Gabrielle..I look horrible.! Maybe if I could make my battledress more…" Xena began complaining stopping in mid sentence the minute she realized how ridiculously unnaturally the words have sounded.

The problem was her pregnancy was starting to show and she didn't want her leather dress changed…I spend hours trying to convince her that her tummy was barely visible.…Truth being told she sure needed another dress, a much more comfortable and larger one...

"Xena you look lovely.."

"No, I look as a damsel in distress."

I just had to laugh at that….It was the most ludicrous idea I had ever heard in my life….Xena looking like a damsel in distress…. .

"You could never look like that and we both know it…Plus..look at your daughter..She likes you this way.."

Xena shifted her gaze to the bed finding Eve giggling and playing…..She finally took a deep breath.

"She doesn't want to stop playing with that damn pendant. .."

It was the same medallion that Ares had given Eve when he dropped by three months before… It had turned into Eve's favorite toy and there was nothing my friend could possibly do about it. She was furious at first or so I had thought until the day I saw her playing with it - without her knowing it of course-….She looked pretty pensive back then…

After Xena threw his medallion at his feet, that very night he came to her room.

I was there too:

Xena was sitting on the bed with me talking while Eve was searching for something to play with:the coverlet, her mother's hair, my hair, everything that she touched had the habit of turning into her play thing ..She was such a sweetheart trying to discover the world around her.

A knock on the door brought our conversation to a stop and we looked up when the door opened.

"What are you doing here?" Xena inquired coldly, using the most incredibly defensive tone I had ever heard her use….

Ares came in as if he didn't hear Xena at all..I hated that attitude so much! I guess it reminded me to much of that selfish, arrogant Bastard he used to be :The God of War. I could tell Xena felt the same way.

"This isn't mine anymore..It belongs to Eve."

He had his pendant in his hands and saying that, he just placed it slowly on the edge of the bed.

Xena got in a hurry as if that tiny object could bite or something.

"It's yours Ares…I don't want my daughter to have anything to do with War."

"I'm not War anymore.."

"Maybe…but old habits die hard and that bloody sign is engraved on your pendant as far as I can recall..."

"It's only a sign..It doesn't mean anything.."

"For me it does.."

"Why must you take everything personally? Not everything revolves around you, Xena! "

"Because it is personally.."

While they were arguing on who should keep the medallion, Eve had successfully crawled to the other side of the bed, until she had the item in her hands and smiled.

"Your daughter seems to think otherwise.." He replied proudly, capturing Eve's eyes. Xena turned around and saw Eve having fun with it, her face all a contagious smile.

"No thanks necessary!" He added simply and got out the door, leaving Xena completely dumbfounded.

"She likes it and she likes him too Xena.."

She could deny it all she wanted but that was the truth, Eve had become dangerously attached to Ares.

My friend touched gently her round belly and changed the subject.

"How about this one?"

"Good choice..blue matches your eyes.." I answered automatically, turning my head in the direction of the only dress that had managed to catch her attention.

We got into the kitchen to have our breakfast right afterwards.

"Xena you look wonderful.."

Her mother cheered the instant she saw her entering the room.

"Thanks mom!"

It was a peaceful meal. Cyrene had some clients to attend to so she was more in the other room than with us.

"My mom likes to praise her granddaughter." Xena said after her mother took Eve with her.

"Eve is happy Xena..She has you in her life…her grandmother…me….soon she will even have a baby brother….What more could a little girl ask for? "

"A father…"

It was a silent answer but I could read it on her face very clearly. She didn't get the chance to voice it though because we were soon interrupted.

"Ohh there you are….How are you today Princess?"

Ares….In but a matter of seconds our shoulders were touching. He had taken a seat by my side, at a safe distance away from Xena….My guess was that he was trying to avoid any reason for an argument….

He wasn't wearing his leather vest anymore but a T-shirt that Cyrene had given him and a pair of normal pants so that if you didn't look at how worked out his body was, he could very easily pass as a true farmer ….That was a bit….awkward, I give you that. It was freaking me out.

"I guess you were never the talkative type. ?..I like your new dress though, it matches your eyes.."

Xena tensed at the comment and cast me an accusing glare.

He started to eat too but the tension was so obviously floating through the air cause five minutes later he just had to ask:

"How much longer can you let this play, huh? I didn't do anything! If you had the patience to hear me out for just a sec…"

"I'm so sick and tired of hearing you out all the time! Why don't you hear me out for once and leave me alone?!"

"Do you really mean that?"