Chapter 37:Poison

Ares POV

"Poison?..." I barely managed to utter the word. "Do you know the cure?"

For a couple of seconds more, I looked in shock back at her.

"No..." she simply added, as if nothing had happened, and I was more than prepared to yell at her because she was so damn relaxed about it. For Gods sake, I was about to lose her and she acted as if she couldn't care less about it.

"Ares...I know it sounds bad but..."

"No, you don't." I replied angry withdrawing my hand from her grasp.

"Listen to me...it will not kill me." her words made my heart beat again.

"Callisto used this once on me. It will only paralyze me for awhile."

"What?"

"I will..."

"Just paralyze you? You must be kidding me…And you are ok with that? Well… how about the cure, how will you ever come back to…to being normal after all, will it simply go away or what?"

I didn't wait for her answer because I wasn't even sure I would get one. Plus, I was maddened with fury.

"You know something...I don't need to hear this...Good night! If it can be good, but hey, I must be overreacting, since you don't seem to have a problem here!"

I took furiously my sleeping bag away from hers and placed it as far away as possible from the campfire. I didn't want to see her that very then, even if after I laid down I did look at her once in awhile to check for new effects of the poison.

Adam was right there by her side….He was sound asleep and I couldn't help that smile spreading on my face while watching him move in his sleep. He must have been dreaming something nice, cause he looked pretty happy…..

"Have you eaten anything? Are you hungry?" I finally asked her- a stupid question after all given the fact that we had been together the whole time, and I more than knew what she had eaten and when, but I just couldn't stand the silence any more.

Taking a good look at her, I could still see how tense her body was. "I can go hunt something….." I added on a lower tone.

"I'm fine!" she simply replied, and I did do my best to guess if she was angry at me too…..I couldn't reach a conclusion based on one line so I figured that getting her to talk more might help…..I hated being mad at her and I was well aware that she hated having to be mad at me …

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah."

Her monosyllabic answer definitely discouraged me from taking that conversation any further.

I closed my eyes in the vain attempt to get some sleep myself, but I knew that that was an impossible task to achieve especially knowing that she was soon about to start feeling worse and worse each minute.

Instead of trying to evade to Morpheus' land, I just fixed my eyes on a star in the sky, trying to picture something nice, imagining a possible future with her when I suddenly heard Adam's cries.

I didn't wake up at first knowing that Xena was right there by his side and that she would pick him up in her arms in no time, but I got up instantly when I noticed that she hadn't moved a finger in that direction.

Something was obviously wrong.

I rushed to her side and, as soon as he saw me, my son stopped crying, looking at me in wonder with his big brown eyes.

"What do you want baby boy? Huh? Are you hungry? Cold?" I took a blanket from his basket and wrapped it around him.

"Better now?"

He smiled.

Once that was over, I finally got the chance to get a better look at Xena. I placed a hand on her shoulder trying to wake her up but there was no reaction….

My heart started thundering in my chest.

"Xena?"

I tried louder.

"Xena!...? "

I swallowed hard. I didn't want to think why was she not responding because the thought alone was killing me.

I placed my hand on her face; she was cold….I feverishly checked her pulse, at her neck first and then at her wrists. My heart stopped when I found out that her heart wasn't beating anymore. NO...NO…NO!

"Wake up now!...Xena wake up!" I shook her lightly but she wouldn't respond.

"Wake up damn it! Xenaaa!" In the empty air only my cries were heard.