Chapter 40:I'm sorry!

Gabrielle POV

I remained unmoved next to the door waiting. I tried hard to recognize the figures in front of me but I couldn't…they were too far away to distinguish anything. Everything that I could see were just two horses and a rider.

After the rider got close enough, he dismounted his horse and approached me but I still couldn't see his face as clearly as I had wanted it to, given the grim darkness of the night.

As he came closer the moon light finally shined above him. It was...Ares. I was extremely relieved to see him - till I saw his sad face that is and the pain darkening his features.

"Ares…what happened?"

"I'm sorry!" he kept repeating all over again, for minutes...tears streaming down his face. I had never seen him like that before…I was speechless.

Then it suddenly hit me! The only thing that could have brought him to that state was Xena…..Something was wrong with my friend!

"Where is she?" I murmured, my heart already aching before he even gave me an answer.

It stunned me that he couldn't bear looking me in the eyes. The mere thought of having lost her made me sick to my stomach.

"No…no...it can't be…Where is she, dammit?"

"I couldn't save her...I…"

"No...! "

Tears escaped my eyes too. "I don't understand..."

"What do you not understand, she's gone…gone."

"Shh...Eve is upstairs…"

Eve…poor thing. She waited for her mother so much and now…I couldn't even say the words.

"Don' tell her...not yet."

"But how?...Where is Adam?"

"Aphrodite has him. She will bring him back, tomorrow morning…Make some room for her, please!"

I nodded, still in shock and I moved mechanically inside the house preparing a bed for

my friend.

After no more than a few minutes, the door opened and my gaze followed the sound. There she was, in Ares's arms, unmoving. I could not believe it. We overcame so much together and now that we were apart for just a freaking week, there she was…dead…dead in his arms…For a moment I wanted so much to hurt him, to scream at him that it was all his fault but nothing could have hurt him as much as he had hurt in that same moment.

Ares put her with care on the bed. She was as beautiful as ever, laying down just as if she were sleeping...I couldn't take it anymore…I moved out from the room looking for a place to sit down, literally feeling my feet turning into jelly. I wanted nothing more than to cry and mourn her but I was well aware that wasn't going to bring her back and then Eve was waiting for me so I tried to recompose myself and followed the door to her room.

"You said that you would come back in a blink." she said when I entered her room.

"Sorry sweetie. I'm here now. " I tried to smile while taking a sit on the bed, next to her.

"Try this..." she handed me one of my scrolls and I looked inside it to see which one it was…it was the first time I had met Xena. I read it in my head for a few times and unconsciously, tears began flowing and flowing down my cheeks.

"Gab, why are you crying?" she questioned, bringing her tiny hand to my face and wiping the tears away. "You miss mommy too? She will come, you will see..." My heart broke over and over again hearing her say those words.

"Yes sweetie…Come, sleep now."

"But the story?"

"Another time, ok?"

"Ok."

She gave up after some time and just closed her eyes and that night she slept as never before that week.

As for me, I couldn't close my eye all night long. I remained in Eve's room but my brain was on the verge of exploding from the pressure, vainly trying to find a reason to why and how had that happened, memories filling my mind like hungry vultures.

At dawn, I finally took a decision. Ares knew what happened, and I was going to force it out of him if I had to, the Bastard . If he did something, I would personally kill him.

So with that in mind, I left Eve sleeping peacefully and I entered Xena's room. My friend was on the bed but Ares was nowhere to be seen so I started to search for him, descending the stairs and opening the front door of the house just to find him there…He was standing on the porch, looking very lost to me. War had loved and lost….

When I touched his shoulder he shuddered and turned his face away from me, but I could already see his red, tired eyes.

I tried to say something but I couldn't find my voice. He was obviously as hurt as I was…

"Xena..." he thought that I was her…He desperately wanted me to be her.

"Was it Athena?" I finally asked after a few more moments of painful, deep silence.

"Not directly...I…I don't know…" he replied, but his voice was so low and cracked that I barely heard it. "I can't do this right now. Sorry!"

"Ares! Wait! Hey!" I screamed but he didn't want to hear me. He took his horse and rode away. Where? I had no idea or if he was planning to come back.

"Gab!" I turned around to see Aphrodite standing right back at me with Adam in her arms. "I didn't want to startle you."

"Adam..." She gave him to me. He looked bigger than a week ago. Babies do grow fast….

I smiled at him and he smiled back but then tears formed again into my eyes knowing that he would grow up without a mother.

"I'm so so sorry sweet pie."

"What happened Aphrodite?" I asked with half my mouth taking a seat on the stairs in front of the house.

She took a seat next to me.

"I don't know very well but it was poison."

"Why didn't they find a cure or something? Xena knows all about these things."

"I know, but Xena said to my brother that it would be a mere paralysis. I guess she was wrong. That's all I know. I was fixing my hair when I heard his cries. By all gods, I have never heard him so hurt as that day. You saw him. I think…" but she never ended her phrase. I just saw her stricken face and for a moment there I felt so bad for him.

"I need to go back...Athena you know… but you are safe here with the children...And don't worry. He will come back...to his children. He will come back Gab!" I didn't know if she was telling me this or if she was telling it to herself. I could tell though that she was worried about him.