Chapter 46:Thinking things through
Hercules POV
Stunned…that was the perfect word to describe how I felt…And to that, you can also add revolted ...I just couldn't believe my ears… Ares giving up on his immortality to save Xena….Xena who had recently placed all her trust in him? Him out of all people? That trash? ...I hated him that moment more than I had ever hated him in my life ...He had surely backed Xena into a corner, and I couldn't save her from him because I wasn't there...How stupid of me! And now they had a child together because he had somehow forced her to agree. I was going to kill him, no doubt in my mind about it. Only thinking about it made my fingers curve into a punch.
"Hercules...?"
"I...I can't believe it…Xena can't...she can't trust him, Gabrielle...He will never change…After everything he has put her through, after all that she suffered, and you too...how..."
I was speechless.
"Hercules...I don't know what Xena thinks...but she went after him...I…you didn't see him all this time...He appeared changed...He actually…"
"Very good said...appeared. He is a very good actor...the best...I know him, Gabrielle but don't worry, I will set things right...But I need some fresh air first..."
With that, I got up from the table and left the house. I felt like I was suffocating.
I needed to think a bit about all that new information…Logically, Xena would never give into him, so she must have a plan of some sort…
When I went to Amphipolis I hoped that I would find her there but her mother told me otherwise so when I saw Joxer, I knew that he was my ticket to her...I was such an idiot that I didn't insist in staying by her side after she gave birth two years ago...I could have been there, with her…maybe a father to Eve now...I regretted so much that we never made it further into our relationship…Too many "could have" …But now, all that would change: I would take her from Ares all over again...He can't win, he doesn't deserve Xena, he doesn't deserve any decent human being by his side, simply because he is a monster...I was so furious that he had managed once more to intervene in Xena's life...Not for long though….Her child would be mine and we would be together again...She had to listen to me….
An hour later, when all my worries vanished, my heart became lighter...I knew what I had do…bring Xena back to me, be a family: me, her, Eve and Adam.
I made my way back to the house but there was nobody in the kitchen anymore.
"Gabrielle..."
She didn't answer so I took the stairs up, thinking that someone had to be up there.
"Gabrielle...?"
"I'm in here...", a small voice replied. I opened the door to a room not far from where I was. Joxer was trying to calm little Eve.
"I want mommy…Adam wants her too..." the little girl had tears in her eyes.
Gabrielle looked at her with a sympathetic smile.
"Come Evie…Joxer will tell you a story...Do you like stories?" Eve just nodded at Joxer, her tears stopping for a moment.
"Well come on then, I am the best storyteller in all Greece! Have you ever heard the story of the black swan? ..." Joxer took her in his arms and Gabrielle muttered a silent thank you to him before leaving.
Adam who had been crying silently in Gabrielle's arms by then, suddenly started to express his dissatisfaction louder ...I came next to her and I looked at him for the first time. He really was Ares's copy, same face, same hair, same eyes…but he was just a child, an innocent.
"He wouldn't stop crying..." Gabrielle added worried, just a whisper.
"Isn't his temperature a bit too high? ..." she added…
I put a hand on his forehead to discover that indeed he had quite a fever.
"He's burning!..."
"He is so small…barely one week old…He won't last if the temperature doesn't drop…He won't..."
Tears were escaping Gabrielle's eyes.
"Everything will be alright...Xena will come on time and he will be just fine..." I looked through the window...It was already dark outside…
I put a comforting hand on Gabrielle's shoulders hoping that indeed Xena wasn't far away…and that she will get back in time to save her son.