Xena's wounds were worse than she was willing to admit. When Marta examined the warrioress she discovered two broken ribs in addition to the severe bruising. She made a poultice and ordered Xena to get bedrest for three solid days. Xena threatened to be anything but a cooperative patient. Marta had to assign Xena- duty to the children to make sure the warrior stayed in bed. Since he didn't require the sleep necessary to mortals, Ares took the night shift.

The first night, Xena had slept like a log. Ares assumed her peaceful slumber had had something to do with the strong-smelling tea Marta had brought Xena before she had headed back to her own lodgings that evening. After only a few sips, Xena had dozed off and didn't rouse again until the second cock crow. Ares had enjoyed watching her sleep. He could never tire of her timeless beauty. He had always been mesmerized by her glacial eyes. The fact that they remained closed the entire night had allowed him to take in her other regal attributes. He was captivated. She was something to behold. A goddess whether she realized it or not. Her dark hair had spilled over her shoulders, a lock rested across her collarbone. He had ached to suckle along it and up her neck to her jaw and succulent lips.

As Ares came back to the temple for the second night to relieve Mikal, he realized that Xena was restless and that she wouldn't be sleeping so soundly that night.

Though Ares' sudden arrival startled Mikal, he recovered quickly from the shock, "Thank the gods, you're here. She's grumpy tonight," he thumbed toward Xena.

"You being a bad girl, again?" Ares waggled his eyebrows and took a seat at one of the klismos chairs that made up the reading nook.

Xena shook her head and smirked at him, "Let's see you lay up in bed all day and see how in Hades you like it."

"Depends on the company," Ares taunted.

Xena gave him a look that said not with Mikal in the room.

"Right," Ares answered.

"I'll look after her Mikal, are you staying here or going back to the tavern?"

"I'm staying here, I'm sleeping on the couch in the front room. If you need anything let me know. Kallias will be here in the morning to take over."

"Tell her to go ahead and sleep in, I got things in order today so I could stay through tomorrow night without leaving."

"You sure?" Mikal yawned.

"Yes, now get some sleep yourself," Ares ordered but Xena could hear genuine concern in the command.

Mikal pulled the door closed softly as he left Xena and the god alone.

"I kinda like the kinder, gentler, more compassionate god of war," Xena pushed herself up on her elbows.

"If you don't lay back down, you're gonna see the meaner, harsher, more wicked god of war, Xena. Marta said if you're not very still that you could make things worse."

"Ares, I've treated enough battle wounds to know how to handle this. I wish everyone would just quit babying me!" She huffed but she laid back down nonetheless.

"Look, I know what a first-rate healer you are, Xena. But, I also know how stubborn of a woman you are and I know that you will push yourself and you don't like accepting help from others because you think it makes you weak, but it doesn't. Now, like I told you the other day, I will chain you if I have to!"

"Hmph," she grunted and thought about how fun it was going to be to get even with him!

"I'm sorry? Did you have something to say?" Ares propped back in the chair and kicked his feet up on the table. He twined his fingers behind his head and extended his elbows out. He looked at hard at Xena, "You are dying to call my bluff! Behave yourself."

"Fine," she cried, "what did you find out about the metal Sarkon was using?"

"Oh, you'll love this. Apollo! Bastard didn't even bother to remove his insignia from the sword."

"Did you confront him?"

"Oh yeah, we reached an understanding of sorts."

"How's that?"

"I kinda told him you were worshipping me again and that you were even staying here in my temple and I warned him that if he pulled any stunt like that again that I would personally finish the so-called Twilight and I'd start with him!"

"So he sent Sarkon after you?" Xena was furious.

"Not so much sent him after me but he equipped him with the metal and told him there was good raiding to be had in this area. He knew that I had my army up here. He knew that a showdown was inevitable. Of course, he had no way of knowing that I would personally take the battlefield against Sarkon but he gave him the metal hoping that such a scenario would play out."

"He's the god of prophecy Ares, how can you be so sure he didn't have some idea that you would face Sarkon?" Xena was getting angrier and angrier. If Apollo wanted to kill Ares, he'd have to come through her first. And, although she might not have the power to kill gods anymore, she did have many skills and there were ways to kill a god, she'd find one if need be.

"I don't want to talk about him anymore, Xena. Zandar is holding a meeting in Phillipi tomorrow with some magistrates from the surrounding area. I've asked Marta to go and represent Amphipolis, I hope that's okay with you."

"Ares, I should go,"

He shook his head, "you're in no shape, besides, I've already taken her there. Zandar promised to escort her home after the meeting."

Xena raised up again, wincing as she tried to swing her legs off the side of the bed.

Ares was up and at her side in an instant.

"Xena," he raised his voice. "Please, I don't want to be the bad guy, here."

"Oh but I love it when you're the bad guy!" She teased but grabbed her side in pain. She laid back down exhausted and defeated.

A tear of frustration rolled down her cheek.

"Hey, it's okay, you're gonna get better, it's just gonna take a couple of days. Of course, I could fix it for you." He dug into his pant's pocket and fished out a leather pouch.

She knew what the contents were before she smelled the sweet aroma of the ambrosia when it fell out into his open palm.

He stood in front of her on the side of the bed extending his immortality-filled hand toward her mortal and wounded form.

It would be so easy to just take it. He didn't understand her hesitation. Maybe she didn't love him. Maybe he was deluding himself to think there was even a glimmer of a chance. He walked closer. The food of the gods was inches from her face.

Xena reached her hand to his. His heart raced. Finally, Finally, she was going to become his goddess. She looked him deep in the eyes. All she saw was love and longing. Gods she loved this man. She yearned to join him, to take the ambrosia, to be his. To live an immortal life with the god of her choice.

"You know, Ares, sometimes I think you forget that you are my Chosen too," she smiled as she closed his hands over the ambrosia. "But I'm not ready for that, yet."

Yet? Yet? Had he heard her correctly? His heart backflipped in his chest.

He swallowed hard. She loved him. That was enough. Maybe she wouldn't take the ambrosia right now but he had as much as gotten a promise of hope from her with that one statement.

He wordlessly returned the gelatinous food to it's pouch and re-pocketed it.

He gingerly climbed in bed with her doing his best not to jostle her.

"I know I used to be your Chosen, but things have been so strained between us for so long and when you gave birth to Eve, I just assumed that your allegiance rested with the god of Eli. Do you consider yourself an Elijan, Xena?"

"I love my daughter dearly, but I don't consider myself an Elijan in the same sense that she does, no. But, Ares I don't mean that I choose to worship you. When I think of you as my Chosen, I don't mean that I want to be your supplicant. I mean that I want to be your woman. It's just that things have gotten so complicated between us. There's a lot of blood under the bridge."

"I know and it's mostly my fault, but Xena, if you give me the chance, I swear I will honor it."

"What about the Scorpion and the Swan?"

"I was being an ass, Xena. I was posturing. I was hurt because you rejected another opportunity to be with me with when you refused to eat Odin's apples. I do need and want worshippers, of course, but hurting you never has to be a part of that, I am sorry."

"I am sorry too," Xena nestled up against him. Ares raised his left arm above his head to allow her to use his chest as a pillow.

"What do you have to be sorry for, baby?" He kissed the crown of her head.

"I haven't been completely blameless, Ares. I did use your affections for me against you on a number of occassions. And, when you tried to tell me how your feelings for me had evolved, I wasn't ready to hear it, so I mocked you and taunted you."

The lay in companionable silence for a minute, each processing the other's apology. Xena could hear his immortal heart beating in his chest. The steady rhythm was comforting. She wondered just how long it had been beating. Then she wondered how many other "favorites" had shared nights like this with him.

"Why me?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean of all the mortal women, hell, all the immortal women you could have, why torment yourself with a pain in the ass like me?

"Xena, I have asked myself that many a lonely night. It would be so much easier for me if I didn't love you. At first, I thought it was because you walked away. I mean that hurt my pride, especially because of how you left."

"Hercules," they had never discussed it but she knew that it had to have hurt. The sibling rivalry between the two had always been intense. Zeus had only exacerbated the situation by doting on Hercules and berating Ares every chance he got. Xena had often wondered if Zeus' rejection of his oldest son was a rejection of Hera more than it was a disappointment in Ares himself. Either way, Ares definitely suffered from the lack of fatherly affection.

"Yeah, good old Hercules," Ares answered wryly and continued, "Anyway, I knew it was more than you just leaving. It was more than losing a favorite warrior. I've seen many come and go. There's just something about you that I can't quite pin down. You're beautiful, but so are many goddesses and mortal women. You're strong and intelligent. You don't take any shit from me or anybody else. One thing I have always found attractive about you is your dogged determination to do things your way. As annoying as it is, especially right now when I could heal you with the touch of a hand, you've never let me provide you with an easy way out. I've always admired it. You've come back from insurmountable odds so many times, Xena. I've had thousands of women, Xena, thousands of women and no one even comes close to what I feel for you. I've even had other female warriors who I've been amorous with it but nothing completes me like you. I guess the main thing is that I always felt whole. For my entire immortal existence, I never felt empty, until you left. When you took your presence from me, when you took your allegiance, your love, for the first time in my life I felt incomplete. Don't you?"

Xena thought back to Clytie and the sunflowers and answered honestly, "Yes."

Ares reached down and kissed her softly on the lips. She returned the kiss and ran her fingers through the curls that had started to grow again at the nape of his neck.

"I love you, Xena," Ares said and kissed her again, "I know you can't promise me forever, I understand that but. . ."

She placed two fingers on his lips, "shh, let's not talk about tomorrow or eternity, let's just live for the now." She thumbed his bottom lip then traced the beard that outlined his jaw before kissing him again.

He acquiesced by deepening the kiss.

"Stay with me in the bed tonight. Hold me. Tomorrow will take care of itself," Xena promised.

Ares pulled Xena in closer and tightened the blankets around them. With a wave of his hand he extinguished all the candles and lamps in the bedroom.

Xena drifted off to dream in her Chosen's arms.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXAAAAAAAAAAAAAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Two weeks later Gabrielle returned from Potidea. Lila and Sarah accompanied her. Xena was relieved to see that a young blacksmith also traveled in their entourage. Peteos had apprenticed with his father Otus, who had been Perdicas' older brother. He had been searching for an opportunity to leave Potidea for the past two years. He had almost left with a group of merchants who had gone the previous spring to start a new polis on the southern coast of the Mediterranean. The chance to work in Amphipolis lured him because he would be able to run his own shop but also be close enough to home should his parents need him.

Marta had also been able to bring back a couple of new residents with her from the meeting of area city-states that Zandar had held. The town was starting to take on a new life. Xena was confident that Amphipolis would bounce back and be a thriving polis once again.

Gabrielle had been surprised to learn of the events that had taken place in her absence. She was glad that the threat of Sarkon was gone but upset that she had not been by Xena's side when she needed her.

"You should have sent for me," Gabrielle told Xena as she swept the floor to the throne room.

"I happened so fast. . ."

"Uh-huh, don't pull that crap," Gabrielle interrupted, "Ares was here, he could have had me here in a flash."

"I didn't want you to get hurt, I thought you would be safer in Potidea."

"I meant after the battle, I could have helped with you wounds. What if you had . . ." Gabrielle couldn't finish the thought. The idea of losing Xena again was too painful.

"It wasn't that bad, just some bruising and the two ribs, I feel much better. Besides I had plenty of 'help' if you can call it that. Marta had the kids practically keeping me captive."

"And Ares, of course."

"Yes, Ares," Xena couldn't help the smile that brightened her face.

"So you two seem chummy, what's going on with that?"

Xena wasn't sure herself what exactly was going on with that. After the night Ares had spent holding her, they had come to a new phase in their relationship. He had stayed with her every night that Olympus or war had not called him away. They had slept in one another's arms and had engaged in kissing and heavy petting but he was too concerned with her injuries to have intercourse. She had begged him to let her pleasure him orally but he refused. He told her that the next time they were together, he wanted all of her.

"Well, I don't really know what to call it but we've . . . we're . . . well . . ."

"By the gods Xena, just say it already!"

"Say what?"

"You're fucking him?"

"That's crude Gabrielle, and for your information we have not 'fucked'!"

"Well, what then," Xena could really be exasperating.

"Well, we're, I don't know, involved I guess."

"Involved?"

"Yes, he's been staying with me. In bed with me, I think I might be in love with him."

"You think?"

"No, I know that I am. But I don't know what to do with it." Xena slumped down on the couch. defeated.

Gabrielle propped the broom up against the wall and joined her best friend. "Xena, you know that I have always had my doubts about Ares. I don't doubt that he loves you, that he's freaking obsessed with you but Xena do you think you can be with him after all. . ."

"Look, Gabrielle, I know all that's happened. No one has to remind me. None of it changes how I feel about him, how he excites me, how the touch of his hand, the feel of his breath . . ."

Xena stopped mid-sentence and stared over Gabrielle's shoulder.

"Hope I am not interrupting," Eve said as she walked toward her mother with open arms.

Xena bounded off the couch and grabbed Eve in a bear hug.

Gabrielle watched them lovingly. Poor Xena, she thought, if she was having a hard time explaining it to me, imagine how difficult it is going to be to get Eve to understand.