"Xena. Xena, get up. We're getting a head-start on Athens this morning. We're only a short way away," Gabrielle stated, patting Xena on the arm firmly as she continued to collect their things. Xena didn't budge.
"Xena. Xena!" Gabrielle patted her more firmly on the arm. A quiet laugh emanated from the pile of blankets.
"Xena?" she asked, putting down a small collection of their belongings wrapped in oil cloth. The laughing continued.
"Ohh, good one, Gabrielle," came a sleepy but jovial voice from under the covers. Gabrielle arched a brow and pulled the blanket down to reveal a perfectly relaxed Xena, lightly biting her knuckles in sleep.
"I said come on," the bard chided impatiently. After spending half the night awake and the other half on the verge of tears, she'd decided the best course of action was to get them both to the city as quickly as possible, and that was exactly what she was going to do.
Xena inhaled deeply and propped herself up on her hands. She refused to open her eyes. "Athens is thousands of miles away. Besides, I thought you wanted to experience this place more."
Gabrielle's arms went slack as she gritted her teeth. "Which place, Xena?" she asked quietly.
Xena sighed audibly as she started to hunker back down into her nest of covers. "India," she said, rolling back over. "Obviously."
The woman stood there, staring at her sleeping friend, and her fists clenched. She threw down the frying pan in her hand violently to the ground, causing a loud din as it dented itself on a rock. Xena shot up out of bed, sword in hand, wide awake. "Gabrielle!" she cried, concern etched on her face.
Gabrielle stood there in the middle of the camp trying not to fume. Xena blinked, and concluding that trouble wasn't eminent, lowered her weapon. "Was that you?" Xena gasped.
Gabrielle nodded sternly, looking at the ground. Xena sighed in exasperation. "Next time do NOT blame the broken pan on me then!"
The warrior sat there and began rubbing the sleep out of her eyes before she returned her gaze to her friend. Xena's eyes widened suddenly as she leaned back.
"Gabri…what happened to you?!" she cried. Gabrielle looked up in time to see Xena finally notice the very not India landscape around them. "And how did we—" she halted mid sentence, growing very still.
"Xena, we're not in India."
Xena rose to her feet and approached Gabrielle, gingerly reaching out a hand to feel her short hair with a look of sincere sadness. "Who did this to you?" she whispered passionately.
Gabrielle closed her eyes and took a step back, putting her arms up in front of her. "Actually," she began with a short laugh, "it was you."
"Me?" Xena spat back incredulously. "That," she said pointedly, "is impossible," she concluded, grabbing at her bed roll to put away.
"Yeah, well, it's true," Gabrielle replied offhandedly. Xena scoffed. The blonde stood there, hand covering her face trying to think when a loud clang got her attention. She looked up, and saw Xena slowly looking around herself. She said nothing.
"Gabrielle?"
"Mhmm?"
"We're, uh…..we're back in Greece."
"Yep. Yes we are."
"You knew?" the warrior yelled, spinning around to confront her now strangely decked-out best friend.
"Xena," Gabrielle pleaded, bounding up to the dark haired woman and taking her face in her hands. "Xena, I can't keep doing this, ok? No, we're not in India. It's been…it's been years since we were in India. Something's wrong so I'm taking you to Athens, ok?"
"Something's wrong? How? I—" Xena's blue eyes darted back and forth trying to comprehend the sudden shift when Gabrielle interrupted her.
"I don't know, and this has happened before and we talked it out and you didn't know either. That's why we're getting a second opinion. Ok?"
Xena nodded slowly, still lost in her own thoughts.
"Now," Gabrielle began. "I need you to help me pack up. We're not far from Athens. Can you do that?"
Xena nodded again, and Gabrielle released her. They collected their belongings in silence.
On the road, things didn't get much better. Gabrielle road out in front again and found herself constantly looking over her shoulder to check on Xena. Xena's face was stuck in something of a look of perpetual confusion. Gabrielle sighed and soon found Xena riding parallel to her, her face still carrying the same expression. Gabrielle looked at her.
"Hey," Xena said.
"Hey," she replied.
"So uh…." Xena reached up a hand and snapped one of the straps across Gabrielle's back.
"Owww!" Gabrielle hissed, reaching a hand back to the area of stinging flesh. Xena grinned. "Xena!"
"Bit of a new look for you, huh?" she said, suppressing a laugh.
"Ahh, gods, I thought we were past this…" the girl sighed with exasperation. "Yes, Xena. It is. Sure."
Xena reached up a hand to do it again, but Gabrielle swatted the offender away just in time.
"Hey, your reflexes are getting pretty good!" Xena said in surprise.
Gabrielle continued to rub her back. "Thanks."
Xena grinned again and took a swig from her water flask.
They soon reached the edge of Athens and this time both of them were taken aback.
"Wow, Gabrielle, look at that! Amazing what they can build nowadays in a matter of months!" she said, pointing at a collection of new temples and colonnades. Gabrielle's attention was equally taken by the new buildings, except that she knew it hadn't been just months, but decades, since they'd last seen the city and its architecture.
In the market, Gabrielle gave Xena a shopping list to attend to as she asked around for the best healer in town. She was given a slew of recommendations and, unsure of where to start, picked the name she'd heard the most: Apollodorus.
"Yes! Yes, come in! Come in! Right this way!" the healer cried, shoving a collection of oddities off of his examination chair as Xena and Gabrielle stepped in.
"Are you—?" the blonde began.
"Apollodorus," the man finished for her with a flourishing bow. "At your service."
Xena rolled her eyes. "Gabrielle, this is ridiculous, I do not need to see a healer. I just slept funny or something, aright?"
Gabrielle grabbed her friend gruffly by the arm and turned her back towards the healer with a push. "No, you did not sleep funny, and if I told you precisely what you have forgotten, you would go into shock. Now Xena listen to me- sit down in that chair and let the healer look at you!" she exclaimed, staring angrily at her friend. Xena looked back in mild shock at such rough treatment from the peace-loving bard and wondered in the back of her mind how she got to be so strong.
Apollodorus, never one to get into the middle of a family squabble, simply grinned and motioned for the brooding warrior to take a seat. Xena looked from her friend to the man and, reluctantly, laid back in the examination chair.
"Now," he began in a practiced voice, "what seems to be the problem?"
Gabrielle closed her eyes, trying to center herself, and sighed. "My friend, ah….she's lost her memory."
"Mhmm?" the healer said, looking over a rack of his nearby tools. Xena looked on suspiciously.
"I mean, not all her memory. Just bits of recent memory. It's like she's slowly forgetting everything, and I I've tried everything and I don't know what to do."
"Of course, dear," the healer said, in a tone more patronizing than comforting. "And how much, ah, memory do you reckon she's lost then?"
Gabrielle thought, resting a hand over her mouth. "Maybe, um…" her eyes widened as she looked at Xena and then at the healer, waiting expectantly for her answer. "Maybe about two and a half years or so," she concluded, nodding in the direction of her friend.
"TWO AND A HALF YEARS?" Xena cried, starting up from her seat. The healer made a move to push her back down but found his strength lacking.
He nervously looked to his irate patient's friend. "I cannot examine her when she is like this. She must relax," he said smoothly.
Gabrielle moved forward to rest her hands on her friend's arm. "Xena, I know, I—"
"Two and a half years!" she gasped, tears threatening to well up into her eyes.
"I know! That's why we're here, Xena. To fix this!" Gabrielle looked sternly into the wavering blue eyes of her best friend. "And in order for us to do that, you need to lie still so the doctor can examine you."
Xena pursed her lips and begged Gabrielle with her eyes to leave.
"Xena, please. It's…it's for the best," she finished, gently patting her friend on the arm.
Xena took a series of shallow breaths and, gingerly, laid back into the examination chair.
"Good!" the healer exclaimed. "Now…," he began, looking from Xena to Gabrielle. "If you don't mind, it is necessary for me to examine the patient in privacy."
Gabrielle stared blankly at him. "What?"
Apollodorus held up his hands in surrender. "Those are the rules, I'm afraid. It is a new law amongst us healers- 'Healer-Patient Confidentiality', they're calling it. I am afraid I cannot budge!"
Gabrielle sighed. "Alright," she nodded. "Xena, will you be ok here?"
"Where will you be?" the warrior asked as the healer worked behind her to assemble his tools.
Gabrielle smile. "I'll be just outside, ok? If you need anything, just yell."
Xena gave a nervous smile and nodded. "Just yell. Got it."
Gabrielle spared one last glance at the healer before stepping outside the examination room and slowly closing the door behind her. A secretary seated at a wooden table at the end of a small foyer greeted her with a timid smile as she continued reading through the various medical scrolled piled on her desk and taking notes. Gabrielle looked around herself and took a seat.
Several minutes passed and Gabrielle started to get antsy. Maybe she's killed him by now and already escaped, she thought with a small smirk. When did her own thoughts get so dark?
"It shouldn't be long now!" said a small voice at the end of the room. The secretary gave her a cheery smile before burying herself back under her paperwork.
Gabrielle stood up and began to stretch. For all the time this was taking, she prayed it resulted in at least some clues as to what was happening to her friend. She stepped outside and raised her face to the sunshine, letting its raise seep into her tired and worried pores as she made her way to their horses, giving them each a comforting pat on the neck. She reached for her water flask when a sharp yell broke through the peaceful courtyard of the healer's building.
"GABRIELLE!"
Gabrielle's head snapped towards the sound and, grabbing Xena's water flask as well, ran straight into the building.
"Wait a minute, you can't go in there!" the shocked woman at the desk cried as Gabrielle kicked open the door to find her friend on the floor in tears and the healer looking as shocked as she was.
"Gabrielle! Why can't I find you? I came so close…so close….so close…" Xena wailed, tears streaming down her face.
"Xena!" she called, and ran to take her friend in her arms. "Xena, I'm right here!"
The warrior looked up. "Gabri….Gabrielle?!" she cried, taking the blonde into her arms and rocking back and forth.
"Xena, is everything alright?" she managed to choke out. "Xena, you're…it's a little tight."
Xena relinquished her hold on her beloved friend and began brushing her cheeks with her thumbs. "Oh, Gabrielle, I thought I lost you forever. I knew I didn't have to marry that bastard Ares to find you!" Xena whimpered as she cradled Gabrielle in her arms again.
"You did what?!" Gabrielle shouted incredulously. "Xena!"
She loosened her hold on her friend again to look at her, tears strewn across her face. "Oh Gabrielle, I'm so sorry about everything. I'm sorry about Chin, I'm sorry I couldn't save you sooner. I've been searching so long…"
Gabrielle's face winced in pain, both at the sentiment her friend was conveying and at the realization that Xena had sunk farther into her past. She lifted a hand to brush some of the tears away from the suffering woman's face.
"It's ok, Xena," she said quietly, "I forgive you. I forgave you a long time ago." Reluctantly, a few tears slid down her face also as Xena seemed to take in the words she'd been waiting to hear. Gabrielle disentangled herself from Xena and rose to her feet, starting daggers at Apollodorus.
"What have you done to her?" she demanded through clenched teeth. The healer backed away.
"N-n-n-nothing, I swear!" he shouted, bumping into a tray of tools as the furious woman moved closer. He watched her fists clench tightly and did his best to keep his cool. "I was examining her, purely routine stuff I assure you, and then I turned around briefly to make some notes. When I turned back around, she was as you see before you."
Gabrielle looked down at Xena still weeping on the floor.
"I swear!" the man cried, causing a clatter as his elbow caused a collection of metal instruments to fall to the floor. He immediately bent down to collect them, desperate to be out of the lady's line of sight.
Gabrielle resisted the urge to spit and knelt down to check on her friend.
"Hey, Xena. Are you alright?"
Xena looked up timidly and beamed brightly at her through a face streaked with tears. "Yeah. I am now," she said, reaching up to brush Gabrielle's hair. "New look, huh?" she said with a grin.
Gabrielle winced and tried her best to smile back. "Uh, yeah."
"I like it," Xena said with a smile. The warrior tried to rise to her feet but failed.
"Xena? Xena, take it easy…" the bard said, taking her friend in her arms. "Just relax. Catch your breath," she said encouragingly. "Here," she offered, holding up Xena's water flask. "Drink. Once you're alright, we'll leave this place."
Xena nodded, and took a deep drink from the skin before laying back against her friend. "Where are we?" she asked wearily.
Gabrielle suppressed a sigh and closed her eyes, brushing Xena's hair from her face. "Don't worry about it. Not right now."
Xena nodded, and with a sigh, slumped against her friend, closing her eyes. Gabrielle smoothed Xena's hair with her hand and looked up at Apollodorus.
"Say I believe you," she began, glaring at the man. He nodded furiously. "What's your diagnosis?"
The man furrowed his brows and delicately turned to place one of the instruments in his hand back on the tray it came from. Gabrielle cradled Xena's head in her hands and carefully laid her on the floor as she stood to confront the healer.
"Well, this isn't an easy one to diagnose, you see…" he said, back still turned. Gabrielle stepped towards him.
"Well what is it?"
He paused, fidgeting with the edge of the table. Gabrielle raised her arms up with exasperation as the man finally turned to face her, but his gaze shifted behind her. Gabrielle frowned and, turning around, found Xena rising to her feet.
"Xena," she said slowly, trying to put an arm around her friend. Xena slapped her away, face hidden by a wall of tangled hair as Gabrielle kept trying to get her attention. Finally, the warrior rose to full height and looked the other woman in the face.
"Xena, are you al—"
Suddenly, with a wild yell, Xena grabbed the bard by the shoulders and headbutted her in the face. Gabrielle fell to the floor, out cold. The healer stood there in shock, breathing heavily as he quickly turned away hoping his presence wouldn't be noticed in the room. He reached his hand up to shakily search through the leather pouches hanging from the various nails stuck into the wall when he heard grunting and what sounded like dragging. His eyes widened as he found what he was looking for and grabbed it quickly, stuffing it into his hand.
"Excuse me!" he said, spinning around, a bit louder than was necessary. Sweat streaked his face as he began to shake the contents of the pouch out into his open hand clumsily behind his back.
The warrior woman turned her head slowly to look at him, one hand clutching the boot of her fallen friend, and the man could see bloodlust in her eyes. Whatever was going on here between those two, he'd had about enough of it.
Gingerly, he stepped over the fallen blonde and dared to approach the fuming warrior who was clearly two seconds away from ending him, too.
"I-if you don't mind," he began. "I am a healer, and generally we frown upon these sorts of things happening in our 'spaces of bodily cleansing' as we like to call them..." As he rambled on, Xena's brow began to furrow both in annoyance and confusion, and her grip tightened on the boot in her hand.
"but," he continued, "If you wouldn't mind just looking here for a quick second, there's something that I—" as he held out his hand, the woman looked down. Seeing his distraction a success, he opened it and blew with all his might the powder concealed in his palm. Xena inhaled and, sensing a trap, began to swing her free arm randomly, trying to hit the obvious enemy. The healer ducked and tried to make for the door. As he reached for the knob, he felt a hand grip the back of his jacket and fling him across the room. He said through the air and smashed into his diagnosis chair and watched, disoriented, as the woman, now grasping blindly for the doorknob, reached for it, turned, and then fell flat on her face on the threshold. There was a scream from the other room as the secretary bounded up to the scene.
"Healer! Are you alright?! What's—" she gasped, covering her mouth in shock.
He waved his hand casually. "Oh," he said, taking deep breaths as he spoke. "It's fine. Just…" He slowly began to rise to his feet, dusting himself down as he did so. "Call the guards. This woman, there," he pointed, "The one with the dark hair. She must be taken to Lyssanium."
The woman gasped. "You don't mean—!"
"Yes," he nodded slowly. The secretary let out a high pitched squeal.
"Go. Now," he commanded, and with a nod, she quickly ran away, shouting loudly for the nearest guard. Apollodorus slowly leveraged himself up and into his examination seat and, with a sigh, closed his eyes.
A/N: Well, how was that for a third chapter? Darker and darker we go~! As a side note, this story is the first time I've ever written for Gabrielle in earnest and you never realize what a physical actress Renee is until you have to put down in words what she would visually do in a scene. Xena's got the presence, and presence is pretty easy, but physicality…that's a lot harder. It's been a really interesting challenge so far that I hope I haven't been screwing up too badly.
Very, VERY special thank you to my reviewers last chapter, Silverwolf509 and HeatherJS, as well as to all the new followers. Thank you!
And to you, wonderful person reading this, don't you forget to leave a few of your thoughts behind as well- I love reading what you guys have to say!