"Do I love Xena?" She
repeated the question out loud once. 'Am I in love with you,
Xena?' She sent the thought out. 'You're perceptive –
I'm sure you noticed if I am. I don't know how to live
without you. I feel like I died when you did. I see your face in
the wind, and the trees, and in every brook we pass. I dream of you
every night. The thought of you comforts me and rips my heart in
two at the same time. Is that love?' she laughed to herself.
'I guess I might as well assume it is, huh Xena? Because I know
I'm never going to feel anything stronger.'

"Come to a conclusion,
sweetpea?" The goddess was shifting impatiently.

"Yeah… I think I am."
Gabrielle admitted shyly. Aphrodite let out an un-godlike squeak of
excitement.

"I knew it!" She beamed.
"That's so cute!" Gabrielle laughed
bitterly.

"Yeah, but it doesn't do a
lot of good now."

"Oh, don't be silly! It
changes everything!" The bottle-blonde retorted happily.
"You two are my business now – I can meddle without stepping
on anyone's toes!"

"What… what can you do?"
The bard asked warily. She had been on the receiving end of
Aphrodite's 'help' a few times before, and it often did
more harm than good.

"I can let you speak to her,
Gabrielle." The goddess looked at her seriously. "Only
once, and not for very long, and for anyone else I wouldn't
bother, because it would just make things that much more painful.
But… doing the impossible is Xena's gig, right? Anyways, this
whole deal with Ares' immortality, like, has her signature all
over it." Gabrielle felt as though she had stopped
breathing.

"I can see Xena again?"
she whispered the question, her heart in her throat as it suddenly
occurred to her what she had just admitted to the warrior. The
goddess beamed at her.

"That's right, sweetpea!
All it takes is a snap of my fingers." Gabrielle nodded, and
the goddess, with a dramatic flourish, snapped
once.

“c1″>**********************************************************************

She had been in the Elysian fields
for almost a full day, and she felt as though she was going to go
insane. There simply were no plans to be found! There was no more
ambrosia to be found, the lake that served as a doorway between the
two planes was closed and locked, now that Hades had his helmet
back. She and Lyceus had been talking to ancient kings and
scholars, learning the secrets of the universe, and yet nothing she
learned gave her a way back to the mortal world.