“Never. I’ve only ever wanted you. When
you came back, after…” Gabrielle’s voice trembled
slightly at the memory of that terrible time.

 

Xena gathered her love in her arms. “Shh,
it’s alright. I’m here now, and I’m not going
anywhere.”

 

After a few moments, the bard had calmed enough to
finish her tale. “Thank you, Xena. Well, I wanted to tell
you, but I wanted to wait for the perfect time, the perfect
place… and the perfect words. That’s what the scroll you
found, was all about. I don’t know, how many draughts, I went
through, before settling for that one. Those were the words, I had
planned to recite to you, when that perfect moment arrived. But it
never did. And the more, I postponed it, the more, I lost my nerve.
I’m sorry.”

 

“No, hey, it’s okay, Gabrielle. Maybe
you didn’t get to recite your scroll to me in person, but I
felt you there, when I read it. And it was beautiful, my love.
You’re sorry for not telling me, but you’re wrong; you
did tell me.

 

“You are a bard, Gabrielle, the best in the
world, I might add, and you used the tools you possess to let me
know, what was going on. I think, that if either of us had had to
actually say it without any precedence, there’s a good
chance, it would never have come out. Not before it was too late,
anyway.”

 

The two hugged tenderly, and Gabrielle snuggled up
to her warrior. They lay in silence, just watching the clouds roll
by.

 

“Xena?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“How did you come to read that
scroll?”

 

“What?”

 

“Well, you still haven’t told me, what
happened, while you were away.”

 

“I’m afraid, that’ll have to
wait,” Xena husked and rolled towards the bard.
“Because right now, I’m more interested in finding out,
what else, you picked up from the Amazons!”

 

Xena put her lips to the bard’s, and they
soon lost themselves in each other, the outside world quickly
fading away…

 

*****

 

Artemis smiled down upon them from her chamber on
Mt. Olympus.

 

“You did good, sis,” Aphrodite said, as
she joined her sister at the scrying bowl.

 

“I couldn’t have done it without you,
dear sister,” said Artemis and put her arm around the Goddess
of Love, giving her a gentle squeeze and a kiss on the cheek.

 

“Oh, by the way, thanks for the lightning,
dad,” the Goddess of the Hunt said, as a bright flash of
light announced the arrival of Zeus.

 

“My pleasure,” the King of the Gods
said with a smile.

 

The three were soon joined by most of the other
Gods, all coming together to gaze at the perfect love beneath them;
even Hades poked his head up to see, what was going on.

 

Only Ares was absent. He sat in his chamber on a
throne of blood-covered skulls, and couldn’t help shedding a
single tear that fell to the ground and burned like acid, knowing
that perhaps, he had lost his star pupil forever.

 

It didn’t take long, however, before his
sick, twisted mind began to formulate new plans to get his former
Chosen back…

 

The end (and the beginning…)