“storytext”> 

Iolaus was out
finishing the work on the fence when he heard noise on the road. He
stopped and looked up, to his amazement he saw Xena and Hercules
riding straight towards him.

“storytext”>"Gabrielle!" he called towards the house. She
appeared in a few seconds, her hair tied up in a kerchief, a broom
still in her hand.

“storytext”>"What?" she followed his gaze.
"Xena!"

"Hey! What
are you two doing here?" Iolaus asked as he greeted his
friend.

"Well we
stopped by the house where we left you and Hercules thought you
might be here. Nice of you to leave a note, by the
way."

"Sorry,
Xena. But we really weren't planning on staying as long as we
did," Gabrielle said.

"It's
my fault. I asked her to come with me."

"Iolaus,
we're not mad," Hercules smiled. "In fact, it's
nice to find you two here."

"So, how
did the mission go?" Gabrielle asked Xena as she led Argo
away. Xena looked back to Hercules for help.

"It was
kind of pointless," Hercules adlibbed. "There was really
nothing to worry about. You guys are lucky you didn't come. Get
stuck with the whole town trying to shake your
hand…"

"Oh, one
of those," Iolaus said. He understood perfectly when a group
of otherwise law-abiding citizens would claim they needed help just
to get the son of Zeus to visit.

The girls
disappeared behind the stable and Hercules was happy to see
Iolaus's gaze follow Gabrielle until she was out of
sight.

"What
happened here?" Herc asked, motioning to the house. "It
definately didn't look this way the last time I saw
it."

"Oh
yeah," Iolaus turned back to his friend and smiled.
"Gabrielle and I have been kind of tidying up a
little."

"Tidying
up a little," Hercules repeated. "Right. Come on Iolaus!
The house didn't look this good when you bought it!" He
playfully slapped his friend on the back. Iolaus nearly fell over
from his friend's tap, but kept his balance by taking a step
forward and leading Herc to the house.

"I
know," Iolaus laughed, "Gabrielle did the garden –
didn't she do an amazing job? Look at this!" Iolaus
brought Hercules over to show the very spots that Gabrielle had
been so proud of. Hercules couldn't keep from laughing at his
friend's sudden facination with flowers.

"Uh,
yeah," Hercules teased. "Now when there's not a
village to save you can always sit back and smell the roses,"
he tapped one of the climbing blossoms.

"Nah, you
know I've never really been one for flowers or daisies or
whatever, but – ya know, since she planted them…"