“storytext”> 

The next day,
according to plan, Iolaus took Hercules off hunting so Gabrielle
could have some time to chat with Xena. The two heroes weren't
happy with their friends' plans, but found no way of objecting.
Once the men had left Xena tried everything she could think of to
get out of the one-on-one time. She spent the better part of the
morning hiding from Gabrielle with pretentions of feeding Argo,
cleaning the kitchen, even a misplaced boot. But eventually she had
to surrender when Gabrielle located her in the barn and insisted
she stop work so they could have some "girl
talk."

Gabrielle led
her friend around the edges of the farm where there was a small
bridge. They walked in comfortable silence and when they reached
the bridge Gabrielle leaned against the rail and watched the water.
She waited for Xena to say something, but the warrior princess was
determenied to stay quiet, so Gabrielle broke the silence
first.

"So what
do you think of Iolaus?" she asked, watching the
water.

Zeus above,
leave it to Gabrielle to come straight to the
point.

“I think
he looks wonderful,” Xena answered carefully.

“He
does,” Gabrielle agreed. “But I’m not sure about
the situation. He seems to care about me a great
deal.”

“And how
do you feel about him?” She tried to sound casual but felt a
huge sigh of relief when she saw her friend grin.

“storytext”>“That’s a dumb question. I’ve always
been nuts about him, you know that. He's so kind and thoughtful
and handsome… he's so handsome," she smiled at the water
again. This might not be so bad, Gabrielle seems to be doing
all the talking anyway, Xena noted. Suddenly her friend turned
away from the water and focused on her friend with a worried
look.

“storytext”>"What's wrong?"

“Things
are getting serious, Xena."

"How
serious?" she prayed to Zeus her voice didn't betray
her.

"He's
asked me to stay here… with him… for… I don't know – for
awhile."

“storytext”>"What'd you say?" her curiosity was
killing her.

Gabrielle
positively glowed as she answered. "I said yes, Xena. I
don't want to leave, I want to stay with him." Xena felt a
huge sigh of relief wash over her. Gabrielle was beaming from
ear-to-ear as she leaned far over the rail. "He's going to
ask me to marry him," she predicted. Xena's head spun.
Gabrielle nodded, more to herself than to Xena. "He
doesn't know it yet, but he will."

Xena nearly
screamed out loud her ecstacy. "Gabrielle, that's-"
she stopped dead. She could actually feel her heart stop beating in
her chest as she saw the outline of the youngest Fate appear behind
Gabrielle. It was a warning. She instantly turned away. “I
have to go,” she stammered as Gabrielle caught her
arm.