It was still an hour before dawn with the full moon lowered in the night sky when one very tried bard finally reached the forks in the Thessalian road. Now where? Gabrielle looked to the left then right. Something drove her through the trees to the right, towards the water she could hear rushing over uneven boulders. As she moved into a sheltered cove she could barely see the outline of a horse who turned a head towards her and gently nickered. Argo!

Gabrielle rushed forward, then stopped cold. She could make out a dying camp fire and a form slumped against a fallen tree. As she drew closer, the form took the shape of the warrior lying back with her head resting against the tree, her sword buried in the thick trunk. Dark tresses covered a still pale face, strangely eerie in the dying campfire light. Gabrielle squinted into the darkness. The warrior should have heard her by now. "Xena?"

As she knelt down next to the still form, two crystal blue eyes stared up at her. "Hi."

Gabrielle gently touched the warrior's cheek. "Hi yourself. Didn't go very far, did you?"

Xena sat up slightly and searched her friend's face. "Didn't have any place to go. Waiting here was as good as anywhere else."

Gabrielle leaned back. "So you knew I'd come back."

"No," Xena whispered. "I knew you wouldn't."

"Then what were you waiting for?"

"I don't know."

"Xena, I've done a lot of thinking since I left. I realized I was running away from you, from myself, from us. I couldn't handle the pain anymore. I guess I was trying to hide from the truth ever since we left the Kingdom of Chin."

"Before then," Xena supplied in a soft voice.

"Yes, before then." The bard paused and then continued in a low voice choked with emotion. "I've been the cause of all of this and I want to ask you one last time to forgive me. Xena, I have to know you will."

The warrior was silent a long minute and then wrapped her long muscular arms around the bard as she drew her close. "Oh, Gabrielle. This isn't about my forgiveness. I've forgiven you long ago. You know when, in the dudgeon. I beg you to forgive me for lying to you and for all the pain I've caused you, but none of that matters. You have to forgive yourself or we won't be able to go on together. The guilt and the self-hatred are eating you up. Remember, I'm an expert on this sort of thing. Don't follow my lead. Please."

Tears streamed down the bard's face as she lifted her head to gaze into Xena's eyes. "I can't. I've betrayed your trust. How can that be forgiven?"

Gently the warrior traced the cheek of the bard with a long finger that wiped the tears away. "Simple. I forgive you, you forgive me and now you must forgive yourself. Just do it. Remember, no more lies, no more secrets, just you and me living each day as best we can, trusting each other, loving each other. The past is gone, we live from now on."

When the bard was silent the warrior drew in a jagged breath and hugged the bard closer to her. "Any pain you caused me in the Kingdom of Chin is nothing compared to the pain of losing you. Don't you understand? I can't go on without you. I just sat here because I couldn't think of where else to go. It was the last place I'd seen you. So I stayed."

Xena pulled the bard back and looked deeply into her eyes. "My soul was ripped apart. Do you understand now? I need you. I love you."

The bard searched the blue windows into the warrior's soul and saw the truth shinning through. She grabbed Xena and held on as if she would never let her go again. The warrior returned the embrace. They lay in each other's arms and watched the dawn break over the Arcadian highlands. The reds, yellows and purples lit up the sky in an amazing display. "Red sky in morning, sailor take warning," Xena mused.

"What does that mean?"

"Oh, its just an old saying we used when I was at sea. Red sky at night, sailors delight, red sky in morning sailor take warning."

"Was it usually true?"

"Yeah, actually it was. The morning red sky meant a storm and high seas were coming."

"Then we better batten down the hatches and get some breakfast."

Xena laughed. "You hungry, what a surprise." She studied the bard for a moment and then hugged her close. "Guess I just want to make sure you're real. You came to me in a vision last night."

"I did. What did I say?" The smile on Gabrielle's face evaporated when she saw the pained look in Xena's eyes. "What?"

Xena dropped her gaze as she shook her head slightly.

"Xena, remember no lies, no secrets. It's about this trust thing. I trust you, you trust me and we do the very best we can not to hurt each other."

The warrior nodded as she studied her hands and whispered, "You told me to remember my promise." She paused a moment and then added, "So I did and shoved my sword into this tree."

The catch in Gabrielle's throat almost choked her as her heart beat wildly. "I knew it. Somehow I knew I had to get back to you for your sake but mostly for mine. Oh, Xena. Thank you for waiting for me." She threw herself back into the warrior's arms and held her close as she felt Xena take a deep breath. She looked up and wiped away a tear that was trickling down the angular cheek of the warrior.

"Xena, I'm so sorry for all the pain I've caused you. No, don't say it. This is my apology. You can have yours later."

Xena arched an eyebrow and then laughed outright. It had been a very long time since Gabrielle had heard that musical sound. She grinned widely. She knew that they were a long way from healed. The road ahead would have rough spots. Still working at her relationship with one tough warrior princess was infinitely better than living alone and worrying about her all day long.

"You take a nap my adventurous bard while I go scare up something for breakfast. Then you and I are going to have a chat about the dangers of these roads at night and how you are never going to travel them after dark again. Okay?"

Gabrielle looked into the eyes of her best friend and grinned. "I knew I'd hear about that."

The ash blond beauty followed the block with a quick whip of her staff to the side that would have caught the warrior square in the jaw if she had remained in the same location. However, as sword met wood, the warrior had spun. With a gravity defying leap, she flipped over her opponent smacking her on her rear with the flat of her blade. She then ducked and rolled away from the swinging staff that would have knocked her unconscious if it had connected with her beautiful dark haired head.

"Nice move, Gabrielle," the warrior noted, grinning widely. She leaped high into the air as the staff swept harmlessly beneath her feet. "I think I'll start calling you warrior bard."

The Amazon was to busy concentrating and gasping for breath to reply as beads of sweat flowed from her forehead. Again she whirled swinging her staff with a level stroke that the warrior blocked with a side swipe of her sword. She grabbed the staff with her left hand and tried to disarm the bard but Gabrielle held tightly onto her weapon. She flipped the staff around bringing it square against the shoulder armor of her tall opponent. The blow glanced off harmlessly as the dark warrior turned and with a swipe of her leg tripped her opponent. Gabrielle tried but could not keep her balance and would have fallen heavily to one side if the warrior had not flashed a quick hand out and caught her by the arm.

"Hades Xena, no fair tripping." Before Gabrielle could protest further, she found herself swung around, disarmed and hosted into the air. With a gleeful laugh that always meant trouble, the warrior dropped her sword, strengthened her grip on the bard and began to run pell mell towards the quiet lake that rested a few yards away. "Uh oh, when will I learn to keep my mouth shut."

With a piercing undulating cry, "YaYaYaYaYa," the warrior snatched a whip from a rock, snapped it onto a limb and swung out over the edge of the lake with Gabrielle still in her arms. She let go of the whip when they were clear of the bank and both splashed nosily into the cold emerald colored water. They sank below the surface then rose sputtering and splashing. The resulting water fight left both woman laughing hysterically and gasping for breath.

"Enough, I give, I give," choked the warrior. "I've swallowed half this lake and I'm freezing to death. You win!"

Gabrielle eyed her best friend suspiciously looking for some hidden trick. Xena never gave up. But then the dark souled warrior was not behaving anything close to normal. These last few weeks had been very different and unusual for both of them. Perhaps, at last they were back from the Kingdom of Chin. No, Gabrielle thought as she followed the dripping warrior out of the cold lake. They were not just back, they had moved ahead.