"Despite the fact that I once single-handedly took down the entire Athenian Army with my cooking, and rediscovered the formula for Black Powder, I promise, I'm really a good cook!" he swore as he continued to survey the prize of his hunt. "If it was just for you and me, I'd roast it, but if more are going to be showing up, then I'd better stew it - Gabby likes rabbit stew."

"Then, perhaps you should stew it?" Sorrow suggested as she moved to sit across the fire from him, knowing nothing of cooking herself. She would have preferred to have just snapped her fingers and created a fine meal for them, as she felt her powers returning by the minute, but it seemed to be a matter of honor to Joxer for him to provide care for Iolaus' future wife and child, so she had allowed him to fret and pamper her as he so desired.

"Yeah," Joxer nodded with a touch of self-conscious apprehension, "but I prefer it roasted."

"Joxer," Sorrow laughed at his sincere silliness, "you caught the rabbit - you should cook it any way you want to cook it!"

Joxer shrugged, "I just didn't want to be selfish."

"Of course not - you don't know how to be selfish," she smiled warmly at him. "You are always a gentleman, Joxer the Mighty."

A slow grin painted itself across his face as the compliment sunk in, and he proclaimed, "Roasted it is, then!"

"Good for you, Joxer!" she applauded, and he set about whittling a spit from selected pieces of firewood. As she watched, she became a bit reflective of her day, and said, "You know, Joxer, you and Autolycus are the first people I've seen in a long time, and I don't believe I've seen you in at least three years, right? You were in an old temple, and you were throwing flowers down a well - "

"For Gabrielle," he shrugged sheepishly. "I-I thought that she was dead."

"Sometimes we perceive things wrongly," she smiled gently, then turned very sober and added with great seriousness, "I wish I could have been there for you, Joxer, but I cannot leave Greece, even for Italia - I am not recognized there."

Joxer's face went a little pale, thinking of what she did - and didn't - refer to, and he nodded, "That's okay, we had - "

He cut himself off before he could say more, but Sorrow interjected for him, "Eli?"

Joxer's eyes reflected his alarm, but she immediately put him at ease, "Don't worry, Joxer. I know of Eli, and I know of his followers. I am not against them. They are good people, and he is a wise man."

"Huh!?" Joxer looked to her in surprise, then remembered her predicament of the last nine months. "Oh, you don't know - Eli's . . . dead."

The color drained slightly from Sorrow's cheeks and her eyes turned sad and upset as she contemplated the loss of the great Devi and healer. "What happened?"

"Ares happened," Joxer said simply, and she frowned. Reaching out her hand toward him, she heard the story from his mind as though Gabrielle herself were telling it, and she withdrew her hand again unhappily. In the time she'd been in Ares' possession, a great deal of suffering had been distributed - suffering she had been prevented from easing, as she was supposed to do. She had missed far too much to ever possibly make up for.

As he continued to whittle, Joxer's own mind began to contemplate the situation Sorrow was in as an escapee from the God of War's temple. Joxer had seen a lot of Ares that year, and he accurately guessed that seeing Xena pregnant had ignited a new desire within the god. Joxer really couldn't blame him. Xena was extraordinary in any condition. However, why Ares would kidnap the Goddess of Lamentation still made no sense to him.

"Goddess?" Joxer ventured at last, unable to contain his curiosity.

"Yes, Joxer?" Sorrow turned her sad eyes to him.

"Why was Ares holding you prisoner? If you don't mind my asking, that is . . ."

"I sort of lost a bet to him," Sorrow answered without much emotion, then added with a mocking chuckle, "Oh, and he thinks I'm having his baby, which I'm not!"

"Huh?" Joxer frowned in confusion.

Sorrow frowned, too, "It's hard to explain, Joxer. Just please believe me when I tell you that this is Iolaus' child I'm carrying, and it's terribly important that we find him and let him know before Ares finds me and takes me back - I wasn't exactly free to leave, you know."

"Don't worry, Sorrow," Joxer said seriously in a gesture of comfort. "Autolycus will find Xena, and she'll find him for you."

"Are you sure she will?" she asked bluntly, her face a mask of seriousness. "She has no reason to help me, Joxer - you of all people know that! What if - ?"

"No, there are no 'what ifs,'" Joxer reassured emphatically, having full faith in his friends. "You're having Iolaus' baby, and she'd move Elysia and Terra to get him here in time . . . but . . ,"

"But, what about me, right? Knowing that Xena's daughter could mean death for me?" Sorrow finished his unspeakable question. "Simple, Joxer - I may be able to ease and bring suffering at will, but I choose to never bring unhappiness of any kind without judicious cause. Eve is an innocent child, Joxer, born of something greater than we gods - something even greater than the Titans, themselves - and it would be futile to stand against such power. My cousins have only made fools of themselves by attempting to stop the decree of the Fates. Our time is coming, and I will not openly court death by standing against Xena. I only wish to see Iolaus again and finally become his wife and the mother of his child. Truly, if I did not serve such an important purpose for humanity, I would willingly give up my immortality to live out the rest of my life with Iolaus here on earth. So the answer is no, Joxer - Xena has nothing to fear from me. I welcome her with open arms!"

Sorrow had worked herself up so much during her speech that she hadn't noticed that Joxer was now at her side, patting her hand comfortingly.

"Calm down, Sorrow - calm down!" he begged. "It's not good for the baby, or for you. I believe you and I know Xena will believe you."

"I wouldn't blame her if she didn't," Sorrow pronounced mournfully, knowing deep down that the Warrior Princess, the mother of her greatest threat, was ironically the only person who could possibly keep her life from falling apart.

"Hey, you haven't been around for any of that mess, Sorrow," Joxer excused her as he went back to his construction. "Xena won't hold you responsible for that - not in the least!"

"I hope you're right, Joxer," Sorrow intoned with great worry, for her time of delivery was drawing near, and there was no immediate way of finding out if the thief had kept his word and whether Xena was actually on her way.

Gabrielle led her horse up the side of the hill, shading her eyes to peer upward as she climbed along the trail. The cave was indeed well-hidden, and Xena hadn't lied that the place lay at the end of an ambiguous set of trails that crisscrossed and confused the unknowing traveler. Autolycus had easily led the goddess and Joxer to the cave, but Gabrielle had to rely on Xena's instructions to look for a set of signs - in this case, mossy green boulders that sat at the opening of each correct trail. Behind each camouflaging stone, the correct trails would stretch out and continue on from there. Each true trail was also crossed by false trails meant to confuse and confound, but the bard had been well-directed and knew where she was going, and before she knew it, she espied the darkened entrance of the cave yawning out from the side of the hill.

"Surely this is it?" Gabrielle reasoned aloud to herself, hoping she wasn't too late for a myriad of things, many of which her conscious mind would not admit to, or even openly entertain. Tying her horse to a nearby tree, she tiptoed into the mouth of the cave and listened. Off in the near distance, she heard the faint echo of voices - Joxer's in particular.

"Yeah, if I hadn't stepped in when I did, I don't know what might have happened," he was lamenting, presumably to the goddess. "I just knew I couldn't let it happen - not if I could save her."

"You were terribly brave, Joxer," a foreign female voice praised in return, "and you always have been when called upon in times of need."

"Not as often as I'd like, but I'm trying," Joxer insisted sheepishly, yet rather candidly. In fact, his voice sounded as earnest as it did when he'd gotten so very sick from being cut by the sword of the priest of Apollo, and the bard had to take him to the nearest mandrake tree for the antidote. Hearing his tone caused a pang in Gabrielle's breast that alarmed her greatly, but she quickly dismissed it as friendly worry and called out to him.

"Joxer - Is that you?"

"Gabrielle!" his voice called back brightly - much more brightly than just a moment before - , followed by the rapid stride of his footsteps as he came forth to meet her, and when he stepped into view, Gabrielle almost gasped aloud as she sucked in her breath and held it.

While they had been chatting, Sorrow had convinced Joxer that he would be infinitely more comfortable out of his heavy armor, and now he was clad in only his brown, short-sleeved tunic and dark trousers. For a moment, he resembled the dashing character he had turned into once at the ringing of Aphrodite's bell, and it sent her heart to racing.

"Hey, Gabrielle - you're just in time for supper!" he hailed as he approached, completely unaware of his effect on her.

"Supper?" she echoed uncertainly, feeling a bit dazed, but she quickly recovered and shook her head to clear out the confusion. "Oh yes, supper! Good idea. Um, how is the goddess?"

"Beautiful!" Joxer gushed impulsively, a big grin streaking across his face. "She's got curly blue hair - blue as the Mediterranean! And skin like mother-of-pearl!"

"Joxer, I meant, how is she doing baby-wise?" she clarified almost tersely, still overcome somewhat by her reaction to his appearance, and not at all comfortable with it.

"Oh," Joxer's smile quickly erased itself as he assumed his usual trumped-up air of responsibility, "Sorrow's doing fine. No sign of any babies just yet."

"Good - I was afraid you'd have to deliver her baby by yourself," Gabrielle remarked a bit callously as she began to walk farther into the cave.

Joxer moved quickly to catch up with her and keep her attention, "Actually, you showed up just in time - I was just cooking supper, and could use your help!"

"Oh, yes, I'm famished," Gabrielle smiled enthusiastically and sniffed the air. "Rabbit?"

"Yeah, but just one - I hope it's enough?" he questioned, shuffling his feet a bit so she could now keep up with him.

Gabrielle shook her head, "I don't expect Xena and Autolycus til tomorrow at the earliest, and that's only if they don't have any trouble finding Iolaus . . ." The Amazon's voice fell away when she stepped out of the entry into the main room of the cave and found herself facing the goddess that had so obviously enchanted Joxer.

The young Goddess of Lamentation was standing by the fire, smiling rather expectantly and feeling like one of Hercules' young groupies, for she had wanted to meet the bard on such an unofficial occasion as this for many months.

"Hello," Sorrow greeted her warmly, and the usually talkative Gabrielle suddenly found that she had no voice. She looked to Joxer nervously, and he gestured for her to continue.

"Go on, Gabrielle," he urged gently. "She won't bite!"

Sorrow laughed, "No, indeed I won't!" and Gabrielle laughed, too.

"I'm sorry," the bard excused herself as she stepped forward. "I'm Gabrielle - "

"Queen of the Amazons and Bard of Poteidaia!" Sorrow finished her introduction for her, though Gabrielle hadn't intended to say more than her name, and she looked to Joxer in alarm.

"Wait," Joxer stepped in, immediately sensing her upset. "Gabrielle, Sorrow means you no harm - "

"Indeed, I do not!" Sorrow quickly confirmed. "Please, Gabrielle, please trust that I bear neither you nor Xena any malice whatsoever - I already owe you too great a debt to ever harm you!"

Gabrielle glanced at Joxer nervously, unsure of what the goddess could be referring to, but he seemed to be not the least bit worried about the situation.

"I'm sorry?" Gabrielle indicated her confusion to the strange-looking goddess.

"Your scrolls - Ares gave them to me to read while I was imprisoned," Sorrow quickly explained, then laughed. "Funny thing is, the tales of your adventures with Xena are what gave me the courage to escape when the opportunity arose - "

"Autolycus, she means," Joxer quipped sanguinely, a bit jealous that the thief had been the one to help her escape.

"Yes, Autolycus," Sorrow agreed with a bit of a smile, for the thief never failed to make her laugh. "He had the means to set me free, but I never would have had the courage to actually leave the Halls of War if it had not been for your scrolls, and for that I owe you a great debt of gratitude."

Gabrielle smiled in pleasant surprise, beginning to see that Sorrow was indeed a fan of her work, and that her scrolls had not only entertained the Olympian goddess, but they had inspired the poor girl to act in her own best interest when the King of Thieves found her chained in the Macedonian temple and offered her the chance to escape.

"I'm glad you liked my stories," the bard expressed with true gratitude of her own, but with a worried smile, and Sorrow immediately sensed that the Amazon was still nervous about the situation.

"I'm so glad and so incredibly grateful that you came to help me," Sorrow smiled comfortingly in return. "I was just telling Joxer a little while ago that I would not blame either one of you for refusing to help me - my family have been so awful to you and Xena since Eve was born, and I regret it so much that I was not there to help you."

"Tell her what happened to you," Joxer urged as he moved to help Sorrow back to her seat on the table, wanting the goddess to fill in the palette of details for the bard.

"Yes," Gabrielle's forehead wrinkled in consternation, "what did happen to you?"

Sorrow looked down, still not comfortable with the story of her life, but knowing it was required, and she took a deep breath before saying, "It was my mother, the Fate Lachesis, who decreed the Twilight of the Gods. It was her right and her duty to proclaim the truth as it was known to her, and my father, Poseidon, chose to punish her by negating her plans for me. Instead of letting my life follow its own course, he gave me over into the hands of Ares to do with as he wished . . . and he did."

As she continued to listen, Gabrielle's instincts became confused. On the one hand, she wanted to run for her life, but on the other she wanted to go to the poor girl and comfort her as she reported her misery. Sorrow told of everything, from the morning she returned to find Ares awaiting her, demanding that she come away with him and become his wife, to that very morning when Autolycus opened the door to her cell and mistook her for a statue. Before the goddess was done telling her tale, the bard had moved to join her on the table of stone and was listening to her with intense interest.

Besides the information, Gabrielle was also learning a new love story - a love story she could possibly be helping to end "happily ever after". At least, she hoped it would end happily. After duping Ares in Amphipolis, she and Xena both had plenty of good reasons to avoid the interest of the war god, and she wasn't truly sure whether they were the goddess' best hope or not.

Yet, this was Iolaus' baby. Of that, Gabrielle had no doubt, and that fact called for more than the average risk from his friends. There was no question. She knew Xena would damn Ares and help Iolaus and his young goddess, come Tartarus or high water.

"I see that Iolaus is in your heart," Sorrow smiled gently, sensing a small sadness in the bard's soul that lingered over the lack of a full relationship with the blonde hunter. She saw that it was an old wound that had never really called for the goddess' particular comfort, for the friendship between the two sidekicks was stronger than ever.

Gabrielle smiled shyly, "He was the second man I ever kissed, but I think he was just being kind to a lovesick teenager. And, he was very good to me when Xena died."

"He's a gentle soul, is he not?" Sorrow nodded fondly, knowing that Iolaus had gone looking for Gabrielle the minute he heard that something had happened to the Warrior Princess, and how he had offered not only the perfect sort of comfort to the then-Amazon Princess, but had also defended her against attackers who would have ransomed Xena's body for a substantial bounty. Sorrow had been there watching the whole time, and it was probably the first time in her life that she began to actually consider her childhood hero as being something other than just her friend, and she knew then that she felt far more than just friendship for him. His care for the bereft and forlorn bard had touched the young goddess' heart in a way she had never known before.

"The gentlest and least selfish," Gabrielle nodded slowly, remembering the same time in full detail, and remarking to herself how long ago that seemed. ~ It's been three summers since! ~ the bard chastised herself soundly for feeling the despair again, for she had seen and done many, many things since that day back on the mourning road to Amphipolis. And now, their adventures were drawing their friends together again, and she couldn't think of a better circumstance under which to meet. "Iolaus is going to be so happy when he finds out he's going to be a father."

"I wish he'd had a child with Ania that had lived," Sorrow suddenly reflected aloud, forgetting that only she knew of the golden hunter's first wife.

"Ania? I didn't know he'd been married before, or that he'd lost a child!" the bard exclaimed in surprise.

"Ania died many, many years ago, and their young son soon after," Sorrow revealed mournfully, remembering all the times that even she could not comfort the distraught warrior. She'd finally had to call in her cousin Lachrymose, God of Despair, to aid Iolaus. "He did not truly, truly love anyone else til Xena came along - "

"Wait, I know she was pretty bad then - ," Gabrielle started to protest, but Sorrow stopped her with a gentle finger to the bard's lips.

"No need to apologize for her, Gabrielle. Iolaus forgave her long, long ago, and she has more than redeemed herself for that transgression. As for me, you have both intervened in many situations where I would have likely been needed eventually, including now, and for that, I sincerely thank you."

"You're welcome, Sorrow," Gabrielle smiled sincerely, realizing how much she was actually coming to like the goddess.

When the two women had begun discussing the golden hunter, Joxer had become quite uncomfortable hearing them sing Iolaus' praises, so he'd gone back to tending to their dinner and working with the fire to keep it going, as night was setting in and he didn't want Sorrow to get cold. When their conversation lulled, Gabrielle naturally turned her eyes to look where he was working diligently, and somehow could not pull them away again. Try as she might, she was undeniably transfixed by his appearance and could not break the hold he suddenly wielded over her.

Amused by the attention the bard was giving the wanna-be warrior, Sorrow watched Gabrielle closely, for the Amazon did not realize that she was subconsciously allowing herself to admire the well-defined muscles of Joxer's slender arms and the strong pectoral muscles that were always hidden by his armor. Gabrielle even noted on some level that Joxer had added quite a few more muscles since their first encounter years ago, seeing that even his legs appeared more powerful as he strained the limits of his trousers while kneeling down to adjust the fire beneath their supper. Even as she gazed at him, Gabrielle did not realize she was staring until an iridescent hand on her forearm caught her attention. She glanced first at the smiling goddess, then back to the object of her fascination, and she blushed as it finally registered with her just who had been holding her attention so rapt.

"He's come a long way, has he not?" Sorrow smiled, nodding toward the erstwhile warrior.

Gabrielle grinned sheepishly, knowing that the goddess could read her mind and emotions, and she blushed again as she spared him another glance, "Yes, I suppose he has."

"I wish all the world could have seen him and Autolycus defending me this morning," Sorrow continued, admiration evident in her voice. "If they had, no man on this earth would dare call him a coward or doubt his courage again! He was like a lion, protecting me from harm - quite a difference from when I first encountered him."

"Same here," Gabrielle agreed reluctantly, then redirected the subject. "You talk as though you know Joxer well?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Sorrow replied, a certain fond sadness coming to light in her eyes and voice as she recalled all the times she aided the young Joxer in times of sadness. "In fact, except for Autolycus, I think I've known Joxer far longer than I've known either you or Xena!"

Gabrielle's brow furrowed and she looked back to Joxer anxiously, remembering that Autolycus had been orphaned early on in his life, and that his only brother had been killed not long after. It had never quite registered with the bard before that Joxer might have been an unhappy child, and she suddenly saw that growing up in a family of warlords and assassins surely had its drawbacks, especially for a kind-hearted guy like Joxer. It simply could not have been easy, and thus the Goddess of Lamentation probably had been needed by him beginning at a very young age. It gave her quite an unhappy feeling to think of such a gentle, caring soul being hurt to such an extent.

"H-how long have you known him?" she suddenly found herself asking aloud. Sorrow shrugged non-committally, "Oh, probably since before I was born, I suppose. Before I was brought into the world, I was a spirit, and I was able to be with and attend all those who needed me that way until I was born and could begin visiting them personally. Did you know that I have known you the shortest time of all?"

Gabrielle cocked her head at Sorrow curiously, "Surely not!"

"No, I'm telling you the truth," Sorrow insisted with a small laugh. "I did not meet you until you had need, and only on rare occasions since."

Gabrielle nodded, noting that Sorrow had tactfully omitted mentioning the situations that called for her intervention, but the bard knew all too well the times Sorrow had silently been a source of strength to her. Perdicas, the time when Xena had died, Hope, - all were events that Gabrielle knew had been more than enough to require Sorrow's presence.

"Joxer's been there, too, Gabrielle," Sorrow whispered softly, watching admiringly as the usually bumbling warrior expertly tend to their meal preparations. "Almost every single time."

Gabrielle gaped at the goddess, who kept her own eyes locked on Joxer, and the bard discovered with shock and surprise that a tiny feeling of possessiveness was rearing its ugly head within her breast - the same feeling of possessiveness that had overtaken her once when she saw another Amazon hanging onto him, and she turned back to look at Joxer in disbelief.

A second later, she shook the inconceivable thought from her head and moved to help Joxer finish supper.

On to Chapter Twenty Three

Back to The Power & The Passion