"Story Time" is copyright © 1997 by Morgan MacLeod, all rights reserved. Do not distribute, archive, or repost without prior permission from the author.

Xena and Gabrielle belong to MCA/Renaissance Pictures. Some characters herein are also based on situations belonging to Paramount. All these characters are used here in a strictly non-profit manner, and their appearance is in no way intended to infringe on the trademarks of MCA, Renaissance Pictures, or Paramount.

Leonides leaned back against the tree trunk at his back, his left arm protectively encircling the frail form of Chloe, who lay half across his lap, half on the soft boughs beneath them both. His right arm was swathed from wrist to shoulder in bandages torn from the ceremonial robes she had worn to what both had feared would be her death. His eyes followed every movement made by the three women moving almost soundlessly through the thicket in which they rested, while Chloe's eyes were closed in sleep.

At the moment, Rillian and Gabrielle were padding the piles of boughs they had built around the inner hollow of the thicket as couches or beds with bundles of grasses and leaves, and covering them with blankets. Xena sat on a hummock beside him, putting away the herbs she had rubbed into paste and smeared on his wounds before binding them. But instead of closing up her healing kit, she pulled another small pouch and a battered metal cup from her saddlebags, and started crumbling yet more herbs into a fine powder between her fingers.

"What's this for?" Leonides asked warily.

"Chloe. She's been through quite a lot: fear, cold, exhaustion. This'll help her get her strength back." Xena dipped the cup into the pot of water Gabrielle had brought for her, and mixed in the powdered herbs. "It's better hot, but I don't want to light a fire this close to that rock. Someone might come out to check on the sacrifice, and spot us." She handed the cup to him. "Wake her up, get her to drink it all."

"Why are you doing this?" He took the cup from her, but did not wake the sleeping girl.

"Why am I doing what?" Xena countered, as she slipped her herb pouch back into her saddlebags.

"All of this. Fighting the monster. Helping Chloe and me."

A cheerful voice sailed over Xena's shoulder as Gabrielle joined them. "Because she's Xena. That's what she does." Gabrielle leaned across to spread one of Rillian's blankets over Chloe before sitting down at Xena's side. "Even when somebody does something stupid and almost gets her killed."

"And that's really what sets the heroes apart from the warriors," Rillian added as she settled in on one of the makeshift beds on Xena's other side.

Leonides looked first at Gabrielle, then at Rillian, before looking straight ahead and meeting Xena's eyes. "You really are the Warrior Princess, then?"

"Some people call me that," Xena answered. "Now wake Chloe up, and make her drink that - or I will."

Leonides glared at the three women, then gently began to stroke Chloe's hair and face, murmuring softly to her. As her eyelids began to flutter, he slowly helped her rise to a sitting position beside him, her head still resting on his unhurt shoulder. "Chloe, Xena wants you to drink this," he said, holding the cup to her lips.

The girl looked first at Xena, who stared impassively back at her. Her eyes flickered to Gabrielle, who smiled at her and nodded. "Xena knows more about healing than almost anyone I know. If she says it'll help you, it will." Gabrielle turned to look at Xena, and shook her head at the grim expression on her face. "I know her bedside manner isn't always the best, but you can trust her." Xena allowed the smallest of smiles to touch the corners of her mouth. "See," Gabrielle said triumphantly. "She can be friendly if she really tries."

Chloe smiled timidly back, and lifting her own hands to the cup Leonides still held to her lips, drank the herbs and water.

Leonides handed the cup back to Xena. His eyes were challenging, his voice tinged with anger. "So if you really are the Warrior Princess, then why did you let that monster get away? You and your friend are both great warriors. That's obvious. Together we could have killed it." The young man's voice grew sullen. "It'll only come back again, and Chloe, or someone else, will have to die."

"I killed this thing once before, and it came back then - or hadn't you heard?"

"Yes, but..."

"But nothing. Just killing it isn't enough." Tersely, Xena explained her theories about the creature's life cycle, and the importance of finding its lair before killing it.

It took some time to tell her tale, and to counter much argument over the old stories about the nature of the beast that years of repetition in the villages had turned to fact in the minds of the harbourfolk. At last a glimmer of understanding began to grow in his face. He looked at Xena and Rillian. "So you stopped me from killing it because you still don't know where it laid its eggs."

Xena nodded. Rillian spoke for both of them. "That, and the fact that the beast would have split your guts wide open long before you hit anything vital with that sword of yours. You have courage enough, but that's not all you need."

"There's no one to learn swordfighting from, around here," the young man bristled at them.

"Skill isn't everything, either," Xena replied.

"You have to think, too," added Gabrielle. "If you listen to the tales of the really great heroes, you hear just as much about their cunning as you do about their strength, or skill, or courage." She smiled, warming to her subject. "You have to watch carefully, study your opponent, be aware of everything around you, and how it can be used for you or against you, you have to plan..."

Rillian coughed. "Speaking of planning..."

"Oh. Right. Well, if you really want to know, I can tell you all that some other time." Gabrielle turned to Xena. "So where do we go from here?"

Xena looked at Leonides. "Who knows that you came here?"

"No one, except my sister..."

"And I warned her not to speak to anyone. Good. The first thing we need to do is make the elders think the sacrifice has been accepted. That should keep them from sending anyone else for a while. That's where you come in, Leonides."

"How?"

"I want you to go back to the village and tell everyone that you spend the night mourning in the woods, after coming here and finding that Chloe was taken by the beast. Can you do that?"

"Yes." Unconsciously, he held the girl more closely to him.

"Xena," Chloe spoke, her voice barely above a whisper.

"What is it Chloe?" Leonides looked down protectively at the girl in his arms. "Are you feeling tired? Cold? Want to lie down?"

"No, I'm fine." She smiled up at him. "You keep me warm enough. But I had a thought. Maybe it's not any good, but..."

Before Leonides could speak, Gabrielle leaned forward. "What is it, Chloe?"

"Well... Xena said that she wants to track the monster, but she doesn't know the mountains very well. And there aren't very many of us to search. Right?" She stopped, and looked around at the nodding faces of the three women. She turned to look up at Leonides. "Leo, there must be at least a dozen of our friends who would be willing to stand up to the elders, and help Xena, if they knew all of this. How many times have we all talked about what it would be like if there were no more curse? You have to go back to the village, and bring them here to listen to Xena."

Leonides looked down at Chloe with a delight that held a touch of awe. "I'll never understand where you get such brilliant ideas. You're right again. They'll all want to help."

Chloe looked back at the three women. "What do you think, Xena? Would that be any help to you?"

Xena smiled. "I think it might..."

"Great!" exclaimed Leonides. "I'll go right away..." he looked down suddenly, stricken with concern for Chloe. "But will you be all right, my love?"

"I'll be fine, Leo." Chloe smiled up into the worried face of her betrothed. "These women saved our lives - they won't let anyone harm me while you're away."

"Don't worry about Chloe. I'll take care of her while you're gone," Gabrielle reassured him.

Rillian spoke up quickly before he could make a move. "But I think we need a little more planning first, right Xena?"

"Right." Xena shot a disbelieving glance at her two companions, before turning towards Chloe and Leonidas. "First, I think we should decide in advance just who you're going to talk to about this. As Chloe said, we need people who know the mountains, and are good climbers. Chloe, why don't you tell me about your friends one by one, and we'll draw up a list."

After some discussion, the plan to recruit some of the village youth as trackers took shape. Leonides would go to the fields, where most of their friends would be at work. Under the guise of sharing his sorrow at the loss of Chloe, he would contact the most skilled and reliable of their friends, and ask them to meet him that evening at the rock spire. There, Xena would tell them what she hoped to do, and ask for their help. Once every detail and potential pitfall that Leonides might encounter had been raised, usually by Chloe, then discussed and prepared for, the young man spent a few last moments fussing tenderly over his beloved, and then set off with a bold swagger through the woods towards the head of the river valley where the fields began. Chloe watched him leave, luminous eyes full of tenderness and love, and the other three women watched her as she stared after him.

At length, the slight blonde girl lowered her gaze to meet that of the other women. She smiled. "You don't think very much of Leo, do you?"

Gabrielle spluttered for a moment, searching for a gentle way of expressing her thoughts. "He doesn't seem to think too far ahead."

"No, he doesn't," she agreed. "But he doesn't have to, because I can. What he is, is brave, and gentle, and honest, and hard-working, and totally faithful. All in all, I'm getting rather a much better husband than most. Oh, he'd never do for one of you, but then, neither would I."

"You're not so timid and helpless as you look, are you?" Xena smiled.

"Oh, yes, I am, as a matter of fact." Chloe pulled the blanket closer around her. "I'm terrified of snakes, and loud noises, and all sorts of things. I'm not very strong, and I don't think I'll ever stop shivering inside every time I think of what almost happened to me. But that doesn't bother him. It makes him feel good, to protect me from the things that scare me. Even when he makes terrible mistakes, like he did this morning."

Gabrielle looked searchingly at the girl for a moment. "And you're going to marry this man? You really love him?"

"Of course. And he loves me, too. How could anyone marry without love?" She looked at each of them in turn. "You don't understand, any of you, do you? Leo and I are ordinary people, and we are going to live very ordinary lives together, and when we die, only our families will ever have heard of us. And that's exactly how we want it. We're not heroes, like the three of you. We don't need to be brave and strong and cunning all at once, we just need to do what we can, and be good to each other." She smiled again. "Leo and I belong together."

"Two halves of a whole," Rillian said softly.

Chloe nodded. "Something like that. He has the strength and the courage, and I can see the things he doesn't always understand. We complete each other." She began to yawn, covering her mouth with one bruised but still delicate hand. "I'm so sorry, but I'm getting very sleepy again."

"That's all right," Xena said. "You need sleep." She stood up. "We'll let you rest for a while." She looked at Rillian. "I need you to show me where that thing was headed." As Rillian started to get up, Xena turned to Gabrielle as well, but before she could speak, Chloe interrupted her.

"Please, don't all of you leave me. I don't think I could sleep if I was all alone." She turned her eyes pleadingly to Gabrielle.

The bard looked up at Xena. "I don't mind staying here. I've got some writing I want to do, anyway."

Xena shrugged. "Fine." She gathered Rillian in her glance, and they left together.

Chloe turned to Gabrielle. "Thank you. I really couldn't bear to be alone right now."

Gabrielle tilted her head to one side, and looked at the village girl, still bemused by her comments about the young man she loved so much. Chloe looked back at her. "What is it, Gabrielle?"

"I'm not sure that I could love someone if I didn't respect them," she said finally, after a long pause to order her thoughts. "Or someone who didn't respect me," she added, thoughtfully.

"I do respect Leo. Like I told you, there's a great deal of good in him. Just because he's not perfect, doesn't mean I can't respect and love him. You'll wait a long time if you're waiting for someone perfect."

"Well, of course, no one's perfect, but Chloe, forgive me for saying this, but he's as thick as a brick!"

"It doesn't matter to me. Of course, it's different for you, because brains matter to you."

"But the way he treats you, like a child," Gabrielle continued. "How can you think he respects you?"

"That's just how he shows me that he cares. And compared to him, big and strong as he is, I'm not much more than a child. If he wanted to be with a great strong warrior, he'd have run after my friend Xantippe. She's tall, and has lots of muscle, and likes to practice swordfighting. But that's not what he wants. He wants me. It's like your friend said, we're two halves of a whole." Chloe yawned, and began to burrow down into the nest of boughs beneath her. "Like you and Xena," she muttered, as her eyes closed.

Gabrielle leaned forward, mouth open in astonishment, but seeing that Chloe was already half asleep, she said nothing. What was going on? Why did everyone that saw them together seem to think that she and Xena were... she closed her eyes, ignoring the images that came unbidden of Xena looking at her under lowered eyelids around a hundred nights of campfires, of Xena placing herself at risk over and over again to ensure her safety, of Xena's eyes burning into her soul.

She opened her eyes, and reaching into her pack, pulled out quill, and ink, and parchment, and began to record the events of the morning, the battle with the Wingclaw, and the rescue of the maiden. This was her role in Xena's life, the friend, the chronicler, the helper, not the lover, the partner. She was Patrocles to Xena's Achilles... no, considering all the gossip there had been about those two, maybe that wasn't the best analogy. Although she could certainly understand Patrocles' devotion to his friend and comrade-at-arms.

But Chloe's words would not vanish, but instead returned to echo in her mind. Two halves of a whole. She thought about it. Xena's deeds, to her words. Xena's dark past, to her own somewhat boring but inarguably innocent youth. Xena's unfathomable depths and silences, to her friendly open ways and, if she had to admit it, her occasional tendency to go on a bit too much at times. Maybe there was something to the notion, after all. If they really were two halves of a whole, then perhaps one day Xena would realise they were meant for each other, as all the warrior lovers of Xena's past had not been meant for her. Perhaps there was hope for a bard to win the heart of a warrior princess.

Gabrielle smiled to herself and continued writing.