Xena & Gabrielle - A Visit Home part 2 - Awakenings 01

A Visit Home, An Awakening, Part I

Hunter Ash

ripperbard7@...

Old fashioned rating: this part PG13

Disclaimers: the usual rundown - I don’t own Xena, Gabrielle, Argo or Gabrielle’s family. This story is written for entertainment purposes and no copyright infringement is intended. Don’t bother suing me - it really wouldn’t be worth it.

Sex/Subtext: yup and it’s between two consenting adults of the same gender

Violence: nope, just thoughts of throwing someone through a window but our warrior is patient for once.

Summary: A “first time” story with Xena and Gabrielle visiting Gabrielle’s family and the relationship between them being forced to the surface.

Pairing: Xena/Gabrielle

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Gabrielle had grabbed the travel packs she’d hidden in the barn earlier that morning, and started out the barn door, when she heard Lila’s irritated voice just outside.

“She told me last time you were here how she felt, I thought you two would have settled this by now. Do you know she’s planning on leaving?” Lila demanded, hands on her hips, the same stubborn set to her jaw.

“No, I thought we were staying another night.”

“No, not with you,” Lila shouted. “Without you!”

Xena’s heart stopped and a chill came over her body. “Without me?” she whispered.

Could Xena care whether she stayed or went, Gabrielle wondered.

“Yes, she can’t take it any longer. It’s killing her to be near you and not touch you. She thinks you don’t want her because she’s not in your league.”

“What? I’m the one that isn’t good enough!” Xena protested. “After everything I’ve done, how could she want me?”

“Beats me, I think you’re okay.” Lila shrugged with a smile. “She thinks you’re from the gods and would do anything for you but she’s dying inside.”

Gabrielle was considering killing her young sister for telling Xena all of this. The bard wanted to crawl under the ground somewhere and hide. Xena would know everything! She wouldn’t want the bard, she wouldn’t want her around anymore!

Then Gabrielle listened to the warrior’s words.

“She’s light itself!” Xena continued to protest. “Anything I am today is because of her!”

“Then tell her, not me.” Lila snapped. “Adults! You make it so complicated!”

“Wait till you fall in love,” Xena snapped back, “and see how easy it is.”

Love? Gabrielle thought her heart had stopped.

“You love her, right?” Lila demanded.

“Yes, with all of my being. I don’t think I can live without her.” Xena whispered.

Without thinking the bard opened the door. “Xena?” a voice called, softly.

Xena and Lila spun around to see Gabrielle in the doorway of the barn, her bags in her hand.

Xena and Gabrielle found themselves caught in another frozen moment of time, both of them losing themselves in each other’s eyes. Lila finally broke the moment by shoving the warrior and bard back through the barn door and shutting it behind them.

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“You mean it,” they both asked at the same time, both breaking into smiles and relaxing finally. Gabrielle sighed and sat her travel bags down, walked over to a hay bale and sat down. She brushed a lock of hair from her eyes and Xena once again found herself wanting to do that for the young woman, to touch just her hair would be enough.

Then heat spread over the warrior and she thought that maybe just touching Gabrielle’s hair might not be enough anymore. They had both heard too much to go back and she knew Gabrielle sensed that too.

The bard sat for a moment, trying to think rationally and couldn’t find a way to make any sentence hold together. She swallowed deeply and risked it.

“I love you, Xena.” Gabrielle said quietly, not lifting her eyes up.

Xena moved slowly and carefully, kneeling in front of the bard. Tenderly she lifted Gabrielle chin up until the green eyes were looking into her deep blue ones. Tears were filling both their eyes.

“I love you, so very much, Gabrielle. I’ve been in love with you for so long.” Xena said softly.

“Oh, Xena!” Gabrielle threw her arms around the warrior’s neck and grabbed her in a tight hug, tears falling.

Xena, feeling tears falling from her eyes as well, welcomed the bard into her arms and held the other woman tightly. The warrior felt months of tension easing out of her muscles and a healing of her soul beginning. She pulled back slightly to look Gabrielle in the eyes.

“I....” the warrior stammered. “I love you so much, I’ve never felt like this before.” Xena took the bard’s hands in hers. Gabrielle kept quiet, watching her warrior struggle with the words. Getting Xena to talk about emotions was like pulling a tooth from a horse, almost impossible, the bard knew.

“I’ve had lovers, many of them, but not like I want you. Not even Borias, it’s different with you. If you want me I’m yours but it has to be a commitment. If you let me love you it will be forever.”

Tears flowed freely from both women as the warrior struggled with the words.

“I love you, Xena, more than life,” Gabrielle whispered.

“You are the other half of my soul and I know if you love me that we’ll be together for eternity. I don’t want just sex, I want to marry you,” Xena managed to stammer out.

Marry me? the bard questioned in wonderment quietly.

Gabrielle was so quiet for a moment that a feeling of fear began to grab at the warrior’s heart and then the bard grabbed her again in a bone-crushing embrace.

“Yes! I love you totally and completely. I’ve wanted you as my mate for so long!” Gabrielle whispered.

Both women held each other for several moments before Xena pulled out of the embrace. She held a finger up to Gabrielle’s lips to indicate silence. She slowly stood up and unlaced her chakram and placed it at Gabrielle’s feet and then did the same with her sword and the dagger hidden between her breasts. She knelt on one knee in front of the bard and Gabrielle thought that her heart would stop forever.

“I offer you my sword and my life. I will love you forever if you’ll have me,” Xena pledged.

Gabrielle wiped tears of joy from her eyes. She knew this warrior’s pledge was the ultimate pledge Xena could make and was touched beyond words.

“I love you, and I accept your pledge and your love, warrior Xena. I pledge my love and trust in you and promise to love beyond time itself. I know that not even death will separate us from this point on,” Gabrielle pledged and pulled the warrior up to her lips.

The kiss was meant to be soft and gentle but the electric shock that passed through both women at the first contact sent both of them backwards.

“Wow,” Gabrielle whispered, touching her lips in wonderment.

“Wow? I’ll say,” Xena agreed and sat back up, reaching for her bard when angry voices brought her to her feet, chakram at the ready. Gabrielle reached up and placed a reassuring arm on Xena’s arm.

“It’s all right, it’s my father, not an army.” the bard grinned and Xena lowered the chakram, blushing that her warrior instincts had won out again. Gabrielle knew that Xena’s heightened senses and warrior instinct had only lessened slightly all the months they had been on the road together. Gabrielle had come close several times to being knocked unconscious by the warrior, when the bard had accidentally startled Xena. She didn’t think Xena would ever be totally relaxed and without those highly toned and trained muscle instincts.

Lila’s voice was shrill and answered by an angry shout from her father. The door of the barn slammed open and he stood in the doorway, obviously fuming.

Gabrielle stood up angrily. “What, Father? Expecting to find me rolling naked in the hay with her?” She certainly wasn’t going to tell her father that’s what she had been hoping for, just a moment before.

Xena blushed, that was what she had been intending with the bard as well but wasn’t going to say that to the girl’s angry father.

“I want her gone!” he demanded.

“We were just about to leave,” Gabrielle snapped back.

“You’re not going anywhere this time! You’re still my daughter and I won’t have you become the laughing stock of Greece because you sleep with her!”

Gabrielle quickly grabbed Xena by the arm as the warrior growled and took a step forward. The bard reached out and eased the chakram out of the warrior’s hand and Xena let her, trying to calm her breathing and the roaring in her head. She fought against the raging anger building up.

“If you keep this up I won’t be your daughter any longer!” Gabrielle threatened. Lila stepped into the barn, holding her cheek. Her eyes were red from crying. This time it was Gabrielle who growled. “You hit her?” she demanded.

Her father’s jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed. “You are not leaving here,” he hissed.

“Don’t threaten her,” Xena growled back, stepping a half step in front of
Gabrielle.

“What will you do, warrior?” her father sneered. Gabrielle’s head was spinning, this was happening too fast and everything was out of control. With a moment of clarity she knew that Xena was about a moment away of injuring or killing her father and her father was going to push the warrior into it. And there was a good chance of Lila or of Gabrielle getting in the way.

Gabrielle quickly pulled Xena back and stepped in front of the warrior, the bard placing her hands behind her back to keep bodily contact with Xena.

“Father, calm down! Both of you! I love you both!” Gabrielle pleaded and felt Xena relax slightly behind her. Her father scowled but didn’t move any closer. Gabrielle almost screamed in frustration when her mother peeked in the doorway and entered.

“Fine! Everyone come in and let’s settle this!” she muttered. Her mother crossed over to Lila and began to examine the girl’s cheek.

“Xena has just asked me to bond with her, to marry her and I have accepted. What that means to us is more than just a simple bonding ceremony like I had with Perdicus. If Xena agrees, we will be bonded in an Amazon ceremony. I’ve already pledged my soul to her and plan to spend eternity with her. Accept this or lose me,” Gabrielle said simply.

“I love you, Gabrielle. I don’t understand but if she makes you happy then you’ll both be welcome here,” her mother said quietly and Lila nodded enthusiastically.

“I forbid it!” her father shouted.

“Oh shut up, Herdoctus,” her mother snapped and he looked at his wife, stunned.

“She’s our daughter and all that should matter is that Xena is a good person now and Gabrielle thinks that she will be happy with her. Accept it, I’m not going to lose my daughter because of your pride!” She approached her husband in a fury and he backed up quickly, surprised and stumbling. She poked a finger in his chest and he took it.

Gabrielle and Lila’s eyes were equally wide with surprise.

“Don’t you ever lay a hand on either Lila or Gabrielle again or you’ll never wake up again!” her mother shouted and then spun away from her husband. She approached Gabrielle and Xena slowly. With a hesitant smile she gathered her daughter into a hug and Gabrielle grinned, hugging her back. Lila, unable to resist the moment, rushed over and joined in. Xena was grateful they didn’t try to include her in the family hug although Gabrielle’s mother did hug her awkwardly after detaching herself from Gabrielle.

“Make her happy, please,” she said to the warrior.

“I will spend my life trying,” Xena promised.

“We’re leaving, Mother,” Gabrielle stated.

“I know. Let me pack your food bags before you go,” None of them were surprised to find her father had slipped out of the barn. “Don’t worry about him, he’ll fume for awhile but settle in once you two are gone,” her mother reassured them. She turned to her other daughter. “Lila, go and pack Xena’s bags, I’m sure she doesn’t want to run into your father right now. They need some time to cool off.”

Lila hugged her sister again and then surprised Xena by hugging the warrior and then dashing off quickly.

“Xena, could I have a moment with Gabrielle?”

“Of course, I’ll saddle Argo.” Xena retrieved her chakram from the bard’s hand and bent to retrieve her other weapons with panther-like grace. Gabrielle was unaware of the desire on her face as she watched her warrior move. Her mother, however, knew the look and smiled, it was just awkward to see that type of look on your daughter, she thought. She’s still my little girl. She then touched her daughter’s arm and they moved outside the door.

“Gabrielle, I love you and I’d like to you to visit again,” her mother brushed a tear away from her weathered face and Gabrielle hugged her mother again.

“We will. Just give us a little time, this is new for us too.”

“Gabrielle, your father....” her mother stammered and they moved to sit on two hay bales by the door. “I think he’s always sensed something about you and has fought against it since you were a baby.”

“That I prefer women to men?” Gabrielle asked, puzzled.

“No, something else. If anything happens to him or me I want you to go to your Uncle Harpalion in the next village, he has a parchment for you.”

“What is it, Mom?”

“I can’t tell you right now. Just know that it might answer some questions you’ve had during your life. It may even answer some of the questions I’ve been asking you. Is she your soulmate?” Hecuba asked gently.

“I think so. I just know that I couldn’t go on without loving her totally and I can’t live without her,” Gabrielle hesitated. “What’s in the parchment, Mom?”

Her mother smiled and held up a hand to cut off any protests. “I know your curiosity, Gabrielle. Promise you’ll wait.”

The stubborn jaw was well known to the mother but she continued to stare sternly at her daughter.

“All right, I promise.”

Lila came running out of the house with the packs. “I’ll go and pack your food bags,” her mother said with another quick hug.

Lila grinned at her big sister. “Finally got your warrior, huh? How far did you get?”

“Lila!” Gabrielle shrieked.

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