"Before There Were Turkey Basters"

By Ariel

Disclaimers:

Xena, Gabrielle and all related characters from the show Xena: Warrior Princess don't belong to me, I'm just borrowing them for my own sick purposes. Xena is the property of USA, StudiosUSA, MGA or some other bigwigs not associated to me in any way. No copyright infringement is intended by this story, and no profit is made in any way.

Sexual Content Warning: This story posted here may contain in whole or in part references to love between two women, and two men. (Although X & G do go to a leather bar for the first time this story isn't sexually graphic.)

Musical Content Warning: There are also references to opera as well as some ABBA stuff – you have been forewarned.

Author's Comment: Okay, so I brought Xena back in my story "Turnip Stew" that you can find at http://www.futuremuse.com/xena/stories/turnip_stew.htm. It's not necessary to read it if you haven't already – suffice it to say that some gods from Japa decided that Akemi tricked Xena into giving up her life, so they decided to let the Warrior go back to the living.

Comments, feedback, and constructive criticism may be sent to arielx_com@yahoo.com. Please check out my site at http://arielx.com – Home of "Survivor: Lesbos" Thank you.

"So Xena, I was thinking," Gabrielle said as she stood next to Xena who was steering the ship.

"Yeeeeessssss?" Xena replied in her distinctive way of drawing the simple word out for at least three seconds while continuing to stare forward.

"Okay, here it goes…I don’t really want to go to Egypt. I mean, we’ve been there done that, and besides, Cleo’s dead, so we can’t even look forward to a decent party. Not that we ever got to go to one of her parties anyway, not really since she was already dead by the time we got there but you know what I mean…well now I seem to have gone off on a tangent again."

"Ummm hmmmm," Xena answered drawing out her reply once again.

"So anyway, we’ve been together for what…let’s see, we were frozen for some twenty-five years, I slept on some rock for another year, our series lasted six years…" Gabrielle looked up at Xena who’s brow was furrowed in concentration. It was obvious she realized that all her fingers and toes weren’t going to add up to the number the bard was looking for. "Thirty-two years, Xena. Thirty-two years we’ve been together, thirty-two loooong years," Gabrielle watched for a reaction.

"Aaaaaand?" The warrior continued to gaze out over the water. She was starting to wonder when Gabrielle had reverted back being such a chatterbox. It seemed she had gotten to a point where she spoke slower and with fewer words – it had been a long time since the bard seemed so excited.

"And so I was thinking that, well you know we didn’t get to watch Eve grow up and stuff, and so I thought maybe we could try again – you know, to have a baby?"

The warrior finally looked down at the woman who was fidgeting next to her. Her face was almost devoid of emotion, yet one eyebrow gradually rose up. "Hate to tell you this, Gabrielle, but one of us is missing the proper equipment to…"

"I know that silly!" Gabrielle gave her a playful punch in the arm. "I’ve been thinking of another way."

"No gods."

"No gods," Gabrielle conceded with a slight wrinkling of her nose. Taking a deep breath, she went on. "I was thinking of finding a donor."

"Donor?"

"Yeah, you know, find a guy and…"

Xena scowled slapping her hand over the blonde’s mouth. "I know what happens next."

The subject was dropped for the time being, and they concentrated simply on getting back to familiar land. With only a skeleton crew on board, they both kept very busy running the small ship. Xena was practically overwhelmed with it all, keeping the few men they convinced to go along with them working, and watching over Gabrielle. The smaller woman had been using the pressure points that Xena taught her to ward off seasickness, and Xena had to keep an eye on her at all times to make sure she didn’t eat anything disgusting since the pressure points seemed to bring out a strange appetite.

Many days passed on the ship without any further discussion of family matters, both women usually being too tired in the evening to do anything other than sleep – which they had to do in shifts anyway, and they were too busy during the day for talk. However, at some point they had to decide where they were actually going to dock, and they agreed that they wanted to go stay with the Amazons for a little while.

Despite the fact that it only seemed to take them about two days to get to Japa, it was a heck of a lot longer before they found themselves back on the Aegean Sea. One day Xena just came down from the crow’s nest with a big grin on her face and Gabrielle knew they were almost home – or at least to a place that could be temporarily called home. Xena had seen the many dotted islands ahead, and pointed them out to Gabrielle as they drew closer.

To make a long story short: they made it to port, ditched the ship, found Argo, and were soon back at the Amazon village. They were welcomed in almost as if they never left, the same way Gabrielle the on-again off-again queen always was. It did not take her long to start thinking about a family again as she watched the youngsters of the village running around.

Gabrielle decided not to broach the subject with Xena again until she gleaned some information from some of her Amazon sisters. She went off to the bathhouse with her Amazon sisters one morning while Xena went off to do Xena stuff.

"…So Xena and I have decided to try to have a family. Well, I should say, I’ve mentioned it to Xena and she didn’t really say much about it, but she didn’t say no, and I bet she’s still thinking about it." Gabrielle blurted out. "I mean, I think she would like for us to have a baby, but I’m not really sure, but I bet she would because I know she likes kids and I know she was upset that we didn’t get to watch Eve grow up."

The other Amazons who were in the steam room with Gabrielle were almost dozing off as she rambled on and on.

"So, uh, what’s your point?" Asked one of the Amazons.

"Well, so I was wondering, how should we go about it? Getting a baby I mean. You know because we can’t get each other pregnant and stuff and we don’t want to get some god to do it because the only male god left around here is Ares…"

"Well, we have got a good alliance with the Centaurs," another Amazon suggested.

Gabrielle was silent for a moment, thinking about the concept of mating with a Centaur, and then the complications of giving birth. "Um, no, I don’t think we would want to do that."

"We could sack a village and you could ‘adopt’ one." Came a further suggestion.

Gabrielle seemed to consider that for a moment, but then shook her head. "No that would just be wrong."

"Have you at least decided which one of you wants to have the baby?" Asked another woman.

"Well, no, we haven’t talked about that yet, but I’ll probably do it," Gabrielle explained.

"As you know, some of us have mated with men we have captured during battles – before killing them of course. We could start a little skirmish with…"

"No, that’s a horrible idea!" Gabrielle interrupted. "I don’t want to start a war just so I can…well, you know."

The room was silent for a few minutes while the women contemplated the situation. Finally another Amazon spoke up. "Don’t you know any men? Someone who might be a friend or something and you could seduce him and get pregnant that way?"

"I thought of that already," Gabrielle nodded. "But who?" She fiddled with a loose thread on the cloth wrap she was wearing for some time before her face lit up. "I’ve got it!"

~~~ó ~~ó ~~ó ~~~

Later that night, Gabrielle and Xena were lying in bed snuggling after some frolicking in the furs. Gabrielle opened her eyes and looked up at Xena who seemed to be at the point of going to sleep.

"Xena?"

"Ummm?"

"Remember that thing we were talking about on the ship? You know, about having a baby?"

"Ummm."

"I think I know how - well who I should say – could help us out." Gabrielle waited for a reaction. She detected a slight change in the way Xena was breathing, so she continued. "That is, if you want to have a baby. Do you?"

Xena finally opened her eyes just a bit, and looked down at the blonde. "If that’s what you want, then that’s what I want."

"I love you, Xena." Gabrielle pulled herself up so she could give the woman a kiss.

"So?" Xena said as Gabrielle settled back down on her shoulder. Gabrielle knew that the one word meant: "So what plan have you come up with for us to have a baby?" After their years together, she knew how to read the one-word sentences her mate provided.

"So I was thinking of the people we know, and after all these years, there’s not a big selection, but how about Virgil?"

"And?"

"And so I thought maybe we could find him and well, you know…"

"You?" Gabrielle knew this meant, "Are you the one who is going to let him get you pregnant?"

"Does that bother you?" Gabrielle asked, feeling a little trepidation about the answer.

"Ummm."

For once Gabrielle wasn’t quite sure what Xena meant by her answer. She leaned up to look at Xena, her head cocking slightly to the side as she stared at the woman who simply laid there with her eyes closed once again and no sign of emotion on her face. Finally she just let out a sigh and put her head down and let sleep take over.

~~~ó ~~ó ~~ó ~~~

The next day Xena and Gabrielle were sparring at the training arena with staves. Oddly enough, it seemed that the warrior was a better conversationalist when she was occupied in some sort of physical activity.

"Virgil you say?" Xena asked as she attempted to sweep Gabrielle’s feet from under her.

"Yeah, what do you think?" Gabrielle leapt over Xena’s staff and came back with a thrust.

"It’d be Joxer’s grandchild." Xena answered with a block and a parry.

"And Meg’s." Gabrielle dodged.

"Well Meg was good-looking at least," Xena attempted to strike Gabrielle’s ribs.

"You would say that," Gabrielle blocked while spinning and bringing her staff back around for an attempt to smack Xena’s knuckles.

"Okay." Xena moved her hand further down the staff to avoid Gabrielle’s blow and swung out again to catch the smaller woman behind the knees.

"Really?" Gabrielle took the blow and simply somersaulted backward, bringing herself back to her feet.

"Really." Xena stared into Gabrielle’s eyes as they faced off again, and Gabrielle dropped her staff to run into the warrior’s arms.

~~~ó ~~ó ~~ó ~~~

The next day Xena and Gabrielle said their good-byes to the Amazons, promising to come back after their "mission" was accomplished. Gabrielle’s horse had mysteriously appeared again, so she had a mount for the journey. A little known fact was that the horse they found on their way to Spamona was a magical "horse of a different color". Even though at first it was chestnut, it could also be white (like when they were dealing with the Valkyries), it was also once gray like when they were trying to turn Ares into a farmer. It was white again up on Mt. Fuji, and did a pretty good job at playing dead. This time, however, the horse was a bright magenta color, which Gabrielle found rather disturbing because it clashed with her outfit. Xena didn’t seem to notice it any more than she noticed that sometimes Argo was male and sometimes female and sometimes had a big diamond painted on her forehead.

They rode on and on for about a half-hour, but in the Xenaverse, that was equal to about two weeks. Some dramatic music played as they rode, and there were some really pretty pink and blue sunsets each night. Finally, as the sun rose before them, they reached the run-down shack that was home to Meg and her children. Xena and Gabrielle weren’t sure if Virgil would be there, but hoped that at least Meg would be able to tell them where to find him.

After knocking on the door, the two travelers were surprised when Virgil himself answered. They didn’t speak at first, just hugged and did some polite kiss on the cheek stuff before Virgil began to usher them inside to a home that was surprisingly well decorated.

"My, what a surprise to see you girls!" Virgil gushed as they all sat down around the kitchen table.

"It’s good to see you too," Gabrielle said as she took Virgil’s hand in her own and squeezed it. She noticed that Virgil seemed to be living alone, and asked him about it.

"Well, my mother went to Athens with my seldom-mentioned siblings, and I stayed here." He explained quickly. "But enough about me. What have you been up to since we last saw each other?"

"Oh, this and that – I slept on a rock for a year while Xena had amnesia, we hung out with the Amazons, returned Ares and Aphrodite to Mount Olympus, saw Eve again, and Xena died." Gabrielle explained in a nutshell.

"Same old stuff, different day, huh?" Virgil chuckled.

"Yeah, pretty much." Gabrielle gave Xena a small wink.

"So what brings you here?" Virgil grinned.

"What, we can’t just pay a visit to catch up with old times?" Gabrielle looked at her hands as Xena gave her a sideways glance.

Just then the front door opened and a tall handsome man entered. He took a quick look at the guests seated at the table then went over and gave Virgil a peck on the cheek. Virgil’s cheeks turned bright red as the man sat down beside him and threw an arm around his shoulders.

"Are you going to introduce me to our visitors?" The man asked.

"Uh, Hosep, this is Gabrielle and Xena."

The women each shook his hand, and Gabrielle’s brow furrowed. "Hosep? I thought the cannibals got you."

"Well, they sure tried, but I escaped." Hosep squeezed Virgil’s upper arm. "And boy did I catch Hades from Virgil here once we found each other again. He thought the same thing."

Virgil continued the story. "After you two left, that crazy Rubio guy told me that they guy they cooked for dinner didn’t look at all like Hosep. I searched all over for him, and well, here we are." The two men gave each other an affectionate look.

Xena got a smirk on her face and when Gabrielle noticed it, she gave her a sharp pinch on the thigh under the table. This was met with a frown, but then another smirk as Xena looked at the two men across the table. The exchange didn’t go unnoticed by Virgil as he watched the women.

"Well duh, we’re together." He said to the unasked question. "As if you two ever hid it."

"Wha..?" Gabrielle was slightly flustered. "I didn’t think you knew…I mean what about that time when we were dealing with Lucifer?"

"Oh come on, Gabrielle! That was just some kind of weird misdirected lust thing going on – both of us know nothing happened between us. Not only that, but I saw the way you and Xena looked at each other when you were dancing together." Virgil waggled his eyebrows in a suggestive manner. "But I still gotta say, girl, you both looked pretty hot in that shiny black leather." He then licked the tip of his index finger and held it up while making a hissing noise. "Sssss, hot!"

Gabrielle’s face flushed bright color of pink while Xena’s grin grew from ear to ear. The blonde woman remembered those outfits quite well, and thought back on a time when they had both worn them again in private…her ears were starting to grow warm as the flush got stronger.

"So what’s for dinner?" Hosep saw Gabrielle’s look and decided to change the subject as he rose up and went over to the hearth where he removed a lid from a large dish. "Yummy, this looks and smells delicious. Virgil, you sure do know your way around a kitchen." He came back to the table a moment later with four mugs and a jug of ouzo.

After a quick sip from his drink, Virgil stood and brought out an appetizer of kalimari, but Gabrielle politely declined, having developed an aversion to squid. However, they all dug into the main entrée of mousaka. After the meal, all four leaned back and groaned at their full bellies.

They continued to drink their ouzo as they let their bodies digest the meal. Finally Hosep spoke. "So, you girls going to stay with us for a bit?"

"Well we…" Gabrielle started.

"Great!" Hosep cut her off mid-sentence. "We’d love to have you, right Virgil?"

"Of course! But you know you’ll have to go out with us tonight." Virgil said with a taunting grin.

"Why is that?" Xena finally spoke.

"Do you two still have those leather outfits we were talking about?" Virgil leered as the two women merely looked at each other.

~~~ó ~~ó ~~ó ~~~

Later that evening, the four surveyed each other as they got dressed to go out. Xena and Gabrielle borrowed some leather outfits from the guys – who claimed they belonged to Meg – although they had their doubts. Virgil and Hosep were both dressed in tight black leather pants, but where Virgil was in a thin white linen shirt, Hosep was bare-chested wearing only a small vest that accentuated his strong chest and biceps.

Needless to say, the four of them were looking very tasty as they ventured out of the house and climbed into the wagon that was to take them to their destination. It was almost dark when they left, and the moon was high by the time they got to the place that Virgil and Hesop told the two women about as they rode. Loud music flowed out of the building and colorful lights flickered in the windows. The tavern they had a big sign out front with the words, "Leather Eagle" emblazoned on it.

A large burly man greeted them at the door and looked them each up and down carefully before letting them enter. The music was even louder inside as would be expected, and Xena and Gabrielle were immediately overwhelmed by the place. It was packed almost wall to wall with people, almost all were men who were mainly dressed in leather and were drinking, dancing and having a generally great time.

The women had never seen such a place, but both had a similar feeling of déjà vu thinking about a certain Bacchus incident. Still, they trusted Virgil and followed him and Hesop into the crowd toward the bar. Virgil ordered up a round of shots of some kind of ancient Greek liquor, and with a quick toast, they all slammed them down before accepting mugs of ale.

But anyway…the four danced and jived, having the time of their lives. Still young and sweet, the dancing Queen Gabrielle even got up and swung her booty from a stage that was erected at the front of the dance floor much to the amusement of her friends. They continued to drink for quite some time, although Virgil stopped after the first drink they had when they got to the establishment. He said he was the ‘designated driver’ and wouldn’t touch anything other than water after that although he still had a great time. Xena jumped up on stage and danced with Gabrielle, the two of them gyrating against each other to the beat of the music.

They all were having a great time when the "ugly candles" came up and everyone blinked at the brightness of the room as they were told it was time to go home. A loud groan went up from the crowd and Gabrielle and Xena were disappointed to see the time come to an end. Aside from at the Amazon Nation they’d never been in a place where it was okay to be openly affectionate to one another without interference from some guy – but for some reason the men there didn’t seem interested in them at all.

"That was like no other tavern I’ve ever been to before!" Gabrielle exclaimed as they drove home that night.

"Thought you might like it," Virgil chuckled as he held the reins to the wagon. "And you haven’t even seen the backroom yet." Hesop was leaning against his arm, and turned around to smile at the women who were sitting behind them.

Xena and Gabrielle were smiling in a silly way at each other, and cuddling close as the night air wrapped around their bodies. It was just so damn cute that Hesop had to lean in and give Virgil a kiss on the cheek as he drove them back to the place they called home.

Everyone slept in the next day, although it was very unlike Xena and Gabrielle to do so, but they adjusted to the party lifestyle quickly and the next thing they knew, they had been staying with Virgil and Hesop for well over two weeks. Every few nights they went back to the tavern, and soon found out what kind of things went on in the ‘backroom’. There was also an incident where Xena started smoking henbane with some iffy-looking characters at the tavern and a big row ensued when Gabrielle, Virgil and Hesop conducted an ‘intervention’…but that’s another story.

~~~ó ~~ó ~~ó ~~~

One morning – actually it was nearly afternoon - as the four sat around the kitchen table the reason for Xena and Gabrielle’s visit was at last brought up. The women hadn’t really thought about it since their arrival. Xena had learned how to sleep in for once, and Gabrielle didn’t mind at all the relaxed nature their visit had taken on.

"So how long were you planning on staying?" Hesop asked.

"You know you’re more than welcome here, but we were talking, and it seems we both feel like you didn’t come here just so that you could go out to party with us." Virgil supplied.

Xena looked to Gabrielle who just sat there silent for several moments. Finally, Xena spoke. "We want to have a baby. Specifically Gabrielle."

"What?!" Virgil and Hesop said at the same time while looking first at each other then at the two women across the table. The men reached the same realization at the same time. "You want help, I take it?"

"Yeah," Xena answered while nudging Gabrielle to get her to pay attention.

"I think we might have to talk about this for a bit," Hesop provided as he pulled Virgil to his feet and out of the room.

"That went well, thank-you," Gabrielle muttered once they were alone.

"Whaaaat?" Xena said as she looked at the bard. "That’s what we came for, isn’t it?"

"Yeah, but…"

"But whaaat?" Xena drew out the word again.

"Oh I don’t know. I didn’t expect Virgil to have a … a significant other."

"I don’t see them reproducing either," Xena said matter-of-factly.

"Good point."

They sat silent for awhile longer before the two men came back into the room and sat down again. "Okay, we talked about it," Hesop stated.

"And?" Gabrielle asked, thinking she was sounding a lot like Xena with the one word.

"And so we – well, I guess you had your mind set on Virgil, and we, or should I say he, will help out. But we have conditions." Hesop stated.

"What did you have in mind?" Xena asked as she leaned across the table.

"The…encounter…should be…uh…supervised. You know, just to make sure it’s just business." Hesop started. "And if we…uh, want to see the child afterward, we should be able to."

"Okay, that sounds fair." Xena spoke out – the whole situation starting to look like arranging stud service.

"So when do we start?" Hesop asked, as he and Xena seemed to have taken control of the whole situation.

"Do you mind?" Gabrielle asked as she went to get a scroll out of her bag. The parchment was covered with numbers and various marks and pictures of phases of the moon. After a few moments of calculations she finally replied, "We start in three days."

~~~ó ~~ó ~~ó ~~~

Three very tense days passed, and Gabrielle and Virgil were both on edge. Hesop and Xena just exchanged odd glances toward each other for the most part. Neither one liked the idea of their partner being intimate with anyone else.

Finally the big day arrived. Gabrielle was pacing up and down in the bedroom that she and Xena had been using, and the warrior just laid on the bed and watched. After awhile she started to feel dizzy watching the bard pacing, so she sat up quickly, reaching out to grab her hand to stop her.

"Nervous?" Xena asked.

"No, not at all." Gabrielle said sarcastically.

"You’ve been with a man before."

"One time, Xena. The guy was dead the next day… and you can’t really count Dahak – that was…well, it just wasn’t the same."

"Well, just relax, and hopefully you’ll only have to do it once."

Meanwhile, in another room, Virgil and Hesop were having a similar conversation as Virgil bathed. Hesop was washing Virgil’s back and trying to calm him.

"Just relax, hopefully you’ll only have to do it once."

"But I’ve never been with a woman before." Virgil groused.

"Never?"

"Never."

"Well, just try to think of something else, like me. Don’t think about baseball or it’ll never work." Hesop said helpfully.

"What the Hades is baseball?"

Virgil climbed out of the tub and Hesop helped him dry off. The two of them then went to meet the women in the bedroom. When they got there, Gabrielle was already in the bed with the covers pulled up under her chin. Xena was sitting in a chair by the bed, and patted the one next to her for Hesop to sit in. They watched as Virgil took a tentative breath, dropped his towel and slipped into the bed beside Gabrielle.

A long moment passed, then another…and another… The two people in the bed just stared at the ceiling.

"Well come on," Xena encouraged as she leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees.

"Yeah," Hesop joined in. "We haven’t got all day, ya know."

"Shut up!" Virgil shouted. "This is a lot of pressure, I don’t know if I can do it."

"Well, maybe you could kiss her or something to get into the mood," Xena suggested.

Virgil and Gabrielle faced and awkwardly tried to put their arms around each other. They each had their eyes tightly closed as they puckered up their lips. Moving toward each other, Virgil missed Gabrielle’s mouth completely and kissed her on the eye.

"Oh, please!" Xena groaned as she smacked her forehead. "I’ve seen you two do a lot better than that!"

"Well maybe we could call ol’ Lucifer up to give us a hand!" Gabrielle answered back snidely.

"Actually, that gives me an idea," Hosep said, and leaned over to whisper in Xena’s ear while she nodded slowly.

"Care to let us in on the secret?" Virgil glared at the two seated by the bed.

"We think you need…" Xena tried to think of a word to suit the situation, "…oh fluffer," she finished in an exasperated tone.

"Fluffer?" All three of the others in the room said simultaneously.

"I couldn’t think of a word for what we were talking about…I’m not the bard ya know."

"What about me? Do I get a ‘fluffer’ too?" Gabrielle asked, not knowing what Xena had meant, but for some reason – probably because of her nerves - she found it to be really funny and started laughing so hard that she almost choked.

"I don’t see why not," Xena answered quite seriously, which caused Gabrielle to quit laughing.

"Okay, let’s do this," Hesop said as he stood, handed Virgil his towel and pulled him out of the room.

"Um, I don’t get it, why are they leaving? Isn’t that just the opposite of what we’re trying to accomplish here?" Gabrielle asked as Xena came over to the bed and shut her up with her lips.

Several minutes later the bard was quite worked up, and apparently so was Virgil as the two men came back into the room. Hesop and Xena went back to their chairs as Virgil jumped into the bed…

Two minutes later, the deed was done, Virgil was passed out, and Gabrielle lay there wondering if anyone had gotten the license plate of the wagon that just drove over her. Xena ushered Hesop out of the room and pulled Gabrielle out of the bed. She threw a pillow down on the floor near the wall, and pushed the bard toward it.

"Stand on your head," the warrior instructed.

"Why?"

"Just do it – it’ll make it take better," Xena explained. Gabrielle figured that maybe Xena knew what she was talking about, so she got down and flipped her legs up, her head on the pillow.

"This seems kind of silly," Gabrielle said, her face turning red as the blood rushed into her head.

"Looks silly too."

"Xena!" Gabrielle grumbled loudly.

~~~ó ~~ó ~~ó ~~~

Although they had not wanted to have any gods involved, they all decided that the whole incident had been a little awkward. To try to prevent having to go through it again, they thought they might see if someone could tell them if things had gone well. So Gabrielle tried calling Aphrodite the following day, and she sparkled into view.

"Hey, hot stuff!" The goddess gushed as she lounged on the pink couch that appeared with her. She snapped her fingers and the three men that were also with her disappeared. Aphrodite waved Gabrielle over, and offered her a seat. "Grrl, I think you are looking positively radiant!"

Gabrielle turned a bright crimson. "Do you really think so?"

"Totally. Where’s the warrior babe?"

"She’s with some friends of ours."

"I see. So what’s the haps? You need ‘Dite for another of your ‘sensitive chats’?" Aphrodite looked at Gabrielle a little closer, then with a sly grin she slowly shook her head. "Tsk tsk tsk…I see. Something going on you don’t want to tell her?"

"Well no, not really. Why do you ask?"

"As if! Grrl, you’ve got a bun in the oven and you’re asking me?"

"Thanks, ‘Dite!" Gabrielle cried out as she grabbed the goddess in a huge hug.

"Whoa! Chill!" Aphrodite tried to smooth her sheer outfit back into some semblance of order. "I take it this is a good thing?" Gabrielle nodded while grinning like crazy. "Don’t tell me Xena got some new special abilities from those gods," the goddess raised an eyebrow while making a rather obscene gesture with her hands.

"No!" Gabrielle was visibly shocked. "We did it the old fashioned way, with a little help from a friend."

"I see – I guess I know why I didn’t hear you calling out my name…hmm, was this last night?"

"Yes, but Xena was there so it was almost like she had a part in it.."

"Ooh, kinky!"

"Hey, it wasn’t like that!"

The two talked for a little while longer, and Gabrielle explained how things happened much to the displeasure of the Goddess of Love. She was somewhat placated when Gabrielle explained that although she and Xena didn’t create the baby together, it was still a product of their love and the conversation turned all mushy.

~~~ó ~~ó ~~ó ~~~

Gabrielle went back to the house to give everyone the good news, and they celebrated with another one of Virgil’s fabulous meals. Later on Virgil and Hesop went to the Leather Eagle, but Xena and Gabrielle stayed home. (Xena wasn’t allowed to go there anymore to avoid temptation.)

The women left the next day to go back to the Amazon village. Some new rules were set down by the bard, and Xena did a pretty good job at following them. A very stern lecture from Gabrielle convinced the warrior that since they had a child on the way she needed to tone things down a bit and not go around getting herself killed any more. Xena still found life to be pretty exciting as the Amazons liked to keep themselves sharp by making frequent panty raids on a neighboring Hestian temple and other such zany hi-jinx. Gabrielle also made sure to wear Xena out at night on a regular basis with her own set of skills.

"Hey Gabrielle! I got five pairs tonight!" Xena yelled one night after a rather successful raid. She ran into the hut and saw her mate in the throes of labor while the healer sat nearby.

"Get over here, NOW!" The bard yelled through clenched teeth. Xena dropped the panties and ran over to the bed, and let Gabrielle squeeze her hand until she thought it would be forever crushed. She also endured a barrage of curses directed at her – things she never thought she’d hear from her partner, and didn’t think it would be wise to point out that it was Gabrielle’s idea to procreate.

Finally a tiny voice cried out, and Gabrielle was handed a wee bundle with fuzzy blonde hair and bright blue eyes. "She’s beautiful," Xena declared as she took a tiny hand into her own, and leaned in to give the new mother a kiss.

"I think she’s got your eyes," Gabrielle stated.

"Nah," Xena beamed.

Yet somewhere in the shadows, a certain goddess was smiling before she poofed away.

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