The weight of the world was finally lifted from Gabrielle’s shoulder. And the freedom allowed her to finally let go. She cried for a while and Xena continued to embrace her. She finally fell asleep in Xena’s arms. Xena continued to hold the woman that she loved.

*****

Sophia came back to the camp with a ham and some goose eggs. Xena looked down at her sleeping companion and gently eased her to the pallet. Then she stood up, stretched and headed toward Sophia.

"Where did you get those?"

"Poteidaea is only a few candlemarks away. So I went to scout."

"And what did you find?"

"Did she tell you?"

*I hate it when someone answers a question with a question.* "Yes, she told me. Now answer mine."

"It looks as if the bastard has flown the coup. A couple of friends said that he left town to do some business."

"He must have left after they received the message I sent. Is Lila with him?"

"No, she’s safe at home." Sophia showed off the grin she inherited from her father. "Trust me, he would never touch her."

Xena nodded. "Gabrielle told me about the beatings and the rapes. I now understand why she only talks about her mom and Lila and why we did not stay to explain about Hope and the Destroyer." Xena ran her hand through her hair. "Damn it, all the signs were there, and I did not even noticed."

"Xena, you can’t blame yourself. There was no way you could have known."

"How did you find out? From what I gathered, Gabrielle did not want anyone to know."

"I found out about the beatings purely by accident. I knew something wasn’t right. Every time I saw a bruise, she would claim she got it from falling or playing with the boys. I final figured out that she was lying. Gabrielle may not be the most graceful person alive, she is far from being a klutz. And she never liked playing with the boys. I did not know for sure until one night I went over to her house. Gabrielle’s room had a back window, and she would always leave the shutters slightly opened for me to sneak in the house." Sophia saw Xena’s eyebrow quirked."We use to sneak into each others homes because we were afraid that our parents would tell the other one to go home. Anyway, one night I was trying to sneak, um, I mean go into her room, I heard voices."