The campfire had been silent. As had all the campfires since Britannia. Though Illusia had made them both recommit to the friendship, there were too many apologies for inconsequential acts, too many long pauses that were no longer comfortable. Gabrielle looked over at Xena, alone sharpening her sword in the moonlight, and felt such a sense of loss, that she thought her heart would break open.

At that moment, there was a popping sound and Xena collapsed with the weight of a body dropping on her from the skies.

There was an instant that Gabrielle had never seen before, where Xena actually froze, but then quickly the intruder was lying on his back with Xena’s sword at his throat.

"I’m unarmed and alone," the intruder gasped out.

"Then who or what are you?" the Warrior growled drawing a line of blood along his throat.

"Xena?" Gabrielle gasped at her actions. Xena didn’t even glance her way but answered "Just need to see if he bleeds and how fast it heals."

The man on the ground said "I’m not immortal. Keep that up and I’ll die like a regular person. I promise!"

"How did you get here and who are you?" she demanded, still holding him at the point of the blade.

"My name is James, I’m a traveler. Somewhat like you, I journey to help those in need. As to how I travel, that’s something I’ve never been able to work out. But I’m no magician, I have no spells or magic potions. And I am not dangerous to either of you."

"So, why are you here?" Gabrielle had stood up, and was examining their guest. Not yet middle-aged, older than Xena but not by much. Short hair, colour similar to hers, mustache, average build, and brown eyes that seemed to be looking to her for help. "Do you think we need your services?"

"Yes, you’re both in pain...you need help. That’s sort of what I do."

Xena laughed and pulled her sword back an inch. "What do you know about our pain?"

The man swallowed, seeming to consult something, and began to recite. "Xena, Warrior Princess. The Lion of Amphipolis, Destroyer of Nations." Seeing this had no impact, he swallowed again, "Mother of Solon..." The sword was suddenly back and touching his throat, "He gasped out, "Lifebond of Gabrielle..." and his eyes rolled back to catch the bard’s.

Gabrielle reached out to hold Xena’s sword hand. "And me?"

"Gabrielle, the great Bard of Potadiea, Holder of the Queen’s rite of caste, Princess of the Amazon Nation... Victim of Dahok... Mother of Hope," at this his voice had died to a whisper, and Gabrielle’s hand shook for a moment. Gabrielle looked directly into his eyes, held them for a long moment, and then said to her partner, "Let him up, he can’t hurt us."

"What do you mean? We know noth..."

"I mean, he literally can’t hurt us. It would be like hurting himself. He felt the pain I felt at the mention of Hope, and Dahok. He’s some sort of empath."

Xena stood back and Gabrielle reached her hand out to him to help him up.

James stood and stared at the Bard. "In the midst of your own grief, you could feel what I was feeling?"

Gabrielle gave a weak smile. "Strange, isn’t it? I felt a sort of echo of...what I was feeling, and I realized you were hurting because of me."

Xena stomped around feeding the fire. "We don’t need help, we only need time."

"I agree," said James,, turning to her. "Just like you needed time after your death. But then there was Valasca, wasn’t there? And Callisto, and so on and so on? Your life together doesn’t seem to allow you to have the time you need to heal alone, so some kindly force in the cosmos sent me."

"Would this kindly force answer to the name of Ares?" Xena’s smile did not reach her eyes.

"I travel all over the world, and to different times. I’m not sure where my abilities come from, but I know where they don’t. This is my first visit to this Greece, all I know of Ares is a few lines in a book I’ve hardly read."

So, How Do You Know Of My Son?" Xena’s demand was clearly emphasized.

"Part of my job. I get what I call a case file on the people I’m supposed to help."

Xena merely snorted in disbelief. She noticed Gabrielle evaluating the stranger. "You can’t be seriously considering listening to this?"

Gabrielle ignored her. "What does this ‘help’ entail?"

"We sit. We talk. I go away and you two talk some more. Then we start over." James looked to the stew on the fire. "Ah...is there enough for three? Because I got pulled away from my breakfast to come here."

Xena’s eyes grew wider at this, and she threw up her hands when Gabrielle moved to get a bowl.

"This is really good," James said after the first mouthful. "I mean, I understood that you were a good cook, but I figured that it meant considering the conditions. But this is really good."

Xena had just about enough of this. But Gabrielle sat down and waited for him to finish.

"So we just talk, right?"

"Absolutely, and I don’t come with guarantees. But, if ever I saw two people who needed some misunderstandings cleared up, it’s you guys."

"Like what?" The warrior demanded.

James grinned. "OK. I see two people, standing at the base of the largest mountain on earth. At the base of this mountain there are cracks and garbage and graffiti. And for the moment, that’s all these two people can see. On both sides pretty much the same garbage." His voice took on a casual sing song. "Both of you worried about whether Gabrielle can be trusted ever again. Xena worries that she might crack again and kill you, or be responsible for your death. Right? Or how much of Gabrielle`s innocence has been lost. Oh, and you both are scared about if the other could go on if one of you died, regardless of the circumstances."

James took his last piece of bread and wiped the bowl clean, popping it in his mouth." Really good." Both women stared at him stupefied.

"You should know, Gabrielle, that if Xena died, you’d survive. You have too strong a sense of responsibility. You have the Amazons and your family to keep you here. Of course, you’d be a shell of yourself, but you’d survive a while. Xena, on the other hand, would be dead in a week." He held out his bowl, "Is there any more?"

"What in Tartarus are you?" Xena growled, "Are you just amusing yourself? Or is there a point to this?"

"Of course there’s a point. You have all these incredible reasons to be apart, every force on earth seeming to drive you away, and here you are together. In pain, but still together.

"That’s the mountain. That’s your love for each other. You two need to spend some time looking at that mountain instead of the damned superfluous junk lying around it."

He looked at the women, both frozen on either side of the flickering fire, and stood up.

"Now, this is where I go for a short walk over to that rise, maybe catch a nap, and you two talk about mountains. And only the mountain."

And he left. And after some silence, as the shock wore off, they did. For many hours. At first Xena kept a watchful eye on the sleeping figure on the hill, but she soon almost forgot his presence. There were no angry words, or silences. Each time a guilt would surface, one of them would say, "only the mountain." And they slept beside each other for the first time in a moon.

To her own amazement, Gabrielle was up before Xena the next day. She looked over at the warrior beside her, and lovingly brushed the bangs away from her face. Xena had talked nearly all night! Her silent warrior had blurted out her feelings, and Gabrielle wanted to shout them out to the world. She looked up to the rise and saw James lying on his back, but awake, his face towards her. She slid out of her bedroll, and giving a contented kiss to her warrior, grabbed her staff, and went up to meet him.

"Nice day?"

Gabrielle sat down cross-legged beside him, and with a grin replied "Great day!" wondering all the time why it was that she instinctively trusted this stranger. It was the same as with Lila almost...

"So, you still claiming no magical powers?" she asked.

He answered her grin. "Nope. This was easy, it was all you guys .I figure you’ve been agonizing and apologizing everything to death, I just come along and give a little prod, and take credit when the good stuff pours out."

Gabrielle started to pump him about what he knew about his abilities, and James answered as best he could, both of them knowing that Xena was listening while pretending to be asleep. After a while, though, James lowered his voice, and speaking directly to the bard said "I meant what I said about the easy part. Today, I’ve got a harder story to tell. And it’s going to hurt. I need to apologize to you now, because, it’s not something I want to do..."

"But it will help us?"

"I think it will."

"I trust you." And with that, she simply smiled and left to make breakfast. He stared at her for a moment, shook his head, and went towards the stream to wash up.

It was after breakfast that the mood changed. Both James and Gabrielle watched Xena expectantly, until she stopped ignoring their stares and sat down across from them.

"All right, what do we talk about now?" she said in half-meant disgust.

James took a deep breath and looked directly at the warrior.

"I want you to know, I’d rather crawl into a hungry tiger’s cage and slap it around, than start this conversation with you, but...here goes."

Xena’s face was impassive, Gabrielle reached across and held her partner’s hand, but there was no change in her expression.

"Xena," James began, "there have been times when you have seen injuries or wounds that by the nature of how they were inflicted, filled you with rage or guilt; but you knew that as a healer, you had to focus on the job, and not let your emotions keep you from dealing with the injuries." He took another breath.

"Now, there’s been a wound that you have not treated properly, and when you realize that, you will feel even more guilt and anger. But you cannot. We need the healer, we need the cool assessment that confirms the symptoms, and evaluates the different treatments. You have to be able to do this."

There was still no movement from the warrior.

Glancing quickly at Gabrielle, who gave him a nod of encouragement, he began.

"Xena, I want you to think about Gabrielle. What she’s been like, not what she’s been through, but what she’s been like, since Britannia. Now I want you to strip away all the horrors, forget about Hope, forget about who or what was responsible for her being there, forget about her blood innocence," Gabrielle was becoming more tense with each word.

"Again, think about Gabrielle, how she has acted, her reactions to you, to others, and then strip away all those horrors and realize, really realize, that Gabrielle was raped."

The word seemed so loud, James could have sworn that the woods fell completely silent. He saw in Xena’s eyes shock, and then a thousand differing suffering emotions, each combating the next. He saw his own death there for a moment, but he spoke again.

"We need the healer now, Xena, no one but the healer."

She turned to look at Gabrielle, who was staring at the ground in pain, or shame, or a dozen emotions she could not, would not, have her feel, and she tenderly reached over and lifted her bards chin, and looked into the tear-filled eyes.

She heard James say, "This isn’t about you. Gabrielle doesn’t need to hear you’re sorry." and then he silently slipped away.

They broke camp the next day. As they packed up, James was just in the way of the efficient rituals that the two had created. Each job long ago delegated and swiftly achieved, and he stood aside and watched in admiration. When all traces of their camp had been erased, Xena faced him and asked "Can you hunt?"

"No, some basic snares...."

"Can you fight?"

He looked to Gabrielle, but the bard stood silent. "No" he answered.

The warrior made no visible judgment. James added indicating the dark skies "I can build a fire in damp woods...and though I’m a slow learner, but I do learn. And I can follow orders."

Xena grunted, "That may keep you alive", and mounted Argo.

Gabrielle smiled and with a flick of her head indicated he walk with her, and they set out.

It rained most of the next two days as the three made their way back to the Amazons.

During the day, Xena treated James as she would a slightly dim child, but he listened and managed to keep his tongue silent until the, evenings. Then they would talk, Xena still resentful, James patient, Gabrielle eager. James slept away from their camp, but still under the warrior’s suspicious eyes. But as each day passed, the mood lightened, and James was assigned the fire and some cooking tasks. One day Xena took him to hunt, and when they were returning with a buck, both sensed danger to Gabrielle. Xena charged out of the woods chakrum first, and there were three dead before James even arrived. He watched the two perform their deadly ballet, styles so different that they could not be compared, yet somehow complementary.

Gabrielle had forgotten where James was, she was too occupied by two of the raiders when she realized that she was out of position and a third was behind her. She began to force her two forward in hopes of giving Xena room to help her, when she heard a loud clunking sort of noise, and senses told her that the danger was gone. But when the last of the brigands had run off, she turned to see James still holding her frying pad, now badly dented, she nearly exploded and advanced towards him. Only to be stopped by the sound of her love’s laughter, and she stopped as Xena, helpless now, pointed to her outraged face and the frypan. She wanted to keep her anger intact, but the warrior’s laughter was something she had missed, more than even her touch. Xena continued to laugh and moved to stand protectively between her and James. "I’m sorry Gabrielle, but we never explained to James that if it came to a choice between your life and the frypan..."

From that point on, James might have still been a third wheel, but one that took some weight, and the warrior was more relaxed, less resentful of the prying he was forced to do at night. Then there was a finally a clear day, with no clouds in the sky, when Xena was attacked underwater by a laughing bard who had somehow gotten right beside her without her being aware of it. And one night, a half days ride outside of the village, the two soulmates made love. And when they awoke the next morning, James had gone.