The Long Way Home

By: Chelsea

Disclaimer: All characters are owned by MCA/Renaissance Pictures/Studios USA

Summary: I originally wrote this for Sierra’s Soulmates’ Corner. She was the one who asked that I come up with a story on star-crossed lovers. I think I over did it since it is well, for a lack of better words, really mushy. Don't say that I didn't warn you.

Dawn is breaking, but the thick fog coming off the Pacific Ocean kept the little coastal town of Crescent City covered in darkness. The November wind blew across the sandy beach, chilling the air, but the young woman ran on, barely noticing the change in time. She picked up her second wind and finished her tenth mile. She looked at her wristwatch to find that she had cut another two minutes from her normal time. She slowed down to a jog and then finally stopped. She started to walk slowly back home, the fact that she is the only person out on the street this early in the morning didn’t bother her. She has been living here for the last two months, a town best known as the gateway to the giant redwoods. She stopped for a second as she pulled out the twister that was keeping her long hair in a ponytail, letting the long, thick blonde hair cascade down her back. She had picked this town out randomly two months ago, bought a bus ticket from St. Louis and somehow landed in this northwestern city on the California coast, a town small enough for her to feel comfortable in, yet large enough for her to hide in.

A car drove by, slowed down for a mere millisecond and picked up speed again. Alarm bells rang off in the young woman, but outwardly she was calm. She looked at the fading taillight of the black Rav4 and sighed. One can only run so far. She’s tired of constantly looking back over her shoulders, living like a fugitive; maybe it was time to confront her past and lay it to rest.

As she mounted the steps to her apartment, she glanced back but saw nothing, no sign of the black Toyota. She inserted her key into the lock and quickly opened the door. All was quiet. She stepped through the threshold and could sense that the place was empty. Maybe I’m just getting paranoid. He’s probably tired of this by now and moved on to someone else. After all two thousand years is a long time for anyone, mortal or god.

She closed the door behind her and walked into the room, a small studio apartment. She dropped her keys on top of the dresser, took off her running shoes, and placed them by the corner, right next to her other pair of sneakers. She went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. She took off her running clothes and dropped them into the hamper. She stepped into the shower and felt the warm, soothing water gushing down on her. When she was done, she stepped out and dried herself. Taking down the bathrobe that was hung on the back of the door, she put it on and loosely tied the belt. She took another towel and walked out of the bathroom still rubbing her wet hair. It was then that she knew she was no longer alone.

He was there, lounging on her bed, reading her newest manuscript, waiting for her and without a trace of emotion on his face. Gone were the leathers, and in their place were black jeans and shirt. The beard and earring were gone, but other than that, he looked exactly like he did two thousand years ago. She stared at him and blinked, an action that was meant to give herself time to catch her breath. She wasn’t totally surprised to see him; she has been half expecting him ever since spotting that Rav4. It was a sense of familiarity that she has sensed as the car drove by, the same as that time in London over a decade ago. She didn’t even had to look up to know that he was there. She had managed to get away from him by quickly disappearing into the subway station. Luck was on her side. By the time he was able to maneuver across the busy street at Piccadilly Square on a Sunday afternoon, she had already boarded the train. And by the time he had tracked her down to where she lived, she was already on the other side of the world working as a Peace Corps’ volunteer in Ethiopia. And there had been many close calls since then, with 21^st century technology, it wasn’t hard for him to track her down.

She tightened her bathrobe and dropped the towel onto the back of a chair. "What are you doing here Ares?"

He shrugged and sat up, "just checking up on you." He looked around the room, and she sees in her mind what he saw. A bed, a dresser, a work desk by the window with a laptop on it, that’s it. The room was as impersonal as a hospital room. There was nothing on the dresser except for a hairbrush, some twisters and a couple of hair clips. Her work desk was piled with papers, discs, pens and pencils, but nothing else. There’re no pictures, no little ornaments, nothing. Nothing in the room gives a visitor a sense of who she is.

"Say what you have to say and leave Ares, I have things to do." She said coldly.

His expression darkened, "no how are you Ares? Nice to see you?"

"I can see that you are doing well." She said, deliberately leaving the other part unanswered.

He stared at her broodingly for a moment, and then held up her manuscript. "So I see you are still writing."

"I write history books. After all, I do have first hand experience." She shrugged.

"Somehow I never thought this would be your profession. Writing novels, fictions, sure; maybe teaching, but this?"

"Teaching? I could hardly apply for tenure at Harvard. It’s a little hard trying to explain how I got my PHD in 1940. This might never make it on the best seller list, but it pays the rent." She said sarcastically, not bothering to hide her anger.

"Gabrielle, you know why I did what I did." He came toward her but stopped when she took a step back. "I can’t believe that you still haven’t forgiven me after all these years. How can you possibly hold out a grudge for this long?"

"You took away my life."

"I gave you eternal life!"

"Did you ever ask me if that was what I wanted? You, in your arrogance took away my mortal life. Did you honestly think that I would want to live on forever and see all the pain and destruction that we perpetuated on ourselves for two thousand years? Did you think that this is the life that I want, moving around every couple of years, too afraid to make real friends, no family, no one who cares about me. Do you know how many times I’ve had to change my name? Just look around Ares, this room is me. I have no identity." She was on the verge of tears. For two thousand years she had traveled like a nomad, never settling in one place for long. Witnessing all kinds of horror, feeling lonely, confused, trying to outrun destiny. While the anger was for his benefit, the pain was real.

Ares came forward and ignoring her struggles pulled her into his arms. "I’m sorry. Maybe it was selfish of me, but I wanted us to be together forever. Couldn’t you try to understand that?"

Don’t , Gabrielle. Don’t let yourself fall into that trap again. "Forever sure didn’t last long, did it?" She pushed him away; anger once again dominated her tone.

"You were the one who left me."

"And just exactly why did I leave you?"

"I never did figure out why. You left without telling me." Now it was him that was angry. It might have been two thousand years, but he still remembered how empty he felt when he found her gone. Just like that, no explanations, no nothing, just gone. He had searched the world for her, but she kept eluding him. Without his powers, there was only so much that he could do. He had followed her all over the world, but she was always one step ahead of him. It took him five hundred years just to find her living in Rome. When he found her then, he could have sworn that she was happy to see him. He could still remember that day when she saw him standing outside of the little house that she was staying and the bemused look on her face.

Without a word, she had walked into his embrace and hugged him as if she would never let go. They were married in a little church up on the hill. He remembered her smile on that day, a smile so blinding that she had put the sun to shame, and he had thought that it would last for an eternity. But it only lasted a year. All of a sudden, she was gone, just disappeared. She had left him twice, and he never did find out why. Ever since, he’s been chasing after her all over the word.

"If you don’t know, I’m sure not going to be the one to tell you."

"Gabrielle, I thought you had forgiven me. I thought we were happy together. Just tell me, why?"

In her mind she could recall that fateful day two thousand years ago. Funny how some things are forever etched in a person’s memory no matter how long ago it might have been.

When she had found that he had went to Zeus and traded his power for her immortality, she was angry and confused. She had gone to him for an explanation, and he had simply told her that it was because he couldn’t bare the thought of not being with her. She was touched and at that moment had decided to follow her heart. But that mellow feeling did not last long. Over the next two decades, she had seen her parents passed away and her sister grew into an old woman. But it was when Xena died that her world came crashing down around her. She didn’t understand why their friendship was never quite the same after she was made an immortal. It took Eve’s accusation for her to comprehend what her friend had gone through. Eve had told her that her mother died a bitter, lonely old woman because she had always thought that she and Gabrielle would grow old together. She had given up many chances of happiness in order to stay with the bard, but Gabrielle had betrayed her, deserted her, and went off with their worst enemy. The betrayal had festered inside her, obliterating all her good judgement and common sense. Eve had blamed her for her mother’s bitterness. And after listening to Eve, Gabrielle had blamed herself. She had convinced herself that she didn’t deserve to be happy. Not knowing how to explain it to Ares, she had taken the coward’s way out and simply left Greece.

For the next five hundred years, she had traveled from Chin to Egypt to Norway and finally settled in Rome. She was living a quiet, normal life when once again he appeared. Seeing him just standing there had struck her speechless, after five hundred years, she still couldn’t get over him. The passage of time had dulled the pain and guilt over her friend. She has been punished for the last five centuries; it was time to live again. Without even a conscious thought she had walked right into his arms, feeling like she had never left. The following year was one of rediscovery. He had asked why she left, but she had refused to tell him. Still unsure of their relationship and not wanting to lose her, he had left it alone.

Gabrielle came back to the present to see him still waiting for her to explain. She sighed; she can’t run from him forever, so the only way out would be to get him to leave her. "Just get out Ares. You are no longer part of my life."

"What are you trying to hide?"

"If you really want to know why, why don’t you go ask Discord?" The name was said so much distaste that Ares simply raised his eyebrows.

"What does Discord have to do with this? When did I ever give you any reason to be jealous of her?"

"Jealous of her? I wasn’t jealous of her; I was sick of being deceived."

"I have never been anything but honest with you ever since we were together. It was you who left me without even telling me why. For the last time, whatever Discord told you about us, she was lying."

"Stop playing games. Maybe it was no big deal to either one of you, but it was to me. I might have been the naïve little sidekick, but you are not going to walk all over me."

"And I repeat, just what does Discord have to do with us?"

"Oh please, she was always between us. Is she here with you?"

"I haven’t seen her for hundreds of years. I’ve been too busy running all over the world searching for you." He raised his voice in anger.

"Why?"

"Why the hell do you think?" He looked at her, couldn’t believe she actually had to ask. He walked away from her to the window and looked outside, not really seeing anything. Finally he asked in a low voice, "tell me why you left me in Rome? I think I deserve to know."

Once again Gabrielle let herself traveled back to that time, the time when she was contented to just let the world takes care of itself. The time when laughter and happiness were taken for granted. The time when she thought she was the luckiest person on earth. But then Aphrodite had arrived, and all that had changed.

The Goddess of Love had came to them, apologized to Gabrielle for taking Ares away, but Zeus had summoned him back to Mount Olympus. Ares was reluctant to leave, but Gabrielle had told him to go, for if her parents were still alive, she would have surely wanted to visit them. He had hugged her, promised to be back soon and left in a shimmering light with the goddess.

She had thought that he would be back in a couple of days, but after a week he still did not return. It was then that she started to feel a little lost and confused. Discord’s arrival certainly did not help.

Gabrielle had always known that Discord considered Ares her property, and Gabrielle her number one enemy. So when the Goddess had started to tell her all about how Ares was regretting his impulse that made him give up his powers, she hadn’t really believed her.

"Do you honestly think that he would spend the rest of his life with you?" The goddess had asked in her jealous rage. "You always were and always will be that pathetic little sidekick. If you had not turned him down when he offered you the chance to be the heir, he would have kicked you out a long time ago. You were just a novelty. The one that got away."

"He did spend the last five hundred years trying to find me." Gabrielle had returned coolly, secured in the knowledge that he loved her.

"That was because of his ego. No one had ever dared to leave him before. Now that he got you wrapped around his fingers, you are becoming an annoyance. Take a good look at yourself, little girl, why would he want you when he can have any goddesses or mortals that he wants. Think about it, he’s been gone for over a week. If he cares so much about you, he would have already been back."

She came back to the present to see him watching her. She pushed back her still wet hair and shook her head. "I can’t talk about this right now. I’ve got to go." She went to the closet and pulled out a pair of jeans and a sweater. "Go away Ares. Go back to Olympus. We have nothing left to say to each other."

"I did not travel all over the world for the last fifteen hundred years just to be dismissed like this." He grabbed hold of her as she tried to walk past him. His anger was a tangible thing. All these years of searching, waiting, worrying about her, and here she was, as beautiful as ever, acting like she couldn’t stand the sight of him.

Without another word, she pushed him away from her, walked into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.

Ares stared at the closed door in disbelief. Afraid of what he might do in his anger, he slammed out of her apartment.

Gabrielle heard the door closed and with her back leaning against the wall let herself slide down until she was sitting on the bathroom floor. The tears came quickly and violently.

Ares left his car parked by the curve as he walked down the steps toward the ocean. His anger has subsided, only to be replaced by sadness. He walked down to the beach and sat down on the sand. He watched as the waves pounded against the sand over and over again, just like his thoughts. He turned when he felt a hand on his shoulder to find Aphrodite standing behind him with a somber look on her face. He hasn’t seen his sister for a decade and would normally been thrilled to see her, but right now, he just wants to be left alone.

"How is she?" She sat down next to him after looking at the sand with distaste.

"I don’t know." He said, staring off into the horizon. "She wasn’t happy to see me."

"She was. She just didn’t know how to handle it."

"Why?" He turned to his sister, "tell me why. And don’t start telling me about Hera’s orders. I need to know."

After considering it for a long time, Aphrodite finally said, "She thinks she is doing it for you."

"What’s that suppose to mean? Doing what for me? Tearing my guts out?"

"That show of anger, well, it was exactly that, a show." Aphrodite looked at her brother and saw the confusion in his eyes. "Yes, the past two thousand years has certainly been hard on her, but she wasn’t angry with you. She just wanted you to think that."

"Why?" He continued without giving Aphrodite a chance to reply, "no, don’t tell me, so that I would leave her alone. But why? I thought she loved me."

Aphrodite nodded slowly. "Yes, she did and she still does." The goddess sighed, "when she left you that first time, it wasn’t because she had any doubts about her feelings, it was because of guilt."

"Guilt?"

Dite nodded and went on to explain about Xena and Gabrielle’s reaction to it.

Ares felt sick after listening to his sister, "why didn’t she ever tell me about it? I thought she left me because she was having second thoughts."

"Because she didn’t want you to share in her guilt. She knew what it was like, and she wasn’t going to let you go through it too." Seeing the tortured looked on her brother’s face, Dite hugged him. "It’s okay. She had finally put that behind her. Believe me she had learned to be happy again because of you."

Ares let out a long sigh and changed the subject. "What happened to make her leave me in Rome? Discord had something to do with it, didn’t she?"

"Remember when I took you back to Olympus?"

"Of course I remembered. How could I ever forget? My trip to hell!" He closed his eyes briefly and the images of that time flashed across his mind. The trip started off well. Zeus was glad to see him as of all the other gods and goddesses of Olympus. The first couple of days went off without a hitch, he had the chance to catch up with everyone and took note of all the changes that had happened over the last five hundred years. But then he started to miss Gabrielle, but every time he brought up the subject of leaving, he was met with resistance. Feeling that he owed his family this long awaited visit, he had stayed despite of his better judgement.

It was only when Discord started to appear constantly and taunting him about his relationship with Gabrielle that he finally had enough. He had went to Zeus and demanded to be transported back to Rome. His father had looked at him strangely and told him in a voice full of regrets that there was not reason for him to go back to Rome.

"You can’t keep me here; I agreed to a visit, nothing else." Ares had said heatedly.

"You are free to leave, but I just wanted to warn you that your reason for going back to Rome is no longer there." When Ares had stared at him in horror, "she’s gone, son. She has left you again."

Ares shook his head and brought himself back to the present, he looked at Dite, "go on, tell me what happened."

"Well, while you were on Olympus reminiscing with your family, she had to put up with visits from both Discord and Hera."

"I don’t think I even need to ask, but just what did Discord do? And more important, what did Hera do?"

"Discord went to see Gabrielle and told her that you were regretting the decision that made you give up your powers. She also told her that you guys were lovers when you were back on Olympus." Dite quickly put up a hand when Ares started to speak. "I don’t think she believed her. Gabrielle had enough faith in you to trust you not to betray her."

"But she was berating me over it."

"No, that was just a ploy to throw you off track. She didn’t want you to know why she really left you." She stopped for a brief second; "it was Hera that got her running again."

"Just what the hell did my mother do?"

"She told Gabrielle that Zeus was willing to restore your powers providing that you leave her. She told her that in a few more hundred years, you would have been tired of her anyway. You would have hated her for what you have given up."

"And she just believed her? She has so little faith in me that she actually believed her?"

Dite heard the hurt in his voice; "no, she didn’t. She told Hera that she wasn’t going anywhere unless you asked her to. Hera then told her that if you stayed with her, she would have sent you off into oblivion. It was then that Gabrielle packed up and left."

Ares turned deadly pale. "Oh gods, after all the promises that I made to her, I screwed up again, didn’t I? I stayed on Olympus too long. I should have been there. I gave Hera the perfect opportunity to hurt her."

"No Ares, don’t blame yourself. You didn’t have the power to get back to Rome on your own; it was our fault. We were just so glad to see you again that we didn’t want to let you go." Aphrodite hugged her brother apologetically. "I’m so sorry Ares. I never wanted to see Gabrielle hurt. I didn’t even realized she had left Rome."

"And she’s been running ever since." Ares stood up and started to run back toward the car. It was as he got in that he remembered his sister, "thanks Dite. Stick around for a while, okay?"

He drove back to her apartment at break neck speed and jumped out as soon as he braked. He rushed up the steps and went inside. The room was empty; she’s gone. She had left in a hurry; her bathrobe was thrown on the floor, there were still clothes left inside her closet. No, not again. I’ve came so close this time, why did I lose my temper? He rummaged through her desk looking for clues to see where she had gone but found none. He needed help. "Dite, come on Dite."

Aphrodite appeared, "I can’t help you. You know why. She knows it too, that’s why she’s constantly running."

"I know, you told me that two thousand years ago, and you’ve been repeating that same old excuse over and over again. No god is allowed to help me because I willing gave up my powers for a mortal. Zeus never did understand how important she was to me, but you do. I need your help Dite; you love her almost as much as I do. Can’t you tell how miserable she has been all this time? I thought I had the perfect solution, instead all that I did was brought her nothing but grief. I’m begging you Dite, help me find her."

Dite looked at her brother, heard the pain in his voice, and finally nodded her head.

Gabrielle sat at the Amtrak station waiting for her train to come. After she had pulled herself together she had changed her clothes, grabbed her bag and threw in a few items of clothing. She had left the house and hopped on the first bus that she saw. She had ended up at the train station. She bought herself a ticket for the first train out of town, and now she’s sitting here waiting for the train to pull in. Her thin sweater was no protection against the bitter wind, but she didn’t feel the cold. She didn’t feel anything. A couple of guys passed by, looked at her admiringly, but on seeing that vacant look in her eyes, no one actually dared to approach her. Lost in her own world of misery, she did not notice anything or anyone. All of a sudden she jerked her head around, and there he was, standing a mere five feet away from her, just watching her. She looked at him with tears in her eyes, unable to fight him any longer. She broke down when he opened up his arms to her; she got up and rushed into them. He held on to her for a long moment, and then with his arm across her shoulders, led her unresistingly out of the station.

He put her in the passenger seat and got in besides her. The journey back to her apartment was completed in silence. He glanced at her as she sat huddled in the corner.

Once inside, he had took her by the hand and sat down with her. "I know. I know everything. But I love you, and whatever obstacle we face, we will face it together."

"I can’t let you throw away your life because of me."

"Do you honestly think that Zeus would allow Hera to throw his favorite son into oblivion?" He asked her teasingly, trying to catch of glimpse of the smile that he hadn’t seen in fifteen hundred years.

But she didn’t smile, "Zeus isn’t too happy with you, is he?"

Ares was thoughtful for a while; "he didn’t understand why I gave up my powers for you. I think it’s time we show him."

"Ares?"

"Just trust me."

Against her better judgement, Aphrodite transported Ares and Gabrielle to Mt. Olympus at her brother’s request. She had tried to talk him out of his plan, but he was determined. "It’s the only way, Dite. I’m not losing her again."

Zeus stared at the couple standing before him and thought of how ironic the whole situation really was. Although he had not interfered, he had kept an eye on both his son and his love. After two thousand years and everything that had happened, here they are, together again. Looking at the blonde before him, he’s now willing to admit that perhaps he should have stepped in. There was a time when he hated her, hated her for her power over his son, blaming her for all that Ares had given up. But now he finally understood her. Courage, loyalty and compassion notwithstanding, she loves his son more than anything else in the world, and that had to be good enough even for the king of all gods.

He looked back at his son, "are you sure that this is what you both want? Think carefully son, this can never be reversed."

"Yes father, my life has been nothing but a living hell these last fifteen hundred years. We belong together."

"I ask you to reconsider again Ares. You will grow old and die. Is she really worth it?"

"She is everything to me father. I would give up everything just to spend another day with her."

"What about you Gabrielle? Are you willing to give up your immortality? Just because my son is insane doesn’t mean you have to go along with it."

Gabrielle just leaned back against Ares as she felt his hold tightened on her. "The quality of life is not how long you live, but how well you live it. I could live on forever, but I will not be living, just existing. I would much rather be with the person that I love, however short it might be."

"If I grant you this request, there is no guarantee that you will be together in your next life."

Ares smiled and said confidently, "yes, we will father. Our souls will find each other. We were meant to be together, and we will be in this life, our next life and all of our lives after that."

Zeus sighed, "very well." He waived his hand and thunder rolled over the sky. "In exchange for giving up their immortality, I now promise you that neither god nor mortal will ever try to harm or separate you two again. I make no promise for the future; it will be up to you two to find your way together."

Ares looked at Gabrielle and promised softly, "and we will."

The End