Joxer woke with an aching head and a horrible taste in his mouth, and not even any fun from the previous evening to show for it. Cursing softly, he got up and staggered out into the apartments. He didn't see Gabrielle. He went out into the garden, and there she was. Darn.

She was seated on one of the rock formations meditating, eyes closed, but somehow sensed he was there and turned a bright smile on him. "Morning, hero. How are you feeling?"

Really stupidly happy all of a sudden, looking at that smile. "I, uh, I feel fine. I've just gotta...y'know, acacias."

"Ah." Gabrielle got down off her perch. "I'll go get breakfast."

Good. Didn't need an audience. It wasn't like out in the woods where a guy could go off and have some privacy, was it? He did what he came to do, washed his hands off in the spring, whistled at the birds, and realized he was very, very dizzy. He hardly made it back into the apartment in time to grab the back of a chair and sit down. "Easy there," Gabrielle said. "You should stay in bed and rest today."

"I'll be all right." He shook his head experimentally. "It's not that bad. I do this a lot, you know."

"I know." She brought over the breakfast platter and put it onto a low table, pushing the whole thing near him. "Maybe you'll feel better with a little food in your stomach."

Joxer had no idea why Gabrielle was being so attentive, but he wasn't going to question his luck. Maybe it was because Xena wasn't there...oh, yeah, he was real lucky this morning. Mentally he shied away from thinking about Xena, and tried to come up with a harmless topic of conversation. "So...where's Xena?"

"Still with Nebula, as far as I know." Gabrielle poured some juice from a pitcher--all kinds of fresh fruits they had here in Sumeria, wonderful salads and soups and drinks they made from them--and offered him a cup before taking one herself. "There's been no follow-up attempt, of course. Xena didn't think there would be, but she just wanted to play it safe."

"Thank the gods," Joxer said softly. Nebula was safe, then. Xena wouldn't allow anything to happen to her. Someone knocked at the door in an odd pattern of loud and soft raps, and Gabrielle said, "Suleiman. Come on in."

The head Guard entered the room, and again Joxer noticed the silent grace, a pure warrior elegance he'd hardly ever seen although he'd spent his entire life around fighters. "Good morning, little one," he greeted Gabrielle. "How is our brave young friend?"

"Hardheaded as ever." Gabrielle gave Joxer an affectionate cuff on the shoulder, which thrilled him. "Perfectly normal."

"A little dizzy," Joxer corrected her.

"Like I said."

Joxer felt self-conscious in front of the Guard, the man's calm demeanor and quiet confidence making him more nervous rather than otherwise. It seemed that he was always falling down or being washed or some other kind of embarrassing thing in front of Suleiman, and now with Gab here too and her so respectful of her teacher, what should he do? "Uh, do you want anything to eat?" he asked. Sumerian tradition said you were always supposed to offer food and drink to a visitor. Joxer, who was fond of both, thought it was a very good tradition indeed.

"Thank you. I believe I will have a fig or two." The tall Sumerian pulled up a hassock and sat down, folding his long legs neatly under him. Gabrielle looked pleased at this, and Joxer realized he'd made her happy by the invitation. Wow. It was really a good morning so far, Gab-wise.

"Did anything come up last night?" Gabrielle asked.

Suleiman shook his head. "No. I have heard nothing save the expected--that it is beyond belief that anyone would try to kill the Queen."

"I thought lots of people were wanting to kill her. More or less." Joxer thought he probably shouldn't have spoken, but what about all those guards every time she went out into the plaza?

"Not those of noble families." Suleiman selected a fig and cut it open carefully with a small but exquisitely sharp dagger he pulled from a hidden sheath at his waist. "The gods treat those of royal blood differently than those who are not. They demand more from those that have received more, and they demand the most of all from the monarch, who is the gods' chosen representative on the earth. To attack the monarch is like attacking the gods themselves--it is the ultimate taboo. Such a thing has never been done before."

"So Khalil was the first." Joxer mused. "Man. That can't make him very happy."

Gabrielle and Suleiman gave him funny looks, and Joxer made a note to stop speaking his thoughts out loud. But it couldn't have made Khalil happy. He was so upset over the shame Nebula was bringing on the family he must not have been thinking straight, because wasn't he now shaming them more than she ever could? "I mean, okay, he tried to kill her and everything so he doesn't deserve to be happy, but I mean he's not happy anyway." More looks. "I mean."

More looks. Joxer suppressed a sigh and turned his attention to carefully dissecting a piece of flatbread. Well, there went all the good marks with Gab.

"When is it?" Gabrielle asked. This was not directed at Joxer, and so he kept his head down.

"The next full moon."

"The moon just passed full. That'll be weeks."

"The priests insist on it--and, gods help us, it'll be more effective that way. We'll have time to spread the word to the entire country, as well as to those of the fleet that can be reached." Suleiman shook his head and sighed, like an old man. "A bad business, little one. A bad business."

"Yeah," said Gabrielle in a small voice. Joxer looked at her; she was staring down into her lap and seemed to have lost her appetite. He turned to Suleiman, alarm growing in the back of his head. "What's a bad business? What about the priests, insisting on what?"

"The execution."

"Execution," Joxer repeated, not comprehending at first. "Exec--" He looked back at Gab, suddenly desperate to see in her eyes that he was jumping to the wrong conclusions again, but there was no comfort there for him. "Khalil's a traitor," she said softly, "and the penalty for that is death."

"Traitors are tied to a frame and flayed alive," Suleiman said, "and left for the kites and the crows to finish off. I have seen this once, when I was a small boy. I had hoped never to see it again." He sighed. "But it was Khalil's doing, and so he must face his fate."

Khalil's doing--but Joxer was the one who had stopped him getting away. So if Khalil was facing his fate, Joxer was the one who had put him there. And... Suddenly his head ached something awful. He put down the bread and took a sip of juice, his hand shaking badly.

Suleiman sighed again. "Well. Will you be joining me for practice before patrol today, little one? I so love seeing these tricks you come up with."

"And you so love slapping each and every one of them down," Gabrielle said cheerfully. "No, I'm going to stay in this morning, if it's all right with you. I have some things to take care of."

Suleiman looked at Joxer and smiled. "Be careful with them, little one. They are important things." He got up.

"They think they are," Gabrielle said. "Goodbye, guard Suleiman."

"Goodbye, guard Gabrielle. I shall see you later." Suleiman slipped out as silently and easily as he had entered, and Joxer and Gabrielle were once more alone in the room.

"Joxer?" Gabrielle said softly. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. I wish everyone would quit bugging me."

"You want some help with that?"

"Yes." He couldn't seem to put the mug down because his arm was shaking so badly. "Yeah, I think so."

Gabrielle's hands closed on his for a moment, guiding the mug to the table and prying his fingers away from it. "Must be a head-bumping thing," Joxer said loudly, "or probably it's that tea of Xena's making me shake, I told you she oughta..."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the execution," Gabrielle said softly. "I talked with Xena and Nebula last night after you were asleep, and found out then. But I didn't want to upset you."

"I'm not upset." Gabrielle looked at him, not with disdain, not with pity, but with honest sympathy, which was inescapable and really underhanded of her, gosh darn it. "I, I'm not upset, just because, y'know, I mean, it's like Suleiman said, he attacked Nebula, he deserves to be punished. Just because I caught him, that doesn't mean..." He swallowed. "That doesn't mean that I like, killed him or anything."

"No, of course it doesn't."

Joxer was quiet for a minute. "Then why does it feel like it does?"

Gabrielle was quiet in turn, then she started to speak. She raised herself half-out of her chair, as if she was going to approach him, and then the door opened without any warning. "Hello!" Nebula strode cheerfully into the room, a bundle under one arm, her habitual swagger subdued not at all by events. "Hey, studmuffin, how y'doing?"

"I'm fine," Joxer said, at the same time Gabrielle said, "He's fine."

"Let's take a look, shall we?" Nebula examined his head critically. Gabrielle did get up now, but Joxer noticed out of the corner of his eye she didn't seem all that happy. "Xena says he should rest up today," she said in a slightly irritated tone.

"Ah. He'll be fine." Nebula clapped him on the shoulder. "But Blondie's right, studmuffin, you've got to rest today."

It sounded like she was waiting for a question, so Joxer obliged. "Why?"

"Because tonight is a big party and you, hero-boy, are the guest of honor. And you, too," she added as an aside to Gabrielle. "It was the Bull House's idea; celebrate, give thanks that the monarch is safe, yadda yadda yadda. They can take care of the religious part of it. The rest of us are going to have a blowout. Feasting, dancing, the whole bit. All the Houses are invited and incredibly enough, all of them are coming."

"They're all glad you're okay, then?"

"They're all glad to get free food probably. But it's good enough. Learned that back in pirate days--let 'em party together first, they'll be more amiable to working together later on. And this is the first time I can remember them wanting to celebrate the monarchy instead of bitching about it, so I'm going to encourage them as much as I can. You two are the big heroes, so rest up today and dress nice. That goes for you too, Gabrielle."

"Well, thank you," Gabrielle said with markedly more venom.

"I mean I'll talk to Suleiman. You have the day off, and the pick of my closet if you want it. And as for you--" She tossed the bundle under her arm at Joxer, who caught it more out of surprise than anything else. "Wear a decent shirt. This one will do. The celebration will start an hour after sundown, so come by my apartments then..."

"Both of us," Gabrielle put in here.

"...and we'll make our grand entrance. See you tonight, guys." She leaned forward and kissed Joxer quickly, before either he or Gabrielle could react, and left with a wave over her shoulder.

Uh-oh, thought Joxer. He was carefully not looking at Gabrielle, and by not-looking looking he could see she was carefully not-looking looking at him in the same way. "Well," he said for lack of anything better to do, and opened the bundle. It unrolled into a shirt.

Gabrielle gasped, as if she'd been stung. Then she said, "That's a nice shirt." Her tone didn't sound very convincing.

"Uh...yeah," he agreed and knew he sounded just as unconvinced. It was a very nice shirt. Not that he'd had very many nice shirts in his life, but he could tell from the softness of the cloth and the meticulousness of the stitching that it was a very fine shirt.

It was also the color of saffron.