And I apologize for anyone who's been waiting for the rest of this, I have no excuse, I've just been lazy… I bet you had all given up on the end, huh?

oowatie@hotmail.com

Part 9

Chapter 9

"Fine, Byron's a wonderful person. His brother however, must have taken after a sadistic uncle or something." Xe pushed her head back against the glistening brick and stone alcove. She didn't want to fight, a nearly overwhelming exhaustion had settled in her chest, pushing heavily against her determination to keep going. "Just trust me, Brie. This one time trust that I know what I'm talking about. I know it's going to be difficult but try."

Gabrielle knit her eyebrows together in an attempt to sort through her emotions. She was just so tired of making the wrong choices, and to learn that Byron had only befriended her so that he could use her to lure Xena to Turkey… A sudden thought occurred to her. "Does this Liam person know about Ea?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? Either he knows or he doesn't. Did you ever tell him?"

"I told him; I doubt he remembers. He even signed the papers terminating his parental rights but he probably doesn't remember that either."

Gabrielle sighed. "I hate it when you're cryptic."

"It was a long time ago, Gabrielle, a very long time ago."

"So we'll have a lot to talk about tonight in the grandmother's hotel room." Gabrielle's face broke into an angelic smile as she wrapped an arm around Xena's waist. "Come on, their flight is gone by now and I'm freezing!"

"So what do we do now?" Janice's voice crackled with emotion.

Wallace looked away from his grandson and up into his wife's curious eyes.

"Oranges and lemons say the bells of St. Clemmons…"

He had handed over his current caseload to an unencumbered law partner so he could spend some time with his grandchild. Sitting on the sun porch in the streaming sunlight with the Wall Street Journal unfurled in his hands he was as lost as his lovely bride as to what their next move should be.

"…You owe me three farthings say the bells of St. Martin's…"

Shrugging broad shoulders he turned his attention back to smile at Ea.

"…When will you pay me say the bells of old Bailey…"

The boy was the very image of his mother, even down to the fire that lit in his eyes whenever he sensed an injustice. The re-embodiment of that same passion that Wallace had admired, had encouraged even, in his elder daughter. And they had been surprised by her reaction to Melinda's retirement… they should have easily anticipated her behaviors; they never should have let her further isolate herself from the family.

"…When I grow rich say the bells of Shore Ditch…"

"She knows what she's doing, Janice. Let's just give her the benefit of the doubt this time at least."

"…When will that be say the bells of Stepney…"

"I don't see how we're supposed to sit idly by, Wallace. Why, she deserted-"

"Janice!" Wallace jerked his head toward the child, anger flushing his face and seething behind the wire rims of his reading glasses. "We've effectively ostracized our eldest daughter, don't include her son in that category."

"…I do not know say the great bells of Rowe…"

The insistent ringing of the telephone called a temporary halt to their argument. Janice, in an attempt to distance herself from Enki's impromptu but forceful recital as well as her husband's building ire, shook her head and left the room.

Ea continued to tinker with the leggos little Melinda had produced upon his arrival. He was determined to complete the castle they had begun the day before, preferably before his youngest aunt returned home from school.

"…Here comes a copper to put you to bed, here comes a chopper to cut off your head."

Wallace chuckled over the boy's choice of songs. "So tell me, Ea, did your mother teach you that song?"

"Uh huh. Mama taught me lots of songs." Ea's concentration was centered on his creation and he answered his grandfather's questions without looking up.

"How about the 'Tattooed Lady'?"

Ea raised his eyes and grinned devilishly. "No, will you?"

Xe stood at the window in the hotel room the grandmothers had evacuated. The rain continued to pound against the plate glass in an endless torrent of icy sheets. She absently dried her hair with a crisp towel, hoping to rid her body of some of its chill. She could hear Gabrielle moving around the room behind her, pacing, sitting in the over-stuffed armchair, rising and pacing again.

"You're wrong about Byron, you know."

Xe leaned her forehead against the glass. "So you keep telling me."

"You are wrong. There's nothing more to it than that. Byron's simply not like that." Gabrielle whirled around to face Xe. "Are you ever going to tell me about this brother of his, this Liam?"

Xe shut her eyes, relishing the feel of cool glass against her skin. Choosing to disregard her companion's last question, she whispered, "I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the morning." She was too tired to argue; too exhausted to take a convincing stand even when she knew she was sadly correct in her opinion. Oh, what she would pay to be proven wrong…

She pushed herself away from the window, catching the curtain tie in a lethargic hand and pulling the draperies closed. The bed met her as she fell toward it, pillowing her body in its soft depths. This simple little rescue mission had turned into a living hell, and promised to worsen, especially if she ended up having to come face to face with Liam.

Gabrielle spent the night watching Xe sleep, hovering over her when nightmares claimed her, bathing her forehead with a cool cloth when her temperature rose. She was concerned; she knew that under normal circumstances the doctors would never have released her from the hospital in the condition she was in. She was much more ill than she would want to admit to anyone, no matter how serious her condition became. Slumped in the armchair, Gabrielle drifted in and out of a fitful sleep, conscious of every movement Xe made on the bed.

"No!"

Xe's sudden outcry sent Gabrielle back to the bedside, reaching out to try to gently wake her. Xe's head tossed against the pillow as she fought the unseen attacker of her dream, her cries muffled against the linens and her movements jerky and uncoordinated in the throes of her terror.

"Hey, shhh, it's okay now, Xe. You're safe now," Gabrielle murmured softly, brushing dark hair from Xe's face. "Xe, come on, wake up." She shook her shoulder lightly, she hated to wake her but nightmares were not a productive form of sleep.

"No, stop… Liam…"

"Okay, Xe, you really need to get up now." Gabrielle took Xe by both shoulders, trying to avoid her injuries, and pulled her forward to sit up among the rumpled nest of blankets she had been cocooned in. "Xe?"

She slowly opened her eyes, struggling against the force that was holding her until she realized that it wasn't an assailant but was Brie instead. Shaking her head to dislodge the nightmare, she smiled tremulously at the blonde who was so obviously worried. "I'm okay now, Gabrielle. It was just a dream."

"I'm supposed to be the one telling you that," she admonished. "Are you alright now?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Good, then you can tell me about it. You can tell me how Liam can scare you so much." Gabrielle reached out to smooth the blankets across Xe's legs. "I didn't think you were scared of anything."

"Everyone's scared of something, Brie."

Liam stared at his brother, icy hatred brimming in his eyes. "I fail to understand how you could lose two incompetents such as Gabrielle Baird and Xena Cadmus, Byron. Xena must have gone to a hospital or clinic somewhere in the city, why is it that you couldn't locate her?"

"She was gone by the time I got there. The nurses were still upset over her departure, they didn't think she was ready to leave." Byron was having difficulty handling Liam's disapproval; anticipating it was not nearly as difficult as receiving it.

"It's a good thing we have alternate ways of keeping track of the women then. Our… informant, has practically delivered them into our hands." Byron glared at the surprised man who stood facing him in the musty warehouse. "I'm not a fool, little brother. I know you've been deliberately stalling in an attempt to allow them to flee back to America. I wanted you to know that your plan has failed. Not only are they still here, I know exactly where they are."

"Liam, I don't know what…"

"Cease this. You fell for that irritating little blonde when you met her on the site, and you've been trying to protect her ever since," Liam spat the words across the room, finding the very thought distasteful. "But regardless of your best efforts, I will still get Xena. She will pay."

"Why do you hate her so much? How do you know her? You said we were doing this for Uncle, when did it become your own personal vendetta against Xena Cadmus?" Byron stopped his torrent of questions as he ducked the chair that suddenly became airborne. Fleeing the room to allow Liam to calm down, Byron decided to do some investigating of his own.

"You said that you were unsure whether Liam knew about Enki. What did you mean by that?" Gabrielle snuggled into the armchair, a cup of steaming tea clutched in her hands to ward off the night chill. The external temperature was still continuing its downward plunge and both women were struggling to stay comfortable.

"Just that, I don't know if Liam knows I had a baby or not. I got him to sign the papers and never saw him again." Xe ducked her head at the memory.

"Explain it to me, Xe. Please…"

"It was a long time ago, Brie…" Xe began, her voice remained steady but her hands shook with the resurgence of memory.

The street had been quiet when the church bells tolled the midnight hour. No one was about in the dark little town and only one shop's windows were still lit from within. The pub sat mid way down the small town's main thoroughfare, a beckoning beacon in the chilly night.

Xe continued toward the building, she had tried to find Liam at his family's home and had been informed that he had not yet returned. It was suggested that she might be able to locate him at the local pub, and that if she were successful she was to relay to him that he should return home. And so Xe had pulled the scarf tighter around her neck and shoved her hands deep into her coat pockets, plodding into the midst of town.

Once she found herself standing outside the pub, she was unsure whether she wanted to enter after all. She drew herself up, straightened her shoulders, and lifted her chin. If she were to survive this, she would have to adopt the right attitude. The thick wooden door pushed open with surprisingly little effort, sending a flood of warm light into the street.

The bartender paused, a glass and towel suddenly immobile in his hands. Xe nodded to him as she walked straight back to a dim table in the far corner of the room.

Liam slumped in the chair; the table was littered with sticky pint glasses, mostly set upright, and sitting as testimony to his level of inebriation. His head lolled forward in drunken sleep. Slowly edging closer to the table Xe patted the rumpled forms she had tucked safely in her pocket. They had remained close at hand throughout her intercontinental trek to find Liam.

She stood opposite him when he raised his head to call out to the bartender for another round. It took his bleary eyes a few minutes to focus on the reason for his drunken stupor. "You walked out on me, Xena Xandria. You walked away and didn't even tell me you were leaving," he slurred. Raising a finger to point menacingly at her, he continued, "I had to find out you'd left from that bitch Irene. She laughed in my face."

Xe refused to react, that was what he wanted. How in the hell had she gotten into such a relationship to begin with? What had happened to her sensibilities, her reason? Shaking off her doubts, she claimed one of the chairs. "Liam?"

"What brings you to this bloody little hell hole, Xe? Crawling back for what you gave up?" Liam's voice was so slurred Xe had difficulty understanding his words.

Deciding to ignore his poor attempt at speech, Xe persisted, "Liam, there's something here that I need your signature on." She drew from her pocket the packet of papers she'd been carrying. "Here, I even brought a pen…"

"Now, now, dear one, not so quick." Liam leaned across the table to cup Xe's cheek in his hand. "What ever happened to your idea of quid pro quo, eh? Tit for tat? I'll sign your bloody paper, but first I think you owe me something…"

"Liam, I really don't have time for this…"

"Then I don't have time to sign your little paper." He snatched the pint from the bartender when he approached, spilling the dark liquid on himself and the table in the process.

The proprietor turned to Xe. "And what about you, Dearie?"

She shook her head a bit too forcefully. "No thank you." Straining against her better judgment she faced Liam again. "What sort of payment?"

"It's been a long time, Xe," his voice faded as he stared more intently at her.

"No, Liam, anything but that." She would have continued her disagreement had his hand not returned to her face. He gripped her neck with tight fingers, sending tendrils of pain down her spine. "You'll sign the paper then?"

He cocked his head at her. "After."

The bartender watched the pair with saddened eyes as Liam tossed a handful of bills down on the table and jerked his companion to his side with a drink-numbed hand. She had to hold him up as he swaggered toward the door.

"Xena…" Gabrielle was at a loss for words. She couldn't even imagine Xe allowing someone else to have so much control over her.

"I was a different person when I was around Liam, a much different person. I finally wizened up when I found out about Ea was the way." She shook her head slowly, remembering how difficult it had been for her to admit she had allowed herself to fall into such an abusive relationship. "In the end, I had no alternative if I wanted him to sign those papers. Had I approached him when he was sober, he never would have released custody of the baby. I just didn't see any other options."

"What do we do now?"

"Tomorrow I track down Liam. I know what he wants, I also know that he's not going to get it."

Continued in Part 10.