Rating: PG - Some physical intimacy suggested, none of it actually portrayed.
Violence: None
Sex: Suggested only.
Author's Notes: Time travel stories fascinate me. There are minefields all over them, more ways to make them not work properly than you can shake a stick at. Still, they were always my favorite Star Trek episodes, and I've enjoyed the few Xena and Herc have tried to do. I wanted to try one myself. I just had this vision of Joxer driving through Atlanta traffic one day, and this emerged.

BTW, this is set, not in my hometown of Atlanta, but in a non-specific urban area. There are bits of Columbia, Missouri, where I once lived, as well as my very first apartment in Macon, Georgia, mixed with Atlanta in my mental picture of this place.

I want to thank everybody who Beta-read this one. I'm almost afraid to make a list for fear I'll miss someone, but I think Raye, Kawy, Xebbie and of course Chris all did. Chris did the clean up, as always. He wanted to argue about some of the time-travel details, but I can be stubborn, at times. Thanks for everything, Chris. You're a great editor.

"Joxer, watch out!" Gabrielle cringed and covered her eyes. When she peered out again, they had crossed four lanes of traffic. "Didn't you see that truck? You drive as badly as you fight!"

Joxer squeezed the Toyota between two cars in the next lane. "You mean as well as I fight, don't you? We haven't had an accident yet!"

Gabrielle wondered why not. But, just like his fighting, Joxer seemed to be a lucky driver. He took chances he never should have been able to get away with, but as yet hadn't had the first accident. Since he did all the driving for the two of them, she didn't want him to start by having one now, either.

She pulled nervously on the seatbelt strap, wondering again why Aphrodite had brought them here. They had been in this place and time now for over six months, and she still hadn't done anything outstanding, nor had Joxer. Although mere survival would probably qualify as pretty amazing.

When they woke up behind the dumpster after falling asleep in the woods with Xena, they were both dazed. Without their weapons and in a strange place, they naturally clung to each other. When the people approached, speaking some strange tongue, they were afraid, and pulled back. Eventually, through the use of a kind of sign language, they were convinced that these people meant them no harm. They were taken to a large building, brightly lit in spite of the dark outside. She still hadn't figured out how they managed to harness the light of fire without the heat, but it was called "electricity", and it was everywhere. She quickly realized how foolish it made her look to gawk at the electric lights, and she now took them for granted. She winced as a minivan tried fruitlessly to occupy the same lane they were already filling. She took this mode of transportation for granted now, too, even if Joxer and the other drivers never allowed it to become mundane.

"Shit!" her friend hollered, leaning on his horn. "Watch where you're going you stupid..." Gabrielle tuned him out. Joxer had an amazing aptitude for languages, as the bard had quickly discovered. Unfortunately, his early vocabulary came primarily from the truckers who delivered to the homeless shelter where they had been taken, and consisted mostly of four-letter words. The volunteers at the shelter soon taught him other, better ways to express himself, but under pressure, he still often reverted to his first words. Gabrielle glared at him. He looked over at her and shrugged, glancing up just in time to see the rear end of the slow moving garbage truck that they were approaching much too rapidly. "Damn," he said, almost conversationally, as he slid the Toyota seamlessly into the next lane.

"Joxer," Gabrielle yelled, "this is our exit." Without blinking, he crossed three lanes of rush hour traffic, gliding to a stop at the light at the top of the ramp. The bard sank bonelessly into the vinyl seat, letting out her held breath in a hiss. She really needed to learn to drive herself.

Turning her thoughts back to their arrival at the shelter, she now realized how lucky they had been to be found by the volunteers. Every day, the news carried stories about the less fortunate; those who were mugged or killed in the streets. Although Gabrielle could fight with the best of them, arriving without her sais, dazed and confused, she still probably wouldn't have survived that first night without the comforting safety of the shelter. And now that they were away from all that was familiar, she realized how often Joxer had tried in the past to save her from attack; he probably would have done so again and managed to get them both killed. She smiled at him affectionately. For the longest time, he had been the only person she could talk to, the only one who knew how hard this was. It was only natural that they had gradually become much closer since coming here.

He was taking her to work right now - his friend Andy had helped her find a job at the gym he belonged to, where she instructed kickboxing and step aerobics classes. It wasn't the greatest job in terms of pay or intellectual challenges, but it did allow her to keep in shape and contribute something to their living expenses. Surprisingly, Joxer made the bulk of the money they took in. She had realized he was a good cook while they were in Chin, but until he got a job as a chef while they were still living in the shelter, she hadn't realized how useful a skill that could be. Now that he had proved himself valuable to the small Greek restaurant where he was employed ("You wouldn't believe what they think Greek food is, Gabby!" he complained one day, "Everything is made with lamb and garlic."), he had received an increase in pay, and they had been able to move out of the shelter and into a small apartment.

Joxer had met Andy at the restaurant. He was a waiter, and had immediately taken a liking to the tall awkward chef. He knew that Jox and Gabby were from another country, which explained their cultural difficulties, but he wasn't aware that they were from another time entirely. That was one secret they swore early on they would never share with anyone, no matter how close they might become to them. Andy had taught Joxer to drive, coached them on their English and helped them find their apartment. He had been a lifesaver for them both. He was also one of the few people who understood that, although the couple shared an apartment, they didn't share a bed. Early in their stay here they had discovered that the rest of the world didn't really believe that could happen, so Joxer's co-workers knew Gabrielle as his "significant other", and vice-versa. She wasn't blind, though, and she knew her roommate's feelings for her still simmered just below the surface. Perhaps the emotion he carried was the reason so few believed they were just friends. She certainly couldn't be contributing to that impression.

"Since Andy and I are working lunch today, we thought we'd come by the gym after we get off. You have any afternoon classes?" She had been so lost in her thoughts, she almost didn't register the question.

"Yeah - kickboxing at two, then I have to man the desk 'til four." Her English still wasn't as good as Joxer's, but she was finally conversant enough to handle customer contact. She loved working the desk, though. Many of the regulars knew her now, and the friendly comments and jokes helped her not miss Xena so much.

Gods, how she missed Xena when she was alone. She wondered what the Warrior Princess thought when her two best friends up and disappeared, never to be seen again. She must have thought they had run off together - Gabrielle stifled a giggle at the image of Xena coping with that idea. Still, it was better than Xena having to watch her die yet again, she supposed. She just wished her friend could be here with them. Even Joxer had admitted that everything felt somehow incomplete without the third member of their "family" present. The bard looked down at her loose tee shirt over tights and knit shorts rolled at the waistband. Xena would probably love the comfortable clothes of this day and time. Having worn the warrior's metal breastplate once, Gabrielle knew how uncomfortable that was. Here, no one wore armor, or gauntlets, or weapons. At least, almost no one.

She snuck a glance at Joxer again. He was whistling along to the radio as he drove, seeming far more comfortable with his body than she ever remembered him being when they were with Xena. He had been coming to the gym regularly with Andy, and although she knew it was partly to see her, he had been working out, and it showed. In his tight black t-shirt and jeans, he really looked kind of sexy. She shook her head - where had that thought come from? Still, she had seen the looks the women at the gym would give him when he came in to see her, and at least one of her co-workers flirted with him shamelessly. When the warrior chef would come in to work out dressed in his muscle tee and shorts, a good number of the patrons, both male and female, gave him a second glance. She smiled again - maybe it was also his transparent innocence that made him so appealing to so many.

"So, Gabby, you getting out?" It was with a start that she realized that they were sitting at the curb in front of her workplace. She grabbed her bag, flustered and blushing, although she wasn't sure why.

"Sorry - daydreaming." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, a habit she had recently picked up. "See you when you get here." Gabrielle hopped out of the car and scurried in through the big glass revolving door. He sat for a minute, touching his face where she had kissed him, as he always did. Then, turning the radio up loud, he pulled away from the curb and headed back to their apartment to change for work.

Neither he nor Gabby could figure out why they had been brought here. They weren't completely sure even how they had been transported, although the bard swore up and down that this whole thing had "Aphrodite" written all over it. Joxer tended to agree with her, although he couldn't understand what the flighty goddess could hope to accomplish with this little stunt. Gabby was far more dependant on others here than she had been in their proper time and place, and he, except for the skills of driving and speaking English, seemed just as helpless. He knew how despondent his sweet friend was about leaving Xena behind, and he had no doubt that he was a poor substitute. There just didn't appear to be any possible positive outcome to this whole situation.

Joxer swung the car into their designated parking spot, unclipped his seatbelt and hopped out. He looked back at the Toyota, snickering at the view. It was all they could afford and had been advertised as "basic transportation". It had no real color to speak of, the body a mishmash of rust spots, primer and its original, though now faded, metallic blue. But it ran beautifully, and they never had to worry about locking the doors, even in the rundown neighborhood in which they lived. No one in their right mind would ever want to steal it.

Stopping at the mailboxes in the lobby, he peered into the window of theirs, seeing nothing. Outside of bills and advertisements, they rarely got mail. He snickered again at the names on the box. When they bought the car, they were asked for their last names, and so became "Jox d'Mitey" and "Gabrielle Bard". It was the only place his former existence seemed to still touch him, now. He didn't need to pretend to be a mighty warrior here - he was too busy pretending to be so many other things.

As he pulled on the khaki pants and navy golf shirt that was his uniform for work, he continued to ponder their existence in this place. They had fallen into an easy routine since taking the apartment - they would return from work, eat dinner if they hadn't already, watch a little TV on the tiny black and white set they had bought at the Salvation Army, and one of them would shower while the other made up the couch for Joxer to sleep on. In the morning, the other would shower while the one who had done so the night before would brew coffee, strip the couch and put away the linens. Some mornings Gabrielle would have the early class, but the gym manager had quickly figured out that she was no morning person, so usually he scheduled her classes to begin after ten. Joxer never had to be to work before eleven. So there were days when they went grocery shopping before work, or scoured the second-hand shops for useful items. Their daily pattern only changed when Andy would call and ask them to go somewhere with him. Sometimes Gabby was tired though, and just Joxer would go out. There were days it seemed they had never lived any other way, while other days thoughts of the missing Warrior Princess hung over their lives like a suffocating blanket.

He ran the electric shaver over his face - a gift from Andy, and such a marvelous invention! Running the comb through his hair, he glanced at his watch and noting the time, raced out the door and to the car. He could still be on time if he hurried.

Gabrielle glanced at the clock for the third time in the last fifteen minutes, wondering again why her friend was late. Usually, when he worked lunch, he got off by three and came right to the gym, arriving by three-twenty at the latest. It was after three-thirty, and he still hadn't shown up. She smiled, remembering how he would come and go for days at a time when they traveled together in Greece, and she rarely worried about where he was and what he was doing. Now she couldn't imagine a day going by without him around, and she worried if he was fifteen minutes late. How soft she had become - not physically, but emotionally. She used to be made of tougher stuff than that.

Just then, the tall figure in his uniform breezed through the revolving door, followed closely by a shorter blonde man in identical clothing. His brown eyes twinkled at her welcoming grin. "Hey, babe." He loved using slang phrases, and his casual intimacy raised her smile a notch.

"Hi, Jox. Hey, Andy. Why are you guys late?"

"Big business meeting luncheon ran late," Andy volunteered in his velvet tones. Gabrielle liked the man well enough - he'd been a great deal of help to her and Joxer - but she absolutely adored his voice. "Jox waited for me, and helped me clean up." He beamed at the taller man, who just shrugged. The bard couldn't figure out why, in spite of all Andy had done for them, he acted as if he was awed that they were his friends. He was a handsome man - several of the girls at the gym had asked her about him as well - with a nice car and a nice apartment. She wasn't sure why he seemed to need the friendship of the two lost Greeks so much. They would have liked him even if he hadn't taken them under his wing.

Joxer was nudging the other man along. "We need to go change," he explained. Looking back at Gabrielle, he raised an eyebrow. "You joining us after you get off the desk?" She nodded, and they started to the locker room.

As they moved out of her line of sight, she heard a sultry voice call out, "Oh, Joxer!" Gabrielle peered around the corner, and sure enough, standing way too far inside the chef's personal space and resting her hand casually on his chest was Debbie, the nutritional consultant. Now, that was a girl with no shame. All her clothing appeared to be at least two sizes too small, and she seemed to have her feelers out for any client that used the men's locker room. But she seemed to have a special affinity for Joxer, and teased Gabrielle mercilessly and cruelly about him. He, however, seemed immune to her charms, always politely but firmly brushing her off. From what the bard could see from this angle, he was in the process of doing so again. She saw Debbie pout, and Joxer move away, and she quickly pulled her head back and pretended she had been reading a new notice on the bulletin board.

"That boyfriend of yours sure can be dense sometimes. I don't care how attached you two are, you'd think he'd pay me a little attention." This was a common theme for Debbie to harp on, so Gabrielle came back with her usual response.

"He's not my boyfriend."

Debbie actually seemed to hear her, for once. "Well," she mused, "Maybe he's gay. He always has the pretty little blonde guy in tow."

Gabrielle turned angrily on the other woman. "Has it ever occurred to you that he likes women, just not you?" The nutritionist narrowed her eyes, apparently considering a cutting response. Changing her mind, she sniffed, turned on her heel and stalked away, ignoring the other woman's comments. She wouldn't have understood what Gabrielle called her as she left anyway, since it was in Greek.

After Gabrielle got off the desk, she changed into her leotard and looked in the weight room for the guys. She finally noticed them on the far side of the room, Joxer doing bench presses while Andy spotted for him. He was pushing extra reps, and every muscle in his arms and chest strained as he lifted the barbell. Gods, he was gorgeous! The bard realized that she had been staring, and combined with the unbidden thought she just had, it made her blush furiously and turn away. She closed her eyes and took several deep swigs from her water bottle, trying to regain control. When she opened her eyes again, Joxer was standing, wiping the sweat off his face. She went over to speak to them, and he grinned at her. "Hey, Gabby," he greeted her happily, "We were just going to get on the treadmills. Wanna join us?" Perhaps a run would be just the thing to get her back into focus, so she nodded.

The steady pace allowed her mind to wander, and she found herself gaining some measure of control over her own feelings. Of course she was paying far more attention to Joxer than she ever had before - he was her only link with what she still considered her "real" life. He was now as much a part of her existence as breathing, but if they ever returned to Xena, he would once again take his proper place in the order of things. The rational part of her mind had worked it all out, but there was a stubborn little part of her that kept saying, "Yeah, right!" When the manager appeared before her treadmill to talk to her, she actually sighed in relief at the opportunity to silence her thoughts. Somehow she didn't feel like dinner and a night out with Joxer and Andy, which had been proposed, was exactly what she needed right now, so she gladly agreed to take the seven o'clock kickboxing class for Sheila, who wasn't feeling well. Hollering her apologies to the two running men, she went off to pull her music together.

Conclusion >>>