Mother and daughter had barely escaped with their lives to Israel. When her father had died, Egyptian officials had found on his person letters from his wife, a wife they now knew to be the enemy. The Egyptian army officer, hero of the battle, was given the burial of a traitor that day and his family was hunted down like dogs. Friends of the family had risked their own lives to ensure the safety of Tovah and her mother, sending them on a secret, desperate journey to Israel and freedom.

Tovah was jerked out of her reverie by a strong hand on her shoulder. She started slightly, swiveling her chair around to meet the warm eyes of her second. “How’d it go?” she asked softly.

“Better than it had any right to,” Adellich answered truthfully. “You want the rundown?”

“Yeah.”

The medic ticked off the injuries on his thick fingers. “Her hands were a mess. Totally crushed. Probably by rifle butts if I’m not mistaken. I was able to save ‘em both, though. She should regain full use of them, God willing. Her shin bones were pretty much shattered by the shots her legs took. It was the weirdest thing, though. When I got in there to clean them out, they had already started reknitting! I’ve never seen anything like that before.” He chuckled ruefully. “She’s an interesting case, alright. Anyway, I went into her belly to take a look around. Her gut was fine. Her spleen was pretty much ruined, so I took it out and took care of a laceration on her liver. She has few cracked ribs, but she must have been able to protect herself pretty well despite her injuries, cause none of them penetrated a lung. She was really lucky.” Adellich shook his dark head. “She lost a lot of blood, but we’re replacing that right now. Some of her wounds were pretty badly infected, so we’re pumping her system full of antibiotics to take care of that. She’s really dehydrated, so we’ve also got fluids running into her.”

“Will she live?”

“Well, I can’t guarantee anything, but given what I’ve seen so far, I think that’s a pretty safe bet.”

Tovah blew out a breath of relief. “Thank God for that.” She smiled at her friend. “At least something good came out of this mission, huh?”

The medic returned his friend’s smile. “Yeah.”

“Can I see her?”

“She’ll be out of it for awhile. She just came out of surgery and we’ve got her on some pretty intense pain killers.”

“That’s ok. I don’t need to talk to her. I just want to see her. To reassure myself that she’ll be alright.”

Adellich looked at his commander intently. After a moment, he shrugged. “Sure. I can’t see the harm in it.” Helping her up out of the chair, the medic steered his friend down the long hallway and into the bedroom they were using as a recovery room.

Their patient was laying comfortably in the large hospital bed, a faint bloom of color already returning to her cheeks, courtesy of the blood being infused into her system via a pump located next to the bed. A soft chime sounded from the cardiac monitor seated on a shelf over her dark head, keeping time with the slow beat of the woman’s powerful heart. IV poles and tubing competed for space in the cramped quarters.

Both of the woman’s long arms were laying stiffly on the bed, bound up in the thick plaster of casts which came up to her fingertips. Likewise, her legs were heavily casted from toes to mid thigh. The crisp white gown hid the bulky bandage covering the large wound on her abdomen. And with all that, Tovah was still enraptured with the sight of the woman whose newly cleaned raven hair shone almost blue in the stark lighting of the room.

“She’s a beauty alright,” Adellich teased gently, easily reading Tovah’s thoughts. “I’d give anything to know her story.”

“So would I,” Tovah responded, coming to stand beside the bed. She stared intently down at the motionless figure. “Who are you, Jafit?” she asked again, whispering. “Wake up soon, alright?”

Adellich cleared his throat from his position by the doorway. “It’ll be at least a couple more hours before she wakes up,” he said. “Since it’s getting late, why don’t you go get some rest? I’ll have the nurse get you when she wakes up.”

Not taking her eyes away from the study of the woman on the bed, Tovah answered. “No. I think I’ll stay here awhile. She’s doubtless going to be disoriented when she wakes up. I don’t want her reopening her wounds.”

“Suit yourself,” the medic said, grinning to himself. “I’m going down to get something to eat. I’ll be back up later to check on her, alright?”

Pulling up a small stool beside the bed, Tovah nodded absently.

Softly clucking his tongue, Adellich left the room, closing the door softly behind him.

With a start, Tovah raised her curly head from the bed, beyond chagrined that she just spent some unknown amount of time sleeping, her head on the bed of the very person she had promised to watch over. Yawning and wiping her chin, the commander sat up, putting her hands on her hips and stretching out cramped back muscles.

She paused in mid stretch as a strange tingle traveled up her spine. Opening her eyes slightly, she was shocked to meet a pair of intense pale blue irises looking back at her, very much aware and sparkling with faint amusement. Tovah’s dark skin colored in a furious blush and she cleared her throat against the sudden dryness in her mouth. “Um, good …morning, I think. It’s good to see you awake. You’ve had a very rough time of it.” The commander stopped her babbling when she realized that the stranger probably didn’t understand a word she was saying. Clearing her throat again, Tovah’s gaze traveled down the relaxed form and up to the steadily beating cardiac monitor before again meeting the mesmerizing blues of her patient. “I really don’t know if you can understand me … .” Her voice trailed off. The stranger’s intent expression didn’t change, nor did she speak. “Um, well, my name,” she said, pointing to her chest and feeling faintly foolish, “is Tovah. Tovah Rybak. And somehow I’ve got to make you understand that you’re safe.” She looked around the room, scratching her neck behind the fall of her thick cinnamon colored hair. “And I’m not really sure how I’m gonna do that,” she said in an undertone. “Hmm. Well, ok. Just in case you do understand what I’m saying, you’re not in the bunker anymore. My friends and I rescued you from the Iraqis and brought you here to Karbala. You’re in a safe-house. Obviously, we’ve treated your wounds and I’ve just been waiting for you to wake up so we could talk.” She laughed a little. “And so here we are. You’re awake and I’m the one doing all the talking.” She thought she saw the eyes of the woman twinkle a bit at that last statement, but when she blinked, the expression was gone, replaced by that mesmerizingly intense stare that made her uncomfortable and giddy at the same time.

The gaze left hers as the woman’s eyes traveled around the room, taking in everything, missing nothing. The woman projected the air of a professional assessing the situation for hidden dangers and potential escape opportunities. Her examination complete, the patient turned her head and her gaze back to Tovah.

The Israeli was determined to say something, anything, to spark some type of reaction in the woman. She had to know if she were being understood. “About the men in the cells with you,” she said finally. “They didn’t make it. I’m sorry. They were dead when we got there. I’m sorry,” she said again, softly. Then it happened again. The woman’s eyes changed, a look of profound sadness and guilt darkening the pristine blue before they were hidden behind lids bearing thick, dark lashes.

“Thank you for trying,” came a whisper in Tovah’s own language; a whisper so soft the commander wasn’t sure if she had heard or merely imagined it.

“You’re welcome,” she answered, but the woman was asleep and didn’t hear.

Continued..Part 3

DESERT STORM

Part 3

by: SwordnQuill

SwordnQuil@aol.com

Disclaimers: The characters of Xena, Gabrielle, Lao Ma, Alti, Borias, and everyone else who sounds familiar belong to Pac Ren and Universal Studios. I am not making money off of this story.

Genre Disclaimer: Ok. Bear with me, please, because this is kinda tough to explain. Sometime last year, I read a story on the internet that moved me so much, I was inspired to write a sort of companion piece to it. That story was “Lost Soul Walking” by DJWP. In her words, “This is NOT UberXena fiction. It just starts out like it is.” The same can be said for this piece. While not directly related to “Lost Soul Walking”, “Desert Storm” can be considered a sort of prequel to it. It is a story, if you will, about the lifetime before the one depicted in that fabulous, outstanding story. (Can you tell I loved it?) In addition, this is somewhat of an ambitious piece of fiction, in that I am attempting (don’t know if I’ve succeeded, but I’ve attempted) to take the entire X:WP universe and modernize it. We start, in updated terms, with my version of Xena’s betrayal by Caesar (seen in “Destiny”), and continue up through the X:WP episode known as “Remember Nothing”. The plot will be very recognizable to you. It’s meant to be that way.

Special note: Because of this, Gabrielle does not appear, except in offhand mention, in a great deal of the first half of this story. Do not look for her, because you won’t find her. After all, she was not a part of ‘evil Xena’s’ life. If she were, things might have turned out differently, but because this is based on the premise of “Lost Soul Walking” it cannot happen differently. Gabrielle will, however, make her presence known, and that quite strongly, in the second half of the story. If you can hang on till then, I believe that you will not be disappointed.

Sexuality and Violence Disclaimers: We’re dealing with an updated dark Xena through much of the first half, and an updated redeemed Xena through the second. There’s gonna be violence. There are gonna be naughty words. There are also descriptions of sexual activity in this work. There are allusions to heterosexual sex, but nothing graphic. There are some graphic (though I hope tasteful) scenes of sexual expression between women as well. That is how I see the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle, and that is how I will continue to write it.

And, finally, thanks: To, as always, the incomparable Mike. A better beta and a better friend one could never hope for. Thank you also, as always, to Mary D, who rescued this story from the refuse heap and begged me to keep going on it. If you hate it, blame her. <w> Grateful and heartfelt appreciation goes out to DJWP, for continuing to write stories that grab me somewhere above the liver and giving her kind permission to mention her story in these disclaimers. If you haven’t read her stories, please, do yourself a favor and do so. Finally, this story is dedicated to a group of people without whom I would most probably be living on the streets. Elizabeth, Rachel, Sulli, and the rest of the “Get Sue to Atlanta” crew, this one’s for you!

Feedback: As always is gratefully appreciated. If you wrote to me regarding “Redemption” during the month of September to early October and I haven’t responded, please allow me the honor of apologizing in public. It was then that I was at my lowest point and making ready to move to my new home. Your words of praise and encouragement for my writing kept me firmly out of the pit of depression I was falling into and I shall be forever grateful to each and every one of you who took the time out to feed this bard. And for those of you patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for Redemption’s sequel, fear not, for with the conclusion of this piece, that piece will be started. Any and all who wish to may write me at SwordnQuil@aol.com . I’ll continue to do my best to answer each and every email. An exploding mailbox is a good thing to have. Thanks again!

DESERT STORM

by: Sword’n’Quill (Susanne Beck)

When Kael next awoke, it was to the vision of a nurse leaning over her adjusting her IV lines. The young woman broke into a smile when she saw her patient had awakened. “Welcome back to the land of the living. How do you feel?”

“I’ll live,” Kael rasped. “I think.”

The nurse’s grin widened as she chuckled and smoothed the last of the wrinkles from the bed linens. “Oh, you’re well on the road to recovery. Are you in pain?”

“Not much,” she lied. The pain was intense, but Kael, being Kael, was determined to show no weakness, even in front of a medical professional who certainly knew better.

The nurse narrowed her eyes, though her grin didn’t falter. “Nevertheless, I think I’ll give you a little Morphine bolus. Just in case you feel like being in pain later, ok?”