To say she had missed Iolaus was an understatement. With everything that had happened... Xena might understand, she knew war, but Iolaus was... well, she had known from the day they met that they were connected on the level of sidekicks. Being the normal one. And right now, Gabrielle needed normal. She heard what he was saying, but it wasn't really registering. Not right now, at least. All that was registering was that Iolaus was real and he was there. She would connect the dots to him knowing where they were and what was going on in a bit.
It was ridiculous how a simple touch could break through everything. The haze of death and failure. The confusion and fear and general sense of being so completely lost from everything that had happened. She'd been lost since awaking in the hospice and while she'd tried to pull herself together for Xena's sake, there was that lingering feeling just in the corner of her mind, that had come to the forefront following the battle.
With the shock worn off from a simple touch, Gabrielle did the next logical thing. She broke down, the pain of everything finally crashing down around her. She'd had her brief moment back in Potidaea with Xena, but that was before this. And Iolaus was the one there and so she clung to him because he was familiar and maybe he couldn't make it right but he still knew her. Understood where no one else could, not even Xena. Even if he didn't know the situation, he was a comforting presence. Just as he had been when Xena had died before the ambrosia incident.