This is basically how I think Gwen and Arthur should get back together. Set after 04x09.

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.

Three months. It had been three months and she still wasn't over it. She'd been wandering around aimlessly since she was banished from Camelot, for she had nowhere to go. To make matters worse, it was now snowing heavily. Well, it was mid January after all.

Guinevere pushed a strand of sopping wet hair behind her ear. She blamed herself entirely. It was her and her alone that had been unfaithful to Arthur. Yet she couldn't understand why her feelings for Lancelot had come flooding back so suddenly. She hadn't felt anything until he had given her that bracelet... the bracelet... Of course, she thought, how could she have been so blind as to miss that? The real Lancelot would never do that to Arthur.

But maybe the bracelet had nothing to do with it. So was it that something was wrong with Gwen? Was she really just a selfish monster? She was so caught up in her own thought that she didn't notice the band of men approaching her.

"Well well, what do we have here?" said a rough voice.

Gwen's head snapped up and her eyes widened in fear when she saw the five beefy men that stood before her.

"Here, she's a purty one, ain't she?"

"Aye, she sure is. We could have some fun with her."

"Hey, what's in the cart missus?"

Gwen shook her head and backed away. "N-nothing." She was seriously considering running away.

The man that looked like the leader seemed to read her thoughts. "Oh no you don't!" he said. He stepped forward and grabbed Gwen's arm, twisting it behind her back. He forced her to her knees and she felt someone kick her in the stomach. She doubled over in pain, groaning, but this earned a blow to the head that would surely leave a black eye, and a kick in the ribs. She was dimly aware of someone rifling through her cart. She moaned and the men began to jeer and laugh. Gwen noticed a flash of metal in the leader's hand. A knife.

"Arthur, help." Gwen said it without thinking. A tear slid down her cheek as she remembered that Arthur wouldn't come.

The bandit bent down and wiped her tears away with a grubby finger. "This will only hurt a lot" he said. He pulled the knife across Gwen's arm, her blood staining the snow red. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying out, maybe a little too hard as she tasted blood forming there. The man laughed lifted the knife again, but this time it was pointed directly at Gwen's heart. She closed her eyes, waiting for the pain. Suddenly, the sound of hoof beats came out of nowhere.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" an all too familiar voice warned.

"Oh yeah? And what's a scrawny git like you gonna do about it, huh?"

"I did warn you. Nueboneli faro!"

The bandit was thrown backwards over some distance before landing in the snow with a thump. "Fall back boys! We're no match against a sorcerer!" he said, scrambling up. Within seconds he and his gang had made themselves scarce.

Gwen's saviour slipped down from the saddle and knelt down beside her. "Oh Gwen." He said cradling her in his arms.

"Merlin. You're a sor... a sorcerer..." Gwen's world went black.

"Arthur is going to kill me!" Merlin muttered to himself as he cantered towards Camelot in the golden glow of the setting sun, with an unconscious Gwen sat lifelessly in front of him, her head lolling lifelessly against his chest. "I'm a day late already from visiting my mother and now I'm bringing his banished former bride-to-be back to Camelot. What the hell was I thinking?"

But a little voice at the back of his mind kept telling him that he couldn't have left her lying in the snow, broken and bloody. However loyal he was to Arthur, Gwen was his friend. And yet, Arthur had said that Gwen's return to Camelot would be upon pain of death. But if she was as cold and pale as death itself, surely that was an excuse.

"Alright," Merlin said to himself, "how about I get her to Gaius secretly, and then sneak her out of Camelot when she's well enough?"

The little voice replied simply enough with, it's far too risky.

"Oh shut up!" said Merlin, to no one in particular. He decided that this plan was the best option, if not the only one.

But to the young warlock's dismay, when he trotted through the city gates, he found a very disgruntled Arthur awaiting him. Well, we're pretty much in it now, said the little voice. It was becoming very irksome.

"MERLIN!" the irate king yelled as soon as he caught sight of his idiotic manservant. "Where the hell have you been?" When he saw that Merlin was not riding alone, he added, "And who's this?"

"Uh- No one." Said Merlin, trying to hide Gwen, but to no avail. So instead he just slid down from the horse and lifted Gwen down after him, shocked at how light she was.

"Guinevere! How dare you bring her back here!"

"I'm sorry Arthur, but I couldn't just leave her after some bandits left her to die!"

"I don't care! She was banished and I did that for a reason! She can leave immediately!"

"Well, it's not like she's going anywhere as she's unconscious. Unless you want me to go back to where I found her and leave her there! She's still my friend Arthur, regardless of what she did to you! I won't see another one of my friends die!"

To that, Arthur had no reply.

"I'm taking her to Gaius, and if you don't like that then I don't care!" With that, Merlin stalked off up the castle steps, Gwen in his arms, and muttering something that sounded like 'How do you like them apples, huh?'

Arthur sat down on the stone steps, desperately trying to blink away the tears that were forming in his eyes. His heart still hadn't completely healed, and this had opened up the wound once again.

He shook his head, feeling like he should just curl up and die.

Ok, so this was originally supposed to be a one-shot, but I really want to do another chapter now!

Please review!