A/N: ON a legal note, I own nothing that you recognize. I wish the knights were mine sigh but its not to be! ;)

Any suggestions, comments, constructive criticism would be fabulous. And if anyone wants to beta read this fic I'll love you forever!

ONWARD!

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"Ladies please! If you don't stop gossiping and start working this minute I'll put you all on latrine duty!"

Abruptly the giggling and chatter dwindled into nothing as the group of girls dispersed to stir the vats of boiling water and wring out the clean clothes awaiting their attention. Dinah looked up as Leri the headwoman passed by and quickly went back to her work. She had been quite happy to listen to the others' gossip while she made her way through her enormous pile of mending, but nothing was worse that an afternoon cleaning the stinking latrine. Deftly she tied off the seam she had been repairing and held up her handiwork for examination. It wasn't the best job she'd ever done, Dinah had to admit, but she had been distracted. As Leri rounded the corner and left the room the chatter began again, and the reason for Dinah's distraction.

"So he pulled me into his lap in the Tavern, and refused to let me go. So I really had no choice but to accompany him back to his rooms, did I?" One of the women gushed.

"I would have done the same Lilla, he's far too handsome to refuse!" Another said.

The third girl of the group leant in towards the others "Lilla darling, you were a one time thing, that man will never be tied down." She lowered her voice conspiratorially, "Although I must confess, Lancelot has been visiting my quarters regularly for the past month or so."

"Oh shush Korinn," the Lilla huffed, then added tartly, "If he's seeking out others you must be losing your appeal."

Korinn was clearly about to retaliate when Leri returned. "That's midday break girls, you have one hour."

Dinah tucked her needle into the shirt she was mending and hurried out of the room, unless she was quick she'd miss her window at the infirmary.

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"I'm sorry I'm..." Dinah trailed off as three men turned to look at her, "...late."

Even as she looked askance to the usual healer, Marius, she felt a red flush creep into her cheeks. What were they doing here?

The elder roman man cleared his throat, "Dinah, this is Sir Dagonet and Sir Percival."

The knights nodded politely to her, and Dinah ducked a quick curtsy as Marius continued. "Sir Dagonet is the field Healer for the Sarmatians, and he has offered to take an apprentice of sorts. As we have no other aspiring healers with any intelligence in the fortress I suggested you might take the post."

It took a few moments for Dinah to realise exactly what it was her mentor was suggesting. "What, me?...I...that is..."

"Good," Marius interrupted, "That's settled then. I believe you first lesson starts now, Sir Percival has received a minor injury during training this morning."

The smaller, dark haired man grimaced as the other knight helped roll his sleeve up. There was a short but surprisingly deep gash on his forearm. Dinah gasped despite herself.

"Goodness! How did you manage that!" she squeaked, quite taken aback by both the injury and Percival's unconscious flexing that was caused his shirt to strain around his upper arm.

Marius let out a dry chuckle and patted her on the shoulder. "I'll leave you to get on with it Dinah." And with that he left the room.

After a couple of seconds of awkward silence Dinah swallowed nervously, "Er...I think it needs stitching." She hazarded a glance at Dagonet who nodded in agreement. Not wanting to give away her nervousness the girl turned to the cabinet and collected what she needed - alcohol to clean the wound, pristine linens and a needle with some strong, thick thread. Closing her eyes she took a deep breath before turning to face her patient. At this point the giant knight began to speak. "Blade wounds are the easiest battle wound to repair because the skin breaks in a straight, smooth line, see." He smoothed a finger along the seam of Percival's wound and his comrade hissed in pain as Dagonet added with a grim smile, "Unless, of course, the blade has a serrated edge. Then it's very messy."

Dinah nodded, trying to listen and stop her hands from shaking. Dagonet either didn't notice her nervousness, or was purposefully ignoring it to put her at ease, because he continued to talk.

"In this case all that needs doing is cleaning and a simple stitch job. Marius tells me you have a fair talent with a needle?"

Dinah's eyebrows rose to her hairline in surprise. "I do most of the mending at the laundry, so it must be the improvement with practice that he notices."

"Indeed."

It took Dinah several tries to get the thread through the eye of the needle, which only caused her to be more flustered when she finally knelt next to Percival and laid her fingers on his arm.

Focus Dinah, focus. This is no different from the mending you were doing this morning. No different.

As gently as she could Dinah pulled the two flaps of skin together and made the first incision with the needle. She heard the knight's sharp intake of breath but didn't look up at him as she quickly and neatly sewed down the line of the wound and broke the end off with her teeth. Giving it a final run over with her fingers she looked up to see her patient grinning broadly at her. "Good as new" he remarked.

Dinah managed a watery smile before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and everything went black.

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She only just made it back to her post with seconds to spare before Leri rounded the corner to patrol. It had only taken her a couple of minutes to come round from her swoon, and she was mortified to find that her patient had been the one to catch her and lower her to the ground. He was very charming about the whole affair, claiming it was no trouble, but Dinah knew that her chance at apprenticeship with Dagonet was well and truly gone. She was so deep in thought that she hadn't noticed Leri stopping in front of her until the woman's sharp voice startled her out of her reverie.

"Vanora needs an extra pair of hands at the tavern tonight; you haven't had that duty for at least a week so you'll fill in."

As the headwoman continued her inspection of the row Dinah tried to keep her horror from showing on her face.

Not the tavern. Please not the tavern.

And then she added silently.

Please don't let him be there.