Wedding and BetrayalBy Ardin
Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or the Cadfael mysteries. They belong to DB and Ellis Peters respectively.
Challenge: PLEASE READ THIS OR YOU'LL BE REALLY CONFUSED!! This is in response to a challenge issued on the gibbskateff/gibbskatefic lists: Take the team out of NCIS and put them in another world. If you like "House, M.D." or "ER" make the team doctors. Like "CSI"? Make them CSIs. Or you can put them in a different time period (for JAG fans, this would be reminiscent of the episodes "Each of Us Angels" or "Mutiny"). The catch is that this IS NOT A CROSSOVER. You can make references to a related fandom (talk about House if you've made them doctors) and have one appear a bit, but the idea is the "NCIS" characters in a different world.
I first considered answering this challenge a couple of years ago after reading Sammie28's brilliant response to this challenge "Stormchasers" (available here at ). But in my case, as the summary says, I've dropped our characters into the British civil war of the early to mid 12th century, which is the setting for Ellis Peters wonderful Cadfeal mysteries (You totally don't need to have read those or seen the Derek Jacobi TV versions to get this story, though I definietly recommend them). Because of this, I've had to take some serious liberties with character back stories, I promise to use lots of explanation so that no one gets lost.
I'm posting (obviously) the Introduction, which will provide the historical setting, right now. I will, hopefully, have the first real chapter posted by tonight. It's about time that I got back to my fanfiction roots and wrote some more NCIS and KIBBS.
Introduction
By the spring of 1148, England had been at war with itself for the greater part of 13 years. The land and people were divided and law and order were largely forgotten as two great powers fought for the throne.
In 1135, King Henry I had died without an heir, a fact that he had attempted to remedy by having his barons swear allegiance to his daughter, the Princess Matilda. But Britain had never been ruled by a woman, let alone one married to a Frenchman, and the nobles of the country were, by and large, unhappy with the proposed succession to the throne.
As such when Henry died, chaotic war began: Matilda, known to the people as the Empress Maude, against her cousin, King Stephen. Stephen's backing by the lords of Southern England was undeniable, but not all of Henry's barons reneged on their oaths to Maude and the two forces fought constantly for control. In the heat of a war which claimed everyone's attention, the everyday ruling of the country and the welfare of its people were forgotten. Starvation, disease and crime ran rampant through the land and no town was spared from the hardship of a time known to history as: When Christ and his saints slept.
One such town caught up in the chaos that swept the country was Shrewsbury. The town, which sat at the Western edge of England, less than a day's walk to the Welsh border, was home to a small castle, a bustling (though not as much as in the days preceding Henry's death) market place, and the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Despite having been claimed and captured by King Stephen's forces in 1142, nearly 6 years prior, the town did not escape the hardships that ravaged the land.