"I'll rise up and be your voice," Juliette sang to herself, tears streaming down her cheeks. She had just escaped from another concert-gone-wrong. Scarlett, the young, up-and-coming country singer that Raina had focused most of her attention on lately, had gone on stage high and drunk, and unloaded a huge confession about her abusive mother. The poor girl had a total breakdown in front of everyone. "And it was my fault," Juliette murmured. "I never should have told her to go out there. I should've known it would be too much! I should have seen the signs!" She was sobbing, now, and fell on her knees. "God, if you can hear me, please, just get me out of Nashville. Please, take me anywhere, as long as it is far, far away from here!"

The next few hours went by in a blur. Juliette vaguely remembered ending up in her home, watching Vikings on the History Channel, and then everything went black. It was strange; she didn't remember having anything to drink, but she still felt woozy and disoriented when she woke up on the beach.

Wait, beach?

"What the hell...? Am I having some weird, grief-induced dream? There's no way this is even possible...Alright, time to wake up, Juls." She closed her eyes tightly, hoping that when she opened them, she would see her living room or bedroom. No such luck. "Huh. Guess He was listening," she said, smiling to herself. "I am definitely not in Nashville anymore!" She started walking along the water's edge, enjoying the peaceful ocean air.

That peace was soon broken, however, by the barbaric roars of primitive, burly men on ancient-looking ships. They were equipped with swords and spears that seemed to be from the Dark Ages. Juliette rolled her eyes as they jumped over the side of their ship and charged onto shore, yelling triumphantly. None of them seemed to notice her...yet. "Another successful raid, men!" one of them shouted. He seemed to be the leader, and he was roughly forcing a younger man to walk alongside him. This one was dressed completely different from the others, almost like one of those monks she read stories about, and had piercing, blue eyes. He was also very quiet, compared to the others. Apparently, he was the leader's prisoner...and he was staring straight at her. "Oi! What are you looking at, priest?" the lead Viking asked gruffly. Thankfully, the others had continued on without them.

The monk's blue eyes widened, and he quickly turned his attention away from her. "N-nothing," he stammered. Juliette rolled her eyes and suppressed a scoff.

"Of course," she muttered under breath. If she had known that the young priest was trying to protect her, she would probably have kept her mouth shut, but she was so used to people thinking of her that way that her cynicism forced her tongue to slip. Unfortunately, the lead Viking heard her, and threw the monk to the sand before stalking over to where she had hidden. "Oh, great, just what I need: a bunch of Vikings..."

"Well, well, well, what do we have, here?"

"A very ticked off singer," Juliette said, standing up on her own. "What'd you do, get lost on your way to a Halloween party in the middle of April?"

"You have a sharp tongue, woman. That doesn't worry me, though. You will learn to respect me in time."

Juliette smirked. "You want my respect, Big Guy, you're gonna have to earn it. I don't submit to any man, especially when he thinks he's entitled to me." Her voice was calm, but filled with venom, and she stared defiantly into his eyes. Big mistake. The Viking grabbed her roughly by the arms, just below the shoulders, and got in her face.

"You WILL submit to me!" he growled. Juliette just spit in his face.

"Not a chance!"

"Ragnar...She is but an innocent girl. Please, leave her be...!" Surprisingly, it was the monk defending her, but Juliette didn't let herself be distracted, unlike Ragnar, who turned to scold the younger man. She took the opportunity to push him off of her, then kicked him between the legs for good measure, jumping back before he could get his own blow in.

"I'm not as innocent as I look, Blue Eyes," she said, sauntering over to the priest and helping him to his feet. "What's your name?"

"A-Athelstan," he stammered back. "And yours?"

"Juliette Barnes. Nice to meet you, Athelstan. Now, you wanna tell me why he was leading you around like a dog on a leash?"

"I...I am his prisoner. He captured me when he and his men raided a church in England, and spared my life because I could speak his language. You speak Norse as well as I do." He smiled at her, making her heart flutter in her chest. She was careful not to let it show on her face.

"Norse, huh? I thought I was speaking English with some weird accent."

"No, you were speaking perfect Norse, like you had been born and raised in a Viking village!" Athelstan seemed very excited by this, but it just confused Juliette even more.

"Look, I've never learned a word of Norse in my life. Why would I be able to speak it flawlessly, now? Unless I've become some human translator...Wait, you're a priest, right? Do you know any Latin?"

"Of course." At this point, Athelstan's voice changed a little, indicating that he was speaking another language, but Juliette could still understand him. "All children of faith are educated in Latin while they are still young. I grew up speaking and learning it, in addition to English. I only learned Norse a few years ago, while traveling."

"Wow," Juliette said, copying his tone of voice perfectly. She grinned, realizing what she was doing. "I'm actually speaking Latin!"

"Yes...yes you are," Athelstan replied with a chuckle that made his blue eyes shine even brighter, but he still seemed troubled about something. "Juliette...what did you mean, earlier, when you said you were a 'ticked off singer'?"

"Huh? Oh, that... I was just irritated with that Ragnar guy for disrespecting me. As for the singer part, I just like to sing, and sometimes I get paid for it. No big deal." Juliette smiled shyly for the first time in her life. Why was she being so casual about her career?! 'Get it together, Juls,' she thought to herself. 'He's a priest, and he's not even remotely interested in you, so just-'

"Juliette...?" His worried voice brought her out of her thoughts. "Are you alright? You seemed so...distracted. What's troubling you?"

"Oh, n-nothing..." Stop stuttering! Control yourself! "I'm fine."

"Well, I was going to ask you to sing something for me, but I fear that Ragnar is waking up. How did you fight him off so quickly, by the way?"

"Simple. Fighting takes more than strength; strategy is also key. A few well-placed hits, and even the strongest man on earth will fall to his knees." She smirked, having finally regained her composure. "The singing will have to wait, though. Tall-Dark-and-Ugly's coming to, so we should probably make ourselves scarce. Come on." Quickly, and without even thinking, she took the young priest's hand and started to lead him toward the cover of a cluster of enormous boulders that went on all the way down the beach until they reached a cliff. He hesitated. "What's the matter, Athelstan? Don't you trust me?"

"No...I-I mean, th-that's not it. I-I do trust you, I-I just...I don't know if it's right for me to leave him."

"You really want to stay as his slave?" Juliette asked skeptically.

"Of course not!" came Athelstan's horrified reply, and his female companion barely stifled her laugh.

"Then let's get moving! We'll be safe behind those rocks, but we should probably go all the way to the cliff, just in case." This time, he nodded, and they were at the cliff before either of them knew it, staring into a cave. "Well, it ain't the Ritz, but it's better than nothing. We'll take shelter here for the night."

"A-are you sure that's appropriate..?"

"Of course. This cave his huge, and I can control myself. You know how to build a fire?"

"Well, yes, but-"

"Good. You do that, and I'll see if I can find us some food. I'm pretty decent at spearfishing, and I'm sure I can find some good mussels or crabs."

"But Juliette-"

"What?" she finally snapped, sounding more harsh than she had intended.

"I... Just...be careful, alright?" he sighed, and her face softened.

"Of course I will," she replied, and quickly kissed his cheek before leaving to do what she had promised.

Athelstan's face turned bright red when she kissed him, even though he knew she meant it innocently. All his life, he had been forbidden to even touch a woman, let alone have her kiss him. He'd taken a vow of celibacy upon entering priesthood without a second thought, but that one moment made him doubt his decision. "She said she could control herself, though," he murmured. Did that mean they were only friends? "Perhaps...she never made any other advances on me, and the kiss was only a brief parting gift. It meant nothing more than that." Having convinced himself of this truth, he set to work building the fire, which calmed him considerably.

Still, he couldn't deny that he felt drawn to her, even if it was only as a friend. Juliette Barnes was captivating...and she needed him. He finally remembered that she had been utterly alone on the beach when Ragnar's ships pulled in. As defiant and confident as she had seemed when the Viking had attacked her, she hadn't been able to fight him off until he was distracted. Athelstan had seen the fear in her eyes, and called out to Ragnar, hoping the Viking would let her go of his own accord.

"Hey." Juliette's angelic voice brought Athelstan out of his thoughts, and he was surprised to see that she had taken off her jacket, exposing a strapless top that showed off more skin than he had ever seen a woman show(AN: even though she was perfectly decent!), and was using it to carry an assortment of fish, oysters, clams, and crabs. "Impressed? They weren't actually that hard to catch. We just have to make sure we cook 'em all the way." She smiled down at him and went to start preparing them. "You weren't kidding when you said you could build a fire."

"I was also taught many survival skills when I was younger."

"Does that mean you can cook, too?"

"Yes. Fairly well, in fact." Juliette chuckled and nudged his arm teasingly.

"You'd make a great husband for some lucky girl!"

"I can't marry, though..."

"What? Seriously? So you're just supposed to stay single your whole life and die alone...?"

"My life belongs to God, and no one else," Athelstan said quietly, growing irritated with the situation.

"Sorry...I didn't mean to insult you..."

"I know you didn't."

"But can't you devote your life to God, and still have a family?"

"I wish it were so..."

"I mean, if your wife were as devoted to him as you, you could teach your children to love him, and they would teach their children and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Then even more people could learn from each generation of your family."

"I...I've never thought about it like that, before," Athelstan said, looking into her eyes.

"The funny thing is, neither have I. I never realized I wanted that kind of a family...until literally just now."

"Maybe God was speaking through you."

"The Lord does work in mysterious ways." Juliette smiled at him, and he couldn't help but smile back.

"Yes, he does."

AN: Okay, so I haven't actually watched much of Vikings, but I like what I've seen, so far, and I absolutely ADORE Athelstan! He's so sweet and shy, but he also is able to stand up for his beliefs, and I really respect that. The idea for this story just randomly popped into my head outta nowhere, simply because I thought it would be cool if Juliette actually met a decent guy like Athelstan. If the wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff isn't complicated enough for you, sorry, but I ain't one of the writers for Doctor Who. I actually didn't know how she was gonna even end up in the Vikings time period until I started typing this out, so...

Anyway, hope you liked it! Please R&R! Reviewers make me happy!