AN: I really didn't like Arthur's reasoning of 'you're not appropriate' when he does a mini break-up with Gwen in 4 x 05...and she just seems cool with it, for the most part. So I inserted this bit where his uncle really manipulates him and makes this about scandal and honour so that Arthur thinks he has to break it off with her to preserve their honour. Then realises even that was stupid...


The final preparations for battle were made. Arthur, Merlin and a group of villagers, along with Tristan and Isolde, prepared to head back into Camelot, to take back the kingdom.

Arthur found Gwen and walked up to her. 'I need to talk to you.'

Gwen followed him into a slightly quieter corner. 'What did you want to say?'

He looked at her, something a little like fear in his eyes. Her manners were still cold, business-like.

'I have been...unjust and inconsiderate,' he began, 'and foolish, in the way I treated you.'

Gwen looked aside, as if uncomfortable, her arms hugging herself.

His mind had been wrestling with these thoughts endlessly but now he didn't know how to put them into the words he wanted to say.

'I had been so happy that night, knowing that I'd finally be able to call you my wife,' Arthur smiled, remembering. 'Glad to have Lancelot back too.'

Gwen scratched her cheek, as if stopping herself wincing at the sound of that name.

'And then it all just...turned into a nightmare. When I saw you and Lancelot together -I didn't know what to make of it. I thought, maybe that-' He started again more quietly, 'Maybe having him back made you realise that it's not me you're meant to be with. The thought made me- so angry.'

Gwen sniffed into a wry smile. 'I understand. But I don't understand how...how you can love someone without any trust in their feelings for you in return.'

Arthur looked aside, frustrated. Then he looked into her eyes again. 'I've thought about this so much but now I realise it wasn't your feelings I had doubts about.'

Gwen furrowed her forehead slightly.

'I doubted whether I was truly deserving of them.' He explained, with a sad smile, 'I have been a coward about my feelings. Even when my father found out, I was only too happy to let him believe they were a result of sorcery.'

'That was the wiser thing to do,' Gwen put in quickly, looking sympathetic for the first time.

Arthur tilted his head back and shook his head. 'I let my uncle talk me into not seeing you anymore. At the time I told myself I did it to protect our honour.'

He remembered Agravaine's words, how he had realised his uncle was right, that the nobles would not accept Guinevere as queen. Apparently, they were already spreading talk about her, how she only had eyes for the crown. Agravaine even warned that the nobles wouldn't accept their future children as rightful heirs as they wouldn't be of full noble blood.

Arthur did not want any of that scandal to touch Gwen.

'I should have been brave enough to defend our relationship back then. I should have made you my queen; I'm sure that would have said to the councillors all I needed to say.

'But I- I wasn't able to do any of that. I guess I thought, that it occurred to you too...'

'And it was enough to make me secretly see another man?'

Arthur added hastily, 'I understand how pathetic of me it was to think that you would do that. But I wasn't thinking reasonably and...'

He took a breath, 'Guinevere,' he said with more clarity this time, taking a step closer, 'I believe you. About the bracelet, about acting under the influence of sorcery. Merlin told me how Gaius believes Lancelot was most likely a spirit of some kind -not the man we knew.

'I should have seen it then. I know I made a terrible mistake in banishing you.'

This. This was what she needed from him on that fateful night. It brought tears to Gwen's eyes. Too little, too late, said a whisper in her mind as a tear rolled down her cheek.

'Guinevere...'

She got to the tear before Arthur could, his fingers hanging in mid-air.

He said again, 'I've made my mistake and learnt from it. Please, you have to believe me,' he reached out to take her shoulders.

Arthur's fingers managed to brush Gwen as she moved away from his touch, as if it would burn her.

'No,' escaped from her. Then she spoke, more composed, 'I can never hate you, Arthur. But I hated your actions towards me. For leaving me to...' She couldn't bring herself to say 'to men like Helios.' Instead she said, '...Leaving me to survive on my own. It's not even that. I hated how you didn't have faith in me. Or in our love.'

'I know, that was terrible of me...' His eyes were pleading, as he tried edging closer to her but she shifted her position to keep the distance between them.

'I'm not sure if I'm ready to forget that just yet.' Gwen looked resolved. But not happy, before she turned and left.

Arthur looked on, at first like he had just lost his kingdom, lost everything he knew in his life, the water in his eyes making his vision blurred. Then he gritted his teeth, his hands on his hips, frustration throbbing through his veins.

It looked like the tables had turned: he was now at her mercy.