AN: Also standard disclaimer applies: I own nothing! Just as a warning, this is not a very Lancelot friendly fic. I do have my problems with him (as I have problems for womanizers the world over!). Anyway, this one goes out to Allie and LOTR Ranger who wanted some romance for Galahad! Enjoy!

A Time to Rend: Between Part I and Part II- 1 year before the start of the movie

Valeria stood in the kitchen looking around the small house at a bit of a loss. Felix was down for his nap, Gawain was at the keep training, and all the food preparation for the day was completed. She frowned. The place wasn't unclean but it was a bit untidy. With a very put upon sigh, she moved to begin cleaning up the house. Of all the chores that she had acquired since running way to be with Gawain, this was what she hated the most. No matter how fiercely she cleaned, it seemed to just become messy again as soon as she turned her back. With a slight grin she thought of how she had never fully appreciated in her old life the many servants whose job was to tidy up after them. Thinking of her old life made her think of her maid Elspeth. She wondered what Elspeth was up to today.

And as though thinking about her made her appear, Elspeth came dashing into the room.

"Valeria!" Elspeth gasped out before Valeria could even form words. "I heard the most surprising news!" Valeria frowned and then her imagination began to get away from her. Since moving to the Wall, Valeria had moved out of the keep to a house that Gawain and the other knights had cleaned up. But Elspeth had stayed in the keep, working as a maid there. At her sudden arrival Valeria began to panic and think that maybe Gawain had been hurt in training. It had happened before...

"Is it Gawain?" She asked, abandoning her chores and moving to get Felix and run to the keep. Elspeth chuckled.

"No, big blondie is fine." Elspeth gave her friend a fond smile. "But someone has a one track mind!" Valeria breathed a sigh of relief and then gave a half-hearted glare at her friend.

"Well what do you expect me to think when you come running in here like the Wall has been breached by Woads? You probably took a good ten years off my life with that! As payment, I demand you help me with the cleaning." Valeria said in a commanding tone. This soon caused both women to laugh. Not even when she had been living in Fulvonius' castle had Valeria ever used that tone with her servants.

"Learned something from Vanora, I see." Elspeth said between guffaws. Valeria nodded and they both moved to start cleaning again.

"So what was it that got you so excited?" Valeria asked after a moment of quiet.

"Oh! I nearly forgot." Elspeth said and looked at her friend a bit scandalized. "I heard that you went to the tavern!"

"Yes." Valeria said giving her a funny look. Elspeth knew that she had been planning to go to the tavern with Gawain. They had discussed it with Vanora just the other day. "You knew I was going to go."

"I never thought you would go through with it!" Elspeth wailed. This caused Felix to wake up and Valeria went to comfort her baby boy. "Sorry." Elspeth muttered when Valeria reappeared with the baby. "But...what would your mother say?"

"Probably that she could never see me again." Valeria returned drily moving to sit on the couch as she thought of the letter she had received from her mother upon her flight. Elspeth grimaced.

"But...the tavern?" When her friend merely shrugged in reply, Elspeth moved to sit by her on the couch. "What was it like?" She asked in a whisper. Valeria turned her attention away from Felix- who had quieted soon after his mother came to hold him- to her friend. She thought about how to reply.

"It was...interesting." Valeria finally responded.

"Interesting? C'mon, Valeria, you're going to have to give me more than that!" Elspeth said in exasperation. Felix snuffled a little causing Valeria to give her friend a look of exasperation. "Sorry." She said lowering her tone to a whisper.

"I don't know what to say though. Some parts were good. Some parts were bad. Some parts were...enlightening." She said the last with a smile on her face which she turned to hide in Felix's hair.

"Enlightening?" Elspeth said skeptically. Hugging Felix close and turning so her cheek was resting against the crown of his head Valeria smiled at Elspeth.

"Gawain has said that he loves me." Valeria returned, her eyes glittering with happiness. Elspeth merely rolled her eyes.

"Well, anyone with eyes could see that!"

"It's nice to hear." Valeria said with a shrug. Elspeth bit her lip thinking of her own ongoing affair with Lancelot. She had been bedding him since before Valeria and Gawain had come together, but she knew that she was not the only lady that was in Lancelot's rotation. She didn't know how she felt about that. At the beginning of the affair it hadn't bothered her, but now it was starting to wear. She had developed some feelings for the dark knight and although hearing of his dealings with Vanora had made her angry, she hadn't had the heart to confront him. After all, that had been long ago. Long before she had met Vanora or Lancelot and long before Vanora and Bors had even been together. So even though she was happy that Valeria had gotten to hear the words that she longed to hear from Gawain, it didn't come as a surprise to anyone at the Wall. Except maybe Valeria.

"So what else happened? You must tell me now that you're a woman of the world! How am I to keep up with you?" She teased. Valeria chuckled.

"Alright. Well, we met Galahad there-"

"Galahad?" Elspeth asked skeptically.

"Yes, you know he's Gawain's best friend." Valeria said with a frown. She didn't really understand why Elspeth had taken a bit of dislike to the youngest knight.

"I'm surprised they let him in the door." Elspeth said with a snort.

"Elspeth, you mustn't say such things about Galahad. I never understood why you don't like him. He's such a dear friend- to me as well as to Gawain-"

"Yes, yes. I know- he comes over for dinner every Tuesday." Elspeth rolled her eyes. "But he never says anything! All he does is blush bright red and stammer and then dash out of a room as soon as I enter. I just don't have any patience for him." Now it was Valeria's turn to roll her eyes.

"I've told you about a thousand times that he does that because he thinks so highly of you and he knows that you think he's an idiot." Elspeth grunted in reply, not willing to accept that answer for reasons that Valeria didn't really understand.

"Anyway, I sat with Galahad and saw One and the other children and was able to meet some of the knights that I've only heard the names of before. Some of them were so funny! And they told me hilarious stories about Gawain." Valeria laughed quietly just thinking of some of the tales the other knights had been more than happy to tell of Gawain. Much to Gawain's amusement and chagrin. Elspeth chuckled a little at that too.

"I'll bet Gawain was pleased." She said a bit sarcastically. She looked over at her friend who was biting her lip and felt a fissure of concern. "What parts were bad? Did they tell you something horrible about Gawain?"

"No, it's not that." Valeria shrugged again. "One of the knights- Kay I think. He said some pretty horrible things to me." Elspeth sighed. She could only imagine.

"Well, I'm sure that Gawain sorted him out." She said trying to comfort her friend. She knew that while Valeria wouldn't leave Gawain and would take what people said about her apparently in stride, the gossip was hurtful.

"Gawain was over by the bar at the time." She glanced at Elspeth out of the corner of her eye as she appeared to focus in on Felix. "It was Galahad who actually leapt over the table and tackled Kay."

"GALAHAD?" Elspeth couldn't help but raise her voice. This set Felix off again. Valeria gave Elspeth an annoyed look and got up to walk around hoping that the motion would soothe Felix. "Sorry." She replied not all that contritely. Galahad was about half the size of Kay and she couldn't imagine him leaping into a fight like that. And to defend someone he had only known for a few months. A woman at that. She wondered what Valeria cooked at those Tuesday night dinners to make Galahad so protective of her. Maybe she would have to come to another sometime- maybe Valeria would let her bring Lancelot too.

"Anyway, I probably won't be going back anytime soon, but if I do, why don't you come too? I know that Gawain would probably feel better about it. He was worried that the fight and what Kay said would make me not want to go again. But I'd feel so much easier if you were there too." Valeria asked after Felix's cries began to taper off.

"Alright." Elspeth said with a shrug. And why not? It's not like she had anything better to do.

Several Weeks Later...

"Well, I feel like the luckiest man in the place!" Gawain said grinning into his ale.

"Why's that?" Elspeth asked as she took her seat at the table beside Valeria.

"Because I have not one, but two beautiful women with me tonight!" Gawain said causing Valeria to fondly roll her eyes. She looked at Elspeth with a put upon smile.

"He's been going on about that ever since I told him you were to come with us tonight." Both women chuckled as Gawain pouted exaggeratedly at them. This caused Felix to laugh and grab at his father from his mother's lap. Gawain chucked his son under his chin.

"Yes, my boy. They will take every advantage to spoil your poor Dad's fun!"

That pronouncement was met with a loud guffaw from the other side of the table which drew their attention to Galahad. A rather drunk Galahad. Apparently a rather drunk Galahad had no problem with talking in from of Elspeth like a sober Galahad had.

"Gawain, Valeria lets you get away with everything! And she cooks for you! And cleans! And puts up with your monstrous hair!-"

"Alright, alright! Get your own woman!" Gawain said playfully kicking Galahad under the table and putting his arm around Valeria. Galahad turned his soppy grin on Elspeth, who was a bit stunned. She didn't even realize that Galahad knew that many words. And he really did have a charming grin...

"I'm going to go see if Lancelot is about." She said standing abruptly. She felt an unexplained pang when Galahad's grin slid off of his face, but ignored it as she went in search of the night that she had been in a "relationship" with for the past months. She pretended that she didn't hear Gawain- sweet, pleasant Gawain- curse Lancelot's name.

Being on the tall side for a woman, Elspeth didn't have a lot of trouble moving around the tavern. She spotted Vanora and merely waved at her. She didn't really fancy asking Vanora where Lancelot was. That seemed a bit callous. As she looked around, she took in the scene around her. The tavern was rather darker than she was used to. And had a bit of a rough air to it. There were some Roman legionaries in the corner who gave her a bit of an eye and she felt her skin crawl a bit. She had just about made a circuit of the room when she felt someone come up beside her.

"Galahad?" She asked questioningly.

"Sorry. I saw those soldiers and some of the other men give you a bit of a look." He blushed bright red and Elspeth couldn't hold back her smile. This was the Galahad she was more used to. It seems he had sobered up a bit in the few minutes she'd been away

"Thanks for coming over. I was just about to..." She trailed off having spotted Lancelot coming out from the stables with a smug smile on his face following behind a very buxom barmaid. Elspeth frowned. She knew what that smug smile meant and didn't really know how to deal with that right now. It was one thing to know that she wasn't the only one and it was another to have it shoved in her face like that. Galahad cursed internally and put a hand on her arm.

"Hey, don't worry about that-" he started. But he was cut off as Lancelot saw them standing together looking over at him. Lancelot smirked and sauntered over to the pair.

"Well, hello lovely." He said to Elspeth, completely ignoring Galahad except for giving the younger knight a few smug looks.

"Lancelot." Elspeth said tersely. He ignored her tone.

"Pup, why don't you go back to the table and let me entertain the lovely lady. I'm sure that it was me who she came to see after all." He winked at Elspeth and Galahad frowned looking at the woman that he been harboring feelings for ever since he saw her alight from Valeria's carriage. She did not look amused and he was rather hesitant to leave her side anyway. Elspeth for her part was appalled. It was blatantly obvious that Lancelot had just bedded that barmaid and now was planning on bedding her. Right after. No pausing. No washing. No shame. And just like that- she was done.

"I don't think-" Galahad started

"I did come here for Lancelot." She said, keeping her eyes on Lancelot. She missed how Galahad's face fell- but Lancelot didn't. He gave his fellow knight a triumphant look as Galahad turned to walk away. But before he could even take a step, Elspeth put her hand on Galahad's arm. "But more fool to me. I won't make that mistake again."

Without another word she slipped her arm through Galahad's and began to walk away. Galahad felt like he was on cloud nine walking out of the tavern with Elspeth. He turned to say something to her- something charming he hoped- when he noticed how she was biting her lip as though to keep from crying. Cursing again internally, he resigned himself to walking her back to her quarters in the keep. Once they got outside she stopped walking and released his arm. He tried not to let that pain him as he could tell that she was clearly upset.

"Thanks for walking out with me. I'm just going to go back to my room. Can you tell Valeria and Gawain?" She asked and Galahad- now completely sober- frowned at her.

"I'll walk with you back to your rooms. You shouldn't go back by yourself anyway." He replied.

"Galahad- I just want to be alone." Her voice sounded choked up and Galahad could tell that she was trying very hard not to cry in front of him. Part of him thought that he should grant that wish. She had never wanted him around her even when she was happy. But he thought of all the bad things that could happen to her on her way back to the keep. He swallowed hard.

"You can be. Once you get back to your room." He said firmly. Putting an arm around her and pressing her into his side, Galahad walked her back to the keep, ignoring the way her tears soaked his shirt. Once they reached her room, she opened the door and moved to go inside. At the last minute she turned back to him. Her eyes were puffy and red and her face had creases on it where she had pushed herself into his side to try to muffle her sobs. Her nose was red and dripping with snot. Galahad thought that she was beautiful.

"Thanks." She said in a low voice. She turned back to go in the room but before she could, Galahad turned her gently by her shoulders. She looked up at him in surprise. He was looking at her so seriously; like there were a million things he wanted to tell her. Elspeth knew that she must look horrible, but she would've never been able to tell that from the way he was looking at her. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"Sleep well." He mumbled before turning and walking away. She stood in the open doorway to her room watching him shuffle down the hall. After he rounded the corner, she went into her room and sat down on the bed, trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened.

Meanwhile, Galahad returned to the tavern and downed a mug of ale in one gulp. He didn't answer Valeria and Gawain when they asked about Elspeth. He shook his head at Tristan when the other knight stood up to give him back his seat (although the next day he would wonder what sort of look was on his face if even Tristan was being accommodating to him). All he did after putting the mug back down on the table was walk over to where Lancelot was sitting and pull his brother knight out of his seat before punching Lancelot square on the jaw causing him to fall back on his behind. The usually rowdy tavern went dead silent. It seemed as though no one even dared to breathe as Lancelot stood up rubbing his jaw and looked calculatingly at Galahad. Before he could act, a voice broke the silence.

"Well, it's about time someone did that. Surprised it took ten years is all." Vanora's voice rang out over the stillness and it was though a switch had been flipped. Everyone went back to their business- drinking, gambling, and gossiping. Some of the other knights covertly watched Galahad and Lancelot as the two stood staring at each other.

"I didn't expect that you'd ever have the balls to do that." Lancelot said casually. Galahad shrugged defiantly.

"You're done now, you and her. It's over." Galahad replied. Lancelot shrugged carelessly.

"Don't really care. I just kept it up with her to annoy you." As Galahad turned red, Lancelot gave him a mock salute and turned to leave the tavern. Galahad took a step to follow, but a heavy hand on his shoulder pulled him back. He looked up to see Bors looking down at him compassionately.

"I really want to..." Galahad trailed off figuring that Bors of all people understood exactly what he wanted to do to Lancelot.

"I know, pup. I know." With a shrug they went to sit back down at the bar. Vanora put two mugs of ale in front of each of them. "My angel." Bors said tipping the first one towards Vanora and drinking the whole thing. She rolled her eyes but Galahad could see the way that her lips tilted up in a smile. He chuckled and drank his own first mug.

"So what now?" Galahad asked.

"Now? You live. You get that hairball friend of yours and his woman to get that girly to the dinners you go to at their house. You let that girly know that you're not like Lancelot. That you mean what you say. And you don't let any of this affect our duty." Bors replied starting in on his second mug and staring over the rim at something.

"No?" Galahad asked. He followed Bors' line of sight and saw that Bors was staring at One who was sitting with Gawain and Valeria laughing at some story that Lamolak was telling them all. Everyone pretty much knew that One was Lancelot's daughter but Bors had raised her as his own because he had loved Vanora. And Galahad thought about their patrols. Bors had never left any of them, not even Lancelot, out to dry when they were in danger.

"No." Bors said firmly.

"Alright then." Galahad said clinking his glass with Bors'. He knew that as Bors laughingly put him a headlock, everything would be back to normal before he had too much time to dwell on it.

AN: I do still have some ideas working for other stuff going on in this universe. Hopefully there's still some people out there who are enjoying reading this! I'm going to be really slow on the updates but I do have two more (one partially written and one just an idea) but I would really like to write a "shot" for Lucan…any suggestions?

PS- sorry if this is still a little rough. It's been sitting on my drive for forever and I just wanted to get it out there…so it's only going through a little bit of proofing