A/N: I always thought that the knights wouldn't be the most popular people at the fort. More like an interesting oddity then actually popular, what with it being a Roman fort and all. Also, for the record, I like Lancelot's character in the movie. He's all broody and fun to write...but he also struck me as the type who would totally use bad pickup lines when he was in a good mood. So you're just going to have to suffer through the one bad line I stuck in there.

And Breathe Me

Vanora's POV

I was a fool for that man.

I had only been visiting the fort to help my dear uncle run his tavern for a month or so. My uncle declared me a fiery girl with a heart of hard steel, able to survive the drunks and the womanizers. I laughed and served the men their drinks and learned to sidestep the Romans. The men just could not keep their hands to themselves, though they learned quickly enough when I would hold a dagger to their throat.

I was not a woman to be trifled with.

Damn it all, I'm still not a woman to be trifled with. Woe be to those who would dare think I'd lose my touch all these years later.

I heard rumors of the Sarmatian knights for the entire week before they returned.

"Pagan savages."

"Cannibals, I heard."

"Rapists, every one of them."

I laughed away the rumors, but I was secretly terrified of their return. Now if you tell old Bors that, I'll have your head on a platter. The man's already full of himself.

The prostitutes who flaunted themselves at the tavern told a different story.

"Hardly rapists, dear. Hardly."

"Now girl, they may be just a step above animals, but they ain't evil."

The prostitutes assurances didn't do much to ease my nerves, though I don't suspect that was their intention. As kindly as they could be from time to time, they would do their best to protect their business. If that meant keeping their men single or repeating what they heard from the Romans stationed at the fort, they were more then willing to do it.

I was quite the bundle of nerves when the knights returned. They claimed a table in the corner, laughing loudly and placing bets.

"I heard there's a new barmaid." One of them mentioned nonchalantly. I listened closely from my spot at the bar, hoping to gain insight on these terrible heathens from the east lands. A handsome man with dark curls smirked, glancing in my direction. I pretended not to notice.

"Lancelot will bed her within a week, won't he, Bors?" A younger man laughed, nudging the large bald man beside him. When I didn't hear an answer I glanced over, seeing the bald man gaping over at me. "Bors?" The young one raised an eyebrow.

"I think Bors has designs on your wench, Lancelot." One with long blonde hair grinned. Lancelot snorted.

"Good luck to him."

I knew right then that I hated them all. Self-assured bastards, how dare any of them put designs on me?

Eventually they signalled for ale and I stepped over, setting down their mugs. Within seconds, I was being pulled in Lancelot's lap.

"What say you to a tour of the fort?" He smiled, wrapping an arm around my stomach. "We can start at my rooms-"

It was the worst pickup line I have ever heard to this day. I did not refrain from shutting him up by dumping his ale over his head. I slipped out of his shocked arms and slapped him hard.

"Don't even think I'll be a notch on your bloody bedpost, you pig!"

Time flew, I got scolded quite a bit by my uncle for all the ale I was throwing in people's faces, but I found myself not caring. It was the most fun I'd had in quite a bit.

The idea of hating them all disappeared slowly. I'd sneak Tristan some meat for his hawk, bring Arthur a meal when he was too busy pouring over his paperwork, and Dagonet...well, Dagonet was always impossible to hate.

When I walked in on Galahad crying in the stables my ideas of cannabalistic heathen savages from the east were completely blown away.

It was supposed to be my last day at the fort when the knights rode back from their most recent mission, almost all of them bleeding profusely. My heart clenched when I saw Bors with blood smeared all over his face. When I found him waiting outside the healers with a dirty cloth clutched to his head, I took him home with me and took care of him myself.

And that was that.

I never did go back to my family like I was supposed to. I had a traveler tell them of where I was. They never sent a message back.

The first time I was pregnant...Gods, I was so scared. All alone in the fort without my mother or sisters or even aunts, no one to help me through childbirth.

Bors and I broke tradition, as we had a tendency to do, by forcing the midwife to let him stay with me when I went into labor. I admit, I broke one of his fingers squeezing his hand, not to mention that I scared the life out of him with all my swearing and promises of certain death.

Looking back, all I remember was being pregnant and nursing. The only break in it all was after Seven was born.

I had been at the tavern. I was pregnant again but that never did stop me from working straight up to the day I would start going into labor. One of the Romans had sneered at me, calling me the Sarmatians' whore and I'd walloped him across the back of his head. He had swung at me, knocking me to the ground and kicking me right in the stomach.

The knights were all over him at that point. I just lay on the floor in a heap, staring at the ground as they threw punches and yelled curses. I was going into labor. It was only fall, I should've been having the baby during the winter.

By the time Bors broke through to me and carried me to the midwife I was already sobbing uncontrollably.

He held me all through the labor, and for once I couldn't gather the energy to scream at him as I usually did.

The child, my perfect baby... when they laid her in my arms she was already dead.

I spent all that night wrapped in Bors' arms, staring at the weaving in his shirt, listening to his deep breathing and wishing I could press myself further into him where it was safe.

The knights sometimes joke about how Bors can't count, what with our children jumping from Six to Eight. Bors just wraps me up in his arms and I listen to him breathe.