Got my books and read them all. Finished The Squire's Quest this morning and was feeling...very odd, to say the very least. Sorry I've been neglecting these—I was stalling until I could get a chance to reread.

Chronological order, hooray! The first one takes place a few months after Lynet and Gaheris' marriage. The second, before Luneta's birth. The third, Luneta's birth. The fourth is an event I made up, taking place a month or so after Luneta's birth and involving Gawain In Peril. The "Did Not" is another imaginary event taking place probably when Luneta is a year or so old. No spoilers... I think.

Four Times Gaheris Loved Lynet and One Time He Rather Wished He'd Never Met Her
The door opened and Gaheris sat up straighter. Lynet entered and hung her cloak by the door. "Gary, dear," she called. "About half and hour's hard ride south of here is a knight who wants to speak to you. Can you go and see him in the morning?

Gaheris rose and stretched, stiff from the day's labor. "I could go out now—"

"No, it can wait until morning," she insisted, coming over and taking the seat next to him. He sat again, slowly. "He was very rude."

"Rude? About what?"

"He's…confused." Her lips twisted into something that was not quite a smile. "Insisted he had a right to our lands and was coming to…ah… 'slay the impertinent blackguard who dared steal his inheritance.'"

"Oh, blast," he said, standing again and starting for the door.

"Gary," Lynet said, rising and putting her hand on her hand on his shoulder. She corralled him neatly away. "It can wait."

"But if he's really so deteremined—" Gaheris stopped and for the first time really took in his wife's muddy dress hem, the footprint on her cloak, and the strange sword propped up next to said cloak. He closed his eyes and put a hand to his temple. "What did you do?"

She sat. "I explained that he must be wrong and told him you would be glad to explain it to him. I told him that this was your brother's land and you had been made his steward. But when he found out I was the Lady of the House, he swore he'd kill us both within the day. And he did appear to be a better fighter than you, not that it takes much."

He grinned away the insult, eyes sparkling. "Ah, my poor defenseless wife, threatened. What did you do?"

"Nothing! I just stepped out of reach, turned his feet into tree roots—then—" she raised her voice over his shout of laughter. "—I knocked his sword out of his hand and told him you would be with him shortly. You needn't waste your evening with the likes of him. Ah—if he still insists on fighting you, you wouldn't mind an apple tree on the property, would you?"

This isn't just a state dinner you can sneeze your way out of, Gary," Kai said, shaking his head with disgust and pity. "Every knight possible has been ordered to attend—tournament and ball. You're going to have to have an honest reason for skipping if you don't show up."

"Gary, dear," Lynet said as her husband opened his mouth to answer. She lightly stroked his arm. "I'm afraid we're going to have to tell him."

"Tell him wha—ah." He forced a cough as she subtly dug her fingernails into his arm, catching the obvious hint. "Well…I suppose if it can't be avoided. Would have come out sooner or later anyway…"

"Tell me what?" Kai raised an eyebrow.

"He can't go because he has to stay here and take care of me." She smiled and laced her fingers through Gaheris'. "In about five and a half months, we're going to be parents."

The seneschal's eyes popped. "You—you mean—you're—" Gaheris coughed again, this time to disguise a laugh. After processing the information for another moment, Kai grinned wide and rigorously shook Gaheris' free hand. "Congratulations, the both of you! Gary, you cur—why all the secrecy?"

"You know how Gawain gets around the women in the family," Gaheris said, waving his hand vaguely. "And soon Gareth and Lyonesse would be all over the place, too. They're the last people we want to see right now."

"I want peace and rest, with maybe a little company later on." Lynet nodded solemnly as she spoke. "But I shall be quite…indisposed—" Gaheris hid another laugh at the though of his wife being 'indisposed' "—come banquet time."

"Oh, I understand. I'll explain everything back at court."

Kai stayed for dinner and left afterward, still smiling like a fool. When at last he disappeared from sight, Gaheris laughed, loud and long, and swept his lady into his arms.

"Lynet, you savage damsel," he said, kissing her nose and circling his arms around her waist. "Where did you learn to lie like that?"

"Gaheris, you pathetic excuse for a knight," she answered, smiling slyly and moving his hands to her front—was her stomach tighter than usual? "I wasn't lying."

With one last, loving look at Lynet, Gaheris gingerly lifted his newborn daughter and held her close. "Hello, little one," he whispered to her, caressing her tender red cheek with a huge, calloused finger. "Hello, my little Luneta."

Lynet, lying in bed, flushed. "What a lovely…familiar name."

"And why shouldn't the two women in my life have lovely, familiar names?" he asked, never taking his eyes from Luneta. His whole face was alight with new found love. "Isn't she beautiful, dear?"

"Oh, yes. She's very pink," Lynet replied wryly, poking him with a teasing finger, her smile matching his.

Lynet sank into the second chair beside the bed. "Oh, my love," she whispered. "I leave for two days and come home to this?"

Gaheris ignored the reprimand, tightening his grip on his favorite brother's sweaty hand.

"Easy…Gary," Gawain muttered through his shivering and chattering teeth. "And hello…to you, too…fine lady." He sounded so tired.

"He came to see the baby and took sick on the road," Gaheris explained, voice shaking almost as much. He'd never seen any of his brothers so sick before. "I tried everything I could think of but—"

He was interrupted by a deep, painful-sounding cough from Gawain. "Gently, gently," Lynet warned him, bracing his shoulders with her arm as he sat upright to cough. His face turned as red as his hair with the effort. "And just where is your squire? He certainly would never have allowed this."

"Away…" Gawain gasped when he'd finished his coughing fit. "He was…away…I left…alone."

"Can you help him?" Gaheris asked.

Lynet looked at them—her husband's eyes, dark with worry, and her brother-in-law's, fever-bright—and sighed. "Of course I can. After all, his grace would have my head if I couldn't."

Gawain alone caught the final sentence and chuckled. Gaheris simply smiled.

Gaheris sighed heavily, glancing at the trees around him in frustration. Behind him, Lynet was tense, chewing her lip in silence, giving the forest the same once-over. Neither said anything for some time.

He turned around to face her with an expression of mixed bitter frustration and mild horror. "Don't look at me like that!" she burst, crossing her arms over her chest, cheeks red.

"And here I thought this was only a nightmare," he said icily. "An army approaches Belrepeire and we are the only ones who know of it—"

"Don't you dare start—"

"—The only chance of warning Parsifal in time his going through this wood—"

"—Gaheris, I swear, if you—"

"—I've never been here before—"

"—Only because you're such a priggish friend—"

"—And the only guide we have is your sense of direction!"

"If you weren't the father of my child, you'd be a toad by now," Lynet snapped back.

"Well I'm glad that much is a solid fact. Now, how long did you walk before you could see the castle from these woods?"