"Are you sure, Gaius?" Anna asked again. "I'm not tired."

"No, no." He waved her toward Gwaine, who was standing at the door. "You had a difficult day yesterday—after all, you had two people in your head for most of it!" He smiled. "You go ahead and make sure you get plenty of rest tonight. I can handle things here."

So Anna gathered up her things, which Gwaine picked up, and left with him. "Let's go up here," he said, taking her over to the door that led out onto the parapet. The sunset was just beginning and the light on the stones was golden.

"Mm." Anna leaned on one of the crenels and looked out over the forest. "Beautiful." She realized that Gwaine, standing beside her, was unusually silent. "What's wrong?" she asked.

He was staring out over the forest. "I know we said no secrets, but… I sort of kept one. And I want to tell you."

When he paused, Anna said, "You can tell me anything."

"I know." He smiled at her. "And this isn't something bad—it's just something I've never mentioned. My family." Anna waited patiently. "My father… was a noble." He was looking away again. "He was Lord of Gwalchmei, in Caerleon's army. But when he was killed in battle, another knight took over my family's castle and lands and threw us out—my mother and my sister and me. We were shuffled off from one family member or old servant to another, and when my mother finally died several years later, I took to wandering. And that's how I met Arthur and Merlin. Merlin's the only one who knows all this—I never even told Arthur. Or Percival. And I know," he said, shifting his weight and smiling wryly down at his hands on the edge of the crenel, "that now that I'm a knight again, it shouldn't matter—that I have land and a knighthood myself and I don't need my father's title. But maybe it's not the same. I'm known here as a commoner-knight. The thing is…" His jaw hardened. "I don't really want my father's status, or his lands. Except for one reason." He looked up. "If you want them."

Anna stared at him with a confused look on her face. "Gwaine, sometimes you are over-chivalrous," she said at last. "Why would it matter so much that you were noble born?"

"Because of you," he answered. "You deserve a lord."

"Oh, yes." Anna tossed her head and turned up her nose. "A physician's apprentice deserves nothing less than a lord," she said in a high-class accent. "Actually, an apprentice isn't nearly romantic enough for the best ballads. I should have been a milkmaid."

"It's not because of what you are," Gwaine interrupted, grabbing her arms in an attempt to get her attention. "It's because of you. You deserve a lord. You deserve someone better than…" he gestured toward himself, unable to quite finish the sentence. "You shouldn't be with a drunken adventurer turned commoner-knight. You should have a lord, kneeling at your feet."

"Gwaine." She put her hand to his cheek, all trace of the playfully mocking tone gone from her voice. "I don't want a lord kneeling at my feet. All I want is you. Standing by my side."

He looked down at her, a tender smile growing on his face. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

"Anna." He took her hand. "Will you—"

"Not yet."

"What?"

"Don't ask me yet."

He dropped her hand. "You don't even know what I was going to ask you."

"Yes I do," she said, smiling. After a moment, he smiled back. "But not yet."

"Why not?"

She took a deep breath. "Something bad is coming. We both know that. The Saxon presence in Albion has been growing stronger for months, and after yesterday's defeat, Morgana won't rest until she's dead, or has succeeded in taking Camelot. War is coming."

"All the more reason!" He took her hand again. "I want to have the right to protect you."

She shook her head. "I don't want to divide your priorities. You have a duty to protect your king. You saw what happened yesterday when Morgana threw down the gate—I took over, I stopped Merlin from going to Arthur so that I could go to you. I put you ahead of my king and my country. I don't want to put you in the same position. I want you to save Arthur first—save Camelot first."

"It wouldn't make that much of a difference—"

"Yes," she interrupted, with a smile and what looked like a blush. "It would." She took his hand. "When all of this is over—then ask me again."

"But what if—what if we, you and I, don't—"

She squeezed his hand, stopping his sentence. "Gwaine, do you remember the night you were sick and I sat up with you?"

"It's pretty fuzzy," he said, confused. "I think I was delirious most of the time. I remember you singing to me."

"Do you remember what you said that convinced me to sing?" He shook his head. "You said that I had magic, that I was more powerful than Morgana, that she would run at the sight of me."

He grinned. "I really was delirious."

"But you were right!" she said. "Yesterday, when Merlin was possessing me—I was more powerful than Morgana, and she did run at the sight of me. And I do have magic."

He frowned. "What are you saying?"

"I think you have a little of the Sight," she said earnestly. "Just a little. Some people who have it only have prophetic dreams—because that's the only way they can access their ability. You were delirious—dreaming while you were awake. And I think you reached something you usually couldn't. You told the truth—you told the future." She took his arms and looked squarely at him. "Access it now. Reach down for that truth, and tell me: are you and I going to make it through this war?"

He stared at her for a moment, then closed his eyes, a look of intense concentration on his face. After a long minute, he shook his head and opened them again. "I don't know," he said in frustration.

"You were delirious before, not concentrating like that. What did it feel like to be delirious?"

He shook his head. "Um… I was hot all over, like I was burning up, and my heart was fluttering, my head spun—"

Anna caught his face in both her hands and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him, taking her almost off her feet. Finally she broke the kiss.

"Do we make it?" she asked again, a little breathless.

Gwaine smiled. "Yes. And let me tell you," he added, pulling her closer again, "the moment it's over, you're going to give me an answer to that question or Heaven help you."

Anna's laugh was cut off when he kissed her again.

TBC