YAH! Nance is all caught up with what I've sent her to beta, now I just need to catch back up with her on my editing side of things! hehe

Thanks for the reviews! Hope the start of summer is finding everyone well! Next update for this story might be a couple of weeks, but I'll try to get something for you all sooner.

watch?v=cWZPWXWpa4I#t=135

and you're always in my heart
no matter where you are
you are always in my heart
and if you run you won't get far
you can't out run the past
you will never leave this house of glass

~Worship, House of Glass

Damp leaves brushed against his shirtsleeves. His thighs ached in a way they hadn't since he was child, however long ago that may have been. It was embarrassing the way he'd nearly become unseated when the horse underneath him shook it's head. Part of him refused to understand why this was so difficult. He used to be one of the best riders in Camelot. Hell, his family had owned the best broodmares in the kingdom, aside from the Royal Stables.

Leon barely managed to duck under a low-hanging branch to avoid being knocked to the ground. The boys were ahead of him on the trail, each on their own horses, and Laney was behind him, snickering quietly.

"You do realize I have not been actually on a horse in...well, let's just say, it's been a long time." He turned in the saddle to glare at her.

"Yep. But, it's not gonna stop me from teasing you about it. My brother said you were an amazing rider. Heck, one of the best jousters he'd ever seen. Now, I've seen the mock jousts at the festivals, I know that takes skill. You just need to get your seat back." She smiled sweetly at him and then pointed ahead. "Might want to..."

Leon felt the next low branch hit him, before he had a chance to turn back around. He'd never felt so unsteady and the sudden battle he found himself in, with leaves and twigs, startled the horse underneath him. The mare he was on bolted sideways, and he felt the ground rushing to meet him.

The boys ahead had stopped and turned around to see what the commotion was about. Greg and Randy were cackling, while Toby rushed to retrieve Leon's horse. Meanwhile, Laney had dismounted and came over to give him a hand up.

Accepting the proffered hand, he stood up and brushed himself off, in an attempt to maintain some amount of dignity. Leon looked down at the woman next to him. He was close enough to smell the citrusy scent of her shampoo, and he couldn't help but smile. Tipping her chin up, he bent to kiss her, no longer worried about the boys seeing them.

Greg was still uneasy about his mom's new beau, but the other two had accepted their mom's relationship extremely well. From Laney's description of how her ex had treated the boys differently, he understood why. Greg had been the only actual planned child from their relationship, and therefore was his father's favorite.

The knight felt angry on Greg's behalf for the betrayal the boy had experienced when his dad hadn't even bothered contacting him on his ninth birthday. It wasn't for lack of information, as Laney had gone out of her way to keep cell phone numbers the same, and had even forwarded all the new contact information to the lawyers, common friends, and her ex's parents. Unfortunately, Greg didn't want to believe that his dad would forget his birthday and blamed Laney for it.

Toby understood his own dad was probably never going to come looking for them, or try to contact them. The teenager had experienced the pain of his father's faults too many times to even want the man to return to their lives. Before running off with a new woman, the relationship between Toby and his father was already strained, as the teen had been acting out, in rebellion against the upheavals in his life.

It was something Leon had understood and had slowly begun to work on, as he inserted himself into their lives.

Leon had to give Gwaine credit for trying to pick up the pieces left behind, but the previous year had been hard on his friend. He couldn't imagine having grown up in this world, and then waking up in a nearly forgotten place in history. Having nearly died before being pulled back to modern day, and then thrown into a life where he was forced to change from being the carefree knight to a caretaker of a family, had been difficult at best. Stepping into the role of a father figure had stressed out the younger man who already had so much on his plate.

Leon took it upon himself to offer Toby the guidance and direction that Gwaine seemed ill-equipped to do. He'd begun teaching the teenager how to spar, and had even taken him on a short jaunt out into space for a few days. Although, both he and Toby had agreed not to tell Laney exactly what they had done. As strong as Leon and Laney's relationship had grown, he didn't think she would have appreciated him taking her son on a smuggling job.

Leon felt a boost of pride when Toby had asked to start calling him Dad, even though he understood there was nothing formal about his mother and Leon's arrangement. The ancient knight had seen the tears of joy in his lover's eyes, when he had told her about the conversation.

He spent time with the younger boys, as well. Randy had latched onto him like a drowning man to a life raft. The youngest never even spoke about his real father, although Leon knew the boy hadn't forgotten, nor did Leon want him to. It made his heart feel light each time Randy smiled adoringly up at him. It reminded Leon of his own children, even though their faces were still a blur when he tried to recall them.

"What are you thinking?" Laney asked him teasingly.

Leon just smiled and kissed her again.

"Hey! Look what I found!" Greg's voice rang out through the forest, accompanied by sounds of excitement from his siblings.

Chuckling, Leon stepped back and offered Laney his arm, as they went to join the boys in their exploration.

They led Laney's mare through a dense patch of undergrowth, before finding themselves in a clearing. The other four horses munched noisily on the grasses, and gave no sign of wanting to bolt back to their stables.

Nestled back to one side of the small meadow was a heaping mound of vines and brush. Underneath, they could make out the remains of an old, stone house. Green leaves parted at what was once a second story window. Greg and Toby's grinning faces popped out, laughed, and were gone again before Laney could yell at them about her concern for their safety.

"Relax, let them be boys," chuckled Leon, as he shifted her grasp from his arm into his hand. He pushed open the rotting door, feeling parts of the remaining hinges crumble, and led her inside.

"How old do you think this place is?" She asked, stepping carefully on the dirt floor. Debris of plants and animals littered the room. To the right was a crumbling and rotted staircase that made her heart sink thinking of her kids climbing up it. To her eyes, it was being held up more by the tree growing through it, than anything else. "Hey! You guys be careful! Why don't you come back down here?"

A chorus of groans responded to her plea for their safety.

"I think this place is older than I am." There was a distance in Leon's voice, and Laney looked at him with concern.

His face was unreadable, as his eyes scanned the room. Suddenly, he wasn't seeing the dilapidated old house, but one that had been cared for and well maintained. He could almost feel the warm fire in the large central hearth, and hear the crackling of the wood as the pitch popped and hissed. Two women sat on stools, with frames in front of them holding the stretches of cloth they used for needlework. One was his mother, and the other, his wife.

Kids played up and down the stairs; two boys and a girl who was in between them in age. He could hear his father's voice grumbling about the king's levies, or the latest gossip of the court, while Leon sat nearby enjoying the rare bit of respite he had from his duties to the kingdom.

Stepping outside the door, he could almost envision the small hamlet that surrounded his family's summer home outside the city of Camelot. He looked back at the house and noticed Laney watching him carefully.

A crash from within, had her spinning through the door and yelling at the boys to be careful. It was a heartwarming sound to hear in the old place. He nodded to himself and smirked, "Elaine." He called out and waited for her to come back outside. "What do you think?"

"...Of?" She asked sceptically.

"This place. I know you're going nuts in the manor house."

"Oh, my fracking god! I swear, I can't even muck Pepper's stall, without that damned stable boy trying to give me advice. Oh, and don't even get me started on Harri the day I tried to wash dishes!"

He roared with laughter. "So, I ask again. What do you think?" He motioned at the ruins behind her.

Laney sputtered, "Um...well...Needs a roof, windows, running water, electricity, septic... Oh, hey, bathrooms would be nice, as would a kitchen...insulation...floors. Need I go on?"

"It would be quite a project, I admit. But the structure has good bones, and it has withstood the elements for nearly two millenia."

"Two thousand years! You're 'shitting me?" Her jaw dropped open in disbelief.

"Alright, perhaps it would be closer to sixteen centuries. My grandfather built this house and it's a miracle that it still stands."

Her eyes scanned the stones, barely visible under the foliage with new appreciation. "This was your house?!"

Everything in his life seemed to be coming together. He had his friends back in his life, as well as an amazing woman. Finding the old house among the dense forest was just another blessing. He remembered Lancelot telling him that he wouldn't be alone for long, just before Leon had accidentally beamed Laney aboard his ship instead of Gwaine. At the time, he had no idea what the Ascended knight was referring to. Now, he knew. Leon nodded, and decided then and there, what he wanted to do next.

Reaching out, he grasped Laney's hand and knelt in front of her.

"Fracking hell, Leon! Don't you dare!" She spat out and pulled her hand back, before he could voice the question on his lips.

Laney was fuming, because it was better than crying. She couldn't believe Leon would try to do that to her. Though she wasn't one-hundred percent certain that he had been preparing to propose, she couldn't think of any other reason for a man to get down on his knee in front of her. Marriage was the last thing she wanted. "Isn't what we have good enough for him?" She asked Pepper. The comb in her hand angrily ripped through the knots in her horse's mane.

Taking a breath, she stepped back and dropped the comb into a nearby bucket of grooming supplies. She got even more angry with herself for taking her emotions out on the coarse hair, even though the mare didn't seem to notice.

"May I assist you, mum?" The stable hand asked with cool politeness, coming up to the stall door.

Normally, Laney would have had a few choice words for him, but right then, the horse needed taken care of, and she was in no mood to be gentle. She gave the mare a hug around the neck and a pat on the shoulder. "Yeah, could you please give her a good rub down? Thanks."

Brushing past the stunned young man, she barely kept herself from running back to the house.

With a beer in her hand and a smoke hanging out of her mouth, she found herself a quiet place in the garden and fought against the emotions running through her. Her hand trembled as it brought the bottle to her lips, and she wondered, once again, why Leon couldn't have left well enough alone.

Gwaine cursed again, while Percival sat snickering from the passenger seat. The old Land Rover seemed to be running that morning, before they headed into town. But, it was becoming obvious that a lot more work needed to be done, as he limped it up the drive and set the parking brake in front of the garage.

The two men had been back in the UK for nearly a month, waiting for word on when they were going to head out to find a dragon. They were both getting restless, even though they knew that their adventure would be coming soon.

After they had split off from Merlin and Leon, Gwaine and Percival had stayed on with SG-1 for a couple of weeks. The Stargate kept a log of the previous fifty addresses in the database, and they had accompanied SG's 1 and 3 on various exploratory missions, searching for Daniel Jackson. Sadly, none of the planets yielded any results. The archeologist, who had taken the Ancient-Merlin's consciousness into his mind, had completely disappeared.

Life moved on, however, and SG-1 was soon re-assigned back to their continuing mission of finding a way to defeat the Ori. Jackson was listed MIA; presumed captured by Adria. After that, there was nothing for the two knights to do at the SGC, so they had gone back home to wait.

After a month of living in London, Arthur and Gwen were overjoyed to finally be able to bring their new little one home from the hospital. Igrane was still tiny, but well on her way to becoming a healthy, beautiful girl with a full, dark head of hair. Aurie still wasn't sure about his new little sister, but he'd been getting so spoiled by everyone else, that he didn't seem to mind sharing his parents.

Nearly everyone had vacated the house that morning, in order to let the new parents have some quiet time without interruption.

Gwaine hadn't planned on getting back so early in the afternoon, but the ageing vehicle was determined to run as horribly as possible, once they'd hit the open road. Reluctantly, they had turned around and came home.

He slammed the door as he got out, and glared once more at Percival when he noticed his large friend looking past him. Turning around, Gwaine saw his nephews and Leon coming out of the table. He looked for his sister, but didn't see her anywhere. "Hey," he called out. "Where's Laney?"

Leon's face flushed and he shrugged. Telling the boys to head into the house and wash up, he made his way over to Gwaine. "Not sure. She rode back ahead of us." He smiled tightly at the two men.

"I'll go see if the kids need help." Percival gave as a flimsy excuse to abstain from the coming conversation. Judging by the look on his friend's face, he suspected there was a lot more coming.

"What happened?" Gwaine asked, once they were alone.

Shrugging again, Leon raked a hand through his hair. "I wish I knew. You remember my family's house in the village, east of here?" At Gwaine's nod, he continued, "We found it. Well, what remains of it. Everything seemed to be falling into place and I was contemplating taking the next step."

Gwaine suddenly burst out laughing. "Shit. Why would you do that?" He tried not to squirm under the glare he received from the older man.

"Why wouldn't I, Gwaine? I love her and the boys." Leon sighed and shifted his feet. "Will you speak to her?"

Sighing, Gwaine hung his head and nodded. The last thing he wanted, was to be caught in the middle of the emotional shitstorm he had seen coming. He's successfully managed to avoid it for the most part, with just the occasional intervention, and neither had actually asked him to interfere...until now.

Part of him wanted to tell Leon to just deal with it, but it wasn't just Leon and Laney involved anymore. He glanced over toward where the boys had gone. "Not that it will do any good, if she has her mind already made up. But, I'll try."

It took some searching before he finally managed to track his sister down. He plopped down next to her on the garden bench, lightly shoving her with his elbow. She startled and recoiled away from him, before turning and punching his shoulder for frightening her.

"Ow!" He rubbed at the spot that she had hit.

"Quit being such a baby."

"Quit being such a bitch," he responded and ignored the glare she sent him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just peachy-fracking-keen. Can't you tell?" She downed the rest of her beer, and lit another cigarette off the end of the one she had been smoking.

Gwaine chuckled and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "So...Leon asked me to find out what happened, and against my better judgement, I agreed. What gives? I thought you guys were happy playing house together."

"Until the asshole decided to want more than I can give."

"So, he proposed to ya, did he?"

"Nope," she drawled out, taking another drag off her smoke. "I didn't let him get that far."

Sighing, he withdrew his arm and slouched over his knees. "Why the bloody hell not? You guys are... I mean, damn! If I could have what the two of you have. Plus, the kids love him!"

"I don't want to get married, Gwaine. Not again."

"You say that like you've been married more than once." He snickered, and held out his hand for a cigarette, when she went for another herself. Pausing as he took it from her, he stared at his sister. She was avoiding looking at him, and it made him suspicious. "You haven't, have you?"

Laney shifted nervously. She started to shake her head 'no,' before finally nodding with a heavy sigh. "Technically, I've been married three times. Twice to the boys' dad."

"...And the other time?" His eyes were the size of saucers at the new information.

"The first time I caught my ex cheating. You and I weren't speaking at the time. Even if we had been, I think you were off for the summer in some other country with your College or Marine buddies. I freaked out, left Toby with his grandparents, and went on a bit crazy...like I did when I was sixteen."

Gwaine sat up and blinked. He remembered getting a call in the middle of the night nearly two decades before. Laney had been admitted to the hospital when she was sixteen for a drug overdose. It had been one of the scariest moments of his life, but one they had never spoken about since. He reached out and took her hand, unable to find any other way to express what he felt.

"I didn't end up in the ER, but...Hell, I don't remember much. I got divorced, and two days after the papers were signed, I ended up marrying my fracking dealer on a trip to Vegas. I had been the only one in the house with a legitimate job, which I got fired from for taking off to Vegas and not calling in... go figure. I went to pick up Toby, and came home to find the bastard in the sack with another woman.

"We got into a fight and next thing I knew, he was beating the crap out of me. The other chick was strung out and egging him on. I managed to grab my kid and got the hell out of there.

"I called Jason...begged for help...got my act cleaned up...divorced again. Then, Jason and I got married...again."

Gwaine let out a sour laugh. "You just said his name twice, I didn't think you were capable of such a feat."

Rolling her eyes, Laney continued her story. "We were good for a while. Went through counseling, had Greg, then I got the call that Boyd was in the hospital and you were MIA. You pretty much know the rest from there. Randy wasn't planned, but I wouldn't give that little bugger up for the world. I think he was maybe a month old, when I caught Jason's wandering dick...again. That time though, I had Boyd on my side. He made sure to let me know it was for the kids and not me. The asshole moved off the ranch and in with..."

"His current wife?"

"Nope. The one before that."

"Fracking hell!" He was floored by finding out so much had happened in his sister's life, and began appreciating her more for the support she'd been giving to him. How she had maintained her sanity was beyond him.

"So, as illogical as it may seem; me, plus marriage, equals a man who will cheat."

"Leon would never do that to you."

She shrugged, "Yeah, but...I'd rather not take that chance. Plus, he has that whole immortality thing. Who's to say ten or twenty years down the line, when I'm getting older and he's not, that he won't go looking for some younger and tighter ass."

She tossed the butt of the cigarette on the ground and crushed it under her heel. "I don't think that fact really hit home until today, when he was off in la-la land, daydreaming about an old pile of rocks that used to be his home."

"Shit."

"Yep."

"I love ya, 'Lane, but you are one screwed-up bitch. You know that?" Gwaine laughed and saw the faintest hint of a smile on his sister's face. "You want me to talk to him for ya?"

"Naw, I just needed some time to cool off and vent. I'll figure out something."

He was thankful that she didn't want to bring him into the middle of the situation, but Gwaine felt like he needed to do something to protect his sister. "So, this dealer jerkwad...where can I find him to kick his ass?"

"Killed in jail a few years back."

"Shit."

"Yep."