Time had suspiciously been his enemy.

As he held Janette, he found he couldn't call her Michela any longer. He listened to her even breathing and knew she had fallen asleep. The last few months had been quite a trial on both of them. But Ethan held onto that one strong hope that this wouldn't be the end for them. It couldn't be. He had too many unresolved feelings for the woman knifing him in the heart every time he so much as looked at her.

The last eight years working with her had been, to say the least, the most exquisite type of torture. Each night he went to sleep knowing the truth yet wanting more than he could have. For a short time, they masqueraded as lovers. Pretending to be in love yet still retaining that professional distance. They kissed and fondled but only when in the company of others never alone.

Being able to touch her yet not make love to her had almost killed him.

In the end, Ethan had been the one to request the separation from Janette. He couldn‘t control himself any longer. He knew if he had to endure one more torturous minute, he might take her by force one day. And he didn‘t want that on his conscious.

The minutes he spent with her clouded his vision and kept him from focusing clearly on his mission. But the separation had been bittersweet at best. He missed her every night. And his big bed felt empty and uncomfortably large without her warm body in it.

No one should have to endure such subtle torment, but God help him, he wanted that torment back.

Tonight was the first time he‘d held Janette in nearly two years. His body recognized hers and melted into her contours. A perfect fit. As if they had been made for each other. But Ethan knew what he dreamed could never be. She was Julian‘s wife. His best friend‘s woman.

That knowledge alone had kept him from losing his head and going too far.

When Ethan closed his eyes that night and matched his steady breathing with hers, he hoped he would wake up to a world where loving her was not only possible, but right.

Sun from the new day filtered across his face and Ethan stretched a hand out feeling for the body next to him. Instead of Janette, he found a cold sheet fitted around the far side of the bed -- almost as if she hadn‘t been there at all.

A voice nagged at him to wake up. He didn‘t want to wake up. He wanted to stay asleep and remember what could have been with Janette. But the voice wouldn‘t let up.

"Sir, you must rise at once." The voice continued to urge Ethan from the depths of sleep. He tried to swat the nuisance away. He figured the clock radio had switched on automatically. He groped for the night stand, and his hand found only empty air.

"Please, Sir. The King requires your presence in his chambers straight away."

Ethan opened one eye. Had the disembodied voice just said "king?"

"What happened? Did the Queen bite the big one and leave the throne open for Prince Charles?"

The question seemed to take the voice aback. "I‘m not sure what you mean, sire. But it is King Arthur who requires your presence, not Charles."

"Say what?" That definitely had Ethan‘s attention. He shot straight up in bed and finally opened his eyes fully. "Did you say King Arthur? As in wielder of Excaliber, ruler of Camelot?"

"The very same." The boy next to him wore what could only be considered a tunic. It looked like an extra large poncho made out of tapestries and hung on the body in long stripes down the front and back. The only difference between the tapestries in the main hall of the Smith Island castle and the ones on the boy‘s clothing was the horrid smell emanating from it. It stunk to high heaven. Hadn‘t the boy ever thought about personal hygiene? The boy could definitely use a bath.

As Ethan adjusted his eyes to the light of morning, he realized who the disembodied voice belonged to -- Jeffrey Sogard. Jeffrey stared at him in anticipation. His unusual clothing and strange pageboy hair cut had Ethan's eyes raising. Wasn‘t it past Halloween?

Ethan was beginning to think he had hit his head before climbing into bed last night.

That thought jogged his memory. Janette. "Where is she?" he asked. His breathing speeding up in adjitation.

"If you mean, your lady, the fair Janette, she was taken prisoner by the Black Knight only days ago."

"Julian?"

"We know not his name, sire. The Black Knight‘s identity is shrouded in mystery."

Ethan shook his head. "Knights? King Arthur? What in the hell is going on here?"

"You will know more once you speak with the King, Sir Ethan." Jeffrey stepped gingerly toward him. "Please, sire. Before I am whipped for my insolence."

"All right. Keep your shirt on. I‘ll play along." Ethan figured he‘d humor the boy. After all, he figured this dream would end soon and he would wake up with Janette beside him.

He dressed quickly in the garb the boy had picked out and followed him to where this King fellow was supposed to be hanging out.

The place he ended up had him raising his eyebrows ever higher. A castle keep. Jeffrey led him into the Main Hall which looked suspiciously like his Smith Island home minus the strange interior decorating.

"Oh, I get it. It‘s Halloween, right? Is this some sort of elaborate joke?" He slapped Jeffrey on the back. "Gotta give you credit kid. You really had me going there for awhile.

"I assure you, sire. This is no joke."

Jeffrey led him to the King‘s Chamber and there in front of him was a gaggle of Knights. They were all wearing dull, rusted armor. Knights in shining armor. What a joke. The armor wasn‘t shiny at all. He felt a little let down. If they were going to go to all of this trouble, the least they could do was have shining armor.

Besides that everything looked amazingly realistic. Even the smell was getting to him. There was a peculiar rotten odor coming from somewhere in the building.

Chandelor Knight was masquerading as King Arthur with a brooding Octavia seated next to him wearing an opulent gold crown. This joke was getting ridiculous.

How had they convinced Chandelor to do something like this? This had to be a joke. A huge practical joke.

As he glanced more carefully at the knights, he found he knew most of them as well. Surrounding the King and making up his court was: Julian, Ian, Kevin, Jonah, and Declan. They were all dressed as Knights. Relatively unshiny knights but knights just the same. And they all had a scruffy, unwashed sense about them.

What was wrong with these people. Did no one in medieval England bathe?

He really didn't believe this was happening until a man magically appeared behind the King‘s throne.

It was Boswell dressed in a wizard‘s outfit and sporting a very long gray beard.

"Merlin," King Arthur said. "Thank you for coming."

Merlin nodded.

Boswell was Merlin? "Yep, I am definitely going to the funny farm."

"Thank you for coming so swiftly Ethan. I wasn‘t sure you would make it at all. It‘s quite a trek from the twentieth century."

"Twenty-first, but who‘s counting."

King Arthur regarded him and waved away his knights. He wanted to speak with Ethan alone.

"I wasn‘t sure Merlin‘s spell would bring you here in time. Our own Ethan has been feared dead for a very long while. But I knew you were up to this task. Merlin and I have watched you through his crystal ball. You are a valiant warrior."

Ethan didn‘t have a reply to that. How many people in the world had gotten a compliment from King Arthur?

In that moment, Ethan found he believed all of them. He was really back in time. In Camelot. It really did exist.

"When you awoke this morning, did not finding Janette‘s presence startle you?"

Ethan thought about the question for a second. "Yeah. For a minute. She could have gotten up to make coffee. I didn‘t know."

"But she did not. She was taken from you by Isidor. A former knight who is working with my son, Mordred."

"What? Are you saying you brought me back in time to save Janette? My Janette?"

King Arthur nodded. "You were right, Merlin. He is a wise soul. The Janette in our world died a horrible death at the hands of my son. And soon, even Ethan, the Ethan of our time, will die as well not knowing they were to be soul mates."

"It is a horrible tragedy when those meant to be are taken from each other before meeting." Merlin spoke with a low husky voice and a practiced authority. "Each incarnation that you have come together with Janette has ended tragically. Your two souls have never been allowed to come together."

"And you think bringing me back in time will fix all that? In my time, there is more that is keeping us apart. She‘s married to Julian." Ethan didn‘t know if he liked the direction this was heading.

"That was before she knew you. Love changes. And in your time, Janette and Julian have been apart for many, many years. They both have changed. What makes you think Julian wants her back?" King Arthur spoke in low whispers.

"If I was him, I would want her back."

"That‘s where your differences lie. Julian loved Janette in a different way. He loves her, yes. But he will come to find love with another. Another who is his soul mate."

"The one who sat to the King‘s left. She is to be Julian‘s mate."

Ethan‘s jaw dropped. "Octavia? Octavia and Julian? Now there‘s a match made in hell."

"Silence!" Arthur‘s voice boomed through the great hall.

"Aren‘t you even the littlest ticked that your wife and Julian are meant to be together?"

Merlin walked around the king‘s throne. "She is not his wife. She is his daughter."

"Wait a minute. Julian is his son."

"Not in this time."

Ethan shook his head. "God, this is all confusing."

"We are wasting precious time. Merlin. Bring one of the knights. We must send Ethan on his way into Caledonia to save his lady. Do not terry."

Arthur watched as Merlin exited and stood to meet Ethan on his level.

"You will save her and together you will fulfil the prophecy of old. With your union you will start a new legacy. A new Camelot. Then the Fairchild name will be clean once again."

"You get the hell away from me!"

Janette Ambrose dodged the man on the horse. If she didn‘t know better, she‘d say he was trying to run her down. When he came at her again, she became certain. That man was trying to kill her.

The horse reared its front legs and Janette feared she was about to be trampled to death.

Maybe this was a dream. She didn‘t know how she had come to be here or that she had even fallen asleep in the first place. The last thing she remembered was being in Ethan‘s arms for the first time in two years. It felt so good, so right to be there with him. But she knew how honorable a man he was. She was Julian‘s wife, if only in name. Until she was free, he would keep his distance.

His noble intentions were killing her. She wanted him like she had wanted no other man she had ever known. Now she feared she wasn‘t going to know the experience of loving him fully. She had only loved him in her mind. Never with her body. She wanted that so badly, so badly she could taste it.

The horse's legs came down in a thundering thump precariously close to her head. She dodged away just in time.

The horseman uttered an unintelligible curse and ripped the helmet from his head. The man's face was scarred with a long red mark that marred his face from cheek to chin. He had long flowing blond hair that fell to his shoulders. He held the dark helmet to his side. From the edge of her vision, she could see he wore a sword with that creaking black metal armor.

He looked like a human black tin can.

When he gazed fully into her face, she finally realized who he was. Cameron Cash, her husband's right hand man in the Black Council. She had never seen him in this way before. He was sitting astride a black stallion like some errant knight.

This was turning into a damned nightmare.

The man swore then praised the heavens. "I‘ll be damned. Morgana did it. You‘re alive." Cameron‘s face held an awe she didn‘t know he was capable of feeling.

"What are you talking about? Have you gone completely insane?"

"Insane with happiness for you are back with me once again."

Cameron dismounted his horse and came forward shortening the space between them. His blond hair curled in strange angles but he paid it no mind. His eyes were filled with only visions of her. His Janette.

Janette could see the sweat glistening near his temples and on his neck. As he walked toward her she winced expecting to feel the fear of being near him. Cameron Cash was not a man she wanted to mess with. His eyes didn‘t hold the condescending hatred she usually saw there. Instead they were filled with a warm, welcoming love. God. She couldn‘t believe she was thinking that but it was there. She could see it.

At the moment, he looked like a man viewing the woman he loved for the first time in years. But the desire in his eyes did little to quell the rising fear in her breast. From past experience, she could only see that desire as vile and disgusting. She stepped backward as he approached.

"Morgana brought you back to me," he whispered. "I will pay her whatever she wills for this honor." Cameron grabbed her pulling her into his embrace. "I have been waiting many years for this."

His lips hovered over hers and suddenly she got the strange feeling he was about to kiss her. Janette brought her knee up hard impacting a softer mesh metal near his groin.

She smiled sweetly at him. "I've been waiting many years to do that too."

While he was distracted with the pain in his crotch, she ran for the horse and vaulted easily onto its back. But the steed wasn‘t as eager to have her as a rider. It bucked her off throwing her body helplessly to the ground. Janette tried to lift her head out of the mud she landed in, but found her arms and legs not cooperating.

Cameron swore. She could hear him mumbling behind her. He pulled her head out of the fowl muck and stared down at her.

"Why did you do that, woman?" he asked with a odd caring hitched in his voice. "You are my wife. It is my right to kiss you and have you in every way a man can have a woman."

She struggled against him. Cameron Cash had truly lost his mind. She was NOT nor would she ever be his woman.

Cameron pressed a wet cloth to her face. It smelled of sweet molasses. The scent was sickening. Once she realized the odor was something similar to ether, it was too late. She was drifting into unconsciousness. She could feel him lift her and carry her to his horse.

Ethan had been riding nearly a day with the knight King Arthur had assigned him. The man was not much of a talker. Not once had the man named Sir Julian spoken to him. From what he gathered during his short stay in Camelot, Julian wasn‘t the greatest of knights.

As the hours drew longer, Ethan could take the silence no more.

"So, what did the King mean when he said the Fairchild name was unclean?"

The man astride the horse next to him huffed. "It is common knowledge that your forefather, Sir Franklin has conspired with Morgana to bring down the realm and the reign of King Arthur."

"So it speaks. I was beginning to wonder." Ethan noticed that his stab at humor wasn‘t taken in the way he expected. The man grunted again and fell into silence. "Not much the conversationalist, are you?"

"I, sir, am on a mission to save the Lady Janette, not dally with meager talks with the likes of a Fairchild."

"Okaaay." Ethan sighed. "Not a fan of my family, are you? What did we do, kill your best friend?"

"That, and more."

Ethan didn‘t like Julian‘s cryptic answers.

"Why don‘t you just spill the whole thing and tell me exactly what is going on?"

Julian grunted in disgust. "The Ethan from this time, he is not the man the King apparently thinks you are."

"And what did the other me do that was so bad?"

"Killed my father, my friend, and stole the woman I loved."

"Let me guess, you‘re in love with Janette? Are you married to her?"

Julian answered with groan. "Only in my humble dreams. Janette was married to the Black Knight."

Ethan was having a hard time taking it all in. So much of what was happening mirrored back home. The only problem was, everything was mixed up. The people he knew were cast in different roles with different personalities. Julian reminded him of his brother, Kevin. Maybe not in looks, but in action and in word.

"I‘m sorry you and Janette never hooked up."

Julian sniffed. "You and your strange tongue." Julian watched him with a wary eye. "I am sorry. You look so much like him, yet, you are not him. The Ethan from this time helped the Black Knight. This is only one of the ways your family name has been tainted."

Ethan sighed. "Some things never change."

As the effects of the ether wore off, Janette could hear snatches of conversation between Cameron and another man. Where ever they were was dark and dank and smelled of rotten food. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she realized who Cameron was talking too. It was Franklin Fairchild. He was tucked away in a medieval looking cell.

"Did you find my son?"

"No, my Lord, but I did find something else of value." Cameron pulled Janette closer to the small opening Franklin was peering out of.

"Janette. Where did thou find her?"

"Wandering in the woods not far from Morgana‘s castle."

"I feared she was dead." Franklin sighed.

"I too, my Lord." Cameron refrained from telling his friend that Morgana had brought the lovely lady back to him. "But your son, is no where to be found. I fear he has met a similar fate as you supposed for Janette."

"Thank you for trying Cameron. You are indeed a good man."

Franklin‘s image fell away from the opening and Cameron gathered Janette in his arms.

She never remembered Cameron being this hulking or strong. His arms felt like corded steel. And the expanse of his chest was even wider still. Someone had been doing some major working out.

"Are you awake yet and in better humor?"

When she didn‘t answer, Cameron carried her through the hallways of the castle. They stopped in a room near the back turret. He locked the door and laid her carefully down on the bed.

"What was that down there?" Janette asked, groggily, holding her head to stop the room from spinning.

"The dungeon. Morgana placed Lord Franklin there after he vowed never to help her. In her anger, Morgana sent word to Camelot that Franklin was working beside her as her partner and lover."

Janette felt the world stop moving and stared up at Cameron. There was that caring in his eyes again. She looked away quickly and then the words registered in her mind.

"Camelot? Morgana?"

"Aye."

Her mind traveled back to their earlier conversation. "Franklin said you were a good man. If you are such a good man, what are you doing working with Morgana? If I remember my history right, Morgana was on opposite sides of King Arthur."

"I remain close to Morgana to bring about her downfall one day." Cameron glanced around cautiously. "We must not speak further of this. The walls may have ears."

Janette nodded and leaned her head back on the bed. The pounding was getting worse.

Cameron brushed his hand down the side of her face. "Sleep now, my sweet wife. For tomorrow we will be together again. Forever."

As they neared Morgana’s castle, Julian stopped his horse. "I can go no further."

Ethan thought he would ask ‘why not,’ but nothing seemed to make sense in this land anyway, so he decided against it.

This castle was equally as large as his Smith Island home, only this mansion was murky and seemed to discharge a dark sort of evil. As he approached, a woman stepped out on the drawbridge. She was tall, wearing a flowing robe. She emitted a strong grace that Ethan found disturbing. Soon he learned why.

"Merlin thinks he is so very intelligent that he sends a messenger from the future to stand in his stead?" the woman said with a laugh. Her hair was nearly to her waist. It shined with a fiery brilliance.

Ethan didn’t know what to make of the strange woman. When he was close enough to see her face, he could tell it was Gia, or a distant relation of hers.

"The Ethan of the past will meet his destiny in due time. You, sir, will not deter him from it. So like the pest you are, I’m sending you back to the future." She paused in reflection. "If Merlin wanted to chance Sir Ethan’s future by changing his past -- why don’t I award you with a similar favor."

"Favor? Lady, if you’re who I think you are, I don’t need any favors from you!" Ethan stood back knowing that he was standing before a very powerful wizardess.

"You are wise not to trust me, sir. Fore I am not doing you a pleasant favor. I am sending you back to the future, although, there will be no future for you there when you arrive!" Morgana waved her hand and the scenery around Ethan disappeared.