A/N: Merlin is produced by Shine Television for the BBC and belongs to Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Julian Murphy and Johnny Capps.

Warnings throughout for mild profanity, and yet another AU wherein Arthur is a modern royal.

"I don't believe in accidents. There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents."

Prologue

If you were to ask Merlin the best way to create a media uproar and draw more than half of Britain's journalists into London, he would tell you that you would need to have an argument with Will, two cars, a broken set of traffic lights and an icy road. He'd say if you wanted to add special effect that you should stage the whole thing on Christmas Eve over Chelsea Bridge. The Prince of Wales might give you a helping hand, too, Merlin thought vaguely as he was hauled onto a stretcher.

"Alright, what have we got here? Give me the stats, Alice."

"BP 75 over 40, pulse 130," the one called Alice automatically replied with a calmness that only emergency response teams might understand. She'd been one of the first on the scene and had been hovering over Merlin ever since, babbling incessantly about fire engines and air ambulances and how the Prince of Wales was walking around without a scratch on him, and sometimes she had cried something like dammit, Marlin, do not close your eyes, stay with me! and Merlin had often struggled to comply.

"Got a name?"

"Marlin, I think. He's not doing too good. Possible head trauma."

"Alright, Marlin, how are we doing?"

"Fantastic," Merlin managed from the stretcher in a burst of disorientating consciousness as they rolled him towards the ambulance. "S'not my fault. Oh. My chest..."

"Okay, kid. Yeah, get him in the back, quickly! Alright, Marlin, my name's Elyan. We're going to get you to hospital. Do you understand?"

"Ugh."

"That's right. Try not to talk anymore."

"Is he okay?" a new voice asked from Merlin's side.

"The Prince, or the crash victim before you who is in a critical condition?" the one named Elyan asked hotly. "Jesus, Gwaine, get your priorities sorted out and get him into the ambulance. We need to leave. Now. Yeah, thanks, Alice, come on, get in with us. I'm going to need you in the back."

The cold wind was suddenly off his face, and there were bright lights, so many lights, and they wouldn't go away even when he shut his eyes. Merlin grumbled something else unintelligible to the others, trying to tell them how badly he needed to sleep.

"Alright, Marlin, we're leaving now. You're going to be okay," Alice murmured softly.

Merlin made a strange, choking sound again and felt someone putting pressure onto his arm. "Chest..." he managed to say from underneath the oxygen mask.

"We've got you," Elyan murmured, then shouted, "Come on, Gwaine! Get us going!"

There were two short bangs that echoed in the vehicle and then the slam of doors, and suddenly Merlin was being lurched about and felt violently sick. Sirens. Loud sirens.

"Keep your eyes open for me, kid. We're taking you to the hospital. Get through the traffic! He doesn't look like he's going to hang on! Shit. I might have to do a clamshell."

"You're going to do a clam while I'm doing sixty? Fuck me. I'm trying, alright? Just wait! I'm just saying it's not the most convenient of times to have a car crash, is all! Jesus! On the Chelsea Bridge, too! Has anyone forgotten that it's Christmas Eve? Why the bloody hell are all these people on the roads? Don't they have somewhere to be? Come on, kid, move your bloody moped, I don't care... Oh, shit. Move! There we go, that wasn't so hard, was it? Yeah, same to you too buddy, I hope that pizza on the back of your bike is cold! Hang on..."

The sirens tore through the night again, and this time they didn't stop, and neither did the ambulance again. Why couldn't they just stop and let him sleep?

"Is he always this unprofessional?" Alice asked as she held an oxygen mask to Merlin's face, who wondered what good it was doing him if it was keeping him awake.

"Always. Hey, Gwaine, you're rambling again."

"Should have asked for the helicopter then!" he barked from the driving wheel.

"Yeah, well, after this I'm driving for the rest of the shift. This guy doesn't need to become an RTA victim twice in one night. Alice, get me the knife, I'm going to have to do that clamshell if he crashes."

"Looks likely."

"Gwaine, shut up and keep your eyes on the road, please! Marlin, can you hear me? Marlin? Mar—"