Disclaimer: Anything you can recognize, assume it's not mine. ; )
AN: Later happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'd be really thankful if you read this. (Hint, hint)
The prince wasn't even supposed to be there.
It was only at the last moment did Uther decide his son would accompany him, at his father's side with eight knights. Still the little boy was nervous, behind every tree was a possible danger.
Unbeknownst to her, a party from the colony was traveling through the woods, eight soldiers and three farmers, walking to a local village that was trading with him on the sly.
The colonist was a group of citizens from Earth, founding the first colony on what they thought was an uninhabited, but habitable planet. A group of soldiers, doctors, farmers, scientist, millers of grain and textile that had signed up for the lottery to go in hopes of a better life. By the time they realized they were not alone, it was too late. They tried to make peace with Camelot, the closet of the Kingdoms to them, but their ruler refused to believe they weren't sorcerers, with attacks happening almost every other day. This errand, while necessary, was highly dangerous.
The cart shook as they horse rocked over a rough patch.
"Hey, could you be a bit more careful!" Young Jenny Hawkins, a long dishwater blonde requested, grabbing two bundles of carrots.
"Jenny, he's doing his best," Jenny's mother Marion whispered nervous, "Keep your voice down." She was in hostile territory with two of her children and was on edge for very good reasons.
"Mom, if we haven't seen any natives by now, we're not gonna." Jenny reasoned.
Just then as if on cue, the party came into views and the knights immediately drew weapons. Marion grabbed both Jenny and her son's hand.
"Arrest them." The King ordered, "Now."
The solders all aimed their weapons at the knights. "We mean you know harm, "The commanding officer said, "Just—lower your weapons and we'll all be on our way."
"You lower yours." The lead knight ordered, "You are in violation of Camelot law."
"Oh, for the umpteenth time!" A solider to the left snapped, "We're not—wizards or whatever."
"Mendez, that's enough!" The commanding officer shouted, "We don't want any problems. Lower you're weapons and we can all get on with our lives."
"We are not standing down." The head knight insisted, "So you might as well just stand down now and come quietly."
They were at a standoff. The solders of Camelot feared the Earth weapons, and the Earth people where hesitant to cause an incident unless it was absolutely necessary, thought they feared they would never convince the natives of their innocence. So, both groups just stared each other down.
Then someone fired a shot.
It was chaos after that. The knight had crossbows so arrows and bullets were flying as the soldiers try to the farmers out and they tried to get the royal outs. Somewhere in all of it Arthur fell of his horse, hitting the ground with a loud thud, his arm suddenly throbbing. He tried to call out, but no one could hear him.
At least until the dust settled when of the soldiers, Mendez, was set to circle back. On edge, Mendez had his weapon at the ready, he froze for a second when he saw the child lying on the ground bleeding and sobbing. Sensing his presence, the child stared up and him eyes wide, and backed up.
"Hey," Mendez said gently, gingerly approaching child, "It's okay, it's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you." He leaned down and gently picked up the child, thought he gave him no storage of struggling and screaming. "Boss, we got a native kid. He's hurt and compete alone. I think he might have been abandoned, or something. What do you want me to do?"
"Be careful, he may be bait in some sort of trap." The commanding officer ordered, "But bring him here."
"Yes sir." Mendez agreed, and hurried back with the child fighting him all the way.
Hours later, everyone was in the infirmary getting patched up. Fortunately, the worst wound was a bullet to the shoulder.
A nurse with long wavy black hair was making her rounds when she heard the sound of crying. She turned to a little lump shaking under the sheet.
The nurse went over and pulled back the sheet revealing a little boy of about four years of age, with blonder hair, his cheeks red with tears. Seeing he had been found, he tried to crawl back into his hiding place.
"It's okay." The nurse soothed, "It's alright, honey. You're safe now. Hey, my name is America. What's yours?"
The little boy sniffled. "Arthur." After a beat he added, "Are you going to kill me?"
"What?!" America exclaimed, taking aback by both the question and that someone so young was asking it, "Honey, why would you think that?"
"You're sorcerers." Arthur answered," My Papa's the king."
"Really?" America asked, surprised.
Arthur was silent, looking down. He hadn't expected her not to know.
"Have you told anyone else about this?" America asked.
Arthur shook his head.
"Okay, then." American began, "Look, I know this is hard to believe, but no one here is a sorcerer and no one here is going to hurt you or kill you or do anything else bad to you, okay?"
From the look on his face, American didn't think he believed her.
"Would you like for me to stay with you until you go to sleep?" America offered.
Arthur nodded. He may not believe her that her people weren't evil, but he liked her. She was nice.
"Okay, then." American declared sitting down next to him. She carefully reached out and began gently stroking his hair singing, "Hush little baby don't say a word. Mama's gonna buy you a mocking bird…"
After he had fallen asleep, American went back to her shift. When it was done, she went to General Potter.
"He said who was his father?" Potter asked.
"The King, sir." America answered, thought she knew he had heard her first time.
"Do we have any proof of this?" Potter asked.
"Well, they were traveling with a guy who seems to be a noble." The commanding officer spoke up.
Potter rubbed a hand across his face, sighing. "Well, that's just fantastic." Their sense of responsibility might have just gotten them all killed.
"If I may, sir," The commanding officer spoke up, "Maybe we could you this to our advantage. Get the king to sit down and talk."
America immediately caught on and stared at them both, horrified. "You're not seriously suggesting holding a child hostage?"
"I don't see what other options we have Mrs. Finch." Potter told her, "A scout can get to the city in about three days' time, then depending on how long negotiations go, the boy will be back home in now time." Even as he said it the general doubted it would be that simple, but he didn't want the nurse to cause a scene.
"And where are you going to keep him in the meantime?" America challenged, "He's four years old, you can't just lock him up in a prison cell even if we had any!"
"Well wasn't he injured in the attack?" Potter asked, hopping to be given an excuse to just house the boy there.
"Just a broken arm." America informed him, "Eventually we will need the bed."
Everyone was silent for the moment, then the commanding officer spoke up, "America, would you want to take them until we sort this out?"
America froze. "Me? A-Am I even authorized? Is that even allowed?"
"We can authorize it." Potter spoke up, "Someone would have to check on you, like with a foster family, but we could do it."
"I'd have to speak to my husband about it but if he agrees, yes." America agreed.
While he took a bit of convincing and a lot of prayer, eventually Toby Finch agreed and the couple took their new foster son home from the hospital.
Home, for now, consisted of a canvas tent the young couple shared with a family of six, a man and his five grandchildren, four girls and one boy. It was a little bit of squeeze, but they managed to fit a ninth cot in while everyone else was away.
"Okay," Toby said, with a sense of satisfaction as he shifted the cot into its final place, "That's done. How's he doin'?" He was started to get a worried, as their new charge hadn't said a word since they got him, just kept clinging to America.
"Yeah, he's just …scared." America answered. Of basically anyone who isn't me. America knelt down, caressing Arthur's face. "Everything's going to be alright little one. The people we live with are very nice."
Just then, as if on cue, the oldest and youngest of the granddaughters, Juliet, sixteen, and Daisy, six, came in. "Mr. and Mrs. Finch," Juliet greeted them, then caught sight of Arthur, "Is that him?" The others hadn't been told everything, but had been told that a native had been discovered after a battle, injured, and had been taken in by colonist family for the time being.
"Yes," America confirmed, "Girls, this is Arthur, Arthur, this is Juliet and her sister Daisy."
Arthur responded by burying his face into America's skirt.
"It's okay, little guy." Juliet assured him, bending down so that they were about the same height, "No need to be shy."
When Arthur just buried his face further, America said apologetically, "I'm sorry, it's just been a long day, he's in a completely new place, you know how little kids are."
"I have four younger siblings, I get it." Juliet assured them, "Mess hall's gonna be fun, though."
Daisy however, was less forgiving. "Why are you so scared us?" When she didn't get an answer, she kept on, "Why are you scared of us?!"
"Daisy, that's enough." Juliet scolded.
Daisy, however, would not let up. "We're not scary." The little girl sounded hurt as she said that, "Why are you scared of us?"
"Leave me alone." Arthur finally pleaded, starting to cry, "Please leave me alone."
Daisy stopped, realizing what she had done. "I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean—"
"But you did." Juliet cut her off harshly, leading her away to the corner, "Six minutes."
Arthur pulled his head up, looking around. What had just happened?
"We're just gonna—go." Toby said, taking his wife by the hand and leading them away, "Come on."
After aimlessly walking around, they went to the mess hall, which didn't go a lot better, as even though they had got there early it was already crowded, and noisy, and some people stared.
"Do you think we can just get these and go?" America whispered to Toby. She had seen people do it before.
"He's gonna have to get use to life here, honey." Toby whispered back to her.
"I know but can't we just—I don't know, ease him into it?" America suggested, "You know, like a goldfish?"
"A goldfish?" Toby repeated, then looking around decided, "Well, maybe you might be on to something."
And so, they took their trays of dried fish, the first fresh carrots any of the colonist had, had in over a year, and steamed brown bread back to their tent.
When Toby got back after delivering the trays to the mess hall, things were in full swing. The two middle girls Alice and Nina, were bicker about something, while they boy, Forest and Daisy played in the floor. America sat on her cot with Anther.
"Hey," He greeted them, sitting down next to her, "How we doing?"
"About as well as can be expected." America answered.
"Cheer up bud." Toby encouraged him, ruffling his hair, "It'll all be over soon." He doubted it would do much good, but it was work a shot.
"Hey guys, do you think we can tone it down?" Juliet said, looking up from her book."
The girls immediately settled down.
America looked over at Juliet gratefully.
That night after everyone was asleep, America was awakened by the sound of movement. Her eyes fluttered opened and saw Arthur in the floor.
America leapt out of bed. "Are you alright?"
Arthur nodded, allowing America to pick him up. That was when America realized he was wet. She cleaned the mess up, and the child up, putting him in one of Toby's T-shirts, before putting in the cot with her.
Over the next few weeks, while Arthur become use to his new surroundings and became rather found of his foster parents, things were not getting any better. Uther was not at all open to negotiation. The good thing was at least he wasn't sending any troops to attack them, as he knew their weaponry was better. And on top of all of that, America started getting sick, spending most of her morning in the toilet.
"Is Mommy sick?" Arthur asked Toby one day as he walked the boy to school.
"I don't know, bud." Toby told him, "But she's seeing the doctor today, so we'll know what's going on."
Just then one of the orderlies came up to him. "Toby, America just got a diagnosis." He told him, "She asked me to come fine you."
Fortunately, Juliet just arrived at the school, actually a bunch of kids out doors standing in front of white board, with her siblings. "I'll take him." She volunteered, overhearing.
"Thanks, Jules." Toby told her, running for the infirmary.
When Toby got there, she found America in a chair in the corner looking oddly…happy? "What is it?" Toby asked, "America, honey, what is it?"
Smiling America held out one of the pregnancy tests they had brought with them. A positive pregnancy tests.
"Looks like Artie's getting a little sibling." She beamed.