Author's Note/Disclaimer/Warnings:
First of all, I should warn you that this whole story was deeply inspired by BBC's Single Father miniseries and somewhat by John Green's Looking for Alaska novel - although it bears very little resemblance to either in the end; I own neither and, of course, I also don't own any Merlin characters.
I'm also leaving here a warning for some things like extreme angst, character death (not Merlin or Arthur, but still painful), a cast of thousands, tons of kids, slash, homophobia - internalized, mostly - closeted characters, nut cases and teen sexuality. Enter his realm at your own risk!
Prologue
It was like a clogged engine, as If something had gotten stuck between the gears – everything slowed down suddenly, and time seemed to stop.
Maybe it had indeed stopped; it wouldn't be the first time.
All that there was left was Merlin's breath, deep and even as he tried and failed to adjust the settings of his camera.
"I love you"
It was like a whisper, a faint echo of the reality of his wife's voice, always so full of life.
Merlin could feel a soft brush in his cheek, as when she tried to make up after a fight, and it made his heart clench just a bit.
"I love you too" he replied, in his mind, wondering why Morgana had gone through all the effort of communicating with him like that when it wasn't an emergency.
They'd have time to apologize, to make up, and to make things right. They'd have all night, as she had already said she would ask Morgause to pick the children up, and even if that failed, they'd still have many days, months, years of their lives to remember each other of their love, that domestic quarrels were inevitable, but no reason to give up.
As everything rushed back into place, he pressed the button, only to be rewarded with a loud click and the smell of smoke indicating that the camera had given up in his hands, fusing after the contact with such a large amount of magic.
Merlin looked at the two toddlers crying and the parents that failed to keep them quiet long enough for a good shot. He sighed.
"Let's take a break", he said, gesturing to them. "I'll have to change cameras anyway."
There was a grateful nod from the mother as she pick up one of the children, relieved as if the whole thing hadn't been her idea in the first place.
Merlin felt a void in the place Morgana's presence had made itself felt – as he always did after such rare contacts – but stronger than usual, as if their recent arguments had made him miss her more.
Well, he would make sure to show her exactly how much he loved and cherish her later.
On the other side of the city, Morgana was closing her eyes for the very last time.