Disclaimer: I own nothing, the whole Merlin's world belongs to the BBC. At least this version ;)

Note: Alright, for this one I don't exactly know what happened. I was drawing in the subway and then, the idea of this fic came to me. So I had to do it, right? This story is mostly for fun, and the BBC's writers would probably like to have my head if they knew about the crap I'm doing with their awesome serie =X

Anyway, once again thank you so much to Archaeologist_d for her help with the beta! I don't know what I would do without her!

If you are interested, I also up a drawing about this fic in my LJ, you can find the link at my profile.

#01 The prince's disappearance.

.

It had been a while now since Gaius saw Merlin as his own son. He had not brought up the boy, but sometimes he wish he had.

Gaius had never known the pleasure of being a real father, to hold a baby against his chest, to make a young child smile with grins and tickles. And if, in his whole long life, he never really missed the presence of a woman, he missed a child's. It had been something he had wished for deeply during all his life. More than to become the court physician, more than to become the King's closest friend, more than to become a free man of Camelot, he wished he had been a father.

But he never had, until Merlin. And even if it wasn't his own blood in the young warlock's veins, he loved him in a way only parents could. He loved him more than any living soul in Camelot and more, and his safety was more important for him that any other's, including himself. He would have given anything for the boy.

But with all this love, he sometimes just couldn't believe how easily and how deeply Merlin managed to get himself into trouble, and how stupidly he could act.

Giving the screaming baby in Merlin's arm another skeptical glance, he asked, "I'm sorry, Merlin, can you explain it to me one more time?"

oOoOo

Leon was worried. He was too well-trained to panic -panic never help- but he couldn't help but feel nauseous. They were looking for the prince for three hours, now, and he was nowhere to be found.

Arthur had left alone in the wood at the beginning of the afternoon, giving orders to not be followed when a few knights had suggested going with him, thinking he was going on a hunt. Obviously it was not why he was leaving. He had acted strangely, Erec had reported, as if he were angry about something, as if he were fearing something.

But Arthur feared nothing, he was the bravest man of Camelot, a model for all his knights.

If something had been frightening him, Leon couldn't imagine what it was. He just imagined that it was a really big deal, and hoped his prince was alright. He wished the young prince didn't go looking for trouble alone. Surely he would have told someone if he knew something was going to happen. He would have told his father, his knights...

Leon gave his horse another slight kick to hurry him along. The sky was already starting to get dark by now, and they all knew that the search would be more difficult if they didn't find him before nightfall. The darkness and the humidity would hide a lot of tracks that could have helped them.

"Here!" a soldier's voice hissed, and Leon's heart bound with strength. I found something!

oOoOo

Merlin bit his lips while trying to hold the little boy better.

"Well, I was kind of... training. In the woods, you know, so nobody can see me."

Gaius said nothing. He didn't have to, they already talked about that. Merlin perfectly knew that training in the woods was not a good idea, that it was very possible that somebody could actually see him.

It had happened already, and they had been lucky that it ended well.

"I was trying some new spells of my own, actually," Merlin continued, looking more and more awkward , "to... try new things, just to test what I was able to do."

"I got that. It doesn't explain the boy. So?"

oOoOo

Leon's heart missed a beat when he saw what the soldier was holding. The prince's coat. On the ground were Arthur's clothes: his chain mail, his trousers, even his sword had been abandoned. Wherever the prince was at this very moment, he was naked and defenseless.

There were footsteps on the earth, but it was hard to see now that the sky was dark.

"Someone light a torch", Leon ordered, and a soldier soon came close to him, the torch lighting up the spot.

Obviously they had been two men there. The prince, and another one. What was strange was that the two footsteps met at the very same spot then one disappeared, and the other one went away. It was as if the prince had just vanished.

oOoOo

"Arthur, well... followed me. I don't know why, he - he surprised me!"

"So?"

"So I panicked. I wasn't prepared for that, I.. ! I just I don't even know what I did!"

Gaius looked at Merlin, then back at the little child he was holding.

"So this little boy...?"

"Is Arthur. Yeah."

oOoOo

"Leon? Did you find something?"

Erec came closer to the knight, but froze in place the moment he saw Arthur's clothes on the ground.

"What is that...?" he asked, even though he perfectly knew the answer. "Is it...?"

"Yeah," began Leon.

oOoOo

"You turn the Crown Prince of Camelot into a baby?" finally hissed Gaius, his voice mostly covered by the said baby's screams.

Merlin took a deep breath, opened his mouth in what seemed to be an attempt to find something to say, but give up at the look of the physician. He bit his lip again, glared a moment at the baby, and then tried with an awkward grimace.

"Well... I didn't do it on purpose..."

oOoOo

"The prince has been kidnapped", finished the knight. "But there is no trace of combat."

"Which means he was taken by surprise. He might have been knocked unconscious." Erec said, pale with indignation. "We will have to report to the King immediately."

Leon nodded. There was no time to waste. "See if we can find anything else which can help. I'm taking his clothes with me, we can't leave them here."

Erec moved away. He took the torch from the soldier and lit the ground around him, looking for some other indications. There must been something else, a sign to help them to understand what had happened. If someone had kidnapped the prince, he might have used a horse to carry him. Arthur was a healthy man, he was not easy to carry. But there was no sign that a horse had been there.

The knight kept as calm as possible. Do not panic, a low voice sounding like the prince's repeated in his head; Whatever happens, never panic.

He just had to search. Whoever had kidnapped the prince, he was not good at hiding signs. He followed the footsteps. The man had been running. How did he run, carrying the prince? The footstep weren't that big, nor had they sunk that much into the wet ground. Considering that he was following a man strong and heavy enough to carry the prince, plus the weight of the prince himself, the prints should have been more obvious. It just wasn't normal.

Erec stopped as soon as the mark disappeared. A horse had been there, the man might have ridden it. And it was going in the direction of...

Erec lifted his head to look, then remained astonished.

"I found something" Leon's voice hissed behind him.

"What?" Erec asked without looking at the other knight.

"A basket, far from the scene. It had been abandoned, but it was still full of mushrooms, I think we've got a witness. What about you?"

Erec turned his head to see Leon coming toward him.

"I found a trace of the horse the man used."

"So?"

"So whoever he is, he's gone in the direction of Camelot. We have to return to the castle at once!" Erec said, turning on his heels to go back to his own horse.

Leon stared with disbelief at the castle, far away from where they were, but visible over the top of the trees.

oOoOo

"You," Gaius said, pointing his finger at Merlin's nose, "are in deep trouble."