Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N - Thanks everyone for the reviews and alerts so far! It's so nice to know people are interested.

This has not been beta'd so sorry for any mistakes

Warnings:

This is set after season 3 so beware spoilers for everything up until now. Also this is not entirely canon and I have used A LOT of poetic license here as this is my version of what could happen next.

Chapter 2

When Merlin left Gwen, he had decided to hurry back to his own room. Gwen had not taken long to pack her few remaining things and since she had not wanted any help unpacking, Merlin had left her a lot sooner than he thought he would. Which meant he had a bit of free time before Arthur would finish training and be expecting Merlin back to help him get ready. Merlin was going to take advantage of this spare time and go back to his room and read up on some spells. Over a year ago now, Merlin had found a secret room in the library. Unfortunately, there had been a Goblin trapped inside a box in the room, and Merlin had naively released the Goblin who had then reeked havoc in the castle. Luckily with Gwen's help they had re-captured the Goblin and it was now safely locked away in the vaults. But after a while Merlin had decided to go back to the room and see if he could find anything of use. As it turned out Merlin had found a few interesting magic spells written on loose pieces of paper which he had been keen to look over and add to the book Gaius had given to him. He was now hoping that he would have at least an hour on his own to look through and perhaps practice a few spells. To his surprise however, when he walked into Gaius' main chamber, he found that Gaius was back from visiting the sick people in the lower town already.

"Oh" Merlin started in surprise, looking at Gaius with a guilty expression.

"Merlin?," Gaius seemed just as surprised to see Merlin back in his rooms, as Merlin was to see Gaius. "I thought you were helping Gwen settle into her new chambers?" he raised his eyebrow as he asked the question.

"I did. Gwen didn't want to take much with her, so we were done really quickly. I think she wanted some space to get used to the new rooms so I left her to it."

"Well, in that case, if you have a some time to spare before you need to go to Arthur, would you mind helping me?" Merlin squirmed slightly, thinking that this was the reason why he was hoping to be alone, Gaius always seemed to have extra chores for Merlin if he was at a loose end. But Merlin also knew he would never say no to Gaius so he shrugged in resignation, "Yeah of course, what did you want me to do?"

"When I went down to the lower town earlier, a few people seemed to be coming down with a sickness bug. I've prepared a tonic for a few of them to help ease the symptoms. Could you deliver these to George and Mabel, and this one to Ethan please?" Gaius asked as he bustled around picking up three separate bottles of tonic.

"Ethan?" Merlin asked,

"Yes, you know." Gaius gestured vaguely as if this would remind Merlin who he was talking about. "Ethan and his family moved into the shoemakers cottage a few months ago."

"Oh yeah right, I know. I've seen them around but haven't really spoken to them yet." Merlin tried to dredge up a recollection of them "What's the family like?" Merlin asked, suddenly sounding a bit more interested.

"They seem nice enough. His wife Agatha and their daughter Emeline were very grateful when I came in to look over Ethan. From what they have told me, they moved from one of the outlying villages that was a bit too near Cenred's kingdom. After Morgause took command of Cenred's army, their village was overrun and so they moved into the city. It doesn't sound like they had a decent physician anywhere near them before so I think they were glad to find me so easily."

"Hmm," Merlin uttered in a non committed fashion, in truth he'd stopped listening after Gaius had mentioned the daughter Emeline. Merlin now remembered noticing her around the lower town several times. She was pretty girl a bit younger than him, perhaps about 18. He remembered the last time he'd seen her, she had been fetching water from the well. She had caught Merlin's eye because he had noticed her long auburn hair swishing in the sunlight. As Merlin tried not to remember the tightening in the pit of his stomach as he had secretly watched her, he finally remembered that Gaius had been talking to him. He started slightly and his ears felt hot all of a sudden and turning to Gaius, he saw he was now looking at him rather oddly.

"You still with me Merlin?"

"Yeah, yeah, he said quickly.

"Well, then shouldn't you be getting on with delivering these tonics?" Gaius gave him a long stare and Merlin couldn't help wondering if Gaius had an inkling of where his mind had been wondering.

"Yeah, Yeah," Merlin repeated and darted out the door.

Merlin walked down to the lower town thinking he could have been spending his time doing something a lot more productive. He walked quickly to deliver the tonics over to George and Mabel first. He had known Mabel would want to ask how Gwen was getting on, so he went there first and excused himself quickly, using his next delivery as the reason.

Merlin then wandered over to the shoemakers cottage, trying to remember the new families names. He knocked on the door and for a moment hoped that it would be the daughter who answered the door, but before he could question his own reasons for hoping that it would be the girl that would open the door, it was opened by her mother.

"Hello, can I help you?" she asked warily.

"Hi, my name's Merlin, Gaius sent me to deliver a tonic for your husband." he said as he held out the tonic expecting her to take it so he could move on. However, she opened the door wider and invited him in.

"Thank you Merlin, please come in. My names Agatha." She said ushering him towards a family table in the centre of the kitchen. "Can I get you a drink at all?" she asked.

"No, I'm fine thank you Agatha, I'm just here to deliver the tonic." he said passing the bottle over to her.

"Oh yes, poor Ethan has been feeling very under the weather. It was very kind of Gaius to make up the tonic so quickly. And also of you to deliver it to us." Agatha added as an afterthought.

"It's no problem. As court physician Gaius does a lot for the people in the town, but he really is always more than happy to help." Merlin wasn't quite sure why he was getting drawn into a conversation, so to try and avoid this he added, "I should be getting back though, Prince Arthur will be needing me soon."

"Oh yes. Gaius told us that you are the Prince's manservant. What an honour that must be?" Agatha said enthusiastically.

"Um, yes it is." Merlin replied whilst trying to hide his smirk. Even though everyone else seemed to be in awe of Arthur, Merlin mostly thought of him as a pompous prat and having to serve him day in and day out didn't always feel like such an honour.

"Right, well, I'll be off." Merlin said edging towards the door. As he reached out for it, the door suddenly opened. Merlin stiffened, and for one horrible moment, thought that he was so desperate to leave that he has used magic to open the door. But even as he checked himself, knowing that he hadn't felt the rush of his power which normally accompanied every piece of magic he does, he sees that the door was opened by the daughter as she entered the small house. Merlin pulled his hand back and stared at the girl, suddenly feeling very nervous.

As he looked at the girl up close, he realised that the girl is not just pretty, she is in fact very beautiful. Her long auburn hair frames a delicate and pale heart shaped face. She has full pink lips, and her eyes are an amazing green colour, flecked with gold. Merlin had never seen eyes likes hers before and felt as if he was being drawn into them. As he is looking at her, she meets his eye then her eyes flicker away to her mother. Merlin shook his head slightly as if to wake himself and he suddenly feels very aware that no-one has said anything since she entered the house. His ears start to feel hot again. Merlin clears his throat and holds out a hand to the girl. "Hi, I'm Merlin," he says trying to overcome the strange feeling he has in the pit of his stomach.

"Hello, I'm Emeline." She shakes his hand gently but lets go quickly and again her glance flickers to her mother briefly, almost as if for reassurance.. Her hand felt warm and sent tingles up Merlin's arm. As she let go, he randomly thinks that he hopes his hand wasn't sweaty.

"Merlin is Prince Arthur's Manservant, but he brought the tonic that the physician Gaius has prepared for your father," Agatha tells her.

"Oh, that's very kind of you." Emeline smiles gently at Merlin.

"It's nothing, I often run errands for Gaius as well. He's my guardian so I don't mind at all." Merlin can't understand why he's telling her this or why he hasn't managed to leave yet. "But I really do have to be getting back now so, erm, see you around?" he says mainly to Emeline. She smiles as she moves away from the door.

"Of course, thank you again Merlin" Agatha says as she sees him to the door.

Merlin exits quickly and starts making his way back to the castle. As he walks away, Merlin takes a deep steadying breath. He can't quite work out why he's feeling so odd and he huffs as he thinks to himself "Well, that felt … weird."