Notes: Hi :) This happens to be my first time posting here, or really using at all, so reviews would be awesome, also feel free to tell me if I mess up in some way so that I can fix it.
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"and of course Gwaine was no help, stumbled in completely sloshed, collapsed onto the couch… defintiley not the best wake-up call my mother's ever gotten, the worst part is that he didn't even notice her, just passed out right on top of my mom!" Merlin retold as he checked Arthur's vitals, "But on the bright side it did distract her from her problems for a little bit."
Merlin walked around the room, tidying up as he finished his story. He had had the room painted red and gold almost immediately after starting this job, Merlin had worked at the JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Center for two years, and had been Arthur's nurse for that entire time. The Center had plenty of money, much of it probably from Arthur's father alone, so they had no lackage of nurses allowing Merlin to have only a few patients at a time so that he could spend a good amount of time with each. Most nurses actually liked to have more patients, so that they would be able to keep busy rather than just sitting in a room with the same patients every day, but Merlin liked to take his time, talking and reading to his patients. When he first started working other nurses complained that he was slacking off, but then he was assigned to Mr. Rodriguez, whom had been in a vegetative state for years with his eyes occasionally opening, but other why's unresponsive, after a couple months of taking care of him and visiting him he started responding more and more. Of course he would never fully recover, and would spend the rest of his life in a bed, but with Merlin's help he began to communicate with one of the smart computers they had. People started noticing that Merlin's patients just did better, even though it usually wasn't that extreme, often just better vitals and obvious healthier appearance, plus Merlin would offer to cover anyone's shifts if they wanted, so people stopped complaining. Soon he was able to do almost anything he wanted, including painting Arthur's room red and gold, because even the strangest request seemed to help the patient, the only exception was if the patients family complained but seeing as Arthur's father hadn't visited in all of Merlin's time there, that wasn't a problem. There had even been a few time's a patient's family would come in and, for example, see that the room was blue, only to admit that that was the patients favorite color, or see that Merlin had put up pictures of giraffes and other safari animals, and ask how he knew that the patient always wanted to go to Africa.
It wasn't as though he really knew these things, he would just get a sense for his patient, and then see a picture or color or something, and be reminded of them, many of his co-workers said he had a gift, while others just said he was weird. But it didn't matter, Merlin just liked feeling that he made a bit of a difference in his patients lives.
As for Arthur, at first Merlin hadn't really liked him. He felt awful about it, who doesn't like their coma patient? Especially when it's a young cute one that doesn't even have a lot of gross infections or anything? But Merlin just kind of sensed an air of arrogance about Arthur, he doesn't know how someone in a coma can be demanding but somehow Arthur was; like Merlin would give Arthur a sponge bath only to get the feeling that the water should be warmer, or he'd be doing Arthur's rehab only to feel insulted somehow, like Arthur didn't like the way he did it. It drove Merlin crazy, and he even considered asking to switch patients, but then one day a child who was in a wheel chair recovering from a car crash had been roaming the hospital, apparently hiding from rehab which hurt a lot, and somehow wandered into Arthur's room. Merlin had been the one to find him, and when he convinced the kid to go back to rehab (so that next year he could be back on the playground and show his best friend who really was the king of the jungle gym), Merlin had gotten a strange protective feeling, only to realize that it came from Arthur. As time went on Merlin began to feel that beneath Arthur's self-centered exterior, was actually a very caring and self-less man. Merlin only wished that he could actually meet the man Arthur once was, to know for sure if he was right.
Suddenly Merlin's gaze was drawn to Arthur, was that movement? He could of sworn Arthur's eyes opened for a second. Merlin looked intently at him, but nothing happened, Merlin sighed, he wanted Arthur to wake up so bad that he was imagining things. Merlin went home that night subdued and disappointed, wishing for things he knew he'd never have.
