As requested, another chapter! Thanks for all the favs, and reviews, I love to read them =D

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The passageway seemed cold and dim compared the warm evening sunlight that filled courtyard, brushing the stonework in gold and polishing the windows in silver so they gleamed and shimmered. Every sound echoed loudly, rebounding off the grey stone walls, tiled floor and barrelled, white washed ceiling. Few servants moved in this part of castle, most of it was empty, reserved for visiting guests and lesser nobles, who came for the various feasts and festivals, staged throughout the year, but could not be fitted in to the more comfortable suits of rooms at the heart of the castle. Most of the doors were shut and safely locked, though a few stood ajar in the hope of letting in any slight breezes that might drift down the corridor and clear the musty air, the furniture with in was hidden, draped in old sheets, to keep off the worst of the dust that invariably gathered on any flat surface.

Merlin's walked slowly over the tiles, running one hand lightly over the rough stone wall to his right, his legs felt like lead, his fingers were starting to go numb and his shoulders ached with exhaustion. Only now he was back home, safe and sound, did the full extent of his ordeal begin to sink in, the pain, fear and exhaustion he had somehow been managing to keep at bay over the last week swept over him in a sudden, nauseous, wave and he found himself shaking and sweating so much he had to sit down for a moment and rest his head between his hands while the world around him spun giddily. Images from the last few days began to stream before his eyes: Arthur's pale face, Morganna's wild eyes, the Dragons curled lip as it breathed its' fiery spell over him, but the one face that figured most prominently was that of Nimeuh. Her dark eyes and starling red lips smiled at him from his memories, making him feel even more sick, cursed as he was with the knowledge that it was him who had killed her.

Gritting his teeth he forced himself back to his feet with a lurch, and roughly pushed away the thought, Nimeuh had brought it upon herself when she had tired to take the life of his mother, he told himself tersely, he did what he had to, to save her and to save Arthur. Life without either of them would have been unbearable, there was no other choice. Still at the back of his mind a voice was whispering to him, repeating one word over and over again, murderer, it hissed.

The narrow spiral stair case that lead up to Gaius's chambers, seemed several times longer and steeper than it had been; every step was agony. Merlin finally arrived at the top panting and shivering and almost had to crawl the last few paces to Gaius's door on his knees, before straightening up stiffly and taking a few deep breaths to master himself. The last thing he wanted was for Gaius to see him in this sort of state, so he quickly straightening his clothes and ran a hand through his dark hair, which was currently plastered to his head with sweat, and tried to affect a friendly smile that didn't look too strained before he gingerly placed a hand on the doors smooth wood, and pushed. It swung smoothly inwards, squeaking shrilly on its hinges to announce his presence.

"Ah, here he is now" Gaius said brightly just as Merlin appeared in the door frame. Merlin smiled and lifted a hand in response to Gaius's greeting before letting his eyes sweep across the familiar room, over the many heaps of old leather bound books, that littered the desks and workbenches, along the with the clutter of Gaius's medical supplies, comprising a varied selection of pills, herbs and potions arranged between the jumble of equipment used to prepare them all. How Gaius knew where everything was, was a mystery to Merlin, he presumed there was some form of ordering, to what otherwise, looked like a complete mess.

His eyes roved on until they came to rest on something he had not been expecting, something out of place; Gwen's wide eyed stare. Merlin froze, unsure what to do, no one moved for an awkward moment, where the only sound was a shrill whistle of wind whipping through a crack around one of the flaking window frames, until Gwen suddenly broke the stillness by letting out a small cry and running over to Merlin to throw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.

"Oh, Merlin. We were so worried…" She breathed, her eyes were red and bloodshot from crying, even now fresh tears were beginning to roll down her cheeks. She missed the sharp intake of breath as Merlin reeled from the pain her embrace had caused to explode from his raw chest, but didn't try and pull away. "I thought you were dead" Gwen continued breathlessly, hugging him tighter still until he could hardly breathe and his eyes watered from the pain. "I mean we all did" she added quickly, realising what she had just said and pulled away from him, suddenly blushing as she turned away to cuff the tears from her eyes. Merlin took the chance to pull his shirt closer round his neck, if she saw the blood stained bandages there would be a lot of explaining to do, and he wasn't sure he could bring himself to lie to Gwen.

"I'm sorry Gwen" Merlin said softly, still clutching his singed shirt collar around his neck, her tears on his behalf had immediately made him feel guiltily "I wasn't thinking" he muttered.

"Oh! You don't have to apologise" she said quickly, still dabbing at her tears with an already soaked corner of her sleeve. She smiled bravely and shook her head slightly, as if to say she was just being silly. "It's… It's just I'm glad to see you… A-alive and well…Well, not well…You don't normally look this bad - I mean you normally look a lot better than this – Not that I notice you look good" She tried to correct herself, back peddling madly.

"Here" Gaius said kindly, interrupting her frenzied justifications by handing her a lace edged handkerchief.

"Thank you" she said smiling and taking it from him to continue furtively dabbing at her eyes. "If you think I'm bad you should have seen Arthur" she smiled feebly at her own joke.

"Really? I thought Arthur was supposed one of those rough, tough save the world kind of guys." Merlin said grinning and playing along with the joke.

Gwen gave him a strange look in response to that; making Merlin wonder what he had said, and opened her mouth, about to reply, but was interrupted by a sharp knock on the open door before she could respond.

Morganna stood in the doorway, her long hair lay loose about her shoulders, looking tangled and wild. The dark rings under her eyes made it look as if she had hardly slept that night, or for several nights before that even. Every angle of her pose spoke of her weariness, yet above the dark circles her eyes were bright, wild, never lingering in one place for long, for all the world she looked like a wounded animal that had finally been cornered.

"Ah, Morganna" Gaius greeted her genially, though clearly a little surprised by her presence "What can I do you for you?" he asked as she stepped tentatively into the room, hands clutching her white fur stole. Word of Gaius's return seemed to have spread quickly thought Merlin, gossip could spread like wild fire with in the court, then again they had been back within the walls for less than an hour, and to the nobles that frequented the court surely the return of the Court Physician and his scruffy protégé could hardly be of much account – Perhaps she had met Arthur and he had told her?

"I need some more of the sleeping draught you prepared for me" She addressed Gaius directly, with out even glancing at Gwen, or Merlin who had raised a hand in greeting, but slowly let it slip back down again as it became clear he was being ignored. Confused by Morganna's uncharacteristic coldness, he raised a quizzically eyebrow at Gwen, who just sighed quietly and looked down at her shoes as she shook her head ever so slightly, so that only her dark curls bobbed.

"More?" Asked Gaius, a little taken aback by the request. "I left you enough for several weeks at least" he said, bushy grey eyebrows rising in surprise and concern "Surely you-".

"It's the nightmares" she shot quickly, cutting him off mid sentence "They are getting worse. Nothing seems to stop them…" She trailed off into silence, her bottom lip trembling slightly. Gaius stared at her for a moment, before his expression softened and he rubbed a weathered hand across his face before nodding slowly, then bustling off to the back of his chambers where he opened the doors of a small, dark wood, cabinet that was full of small bottles and vials. He ran a gnarled finger along each of the dusty shelves; scanning the scrawling writing on the labels. Occasionally the sounds of chinking pot and glass could be heard as he rearranged some of them with quiet tuts and mutters of "What's that doing there". Eventually, he found what he was looking for and fished a small, blue, glass bottle, with a large cork stopper down from the top shelf, dusted a spindly legged spider of it, and returned to Morganna.

"Here" Gaius said shaking the bottle so the pills inside it rattled "Take one of these each night, just before you go to sleep. Just the one mind" he said warningly as her hand darted forward to grab the bottle from him. "Understand?" Morganna froze for a moment, hand still outstretched towards the bottle, then nodded stiffly to show her comprehension. Gaius scanned her pale face searchingly, before nodding himself and relinquishing the bottle, which Morganna hurriedly snatched from his hand and clutched to her breast as if she feared Gaius might change his mind and take it back off her.

"Thank you" she said faintly, opening her tightly clenched fist slightly so she could see the little bottle, as if wanting to check it was still there. With out any further words to Gaius she turned on her heel and strode towards the open door, for a moment it looked like she would walk straight out without even recognising Merlin or Gwen's presence, but she stopped just shy of the door frame and glanced back over her shoulder to where they stood quietly; both some what bewildered by the exchange that had just taken place.

"Merlin" Morganna said quietly fixing him with her unnerving stare and with a slight smile that didn't reach her eyes "I knew you'd be back." She held his gaze for a moment longer before swiftly tearing it away to stare straight ahead, so she was no longer looking at anybody when she said "Come Gwen. Let Merlin have his rest." and swept from the doorway in a flurry of sapphire blue skirts, soft white fur and flowing lilac fabric.

Gwen stood silently, still staring at her shoes, torn between staying with Merlin and obeying her mistress. Sensing her dilemma Merlin lightly touched her arm "It's Ok Gwen" he said smiling "I'm fine". Gwen hovered a moment longer in indecision, glancing from Merlin, to the empty doorway beyond him, and back again, before shuffling her feet slightly and bowing her head.

"I'll see you tomorrow then" Gwen said clutching the edge of her apron between her hands "If… if that's alright of course" she added hurriedly "I wouldn't want to impose."

"You know always welcome here Gwen. When ever you like." Merlin said with a sincere smile.

"I'm glad you're back" Gwen repeated, fondly squeezing Merlin's arm and smiling up at him before releasing him and trotting across the flag stone floor to nip out the door and follow her mistress. Her quick foot falls could be heard echoing down the spiral staircase and then retreating down passage beyond until they gradually faded away all together.

"I'm going to bed" Merlin announced with a sigh and rubbed his tired eyes "Don't wake me unless the castle is on fire"

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Gaius asked peering up at Merlin, who already had his foot on the first step "Or rather someone…" He added too quietly for Merin to hear him. When Merlin looked nonplussed, Gaius returned to dusting off one of the large leather tomes and held it out at arms length so he could read the crinkled gold writing on its spine. "It'll come to you I'm sure" he said smirking slightly in amusement as he put the book down and moved on to the next one.

"Yes…" Merlin rolled his eyes slightly, he wasn't in the mood for Gaius's cryptic clues, his brain was too tired to think straight anymore "Really helpful…Between you and that Dragon… Night" he said waving one hand behind him at Gaius as he continued unsteadily up the stairs. Before he could reach it the door was pulled open suddenly and what Gaius had been referring to became quite clear. Ah. Yes he had forgotten about her… He winced guiltily to himself, what sort of son forgets about their mother?

"Merlin!" his mother cried, as she held a hand out too him. "What have you been doing to yourself? Gaius told me what you were going to do!" He took her proffered hand and she pulled him closer and ruffled his hair. "How could you risk so much for me?"

"You're my mother, all my powers mean nothing if I can can't save you" he murmured blearily as she began fussing over him and gasped when she caught sight of the bandages. "It's not serious" he assured her, though he wasn't entirely sure about that, he wasn't going to tell her otherwise.

"What were you thinking? Oh my stupid…Brave, brave boy" she whispered pulling him into a tighter embrace and stroking his sweat soaked hair. "Gaius?" She called over Merlin's head.

"Yes Hunith?" Gaius appeared round the corner of the staircase, leafing through a small, green backed book this time.

"Can you bring me some water and bandages? I want to redress Merlin's wound"

"Right" He disappeared from view, but could be heard scuffling around in his cupboards, seeking the items Hunith has asked for.

"No, no it's ok. Really. I can't even feel it anymore" He smiled bravely and straightened up to prove his point, some how managing to keep himself from grimacing at the pain.

"I'm your mother. You're not fooling me" She regarded him sceptically "I hurts doesn't it?" She fixed him with her honest gaze and he found himself nodding. She laughed quietly and stroked a loose strand black hair off his forehead "You boys are all the same" she said leaning forward to place a kiss on his brow. "I have had plenty of practice patching you up over the years".

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Thanks for all the reviews 3333 I'm glad you like the story so far. More soon!