And here comes the next chapter, hope you'll enjoy it (sorry for any mistakes unbeta'd =) )

And thanks for all the reviews/alerts :D

Disclaimer: Don't own anything..

Chapter 2

In the court physician's chambers all was quiet. The old man himself was currently brewing potions and thinking about his accident and disaster prone ward. Hardly a day went by without a new catastrophe, magic or otherwise, it was sheer wonder that everything had be so calm in the past few days. Hopefully that meant life was quieting down a bi-

Naturally before he'd even finished that thought the door burst open loudly and Merlin, his 'foster' son rushed in, looking completely distraught. After hurriedly closing the door he turned and practically shouted at Gaius "I used magic in front of nearly all the knights."

Without waiting for anything else Gaius exploded "How could you be so stupid! Do you have a death-wis-." Seeing Merlin's expression, which was basically screaming 'Really now' he stopped mid-rant, coughed uncomfortably and said "Go on…"

"Okay, so I was just standing there, slacking of- I mean working hard like usual and suddenly I got this horrible, strange headache. Then it got even worse and bam my magic unleashed itself, pulverizing the jug next to me. The only good thing about the whole ordeal is that Sir Tristan, who by the way needs a serious aggression therapy, had already left before it happened."

Frowning Gaius questioned "And you're sure you didn't do it unconsciously?"

"Yes, pretty sure, I just lost control entirely."

"What about that headache, you still have it?"

Looking confused Merlin slowly raised his right hand to his head, before shaking it in reply "No, it's…gone."

Raising his signature eyebrow Gaius contemplated what his ward had told him and considering everything he knew, he still wasn't able to come up with anything. Considering Merlin's unique case that wasn't very surprising, but it still was frustrating. Even with all his experience he knew so little…

"-at should I do?" Merlin looked at him expectantly, apparently he'd been talking the entire time, his guardian however had been too occupied with his own thoughts. In order to cover his spacing out and as a general answer he got up to grab several books from the shelf, demonstratively dropped them on the table with a loud thud and settled down to do research.

"Noo, not again…" groaning as if in great pain Merlin sat down opposite of Gaius and reluctantly took one of the heavy, old tomes to read through.

Half an hour later

"Uhm, what exactly am I looking for again?" Merlin whined impatiently, god he'd so had enough of inhaling decade old book-dust.

"References to magical headaches, why they occur, what triggers them and naturally how we can stop them." Without even raising his gaze, he continued "Oh and make sure to also include anything that could unleash someone's magic without their conscious or unconscious consent." sighing in defeat Merlin returned to his reading.

Another long while later the chamber doors banged open once again, only this time Arthur and Sir Leon hurried into the room.

Ignoring his servant completely the blonde turned to the physician and asked expectantly "Have you figured out what's wrong yet?"

"Unfortunately no, Sire. I have never heard of anything like this before, while there are some known reasons why a sorcerer's magic could be released, against his will, nothing seems to fit Merlin's situation. He's not coming of age and consequently losing control due to the gained additional power. He has not recently killed another sorcerer and absorbed his or her magic intentionally, which he wouldn't need to do anyway. And all the magical devices I found, which were used to release or control enemies' powers, are also unlikely as they are very subtle, and certainly not causing headaches. Plus they're mostly lost or destroyed."

A little overwhelmed with all the information Arthur only nodded with a grave expression and cautiously replied "So, basically you have no idea yet?" shaking his head in reply Gaius said, while gesturing to the still huge pile of unread books "But you're welcome to join us in looking."

Wide-eyed Arthur took several steps back, clearly horrified by the sheer idea of having to participate in doing research yet again. "Ah, I just remembered I have to- to…uhm" Sir Leon jumped in helpfully "Do a surprise inspection of the knights and guards quarters as well as their weaponry."

"That's it." Snapping his fingers the blonde smiled in relief and quickly started toward the exit. "Sir Leon, let's go." Nodding enthusiastically Leon quickly followed his prince out, sparing an apologetic glance in Merlin direction, before he hastily shut the door and left.

"You know I just remembered I have t-" Merlin started hopefully, but Gaius interrupted him mercilessly and said "Keep reading." Groaning dejectedly the raven-haired man grabbed the next book and rekindled his efforts in finding a solution.

.

.

Some very boring hours later

Having yet another murder-headache, which was entirely unrelated to the one before, Merlin closed the last one of the books.

"So, I guess we can now safely assume it's not in the books." He exclaimed with false cheer. Rubbing his burning eyes Gaius agreed tiredly "Yes, it would appear so." Standing up he continued "Then for now, you'll just have to be careful that you don't do magic in front of the king, the knights, the servants, the nob- well anyone actually, except for Arthur, Sir Leon and me. Which means the second you get a headache you run to Arthur's or my chambers or wherever else no one's around to witness anything. Okay?"

"Right, got it and hey who says that that wasn't just a one-time thing. Maybe we're just being too paranoid… Anyway I got to go and bring Arthur his diner." Waving at his guardian he exited the room and went to the kitchens, temporarily setting aside the matter.

Gaius, however, remained in his chambers and after a moment started to re-read some of the books. While he really wanted to believe that Merlin was right with his assumption, there was something nagging at him. He felt as if he was overlooking something.

If only he knew what…

Review please =) tell me what you thought