A/N: I am sorry I had to replace this chapter, I'm having trouble with my writing software or so it seems. I hope I have found all the wrong spaces in the words.

Please R & R.

4. Father and son

A very thoughtful warlock made it finally back into the infirmary. However, in an heroic effort, Merlin took on a cheerful face. First, he was not supposed to know about the 'finer political implications' of the whole fishy business, second, he knew his princely master. Arthur wouldn't want to be berated by his friend right now and he would not take it well should it happen anyway.

Besides, with the vicious, reckless mood he was in, Gaius would make a much better watchdog for a wounded Arthur, doubtlessly already planning the earful he would give his Prince. Especially after what had been said last night.

"Here I am, worrying my poor head off about you, only to find you sitting here idly, as bright eyed and bushy tailed as one might wish" Merlin said as a greeting.

"It's not my fault that you cannot tell a mere flesh wound from a lethal one" Arthur shot back, flexing his shoulder to show how very fine he was. "Not even after all the thorough lessons you've got from our Court Physician."

The Prince grinned from one ear to the other to hide the short wince of pain he had not been able to suppress. He was good at such things. He would have fooled anyone, except Merlin. Or Gaius.

"Stop your tomfooleries, Merlin" the healer said irritably "the wound still needs to be bandaged."

The warlock made a face while he was already collecting the linnen and bandages with one hand. For once Arthur looked sympathetic. It was perfectly plain that Merlin had been berated because Gaius had wanted to pass a message to his Prince.

"It's not all peace and quiet for you in here, huh?" Arthur whispered, which earned him another, very punitive look from the physician.

"No, not really" Merlin whispered back, only to press his mouth shut pointedly. For at least a whole second, none of them said anything.

Then Merlin thought it to be high time to break the uncomfortably long silence. "So you think I could re-emerge officially?" he asked hopefully while he bandaged Arthur's shoulder. "It has been a month. Surely the injuries from my whipping should be healed by now?"

The Prince exchanged a glance with Gaius. "Well" he said haltingly. "That maybe so, but I doubt you have the necessary gifts as an actor to feign the humility and remorse a whipping is supposed to install in a man."

"I am going to be the model of servitude and modesty" Merlin answered quickly. He would have promised almost anything to be freed from his quarters, and Gaius' constant watch. People had no idea what cleaning a leach tank meant. And on a weekly basis. Most of all it robbed him of any opportunity to have an eye on his princely master. "You give me a cue and I will either vanish into thin air or bow and scrap to your family to the best of my abilities. I promise." In the very last moment he swallowed a "please, Arthur".

"It's exactly these abilities that give me the creep" the Prince said musingly. "Or rather, the lack of them."

Merlin tried his best imploring look. After all, his mother had once said that these big, dark blue eyes were a capital asset if used in the right way.

"Don't stare like that" Gaius said censoriously. "You look like a moonstruck calf."

Merlin surrendered. "Please, Arthur. I can't stand this anymore."

"Gaius, what have you done to him?" Arthur asked, while he tentatively flexed his arm muscles and his injured shoulder again. "Not only has he learned how to tend to an injury at last, you've also taught him some manners. Who knows what you could achieve if he were to stay in here for another four weeks? Until my precious kinfolk have left the premises for good?"

"I don't know what to say, Sire" the physician said, taking up the lighter mood Arthur was trying to invent. "It's surely a taxing task to teach him anything, as you well know, but if you say that it is my duty to Camelot to keep him under close guard somewhat longer..."

"Gaius, no..." Merlin whirled around to face his healer friend, then back to Arthur, his whole face a desperate plea. "Arthur, you can't do this. You need me. Only four weeks you tried to manage without me and look what is has brought you to. Your armour is a mess for all I can see, your shoulder is injured because your Cousin beat you in a jousting..."

"He has not beaten me in jousting" Arthur roared. "My horse slipped in the mud, that's all. Anyway, how your presence should have changed anything is beyond me. Your clumsiness would have hastened rather than hindered matters."

With the now familiar bitterness Merlin swallowed the reply that was already on his lips. "If that's what you think, Sire" he said. "I may as well go back to cleaning the leach tanks."

"Well, maybe my armour could use some cleaning and polishing" the Prince backed down, much to Gaius' hidden amusement. "And I admit, after four weeks of keeping Gwaine and the other knights of not so very noble birth and upbringing out of mischief with my dear relatives, dealing with you seems not so very bad."

Merlin forgot all about his anger in the blink of an eye. "Which means...?"

"Which means" Arthur said "that I want my servant back on his duties, effective immediately.'" He sat down once again on the examination table. "And I mean it, Merlin. I need you to be my manservant as long as my Aunt and Cousin are around, most of all to my father. Not the gallant saviour of Camelot, not Sir Gwaine's friend and companion or Sir Lancelot's buddy. The serving boy from a peasant village named Ealdor, is that clear?"

"Absolutely clear" Merlin said. To prove his good will he collected the scattered pieces of armour and valiantly carried them to another spare table in a corner. "Might as well start the polishing, Sire" he called over his shoulder.

"You might wish to do this in your own room" Gaius said.

"But I..."

"Leave us!"

"Here it comes" Merlin thought. Quickly he grabbed the whole lot again and made haste to get out, ignoring Arthur's bewildered look as best he could.

From long experience, Merlin had no trouble to bang his room's door shut in a way that guaranteed it stayed ajar afterwards. Then he sat down on his bed, the armour still in his lap, and waited for the inevitable.

It didn't take long until Arthur's angry yelling came through the door as if the wooden thing wasn't there.

"I will not have you talking to me like that, Gaius. And that's final" the Prince roared.

"That's more than just a nasty cut your Cousin gave you" Gaius roared back, just as angry as his young master.

"I've suffered much worse, as you should know."

"Not in a fun jousting. And not from a friend. Or relative."

"My horse slipped. My Cousin could hardly know that Stormcloud would forsake me in a critical moment." Arthur seemed to calm down a bit now and Merlin knew that he wanted to see the matter closed. However, for once Gaius did not play along.

"I was there, Sire. From where I stood it seemed that your Cousin had ample time to avoid this. Your horse stumbled over his second or third step. Monseigneur had almost half a minute for an evasive manoeuvre."

"That's not what a jousting is about, to spare your opponent or to give up an honest advantage. Hortensius had a fair chance to strike and he used it."

"You may well say that he struck. Three centimetres further to the left and he would have run right through your heart, Sire! Question is, was it a lucky strike or an unlucky one, but I think that depends on one's perspective."

Arthur kept silent for a moment. "This conversation ends here" he finally said. "Once and for all, if you know what's good for you." From the sounds Merlin gathered that Arthur had risen resolutely and turned towards the exit. "I mean it, Gaius!"

"If you had any idea what's good for you, you'd send your damned kinfolk packing while you still have a chance! Hortensius used a sharp lance on purpose."

Obviously the healer's' angry exclamation made Arthur halt in mid-stride. "Gaius, if anyone, anyone but you, would have said what you've said, it would have cost him a memorable spell in the dungeons, at the very least. For once, in consideration of our long acquaintance, I am willing to let this go unnoticed. Don't try my patience again. They are family!"

Gaius kept silent for a moment. "Your wish is my command, Sire" he then said hoarsely. "Your Royal Highness will forgive an old man who's seen you on the brink of death too often."

"Maybe that's why you know me too well" Arthur replied, his harshness melting away like snow in the sun, together with his resolve to leave. With a heavy sigh he slumped back on a creaking chair. "I know Hortensius is not to everybody's liking. But he's no killer'" he said conciliatory. "His knights and companions are a nuisance, to say the least and my Aunt Matilda is – she is...as she has always been, but right now this supercilious, snobby, hare-brained bunch with their never-ending talk about 'standards' and the natural pre-eminence of aristocracy is exactly what my father needs."

"There was a time" Gaius said haltingly, clearly searching for a way to say what had to be said without causing more harm. Naturally the others had left that fine task to him. "There was a time when I and many others would have betted their lives and souls on your father loving you above everything in this world. That you would be the one he'd rely on in times of need. I'm sorry to say that we would have lost this bet."

Other than the physician had expected, Arthur only huffed. "This is absurd, Gaius. My father has loved Morgana so very much. Her betrayal has hurt and humiliated him deeply. Isn't it understandable that he wants to be with his family right now? Especially as this family..." from the sound of his last words Arthur had found his original grin again "keep on talking not only about their own superiority and moral high ground but also about his. Look what wonders it has done for his recovery, in only four weeks."

"Wonders. You call that wonders? The man is even less his old self than he was nine months ago. The only wonder in this is the speed with which your dear relatives have been able to undermine you. If I didn't know better I'd say your father is under an enchantment again."

"Look, Gaius, if this is about Merlin taking my side in a quarrel that doesn't exist..."

"This has nothing to do with Merlin. When you were dismounted by your Cousin's lance, we all thought that it had been the death of you. The lance hit you on your left side, your chest was covered with blood in an instant and you barely avoided hitting the ground head first. It has been an absolute miracle that you got away as cheaply as you did."

Gaius' fist crashed down on wood and Merlin almost fell from his cot in surprise. "And your father had nothing better to do than to shame you as soon as you opened your eyes" the healer shouted. "More than thirty years of experience with jousting and he should not have seen that you had been hit by a battle lance?"

The Prince rose abruptly and turned away, but he kept silent.

"Arthur, you must face it" Gaius tried a gentler tack. "His bruises healed but not his soul. Nine months and no sign of a mental recovery. He's spiralling down, My Lord, not uphill. He's an easy prey for every shady fortune hunter who comes his way. As long as he wears the Crown we all will be at the beck and call of each plotter and sycophant who takes your father's fancy."

"Is this you speaking, or Geoffrey and the Crown Council?" Arthur's voice was cold now, withdrawn.

"Until this morning, I would have said, the latter. After what happened on the jousting field, my answer is: you are speaking to all of us right now."

"And by the plotters and sycophants you mean my Aunt and Cousin, am I correct?"

"Arthur, he tried to kill you. We all saw it, your father included and he did not give a damn. We all could be at Matilda's and Hortensius' mercy whenever your father chooses to make it so."

"And what do you suggest I'd do, huh?"

Merlin winced at the sound of his friend's strangled voice.

"Should I take my sword and bring my own father to the dungeons, like my sister did? Should I chain him down, humiliate him, publicly. End his life's work in a torment of disgrace and slander? Should I? You tell me, Gaius, his old friend, should I do that?"

"The Council would be behind you if you acted now. But time is running out fast. A Council warrant to expel your Aunt and Cousin from Camelot for good is written and signed in no time. Afterwards there will be ample time to explain things to your father..."

"It wouldn't be like that. He'd never accept it, you know that. He'd fight it, shout, make a complete fool of himself in front of everyone. His reputation would never recover from the scandal. He'd never recover."

"Arthur, Hortensius wanted to murder you in cold blood and all your father did was humiliating you in front of everyone, and he didn't think twice."

"I can't Gaius. I just can't do it. Come what may, I can't do this to him."

"The Council is going to abandon you. They would have ousted Uther with your support, now they'll go against you on his say so. Anyway, they will not risk a civil war. They have too much to lose." Gaius shot his last arrow directly into the Prince's heart with deadly precision.

By now the young warlock had made it back to the door, furtively looking at the scene in the infirmary. Merlin's throat was burning when he watched Arthur shake his head and leave the physician's quarters without another word.

The wizard opened the door and rushed to his old friend. "Gaius!"

"Go after him" the healer said. "Don't leave him alone. Go! And please, try to take care of both of you."

Silently the warlock hurried to catch up with his Prince before he could crawl into some empty spot and curl up there, like he had been doing when Cedric had found him yesterday.

However, Arthur had no intention of doing so. Instead he headed straight for the inner castle with his jaws set and an expression of fierce determination on his face that made Merlin fear the worst while he skidded over the polished stone floor to catch up with his Prince. "Where are we going?" he asked as soon as he had got enough air in his lungs to do so.

"We are going nowhere. I am going to speak to my father. Get this impossible situation over with, one way or the other."

With an angry yelp Arthur came to a sudden halt when Merlin jumped in his way. "Bad idea, Sire" the wizard panted. "Very, very bad idea!"

"What do you know? Get out of my way!"

"Oh, I'm very knowledgeable at times. Example: I know for a certain fact that you are going to regret this."

With an impatient huff Arthur grabbed his 'servant's' arm and pushed him into the next room which was, fortunately, abandoned for the moment. With another rough gesture the Prince banged the door shut and turned round just in time to see Merlin stumble and trip over his own feet. "Merlin, must you always do that?"

The wizard decided that this time he would not fall to the ground like a wounded rabbit and, astonishingly, it worked. "You tell me. Why did you push me like that?"

"Because I had no intention of having a shouting match with my own servant in the corridor of my own home castle about some very – very – private affairs which also are entirely my own. That's why."

Arthur's otherwise impeccably regal and very domineering stance was somewhat hampered by him rubbing his injured shoulder in obvious pain.

"See?" Merlin had long since learnt to make the best of every opportunity that came his way. "See? My point exactly. You are in no shape for having a shouting match with your father. A blind puppy could see that."

Exhausted, Arthur let his head fall forward. "All right, Merlin. So much for you being the obedient and gently submissive servant you promised me to be for a while. Tell me then, mastermind, how do you think this should go on – should I wait until my father finds out about my newly blossomed friendship with the Druids on his own or until my dear Aunt and Cousin tell him? Do you think that that would improve matters?"

"But you are not well, you almost..." in the very last second Merlin swallowed the word 'died'. Absurd idea, to say this to a Prince who was standing on his two feet, full of angry energy and very much alive, completely oblivious of the fact that he had once more been saved by magic.

"I will never be well enough for this special conversation, Merlin, but it has to be. And the sooner the better. Today at least some of the Council Members may still back me up. As for tomorrow..." he shrugged "besides, it's my duty!"

Since the events around Knight Valiant and the snake shield Merlin knew that, once "duty" had become involved, chances to talk reason into Arthur Pendragon were virtually nil. With an exasperated sigh he raised both hands. "All right. Go, if you must. But I will come with you!"

"With all due respect, oh mighty protector of my miserable self, and in humble gratitude for your most gracious permission to speak to His Majesty – hasn't anyone ever explained the meaning of the word 'private' to you?"

"I am a very private person." Merlin tried his best goofy smile, but to no avail.

"No you are not. And I will not have you lurking around when I speak to my father. How should I explain your presence to him? I tell you what you are going to do, Merlin– you will go to Guinivere and tell her that I am all right, and that she should not worry, that's what you are going to do, right now."

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

Merlin yelped when his arm was grabbed and twisted behind his back. "What are you doing? Let me go!"

"I will, as soon as you carry out my order."

The wizard felt a pang of guilt when he sensed from the grip on his arm that for once he could easily have freed himself from it, even without magic. "All right, all right" he yelped in mocked pain "don't kill me. If you want to be alone when your father rips your head off, fine, but don't blame it on me afterwards. You are the master."

"Great. Just make sure that you don't forget that."

Merlin watched Arthur leave and waited a few minutes before he sneaked out and began stalking the Prince. He made it to the throne room and after that to the King's office undetected, but when Arthur vanished into the room, Merlin was faced with a serious problem – the door was constantly guarded and the office, for obvious reasons, had no back entrance.

Magically blindfolding the clueless guard soldiers was the work of an instant. Sighing, the warlock went into the adjacent room where he pressed his ear to the solid wall. Under all normal circumstances this would have been futile but Merlin muttered a spell and the wall became transparent to him, mostly for sound but also for light. Merlin swore secretely. He hated eavesdropping actually, he had always hated it ever since it had become clear to him how easily he could do it. Nowadays, however, it seemed the fitting thing to do all the time, and all because of these royal prats he was cursed with... Some destiny, he had.

Somewhat opaque but distinguishable, Arthur and his father could be seen as long as the spell worked, but it wavered when Merlin recoiled at the sight of two other people lurking near Uther. Matilda and Hortensius. It had to be them, of all people. Fleetingly Merlin hoped that their presence would scare Arthur away, but naturally – no such luck.

"Arthur" King Uther just said, obviously returning his son's greeting. "It's good to see you're already back on your feet."

"As you said, it was a mere scratch" his son replied, if somewhat strained. "Father, I wanted to ….."

"This is perfect prove for what I said, Becco" Uther ignored his son's words. "No harm was done by the mix up."

"I am so very glad to hear it. Rest assured, Uther, that I will give Horty's servant a good thrashing. To mix up a training and a battle lance – really, its too stupid even for this imbecile." Matilda sounded as if she was looking forward to dealing out the punishment.

"See, Becco?" This was Uther again. "The matter is closed. No need for apologies. At least not on that score."

"Father, I..." but again Uther ignored his son. The King just continued to speak in the same casual, indifferent way. "But on another score, there is much need for apologies. If apologies would suffice to make amends. Surely that's why you came, Arthur, is it not? To tell me some things that must have slipped your mind before?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about but ..."

"So Your Royal Highness has no idea what this is about!" Merlin almost fell on his back when Uther suddenly roared at the top of his voice. The King took something from his desk and threw it at his son. "Then maybe you will have the graciousness as to explain these accounts to me? And these Council Meetings' minutes?"

"That explains the throwing" Merlin thought, shocked and scared. "The Council papers. Uther has checked them."

"That's indeed why I came, father but surely we should discuss this in private." Arthur felt more humiliated than ever before in his life. The very thought that his father should have this scene in front of somebody else, some people whom he barely knew, relatives or no - it was unbearable.

"Matilda and Becco were the ones who opened my eyes to your doings. They brought these accounts and minutes to me, they told me that you have been conspiring with Camelot's most lethal enemies behind my back..."

"Conspired!" This time it was the son who interrupted his father. After having effectively ruled the country for nine months, Arthur could not easily go back to the role of the obedient, always respectful son. "How can you say that without even knowing my reasons? Are you accusing me of treason, high treason in fact, on these people's say so?" An angry and curt wave of his hand accused and despised his relatives at the same time.

"Do you deny that you ordered provisions and other resources which would have been direly needed here, in Camelot, to some Druid tribes? That you met with them, repeatedly, to negotiate some kind of a treaty with the unnatural bastards? That you gave them permission to roam our villages, our markets, which are so precious to you, to sell their vile symbols of magic? That you..."

"I know what I have done and I do not deny anything" Arthur interrupted his father once more. "And while you are at it, I also had some denunciations of use of magic thoroughly investigated and I could find no harm in what these people had done but I found the people who had accused them dishonest, disloyal and worth only of contempt. I came to you today to inform you about all of this and if we could talk in private, I could do exactly that."

For a long moment, Uther only stared at his son, disbelieving and confused. Never before had Arthur answered back like that. Where the King had been sure to find meekness, a guilty conscience and some stammered attempts at explanations and excuses he met resistance instead, and a proud sense of being justified. Suddenly he felt threatened. Threatened by someone who challenged his own position as a ruler. But most of all threatened by the perspective of antagonizing someone he could not afford to antagonize. Not as a King. And surely not as a father, who had already lost one child.

"Not now" it screamed somewhere inside his head. "You need time to think. Not now." His lack of authority made him feel weak, weak and unsure of himself and that was nothing Uther Pendragon was used to feel. He had been too shocked by the records his sister and nephew had confronted him with. He needed time to plan his reaction.

"So that's why you came here, to discuss your actions with me?" the King said, much calmer now, although it was a strained and somewhat forced calm. "Why did you not do so earlier?"

"Because until now I had your health to consider. As you are obviously recovered, I have no longer a reason to keep the latest developments from you!"

Arthur's seriousness and self-assuredness were very convincing and Matilda's face showed some of her chagrin about that before she regained control of her features and forced a benevolent smile. "Well, dear brother, I am sure you and Arthur have much to discuss. Maybe we should not have meddled with your affairs. I leave you to it, then."

"Thank you, Aunt" Arthur said sternly, without so much as looking at her. He held his father's gaze with his own, utterly resolved to have this long-overdue discussion here and now, to have the burden off his soul at any costs.

"But mother, I..." Hortensius said until a forbidding look from his mother silenced him. Meekly he swept out of the room in her wake.

"Would you mind telling me what brought you to this …..change of policy?" Uther asked his son, barely noticing that Matilda and Becco had left them. "You must admit, it was most unconventional."

With a silent sigh of relief Arthur settled down in the nearest chair without thinking. He had become used to be seated when talking to people, Council Members or anyone, and he had no idea how much the custom had grown on him. Uther registered the breach of etiquette with an inner wince but kept his silence anyway.

"Father, you were very ill and so I had no chance to discuss this with you. But we all – that is me and the Council – were of one mind when Morgause and... the others had finally been defeated: This constant plots and conspiracies of magicians or people seeking revenge for something that happened during the Great Purge must stop. Camelot is strong, prosperous and powerful, as you have made it..." Arthur blushed only inwardly at the ferocious flattering "...but too many hounds will catch the hare soon enough. We can't go on like this, its eating away at our strength and in the long run, the other King's and Princes, their armies and their predatory wishes are much more dangerous to us than a bunch of peaceful Druids could ever be. And maybe..."

Arthur swallowed hard. This was the most dangerous of all his ideas, he knew it had to be said, nevertheless. He had kept it from the Council, even from Ravenclaw, Geoffrey and from Gaius, who should have been the first to hear it. Despite all his better judgement the son had thought that this should be for his father to hear first, should he ever regain his senses. "And maybe it wouldn't be a mistake to befriend some sorcerers. We cannot fight the next magically supported invasion army on our own, and the next, and the next, not with our swords and arrows alone."

Not for the life of his Arthur would have admitted that he strongly suspected that Gaius wasn't the only potential magical ally Camelot might rely on in future. The old healer had not been alone when he fought and defeated Morgause and Morgana. A young man had been with him, the same young man who had been with Arthur when he had miraculously defeated the Great Dragon. The same young man who had appeared out of nowhere in the Fisher King's castle, just in the right moment to save his Prince, perhaps for the umpteenth time.

Arthur had not forgotten what he had thought when he had come back with the morteus flower. That the blue light that had guided him out of the cave that otherwise would have become his grave had been sent by a guardian angel. And now he had a pretty good idea of who this guardian angel might be.

"Father, you taught me that one has to meet an opponent's power with a force equally strong. If we were to change our policy towards magic we could..."

"Enough!" Uther said, holding back the explosion that had build up inside him during his son's explanations as best he could. He forced himself to stay calm with all his strength. A plan had begun to form in his mind and he had no wish to rob himself of the opportunity to work on that plan in leisure. "I see now that you had Camelot's best interest at heart when you made your decisions. I had expected nothing less from you. But now that I am back from sick-leave..." he smiled as genuinely as he could "...you surely realize that it cannot go on."

"But father, I made good progress, there wasn't a single untoward incident when the Druids visited our settlements and surely a few provisions to save some starving children during a hard winter cannot be amiss, I..."

"Arthur, I said it cannot go on and this is final. You will accept my decision and that's an end to it. As yet I am the King of Camelot, not you."

The Prince hesitated, unspoken words of protest stumbling in his throat. With a will he forced them down. Later. Later. For the moment it was enough that his father had not burst into a tantrum.

"I am sorry if I insulted you by not coming to you earlier, father, but I thought you needed some peace and quiet." Belatedly, and again without thinking, Arthur rose to face his father eye to eye and suddenly the fierce pride and determination in him gave way to something entirely different. "I am so glad that you are well again" he said. "There were times during the last year when I was sure I'd lost you forever."

He did not know it, but his whole heart was in his voice and face in this moment, the anguish, the fear, the worry he had felt during his father's prolonged illness. It gave him an unusual expression of kindness, warm-heartedness, love – and vulnerabilty.

It was the latter that finalized Uther's decision to carry out the plan that had come to his mind some minutes ago, although he knew it would cost him dearly.

Swallowing painfully the King pulled his son into a tight hug. "I love you, Arthur. Whatever happens, please, you must never forget that. I love you more than I can say. Nothing will ever change that. Nothing you or I will do in future will ever change my love for you."

Merlin, behind the wall, felt his face flush with heat and he let the spell expire. He had heard what had not been meant for him and he felt deeply ashamed. Quietly he sneaked away from his listening post and left these two to their privat affairs.

Thereby he missed the look on Uther's face when the King embraced his son as if it were for the last time ever.