A/N: There's a pattern here if you're interested. I've subtitled the first three chapters as 1a, 1b & 1c in my notes and we're now about to start 2a. That might give you a clue as to how this fic is going to be structured.

I got to this point earlier than originally planned which means I'm already having to write what happened immediately after Series 4. We'll find out how accurate this is in just over a week. :D

Chapter 4: An Unquestionable Mistake

Camelot #1. One year after Series 4.

The first full year of Arthur and Guinevere's reign fortunately passed without major incident. Initially, it was a simply a matter of everyone taking time to recover from the physical and emotional hurt they had suffered - and there were few that hadn't been touched in some way by the violent previous year. Merlin continued to gradually take on more of Gaius' work whilst also tending Arthur, although his work continued to subtly change from the duties he'd undertaken during his first years here.

The truly menial tasks seemed to have passed onto other servants and, although Merlin had always assumed that Arthur had invented many of these jobs as juvenile punishment for his manservant's apparent misdemeanours, he had recently found out the real truth – or rather Arthur's slightly drunken version of it.

"At least you're not sending Merlin to muck out the stables any more," Leon had joked to the King as they all sat around a tavern table drinking.

"No point," the young king slurred. "It served its purpose – he needs a different sort of training now." There was a stunned silence as Merlin and all the knights turned to stare at him.

"Training?" Merlin asked nervously.

"What?" Arthur looked around at the confused expressions on their faces. "Do you not remember how skinny he used to be? How often he used to get colds?" He grabbed Merlin wrist and held his arm up, squeezing his biceps roughly.

"Ow!"

"Still far too small considering. Pathetic really."

"That's because you never give me a long enough break to eat anything more than a bowl of porridge," Merlin complained. "Perhaps you should have thought of that before you decided to 'help' me to get fitter."

Arthur and the knights all laughed and Arthur punched one arm and Gwaine the other.

"Will you two stop doing that," he complained to a chorus of more laughter.

It could have been true, the warlock mused later and he did certainly feel healthier now and could wield a sword with a certain amount of skill, but other things had changed about his job lately too. Recently, Merlin had started to write Arthur's speeches and would regularly offer him other pieces of advice, which the young King nearly always used, despite regularly teasing him for it. Now this sort of work was being given to him as a matter of course and Merlin had to admit that he loved it; perhaps even more than his work for Gaius. It was certainly a lot better than mucking out the stables.

Of course Gwen and the knights had long seen Merlin as more than a servant, and he was fairly certain that the queen at least was part of the reason for his slow evolution of job description. She had also started to tell Arthur off for his continued teasing of Merlin until both parties had expressed genuine confusion at her concern.

"It's just the way we are," Merlin told her. "I'd frankly be more worried if he started being nice to me."

Gwen raised her eyes to the ceiling, apparently having been told much the same thing by her husband. "Men!" she exclaimed as she walked off in disgust.

No matter how much he was enjoying his work however, the warlock was often far too busy to attempt to look at the crystal during the day and far too tired in the evenings to contemplate it either. So, although he occasionally stole a quick glance to see how the young Arthur, Gwen and Morgana were faring in the other Camelot, he certainly didn't have time for serious research to find out why he wasn't able to direct the visions to the time period he really wanted to observe.

It took almost a whole year for realisation to dawn and that was only because of a particular dream he'd had about the alternative Camelot which had made him realise what was wrong. In the dream, he had been explaining to the younger Merlin that he was from the future as well as a different world and it was at that point that he suddenly worked it out and found himself instantly awake – sitting bolt upright in bed with a shout.

"Idiot! Five years. That world is five years out."

He jumped out of bed and moved to his desk knowing he'd not be able to get back to sleep. It wasn't quite dawn and the room was still dark, but Merlin lit the candles in the room with a golden flash of his eyes and grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill.

"This is where I am now ..." he muttered to himself, drawing a small vertical line two thirds of the way across the paper, "and this is one year ago when I returned here from the other world." He drew another to its left. "One year, two, three, four, five. I came to Camelot six years ago when Arthur was just about to turn twenty-one. Go back another five years and he would have been … sixteen.

"That's it! The other Camelot is five years behind this one. So, when I've tried to go back six years, it seemed like I'd gone back eleven. It's so obvious," he berated himself. "Five years difference … the same time discrepancy as the first visit that Dragoon initiated.

"So, what happens if I don't try to compensate for the time difference?" Merlin wondered. "Perhaps if I just try and view 'now' I'll go back to the point I want."

He looked out of the window to see the light of dawn washing over the scene. Apart from that one time when he'd appeared to push the vision forward by a few hours, he usually ended up at exactly the same time of day in that Camelot too. So, if he started his morning jobs a little early today, he might get a chance to visit the other world in an hour or two. Hopefully travelling to a time after he'd restored the magic there.

Of course, he mused, as he rushed down to the kitchens, if his calculations were correct and he did travel back five years then that would mean he'd arrive a whole year after Emrys had left but, as tempting as it was to try and aim for his original target, he really did need to prove his theory first and the only real way to do that was to not compensate at all.

Once he knew for certain then he could go where ever … when ever he wanted, then he could view anything that took his fancy at any time. Merlin grinned broadly and started to work even faster, now really excited about trying his theory out for real.

He'd cleared himself a little time with yet a few more white lies and false alibis, and a few hours later he was back in his room with book, scarf and crystal. This time, however, he did nothing more than think of where the scarf had come from, keeping all thoughts of years and numbers out of his head, and instead focusing only on Morgana.

Camelot #2

He found himself in Morgana's bedchambers, with both her and Gwen lying on either side of the large bed, smiling indulgently at something in the gap between them. Merlin's heart started to beat faster as he remembered that last vision he'd experienced in the Crystal Cave and quickly guessed what he was about to see. He moved closer, nervously, only glancing at Morgana for long enough to confirm that she was closer to the age he remembered, before turning his attention to the two babies that were lying in-between the girls.

Both of the infants had dark hair, with the youngest one - still very much a baby - currently turned away from him. The older one, who was sitting up and showing a great deal of interest in his big toe, had brown eyes and a mid-tone complexion - the sort of skin colour one might expect from a child of Arthur and Gwen. When Merlin had left this world, the young Night Servant's condition had been announced and her pregnancy obviously a good few months along, whereas Morgana, if that vision had been a true one, had only just gotten herself with child.

If that vision had been true … if this baby really was his.

He moved around the bed so that he could get a better view of the infant and gasped as he saw pale skin and blue eyes that seemed a little brighter than his own shade. Merlin moved himself forward to look even more closely, his eyes now brimming with tears. His child? How was it possible for his child to be alive in another universe?

Then the little baby gurgled and Merlin saw Morgana jump, having obviously started to fall asleep.

"You should let me take him this morning, Morgana," Gwen said then, "You aren't getting enough sleep, are you?" At long last Merlin pulled his attention to Morgana properly, and saw the same pale, worn look on her face that he recognised from his second year at Camelot.

Second year?

This was young Merlin's second year here and a whole year after he … Emrys, had lifted the curse. Which meant this world now had its magic back and Morgana probably had her visions to deal with as well as a baby to keep her awake at night.

"I couldn't ask that of you, Gwen," Morgana replied sleepily.

"Of course you could. Amr's starting to sleep through the night now and, anyway, you know either of us can ask Hannah to take the boys if required."

"I know, but you understand what it's like for me. These nightmares …" Morgana swallowed hard and stroked her son's head. "I get so scared sometimes and I do worry about him dreadfully."

"We all have these anxieties about our babies – especially now that people are talking about the curse having been lifted." Gwen sighed. "Everyone used to say that children had a higher level of survival before, and so one can't help worrying if that advantage might now have disappeared."

"Yes, it's all very interesting, isn't it?" Morgana mused. "Certainly there seems to be a lot more expectant mothers in this last year. I wonder if the curse really has disappeared? I wonder whether our boys are miracle babies or not?"

"I suppose we may never know."

There as a long silence before Morgana suddenly said quietly, "I still miss him, Gwen."

"I know and I don't suppose having Merlin around makes that any easier?"

"Why would that make any difference? They're not the same person, no matter how much people say they look alike."

Gwen laughed gently. "You never saw a resemblance?"

"Well, of course I did – they are twins after all, but other than that, no, I never really found them to be that much alike. Not considering how well I really got to know Emrys."

The watching Merlin swallowed hard, fighting his own tears. In some ways he wished that Morgana had simply viewed him as a servant and hadn't thought about him very much, despite how upsetting that would have been to him personally.

"He did say he'd be back," Gwen continued hopefully.

"He said that to you and Arthur, yes, but that wasn't the impression he gave me and Merlin is ... well, he's so vague when I ask him about Emrys. There's something strange going on there, Gwen. Something ..." She shook her head and her eyes closed again.

"What do you mean? Why would he not come back to visit his brother, at least? And surely Merlin must have written to him to tell him about the baby?" Gwen frowned as she got no answer from her friend. "Morgana?" she whispered and then smiled when she realised that her friend had fallen asleep.

Quietly and very slowly, she got up and first lifted the smaller child up onto one shoulder before gingerly bending down to retrieve her own. She then quietly left the room leaving her friend sleeping on the bed.

"I hope they give you more help in this world, Morgana," Merlin said as he gazed at her lying there peacefully. "I did tell them to – I did say that they needed to trust you. I told Merlin and Gaius as much as I could … I told them you had magic and so I hope … I really hope things will be different for you here. Perhaps having a baby ..." He grinned. "... our baby will help with that too."

Morgana sighed and smiled slightly, falling into a long overdue deep and restful sleep.

~o~0~o~

A/N: I rewrote Merlin's 'realisation' section a couple of times recently in an attempt to make it less confusing. Hopefully. I do hope you're following all this 'timey-wimey' stuff.

A lot of you have been eagerly anticipating Merlin's reaction on seeing Morgana pregnant but, as he's already viewed that during his Crystal Cave vision, I thought this scene might be more interesting. However, there are two time-lines going on here. Camelot #1's story is linear and will continue to go forward towards Series 5, whereas Camelot #2's will hop backwards and forwards randomly depending on what Merlin wants to see, (and what you guys requested, of course.)

Merlin's sketching of a time line near the start of this chapter was me when I started writing this – sitting here with pencil and paper - desperately trying to figure out all the numbers and years, and driving myself slowly mad in the process. o_O

28th September 2012