Overcrowded

Full Summary: When Gaius falls ill, Merlin becomes acting physician. With a variety of patients, royal and peasant alike, Merlin is not only overworked, but falling ill as well. Things don't help when he and his patients are cut off from the rest of the castle...and when a non-magical but highly skilled assassin arrives hell-bent on killing Uther.

Disclaimer: I am certain I almost do not perhaps own this.

Note: I am so sorry about this late update. It's been...what...seven months now? Ouch. I hope this chapter makes up for it. (IT WON'T)

WHEN: Sometime after the Poisoned Chalice

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::merlin::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The physician's quarters were in chaos. Many a fragile object had fallen to the ground, books were shaken from their shelves and the toad's cage (the toad that was possibly poisonous, and the only thing that was caught on Arthur's last hunting trip) was flipped upside down.

Merlin, needless to say, wasn't happy.

Picking himself up off the floor, he immediately scanned his patients. Beth had nearly rolled off the table, and now was sitting up upon it, shaking in terror. Underneath the table, Lander attempted to do the same thing, but could only manage to support himself by leaning on his uninjured arm—once doing so, he looked about him in apparent confusion. Allister, who had been leaning on the table leg closest to Lander's legs, instinctively went for where his sword usually would have been at the sound of rumbling.

From the chair underneath the balcony, Walter groaned, and blearily blinked his eyes open, and groaned louder. "Was'going on?" He slurred.

Gaius was mostly alert, and although he made no attempt to sit up (being a physician, he knew it would do more harm than good), he loudly seconded Walter's question. From Merlin's room, Arthur was not far behind in being third.

Merlin really wasn't happy.

More than that, he was disoriented. Everything seemed out of focus, veering slightly to the left and right when his head was still, but Merlin was sure he hadn't hit his head that hard.

Had he?

There was too much noise for thought: Everyone was trying to speak at once, and Beth started to cry. Merlin couldn't take it anymore.

"All right!" He shouted, raising his hands in the universal 'stop, for the sake of my sanity' gesture. "Enough! Just..." he slumped slightly. "Enough." He shuddered slightly, the room seemed colder than before. But Merlin wouldn't let that stop him, and he composed himself.

"Arthur, can you hear me?" He called from the middle of the main room. An irritated "Yes" floated back as an answer.

"Right then." Merlin cleared his throat nervously, and regretted it—his throat was sore. Gaius's quarters weren't that dusty, were they? "I don't know what that was for certain, but the best guess would probably be an earthquake-"

"No, really?" Arthur guffawed—quite clearly too—from behind the door. "What else could have done that?"

Merlin glanced at Allister, who pursed his lips. "I think he knows!" Merlin replied.

"Who's he?" Arthur snapped back. "Will somebody open this damn door so I can see what's going on?"

Merlin chose not to say anything else, and proceeded to calm down Beth and attend to the patients, answering their questions and dressing their wounds. Finally, he crouched down next to Allister.

"Tell me everything you know."

::::m:::e:::r:::l:::i:::n:::

Arthur didn't like being ignored.

He didn't like being ignored, especially when it was Merlin doing the ignoring. "Merlin!" He shouted, and when there came no reply, he attempted to will the door to fall down with his eyes. This stopped when he realized that could be considered as a form of magic.

From behind the door (where presumably the rest of the world lay, but this Arthur was beginning to doubt) came a series of quiet murmurings. The girl's crying had thankfully stopped, but that didn't allow him to understand what was being said or, for that matter, who was saying it.

Arthur didn't like—scratch that-hated being ignored.

A few minutes later, the door creaked open and Merlin poked his head inside, smiling brightly, though he himself was pale and dusty. "Allister."

"Who?" Arthur questioned, already annoyed by the cryptic answer.

"He's Allister." The words flowed easily through that almost now-obnoxious smile. Arthur felt an urge to disfigure Merlin for life.

"Merlin." He warned his servant very clearly by stressing the first syllable. The ultimatum. Arthur felt a surge of pride for having unraveled the secrets of controlling the servant mind.

"That is my name...sire." Merlin looked at him quizzically (on purpose of course).

Arthur narrowed his eyes. "I swear, if you don't tell me what exactly is going on, I'll-"

"-glare at me threateningly from my bed?" Merlin finished for him, smiling brightly. Arthur swore at his manservant internally, and vocalized one of his more vulgar curses. Merlin hastily let a somber mask settle upon the features of his face. "Right. Allister is the man you asked about earlier, the one I thought would know something about that...shake that just occurred."

Arthur jutted in before Merlin could continue, before the oaf accidentally brushed aside something important. "What made you draw that conclusion?"

Merlin bit his lip. "Allister is the newest, and for the time being, last of my patients. He's a son of the Count Dolxton of Daira, but not first-born. He traveled alone upon the roads, clothed in peasant attire and without sword, sustaining a knife-wound to the chest, and dehydration. He made his way to the physician's quarters, and told us that he had arrived in order to relay something of the utmost urgency to Uth—King Uther. He wouldn't tell us what it was at first—we'd asked, thinking that one of us could tell Uther while Allister rested-, but then this tremor occurred, and I figured the two might've been connected. So, he told me, and-"

Arthur held up his left hand. "Merlin. You're babbling. Now, if Allister is well enough to be moved, then bring him to my—your room, so I can hear what he had to say from his own lips. I don't trust yours. And for the gods' sake, will you leave that door open when you fetch him?"

Merlin smirked, and his head disappeared behind the still-open door. Arthur, realizing the loop-hole Merlin was undoubtedly trying to use, shouted as an afterthought, "Wide-open, Merlin."

There was a snicker, and the door swung open.

Arthur quickly realized that his logic had been flawed. He'd forgotten that Merlin's room sat a upon a steeper set of steps than he'd thought, and that not only was he in an elevated position inside the room, the only way he would have been really able to see anything was if he had stood right at the top of the steps and looked through.

He was struggling to assume a decent expression on his face—decent being anything not a murderous glare—when Merlin returned with Allister. Arthur scrutinized the man carefully. After a moment, he spoke.

"Allister Dolxton of Daira. I admit to having one vague memory of you from when I was five and at some sort of feast in which you were present. You were quite the energetic child, weren't you?"

Allister's expression didn't change, though his eyes seemed to have a knowing glint in them when he replied, "this is coming from the boy who drank his father's wine and proceeded to 'accidentally' lose his prize emerald under the Princess Asmere's dress, and 'accidentally' look at her undergarments while looking for the jewel-"

"-says the miscreant who managed to break his mother's anniversary gift, transform all the draperies into a noose while simultaneously accidentally starting a fire with a candle?" Arthur immediately retorted

Allister snickered, a boyish glee flitting across his face. "It really was a terrible anniversary gift."

Merlin rolled his eyes. "Right. Arthur, since you're all informed now, Allister really does need to rest..."

Allister smiled thinly, and the mischievous glint faded from his eyes. "Sorry." He murmured. "But the truth of the matter, well, it's almost embarrassing, not to mention it'll probably cause a severe decline in relations between Camelot and Daira."

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

Allister shrunk slightly, his eyes downcast. "Ah—well-it may possibly quite probably most likelyinvolvemagic. It was an accident!" He hastily added.

Arthur let his head fall back upon the pillows. "Right, well, my father's clearly going to forgive and forget because it was an accident." He sighed. "Just tell me what happened."

Allister nodded shortly, a light sheen of sweat upon his forehead. "We'd captured the Roc, and-"

"The what?" Arthur interrupted.

Merlin, who was leaning against a wall, smirked. "For the future king, you always seem to be quite lacking in knowledge of the different types of dangerous opposition. I cannot begin to describe the confidence I have in your reign-"

"Shut-up, Merlin!" Arthur snapped.

"-especially when I, a lowly servant, know the answer to your question." Merlin rushed on. He looked at Allister for permission to continue. When Allister nodded at him, Merlin continued. "A Roc is a huge bird, I mean, really huge. It's size is usually in the range of a dragon's. It can pick up huge boulders—bigger than Camelot's biggest horses—and drop them from an extremely high altitude. It's shaped like a hawk, really."

Arthur gestured for Allister to continue. "And now there is no more reason for you to speak, Merlin. Go away."

Allister resumed his tale. "We were keeping the Roc in a huge cave, found on the outreaches of our territory. His legs were chained to the stone, and his wings bound behind him, his beak forced shut. It was one of the most debated topics of the Court—father was deeply interested in the subject, half fascinated and half terrified by the creature. Some claimed that even our magical chains would not hold such a creature, and that we needed to kill it at once; others were of the opinion that it could be manipulated into an enslaved beast of the kingdom; and still more declared that we must set it free. At any rate, one afternoon at the Court one of the Roc's keepers ran into the throne room in a panic, screaming that the creature was gone. There was a great hurry to investigate the cave, and at the time of my leaving—four days after the escape—we had no conclusion. The chains had completely disappeared, leading some to hypothesize that the Roc had managed to pull the chains out of their sockets. A larger group says that someone must have freed the creature, the idea itself setting off search parties and more speculations."

"But why would the Roc be attacking Camelot? We've done nothing to any of its brethren—indeed, we've never seen a Roc before now! If it was free before you captured it, why didn't it attack then?" Arthur asked, bewildered.

"When it was first spotted, it had been flying from the more uncharted areas, and was in weak condition at the time. Nomads who had been following the creature's movements reported that it performed better during the day—it is the opposite of a nocturnal creature, decreasing in coordination in the dark significantly. That is probably why it is attacking Camelot now—it is disoriented after staying in the shadows for such a long period of time, and connects any castle with humans, which it of course connects with its capture."

Arthur frowned. "Are we sure that it isn't just an earthquake? And if it is the Roc, what are the chances it'll attack again?"

"Of course there is more than one possibility, I'm just giving the more likely one." Allister responded. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to sit down. I'm...a little bit tired..."

Merlin threw one of Allister's arms around his shoulder. "Back to the table leg for you. I want no more over-exerting, got it? That's my job."

Arthur spluttered. "Back to the what? Merlin after you finish with Allister, report straight back to my—your—room. I want an accurate description of everybody and everything in that room. Are we understood?"

"Only after I explain the situation to everyone else..." Merlin's voice sounded from the main room. Arthur grunted loudly in reply, realizing only after that Allister hadn't answered his second question.

:::::M:E:R:L:I:N:::::POV:::::

Merlin had given a slightly watered down version of the discussion between Arthur and Allister after he cleared away the debris for the other, propping the noble up on the table leg once more. The responses were overall the same—worried. Beth and Walter were slightly more hysterical, Lander too injured to care. Gaius calmly said that it wasn't their concern, but he gave Merlin a look, as if to say "We shall talk later." Merlin acknowledged his mentor with a small smile, and returned to his room...well, Arthur's sickbed, as it were.

Arthur's mood hadn't improved since Merlin had left. He was drumming his fingers impatiently on the bed, and he spoke as soon as Merlin had pushed the door open.

"I want a complete description of all your patients, and the state of the room. From here on, I demand to be informed of everything that is going on out there."

Merlin let out a breath. "I didn't forget the first time you said that, there's really no need to repeat yourself. And I really don't think much will be happening anyway, so-"

"Have you tried the door yet?" Arthur cut in.

"Not yet." Merlin admitted. "I thought it would be dangerous."

"Well, there's a 'happening' for you right there!" Arthur concluded triumphantly.

"Right, well, when I'm crushed by the debris that will inevitably fall on me when I open the door, I'll be sure in my dying breaths to make sure someone will inform you that we are trapped inside."

Arthur snorted. "Speaking of patients, why don't you tell me who they are?"

"The youngest is a child, Beth. She was brought to me by her father—and she's sick. She's currently lying on a table."

Arthur made to interject something, but Merlin continued. "Lander and Walter were carried in later by four men. They said that Walter had apparently caused debris to fall upon Lander, whose head and arm were injured as a result. Walter was just drunk—the only reason he was brought along was because his wife wouldn't allow him to return home in his condition. Well, once he returns to his senses, I'll at least have somebody physically able to help me...anyway, Lander's sleeping under the table, and Walter's sitting on a chair under the balcony. The only other patients are Gaius and Allister, and you already know how they're faring. Gaius is sleeping on his own bed, Allister is propped up on one of Beth's table legs."

"But those sleeping conditions are absolutely intolerable, especially for sick and injured patients! Where are your other beds?" Arthur asked, an astonished expression on his face.

"Well sire, it's not like you haven't been in here before, so I'm sure you have been already aware of our bed situation for some time."

Arthur muttered something under his breath. Indeed, Merlin reasoned, it was more likely that the prince hadn't noticed anything related to beds at all in his previous visits to the physician's quarters. Merlin decided that it would be best to finish quickly. "And as for the condition of the room, well, it's basically what anyone would expect after such an event: Glass strewn everywhere, fallen objects...the sort of thing that needs to be cleaned up as soon as possible before someone gets hurt. So, let me take care of that, and then I'll test the door. Any last requests before my possible death?" He smiled, half-jokingly.

Arthur paused. "Yeah. Bring me a book, or just something to do! I'm bored to tears here."

Merlin rolled his eyes, and returned to the main room, where he scoured the names of Gaius's books. He chose one, returned, and flung it at Arthur's good arm; the prince shouted in surprise, catching it at the last second. Merlin swung the door closed behind him as he descended the steps.

"The Anatomy of—Merlin!"

Merlin grinned.

::::GWEN:::POV::::

Gwen huddled behind the statue of the knight, one arm instinctively curled about his ankle—harking back to her childhood days when she would hug a soft toy at night. But the cold, hard stone of the statue was far more unforgiving and uncomfortable then what Gwen would have considered likeable. Not that toys would be made out of stone or anything. Gwen let out a half-laugh, half-sob. She was babbling.

Overall, the fallen masonry had spilled into the alcove, but not quite extensively—there was enough room for Gwen to sit...even lie down, if she wanted to. But, the handmaiden's mind was far from sleep. All she wanted to do was to discover all possible means of escape. Gwen stood up, and looked at her surrounding walls. Desperately, she began to brush her hands over them, vainly hoping for a secret passage of some sort that would be her salvation. There was none. Gwen turned back towards the rubble blocking her way into the passage. Could she perhaps dig her way out? Gwen doubted it highly. Slowly, she sank back down to her knees, absent-mindedly patting her pockets as she did so, stopping at an apron pocket. A lump of bread was nestled there, and Gwen could tell it was already a bit stale. Would it save her from starving to death? Probably not, even if her teeth could survive the chewing process. Gwen leaned against the knight, burying her head in her arms. Up until now, she'd been surprisingly calm. But the ever-noticeable silence was reminding her to be terrified. She could only hope someone had started a rescue mission.

::::UTHER::::POV::::

When His Majesty had been updated on the situation, he had dressed and hurried down to join Morgana at the passageway. He'd attempted to pull Morgana up to a standing position, but the stubborn girl had pulled her arm out of his grasp and continued to roll away stone.

Guards were constantly attempting to get his attention, and Uther's patience was starting to wear thin. When the latest one had scurried up to him, helmet in hand, Uther had snapped, "If this isn't something of great importance, then stop while you're ahead and help clear the destruction away. My son is in there!"

"I—sir-" The guard stumbled back slightly, and Uther vaguely noted dark rings under the man's eyes. "Have you—ah-been informed yet as to why this all happened?"

Uther froze. Out of all the other guards updating him on what was going on, he realized none of them had managed to tell him that very fact. "No...ahm...?"

"Thom, sire. At any rate, sire, the watches are all in agreement that they saw what very much looked like a large, dragon-sized bird attacking the castle. Apparently the bird has long disappeared, sire."

Uther struggled to recollect any previous encounters with a large bird. "Where is Geoffrey the Librarian? Has he been seen?"

"I'd think he'd be somewhere in the vicinity of the library, your highness." The guard answered, and Uther could tell the man considered this to be the obvious response. He scowled, but then again, he reasoned, guards weren't picked for their brains.

"Thank you...er..."

"Thom, sire." The guard reminded him.

"Trom, yes. Now, get to work!" The king dismissed the man with a wave of his hand, and went in search of Geoffrey.

:::T:i:m:e:s:k:i:p::::

To Uther's annoyance, Geoffrey was in fact in his library, looked rumpled and half-asleep. "An earthquake?" The librarian asked, bewildered.

Uther wasn't in the mood to explain anything. "Nevermind, Geoffrey. Just tell me this: What would be the name of a creature whose shape is that of a large bird, possibly dragon-sized?"

Geoffrey hesitated. "The most accurate, I think, would be the Roc. Are you saying that is what caused the shake?"

Uther ignored the question. "Check through your books for any mention or record of the Rocs' activities near Camelot or surrounding kingdoms. I will be back later."

With that, Uther left the library and strode back towards the blocked passageway—where he'd be near Morgana, and in a position to supervise things. It was a further ways from the library than Uther would've liked, but that was just bad luck, he supposed.

A noise sounded behind him. Uther stopped, and looked behind him. Was that a cloak, disappearing from view? The glint of a dagger? His hand unconsciously moved towards his hilt, where it stayed. Uther picked up his pace, suddenly even more anxious to be back with the guar—others.

Once back with the group, Uther resumed surveying those clearing away the fallen construction. Slowly, he noticed that there were distinctly less knights then there should have been. He grabbed a nearby guard and asked if the man had seen any of them.

The man swallowed. "Sir Leon is the only one I can say I saw, sire. He'd just returned from a patrol in the forest, and hadn't stopped to put down his shield or anything. He briefly told me that there was something urgent you had to know. I saw him very recently too..." his eyes widened. "...hurrying down this very corridor."

Uther released the man, his hand trembling slightly. There were a great many people that were trapped and possibly hurt because of this...Roc. Once things eventually started returning to normal, he'd have the whole castle hunting the beast.

So King Uther Pendragon swore.

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Originally for the 'Arthur looking into the physician's quarters' scene, I had this "At first, all Arthur could see was Merlin's retreating back heading down the stairs, but once the servant had distanced himself from Arthur's line of vision, Arthur could see the whole room clearly...well, the parts not hidden behind the walls of Merlin's room.

His eyes widened involuntarily as he took in the scene. Everything was a mess, and he wondered vaguely as to how Merlin was to manage everything without cutting himself on broken shards every few minutes. Toward the far left of his vision, he could spot the unmoving form of Gaius, the man's silver-white hair just visible before the rest of his body being cut of by the wall. Towards the far right, there must have been another patient (most likely under the book balcony, if Arthur recalled correctly the positioning of the room), for Merlin was speaking in that direction, looking irritated. Merlin himself was in the center of Arthur's line of vision, kneeling by a table in the middle of the room. Upon the table was a young girl, and underneath the table lay a male peasant. Leaning upon a table leg—in fact, directly facing Arthur, would have to be Allister, for the man was now the center of Merlin's attention; when the man moved his cloak, Arthur saw the glint of a dagger upon his belt." Then I looked back upon it and realized that I was very unsure as to the actual layout of the quarters, and whether Arthur would really be able to view everything inside the room. So I did a little research by calling up the first episode of the first season on Youtube, and studied the quarters intensely. It seemed to me that it went something like this: The room's huge, with a lot of tables and several shelves, lots of the tables holding vials and books, one to two tables for eating (or perhaps being cleared off). But in later scenes from the episode, the room/tables look much neater and less crowded than the opening shot...The entrance to the room is parallel (to an extent) with Merlin's chamber, which is accessed via an archway that hangs over a small set of stairs, the actual door being at the top of the stairs. When Merlin for the first time enters the room, he looks upwards and to (his) left, which implies that the book balcony is towards the back of the room, or at least on the left wall. This makes sense because in a later scene, when Merlin is sneaking out at night, we have a shot in which the angle is capturing him from his left side, walking toward the entrance door. Now, behind him is the book balcony, and he's exiting from his chambers. That would also confirm my original placement of Gaius's bed. So right now, the thing I'm most concerned about is the tables. In the first chapter of Overcrowded, I had Merlin fetch an old and rickety table from a corner of the room and repair it. This makes sense because it seems logical for all the tables being cluttered at the same time, but now I'm wondering about the placement of the tables. I haven't described it much in the story, which is a bit hindering, so now I've been attempting to picture it. I suppose that Merlin probably has been pushing tables to the side a bit, so as to have a clear path for a fast method of reaching both Gaius and Arthur, so with the old table he resorted to placing it in the middle of the clearing, which is where I think I've had it the whole time. Unfortunately I don't have an exact table count, and don't know exactly where each one is, but hopefully that won't have any bearing on the story.

*Lets out a huge breath*RIGHT sorry there. Got carried away. Guys, I am so, so sorry for the gap in updating. I'm trying to get back in the swing of things after the end of the school year, but with volunteering to clear tornado-debris, visiting relatives, and future summer school coming up (I plan on taking a class I have no desire to take during the school year), it hasn't been easy. Will you ever forgive me? This was nine to eleven pages long guys...guys? Hello? Anyone? Don't abandon meeeee...!

No seriously, I totally understand if you forgot this existed.