Hey, hey, lovely readers!
Thanks as usual for the reviews for chapter three. Wonderful, as usual. I'm glad you all could sense the happiness and hope and optimism. Thanks in particular to Sherri, crshore, and larasmith.
Thanks all of you for reading. You guys make this all so much more fun.
Disclaimer: don't own Merlin, still am not besties with Bradley, although I might as well be for all the Merlin commentaries I've been watching lately.
Anyway, thanks for reading and enjoy chapter four!
Arthur and Guinevere: Those Sweet Simple Times
Chapter 4
A few weeks after Shayla's ceremony, Arthur returns to the Royal Chambers after the day's work at his usual time. When he gets there, he is disappointed to find his daughter already asleep.
"Sorry," Gwen says, sounding sorry and also like she might laugh at her husband's adorably disappointed face. "I tried to keep her awake for you."
"It's all right," Arthur answers absently.
"It isn't. I can see it all over your face."
Arthur turns away from her, runs a hand down his face. She is right, she is always right. He turns and goes towards the nursery. "What are you doing?" Gwen asks, walking toward him.
"Going to see my daughter."
"Arthur, if you wake her up after I spent all that time getting her to sleep, I swear, I'll-
"I won't her wake her, I assure you. I'm going to do what I said: I'm going to see her. I haven't even done that today." His gait hides his guilt well, but Gwen and Merlin watch him knowing the truth anyway.
When he comes back into the main room a few minutes later he has a defiant look on his face, a pleased one.
"Merlin, clear my schedule for tomorrow."
"But, sire, the meeting-
"Move it to Thursday. I am spending the day with Guinevere and Shayla."
Gwen steps towards him again, reaches out her hand. "Arthur, you don't have to-
"I do," he says, to both Gwen and Merlin. "I will not be one of those kings who doesn't see his family. I refuse."
Merlin and Gwen glance at one another again, look to Arthur. Gwen smiles. Merlin shakes his head.
"So, will you?"
"I will, sire," Merlin answers like the servant he always has been and still feels like and is. "I'll clear your day tomorrow."
Arthur nods, turns away from him. His cue to leave comes in the King's starting a conversation with his wife, and so Merlin turns and leaves the Pendragons to their evening.
A/G*A/G
A cry splits the night, and Arthur immediately knows it is Shayla. Gwen starts awake at the sound too. Arthur rests a warm hand on her back.
"I'll get her," he says. Gwen nods blearily and gratefully and tumbles back into sleep almost immediately. Arthur walks into the nursery, picks up a still-crying Shayla.
"Hi, Shay," he says to her, tears still trickling down her cheeks. She quiets after a few minutes, but still he sits with her in the rocking chair.
"Tomorrow I'm going to spend the day with you and your mother," he tells her after a while, enjoying the quiet, the feel of her relaxing against his chest, her breathing heavy, laced with sleep. "How does that sound?" The baby smiles sleepily at him. "I think it sounds nice too," he says quietly, answering for her.
And it did.
A/G*A/G
The next morning, Merlin arrives back to the Royal Chambers to see Catherine already there and Arthur playing with Shayla. Gwen is laughing at something Arthur has said, something Merlin doesn't catch. "Good morning, Merlin," Gwen says to him, the laughter trailing the end of her sentence.
"Morning, My Lady," he answers. "Good Morning, Catherine. Morning, Shay," he says, coming over to Arthur.
"See, Shayla, this is your Uncle Merlin," Arthur says, turning the baby towards him. "Late again, I might add."
"Hey, I'm only late because I was busy doing chores for you." The baby blinks up at him, her brown eyes curious, watching.
"If you weren't always in the tavern, they'd get done sooner, wouldn't they?"
"Hey, you know that I'm not actually in the tavern like you always say."
"No, Merlin, actually I don't. Unlike you, I never go in the tavern. Do I, Shay?" The King asks after a moment, looking at his daughter in his arms.
"Oh, yeah, like I trust you speaking for Shayla," Merlin says sarcastically with an eye-roll. "If she could talk, she'd totally be on my side about this."
"If she could talk, she'd trust no one's word but mine."
"If she could talk," Gwen says, cutting in on the conversation, taking Shayla from Arthur's grasp with a smile, "she'd say you're both being silly." This makes both men look at one another, in silent agreement that Gwen is, as always, right again.
A/G*A/G
Only a couple of hours later, Merlin watches Arthur and Gwen come out of the castle and onto the castle steps. They are holding hands. Gwen looks back and Merlin sees why: because Catherine has Shayla. Arthur says something to make all of them laugh that Merlin doesn't hear. That's because he's too busy setting up the one-person carriage Gwen will ride in, that Shayla will ride in too. It was light and small, with a covering in a rich red color, the seat inside plush, with a curtain to hang over the little side door that only took up half of the space, making an open window. It was safe but simple, perfect for a serving girl who became Queen who had a baby. Gwen was to sit inside the carriage, Shayla in her lap. Arthur checks everything over-the wheels, the carriage itself, the seat inside-even though he'd already asked Merlin to do yesterday.
"I already did that, you know."
"I know, but I really don't trust your checking over such a vehicle of transportation."
"Like you've ever built anything in your life," Merlin scoffs. "You didn't even build this! The stable hands did!"
Arthur ignores his servant, saying instead slowly and carefully in the way he did when he thought Merlin wasn't the brightest bulb, which was all too often, remnant of the early days of their friendship, and everyday of their friendship: "I'm the King, this was made for the Queen and the Princess, and as the King, I have a right to check said carriage as many times as I wish."
"So you're an expert on carriages now?"
"I'm an expert at giving you orders, and I told you to check this over."
"I did already! That's what I said!"
'Well, I'm checking it again!" Arthur says, his voice raised, nearly at a roar, making Gwen laugh.
"Honestly, you two," she says with a shake of her head. "It's like I've got three children instead of just one."
"Hey!" Arthur and Merlin protest in unison.
Still, Arthur takes her hand as she steps inside the carriage, gets situated. She turns sideways, reaches her hands out for her daughter, who is handed to her by Catherine.
"All set?" Arthur asks, peering into the carriage from the window.
"Yes, I think we are." She looks fondly down at their daughter, smiles.
"Good." He takes her hand, squeezes it warmly in affection. "All set, Merlin?" she hears Arthur call to his servant, and she can't help but smirk to herself. As important as she and Shayla were to him-the most important things, he always insisted; whether or not he said this to make her smile or out of truthfulness alone she didn't know-Gwen knew there would always be a place for Merlin too. She hoped he knew that. She thought that he did.
After Arthur checks everything over with the guards and with Merlin and with Catherine, who then mount their own horses, the carriage was attached to the horse's reigns and Arthur mounted the horse and they were off. Gwen felt happy; usually it was she standing on the castle steps waving good-bye, now she looked back to see only the guards. Unbeknownst to her or anyone else, someone other than the guards was about to head into the castle, someone with a dark and bitter plan to enact.
Gwen was unaware of this, however. She was too preoccupied being happy and glad. She was glad to be going the same place Arthur was going, finally. It was then she recognized it was their first outing as a family, all three of them, and she felt glad again. After a few minutes, Arthur surprises her when he slows down to a stop, gets off his horse, comes to her, peers in the window again. He asks if the pace is OK, he doesn't want to be going too fast, he says, for Shayla, and she smiles again at his consideration.
"It's just fine," she assures him. "Thank you for asking."
"Thank you giving me a reason to ask," he answers smoothly.
He kisses her and Merlin hollers, "Hey! Are we going to go somewhere or are we just going to stand around watching you guys kiss?"
"I'm going, I'm going," Arthur says, making Gwen laugh, and he mounts the horse again and off they go.
After a while, Gwen settles back into her seat; she's never been in a carriage before. If she needed to get anyplace, she'd walk and, later, ride. She watches the forest flit past her in a sea of lovely greens and browns, bright colorings of flowers sprinkled in there every once and a while too. She watches Shayla watch for a while too and then watches as she falls asleep in her lap, totally comfortable, completely content. Gwen marvels again at the way which Shayla so easily gives herself up to sleep.
She thinks she must've fallen off into sleep too because when they get there, the abrupt halting of the carriage, as unabrupt as it probably really is, jolts her awake, leaving her dazed and blinking. Arthur sees this, sees Shayla with the same expression on her face and smiles to himself. Like mother, like daughter, after all. He goes over to the carriage, opens the door, helps Gwen step out, Shayla in her arms.
"She's sleeping," Gwen says in a lovely quiet voice. They laugh quietly together, watching her.
"I think someone else was sleeping too," Arthur says also in a lovely low voice, his eyebrows raised.
"I was not," Gwen insists. A smile twitches at the corners of her mouth.
"I think you were. Just admit it."
"OK, so I was," she says, the smile finally surfacing on her mouth. "That's only because I was up last night with your daughter."
"My daughter? Our daughter, Guinevere. And besides, hey, I got up with her too."
"And for that I thank you so very much." Arthur sloppily stamps a kiss to her temple before she can say anything else, sweeping Shayla into his arms, carrying her with him as they jaunt down the path to the clearing. Gwen hangs back for a moment, watching them. If Arthur always insists she and Shayla are his two most important things, she'd insist that he and Shayla were hers.
A/G*A/G
Everything gets set up in the clearing in the usual Arthur/Gwen date fashion by Catherine and Merlin shortly after they arrive. It was a perfect summer day, sunny with a perfectly mild temperature, a little humid, even. Gwen loved the feeling of the warm air, of the sunshine on her face.
They all eat and talk together, Arthur, Gwen, Catherine, Merlin. Oh, and Shayla too, of course. It is interesting in this way; away from Camelot, they get to be four friends and a family instead of King and Queen and Princess and Sorcerer and Servant. Shayla eats too-she and Gwen are given privacy for that in the comfort of the carriage-and not long after she has eaten and burped and all of that, she sinks into sleep, yet again. She is wrapped in a blanket and kept out of the sun and in the carriage for the duration of her nap, the curtain left open, so she wouldn't grow too warm. This forces the conversation to quiet, but they continue to have a nice time together anyhow. Merlin hunts around for herbs for Gaius.
"Merlin, why do that when you can just...make a potion?" Gwen asks after watching him for a while.
"I don't know," he answers, shrugging. "I still like to do it for him. i like the challenge. He always looks so...pleased when I come home with them. I guess I am still in habit of doing things the ordinary way."
Gwen nods. Nothing Merlin ever did would be normal; he was much too exceptional and awesome to ever be normal. She tells him this and he blushes.
"Do not flatter him so, Guinevere," Arthur says. "We don't need an egotistical man among us."
"Yes, it's not like you don't know anything about that already," Merlin says, laughing. Arthur glares at him, leaving Catherine and Gwen laughing too.
The conversation slows after that and they just lie there, thinking, all of them content, listening to nature.
"It looks like rain," Arthur says after a while, looking on the horizon. "A storm, perhaps."
"I always loved storms when I was a kid," Gwen offers, relaxing against him.
"Me too."
They get up and pack up their things. And it turns out Arthur is right because the nearer they get to the citadel, the darker the sky grows, the storm seeming to be chasing them home. Rain is dumped from the sky, falling in sheets by the time they reach the court-yard. Arthur helps Gwen with Shayla out of the carriage, throws his cape over them both as he ushers them up the steps and into the warm and dry comfort of the castle. Merlin sees Catherine home through the rain, both of them running and running, and then he goes home too, to Gaius.
A/G*A/G
Not less than an hour afterwards, a knock sounds on the doors of the Royal Chambers.
"Enter," Arthur intones, rising from his desk, and Sir Leon steps inside. "Sire," he says. "My Lady," he adds, seeing Gwen in the rocking chair with Shayla.
"What is it, Leon?"
"Yes, what's going on?" Gwen asks.
"Checking over things for the upcoming banquet," Leon answers. "Only a few more details left to sort out." Gwen nods. Arthur puts a hand on her arm, his silent way of letting her know he'll be back soon, and walks out of the RC with Sir Leon.
A/G*A/G
Zelda-the ominous figure in black that no one saw sneak into the citadel earlier with that bitter plan to put into place-stole into the Royal Chambers the second the King exited. His absence was pure luck. She'd been waiting around for hours and this was her chance!
She silences Gwen first thing, covering her mouth with her hand, annoyed already by her shrieks and protests. With her shouts muffled, she casts a spell making Gwen unable to speak or move. With that completed, she give her a potion, rendering her unconscious, just for good measure. She drags Gwen over to the closet, stuffs her inside, slams the door.
Zelda smiles widely, enjoying how well her plan is falling into place so far. Now that she's out of the way, Zelda casts another spell, on herself, one which changes her appearance to be that of Gwen's. She goes over to where she'd plopped Shayla in the crib and stands over it, grinning wickedly in all her triumph this far. Shayla cries and cries, her baby instincts sensing someone other than her mother around her, someone unfamiliar despite the identical appearance. Zelda snarls, prays that the baby of all people won't be the one to blow her cover. Arthur comes back in the RC as she tries to leave with Shayla, leaving Zelda-as-Gwen to paste a phony smile on her face.
"You'll never guess what they're planning as the main course for the banquet," Arthur says.
"Oh, what would that be?"
"Scallops." A delicacy in Camelot, not something Gwen grew up with, hence something she didn't care for, not even as an adult. He watches her face, waiting for her reaction and his face clouds when he hears it.
"That sounds...lovely."
"You don't want to request something else? You hate scallops."
"What? Oh, right, of course," Zelda-as-Gwen says absently.
She jostles the baby, embarrassed and unnerved over the child's constant crying, tries to act nonchalant as she heads towards the door again. Arthur watches her, steps in front of the door of the Royal Chambers.
"Where are you going?"
"Oh, to find the...nursemaid. To feed the baby, you know. All this crying must mean she's hungry." She tries to smile again, but ends up looking silly. Despite this, she slips past the King quickly and sails out of the room. Arthur watches her walk out of the RC with Shayla with narrowed eyes.
Out of pure coincidence, Merlin comes across them in the corridor a few seconds later.
"Hey, Gwen," he says perkily as usual to her, to Zelda-as-Gwen, only to get pulled into the Royal Chambers by Arthur, who puts him against the wall, a hand to his mouth, telling him to be quiet.
"What's going on? Where is Gwen going?" He asks after Arthur lets him free.
"Oh, to find the nursemaid. You know, to feed Shayla."
"OK," Merlin says simply.
"No, it's not OK!" Arthur roars. "We don't have a nursemaid! You know this! And Guinevere never has to leave the room, not to feed Shayla of all things."
Merlin studies the King's face. "I'm confused," he says finally. "What's going on here, exactly?"
"I don't know," Arthur admits shortly. "I'd say confused is something you always are, Merlin, but this time I am too so you have to help me figure this out."
"Figure what out? So Gwen and Shayla left the room? The only problem was Gwen didn't give her to me."
"Didn't you sense something...off...about her as you passed her just now?"
"What? No. Why?"
"She's not herself. I can tell."
"Arthur, you're so unobservant, she's even wearing the same dress."
"Shayla is crying," Arthur says, trying to explain.
"She does that all that time."
"She didn't want to have the main course changed for the banquet. It's scallops."
"Well, why would she? I love scallops too."
Arthur sighs, frustrated. "Guinevere doesn't. Don't you understand? She didn't want to change it. She always wants to change it, request an alternative. She left the room to do whatever with Shayla. She never leaves the room to do whatever with Shayla. Something's off, I'm telling you. Just come with me," Arthur says finally, tugging Merlin out of the Royal Chambers and into the hallway. It is dim and dark, only clumps of light coming from candles. Zelda-as-Gwen's footfalls echo off the high ceilings. Merlin and Arthur follow her, arguing quietly.
"It looks like Gwen, though," Merlin insists.
"It's isn't," Arthur insists, his voice flat. "You aren't married so you wouldn't understand. It's not Gwen; I can't tell you how I know, but I know."
A/G*A/G
Meanwhile, Zelda-as-Gwen walks through the corridors, no knowledge of Arthur and Merlin trailing behind her, watching her. The crying of the child had yet to cease and Zelda-as-Gwen was growing annoyed.
"Just be quiet, will you?" Zelda-as-Gwen bursts out finally in a girlish, frustrated screech.
"See?" Arthur says barely above a whisper. "Not Guinevere at all."
"Man, you are good," Merlin barely whispers back.
"Well, I should be, she is my wife you know, not to mention the mother of my child."
"You said that already."
"Just come on," Arthur says and Merlin does what he always does and follows after the King.
A/G*A/G
"We've got to do something to get Shayla back," Merlin says as they continue to creep down the length of the corridor, keeping a close eye on this Gwen look-alike.
"What should we do?" Even though he asked, Arthur already has a plan. He's going to kill or mortally wound or do whatever to this Gwen-look-alike lady and get his daughter back to safety. Arthur draws his sword, tense, ready.
"Well, we can't use magic. Or your sword."
"What? Why? What else could we do?"
Merlin sighs, feels glad to feel smart again. "We have to figure out some way of stopping whatever she has planned without hurting Shayla in the process."
Arthur nods. "We need to get closer to her, corner her somehow."
They speed up their pace. As they do, Zelda-as-Gwen does too.
"Going in search of Catherine, are you, Gwen?" Arthur asks, jumping in front of Zelda-as-Gwen, surprising her, stopping her in her place before she regains her bearings and starts walking again, trying to remain nonchalant.
"Yes, yes, that's right," Zelda-as-Gwen answers. She pushes past the King, keeps walking.
"Shouldn't you know her house is all the way in the lower town? What do you need her for to feed Shayla, anyway?"
"Oh, just-um, you see-"
"I do, I do see. I see you're clearly not my actual wife, but that you do have my actual daughter, so hand her over."
"Never!" Zelda cries out, and high-tails it down the corridor, clutching Shayla close to her. Arthur races after her, finally cornering her at the end of the hallway. At this point, both Arthur and Merlin run at her from both sides.
"Arthur! Look out!" Merlin yells as he comes closer to Zelda, but he ignores his servant and progresses towards her so that he runs in front of her. This again startles and distracts her, leaving Merlin able to transport himself with magic close to Zelda-as-Gwen, able to reach his arm just out far enough, and thus able to grab Shayla, pluck her out and away from Zelda's grasp. Seeing this, Arthur immediately runs over to Shayla, spends a couple seconds checking over her.
"Are you all right?" Arthur asks her, even though she can't respond. He hugs Shayla close to him, nearly going limp with relief, surprised by how frightened he felt when he saw her in peril. "I'm sorry. Daddy's sorry," he says, not caring that Merlin just heard him say that, not caring about anything but the baby in his arms. He smoothes a hand over her head in fatherly affection. When this is done, they both glance up to find Zelda gone.
"What happened?" Arthur yells. "Where did she go?"
"I don't know. All I do know is I sense magic in her. Dark magic. The real questions is," Merlin says, glancing at the Princess, "what could she want with Shayla?"
Arthur glances down at his daughter too, saying after a moment, "We never even saw what she looked like. What she really looked like, I mean."
"She obviously didn't get what she wanted," Merlin says now, his tone grave. "She's going to be back." If Arthur is at all frightened by that possibility he doesn't show it. After all, as he's said before, he's a warrior, you learn to control your fear and all that. But Merlin really knows by the look on his face when he saw Zelda have Shayla that his need to protect his family went above everything else.
"We need to find Gwen, the real Gwen."
And that sends Merlin yelling. "Everyone, find Gwen!" he says, and runs around checking in all the rooms. Arthur stands back to watch, Shayla in his arms still, bored, but letting him finish.
"Why aren't you telling everyone to search?" Merlin is out of breath when he gets back to the King. If anything, it shows him his servant's dedication to him, and to his friendship with Gwen.
"Because I don't have to. You just didn't give me a chance to tell you that."
"So then where is she?"
"In the chambers, of course. Or near them. That's the last place she was, I wasn't gone but ten minutes; whatever that woman did, there wasn't a lot of time to stash Gwen somewhere so she could grab Shayla. There aren't many place you could fit a grown person, anyhow, besides a place in the chambers."
Merlin nods lamely, feeling not-smart again.
They charge down the hallway to the Royal Chambers, and find her where Arthur said she'd be. In a closet, actually. He checks under the bed-she's not there. He checks behind the dressing screen-not there. He checks the closet-and gives Merlin a flat expression that says plainly he is King Arthur and that He. Is. Right. Because there she is. Curled up, unconscious, is Gwen.
"See, Merlin? This is why you don't give the orders. If I'd trusted you, Gwen would still be some evil woman after my baby."
"There's dark magic here," he answers seriously, ignoring Arthur's comment, putting a hand to Gwen's forehead. "I'm guessing the potion given to her will wear off eventually, in a couple of hours or so; do you want me to make up something even so?"
"No, she needs the rest; I want to Shayla to myself for a while anyway."
"You're never going to trust me with her again, are you? In fear I might accidentally mistakes the real Gwen for a fake Gwen and hand Shayla over to dark and powerful magic?"
"Yep, pretty much," Arthur answers. He scoops Gwen up off the floor, lays her gently on their bed.
"Are you going to tell her?"
"Why do you always ask me that?"
"How do you mean?"
"You asked me that same question after I beat up those two brutes who tortured her, if I was going to tell her or not. Why this insistence on telling her things? Painful things?"
"I just think honesty is the best policy. The key to marriage, some say."
"Merlin, wouldn't you think I'm the one who's more experienced in the whole marriage thing?"
"Yes, sire. Do you need me to stay here with you?" He asks after a moment.
"No, Shayla and I will be fine by ourselves until Guinevere wakes up."
"You're sure?"
"Yes, Merlin."
"OK, because if you're not-
"I am."
"All right, then," Merlin says, and he leaves the RC. He comes back about two seconds later, pokes his head in the door. "So, are you going to tell her?"
"Yes, Merlin, all right? I will," Arthur says, frustrated. "That's all I needed to hear," his servant says, and ducks out of the room before he receives a boot to the head or some other thing hurled at him. Not that Arthur could with Shayla in his arms, but he doesn't doubt the King's ability to throw objects at him nonetheless.
A/G*A/G
Gwen begins to stir awake long after Shayla has officially gone to bed for the night, not that she won't be up in a matter of hours anyway.
"Arthur?' She says softly, slowly sitting up, putting a hand to her head. "Why I am on the bed? What happened?"
"What do you remember?' He asks quietly, coming over and sitting next to her, holding her hand.
"There was a woman," Gwen starts to say slowly, everything coming into focus now. "Yes, a woman...I tried-I remember shouting...and then...nothing. Darkness." As more begins to dawn on her, she becomes more alert, her eyes widening. "Oh, my God, Shayla," she says, her eyes filling with worry and panic and also some tears. "Where is she?"
"Relax, relax she's all right," Arthur says, smoothing her hair back to soothe her. "She's sleeping in her crib in the nursery like always."
"Nothing happened to her, did it? She's OK?"
"Yes, she is just fine, I assure you."
Gwen nods. Arthur slowly helps her to her feet, wraps an arm around her waist to steady her. He leads her over to a chair at the table, which she sinks into. He hands her a goblet of water, which she sips slowly.
"What happened?" she asks again. When he looks hesitant, she reaches for his hand across the table. "Please tell me the truth," she says, and the look on her face makes him want to and not want to all at once.
"There was a woman, like you said. She...apparently, drugged you with some kind of magical potion, gave herself one so she'd look like you, and she...took Shalya." Gwen gasps, Arthur squeezes her hand harder. "Don't worry, Merlin and I followed her and stopped her and got Shayla back."
"And the woman?"
Arthur shakes his head, the shame ganging up behind his eyes. "We don't know. We only saw her as a look-alike of you, so we have no idea what she actually looks like."
"How did she even get here, into the citadel?"
Anther head shake, more shame, some guilt. "I don't know," Arthur says again, because he didn't. Seeing her tight, miserable, worried face makes him want to lighten her mood, any way he can. "Oh, and by the way," he starts to say in the way of this, "you missed something really important pertaining to the banquet."
"And what is that?"
"We're having scallops as part of the main course."
"Ugh, not again!" She says in a cute child-like way, putting her hands over her eyes in all the horror, and with that, Arthur knows for sure the real Gwen is back, safe and sound, just as Shayla is.