Summary: Life goes on and a concert is announced

A/N- As always, Beta'd by 213serendipity and britpicked by desuke-dragonqueen. Excuse the formatting, it's a little meh.

Chapter 7: Lady Helen

Gaius?" Merlin called into the backroom "I'm headed off for dinner, would you like anything?"

"Nothing Merlin, go right ahead"

Merlin slipped out from behind the counter and headed towards the cafeteria, hands in his pockets, whistling. As he turned the corner, he stopped short.

"What the hell is this?" he muttered. There was a sort of bottleneck at the door, a sea of red shirts surrounded it, blocking his entrance. He looked around, trying to spot one of his friends, and caught sight of Gwen and Lance a little off to the side. Elbowing his way through the crowd, he made his way towards them.

"What the hell is this?" he repeated. Lance just pointed at a bright notice on the wall. As Merlin read it, his jaw dropped.

"Lady Helen?" he asked incredulously "As in the Lady Helen? The internationally renowned pop-star Lady Helen?"

"I know!" squealed Gwen "Isn't it exciting?"

Merlin chuckled, then frowned as his stomach growled. "Any idea how we're supposed to get inside?"

"Um.."

They were saved the trouble of trying to get through the crowd by the appearance of Gwaine and Percival, dragging Freya along, Percival with an air of amused resignation. Elyan followed behind silently grinning.

"See Frey, I told you, didn't I?" crowed Gwaine pointing triumphantly at the poster.

"Huh, so Lady Helen's doing a benefit concert at the hospital?"

"You missed the part where it says that volunteers get free entry."

Freya turned to Merlin and rolled her eyes "Alright Gwaine, you were right, now can we please get something to eat? I missed lunch."

"All right all right, keep your shirt on… or take it off, if you're more comfortable that way" Gwaine waggled his eyebrows, and then grunted as Freya neatly jabbed him in the stomach with her elbow. Hard. "Sorry! Perce, can you get us through?"

Percival began to push his way through the crowd and the others followed along in the large boy's wake. They made it through the lunch line chattering to each other. They bumped into Arthur, but aside from a snide "Hello Dumbo" (and Merlin almost felt sorry for the bloke if that was the best he could come up with) he ignored them. Merlin had just rolled his eyes, and tried to ignore the telling swoop of his stomach. As they made their way to their usual table, Merlin studiously ignored Arthur's table. He told himself that it was because he was, frankly, terrified of Morgana, and that it had nothing to do with the fact that Arthur was sitting and laughing with his friends.

They settled in at the table, talking excitedly about the upcoming concert.

"D'you think she'll give me her autograph?" asked Gwen

"If you can make it past her security" said Freya nonchalantly "Don't worry though Gwen, I'll hold 'em off while you make a break for it"

Gwen threw her head back and laughed. Merlin had to move his potatoes before Lance put his elbow in them as he watched her with a ridiculously soppy look on his face.

"Well" said Gwaine "She's hot. Like, actually smoking." He looked around thoughtfully "I'll bet if I can get past her security, I can ask her out. Perce'll hold 'em back for me, won't you Perce?"

"Nope" said the other boy, popping the p as he sipped his cola.

Gwaine threw a napkin at him as the others laughed at the put upon look on the boys face.

Stopping for the night was the sensible thing to do, Helen knew, but she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong. "Get a grip, Helen" she muttered to herself "It's a five star hotel for crying out loud, not a seedy motel. You'll be fine" She hummed to herself as she got ready for bed. There was a creak outside the door. She froze. "Is anyone there?" No answer. She shook herself "you're being ridiculous" she muttered, turning to her mirror and picking up her comb. There was another creak. Helen put down the comb and headed to the door. Ignoring every self preservation instinct inside her, she poked her head outside the door. Nothing. She sighed in relief, shut the door, and turned around, finding her self face to face with an old lady with wild hair and tortured eyes, and found, to her horror, that she couldn't speak. The woman smiled at her before plunging a silver knife into her heart, and Helen let out a soundless scream. The woman watched as she slumped to the ground. Her eyes glowed, as she slowly took on the features of the dead woman in front of her. Uther Pendragon had killed her boy. She would have her revenge. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a son for a son. Arthur Pendragon was going to die.