As the three men entered the house Merlin took Arthur to the bathroom to clean up and Gwaine went into the kitchen to see what was about to cook. He knew full well if Hunith had gone away she would have left her son with plenty to eat. Once Arthur had cleaned up and Merlin had changed they went down to the kitchen. Merlin was determined to sort out this matter once and for all. As he went into the kitchen he stopped dead in his tracks. Gwaine was sat in one of the chairs and Hunith was stood facing the door. She didn't look best pleased.

"What are you doing home mother?" Merlin asked.

"Well you might ask, Gloria was unwell so we called it off, we'll go when she's feeling better. Now looking at you three I'd say it was just as well. What has been going on?" she demanded. Hunith might be the kindest, gentlest person Merlin and Gwaine knew but when she got that tone in her voice they knew they were in trouble.

Merlin looked at his mother. "Nothing much mum, just a misunderstanding" he turned to the others "Come on boys lets go to the pub"

"Oh no you don't. And don't give me nothing much, I wasn't born yesterday my boy! Gwaine comes in here with bruised knuckles, not that that's new! then you two with bruises in your faces and from how Arthur walking I'd say he has a few more bruises on his chest. Now I want an explanation." Hunith folded her arms across her chest and waited.

"Look Aunty Hunith" Gwaine said in a beaten tone "It was a misunderstanding" he started to say.

"I can see that, I assume it was you that hit Merlin! at a guess I'd say by accident which suggests that he got in the way when you were hitting Arthur. And since your father told me you were on location in Ireland it much be something serious to bring you back when you are working.! "

"You don't miss anything do you" Gwaine gave his aunt a grin. "You're right"

"Well Merlin? What happened and no lies or half truths either." Hunith clearly wasn't going to let this slide.

Arthur decided to tell his boss's mother the truth. "Mrs Emrys, I'm to blame. For years I bullied your son, through juniors, seniors and college. It's something I'm ashamed of. When I went for my interview I didn't realise that Merlin was the boss, and he gave me the job, much to my surprise. When Gwaine found out he flew over and was protecting Merlin, as you guessed Merlin got in the way." Arthur looked at Hunith, he was about to speak again when she beat him to it. But she surprised them all by cuffing her son round the ear.

"You ... Why didn't you tell me!" then she turned to Arthur "I knew he had trouble then he started school but after that he never told me" Then she turned to Gwaine and slapped him as well "And you're no better why didn't you tell me!"

"Aunty I didn't know until Merlin started Oxford and I was asked to go and speak to Merl, he kept it from me as well, I wanted to kill that creep then but Merl made me promise to leave it. I said then if ever I heard anything I'd deal with it."

"Oh so violence is the way is it? You great lump. What would that cure accept for your pride." Hunith glared at the Irishman.

Then she turned to Arthur "I'm glad you have seen the error of your ways, but why? why for so long and why my boy?"

"I don't have an excuse Mrs Emrys, I was an arrogant and self centred boy, who thought he was better than anyone else I suppose. I'm not proud of it. In fact that's why I was determined to work for Dragon Enterprises, I'd heard about then and they were so different than my father company where he rules with fear and threat of the sack" Arthur told her.

"Yes I've met your father, we had a meeting years ago, I'm sorry I didn't like him." Hunith admitted. "I can see why you were like it"

"Now Gwaine I hope you have got this out of your system?" Hunith asked her nephew.

"I won't touch him again...unless he does anything to make me. I'm not as forgiving as you and Merl" Gwaine growled.

"So I'm going to feed the other two and not you, is that it?" Hunith grinned wickedly.

"Aunty!" Gwaine growled "You can't do that!"

"Oh I can, but I won't, but I will be speaking to your mother!" she threatened.

The three men sat down with Hunith and she cooked then all a meal, by the end of the meal they were all talking although it was clear that Gwaine would probably never be friends with Arthur. But he was too frightened of his Aunt to say anymore. Once Hunith had fed them she took Arthur back to Morgana's house refusing to listen to her son, who didn't want her driving at night. "You two stay here and sort out the kitchen I won't be long" she told them firmly.

Once they were driving back Hunith continued with the conversation she had started in front of the other two. "Listen young man, I am not surprised that Merlin hired you, it's just the sort of thing he'd do. But it does explain him not sleeping well recently, he thinks I haven't noticed. But I will tell you this don't mess up because if you do you will have more than just Gwaine to deal with. My son is very important to me and if you hurt him in any way I will ruin you. I won't use physical violence, that's Gwaine's forte, but I will protect my son."

Arthur's head swung round in surprise "I understand Mrs Emrys"

"It's either Ms Emrys or when I can trust you, Hunith, I mean what I say young man. Had Gwaine been around when Merlin was young you would never have got away with it, but they'd moved to Ireland. My Merlin is a good man, better than most and he has a lot of friends, real friends not like most people."

"I realise that Ms Emrys, and I won't let you down. I can't think of anyone who would have given me the chance your son did." Arthur admitted.

"Well were here, when you go to work on Monday I suggest you keep this all to yourself. Goodbye" Hunith waited until Arthur was out of the car before she drove home having achieved what she wanted to.

Gwaine stopped the weekend and flew back to Ireland Sunday night having also had a conversation with Hunith, his was regarding keeping secrets from her. Hunith was a gentle lady unless her son was threatened in any way, then she was a tiger, Gwaine knew better than to cross her. On Monday there was plenty of gossip flying round the factory but nothing was said by any of the four who knew what happened. Merlin had apologised for his cousin, but Arthur still thought he had got off lightly. Merlin was still wary around Arthur, but he was managing to hide his unease. Arthur wasn't surprised by either Gwaine or Hunith's reactions and he knew they both meant what they had said. Merlin also had a work with Lance and Gwen and made them make up over what happened. Lance had certainly learn his lesson and Merlin had hot sweet tea given to him on regular intervals for sometime afterwards.

Merlin was pleased with Arthur as a manager, he had introduced several new measures and also increased the overseas market for the company products. He was also popular with the apprentices, several of whom he mentored. All seemed to settle down until Gwen was approached by one of the apprentices who felt he was receiving unfair treatment from Arthur, who it seemed had refused to sign of some of his work. As part of their apprenticeship they were expected to understand the documentation surrounding the testing of products and this was the area in question. Gwen approached Arthur and asked him what he felt was the problem.

"He is consistently filling in the forms wrongly, I have had several sessions with him on a one to one basis. The last time I told him if he didn't improve I wouldn't be able to sign him off. He got upset saying his father expected him to pass through the system without problems and I told him that wasn't my concern" Arthur looked at Gwen "I won't sign off work I'm not happy with, his practical work I understand is excellent but his paperwork is slipshod and unacceptable. I have asked him if he has any issues with dyslexia and checked with his college tutors. There is nothing to suggest he is incapable he's just lazy. On one occasion he tried to pass off another boys work as his."

Gwen took the matter to Merlin who spoke to the apprentice, then arranged a meeting with both the boy and Arthur. Arthur brought the unsatisfactory work with him as he had photocopied it. In the meantime the boy's father rang Merlin and said his son was being bullied and demanded a full investigation as per company policy. This was instigated with Gwen and Merlin as well as a college tutor involved.

The whole matter was stressful for all concerned, with Arthurs job on the line he felt particularly stress, he felt he had done all he could for the apprentice and wasn't willing to back down on his standards. When the father turned up he reminded Arthur of his father in many ways. The man manage to catch Arthur alone before the meeting.

"Your Pendragon's boy aren't you?" he demanded

"I am Sir and you are?" He asked politely.

"George Sarum you are the idiot who won't sign my son off aren't you?"

"If you son is Tony Sarum then yes I am. We are about to have a meeting so I think it best we discuss it then" Arthur said unwilling to get into an argument.

"Look your father is a good friend of mine, we do alot of business together so why don't you just sign his forms and be done with it." Sarum demanded.

"I'm sorry Sir, what your relationship is with my father's company has nothing to do with this issue, I don't work for my father, now as I said shall we wait for Mr Emrys." Arthur realised then what he was up against, it was the old 'scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' culture that he so hated.

With that Merlin walked in with Tony Sarum, Arthur wasn't sure if Merlin had heard the previous remarks, there was nothing to show on his face. Arthur introduced the pair before they sat down and waited. As soon as the tutor Mr Alator and Gwen were in and introduced the meeting started.

Merlin started the meeting and explained to all of them why they were there and who they all were, he them asked Tony to tell them what his concern was.

As Tony started to speak his father butted in "My boy is being victimised" he started to say.

Merlin held up his hand "Can you let Tony speak for himself please you will get your chance. Now Tony can you please explain in your own words what you see as the problem, and don't worry this is all informal at this stage"

Tony looked at his father before speaking "Well Arthur...Mr Pendragon... he won't sign of my work and I don't think it's fair"

"Please Tony continue to use our first names as you usually do, now do you think your work is up to the standard required and do you have copies" Merlin asked him.

Tony handed over several pieces of paper which Merlin looked at then handed to the tutor. Now these look good but are they the ones you gave to Arthur and are they your own work?" He asked gently.

Tony looked uncomfortable but nodded

"Tony I need you to answer please so we all know where we stand" this time it was Mr Alator the tutor that spoke "Think carefully before you answer".

"Yes its my work" Tony said defiantly

Arthur handed over his copies that had been signed by both him and Tony when they were given to him. Merlin and Alator looked at them before handing everything to Tony and his father.

"The writing seems to be different in the signed ones and unsigned ones?" Merlin asked

"Sometimes my writings a bit different isn't everyone's! Look he wants to fail me, he's a bully" Tony protested.

"That's a strong allegation young man" Merlin said quietly

"So why don't you act on it and make him sign off my lads work, it's disgraceful you winning awards and all of your company on the grounds you look after your staff." Tony's father said angrily "Is it worth your reputation?"

"We do! and Merlin cares deeply about his staff, all of them" Gwen spoke for the first time "That's why we're having this meeting"

Mr Alator looked at Tony "Now Tony I'm giving you another chance, I looked after you at college and I know you pretty well I also know your writing, is this your work? Only it looks more like John Gile's to me, didn't he come here with you? If we look in his file will we find the same thing there?"

Tony looked defeated and muttered "My work is good everyone says so"

Arthur looked at Tony "Your practical work is good, look you shouldn't try to cheat, the paper work is just as important, I have tried to help you and I have also told you we will get there but it will just take longer, so why do this?"

Merlin looked at Tony "We can give you help and if it takes longer to get you through that's not a problem, but you need to be honest. So please tell us the truth and then we can forget this and work on, if your continue we will get to the bottom of it but if you are found to be lying I will have to terminate your apprenticeship.

MrSarum jumped up "Are you calling my boy a liar? I'll have you for this"

"Mr Sarum please sit down, as you know I have a hard father and I can see what happened, Tony wanted to make you proud and I suspect he also wanted to live up to your expectations of him. He tried to do that and dug a hole for himself. Don't make him suffer for that. Accept him for what he is, a very able engineer but who needs help along the way. We can still give him that help but he needs your support" Arthur sounded sincere, he really wanted to help Tony, if he could.

Tony looked at Arthur in amazement "You'd still help me?"

"Yes I would, as long as there were no more lies and provided Merlin is happy, it is his company" Arthur looked at Merlin.

Merlin gave a slight smile before looking at Mr Sarum "Well Sir is that satisfactory for you?"

"As long as he passes and no record is made of this, but I expect him to pass on time and at the top of his group."

Arthur looked up at the ceiling but before he could answer the tutor butted in "No, there will be a record but as long as there are no more problems it will be wiped at the end of his apprenticeship and he may well not finish on time but he will do well if he works hard. I think you have to be grateful for that, Mr Emrys is within his rights to sack Tony and the fact that he is willing to keep him on speaks well for him and you should be grateful"

"I am, thank you and I'm sorry" Tony said

"Well I think it fair to let Gwen look after you from now on, but be warned she's a hard taskmaster" Merlin said

"I am willing to continue if Tony wants me to" Arthur said "I think we understand one another now"

"Well think about it Tony and let us know. In the meantime go back to work" Merlin said. "Gaius will be working with you this afternoon"

Once Tony had left the room Merlin turned to the boys father "Don't try to force your son to be other than he is, he will be a good engineer in his own time not yours" with that he turned and walked out saying as he left "Arthur can you pop to my office in a minute please.

Arthur went after Mr Sarum as he stomped of down the corridor "Mr Sarum, please give your son some space, I spent years trying to live up to my father's ideas and in the end it failed, so I don't speak to him at all now. I wasn't a nice person for it and I can see your son in myself. Don't lose him, support him please."

"I'll think about it" with that he turned and walked away.

Later Arthur walked to Merlin's office and Merlin handed him a coffee "I think you need that, Thank you, you handled that well. The tutor will keep it all low key. Are you really happy to continue with Tony?"

"Yes I understand him, as soon as I saw his father I understood where he was coming from and why he did it"

"OK, but make sure if you have problems in future I hear about them before it gets to his stage." he looked at Arthur a strange expression on his face "Finish your coffee here I'm off to the labs" Merlin turned and left a puzzled Arthur behind.