Disclaimer: NOT MINE!
This was a hard chapter to write and the only reason this is being able to be posted is that I need a break from cramming for finals. My head is going to implode. And my boyfriend thinks that I am cheating on him… yes with Arthur and Merlin.
Third Person Camelot was under attack; Morgana Pendragon had returned and wiggled her way into the very heart of Camelot. The king was distressed, he hadn't slept and had barely eaten. It had been nearly two weeks since they had discovered the witch. Merlin was still very sore, the wounds had almost completely healed but he still sleeping in Arthur's chambers, the both fearing to be apart. He was close to calling off the search for Morgana, he had run his knights ragged. He had already made the decree of divorce, stripping Morgana/ Guinevere of her crown. They still hadn't found the real Gwen but he had sent Sir Lancelot (who had proven himself a true knight) and Sir Elyan to Ealdor, which is where Gwen was believed to be spending her exile with Merlin's mother, Hunith.
Arthur's POV
I paced back and forth in my chambers, my head spinning. Merlin lay on his stomach, his back still hurt to much to lay on. He cocked his head at me, pulling himself up into a sitting position.
"Arthur, you need to calm down." He said patting the bed next to him, signalling me to sit down.
Sitting down, I place my head in my hands as he drew soft circles on my back. "How am I supposed to calm down? I was married to my sister… I had sex with my sister!" I said with a shudder "And now my ex fiance, who I thought I was married too, is coming back to Camelot. Oh! and what am I going to tell her? 'Hey, well we got married, but it turns out it wasn't you, so I divorced you and now I am with my servant; who happens to be a man! And your long lost love, Lancelot is back from the dead, AGAIN." I said almost yelling at the last part.
"I know, Arthur. If you want her, the real her, I understand, I can even go back to Ealdor." Merlin told me, choking up a sob. I place my hand under his chin, tilting his face up so he would look me in the eye.
"I am slightly offended that you think that I care that little for you, but I can understand. You watched me marry Gwen once. You won't watch me marry her again. The next time you watch me get married, you will be standing at the alter with me." I whispered to him, kissing him on the forehead.
"Really?" he asked, hope glimmering in his eyes.
"Absolutely, you will one day become crowned king of Camelot with me." Just as I finished saying that, Sir Leon burst in.
"Sire, Merlin, Sir Elyan and Sir Lancelot are back; and they have Gwen. They are all waiting in the courtroom for you." he said. I nodded my head in response, grabbing my over jacket to leave. Just then Merlin stood up, he had been standing a little. Grabbing a tunic, he gently pulled it over his head.
"Where do you think you are going?" I asked "With you." He said walking up next to me, placing his hand in mine. I left it at that, knowing that I couldn't reason with him.
We entered the courtroom and Gwen rushed up to hug me. Her embrace made me stiffen. Then she wrapped her arms around Merlin, unaware of his wounds. He cried out in pain, Gwen stepping back a frightened look on her face. "What… What did I do?" She asked, tears welling up in her eyes.
"N-nothing." Merlin said through gritted teeth.
"Merlin, that wasn't 'nothing'. " She scolded him pulling up his tunic and gasping at the marks, Hunith, who was also there, cried when she saw her son's back.
"Who… who did this?" Gwen stuttered.
"Well you, well, Morgana, but she was disguised as you." I said.
"Yes, Elyan and Lancelot told us on the ride over. They told us everything." Gwen said giving me a strange look.
"Everything?" I asked, taking a big gulp.
"Everything, the poison ivy, the bet, the stable boy, the bath. Everything." She said, giving me an approving look. "I am happy for you two." she said with a sincere smile.
"As am I." Hunith said, supporting her son.
"You know people, Merlin and Arthur's relationship and what they do in the bedroom isn't our primary concern." Gwaine said, taking a gulp of ale from his mug.
"We need to find Morgana." Percival said "No, I don't need my knights running ragged for someone that can disguise herself as anyone she wants too." I told my knights. They all began to protest, before realizing that I was right. "Right now, I want the guards doing double time and I want the knights to stay in the castle in the same chambers as another knight, along with Guinevere and Hunith." I ordered my knights. Merlin left his mother and came to support himself on my shoulder before whispering in my ear, "My mother wants to know when the wedding is."