"Arthur?"

The door opened a crack, just enough for Arthur to see Merlin peering through. His expression guarded, but he thought he detected a trace of uncertainty lurking in Merlin's eyes. "What is it?" He had meant to sound upbeat, but his tone was flat. Perhaps bordering on angry. Arthur sighed. "Don't mind me. It's just been that sort of day. Week. Month, maybe. I don't know. What do you need?"

Merlin pushed the door open further and leaned against the jamb. "Me? Nothing. I'm fine. I was just wondering about you. We've hardly seen you in the past couple of days, and that's hard to do, seeing as how we have five rooms and one hallway."

"I'm fine," Arthur said automatically, recognizing the lie the moment it left his lips.

"Really?" Merlin asked, studying his face like it was one of his books. "Because your life has been turned upside down, the world thinks you're dead, your father was arrested, and your sister has inherited the company that should have been yours. And you've hardly eaten, and unless you've been really quiet about it, I don't think you've showered, either."

"Merlin-"

"You definitely haven't shaved," Merlin interrupted. "You're looking a bit scruffy. You should do something about that. I mean, I know we live clear down here and that we don't exactly mingle with polite society-"

"Merlin!"

"But that's really not a reason to ignore your hygiene. Or to not eat the food I slaved over for almost ten minutes," Merlin plunged on, not giving Arthur the chance to get a word in edgewise. "Really! I had to cut open the meal packets for everyone and heat them up. It was work!"

"If that was hard work, then I'm a pretty lady," Arthur said, smiling in spite of himself, which was probably the effect that Merlin had been going for.

"I dunno. In a certain light…." Merlin's brow furrowed and he tilted his head, giving Arthur a speculative look. "Get you a nice frock and some heels, maybe a bit of lipstick. Some eyeliner. Your hair's a little short, but I'm sure there's something we could do with it. Plenty of women have short hair."

Arthur stared at the kid for a long moment before a chuckled escaped him and then turned into full blown laughter. He lay back on the bed, not sure if the hilarity came from Merlin's contemplating him as a woman, or if it was just the release of the tension that had been building within for the past few days.

"It wasn't that funny," Merlin said. He stepped into the room and slid the door shut behind him. "Are you sure you're alright? I could call for Gaius. He's just down the hall."

Arthur caught his breath and brushed the tears out of his eyes. "No, leave him be. It's just been a long couple of days, you know? Or a long few months. Years, maybe." He let his arms flop to his sides. "It's been a long life, honestly."

"I know how that feels," Merlin said. Arthur heard him take the few steps inside, felt the mattress shift when he sat down on the foot of the bed. 'Perch' might have been a better word. Merlin never 'sat'. He curled up on things, folded up in chairs, or perched on them. He didn't seem to be a man who found comfort easily. "Freya hasn't found any evidence one way or the other about Morgana's… involvement. Or lack thereof. Your father's lawyers have kept him out of jail so far, but he's under house arrest. Being monitored and everything."

"And the world still thinks I'm dead."

"Yeah. There's that, too," Merlin said. "But we're not so terrible, are we? The five of us down here?"

Arthur opened his eyes, jerked his head to the side, and looked up at Merlin. The kid's expression was guarded again, his eyes shuttered against whatever painful thing he thought Arthur might say. "You're wonderful," he said firmly. "All of you. I owe you my life. You could have left me to bleed out in that alley."

"If it weren't for us, you wouldn't have gotten shot in the first place."

"If you hadn't opened my eyes, all that corruption would have gone unnoticed for a long time. Maybe even until my father died and I took over, which could have been years and years from now." Arthur sat up and waited until Merlin stopped staring at the floor and returned his gaze. "I don't regret the actions I took. My only regret is that I didn't see what was happening until you all opened my eyes to it. I don't know why I didn't see or suspect that Uther was… unethical, but I didn't. Because of you, Uther is going to jail where he belongs."

"And what about-" Merlin's voice grew hoarse. He stopped, cleared his throat, and started again. "What about Morgana? What if we find out that she's behind all off this? Or at least part of it?"

What would they do? Manipulate events so that she proved her own guilt, then watch Pendragon Corp fall in her wake? And more to the point, what would Arthur do if Morgana truly was guilty? Could he bear to bring about her downfall? His own sister?

"I don't know," Arthur said at last. "I think, right now, we should take things one step at a time. Build a case slowly, track down every lead, find every last bit of evidence that's out there. If she's guilty- and I'm not convinced that she is- then it's going to take an airtight case to convict her in a court of law. But," Arthur pressed his hands against the bed and pushed himself upright, then offered Merlin a hand up, "before we start on that, let's get to that food you were slaving over, shall we? Or is it too late for that?"

"It's not too late. Unless Will or Gwaine ate your share," Merlin said, grinning slowly.

"I should probably hurry then. I don't think they like me enough to wait for me," Arthur said. He slid the door open and switched the lights off as he stepped out, turning just in time to see Merlin emerging from the darkness.

"I think they like you more than you think they do," Merlin said. "They're just too… I don't know. Too afraid to show it, maybe? Too worried that they won't be manly enough? Or whatever. But they like you."

"I'll take your word for it," Arthur said. He stepped aside and gestured for Merlin to take the lead and show him the way. It seemed like the smartest thing to do, given that Arthur was only beginning to learn about this world, and Merlin was his teacher. There were worse things that could happen.

"So what do you think of him?"

"Of Arthur?" Merlin raised his eyebrows, playing dumb in the face of Freya's question so he could buy himself another few seconds of thought. She nodded, and he shrugged, dipping his fingers into the little tub of skin cream he'd been massaging into her hands. "He's adjusting. Slowly, but he's getting used to things down here. He's accepted the fact that his life has changed forever."

"I knew that," Freya said, smiling faintly. "I could see it in his search history."

"You poked around in his matrix searches?"

"I can't help it, Merlin, you know that," Freya said. "Your matrix usage shows up to me like a loud conversation at the next table. I don't mean to overhear, but it happens anyway. It's just like when you go out to the cafes. You can't help but listen in on other conversations, other lives. And then you learn all about other people without meaning to. Or wanting to, most of the time. You get speech, and I get search histories."

Merlin lowered his eyes, an embarrassed grin on his face. "I guess I knew that," he said, "it's just that it doesn't always sink in, you know? Like Arthur, figuring out that his past life is gone." His smile faded as he dipped his fingertips in the little tub again, drawing out some more of the cream to dab on Freya's face and hands. It was cool to the touch, like drops of cold water against her feverish skin. "What do I think of Arthur?" he repeated her question, eyes half-closed as he pondered the answer, the gentle motion of his fingers in his skin acting like a mantra to help him sink deeper into his own mind.

What did he think of Arthur? He hadn't really bothered to sit down and think it over in the past few weeks, there had been so much to do and so many other things to brood about. "He's… I don't know. When we first started working with him, I thought he was an arrogant prat, you know? I mean, we were down here in the dark, and he was up there in his shining tower with the world groveling at his feet to get him to look their way. I didn't think he was going to go along with our plans. It was hard to imagine that he'd have any reason to aside from a basic bit of humanity, and that's not always present in the top levels of the megacorps."

"What changed?"

Merlin's hands went still, his fingers twining around Freya's. "All those days and nights where I sat here, monitoring his files and keystrokes, watching him go about his business and interact with the people who worked for him. I fully expected him to be a right ass, as stuck up and arrogant as any stereotypical exec. But he wasn't like that. I mean, he had his moments, but he was actually kind to the people around himself. He always said 'hello' to the janitors and secretaries, and would buy a round for his bodyguards when they went out for a pint. He didn't have to do any of those things, but he did.

"When the time came, and he sent those files out to the newscorps…" Merlin shook his head. "I suppose I didn't really believe in him until that moment. And then we almost lost him."

"And now?" Freya raised a shaking hand, brushed her fingers along his cheek.

"He's a good man. Better than just about everyone I've ever met. There are times I feel like I'd follow him to the ends of the earth and beyond. And then sometimes I want to smack him upside the head for being thick," Merlin said. Freya giggled. "But those urges balance out in the end. Once he finds his footing, I think he'll fit right in here. I could even see him leading us all someday."

"I think I could see that, too. He has that sort of air about him, like you want to follow, but you're not entirely sure why." She let out a long breath and shifted against her pillows, her eyes fluttering shut and opening again.

"Are you alright?"

She looked up at him and smiled, her eyes shining in the darkness. "I'm fine as I'll ever be."

As I'll ever be…

Between the havoc the bioware was wreaking on her body and the effects of the pain killers Gaius was giving her, Freya's wakeful periods were growing shorter and shorter. Once she had been confined to her bed, she'd started sleeping more and more- ten hours at a time, then twelve, then fourteen. These days, she was asleep far more than she was awake. In time, she would do nothing but sleep, until her body shut down completely.

Merlin drew in a careful breath and clenched his jaw to keep his tears at bay. Her slow deterioration had been a reality for years. He thought he had made peace with the fact. But now that the end was drawing near, he was realizing that he hadn't prepared for it at all. He had no idea what he would do when she was gone.

"How do you feel?" he asked stupidly.

She made a noise deep in her throat. It sounded like it was supposed to be a laugh. "I'm still alive. And Gaius gives me the good stuff, you know. It makes all the pain go away, and I feel like I'm walking on the clouds."

"That sounds like a nice place for a walk. Does it look anything like that sunrise we watched in Hyde Park?"

"I doesn't look like anything," she breathed. "But it feels lovely. Cool and breezy. Like I could just float away."

"Don't…."

Freya opened her eyes and looked up at him. "I won't. Not for a while yet. You'll be alright, though, after. Gwaine, Gaius, and Will will help. And you have Arthur now, too."

"But I need you, too," Merlin whispered. "Stay with me, just a little while longer?"

"I'll always be with you." Freya's fingers went lax in his and her breathing evened out, a quiet sigh barely louder than the soft hum of the machinery around them. He adjusted the blankets around her shoulders and straightened out the tubes feeding her air and water and nutrients, blessing and cursing the things that kept her alive and yet reminded him of how quickly she was deteriorating.

He laid his head on his arms and watched her sleep for an hour or three, or maybe all night. Now wasn't the time for minding clocks or screens or anything except how frail and beautiful Freya was.

He didn't notice the door squeak as it opened or the sliver of golden light that splashed against the floor, but suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder. "Merlin?" Arthur kept his voice soft, like he was trying not to wake Freya. Merlin barely heard him.

"What?"

"Will says he's tracked down that lead he was talking about earlier. Do you want to come hear about it?"

Merlin sat up straight and rubbed his eyes. He wanted to stay, but there was work to be done. He couldn't hide from it forever. "Yeah, I'll be right there." He waved Arthur off and stood up, tugging at the hem of his shirt as he leaned over to brush a soft kiss against Freya's cheek. "Don't you worry. I'll be back before you know it," he said. Then he turned away and followed Arthur.