Weeks passed and life went on almost normally. Axton was now doing better but four weeks ago he had some inner battles that haunted him, especially at nights when he would get into his parent's bedroom and snuggling close to his papa's chest where Arthur would find his son the next morning.
His parents could see how Axton struggled and were saddened by how their usually happy and energetic boy was getting more silent and withdrawn. Nothing they did helped in any way and so from that point, Merlin and Arthur knew that they had to get a psychiatrist to help their son. A better one than the one from the hospital, someone who they could trust and could treat their son in the comfort of their own home.
That person was Guinevere Thomas, but Gwen for short.
They were very shaken up after the whole pool incident at which Axton had admitted to them that he could remember how that bad man was dragging him forward by his sore arm. Merlin instantly started to cry. Not only hearing how broken his son sounded, but especially how someone could even have so much hate within him to hurt a six year old child, deliberately. Arthur couldn't hear any longer how his son was so sad and hoisted his son up into his arms and dragging his husband inside for a warm cup of tea.
Arthur thought at first that it would be okay, that it would just take a week or two after the kidnapping before Axton would be just the boy as he was before, but now he was hundred per cent convinced that Axton indeed struggled a lot more with the occurrence that happened and had not wasted one precious second of his time to find a good and trustworthy psychiatrist.
He had invited numerous child psychiatrists into his home office and had spent time talking to them, but Guinevere was the one that stood out the most. She was easy to converse with and even Axton instantly liked her, he made contact with her by showing her the drawing he had just made and Gwen looked at it while she was shrugging on her coat, ready to leave. She had smiled to him, brought an hand to his cheek that made Axton blush and told him good bye. Later he told his parents that she was really pretty.
She was referred as Miss Gwen by Axton, and was one of the most renowned child psychiatrists in the country who was specialized in child trauma.
After Merlin and Arthur could sit in at the first therapy session they decided that she was perfect. She was loving, caring and interacted with their son in an easy matter at which they just looked in awe at. After what had happened to him, Axton didn't trust people easily, but with Gwen they could see how easily Axton felt at ease with her.
At the end of the session they had given her their official approval and wanted her to treat their son the best way as she deemed reasonable.
After Arthur and Merlin asked how Axton felt about spending time with Miss Gwen, Axton told them that he liked how he could just play or draw and he didn't even mind that Miss Gwen asked him some questions about what happened, but had said that sometimes he didn't know or that it was hard to explain and then went back to his drawing.
Gwen had explained to the parents that a great way for children to face their fears was by drawing. It might not make a lot of sense to then what exactly a child of his age was drawing, but Gwen was specialized in these sorts of cases and could see from which colour scheme Axton used, how he was feeling.
Arthur and Merlin were mostly pleased about the fact that it didn't felt like therapy to their son. They also received about eleven drawings in a period of four weeks' time, which all got a special place on the white board in their bedroom, which made Axton beam with pride. To Merlin and Arthur it were just some lines or stick figures on a piece of white paper, but for Axton every drawing held a story, which he gladly shared with his parents. These were the drawings that didn't involve the kidnapping, but were from his own imagination. It was also something Gwen used in her therapy, to let Axton relax again at the end of a session and not leaving him with thoughts that might scare him.
Gwen had just finished up today's session and sat down on the couch in the living room to give the concerned parents the weekly update on how their son was faring. Axton remained in the downstairs playroom where the therapy sessions took place, because he wanted to finish up his drawing that he was currently making.
Gwen crossed her legs and placed her notepad on her lap, letting her hands resting on top of the notebook in a folded manner. Her small reading glasses rested on the bridge of her nose and hair pulled neatly back in a tight chignon.
"Axton is doing tremendously well." She began, already letting Merlin and Arthur drop their tense posture. "Today, I've got him to start talking about the time he was held by Rowan, and even it made him a bit more silent and withdrawn than he would show otherwise, he still told me everything. Although more in his own words." She pulled out a piece of paper with a little stick figure with a sad face and a bigger stick figure with a straight line as a mouth. At the corner of the paper half a square was drawn. Merlin looked up and confused what it might mean. "It's supposed to be a bed." She explained at which Merlin's face drop in recognition. He had seen the pictures of the scene and the bed was prominent in the pictures, showing a handcuff hanging around one of the rails.
"Axton was handling drawing what happened better than would normally be shown by children his age, it's almost rare you could say. The good news is that at this point of time he is convinced that the 'bad man' how he refers to Rowan is gone and that he is safe again."
"Well that is good isn't it?" Arthur said hopeful and Gwen nodded.
"It is, but Mister Pendragon, but you must be aware that this is just the start. We need to keep this line of improvement going for Axton to fully accept that he's safe and nothing can happen to him. Only then he is ready to move on. Because he told me now that he feels safe, doesn't necessarily mean that he will still feel that way next week. That's why it's so important to keep the sessions going, otherwise there is a chance he'll get a relapse and all those weeks spent on his recovery may be for nothing."
"Of course." Merlin said, folding his hands together. "We want you to continue this line of work as long as you deem necessary. We're extremely happy about the amount of progress you already achieved with our son in this short amount of time you've spent with him." Merlin paused, biting his bottom lip. "There is, however, one thing. Axton has been talking about going back to school, do you think that is a good idea?"
Gwen shuffled some papers, quickly glancing over the key notes she had been writing down over the course of four weeks. She slid her glasses down to the tip of her nose and tilted her head up. "I don't have anything against it, I even think it might be good again for Axton to be around his friends. However, I do think that a full week, or even a full day back at school right away will be a bit too much of wishful thinking on our parts. I'd suggest starting with half days for three days in the week. I could assess how it goes in the next two weeks." She looked down once more on the piece of paper. "I see that his usual driver, Mister Du Lac is still hospitalized but his condition is improving on a daily base. Is there someone who can drop Axton off at school and picks him up when school is out? I've noted that he's still not entirely comfortable getting in a car and so it is best that he keeps surrounded by people he knows and trusts."
"Yes, he is indeed improving in that matter. He isn't asking as much anymore if we'll get an accident when we have to use the car. But to answer your question about who will be responsible for driving him to school, we have decided to both do that." Merlin said smiling, grasping Arthur's hand. "Only, Arthur has some business trips abroad scheduled for the coming month, so I'll be the one who drives him around mostly the first month, but after Arthur comes back we'll take turns."
Gwen scribbled something down on a piece of paper, humming approvingly at the answer "Good, good." She looked up and assessed both parents' faces. "Is there anything else you want to discuss with me?" After watching how the two men shook their head, she closed her notebook and placed it in her briefcase. "I think we can end this visit then, but if in the meantime you have questions, don't hesitate to call me." She stood up and extended her arm, shaking both parents' hands after they gripped her hand in turns.
Gwen was about to turn the handle of the front door when she heard little hurried footsteps coming her way. She smiled softly when her name was being called.
"Miss Gwen, Miss Gwen." Axton said slightly out of breath, having to come all the way of his downstairs playroom Gwen reasoned. Gwen got down on his eyelevel.
"What is it sweetie?" She looked how Axton held up a closed hand and then unfolded it to let his favourite car appear. Soon after, both Merlin and Arthur appeared in the hallway after they've never heard the front door opening and closing. They chuckled at the sight of their son and Gwen.
Axton swirled slightly on his spot, a coy expression on his face. "I want you to have it."
"Oh really, me?" Gwen said, acting all surprised. "But it's your favourite, I can't accept that."
Axton pouted, lowering his head.
"You know what." Gwen said, grabbing the car out of Axton's hand and making the little boy lift his head. "I'll keep it safe this week and when I'll come by next week, I'll give it back and then you can tell me if I took good care of it. What do you say?"
Axton flashed his smile and nodded. Gwen leaned forward, pecking a kiss on his cheek and Axton's cheeks burned a bright red. Standing up, Gwen ruffled a hand through his hair and held up the toy car, waving it from side to side. "Next week." She said with a nod and Axton skipped happily to his parents, grabbing Arthur's trouser and waving when Gwen turned around one last time before closing the door completely.
"Daddy, papa. I want to show something!" The energetic six year old said, jumping up and down and tugging on the fabric of his papa's grey pin striped trouser to let him take a step forward. Merlin laughed and urged Arthur to follow his son.
They soon reached the playroom which was covered from top to bottom with probably every toy that was ever made. Arthur just loved to spoil his son. Axton made his way to the little table at which crayons were discarded and grabbed the piece of paper. He walked quickly back to his parents, waving the piece of paper.
Merlin and Arthur got on their knees to take a better look at what kind of drawing their son had drew for them this time. They saw three stick figures, two large ones and one little one. They had big smiles on their faces - if the half circles under the three dots that had to be their eyes and nose indicated anything - and one of the larger figures had a circle over his body between the arms and legs
"Oh wow sweetie, this is beautiful." Arthur said, making his son giggle.
Axton pointed to the smallest figure. "This is me!" He said excitingly, he pointed to the second figure – the one without a circle – and pointed to Merlin. "This is you."
"So let me guess," Arthur began, pointing to the third figure. "This is me?" Axton nodded heavily. "But what's this?" Arthur asked, gesturing to the circle.
"He might think you're fat." Merlin whispered, getting a playful glare in return from Arthur.
"The baby of course!" Axton said, showing all his teeth in a grand smile. Merlin's eyes widened and Arthur froze. They hadn't been talking about any baby plans since Arthur addressed it about six weeks back. Of course it hadn't left his mind ever since, but he accepted Merlin's decision to think about it. He didn't want to push Merlin into anything rush and so he wisely kept his mouth shut.
But he forgot the little man, who apparently spent a lot of his time still thinking about the possibility of being a big brother.
Holding his breath, Arthur turned his head towards his husband while distantly hearing his son talk about how good of a big brother he will be and not tease his little brother or sister. Merlin's still wide as saucers eyes suddenly blinked and Merlin got back from his initial shock. Arthur saw something he didn't expected initially. Merlin broke out into a broad smile and then said the words he was hoping and praying for, for almost three years.
"Papa and I will try to get another baby."
Axton started to hug his daddy, overloading him with kisses on his cheeks and nose before moving on to his papa to repeat the exact same thing. Arthur held Axton in a tight hug while looking over his shoulder to Merlin. 'Really?' He mouthed at which Merlin smilingly nodded.
"I've thought long and hard about it, and the possibility of getting a child from you is a god given miracle. I cannot wait until that miracle will be fulfilled, but we need look into the alternatives."
Merlin stood up and held his hand out for Axton to grasp. "What about some pancakes huh? I think we have something to celebrate."
"Yay!" Axton yelled, gripping his daddy's hand. "Can we do one with Nutella?"
"Of course you can, anything you like!" Merlin said, walking into the kitchen and rummaged into the kitchen cupboards in the search of the pancake pan. "Why don't you get it Tony?" Axton nodded and disappeared into the pantry. Merlin turned to Arthur, whispering. "We'll talk about this all later when that one is asleep. I don't want to crush his dream just yet that men can't get pregnant." Merlin as well as Arthur snorted simultaneously at the thought, while their son came back into the kitchen holding a large jar of chocolate spread.
"Found it."
I'll be skipping some weeks in the upcoming chapters, just a heads up, because this story will have about four more chapters, give or take.