000
"Here they are," Gwen handed the instruments over to Freya.
"I'm sorry," Freya apologised, "I should have checked everything more thoroughly."
"There's no harm done," Gwen smiled at her, she liked Freya and the girl was good at her job. "Just remember that Kelly clamps and kocher forceps should always be on the cart."
"I will."
They were standing in the supply room in the north wing of the hospital. Freya was going to be the theatre nurse in charge of the surgery that was due to take place later in the afternoon and she had asked Gwen to help her prepare.
"Take those instruments back to the operating room," Gwen told her, "I'll lock up and come over and check on you in a little while."
"Thank you very much Gwen," Freya said, "you don't know how much this means to me."
Freya left the supply room and shut the door behind her. In her haste, she forgot to reposition the little wooden stick that they kept near the edge of the door. The stick helped the door to stay open otherwise the person inside the supply room would be locked in and there was no way to open the door from the inside. The nurses had complained about that door for years but management felt that keeping it like that was the best way to reduce on the theft of medical equipment and since nobody had been locked in the supply room for five years at least, it wasn't an immediate concern.
Gwen found a chair and sat down. It had been a long week. While she had known that Arthur would not act any differently towards her because of what had happened, rather what she had said to him, she was still surprised when he went on as though nothing had happened. She had spent the weekend imagining how awkward it would be in the theatre but when he'd appeared for their first op together after the Incident, he'd greeted her as usual, smiled and made a joke and the whole thing had gone perfectly and normally. She didn't even know why she thought that things would be different, he was a professional and they had lives to saves.
She sighed heavily and finally admitted to herself what was bothering her. She missed him. She missed going to lunch with him after the operations, missed sitting in his office, missed spending time with him in her office, she even missed the football matches. She'd thought about going on Wednesday, and she had decided to go when Rick called her and reminded her about it, but in the end she'd decided not to. She was the one who had said that they should stop spending all that time together; after all, it wouldn't be fair of her to show up when he was relaxing with his friends.
She was tired. Tired of pretending that everything was fine when it clearly wasn't. Everyone asking her what was wrong, everyone apart from Valiant, which should have disturbed her but didn't. How was it possible that he didn't see her? At all. She'd snapped at Elyan the night before when he'd asked her if she and Arthur had broken up. Broken up, she'd almost shouted at him, how could they possibly break up when they weren't even together? Even Miss Potts, who never said a word to her if she didn't have to, had asked her why she was pretending to be happy when she was so obviously unhappy.
Gwen looked around the supply room. It was quite disorganized. She would get it into shape and then go back to her office. There was nothing like getting a room organised for lifting a girl's spirits or Gwen told herself.
Twenty minutes Gwen surveyed her work and she was very pleased with herself. She should have thought of organizing that room before. She walked to the door and gave it a push; it didn't open. She pushed again to no avail and then she noticed the stick that was used to keep it from locking.
She was locked in the supply room. She didn't have her mobile with her and the supply room didn't have an intercom.
000
Arthur deleted the entire sentence he'd just typed and tried again. The article was taking longer than it should have and it was long overdue. If he didn't have it sent before the day was out he'd never hear the end of it from his father. Having an article published in that journal was a great honour not only him but for the hospital as well; Morgana would probably make him pay if he let her down.
He stared at the screen and took a deep breath and began to write again. The fire alarm went off interrupting his work. Calmly, Arthur saved his work and shut down before walking quickly out of the office. He met Merlin in the corridor.
"Is this for real or are we having another drill?"
"I don't know," Merlin replied.
As they made their way towards the assembly point they were joined by more staff members and they discovered that the fire was actually real – it wasn't clear how it been started but everyone was being asked to be calm and follow the instructions that they had been given.
000
Gwen heard the fire alarm and looked around the room again. She thought of shouting but she was sure that no one would hear her now, everyone was probably in a panic and it would probably be hours before Freya remembered that they'd even gone to the supply room together.
As she looked around the room she remembered the skylight. The supply room was located in the older wing of the hospital and all the top floor rooms had skylights. It was too high for her to reach on her own; she pulled at the nearest crash cart and steadied it with some tanks and climbed up but she still couldn't get to the skylight. She looked around the room and saw the boxes that she'd neatly arranged in one corner, she got off the crash cart and carried two of the boxes and put them on top of it; hopefully they wouldn't open under her weight, and tried again.
She could barely get to the skylight; why was she so short; and then she remembered that she couldn't actually open it from inside; there had to be someone outside to open it and let her out. Gwen almost cried out with disappointment and began to pray that somebody would notice her absence.
The skylight suddenly opened and nearly sent Gwen falling down. She looked up and saw Arthur smiling down at her.
"Arthur," she said, breathless with relief. "What are you doing here?"
"Freya remembered that she'd left you in the supply room."
"Why don't you come in and open the door?"
"I'm afraid, I can't my dear," he smiled, "it seems the fire is actually in that wing. Haven't you noticed any smoke coming in?"
That was when Gwen realised that she actually smelt smoke in the room. She'd been too busy trying to get out earlier to notice it.
"Here's what you're going to do," Arthur said, "stretch out your hands as far as you can. I'll grab them and pull you out."
"Okay," Gwen agreed; she lifted her arms but she was too far for him to reach.
"Let me reposition myself," Arthur told her, "And we'll try again."
"How are you even on the roof?"
"I volunteered," he replied, "I've always wanted to climb up the roof of St. Anthony's and I couldn't pass up the chance."
"Really?"
Arthur smiled down at her. "Of course not," he said, "but we'll talk about that when you get out of there. Now lift your hands and try not to fall off the boxes. This is probably going to hurt but please, I beg you, don't start crying or anything like that."
"I'm not going to cry," she replied crossly, dangerously close to tears.
Arthur reached down and grabbed her arms, holding them with a seemingly iron hand and pulled her up close. After what seemed like an eternity but was in reality a few minutes, the pain was unbearable, he said, "now let go and grab my waist, slowly." Gwen did so and he moved his hands slowly and held her fast.
"Now that wasn't so bad was it?" he asked her softly.
"No," she replied, and would have added more but before she could they heard the cheerful voice of a fireman calling to them, telling them help was on the way and that they would soon be on the ground. Two men came towards them and after tightening the harness helped them off the roof.
000
"What were you thinking getting yourself locked up in the supply room?" Valiant asked her.
"You're acting as if I did it on purpose."
"I'm sorry," Valiant apologised immediately, "it's just that I was so worried when no one knew where you were."
They were leaving the hospital. Gwen had been checked over and there was nothing wrong with her; she would only have bruises on her arms where Arthur had gripped them to get her out. She'd been given an ointment to apply there after bathing.
"There was no reason to worry," she said, "I am fine."
"What if that silly nurse hadn't remembered where she'd left you?"
"Freya is not silly and someone would have found me eventually."
"At least Pendragon had the good sense to use his skills to get you out," Valiant replied, "do you know that he climbs rocks and buildings for fun?"
"It's lucky for me that he does," Gwen said.
The drive to Gwen's flat was done in silence and in a few minutes they were sitting on the sofa in the sitting room. Valiant switched the TV and they sat in silence staring at it; each lost in their own thoughts.
"Valiant, I've been thinking," Gwen broke the silence only to be interrupted by his, "is there any food in this house? I'm starving." He stood up and would have gone to the kitchen to check but sat back down when he saw her look.
"This isn't working," she said. "I don't think I'm the right kind of girl for you."
"You could always learn, Gwen," he said, "it's not too late."
Gwen chose to ignore his words and went on, "we don't really have the same goals and I wouldn't want you settle for less than you should."
"Are you breaking up with me?"
"Valiant, be sincere," she begged him; "do you really want to marry me?"
"Gwen, you're a great girl, and I do love you," he forced a smile, "but I think you may be right. Do you know that mother was asking me that, just the other evening?"
"And what did you tell her?"
He shrugged and Gwen was sort of relieved that she didn't know what he'd told his mother. "Still friends, right?"
"Of course."
"You know you would have been a most suitable wife," he said, "Everyone says so even Mithian."
"Mithian? Do you mean Mithian Gray?"
"I saw her last week, we had dinner."
"Really?"
"She's a very well-put-together young woman, and so strong," Valiant said, "you really could learn a lot from her."
"I bet."
"Anyway she was having some problems with some of her fellow cast and needed someone to talk to."
"And she could find no one else, I suppose?"
"Gwen, please; don't be like that."
"I didn't know that you had become that close to her that's all."
"Like I said, she's a very interesting woman."
"She must be."
"Shall I order some takeout?" he asked, "I'm hungry. What will it be Thai or Chinese?"
000
"He broke up with you?" Mary was indignant.
"Technically I broke up with him," Gwen corrected her.
Mary and Louise had come by the house to see Gwen. They had found Valiant way out. He'd received an urgent call and left before the food arrived.
"How are you feeling?" Louise asked. "It's been quite a day."
"I'm fine," Gwen replied, "nothing a little sleep won't cure and don't forget I have three days off."
Mary and Louise looked at each other and then at their friend. It was obvious that the events of the evening hadn't caught up with her yet. They would have to keep a close eye on her.
000
"So you were quite the hero," Merlin said, "climbing up on the roof to save the damsel in distress."
"Merlin, don't start."
"I'm just saying," Merlin shrugged. "Have you seen her since?"
"Valiant came and drove her home."
"You should call her, find out how she is."
"She told me that she couldn't do this anymore, remember?"
"But you saved her life," Merlin argued, "she'll want to talk to you surely."
"I guess I'm more tired than I thought," Arthur stood up and grabbed his coat. "Good night Merlin."
000