Merlin was hovering and Arthur told him as much, not that it put a stop to his hovering.

"I'm alive. I just have a few scratches and a headache. A headache that would go away if you leave and let me go to bed." He took another sip of the water Merlin had pressed into his hand earlier and regretted the decision to call Merlin from the limousine.

After a whispered conversation with Merlin, during which they both cast pitying looks at him, Gwen told him to rest and then she was gone, before he could suggest that she spend the night looking after him. Instead, he was now stuck with Merlin the annoying.

"Are you sure you don't need me to get someone to look at your scratches?"

Arthur groaned. "Go away, Merlin. I'll be fine."

"You sure?" Merlin moved to the door. "Because I can stay the night, if you want."

"The only thing I need is for the press not to publish this, but that's not going to happen."

"This isn't your fault."

"Everything is my fault, according to my father. You had better be at breakfast tomorrow. I'm not facing him and Morgana on my own." Arthur closed his eyes, trying to avoid thinking of what a disaster breakfast would be. He could claim injury and have breakfast delivered to him but that would only encourage his father to barge into his room, a place he very much preferred to keep his father out of.

The door of his suite snicked close and Arthur closed his eyes, letting himself finally digest the events of that night. So the threats were real. Perhaps he should have taken a closer look at the letters earlier, paid more attention to Merlin's concerns but really, he might have the reputation of being a bit irresponsible and selfish but none of that seemed worth killing him over. He rubbed his head and stood. There was always Odin, he supposed.

Stripping off his clothes, dumping them on the floor, Arthur slid under his shower, sighing with pleasure as hot water splashed onto him, soothing out the tension in his body. He wondered if Gwen was doing the same and he smiled to himself. When he saw her tomorrow, he would mention this, just to see her reaction.

His sweetpea.

And Arthur grinned. Who knew his bodyguard would be so entertaining? He might almost miss her when she's gone.

"Rise and shine!" His covers were pulled off the bed and Arthur cracked open an eye to see Morgana looking down at him.

Throwing one arm across his eyes, Arthur groaned. "I could have been naked under there."

"Nothing I haven't seen after all these years. I hear you almost got killed yesterday." His bed sank as Morgana sat on it and started pulling at him.

Arthur smacked her roaming hands and scowled at her. "What on earth do you think you are doing?"

"Seeing if there's any lasting damage to you." Morgana took her hands off him but continued to perch on his bed. "Any idea who wants you dead? Aside from dad."

"Maybe it's you. All those declarations about not wanting to be queen, all lies." Pushing himself to a sitting position, Arthur stretched his limbs, pleased to note that they all seemed to be working well.

"Please," said Morgana. "If I wanted to kill you, I'd be more subtle and more successful."

"Yeah, I'm sure." He slid off the bed and made his way to his bathroom, uncaring that he was clad in nothing but his boxers. "Don't come in after me. A man needs his privacy."

Thankfully, when Arthur emerged some time later, his room was empty, save for a trace of Morgana's perfume. Pulling on a t-shirt and some slacks, he left his room to meet Uther and Morgana for breakfast. Merlin had better be there as well.

As he closed the door to his suite, he saw Sefa walking towards him, her cleaning equipment in tow. Quickly, she dipped into a curtsey and he nodded in response.

"Your highness, I heard that you were in an accident last night." She kept her head down and looked at the floor. "I hope you are alright."

"I'm fine, Sefa. Thank you for your concern."

She lifted her head and smiled briefly, before quickly scurrying away.

Arthur let out an audible sigh of relief when he pushed open the doors to the dining room and saw Merlin already at the table, chatting to Morgana. His father was evidently planning on a dramatic late entrance. He sat down next to Merlin who immediately turned concerned eyes onto him.

"I'm fine," said Arthur before Merlin could speak. "Don't fuss."

"It's not every day that someone tries to murder you," said Morgana. "Let Merlin fuss or he'll be full of pent up anxiety he can't express."

"I am not full of pent up anxiety and I express myself all the time." Merlin turned to him. "Ignore her."

"I always do," said Arthur as he reached for a piece of bread. "Is father so shocked by my possible death that he's unable to get out of bed?"

"I think he went to speak to your chauffeur," said Merlin. "He should be here soon."

"Oh joy," said Arthur. "Make sure Kathy gets a good severance pay and a decent reference letter."

Morgana's multitude of brightly coloured bangles on her arm jangled as she spread butter on her toast. "Maybe Kathy was in on the ploy to kill you."

"Kathy's been my chauffeur for years without incident. Why would she suddenly want to kill me?"

"Probably because you subject her to all that making out in the back of the limousine."

Arthur glared at Morgana. "Firstly, there is a privacy panel that separates Kathy from the back and secondly, I can't believe my own sister –"

"Step-sister."

"- step-sister believes all the nonsense in the gossip pages."

"There's no smoke without fire."

Just as Morgana said that, the door opened and Uther walked in. Arthur looked up as his heart sank. Uther, never one to smile often, did not look the least pleased.

"I hope you didn't fire Kathy. It has nothing to do with her."

Of course, his father ignored him. Breakfast steadily went downhill after that as Uther seemed to be more concerned about managing the press than his well-being. His father went on and on to Merlin about what needed to be done to deal with the press. No one was to know about the death threats, and it was to be played off as an accident. Morgana shot Arthur a wry look and he simply sighed and buried his nose in his breakfast.

"Ms Guinevere and Ms Mithian are here."

Uther looked sharply at Arthur. "Is that your bodyguard?"

"Yes," said Merlin. "Our apologies, your highness, but I'm sure you understand that this is an urgent matter. Do excuse us."

Morgana watched them as Arthur stuffed a spoonful of cereal into his mouth and left the room with Merlin, grateful that he didn't have to spend a moment longer with his father. George was lingering in the corridor and Arthur told him to bring Gwen and Mithian into his suite.

This time, she was in her tight white blouse and black pants, her hair pulled back in her usual bun. It made him smile. Who knew an outfit like that could be so sexy? Even the fancy dresses she wore as his date couldn't compare to what she was wearing now.

"For someone who was almost murdered last night, you look happy," said Gwen as she crossed the room towards him.

Arthur widened his smile, took her hand and kissed it. "I'm always happy to see you, sweetpea. One night apart is far too long."

Gwen yanked her hand away and glared at him.

Someone coughed and only then did Arthur notice the woman next to her. Tall with long, brown hair that fell to her waist and framed her delicate face, she was very attractive. She wore a light, sleeveless blouse with a yellow skirt and was looking curiously at him and Gwen.

"Mithian, this is Arthur. He flirts with anything that moves," said Gwen.

Arthur shook Mithian's hand and smiled. "Lovely to meet you. Gwen is just cranky at being apart from me for so long."

Her foot connected with his shin.

Merlin took a step forward. "I'm Merlin. Arthur's long suffering Private Secretary. Shall we sit and perhaps we can discuss yesterday's incident?"

"Of course," said Mithian. "Thanks to your efficiency, Merlin, I managed to narrow down which printers were used in the letters. Luckily, because the printers in different departments were replaced at different times, I could match the letter to the department it came from."

Arthur sat on the armchair, leaving the sofa to the other three. "And what department is that?"

"Household."

Merlin frowned. "There are a lot of staff in the household department. We will have to interview them all."

"Well," said Mithian as she pulled out a notebook from her bag, "I did a little bit of amateur analysis of the content of the letters with Gwen and Elena and we have come up with a tentative profile of who wrote the letters. Perhaps if you look at it, you might be able to narrow down who might have written the letters."

"But you don't think whoever wrote these letters are behind the threat to kill me?"

Mithian shook her head. "No. I believe that whoever wrote these letters has a huge crush on you and knows about the threat to kill you. They are trying to warn you, yet not given anything away, which makes us suspect that this person is also close to whoever is trying to kill you."

"Well then," said Arthur, closing the notebook that Mithian had passed to him. "There's no need for interviews and psychological profiles. All we need to do is to is run some detailed background checks on the household staff and see who has any connections to Lord Odin."

"No one has heard from or seen Lord Odin in five years," said Merlin quietly.

"Clearly he's been holed up in his estate, plotting a way to kill me," said Arthur. "Not that I blame him."

"If you knew that Lord Odin had a reason to want you dead, why didn't you say anything earlier?" asked Gwen.

Arthur stood, hating that the memories of that day five years ago were returning together with the familiar black hole of guilt. "I didn't actually believe that my life was in danger until yesterday." He slipped his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. "Since we've now solved the case of who wants me dead, I guess you three can get started looking for the person who has knowledge of Lord Odin's plans. I'd suggest you leave it alone but Merlin probably isn't going to let me die on his watch."

"Arthur –" Merlin stood as well as the two woman stared at him.

"You promised, Merlin. Don't forget." And with those words, Arthur walked to his bedroom and slammed the door. He leaned against the shut door, then slowly sank to the floor, burying his face in his hands.


AN: Firstly, thank you so much for your encouraging comments. I'm having a lot of fun with this fic and I hope you are having fun reading it too. I promise there will be more Gwen being kick ass and saving Arthur in the chapters to come. :)