Uther slowly withdrew the needle from Arthur's arm, watching him relax as the drug overwhelmed his system. Then he glared at Gwaine, who released the hold he had on Arthur, which he had employed when he realised Uther's intention. Gwaine looked back steadily, biting his tongue to prevent himself from pointing out that drugging Arthur probably didn't get to the root of Arthur's problems.
"What the hell happened?"
"I think seeing his regular punter dismembered started it, the gallery on the far wall finished it," Gwaine said, nodding in the relevant direction. Uther slowly stood up, eyes moving to take in what was there. Merlin knelt by Arthur, lifting him gently and resting the blond man's head on his thigh, stroking his hair in a soothing gesture. Arthur would hate it, Gwaine thought to himself, but didn't say anything to Merlin, who was the one benefiting from comforting an unconscious Arthur.
Uther stepped forward, looking at the wall, reaching up he plucked the school photograph off the wall, staring at it as if trying to imprint it on his memory. Uther turned to look down at Arthur, his face peaceful in oblivion, almost trying to see if he could find the happy beaming child somewhere in the adult. Uther turned back to confront the rest of the wall, and some of the less pleasant aspects of his son's life. He continued to grip the photograph in his hand, his knuckles turning white but the cardboard frame remained undamaged in the grip. Uther had no intention of damaging it.
"Sir?" Lancelot came into the room, staring around and finally focusing on Arthur and Merlin sprawled on the floor.
"Anything on the body?" Uther asked, his voice overly calm. Everyone in the room shifted uncomfortably, and when Morgana stepped in, Lancelot backed up.
"As far as we can tell he was taken apart slowly, furthest parts of the limbs first and working towards the torso. We'll need Gaius to analyse the body to work out the time of death, and how long it was between the first dismemberment to when he died and what did it. I've got the team packing up the body, the sheets and the painting in the study."
"We'll need to clear everything in this room."
"Check to see if it looks like anything has been touched, or if anything is missing," Morgana said to Lancelot. "Let's photograph the scene before we move anything. Is Arthur all right?"
"He is now," Gwaine said, in a mildly disapproving tone.
"We shouldn't have brought him," Merlin mused, still stroking. Gwaine reached down to start doing the same to Merlin.
"Yes, we should, but I think he's just getting too many shocks in a short space of time, something like this was bound to happen. Better sooner rather than later."
"And what is that meant to mean?" Uther demanded, his eyes boring into Gwaine. Gwaine looked back levelly.
"Gwaine," Merlin warned in a low tone.
"No, Merlin," Gwaine said, suddenly refusing to stay quiet. "I may not be the kid's number one fan, but he needs to let off steam somehow, and it wouldn't kill you to look even remotely concerned now and again, you can't stick a needle into him every time he gets hard to deal with," he informed Uther. "Unless you just plan to convert him from a rent-boy to a drug addict."
Merlin winced inwardly as Uther stalked towards Gwaine. Gwaine held his ground, it didn't do you much good if you backed off when challenging Uther.
"I don't remember asking for your opinion."
Gwaine gave him a humourless smile, "No one ever asks for yours but we always end up hearing it. You can't wrap him in cotton wool, nor can you push him to hard."
"I think he's right," Morgana said, into the very tense silence that occurred. Then she turned to Lancelot. "We'll deal with everything in this room, let's photograph and remove everything, and get it back. Gwaine, Merlin why don't you take the other jeep and deal with Arthur."
Morgana distributed out the commands with utter calm and Uther, although watching belligerently did nothing to contradict her. Merlin smiled at her in appreciation. She was trying to diffuse the situation, and was the only one that could, when Uther became difficult. Gwaine shrugged and reaching down, and with Lancelot's help, he got Arthur over his shoulder and took him out of the house.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxX
Arthur groaned as he roused. His head was pounding and his mouth felt dry. He rolled on the bed, registering the comfortable mattress and clean smelling sheets, and for a moment he couldn't quite recall where he was.
"Morning," a voice drawled. "Just."
Arthur looked up and glared at Gwaine. He was sprawled on the couch that had originally been set against the far wall of the room, but had been moved so it was closer to the bed. He was sprawled back with Merlin slouched against him, his head resting on Gwaine's shoulder while he slept. Arthur blinked and shifted in the bed, the softness of it still felt strange. But then he reminded himself, he had not been in this house long, it was only three days since he had been dragged to this place. It just felt longer. So much had happened.
"Hi," Arthur said, confusion making him a little more congenial than usual. He looked around, sunlight was streaming into the room, making it seem bright and cheery, the ivory wallpaper almost glowing. "What happened?"
"Don't you remember?" Gwaine asked. "We went to Geoffrey Monmouth's place, your punter."
"Oh, God, I remember that!" Arthur said. "And then there was that room, and then I don't… remember. What happened?"
"You had hysterics, kind of, but not surprising considering what we found there. We brought you back after Uther sedated you," Gwaine nodded in Merlin's direction. The dark haired youth hadn't roused but as Gwaine moved Merlin snuggled tighter to him.
"Oh God. He had my entire life on that wall."
"Most of it, Morgana and Lancelot have brought it all back, and Gaius is doing an autopsy in the hope of finding out what happened. The fact that he knew exactly who you are kind of puts a whole new light on the situation."
"Does it?" Arthur asked.
"If anyone kills you, we have no Once and Future King, someone who is necessary to restore the balance. We either end up waiting several more centuries for it to be ready again or the whole world falls into chaos as Magic forces it's way back in. No pressure," Gwaine said.
Arthur huffed a very humourless laugh. Gwaine shrugged his shoulder and stroked Merlin's cheekbone.
"Merlin?" Gwaine drawled in a sing-song tone, shrugging his shoulder to dislodge Merlin. Then he shrugged a bit harder as Merlin mumbled and tried to settle himself down again. "Merlin, Arthur is awake."
"What?" Merlin mumbled in a sleepy tone. Then his head jerked up, almost bashing Gwaine on the jaw. "What? When?" he yelped turning to assess Arthur.
"Just a minute or so ago," Gwaine said.
"Why didn't you wake me?" Merlin accused him.
"I just did," Gwaine announced patiently, stroking Merlin's messed up hair. Arthur cringed at the intimate gesture, but not just out of discomfort, he realised, there was a shred of jealousy worming it's way in. Arthur couldn't ever have that, too much had happened, he would never be able to take that kind of contact, there were usually too many strings attached.
Merlin was able to take it for granted. He didn't flinch away, there wasn't a moment's consideration that Gwaine might hurt him. Arthur doubted Gwaine ever would hurt Merlin, he cared for him too much. It was the way it had always been for Merlin. Merlin had a bloody, easy life, Arthur thought angrily. Then he felt bad as Merlin sat forward, looking at him in concern.
"Are you all right?"
"I guess."
"Gaius will want to check you over, we'd better tell him Arthur's awake," Merlin said, looking at Gwaine. Gwaine rolled his eyes and pulled away from Merlin, lifting his arm from the back of the chair.
"You meant you want me to go and tell Gaius that he's awake. I could use up my free minutes you know," Gwaine said getting out his phone.
Merlin grinned at him and gave him a little shove which made Gwaine get up and head towards the door, tucking his phone back into his pocket. He paused as he opened it.
"I will also have to tell Uther," he warned Arthur. Arthur bit down on his lip.
"Did he see all that stuff on the wall?"
"Yes, we brought it back with us as well." Gwaine winced in sympathy as Arthur gave a groan. "If it's any consolation Uther isn't letting anyone take a look at it."
"But I guess he has," Arthur said, shrinking down in the bed.
"Probably, he can't understand anything about you any other way. You won't let him," Gwaine said before he went out of the door closing it quietly behind him. Arthur frowned and then looked at Merlin, who sat a little further forward. He almost got up and moved to sit on the side of the bed but at the last minute he assessed Arthur and realised that might not be the best idea.
"Are you okay?"
"The guy who was my nicest client, who seemed like a fairly good guy, was also aware of all this and was collecting information on my entire life, and was also fucking me for money, he also enjoyed it by the way, and I always feel okay with it, as best you can get. It's my life, welcome to it. People use me, I don't see it changing any time soon."
"That's a no then?" Merlin said. Arthur looked up, trying to glare at him. "Thought so."
"Well, shut up then!" Arthur snapped.
Merlin grinned. Arthur tried to glower.
"I'm not making light of it," Merlin said. "I'm not, but you don't seem like someone who gives up that easily."
Arthur reached up to rub his face. "I don't know what I'm doing any more, easy or not."
"Look, I know it's not perfect, everything we are trying to tell you and most of us seem like spoilt brats, in comparison," Merlin said, "But no one wants to…"
He stopped as there was a knock at the door, which was then opened by Gaius, who wandered in without any consideration. He put his medical bag down on the end of the bed and opened it up.
"I need to check you over, blood pressure, sugar levels, and another blood test. Have you been on any medication recently, which you haven't told me about?"
Arthur snorted at the intonation of his words. "If you are asking if I am on any kind of drugs, the answer is no, unless you count the odd slug of alcohol and hits of nicotine."
"You smoke?" Gaius snapped. Arthur nodded. "How often? And how many a day?"
"I normally have a ten pack on me but it's rare I use them and only if the person I'm with smokes. Although most of the time I use theirs."
"The other times?"
"We get bad clients, we often huddle and do a solidarity thing. We can't make it any better for each other but at least we can reassure each other that it's consistently awful."
"So you're not suffering any withdrawal?"
"I said it was consistently awful," Arthur said.
"I can ask Gwen to buy some nicotine patches before she comes into work," Gaius said.
"Do they do any good?" Arthur asked.
"I don't know, I've never treated anyone who was quitting before," Gaius said. Arthur lifted his arm to allow Gaius to wrap the blood pressure reader around his arm. Arthur said nothing as Gaius pumped up the arm band and then used his stethoscope to listen to his heartbeat. Then he double checked Arthur's breathing, temperature and generally prodded and poked him. Arthur tensed and flinched at every touch, making it clear he wasn't happy about it, but he tolerated Gaius without complaint. It was obvious to Arthur that Gaius only wanted to manhandle him in the interests of his health. Arthur didn't have to like it, but he got through it and as he tided up he commented calmly.
"You're fine, I really don't want you to have to be sedated quite that dramatically again, I think we'll try the nicotine patches to see if that might be an issue and I'd be inclined to put you on anti-depressants," Gaius paused as Arthur's rude intervention.
"No, way, not a chance!"
Gaius regarded him with a steady glare. "Can I finish?"
"Yes," Arthur said.
"I would be inclined to, but Gwaine had already been one to point out that might not solve the problem, unless we just want to turn you into a drug addict."
"No chance of that, trust me. I'm fucked up, not stupid."
"However, I think some mild herbal remedies might just help a little. Essentially you're fine, and I would rather recommend him playing out with the other boys," Gaius said to Merlin.
"What?" Arthur demanded.
"They were all going to have an afternoon on the training field, and Lancelot keeps saying he wants to start your training handling a sword. He's got fifty quid in his wallet ready and waiting, whatever that means."
"I didn't like him trying to reposition me on the firing range, he paid twenty quid and then I let him do it. It's weird how that works."
"It's just a simple psychological reaction," Gaius said.
"What?"
"A sort of self hypnosis, as it were. People can go and get help in not craving cigarettes, or sleeping deeper, the mind can be taught if the person is willing, or needs to do it. The principle applies. They gave you money, your mind learnt to give in to let them have access to you. All you have done is trained your mind into accepting it. It's clearly very fixed now."
"Oh," Arthur said. "I never thought of it like that."
"No reason that you would. And you may not find it easy to get out of the habit. Do not tell Lancelot that, I know what he's like when it comes to training willing people. You can tell him to play nicely," Gaius warned Merlin.
"I'm not going to say anything about that. Is there any way to train the mind back?" Merlin asked.
"Yes, but that will have to be conscious effort on Arthur's part."
"Great," Arthur said. Merlin glanced at him.
"You could try, this afternoon, after lunch, you don't have to get involved if you don't want to."
XxxxxxxxxxxxxX
Baffled amusement took Arthur onto the training field that day. It was the space that he had seen from the window when he had left his room. The fenced off area was very neatly maintained, he noticed, as they gathered. Merlin had followed tailing along after them, carrying some of the equipment that Arthur might need.
Along with them were Gwaine, naturally, and then Lancelot, Leon and another of Lancelot's team, Percival. They had kept the group small, since Arthur had been willing to come out with them. Arthur found himself almost relaxing with the small group as they trooped out, laughing and joking with each other. They didn't try to drag him into it, which would have seemed nothing more than awkward. Instead they joshed along, heading out into the sunshine and Arthur didn't feel silly in the padded shirt he was wearing, because the rest of them, barring Merlin, were wearing the same thing.
Merlin dumped all the equipment he was carrying down and Leon and Percival started to help him sort it out. They had spent ten minutes in the armoury trying to find a sword that seemed well-balanced for Arthur. Arthur had no idea what he was actually meant to be feeling for but Lancelot had chosen three options out of the ones that were lined up in one rack. There were two more racks, holding another dozen or so swords each.
"Try that one," Lancelot said, handing Arthur one of the swords.
"And do what with it?" Arthur said. "Besides avoiding accidentally stabbing someone."
"All of these swords are specially blunted, and we've got tips to put on the ends so the worst you will do is give someone a nasty bruise. Trust me, you'll be fine."
"I hope so," Arthur said.
Lancelot stared at him thoughtfully. "I have a feeling that you will be naturally rather good at this."
"And if the worst comes to the worst, we can just pair him up with Merlin," Gwaine said grinning. Merlin glared at him.
"Ha, bloody, ha."
The rest of them sniggered good-naturedly, Arthur glanced around, realising there was a joke he didn't comprehend.
"Merlin can't keep a sword in his hand for more than ten seconds," Morgana's voice explained. Arthur turned, and goggled a little, since Morgana had clearly come to join them. The other men gaped and Percival, at the sight of her, blushed and found something very interesting in the pile of equipment as he recovered himself. Morgana watched them all with a smirk.
"Is that designer armour?" Arthur asked her, looking at the metal plates that covered her stomach, and the light looking chain mail shirt she was wearing. Metal cuffs covered her wrists and she was wearing thick leather gloves, which matched her leather trousers and boots. Even for a fight she came out perfectly dressed, her hair smooth, hanging in a plait down her back.
She gave Arthur an arched look. "It does the job."
"Okay," Arthur said, nodding in understanding, pointing the sword in the general direction of the armour covering her torso, emphasising her waist. "Because the whole corset thing is completely functional, with no aesthetic thought to it at all."
Morgana smirked and scanned the group. Percival managed to go even redder and almost fell over trying to pretend he was rummaging around in the equipment. Leon didn't seem to quite know where to look, mainly because of Arthur's quite blatant behaviour, so he settled for looking at Percival, which didn't help the other man at all. Lancelot and Gwaine watched the verbal sparring, one out of curiosity and the other with amusement.
"It has it's uses," Morgana said.
"I'll bet it does. Did you design that yourself?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact," Morgana said. "Lancelot made it though."
"Actually I commissioned some of it to Gwen's father, on the premise it was a fancy dress costume."
Arthur shrugged, looking Morgana up and down again. "It suits you."
"Thank you, I wonder if you'll be saying that once I've beaten you," she said drawing her sword.
"I presume that's your melee sword," Lancelot asked. Morgana rolled her eyes at him.
"Of course it is."
"I'm the weapons technician, it's my job to check these things," he said in reply to her snotty tone.
"What's a melee sword?" Arthur asked.
"A blunted weapon, they are designed to be used in a tournament called a melee."
"Oh right, so what's a melee?" Arthur asked, thinking that he really ought to know the answer to that.
"It a tournament when the knights ride around with aforementioned blunt weapons, knocking seven bells out of each other until the last man standing can be called the winner," Merlin informed him.
"Sounds like a normal night out at The Castle," Arthur commented. "That was the ultimate test of strength and courage."
"What?" Gwaine asked as everyone looked at Arthur in surprise. Arthur didn't seem to be surprised, or aware, of what he had just said.
"One of the pubs I used to go to, rough but they usually didn't mind if we wanted a bit of time out of the cold."
"Sounds like a nice place. What was that strength and courage bit you were on about," Merlin said. Arthur shrugged.
"Dunno, just sounded good, why?" Arthur looked at him in curiosity. Merlin shrugged back.
"Just sounded interesting," Merlin said.
"Right," Lancelot said, determined to get to Arthur's training one way or another. "Leon, we'll start you sparring with Arthur. Gwaine, Percival, go and warm up, you can take over in a bit."
The two men wandered a little away and gently started clashing their swords. Arthur watched a little nervously.
"Shouldn't I just watch for a bit?"
"No," Lancelot said sternly. "Now, do I need to pay you fifty quid before I start?"
Arthur took a breath, considering what Gaius had said earlier on. "No, I'm sure I'll be fine."
XxxxxxxxxxxxxX
It took Arthur some effort, and a good deal of his concentration, to not get distracted and tense when Lancelot and Morgana both came too close. The problem affected Arthur's performance at the beginning but as his body and mind started to focus on what he was doing his distraction lessoned.
They both started off working on his grip and balance, and making sure he could actually swing the weapon with some confidence before putting him against Leon. Arthur lost the sword on the third clash as the force jolted his arm.
"Bloody hell," said Arthur, retrieving the sword and readjusting his grip.
"You okay?" Lancelot asked.
"Yeah, it just takes some getting used to."
"You're doing fine," Morgana said. Arthur shifted his grip about.
"It probably doesn't help that my wrist was broken a while back," Arthur said.
"When?" Morgana said, a slight frown crossing her features, it went away quickly as Arthur glanced at her. He shrugged, almost casually, but his eyes had turned a little opaque and his jaw tensed.
"A few years ago."
Morgana took the hint not to press any further. "Gauntlets will probably help, we could probably get some fitted up for you. Loosen your grip and just relax your wrist, you're tensing up every time to strike, you need to brace with more than just your hand."
"Okay."
He got better. Every time he heard some new piece of advice he took it and got better. He waited for something bad to happen, as Gwaine and Percival stopped messing around and came over to get involved and the pairings swapped around. They all started sparring off each other, and Arthur felt a bit embarrassed that he couldn't even hold his own against Morgana. She was fast, and used that to compensate for her lack of strength, compared to the others. Percival had Arthur down in three minutes he was so strong.
Never though, did anything bad happen. Arthur slowly felt himself relax especially when Merlin was press-ganged in against him and as Merlin fought back Arthur soon won the bout, Merlin ended up on his rump, with his sulking very forced.
"It doesn't really count, Merlin's useless," Gwaine said, ruffling his hair.
Everyone turned, and Merlin bit back his retort as Arthur gave a delighted laugh, that sounded uncharacteristically joyous. They all looked at him as he was suddenly without self-consciousness and clearly relaxed and happy with the environment.
"Well, that proves one thing," he announced happily.
"What's that?" Merlin asked, taking the bait. Arthur grinned at him.
"That I'm not useless!"
"We'll find that out!"
All of them jumped and turned. Uther was walking across the training ground, dressed as they were only neater, his black clothing standing out from their faded over-used and ragged shirts, which were now damp with sweat. Arthur blinked, brushing his hair out of his eyes as Uther regarded him calmly, drawing the sword he was carrying and swinging it in the air. He stepped away from the group further into the arena, and he waited.
"Come on then."
Arthur glanced at the others, who just looked back but the hint was there. It was not something Arthur could ignore, he moved over to Uther with reluctance, the joy of the situation rapidly draining away. It was fine with the others, and they all watched as the tension rebuilt in Arthur. He remembered all that Lancelot and Morgana taught him and readied himself. Uther didn't move for a moment, and Arthur's eyes drifted to the others, wondering if they knew what was happening, or if it had all been part of a horrible joke.
That was when Uther struck.
Arthur got the sword up in time to defend himself, the blow was hard but he fended it off, backed up and knocked the next to away, dancing back away from Uther. Again he tried to look to the others, this time for help, they all looked frozen in shock and as Uther struck again Arthur reacted quickly again, but his sword felt lighter.
"Merlin, I saw that," Uther snarled, his eyes fixed on Arthur. "Stay out of it."
Arthur had long enough to see Gwaine put a hand on Merlin's shoulder before there was an attack he just backed up under. He wasn't good enough, an afternoon's training was not enough to hold against a man who had spent his lifetime learning it. Arthur ended up on the floor with Uther's sword carefully placed against his neck. Such was Uther skill he didn't need the tip of his sword covered; when he lunged down, he stopped the point just in place, so he didn't draw blood.
"Not good enough yet," Uther said. Arthur lifted his eyes and his anger surged up, white hot, bursting out of every single pore in his body. He glared up.
"Not for your fancy shit," Arthur snarled. "But don't think you've won!"
He was in perfect position. Arthur lifted his leg and kicked Uther's knee out from under him. The blow was brutal, knocking him down and at the same time, Arthur knocked the sword away with his own and as Uther dropped, he slammed the hilt of his sword into his father's face sending him flying back, Uther's head recoiling under the impact. Uther sprawled down onto the floor and there were gasps from the audience. Arthur looked up at them and then back down to Uther. Morgana and Merlin ran forward, both of them checking Uther over. The man in question shook his head and sat up, blood was streaming from his nose, but that seemed to be the worst of the damage.
Arthur carried on backing up, eyes wide and they were rolling in his head as he looked around in panic. The sword slipped from his grasp and before anyone could stop him he turned tail and ran. He went across the training field, under the fence and around the side of the building before anyone else could move.
Merlin was the first to get up and try and follow. Gwaine caught him.
"But!"
"Merlin, leave him. He's held by the spell, he won't leave the grounds, just let him settle down. You'll be able to find him later. Leon, see if you can find Mordred, tell him to pick up on surveillance, just keep Arthur in line of sight but not engage in any way."
Leon nodded and headed off. Gwaine went to help Lancelot get Uther onto his feet. The sun flickered as the clouds passed over and they turned their back on it, heading off into the castle, the shadows seeming longer, the wind rising with a chill and the day sudden marred, none of them saying it, but they made their feelings clear.
The only one who didn't was Uther.