I'm back! And I bring you a new chapter! YAY! By the way this document is like 12 and half pages long...ugh. Anyway thank you for all the lovely responses I appreciate them very much. I really can't think of anything to say beyond "I hope you like it!" And I hope you think the quote is fitting...I might have just jammed it in there (though this is the quote that this whole fic is based on...I hope it fits)

IDOM or Sherlock

"Sire, sire!"

Uther woke with a start. There in front his face was that same nervous guard from yesterday, he seemed to have been assigned the post of 'bearer of bad news to the king' No wonder he was nervous. "What is it?"

"The prisoner has escaped."

As Uther hurried out of bed he felt his heart, unwillingly, begin to sink. Of course he escaped. He was a magical physician, how could he expect him to stay? Why would he expect him to stay? Uther had treated him with only disdain and ridicule during his stay. And curse it, why did he care so much?!

It was with that question that Uther finally began to feel the anger he should have felt from the beginning. He may have no right as a man to keep him here (he was just a physician after all), but as a king, Gauis was an escaped prisoner (though he wasn't completely sure annoying the king was a cause of imprisonment he'd look into it…), and that allowed him to do the one thing he wanted most, capture Gauis and take out his hurt feelings on him via the stocks (murdering someone because they rejected his…acknowledgement was a bit much, even for his most wildest fits of rage).

Not that, as a king, he would have hurt feelings over a mere physician.

"How long has he been out and how far away has he gotten? Has he breached the city walls? And for that matter why aren't the alarm bells ringing?" Uther demanded harshly.

The nervous guard looked like he was about pass out.

Unwittingly, what Gauis had said the night before floated to the front of his mind "I see a king the people fear and respect but do not love." And Uther sighed slowly and tried to soften his tone. Somewhat. He was still the king. "Just explain to me what you know."

"We-ell, he escaped about 10 minutes ago." The guard stuttered out.

Uther's face lit up. "That's fantastic news, he can't have gotten far at all! Do you know where he is?"

"He's in the infirmary, Sire."

"What?" Uther stopped mid stride to stare, dumbfounded, at the guard beside him.

His incredulous stare must of broken guard in some way because before he knew it, the guard was talking at a break neck speed. "Well, you see. We were changing shifts and I was talking about how my brother had gotten himself injured during the siege and how it seemed unlikely he was going to make it." The guard paused here to gulp. "And suddenly the door to his cell comes flying open, and just strides out, but before he leaves he walks over to me and he told me to tell you…" He paused, his whole face displaying the hesitancy he had for telling him exactly what the physician had said.

"Just tell me already." Uther said impatiently

"He told me to tell you that he said: ' I don't care about the sense of accomplishment you get from keeping me in the dungeons. I'll not laze about while lives could be saved. If you want to arrest me when I'm done, then do it. But do not try to prevent me from doing my job Uther. It won't end well. But if you must express your displeasure at my actions then come to the infirmary yourself, I'm quite proficient at multi-tasking.'

"And we followed him all the way there, Sire. And when he didn't appear to be escaping, I came here to inform you at once. That's also why we didn't ring the alarm bell we weren't sure it counted as an escape unless he actually…tried to escape."

"Is that all?" Uther asked wryly

The guard blushed. "Ac-actually, when we observed him at that infirmary he told us that 'waiting here any longer isn't going to make Uther, less angry when he hears,'"

Uther shocked himself by how little of what Gauis had said effected him. In fact, he found himself rather eager to hold conversation with the physician. He dismissed the guard with a wave of his hand and slowly made his way to the infirmary.

X

Uther opened the door to the infirmary and sat down in one of the available chairs.

Gauis raised his eyebrow. "I thought you would be angrier." He said as he wrapped a bandage around an injured man's arm.

Uther shrugged. "So did I. I guess I figured your completely unreasonable when it comes to being a physician. It would be useless to prevent you from doing this."

"Quite." Was all Gauis said before moving on to the next person.

They didn't talk much really. They just sat in companionable silence, which Uther occasionally broke to ask what he was doing with this or that spell. It was one of the most enjoyable times Uther had had since he had become king. There was something very precious about the silence that was between them. It was almost a form of communication within itself. It seemed to speak volumes for the happenstance that can bring about friendship. But all too soon it had to return to his paperwork and councilmen, which resulted in Gauis being returned to his cell.

X

This went on for several months. Uther would arrest Gauis, and as soon as he heard of a medical emergency Gauis would break out. And then he and Uther would sit together while Gaius healed and Uther did paperwork. More often than not Uther would occasionally break Gauis out himself when he was in need of advice (no one knew why he didn't just invite Gauis as a guest, but one must assume it was part of their unique way of bonding) Eventually Uther gave him a room in a tower that nobody seemed to be using that was supposedly for "prisoners of an extended stay". Soon after people started bring medical requests to the tower, and Gauis began to amass books and healing herbs there.

On one particular trip up to Gauis's room Uther saw that a sign for Court Phyisican had been hung outside Gauis' room. This only confirmed to Uther that now was the perfect time to pose his question.

"Gaius," Uther said as he walked in, "Did you know there's a sign outside the Prisoner's of an Extended Stay Wing that says "Court Physician"?"

Gauis looked up, eyes twinkling warmly, from some concoction he was brewing (He knew Gauis had probably told him what it was sometime or another but the names never seemed to stick in his head.) to answer him. "I did Sire. I wonder what gave them that idea?"

"I haven't the faintest idea." Uther said amicably as he sat down. Then he paused, seriously contemplating something. "Do I even still have a Court Phyiscian?" He questioned.

"Currently, you have Sir Olwen, but his eyesight is going and he hasn't been seen the infirmary since shortly after I moved into the tower. But as of yet, he has not officially retired."

"Really." Uther said and he allowed a silence to fall, while he thought of a new way to approach the subject, seeing as he already had a physician. After a while he finally said "You're a phyisican. In fact, you're an army physician."

Gauis raised his eyebrows. "In a manner of speaking. I go where I'm needed and more often than not that place is the battlefield."

"Any good?" Uther asked as he casually examined a weird rabbit mask that he was confused as to how it came into Gauis' possession in the first place.

Gauis looked rather affronted (after all Uther had seen him perform medical feats that he had later described as " miraculous"), and he responded tersely "Very good."

"Seen a lot of injuries then. Voilent deaths."

Now Gauis simply looked confused. "Well. Yes."

"Bit of trouble too I bet." Uther said slyly.

It was at this point were Gauis finally grasped what was going on here, and with mirth in his eyes he answered, a bit more verbosely than usual. "Of course. Yes. Enough for a lifetime. Far too much."

Uther raised his eyebrow. "Would you like to see some more?"

Gauis broke out into a full-fledged smile, which to Uther, held the promise of mischievousness, good advice, and long days spent in one another's company. "Oh god yes."

A pause.

"Was that, by any chance, you asking me to be your Court Physician?" Gauis asked.

"I believe it was." Uther said, a smile adorning his face.

"You already have a Court Physician." Gauis pointed out skeptically, one brow raised making his point far better than his mouth.

"Well he's going to retire soon, isn't he?"

"So what will I do until then?"

"Well," Uther said leaning back in concentration. "It seems to me as if you have two options. You can either continue on as you are being an unofficial physician while being my prisoner. Or you can become my Court Advisor, and still be an unofficial physician."

Gauis raised his other brow.

"It's not as if you aren't going to be doing it for me anyway." Uther pointed out.

"True." Gauis conceded, thinking hard. "If I become your Court Advisor, I can't promise I'll always say things you want to hear."

"I can't always promise to listen." Uther said blithely.

Gauis raised his eyebrow skeptically. "Isn't the whole point of having an advisor to heed their advice?"

Uther shrugged, saying, "I'm the king" as if that answered everything.

Gauis nodded, though his concession was ruined by the fact that his eyebrow was still raised.

"So that's a yes then on being Court Advisor till the physician position is open." Uther asked, feeling a bit nervous despite himself.

Gauis nodded, most of his attention focused on his potion, as he carefully measured a murky liquid into it.

"You know, I thought me hiring you would be a bit more monumentous than this." Uther said.

Gauis looked up smiling wryly. "I'm not a very monumentous person."

Uther let out a sound that he might of called a snort had he not been a king. "I'll try to remember that the next time you're blowing back my guards with your magic."

"That implies your going to be arresting me again." Gauis pointed out.

"That's true." Uther agreed, and then he let out a light laugh "You never know, I just might."

"Somehow I don't find that very amusing."

"That's because you're a stick in the mud." Uther retorted.

"I'd rather be a stick in the mud than full of myself." Gauis said pointedly, not looking up from his brew.

"Why-!" Uther started than stopped, shaking his head. He got to his feet "I need to get going, got a council meeting about water regulations, or something equally tedious." He made a face. "Regardless, congratulations on your new position in court."

Gauis glanced toward the king. " It'd be more appropriate to congratulate yourself Sire, seeing as you were the one who gave it to me."

Uther paused outside Gauis' door, not turning around he said. "Ah, but you accepted, which deserves congratulations in and of itself, and…thanks, accepting that position deserves gratitude as well. Thank you, my…friend." With that awkwardly uttered sentence he swept out of the physician's chamber.

And Gauis smiled to himself as his mixture stewed, thinking of the absurdities that life held, that allowed one to go from a King's prisoner to his closest friend in a matter of months.

Was the ending too rushed? I felt like it was a little rushed. But there was no way I was showing all those months.

And to explain the whole trouble quote...I've always imagined that physicians that live in court would see far more troubling things and exotic wounds, then say...a country one. So I thought it made sense. It sounds kind of awkward though. Gauis really isn't like Watson, he's very open with his emotions. Hope I didn't butcher this ending. And stay tuned because there is going to be a BONUS SCENE. Because I'm a nerd like that.

Also did anyone acknowledge the character I archived from the first episode?

-Windy