Part Twenty

Weeks passed; at any given time either one (or both) of the new parents or another member of the family was stationed at the bedside of the latest addition to the fold. Gwen had rarely wanted to leave the hospital but Arthur had practically carried her out of the door to force her back to their apartment.

Though glad to have her home, Arthur could tell she wasn't sleeping. She was restless all night and when he woke in the mornings she would already be up milling around in the kitchen, with three cups of tea already drunk and another brewing.

One evening he had found her standing in the middle of the nursery leaning on the edge of the crib, "We'll get her home soon," he'd told her. He gently wrapped his arms around her waist and tucked his chin over her shoulder. He rubbed his fingers gently over her abdomen where her bump had been. There was still a little prominence from where she had gained baby weight. It was foreign to him now to have hold of her without the bump between them.

"I just wish we could have her home now," she mumbled as she dissolved back into his chest.

"They're taking her off of the machines tomorrow," He gently rocked her back and forth with his chin nestled in the crook of her neck, "If she does well without them, we'll have her by the weekend."

"And if she doesn't?" she asked with tears brimming in her eyes, her hand clutching onto the wooden frame of the vacant crib.

"She will," he pressed a light kiss to her skin, his breath tickling her as he spoke.

"How do you know that?"

He smiled against her neck, "Because I have a little faith in her."

"I do too," she turned around in his arms and looked up at him. He could see the worry etched in her features and raised his hand to cup her chin, "but what if-"

"Let's not live for 'what if'. Let's have some confidence," he brushed his thumb over her cheekbone, "You've seen her chart; she's going to be fine."

"I hope you're right, I can't leave her there anymore. I can't. I need to be with her."

"I know you do," he kissed he tentatively on the forehead, "but you need to get some proper rest before we're looking after her twenty four seven."

"Yeah," she sighed and turned to face into his hand and placing a kiss on his palm, "It's just not ideal."

"Has anything we've done been?" he asked with a sincere look on his face that was soon betrayed by a grin.

Gwen laughed quietly, "You're right," she pushed her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his chest. She closed her eyes and settled herself leaning against him.

"Everything else worked out," he placed a kiss to the top of her hair and held her as close as he could, "this will too."

x

The next morning Arthur wasn't surprised to find himself alone when he woke up. He knew exactly where Gwen would be. He pushed up from the mattress and headed for the door, stumbling over his abandoned work clothes from the day before as he wiped his eyes of the sleep dust.

He detoured to the kettle filling it and clicking the button down before he went towards the open nursery door.

"I couldn't sleep," she mumbled as she heard his feet padding across the floor behind her. Standing next to the crib at the centre of the far wall had become a regular occurrence for the new mother, only she knew what she was missing – the baby.

"I guessed that," he stood beside her and laid his hand over hers on the edge of the crib, linking his fingers through hers.

"There's too much going on in my head," she said as she dropped said body part onto his shoulder, "Will they let us bring her home? When? At all? Will she make it past Christmas? Her first birthday? Her-"

"You don't need to explain yourself to me," he rested his temple on the top of her hair and released her hand to slip his arm around her waist, "I understand."

"I just want today to be over. I need to know we're getting her home."

"We will," he rubbed his hand along her bicep in attempt to comfort her, "She's doing great, we know that," gently he pressed his lips to her temple.

"I know," she sighed leaning into his kiss, "I know. I'm just scared, what if it goes wrong? What if her lungs aren't strong enough?"

"Stop it. You're worrying yourself far too much."

"Am I?" she didn't know how he could be so flippant about this, it was their daughter's life in the balance he wasn't so much as blinking an eyelid at a possible negative outcome, "Maybe you're not worrying enough!"

"I'm worried; you know I am," he said sternly as Gwen pulled away from him in order to scold him with her glare, "We just need to stay reasonable about this. The signs are good; we have good reason to be confident about it."

"Confidence and being complacent are two separate things."

"I'm not being complacent," he raised his hands to hold her shoulders, keeping her close to him rather than let her manoeuvre herself away, "This is our daughter were talking about, do you honestly think if I didn't truly believe that she had a chance that I would bother putting your hopes up?"

Gwen's gaze cast to the floor, her curls falling over her face, "Sorry."

"I know you're worried, but you don't need to be," he pulled her into him and placed a loving kiss to her forehead, "Come on, kettle's on, let's just have a cup of tea and head in, if that will put you at ease," he reasoned looking her in the eye with sincerity written on his face.

"Okay, thank you."

Despite the earliness of the two parents to the NICU that morning, they were greeted with smiling doctors and nurses as they approached the cot of their three week old daughter. Arthur reached for her hand with a shining confidence present on his face.

"You have a right to smile, Dr Pendragon," Doctor Orkney greeted with a pleased smile on his face, "We think we are ready to remove the last of the tubes this morning. All the indicators are telling us that she will strive without them."

Gwen let out an elongated sigh of relief a gentle smile on her face. Worry lifted from her shoulders and she felt generally lighter about herself.

"We will complete our rounds here then I shall be back, okay?"

"Thank you," Gwen beamed at him and grabbed hold of Arthur's hand in her glee.

"Don't thank me yet, Gwen."

"Not just for today," she admitted as the doctor before them smiled and walked away with his troupe of students.

"I don't want to say it," Arthur whispered smugly into her ear.

"Yes you do," she turned to look up at him slowly shaking her head, they both knew he wanted to.

"You're right, I do," he revelled in the moment. He pulled her between him and the cot and wrapped his arms around her. He grinned into the crook of her neck before he spoke; "I told you so."

"There it is," she laughed. She pulled away from him taking the remaining steps towards her sleeping daughter. She checked what the doctor's had written that morning, amused by the small smiley face that Morgana had left her at the end of one of her added notes; i'Totally gorgeous. I bagsy first extended family cuddles '/i Gwen laughed.

"You have to admit it, Guinevere, I was right."

"Yes, you were," she paused to look back over her shoulder at him, "For once."

"Hey!"

"Now, now, no big headedness in front of Baby Alexandria Amelia, we don't need her inheriting that trait sooner rather than later," she smirked and dropped the top sheet of paper back down onto the clipboard.

"Oi," he pulled the chart from her and hooked it back into place so she was free to be pulled into him, "You love it," she batted him away and turned back to the sleeping child.

"It's the single most annoying thing about you," Gwen admitted running her finger over Lexie's rising chest.

"Oh thanks," Arthur crossed his arms over his chest and hefted a laugh, taking her cajoling with a pinch or salt.

"Or maybe the snoring," she said thoughtfully still hunched over the cot. She smiled to herself not alerting Arthur to her amusement.

"Hah!"

"Seriously, I don't know how I sleep at night," she commented with a large grin on her face, tickling down Lexie's legs gaining her anticipated reaction of her kicking out in her sleep.

"Well you won't for the next three months until she sleeps through," Arthur said puffing out his chest as he took a step forward to stand next to Gwen. "So you won't be able to blame me."

"I can blame you all I want," she nudged him in the side with a cheeky smile on her face.

"Well now I'm shifting the blame onto her," he returned nudging her right back. She engaged him inn a small battle nudging him back again and giggling as he did the same to her.

"You can't blame her, she can't defend herself."

"And, against you, I can?"

"Nope," she smiled up at him pausing before she jabbed him in the side again.

"Well it's a good job I love you then, isn't it?"

"Not interrupting anything, am I?" Gwen turned to look over her shoulder towards the door. A wider grin broke across her face.

"Dad?" she moved towards him pushing her arms around his shoulders. She'd barely seen him since Lexie had been born due to the opposite shifts the lot of them had been pulling, and when she was free she'd been sleeping off the long days only to wake up tired.

"Hi pumpkin," Tom embraced his daughter. He flattened her hair down against her back and swung he around slightly, "Okay?"

"Yeah."

"Merlin called," Of course he had, he was Merlin, he always seemed to speak to her father and tell him things before Gwen had the chance to, "said they were looking to take her off the tubes today."

"Yeah, they're going to come back once their rounds are over."

"That's excellent news, love," he pulled her into a one armed hug and led her back over towards Arthur who smiled at the pair of them.

"Yeah, it is," he supplied turning back to have his chance with his daughter before Gwen or Tom butted him out of the way.

Not five minutes later Doctor Gawain Orkney returned with a smaller selection of the student troupe he had before.

"Alexandria Pendragon, off of most of the support mechanisms, today we remove her from the breather and the last of the machines," he said to the students who all stood scribbling notes down onto their clipboards. "She has a good history, so we anticipate good results. However," Arthur's smile didn't fade at this, he knew the man well enough to know his teaching methods, "This doesn't mean that it will all go according to plan. I'm only being brutally honest in front of these two because they work in our hospital's Emergency Room. They understand everything I am telling you. Okay."

He turned his back on his students and gestured for a space to be made by the cot. He leant over and gently lifted the tube from the girl's nose and face. She kicked out and moved, but no severe alerts sounded right away.

Orkney took the small probe clip from her hand with an encouraging smile on his face as he tugged at the final contacts from her skin.

He stepped aside allowing the pair of parents to their daughter. Arthur stooped over the cot and slowly scooped his large hand beneath his daughters head, and other under her body.

She really was tiny.

Nothing could stop the grin that had plastered itself to Arthur's face. Gwen smiled through her tears – ones she hadn't even notice running down her face until one fell onto Lexie's bare leg. Gwen ran her thumb over the moisture and wiped her eyes.

There was a click on a camera as Tom aimed his newly bought digital camera at the pair of them. He indicated for them to face him and they smiled at the camera briefly before their gaze was drawn back to her. A minute passed before Arthur moved to give Gwen their daughter. Again Tom took a dozen pictures.

"I told you she'd be fine."

"She's still got to make it through the next twenty-four hours without assistance before we can take her home," Gwen said as she gently massaged her fingers over Lexie's chest.

"With all due respect, Gwen, I think Arthur's right," Orkney said with a smile on his face, "And, if I've not said it already, she's gorgeous."

"You have and she is," Arthur smiled and ran his hand over her hair that was already curling like her mother's.

"Well, other littleuns to tend to, so I shall see you later."

"Thanks, Gawain."

"No worries, Gwen, see you soon."

Gwen beamed at him with her daughter cradled between her own arms and Arthur's. She looked at her Dad with the very same smile and indicated for him to come over, "This is Grandpa Tom, he's Mummy's Daddy," Lexie was busy looking around at the world that surrounded her to notice that her mother was passing her to the older man in the room.

"This takes me back."

"Twenty-six yeas later."

"Feels like yesterday," he said grinning down at the girl in his arms.

"I have to get to work," Arthur said dejectedly having looked at the clock, "I'm already late," he ran his fingers over Lexie's hair once again and stooped to place a kiss on her head, "I'll be back in a couple of hours, sooner if it's dead," Gwen smiled in understanding. He ran his palm down her bicep pulling her towards him and pressed a kiss to his lips, "Love you."

"Love you too," she replied pecking him on the lips again before he turned to go. He looked back over his shoulder as he walked away eyeing his daughter with a smile on his face. He tuned his attention to Gwen and grinned. He then pushed the door open and left his family behind.

Morgana cradled her niece, quietly cooing over the currently sleeping child. Merlin was stood beside her, running a soothing finger over the small girl's bare arm, "She's beautiful," Morgana said for the hundredth time.

Merlin huffed, "She'd be even more beautiful if you let Uncle Merlin have a hold."

"Blood relatives only," Morgana said again, turning away from Merlin so he couldn't try and take the baby from her, "Besides, you're under strict Daddy instructions not to touch."

Merlin moved around to stand in front of her again and rested his hand on his girlfriend's arm, "I think he was joking."

"Then you're a fool," she laughed as the small child moved in her grasp and woke from her slumber, "Hello little one," the girl gurgled slightly before she start to cry out. Morgana shushed her quietly rocking her in her arms to no avail.

"Maybe I-"

"It's okay, baby, shuuuush," she rocked her urging her to stop crying.

"Morgana, let me?" Merlin held out his arms to a reluctant Morgana who gave up the child passing her to her boyfriend. Merlin smiled down at the little girl and she immediately stopped crying staring up at him in amazement.

Morgana's jaw dropped; "How did you do that?" the Irish doctor enquired in amazement.

Merlin shrugged, he was still smiling at his 'niece', "Something about having gawky features works?"

"She's not even a month old. She can't focus properly yet."

"Well, whatever, babies like me."

"God knows why," Merlin looked over his shoulder to the owner of the voice. He noticed Arthur leaning against the NICU doorway with a smirk on his face.

"Here you go, Blobby," Merlin fussed, heading towards the male doctor and handing him his daughter, "Daddy's back."

"You can hold her if you want, Merlin," Arthur said refusing his best friend offer, "she seems to like you."

"And take away any potential Daddy moments and risk being murdered," Merlin shook his head forcing Arthur to take Lexie from him, "I don't think so," on making sure the blonde had his daughter cradled securely Merlin took a step back, "I've got to get down to the Emergency Department, anyway. Work awaits."

"Thanks for keeping an eye on her," Morgana cleared her throat. Arthur looked over to her and laughed, "You too, Morgana."

"Any time, Daddio. Come on, Merlin, we better go," the pair of them left Arthur holding his daughter against his chest. Morgana paused at the door to look back at her brother with a smile on her face. The small coffee-skinned girl in his arms made a small happy noise and Morgana saw Arthur's ears shoot up as she assumed a smile appeared on his face.

"That was your Aunty Morgana, she's a bit of a fruit loop, but she's okay. And Uncle Merlin. He's a bit useless, but you can't help but like him," Morgana quietly laughed as she silently shut the department door behind her, "Between you and me, Blobs, I think Auntie Morgana is getting a bit broody. She wants you all to herself."

"I thought Gwen would have your head if you called her Blobby?"

"Hi, Dad," Arthur greeted with his girl clutched against his chest as she drifted to sleep, "I'd give her over but she's just fallen asleep."

Uther held up his hand in protest, "I'd not take her away from you anyway. Gawain tells me all is going well on the western front."

"You could say that," the three Pendragons remained in silence. Arthur sat down in the empty chair next to the empty cot with the young girl cradled against him in her sleep.

"I feel she's not been put down since this morning."

"I very much doubt it. Morgana and Merlin were fighting over her when I came in," Arthur laughed and the elder Pendragon smiled.

"I feel for the boy, I really do."

"Listen out for that next piece of news, then," Arthur joked.

"I think Merlin's too scared of me to ask her to marry him, let alone start a family with her."

"Well, it's Merlin. He needs booting in the right direction sometimes," they fell back into a comfortable silence, something they would never do previous to the recent changes in Arthur's life, and merely watched the baby in his arms sleep. Arthur found it bizarre, he had never imagined before that he'd be connecting with his father over his mismatched lifestyle, but if anything, he appreciated that they were.