NOTE FOR FOLLOWERS
I have changed the puppies name to Isolde. Unfortunately I had
already used Aithusa for Merlin's clinical psychologist and he
wouldn't have wanted to remember that time. Thank you to those
followers who let me know. I have edited the previous chapter.
…
Merlin and Isolde soon became inseparable. Merlin insisted on sorting out all the messes the young puppy made, and she was soon house trained. Unfortunately she did like chewing things, especially Arthur's things. He lost his favourite shoes by Isolde chewing one of them to pieces and the sleeve of a Armani jacket. Merlin wasn't sure when she did it as he watched her carefully. He did know that the shoes had been made for Arthur, by a top London company. Arthur only moaned about it for a week so Merlin thought he had got of lightly. Gwen wasn't so happy when Isolde chewed one of Penny's favourite toys and Merlin asked Arthur to get a replacement.
When Gaius and Alice met the new arrival they were pleased to see the effect on Merlin. When Merlin and Gaius sat down to work Isolde would sit quietly by his feet or sit at the window looking outside. Merlin still had down periods but they seemed to last a shorter time. Arthur did come home one day to find Merlin in bed curled up with Isolde next to him. It looked cute but he wasn't amused. Merlin was asleep so he asked Percy why Merlin was in bed with the puppy.
"Merlin was feeling low and went to bed, the puppy followed him and they looked so peaceful together I left Isolde there. I know you don't want the puppy in there but she helps Merlin and it is daytime." Percy didn't look sorry and Arthur forgave him. They all knew how Merlin loved Isolde.
Later when Merlin woke he found Arthur sat by the bed looking at him. "Why is that dog in our bed?" Arthur asked the sleepy man.
"Sorry, she won't sleep here at night, but I needed a cuddle and you weren't here." There wasn't anything Arthur could say to that, so he leant forward and kissed his husbands forehead before picking up Isolde and putting her outside the bedroom door. "Well now I'm here" he said with a knowing look.
Percy collected the puppy as she started to cry outside the door and put her in the office on her night bed. "You stay there little one, I don't think your wanted in the bedroom."
Merlin took Isolde out in the garden at least twice a day. Two weeks after Isolde came home for the first time Arthur took her to the vets for her second injection. Merlin was looking forward to going out on walks with her, so three weeks later on a sunny day; he took her out for the first time to the woods. Percy and Gwaine went with him. Isolde kept away from the wheelchair, walking to one side on her long lead. Merlin had been working with her on her obedience, but wasn't confident to let her of the lead outside the garden yet.
They met several other dog owners on their walks. Isolde always rolled over and showed her belly when another dog came near. Merlin laughed at her, one of the other dog owners told him that would change as she got older. At the moment she was submitting to them. Merlin made several new friends but found he knew the dog's names before he knew the owners.
Merlin caught a cold during November and needed to go on his oxygen once more. Although he did have a portable bottle on the back of his electric wheel chair, Arthur insisted Merlin stay indoors. So, one of the other's took the puppy out for her walks. They had trouble, as she didn't want to go without him. It was a pity as Merlin had started to let Isolde off her lead once they were away from the roads. Even when Arthur took her out she tried to run back to Merlin.
Once again Merlin became quite poorly and spent quite a bit of time resting. Isolde was always found curled up with him, she hated leaving his side. It was two weeks before Merlin was well enough to take his puppy out for walks once more.
The second Christmas in the bungalow soon came round. Isolde loved the decorations and kept pulling the tinsel of the lower branches of the tree. So Merlin moved them higher not wanting her to swallow any. As usual the bungalow became the centre of their family and friends celebrations. During Christmas morning the door bell rand unexpectedly and was answered by Kay. It was Uther who had once more arrived without notice. He had several bags of presents with him. After checking with Arthur Kay showed Uther to the lounge.
"Sorry to butt into your Christmas, but I only got back from America last night and I wanted to give Miranda her Christmas presents." He passed two of the bags to Morgana. "Those are hers the rest are for the rest of the family." Uther looked around for his granddaughter, and then spotted her on Merlin's lap. He held out his hands to take her. As Uther got closer to Merlin Isolde growled and showed her teeth. It surprised everyone she had never done that to anyone before. Merlin put his hand down and told her to stop. Isolde looked up at him and looked sorry. She still looked at Uther carefully as if she didn't trust him.
Uther stopped and looked at the puppy. Miranda was happy where she was and ignored her grandfather, smiling instead at her Uncle Merlin who had been making a fuss of her. Uther moved forward once more and spoke "Hello Miranda come to grampy" the young girl looked up at Uther and started to cry. Then Isolde started to bark.
"Get that animal away from my granddaughter, it should be put in another room." he demanded.
"She's protecting Miranda and Merlin. It's you she is growling at father." Morgana told her father. "They play together all the time. Miranda will go to you later Uther, she's too interested in Merlin at the minute. She won't even come to me if her Uncle Merlin's about." Morgana laughed trying to pacify her father. "You can open her presents with her in a bit."
Uther was obviously annoyed he didn't take his eyes off Isolde, it also irked that his granddaughter seemed to prefer to stay with Merlin. Penny came crawling across the room and also headed straight for Merlin. "He's the pied piper" Leon laughed.
"That's because he spoils them." Arthur smiled at his husband.
Merlin grinned "I love them, why can't I spoil them?" he looked truly happy with Isolde sat at his feet and the children with him.
Uther sat down as Arthur gave him a whiskey. "Just don't put that down or we could have drunken children on our hands." Arthur told his father.
Merlin looked up at Uther "Would you like to join us for Christmas lunch?" he was trying hard to involve Uther.
Uther was surprised at the offer and looked across to Arthur.
"Merlin asked you father, he doesn't need my permission." Arthur raised an eyebrow. "One more won't make any difference."
Uther looked at Merlin "Thank you that would be lovely, if it's not too much inconvenience."
"Like Arthur said one more won't matter, and you're welcome."
Uther was genuinely surprised at the offer. Merlin put Miranda onto the floor and stood up and went to the kitchen, Isolde following closely on his heels. His mother was laying the table with Freya.
"One more you two, Uther's staying to lunch." Hunith looked at her son and was about to say something, but Merlin beat her to it. "It's a time for family; can you fit one more around the table?"
There were already eighteen places set. The dining table was extended out to its maximum.
"Yes if we all squeeze up a bit" Hunith was proud of her son she knew the trouble Uther had caused in the past.
Merlin kissed her on the cheek and went back to the lounge sitting back down. He looked at Lance:
"Lance when is Eylan due?" Gwen's brother had flown over from New Zealand with his new wife the day before. He had emigrated two years previously.
"They should be here anytime now, it will be nice to see his wife Cathryn." Merlin had been pleased when he heard Eylan had married.
With that the door bell rang. Before anyone could answer it Kay was there. He bought the pair into the room. Arthur went towards them holding out his hand:
"Hello Eylan it's good to see you" turning to the young woman at Eylan's side he took her hand "Welcome, my name is Arthur and its lovely you could join us Cathryn." Arthur then introduced her to all the others.
Merlin stood up as he was introduced and smiled at the overwhelmed newcomer. "Don't worry about all the names, you'll soon get used to us please take a seat." he offered his chair.
"Oh no that's alright you needn't give your chair to me" Cathryn blushed. She had been told all about Merlin and knew he had a bad leg.
"No please, I'll get my wheelchair, we're beginning to get cosy with everyone here." With that he limped off to the other room. The others knew better than to offer to get it for Merlin. When he came back in his electric wheelchair Isolde was sitting proudly on his lap.
"Don't worry Cathryn, Merlin is quite independent." Gwen reassured her has she gave her sister in law a kiss. It was the first time they had met in the flesh but they had spoken every week on skype.
By now Uther had managed to get his granddaughters attention and she was opening her presents with him. He was laughing at her and looked happier. Arthur was amazed at the change in his father. Uther looked round and saw Arthur watching him.
"There's something for you and Merlin, as well as Morgana and Leon in the bags help yourselves." He smiled at his son. Arthur couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his father smile. Perhaps he was changing.
"That's alright father, we'll open them after lunch if that's alright with you."
The door bell rang once more.
"Our last two guests have arrived." Merlin went towards the door now in his wheelchair. He came back with Alice and Gaius. After introducing them to the people they didn't know, he had a surprise. It seemed Uther and Gaius had known each other years before but had lost contact.
The meal was soon ready and Hunith and Gwen got everyone one to their places. There when high chairs for the three little ones. Mithian and William had arrived, just as the rest were sitting down. Uther ended up sitting next to Leon and Miranda with Morgana the other side of her daughter. Uther surprised everyone by helping Miranda to eat her dinner.
After lunch Uther gave Arthur and Merlin their presents. They both had an expensive gold pen each, with the Pendragon family crest engraved on the side. It seemed Uther really was trying to include Merlin at last. He had also brought Hunith a gold watch. This made Hunith feel guilty as she had nothing to give in return. But before he left she went to the annex and got a cake she had made for the family, she could always make another. Uther took the gift with grace and thanked her. The day went very well and everyone one was relaxed. During the afternoon Gaius and Uther caught up with each other and it seemed they intended to keep in touch.
After Christmas everything soon settled back to normal. In January they had some unexpected bad weather. One day there was heavy snow falling, this coupled with the snow they had the previous night meant the trains weren't running. Arthur and Lance were travelling to London each day as they had a case in court. Arthur rang Merlin at two o'clock to say he would try to get a taxi back from the office. Merlin insisted Arthur stay in London saying it was stupid to travel back. Arthur had to be back in London the morning for the court case so it was silly coming home. Arthur wasn't happy but reluctantly agreed. It would be the first time they had spent the night apart, except for Merlin's hospital admissions, since Merlin was rescued.
Arthur rang and spoke to the bodyguards asking them to keep an extra close eye on Merlin over night. Geraint and George were on duty. George covered the office cameras and outside patrols while Geraint would patrol indoors. This was their normal routine when on together. George preferred to work that way and the others usually let him.
Hunith kept Merlin company until he decided to retire at about ten o'clock. He took Isolde round to George for the night. He had been tempted to take her with him but thought it would be unfair on her as it would only be for one night. When Merlin woke up next morning there had been even more snow. He was glad Arthur didn't have to travel today. He was sitting eating breakfast with Gwen and Penny when Arthur rang to check Merlin was ok. They spoke for a while and then Lance spoke to Gwen. Arthur said he would contact Merlin later and let him know whether the court case finished on time. If not he might have to stay overnight again.
Merlin got more and more unsettled as the day progressed. The snow just kept falling. The only relief Merlin got was watching Isolde playing in the snow. She loved it and ran round the garden like a mad thing. Merlin sat just outside the door on the patio and threw snowballs for her to chase.
Arthur rang at four o'clock to say they would be staying in London for a second night. All the court was staying, including all the witnesses, to ensure the case could continue the next day. It was hoped to be finished by lunchtime for the weekend. The case had already over run buy two weeks and it was only supposed to have been a three week trial. Arthur was not amused about not going home a second night. He spent over an hour talking to Merlin.
The same team of bodyguards were on duty that night; Merlin took Isolde to keep George company and went to bed. At two o'clock in the morning little dog woke up and started to bark and scratch at the door. George thinking she wanted to go out opened the door and went towards the front door. But Isolde ran round the corridor barking as she went.
Geraint had just walked around the guest bedrooms and gym complex and was just about to walk round the rest of the house when he heard Isolde. She ran was barking outside the master bedroom. Geriant opened the door to check on Merlin, as he did so Isolde ran between his legs and into the room, jumping up on the bed in a flash.
Merlin was obviously having a nightmare and was thrashing about. Isolde went to his head and whimpered, licking his face. She then started to push her head up against his. Geraint quickly moved round to the far side of the bed as Merlin was about to fall out, and moved the sleeping man to the middle of the bed. By then George had arrived. Geraint sent him for some water. He went to speak to Merlin to try to calm him, but it was Isolde who calmed her master. Geraint was amazed at how quickly Merlin responded to her, he had witnessed several of Merlin's night time events in the past, and he had seen Arthur dealing with them but this was something else. By the time George was back Merlin was awake but still confused. Geriant gave Merlin his sedatives and sat and talked to him to try and bring him back from his confused state. All the time Isolde was making a fuss of Merlin, pushing her head into his hand. Merlin started stroking her and became calm. George went and made Merlin a drink of warm milk and Honey, something Hunith had recommended, and seemed to help. As their charge started to drift off back to sleep the two men left him alone, except for the small dog who lay curled up by her master. Geriant spent the rest of the night outside the bedroom door in case, but Merlin slept peacefully for the rest of the night.
Merlin was still asleep when Arthur rang the next morning. Gwaine was on duty by then and told Arthur what had happened. Arthur was relieved that Merlin was ok, and that Isolde must have sensed her master's distress. If she hadn't Merlin may have been hurt falling from the bed. And not spotted before he was checked next by Geriant. Arthur was also pleased to hear that the small dog was able to calm Merlin down quickly.
Luckily Arthur was back home by mid afternoon. He had hired a taxi to get Lance and himself home. The taxi film had a four wheel drive and managed to get them back to the village safely. Arthur's car would have to stay in the railway station car park until the roads had been cleared properly to the village. The snow continued for the next week and caused havoc throughout the south east.
Merlin was so proud of Isolde when he heard what she had done. Even Arthur agreed if ever he had to stay away overnight again the small dog could sleep with Merlin. And he forgave the dog for destroying his shoes and jacket.
