A/N: So this is the last chapter before I'm away for a week. Hopefully I'll manage to upload on the day I get back which will be the 10th. Please understand if I don't but I'll try my very hardest.

I hope you enjoy!+

Chapter 31

Later that night, Arthur lay with Merlin sprawled over his chest, fast asleep. He had one hand tangled in Merlin's hair while he scratched his scalp lovingly. Arthur's other hand was clasped with Merlin's, their arms outstretched and resting on the mattress. Merlin's soft, cool breaths tickled Arthur's bare chest which was a comforting contrast to the sticky warmth where the rest of their bodies were pressed together. Arthur's hand dropped to the nape of Merlin's neck and he began tracing little patterns gently.

He woke up the next morning in that same position with his arm draped over Merlin's upper back. He sighed happily and rubbed his eyes before looking down at Merlin. He cursed. The doctors had been very adamant that Merlin was always on oxygen overnight and, in their excitement, Arthur had completely forgotten. And the effects of that were visible. Merlin was pale and sweaty. He was breathing quickly and shallowly and his eyes were screwed up in pain.

Very gently and with great difficulty, Arthur extracted himself from the bed, kissed Merlin on the forehead and, after pulling on some trousers, went downstairs to fetch an oxygen tank. He was getting very used to doing things one handed.

Once back upstairs, he sat on the edge of the bed and stirred Merlin. "Good morning."

Merlin just groaned miserably.

"I'm sorry, gorgeous. I forgot to put you on oxygen. Here," he hooked the tube around Merlin's ears and secured it to his nose, "That might help. I need to get Killi soon."

"Can I come?"

Arthur sighed, "You should stay here and get some more rest."

"By myself?"

"I could ask Gwen to come over and stay."

"She needs to stay with the baby."

"Well," Arthur scratched his head, "I can ask my dad to bring him over and drop him off."

Merlin smiled and stretched.

"I'm happy to have you home," Arthur whispered.

"I'm happy to be home. This bed is a lot more comfortable than the ones at the hospital. And I've got a free bedwarmer."

"Free?"

Merlin grinned.

Arthur chuckled and shook his head, "Alright. What do you want for breakfast, cheeky?"

"Cheeky?" Merlin exclaimed, "I prefer gorgeous."

"Well right now you're being a lot more cheeky than gorgeous."

Merlin pouted, "Can I have some orange juice please?"

"And what?"

"I'm not hungry."

"Merls-"

"I don't feel well at the moment. Just give me a couple of hours and I'll eat something."

"Alright," Arthur felt guilty- it was his fault Merlin wasn't feeling well, after all, "You can just have orange juice for now. But I'll bring some vitamins up as well."

Merlin nodded and hugged the pillow, burying his face in it slightly, "It smells like home," he said.

"That's because it is home," Arthur told him, stroking his hair gently.

"I've missed it," Merlin melted into Arthur's touch.

"Well this is exactly where you're staying for a very long time."

"What about the hotel? We were going to move closer."

"We can stay for a while. You like it here, don't you?"

Merlin nodded.

"So we'll stay until you want to move," Arthur said, "I'll go get breakfast and call my dad. You can get some more sleep if you want. I'll put ice in your drink to keep it cold."

He stayed sitting on the edge of the bed until Merlin closed his eyes before getting up and heading downstairs. He called his father while he made himself some toast.

"Good morning, Arthur."

"Hi, dad. How are you?"

"Fine, thank you. How are you? Your shoulder getting better?"

"Yeah, I'm great. Just a few more weeks and it'll be near enough back to normal."

"I'm glad. How can I help?"

"I was wondering if there was any chance you could drop Killi off instead of waiting for me to pick him up?"

"I was just about to take him for a walk. I don't think it'll be a problem."

"Thank you so much. I would have come myself and brought Merlin but he's not had the best night and he's tired. I don't want to leave him."

"That's fine. When do you want him?"

"Any time today. You must be dying to get him away."

"He's not any bother," Uther said, "I've enjoyed the company. I'll see you later, then."

"Thanks, dad."

Arthur took his breakfast, Merlin's juice, two cups of water and a few bottles of vitamins upstairs on a tray and set it down on the end of the bed. He put one of the glasses of water, the orange juice and the vitamins on Merlin's bedside table, and picked up the rest to eat on his side of the bed.

He'd just finished eating and was drinking his tea, when Merlin woke up again. "Feeling better?"

Merlin rolled over and looked up at him, "A bit."

"Do you want your juice?"

"I'll get it myself. You finish your breakfast."

"I'm not getting you a new glass if you spill it," Arthur warned.

"I won't spill it."

"If you say so." Arthur watched as Merlin struggled to sit up, falling multiple times.

"It's not funny," Merlin said.

"No," Arthur set his mug down and turned to Merlin, "Not at all. Are you sure you don't want help?"

Merlin looked at him sadly.

"Come on," Arthur hoisted Merlin up handed him the glass, "There you go. Hungry yet?"

"No."

"Do you feel sick?"

"You sound like my mum."

"Merlin. Do you feel sick?"

"A bit. Like after exercise when you've done too much and you feel weak and nauseous. And my chest hurts."

"It's my fault," Arthur said, "I forgot about the oxygen."

"It's alright. It'll pass."

"You're not actually going to be sick?"

"No. I need the toilet though."

Arthur snorted, "No one can tell us we're not romantic," he got up and walked around the bed.

Later that afternoon, while Arthur was downstairs making a cup of tea, the doorbell rang and there was an excited yapping at the door. Arthur sighed knowing exactly what that would have meant for Merlin upstairs. His reactions to loud noises had, understandably, got even worse since the car accident. Unsurprisingly a few seconds later, he heard a terrified, timid call of his name.

"Two seconds, gorgeous!"

He opened the door to his father who seemed to look very guilty, knowing what he'd done. Ever since the incident with Catrina and the doorbell, Merlin's fear of the noises had worsened and Arthur leaning on the car horn when they crashed hadn't helped at all. Killi leapt up at Arthur immediately and started wagging his tail. Merlin called Arthur's name again in fear so he let Uther in and ran upstairs, calling, "There's tea on the bench," to his father.

"Arthur," Merlin whispered weakly as he came into the room, "The door."

"I know, I'm sorry. It's just my dad. He forgot."

Arthur sat on the edge of the bed and pulled Merlin close to him, "It's alright," he soothed, "Nothing's going wrong, nothing bad is happening. Everything's fine."

"Is- is," Merlin took a few uneven breaths, "Killi?"

Arthur nodded, "And, knowing him, he'll be bounding up those stairs any second now to see you. You alright?"

Merlin nodded but Arthur continued to rock him gently for a while until Killi, as predicted, joined them and leapt up onto the bed. Merlin laughed, let go of Arthur and held his dog tightly. Killi licked Merlin's face happily and wagged his tail.

"Are you alright if I go downstairs to see my dad? Do you want to come?"

Merlin shook his head, "But say thank you for me for everything he's done. Killi and the police and everything."

"Of course," Arthur kissed him, "Need anything?"

"I'm fine."

"You'll shout if you do?"

"Yes."

"Good. Love you."

"I love you."

That evening, when Arthur came upstairs to check on Merlin, he found him curled up on the bed, arms around Killi, both of them asleep. Unable to resist, he quickly took a photo and sent it to Hunith, Morgana and Gwen. They were all still worried about Merlin, despite him being back at home. Maybe the photo would ease their minds a bit.

Arthur returned to his father downstairs.

"How is he?" Uther asked.

"Exhausted. Better than he was, but still tired."

"And you?"

"What about me?"

"How are you? You went through a horrible thing, Arthur. Horrible in a different way to what Merlin suffered. Are you alright?"

Arthur nodded.

"Really?"

"I know Merlin's safe. That's all I need to be happy."

"Alright. Have the police spoken to you yet?"

"No. I've told Merlin to be expecting someone to ask him some questions, though. Why do you ask?"

"They're looking into talking to others who might be a threat. He advised me not to make any plans about travel public, just in case they're heard. Someone must have known you were heading from the building site to the hospital. Otherwise Jonas wouldn't have been able to intercept."

"So?"

"So there might be another involved. There was no one around you on site that could have heard?"

"No."

"So someone must have heard from the other end. And Borden didn't work in the maternity wards so it can't have been him."

"Have they talked to the staff there yet?"

"No. They don't know how many people are involved and if there are more, they'll be harder to find if they're warned the police are looking."

"Are they going to talk to Lance?"

Uther nodded, "He might have seen someone around him when he was calling you."

"Do you think I'll be allowed to stay with Merlin when the police talk to him?"

"I don't know. Possibly."

"I don't think he'd be able to cope on his own."

"I'll ask- see what I can do."

Once his father had gone, Arthur went back upstairs. Merlin was sitting up, stroking Killi with one hand a reading a book with the other.

"I need to take Killi for a walk," Arthur said, "He's only had one today. Do you want to come?"

"I haven't been out in ages," he said fearfully.

"I know. If you want to, I'll take you. But you don't have to."

Merlin thought about it, "I'll come."

"Yeah? Should probably get dressed then, eh?"

Once Merlin was dressed up warmly, Arthur carried him downstairs and put him in a wheelchair. "Do you want to bring some water?"

Merlin nodded.

"Any food? You still haven't eaten today."

"When we get back. I'm still not used to eating loads."

"I don't need you to eat loads all at once. Little snacks more regularly is just as good. Why don't you take a banana or something with you while we walk and then have something smaller when we get back?"

Merlin nodded reluctantly.

"What do you want? Fruit? Crisps? A sandwich?"

"A red apple?"

Arthur smiled, "One red apple coming up."

They took their time on their walk. Arthur could tell that the darkness of the night was starting to upset Merlin so kept to areas well-lit from street lamps and talked to him constantly.

"Can we go back?" Merlin asked at one point with a yawn.

"Are you alright?"

"Tired."

"Not too tired to eat your dinner, I hope." Arthur whistled Killi over, attached his lead and handed the end to Merlin.

He took the most direct route home from the park and took Merlin into the kitchen where he knew he wouldn't fall asleep. He heated up a can of soup and got some bread out. Merlin was watching Killi lap up some water and then pick up a toy which Merlin then took the end of and began pulling back and forth for Killi to play with.

"I can't believe he still loves you after you abandoned him for so long," Arthur teased from the hob.

"He knows I didn't want to," Merlin replied, reaching down to scratch Killi behind the ear. Killi jumped up and put his front paws on Merlin's knees.

"Killi," Arthur scolded, "Get down."

The dog yapped, making Merlin flinch, and wagged his tail.

"Killi," Arthur repeated, "Down." He got a packet of treats out of the cupboard, opened it and threw a few onto Killi's bed. He dog happily jumped off Merlin and trotted across the room to get them.

"You ok?" Arthur asked Merlin.

"I'm fine. It wasn't a proper bark."

"He was still pretty close to you."

"I got a fright," Merlin said, "That was it. Promise."

"If you're sure," Arthur brought over the soup and bread.

"Thank you."

"Do you want anything else? A drink?"

"I'm ok. Eat yours."

The next couple of weeks were all filled exactly the same way. Merlin would stay in bed most of the day while Arthur was up and about in the house, doing various jobs or just sitting with Merlin. Arthur would take Killi out for a walk early in the morning before Merlin woke up and then they'd go out together again later in the afternoon.

The police came and went. Uther was still very kindly dealing with most of it so as little pressure as possible would be put on Merlin who just wanted to forget about it all.

Arthur's broken shoulder healed well and, even though it was still a little stiff, it no longer was too much of an inconvenience.

Their friends would visit occasionally. But Gwen and Lance were very busy with William so, even though they lived fairly close, they could never come. Morgana and Leon lived the furthest from them and were often pre-occupied with making sure everything on the building site was going well. So most of the visits were from Gwaine and Percival. They were usually quite chaotic and Arthur didn't like them coming too often because they were tiring for Merlin. That was down to Gwaine who always insisted that Merlin come downstairs to sit with them because 'I'm an old man with bad knees so don't want to go up' or 'I came to visit you so you can make some effort for me'.

When Arthur woke up one day, Merlin was already awake and sitting up, fiddling with the oxygen tube.

"Leave it alone," Arthur grumbled.

"It's itchy," Merlin complained.

"Well take it off."

Merlin huffed, "Well someone's in a good mood this morning."

"I'm tired and it's early and," he looked to the window, "It's raining."

Merlin laughed, "Killi needs a walk. He'll start barking soon."

Arthur groaned, "I bought him for you. He's your dog."

"I can't exactly get up and walk him by myself. Arthur, please, he'll start barking."

Arthur got up and headed to the door to open it and shout for his dog.

"The kitchen door will be closed," Merlin pointed out when they didn't hear the dog coming up.

Arthur groaned and turned midway back to the bed to go downstairs. He went into the kitchen and grabbed a couple of glasses of water, telling Killi to go upstairs. When he returned to the bedroom he found Killi sitting in his place on the bed beside Merlin.

"Don't look so annoyed, Arthur, there's space for everyone."

"Yeah, but now, he gets to cuddle you and I don't."

"You're jealous of a dog?" Merlin watched Arthur walk around the room and sit in the bed, nudging Killi out of the way.

"He's almost as cute as me," Arthur joked, "And feels nicer to cuddle."

"And he doesn't argue or tease me," Merlin smirked.

"He doesn't tell you he loves you, though."

"No. And his kisses are infinitely more slobbery and disgusting."

"He doesn't hug you back."

Merlin hummed, "And he requires more looking after and exercise. You're not meant to let dogs get fat."

"I'm not fat, Merlin."

"I didn't say you were."

Arthur sighed and shook his head, "Alright. I'll just leave you here with Killi, shall I? I'll go."

Merlin pouted, "Don't be huffy."

Arthur laughed and scooted closer to Merlin, forcing Killi to move to the bottom of the bed and sit over their feet instead. Arthur wrapped his arm around Merlin and kissed him on the top of the head, "How are you feeling?"

"Alright."

"Just alright?"

"Well considering I was dying three weeks ago, I don't know what else you want me to say."

"Better than yesterday?" Arthur asked.

"Same as yesterday."

"Better than last week?"

Merlin nodded. He placed a hand on Arthur's chest and smiled.

"What?"

"When I'm asleep," Merlin said, "I can hear a drumming noise. A steady thumping thudding. It's your heartbeat, Arthur. I'm sure of it. I can hear your heartbeat."

Arthur looked concerned, "When did it start?"

"It's nothing to worry about," Merlin reassured, "It's nice, calming. I could hear it when I was unconscious after the surgery. It was the only thing I could hear. And now, I wait for it every time I fall asleep."

Arthur smiled, "How do you know it's my heart?"

Merlin began tapping his finger in time with Arthur's heart, "Because it's constant. And you're the only constant in my whole life."