I walked across the empty land. I knew the pathway like the back of my hand. I felt the Earth beneath my feet. Sat by the river and it made me complete. Oh simple thing, where have you gone? I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin. And if you have a minute why don't we go? Talk about it somewhere only we know. This could be the end of everything so why don't we go, somewhere only we know
29th October 2019
"Okay, so which costume then?" Morgana grinned as she and Merlin looked at the costumes aisle of Tesco.
"He'd make an adorable pumpkin".
"Boring" Morgana scoffed. "What about Frankenstein?".
"It's cute but..." Merlin faltered. "Too green. Baby spider?".
"Omg mum, look how cute the baby Dracula is". They turned around and saw Harriet gushing over the baby clothes.
"Harriet! Hi" Morgana smiled warmly.
"Hi" Harriet smiled shyly.
"How are you?" Merlin asked.
"Yeah it was uh, good to see you but we gotta go. Come on mum, let's get the milk and go home". Harriet gently grabbed her mum's arm and the duo went off down another aisle.
"Hope she's okay" Merlin mused. "I haven't seen her at school in a while"
"I know" Morgana quietly agreed. "Well, I think I'll take Harriet's side and we shall go with baby Dracula".
"Favouritism" Merlin scoffed.
"Teachers don't have favourites" Morgana protested.
"Yeah and we're not getting married" Merlin joked.
"Letter should be coming through for the adoption date then. Plus the wedding date is booked and it's in, how many days now?".
"Eighteen days" Merlin grinned. "Eighteen days".
"Shit that ain't long!" Morgana gasped. "There's so much to sort out. Rings, outfits, who we're inviting".
"We're eloping" Merlin shrugged. "So we only need our two witnesses. I might hire a fancy tux, what about you?".
"I'm going to get a cheap white dress from Primark probably" Morgana shrugged. "Although I did see a nice red Sam Faiers dress in the sale at Quiz. Looked nice, but I don't know about red".
"You can wear red to your wedding if you want, it's 2019".
"Meh, still want a white dress".
"I don't know about you but I find it hilarious how people still wear white dresses to symbolise 'virginal purity' even though hardly anyone is a virgin when they get married".
"Traditions, I suppose" Morgana shrugged. "Anyway, I don't tend to wear white often. I mean the last time I did, well; that was the car crash day".
"So it's like the full circle then" Merlin concluded. "From that day in the hospital to our wedding day and Amhar adoption day".
"More or less" Morgana agreed. "And, baby Dracula" she grinned as she put it in the shopping trolley.
31st October 2019
"Look what came" Merlin shouted happily as he ran up the stairs with two letters in hand. "Look what came!".
"What did?" Morgana asked as she pulled a nappy up on Amhar.
"Look!" Merlin thrusted the envelopes into Morgana's arms. Leaving Merlin to dress the baby, Morgana noticed it had a royal seal of some sort on it, reading HM Parliament.
The first letter read in the middle:
You are invited to Albion court to officiate the adoption of Amhar on the 16th November 2019 at 1400.
The second read similarly:
Confirmation date for wedding of Morgana Pendragon and Merlin Emrys at 1230 at Albion court on 16th November 2019.
"Oh my gosh!" Morgana squealed as she fell to the floor holding the letters. "It's official! We're getting married! I can't believe it!".
"It's official! It's here! The date is here!" Merlin exclaimed.
"I can't believe it!" Morgana agreed. "Well, let's get Amhar in his Halloween costume".
"Well then, if it isn't the cutest little Drac I've ever seen!" Merlin cooed at Amhar.
"He sure is" Morgana agreed. "Shame we're spending the whole day at work. It'd have been nice to do something with him".
"I'm sure nursery will be doing some fun activities. Hey, working parents life" Merlin shrugged.
"We missed IT chapter two!" Morgana gasped. "Our first date was IT, now ... we missed our second date".
"Darling, I think you're forgetting that we're getting married" Merlin chuckled as he checked the date. "In seventeen days. IT chapter two was released in summer anyway".
"Why didn't you tell me?" Morgana pouted. "Better be a good excuse!".
"Let's see...we were too busy having mind-blowing sex. Also we had to look after the baby" Merlin winked.
"It was rather fun" Morgana agreed. "Anyway, I think we should keep Amhar in nursery during some of the holidays. That way we can spend some quality time together".
"I like it" Merlin agreed. "Or we could just temporarily reduce his hours? So instead of eight till five, something like nine till five?".
"That's just one hour reduced" Morgana rolled her eyes. "I'm sure nursery can sort something out. We can afford to keep him in childcare, we could just send him on Monday and Friday instead?".
"So we get some time with him. That sounds pretty good then" Merlin smiled.
"Anyway, you have to get to work, I gotta get myself done and get this little Dracula of to nursery".
"I'll see you at work" Merlin smiled as he quickly kissed Morgana.
"Bye, love you" Morgana smiled.
"Bye daddy!" Amhar grinned and waved.
Halloween was spent indoors as they did handprint spiders and other toddler crafts given that it had begun to get dark at 4:30pm, the time a Amhar had been picked up. Amhar went to bed at his usual time leaving Merlin and Morgana to watch a horror movie on Netflix, alternatively making plans for the weekend instead.
2nd November 2019
As the weekend had rolled around and November had begun, it was almost time for Bonfire Night. With Bonfire Night falling on a Tuesday, the weekend before was the closest and thus the fireworks displays being held on that day. Even though the fireworks were going to be near the main river in the Northern Plains, having already been to the fireworks displays Merlin knew that the view was just as good as from where he would tend to go for his walks—and that they wouldn't have to pay seeing as it wasn't in the official show ground.
"Parking here seeing as it's free" Merlin said as he parked in a car park, before they took out the buggy and put Amhar in it and went towards the path. As it was off road and too rough to push the pram over, Morgana held Amhar's hand while he walked and Merlin folded it and carried it. It wasn't dark yet, even if it was rather chilly. They'd packed lots of snacks alongside a thermos of soup and another one of hot water so that they could have hot drinks.
Merlin and Morgana walked down the familiar path, each holding onto Amhar in the middle and swinging him in the air. Once off the cobbles they put the bags in the unfolded pram and pushed it as Amhar and Morgana went ahead.
Amhar and Morgana happily jumped in puddles given that they both had their wellies on, Morgana had waterproof over trousers while Amhar had a puddle suit so it didn't matter if they got wet.
"Dada!" Amhar grinned as he jumped into another puddle.
"Good jumping" Merlin chuckled as Morgana grimaced at being covered in mud. Even though he was only a one year old and quite high on the centile for his age already being 12kg, sending a larger than expected splash in Morgana's way.
"Fuck" Morgana laughed. "Come on kiddo, let's go". Carrying Amhar so that he wouldn't slow them down they quickly walked towards the River Wye, sitting down at a bench while Amhar played. Sipping at tea followed by soup, they stayed out there for hours, later taking Amhar out of his puddle suit, putting his coat on and strapping him in the buggy with a footmuff so he wouldn't get cold. The baby oohed and aah-ed at the fireworks happily despite the loud noises and coldness. As for this? Merlin and Morgana gazed into each other's eyes. Perfect.
9th November 2019
As soon as Merlin had woken up, he knew today would be a bad day. He'd been feeling off for a few days and had noticed the same about the baby. He wasn't sure how to describe the way he was feeling, yet he knew that he could liken it to that of swallowing razor blades, or dry swallowing a large pill. Either way, Merlin knew he was sick.
On the other side of the bed he heard Morgana cough and roll over as she pushed the blanket off herself and onto the floor as she snored. She never snored unless she was sick. Oh boy. Amhar was crying softly over the monitor and Merlin tiptoed out of bed to the baby's room. He was sat up in his cot which was rather unusual for him given that he loved standing up.
"Dada" Amhar said pitifully with a pout. He coughed a few times and his breathing was raspy. Oh boy. The baby got sick too.
"Come here sweetie" Merlin sighed as he picked up Amhar. Too tired to do anything, he quickly looked in the drawer under his changing table where they kept a small unopened bottle of readymade formula, poured it into a bottle and took Amhar over to the master bedroom. It was seeming as though they could get some more sleep. Merlin put Amhar in between himself and Morgana and soon went to sleep himself as he watched the two most important people in his life sleep.
When Merlin had woken up again, he woke up to an empty bed. The baby monitor was off. He quickly made up the bed and made his way downstairs, Morgana was sat on the sofa was Amhar laying down in her arms as he sobbed.
"He's got a 40° fever" Morgana sighed as she stood up and rocked him. "Not wanting his milk and he's sicked it up a couple of times. Lots of coughing".
"Baby not well?" Merlin pouted as Morgana passed Amhar over.
"No" Morgana sighed. "And cause of his lung condition I'm going to call 111. I'll also get changed and pack a bag just in case they decide he'll need to go in".
"You not well?" Merlin said as he rocked Amhar in his arms while Morgana had gone to get changed. After Morgana had changed and packed a hospital bag, Merlin went upstairs to get himself changed while Morgana phoned 111.
"Looks like we're taking him in" Morgana sighed as she cupped Amhar's head on her shoulder and rocked him. "They said to take him into Avalon City. There's more beds and that way we can have direct links to Albion hospital". Avalon, Camelot and the Northern Plains were in the county of Albionshire, the main county city being Albion. Albion had a large world-class famous university hospital consisting of three different main parts—an organ transplant hospital, a maternity hospital and the main hospital. While they were close to Birmingham hospital and it was high tech—AUH (Albion University Hospital) was having it's paediatrics intensive care expanded in September 2018 so he had to go to Birmingham instead for his surgery.
The drive down to Avalon hospital wasn't that long yet was extremely tiring. Amhar cried and cried as they drove, Morgana having to sit in the back with him as Merlin drove to the hospital.
"It's okay sweetie" Morgana reassured him. "We're almost there. Almost there". Merlin parked up and loaded the buggy with snacks while Morgana took Amhar to the A&E desk to check in.
"Hi, how can I help?" The receptionist asked.
"Hi, my son seems to be having difficulty breathing. He seems to be rasping and seems to be shivering even though he has a high fever".
"What's his name?".
"Amhar Pendragon" Morgana replied.
The receptionist quickly registered Amhar on the system, and had seen that they had already called 111 and told them to take a seat in the paediatrics waiting area. Amhar's breathing became more and more laboured.
"Amhar Pendragon" the nurse called as they followed her through to triage.
A/N: Uh, sorry nor sorry for the ending! Okay i am a bit sorry but all will be OK!