Chapter 32
Merlin could never have anticipated the warmth with which his book was received by the country. It must have had more publicity than he'd realised because copies were flying off the shelves in every store it was sold in. He was shocked.
"Our business is very well known," Arthur had pointed out, "I doubt there are many people in the country who haven't heard of us."
"Arthur, it's in the top fifty best-sellers for the month and it's only been out for a week and a half."
"I'm not surprised it's doing this well," Arthur said wisely, "It's well written, it has great reviews, it's by you. You're more famous than you think you are."
"I'm not famous."
"No? Our company is. And we own the company so I'd say we are."
"It's not like we walk down the street and people recognise us, though."
"Maybe if we lived in the city it would happen," Arthur shrugged, "Stop messing with that tie, if you make it any tighter, you'll strangle yourself."
Merlin scowled, "Can you tie it for me? I can't get it to look neat."
Arthur went over and sat down on the side of the bed to help him. They were going out for dinner with their friends to toast Merlin's success.
"What's wrong?" Arthur asked.
"I just wasn't expecting it to turn out like this. Albion's fully booked for months, Camelot's constantly swamped with guests. Just because I wrote a book?"
"It made a huge impact for a lot of people. Your story might not seem special or important to us but to others, it'll really mean something. It's a message to everyone, Merlin and already it's making a difference."
"It's not going to stop inequality or discrimination though, is it?"
"No one can do that single-handedly," Arthur said, "Can you really not see the difference it's made? You've stood up for thousands of people by writing this. Gorgeous, I haven't found a single bad review."
"Don't over-emphasise."
"I haven't! I've read as many as I could find and they're all glowing."
"It just feels weird. All I did was write up my life history and now everyone thinks I'm a hero."
"You are a hero," Arthur pulled Merlin's tie so that they fell closer together and then kissed him, "Be proud of yourself. You did something good."
The dinner was lovely. They stayed out longer than they should have and drank far more than they should have but it was a wonderful night. Merlin and Arthur had the next day off so stayed in bed for a lie in and cuddle with the dogs. Arthur brought Merlin breakfast in bed and they ended up napping for most of the morning. After lunch, they drove to a country park to give the dogs a long walk somewhere different. It was beautiful in the early autumn when leaves were just starting to turn the most gorgeous colours.
That year they didn't go to Ireland on the anniversary of Will's death. Merlin was suffering from his annual nightmares and Arthur had come down with a fever that was going around all of Albion so they'd decided to cancel the trip in fear of passing the sickness onto the twins or Hunith. They were quite the pair through the week. Merlin was stumbling around doing all the housework, cooking and looking after the dogs but exhausted and haunted. Arthur could barely get himself from the bed to the bathroom without falling asleep. The fever had made him delirious and wiped him off his feet completely. He spent all say lying on top of the sheets wearing nothing but his underpants with all the windows open in an attempt to cool down. He would mutter random sentences constantly and kept Merlin awake at all hours with his pain-filled whimpering and non-stop tossing and turning.
"Sleep downstairs," he'd croaked in a moment of coherent bliss, "I'm keeping you up."
"I need to stay with you and look after you," Merlin said, tipping a cool glass of water into his husband's mouth.
Arthur sighed happily, "Ok, darling, don't stay out too late."
Merlin smirked and rolled his eyes. It seemed that Arthur was lost to the fever once more.
The only thing he was thankful for was that he wasn't trying to balance work too. They'd made it a strict rule that anyone with the fever stay off work until they were better to try and stop it spreading because it was wiping out the staff from the office, Camelot and Albion Hotel a lot faster than they wanted. The previous week, Merlin and Arthur had been working extremely hard to cover for Morgana, Leon and Elyan's absence as they got through being ill. Everyone expected that all of them would be off with it at some point.
"Oh, Killi, this is no fun, is it?" Merlin was sitting at the kitchen table, eating some lunch he could barely stomach and stroking Killi. Aithusa was upstairs on the bed with Arthur, curled up on Merlin's pillow and taking up all the space.
Merlin scraped what must have been three-quarters of his lunch into the bin and was half way to the sink when he heard Arthur shouting from upstairs. Abandoning his crutches, Merlin hopped faster than he'd ever hopped before to get to the stairs. It must have looked quite comical but Merlin was in too much of a hurry to care.
"Arthur, what's wrong?"
"They're everywhere, Merlin!" Arthur was sitting, cowering in the corner of the room, holding Aithusa to his chest and with his knees tucked up.
"What are?" Merlin found himself looking around the room.
"It was in the bed," Arthur whimpered.
"There's nothing in the bed," Merlin said gently, hopping over to his husband and squatting down awkwardly, "There's nothing here, Arthur."
"Can't you see them?"
"No."
"I'm not mad!" Arthur said fearfully, "They're everywhere."
Killi, who had followed Merlin upstairs, moved forwards and nudged Arthur's knee with his nose. "You have to keep away from them, Killi," Arthur said, "They'll get you."
"Arthur, it's ok," Merlin said, "Look at me. Look at me, Arthur."
Arthur's glazed, unfocused eyes met Merlin's sharp and concerned ones.
"There's nothing here that will hurt you, I promise. You're perfectly safe here with me."
"Make them go away," Arthur begged.
Merlin nodded. He pressed his hand to Arthur's forehead and recoiled when it was just as hot as it had been for the last four days. "Come on," he heaved himself back so he was standing, using the wall to help him. Then he held his hand out to Arthur, "Come back to bed, Arthur, and they'll all go away."
He led Arthur over to the bed, tucked him in and sat down beside him, "Close your eyes."
Merlin took hold of Arthur's hand and squeezed it tightly, "I'll stay right here until they're gone."
Once Arthur was asleep, Merlin let go of his sweaty hand and sighed. Tomorrow would be the anniversary of Will's death so for the next two nights, his nightmares would only get worse. He was dreading having to look after Arthur the next day. Already he was stooped with exhaustion and constantly nauseous but he knew for a fact it would get worse before it got better. It did every year. Except this year, Merlin had Arthur to worry about instead of just himself. He hadn't been taking the sleeping pills this year in fear that he wouldn't wake up if Arthur really needed him through the night. Of course, it had made things considerably more difficult to get through but Merlin wouldn't have it any other way.
The buzz of his phone had him standing up and leaving Arthur's side to check it.
'I'm coming over and I'm staying for two nights,' it read, 'Get your spare room ready. Love Morgana xxx'
Merlin smiled and hopped back downstairs to put the kettle on. It wouldn't take Morgana long to arrive, she lived fairly close by. She texted to say she'd arrived instead of ringing the doorbell so she wouldn't disturb Arthur.
"Oh, Merlin, you look awful," she said.
"That's what happens when you don't eat or sleep for five days. What are you doing here?"
"I keep track of the dates, Merlin, I know what it is tomorrow. And I also know you so I know that when Arthur's sick you wouldn't be looking after yourself so I am here to make sure you both survive the next two days."
"You shouldn't be here, we're meant to not see people so the fever doesn't get passed on."
"I've already had it," Morgana reminded him, "So has Leon and the kids. Which makes me the perfect person to come here and look after you two because I know how to deal with it and I can't get sick again."
She marched into the kitchen and opened the cupboard where they kept all their medicines. "Have you made up the spare room yet?" she asked, picking up Merlin's sleeping meds.
"No, not yet."
She rolled her eyes, "Well go and do it now, then."
"You only just got here and you want to go to bed?"
"No, silly. The bed's for you, not me."
"What's wrong with my usual bed?"
"Arthur's in it," she thrust the bottle into his hands, "And you need rest which you don't get in there with him when he's like this. So for the next two days, you will be sleeping in the spare room and not with Arthur."
"Where will you sleep?"
"I'll find somewhere," she brushed him off, "Now, take these, go upstairs, go to sleep and don't you dare wake up until at least six o clock, ok?"
"Ok?" Merlin stared at her, completely baffled.
"Good, now go."
Ten minutes later and Merlin was falling into bed, shaking with exhaustion. It felt like his body was so heavy and tired that the mattress would scarcely support him. The meds were starting to take effect and he let his head fall onto the pillow and sink down. It was lucky he'd collapsed into a comfortable position because he was past the point of being able to move. Although perhaps, in the state he was in, even lying on a bed of nails and lego would have been comfortable.
Only two hours passed before he was opening his eyes again, the image of his brother's body painted in his mind and stuck there. Morgana chose that second to poke her head around the door.
"Excuse me," she said, "It's still three hours before you're meant to be awake."
Merlin looked at her, "Bad dream," he muttered.
Morgana sighed sympathetically. The drugs were still heavy on Merlin's mind and he was clearly drowsy but it didn't seem like it'd be easy to get him back to sleep again.
"Do you want to go next door?" she suggested, "Arthur's feeling a little better, he's just gone through the shower. He might stay lucid long enough to give you a cuddle."
Merlin smiled at that and heaved himself out of bed. His limbs didn't seem to be responding very well to what he wanted them to do so it took a lot of effort from both of them to get him into the main room.
"You're high," Morgana said to Merlin, "and you're delirious," she said to Arthur, "So this could be extremely entertaining."
Merlin collapsed with no grace whatsoever onto the bed and just lay there, perfectly still while Arthur leeched onto him and held him tightly. "Why are you so skinny?" Arthur asked him sadly.
Merlin moaned something unintelligible as a response.
"Oh," Arthur said as if that had explained everything.
Morgana didn't let Merlin stay long enough for either of them to fall asleep. With Arthur's thrashing about and Merlin's nightmares, they'd be trapped in a never-ending cycle of sleeplessness.
"You really need some food in you, you know," Morgana said as she guided Merlin back to the spare room, "You're probably going to come down with this fever too and you'll need your strength up to get through it."
"Feel my forehead," Merlin said.
"What?"
"Put your hand on my forehead."
Morgana sat Merlin down on the bed and did as she was told, "You've got a temperature," she said.
"I'm not 'probably going to get the fever'," Merlin said.
"You've already got it."
"Yup. Just what I need, right? Catching a sickness which requires rest when I have the lack of ability to rest."
"It's not ideal," Morgana agreed, "Let's just hope you don't get it quite as bad as Arthur. I'm going to make some dinner, what do you need?"
"A book?"
"Sure, ok. I'll get you some more water too."
"Morgana, I didn't thank you for coming."
"You don't need to."
"No one came to help you when you all had it."
"Leon was barely ill at all," Morgana sat back down, "Neither was Belle. They managed just fine. You are not managing."
Arthur started shouting from next door and Merlin sat up instinctively.
Morgana glared at him, "Lie down, I'll sort him out."
The next two days were awful. Arthur still hadn't reached the point of improving and Merlin was getting worse too. Morgana was amazing. She didn't complain once and she somehow managed to be with both of them whenever they needed while also looking after the dogs.
Two days after Morgana had arrived, Merlin was lying on the spare bed, cuddling Killi and trying to get some sleep when Morgana came in.
"I have to go home," she said, "I need to be at work tomorrow."
"No, of course. Thank you so much for everything."
"I'll see if anyone else can come to help."
"It's ok. I'd see you out but-"
"You can't make it to the bedroom door, let alone down the stairs. It's alright." She kissed his forehead, "Get better soon."
If Merlin had thought the previous two days were bad, the two that followed were even worse. He had to drag himself out of bed every half hour to see to Arthur or look after the dogs or get a drink. He felt rotten, he could barely support himself enough to get from room to room but whenever he laid down for a rest, he was kept awake in fear of his nightmares. He'd once again forfeited his meds to be there for Arthur so had barely closed his eyes in two days. It was getting unbearable.
The afternoon after Morgana had left, Arthur came stumbling into the spare room, pushed Killi off the bed and fell in beside Merlin who peeled an eye open to look at him.
"Feeling better?"
"A bit," Arthur groaned, "You?"
"No," Merlin put his hand on Arthur's face, "You're still hot."
"Not as hot as I was. The world isn't upside down, back to front and spinning anymore, either."
"Yes, it is," Merlin mumbled, "It is for me."
"You don't look good."
"Neither do you."
"I bet I look better than you."
"I bet you don't."
Merlin rolled onto his front and buried his head in the pillow. Arthur shuffled onto his side to look at Merlin.
"What happened to Will's lucky star?"
"Everyone gets sick every now and then. That doesn't mean you lose faith."
"We're worse than sick."
"We're fine."
"I beg to differ," Arthur closed his eyes.
"We're not in hospital. Therefore, we're fine."
They slept for a couple of hours until the doorbell rang downstairs. Merlin didn't react so Arthur hauled himself out of bed and went downstairs to open it, "Morgana?"
"You're up!" she looked delighted, "Where's Merlin?"
"Not up," Arthur said.
"How are you feeling?"
"Awful. Why are you here, you just left?"
"I took a few more days off work. I told everyone that you weren't doing very well and we decided you needed help. So I'm back."
"Excellent."
"You could at least pretend to be happy to see me," Morgana said, "I am doing you a favour and being very helpful."
"I'm going back to bed," Arthur said.
Morgana shook her head, rolled her eyes and let herself into the house.
"How's Merlin?" she asked.
"Not good."
"How're you?"
"Also not good."
"Well, don't worry. Your wonderful, kind and amazing sister is here to make it all better. Now, get back to bed. And your bed, Arthur, not Merlin's!"
"How did you-"
Morgana tapped the side of her nose secretively, "Go."
Merlin slept until the next morning which was something Morgana had been happy about until he woke up shaking and crying.
"Merlin?" she asked almost nervously from the door.
He looked at her with fear in his eyes.
"Nightmare?" Morgana assumed.
"I've- I've never not been able to wake up before," he said shakily.
"What are you talking about?"
"The dream- I- I couldn't wake up. It-"
"I'm going to get Arthur," she said gently, "Two seconds."
Less than a minute later, Arthur was clambering into the bed beside Merlin, "What happened? Was it the same dream as usual?"
Merlin nodded, "Normally I wake up once I've found him but this time- it just kept going. All I could see was him and I couldn't escape it."
"It's the fever," Arthur said, "You're sick, Merlin, your body needs the rest, that's all."
Merlin sank into Arthur's arms and closed his eyes, "Stay?"
"Just try and get rid of me."
"How long will the nightmares last?" Morgana whispered once Merlin was asleep.
"Just a few more days. It's worse in the build-up to the day than afterwards."
"Good. He'll kill himself from exhaustion at this rate."
"It's bad enough without being sick," Arthur said glumly, "But this…"
"You're sick too," Morgana reminded him.
"I feel fine."
"You feel full of adrenaline," Morgana corrected, "But soon enough you'll feel rotten again."
The fever lingered for days. Merlin continued to put up with it until he could sleep peacefully and then slept straight through three days. Arthur was getting better bit by tiny bit which was extremely frustrating. In the end it took him three whole weeks to end up pretty much back to normal but he still returned to work with a pounding headache and a slight temperature. By that point, Gwaine and Percival had been off with the sickness for a few days too.
Arthur crashed immediately the second they got back from work that first day. He fell asleep half way from standing up to sitting on the sofa and snored loudly for a few hours until Merlin came in with dinner. "You don't have to be back at work if you're not feeling up to it."
"It's fine, I've been off far too long. Who knew sitting at a desk all day was so tiring? This looks lovely, thank you."
They ate dinner together and watched some tv together then went out to walk the dogs as the sun was setting. The fresh air cleared their minds and made them feel a bit better which was fortunate because the next day at work would be busy. They were starting interviews over video calls online to find employees for their American branch.
