A/N: Well, here it is! This is the first chapter of the final story in my series. I hope everyone is safe and well and coping. I'm sorry it took me so long to upload, I just wanted to get as far ahead with it as I could. These have been horrible times and I've been struggling so I didn't want to have to subject you to irregular updates.

As I said, this will be the last story in this series but I am working on another couple of things so if you like my writing, keep an eye out for that.

Thank you for being so patient, I hope you enjoy! :D

Chapter 1

Merlin collapsed into the bed beside Arthur and buried his head in his shoulder, "Why do their cries have to be so loud?" he groaned.

"You wanted to be here," Arthur said tiredly, "You have to put up with the crying babies."

"They're not even my children."

"You-"

"Chose to be here, I know," Merlin groaned, hugging Arthur tighter, "Do you miss everyone?"

"A bit," Arthur admitted, "But I like being here with everyone too."

"Not when there are two children screaming at three a.m. though," Merlin said,

"Less so then."

They were both nearly asleep again when the crying started once more. They both sighed simultaneously and Merlin rubbed his eyes.

"It's both of them," Arthur said, getting up and handing Merlin his crutches so he could get up too. They made their way out of their room and across the hall to the twins' room. They were staying with Freya and Matthew while Freya recovered from her time in hospital and they got used to looking after two new-born babies. In the first few days Arthur had driven all the way back to England to pick up the dogs and a few extra things which they might need. Merlin had been absolutely delighted to see Killi and Aithusa again. They'd been in New Zealand for a month without the dogs and then Merlin had gone straight to Ireland which had only extended his time apart from the dogs.

Freya still needed lots of rest from her traumatic birth so the four of them had an arrangement which meant both she and the babies were looked after. She and Matthew slept with earplugs in so they couldn't hear anything, leaving Arthur and Merlin to look after the twins if they needed through the night. Matthew would go to sleep at eleven and had an alarm set on vibrate on his pillow for half past six so he'd be on baby duty from then and Arthur and Merlin could catch up on the sleep they'd inevitably missed through the night. Matthew would also be available to get Freya with anything she needed for the morning.

Merlin sank into the chair in the girls' room and set his crutches down so Arthur could put one of the babies in his arms. Some nights, they'd sleep all the way through without waking up at all and other nights, like this one, they'd cry at absolutely every tiny little thing.

"What's wrong?" Merlin asked Briar as she squirmed, wriggled and turned in his arms, "What are you doing? You're literally tiny, you aren't going anywhere."

"You don't think you're stronger than a baby, do you, gorgeous?" Arthur teased as he rocked Rose slowly, "You're a stick, Merls, a puppy would beat you in an arm wrestle."

Merlin scowled at him, "You were just saying to me that my muscles felt really good."

"Really good," Arthur agreed, "But tiny."

Merlin rolled his eyes, "Not my fault I can't go to a gym. My only exercise was physio and now its wrestling with babies who are trying to escape."

"You mean you can't hold onto a baby who can barely lift her head?"

"She's small and wriggly! I don't want to hurt her."

Arthur smiled, "I wonder what upset them."

"I changed their nappies about twenty minutes ago and fed them before that."

"They must have had a fight," Arthur joked as he re-wrapped Rose in her blankets and placed her back in the cot, tucking a small soft toy next to her. He took Briar off Merlin in the hoped that she'd calm down beside her sister. While he watched them and spoke to them gently, Merlin leant back in the chair and closed his eyes with a sigh.

"Don't fall asleep in here," Arthur said without taking his eyes off the babies, "I'm not carrying you back to bed and it's only," he checked his watch, "Forty minutes until Matt's up so we're no longer on duty."

"They'll wake up again ten minutes before he does," Merlin said, "I guarantee it."

"Doesn't matter. We can sleep in as long as we want. Go back to bed, I'll be there as soon as they're asleep."

"Do you feel better being here?" Arthur asked when he joined Merlin in bed again about ten minutes later, "Now that Freya's home and we have a routine?"

Merlin nodded. Even once he and Arthur had arranged to stay in Ireland for a while he had been on edge because of how unpredictable everything was and because Freya was still in hospital. But as soon as she'd been released to go home with everyone and a good system had been worked out between the four adults in one house and Hunith in another, he was much more relaxed.

Just after half six, Matthew poked his head around their bedroom door as he did every morning, letting them know they could turn their baby monitor off and get some proper rest. Some mornings, if they weren't awake to do it themselves, Matt would go in and turn the little radio off himself so he wouldn't have to disturb them. He would always leave the door open though so that Killi and Aithusa could come through for a morning cuddle with their dads after Matt had let them out into the garden.

Arthur woke up late the next day and found his face squashed in a wall of white fluff, Killi in Merlin's place on the other side of the bed. With great reluctance, he dragged himself out of bed and padded downstairs to the kitchen, nearly tripping over Aithusa on the way.

"Where is everyone?" Arthur asked Matthew who was standing in the kitchen preparing breakfast.

"The kids are with Freya next door and Merlin left about ten minutes ago with Hunith to go to the shops."

"Nappies and milk?" Arthur assumed.

"When is it anything else?"

"It's not. Go out for nappies and milk powder, come back with half a tonne of other random things you see while you're out and decide you definitely need. Every time Hunith sees a teddy, she buys one."

"Her money, not yours."

"Merlin does it too."

"Still not your money," Arthur said, but he looked considerably less happy about it.

Matthew laughed, "Here," he passed across a mug of coffee, "Help yourself to food. There's loads. I'll see if Freya wants to come through this morning."

Much like when Merlin had been recovering from the explosion at Camelot, there had been good and bad days for Freya. Sometimes she wouldn't find the energy to get out of bed and other days she'd manage to walk from room to room and play all day with the twins. Most mornings Matthew would get her downstairs and onto the sofa for some time with Rose and Briar while he made breakfast and Merlin and Arthur were still asleep. And, more and more regularly, she was up for coming into the kitchen to eat with them as well. Most of her pain was caused by moving and putting strain on her stomach and abdomen where most of the damage had been. There were other things which caused discomfort as well so she always had to sit on a soft surface or cushion and have something to rest her back on and keep her weight.

A few minutes later, Matthew came back into the kitchen alone and shook his head at Arthur, "Not today."

"Fair enough," Arthur smiled, "She did loads yesterday, it was amazing."

Matt nodded and quickly put together a plate of food to take through to his wife before returning to Arthur.

"You're not upset, are you? That she didn't want to come through?"

"No," Matt said, "I'm proud of her. I just wonder how you do this so regularly."

Arthur shrugged, "It helps that I have considerably more people around me to help and I don't have two new-born dependent babies to take care of as well."

"Yeah, that probably makes things easier. You have the dogs, though."

"Yeah but realistically what do I have to do for them? Feed them, let them outside to use the bathroom, maybe walk them if I remember."

Matthew laughed, "You can't do that with babies."

"Definitely not. In all seriousness, though, I think we're all coping amazingly. Given everything that's gone on, having our little system or routine or whatever you want to call it is good."

The days continued to pass the same way over and over again. Freya got a lot stronger very quickly and soon Arthur and Merlin were planning to return home. They'd gradually been doing less and less so that Matthew and Freya could get used to life without them there to help all the time. They'd also been working at Ismere for a few weeks to get back into the habit of going to work for when they returned.

Seeing as they both did the same job at Albion offices anyway and there were so many of their friends on the management team, it had been easy for them to have their jobs filled in while they were away. But they hadn't been to work in a very long time and it would be unfair for them to return without having some idea of what was going on in the company. They felt bad enough already that they hadn't been there to look after Eira when Gwaine and Percival went on their holiday.

All of their friends had booked nice, long holidays somewhere abroad to make up for the years of hard work and difficulties they'd been through. Arthur and Merlin had volunteered to let Eira stay with them while her fathers were in Turkey for a few weeks. Being in Ireland over that time had meant they couldn't fulfill that offer. Not that anyone had been annoyed of course. Merlin's sister had been dying and there were two sick baby girls that needed caring for. But they still felt bad.

"Thank you so much for all your help," Matt said to Arthur on the day they were leaving, "Your advice, the way you cared for the girls, the way you looked after Freya. You've done so much to help us."

Arthur shook his head, "It's nothing. I feel indebted to everyone after everything Merlin and I have been through and all the help we've received."

"Still, we appreciate it. You've made a lot of sacrifices for us over the past few months."

"Just keep us up to date with everything," Arthur hugged his brother in law, "If you need us, we'll be back in a heartbeat."

"Thank you."

While Merlin finished his goodbyes to his family, Arthur got the dogs safely into the car and made sure everything was packed properly.

"Come on, you," Arthur said to Merlin with a smile, tactfully ignoring the tears in his eyes, "We'll miss the ferry. In you get."

Merlin hugged his mother then kissed his sister and nieces on the forehead one last time before getting into the car. Killi and Aithusa were fidgeting and wining in the back seats but Merlin's hand through their fur soothed them.

"It feels strange," Merlin said once they were well on their way home and had been singing badly to songs for a while.

"What does?"

"To be far enough away from Briar and Rose so that we can't hear them crying."

"I'm not sure," Arthur said, "If we were quiet for long enough we could probably still hear the echo of their screams in our mind. It's just background noise because we've listened to it so much. Don't you like the quiet?"

"I'm not used to it. There was always something going on. Someone crying. The kids, mum, Freya, Matt."

"Matt?"

"Come on, we all cried at least twice. But even when there wasn't crying there was something else. Laughter, talking, snoring, ranting, barking, yapping, everything, anything! Now it's quiet."

"I don't think it would take much to get Aithusa barking if you really wanted."

Merlin smiled and looked over his shoulder at the dogs who were curled up together sleeping.

"Are you tired?"

"A little. More just worried about leaving them."

"They're good parents," Arthur said, "They'll be fine. Your mum's there, too. She's got plenty of experience with problematic children."

Merlin smiled a little, "It'll be strange to go back to a normal life with only work to worry about."

"Remember how we went on holiday a couple of months ago? I need another one."

Merlin chuckled, "We need to go through the photos. There were so many nice ones."

"Gwaine suggested everyone choose their favourite from their own holiday that has them in it and we'll put them up in the office with the group photo from Scotland. He thought it might cheer us up if work gets too heavy."

"It's a good idea. Although it would be a small collection for a while. Only us, Gwaine and Percival have actually gone away."

"I bet the office felt really empty while all four of us were gone."

"Probably. Back to normal tomorrow, though. I'm excited to have something to do that doesn't involve urinating babies."

"Just angry customers and staff that need firing."

"It's not all like that," Arthur scolded, "We have an amazing job."

"When we're actually there to do it."

They stopped off at the offices once they were back home, knowing there was only half an hour of their work day left and wanting to invite everyone out for dinner. They'd missed their friends hugely and had no energy to cook for themselves.

Their evening together was more than enjoyable. There were so many stories that needed sharing, months of chatting and talking. They all left quite giddy despite not touching a drop of alcohol. Being all together again provided a happiness they'd never found anywhere else.

Going back to work was easier than they'd imagined. Arthur and Merlin fell back into their old routine like they'd never broken it. Just like they'd always used to, their mornings would run smoothly. They'd wake up together and one of them would go downstairs to make breakfast and let the dogs into the garden while the other got washed, dressed and ready for work. They'd eat together then split again to allow whoever was still in their pyjamas to get ready and the other to do the dishes and feed the dogs. They'd walk to work together, enjoying the fresh morning air and each other's company.

They'd found that having a routine when everything was normal was really important to them. When Merlin was ill or something was happening, there was never any sort of normality to their days. It was all based around how Merlin felt each morning. There were physio appointments, doctors check-ups, medications, panic attacks, sickness. All interspersed irregularly through the week. They'd never know what that day would bring, let alone the next. So even knowing exactly what they'd be doing after they got out of bed was a blessing as far as they were concerned.

Freya would text or call every day. Matthew had started going back to work part-time because Freya was moving around easily and perfectly capable of looking after the twins now. The only reason he hadn't returned completely was because dealing with two babies was twice as hard as dealing with one making it considerably more tiring but, in their opinion, considerably more enjoyable.

"Christmas party next week," Gwen said when Merlin and Arthur arrived at work, "You're coming, aren't you?"

Arthur nodded, "Why?"

"We've run into a slight problem."

"Go on."

Merlin took Arthur's coat and went to hang it up in the kitchen area while Arthur talked to Gwen.

"We were going to use the function room at Albion for the party," Gwen said.

"Yes."

"But someone called this morning to book it on the same day for their own party. Huge company event, ours is the only hall they could find that was big enough and was available."

"Shouldn't have left booking so late, then," Arthur said, "You turned them down, right?"

"I haven't given them an answer yet."

"Why?"

"Because the hall at Camelot is big enough for our party and the only reason they haven't booked yet is because they got kicked out of the previous place for a double booking!"

"Merlin can't go to Camelot, Gwen."

"I know," she practically begged, "But all these people going without a party at Christmas when we'll only refuse to move for one person's sake. He'll go if we ask him."

"But he won't enjoy it. Come on, Gwen, if anyone deserves a good Christmas this year, it's Merlin. He was in a coma this time last year, he was so sick. We can't ruin this year's for him too."

"It's not ruined, it's just the party. He'll still have Christmas day. I don't want this, Arthur, but it's money we need and these people who want to book have so much hope that we'll help them. They need the size of the hall, they need the facilities."

"What's everyone else said?"

"I'm not telling you, it might effect your answer."

Arthur sighed, "Ask Merlin."

"You're fine with it if he is?"

"No, I'm not fine with it at all. But I don't dictate his choices. Talk to him and I'll make my decision after that."

"I'll do it now before the meeting."

"Are you taking a vote?"

"To some degree. I'll bring it up at the meeting. Ten minutes."

"Alright." Arthur groaned and leant against the edge of his desk.

Gwaine walked in and took one look at Arthur before saying, "Gwen's talked to you?"

"Yes."

"And you're as happy about it as me?"

"Probably, yes."

"I have a feeling things might get a little heated at our staff meeting."

"I can't believe Gwen's up for it," Arthur said.

"Come on. Wouldn't want to miss the fight."

Once everyone was seated in the meetings room with sour faces and they'd discussed the usual daily business, Gwen awkwardly brought up the subject of the Christmas party.

"Before we all start arguing and going round in circles like a broken record, I want to say all the points people have raised and also how many people have 'voted' for each," she said, "I don't want this to turn into complete carnage. We all know the issue. I'll give the reasons to let these people book first. We need the money. With opening three, kind of four seeing as we did Camelot twice, new branches within a couple of years, we need money from this booking and hopefully the good reviews it'll bring for popularity. Also, because of numbers and space, we can afford to move our own party elsewhere but there is nowhere else for the other party to go without having to cut down the guest list. Erm, it's Christmas," she said, "And they've already had bad luck with their booking. All their hopes are with us to give them a celebration so should we not be kind enough to provide that for them when we're capable of doing so when our whole business is about helping people?" she paused, "Does anyone else have anything to add to the reasons for? Remember we decided we can't change the dates."

"We're having a New Year's Party," Leon said awkwardly, "Do we really need both?"

"Anyone else?" Gwen asked, "Ok," she said when no one answered, "Reasons against. We've had our party booked for a long time and if it had been another outside party, we wouldn't consider switching for a different booking at all, let alone this late. The only other place we could go to is Camelot and not all of us would feel comfortable enough there to truly enjoy ourselves. It's our company and we spend all year helping other people so we can give surely give ourselves a break now. Anything else?"

"Our New Year's party is a small affair in the restaurant downstairs," Gwaine looked pointedly at Leon, "Not all the members of staff are invited so we'd be cutting some of our employees out of a festive celebration all together. They do a lot for us. Probably work harder than us. That's hardly a thank you."

Gwen waited for anyone else to suggest an argument and said, "When I asked everyone earlier what they thought, four of us thought that we should accept the booking and move our party. And four said we should decline the booking."

"Someone didn't vote," Morgana said, "Who?"

"Arthur," Gwen said.

"I told you that I'd choose what Merlin chose."

Gwen shifted uncomfortably, "In that case, it looks like we'll be making arrangements for a party in Camelot. Someone else will be using Albion."

"What?" Arthur looked up in shock at Merlin, "You agreed to go?"

"Of course I did. I don't know who voted to decline the new booking but I can almost guarantee that you didn't do it for any reason other than me. The other reasons are stupid anyway. We don't know what anyone else went through this year or how much a party at Christmas with their friends could meant to them. Or how much it would break them not to have the chance to. It might be a tiny inconvenience to let all of our staff know about the switch but everyone gets a party."

"We haven't been to Camelot in since the first opening," Arthur said, "You said you never wanted to go there again!"

"We can't make you go somewhere you're not comfortable," Morgana agreed.

"Will di-"

"I'm aware of what happened," Merlin said, blushing a little, "But Christmas is a time for family, right? Maybe I need to be somewhere close to Will's memory."

"But-"

"It's five votes for, four votes against."

"I want to change my vote," Arthur said decisively.

"Arthur-"

"I won't bring you there."

"I'm one person. Arthur, I get why you're saying this but I won't have so many people's holidays ruined by my past and my anxieties!"

"It's just a party," Gwaine argued.

"And ours isn't? What makes us more important? Don't we fight for people to all have the same rights? Do we suddenly become a higher priority because of that? No. We don't. We go to Camelot. Gwen, make the call."

She looked around from person to person and then nodded, "Alright."