First Days

Maria smiled as she saw her brother stumble out of his room, well, more like their room, early the next morning, rubbing his head, his expression telling of an agonizing pain in his head, "Arthur bought you more than just one drink?" she guessed.

Merlin groaned as he flopped down onto a chair by the kitchen table, "He got me two."

She raised an eyebrow at that.

"Ooh don't do that Mia," Merlin groaned, "Not so early."

"Do what?" she laughed, glancing back at the breakfast she was making.

"That eyebrow thing you and uncle do," he waved an arm in her general direction, his face buried in the elbow of his other arm, muffling his words, "It's too early for the brow of doom."

Maria shook her head at her brother and walked over, placing a hand on his shoulder as she set the plate of breakfast down before him, "Here," she murmured, being sure to speak quieter, "The greasiest thing I could think to make, complete with the strongest coffee uncle's dying maker could muster, and two tablets for the hangover."

He reached out and grabbed her hand off his shoulder as she moved to go back and make her own breakfast, "Have I told you that you're my favorite sister lately?" he smiled at her in thanks for her consideration…and how well she knew him that she knew he'd drink enough last night to be hungover this morning.

"I'm your ONLY sister," she rolled her eyes at him.

"Thank you, Mia," he told her, genuine, "Really."

She nodded, leaning over to press a kiss to the top of his head and went back to making her meal. It was funny, the two of them, half the time Merlin pulled the over protective brother role, and it was fitting, because he was the elder of the two. But other times it felt more like SHE was the older sister, taking care of him. He'd always been quieter, more withdrawn than she was. Where he would hold his tongue if someone upset him, she would likely smack them and give them a proper shout.

And then it would fall to him to fulfill his big brother role and drag her away or keep someone else from trying to smack her in return.

"It was nice of Gwen to invite us last night," she remarked, cooking more eggs on the pan.

"Yeah," Merlin murmured after taking a long sip of coffee, grimacing at the taste but drinking it nonetheless, "That's Gwen though, she's lovely."

"Oh," Maria smirked, "More lovely than say…a certain Miss Pendragon?"

"Mia," Merlin blushed at that, "Leave off."

"Oh, come on Merlin," Maria smiled, taking the eggs off the pan and moving to sit before him, a bit of toast on the side, "I have never seen you fancy someone as much as you do Morgan."

"I don't fancy her," he muttered, shoveling the breakfast sandwich his sister had made into his mouth in an effort to not talk about it.

"Really?" and there went the eyebrow again, "So you didn't enjoy dancing with her last night then?"

Merlin narrowed his eyes at her for bringing that up. After his second (or third) pint, he may have been just drunk enough to ask Morgan to dance with him but sober enough to not make a complete and utter fool out of himself. He wasn't quite sure he'd managed that last one, but Morgan had been smiling the entire time, she seemed happy, and that was what mattered.

And really, he probably wouldn't mind making a fool of himself if it would get her to smile and laugh…

Oh dear god, he really DID fancy her didn't he?

He groaned at that, letting his head fall forward to hit the table, surprising his sister with his reaction, "I fancy her."

"I knew it," she laughed, reaching out to poke him, "You don't dance the way YOU were with someone you don't fancy," she teased.

It had been…quite the sight to see her usually timid brother being so close with another woman on the dance area of the little pub. She honestly hadn't known that her brother could dance like that but she supposed Morgan had taken the lead a little bit. That was another thing she noticed, Morgan hadn't danced with anyone else but Merlin that night. Other blokes had asked her, but she'd stuck with Gwen, or had her join them, and never accepted other offers to dance. If she didn't know any better, she might have said that Morgan had been waiting for Merlin to ask her to dance.

And the look of absolute murder on Arthur's face had been worth it to have to endure seeing her brother dancing a bit intimately with someone.

She could at least take comfort in the knowledge that Arthur likely had a worse hangover than her brother did right now, he'd started to knock back a few drinks after seeing his sister dancing.

Her smile slowly fell off her face as she saw Merlin shaking his head, not eating, "Merlin, what's wrong?"

"I fancy Morgan," he muttered into the table.

"Yeah…you said that already, why are you all…this?" she gestured at him even if he wasn't looking.

He pulled his head up, resting his chin on the table to look at her, "I fancy Morgan, I fancy my boss's sister…he's either going to murder me for it or fire me."

Maria rolled her eyes at that, "Arthur has no idea, and even if he did, so long as it remains professional at the company I don't think he can actually do any of that. And it's not like he can really fire you for dancing with someone from the company, HE danced with me too remember?"

Merlin's face scrunched up in disgust as he put his head on the table again, "Don't remind me."

Maria shook her head, "We weren't nearly as bad as you and Morgan were," she defended, though there was a faint blush to her cheeks that her brother couldn't see as he'd resumed staring at the wood instead of her.

Really, though, she and Arthur hadn't been anything spectacular, it had been a more sedate dance, nothing as fast paced as with Merlin and Morgan, it was more the two of them swaying and trying to talk above the loud music…

Which reminded her, they had to be at the office earlier than normal today, Arthur wanted to start her 'training' which she was sure was just code for giving her a long list of things to do at her desk and prod and goad her all day after that. She would be willing to bet he'd make her fetch his lunch for him too…or maybe that would be Merlin's job as he was now exclusively the personal assistant while she was more to handle his calls and calendar.

"Come on," she reached out to nudge her brother, "You've got to finish eating, we need to leave soon."

Merlin just shook his head into the table.

"Alright," she shrugged, "Food to waste then…" she reached out to take his plate, only for him to sit up quickly, pulling it back towards him with a mock-angry pout.

"My food," he muttered, picking up his breakfast sandwich once more and starting to eat while his sister got up and moved to the bathroom to ready for the day.

~8~

Maria almost smirked as she and Merlin stepped into Arthur's office bright and early that morning. Arthur, it seemed, had forgotten that, to ask THEM to come in early so he could get them both set up in their new roles, meant that HE had to get up just that early as well. He was hunched over his desk, his head in his hands, looking a little paler than he had just last night.

"Morning!" Maria chirped, perhaps a bit louder than necessary, but it was so enjoyable to see him wince and drag his head up from his hands to glare at her, clearly very hungover.

"Didn't I tell you to knock before entering?" he groaned, closing his eyes at the brightness of the room, not even able to hold the glare he'd tried to send to them for barging in.

"I have no idea, did you?" Maria smiled, "It's my first day here after all, how am I supposed to know what to do?"

"Merlin didn't tell you?" Arthur tried to glare at Merlin, but the effect was lost as the man seemed more put out that Merlin didn't appear to have as massive a hangover as he did.

"I thought YOU wanted us to come in so that I wouldn't muck it up," Merlin offered with a grin of his own, enjoying throwing Arthur's slightly drunken words back at the man. He'd insisted that Maria come in with him early so that HE could dictate what would be expected rather than leave it to Merlin to do.

Arthur nearly groaned again at the thought of having to train a second Merlin, but prayed that the man's sister was a little more adept than her brother was, "Fine," he muttered, waving his hand at two chairs set up before his desk, silently telling them to sit, "From now on, Merlin you will handle all my contacts, all my transport, making sure my briefcase has the necessary items in it, organizing for my means of operating the company. Maria, you will take and screen any calls to this office while also maintaining my schedule."

Maria frowned at that, "That's it?"

"Do you want MORE work?"

"No, I just meant, that doesn't seem like much for a personal assistant to do on top of their normal work. You REALLY need a separate secretary just to take on that?"

"I wouldn't if your brother wasn't so incompetent," Arthur deadpanned, clearly in a mood, before sighing and getting on with it, "Every Monday we have a small meeting," he told her, "The three of us, to discuss any events through the week. On Fridays, there is a meeting with my father to discuss the progress of the company. I expect, however, that if I have left for the day, that the next morning you provide me with a list of those calls I may have missed," he gave Maria a look, "Any changes in my schedule need to be confirmed through me first. You are also to provide information to Merlin about my schedule for the day so that he can keep me on track. And do tell me you're more adept at the computers than he is?"

Maria blinked, "Only slightly," she admitted, "Computers just seem to hate the both of us."

"Then print out my schedule for him, I don't care, I want to make sure it's maintained and maintained carefully. Any questions?"

"Nope," Maria shrugged, "Merlin?"

"No," he shook his head, it really wasn't much different than what he'd done before, save that he didn't have to answer the phones or maintain Arthur's god awful schedule, just keep him on track. Now, any screw-ups he could just blame on his sister.

It would be just like growing up in Ealdor all over again!

Arthur nodded and looked at them, "Well?" he asked as they just stared at him, "What's my itinerary for the day?"

"I've only just walked into this building," Maria shook her head, "I haven't even seen the computer with the schedule or anything like that, how am I supposed to know?'

Arthur closed his eyes and pinched his nose, "Merlin," he huffed, "Show her how the computers work."

"I thought you…" Merlin began to tease, but Arthur just glared at him, "Fine," he sighed, "Come on Mia…" he turned and led her out of the office, bringing her over to his computer to show her how it worked.

And if it took three tries to just get the computer booted, well…they'd have to call their computer department for why later…

~8~

Maria looked over, her mouth full of apple, when the door to the small employee only room opened in the middle of hers and Merlin's conversation about how they should properly split their bedroom up now that they were sharing as their uncle's flat was rather small, to see Arthur standing there, eyeing them disapprovingly.

"Well, what do we have here," Arthur frowned, "I come back from a meeting with my father to find neither my assistant nor my secretary at their stations…"

"It's lunch," Merlin shook his head, holding up his small bowl of soup, "We're on our break…"

Arthur didn't seem concerned with that at all, even though it actually was their break time, "I have a task for you, Merlin, an errand," he began, ignoring how Merlin rolled his eyes, "Father and I discussed over lunch what we should do with Mr. Valiant, as we've resolved his situation, there are now others to be dealt with. He's tasked me to inspect the rest of the padding and other training equipment for tampering. And that is where you come in, Merlin…"

"Ooh don't tell me I have to be your test subject while you examine all of them on me," Merlin nearly groaned.

"No," Arthur rolled his eyes at Merlin, "IF they were tampered with, you'd likely end up dead and we'd have yet another liability on our hands. No. You are to go to the production department and get a copy of all their files on our equipment, then bring them to me so I can conduct an audit to ensure they're being properly manufactured…"

"That doesn't sound too bad…"

"And bring me the prototypes for the new equipment in development to test out," Arthur smirked, "While you take detailed notes about them to file into a report and send back."

"Great," Merlin muttered.

"Have fun with that Merlin," Maria patted his arm, smirking.

"And YOU," Arthur grinned at her, "You are to accompany me on an errand of my own."

"What?" Maria blinked, "But I'm the secretary, I just sit here, at the desk, and answer the phone or call Merlin and tell him you're about to be late for something, where would I possibly have to go with you?"

"Shopping."

She stared at him a long while at that, "Shopping?"

"More specifically, clothing shopping."

She snorted at that, "Why, need a wider necklined shirt for your enormous head?"

"Hardly," Arthur crossed his arms, "If you are going to work for this company, and be seen in it, you must represent it," he eyed her attire.

Maria frowned and looked at her clothes, "What's wrong with this?"

She was wearing jeans with a tank top and a plaid shirt over it. She was the secretary for god's sake, she no one was actually going to see her save the people that actually came to meet with Arthur and, from what she saw, not many did. Who would care what she looked like when she was the one talking on the phone with them.

"I wouldn't know where to begin," he muttered distastefully, "Consider this an advance on your wages…"

"I wouldn't spend my wages on clothing," Maria cut in, "I'll not have you dock them just to get me clothing."

"Fine," he huffed, though he could understand that would be rather poor taste to designate what her first wage would be directed for, "Then consider it Pendragon Industries' investment in you."

She narrowed her eyes at him, "Did you do this for Merlin too?"

"No," Merlin seemed on the edge of smirking, knowing just how much his sister loathed shopping, "I actually had a few suits and work clothes stored away from interviews," he didn't have much, but enough to mix and match long enough to not be noticed how little he really had.

"And your father's going to be happy to know that you're wasting company funds on ME?" she scoffed, unable to imagine Mr. Pendragon giving a go ahead to that, "And aren't you supposed to be examining the equipment?"

"The equipment is locked away before and after every event and demonstration and class, there's no way Mr. Valiant would have been able to get to it. And besides, based on the evidence supplied to the hospital, he made his own device to administer the poison. I do have a handful of guards examining them to be sure, but it's all sorted…except for your wardrobe."

Maria shot Merlin a glare as he laughed behind his soup at her. But she huffed and stood, "Fine," she muttered, heading towards Arthur and pushing past him, "Let's get this over with Mr. Metrosexual."

"I heard that!" Arthur called as he followed her.

"You were meant to!" Maria huffed under her breath, which, for some reason, only made Arthur laugh, likely as he could tell she was getting more and more irritated as he went on.

~8~

For how unhappy Maria was to have had to go buy clothing just for work, she was smirking that widely to herself as she and Arthur made their way back to 'Camelot' an hour or so later. For as…spiffy…as Arthur dressed, he really had no fashion sense at all, had kept trying to get her to buy things in 'Camelot Red' as he called it, the color of the company's logo. She'd refused to budge on that just yet, and had stuck with colors she liked…which ended up being mostly black. She refused to let him see what the outfits were though he couldn't really deny buying them as he'd taken her to a store that sold only the most professional of clothing so it wasn't as though anything she bought wouldn't be fitting in the workplace.

Still, she was rather glad she'd managed to one up him in that regard.

But it hadn't even been the reason she was smiling now.

As they'd been leaving, as they were walking down the road towards the company, she'd seen this little boy across the street with four, much larger boys surrounding him, picking on him and shoving him. She'd instantly shoved the few pieces of clothing she'd agreed to buy into Arthur's arms and hurried across the street, likely nearly giving Arthur a heart attack when she'd not looked as she was going and nearly been hit by a car, but she'd gotten to the other side just fine, sent the boys off with a firm shoo and a glare and sat down with the little boy to make sure he was alright. He had been nearly in tears as she spoke to him, the poor little tyke. He was, apparently, the smallest in his year and the other boys loved to pick on him for it. There were usually three others that he spent time with, but the one boy was out sick, and the two girls, sisters, had already been picked up from school while he was left to wait for his mother to get him. It had broken her heart how scared the boy had been of the others and she'd found herself inviting the boy to come to Camelot one day and she would see if she could get one of the bodyguards in training, one of the 'knights' to volunteer to teach him a trick or two to defend himself. The smile that boy gave her had been worth the scolding Arthur tried to bestow upon her as they continued their walk, her not leaving till the boy's mother was in sight.

According to Arthur they couldn't just start giving away resources, not to toddlers (he was 8 Arthur, not a baby! She'd shouted), she had no right to make such an offer without permission from himself, that the boy shouldn't be given free lessons, and it wasn't like SHE would be able to teach the boy anything useful about defense. She'd just huffed and walked faster, forcing him to run to catch up and grab her arm, turning her to face him as he tried to be all strict.

So she'd just put it to him that the entire point of his company was to make people feel safe, wasn't it? That HE had seen a little boy being ganged up on and had just stood there, had been ready to walk past that boy and how on earth was that little boy going to grow up and trust Camelot if the owner of it didn't bother to protect him as a child? She may have poked him in the chest and asked him what age was too young to be taught how to protect yourself? They had so many lessons and demonstrations dedicated to adults and even teenagers, but nothing for children? Children, she'd said, of all the people in the world, need to be protected the most and, more often than not, they needed to be the ones protecting themselves, yet not one in Camelot bothered to try and do that, teach them, keep them safe.

Arthur had been speechless, which had been all the more reason to smirk to herself in quiet accomplishment. She doubted it was every day the man just gaped like fish at being put in his place.

The smirk, however, fell just a bit as she watched Arthur dealing out blow after blow to his 'knights' during their training. They were practicing with weapons, if a violent person managed to grab a pipe or crowbar or something, say during a riot or a break in, what would they do? How would they defend not just themselves but others? She honestly didn't even know why she was in the training room with Merlin to watch it all, she should have been in the office, manning the phones, but Arthur hadn't even let her head to the lift to go up and put her new purchases away, just said that there as only an hour left in the day and they didn't usually get calls that late, and it was her first day so she might as well see a little more about what Camelot was like, what the training was like instead of just the demonstrations.

So there she was, with Merlin beside her, watching the men basically beat at each other, though she could see a finesse to it, a method and a structure. They really were training, even if it seemed like they were just whaling on each other.

"Men!" Arthur called as they finished, glancing at the clock on the wall to see there was 15 minutes left of the day and the men would need to retire now, change out of their training clothing, "You've done well for this exercise. Call it a day," the men let out a little cheer at that, "Merlin," Arthur called the boy over, Maria frowning and going with him, "The men have put in a hard day's work, so why don't you help out a bit and pick up the practice equipment."

Merlin let out a huff at that, but he had to admit, compared to the knights, he did have a relatively easy day…if you counted lugging armfuls of equipment from the production department up to Arthur's office easy…which was probably still fairly easy from what the men went through, "Yes sir," he sighed.

"I'll help," Maria offered, earning a thankful smile from her brother and the two of them went about gathering up the equipment that the men had dropped in their excitement to be let go to get ready for after work an extra few minutes early. There were still a few stragglers, men wanting to talk to Arthur for a moment, so they just went about their business.

She had just reached for one of the pieces, when a hand caught her wrist and stopped her, "You should be careful," the man declared, "Weapons aren't for little girls to play with."

"Neither are girls meant for men to play with either," she muttered to herself.

The man's brown eyes narrowed at her, his red hair dripping sweat into his eyes, shaking some of it at her as he moved, "What was that?"

"Nothing," she forced a smile, yanking her hand away from him, and turning to pick up the stick, but the man grabbed it instead, "Sir, I'm just trying to do my job, can I have that?" she held out a hand for it.

But the man smirked, making a scar running from his cheek to his ear appear more prominent, "If you want it, take it."

She pursed her lips at that, already knowing this game, he'd try to keep it out of her grip, hold it above her, hold it to her but snatch it back, anything to humiliate her. Well she wasn't going to play that game. She had an older brother, she knew those tricks!

So she reached out with her right hand, trying to swipe at the stick from the right…and when the man moved to jerk his hand back to the left, she grabbed it with her left hand, smirking in victory.

"That was not smart," the man glared. She just turned and went to collect the rest of the sticks, "Oi!" he shouted, "I'm talking to you!"

"Well I don't get paid enough to listen," she shot back, not really caring if she got fired. It was her first day, she had no idea what she was even meant to do in the company, it wasn't like she even wanted this job and if that man was going to be harassing her, she was NOT going to stand for it! In a company built to make people feel safe, that man did not fulfill that motto.

"Give that back then," the man stepped after her.

"It's not yours," she argued, "It belongs to the company. If you want it, YOU take it then."

The man snorted at that, now amused, "As though that would be a challenge."

Maria narrowed her eyes at him, "I'm stronger than I look."

The man took one more step towards her when Arthur's voice cut through the tension, "Murphy, back down," he ordered the man, "She's new here, she doesn't know her place yet."

Maria almost wished that the practice stick in her hand had been a knife or a sword or something, she would have thrown it right at Arthur for that remark, 'know her place?' She was going to kill him, she was sure of it. Why hadn't she let Mr. Valiant kill him again?

"Well then maybe someone ought to teach her where that is," Murphy spat.

"I'd like to see you try," Maria challenged.

"Maria!" Merlin shouted, moving over to his sister's side, "Look, just leave it," he muttered to her, "It's not worth it. It's not worth getting fired over one wanker."

Maria's jaw clenched at that, but she turned to let her brother tug her off.

And then Murphy just had to let out a booming laugh, "And there she goes, a little twat walking away."

"Maria don't!" Merlin tried to stop her, but she'd already turned and thrown the practice piece in her hand right at Murphy, striking him half in the shoulder, half in the side of the face, making him turn a murderous look at her, but she'd already turned to keep walking away with her brother, "Maria!"

That was all the warning she had, her brother shouting her name, and Arthur shouting Murphy's, before she felt a weight settle on her back, half knocking her off her feet, hands and arms winding around her from behind as Murphy attacked her.

She honestly didn't know what it was, she didn't know what had triggered it or how she'd even thought to do it, but the next thing she knew, Murphy was flying over her shoulder as she hauled him over herself, using his momentum to send him slamming onto his back, the wind knocked out of him from her unexpected defense, using his moment of surprise to drop down, pressing her knee to his neck, grabbing one of the pieces she'd dropped in the attack to slam it down on a very sensitive area of his anatomy, causing him to try and grunt in pain, curling his legs up and reaching for that area with one hand while the other tried to pull her knee off his windpipe.

She actually started to think he wouldn't manage to shift her till someone behind her pulled her away from Murphy and into his arms, instantly causing her to relax as she felt her brother hugging her from behind.

"Murphy!" Arthur nearly roared as two other men hefted the coughing, groaning man to his feet, "Have you lost your mind!?"

"I want her arrested!" Murphy pointed at Maria, glaring at her, "She attacked me!"

"She defended herself from YOUR attack!" Arthur glared at the man in return, shoving him back as he moved in between his sight and Maria's, "What were you thinking? We do not attack civilians, we protect them!" he shook his head, "Get him out of my sight," he sneered at the man, "And be sure my father shall be hearing a report of this," he spat as Murphy was dragged out of the room. Arthur took a breath and turned to see Maria in Merlin's arms, the girl looking far too small and pale for him to feel comfortable. He walked over to her, "I am so sorry for that," he apologized, "If I had known Murphy would react like that, he never would have taken a single step towards you."

"I did attack him first," Maria muttered, watching the man go, now that the adrenaline was wearing off, she was shaking, "I threw the equipment at him."

"He wanted it back," Merlin defended, "He demanded it, so you gave it to him."

"And he put his hands on you first," Arthur agreed, "I saw him grab your wrist. I was about to stop him then when he let go. I should have stopped him before he touched you a second time," he shook his head, realizing that Maria was still shaking a bit, "Merlin, why don't you take your sister to Gus, see if she's alright, maybe get her a cup of tea…"

"Yeah," Merlin nodded, "Yeah, thanks," he offered Arthur a smile before turning to lead his sister off.

~8~

Arthur honestly wasn't expecting to see Maria the next day at work, not after what Murphy had done to her. Unfortunately his father had taken the man's word that Maria attacked him first with the practice piece and he was defending himself, though the fact he had attacked while her back was turned had been enough for his father to suspending him from the facility for a few weeks at least, to make a show of not tolerating physical attacks. He didn't expect Maria to return after being attacked in the building, according to Gus, Maria and Merlin had come to him to just make sure she hadn't strained anything from flipping Murphy over her, but that they'd left quickly with Maria still shaken from the event.

"Maria!" he blinked as she entered his office, him able to see Merlin in the outer office, through the glass door, getting everything set up for the day, but leaving his sister to speak to him herself it appeared, "You're here."

Maria eyed him, "Did you get hit in the head with one of those sword things?" she asked, "Of course I'm here. You DID give me a job…"

"I just…" he shook his head, "I thought, after Murphy…"

"He attacked me, I defended myself," she began, cutting into his words gently, sounding almost thoughtful, "I wouldn't have been able to do that before coming here," she glanced at him, "Gwen was teaching Merlin a trick or two, and I was watching, I was paying attention to your demonstration too. I guess it sunk in," she let out a bit of an uncomfortable laugh, "And it helped me. If I hadn't known what to do from the lessons that you teach HERE…" she shrugged, "He probably would have hurt me instead of the other way around. I mean, it probably helped that he seemed to think I was some stupid, little weakling," she tried to laugh at that, "He underestimated me, I suppose. But...it really was you and Gwen. So…I dunno, might be a good thing to stick around a bit more, see what else I can learn."

He nodded, smiling at that, inordinately pleased that their teachings had been able to help her, even if it was against one of their own, "Speaking of learning and lessons," he stood, moving around his desk to lean on the side of it, facing her, "I spoke with my father, well, with my sister first, and we both broached the subject of branching out or lessons and demonstrations to…younger clients. Children, specifically," he watched as her eyes widened, knowing where this was going, "You were right," he admitted, "Children need to be protected and they need to know how to protect themselves. Morgan's very up with the predictive areas, and Gwen is very good with children. They've both agreed to do a trial program, like a…camp or sorts, here, for the children, to see how they might do, teach them ways to keep safe. She's um," he let out a soft laugh, "She's actually got so many sign ups she's got a waiting list," he looked at her, "I thought that it might make us a better company, to care about all clients, regardless of age and I know it's a very tentative program, really a trial run so far, but if it does well, then we may create more branches and levels, make it more affordable, maybe even free, and the children will be able to feel safe and…"

He was cut off suddenly by Maria half leaping at him, hugging him tightly. He froze for just a second, before he slowly wrapped his arms around her, his arms just starting to rest on her back when Maria seemed to realize what she'd done and half jumped back from him just as quickly, looking away from him as he did the same, a faint blush on her cheeks.

She took a breath after a moment, "Thank you."

He cleared his throat, making himself look over at her, "For what?"

"For caring?" she shrugged, "For listening to a simple employee? You took a remark and you considered it and…that means a lot. You're implementing something to help other people, people that probably can't even pay much, and doing something to make them feel safe even if it may not benefit you much later…I think," she smiled at him a bit, "If you keep up with that, considering others and their opinions, you'll be a remarkable head of the company when the time comes. I think Camelot will be better for it."

Arthur blinked at that, "Thank you Mari, I…"

"Mari?" she raised an eyebrow at that, feeling like the semi-touching moment was gone now with that rather ridiculous shortening of her name.

"Um, yes," he coughed slightly, seeming embarrassed to have been caught out letting that nickname slip, "I just…it's…it's shorter?"

She nearly laughed at that, it was one letter shorter. Though she had to admit, Arthur was the first person to ever think to call her Mari. Perhaps it was a testament to how truly lazy he was that he felt the need to cut that last letter off, that he couldn't be bothered to say her full name. Whatever it was, whatever the reason…it WAS interesting a name. Though she doubted anyone else would take to calling her that. Most preferred just a simple 'Ria.'

Arthur cleared his throat again, "Well, I just wanted to…thank you," he added, "I can admit I wouldn't have thought to try and focus on children if you hadn't gone to see if that child was alright," he frowned at that, "Something I SHOULD have done as well," he looked up at her, "Something I will try to make up for now."

Maria nodded at that, smiling lightly at that, before she seemed to realize that she still had a paper in her hand that she'd entered with, "I have the calls, from yesterday, before you whisked me away to waste money on…this…" she gestured in distaste at her attire, simple black trousers and a white blouse, nothing too spectacular.

Arthur eyed her thought, "It…looks good," he offered, holding out a hand to take the paper, "A truly good investment," he very nearly teased but just barely managed to keep it sounding professional.

She gave him an amused look for that before she turned and walked out of his office, back to her brother to speak to him, unable to help but frown a bit as he watched her, a curious expression on his face.

Mari.

Why had he called her that?

There was no reason to do it, but…then again, there was no reason to have a secretary and a PA when Merlin was technically capable of doing both jobs. It wasn't like they couldn't afford wages for both, it wasn't like it would be too difficult to manage two 'assistants' but he hadn't needed them.

It…it really just slipped out, in the middle of it, he'd just…gotten this wave of déjà vu and, before he knew it, he was offering her a position.

He didn't know what it was but those two, Merlin and Maria Emrys, they just seemed…familiar…

He shook his head, no, that was ridiculous, he'd remember someone as gangly and clumsy as Merlin, someone as brash and beautiful as Maria. He straightened at that last thought, beautiful? Maria? Hardly, no, no she wasn't, not at all. She was…fair to look at, he supposed, if he squinted, but she wasn't any great beauty. Not like his Sophie.

He smiled at that, perhaps he should take his girlfriend out to lunch, yes…that sounded like an excellent plan.

A/N: I'm so sorry there was an update missing last week :( A few interviews came up that I wasn't expecting and it cut into my editing time, and my sister's dog also ended up jumping off our stairs and hurt herself and it was just a messy few days :( I've promised myself though that if I ever miss a week here or there with posting, I will NOT miss 2 in a row ;)

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I was trying to make Maria a little less skilled than Marayna was with her sais, but really make it something that Camelot taught her how to do to defend herself, give her another reason to stick around ;)

I'm so glad that you're all excited for the story! ^-^

Some notes on reviews...

I can say we'll find out what Merlin's full name is very soon yup ;)

There will be a bit of past life mentions coming up yup ;) Especially from a few surprising characters ;) Whether others will believe it is another thing though lol :) And thank you, we're very relieved and happy he's doing well too :) I'm SO happy to be back to updating ^-^

Yup, Killian looks like John Hurt ;) I'm going to try and make each chapter relate to the same chapter of the original series, so we'll have the extra original chapters in between episode chapters for the most part :) Lol, actually the reference to Queen Clorinda isn't a tease to the Robin/OC story I have planned, but to Once Upon a Time :) Around the Season 3 finale, I got a few posts on tumblr about how Robin should stay with Marian instead of Regina because that's how the legend goes, Robin Hood and Maid Marian. My argument was that, because it's a legend, there ARE many versions of the Robin Hood legend and if you want to use the legend as an excuse for events to happen, then you also have to accept that Marian might die (because she does in some versions of the legend as did the woman Marian was based on in a historical sense), that Robin had every right to move on to Marian's 'successor' (because in some versions of the legend Robin is the one to die and Marian moves on to his successor), or even that Robin should be with Regina instead, because in some versions of the legend Robin's true love is the Queen of the Shepherdesses. You can't say that, because the legend says one thing, it's your excuse for it to happen...when there are many different versions of legends out there from which to pick what ought to happen or not :) You can't use one and disregard the possibility of the others :) So that was more me sneaking in a reference to OUAT than the BBC's Robin Hood story I'll be doing ;) But I'm SO glad you're enjoying this story and Claire's so far ^-^

Thank you! I went back and changed the cookies ;)

Actually, there are many types of flashovers ;) The one for this story is a Rich Flashover, which is an event similar to a backdraft and often causes a backdraft ;) My brother helped me pick the term, he's recently been through fire-fighter training, and my father also described the event I was searching for as a Flashover, which is fire springing to life, and he's been a fire-fighter for over 30 years, they both really know fire ;)

Thanks! I fixed the sheriff's station ;)

I mentioned it in the first A/N ;) This story will be updated every Wednesday (as best I can manage ;))

Yup, Killian is Kilgarrah :) There will be some talk of their past lives yup, but I won't say if they'll believe it or not just yet ;) Lol, I was debating the Marayna or Maria name, but it just felt too funny and ironic an opportunity to pass up given how many people mispronounced her name as 'Maria' in the original story :) I tried to change the names that sounded old-fashioned into more modern names. Like Morgause will be changed, Annis might become Anne, etc. I decided to drop the 'a' from Morgana mostly because one of my cousin's, her niece is named Morgan and she reminds me SO much of Morgana it's almost scary lol :) It's mostly the main stories that I like to have finished within a year :) As this is just the sequel and meant to be one very long retelling of the original series, I'm more ok with it going longer than a year :) But yup, we'll have over 2 years worth of the story :)

Oh Gwaine will HAVE to appear! :) Though I can say he may pop up earlier than in the show ;)

Morgan just might have done some hacking ;) ;)