A/N: Sorry for the long wait for this chapter everyone. Moving on with a few episodes now, so I hope you enjoy.

"We have to get her out of Camelot." I faintly heard someone saying. "She needs to get away from all of this for a while. We need to think of a way to get away and not raise too much suspicion." It sounded like Arthur to me, but I wondered who it was he was talking to.

"Your father is never going to let you take her out of the city. There are just too many risks." Merlin, he was talking to Merlin.

I heard Arthur let out a long sigh. "I know, Merlin, but she cannot be confined to this room the whole time. You know just how much she hates being locked up and stuck in the same place." The Prince really did know me well. He knew that I was getting restless, stuck in his bedroom for the past six days. Gaius had ordered bed rest, which wasn't too bad on the first day, but it has been stopping Arthur from doing his duty.

"Then what are you going to do?" I listened, waiting to hear Arthur's response, but all was silent. "You already have a plan, don't you?"

There was a few more moments of silence, until I heard footsteps getting closer to where I was. "Maybe. You must mention none of this to Isabella. She is under enough stress and she doesn't need another thing to worry about." Arthur said, before someone sat on the bed beside me, making it dip a little. "Isabella? Come on, it's time to wake up now." He called to me softly. Gently brushing my hair away from my face.

I ended up letting out a groan and rolling away from him. I didn't want to get up, I wanted to stay in his bed and stay under the covers until my uncle was caught. "Go away, Arthur. I'm trying to sleep." I grumbled, yanking at the cover and pulling it up and over my head. It had only been a few days since I had woken up to find that I had actually been dead for a short time. I wasn't ready to go out and face the world, I was quite happy for Gwen and Morgana to come and visit me where we could just sit and talk and not worry about anything. Well, apart from how much we were annoying Arthur, but that was all part of the fun.

"Isabella, you can't hide away from this. I know it seems like the easiest option, but you have to carry on with your life. You can't let him get to you like this, this is what he wants, he wants you to be scared." I didn't care if he was right, I would rather stay huddled up in bed and just forget everything else.

"Well he has made me scared, and nothing is going to stop me from being scared, so what's the point? Even with you protecting me he is still going to get to me." I told him, before throwing the covers back and looking up at him. "Look at how close he has already come. I was dead, Arthur, he succeeded, he killed me. There is no way to stop him, I'm better off just hiding."

Arthur looked at me and let out a sigh. "Isabella, you have to stop thinking like that." He told me, his hand gently resting against my cheek. "Your uncle is getting desperate, so far all of his plans have failed, soon he will show himself."

"Yeah, show himself to kill me." I muttered, know that was the only reason that he would come out of whatever dark hole he was hiding in. "We all know that he is going to come and get me, and we all know that he will do anything. Arthur, it wasn't just me he poisoned and tried to kill, it was you as well. To him, this is war." That was what it was now, war. War between Lord Donald and the Royal family of Elbear, and their ally, Camelot. I knew that was what it was, I wasn't ignoring that fact.

I felt Arthur's other hand rest on my other cheek, so he was holding my face gently. "Stop it, Isabella. I am not going to let him anywhere near you. He will not have a chance to hurt you. Do you understand? I will stop him." He told me, very firmly, and slightly scaring me.

"Arthur, he has magic, and he has followers. We don't know who they are, but they could be anywhere, such as in the castle right now pretending to be a guard." I reminded him. I was never going to be able to forget that night, the night when I was led from my chamber, threatened with a knife, and saved by Merlin. "He managed to get poisoned wine into the castle. There is no way that it was Merlin's fault, he didn't know, he couldn't know. He is smart, Arthur, you have no idea what he is capable of." Ever since I had woken up, I had the feeling of dread. I felt as if something terrible was going to happen, that something was about to hit Camelot, and hit it hard.

All Arthur did was look at me, his eyes gazing into mine. "And he has no idea what I'm capable of. He is trying to take something that isn't his, he is fighting for greed and power, all the wrong reasons. But I know what I am fighting for, and I will fight till my last breath." The determination in his voice worried me, it worried me that he didn't care what happened to him, that if he got hurt trying to protect me, that it didn't matter.

"Arthur…" The look he gave me instantly shut me up and I swallowed the words that I had been about to speak.

"You are worth fighting for, Isabella. You can protest as much as you like, it is not going to change a thing. I am fighting for you, because you are worth fighting for, and because I care about you." He told me, still holding my face gently. I honestly didn't know what to say to him, words completely failed me and I was left speechless. "Now, are you going to get up or am I going to have to drag you out of my bed?"

I let out a groan and yanked his hands away from my face, before throwing my head back on the pillow. "Come back later, and I'll think about it." I told him, really not wanting to move from the bed. Sure, I had gotten enough rest and I didn't really need to sleep anymore, but I still didn't want to move. I didn't want to face the rest of the world, those four walls were good enough for me.

But it appeared that Arthur was serious about dragging me from his bed if I didn't decide to get up. "Merlin, get the bucket. It would appear that Princess Isabella needs some assistance in waking up." I did not like the sound of where this was heading. I liked it even less when I heard Merlin leave the room, presumably to go and fetch a bucket of freezing cold water. "Now, are you going to get up, or are you waiting for Merlin to return?"

It was times like this that I really despised Prince Arthur of Camelot. "Why are you being so mean to me? I've had a very traumatic time recently, I think it is perfectly acceptable for me to not want to get out of bed. Plus, your bed is too comfy to leave." I told him, deliberately snuggling down even more. I wasn't scared of him, because I knew he wouldn't really soak his own bed by throwing water over me to get me out of bed.

"Isabella, I am not being mean to you, I know that things have been difficult recently, and I know that you want to just shut yourself away from the world, but you can't. You have to show him that you are not scared of him."

"But I am scared of him, Arthur." I told him, wishing he would really just leave me alone. "I told you before, it's not just me that he is willing to hurt now, it's you as well. I'm scared of what he could do to you, Arthur, I am petrified that he is going to hurt you." The thought of my uncle hurting him was something that haunted me.

I had been having nightmares, pretty bad ones, but I had been lucky enough not to drag Arthur into them with me. Each time my uncle was there, and he was always after Arthur. It didn't matter what I said to him, how many times I offered myself up to him, he would always harm Arthur. Those nightmares led to me not sleeping very well, and I would end up silently crying because of it all. But Arthur would always hear me, no matter how quiet I tried to be, he would hear the silent crying. He would come to my bed, before taking a hold of my hand, and leading me over to his bed instead. I would end up falling asleep with Arthur holding onto me, soothing me by gently running his hand through my hair.

The soft look in his eyes told me that he did understand how I was feeling. "Everything is going to be fine, Isabella. I promise you. My father and I are doing everything we can to catch him, and put a stop to him."

"I know, Arthur, but just look at what's happened recently. Before the poison in the wine, there was the man who tried to take me to him, a man who was dressed as a royal guard. He is getting desperate, it's clear that he isn't afraid to kill me and hurt you in the process." I wanted the conversation to come to an end, because we were just going around in circles now. I was saying the same things over and over again and so was Arthur. "He's going to come for me himself, and he isn't going to let anyone get in his way."

"He hasn't tried to get past me." Arthur ended up telling me seriously. "You have to trust me, Isabella. I will do whatever it takes to protect you, especially from him."

I let out a sigh, knowing that there really was no point in keep arguing with him. "Look, can we just drop the subject, Arthur? We are both in different positions on this, I'm the one he is after, so I'm going to be more worried and scared than anyone else. Let's just drop it, okay?"

"On one condition." I looked at him and raised an eyebrow at him. "You have to get up and join me on the training grounds. I think it's time you learnt how to joust."

My eyes widened. Yes, I could accept getting up and out of bed, but why on Earth would I want to learn how to joust? When was I ever going to need to joust? "Joust? You really expect me to joust?"

There was a smirk on his face now. "It's all part of your training, which you agreed to." Great, I had really landed myself in it now. I had agreed to Arthur teaching me how to fight, but that had mainly been just with swords and daggers, how to handle a mace, and also a little bit of archery. But jousting? When was I ever likely to need that kind of skill?

"Nope, I agreed to let you teach me how to fight, jousting is not fighting, it's just knocking people off horses with a long, pointy stick." I had to at least try and talk my way out of it. "I'll come and watch you, obviously, but I am not going to be taking part. I'll just stand by the side lines and keep Merlin company."

A little while later, after taking my time to get dressed and eat breakfast, just because I was trying to annoy Arthur, we were outside and watching the knights practice their jousting. I flinched when one of the knights was knocked off his horse and landed on the ground with a thud. Even with the armour on, it had to be painful.

"Isabella, behave, and stay with Merlin. Do not leave his side and do not leave my sight." Arthur firmly, as he mounted the horse that he been brought over for him. "Is that understood?"

I nodded my head at him, knowing that he was deadly serious. We were actually standing in the middle of a tournament ground, and there were plenty of Arthur's knights around us, but some strangers as well. "I will, I promise." I replied, knowing that I really did have to do what he told me if I wanted to keep safe.

"Merlin, keep an eye on her." The Prince said, before he tugged at the reins of his horse, getting it to trot to the other end of the grounds. Obviously Arthur could still see me, and I was not planning on slipping out of his sight at all. At least if I was with Merlin, he had a chance to protect me until Arthur got his backside in gear and could be my knight in shining armour, literally.

I was standing there with my hands in front of me, and I kept on playing with them. "He wouldn't dare try anything right now, Isabella." Merlin told me, noticing my slight discomfort. "There are too many people around, too many knights. He'd never make it out alive if he tried anything."

I nodded at him, before forcing my hands to straighten out my dress. "Yeah, I know." I managed to tell him, not very convincingly. My eyes were darting everywhere, looking at all the people around me. I recognised a few of the knights, and I saw Sir Leon there, getting himself ready to join in with the jousting. I liked him, he was probably the only knight that I actually trusted.

"Come on, don't you want to see Arthur get knocked off a horse by a long stick?" Merlin asked me, trying to get me to smile.

I ended up shrugging my shoulders at him. "Not really. If he gets hurt, then it's down to you to protect me. How do you think that will work out?" I asked him, knowing that both of us would have to deal with Arthur doing nothing but moaning for days on end. "You want to deal with his moaning?"

My warlock friend thought about it for a moment. "You're right, that would be terrible." He told me, before we watched as Arthur and another knight charged at the same time, their long and pointy sticks ready to knock the other off. I held my breath, waiting, and only let it out again when the other knight fell from his mount. "That has got to hurt." He ended up saying, as Arthur came over to where we were standing, still on his steed.

We both watched as the Prince lifted part of his helmet so that we could see him. "That's the point, Merlin. It's not a pillow fight. Fetch me another lance, will you?" Arthur asked, not demanded for once, before looking at me. "You have no need to be so nervous, Isabella."

"I have every need to be nervous, Arthur." Rebutted, folding my arms across my chest. "I'm out here in the open, with nothing but a skinny idiot for protection." Yes, it was a bit harsh, but it was also kind of true. Merlin couldn't protect me without using magic, and he couldn't use magic with so many people around. "You should have just left me with Morgana or something, that would have been fine with me, and I know she wouldn't protest spending time with me, without you hanging around." The only time I saw Morgana, Arthur was there. There were some things that the pair of us were not able to talk about because of his presence.

"You know why I did not leave you with Morgana. You are not to leave my sight, Isabella, and you know that." He told me firmly while we waited for Merlin to come back. He seemed to be taking his time, considering the rack of lances were only a few meters away from where we were. All I could think was that he was giving us a little bit of space to talk, which I did not want. "This is all to protect you, not to hurt you."

"I know, Arthur. It's just… I feel like I'm such a burden now. You can't do anything without me being there, it's having an impact on your duties." He had been missing a lot of his duties. He hadn't been going out on patrol when he should have, he hadn't been to as many training sessions as he should have, he was just stuck watching over me all the time.

"It's not like that, Isabella, and you know it. I know things have been difficult recently, but they will get better, I promise." I already knew he was up to something, but the way he had just said that to me, about things getting better, it made me think about it even more.

I didn't get a chance to reply to him, as Merlin returned with a lance that had not been partially destroyed, and Arthur was off again. "Everything all right?" Merlin asked me, as we watched the two men prepare to charge at each other.

All I could do was nod at him a little, as I wrapped my arms around myself tightly, wishing that I could just go back inside the castle and hide away from the rest of the world forever. I watched as Arthur and Leon both began to charge, their lances aimed and ready, and I thought that Leon was actually going to knock Arthur off, since something seemed to happen and distract him, but he didn't. Leon didn't strike him when he had the perfect chance.

We could all see that Arthur was annoyed as he threw down his lance before jumping off his horse. "Why did you pull out?" He called to Leon, who was down the other end with his own horse. "I was wide open. You could have unhorsed me." Yes, he was annoyed, annoyed that one of his knights wasn't working to his best.

For some reason, Leon looked at me, before turning back to Arthur. "I was fearful that I might injure you, Sire." Something about what Leon said didn't seem right to me, it was as if he was giving Arthur the most valid excuse he could think of.

"You had the advantage, you can't afford to hesitate." I was starting to get worried that Arthur's temper might make an appearance. He really didn't like it when he was given special treatment because he was the King's son, because he was the Prince. When I first met him, he would have loved it, but not anymore, not now that he had started to grow up.

"I would have done if I were facing a different opponent. You are the future King, my lord." Oh dear, that was the wrong thing to say. I wanted to go over there and smack Leon around the back of the head for that, but it was too late.

Arthur stepped closer towards the man, and I could see that he was trying to contain his anger. "You jousted against me in the tournament last you. Are you saying you let me win?" All I could do was bite my lip as Arthur questioned one of his best knights, the only one that I trusted.

Leon was actually starting to look a little scared, but he was doing well to mask it. "No, my lord."

But I knew that Arthur didn't believe him, and he looked at me before staring down his other knights. The way they shifted from one foot to the other, the way they couldn't meet the Prince's eyes, that just said it all and Arthur let out a huff of annoyance. "It doesn't matter who I am." He called to them all. "I do not expect any special treatment from you, from any of you. Is that understood?" The men all nodded at him, even if they were a little hesitant at first.

I knew it was my time to step in. There were very few people who could calm Arthur down, and I had worked out that I was one of them. I quickly glanced at Merlin, who nodded at me. We had a little system in place, one that seemed to work pretty well. I put my hand to my head, and swayed a little, and Merlin was quickly there, already knowing that I was faking it. "Sire!" He called, grasping Arthur's attention.

The moment he saw me, he rushed over, his knights completely forgotten about. "Isabella? Are you all right?" I closed my eyes and nodded a little, before reaching out and grabbing onto his arm, making it seem like my head was spinning. "I think you've had enough excitement for one day." He told me, before wrapping his arm around me, and leading me back towards the castle.

Yes, it wasn't a good thing that I had decided to do with the help of Merlin, but if we hadn't intervened then Arthur would have started shouting at his knights even more, and then challenged most of them, desperate to prove that he was as good as he claimed he was. Pride, it always got in the way for Arthur, although it wasn't as bad as it used to be when I first met him.

Arthur basically led me back to his chamber, where he forced me to sit in the chair at his table, before he slammed his helmet down on it, making me jump a little. "How am I going to prove myself if my opponents aren't trying their hardest?" As I thought, it was all about proving himself, and it shouldn't be like that.

"I'm sure it's not happening all the time." Merlin said, causing me to sink back in the chair and put my head in my hands.

The Prince stopped ripping his armour off and glared at Merlin. "So it's happening some of the time?"

Merlin paused for a moment, picking up the discarded metal. "No, I'm certain it isn't."

I really wanted to just fade away, Merlin was only making matters worse. "Now you're doing it!" Arthur ended up shouting at him. "You're telling me exactly what you think I want to hear."

"Yes. Er… no. Er… what was the question?" I let out a sigh as Merlin stumbled over his own words.

"That just proves it. All my life I've been treated as if I'm special. I just want to be treated like everyone else." Arthur told him, standing there in his tunic and chainmail still as he looked out of the window.

I cleared my throat and looked over at him. "You are the most arrogant and self-obsessed man I have ever met." I told him, doing my best not to smile at him. "You get treated like your special because you think you're special. I may be a Princess, but I'm still just an annoying and infuriating woman." I said, before giving him one of my best smiles.

"You forget impossible." Merlin reminded me, trying to act serious.

"And impossible. Annoying, infuriating, and impossible." I corrected myself, thanks to the help of one very skinny warlock. "You tell me often enough how I never act like a Princess, you're problem is that you act too much like a spoilt little brat… I mean Prince." It wasn't an accident what I had said, I had done that on purpose, I had said that to get his attention.

Arthur looked at me and shook his head, before looking at Merlin, who was still picking up the Prince's armour. "You have no idea how lucky you are."

"Well, anytime you want to swap places, just let me know." Oh dear, I had a feeling that what Merlin had just said was about to bring nothing but trouble.

I saw Arthur looking at Merlin, a rather surprised look on his face. "That's not a totally stupid idea."

But Merlin hadn't caught on how serious Arthur was. "You're Prince Arthur. You can't change who you are." No, but knowing Arthur, he was going to give it a damn good try.

The smile on Arthur's face just confirmed that, and I knew it was a bad idea, I knew that nothing good would come from it, but I didn't know what to say to stop him. I just stayed silent while Merlin finished collecting Arthur's things, before disappearing out of the room to go and polish his armour. "What are you planning on doing, Arthur?" I asked him, resulting in him turning and walking towards me. "I know you're planning something, you've got that look on your face."

"You think I'm planning something, because of my face?" He asked me, coming and sitting down at the table with me.

I nodded my head at him slightly. "Yes, you have that look on your face that tells me that you are planning something. You've actually be wearing it all day, but now it's even bigger. So, whatever you are planning, Arthur, stop it. It will only end in trouble, you know that."

"How do you do that?" I frowned at him, having no idea what he was talking about. "You always seem to know what I'm thinking, and you always know how I'm feeling as well. How do you do it, Isabella? How do you know these things?"

All I could do was smile at him. "Because I know you, Arthur. Now, spill, what exactly is this plan of yours?" As if I was going to let him do something without telling me all about it first. I wanted to know his plan, because I was sure it had something to do with me and what he was saying to Merlin before I woke up.

"Well, as you know, the jousting tournament is approaching, and as you have seen, my knights seem to think it is acceptable to not try their hardest and let me win." I knew where it was going, I knew what was going through that pretty blonde head of his. "I was thinking of entering the competition in disguise, so that the only you and Merlin with know it was me."

Yup, that was exactly what I thought he was going to be saying. He wanted to pretend to be someone else, to not be a Prince, all to prove himself. "I think you're forgetting a tiny detail here, Arthur. You're lumbered with me, wherever you go. How exactly do you plan on pulling this one off?" How was he going to enter in disguise? And how exactly was he going to protect me during the whole event? I didn't think it was such a good idea, not for him to just prove himself, to protect his pride.

"Ah, I've already thought of that. You'll be in disguise as well." I couldn't stop myself from raising an eyebrow at him, curious to hear the rest of his plan. "I will tell my father that you need some time away from Camelot."

I quickly shook my head at him. "Your father is not going to buy that, Arthur, and he certainly will not be letting me leave Camelot, even it was only for a few days and you were with me." Uther would never let me leave Camelot with the threat from my uncle higher than ever. "You're going to have to think of something else, a magical creature or something that needs to be destroyed."

"And you think my father will allow you to come, when you have stated yourself that he will not let you leave Camelot?" Okay, he had a point. It was really going to be difficult for me to sneak out of Camelot. He could do it, he had his freedom, but I didn't.

"Well, we'll just have to wing it." I told him, before realising that he had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. "We'll make it up as we go along. Remember, where you go, I go. So, if you have to go and face some beast, then I'll have to go with you. You could say that it would be good practice for me, a chance for me to test me skills, or something along those lines."

Arthur's face lit up. "Isabella, you are a genius." He told me, before reaching over the table, and surprising me by lightly kissing my cheek.

All I could do was look at him in shock. "Really? I am?" That was the second time he had called me a genius now, the first time being after that man had tried to take me to my uncle, and Merlin had come to my rescue. Merlin loved that new bed, and he spent most of those days off that Arthur gave him as a reward sleeping in it. "Impossible, infuriating, annoying, and a genius. Yup, that's me."

"You're right, father would never allow you to leave Camelot without a good reason. If there were a beast that needed to be destroyed, then you would have to come with us. He would feel at ease to know that there would be knights around you, and he will understand that you need to test your skills." Arthur said, basically repeating everything that I had just said. "It's a brilliant plan, Isabella."

"Well, I am a genius after all, I do come up with these amazing and fantastic plans without even trying to." There were still a few things I was unsure about, and I knew it had to confirm it all with Arthur. "I get the point of you pretending to be someone else, but what about me? My uncle will be watching, how is that going to work?" I was curious as to how he was going to deal with that, and I really hoped he had some kind of an idea.

The smile on his face told me that he did have an idea. "Don't worry, Isabella, I know exactly what we are going to do." I nodded at him, trusting that he really did know what to do.

Now, we just had to wait until dinner, so that we could set the plan in motion with Uther and get the ball rolling. As soon as Merlin was done with his chores we would let him know the plan, and tell him the part that he needed to play in it. I was still nervous about it all, and I was worrying that my uncle was going to find out what we had done and realised that I was still in Camelot and find me. But I had to remember, Arthur was going to be there with me, he was going to be there to protect me, even if we weren't in the castle.

A/N: I hope you guys liked it and that tit was worth the wait. I've decided it's time to move along with a few more episodes, but there will still be a few surprises thrown in there.

Hello and welcome to everyone who has favourited/followed the story recently, I'm glad to see the people are still finding this story and enjoying it. Also, as always, a massive thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review. It's because of you I push myself to keep writing when I feel like giving up on everything.

Time for me to shut up now and keep writing. Until next time!

Pippa.