Out of Time
Avalon Reese
Chapter 2: Out of Gratitude
I do not own BBC I but I own most of this plot and the characters I've created
A/N: So here's the next part of the series. Things are starting to get more serious, the drama is a starting and poor Addison is going to get mixed up in a wrong way. Please enjoy :)
Lady Helena's caravan had stopped for the evening. They had set up her tent right away before tending to anything else so she could have time to rest while they got the camp ready. Hours later, after the moon had risen and the fire had been set, Lady Helena sat at the makeshift vanity brushing her hair in the mirror. There was a noise outside and she jumped. The forest was always full of noises and seeing as she was constantly travelling she should have been used to it.
"My Lady..." came a croaking voice and this time Lady Helena jumped and yelped.
She turned around and found behind her an old crone, hunched over with a wrinkly face and stringy grey hair. Her cold eyes peered out from underneath heavy white eyebrows and her clothes were nothing more than scraps of fabric sewn together and covered in mud and leaves.
Lady Helena calmed herself and tried to smile. "Oh my! I'm sorry, you startled me!"
The old lady took a tentative step forward. "I wonder if you would be so kind as to spare me a cup of cool water. I have been travelling for so long and I am a dreadful far way away from my destination."
"Of course," Lady Helena cried, jumping to her feet. She pointed to the now empty chair. "Please sit down."
As Lady Helena poured a cup of coal water she heard the old lady ask: "So where is it you be travelling?"
"To Camelot. I am going to sing for King Uther," she replied. She turned quickly and found the old lady right behind her. She grabbed a hold of Helena's hand and began to hum. Suddenly she was filled with a terrible burning. The humming continued and as it intensified she watched in horror as the old lady became her and when she was fully Lady Helena she dropped the lifeless corpse to the ground. The old lady, now Lady Helena smiled deviously to herself. Yes revenge was at hand.
When Merlin awoke he could hear the sound of someone singing a loud tune he didn't recognize and underneath it he swore he could hear someone calling his name. Suddenly: "Merlin!" Gaius shouted from the other side of the bars. "You never cease to amaze me. The one thing someone like you should do is keep your head down. And what do you do? You behave like an idiot."
Merlin who had jumped up to greet him just as he came to the door hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry."
"I trust you enjoyed your stay in the palace dungeons." He said softly, trying a less angry approach with the boy.
Merlin scoffed. "Sure, it was a great stretch for my back," he said. "Tell me you're getting me out of here!"
"Yes! Lucky for you Addison took most of the blame, but I did manage to pull a few strings to get you out of prison," Gaius told him, hinting to something he didn't want to say.
Merlin was completely oblivious to it all. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! I won't forget this."
"Well there is a small price to pay,"
"What does that mean?" he asked. The guards unlocked his cell and dragged him off. Apparently that the price landed Merlin in the stocks.
He didn't even bother to protest when the children began pelting him with rotten vegetables, this was his own fault for acting out. He had ducked his head to avoid the onslaught of food coming at him and when he looked up again a beautiful dark skinned girl had come up to him in a beautiful rose colored gown and matching cloak.
Her frizzy dark brown hair was pulled back but a few tendrils had escaped and hugged her jaw line. She smiled sheepishly at him and said: "I'm Guinevere, but most people call me Gwen. I'm the Lady Morgana's maid," she introduced.
"Right, I'm Merlin," he said back, offering her an awkwardly posed had to shake, which she took without any hesitation. "Thought most people just call me idiot."
"No, no!" Gwen said quickly. "I saw what you did, so brave."
"It was so stupid," Merlin sighed.
"Well I'm glad you walked away, you weren't going to beat him," Gwen said with a casual shrug.
Merlin frowned and huffed. "Oh, hey, wait, I could beat him."
Gwen cocked her head in a quizzical manner. "You think? Because you don't look like one of these big muscle-ie type fellows."
Merlin's eyebrows drew together not sure why this girl was talking to him if she was going to be like that, and better yet what was he supposed to say? "Uh... thanks," was all he could think of.
Suddenly she jumped as if understanding the implication behind her words. "Oh! No, no!" she cried waving her hands back and forth quite quickly. "I'm sure you're stronger than you look. It's just that Arthur's one of these real rough, tough, save-the-world kind of men... well..."
She had trailed off and bit and Merlin was getting edgy, he wanted to hear what she was going to say. "What?" he asked.
"You don't look like that," she admitted.
Merlin looked back and forth before becoming her to come closer with a quick nod of his head. "I'm in disguise," he whispered to her and that earned him an honest laugh.
"Well, it's great you stood up to him," she told him, her smile returning to her face.
"Oh? You really think so?" Merlin asked
"Arthur's a bully and everyone thought you were a real hero. I bet Addison loved how riled up you got him," she said. Merlin nodded and Gwen continued. "Addison's about the only one who gets away with talking back to Arthur, so that's probably what this is all about. She took a shine to you and Arthur hates it when she takes a shine to people who aren't him."
Merlin frowned bitterly but couldn't find it in him to be mad at Addison. It wasn't her fault after all she had only been trying to save him. "Yes, she seems to be all sorts of trouble."
"Yes, well, she means well and all of that but she's often trying Arthur's patience for her own weird entertainment. I mean, I would too if I had to live in the dungeons but it does mean that he gets really upset when anything happens and it involves her," she explained.
They were silent a moment and Merlin suddenly asked: "Do you know why Addison has to live in the dungeon?" Guinevere was going to answer when Merlin suddenly noticed the children coming back with bushels of more food. "Oh, uh-oh, it looks like my fans are waiting."
She nodded in farewell to him before running off. Merlin got all of two seconds to watch her saunter away before he was once again being pelted. He sighed to himself. He was never going to get that answer.
Addison was dragged into the throne room and was shoved towards Uther who was sitting in his throne reading over pages of parchment. She blinked her eyes at him as the guards left her, shutting the door behind them as they went. She waited until he beckoned her forward and then she shakily walked towards the throne, stopped five steps away and curtsying, the motion rehearsed to perfection and branded in her mind.
He put his paper's down and opened his mouth but before he could talk she said: "Whatever it is, I didn't do it."
She always spoke before Uther gave her permission to. She kept assuring him that it was because of where she came from and she honestly meant no offence. After a full year he had successfully gotten used to her talking before he spoke to her. "I'm aware," he said with a chuckle. "I called you in to talk about Lady Helena's performance for the feast."
Addison was immediately excited, she had a big smile plastered to her face and she was bouncing a bit. "Right! I wanted to talk to you about that too!" she interrupted. Uther pinned her with a stern glare and her smile faded instantly. Her fingers went up to her lips covering them, almost as if that would hold back the words now stuck in her mouth. She mumbled a polite. "Sorry."
"Lady Helena is due to arrive tomorrow," he continued. "You will not be permitted to sing and of your loud monring songs. It will be an insult to her to hear your crude singing."
Addison seemed perplexed by this request as if not singing was something she had never heard of before. "Will it be alright if I sing quietly?" she asked.
Uther sighed. "Yes, fine, but if I hear you singing at any point I will have your lips sewn shut," he warned.
Addison nodded solemnly. "Fair deal!" she said. "Uhm, if you're finished, can I ask my question now?"
Uther nodded standing up and discarding the papers on the table. He picked up a bit of fruit and Addison followed after him, but always staying at least three steps away from him. Out of hitting range. He offered her some of the fruit but she shook her head. She never took what he offered her.
"I was actually really interested in seeing Lady Helena's performance. I mean, she's supposed to be the best singer in the kingdom so I really don't want to miss it," she said quickly. "I don't want to talk to her or anything, and I don't even have to sit at the table, if I could maybe stand in a doorway out of trouble, or we could let me be a server again?"
Uther put up a hand and she fell silent again. "After what happened at Yuletide we agreed you'd never be allowed near a serving tray again," he reminded her.
Addison sighed. "I've explained time and time again that wasn't my fault. There was a bar fight and my platter of drinks got knocked out of my hand. You act like I dropped hot mead on you on purpose!"
Uther pinned her with a stern glare and she bit her lip in a nervous manner. "Regardless, you will be confined to your cell for the duration of Lady Helena's stay. I don't want you causing trouble while she's here."
Addison groaned a long, loud and very unlady-like "aww," much like a child and as she did so she rolled her eyes and found the pillows neatly arranged on the floor. She straightened considerably and pointed at them. "Why are those there?" she asked, her eyes wide with expectant horror.
Uther moved towards them. "Because you are going to demonstrate how you escaped Arthur yesterday afternoon."
Addison groaned. "Oh, not again!"
Uther only had to give her another stern glare and she sighed forcibly and stomped over to the pillows. She showed Uther were to stand and before he could count to three Addison had ducked, grabbed onto his legs and then pulled back causing him to topple forward and on top of her. Addison disentangled herself from him and jumped up, running to the door and escaping before Uther could even lift his head from the pillows.
Uther understood how Arthur could be duped by her. Skilled warrior or not, she was an attractive young woman and very distracting. The two guards poke their head in as Uther was pulling his aching and old body off the pillows. He was getting to old to be thrown like that. They stared at him confused, not sure whether they should be helping him or going after Addison.
Once standing Uther glared at them. "Well? Go after her!" her ordered, waving them off and watching as they scrambled to obey. Uther sighed, stretching out the kinks from his old body. That meeting hadn't been as bad as others, he may reform her into a proper lady yet.
Finally out of the stocks, Merlin was out and about avoiding any trouble what-so-ever and trying to make Gaius proud of him. And he was doing very well until Arthur found of him. When he saw Arthur approaching him on the narrow street he had thought about turning and running away to avoid any sort of interaction, but Arthur wouldn't let him do that.
"How's your knee walking coming along?" Arthur asked. Merlin kept walking so Arthur called after him. "Ach, don't run away!"
Merlin paused. Every fiber of his being told him to run, to not get into this again, but he also, sort of, maybe really wanted to be the hero again. He very much wanted to be the second person to stand up to the great Arthur Penndragon and maybe teach him a thing or two. "From you?" Merlin shot back, refusing to turn and face Arthur.
"Thank god," Arthur breathed out. "I thought you were deaf as well as dumb."
Still refusing to turn around Merlin couldn't help but grin. The Prince really was asking for it. "Look, I've told you, you were an ass. I just didn't realize you were a royal one," he shot back, turning around to see Arthur's face.
It was a comical one. He looked genuinely surprised, and almost amused as well. Merlin briefly wondered if Arthur had Addison with him, but he figured she would have appeared by now if she was. "Oh? What are you going to do, get your daddy's men to protect you?" Merlin asked.
This time Arthur actually laughed. "I could take you apart with one blow!"
"I could take you apart with much less," Merlin warned.
"You sure?" Arthur asked and Merlin answered by jacking off his jacket and throwing it aside. For some reason this just made Arthur laugh louder. He pulled out a mace from some unknown origin and threw it at Merlin who just wasn't not ready. "Here you go, big man."
Merlin stooped down to pick up the mace he had dropped and when he had Arthur had somehow produced another mace and was swinging it above his head as he advanced on Merlin. "Though, I will warn you, I've been trained to kill since birth."
Merlin may not have been strong, but his mind was definitely agile. "Wow! And how long have you been training to be a prat?"
Arthur dropped the mace at this point and scowled at Merlin. "You can't address me like that," he said with a scoff.
"Sorry," Merlin said quickly. "How long have you been training to be a prat, my lord?" He even added a quick little bow at the end. Arthur responded by swinging the mace at his head, luckily Merlin had the good sense to duck.
Of course this was a horrid idea, Merlin was so flimsy. Still he had his secret weapon, his magic, and as long as no one noticed he could get away with using it and not losing his head. At first it was small stuff, making the sickles move so that when Arthur swung his mace it would wrap around the blades, giving Merlin time to get away. The second was just moving a box in the way so that when Arthur walked into it it would bash back into his knee. Worked like a charm, Arthur even roared with pain and anger.
The last one he had done was pull a rope taunt across the narrow pathway so Arthur tripped over it. And then Merlin had him on the rails. He took Arthur's mace and kept asking him if he wanted to give up. Of course Arthur didn't, he backed away, getting his foot stuck in a pail and falling back to the ground. Cheers from the people echoed around him and Merlin was feeling pretty proud of himself, even if he was holding the mace wrong.
That was, until Gaius appeared in the crowd looking far from pleased or proud. Merlin paused and in that moment Arthur took his opened and tackled Merlin to the ground. He got up and the guards went to grab Merlin, but Arthur stopped them. "Nope, let him go. He may be an idiot but he's a brave one."
He was going to say more too but he was interrupted when a body crashed through the thatched roof of the vender's stall and into a heap of empty boxes. Both Arthur and Merlin recognized the particular shade of blue and the groaning. In an instant Arthur had abandoned Merlin to rush to Addison's side. He briefly glanced up to the hole she had created before pulling her out of the boxes and into his arms.
She continued to groan, her head rolling to the side. "Addison... but... how?" he cried, to exasperated to find the words.
Her head flopped back. "Ugh! It hurts everywhere!" she cried. Arthur shook her, startling a low moan from her. "Alright, alright. I escaped your father and went looking for you and... and.. well I fell off the parapet again," she replied weakly.
"What were you doing up there?" Arthur asked her sternly. "I've told you time and time again, you are too clumsy to be up there, even if you're supervised."
Addison winced, Merlin could tell she wasn't fit to stand she was practically limp in Arthur's arms. "I sort of saw you and Merlin fighting and that's not fair, you being so big and him being so fragile."
"Oi!" Merlin snapped, but he was ignored.
"I was trying to get to him before you took his head off and... well... I sort of slipped," Addison finished.
Arthur turned his accusatory glare to Merlin who shrugged. Luckily for him Gaius appeared to keep Merlin from getting arrested a second time. He cleared his throat to get Arthur's attention. "What?" he barked.
If Gaius was fazed by the rude treatment he didn't show it. "I think it would be wise to take her to my chambers so she can be tended to," he offered.
Arthur bent down quickly and pulled Addison up in his arm, her legs over one arm and her head resting against his shoulder. He walked off without giving Merlin a second thought. Was this how it was always going to be?
Arthur stood watch over Addison as Gaius poked and prodded at her trying to pinpoint her injuries. Every time she winced but didn't say anything Arthur would tell Gaius and Addison would scowl at him. Didn't she see that he was just trying to keep her safe?
The door opened and Arthur jumped worried that it was his father and his precious moment with Addison would be over. Instead it was Merlin, the whelp who was too much trouble for what he was worth. Brave though, stupid, trouble, but brave, a lot like Addison, except not nearly as lovely.
He scowled at the boy but Addison was smiling. "Hi Merlin!"
"Hey Addison! How are you feeling?" he asked. He went around the scowling Arthur to stand in front of her.
Gaius chose that moment to poke her shoulder causing her to grimace, but she shook it off and in seconds her normal smile was back on her face, her big blue eyes shining up at Merlin in an annoying manner. "I'm fine!"
"She winced," Arthur growled from his spot leaning against Gaius' work table.
Merlin shot him a worried glance before Addison pulled him down onto the spot on the bed beside her. She smiled warmly and Arthur had a sneaking suspicion that he was completely forgotten. "Do you think you'll have to stay the night?" Merlin asked her.
There was a mischevious twinkle in his eyes that made Arthur unreasonably angry. "No," he growled.
The surprised pair turned to him, Addison blinked her eyes but Merlin looked like he might say something stupid and Arthur hoped he would. It would give him ever excuse to kill him. "She may have to," Gaius said. "The bruising on her back is extensive and I fear something might be broken."
Arthur rolled his eyes. That was something he didn't want to hear, and for two reason. One, he would have to ask his father permission and that required telling him what happened, or a milder version of it. Two, that meant that his lovely Addison was injured, he once again failed to protect her and there was a good chance she'd be staying here with Merlin after all which was just not acceptable.
"I'm fine, honest. We all know I bruise easily," Addison said softly. Her fingers brushed against Merlin's, and he very carefully put his hand on top of hers.
Arthur tried to keep his anger in, but he was pretty sure he was turning red. How dare she be so brazen with a man she had just met? Though, she had told him once about a type of love that was immediate, at first sight, she had called it. Was this was this was? Had she fallen for Merlin at first sight? Why would she, he was nothing spectacular, but then again Addison had such weird tastes in everything.
A sudden fanfare trumpeted loudly in the distance causing Arthur to jump and straighten while Addison groaned. "What? What is it?" Merlin wondered.
"The Lady Helena is here," Arthur answered.
"That means Uther won't be letting me stay here," Addison added. "Straight to the dungeons for me."
"Come on, Addison," Arthur said taking a few steps towards her. Addison put her hands in his and let him pull her up. She was still unsteady on her feet so she held a little tighter to him. "I have to take you back."
Merlin stood quickly. "But she needs to be tended to!" he argued. Arthur glared at him but he noted that Gaius was nodding in agreement. "I... I can take her back if you need to go."
Arthur frowned at him, not wanting to leave Addison alone with the clown. He did not trust Merlin's intentions. "I'll be okay Arthur, Gaius will finish, Merlin will take me back and you won't be late, everyone's happy," Addison whispered. "I'm in enough trouble with your father as it is."
She was right of course, she couldn't afford to get any farther onto Uther's bad side. But he was actually sort of hurt that she wanted him to leave. "I suppose it's alright, but I want a full report and a messenger to come up if you need to stay here."
He helped her sit back down and reluctantly let go over her hands. She had a softer sort of smile on him and he wondered if her accident had caused her some sort of exhaustion, she did look tired. He looked up to Merlin with a very stern look. "This is a one-time thing," he warned before he left.
It wasn't the first time that Arthur wished he could give up his princely duties for the day to be with Addison, but it was the first time he was worried she preferred someone else over him. Arthur frowned to himself, he would have to find a way to keep Addison away from Merlin.
He was contemplating which way he would kill Merlin when a soldier came up to him. "I'm sorry my lord, but there's a problem in the lower galley and you are needed," he told him bowing lowly. Arthur sighed, there were his damned princely duties again. His father would understand. He would just have to meet Lady Helena later.