Out of Time

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: HAHA Well you guys definitely liked my flashback chapter. To answer your many questions, yes, I do have other Flashback chapters planned for the future. The next one will be for Thanksgiving, a little surprise for that day. I'm glad you guys are enjoying these chapters. I'm going to try to start churning these chapters out faster. To help me get these out faster you guys need to review more to motivate me! But let's get this chapter started!

Just so you guys know, I'm going to Harry Potter World and Disney Land for a while. I'll be working on the next chapter there. I know this chapter was a bit shorter, and it's got a whole bunch of stuff that was skipped over, but hey, more Addison and Arthur fluff. It might actually be the last of this episode in the next chapter, we'll have to see how it goes. BTW, 2 reviews until we hit 110!

Thanks to: BlackIce33 for being my 140th Favourite.

Shoutouts to: DarkDust27, Cordapia, Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967, NothingNooneZero, Guest (Sarah), elizabethkadunce, QueenofSpades157, MarvelsAvenger14, Lost Time Traveler, BlackIce33, hrodenhaver, Karo2545, and wanna-bearockstar.

Chapter 20: Out of Remedies

Addison, with Arthur hanging back by the trees, skipped playfully out into the water. He had taken her out, deep into the forest that day, to this secluded glen that had nothing but a dappled light and small stream for her to play with. She had tied the hem of her skirt up in a knot to keep it away from the water, and had left her shoes with Arthur.

He had said he wanted to see what she had been learning. He had gratefully not asked where she could be learning anything like this while in Camelot, but she could tell that he was nervous about what exactly it was that she could do.

She lifted her hands up and streams of water floated up towards her fingers, they danced around her finger tips, solidifying into solid forms of ice. The ice continued to float around her wrists, orbiting her skin, it didn't take much to have them spike all over their circumferences and then she sent them flying with one flick of her wrists and twirl of her body. The ice sunk into the wood of the tree she was aiming for, coincidentally right by Arthur's face, which was lucky cause she hadn't really been aiming there. She smiled triumphantly, it had taken her weeks to master this move and it had sapped a lot of energy to do that. That and if she didn't, he'd know that she almost stuck him with a ball of ice by accident.

Arthur was frowning at her.

He moved out of the shadows and came towards her. He put her shoes at the edge of the stream which was a sign for her to come out. She obliged, shaking her feet off and slipping into the light blue slippers, just knowing that her feet would probably be dyed blue at the end of this day.

"Why are you teaching yourself attack moves?" Arthur snapped.

Addison's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "Because I need to learn to protect myself," she replied.

"You seem to have a lot of trouble controlling fire. I thought that you'd want to work on that one first," he argued. "And no, no you shouldn't be protecting yourself. I am your protector, you are supposed to be safe and out of danger and I'm to fight it. You need to get that through your head."

"Uhm excuse me? I know we're in the medieval times here, but that's some Dark Ages Medieval shit you just put on me," she growled. "I am more than completely capable of protecting myself if you would just let me learn how to take care of myself, because like it or not, Arthur, you are not always there when I'm in danger or trouble."

"Stop getting…"

"Yes!" Addison snapped, stomping her damp little foot at him interrupting him before he could finish his sentence. "I get it. You want me out of trouble, but we've gone over this. Trouble is attracted to me and I'm just not going to be able to avoid it all the time. So instead of planning to keep me from it, we should be planning to find a way to help me fight against it when it happens."

Arthur sighed. "Right, yes, but why water and not fire? Water is not your problem. Creating walls of fire and setting people on fire without meaning to is the problem."

"Fire is a strong element. It's why I'm having a hard time controlling it and why it gets out of hand so fast. I can't learn to control a strong element if I have no practice, so I'm working up to it, okay?" she asked. She put her hands to his shoulders and stroked all the way down to this elbows and back up. A sort of fire lit in his eyes and she wished she could tell him that she was controlling a fire right then and there.

"Is that a good enough explanation, Your Highness?" she asked with a wag of her eyebrows.

"Unless there is someone behind me, you best be teasing me with that title," he said, a smirk drawing across his lips.

"Of course I'm teasing you," she whispered and then his lips were on her again. Addison melded into him so happy that these soft little secret moments with him had turned into a way for the two of them to make out more frequently.

His hand came to rest along her jaw as her hands entwined behind his head, her fingers in his soft blonde hair. He sighed, his tongue probing deeper, his one hand sliding carefully down to her lower back. Addison smiled into their kiss, Arthur had been getting bolder with her, and it had only taken what? Two years?

They came apart, breathless but smiling softly to one another.

Arthur pressed a soft kiss into her temple, leaning in to whisper: "Do you need to practice more?" into her ear.

Addison wrapped her arms around his chest and hugged him tightly, her nose in his shoulder. "No," she replied going up on tippy toe to kiss the side of his neck.

Arthur pulled himself out of her grasp and linked his arm with hers. She knew then that it was time to go back to the castle. She didn't think that this day could go bad, but by the time they got back something happened that ruined not just this day but all the following ones.

The Lady Morgana had not woken up that morning, and could not be roused at all.

Days went by, Gaius had done everything he could to bring her back but it had not helped her in the least. Morgana still slept, and the royals got more and more distressed with the thought of the lovely Morgana never waking up again.

On this day Arthur had gone to get Addison out, she hadn't had a chance to expel her magic as of late, and he wanted to keep her under watchful eye. He also thought that maybe if he put Addison in a room with Morgana maybe she'd magic her better either by accident or on purpose.

"I'm not a doctor Arthur," Addison hissed as he pulled her through courtyard. He had made the mistake of telling her what he had hoped and she was not impressed. "In my world I'm a trained first responder, but that's it really. Unless I get a cat-scan machine up in here I won't be able to help her."

Arthur shot a withering glare at her. "I don't know what you're talking about…"

"Oh, cat-scan is like this giant machine thing that paints pictures of the inside of a person so that you can see what's going on under the skin and the bone to find the problems. I had to get one once when I had a concussion because they were convinced I'd have hemorrhagal bleeding in my brain. Ohh do you think that's what she has? Did Morgana hit her head recently?"

Arthur tugged Addison quickly to his side and glared at her. "Stop talking about your world out in the open, what have I told you…"

Arthur was interrupted once again by a man in a simple brown robe stepping out of the shadows and hailing him down. Arthur and Addison stopped to stare at him. The man must have been their age, maybe a bit older by at least two years. He had floppy curly redish brown hair with hints of strawberry blonde highlights and half his face had been pretty badly burned.

Addison thought this man had a bit of a Phantom of the Opera type look. She wanted to believe that he was just a misunderstood guy like the Phantom but she was getting a painful pulse from him, both in her chest and in her forehead all of a sudden. She was pretty sure this man either held magic or he had some really power magical artifact on him.

Arthur had stepped half in front of her and wore his face of distrust as he listened to this man talked about a cure-all that he had that could fix Lady Morgana. This left Addison peaking out from behind him, she too was staring at him with a look of suspicion.

"There is no such thing as a cure-all," Addison whispered and then the man with the scars was looking at her, his green eyes piercing into her.

"Oh, but I assure you, my remedy cures all ills," he said in a smooth tone with a strangely cocked head.

"No. I mean literally. Arthur, there has never been a cure-all. They do not exist," Addison insisted.

Arthur put a hand out to hush her before bowing a head to the man in front of them. "We do not need your assistance as of yet, but thank you," he said in his most diplomatic tone.

The man bowed as well. "If you change your mind I will be in the local inn," he said and then vanished.

Arthur put a hand back on Addison's elbow and pulled her away from him. Addison shot him one last glance and saw that he was intently watching them go. "Don't listen to him Arthur," she whispered as they went. "Don't let him near Morgana."

Two days later, Addison's advice had been ignored, the robed man, who was named Edwin, went into Morgana's room, alone mind you, and when he came back Morgana was perfectly fine and awake again. Addison didn't trust it, not even a little bit. He did something he shouldn't have, she just knew it, she had no idea how to prove it yet.

Now he was standing before Uther's court telling him that Gaius had missed some crucial information and Addison had to disagree. She asked over and over again if Morgana had hit her head and had checked her ear for fluid and blood just in case Gaius's old eyes missed something and she had found nothing at all but Edwin found a spot of blood? Hell no, he must have put it there.

She stood there, with her arms crossed over her chest and a solid glare on her face as she listened to the lying little shit tell Uther in soft-spoken double-edged words that he basically thought Gaius was incapable.

Uther cut off Edwin's bold face lies to look at Addison, he raised a hand and pointed it at her. "What exactly are you doing to your face?" he asked.

Addison refused to take her eyes off Edwin and instead continued to glare him down. "I don't think you want me to go into detail right now, Majesty," Addison replied with a careful sharpness to her words.

Uther seemed slightly exasperated, "Will your cure-all fix her attitude?" he asked, which earned chuckles from anyone.

Edwin merely half smirked. "Only if it is caused by some illness or great malady," he replied.

"Cure-alls don't exist," Addison snarled through grit teeth. "He has sold you a pack of lies and you have some how bought it and that makes no sense because you're so much smarter then that!"

Silence descended the small room as everyone stared at Addison who was still silently fuming. Edwin finally met her gaze, her glare as unwavering as his look of disinterest and sudden curiosity.

Uther quickly walked over to her and snapped his fingers in her face so she would finally look away from Edwin and face Uther. She blinked her eyes up at him and found him frowning down at her.

"Excuse me?" he snapped.

Addison huffed, and shifted back and forth on her feet. "A Remedy to cure all ills correct?" she asked Uther and when he nodded she continued. "They don't exist. There is literally nothing that can cure everything and anything it comes up against."

At that point Edwin stepped up, "With the advances in medicine that I have discovered…."

Both Addison and Uther put a hand up and said: "Do not speak unless spoken too," at the exact said time. They shot a glance at one another, realizing that they had just synced up enough to mirror one another.

They cleared their throats and Uther turned his glare back at her. "As he says, he has discovered advances in medicine…"

"No, you do not understand. In my vast, vast knowledge there is no advance ever created that can do what he's saying he did," Addison interrupted.

Uther took a small step back to regard her before turning to look at Edwin. "Regardless, Edwin, Gaius does need the assistance so if you would like to stay, maybe review Gaius' work that would greatly appreciated."

Edwin's eyes locked with hers as he said: "No, I wouldn't mind staying at all."

Oh. It was on.

Addison, ankle deep in the water, kept clicking her fingers to try to ignite a flame upon her fingertips. Merlin could do it without thinking or trying but she hadn't been able to do it yet and it was frustrating her.

"I don't understand why you don't like him," Merlin said suddenly.

"Who? Edwin?" She asked. Finally, too frustrated she threw her arms out and the water around her fanned upward and froze solid in the motion.

"Yes," Merlin whispered. "He's like us. And people like us need to stick together."

Addison pointed a finger in his face. "AH-HA! I knew it! I knew that little shit had magic! There's no fucking Remedy-to-cure-all-ills, he's using magic!"

"So? If he's using it to help people why should that matter?" Merlin snapped back.

Addison turned to look at him, realizing that Merlin thought of Edwin as a friend. She would not have a sympathetic ear while talking to Merlin about this. "Because he's not helping people. He's helping himself to Gaius' job."

"That's not true. Uther would never sack Gaius," Merlin argued, clearly in denial.

Addison lowered her eyes. "Have you told him about me?" she asked.

Merlin shook his head. "No, not fully. I mean, he guessed that you were special, he was worried that you were a spy or something and couldn't be trusted. I stood up for you, made sure he knew that you were to be trusted, you just were very protective of Arthur and Morgana."

Addison sighed, she put a hand to Merlin's shoulder and felt a warmth spread up her arm. Merlin winced a bit but let her do it. She snapped her fingers again and this time the flame lit, dancing above her fingertip but she couldn't feel the heat. She lifted her hand from Merlin's shoulder and the flame vanished. She swore under her breath but tried again. Still no spark.

"You'll get it," Merlin told her.

"You shouldn't have told him I could be trusted," she said to him suddenly. "You never should have told him about me, or about you. You shouldn't have trusted him."

Merlin opened his mouth to argue but Addison quickly stopped him. "You can trust him, Merlin, but I do not. He's not here for pure purposes. He's not here to use his magic the way we do. There's something off, something twisted and I don't trust him at all."

"You're just saying that because of his face," Merlin snapped and Addison gasped and took a step away from him.

"It you actually think me that shallow, then maybe we aren't the close friends I thought we were," she snarled and stormed off. Leaving Merlin alone in the forest. Addison went straight to Arthur, letting herself into his chambers without notice and throwing herself into his arms.

He held her, stroking her soft hair, asking what was wrong over and over and not getting angry when she couldn't give him an answer. Neither were aware that someone had spied their interaction. Neither were aware of the danger.

Edwin sat in the Royal ante-chamber, eating a private dinner with the all powerful King Uther Penndragon. He had successfully managed to convince the King that Gaius was useless. Step one in his plan for revenge. But now he had another problem.

The young girl. The one who knew all to well that he did not have a real remedy to cure all, and who seemed to be in a position to change Uther's mind. She was a ward of the Crown Prince, kept in the dungeon because Uther feared the power she possessed. Yes, the young warlock, Merlin, had confirmed that she held magic, but not how she possessed the knowledge that Edwin was lying about the cure without seeing him do anything. She had known just by the name of the cure, that there was no such thing, now or ever apparently. She must have been a seer and very gifted one as well.

As court physician Edwin would have to attend to her. A lovely specimen such as that would be a delight to attend to, even if she held a fiery distrust of him. No, the problem was, if he had a disastrous encounter with her, one complaint to Arthur could have him removed, fictional or not. Luckily Edwin had a trick up his sleeve to help rectify this dangerous situation.

"I have noticed that the Lady Addison has a bit of a…."

"Attitude?" Uther finished for him. "Yes, she's quite a handful."

"Unfortunately, my remedy cannot cure afflictions of bad temperament," Edwin said trying to look remorseful and yet humourful, when really all he wanted to do was take his fork and jam it into Uther's eye. "I have noticed a rather strange attachment of hers to your son."

Uther paused in shoveling his food into his royal gob long enough to stare at Edwin confused. "Oh? Well she is his ward and he is very protective of her…"

"What I noticed was a bit more of an explicit manner," Edwin replied. "I don't mean to speak out of turn, but it is probably not right for his ward to be alone in his room."

Uther put down his eating utensils, his glare suddenly boring into Edwin. "Oh? I had told him stop doing that. Propriety is a manner she lacks. And what exactly did you spy them doing?"

Edwin smirked. It was regrettable, but he very did much have the King eating right out of his hand.

By morning the news had spread quite quickly. Gaius had been sacked, and given leave to move out of his apartments. But even more distressingly, in the wee hours of the morning, before Arthur was awake or could be awakened to intervene. Addison had been packed up, deposited in a barred cage with the direction to take her straight to Nuns of Tintagel, a convent on the coast, very, very, far away from Arthur.

Merlin was suddenly alone, both of his closest supporters had been , and now he was certain that Addison had been very right about Edwin after all. But what could he do about it now?