Out of Time

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Alright guys, it's happened. We've finally got to the part. For those of you who are freaking out, please don't. I'm going to include spoilers at the end of this chapter of things you guys are going to look forward to. This chapter is going to be a bit shorter, but I promise it's not all bad, just a little bit of angst.

It's also very important that you tell me where you want chapter 42 to start. Do you want it back in the past with Arthur or in the future with Addison. Please include that in your review.

Like-a-Slasher-Film, I sent you another PM with more detailed spoilers, I know you said you didn't want them but trust me, you're going to want these. For everyone else, if you want more info about what's going to happen next send me a PM and I'll do my best to answer your questions without completely ruining everything. As always if you want a shoutout please like, fav, or review the story and I'll see you guys next week.

Shoutouts: grapejuice101, ForeverTeamEdward, Bronzelove, Like-a-Slasher-Film, Arianna Le Fay, Guest, Marmite-1, Mazikeen13, and gwencarson126

Thanks to Maricate for being my 200th review!

Chapter 40: Out of Grieving

In the years to come tales were told and songs were sung about Addison's death.

They were told with stiff upper lips. The story of how stoic Arthur Penndragon came to the body of his beloved and stared down at her with a calm that shocked them all. They spun the tale around the sudden collapse of their Prince, still silent and stoic in front of her decapitated head and then spoke proudly of the riot that broke out around him over the rage of the death of the city's Songbird. They all beat their chests proudly to say they were a part of that riot, the men boasted of being put in jail with Arthur when Uther had managed to disarm his son, of hearing him vow to avenge Addison himself while the townsfolk screamed in choruses of agreement.

But the songs were sung about the funeral march for it was the thing of majestic enchantment that everyone swore they were in attendance for. The songs were as extravagant as the march itself, and spoke prettily of the magic they all witnessed during Arthur's final farewell to the one he had loved so well. A legacy that would transcend time itself.

The night after Addison was executed was calm but cloudy. The moon had been blocked painting the city of Camelot in dark shadows. Arthur had long since stopped raging, his tears had dried and he was all alone in his cell.

Left to his own devices he played back the memories, both happy and sad and tried very hard not to remember that moment when the sound of that thunk reached his ears. He tried not to pain himself with the things that could have been done to save her as there was nothing that could be done for her now.

His Addison was dead. Gone. And he was suddenly adrift in a sea of torment and grief not sure how he was ever going to return to the shores of happiness. He did not ever expect to recover from this loss.

He knew from the whispers around the city that Addison's body had gone missing. His father was in desperate search of it. He wanted to burn her remains before she could find a way to return. Arthur held no delusions about believing that even Addison could cheat death but he couldn't deny that sliver of hope that had rested in his chest for if anyone could it would be her.

Arthur heard the scrape of boots on the cobblestones outside of his cells and when he half turned he saw that a guard stood there flanked by Morgana. Arthur turned back to the barred window in his cell and tried to ignore her. He didn't want to hear Morgana cry over Addison he didn't want to think about this at all.

"Majesty," the guard spoke. "Against your father's wishes I am going to let you out."

Arthur turned fully now. "And why would you do that?" he asked.

The guard bowed his head but it was Morgana who spoke up this time. "Because, we have prepared a funeral for Addison. I assume you would like to be there."

As if there were anywhere else he would have rather been.

There was a funeral march to the lake where Addison had first appeared to him.

The moon had yet to return so the way was lit by the light of a hundred candles. The people of Camelot had all come together, they were using their own candles, a precious commodity to most peasants, to light the way. Addison's body had been shrouded in fine silk, donated by the tailors who he had always gone to buy her dresses from, and she was carried on a bed of fine wood for the people to drop dried flowers on as she was carried by.

She was carried by four guards, the same four that had always been there to guard her cell, and following the body was Arthur, Morgana, Gwen, Merlin and Gaius. Arthur tried not to weep though he heard the tears of everyone behind him, of the people as they passed them. Even Gaius was shedding a few silent tears but Arthur couldn't find it in him to cry anymore. He had numbed himself to this, unable to feel anything except that empty void in his chest where Addison's presence used to be.

They made their way at a slow crawl, but it was too fast for Arthur. He knew what was at the end of this trail, he'd have to say goodbye and he wasn't ready for that. But still they made it to the edge of the lake where the wooden pallet bearing Addison's body was lowered to the water. Arthur was to take the torch offered but he couldn't find the strength to lift it, he ignored it completely, he just stared at the shroud covering Addison's body waiting for her to get up, to proclaim that this was just some elaborate prank to make him realize how much he loved her, as if he hadn't known it before.

She didn't sit up.

Merlin took the torch and shoved it into his hands instead. The jarring reality of what he was about to do hit him with such a force that he thought that he might simply fall once again. He swallowed back a ragged cry that wanted to break free from his throat, the burning weight of this desire to cry shaking him. He found himself unable to lower the fire to the body of his beloved.

Behind him came a song. One he recognized. One of Addison's sad songs, or well, it sounded sad though the lyrics were meant to be uplifting. A song she had said she wanted to go away with. He should have realized that Morgana would remember, would get someone to sing this as she floated away a burning inferno.

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

The tears had started again, it took all his strength not to break down. It took both Merlin and Morgana's guiding hands to get his shaking form to drop the torch to her body. The anointing oils caught fast, the tinder and wood she was on burned bright and raging in a few seconds, the dried flowers added a sweet scent to the smoke that was rising up into the night. As the pallet was pushed into the water and out towards the middle of the lake, the singer reached the chorus and was joined by the hundreds of voices who had come out to that lake to mourn Addison with them. Gwen, Morgana and Merlin joined in, but Arthur could only stay silent.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up: To more than I can be.

Addison was literally up in flames. Arthur lost it, he collapsed to his knees and began to quietly sob, letting his tears flow free. He was barely aware when Morgana fell to her knees beside him and wrapped her frail arms around his shoulders. His blurry eyes could only see the flames, she was like a great burning star floating out in the dark expanse of the sky reflected on the surface of the lake. His heart was splintering in his chest as it finally settled in his very bones with a shattering clarity that he had lost her. Addison was truly gone. He was going to have to live without her somehow.

The funeral barge, with its flames ablaze finally began to sink below the water's edge and as it did a great white light flashed and a sudden familiar voice was singing along with a second rendition of the chorus.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;

Arthur's eyes whipped up and he found her, he could see her, she was right there. His Addison, in that ball of light, dressed in a simple white gown a smile on her face, and tears in her eyes. Her head was fully attached to her body, she was walking calmly along the surface of the lake and if that wasn't enough to prove that she was clearly a corporeal being the fact that she was slightly translucent proved the rest.

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;

Though Morgana and Merlin struggled to keep him from moving Arthur found himself frantically scrambling towards Addison. He was waist deep in the water when Addison reached him. She dropped to her knees, her ghostly hands came to rest on either side of his face, cupping his cheeks as she gazed lovingly down at him. There was no warmth to her touch, just a tingling feeling of something that wasn't really there against his skin. He reached his hands out to grip any part of her but he found nothing to touch, so they hovered close to her cheeks, fluttering down to her lips, trying to remember what it felt like to feel her skin beneath his fingertips.

You are strong, and you can live without me

Please go on to be the best King you can be.

A message meant for him. Addison came back to his time, to his world, to this place, to give him a message. To tell him to move on, to let go. But he couldn't do that. How can one even begin to let go of the one they love more than anything in the whole world? But he couldn't tell her that, all that came out of him was a strangled sob and that seemed to be enough. Addison stood and took a single step away from him, causing Arthur to cry out and reach a hand up to her. The smile on her face was soul-crushingly sad. She sang one last line.

I'll be with you, even if you can't see me

And with that Addison faded out of existence, the light died, the funeral barge had sunk to the bottom of the lake and Arthur was left, waist deep in the lake that had brought Addison to him, and had taken Addison's body and soul away, sobbing and screaming her name.

In the London Bridge Hospital, in a small room with one drape-drawn window, a doctor and a team of nurses were struggling to bring a woman back to life.

In one corner of the room were her distraught parents, a sobbing best friend and a stoic boyfriend with the bluest eyes anyone in the hospital had ever seen.

He was a bit of a mystery that boy. He had come to visit the woman every day, he read her books, talked to her as if she were awake and responding but no one in her family or her friends had been aware that the woman had even had a boyfriend. And she told them everything according to them.

They had taken turns quizzing him. But he had solid answers and a knowledge that only someone close to her would have. After some time they had just accepted that he had been her greatest secret.

He was also the only one calm in this time of great shock, when the woman went into cardiac arrest.

The woman was brought in as a crash victim. Pedestrian that had been texting a walking, had walked right into the path of an oncoming bus. It was a miracle she was alive. A miracle she hadn't broken anything. But she hadn't woken up. While there was minimal brain swelling and a strong cloud of brain activity on all her scans the woman had stayed in a stubborn coma, breathing for herself, and healing all her minor wounds—bruising, scratching and a minor fracture in her arm. As if she were waiting for everything to be healed before she woke herself up. Like a reboot stage of a computer after a hard crash. Her boyfriend often joked that maybe she had been booting up in safe mode by accident.

Obviously the fact that her heart had stopped came to a bit of a shock to the staff who had been attending her over the last few months.

All of the family there to visit her had refused to get out of the room when the woman started coding, this was against hospital procedure but they had all promised to stay back. But they hadn't been able to get this woman's heart started which meant that whatever was coming next wasn't going to be pretty.

The doctor administered one last shock with the AED and then waited as it reassessed. Still no pulse and he had been at this for the last thirty minutes. On and off CPR followed by timed AED shocks when the nurses tired. It was time to call it.

"I'm sorry I have to call it," he whispered aloud to the group in the room starling another round of gasps followed by sobs from everyone except the boyfriend. "Time of death 12:01pm September 22nd…"

The boyfriend had crossed to the dead body of the woman, his girlfriend. He put a single hand into hers and said quietly: "She's not dead."

As if that were enough.

She had no pulse and she wasn't breathing, what else was she then?

His eyes were on the woman in the bed. The doctor swore they flashed gold as he whispered: "It's time to wake up."

As if to answer him the woman suddenly pitched and began coughing, a bit of blood trickled out of her mouth but other than that she seemed fine. Her eyes opened for the first time in months and she turned them blearily around the room to all the shocked faces above her—minus one as her boyfriend seemed unsurprised by this—while whispering a name.

Arthur.

She said the name over and over until her eyes focused a little more clearly onto her boyfriend and suddenly she was crying. The boyfriend swooped forward to hold her, hushing her softly as she cried. When she seemed spent by her tears she lay herself back down neatly and eyed the boy carefully. Her next word came out more as a question.

"Merlin?"

And he answered her with a small smirk and a: "Welcome back, Addison."

Spoilers.

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Now.

Alright guys. I know this chapter was rough and I'm so sorry but it was necessary. But hey! She's alive! See! I didn't really kill her! She just needed to die to go back to her own time. I know that sucks but it's not the end of Arthur and Addison.

So here's what's going to happen next.

I'll be messing with the time line a bit, and mixing up which episodes go where but this is not the last we'll see of Addison and Arthur and Addison's happily ever after is still coming.

Season 2 will be all about Arthur getting over Addison and starting to fall for Gwen.

Season 3 is going to be skipped – I will be filling up those seasons with what Addison and Merlin are going to be doing while in the future.

Season 4 is where Addison will be back with Arthur, in the past, I won't tell you how it happens just that it does, they're not together during this season though. (At least until the last episode)

Season 5, Arthur and Addison are together, like officially. But this season is going to end the way it did in real life and there is a reason for that.

Once the season are done we're going to start with the out of series chapters which is all about Addison and Merlin in the future and Arthur will eventually rise again where Arthur and Addison will have their FINAL happily ever after

I will need a lot of help with the in between future chapters, so if there's anything you guys want to see or read Addison and Merlin do while they're bored and waiting for Arthur to come back, let me know and I'll start on that ASAP.

Hopefully that's okay for everyone, again if you have any questions or want more specifics just PM me to let me know and don't forget to tell me where you want chapter 42 to start. In the past with Arthur or in the future with Addison.