Out of Time

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my wonderful readers. So you guys kinda forgot to vote on where you wanted the in between chapters to start, you know in the past with Arthur or in the future with Addison, and since no one specified I kept it the way I had it written. So we're starting off in the present time with Addison. This is a little back story on what was going on before she woke up in the hospital and what went on after she woke up. Then next chapter we're back with Arthur. As always, if you'd like to see your username up in the shoutouts don't forget to review, fav or follow the story and I'll see you guys next Thursday.

Shoutouts: Shay Elle, princesscheesecakecat, WynterWolf II, NZ luckycat777, Bookworm359, Kittycatcacher, and Theresa5155.

Chapter 42: Out of Disbelief

Before

"This is absolute fucking bullshit," Isabella cried. "There is no way, absolutely no way, that she was dating you."

Merlin flinched again. Isabella Hadad was Addison's best friend… apparently. She had taken the news of Addison's accident the hardest, was the first friend to the hospital and had stayed by her side for the last couple of days and would no doubt be visiting her as often as Merlin would be. Though everyone had been suspicious of the relationship he claimed to have with her, Isabelle had been the first person to actually call him out on it.

She was also the scariest. And he was an immortal magic wielder who could have taken her on no problem.

"What's wrong with me?" he asked softly looking down.

He had purposely removed the aging spell so he could look young again, so that when Addison chose to wake up, which she would do once she had completed her first couple years in Camelot, she would recognize him. He may not have been the looker that Arthur was but he didn't think he was that unattractive. Nor did he think he had acted out in any way that would make her think that he was unsuitable for or uncouth with her best friend.

Isabella had her ashy blonde hair up in a high pony tail and, seeing as it was still past her shoulder's it was so long, she managed to flip her hair with a lethal amount of sass. Her brown eyes raked Merlin up and down, just like she had when she first came in a few moments ago and asked him who the hell he was and why he was there.

Isabella was very beautiful. She was a makeup guru and a model so it made sense that she would be stunning, but the way her perfectly sculpted lips were pursed did not mean something positive was going to come out of her mouth.

"Well, I mean, you're too thin, your fashion choices are questionable, and your ears are altogether too big," she said and Merlin sighed, he really had opened himself up to this roasting. "But she does have this thing for tall stick-bugs of men, are you a nerd by any chance?"

"I mean…"

"But none of that is why I don't believe you're dating her."

"Oh?"

"No, see, I know for a fact, that there is no way that you could be dating my best friend without my knowledge. So there is no way you got the label of boyfriend without me hearing about you first. At the very least. So you're lying. I know you are."

Yes, he was. But this was the only way he could continue to visit her without the hospital thinking it was weird. And he needed to be there when Addison woke up, because she was going to be confused and a familiar face would help her.

So Merlin decided to change tactics. "Okay… Izzy… can I call you Izzy?"

"Uh… it's Bella," she said. "And no you may not call me that. You can call me Ms. Hadad."

Merlin sighed. "Look, I don't know why she didn't tell you I was in her life, but clearly she hasn't. I can swear to you, I am her boyfriend, and I only want to stay by her side until she wakes up. And seeing as we both have other commitments, wouldn't it be nice to share that duty so she's never alone?"

"Yes, it would be nice, but I don't want a stranger sitting beside my best friend…"

"I am not a stranger, I've already told you…"

"And unless you haven't noticed I don't fucking believe you," she snapped again. "How do I know that you didn't push her in front of that bus, huh? What if you're a stalker and you're here to finish her off?"

"I was here with her, alone, for an hour before you showed up. Wouldn't I have done it then?"

Isabella paused. "Okay you got me there…"

"Look. Ms. Hadad, my girlfriend was just hit by a bus. She's in a coma and no one can tell me when she's going to wake up. I understand that you think I'm not close to her. I understand your concern and your suspicion, but all I want to do is make sure that she knows she's not alone. I want to make sure that she's comfortable and that when she wakes up someone will be there to help her understand what happened. Don't you want that?"

"Well… I do…"

"Then I suggest we work together."

Isabella sighed, clearly beginning to understand that she wasn't going to be able to convince or bully him into leaving. He was there to stay, whether she liked it or not.

"And when Addison wakes up you can ask her why she didn't tell you about me."

At that Isabelle narrowed her gaze at him again. "Oh, best believe I will. Literally the second she wakes up."

Yeah, he didn't doubt that for one second.

Now

"FUCKING BULLSHIT!" Isabella roared at her. Merlin glanced to Addison who wasn't fazed at all. He was quickly realizing that the reason that Addison hadn't been too afraid of Uther was because she had been best friends with Isabella. If she wasn't afraid of Isabella she wouldn't have ever been afraid of Uther.

And though he could tell Isabella had wanted to ask her when she woke up she had very calmly waited a full twenty for hours for Addison's doctor's to verify that she was okay and could handle some minor upsets before asking her question. She just didn't like Addison's answer.

"Will you calm down…"

"No. No. This is bullshit. You're telling me, that you've been dating this lanky, janky, Dumbo-eared man to the point where he can officially call you his girlfriend and you didn't fucking mention him to me once?"

"Yes."

He hadn't even had to explain to Addison why he had gone with this lie, she had just gone along with it.

"What the fuck Addison!" Isabella shouted and Addison merely sighed.

"It was new and it was awkward and I wanted to be 100% sure before I introduced you two."

"You never even mentioned you were dating anyone!"

"Well that's cause I was trying to keep it a secret. Your opinion matters the most to me, and I mean… look at him, you would have eaten the poor boy alive. I need to make sure that both of us were ready to take on that level of criticism."

Merlin would have thought Isabella would have been insulted by that but she just nodded and said: "Well… you have a point. He is ridiculous looking."

For godsake.

Addison smiled at her friend. "See I was right in keeping you two separate. You're intimidating and you know it, he would have run for the hills if I introduced you two right away."

"I'm surprised he didn't run for the hills when he met me the first time," Isabella said and then looked him up and down again. Addison had vouched for him, this should have been the end of this argument but Isabella simply crossed her arms over her chest and said: "Kay well, we don't need him now, so you can break up with him."

"Break up with him? Bella, he just spent what? Four months sitting by my side while I was in a coma! And what I'm going to break up with him now?"

"Yes, you don't have to feel obligated to stay with him just because he stayed by your hospital bedside," her friend cried. "And besides, it wasn't just him, I was here too!"

"Bella… I like him, like a lot. And to know that he stuck by me through this tough time when any other guy would have just left, means a lot to me."

Isabella seemed to realize that Merlin was there to stay, because she started to whine as she stomped her foot. She was literally about to throw a temper tantrum.

"But he has such a weird name!"

"You know I Love the Arthurian myths."

"Doesn't mean you date weirdo named Merlin, Addie."

Addison flinched at the nickname, no doubt reminded of Arthur who had always called her his Addie.

"That means you look for someone named Arthur," Isabella cried with another stomp of her foot. "I can introduce you to so many Arthur's."

"Guys that like you don't like me, Bella," Addison reminded her in a small voice.

Isabella made a face at her and then threw her head back to groan, seemingly defeated. "Ugh… Addison… how could you be dating this idiot? How could you bring this man into our lives?"

"It just happened," Addison said with a shrug. "And he's not all that bad. Has he been rude to you while I was out of it?"

"Well no…"

"Even when you were rude to him and deserved it?"

"I wasn't that bad!"

Oh yes, yes she was. Like really bad. Like terribly bad. Like she dated a cop specifically for the purpose of running a background on Merlin. She dumped him when he came up with nothing, and he moped around the hospital for a couple of months trying to win her back.

"We both know that's a lie."

Ah, well, at least Addison knew her friend well.

"Fine, you're right, I was pretty rude and he wasn't rude back and I mean… I guess that's good but at the same time it means he doesn't have a backbone."

"I have plenty of backbone," Merlin said interjecting into the conversation for the first time since Isabella had shown up in the room. "I simply knew you were acting out because you were scared for your friend and I also knew you had reason to doubt me. As Addison said, our relationship was a secret, it's natural for her best friend to be suspicious if I was never mentioned before. I'm certain in all regular circumstances you would have been well mannered."

Addison snorted and Isabella rolled her eyes. Yeah even Merlin knew that that wasn't true. She would have been rude to him no matter the circumstances because Isabella was the kind of friend who was certain no one was good enough for Addison.

And that was true. Because the only person Addison wanted was Arthur, he held her heart. The fake relationship was a façade and always would be, and once Isabella left, he'd be able to explain all of that to Addison.

However, he would have loved to see Arthur go up against Isabella. She would have given him a few stern words and then some.

"Alright. I guess I can deal with this. Especially since you seem to really like him and he was pretty decent," Isabella said with a sigh. "But if you fuck up, I'mma make your life a living hell, you got me mate?"

"Yeah, I got you," Merlin said with a nod and Isabella sighed again.

"Kay, well get lost we got some girly things to do like manicures, gurl your nails are screaming for some polish," Isabella said shooing Merlin out of the room.

Merlin sighed, well, it seemed like their conversation would have to wait until later. There was so much to be discussed between them. This was only the beginning. Addison didn't know it yet, but there were more adventures coming her way.

Her destiny was still hopelessly tied up with Arthur's and this return to her time was only temporary. Merlin needed to get her ready for her return, and he still wasn't sure how much time he had left in which to do that.

In the days that led up to her release, decisions needed to be made. Like where she was going to live, back in her apartment with Isabelle or move in Merlin who had more free time to help her on the road to recovery. Was she going to start looking for work right away or take a break? Would she go back to school? Would she start properly pursuing her dream of singing?

These were all important decisions, but Merlin, he had a different question to ask her.

He wanted to know if she wanted to go back to Avalon, he wanted to know when she wanted to start working on properly controlling her powers.

Addison didn't want to think about Camelot. She didn't want to think about her powers. She wanted to pretend that the almost three years she spent in Camelot were nothing but a coma dream she had during the four or more months she was in that hospital.

Only four months? It made no sense to her, but she wasn't going to try and figure it out either

And it wasn't like she couldn't pretend it didn't happen either, because Merlin was there. Looking exactly like she remembered him. With his magic fucking powers and everything.

Addison didn't have powers before this trip, and she didn't want them now. But if Merlin was right, she still had them and sooner or later she'd absorb enough magic to have it start exploding out of her, which wouldn't be good for Isabella or anyone else Addison might be around.

But Addison didn't want to think about that at that moment.

Addison was too busy working on getting adjusted to being in the modern world once again. This led to her making a list of all the things she had taken for granted that she was super happy to have back now that she was back in her proper time.

Wifi.

Regular people clothes and not the kind of clothes that were medieval torture devices.

Cars, even public transit.

Her bed, and all her blankets and pillows.

All of her books.

And TV. And movies, even the bad ones.

Her oven and her microwave.

Grocery stores.

Even fast food restaurants.

A Working Toilet.

Her shower.

She had really, really missed working plumbing.

But, if she could have, she would have given it all up again just to go back, only once, just to see Arthur… one last time.