A/N: Thank you GuestM, Buckhunter, and SnidgetHex for reviewing!

Chapter 2

Gwen stood in a puddle of water that'd run off from the firehose. The fire truck and police were blocking the street, their red and blue lights having replaced the orange glow of flames. Smoke still oozed from the charred remains of the garage, and she could see firefighters picking their way through the rubble, looking for hotspots to eradicate. A small crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle. Gwen didn't see Cenred's gang among them. They'd already gotten their front row seats to the show.

But when a chorus of motorcycle engines reverberated through the air, she still flinched in expectation of their arrival. But it was just Arthur and the rest of the Knights. Gwen hadn't expected them all to rush over at this time of night. She barely even remembered calling Arthur to tell him what happened while sirens were still blaring in the background.

"Gwen!" Elyan shouted, leaping off his bike and running toward her.

"Oh, Elyan," she sobbed and moved into his embrace, clinging to her brother tightly.

"Are you hurt?" Arthur asked urgently.

She shook her head and pulled back. "No, I'm fine." The fresh air and a bottle of water from an officer had alleviated most of her smoke inhalation.

"Gwen!" another voice called, adding themselves to the mix.

"Morgana," she said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Arthur texted me. Are you all right?"

Gwen started to nod, only for tears to fill her eyes and threaten to spill over again. Elyan pulled her into another hug.

The fire chief crossed the street toward them. "Miss Smithy?"

"Yes," Gwen said, hastily wiping her eyes.

"I'm sorry for your loss," he started with. "The structure appears to be intact, but I wouldn't recommend you staying in the apartment above."

Gwen's chest hitched at that, even though she'd expected that to be the case.

"You can stay with me," Morgana immediately said.

"Oh, Morgana, you don't have to."

Morgana reached out to squeeze her hand. "Let me return the favor."

The fire chief nodded. "You can go up to get some of your things, but the place will be secured until the arson investigator can conclude their investigation."

"Arson?" Arthur repeated. "Someone did this?"

"Cenred," Gwen said quietly. "Molotov cocktails through the windows."

"You saw this man throw them?" the fire chief asked. "The police will want your statement to press charges."

Gwen opened her mouth to reply, then faltered. "I…I didn't actually see who threw the bottles. But I saw a group of bikers watching from down the street. And Cenred and his gang have threatened me before."

The fire chief nodded. "We can pull up those police reports and look into it."

Gwen bit her lip. There weren't any police reports because she hadn't filed any. She hadn't wanted to piss off Cenred more than he already was by her refusal to get into business with him. He'd apparently gotten fed up with her defiance now, though.

"Thank you," Gwen said, not expecting much.

"You can go up now," the fire chief said.

Gwen started toward the building, her friends following close behind.

"There are no police reports," Arthur said, perhaps to inform the others since he very well knew that already.

"Why not?" Morgana exclaimed.

"It's complicated," Gwen gritted out.

"If he threatened you—"

"Arthur didn't report the vandalism on the Knights' bikes either," she pointed out.

"I bet Cenred didn't appreciate you covering up his tags," Lancelot said.

Gwen's heart clenched. He must have found out it was her who'd painted over his marks, transforming the Knights' rides into masterpieces while she was at it.

"It's time to get rid of him for good," Arthur said darkly.

Gwen shot him a shocked look. "Arthur, what are you saying?"

"That he's not going to get away with this."

Gwen glanced at Morgana, who looked concerned by her brother's declaration but not necessarily opposed to it. Maybe they meant they'd come up with a plan to nail Cenred for something legally.

Not that it mattered much now; Gwen had lost the shop, the business her father had built from scratch and passed down to her. And her family home…

She tentatively opened the door and was immediately greeted with the acrid odor of smoke. It hung heavily in the air, though it didn't look as though anything upstairs had been touched by flames. But it was unlivable at the moment.

Gwen went into her bedroom to pack her clothes—which also smelled of smoke. She'd have to launder them before wearing anything.

She stuffed everything she could into a suitcase and had to sit on it to get the zipper closed. Then it was so heavy that she struggled to drag it out into the living room. Lancelot and Leon hurried over to take it from her.

"Thanks," she mumbled.

There was a cardboard box on the kitchen table and the others were busy taking picture frames off the walls and shelves. Elyan packed up their father's model cars and the hubcaps.

"I can't take all that to Morgana's," Gwen said.

"I'll take it," Elyan immediately replied.

"You don't have the space either."

"Then we'll store it among us," Arthur volunteered. "And I'm sure Gaius wouldn't mind if we used his storeroom too."

Gwen felt her eyes welling with emotion again.

Morgana put an arm around her shoulders. "We're here for you. And you can stay with me as long as you need, until your place is renovated."

"Thank you," she choked out.

After getting Gwen settled in at Morgana's place, the Knights headed home and would regroup in the morning. Everyone except Elyan. His anger had been quietly simmering like one of those hotspots under the floorboards. Cenred was going to pay for this. Threatening Gwen with the mortgage had been one thing; vandalizing the Knights' bikes had been a blatant show of disrespect; but this crossed the line. And Elyan wasn't going to wait on avenging his sister.

He knew from his time running with Cenred's gang where Cenred's stash house was, and Elyan headed straight there. The lights were on in the house and shadows were moving behind the drawn curtains. No doubt Cenred and his cronies were celebrating their recent victory. Fortunately for Elyan, Cenred didn't keep drugs in the house, but in the gardening shed out back.

He snuck around the side of the house, careful to keep to the shadows and out of sight. He picked the lock of the shed to make sure Cenred's habits hadn't changed. Sure enough, the stack of drugs were inside behind some fertilizer bags that would never get used. Elyan backed out, left the door hanging open, and lit a match, which he tossed into the shed. He lit a second and a third, just for good measure, until there was a moderate glow emanating from within as the fire fed on the plastic wrapping.

He then beat it out of there. The drugs would all go up in flames before anyone would notice, and Cenred's drug suppliers were not going to be happy about losing so much product.

An eye for an eye.

The next morning at the bar, Arthur and his Knights gathered to discuss what to do about Cenred. Gwen and Morgana were there too, and Merlin and Lancelot had done a major coffee run for everyone. Gwen looked wrecked, with dark circles under her eyes. She was wearing borrowed clothes from Morgana, which looked strange on her at first since their styles were so different, but Arthur thought she looked beautiful in the fancy blouse. Not that now was the right time to say so.

"Surely local PD have an open case file on these guys," Morgana was saying.

"Probably," Leon agreed. "But it obviously hasn't led to any arrests yet."

"And I doubt the investigators will find any concrete evidence that he set fire to my shop," Gwen said defeatedly.

"He's very good at avoiding probable cause," Arthur added dourly.

"Uh, Arthur," Percival spoke up, gazing past them and out the window.

They all turned just as Cenred came storming in, a bunch of his goons hanging back outside.

"Easy, guys," Arthur warned, standing up tall as Cenred strode toward him.

"Careful, you're on candid camera," Merlin announced, holding up his phone camera lens to record. Gwaine and Leon did the same.

"You want war, eh?" Cenred snapped at them.

"You burned down Gwen's shop, her home," Arthur said, tone set in steel. "You declared war first."

Cenred sneered. "I burn one of yours, you burn one of mine, huh? Well, boys, you messed with the wrong stash. I'll be sure to tell El Jefe who it was that burned up his drugs."

Arthur frowned. "We don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play innocent," Cenred snapped, then looked past him at Elyan. "I know it was you. So now it's war."

With that, he turned and strode out.

Arthur whirled on Elyan as soon as Cenred was gone. "What was he talking about?"

Elyan gave a surly shrug.

"Elyan," Gwen breathed. "What did you do?"

"I took action! Cenred keeps getting away with things, and this time he went too far and I wasn't going to let him."

"So you burned his stash?" Gwaine asked incredulously.

"Arthur said it himself; it's time to get rid of Cenred for good."

"Not like this!"

"Then how?" Elyan challenged. "We've tangled with him before and he never backs down. He tried to kill Gwen! By hurting his product, his business takes a hit, just like he did to Gwen. And maybe his suppliers decide to take a piece out of him since he lost their money."

"Or Cenred sics them on us," Leon muttered.

"We'll take Cenred down with the law," Arthur said staunchly.

Elyan scoffed. "Good luck with that."

"Elyan!" Gwen exclaimed.

"Stay away from Cenred," Arthur warned. "We don't need things escalating."

Elyan scowled and stormed off.

"Let him cool down," Percival advised.

Arthur's jaw tightened in frustration. As angry as he was with what Elyan had done, he was just as angry at his own helplessness in the situation.

He walked Gwen and Morgana out to the car after that. There was nothing more for the two women to do and Gwen had been through enough already.

"I'm scared about what Cenred will do next," she said, hugging herself. "If he knows it was Elyan, he might kill him."

"We'll take him down before it gets that far," Arthur promised.

"How?"

"I don't know yet," he admitted. "But we'll think of something. And I'll keep Elyan close in the meantime. Right now you need to focus on you and taking care of the shop."

Gwen shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe this is a sign that I should finally leave the neighborhood. I stayed because of my father's shop, but now that it's gone…"

"It's not a total loss, though," Morgana put in. "Surely you can rebuild with the insurance money?"

"Maybe, but would it be worth it?"

"It's your home," Arthur said. "You have memories there, good ones. Don't let Cenred take them away. Unless you truly want to leave and start over, which I'll support too. But if you don't, remember Cenred won't be causing you trouble for much longer."

Gwen looked doubtful at that.

"Don't do anything you'll end up being prosecuted for," Morgana warned him.

"I'll be careful."

He saw them off, then headed back into the bar.

"Someone bring Elyan back in," he said. "He shouldn't be alone where Cenred can take a shot at him."

The guys exchanged grave looks at that, and Percival went out the back door to find their wayward member. Elyan wasn't happy about being put under "house arrest" but Arthur asked how he thought Gwen would feel if he got killed, and that shut him up. It was just until they took care of Cenred.

Somehow.

Merlin practically sprinted down the corridor of City Hall, Leon trying to keep up at a less haphazard pace. They'd gotten so wrapped up with what happened to Gwen and Cenred, they'd almost forgotten about the City Council hearing regarding the orphanage. And now they were late.

Merlin burst into the Council chambers, prepared to gush his apologies, but everyone was standing up and filing their way out.

"Is it over?" he asked no in particular. He caught sight of Sister Martha down at the front and pushed his way toward her. "I'm so sorry we're late," he exclaimed. "What happened?"

She looked at him with a somber mien. "The Council rejected the petition."

Merlin's jaw went slack. "What? But, did they listen to all the data Leon gathered? Maybe I can convince them to come back…"

"There's nothing more you could have done," Sister Martha said, putting a restraining hand on his arm. "Your forms were quite thorough, the Council said so. They just don't believe St. Augustine's qualifies."

Merlin's heart fell. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, dear."

"I should have been here. I wanted to be here. But a friend of ours was in a fire last night and we've been trying to help her."

"That's terrible. I'll pray for her."

Merlin shook his head; Sister Martha, always thinking of others.

"I'm really sorry this didn't work out," Leon told her.

She nodded. "I do appreciate you trying, though."

"What if we appealed to the guy who bought the land?" Merlin said, desperate to keep trying.

Sister Martha looked at him sadly. "I already have. Merlin, this is something we just have to accept and move on."

But Merlin wasn't ready to do that. He and Leon returned to the bar under a dejected cloud.

"I take it things didn't go well," Lancelot said, gauging their moods.

"No," he said sullenly.

"The City Council rejected the proposal," Leon clarified.

"What if we make like a miracle at the site?" Merlin suggested. "So the Church will declare it, like, holy or something!"

"Merlin, no," Lancelot said, appalled at the idea.

"Why don't you find a new, suitable location for the orphanage and I'll buy it," Arthur put in.

Merlin's brows rose sharply. "What? But that's…"

"More reasonable than faking a miracle?" Arthur said with a smirk.

Merlin winced. "You don't have to do that, though."

"It's no big deal. I have plenty of assets to tap for it. Go ahead and do some house hunting."

"But, what about Gwen and Cenred?"

"Cenred's not going anywhere, but those kids will if they don't get another home soon." Arthur gave Merlin an understanding smile. "We can handle more than one quest at a time."

Merlin smiled gratefully, his hope renewed.