A/N: Thank you SnidgetHex, GuestM, and Buckhunter for reviewing!
Chapter 2
The problem with wanting to swap out the painting with a fake was that they didn't know how to get their hands on one, and it wasn't like any of them were art forgers. Not that they had time to paint a forgery.
"What about just having a poster of it printed?" Elyan suggested.
Arthur grimaced and looked at Leon. "Do you remember what it was called?"
Leon's mouth pressed into a thin line. "No, but I can go through your browser's history, try to find the sites we looked through when researching it."
"You won't find an image with a high enough res," Gwaine pointed out.
"We don't have time for this," Merlin said. "Agravaine could sell it any moment now."
"Merlin's right," Arthur said, jaw tightening in frustration. "Just pick up any old poster. The frame it was in when we delivered the fake to Sigan was the original, so Agravaine must have swapped out the canvas, which means the painting should now be rolled up in a cylinder. We can easily swap that out."
"And if he looks at the painting before delivering it?" Leon asked.
"That's a risk we're going to have to take."
"You're forgetting an important detail, mate," Gwaine said. "How exactly are you going to pull off this swap? Is Agravaine going to be leaving his apartment for long enough to break in and find it?"
Arthur frowned. "Probably not. We'll need a distraction."
"He's not gonna buy anything coming from us," Leon said.
"I know. So we'll need to recruit someone else. Get a replacement poster. And call Percival, see if he can head over to my uncle's place asap and keep an eye out in case he leaves with the painting before we get there."
"If he does, we're screwed," Gwaine said dourly.
"If he does, then we take it by force," Merlin rejoined staunchly.
Arthur's lips thinned into a grim line. That could get messy, but they wouldn't have a choice. They just had to hope to catch the painting before Agravaine went to meet his new buyer.
"I'll meet you all there," Arthur said and headed out. He went to Gwen's auto shop, hoping to enlist her help. Agravaine knew her too, but Arthur hoped she'd appear less suspicious in a ruse than any of them would.
"Arthur, hi," she greeted with a smile. "We didn't have plans, did we?" she asked, suddenly looking doubtful.
"No. I came because I need your help. Lancelot's been kidnapped."
Her eyes widened. "What?"
"It's a long story, but remember that deal with my uncle and the painting?"
"How could I forget? You missed our first date because you got shot."
"Well, that buyer is back. Turns out my uncle set the whole fiasco up so he could destroy a fake he'd swapped out with the real painting and Sigan would never know. But he found out. And he thought I was in on it, so he took Lancelot as leverage to make me give the painting back. Only, Agravaine refuses to hand it over."
Gwen's brows rose higher. "Have you called the police?"
Arthur shook his head. "We can't. Sigan threatened to kill Lancelot if we did that. Besides, if the police got involved, they wouldn't hand over an expensive painting to a criminal. We have to get it back ourselves."
"You mean steal it from your uncle."
Arthur nodded. "And I hate to ask this of you, but we need a distraction to get my uncle out of his apartment long enough for us to get in and swap out the painting ourselves."
Gwen frowned. "How do you think I can help with that?"
Arthur grimaced. "It involves your car, a tow truck, and some very good acting on your part. Think you can do it?"
She looked dubious for a moment, but then her expression steeled and she nodded resolutely. "For Lancelot, yes."
Arthur nodded gratefully. "Good. Let's go."
Gwen had a tow truck in the garage, though she didn't use it very much. At least it was running. She drove that while Arthur took her car, and they met a few blocks away with the rest of the Knights.
"Percival's outside Agravaine's apartment," Elyan informed them. "Said there's been no movement."
Arthur nodded. "Elyan, take Gwen's car and park it in front of my uncle's on the curb. Try not to be seen."
Elyan took the keys and hopped into the yellow Beetle, then drove off. Merlin handed Arthur a rolled up poster.
He turned to Gwen. "Keep him occupied as long as you can."
She nodded, looking slightly nervous.
"He won't try anything," Arthur assured her. "But Gwaine and Elyan will be close by just in case. Merlin will signal when Leon and I are done in the apartment."
They waited for Elyan to return, then split up to their various positions, keeping out of sight as they approached the apartment complex. Gwen drove up in the tow truck soon after and started hooking up her Beetle. Once she had it mostly done, she intentionally bumped Agravaine's car hard enough to set off the car alarm. The high-pitched blaring beeps and horns disrupted the otherwise quiet neighborhood.
Arthur and Leon crept up along the side of the building and waited. It wasn't long before Agravaine opened his door and came storming out to investigate his vehicle.
"What do you think you are doing?" he demanded loudly, raising his key fob at his car. It beeped and the alarm shut off.
Arthur and Leon slipped through the unlocked door. They could still hear the voices outside.
"I'm sorry, is that your car?" Gwen gushed. "Oh, you're Arthur's uncle. Agravaine? We met at The Apothecary. I'm sorry, I got a call to tow this Beetle and the vibrations of getting it hitched up must have set off your alarm. They can be pretty sensitive."
Arthur didn't hear his uncle's response as he and Leon went deeper into the apartment. It was small and there weren't many places to search.
"It's not here," Leon said in consternation.
Arthur wanted to slam his fist against the wall. Where the hell was it, then? Had Agravaine already handed it over to his new buyer?
"Wait, here's something," Leon went on. He pulled out his phone and took a picture of a piece of note paper on the kitchen counter. It had the name of a fancy hotel and a meeting time for tomorrow morning.
Arthur's phone buzzed and he looked at the message from Merlin.
"Get out."
"Move," Arthur said, and they hurried to the door. Arthur heard Gwen's voice carrying over the air, slightly higher than normal.
"Wait! I- I just want to say I know you and Arthur have had your problems, and I'm sorry. Family's important."
"It is," Agravaine said stiffly.
Arthur and Leon had just rounded the corner as he turned to head back to his apartment. They waited for his door to close before making their way across the street and taking side roads to regroup at their original spot a few blocks away. Gwen drove up in the tow truck with her Beetle, and then she and Elyan started unhitching it.
"You didn't find it," Merlin said when he saw Arthur still held the poster in his hand.
"No," he said grimly.
"But we think we found the meeting place and time for the buy," Leon added. "Tomorrow morning."
"That's too long for Lancelot to be without insulin!"
Arthur's jaw tightened. It was. He pulled out his phone and called Lancelot's cell. Sigan answered.
"Do you have what's mine?" he immediately asked.
"Not yet. My uncle didn't have it in his place. But we know where he's going to be with it tomorrow and we'll get it then. But you have to let Lancelot go now. He's a diabetic and he needs insulin or he'll die."
"Sounds like more incentive for you to keep your word," Sigan replied uncaringly.
"I do keep my word!" Arthur yelled. "I swear on my honor I will get you your painting. Just let him go."
The line disconnected.
Arthur let out a bellow of frustration and almost threw his phone across the street.
"What now?" Gwen asked after a few moments of fraught silence.
"If Agravaine isn't keeping the painting here," Gwaine said. "He'll have to retrieve it before he goes to meet his buyer. Which means the only opening we'll have for a swap is mid-transport."
"That's going to be tricky," Elyan said.
"We'll make it work," Arthur said resolutely. "Have Percival stay here and watch the apartment."
"Uh, what about Fleur?" Elyan asked.
Arthur cursed under his breath. "Right. Okay, you or Gwaine switch with him. We also need to confirm this hotel is the meeting with the buyer."
"How are we going to do that?" Merlin asked.
Arthur turned to Gwen. "Are you up to one more distraction today?"
She arched an eyebrow at him in question but nodded.
"Lancelot's strong," Arthur added. "We use this time to get everything in place, and we'll get him back."
Gwen and Leon went to the hotel Agravaine had written down. Leon had to change into more casual clothes so as not to draw attention. They also walked in a few paces apart so as not to appear together. Gwen was nervous as she approached the concierge counter.
The man smiled as she walked up.
"Welcome to the Hyperion Hotel. How can I help you?"
Gwen angled herself just to the left on the counter, drawing his gaze that direction and away from the opposite side where Leon was carefully lingering for an opportunity.
"I'm just visiting, and I was wondering if you had any recommendations for sights I should see. Not the touristy stuff, but stuff a local would take pride in."
"Ah, well, there's…"
Gwen barely paid attention as she kept a covert eye on Leon. With the concierge focused on her, he slipped behind the counter to a computer terminal and began going through the files.
"I have some maps over here…"
Gwen snapped her attention back into focus and shot a hand out over the counter to grab his. He froze in the middle of turning away, arching a querying brow at her.
Gwen quickly extracted her hand. "Uh, when do you get off?" she blurted.
He broke into a flattered smile. "Not for six hours, I'm afraid."
"Oh." Gwen grimaced at leading him on, and she wracked her brain for how to keep him distracted just a little longer. Fumbling for useless babble with Agravaine had been one thing, but flirting with a total stranger to keep him distracted was another.
But Gwen would do it for her friends.
"Perhaps I could take you to a local restaurant," the concierge said. "The best in town, I promise."
Gwen made a nervous laugh that she tried to make sound flirtatious. "Perhaps I'll come back then," she said noncommittally.
The concierge grinned like she was being coy.
Hurry up, Leon, she silently urged, plastering on a smile in an effort to keep the concierge engaged. She was running out of things to say.
Leon finally stepped away from the computer and started for the exit. Gwen gave the concierge one last moue and then turned to leave. Her heart was pounding as she tried to keep her pace steady until she was outside.
"Well, that's one hotel I can never show my face in again," she said. "Did you find what you needed?"
Leon nodded. "The name of the buyer Sigan gave Arthur has a reservation for tonight."
"So you think Agravaine will bring the painting here tomorrow?"
"That's our best assumption."
Gwen pressed her lips together, then asked quietly, "Will Lancelot make it until then?"
Leon's expression was grim. "I don't know."
Lancelot swallowed hard. He was so thirsty, and he was starting to feel sick as his blood sugar rose unchecked without a steady infusion of insulin. His levels had to be over 300 for him to be feeling this nauseated. He had no way to check, though, not that he was sure he wanted to know, given he couldn't do anything about it right now. If he didn't get insulin, his sugar would only go higher, and then his body would go into ketoacidosis, flooding his body with poisonous acids that would cause organ damage, coma, and death.
Lancelot tried clearing his throat. "Water?" he called to his captor. "Please."
Sigan stood up from his work table and brought over a water bottle. He uncapped it and pressed the top to Lancelot's lips, and he immediately gulped down as much as he could. Sigan let him, but then took it away after a few moments and went back to whatever he was doing. Lancelot leaned his head against the wall. He'd chugged a fourth of the bottle and yet it wasn't enough. No amount of water was enough to quench this kind of thirst.
He was trying not to be terrified of his situation, of the complications that would come from his disease raging out of control like this. And then he of course wondered whether his captor would kill him outright if he didn't get what he wanted, or just let the diabetes kill him slowly.
And Lancelot honestly didn't know which was worse.
