Chapter 27

Merlin was looking at him in a bit of a daze but his eyes were definitely alight. He was definitely awake. With shaking legs, Arthur stumbled over to the bed and clutched Merlin's hands. He stroked Merlin's cheek in disbelief and then kissed his forehead.

"I didn't know," Arthur sobbed, feeling a whole range of emotions, "I didn't know," he repeated, "I'm so sorry."

Merlin's eyes were streaming with tears and his lip was trembling beneath his oxygen mask.

A nurse came into the room, "Oh, Arthur. I was hoping to catch you before you came in. Do you want a word outside?"

Arthur looked at Merlin. It had been nearly four months since he'd last been with Merlin while he was awake and he didn't want to go for another second. But they both needed a minute to compose themselves so Arthur followed the nurse out.

"He woke up late last night," she explained, "We tried to call you but we couldn't get through."

"My phone died, I was at a party."

"Oh, I see," she said understandingly, "Well, not to worry. We think he is in a little bit of pain and he's weak, of course. Seemed confused to begin with but we haven't had much chance to explain anything to him. We're not letting him off the oxygen to talk to anyone for a little while unfortunately but when we do, his speech won't be great."

"I know," Arthur said, "We've been through this before."

"Of course," she smiled, "Look, we can't find anything for you to worry about physically, you just have to be there for him to help him recover. You know what a long process that is."

Arthur nodded, "We're very experienced with recovering."

"Yes, I know. I'll let you go back to him, you're probably dying to see him after so long."

Arthur nodded eagerly and returned back to the room quickly but politely. He sat on the edge of the bed and took Merlin's hands again, "Erm-" his eyes welled up with tears again and Merlin raised one, violently shaking arm to wipe some away.

"You've got no muscle left," Arthur laughed tearfully, "All skin and bone now."

Merlin's eyes glittered.

"Don't worry, we'll have you nice and toned and strong again in no time," he sighed guiltily. "I'm sorry I wasn't here. I'll never let my phone run out of charge again."

Merlin lifted his oxygen mask and before Arthur could tell him off, asked in a very slurred voice, "Were you having a good time?"

Arthur somehow managed to translate perfectly, even though the words were pretty much unintelligible, "Yes. We had a party at Albion. I wanted to come here and give you a kiss for New Year's but Gwaine had me setting off the fireworks and Morgana seemed to find a billion things to talk to me about so I couldn't get away."

"If you'd come I'd have kissed you back," Merlin said with no more clarity than the first sentence.

"I'm so sorry, Merls. Now put that mask back on before I get in trouble. You're not meant to take it off."

"Don't care. Been four months since I spoke to you. Want to do it more."

"I wouldn't call what you're doing now 'speaking'," Arthur teased, "I can barely understand you."

Merlin looked crestfallen.

"Don't worry," Arthur encouraged, "It was like this last time, remember. A bit of speech therapy and you were chattering away like never before. We can do that again. Four months is a long time to be asleep, you need to recover and it doesn't matter that it'll take time. But you need to put that mask back on and get some rest."

"Sick of me already?" Merlin slurred and the twinkle in his eye showed his teasing nature.

"No. But the sooner I get you home, the better and if you don't let yourself recover, it'll take longer so get that mask on."

"I love you," Merlin said as clearly as he could manage. It wasn't anywhere near what sounded like English but Arthur still grinned.

"I love you too."

"Kiss?"

"A quick one," Arthur agreed, impressed with his self-restraint. He leant forward and placed a gentle peck on Merlin's lips. "When you're actually allowed to take your mask off, we'll do that again but better," Arthur promised, "But I don't want to get in trouble so…"

Arms still quivering with the effort, Merlin lowered the mask clumsily and the drooping of his eyelids became more obvious. Just being awake and conversing for a few minutes was a lot of effort after being deep in a coma for four months. Arthur ran a hair through Merlin's hair and kissed the top of his head, "Everything's going to be alright now."

Once Merlin was asleep, Arthur took a few minutes to sort out his emotions and calm himself. He felt extremely guilty for not being at the hospital the previous night but relieved to see Merlin conscious once more. The four months which had seemed like decades previously suddenly seemed like seconds. Being with Merlin was so natural and right and Arthur couldn't believe he'd coped without him.

He quietly left Merlin's room and asked if he could phone Morgana at the nursing station. He was handed a phone which he quickly used to dial his sitser's mobile number.

"Arthur? I thought you were going to visit Merlin?"

"I am," he'd left Killi and Aithusa in his sister's capable care at Albion that morning, "Can you do me a favour?"

"What?"

"Go into my room and see how many missed calls I have."

There was a few minutes while Morgana made her way through the hotel and let herself into the room Arthur had stayed in the night before.

"Seven," she announced, "All from the hospital. What's going on, Arthur?"

He paused for a second before blurting out, "Merlin's awake."

Morgana didn't respond immediately.

"Morgs?"

"Are you serious?"

"I've just been speaking to him. He's awake, he's alright."

Morgana let out a shaky breath. None of their lives had felt right in the time Merlin had been in a coma. They lived without living. It was terrifying to them because Merlin was such a huge part of all of their lives and the last time he'd been in a coma, he'd nearly died. While they continued with work and looking after their families, their minds were always on Merlin and what was happening to him. Not seeing him at work or at Arthur's house made it seem like something was wrong with the world.

"You ok?" Arthur asked.

"Just shocked," Morgana said, "Relieved, of course. How is he?"

"Dazed," Arthur said, "And very weak but as healthy as can be expected given everything."

"That's amazing, Arthur. I'm so glad. How are you doing?"

"I don't know yet. Everything's a bit of a jumble. Overwhelmed."

"I'll come in," she said, "Do you want me to tell anyone?"

"Not yet. They're probably all hungover."

"No, everyone's fine. All up, dressed and working. Except Lance. He's taken the kids outside for a walk with the dogs."

"Have you been over to Camelot? Someone rented the function room out for a party last night, didn't they?"

"Yeah, Gwen and Elyan went over before. It's all fine."

"Good."

"Now, stop thinking about work!"

"If I think about Merlin, I just start crying," Arthur said, "It's a lot to deal with."

"I know. I'll be there soon and you can cry to me."

"I'm going to need to."

"Do you want me to bring anything?"

"Just my phone, please."

"No problem. See you soon."

Arthur put his phone away and went back to sit next to Merlin. He studied his husband with a huge smile on his face. Everything which had been wrong in his life suddenly felt right again. Knowing Merlin was going to be alright and home with him once more made Arthur delighted. He no longer cared about the pain he'd felt while Merlin had been unconscious. Months of fear weren't important.

When Morgana arrived, Arthur took out all the emotions he couldn't express to Merlin with a huge hug for his sister. Morgana laughed quietly so as not to disturb Merlin.

"How did this happen without us knowing?"

"It's your fault," Arthur joked, "You kept me at that party all night so I couldn't come here and my phone died so I didn't get any of the calls."

She laughed again, "So he's alright?"

"Fine," Arthur looked at Merlin lovingly, "He's pretty much healed from the surgeries by now so we just have to get through the coma recovery. Speech therapy, physio, anything else he wants. Then I'll have him home."

"You look so happy."

"I am. You didn't tell anyone, did you?"

"No," Morgana promised, "Made up an excuse and left."

"Good. I don't think any of them should know before Hunith and Freya."

"Have you called them?"

"I was just about to. Did you bring my phone?"

Morgana handed it over, "I'll stay with him."

"If he wakes up, make sure he keeps that blasted mask on. He's determined to take it off and talk to everyone but he's not meant to yet."

"Ok. Go on."

Arthur found a quiet area of the hospital, away from everyone else where he could call Hunith. She was, of course, delighted, promised to let Freya know and wanted a longer update later when they'd all calmed down a bit and Arthur knew more. She sensed that he didn't want to be away from Merlin too long so let him go back fairly quickly.

Merlin spent a lot of the next few days sleeping. He always tried his hardest to be strong and do his best to recover while he was awake, doing all the little exercises the nurses recommended to the very best of his ability. The first time he'd been allowed to take his mask off, resulted in several minutes of his lips being glued to Arthur's and a lot of tears but they pulled away grinning.

"You're so much stronger than they think you should be," Arthur said one day while they were eating lunch together.

"I've got good motivation," Merlin replied, voice still a little unclear and slurred but considerably better than it had been when he first woke up.

"What? The idea of spending a few weeks recovering on the sofa with the dogs?"

"More importantly with you," Merlin said, "I left you alone for four months," he said guiltily, "I need to make up for that."

"You don't need to make up for anything. All I need is for you to be happy and healthy. I know I had a bit of an issue this year with my mental health but I'm ok now. If I hadn't been better when the cancer scare and the coma happened, maybe there would have been an issue. But I feel like we've really come really far this year, especially from that holiday and the new offices. We see each other regularly and have time for our families and it's brilliant. And now this- the idea of this being the end of so much pain," Arthur grinned, "I've never felt better."

"I heard what you said," Merlin said, "About things coming full cycle."

"I know it's ridiculous."

"No, I agree. I just have a feeling that this is the end of one thing."

"But the start of something else?"

"Absolutely."

The physiotherapy seemed to build Merlin's muscles up with magical speed. He was soon looking much less like a twig with black hair and more like the fit and strong man Arthur remembered.

Their friends visited regularly and often brought in the kids to see him. Belle seemed to make him a new 'get well soon' card every week.

Over the full time Merlin was in hospital, Camelot was fixed, re-opened and become a huge success. It was very popular with everyone and they had received many emotional letters which explained how thankful the writers were for the chances they'd been given through the Albion team. They were wanting to go ahead with the renovations at the other two properties which they'd inherited from Uther's old company but were waiting until everyone was there and ready to work.

Arthur didn't take every day off. He was working considerably less than he used to but they'd both felt it was important for him to have a bit of normality for the sake of his mental health.

About six weeks after Merlin had woken from his coma, Arthur was getting their house ready for Merlin to return. Ideally, Merlin would have stayed in hospital longer but they were both so eager for him to be home that the doctors agreed to let him go.

Gwen and Lancelot came in with Arthur on the morning Merlin was allowed home while William was at school. Gwen completed all her usual motherly fussing rituals while Arthur was at the pharmacy and Lancelot was packing up all Merlin's stuff, sniggering every so often. His prosthetic was strictly out of bounds for another six weeks but he'd been given crutches and a wheelchair and after so many years, he was very good at hopping or bum-shuffling so movement wasn't a problem.

"Look, Merls," Arthur came back into the room, "Only two bottles of pills to take home with us this time."

"That makes four lots of drugs to keep track of," Merlin muttered sarcastically, thinking about the two different pills he had to take every morning anyway.

"Don't say that as if it's loads. There used to be about seven! The bag is so much lighter now, maybe my arm won't fall off under the weight of all your medication. It always used to be a close call, you know."

"Now you're being dramatic," Gwen scolded as she handed Merlin a freshly-ironed hoodie to put on. Why she'd felt the need to wash and iron it for him, no one knew but she had and it was sweet of her to be so thoughtful.

Arthur pulled a face behind her back jokingly and then shoved the medicine into one of the bags which Lancelot had put by the door. "How are you getting on?" Arthur asked Merlin.

"I couldn't tie my shoe," Merlin said sheepishly, looking down in disappointment.

"That's alright," Arthur said easily, "When was the last time you had to? Seven months ago? It's not important knowledge to retain."

"But I couldn't grip onto the lace. My hands were shaking and-"

"Hey," Arthur said calmly, "Enough. We can work on the motor skills. So long as you can eat your food, stroke the dogs and give me cuddles, I'm not too worried just yet."

"I think I can just about pick up a fork and keep it steady enough so as not to spill its contents down my shirt."

"Well there you go, then. All sorted. I'm sure soon enough you'll be able to undo the buttons on my shirt no problem."

Lancelot snorted and Gwen looked slightly scandalised.

"Soon enough?" Merlin repeated in confusion, "If you asked, I could take your shirt off with my teeth no problem any time you like."

Arthur grinned and the look on Gwen's face only got ten times funnier.

"Maybe not here," Lancelot suggested in amusement, "We're just about ready to go. Crutches or wheelchair, Merlin?"

"How far is it to the car?"

"Not too far."

"Start with the crutches and see how I go?"

Merlin managed to get all the way to the car, albeit very, very slowly. He collapsed into the front seat of Lance's car and did his seatbelt up. For the entire journey, he had his wrist through a gap between the seat and the door so he could hold Arthur's hand.

The dogs were both at the offices with Morgana who had picked them up in the morning before Arthur left to head to the hospital. Without Killi or Aithusa there, the house was very quiet but they were glad of that because Merlin was tired so Arthur wanted him to get some rest before the dogs came back and started causing chaos. No matter how annoying or inconvenient it was, the couple were determined to do exactly what they were told by the doctors so Merlin would definitely get better. They weren't taking any risks.

While Merlin was asleep, Arthur and Lancelot sorted through all the hospital bags and Gwen made some lunch.

"He's coping loads better than I thought he would," Lancelot said to Arthur.

"He's recovered from a coma before," Arthur chuckled, "Practice makes perfect."

Lancelot laughed.

"In all seriousness, though, he is amazing. I think he's getting frustrated because he wants to get better faster than is actually humanly possible."

"I suppose last time there were loads of other things he had to deal with too. He's pretty much healed up from the surgery now so to him it might just seem like he woke up and is completely fine."

"Which is ridiculous because he was in a coma for four months."

"We know that. But he has a different perspective to us. It's hard."

"I guess," Arthur nodded, "Still. He needs to take it easy."

"He needs to be patient," Lancelot agreed.

"Well, it's pointless telling each other that," Arthur laughed, "I'll go wake him up. Gwen will be finished making lunch soon."

Merlin was already awake when Arthur went into the living room and sat on the sofa. "This doesn't look like resting," he said.

"It's resting," Merlin argued, "Just not sleeping."

"Why?"

Merlin shrugged, "Couldn't."

Arthur pressed a hand to his forehead to check for a high temperature, "Are you ok?"

"Just not tired, I guess."

Arthur looked at him in concern, "You've done a lot today. I thought you'd be out like a light."

"I guess it's a good thing, though," Merlin said, "Maybe I'm getting stronger.

"Yeah," Arthur smiled, "Hungry?"

They went through to the kitchen together and sat on the table. After lunch, Gwen and Lance left to go to work and Arthur took Merlin out into the garden.

"It's nice to be at home again," Merlin said happily.

"I'm looking forward to having someone next to me in bed again," Arthur said.

"I'm looking forward to not sleeping in a hospital bed," Merlin laughed.

"I bet you are. I didn't know where you wanted me to put the rabbit's foot so I left it on your bedside table."

"It was really kind of Gaius to give it to us."

"Should we invite him over for dinner soon?" Arthur suggested.

Merlin nodded eagerly, "He always used to make roast dinners for us when we were little and we came to visit."

"He used to do that for us as well," Arthur said with a smile.

"We'll make him a roast then," Merlin decided.

"Once you're more settled," Arthur said, "I'm not making a full roast by myself and you can't really help right now. You can't even stand up."

"I could sit at the table and chop veg," Merlin defended.

"No," Arthur said gently, "You couldn't tie your lace this morning, remember. I'm not giving you a sharp knife. These things will come with time, there's no hurry."

Merlin didn't reply and looked away sadly.

"Merls," Arthur said, "I'm not trying to tell you what you can and can't do. I just don't want you to expect too much of yourself so soon and then be upset if you can't manage it yet."

"It's been six weeks."

"That isn't enough time," Arthur said, "You know it isn't. What you went through wasn't just like a stomach bug or a cold. It was serious, gorgeous, and it takes time to recover. You're already doing so much better than anyone thought. Be proud of what you've done so far."

"Can we go inside?" Merlin asked, "I'm tired."

Arthur sighed but nodded and took Merlin into the living room. They sat down on the sofa, put the tv on and cuddled together. Arthur desperately wished he knew why Merlin was putting so much pressure on himself. There was clearly something bothering him but Arthur couldn't figure out what it was. He decided it probably wasn't the best idea to ask him immediately. Merlin was already getting heavier in Arthur's arms and falling asleep so Arthur just let him, making a mental note to talk to him later.

Their friends always commented, sometimes with a hint of jealousy, on the fact that Merlin and Arthur would always sit on the same sofa as each other as close as they could possibly get. They never really seemed to have time apart. As Gwaine had once said, most couples needed some time to have apart for a break. But Arthur and Merlin were joined at the hip. They worked together, cooked together, did housework together, went out for walks together, sometimes washed together, obviously slept together. There was never even a time when Merlin would read a book upstairs while Arthur watched tv downstairs. And they'd only had one or two proper arguments in all the time they'd been together.

But Arthur had been able to give a reason easily. They were both very protective of each other and sometimes spent months apart when one of them- usually Merlin- was in hospital. And so, when they were together, they wanted to be close together. Like their presence protected each other. Even if they originally sat on opposite ends of the sofa, within minutes, they would have been drawn to each other. Merlin had once described it as a warm, happy magnet which had been a silly but accurate description.