When Arthur awoke, there was a weight on his chest, a wetness on his neck, and pressure on his side, which still hurt like hell. Arthur opened his eyes to discover it was Merlin lying on top of him, crying into his neck, and running his fingers over his scar. "Merlin?"

Merlin's head lifted immediately. Tears streamed freely across his face, which was blotchy and red. He gasped, "Arthur!"

Arthur brought a hand up to his temple, "What happened?"

Merlin's eyes scanned his face, "You-you had some sort of episode."

"What does that mean?"

Instead of answering, Merlin increased the pressure of his hand on Arthur's side and began an incantation. His eyes glowed gold and he stayed like that for some time. He spoke as his eyes went back to blue, "The swelling has gone down again."

"Merlin, tell me what happened."

Merlin stared at him wide-eyed, "I called out for the dragon and you fell over. You were trembling and screaming. I tried to help you, but my spells did nothing to relieve the pain. When I examined the magic, it had swelled. And then you passed out."

Tears gathered behind Merlin's eyes, "I thought – I thought I was losing you again."

Arthur reached out and wrapped his arms around Merlin, drawing him close. "I am never leaving you ever again. No matter what." He paused while Merlin caught his breath and made sniffling noises. "What happened with the dragon?"

Merlin sniffled, "Oh, it never came. There is no dragon. I just imagined it."

"Maybe it just ignored you?" Arthur offered.

"I'm a dragonlord, it wouldn't have been able to ignore me."

"So, no dragon?"

Merlin nodded, "No dragon."

Merlin's phone began to ring. They untangled themselves and Merlin sat on the ground beside Arthur. He fished his phone out of his pocket and answered, "Hello?"

Arthur could hear Leon's voice over the phone, "Your car is gone."

"Oh, yeah. We're not home right now."

"It's pretty early still. Where are you?"

"At the store. We ran out of eggs and Arthur came with cause he doesn't like being left home alone."

Arthur gave Merlin an admonishing look for his lie.

Leon picked up on the lie as well, "Where are you really?"

Merlin sighed, "The lake."

Leon met them at the lake and helped Merlin drag Arthur back to the car. He was a little weak on his feet and still felt a deep throbbing pain in his side. After the car door closed behind him, Arthur sat alone in the car for quite some time while Leon and Merlin talked outside. Arthur was quite irritated to be left out of the conversation. He had of course realized that since he'd come back from the dead, he'd become more than a little dependent and behaved perhaps a little childishly. But having to wait in the car while the two immortals discussed things without him felt humiliating. It felt a bit like when Uther had discussed his future without him. He was reminded of his arranged engagement to Princess Elena and how powerless he had felt at the time. He was seriously considering opening the car door to yell at the frustrating immortals when Merlin suddenly opened the car door and climbed into the driver's seat.

Merlin immediately noticed Arthur glaring at him, "What's that look for?"

"What were Leon and you talking about just now?"

Merlin cocked an eyebrow, "I was catching him up on what happened last night."

Arthur replied, "And I couldn't be included in that conversation because …?"

Merlin closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Can we please not do this right now?"

"Do what?"

"Argue. I thought you'd want to sit down in the car. I wasn't trying to exclude you, I just …" Merlin trailed off. He rested his elbows on the steering wheel and held his head in his hands.

Merlin sighed, "Something is going on with you, Arthur, and I don't know what to do. You are the only person in my 1500 years of life to survive a wound made by a sword forged in dragon's breath. Not even that, because you didn't survive. You died. And spent 1500 years healing in a powerful magical dimension and you're still experiencing complications. This is beyond my field of expertise."

Arthur hadn't meant to upset Merlin, and he now felt a pang of guilt. He ran his hand along Merlin's back, "It's okay, Merlin. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be a prat."

Merlin opened his eyes and lifted his head. He took a breath to steady himself, "How are you feeling?"

Arthur replied, "I'm okay. My side hurts a bit, but it's okay."

Merlin nodded, "Do you think you could handle us going somewhere today?"

"Where?"

Thirty minutes later Merlin pulled up to a brick building a little inwards of town. They got out of the car. Arthur read the sign in front of the building: Avalon Public Library. Open 8 am- 6 pm. Closed on Sundays.

They walked to the door. Merlin held out his hand and spoke an incantation. The lock clicked.

"Merlin, are we breaking into this building?"

Merlin waved a hand absent mindedly, "It's fine."

The interior was full of tables and chairs, rows and rows of bookshelves, and a reception desk. Merlin walked past all this towards a door in the back. He opened the door to reveal a very small, dimly lit room which contained filing cabinets and a woman sitting at a desk.

She was slumped over the desk, her head angled downwards to read the document below her. Long silky black hair hid her face from view. She wore a wrinkled grey long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans. She didn't look at them, "It's Sunday. We're closed."

Merlin smiled at her, "Hello, Ismene."

The woman looked up and Arthur gasped in shock. Her face was pale and her eyes shone bright green. He couldn't help but believe he stood before the image of his own sister, Morgana.

The woman cocked her head and looked the two of them up and down, "Do I know you?"

Merlin stepped forward, "Look closer."

Suddenly recognition showed on her face and she stood up, "Uncle Emrys!"

She hugged him tightly from across the desk.

Arthur looked at her more carefully. He decided that though there were frightening similarities between this woman and Morgana, there were also several differences. She was older than Morgana had ever aged and quite a bit thinner. She lacked Morgana's natural elegance too, it seemed.

Merlin laughed, "It's good to see you, Ismene."

The woman released him and pointed a finger in his face, "Where the hell have you been?! You think you can fake your own death and just walk away from everything?"

Merlin scratched his head, "It was time to turn over a new leaf."

The woman snorted, "And what about me? Just because you went and made yourself young again does not absolve you from your responsibilities as my great uncle. You owe me five years worth of Christmas and birthday presents."

Merlin held his hands up in surrender, "Alright, alright. I'm sorry for not staying in touch. I'm not used to people carrying over from past lifetimes."

There was an awkward pause.

She smiled at him, "You should have seen your funeral. Michael got so drunk he thought we were at a wedding."

Merlin laughed, "Sounds like Michael."

Another pause.

The woman looked past Merlin at Arthur. She gestured to him, "I see you've brought me a new fake uncle."

Merlin blushed a little, "Ismene, this is an old friend of mine …"

The woman, Ismene, cut him off excitedly, "Oh my God! You must be Leon!"

She hurried around the desk and attacked Arthur with a surprise hug.

Arthur was quite taken aback by the sudden embrace from this woman who looked exceedingly like his dead sister and archnemesis, and also thought he was Leon.

Merlin started awkwardly, "Um, no. Not Leon."

Ismene turned her head towards Merlin while still forcefully hugging Arthur, "Huh?"

"This is Arthur."

Ismene's head slowly turned back towards Arthur. She let go of him and quickly took several steps back. Her face was the picture of shock as she whispered, "King Arthur?"

Arthur shuffled his feet awkwardly, "Um … hi."

A/N: I'd love to hear your thoughts about Ismene! I'm not really sure if I should categorize her as Morgana or as an OC since she isn't exactly a perfect reincarnation. There will be much more of her in future chapters and I'm really having a lot of fun writing her.