Arthur still could barely believe what had really happened in the last few hours of his life. He had finally found out the true identity of SK (none other than his former colleague Cenred King); had discovered the site of the murders (Cenred's villa) and above all, he had found Merlin, four years after his disappearance.

He would never forget that moment he laid his eyes on the brunet for the first time, the moment when their eyes had crossed. Arthur's heart had stopped - or had started beating faster? - he did not know; fact remained that he had been hit in the deep... he had fallen in love, and he was almost certain that behind that scared and confused look, Merlin had also felt something similar.

Then the moment had been interrupted by the paramedics' arrival. Merlin had looked away from the blond and had taken a few steps back, taking the children with him, who hadn't stop clinging to Merlin's legs, not even for a second.

There were four of them: a male, about 3 years old, who was a mini version of Merlin; a female of about 2 years old, brown-haired (like Cenred, Arthur thought darkly), but with Merlin's eyes; and two newborns, maybe about 5/6 months old. Arthur had failed to tell if they were male or female.

"Who are you? What do you want? Where's Cenred?" Merlin had asked, moving away from the paramedics who had approached to check both him and the children.

Just as a doctor had tried to take the older children, panic was unleashed. The children had begun to scream in fear, clinging to Merlin as if they were part of his body; the newborns had started to cry, feeling the tension; and Merlin had begun to scream furiously and to order not to touch his children, while at the same time trying to reassure the little ones.

That was the clue that was time for Arthur to intervene. With authority, he had ordered the paramedics to leave and to come back later. Then calmly, he had made some cautious steps towards Merlin, raising his hands to indicate that he was harmless.

He had felt proud of himself when he had noticed Merlin relaxing his shoulders and being less wary.

"Hi, Merlin. I'm Arthur and neither you nor your children have reason to be afraid of me. I am the Camelot City police detective in charge of yours and the other boys' case of disappearance. Now we have found you and everything will be fine"

Merlin still had a suspicious look, but nevertheless he ventured a step further. "And Cenred?"

Arthur had swallowed, "I'm sorry to admit that he managed to get away. I'm sorry"

Something strange had crossed the brunet's eyes at that point, something that Arthur had failed to understand, it was not fear or worry... What had it been?

"Daddy?"

Arthur's attention had been captured by the shy and fearful voice of mini-Merlin.

Merlin had looked down towards his elder son, immediately softening his gaze and smiling sweetly – his smile was breath-taking, Arthur had thought. "Yes, sweetheart?"

"Who are these people? And where is Papa?"

Merlin had smiled, but it was a tight smile, didn't even reach his eyes. "Papa had to go away for a while. In the meantime, we'll go with this kind gentleman, Arthur"

"Arthur? Like the King of the story you read us every night, daddy? The one with the magical sword in the stone?" The child asked, looking at Arthur in awe now.

"Yes, him…like King Arthur, your hero, darling" Merlin said to the child, but his gaze had moved to Arthur, looking at him with a strange softness.

Arthur wanted to be looked at by Merlin in that way forever. And before risking to passionately kiss him, there in front of the children, the blond had coughed and moved his gaze to the child.

"Well, I do not say to be exactly like King Arthur, but I swear to keep you, your dad and your siblings safe... now we must go" He gestured toward the door.

The smile was wiped from the face of the child, who looked toward his father with frightened eyes, "Out? But, daddy, we cannot go out without Papa, he doesn't want to..."

Arthur's heart had clenched at the thought of what kind of control that monster had on these people.

"Yes, I know, love, but this is a special occasion, but don't worry, I'll be always with you. We'll be together all the time" At that point Merlin had looked at Arthur, raising an eyebrow, as if to emphasize that he would not be separated from his children.

Arthur had nodded discreetly.

Then Merlin and the children had been taken to the hospital to be checked. Arthur would have liked to go with them, his instincts didn't want to lose sight of the brunet, but as head detective, it was his job to oversee the operations of the police at the scene and then report back to Morgana.

And now, after 8 hours of paper work, he was finally walking the hospital corridors to visit Merlin, officially to question him, unofficially to be with him and talk to him alone.

On his way, he met the doctor responsible for Merlin and asked him about his health, his and of the children's.

"They are fine, both physically and mentally, which is surprising given the circumstances. There are no signs of malnutrition nor abuses. They are all in splendid health. But I want to keep them here under observation for a few days nevertheless, in case of a relapse, and because the events of the last hours have caused a significant increase of Mr Emrys's stress."

Arthur nodded, relieved. "Thank you, Dr. Muirden" He left the scarred doctor, not noticing his dark smirk, and carried on to Merlin's room, where three police officers were standing guard. "Everything all right, gentlemen?"

"Yes, Sir" They answered.

"Good"

Arthur entered the private room, locking the door behind him. Then he turned toward the bed, where the most beautiful boy he had ever seen was sitting, back against the pillows, looking left, where Arthur knew there was a huge glass window and a door leading to the adjacent room, where the children were staying, well, the oldest children at least…the newborns had been put in Merlin's room. At the moment, one was in his crib, while the other, with black hair and blue eyes like Merlin's, was feeding from Merlin's breast.

Arthur could barely breathe at the sight. It was perfect.

Sensing someone in the room, Merlin turned his sapphire eyes from watching his children sleeping in the other room to Arthur.

"Detective Pendragon"

"Please, call me Arthur, Merlin. Detective Pendragon sounds so old" Arthur joked, as he came forward and sat in the empty chair near the bed.

Merlin smiled, "And you are everything but old… Arthur."

Arthur felt pleasure in his belly at that and leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees, "Why, Merlin, thank you. Was it a compliment?"

Merlin snorted, while rocking the baby, "Prat"

Arthur widened his eyes and let out a surprised laugh, throwing his head back. "What are you, Merlin? Five?"

Before the brunet had time to retort, the infant screamed, disturbed by Arthur's noise.

Arthur looked castigated, "Oops, sorry, didn't mean to make him cry"

Merlin looked at him angrily, but Arthur could see he wasn't really angry. Behind those eyes there was a mischievous glint Arthur was starting to love like his owner.

The brunet put the crying baby against his shoulder and started to make reassuring sounds while patting his little back.

"Hush, my love, my darling Alex, calm down, little one. Everything is fine. Daddy's here."

As if by magic, the child calmed down and fell asleep against Merlin. Arthur was impressed.

"So, his name is Alex, I reckon?"

Merlin nodded, a bit sad, "It's the name Mordred wanted for him"

Arthur frowned, "What does Mordred have to do with his name?"

"Mordred was Alex's biological father…well, mother, I suppose. The other three are mine, however"

Arthur couldn't believe it, "Our coroner had told us that Mordred had given birth, but we thought the child was dead. Why have you him? Why has he been taken away from his 'mother'?"

It was clear that Merlin was uncomfortable to talk about Cenred, but Arthur needed answers.

"Merlin, I want to find Cenred and lock that bastard in a jail and throw the keys away….but in order to do that, I need your help. Please, tell me what happened in the last four years"

Merlin looked away toward the window, the rare English sun made it seem like his eyes were made of gold.

"Merlin, please"

The brunet took a deep breath and put Alex in the cradle next to his adopted brother, the other baby. Then his eyes started to look away, without focusing on anything in particular and talked.

"One evening of four years ago, my best friend Will and I were walking back home after having gone to observe stars" Merlin snorted, "Will always wanted to act tough in front of others, but he was a big softie deep down and he loved astronomy…We were walking along a desert road, when Cenred appeared behind us and started to drag me away by the elbow, toward a van he had parked not far from there. I tried to fight back, of course, but Cenred was way bigger and stronger than me. Will obviously stepped in immediately to help me and for a second I breathed a sigh of relief, since Will was a boxer. But unexpectedly Cenred pulled out a silenced gun and mercilessly shot Will in the forehead..."

Merlin was staring horrified at the lifeless body of his best friend on the ground, his eyes still wide-opened from when he had noticed the gun pointed between his eyes, too late to react.

His heart hurt and his mouth opened, ready to scream in a way that would have, however, expressed his pain inadequately. However, he was stopped from doing so by a handkerchief being pressed against his mouth. Almost immediately, he felt sleepy.

The man behind him started to whisper in his ear.

"Like this, my love, breathe deeply…don't worry. I'll take very care of you. Our wonderful life together is about to begin…finally"

Then, everything became black.

"We found nothing on Will. Given his disappearance, for months it was believed that he was the one who had kidnapped you, or that you had run away together, given his reputation, which I now know to be untrue" Arthur quickly reassured him.

"And you'll keep finding nothing. Cenred told me to have thrown his corpse into the sea after dismembering it….Will had only tried to save me…my poor friend, my brother in everything but blood"

For a few minutes, a heavy silence reigned in the room as Merlin sobbed silently. Then Arthur cleaned his throat and gently asked him to continue, if he could.

"I woke up in the flat where you have found me, well, now I know it wasn't a real flat…just a well decorated cell. I was lying on the king size bed in the master bedroom. I was wearing a long t-shirt, barely covering my thighs. I was confused and started shouting for someone to help me, to tell me what was going on. No one answered, of course. I got up from the bed, and it was then that I noticed my left ankle was chained to the bed. You have no idea how much I panic then, Arthur, - I had actually cried for my mom. When I calmed down a bit, a moved toward the door, fearing it would be locked, but it was actually open. I felt a bit of hope then. I exited and started to roam the flat; I actually thought it was very nice. I noticed, for my relief, that the chained was long enough to allow me to walk everywhere in the house, but not enough to reach the heavy metal door, which was the only way out."

Merlin paused, stiffing, and right on time, the second infant started to cry, hungry. Fast, Arthur stood up and went to fetch him, taking him to his 'mother' that immediately began to feed him, sighing happily. Arthur busied himself with a glass of water in order to hide his blush at the sight of Merlin's breasts, again.

"Anyway, as you can guess the door wouldn't open, to matter how long I tried. So you can image my surprise when it opened a few hour after my waking." At that, the brunet sighed deeply, sad. "Cenred came in…" He snorted, "…with a bouquet of red roses, a bottle of champagne, chocolate, and wearing a tuxedo….he wanted to be romantic…he actually thought we were a couple…"

Arthur frowned, unable to connect the image of this 'romantic' Cenred, with the serial killer that had become his obsession. Why would Cenred be, let's say, kind to Merlin, and so cruel with the others?

"Why would he do that?" Arthur asked aloud.

Merlin shrugged, "I don't know why me…I thought he would kill me after a few days, but he didn't. He was very kind to me, always bringing me presents when he came back. I begged him many times to let me go…he would just look at me with a dark look for a few seconds – during which I genuinely believed they would be my last – and then he just changed topic, dragging me to the sofa to watch TV, for example. Then, after a few days like this, with my attempts to escape failing, Cenred came to me and told me the courting period was over and that it was finally time to become one…"

Merlin stopped and tightened his hold on the child, seeking comfort from the warmth presence of his youngest son.

"If you don't mind, Arthur, I don't wish to go into details; just know that I tried to run one more time that day, I fought when he caught me and bumped me into the bed….and r-rape me…" His voice was trembling.

"Did-Did he hurt you, Merlin?"

The brunet shook his head, "Believe it or not, he never did physically hurt me when he…took me. Understand, Arthur, that Cenred always had it in his sick mind that I was his fucking soulmate or something like that. Why damaging me when he wanted something that only my body could give him?"

"And what would that be?"

Merlin looked down at the baby and toward the glass wall, "Children…he wanted to have children that would be the perfect mixture between him and me. The material proof of our love" He spat the last word.

Arthur had always knew Merlin was special for SK, if he had kept him for so long. Merlin was the perfect example of Cenred's type and his ability to give birth to so many alive children, despite being male, made him even more special in Cenred's eyes. "And he succeed…"

Merlin nodded, "Yes, Colin, my first son, was born less than a year since my capture. It had been a…strange period. Suddenly, I found myself pregnant with the child of the man that was keeping me imprisoned, like the psychopath he is….but I fell in love with Colin the moment he was born. I had never seen such a perfect child. He and his siblings are everything to me…everything!"

He was panting, but managed to calm down.

"Cenred was of course delighted that our first born was a male identical to me... for days he did nothing but brag. But I must admit that he has always been gentle with the children; at the beginning I was afraid that he would hurt them, once the initial excitement was over. Over time, Cenred removed the chain around my foot, because now there was a child chaining me to that place and to him. He knew that I wouldn't go anywhere without my son or if he was in danger...Then I fell pregnant again and my daughter Freya was born. Unlike with Colin, this pregnancy was very difficult for me and during the birth I almost died. That was when something snapped in Cenred's mind and things changed….he became even more possessive, if possible, and I started to hear scared voices coming from outside…"

"The other boys?" Arthur asked, uselessly.

Merlin nodded, "Yes, those poor boys….they were so scared. They used to cry every night. Unlike with me, Cenred was very cruel with them…and not just when he raped them"

"Yes, the coroner found a lot of proofs of this on their…bodies. But why taking them, if he had you that could give him the children he wanted so much?"

"Freya's birth made him realize I am not immortal and that male pregnancy are very dangerous…he realized that there was something that could take me away from him: death. So, since he wanted a lot of children looking like me, he started to kidnap boys with my same features, increasing the chances that they could give birth to children who resembled me, and who had also his blood. As if they were ours, but without putting me in danger"

Arthur was chilling all over. What a monster! "Then why did he kill them, if they were so indispensable?"

"Because in the end they weren't me. This is the main reason at least. Some he killed because they couldn't get pregnant; others died during the pregnancy or during birth, along with their children; one was killed because he gave birth to a girl, and Cenred wanted boys like me…"

Arthur frowned, "You gave birth to a girl too. Why didn't he kill you or her?"

Merlin looked down, sad, "Because my Freya was lucky enough to be my true flesh and blood. Cenred would never kill a child with our blood in them….but that small sweet girl wasn't so lucky. Because her 'mother' wasn't me, she was killed by her father…that's when I tried kill Cenred for the second time…I failed obviously, and he punished me by taking me violently, and by putting Daegal in my belly" Merlin nodded toward the now sleeping child in his arms. "After that, he turned mad. I can still hear the boys' screaming…..Then Mordred gave birth to a boy identical to me and Cenred calmed down a bit and took the child away from Mordred, giving Alex to me, saying he was ours…Mordred was desperate"

"How do you know that? You never got out of your cell" Arthur decided not to ask about when Merlin had tried to kill Cenred the first time…there would be time for that later.

"In the kitchen, there's a small hole, which allowed me to communicate with the boy locked in the cell nearest to the 'flat', that's it, Mordred. He and I have spent a lot of time talking, comforting each other, and I made sure he could talk to Alex, singing him to sleep for example, as much as possible, when Cenred was away….When I hadn't been hearing from him for a while, I knew he was d-dead…At least he was able to choose his son's name and to see him a few times" Merlin sobbed at that, as he remembered his only friend in that nightmare.

Arthur had to use a lot of strength not to stop and go hugging the brunet…he couldn't do that. Not yet. He need answers. He need to stop Cenred for what he did.

"Why did he kill Mordred? He had just given him a son with your feature as he wanted. He could have done it again. Why killing him when he was so perfect?"

Merlin took a deep breath, "Mordred fell pregnant again, quite soon after Alex's birth. That was when Cenred's madness snapped. He was reminded of when I was pregnant with Freya, of the time I almost died. He lost control, convinced that the child in Mordred's belly was a girl…"

Arthur nodded and after a few seconds he said, "If it's any consolation, it's thanks to Mordred and his children if we were able to find you…"

Merlin looked up, "Children?"

"He was carrying twins…Cenred didn't know and forgot to…remove one of the fetus from the body. Therefore we were able to extract his DNA"

Merlin dried his eyes and looked at Alex's sleeping form in the cradle, smiling proudly, "Did you hear that, my love? Your daddy saved us…"

As if understanding him, the infant woke and started to clap his little hands and to release sounds that Arthur could swore were laughs.

The adults cooed at him, then looked at each other and started laughing. This must have awoken Colin and Freya in the other room, who started crying "Daddy!"

"I'm here, darlings, come"

The brunet had barely finished to say that when the two children rushed into the room, not losing time at jumping onto their father's bed and nuzzling against his chest, careful not to hurt Daegal.

Arthur couldn't help but smiled smitten in front of this scene, especially after seeing the way Merlin's eyes shone with love as he looked at his children, and how theirs shone with adoration as they looked up at him. At least something good had come out of this bad situation….and Arthur's traitorous heart couldn't stop but imaging a little blond boy or girl joining the perfect picture.

That was when he met Merlin's eyes, as if the brunet had read his mind and was seeing the same blond child Arthur had just found out to want more than anything…well, almost more than anything… not as much as he wanted the 'mother' of this child.

The longing Merlin was showing was giving Arthur courage and he leaned forward and covered Merlin's hand with his own, shivering at the touch. Merlin was having the same reaction.

However, as they were about to intertwine the fingers, Alex let out a strong cry, probably annoyed for being ignored.

The two men sighed and Arthur immediately stood up to fetch the child. He lifted him up and found himself loving the sensation of his light weight against his chest. Merlin must have seen his awe expression, because he smiled and crawled to one side of the bed, taking the children with him, and pet the empty space beside him.

Swallowing, Arthur obeyed. He sat against the pillows next to Merlin, with little Alex peacefully enjoying his time in his arms.

Merlin put his head on his shoulder, and Arthur could have died happy.

"He likes you" The brunet noted, watching how his adoptive son looked at Arthur the same way he looked at Merlin's breasts when he was hungry.

"Fully reciprocated" Arthur whispered, bending down to kiss the baby's forehead.

"And he is not the only one…"

Arthur looked at him quizzically and saw he was looking down. He followed the direction of his gaze, and for the first time noticed the other children was watching him in awe.

Arthur cough, blushing, "Hi"

Encouraged, Colin moved forward, "Are you a superhero like superman?", immediately followed by his sister's "Are you Prince Charming?"

"Hum…" Arthur didn't know what to say.

Merlin laughed at his face and, while the children started an intense discussion regarding who was cooler between Superman and Prince Charming, softly kissed Arthur's cheek, startling the blond, "Oh they are definitely NOT the only ones"

Arthur could feel his whole face burning and his smile breaking free.

"As I said: fully reciprocated"

Merlin sighed happily and closed his eyes as he returned his head on his shoulder, "Good to know" After a few second in a blissful silence, he added, "Arthur? Can you promise me something?"

"Everything"

"Whatever happens, keep my children safe…make them always feel loved"

The blond frowned. It was as if Merlin was planning of leaving. But then he understood. Merlin was worried Cenred would come back to take what he had always wanted: the children. That was the obvious reason Merlin was acting so strange.

"I promise to make sure they are safe."

He didn't know the enemy was already on the move.