The rest of Arthurs week went by fairly quickly. He had a few meetings to go to, though they were awkward for everyone because Uther still wouldn't talk directly to him. Even their business partners were starting to pick up on the issue between father and son, and it was hurting their image. Reporters were sure to find out soon enough.

Arthur currently sat in his office chair, sorting papers and packing to go home. It was late, maybe eleven oclock, and he was decidedly grumpy.

His office phone buzzed, and he snatched it up on the second ring.

What, Larry? he sighed into the phone.

Uh, its Barry, sir.

Yes yes. Get on with it. Arthur waved a hand, like shooing away a particularly annoying fly.

"Your father wants you to go down to the mail rooms in the basement and get some documents for him."

"What documents?"

A loud pop sounded sharply in Arthur's ear. He winced and pulled away.

"I dunno." the idiot on the other side of the phone said, chomping gum obnoxiously.

Arthur bit his cheek hard to keep from firing the man on the spot. "Find out." he snapped, and hung up. He really needed to find an assistant that wasn't a complete and utter wad.

Ten whole minutes later, long after he could have been gone, the phone buzzed again. "They're some documents for a new project he wants you to look at. He said you'd know it when you see it."

"Of course. Don't bother showing up tomorrow, you're fired."

Arthur unceremoniously hung up. He grabbed his bag, planning on getting the documents and leaving, and headed down towards the mail room in the basement.

The mail room was a dark dingy place that smelled like mold and mildew. The dull yellow walls were water stained, and the few hanging lightbulbs did little to chase away the darkness. Large shelves made rows throughout the entire room, cubbies for certain places and people in an order that anyone would have trouble navigating. Arthur had no idea how people could work down here and not go crazy as he precariously saved a stack of papers as tall as him from falling. He cursed the narrow aisles and dim lighting and finally found himself in the mail workers' office. The Head of Mail woman glared grumpily at him, blowing her nose into a tissue. Her cheeks were slightly red.

"Hi, I just came for-" before he could finish, she was shoving papers into his hands. He fumbled with them and stuttered out a thank you, but she had already dismissed him and turned back to sorting mail and writing things down. Her eyes were also red and puffy, and he couldnt shake the feeling she had been crying. He shuffled awkwardly, not knowing what to do. No one was around. The rest of the workers were all sick, some kind of flu that was going around.

He shuffled out the door and headed back towards the stairs that would take him out of the hole in the ground that was their mailroom, clutching the paper to him to make himself smaller and less likely to knock over something.

That exact thing ended up nearly happening when he was nearly to the stairs. He was wiggling in between a wall and a stack of papers that took up the whole of the hallway when he bumped into the papers. The papers tilted, and he just barely caught them in time. But now he was stuck. He couldn't move back or the papers would fall, and he couldn't lift them up because a glass jar had rolled where he needed to place the papers.

He cursed.

"Margaret?" he called for the Head of Mail to come and help him, but after a few moments with no reply he knew she couldn't hear him. He cursed again and dug out his phone with his non dominant hand. He fumbled with it, trying to reach the buttons and nearly dropping it a few heart-stopping times. Finally, he managed to hit the speed dial for Morgana's office, the room directly beside his, and hit the speaker.

"Hello, office of Ms. Morgana Penn, this is Gwen speaking." Morgana's assistant, a kindly faced young woman with almond skin and dark curly hair answered. She had been Morgana's assistant for almost as long as Morgana had worked in the building, longer than any assistant Arthur ever had.

"Gwen!" he said, slightly out of breath. A stack of papers taller than him was surprisingly heavy. "Could you send someone down to the mailroom? Preferably soon?"

"Uh, yeah of course...okay, someone is headed down to you from IT. Why didn't you call Barry?"

Arthur snorted. "I fired him. He decided it was more important to chew gum than do his work."

Gwen sighed, but she sounded more relieved than exasperated that the man was gone. "Arthur, your father is not going to be happy about this."

"Yes Gwen, I know. But until I can find an assistant that's actually reliable, he can-"

The door opened, letting in a tall, gruff looking man. He was one of the security people that Arthur usually didn't pay attention to unless they were in directly in his line of sight.

"Oh thank god." Arthur muttered and said goodbye to Gwen. The man was tall, with arms that bulged even through his thick security uniform.

"Quickly, please." Arthur grouched at the man. The man stooped down and scooped up the jar, setting it on a nearby shelf before helping Arthur set the papers up again. Arthur let out a sigh of relief as the weight was taken from his arms and he was relieved of the awkward position.

"Uh, thanks…?"

"Percival, sire."

Arthur blinked as a familiar warm feeling entered his chest. "Excuse me? What did you just say?"

"Sir?"

Arthur shook his head and drew his eyebrows together. "Of course. Alright, that's all I needed." He added bruskly. Percival nodded quietly and slipped back out the door.

"Wait!" Arthur surprised himself by saying. Percival ducked back through the door, eyebrows raised.

"Uh, y-you should come get a drink with some guys and I. We're all going down to a pub on Lakeshore, if you want…"

God, that sounded awkward even to Arthur. He felt his face flush with embarrassment and was about to flee when Percival's face lit up and he said, "I would love to."

Arthur gave him a time and address, and the big man was gone. Arthur slapped his face and wondered why he had to randomly invite people to drinks all the time. Lately, when certain people started to leave the room he was in, he would feel a brief rush of panic shoot through him, and he had to assure himself he would see them again. It happened with Gwen and Morgana, people he had known most of his life, as well as with people he hardly knew, like Merlin, Gaius, Gwaine, and now Percival. He rubbed his forehead and wondered what the hell was going on with him lately.

He jumped out, hand outstretched in a pose that felt both familiar and foreign, to catch the jar as it tilted off the shelf. He had only a second to register the weird instinctual movement caused by a movement barely in the corner of his eye before his entire arm went numb. The jar slipped through his limp fingers and fell to the floor, the glass thankfully not breaking. He gasped and clutched his arm in panic. He could feel it. He made a confused choking noise and flexed his fingers. They worked perfectly fine.

"What the…?" he murmured to himself as he reached down to pick up the glass again. His fingers again went numb, and though he had been expected it, he winced away.

Now that he looked closer at it, actually, its contents were...less than appetizing. There was a silver fork, a small red ball that could either be mercury or jello, and what he sincerely hoped was a plastic shrunken head, all in a reddish yellow liquid. His lips twisted in disgust and he reached into his bag, pulling out the sweater he had taken off that morning. He gingerly wrapped the jar in it, and though his hands tingled unpleasantly, it was nowhere near as bad as when that layer of much needed protection was absent.

As Arthur made his way upstairs, the jar safely tucked into his bag, he pulled out his phone.

"Hey Merlin, could you take a look at something for me…?"

(A/N) Yay! I suck at updating.