It was only a few days after the incident that Merlin began to relax. No guards had appeared at his door in the middle of the night, ready and waiting with a statement from the king telling him that he was being arrested and would be bought justice. No, this hadn't happened and Merlin begun to really think that Arthur was going to keep his secret safe. He therefore went back to his normal routine, but perhaps with a little more caution that hadn't been there before.

His body would tense even if he heard someone approaching and instinctively Merlin would hastily tug his sleeve up around his left hand and place it behind his back. Though if Merlin was honest with himself everyone in Camelot was far too busy with their own lives to notice a servant and therefore perhaps the precautions he took were too far, and anyway what would a person be able to do if they saw. Tell the king? Surely they would have better things to do with their lives and inform the king of such a trivial thing.

Merlin gulped and bit his lip, he went back to scrubbing Arthur's floor even harder than he had before.

"Merlin." the soft voice made him jump so much that he accidently knocked over the bucket and the soapy suds began to make their escape, right over the floor which he had just been polishing off. he sighed and looked up straight into the eyes of Gwen who was trying, but failing, to supress a smile. "Sorry Merlin, I didn't mean to make you jump."

"No, it's okay, that bit needed to be cleaned again anyway." Merlin said trying to supress his own smile, his stomach was doing that weird fluttery thing, the one he always got when he was around Gwen.

"I was just going to ask if you knew where Gaius was."

"Why is something wrong, are you ill?" Merlin asked with concern, he stopped trying to mop up the suds, he could add it to his to do list, and stood up, still being careful to hide his left hand from view. he made up his mind there and then, that if Gwen was ill he would use magic to heal her, whatever the consequences.

"No, no it's not me." Merlin felt a surge of relief but disappointment at the same time. He had always felt that if he could tell anyone about his magic it would be Gwen but that he would do it in the right way. If Gwen had been ill, not that he wanted her to be ill, but if she had been ill then Merlin could have saved her and then revealed his magic to her and she would reach up and… "Merlin? Merlin!" He realised that Gwen was staring at him "You really aren't with it today are you."

"Sorry, what's wrong?" he said shaking the vision away. He knew that his fantasy with Gwen would never become a reality, she had eyes for Arthur and Arthur only. Merlin was not about to go and ruin their relationship, one that had taken so long to build up. "It's Morgana." Gwen stated "She's been having nightmares again and I just thought that Gaius should know, so that he can prescribe something for her."

"I think he's in a meeting, but I'll tell him later when I see him."

"Okay thanks Merlin." Gwen walked out of the room, unaware of what she had just said. she said nightmares as if she'd never had one, as if it was just a word but Merlin who had experienced many of them himself knew all too well, what affect nightmares could have on ones mental state.

Nightmares were a cruel, evil thing and it was only those who suffered from them who really knew their power, and whilst Merlin didn't know much he did know one or two things about Nightmares.

~.~

Merlin repeated the information that Gwen had told him to Gaius that evening. Gaius raised an eyebrow but didn't say much on the matter except: "Poor child, she hadn't been getting them recently, I wondered what is causing them this time." he then stood up, went over to his medicine cabinet and expertly picked up a clear bottle that had a mesmerising purple liquid in it. He walked back over to the table and picked up some herbs smelled them and placed them back down. "These herbs are passed their time. Oh well this will have to do tonight. Merlin take this to Lady Morgana and tell her that I'm preparing her a special medicine but will require some herbs to complete."

"I'm assuming you want me to pick these herbs as well?"

"That's right, but you can go early tomorrow morning instead of tonight."

"Thanks, I'll add it to the list." Merlin said with a hint of sarcasm.

He took the bottle and walked swiftly out the room. Although Merlin had been here for a long tiem now, he still got lost and often found himself in a corridor, the same as all the others, that led to completely the wrong place. It didn't help that all the rooms in the castle had the same oak door in front of them and nothing ever stood out of place, except for Merlin, but then again he would always stick out of place no matter how hard he tried to blend in…

Merlin arrived at Morganas room in record time and confidently knocked on the door.

"Come in." It was Morganas voice directly. As Merlin was pulling the door knob he suddenly was worried that Morgana was changing and that she thought he was Gwen, like she had once before.

"It's Merlin." he said, just to give her some warning if she was changing. He entered the room slowly, but Morgana seemed unaware of his presence and was sitting on her stool and brushing her hair whilst watching her reflection. She put down the brush and smiled a little at Merlin.

"Merlin! What can I do for you?" her broad smile looked out of place on her pale face, but she did seem genuinely happy to see Merlin and he wasn't going to take that away from her.

"Erm, Gwen told me you were having nightmares again, so Gaius has prepared you a sleeping draught." he looked at Morgana and so wanted to tell her that he understood and if she ever needed to speak to him then he was always around. But instead he just held out his right hand and handed over the draught.

As she took it with her left hand, her sleeve suddenly dropped down. In a fleeting glance, Merlin was sure that he saw something that shouldn't be there, much like on his own left hand, something odd and out of place on Morganas delicate hand. But it was just a fleeting glance and Merlin couldn't be sure that it wasn't just the candlelight playing tricks on him.

Hope you enjoyed that!