Please don't kill me for taking so long, but writing this chapter was a serious pain in the arse! (And still is in my opinion)
Anyway! Thanks to the reviewers ProcrastinationIsMyCrime (Who reviewed 4 chapters!) Kikki2696, Redhead0014 (Sorry for taking so long to update), MissPiggy97 and LucyRider17 (I want Emma to slowly open up to him about her time as I don't think Arthur would actually believe what she says. Yet anyway. And Emma's 20, but she's acting out as it's her way of rebelling against the situation.)
Thanks to all my readers for waiting patiently and for reading my work! I'm so sorry for the wait! And for leaving it on a cliff hanger for like 3 months.
Damaged Nightmare
"Emma!"
Arthur kept repeating her name in disbelief; reliving the moment he saw the bolt from the crossbow with its barbed teeth aiming straight for him, reliving the moment when Emma ran towards him, her hand outreached, she was just a fingertip away.
His sword hung limp in his grasp as he stared at the lifeless body lying in an ever-growing pool of blood.
Emma had been hurt trying to protect him.
He watched as her skin grew paler with each passing moment, he felt the anger and fear swirl together in his stomach and he heard the roar from his mouth as he charged toward her attacker.
The crossbowman had little time to reload the bolt before the rage of Arthur made itself known as he was quickly run through, a dying gurgle passing through his lips.
Merlin was quick to Emma's side, checking her pulse and her breathing. He sighed in relief, she was alive but they needed to stop the bleeding.
The battlefield of the village was littered with bodies and blood, echoing with the occasional groan and clashing of swords as the last remnants of the ambush were quickly dealt with by the legendary knights of Camelot. Some of their enemies were kept alive a few moments longer than their friends to answer some questions, as the King had decreed no prisoners.
Applying pressure to the still pierced wound, the young warlock attempted to stop the bleeding before he endeavoured to remove the offending bolt from her left shoulder blade.
Forcing his sword upright into the ground, Arthur returned to Emma's side.
"She's alive."
The young prince almost smiled in relief but the serious of the situation stifled the expression.
"I'm going to need you to apply pressure to control the bleeding."
Following Merlin's instruction, Arthur placed his hand against her skin as Merlin ran to grab his bag. Arthur watched as Emma's blood began to stain his hands as Merlin rummaged for vials of herbal concoctions prepared for wounds by Gaius just in case of .
"I'm going to pull this out; I need you to apply pressure once it's out."
Before Arthur could think it through or give it his acknowledgement, Merlin with slow deliberate movements began sliding the crossbow bolt from Emma's flesh; her breath grew ragged with every slight movement of the wound.
Seconds seemed like hours whilst Merlin accomplished his task. As soon as the bolt was clean from the wound and it was establish that it was intact, Arthur's hands quickly tried to stop the resuming blood loss whilst Merlin applied the strong smelling salve. The wound looked small having a similar size to a large button; however, the depth of the wound was far more serious.
Once again Merlin began searching in his bag, pulling out scraps of rags to use as bandages, it was then that Merlin faltered.
"What's wrong?"
"We're going to have to take her shirt off to get to the wound; I don't want to move her."
"Seriously Merlin." Arthur didn't finish his sentence whilst his started to rip the fabric of her blouse; he paused when he saw the red stains on her white skin.
Noticing the hesitation Merlin began to wrap the bandage around her, finding it awkward with the position of the wound.
Staring at her unconscious form Arthur allowed his confusion to surface.
"Why didn't she ride away?"
Merlin looked at him briefly before he returned to the task at hand.
"I told her exactly what to do and she didn't listen."
"When has Emma ever done what she was asked? She wanted to save you."
The young prince remained silent as Emma began to stir, her breathing still ragged. Her eyes flickered open as her brain took a few moments to process the events that had led to the fiery burn of pain currently pinning her to the ground.
"Arthur?" Emma's voice came out as a rasp as her body began to shake uncontrollably; she tried to turn her head to find him, she needed to know he was safe.
His hand rested on her good arm in an effort to calm her, Arthur hated the feeling of helplessness coursing through him.
"I…. Had to save you…" The pain was making her dizzy and nauseated.
"You should have ridden away."
Arthur and Merlin looked to each other as her lips began to tremble, Emma was going into shock.
"I'm tired." Emma eyelids began to droop as her body tried to best to steel itself against the pain, almost blindly she grab Arthur's hand with a weak grip.
"I'm scared."
"Just get some sleep and don't worry, you'll be fine."
Merlin watched as she fell unconscious, they needed help.
"We need to get her to Gaius."
"I know."
Clambering to his feet, Arthur scanned the surroundings for his knights.
Following their training, the knights had carried out their duties; some were checking their fallen enemies. Looking for the rest of his knights, Arthur saw their long shadows emerging from the trees; they were scouting the area ahead.
Following his knights example, the young prince began the arduous task of searching the bodies of their assailants for any clue about their identity and of evidence after their leader who had given the orders. The corpses were pulled and prodded as their armour, bags and pockets were searched, it soon became apparent that these men were not as they seemed.
Merlin never left Emma, afraid that his skills with healing would not be enough to attend to the wound. The young warlock watched as the scouting knights returned, quickly singling out their master to report their findings. Arthur received the news with more patience than he felt.
"We're going back to Camelot, now!"
His voice echoed throughout the small village, making his warriors scramble to gather the scattered horses after tending to their own cuts and scrapes. Be it luck or fate but there were not any fatalities or any major injuries apart from Emma.
With surprising gentleness, Arthur. Scooped Emma into his arms, her head resting in the crook of his neck, giving him the reassurance of her breathe against his neck. Carefully, he maneuvered both of them on to his horse, once settled he galloped back into the forest, Merlin and the knights trailing behind.
Emma's eyelids felt heavy as she jolted awake, her body numb, her ears picked up the gentle drumming of raindrops as the small burning wood invaded her nostrils.
It soon became apparent that she was extremely uncomfortable, shifting slightly, Emma pried her eyes open. She blinked a few times, allowing her eyes to focus on the dancing shadows next to her. Moving again, Emma emitted a soft hiss as the stab of pain shot through her shoulder.
Allowing her stubborn nature to dictate her actions, Emma tried unsuccessfully to ignore the pain until it became too much to bear. Rolling onto her good shoulder, she assumed the fetal position, closing her eyes tightly Emma attempted to stop the tears from falling.
"How are you feeling?"
It took a few moments before Emma could respond; slowly she managed to sit up, immediately surveying her surroundings as she struggled to stop the nausea from her growing ache in her head.
It was definitely not the village, instead Emma found herself on the floor of a small cave, lit by a small fire and the light from the entrance. A few of the knights were on guard by the entrance as Arthur sat still in his full armour, his sword in his hand as he sharpened the blade with a smooth stone.
"Remind me never to move onto that shoulder again."
Her voice came out stronger than before but still had a weak edge of pain to it.
"Where are we?"
Feeling very disorientated, Emma tried to search for clues as to their whereabouts as the realisation of their diminished numbers dawned on her, the small party had now become a handful of people. The horrid feeling of dread settled itself to spread throughout her veins as she couldn't find Merlin, what had she missed whilst she was unconscious?
"Where's Merlin?"
Emma was aware of the panic in her voice and that the fear was beginning to rise, were they all killed? Murdered in the ambush?
Arthur stopped what he was doing and looked directly at her. Emma's hair was a mess, she was extremely pale and her shirt was stained with her blood and ripped almost indecently.
"Stop worrying, some of the knights have travelled to Camelot to inform them of the situation and so they can prepare for our arrival. And Merlin has gone to gather some herbs, don't panic he has an escort."
"Herbs?"
"Yes, Merlin the idiot only had enough for two treatments."
Arthur's eyes moved from Emma's gaze and stared as if entranced by her injured shoulder.
"Two treatments? How long have I been out?"
"Almost a day."
He answered without hesitation, startling her slightly as a small 'Oh' escaped through her lips.
"How far are we from Camelot?"
"Not far, six hours with the horses running flat out maybe but they need rest, I would say about twelve hours by foot."
They fell silent as Emma tried to comprehend the seriousness of their situation, their forces were divided and Camelot's lands had been trespassed on, which wasn't helped with the company being slowed down by an injured woman.
As Emma was lost in thought, she felt the unwavering stare of Arthur's eyes, focused on her wounded shoulder.
"I'll be fine."
"You shouldn't have done it."
Emma sighed.
"Surprisingly, I wanted to save you. I did what I thought was right. I followed my heart."
"This is why women aren't shouldn't be on the battlefield."
"How were we to know we were going into an ambush? You don't have to protect me all the time!"
"So you can go and get yourself killed! You know nothing of the world do you?!"
Emma's voice was getting coarser as their voices grew louder and louder.
"Of Course I don't! But I'm not going to let my friend, the only heir to the throne, die when I can save him!"
Arthur ran his hand through his hair.
"So I guess the truce is over."
Emma rolled her eyes.
"I'm injured, it means I can yell at you but a Thank you would have been nice, you know I did save your life."
They fell into a strange silence, neither of them knowing what to say. Emma's eyes narrowed, she just wanted to get back to Camelot.
"I got the herbs!" Merlin's voice echoed from the entrance, causing Emma to turn her head in excitement, soaking wet and grinning like mad Merlin stood in front of the similarly drenched escort of knights.
"You had us really worried."
"I'll be fine, once I have a bath and some sleep in a proper bed."
"Just promise me you'll tell us if you plan to do that again."
Arthur made a noise that could only be described as a growl.
"I'll try my best."
"You'll be lucky if you ever get to leave the citadel."
Merlin sighed, sitting beside her, quickly adding the herbs to a pot over the fire. Emma watched as the young warlock continued making a foul smelling porridge, the headache had increasing to pounding.
"I need to change your bandages."
Trying not to show her apprehension, Emma shifted slightly as Merlin took the stinking porridge formula from the fire.
Steeling herself, Emma flinched as she felt Merlin's fingers untied the note keeping the bandages on. Tears began to sting her eyes as fresh air washed over the wound sending fire into her veins.
Emma did not see Arthur stop and stare at the red angry hole in her shoulder blade; she did not see his hands ball into fists nor the anguish on his face. She did not see his eyes map out the bruises that adorned her white skin. All Emma knew was unbridled pain, as Merlin began his treatment, her injury for her fall paled into comparison to the pain she was suffering.
Biting the inside of her cheek in an attempt to stop her from shouting in pain, Emma ignored the beads of sweat that started to drip from her forehead as Merlin continued to apply the foul smelling concoction.
"Merlin, that's enough."
Arthur's voice cut through the silence.
"But I just need to-"
"Merlin I said enough!"
Finally noticing the amount of agony Emma was in, Merlin quickly threw open his wet bag to retrieve the fresh bandages. He grimaced realising the bag had been watertight enough to stop the bandages getting soaking wet, wet bandages would cause the wound to fester.
"We need new bandages, these are ruined"
"Are you kidding?"
Ignoring the two bickering behind her, Emma tried to fight the growing weakness, the small amount of strength she had gained being unconscious vanished.
"What's the problem?" Emma managed to squeeze out through gritted teeth.
The young Prince and the Warlock turned to each other, there was no point keeping it from her.
"The bandages are ruined."
"In my pack, there's an extra shirt. Rip it up."
Arthur moved in front of her as Merlin followed Emma's instructions. She had turned ghostly pale, sweat dripping down her face, Emma had begun to bite her lip, her eyes started to glaze over.
Slowly, Emma's head began to dip forward until it landed upon Arthur's shoulder.
Arthur could feel the heat radiating from her forehead and hear Emma's short and laboured breathing.
"It's almost over." Emma could not give a reply, she so wanted to just slip into unconsciousness and end the insufferable burning.
Merlin gave a sigh and pulled up Emma's rag of a shirt, Arthur's arm wrapped itself around her waist turning her slightly so he could place his other arm underneath her knees, allowing him to pick her up.
Arthur did so briefly before placing her back down on the blanket making her cry out in pain, landing directly onto her injured shoulder, Emma instinctively curled into the foetal position, the nausea had reached breaking point, the pain was making her physically sick, slowly suffocating her. She gasped as a damp cool rag was dropped across her forehead before she could feel herself fighting against the darkness.
Merlin sat down next to her, watching as Arthur continued to wipe her forehead, calling for his tired knights to ready themselves.
"She has a fever."
The young warlock looked at Emma's almost unconscious form, he had tried to help and make things better but things had become dangerously worse.
Emma's reaction to the arrowroot paste was not a good sign and now she had a fever, this unfortunately meant one thing despite his best efforts the wound had become infected, which in the end could prove fatal.
"Gaius will know what to do."
Arthur nodded, walking out if the cave making their small travelling party began preparations.
The young Prince would never have admitted he was scared, scared that they wouldn't make it in time, scared that he wasn't able to protect Emma, and that filled him with a strange emotion, guilt.
Knights quickly ran to follow orders as the rain lashed down on them. Arthur paused and watched them for a moment before turning back and heading straight for his bag.
In her almost unconscious state Emma, fought against her heavy eyelids.
"Emma?" Arthur's voice was surprisingly soft; he grabbed something from his bag and called to her again.
"Emma I need to put this on you to keep you warm."
Unable to nod, he tried to dress her in one of his shirts, growing weaker by the second, Emma couldn't help but allow tears to stream out of her eyes as Arthur tried as gently as he could to put his shirt on her.
As soon as she was covered, Arthur bundled Emma into his arms and rushed towards his horse.
The situation was becoming dire, if the wound was allowed to continue to fester Emma could die.
As she felt her last bit of strength fail, Emma started to feel herself lose control.
"Arthur?" Emma's voice was above a whisper as she faded into the darkness. "Don't let me go."
Thanks for reading! Hopefully all the grammar and spelling is right!
