A/N: A typical MOT time jump.

Chapter 7

Bristol University. June 2061

Press Conference to discuss the Project's success

"Relax, Archie," Gwen said, putting a gentle hand on Arthur's shoulder. "This is supposed to be a celebration, remember?"

"Yes, yes, I know," he replied, still pacing. "But where are they? Where's Martin and my sister? They should be here by now."

"I'm sure they're fine. Perhaps they just got..." She flashed him a cheeky grin. "Distracted."

"Please don't," he complained. "I'm having enough trouble coming to terms with their relationship as it is."

"But Morgan's so much better now, isn't she?" Gwen pushed. "I mean, since she met Martin and became involved in this project."

"I suppose..."

"But...?" Gwen was getting good at knowing what he was thinking nowadays.

"How did she do it, Jennifer? How did she come up with all those obscure plans, when there was no way she could truly understand how complex the problem was going to be?"

Gwen just shrugged, having asked the same question herself not so long ago. There was no chance for further discussion, however, as they were now being ushered on stage to be greeted by a huge crowd of students, business people and journalists, all keen to meet the elusive group who had apparently solved in less than two years what it had taken others decades to understand.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the Dean announced. "It is my very great pleasure to introduce the now famous 'Knights of the Round Table'!"

The audience cheered, many standing and whistling as they entered. Arthur blinked furiously as a thousand flashes danced across the darkness, threatening to obscure his vision completely.

They were shown to their seats on the stage but Gaius remained standing; waiting for the noise to die down before beginning his speech.

"Thank you. Thank you all for that lovely welcome and for coming here today. Let me, with no further ado, give you the good news. It appears that, despite this winter's record breaking rainfall, Project Camelot has been an overwhelming success. There have been no major incidences of flooding within the whole of the Severn valley and many communities which had to be abandoned in recent years, are starting to dry out; their old defences now apparently good enough to cope."

He had to pause for a while to wait for the cheers to die down.

"This is, however, just one small piece of a much larger problem, and flood prevention and drainage work will need to continue in various parts of the country. The new Prime Minister has already awarded the Thames project to The Knights in the hope that they can put their experience on the Camelot project to good use."

Another cheer.

"She is also to push through building legislation which will require all new houses to have accommodation areas on first and second floors only, with basements or garages only at ground level. However, despite all this, It is important to remember that all we are doing here is finding ways to live with the new weather system, meaning that all projects will need to be ongoing, and more inventive ways of dealing with the various problems we face will still need to be found."

It was amazing, Arthur thought, how many people believed that his team's work on complex dykes and drainage systems would somehow result in an improvement in the weather.

Arthur spoke briefly about his role as the engineering and team leader, before Gwen talked a little about the computer models in Merlin's absence. Elena also took her turn to explain how she had been drafted in by Lord Emrys from the Netherlands in order to pass on her expertise in drainage systems. Then the team answered questions about the project from all those with a vested interest. Inevitably these questions became more detailed and probing as the session went on.

"I've studied the specifications very carefully," said one man. "And it is interesting... most interesting. I'm curious as to how you came up with such an... unconventional idea though. I mean nothing like this has been tried in Holland."

Gaius did his bit then, speaking 'politically' in a way Arthur's father would have been proud of. Talking of the talent of the team and their ability to tackle the unique problems from unexpected angles. All the 'knights' worked hard not to look at each other.

'Unexpected angles,' Arthur thought. 'That's one way of describing it.'

A lady from the press section stood up then, a rather sly smile on her face. "Maureen Jones – Daily Mail," she begun. "It is good that so much improvement has been made in such a short space of time, but I do worry about the long-term problems that this work may have inadvertently caused in the area."

"What problems?" Gaius asked.

"Well," Morgause continued. "This project was necessary because of a rushed job on the old Severn Barrier, and now there's talk of this solution also being a little... too good to be true?"

"I can assure you that there is nothing to worry about on that score," Gaius replied. "As I said, more work may need to be carried out in the future but, no, this will not make things worse, that much is certain."

"But what about the earthquake?" Morgause asked.

The group on stage all exchanged confused looks. "Earthquake?" Arthur asked. Most of them had travelled in from London and only arrived this morning. "What earthquake?"

"The one which happened a little east of here yesterday, in a place which had been badly effected by the old Severn scheme. It's not highly populated, of course, but England doesn't get earthquakes, at least not down here in the south."

"Ah, not exactly true," Gaius said, standing again. "If I recall correctly, there was one in Winchester about forty or fifty years ago, long before we started any of these flood relief projects."

"But there were flooding issues back then too, with various schemes set in place to deal with them," Morgause pushed.

Gaius shook his head. "Minor and very local; mostly involving clearing out old, overgrown drainage ditches."

"I can assure you," Arthur said. "Our work primarily involved finding ways to drain water away more efficiently so flooding would not cause problems to farmland or communities. All work was undertaken close to the surface with no deep ground penetration involved. There is no way that the two events are linked."

"Unless perhaps you are hiding something about the nature of this work," Morgause continued, still smirking slightly.

They all exchanged an exasperated look. "There is absolutely no connection, I assure you," Gaius insisted.

Luckily after a couple more sensible questions, the conference finished, although there was still media interviews to give and general socialising and promotions to take part in.

"Have you heard from Martin or Morgan?" Arthur asked Gaius during a short gap. "And what about Lord Emrys? Wasn't he supposed to be here too?"

"I just got some vague message about Emrys being held up at home," Gaius replied. "And I've heard nothing from the two younger ones for a while, although I most definitely expected them all to be here, yes."

"I can't help but worry," Arthur continued. "And I'm not convinced that any of my calls are even getting through."

"I'm sure they're fine. I admit it's a shame the whole team wasn't here to join the celebration, but we managed well enough, despite that annoying women from the Mail."

He moved away then and Arthur immediately fished out his phone again, staring at it forlornly.

"Try not to worry," Gwen said, putting a gentle hand on his arm. "Just focus on the rest of this and we'll send a few more messages when we get back to the hotel."

He smiled then, placing an open palm on her cheek. "You are wonderful," he declared. "I don't know how I would have coped with all of this without your support."

She quirked an eyebrow. "And are you only talking about my computer skills here?"

He smiled lovingly down at her. "I can think of one or two other things you're wonderful at," he replied, moving slightly closer to her, not thinking about what he was doing and where he was.

A camera flash made him jump and he turned to see Morgause standing next to a young, blonde press photographer with a sickly smile on her face. "Now that is a totally adorable shot," she crowed. "Perhaps you would care to give an interview at some point. 'The Romances of Project Camelot' perhaps?" Her smile turned brighter. "Or how about, 'The New Arthur and Guinevere'?"

Arthur glared at her before leading Gwen hurriedly away. So much for their decision to keep the relationship a secret from Uther.

~o~0~o~

June 2059: Emrys Mansion

The party weekend was over and the guests were making ready to leave the manor house. Merlin left Morgana to get dressed and rushed off to get changed himself.

Into Emrys.

He made sure to say a proper thank you to each member of the team as the old man, repeating to each how much he was looking forward to meeting them again at Bristol University in September and seeing what wonderful ideas they would come up with.

"Guy and I have spent very many years setting this up," he explained to Arthur. "But, apart from an occasional visit, we wish to put this project firmly into the hands of you young people."

"Ah...?" Arthur asked as the old man handed him a folder.

"Your team," Merlin declared. "All their contact details and other relevant information. You are to be the project leader, Archie. Obviously Guy and I are but a phone call away and we both have contacts in the government if required." Arthur gave him a suspicious look. "As do you, of course. But most of our contacts are actually on our side." And he laughed loudly.

"Yeah, thanks for that."

"Good luck, Arthur."

"Sorry?"

Merlin raised his eyes, cross with himself for loosing concentration and using the wrong name. "I've decided to call it 'Project Camelot," he declared with a sudden laugh. "And you, as Morgan so rightly pointed out, must obviously be our King Arthur." Then he hobbled quickly away before he made any other mistakes.

With a flash of gold eyes and a quick change of clothes he was Martin again, striding back towards his bedroom. It was a good job he'd changed before he'd come back in because it appeared he had company.

"Morgan? What are you doing here?"

"I've decided to move in with you," she declared.

"Pardon?"

"Obviously I've not got a lot of stuff with me, but I thought perhaps I could go shopping tomorrow and get a few more things." She looked around the room with a frown. "Make this place a bit more comfortable."

"Morgan, you already have a room. Down the corridor. Whatever will Lord Emrys think?"

"I thought you told Archie that I was your girlfriend."

"Well, about that..."

She moved closer and looked up at him seductively. "You do want me to be, don't you?"

"I... just think... if we could..."

"Yes?" Her arms were now around his neck, her face so close to his that he could feel her breath on his lips. Merlin gave up and kissed her.

~o~0~o~

"So, what was it you wanted to discuss about this, Martin?" Morgan asked with a smirk as the pair lay naked in bed afterwards.

"I had planned to talk to you in detail before... this happened, yes," he said.

"And now?" she asked.

"Now you have a really good excuse to quickly back out of the arrangement."

"What? Why would I do that? Especially now I know just how good you are in bed." She laughed. "A surprise, I admit, but a very pleasant one."

"Well, get used to that because you'll have plenty of those."

She arched an eyebrow. "Plenty of what?"

He shook his head with a smile. "Surprises."

She laughed and snuggled up against his shoulder. "So... are you going to give me all the juicy gossip on the mysterious Martin."

"Yes," he replied with a sigh. "I think it's high time I told you everything."

"Oh... okay."

"What you saw around that table was not part of you imagination," he begun. "It was, in fact, a measure of the truth. And, although there are some things I cannot tell you outright, I can help you put together the pieces of the jigsaw that you already have, so you can figure it out for yourself – you are already incredibly close to doing so, in fact."

"All right."

"What did you see around that table?" he asked.

"I saw all nine of you as you are now but also... I saw... other versions of you. Archie and you always look the same, whilst the others have slightly different faces but..."

"Yes?" he pushed. He could not tell her 'the ultimate truth' but, seeing how much she knew about the legends of King Arthur, he doubted that would be much of an issue here.

"King Arthur and the Round Table," she continued cautiously. "It's more than just my teenage obsession, isn't it?"

"It is."

"And Archie?" Her eyes suddenly widened as she moved slightly to stare at him. "Archie really is Arthur?"

"The Once and Future King," Merlin confirmed. "Destined to return when Albion's need is greatest."

"King?"

Merlin shrugged. "A leader then. The language has changed a lot over the years, as you know."

She did look sceptical then. "You're telling me that my brother is King Arthur returned?"

"Isn't that what you just told me?" he countered with a small smile.

"And that makes you..."

"Someone with very powerful magic whose job it is to keep him safe."

"Merlin?" she asked, sceptically.

He shrugged. "Again, you've been calling me that on and off all weekend."

"Yes but... I sort of put it down to the drugs."

"And now you're completely clear of them, yet you're still aware of the magic and are understanding more about your visions every day."

"But Merlin should be an old man like... Emrys... and..." She stared at him, blinking and he gave her an amused look in return. She shook her head then, as half of her brain made the next obvious step, whilst the other half flatly refused to believe it.

"I hope you've no objections to dating an older man, Morgan because, honestly, you really can't get any older than me."

"You really are Merlin?" she breathed. "But you look... about twenty-two?"

"Martin's birth certificate says I'm twenty-four, two years younger than you are. I am most definitely not."

"Anything else I need to know?"

"I'm immortal. If you're serious about us being together, then you'll age and I won't. I can use my magic to change my outwards appearance at any time but, basically, I can still look this age when you're a hundred years old."

"Oh..."

"And I suppose I should also tell you that I can't have children."

"You can't?"

"I'm assuming that's just part of the deal and it's probably a good job. It's hard enough seeing those I care about grow old and die, I can't imagine what it would be like to outlive my own grandchildren."

"I... see..."

"And so, as I said, I had planned to tell you all this before we got seriously involved, but now you know and..."

She shrugged. "Now I know." Then she snuggled up against his shoulder and there was a long silence. Merlin had to admit to being confused.

"That's it?" he asked eventually. "No more questions or complaints about the lies I've told you? No worries about what this might mean for your future?"

"I'm trying to sleep, Merlin," she replied a little impatiently. "And I suggest you get some rest too. And old man like you is going to need all his strength for what I have planned for us later on."

The old Morgana, he decided, would most definitely not have taken the news so calmly.

~o~0~o~

A/N: I kept trying to keep this simple and not time jump, but this is 'Master of Time' so the story ended up forcing the issue.