*AUTHORS NOTE* I'm really, really sorry I haven't updated in a long time, been busy with my other fanfics and I had a huge bout of writer's block (idea constipation) so I couldn't write anything!
"So you can't die?" Uther paced the courtroom, warily eyeing Jack up and down.
"Yes, I am, in a way, immortal. I can't explain it or control it, I simply can't die."
Uther sat on his throne, deep in thought. "So I can't get rid of you?"
Jack laughed. "No, I suppose not!" He sighed. "I can leave, if that's what you want."
Arthur's stomach dropped. He had hoped Jack could stay in Camelot. Permanently.
Uther thought about it for a minute, and the court waited on his words with baited breath. "Yes, I suppose that would be for the best." He stood up and spoke with authority. "I hereby plead Jack Harkness guilty of practicing magic and banish him from this kingdom, to never return on pain of" He stopped. "I was going to say death."
"Okay, how about on pain of very painful torture?"
Uther smiled. "On pain of very painful torture." He finished, sending a ripple of laughter running round the assembled court. Arthur smiled, he had never seen his father like this before, and it instilled some relief inside him, it showed his father wasn't always the unfair, pompous and prejudiced king he had grown to know and hate.
Ianto woke up to the silent hub. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he sat up and smiled at Gwen, who had slipped in quietly.
"Morning" She set a mug of coffee down on the coffee table by the sofa and sat down next to him. "Anything happen in the night?"
"No" Ianto yawned. "I woke up once, but it was quiet. Still no sign of Jack."
"He'll be fine, as Owen said; he's managed without us before."
"I just hope we don't have another one of those bloody blowfish episodes again, if it wasn't for Jack showing up when he did who knows what could have happened!"
Gwen laughed, "Yeah, that was scary! I don't think I've ever been as glad to see Jack as then!"
Ianto smiled, "I think that's the same for everyone!"
Jack rode beside Arthur on a beautiful bay stallion. They walked slowly out of Camelot, Jack taking in for the last time the immense structure of the beautiful castle. Merlin sat in front of him, expertly controlling the horse, which was uneasy at Jack's presence.
"Jack, don't you get scared of death?" Merlin broke the awkward silence between the three of them.
Jack thought about it for a moment. "Not really. I never really die, I kind of die, but not for long enough to really experience total death, I get pulled back to reality too quickly for that."
Merlin mused over this for a few minutes. "What is it like to die?"
Jack thought about that. "That's a hard question to answer. It's calm, and dark, and cold, but it varies from person to person."
Merlin spurred the horse on, as it had stopped to nibble at the grass.
Arthur spoke up, after staying silent for the duration of the conversation. "Jack, I'm sorry about my father."
"It's okay, I've dealt with worse. You should see Owen on a Monday morning!"
Merlin and Arthur laughed. "I'm going to miss you, Jack." Merlin sighed.
"It's alright, maybe I'll return one day, we might get more rift trouble, that thing is so unpredictable!"
Arthur sighed. "I wish father wasn't so hard on magic, most of the 'sorcerers' he executes are just normal innocent people."
"Prehaps yu can change that, when you're king." Jack smiled. "Maybe then I can come back without having to suffer very painful torture."
Merlin smiled at the thought that he might see this funny, kind captain he had got to know so well over the happenings of the past few weeks. Arthur stopped his horse at the edge of the large corn field they had been riding through. "Camelot ends here" he announced.
Jack slid off the horse and patted its neck. He fished in his pocket and drew out the portable rift manipulator and handed it to Arthur. "Here, if you get any rift trouble this will come in very useful. To close nodes just turn this dial at the top and press the button. To open them turn them to the left and pull the lever on the side, though opening nodes isn't advisable, you'll be overrun with weevils and space junk in no time!"
Arthur took it and inspected it, and smiled. "Thank you, for everything. I still owe you my life."
"You can keep that" Jack smiled.
"How will you get back?" Merlin asked.
Jack tapped the brown piece of leather strapped round his wrist. "Vortex manipulator, Time travel of course!"
Both Merlin and Arthur laughed, and said their long and grateful goodbyes, before watching the captain stride away towards the treeline of the forest.
Jack took long strides away from the prince and his manservant, quickly approaching the treeline. It was a calm day, and the sun shone in a brilliant blue sky, and overhead a bird of prey hovered in the still, chilly air, eyes scanning the ground below for food. Jack turned when he reached the treeline to see Merlin and Arthur still waiting, and behind them the castle rose like a graceful mountain, flags on the turrets fluttering in the light, chilled breeze that had picked up. Jack raised a hand in farewell, and Merlin and Arthur waved back. Jack pressed the buttons on his vortex manipulator, waited for a few seconds, and in a flash, Camelot had disappeared and he was now standing on a grey, wet bay, the water tower rising above him like one of Camelot's many turrets. He sighed; already missing the friends he had made and, wearily, trudged back to the hub.
Arthur and Merlin looked at eachother and back up to the treeline of the forest. Jack had been there one minute, and the next, there was a flash of light and the captain had disappeared. "Well…We'd better get back. I've got training to do and, as for you, you can muck out the stables!" Arthur flashed Merlin a grin and spurred his horse back towards the castle. Merlin groaned and followed, craning his neck to look at the forest until it disappeared from view.
Merlin spread the fresh hay in the last stall and breathed a sigh of relief. He sat down on a bale of hay to rest, and thought about the past few weeks with a smile. Outside, he heard his name being called and got up. Blinking in the brightness, he saw Arthur standing, holding his horse by the reigns. "Oh, there you are. Here, you can take him to his stall and brush him down, and then meet me in my chambers to collect my armour for cleaning. You have four week's backlog of chores to do!" He shoved the horse's reigns into Merlin's hands and strode off towards the castle, to tell his father Jack had been escorted from the kingdom and he had finished his day's training.
"Jack!" The team cried as Jack wearily entered the hub. Vortex manipulator travel always wore him out.
"I have arrived, and to prove it, I am here!" Jack sat down on the tatty sofa and put his feet up on the coffee table. "Anything interesting happen in my absence?"
"Not really, a few minor rift disturbances and some weevil problems. Also someone nicked the SUV" Ianto handed Jack a fresh mug of coffee.
"What?" Jack nearly spat the coffee out.
"Oh, don't worry, we got it back."
"Oh, phew, okay."
"How about you? What happened?"
"Not a lot really. I was prosecuted for practicing magic and executed twice."
The team stared at him. "What?" They all said in unison.
Jack smiled. "It doesn't matter. They tried to kill me and, well, it didn't work, so I was banished instead. Oh, you should have seen the place, forests everywhere and little villages with real peasant houses, and the most fantastic castle you've ever seen!"
"Well, at least we were a bit more hospitable!" Owen grumbled.
"Sounds great!" Gwen smiled.
"Jack, we've had a call. Some weevils are causing havoc in town." Tosh appeared with a phone in one hand. "By the way, we missed you."
Jack smiled. "Goodness, I spend a weekend away and you all start pining for me!" He got up. "Ianto, fancy a little weevil hunt?"
Merlin sat on Arthur's bed, a smile spread across his face. Arthur lay next to him, arms wrapped around Merlin's waist. "About that chore backlog." He said it lazily, with a lopsided grin on his face. "You can forget it." He kissed Merlin gently, and Merlin kissed him back.
Arthur sat up. "Fancy a hunt?"
"But I've just watered, fed and brushed the horses!" Merlin complained.
"Come on, you know you want to!" Arthur leant on the doorframe to his chambers, hand on his hip and an endearing pout on his face.
Merlin laughed and got up. "Oh, alright!"
An hour later, Merlin and Arthur were galloping back to Camelot, a prize dear slung between the horses. Merlin smiled at Arthur; Merlin had used magic to catch it, and was happy that he could openly use it in front of the prince, it was one less person he had to lie to, and it was the person he hated lying to the most. As Merlin took the horses to the stable, and brushed them down for a second time, he smiled. It's good to be back, he thought, it's good to be back.