February 2011

Elena walked into the small waiting room, looking at the young boy who sat there. He was quiet as usual, and like everyone else, she found it unnerving. But as much as they did that, it was also understandable. The on-duty doctor had looked at the black eye, given Mordred an ice pack and declared that it was just bruising. Mum's boyfriend had just got a bit out of hand. Mordred took it as normal, like his mother did.

She tried not to shift in discomfort as Mordred's eyes fixed on her, his face calm, showing no emotion. He never really expressed much of an opinion as he had been shifted about from place to place. A few of the foster families had found him unnerving, especially if they had children of their own, or other foster kids placed with them. Most of the kids just referred to Mordred as 'weird'. Which seemed a little harsh to Elena, but she also felt a little intimidated by this quiet and watchful child.

"I just need to tell you, your mother's had to go to hospital."

There was no particular reaction to that. Mordred just listened to her.

"But your step-father…" she faltered as the eyes, never seeming to change, started to glare at her. "Your mum's boyfriend,"

The glaring eased.

"He's going to stay in police custody, we'll see if we can get you into foster care, Mrs Barton is going through the emergency register…."

She paused as Mordred's expression went through another change. A rather startling one for anyone in the system that knew him. His eyes took on a completely different gleam, and it seemed to spark through the rest of his face, certainly translating to his voice as he hopefully said.

"Arthur and Merlin?"

November 2010

"Mrs Bartle, come in."

"I won't stay long, this is Mordred. Mordred, you'll be staying with Arthur, and Merlin?" Mrs Bartle paused, looking confused. Arthur smiled.

"He's in the kitchen, he thought Mordred might want something to eat. I can get him?"

"No, that's fine," Mrs Bartle said, looking like she wanted to get away. "If you could come into the office tomorrow to finalise the paperwork and just go over a few things, perhaps about eleven am?"

"I can be there in the morning," Arthur said. "Mordred as well?"

"Yes, he'll need more of his own things and he will have to go back to attend school as soon as possible."

"Not a problem, if he needs anything we can always get him what he need, or make do with what we have," Arthur said. "It's fine, we'll see you tomorrow."

"We'll talk to you then, as well Mordred."

The boy in question gave a curt nod. Arthur shut the door and then exhaled and turned around.

"We've got the room ready for you. You can put your bag up there. Have you had anything to eat tonight?"

The boy shook his head.

"Okay, that's good," Arthur said, heading up the stairs and indicating that he should follow. "Merlin's making sandwiches so you can eat what you want. If you're hungry then just keep eating, Merlin will make more than enough. Your room is just here. That's mine," Arthur added as he turned and caught Mordred on the half landing looking at the suit of armour. It was adorning a tailor's dummy that Gwen had sourced.

"The hat belongs to Merlin," Arthur added.

Mordred looked at them both. The hat looked a little ragged, perched on the top, but so did the armour, the chain mail had a long gash down one side, like it had been cut open. Mordred almost touched it, but Arthur reappeared again, indicating to various doors.

"Your room is there, bathroom to the right, we're next door on the left. Have a wander and get settled. I would prefer it if you don't go into that room there. That's the only out of bounds place, so just respect our privacy. Come down when you're ready."

Arthur left him as he wandered into the room that he would be staying in. Mordred looked around. It looked fine, there was a large double bed, and various other bits of furniture, with neat soft furnishings in blue and yellow. He poked around in drawers, and the wardrobe and made a small concession by putting the underwear from his bag in a drawer. The rest he left in his bag. He never spent much time anywhere. Going out he wandered around the house, peering to Arthur and Merlin's room, looking at the bright, shiny black and white bathroom and then he took a few tentative steps towards the room that Arthur had asked him not to go into. He tensed a little, listening to the low hum of sound from downstairs. It was a conversation, Arthur and Merlin, who Mordred had yet to see, were talking. Leaning forward, keeping his toes just on the metal carpet runner that divided the room from the landing, Mordred switched on the light.

The brightness of the bulb was softened to some extent by the lampshade, but it still made him blink as he looked into what was clearly a working room. The computer, on it's desk was turned off, some papers scattered on the top by the monitor, the shelves held files and books and a filing cabinet lay tucked away in the corner on Mordred's left, he looked at the listings on the front of the four drawers; 'owned', 'employees', 'development' and 'misc'. Mordred was rather curious as to what 'misc' meant. The other words made sense, sort of.

He looked at the box files that stood on the top of a bookcase, they made more sense; 'English', 'History', 'Psychology', there were three of English, two of history and five relating to psychology, all neatly numbered. Mordred guessed this was where one of them worked, Arthur, or Merlin, or maybe both of them.

Mordred turned and walked down the stairs, heading down the hallway and following the lights into the kitchen. Arthur was there, talking to a tall dark headed man. That came as no surprise to Mordred, Mrs Barton had carefully explained it to him. It made no difference to Mordred, they were just strangers that put up with him.

"He's just going to have to," Arthur said to Merlin. They both turned to look at Mordred. Merlin smiled, pausing from slicing cheese.

"Hi, I'm Merlin. Erm… do you like cheese?"

Mordred shrugged and moved further into the room. Arthur reached out and pulled out the nearest chair.

"Sit down, if your hungry help yourself," Arthur said pointing to the pile of sandwiches that had been made. "You've got chicken paste, sliced ham and tomato and cheese there."

Mordred reached out and took one, turning his head as the cat sat on the chair at right angles to him, on his left, stopped purring at Merlin and turned to look at him. Winnie's eyes closed, she shifted on the chair, purred a bit more and looked at Mordred. Mordred looked back.

"That's Winnie," Arthur said stealing a sliver of ham and giving it to her. Winnie purred and looked up at Arthur. Arthur rubbed the top of her head and she closed her eyes and angled into his hand.

"I've given her some, stop it!" Merlin chastised.

"A bit more won't hurt."

"The vet said she was portly!" Merlin snapped, and then looked at Mordred and stopped looking irritated and then looked guilty.

"Is there anything else you want?" Merlin asked anxiously. Mordred said nothing but reached for a cheese sandwich and put it on the plate that had been left out for him. Then he put a ham and another cheese one on. Very slowly he continued eating, Merlin smiled, which seemed to make Arthur smile, Mordred noted.

"I think that will be enough, we have those fruit pies too, if you're hungry after this."

"It's nice, thank you," Mordred said, very politely.

"I could do a ham and cheese, or we have some beef," Merlin said, sounding anxious to please. Mordred had heard that before, people wanting to make it better for him. Arthur turned and watched Merlin, as he was about to stay something but then the buzzing noise made them all look at the phone dancing across the kitchen surface. Arthur picked it up and grimaced.

"Mor…." He tried to duck away from the ranting down the phone. He took it away from his ear and then put it back.

"…gana. Talk in a normal voice. I'm not getting any sense out of you… hang on… just calm down and talk to me…." Arthur turned away putting a hand on Merlin's shoulder for a moment, as reassurance, before he walked away, trying to talk and not getting anywhere. Merlin looked at Arthur's retreating back and then at Mordred.

"Sorry, are you all right?"

Mordred nodded, very slowly his eyes on Merlin for a minute.

"NO!" Merlin suddenly said sternly. His eyes locked on the cat, who had one paw on the table. Merlin leant over and pushed it off. "No!" he informed the cat again putting his fingertip against her nose. Winnie closed her eyes and purred, pushing her head against him.

"Not on the table!" Merlin snapped at her. Then he looked at Mordred.

"She's fine everywhere but on the kitchen units, and the table. If she comes into your room later on, you can kick her out and just shut the door. She's just being nosy but she's done it to people before."

Mordred nodded slowly and ate more of his sandwich, looking at Merlin. Merlin smiled.

"Are the sandwiches all right? I could find something else if…"

Merlin paused. Winnie had turned and hopped off the chair, walking over to assess Mordred and she rested her front paws on the edge of the chair as she purred up at him. Mordred looked up at Merlin.

"Can I have ham and cheese?" he asked.

"Yes," Merlin said.

"Open a few of those and mix them together rather than making more, we're not going to eat them all. I can take the rest out with me tomorrow. For Gods sake!"

Arthur started talking in a normal voice, as he came back and talked to them, and then ran away as he raised his tone to a shout. Mordred kept listening, sitting back as Winnie curled around his chair, purring loudly.

"Morgana, just take a breath, and talk to her, deal with it. If you need him, Leon is there, I have my own life, thank you. Oh my God," Arthur announced, turning his phone off and throwing it away.

"Is it bad?"

"No, it's Morgana."

"Is there a problem, do you need to go and help her?"

Arthur shrugged and sat in the chair opposite Winnie, and right of Mordred. The little kitchen table looked thoroughly cluttered now. Arthur piled the plate that Merlin had left for him with some sandwiches and started eating, pulling some apart to assemble a couple of ham and cheese ones for Mordred. Arthur smiled at him and then turned to Merlin.

"What would be the good of that? She has to do it herself. The first problem she has with one of the staff, she comes crying to me and I come running. That doesn't send a good signal. If she's going to do this, she has to do it, on her own."

"It's not easy though is it? Uther's been dragging you around business meetings since you were born, it almost comes naturally to you."

"No," Arthur said gently, refusing to let his voice rise. "I had an early start doing it, but I learnt it, I made mistakes, and there was no one there to pick me up and dust me off."

"Not even Uther?"

Arthur shook his head, "only if there was danger of serious debt, and the time he thought he needed to help, I managed to sort it. Other than that, I was on my own."

Mordred listened with wide eyes, as Merlin and Arthur talked. Winnie jumped into his lap, purring loudly and settling herself down across his lap.

"You can push her off if you don't want her there," Arthur said.

Mordred smiled and left Winnie where she was.

February 2011

"And of course if you put the projections across the following year then we can potentially…."

'Bore me to death?' Arthur asked himself, desperately trying to get Merlin's attention. It was in vain, Merlin was listening to someone's wife, although why Merlin ended up talking to the wives baffled Arthur. Yes, Merlin was his partner but dealing with wives was above and beyond the call of duty. Arthur felt like crying with joy when he phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at it. He didn't recognise the number, and he didn't care. Arthur felt ready to have the caller's babies.

"Arthur Pendragon? Oh, Mrs Bartle, yes, hello, no that's fine."

Merlin had turned and Arthur waved at him, drawing him over.

"Nothing that important, why?"

"What's the matter?"

"No, that's fine, we can do that."

"What?" Merlin snapped at him.

"Which police station?" Arthur paused. "No I can call up the address, I can find it. Is he all right?"

Merlin stopped tugging on his lapel in a subtle gesture to get his attention. Arthur raised his eyebrows and mouthed one word.

'Mordred'.

"What do we need to do?" Merlin asked.

"We'll be there as soon as we can," Arthur said, hanging up. "We need to go and pick him up, he needs fostering again."

"And they asked us, again?" Merlin said.

"We'd better tell dad, and no, they didn't ask, Mordred did."