Sorry the link was broken in the last chapter . I think I fixed it now if you're curious about what the necklace looked like. Also, I added a snippet of dialogue between Arthur and Gwen, if you missed it : )

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLIN MORGAN! Oh…and something about a Happy New Year or other…

Chapter 10

Gwen was speechless. She wished that this moment wouldn't have come during her Christmas party. She would've rather had a nice quiet proposal, and time to think things through. Then, if she accepted, they could celebrate privately before announcing it to the world. But no. Apparently, Lance didn't want that.

She chewed on her bottom lip. An unfortunate habit that she had developed in childhood when she was nervous, stressed out, or thinking deeply. She wanted to say yes, she did! Lance was everything that Gwen had ever hoped to discover in a man. Not only that, but if she rejected him Elyan would be disappointed. He and Lance were the best of friends, and it would be supremely awkward to hang out afterwards. Also, she and Lance were an obvious pairing. He and she had met in a manner that was almost cliché. She could tell her children about how they met, and they would laugh at how perfect it would be. Oh and how lovely their children would be! They would grow up in a loving, stable household. Lance really was lovely. More than that, Lance was "safe". She knew that he had patience, and he never tried to pull anything on her to compromise her values. Arthur-wait how could she be thinking about Arthur during a proposal by Lance?-didn't have the best reputation around in those matters. However, now that her thoughts had strayed to Arthur, she began to think about all the things she loved about-well, not loved, more like "was intrigued" about than loved-him. She liked the way that he had proven his reputation wrong. He was honest, fair, chivalrous, noble, and an amazing friend. He had never tried to move past the "friend zone"-not that she knew if he even wanted to or not. Also, he was always there for her.

She remembered the day she was ill. The day that Lance was out promoting some campaign thing or another, Merlin was visiting his mother back in Ireland, and Elyan was away for work for the entire week. She normally could take care of herself, and hated to impose on anyone, but necessity had demanded it.

-Flashback-

A fortnight ago:

Gwen woke up with a throbbing headache, a sore throat, runny nose, cough, and a fever. She had been sick in the past, but it was nothing compared to this. It was the worst case of the flu she had ever had. She wanted to get out of bed to make herself from tea, but the minute she tried to sit up she felt dizzy. As she lied back down she realized she was shivering, and pulled the blankets tighter around her small frame. She didn't want to call anyone to tell them that she was sick. She hated being a burden to anyone, but she was forced to concede that she was too ill to manage on her own. She knew when a battle was lost. 'What a great way to start a Saturday,' Gwen thought.

She groped for her phone which lay on her bedside table. Bleary-eyed she scrolled through her contacts, before realizing the only one she knew wasn't busy was Arthur. She didn't want to call. At all. She barely knew the man, really. They had met a little over two weeks ago, and Gwen wasn't sure that it was proper to "call in a favor" yet. Sure they had been spending almost all of her free-time together (with Merlin there about half the time), and had gotten on really well, but the "I'll owe you one" didn't seem appropriate yet. An internal battle raged inside of her head. In the end, the pressing physical need overcame her very large sense of embarrassment and anxiousness as she dialed the numbers.

"Hello?" came Arthur's voice over the phone. He seemed very awake for being dialed at 7 am.

"Arthur," Gwen croaked out, "It's me, Gwen."

"Guinevere are you okay? Do you need anything?" concern dominated Arthur's tone.

"Well-cough-I hate to be a-cough cough-bother, but are you free today? I'm really-cough-sick and I was wondering if you could-cough-help me?" Gwen barely managed to squeak out her completely mortifying request.

She closed her eyes, half praying that Arthur would merely shrug off her request with an attempt at some humor and hang up. Yet he did the opposite.

"Of course, Guinevere. I'll be right on over. Give me ten minutes."

Click. The phone had hung up. Gwen knew that it only took Arthur five minutes to get to her house since he lived in the neighborhood adjacent to hers, yet she didn't question him. She could only stare at her ceiling and wait.

Ten minutes later on the dot she heard a knock on her door, before it creaked open and shut. Thump thump thump. Heavy footsteps made her way to her door before a gentle knock and a soft, "Guinevere, it's me. Can I come in?"

"Mhm," was all Gwen could get out. She had started to doze off in the last couple of minutes.

Arthur opened the door, and was shocked at the sight of Guinevere. Normally, he knew that girls were only pretty in perfect health. Especially ones that he fancied-not that he had ever gone to look after one when she was sick (not that they would've ever let the extremely handsome Arthur Pendragon see them in such a state). Her skin was paler than normal, and sweat soaked her brow. Her hair was pinned up, but mussed from rolling around in her sleep. Her eyes had dark circles underneath them, and there was no make-up upon her eyes. Her pajamas were rather homely looking, and rumpled from use. They were matching and, due to winter, were made of flannel. They were lavender purple with darker purple hearts doting the surface making up the pattern on the long-sleeved button up shirt and comfortable bottoms. Yet Guinevere still looked miraculously beautiful to Arthur.

But something was wrong-that he was sure of-and it was probably because Guinevere was not in health, radiating happiness. Arthur was only beginning to understand that his happiness seemed to depend entirely on her well being and joy. This image just solidified this message which seemed to be constantly pressing in on his mind.

Suddenly, Gwen started hacking a deep cough which lasted for several minutes. This startled Arthur out from his reverie. He closed the door partially behind him with his foot as he proceeded forward, shaken from his thoughts about her beauty by her ugly cough. He felt an overwhelming urge to get rid of anything that could do this to her. His arms were laden with various cold remedies, tissue boxes, thermometers and other instruments. He had taken the extra five minutes to swipe everything from his medicine cabinet for the flu that he could manage to hold. He always made sure to have it well stocked for instances like this.

"Don't get beer me do much," Gwen managed to get out with her nose becoming clogged up again, "I don't want you to bit sick."

Arthur smiled, and set his things down on a dresser by the door, extracting a thermometer from the pile as he approached her bed. He gently sat down and asked,

"May I?"

Gwen merely nodded as Arthur took her temperature from under her tongue.

As they waited for the results, with Gwen's mouth preoccupied with the thermometer, and Arthur held it firmly in place, he quietly said to her, "Guinevere, I could never not want to be near you."

It wasn't meant to come out sounding so romantic, yet Arthur could tell it seemed so. However, the normally observant Gwen was too focused on her current situation to notice.

As he extracted the thermometer from her mouth to read it Gwen responded with a soft, "You're a good friend, Arthur."

The thermometer read 39 degrees Celsius.

"Goodness Guinevere, you sure do have a fever! You need rest. Why don't you go back to bed, and I'll make you some tea for when you wake up, yeah? I'll leave a box of tissues here for you on the bedside table. The trash is right here," Arthur said as he moved the bin closer to her, "and I'll be right in your living room. Don't hesitate to ask for anything. I mean it. I'm here to take care of you."

He reached out his hand and slowly inched his way to her hair, and stroked the side of her face.

Gwen unconsciously leaned into his touch and offered up a faint smile as she replied, "Thank you Arthur. Feel free to make yourself at home, really."

He gave her a dazzlingly bright smile before leaving the room, seemingly grateful to be of service. As he left, Gwen settled down into a slumber rife with images of her and the blonde-haired man. They were married, and had left the city for the quieter suburbs. They had a little boy with flaxen straight hair and chocolate eyes who stood beside his parents. She held an even smaller girl who had tufts of dark curly hair and startlingly blue irises in her arms. Gwen subconsciously smiled, and snuggled deeper into sleep.

-End Flashback-

She had learned afterwards that Arthur had cancelled all of his appointments-which were numerous and varying degrees of important-to take care of her. And he really did take this mission to heart. When she had woken up the fever had broke, but her stomach loosened up. She had thrown up for an hour afterwards. She had sat on the bathroom floor, her head poised over the toilet, with Arthur by her side rubbing small circles on her back making gentle cooing noises. He offered up comforting words and hushed her every time the tears threatened to come forward. Tears that were forming not because of her physical illness, but because Lance had never done anything like this for her. Sure, he had taken care of her before when she was ill, but it was a much less gentle approach. He was an amazing man, but absolutely clueless when it came to caring for the ill. He had offered up soup, tea, and various boxes of tissue but ultimately stayed away from her. He agreed with her insistences of staying away when she was sick-he didn't want to contract the illness as well. He meant well, but he was nothing to Arthur. Arthur had stayed there overnight-on the couch-and stayed until she had made it through the worse. He left with a furrowed brow-he had wanted to stay until Guinevere was her old self again. Yet she had insisted that he left. She reminded him that he had other more important matters to attend to than her, and thanked him for his kindness. As he stood on her threshold, reluctantly making his way out, she practically fell over herself apologizing for inconveniencing him before he did something she didn't expect. He had gently grabbed her by her shoulders, and tilted her face up to his until their eyes locked.

That was when he had said to her in a completely serious manner, "Guinevere, there is nothing more important to me than you. You could never inconvenience me. Please don't hesitate to call me again. Even if you feel the least bit poorly."

Then he had leaned in and kissed her cheek. His lips were feather light against her skin, but it had tingled in that spot for quite some time after he had left.

Gwen snapped back to the present. Lance was still kneeling down on one leg, offering up a beautiful diamond band and looking up at her nervously, yet hopefully. He still had a shy grin on his face as he looked into her eyes expectantly. She had been silent for what felt like an eternity mulling all of this over. Yet according to the clock she nervously glanced over it had only been for a few seconds.

"Lance I-I don't know what to say," she managed to stammer out, stalling for a few more seconds.

There was quite the crowd surrounding her, watching and waiting. She wasn't sure if she could take it any longer. They were putting her on edge.

"But I-I think that I need a quick breather-excuse me," she hastily stumbled out and ran back towards the balcony. She needed the fresh air to help her clear her head and think. It was hard to think about all the conflicting feelings for Lance and Arthur in the stuffy room.

Yet when she stepped out into the cool air she saw Arthur frozen in front of her path to the railing. He was stony faced and didn't appear to register that he was blocking her path. She had forgotten that he was out there.

"Arthur!" Gwen practically cried.

Arthur blinked in response to her call and looked down at her. She was so gorgeous in her dress, but her eyes shone with unshed tears. She looked on the verge of an emotional breakdown so he did the first thing which came to his head. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. It felt so instinctual, and she fit perfectly inside of his embrace. It was as if they were made for each other.

Gwen let herself go in his arms. She started to cry as she choked out, "I can't-can't believe that he proposed to me! In front of all of those people! I just-I just don't know what to do!"

She buried her face deeper into Arthur's chest, and he unconsciously stroked her back. He peered into the room as he lifted his gaze from her head. If her sobs hadn't been wrenching his heart apart-he would've done anything to never hear the horrific sound again-he would've laughed at the scene in Gwen's apartment. He had dreamed of such a scenario as this, but preferably with much less tears.

The people which had surrounded her and Lance were muttering and looking away from the man who stood in the center of the circle, embarrassed and confused. He still held the box containing the band in his hands, and fiddled with the object. His eyes were downcast, and he appeared to be determined to look anywhere but outside-as did the others.

Fresh tears which began to soak his shirt brought Arthur back to the scene on the balcony.

"Guinevere, shh it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay," Arthur hushed her as he looked down at the top of her head.

He wanted to tell her that she should reject Lance and stay in his arms forever. He wanted to say that he would love her for all of eternity. He wanted to say that it was destiny which drove them into each other's lives, and that they were meant for one another. However most of all he wanted to say that he had shown her a side of him that no one else had ever or would ever see. He had never been so open or so caring with any of his past relationships. They had all been messy, shallow affairs which he preferred not to dwell on. Vivian and he had fallen apart, which he was thankful for, and Gwen could clearly see that she was no competitor for his heart. He had never gone over to a girl's apartment before just to take care of her when she was sick. Yet it felt perfectly natural to do so for Gwen-even instinctual. He felt things and did things for her that he never thought he would ever experience. She made him want to be a better person simply by her influence.

He wanted to tell himself that he was strong enough to let her go, if she did indeed choose Lance over him. Yet he couldn't bring himself to. Perhaps it was because he knew he wasn't strong enough. Or maybe it was because he was selfish, but whatever it was he knew that above everything else he wanted-no needed-her to be happy. For if she was happy, everything else would be okay no matter how painful.

Gwen's tears began to slow and quickly disappear. She pulled her head back from his chest and gave him an embarrassed, watery smile. She was still in his arms, he seemed determined to never let her out of them.

"Sorry," she said as she wiped her eyes on the back of her arms, "I guess I have an unfortunate habit of letting you see me always on my worst days. First being sick and now this-this emotional breakdown."

"You never have to be sorry for something like that. I'm glad that you think our relationship is strong enough to see each other at our worse. I don't ever mind being your shoulder to lean on," Arthur said.

Gwen smiled at Arthur. Her eyes seemed to convey her gratitude in a way words just couldn't. It made Arthur's heart melt. He would give anything to help her.

"I suppose I need to go back in there."

"Yes," the simple reply. Anything else hurt too much.

"But I don't know what to say." Gwen softly admitted.

"Really?" surprise laced Arthur's voice.

"Yes. I thought I loved Lance, I really did. But I have no idea. And to say yes to forever with a man you're uncertain about is quite a long time."

"Loved? What made it past," Arthur latched on to the one thing in her conversation which held hope for him.

Gwen was silent. Arthur could see in her eyes that she was struggling with an internal battle for what to tell him. In the end, he could tell that honesty won out.

"You."

Plain. Simple.

The admission of her feelings for Arthur suddenly made Gwen's chest lighten up, and the weight constricting her breathing release. She didn't realize how much that simple statement had pressed upon her mind. Now that she knew it to be true, her mind was made up.

To be continued