For some reason Uther drove with Morgana to the hospital and told Gwaine to stay with Arthur. It wasn't like he was going to attempt to escape or evade them, they knew where he was going, but Arthur gave no complaints. So Gwaine sat in the passenger seat of Arthur's car, rummaging through his CD collection, peering into his glove compartment and retuning his radio.
"Interesting range you have," Gwaine said, poking through the CD's again. "I wouldn't have expected to you like some of this."
Arthur gripped the steering wheel and tried not to snap at Gwaine. He couldn't help it, the man just irritated him. It wasn't really Gwaine's fault, they had just never really got on.
"Life's full of surprises," Arthur said. Gwaine shrugged at Arthur's terse tone of voice and looked at the passing scenery instead, and played with the electric window control. Arthur tried not to snap again, and waited until Gwaine got bored with that. He put the window back up again and ran his fingers through his hair. Arthur had to admit that if Uther had given Gwaine instructions to try and get more information out of him he wasn't bothering to act on it. Unless the whole irritating behaviour was some form of torture to see if he'd break.
Gwaine turned in the seat to look into the back of the car, and smirked at the rabbit in a hammock stuck to the back window.
"Cute."
"It was a present from Gwen, she has a good eye for cute."
"Was she the one you dated?" Gwaine asked.
"No, that was Elena, and I wouldn't call it much of a relationship, we only went out a few times."
"That's why I used the word 'dated' as opposed to girlfriend," Gwaine corrected. "Maybe Gwen's trying to tell you something."
"Yeah; happy birthday. Maybe it's why my mum thinks the car isn't grown up."
Gwaine frowned, turned around again, waving at the car behind. Morgana indulgently waved back.
"What isn't grown up?"
"My car, mum thinks it isn't grown up enough."
"It's got an engine, and you can kill someone if you hit them with it, how is that not grown up?"
Arthur shrugged. Gwaine smirked.
"Is this one of those settling down with a nice girl, getting married, and lumbering yourself with a mortgage type of thing?"
"Could be."
"Arthur, my friend, you are not alone in this," Gwaine assured him, reaching out to clap a hand on Arthur's shoulder. "I get the same thing from my mother, and my aunt, and my sister, and sometimes my father." Gwaine patted him reassuringly.
It took some effort on Arthur's part to prevent himself from shrugging off the hand and informing Gwaine they were not friends. Again, it wasn't Gwaine's fault. Arthur hadn't even met Gwaine the first time he was irritated by him. He had just seen a picture of him in the newspaper, with his father. Uther had been caught in the picture with a friendly arm around Gwaine's shoulder. It had irked Arthur, when it shouldn't have, but he saw the reality of it often enough. When he had refused to join the police force, his father, probably though no conscious fault of his own, took on younger officers, encouraging them, in place of Arthur. They were just acting as substitutes for what Uther had wanted to do for Arthur, what he had planned, without telling Arthur anything about it.
Uther had been disappointed by Arthur's refusal to follow in his footsteps. Arthur hadn't really thought about what career he wanted until his late teens, when he had started to look towards university. It was perhaps the divorce that had turned his mind away from being a police officer, with his father so busy, and never home. Arthur hadn't really wanted that, and disappointment was better than guilt.
There was a danger to the job, Uther had been injured enough, he had been stabbed and beaten more than once, and only a protective vest had prevented his death when an armed robber had shot him. Arthur could have ended up in the same danger, anything could happen, and his father wouldn't have forgiven himself; Igraine certainly wouldn't. Arthur had seen his mother's upset when Uther got injured. Arthur didn't think his conscience could take putting Igraine through that.
"My family forever asking me if I've met a nice girl. I say I have, but I'm still working on it," Gwaine said.
"Who?"
Gwaine inclined his head backwards, towards the car behind them. Uther was keeping directly behind them, following Arthur steadily. Arthur raised his eyebrows.
"You and Morgana?"
"Not yet, I'm letting my charm do it's work."
"Since when?"
"Since about five years ago." Gwaine grinned and Arthur couldn't help but laugh as he signalled right and paused to let a car pass before turning into the driveway of the annexe.
"I think you might need to accept the fact that you're never going to get anywhere. Morgana is married to the job."
"I live in hope," Gwaine said sagely.
"I think in this case, you live in delusion."
Arthur parked his car neatly in his space, and Uther eased his own into the area where visitors tended to park. Gwaine got out of the car and looked over the roof of the Beetle at Arthur.
"A little bit doesn't do any harm," Gwaine said. Arthur shrugged.
"I suppose," Arthur said. He locked the car and turned, frowning as he caught sight of one of the fire doors. Instead of heading towards the main entrance he went to the side of the building, walking over a section of grass to pick up the pathway that ran out from the east wing.
"Arthur?" Uther asked him.
"This door should not be open," Arthur announced, pulling it open and looking into the dining room. No one was inside, which made Arthur feel even more suspicious.
"Aren't they alarmed?" Gwaine said.
Arthur shook his head. "It was deemed to expensive, and since the patients here are voluntary, there isn't any concern that they will try to sneak out. Lancelot!"
Lancelot backed up, pausing in the corridor as he frowned at Arthur.
"What?"
"This door was open, the cleaners didn't leave it like that did they?"
Lancelot shook his head, "not to my knowledge and they always let us know if that's the case."
"This looks like it's been opened from the outside," Gwaine said, looking at the side of the door.
"I'll warn everyone else, and get them to search the building," Lancelot said, struggling to pull the walkie-talkie he had on his belt off to start calling around to the rest of the staff. Arthur went down the corridor, heading up the stairs towards the resident's wing.
"Have you got any drugs that would be worthwhile stealing?" Gwaine asked.
"Some but they are locked away, and we never have a huge supply, just enough, we get a weekly delivery from the hospital, and if we need anything else, someone goes and collects just the right amount," Arthur said.
"I'll check the supply now," Lancelot added, Gwaine veered off and followed him.
"I'll come with you."
Arthur carried on up to the resident's wing, not entirely certain why he thought to go that way. He just wanted to check everything was all right, and some instinct was stirring inside him. It was occasional that someone might break into the building looking for drugs but Arthur didn't think that was the case this time.
Uther and Morgana followed behind him. Arthur went straight to Merlin's rooms and froze in horror.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
The two men in Merlin's room jumped, turning round to stare at him. Arthur went cold when he saw the camera that one of them was carrying.
"This is a private building, and you have no right to be in here!" Arthur added. Uther pushed him further into the room to glare at the two men.
"Hey, we just wanted a picture. Mr Emrys is rather newsworthy."
"I will have you on a trespassing charge," Uther snarled. "And his name has not been released, so where did you get it from?"
"Your press office isn't as secure as you thought, and I'm not one of your pet reporters," the man nearest to Merlin snapped, his thin face contorting into a sneer. Arthur eased his way into the room, walking over the bed to get to Merlin's side. Someone had put Kilgharrah into Merlin's hands, he had them carefully wrapped around the dragon, but Arthur noticed with horror, one of his wings hanging, at the hinge.
"Bloody hell!" Arthur exploded. He almost took Kilgharrah out of Merlin's hands, but he felt a tremor of tension, and instead crouched down and gently tried to examine the damage. Arthur's shoulders tensed as he heard a clicking sound.
"Enough!" Uther snapped. "Give me that camera!"
"Hey, you can't stop us, this latest murder could be related to the 'Ripper' case, which means Cenred might get his appeal."
"And you think putting information about the only survivor in the paper is the most intelligent next move?" Morgana asked, her voice low. She was moving forward, to try and confiscate the camera. The man backed away, but Arthur was behind him so he could only go so far. Crouched down, Arthur was also close enough to see what happened. The man lifted the camera, holding it by the strap, to try and keep it from Morgana's grip. The momentum of his movement didn't seem all that violent but it caused the camera to swing in such a way that it impacted against the bed post.
The crack as it connected was shattering in the small room. The photographer turned to look in horror and then sent an accusing glare at Arthur.
"You did that on purpose!"
"I never touched it," Arthur snapped at him. Fragments of plastic and glass started to litter the floor. Morgana used the moment, and the distracted horror of the photographer to take the camera and eject the memory card, pocketing it neatly before handing it back.
"Do you have any idea what this is worth?" he demanded.
"I presume you're insured," Morgana said, looking unruffled. Gwaine appeared in the doorway, it had been quite obvious that no one had tried to access the drugs locker so he had come running back, blocking the doorway. Arthur let them get on with it, instead he concentrated on Merlin, trying to ease Kilgharrah from his grip. Merlin's hands had tensed, not wanting to relinquish the toy.
"You two, out!" Uther snapped at the two reports. "Is there somewhere we can talk to these two in peace?"
"Use the dining room, Lancelot will make sure on one wanders in there accidentally," Arthur said.
"Sure," Lancelot said. Gwaine backed up and let Uther and Morgana herd the two men out, Lancelot leading the way back down to the dining room. Arthur continued to try and prise Kilgharrah from Merlin but he wasn't giving him up. As he was fairly steady in Merlin's grip Arthur eyed the damage.
"What the hell did they do to you?" Arthur asked the toy. His right wing was hanging on the joint in the middle of the wing. Arthur didn't dare touch it, which was probably why Merlin didn't want to give it to anyone. Gwaine watched the others go, before heading into the room, looking at the toy, peering over Arthur's shoulder. He gave a thoughtful murmur, reaching out to gently take the now flimsy bit of plastic.
"Have you got any fuse wire?" Gwaine asked after a moment.
"I don't know!" Arthur snapped. "Gwen's brother comes in to do most of the repairs, I have no idea where he leaves stuff. You could ask Lancelot, he'll probably know."
Gwaine straightened up. "I shall, I can probably fix that up."
He wandered out again, heading off on his mission to locate some fuse wire. Gwaine also mused that he'd need some wire cutters, and pliers, or perhaps tweezers, it looked like it could be a delicate job. He wandered out of the resident's area and headed down the stairs. Lancelot was lingering in the corridor that led to the dining room looking uncomfortable. Gwaine glanced past them to see Uther giving the two reporters something of a telling off, Morgana listening carefully. Gwaine looked at Lancelot.
"Have you got any fuse wire, and pliers? I'll see if I can fix Merlin's dragon."
"The toolbox is in the store cupboard just there," Lancelot said, pointing at the area under the stairs. Gwaine nodded and went rummaging. Lancelot turned to look into the dining room again. He couldn't hear what was being said but Uther seemed to be dominating the conversation. He glanced back as Gwaine reappeared from the cupboard, holding what he needed in his hands.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
Lancelot frowned, looking worried. "I was supposed to be on duty up there, I should have realised they had got in."
"Yeah, because you're really going to expect two reporters to come creeping in a fire door to start photographing one of your more vulnerable patients," Gwaine said. Lancelot looked even more uncomfortable.
"What if they do print those pictures though?"
"They won't. Morgana's got the memory card, and Uther can handle it. He can certainly run with the reasoning that it might affect this new investigation."
"It really was this new murder that Merlin drew?"
"Looks to be, I don't believe in co-incidence, it would be a huge one that Merlin happened to draw that scene, with our victim. Did you know he was drawing?"
Lancelot shook his head. "No, Arthur only discussed it with Gaius. I think Arthur wanted to keep Merlin's first steps low key, rather than risk inundating him. Then he just kicked off last night."
"You were there, when he started?"
Lancelot nodded. "I'm on the late shift this week. They were just all settling down to bed. I'd done Merlin first, and I had just walked past his room. He wasn't asleep, he was just lying in bed, and he was fine. I was going to go back and check on him one last time, and we usually leave his light on until we know he's fully asleep, so I'd have told Elena if she needed to go back to look in on him, then I just heard screaming. I followed the sounds and it took me to Merlin's room. He hadn't moved, but he was just…"
"Screaming?" Gwaine finished the sentence. Lancelot nodded.
"I was just going to move him, and he tried fighting me off. Since we had no idea what to do, we called Arthur and he came tearing over."
"Is that usual?" Gwaine asked.
"No, not really. Well actually, kind of yes for Arthur. If he's on call and we ring him, he just tends to head in rather than give us instruction over the phone, not that we often need to. But this was not even close to a normal scenario, so I just didn't know what else to do."
Gwaine shrugged, Lancelot looked a bit like a startled rabbit, probably thinking that he shouldn't have told Gwaine quite as much as he had done.
"I'll see if I can fix that dragon thing," Gwaine said, waving the tools he had acquired and he jogged back up the stairs towards Merlin's room. Arthur voice was a low comforting murmur as he gently talked to Merlin.
"Got the stuff," Gwaine announced putting it all down on the dressing table and he tried to take Kilgharrah from Merlin. Merlin again resisted any attempts to have the dragon taken from him.
"Can you do it while he's holding it?"
"I would have thought putting it down on a level surface was better. That's plastic pin seems to have broken so I need to ease that piece out and re-thread that section of the joint with wire."
"Merlin, Gwaine will look after it all right, but you have to give Kilgharrah to him so he can fix him. Okay, I'll be right here, I'll keep an eye on him. Nothing else will happen to him, just let me take him for a moment." Arthur continued talking in the low gentle tone and Merlin's rigid grip slowly started to relax and Arthur eased Kilgharrah from Merlin's hands, carefully passing him over to Gwaine, who cradled the dragon carefully.
"Don't worry Merlin, I'm a regular Mr Fix-it," Gwaine assured him, carefully putting Kilgharrah down on the dressing table, and taking the set of small pliers he had found began levering out the broken bit of plastic. Arthur put the sketchpad and pencil he had left in the room into Merlin's hands, trying to see if he could get anything out of him. The pad rested in his lap but Merlin for a minute or so, refused to take hold of the pencil.
"Come on, just try Merlin, just talk to me," Arthur said.
Gwaine paused, glancing up as Arthur said that. Merlin wasn't reacting, his blank eyes looked to be fixed on the dragon. Gwaine looked away, getting the plastic out and slowly moving the dragon's broken wing, propping it up while he cut a length of wire to thread through the broken section of the joint. Using the pliers he caught up the end to draw it through and then bend it to feed it though for a second time. Out of the corner of his eye he realised Merlin had started drawing, in response to Arthur's request. Arthur's soothing tone continued, encouraging and reassuring. Gwaine didn't know how Arthur did it, dealing with his patients. Merlin was just unnerving. Gwaine had found it disturbing when Merlin was just blankly staring at the hospital ceiling. Now his gaze seemed to be fixed on something, but still remaining blank. Somehow that seemed worse to him. He put his focus onto fixing the dragon rather than think about that.
Arthur watched the slow progress as Merlin drew, but he wasn't surprised about what came up. It was Kilgharrah and again Merlin had made one small thing the focus of his drawing, in this case, the broken wing. As Arthur assessed the picture, he decided the wing didn't appear out of proportion with the rest of the drawing, but it lay in the centre of it, and it was what drew the observer's eye. Merlin had given it a certain emphasis, as he had done with the face of the boy in the other sketch. Arthur thought about the other pictures, glancing up at the other one of Kilgharrah that was wedged into the frame on the wall. That one didn't seem to have the same quality, but the other three of the boiler were focused intensively on one item.
Yet all the pictures seemed to indicate that Merlin telling them something. Maybe they were not all as separate as Arthur was thinking they were. Perhaps Merlin, for the moment, just couldn't put the fragments together, and that left Arthur, and the rest of them, only getting the smallest little detail at a time. Hopefully he could help Merlin put it all together in the end.
"You getting anything from him?" Gwaine asked, while he carefully used to pliers to twist the two ends of wire together.
"Just Kilgharrah, and his broken wing, that seems to be his only concern at the moment."
"Bloody reporters!" Gwaine muttered, and then changed the subject. "So where did Merlin get this old boy from?"
"He's had it since he was a kid, and is very fond of it."
"Merlin was into dragons and things then, cool. I was more of an Action Man kid myself, and you being so blond must have been a Barbie boy."
Gwaine sniggered as Arthur glared at him.
"Actually, I liked Lego."
Gwaine continued to snigger as he finished twisting the last second of wire before carefully snipping down the ends so there were no sharp edges, he moved the dragon's wing about, testing the movement. The movement of the pencil on the paper increased dramatically.
"Gwaine," Arthur warned in a low tone. Gwaine looked up, frowning as he realised the pressure Merlin was putting on the paper. He stopped fiddling with Kilgharrah and brought him back over to Merlin. Arthur removed the pencil and pad and between them they wrapped Merlin's hands back around the dragon.
"See Merlin, almost as good as new," Gwaine said to him brightly, again gently moving Kilgharrah's wing. It dropped a fraction, the wire not supporting as well as the original plastic pin had but it still looked fairly good. Merlin's hands tightened and Gwaine backed up gathering up the equipment he had brought with him.
"Thanks," Arthur said. Gwaine shrugged.
"All part of the service."
"Er… Arthur, your father wants a word," Lancelot said suddenly appearing in the doorway. "I can stay with Merlin. Oh, you fixed him!" he added with some relief.
Gwaine grinned. "Yes, I am fixer extraordinaire, although that tosser has another think coming if he thinks I'll fix his camera. That was no less than he deserved."
Arthur frowned, turning his attention back to Merlin. Merlin's head had tilted downwards a little, and his hands were still tightly holding Kilgharrah, reassured by his presence. Arthur slowly straightened up, brushing Merlin's hair back off his forehead. Lancelot moved the wooden chair closer and sat down by Merlin.
"I won't be long Merlin, Lancelot will look after you."
XxxxxxxxxxxxxX
By the time Arthur got downstairs with Gwaine a squad car had arrived to escort the two reporters to the station. They were making less noise and protests as they were marched off, Uther still sat in the dining room glared at them in stony silence, Morgana was smirking. Gaius now sat with them, so Arthur and Gwaine sat down to join the discussion.
"So, do we know how they found out?" Gwaine asked.
"They are saying it was an anonymous tip off, via email," Morgana said.
"Which means we'd better check out their email," Gwaine said, not sounding entirely enthusiastic about that.
"And a few other newspapers," Morgana said. "If you can send it to one, it can be sent to more."
"Great," Arthur said. "You mean we might be inundated with reporters trying to get to him."
Gaius raised his eyebrows.
"Most of them were very cooperative with any information they received, and Leon liaised well enough with them all. I've got him on chasing down any further tip-offs. He hasn't been contacted by anyone and for the ones we know he'd be first port of call," Uther said.
"Some of them do know his name anyway, they agreed to keep him anonymous, the rest of the information they had was good enough. Quite frankly keeping him unnamed added more to the story if nothing else," Morgana said.
"Now however that information appears to be leaking out," Uther said. "We may have to consider relocating Merlin."
"No!" Arthur objected rather strenuously. The rest of them looked at him startled.
"I mean he's just settling in, moving him now might disturb him, plus anywhere more secure might not be able to give him the care he needs."
Arthur felt as if he didn't now want to let Merlin go without a fight. He had managed to get him communicating however difficult and distant it was.
"Even if we had to make that decision I certainly wouldn't want him treated by anyone else," Uther said soothingly.
"I agree with Arthur," Gaius said. "Moving Merlin should be a last resort, he is just becoming comfortable in his surroundings. With the exception of last night he hasn't shown any sign of discomfort."
"He's not really aware of where he is though, is he?" Morgana asked.
"I think he is, just because he isn't interacting doesn't mean that he doesn't know. He's certainly picking up on things we are saying to him, his first picture of Kilgharrah was after he was told his mother was coming to visit, and she was the one that would understand exactly what it meant," Arthur said. "And bizarre as it is to say, I think he is happy enough here. I don't think he'd take a move too well."
"This is a small enough place," Gaius said. "We've never really had to worry about having too much security, there is only a small number of staff, and we can just make sure they are on their guard."
"All things considered, I think we might need to consider some added security, someone that could be on hand, should anything happen," Uther mused.
"I don't think a uniformed presence would really help," Arthur said. "In fact it might disturb a few of the residents."
"I wasn't meaning quite as obvious as that," Uther said.
"You want to add someone to the staff?" Gaius asked.
"Not quite," Uther started.
"You want to put an undercover policeman into residency," Arthur said, getting the point.
"There are enough officers with mental problems, we can probably take our pick," Gwaine said. "I don't think I could name one who isn't mildly disturbed in some way."
Uther shot him a glare, which naturally bounced of Gwaine's thick hide. He turned his attention back to Gaius and Arthur.
"I have someone in mind, it would be a wise move considering that Merlin has quite obviously, somehow, demonstrated that this latest murder is linked to his case."
"And this other person is out there, and could know Merlin is here. What about the guy you convicted, Cenred?" Arthur asked.
"He could use it to his advantage if he wanted to appeal the murder charge, he has cause to now, but we still have him on kidnap, assault, rape, there were traces of his semen found on, and in, Merlin," Gwaine said.
"And Toby," Uther added.
"Sorry?" Arthur asked.
"Toby, the boy Merlin was chained to, he was sixteen years old, taken in April, three months after Merlin was kidnapped, he was just finishing his GCSE's, although his grades were not expected to be brilliant, but he had arranged to work full time at the bakery where he had a Saturday job. After he started he found he really liked it, his plan was to learn what he could and then perhaps start his own baking business. He wasn't really very outgoing, but had a good circle of friends, he was fairly good at chess as well and had been in the local choir since he was seven."
The information rolled of Uther's tongue with ease. He could probably recite quite a bit about the rest of the victims. It was information like that he stored, as if it was important. He always made a point to learn it.
"He was the youngest one. The rest we quite logically couldn't get any traces on, but I had the forensics spending hours going over that cellar, so they didn't miss a thing. We have proof that Cenred had them all in that cellar, we can't prove certain things, but there is certainly enough to assume all the boys suffered in the same way."
"And now we have some hint that there was this second person, what was their involvement, what were they doing?" Gwaine asked.
Uther sighed and looked at Arthur and Gaius.
"That we don't know, last night's murder was frenzied. The boy was stabbed several times, some hit vital organs, others were minor wounds. He had tried to get away, there were defensive wounds as well."
"How long had this one been missing?" Gaius asked.
"Just over a week," Morgana said.
"Were the injuries the same as Merlin, Toby and the others?" Arthur asked.
Morgana shook her head. "No, I was there for the initial examination. There was no other injuries except those that were inflicted during the attack last night. With the six boys Cenred had the abuse was sustained; starvation, beating, rape. It was almost very well controlled."
"The only seriously violent wound was Merlin's head wound," Gwaine said. "Although a couple of the others had similar fractures."
"So, it sounds like the unidentified assailant was not the dominant one," Gaius concluded. "He doesn't have the same control that Cenred did."
"Cenred claims he didn't murder any of them, he just said he was keeping them."
"For someone else, which might indicate the other person was in charge," Morgana said. "The way he talks about it you would possibly think so."
"Either way, what does he gain by not telling us who they are?" Gwaine asked.
"Did he say there was someone else?" Arthur asked.
"No, actually he neither confirmed nor denied that," Morgana said.
"The only thing he was very vocal about was what he did to those boys. All he's doing is playing a game. He's shown no remorse, he makes it sound almost like a practicality," Gwaine said.
"So, all he can do is get the murder charges appealed against, nothing else. He's still not getting out of prison," Arthur said.
"No," Uther said sternly. "Although, all things considered, I think we need to pay Cenred a visit. He's another one who could give us an indication of what we're dealing with."
"I want to go with you," Arthur said. Uther looked at him sharply, and both Pendragon men took on an identical stubborn look. Arthur carried on talking.
"I can be useful, I want to see this guy. All I have is what Merlin has shown me, and the information you gave me. I want to have a look at the guy that did this, and not just see him in the paper, I've done that."
"You said you never read the papers," Morgana pointed out.
"Since the whole damn thing has been headline news on and off for months he is pretty hard to miss," Arthur said. "I want to meet this guy."
"Very well, but you do this by my rules," Uther said.
"Fine," Arthur said.
"And you agree to allow someone in as undercover protection for Merlin."
Arthur gritted his teeth and glanced at Gaius. "That's not my decision."
Gaius sighed and eased his glasses off. "The welfare of the patients has to come first. A few of the residents might suspect something, we need someone who won't disturb them, but in the light of what has happened, I see no harm in allowing Merlin some extra protection. We'll have to inform all the staff though."
"That's fine," Uther said.
Gwaine frowned. "Who do you have in mind?"