Merlin lost all sense of time in the dark basement. His head hurt, his mouth was unbearably dry, and his body ached from being tied with his arms behind his back a rope attached from his wrists to his ankles, kind of like a reversed hog tied. How the hell long did that monster think he could hold his bladder anyways.

Hearing noises from upstairs Merlin turned his head when he heard the door at the top of the stairs open and Giles came down dragging George with him. Seriously, what was with this guy anyway? He continued to watch as Giles then tied him up and gagged him; apparently the poor man wasn't going to be lucky since he was being left on the cold damp floor.

"Merlin I think you haven't told me everything, a few important details seem to be missing," Giles said as he walked over to Merlin on the bed. Merlin raised his eyebrow and rolled his eyes, trying to jerk his head back when Giles reached out to touch his face.

"Merlin, Merlin, Merlin, haven't you realized that I have you completely at my mercy. I can do whatever I want, as a matter of fact; I think we could have a great deal of fun together." Merlin tried to wiggle back as Giles slid his hand down to rub the side of his neck. Groaning with pain when Giles yanked his head back viciously by his hair right over the spot where he'd been hit in the head.

"Merlin, I want to know why Pendragon is constantly texting or calling your phone, and you will tell me." Giles said narrowing his eyes while pulling a capped syringe out of his pocket.

"Now we can do this the easy way which is you telling me willingly, or we have this lovely stuff. Oh Merlin I hope you choose the hard way, then we can have some real fun." Giles said smiling while ripping the duct tape off his mouth.

"W…What is that stuff?" Merlin gasped, running his tongue over his dry lips, wincing at a particularly raw spot pulled loose by the tape.

"Well, let's just say that if I give it to you Merlin, you will be unable to deny me anything," this was said with a sly evil looking grin, that made him very uncomfortable, he wanted to be logical about the situation, yet in his heart he knew with absolute certainty that he would protect Arthur to the bitter end, whenever that may be.

Sighing he looked at Giles, "There's really nothing to tell Giles."

"Well I'd like to say I'm disappointed Merlin, but I'm not." Giles replied as he kneeled over Merlin's shoulders, gripping a fist full of hair he pulled the cap off with his teeth, Merlin struggled as best he could but he didn't seem to make any headway. The stuff was squirted in his mouth, Giles immediately forced his mouth shut by shoving an arm against his chin, then let go of his hair to pinch his nose shut. Merlin struggled as hard as he could; it felt like his heart was going to explode in his chest from the lack of air. Just as spots appeared before his eyes he gave in and swallowed, and sucked in a big breath as soon as Giles let him.

"Good, now we'll just let that take effect, I'll be back." Giles said smiling.

Merlin tried to calm his racing heart, continuing to breathe deeply; he closed his eyes thinking about Arthur, his thoughts where his safe haven.

-oOo-

Arthur paced the confines of his office, Gwaine one again sprawled on the big leather couch. He knew something wasn't right, he felt it down to his bones. He hadn't spoken to Merlin since Monday morning on the ride to work, the few texts that he'd gotten in return from him just didn't sound right in his mind, and he couldn't hear Merlin saying the words out loud, the speech pattern was all wrong.

"Arthur can you tell me what's got your nose so out of joint about all this? I mean the man said his mother was in the hospital." Gwaine demanded while sitting up to rest his hands on his knees. Arthur stopped, and ran his hands through his hair, gathering his thoughts.

"It's not the fact that there's an emergency," at this given statement Arthur made air quotes, "No it's the words that are used in the texts I have gotten, I just can't hear Merlin saying the words out loud no matter how hard I try. There's no personal emotion in them, it's all professional sounding. You have to take into account that Merlin and I have flirted and lusted after each other all last week, we've shared personal conversations, Gwaine, he spent the weekend with me." Arthur moved to stare out the window, not really seeing anything as his thoughts were of Merlin.

"I feel like something's not right about this Gwaine." Arthur admitted softly.

Watching the other man's reflection in the window, he watched him get up and cross over to him to place a hand on his shoulder.

"Tell you what Arthur; I'll see if I can't do some digging with security. There's this guy that works in the surveillance office that has been asking me out forever. Why don't you pull Merlin's personnel file, maybe there's information listed about his mother, like a phone number."

Groaning and smacking his forehead Arthur hit Mrs. King's button. "Mr. Pendragon can I help you with something?"

"Yes, yes please bring me the files we have on my PA's immediately Mrs. King. Also place a call to Mordred I want to speak to him ASAP." Arthur snapped impatiently, knowing that he will have to apologize later for his tone. He turned to face Gwaine who was looking at him like he had a second head.

"Yes I know, don't say anything, I feel like I've lost my brain along with an important piece of myself."

Gwaine raised both eyebrows at this confession. "Wow, Arthur I'm not even sure what to say at this point, usually Gwen covers the sappy stuff." Arthur elbowed Gwaine in the ribs.

"Mr. Pendragon I have Mordred on the line." Mrs. King paged over the phone system, and man did she sound pissy, not that he blamed her.

"Thank you Mrs. King, as soon as you bring the files that I requested you can have an early day, put him through please." This was said in hopes of making amends to his snappish attitude earlier. Arthur Picked up the phone when he heard Mordred's voice.

"Arthur? How can I help you?"

"Mordred something strange has happened this week and I need you to do some digging. On Monday my PA disappeared, another PA of mine said that he had to leave due to a family emergency. I just want to be sure that is what occurred; the whole thing just doesn't sit right with me. I'll email you all three files that I have for the PA's; you of course will have access to whatever else you need." Arthur sat down in his chair, fiddling with a pen.

"I'll see what I can do Arthur, I'll get back to you as soon as I can." With that Arthur heard the click indicating the end of the call. Leaning back he closed his eyes praying that all was well with Merlin.

-o0o-

Merlin blinked his eyes, everything was starting to look a little fuzzy and he felt like he was floating on air. When a hand cradled his cheek he rubbed against it, looking at the smiling man. He couldn't place who he was exactly, but his hand felt good on his skin.

"Yes, I see that we will be getting along just fine Merlin. Let's play a game shall we?" The man said as his hands started to roam.