"Somebody say something," Arthur demanded, after two hours of trudging through the mud in an awkward silence. He wasn't sure whether the silence had actually gotten to him, or whether he was doing this for Gwaine, providing the background noise the wounded knight so clearly constantly craved.

Lancelot chuckled, glancing sidelong at his king, though he also glanced back at Gwaine. "So you'd prefer Gwaine's chatter then? I bet he'd love to hear you admit that." He might have been hoping to get a reaction from the sleeping knight on the litter between them, but Gwaine slept like one dead.

"I would prefer even Merlin's chatter at this point," Arthur sulked.

"Well, I can tell you all about how generally clever I think you lot are for thinking that poking wild animals with sticks was good fun?" Merlin grumbled, his sarcasm apparent.

"Come now, Merlin," Leon mock-scolded, "no point in getting nasty."

There was nothing else to say, though, and they were all too preoccupied with worry and not slipping in the mud to think of how to pick the conversation up again, so it died.

All their attentions were roused, then, by a soft noise amongst the silence of boots sloshing through mud and crunching the occasional patch of snow.

Merlin noticed it first. The only thing keeping him from rushing to his patient's side were the reins of the six horses he held in his hand. Gwaine appeared to be trying to talk, though it came out mostly as moans and whimpers, and was struggling in earnest to do…something. Sit up, perhaps? Merlin couldn't be sure, for his movements were weak and uncoordinated. Merlin drew as near as he could, slowing the procession.

Gwaine's eyes were closed, but the lids were fluttering. He was literally dripping with sweat, and he was shifting under the blankets and kind of…whimpering, in pain or fear. Percival and Leon, in the back with a good view of what was going on, fixed their eyes on him, looking uncomfortable and entirely at a loss about what to do.

"Gwaine?" Merlin whispered, gently. "Gwaine, you've got to lie still. What's wrong?" Lancelot and Arthur glanced back, but Gwaine settled a bit, then, so they again looked back at the way they were going.

Gwaine frowned, blinked his eyes open. "Stuck," he said, forlornly. If he didn't know any better, Merlin might have said Gwaine was asking for help.

"No, Gwaine, you're all right. Go back to sleep," Merlin encouraged.

He noticed too late that Gwaine's eyes were wrong.

"No!" Gwaine cried, and, with a sudden strength that surprised everyone, he sat up. "Lemme go!" he cried, thrashing wildly, shoving blankets off of him, and toppled.

The forest exploded into cries and shouts and commotion. Merlin dropped the horses' reins and lunged, but too late. Leon and Percival tried to lower Gwaine to the ground before he fell, but Arthur noticed too slow, and Lancelot in his panic let the litter down too fast, so Gwaine fell out of the litter to the icy ground.

Something snapped audibly.

Hoping that wasn't what he thought it was, Merlin rushed forward to Gwaine, but the knight was struggling and fighting as one fey, with a power they'd thought he'd long expended. Percival dropped to his knees in the mud and took hold of him, wrapping his arms around Gwaine's chest, pinning him, and Lancelot was sitting on his legs as he continued to struggle and fight them violently as if he felt no pain and in spite of being so sick.

"What's going on?" Arthur demanded, not helping the situation by getting angry.

"I don't know! He was just sleeping and—then he wasn't!" Merlin said, trying to see into Gwaine's eyes, trying to determine what was wrong.

Percival could feel Gwaine's heart pounding hard against his own chest, and held him as tight as he dared as the smaller, but hardly weaker, knight continued to struggle and fight. Gwaine smelled strongly of blood and sweat. The noises he made were mostly incoherent, but for the most part he seemed to think he was trapped in the clutches of an enemy. He must have been delirious, or dreaming, because he didn't react to any of their voices or touches.

And Gwaine's eyes definitely weren't right. "I think it's a dream, or the fever. I don't think he's awake," Merlin murmured, touching Gwaine's cheek only to have him jerk his head back, nearly clipping Percival in the jaw.

"Gwaine," Merlin said sternly, taking Gwaine's head in his hands. "Gwaine!" he shook him gently, but the brown eyes wandered, unfocused, seeing threats that weren't there. "You've got to wake up, Gwaine!" Merlin slapped his face—more of a pat, really—but it did no good. "Gwaine, please," he begged, the tears that sprung to his eyes unintentional. "Gwaine, please wake up. I swear you're safe. It's me, Merlin, I'm right here…"

"M'ln?" Gwaine jerked, shoving back against Percival. "Merlin, there's—you've got to…"

"No, Gwaine," Merlin said, assuming a borderline-Dragonlord voice. "Gwaine, I'm right here. I've got you, and you're safe. Percival's here, and Lancelot, and Sir Leon, and Arthur. We're all here, okay? Can you wake up for me? Gwaine, look at me." Merlin shook him roughly, and Gwaine started as if awakened from a deep sleep.

His eyes wobbled, then focused.

"Merlin?" he asked. Then Gwaine shivered, violently, as if shaking off a bad dream, and blinked around at everyone, now making eye contact. "Where…what…" He blinked again, shifted his hand. "Ow."

Everyone was staring at him. Why was he panting?

"I…what…happened?"

Arthur rolled his eyes and growled, turning away before he got angry with Gwaine for something that wasn't his fault like scaring him nearly to death.

"You had a bad dream, or something," Merlin explained.

Gwaine laughed. "What, me? Perce, let me go, I can hardly breathe—"

"Oh. Sorry. It's just, you—"

"Ow. Seriously, what happened to my…hand…why am I on…the…ground?" Realization began to dawn even as he said it.

"It's all right, Gwaine," Merlin said, sounding way too patient for his liking and rubbing his arm like he would stroke a skittish horse. "You just sort of thrashed around in your sleep, let me see your hand." Gently, Merlin took the limb which Gwaine relinquished, felt it gently in between Gwaine's hisses of pain. "I don't think it's broken. Not badly, anyway, I'll just wrap it. Can we get him back onto the litter?" Merlin asked. Immediately Lancelot and Percival lifted him back to where he was supposed to be, though Percival remained settled behind him, propping Gwaine sitting up against his chest. No one seemed to care that they were still covered in mud. "You're fever's not helping," Merlin went on. "How are you feeling?"

"…Like I broke my hand?"

Merlin sighed. The problem with Gwaine was that he really was a terrible patient. He went about checking on Gwaine's hand and making sure he hadn't damaged anything else, because Gwaine was apparently the least reliable source regarding his own wellbeing.

"Dammit," Gwaine huffed as Merlin wrapped his wrist with the last of the bandages.

"What?" Merlin asked worriedly.

"That's my wanking hand," Gwaine pouted, and Percival snorted and shook his head, and Merlin snapped his head up to see Gwaine winking playfully and laughed. Gwaine joined him, but laughing hurt. And now his hand really hurt. All because…

"So, w-wait, I did what exactly just now?" He looked flushed, and Merlin wondered if he was more embarrassed or more fevered at this point.

"It's all right, Gwaine, forget about it. Just scared us, that's all."

"I…must have been—been really out of it. Sorry—"

"Hey!"

Arthur's voice boomed loudly, and everyone looked up. Sure enough, there was a cart in the distance, flanked by a good troop of horse in Camelot livery.

"Looks like our rescue party is here!"

"Super," Gwaine said, and knew no more.

…

A/N: Will the rescue party get Sir Gwaine home in time? Can Gaius even do anything to help? How will Gwaine react to being in a cart, or will he even react? Will Gwaine's inevitable fever-delirium be funny or just pathetic? How will the knights take it? Will they need magic to save him?...

You, too, can help provide the answers to these burning questions, because I have no freaking clue! Leave a review or drop me a PM, I am open to suggestions and requests of all kinds. I probably won't get a chance to update until this weekend or later, but fear not, this fic will be finished. Thanks for reading!