Lunch came it at one as Gaius expected, and with it came the Queen of Camelot herself. Gaius poked his head out the door and called for Gwen to come up to Merlin's room when he heard the door open. Gwen grinned and motioned to the maid with the tureen of soup to follow her.
"Gwen!" Merlin called as she walked in, his face brightening. He tried to stand up, but Gaius pushed him back into bed.
"Hello to you, too, Merlin," the queen said. "Arthur said you were under the weather and I thought you might like some company. Just put the soup on the night table, Mary, and you can go."
The servant did as she was told while Gaius left to get bowls. Merlin grinned. "I'm much better now. Gaius has been treating his patients in here, so it hasn't been so bad. And your husband made me polish his boots."
"Really?" Gwen asked, taking the seat closest to the bed. "That's…well, that's…"
"Very prattish of him?"
"Merlin," she scolded as Gaius came back in. After making sure Gwen was joining them, he ladled the soup into three bowls and passed it out.
Gaius and Gwen ate and talked amiably while Merlin looked at his bowl as if it had sprouted wings. During a lull in conversation, Gaius raised an I-know-what's-really-going-on-here eyebrow at his ward. "I thought you said you were hungry," he said.
"I was. Now I'm wondering if eating is really worth it," Merlin said, poking at the soup.
Gwen frowned sympathetically. "You've been very sick then?"
The warlock shrugged. "Not sure. I was kind of out for most of it. But I did throw up a couple of times…"
"Did I not tell you yesterday that if you didn't eat your stomach would cramp and you'd get worse?" Gaius asked, voice dangerously calm. "And did you not spend most of last night complaining about stomachaches that weren't there before? Don't think I haven't noticed you still wincing."
The warlock winced again. "Yes, but…"
"You're well past the stage where you'd be throwing up, Merlin. You need to eat. The cramps will stop."
Merlin frowned and shook his head. "Not really sure I want to risk it, if it's all the same to you." He started to put the bowl away.
Gwen put her hand on his forearm as he stretched. Her eyes were just a little bit liquid, her mouth pursed into a concerned little frown. "Please, Merlin. You do need to eat something. For me?"
He looked up into those worried, shining brown eyes and wibbled. Gaius could practically hear his resolve breaking. "Oh, fine," he said, pulling the bowl back onto his lap.
Good show, Arthur, Gaius thought to himself.
Merlin ate a few bites and sat up straighter, smiling again. "This is very good," he said, beginning to inhale his bowl.
"I figured Gaius would be too busy or tired to make anything and I wanted to make sure you had a good meal," Gwen said while the physician huffed his disbelief that she really had anything to do with it. "This was already waiting when I went down to the kitchens, and I thought a soup would be a little easier on your stomach."
"Thanks, Gwen," Merlin said, shooting her his own liquid look of thanks. "You're the greatest."
"I just hope you're not spoiling him," the physician said, an amused eyebrow going up. "Don't get used to this cushy life style."
Merlin looked insulted. "What's cushy about it? I'm ill, or haven't you noticed?"
Gaius lifted his head and hands, mumbling something about "haven't I noticed" and "give me patience" and "like to strangle him." Gwen and Merlin both laughed. This time Merlin didn't cough, although his breath was still raspy. Happy that the young man was that much more improved, Gaius finished his soup, helped himself to another bowl, and excused himself to the other room to work. Most of his regulars came in the afternoon anyway.
While Gwen and Merlin talked for the next hour and a half, the physician saw to the people who came into his chambers for various sundry medicines, checkups, wound wrapping, and bone-setting—one of each, in fact, and two of his frequent clients and one hypochondriac. Arthur popped in once. He listened to the voices floating in from the other room and turned to Gaius, who winked at him. Then he smiled and popped back out again.
At three Gwen came down the stairs, carrying the empty tureen with her. She stopped long enough to say goodbye to Gaius and thank him for taking such good care of Merlin and everyone in the castle before leaving. The physician smiled as he finished patching up his latest patient. Gwen was an excellent queen.
And Arthur, apparently, was disturbingly good at intrigues. Percival burst in about twenty minutes after Gwen left, just when Merlin was beginning to complain again, with some kind of important news. He was too excited to give Gaius a straight answer at first, and his natural reluctance to say more than a dozen words at a time wasn't helping.
"—He said he's been working on it for months…had to have been before Uther's death…we can't believe it ourselves—"
"Percival, what are you going on about?" Gaius asked, trying to calm the flustered knight.
"…Where's Merlin?"
The physician rolled his eyes and jerked his thumb toward the room upstairs. "Ill. Nothing dangerous and he's getting better."
"…What'd he go and get ill for?"
"…You're in shock, aren't you?"
"Why would I be in shock?"
"I don't know, but you aren't making any sense," Gaius said, raising his someone-will-clean-up-this-mess-before-I-lose-my-temper eyebrow. "Arthur didn't hit you over the head, did he?"
"…Why would he do that?"
The physician sighed and led the way into Merlin's room. "Come on. Merlin's usually good at getting people to calm down and talk sense, and you can explain this to both of us at once."
...Well. I apologize, but in my defense, I had no idea that was going to be a cliffhanger until I actually wrote it. Hmm...
Also, my apologies again. I'm usually so careful with my Percival, but he sounds a little stupid in this fic. Argh...