Arthur loved going home every day and finding Merlin waiting for him. Merlin in turn was getting used to having Arthur around and altering his routine to cope with Arthur's needs in the morning. They loved curling up on the sofa together watching old films most evenings. Merlin was a good influence on Arthur making him relax after work. Arthur in turn helped to build Merlin's self confidence.

A week after Arthur moved in Percy had visited them and explained a few things to Arthur that he hadn't known before and had been a great help. He even offered to visit new properties with them if they wanted a more experience eye.

A work, when Uther left the building for the last time everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The Uther and Nimueh were married three days later with both Arthur and Morgana present. Four days after that Morgana and Arthur saw their father and his new wife off on their honeymoon cruise. Uther was still unaware of his son's new partner.

At last Arthur could settle in to his new office, getting rid of the uncomfortable chair he hated so much. He turned the desk so he could see the view. He had also settled into his new home life. He felt that now he could truly make the changes to the firm that he felt were desperately needed. Work once more had become enjoyable and a challenge.

In his home life Arthur loved the domesticity of cooking for two and then washing up together. He was even getting used to Gwen and Lance calling in. Although it still annoyed him how often Gwen felt it necessary to come to the flat.

Merlin was regaining his upper body strength, and they had even gone out for meals on a couple of occasions. Merlin was gradually increasing his time sitting up as his scars toughened. They were sat together one night looking through some property details when Merlin completely threw Arthur.

"Have you ever thought about children? Of your own I mean." He asked looking at Arthur.

"No not really, well it has crossed my mind I suppose, but not seriously why?" Arthur just hadn't been expecting that.

"Well we're looking at moving, if you wanted children it might be sensible to move once instead of twice. I just wondered if we should widen our criteria."

"Yes I suppose it would, do you want kids?" Arthur looked at Merlin. He hadn't thought of children with Merlin.

"It would be nice, but only if you wanted them as well. People in chairs do manage quite well. I know several people from hospital who had kids after their accidents. They used to visit us to show how your life plans don't have to change just because you can't walk." Merlin's voice had a strong hint of enthusiasm. It was obvious to Arthur that children were important to Merlin.

"Well I'll give it some serious thought, would you be happy to be the care giver? Only I can't give up on the company now." Arthur asked, just clearing things up between them.

"Oh yes, no problem. But only if your committed to the idea. We needn't do anything yet. I just thought it would make sense before we moved to think about it." The twinkle in Merlin's eyes betrayed how important this was to him.

Over the next few days Arthur thought about children, and the more he thought the more he liked the idea. Then he started to think about the possibilities, adoption or surrogacy. Then how long should they wait, they hadn't know each other long so they should wait for awhile, but then he was thirty he didn't want to wait too long. He would also insist on marriage, no child of his would have unwed parents. That thought made him smile, here was he a gay guy breaking the old established rules, but still wanting his child to be part of a married family unit. Marriage was always on the cards for him he just hadn't talked about it to Merlin. One thing was sure Merlin was right about the new home, better to move once.

At work his mind kept drifting to the thought of a child, and he had to pull himself back into work mould. It was bad enough for Morgana to notice, and he didn't want her to get wind of what his thoughts were. So to put her off guard he invited her and Percy for a meal the following weekend. All his friends including his sister had kept away giving the two men chance to settle in, so it was a nice idea to have them round now they had had some time together. Arthur also invited Gwaine and Leon. He would explain to Merlin when he got home, he was sure he wouldn't mind.

Arthur was right Merlin didn't mind, in fact he thought it a good idea. So not to cause any bad feelings they invited Gwen and Lance on the Friday night, deciding to keep the two groups separate for now. Friday night went reasonably well, although Arthur still felt like he was on trial. But at least the meal went well and Lance relaxed enough to crack some jokes. Gwen still seemed reserved but Arthur made a point of being as charming as possible.

Saturday evening was a complete success with everyone enjoying themselves and a great deal of laughter occurred. It had turned in to a three way celebration of the men's moving in together, Arthur's new job and Morgana's promotion. It was the early hours before everyone finally left, but they all helped with the washing up before they left.

Sunday morning the men had another lie in and got up just before noon. At one o'clock Gwen arrived on the door to ask if the party went well. Merlin had answered the door and let Gwen in. She stayed for over an hour until Arthur told her they were going out and needed to get ready. She left reluctantly, and Arthur took Merlin out to a couple of estate agents, even though he had no intention of going out that day. On the way back home he called in to his old flat to pick up a couple of clean shirts, as he was running out. Merlin promised to call his laundry service on Monday to arrange a pick up from the flat. That evening Arthur spotted the cheque Uther had given Merlin tucked behind the clock.

"Merlin you need to bank this." Arthur waved the cheque under Merlin's nose.

"I thought that had been ripped up. Give it here." Merlin demanded.

"No, put it in the bank the firm owes you compensation for how you were treated. Take it please." Arthur pleaded. "I want you to, it's the least we can do, that and give you your job back when you're ready."

"But Arthur I don't want it, it brings back bad memories." Merlin wished he had spotted it first.

"Buy yourself some driving lessons and an adapted car, if you don't use this I'll pay for them personally anyway. The cheque has been recorded correctly in accounts as compensation and been documented as such by the legal team. So please let me bank it for you tomorrow." Arthur wasn't about to take no for an answer. "You didn't get anything from your accident, Pendragons won't act the same."

"Put it in then, but I don't like it." Merlin felt angry at being forced.

"Look love I know you don't agree with me, but you need to get yourself more mobile, particularly if we're going to have kids. How else will you get them about?" Arthur waited for the reaction.

"You want children!" Merlin exclaimed, his face showing how much he wanted them.

"Yes, I told you I'd think about it and I have, I love the idea, but we need to get ourselves settled somewhere better first and settle down a bit. We need some time to ourselves first. So I though give it a year then we can start sorting it all out. We need to decide on either adoption or surrogacy, among other things."

Merlin wheeled himself closer to Arthur and held out his arms for a hug. "I wish I could just grab you and hug you sometimes."

"Only sometimes? I want to hug you all the time, that's one of the reasons we need to wait a year. So I can just hug you, without worrying about what the kids are doing. Now all we need to do is find the right place."

"I'll get on the computer tomorrow; you own your flat, how much is it worth? We need to have some idea what deposit we can get together. I have about ten grand left in savings from Mums estate, and if I don't get a car then there's that money to." Merlin was getting excited.

"Don't worry about the deposit, my mum left me money, besides I do earn rather a good amount you know." Arthur laughed. "And you need a car so forget it. Also you keep your savings for now. I reckon with the flat and what I have we have enough for a decent place. Look at about seven fifty range properties."

"Oh no, I help pay I'm not going to be a kept man, and by seven fifty you mean seven hundred and fifty thousand? That's masses of money. We can get something cheaper."

"No you won't, not in the area we need to look. I want you and my children to have a decent home. I don't mind spending twice that for the right place." Arthur insisted.

"Oh I have got myself a sugar daddy!" Merlin said in mock excitement and in a childlike voice.

"Yeh well, I don't know about that. Does that make you my twink?"

With that Merlin threw a cushion at him and a fight started.

The next morning after Arthur had gone to work Merlin went to destroy the cheque and found it gone. Looking in the draw they kept their papers in he found his pay in book gone. "Sly dog" Merlin muttered under his breath.

Then he got on the computer and started looking at what was on the housing market suitable for them. He was unpleasantly surprised at the prices being asked.

Meanwhile at the office Arthur had received a visit from Gwaine. Gwaine had heard on the grape vine that Essetir had hit problem with their newest nanotechnology project. It seemed that Cenred had used the information leaked to him by the mole. They had now found, as Pendragon's had before them, that it was flawed. They had to go back to square one, since they were unsure where it was the leaked work or something they had already done before they had a lot of work to check. It seemed that Essetir was in real trouble. They had floated on the stock market the year before, and their shares had just plummeted. Cenred King was in trouble and was having to fight for survival. Essetir had also lost several long term contracts to Pendragons. Arthur was pleased, but needed to wait before striking the final blow.

When Arthur got home that night he was faced with several particulars for properties that Merlin had found. After supper they sat and went through them. Each of them had good points but none were quite right. Then the men sat down and wrote a list of all the things they must have and those they could compromise on or alter if necessary.

They obviously needed a wheelchair friendly property on one level. Also the doors needed to be wide enough. Things that could be altered included a kitchen that had low height work surfaces and sockets. They had already said they needed at least three preferably more bedrooms and that the master needed an on suite of decent size and if possible with a smaller room attached for various requirements of Merlin's. They also needed parking for two vehicles near the home and a garden. They decided to widen their search area and also use a house finding service to help them.

Within a week they had a list of three likely properties, so the next weekend went out to view taking Percy with them. The first was nice but was stretching Arthur's travelling time longer than he wanted. It also needed a lot of alteration. It was five bedrooms but two were on a second floor. The second had only a very small garden and neither really liked the layout. The final one had more potential. It was a barn conversion, or rather a stable block conversion near Sevenoaks in Kent. It had been converted with a wheelchair user in mind. The previous owner had MS but needed to move into a nursing home due to a worsening condition.

It was dated inside and the kitchen and both the family bathroom and the on suite needed replacing. It had four bedrooms, and best of all the master had a dressing room attached that suited Merlin's needs. There were three reception rooms, the kitchen that was a good size and had a utility room attached. The garden overlooked open countryside and had lovely views. The building its self was one side of a three sided yard with two other conversions already occupied. At the end was the original barn and across from the one they were looking at was a similar low building. The yard in-between had plenty of hard standings allowing for four vehicles per dwelling with the gardens at the back of the properties.

It wasn't very far to the nearest village, which had a shop, butchers, pub and junior school. There was a railway station in the next town if Arthur wanted or it was close to the A2 for easy driving.

They both liked the property and met one of the other owners who seemed helpful and pleasant. They went home to think it through. A couple of days later they went back after Arthur got home from work, for a second visit before putting in an offer. It was more than Arthur's original figure and Merlin complained about spending so much, especially as it need work doing on it. But Arthur won him over. Their offer was accepted and the sale went through quite quickly, Arthur flat had been put on the market and was bought within a week so there were no delays.

To celebrate Arthur took Merlin out for a meal to his favourite restaurant. They had a wonderful meal and then Merlin got the surprise of his life when Arthur got down on one knee. He took Merlin's hands in his and looked up into the eyes he loved so much.

"Merlin Emrys you are the best thing that has happened in my life, and I cannot see a life for me, without you in it, will you do me the honour of marrying me, and becoming my husband?"

Merlin looked at Arthur, not believing that Arthur had proposed in a crowded restaurant in such a public manner.

Merlin looked straight into Arthur eyes and nodded, speechless for a moment before replying: "Oh yes please" then he leant forward and threw his arms around Arthur's neck as all the customers applauded.

Arthur stayed there for a moment, returning the hug, before reaching into his pocket and drawing out a small box, opening it he took out a gold band and slipped it onto Merlin's finger.

"You have just made me very happy, thank you" he gave Merlin a kiss.

They went home and celebrated in a more private way together. Then Merlin went to this bedside table and took out a box, which Arthur knew contained his personal treasures and memories. Merlin removed a gold band and taking Arthur's hand placed the band on Arthur's ring finger. It fitted perfectly.

"That was my father's wedding band. I've never been able to wear it, it doesn't fit me. Will you accept it as my ring to you? It is the only thing I have of my father's except for a couple of photos. I feel as it fits perfectly it is meant to be." Merlin had unshed tears in his eyes as he spoke.

"It would be an honour." Arthur replied and drew the other man into a kiss.