Hey, guys!
Many thanks to all who've been reading this story so far. Your support means the world to me.
I hope you all enjoy another sweet Shayla moment for this chapter.
Disclaimer: don't own Merlin, Bradley has no idea of my existence, so, you know, the usual :)
Arthur and Guinevere: Missing Moments
Chapter 4
Shayla at 11 months:
It is a beautiful morning in April, though it feels more like Summer than Spring, the clear blue sky a blanket around Camelot, the green grass bathed in sunshine, the temperature hovering around 65 degrees. Arthur carries Shayla on his shoulders, Shayla gripping fistfuls of his blonde hair in her little baby fists to hold on. The Knights and Merlin see the King come up over the hill to approach the practice field, Shayla bobbing up and down on the King's shoulders. They smirk at one another, amused at seeing the King who to them only represents strength and speed and quick wit and authority, being in this moment all parental and fatherly.
When he approaches the grass preceding the training field, Arthur lifts his daughter up and over his head using both hands. With Shayla now in one arm, he untucks a blanket he'd had tied around his sword belt. When he unfolds it, an assortment of toys comes tumbling onto the grass-a set of jingly keys strung together with red yarn and twine given to her by Gaius; a set of four wooden building blocks painted an assortment of primary colors-red, blue, green, and yellow-that had been around during Arthur's own babyhood; a knit book made and written by Catherine about piglets, stitched together with thread; and a rattle made for her by Gwen that Shayla liked to hold up to her ear and listen to. The King lets the blanket fall to the grass, sweeps the toys onto it while holding Shayla around her middle with his other hand, before plopping her down gently on the blanket in front of the toys.
"Guinevere had some things to get at the market with Kate, so instead of hauling out the pram, I said I'd watch her," Arthur explains as he's doing all of this.
"And how will you do that, exactly?" Merlin asks. "You're leading the training session." The King rolls his eyes at his servant.
"Why don't you let me worry about that, all right, Merlin?"
"All right, I will. You're the father here," Merlin replies, slightly tauntingly.
"That's right, I am," Arthur answers in his usual slightly irritable, annoyed way. His face softens when he looks down at Shayla again, however. She is thoughtful in her toy selection, and after passing on the keys, the rattle, and the book, she selects the stacking blocks, corrals them around her, and begins carefully arranging them in a line. A smile splits her face at the sight of the four blocks all in a row; this has become her favorite activity as of late. "See?" Arthur says. "She's fine."
"Let's see how 'fine' she is when you walk away from her," Merlin challenges, half-serious, half-joking. But the King fails to respond to his comment, and Merlin looks down to see Arthur crouched down by his daughter. Arthur's hand looks especially big on the baby's back.
"I'll be right over there, Shay," he tells her in a nice way, even though she can't answer him except in incoherent gibberish. The baby, however, doesn't so much as glance at her father, too absorbed in her toys, and so is perfectly quiet and content when he steps away from the blanket and heads a few yards away to the training field. At this, Arthur smirks at his servant in a "told you so" kind of way, to which Merlin laughs. The magician does feel a bit better about things when he sees Arthur ask two of the couple's most trusted guards to stand watch near Shayla ("make sure she doesn't wander off," Merlin hears Arthur tell them. He knew that in getting close to walking, Shayla was prone to toddling off.) The guards take their posts by the Princess gladly, of course, leaving Merlin and Arthur and the Knights to get on with their training practice.
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Guards there or not, Shayla does panic about 45 minutes later, however, when she looks up and doesn't see her father. She lets out a cry, which Gwaine happens to hear. He taps the King's shoulder, who was teaching something to Leon and didn't hear it over the noise of the sword. At Gwaine's gesture towards Shayla, Arthur walks quickly over to her, picks her up. "Hi, Shay," he says, jostling her in his arms, quickly kissing her plump baby cheek. "Everything's OK. See? I'm right over there."
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That comforts the Princess, so much so in fact that whenever she cries again-which isn't often, she is amazingly enough entertained all by herself-all Arthur has to do is walk a few feet away from the men so she can hear him say her name and see him (with the one exception of her growing hungry at around 10:45 AM, in which case Arthur runs over a small bag of dried cereal, which he had stored in a saddle bag.)
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When the whole morning's training is complete, Arthur picks up his daughter, while Merlin folds up the toys into the blanket again, before handing it to the King. Arthur accepts the blanket, nods his thanks, and they proceed to walk back to the castle as a group, Arthur of course the only one toting along a super-adorable baby, holding her nonchalantly in his arms as he's been doing it all his life.
"It's amazing how she tolerates the sounds of the swords," Leon remarks thoughtfully.
"It's just part of her," Arthur replies.
"You mean to say this sweet baby right here is inherently bound to be a sword-swinging warrior?" Merlin asks, knowing he'd get a reaction from Arthur, and did when the King promptly rolls his eyes at his servant's question.
"No, Merlin," Arthur says in such a bored, tired way that makes everyone laugh. "It means that she heard the sound so often in the womb that it doesn't bother her." This makes Merlin think of Gwen. "Guinevere was out here so often that it just became part of Shayla's daily life, even before she was born."