Signature Required

When Arthur saw Aredian leaving with his coat and hat, he rushed over to Elena's desk. "Where's George?" he asked as casually as he could while looking around anxiously.

"Downstairs," Elena said. "Want me to get him?"

"No, no, no!" Arthur quickly waved off the suggestion, and he saw Elena's face grow confused. "I need you to do something for me, and you can't tell anyone."

Elena went into work mode immediately. "What do you need me to do?"

Arthur didn't go into detail about the conversation he had with Aredian, but stressed that he needed an informant agreement that didn't exist. "Can you change the date and scan it into the system after I get the signature. And then the paper copy can go missing, but it'll in the computer or something? It seems like Aredian didn't have the foresight to check the system."

"Or he has something against technology," Elena said as she pulled out the freshly printed form and handed it to Arthur. "Are you coming back tonight or tomorrow?"

"Tonight," he said, and ran off to get the paper signed.

Arthur tried calling Gwen several times, but she never picked up. He had to remind himself that she had more to do than sit around, cause trouble, and wait to be kidnapped. Now, she had dance classes to teach and others stirring up trouble for her.

Instead of leaving a message, Arthur went to her place. He needed her signature as soon as possible because he was sure that Aredian wouldn't wait to do more digging.

When he pulled up, Arthur saw the studio lights on and shadows through the curtains. There was still a class in session. He entered stealthy, only to realize that the bass from the music would've covered any noise he made. Across the room, he saw Sefa next to the stereo and Gwen leading a group of youngsters in an energetic routine. Some were slightly lagging and missed certain moves, but they were powering through with smiles on their faces.

A very purposeful ahem caught Arthur's attention. Next to him were four dance moms sitting in folding chairs. The music stopped, and they all gathered around Arthur. He looked over them, and saw Gwen staring back before turning her attention to the kids. "We're going to do it one more time," he heard her say.

"We haven't seen you around before," said one of the moms, scrutinizing him through eyelids heavily covered in electric blue eye shadow.

Another one shushed her. "Can't you tell by how well dressed he is that he's a busy man," she looked him up and down. "Which one is yours? Is it Tony?" She pointed with a long stiletto nail. "He's blond like you, and we've never seen his parents."

Arthur took a small step back to get some distance. "None of them. I'm here to see Guinevere."

The four dance moms had identical looks of curiosity. "Oh, really?" the third one spoke up. She didn't even need to raise a brow. The overdrawn arch did it for her.

"Yes, really." Arthur thought these women would make awful interrogators.

"Interesting," the fourth mom stiffly commented. Arthur was sure her lips were having a battle with whatever was injected into them.

The kids got back into position and Gwen signaled Sefa to start the music again. The moms immediately went back to focusing on the children. Despite the music, it was the quietest two minutes of Arthur's life.

He watched as Gwen smiled encouragingly at the kids through the mirrored wall. It was one of the rare moments he witnessed Gwen being herself and having fun. He hoped that he wasn't about to ruin it for her.

When the dance ended, the children cheered and congratulated each other for finally perfecting the routine. After everyone got a high five at least twice, they gathered their belongings. While they did so, the mom's went back to badgering Arthur.

The first mom asked him what he did, and Arthur didn't want to tell her that he worked for the police and start gossip about why a cop was visiting Gwen. Luckily, her daughter came running up to her, wrapping sweaty arms around her middle.

The mom forced out a giggle and pulled her child off. "This is my daughter. Do you have kids?"

"Great job today, Carly," Gwen interrupted them, patting the mom's daughter on the shoulder. She ignored Carly's mom and turned her attention to Arthur. "Det—Arthur," Gwen quickly corrected herself. Like Arthur, she didn't want to explain to the nosey moms why there was a detective at the studio. "What's up?"

"Um…my sister wanted me to drop something off to you since you're on my way home," Arthur lied and enunciated his words so the moms could hear the boring tale and lose curiosity.

Gwen caught on. "Oh, right. I've been waiting for it. Just wait a moment." She stepped away to help the kids pack up.

Dissatisfied by Arthur and Gwen's exchange, the moms left with their kids, and just in time to see the parents they made jabs at for not being as obsessive as they, pick up their children on time like any good parent would. Once the final child left, it was Sefa's turn to leave. She waved goodbye and gave them their privacy.

Arthur and Gwen went into the back room where there was a reception desk and round table, like a break room and an office combined in one.

"Sefa looks well. Everything is patched up between you two?" Arthur thought he'd open the conversation up with casual chit chat before telling her of his boss' threat.

"Yeah," Gwen said. "But more importantly, what's wrong?" She saw right through him.

Arthur shoulders fell, and he pulled the agreement out from his inside pocket. "I need you to sign this."

Once in her hands, Gwen skimmed it before reading it thoroughly. "Do you always have people sign important documents with the wrong date on it?"

"Only for special occasions."

"I was only joking about being a confidential informant."

"You're not really going to be an informant. Not if I can help it." Arthur didn't want Gwen risking her life by being forced to snoop around suspected killers in the seedy circles she used to be part of. "I just need your signature."

Gwen started back at the top of the agreement. "Why?"

Arthur clenched his jaw. "Why can't you just be one of those people who sign things without reading what they're signing off on?"

"I asked you first," she retorted.

He let her win. "The new boss isn't satisfied with how your case ended and how involved you been in investigations. He questioned about you being an informant and I went with it. This may get him to stop prying."

First Gwen thought he was talking about Tauren, but then she remembered that she murdered her husband. She almost laughed at herself for forgetting that pivotal moment in her life. "Are you sure it'll stop him?"

"No," Arthur said, a frown etching into his face, "but it's worth a shot. If you agree to work with the police, it'll show you're less of a threat. Just don't kill anyone in the meantime."

"I'll try," Gwen muttered, still reading. "Thanks for encouraging me to call back that guy, by the way. It was the worst date of my life." As she got lower down the page, she blindly grabbed a pen out of a cup full of them varying in colors and logos, several from the same bank. "I have the worst luck with men."

"We're not about to have girl-talk are we?" Arthur snickered, and glanced at his watch. "Because I don't have the time or the appropriate genitalia."

Gwen paused from reading, but didn't look up. Arthur could tell by the raise of her right cheek that she was smirking. "On a scale from 1 to 10, how stressed are you right now?"

"20," Arthur confessed. He could tell by the movement of her cheeks that Gwen was trying not to laugh at him. Taking a look around, he saw a box of pencils off to the side of the desk. "Do you need those?" he pointed to them.

Gwen quickly glanced over then went back to the form. "No. I bought them and I don't even have a sharpener. I'm just going to get mechanical pencils next time I go out."

Arthur reached over and put them in his pocket.

"What do you need them for?"

"Don't worry about it."

Done reading the agreement, Gwen gave Arthur her full attention. "How often is Merlin mistaken for the weird one in your partnership?" She signed the document and playfully shoved it into his chest.

"Great," Arthur said, catching both her insult and her hand against his chest, and chose to ignore the former. "Gotta go," he grinned, patting her hand before separating from her. He could hear her light laughter follow him out the door.

Arthur rushed back up to his floor, and found Elena waiting patiently at her desk. He passed agreement off to her, and he watched her upload it into the system. She spit out jargon about code and tricking the system into believing the form was processed at an earlier date, but he didn't care as long as it worked.

"And voila!" Elena beamed.

"That's it?"

"Yes."

Arthur exhaled. "Thanks. I owe you."

Elena didn't wait to ask for her favor. "You can drop hints to Percival that I like him."

"I, uh, wasn't expecting that." Arthur put out his hand and Elena grabbed it to shake. "But yeah, I'll tell him you like him."

Arthur reveled in seeing Elena's eyes widen and her face go pink. She swatted him repeatedly. "Hints! I said hints!"

"I'm kidding!" he laughed and she backed off.

"You know, we could've left today's date on it. If Aredian asked, you could've just said that even you couldn't find it, and it's not in the system because we're operating on garbage, so you had Gwen sign a new one." Elena threw a disgusted glare at her computer. "I'd add in the garbage part if I had to cover for you."

Arthur stared blankly at her. "Why didn't you say that before?"

"It's fun to see the great Detective Pendragon sweat." It was Elena's turn to laugh at his expense. "But making Aredian look digitally challenged is a good move."

Arthur shook his head at her and sat in George's chair. He brought out the pack of pencils and pulled a post-it off the stack. Elena passed him a marker when she saw there wasn't a writing utensil in sight on George's desk, and Arthur didn't dare open a drawer and risk moving something out of place.

Arthur wrote "sharpen" and signed his stuck it to the box, and placed neatly in the center of the desk. Reading over the note again, it seemed too direct and impersonal, so Arthur squeezed a "please" above it.

please
SHARPEN.

-Arthur

That looked a little more polite. Aredian probably never says please, Arthur thought. When he moved from George's desk, he saw Elena give him a knowing smile. "What?"

She reclined in her chair, crossed her arms, and propped her legs up on her desk. "I've seen you quick to action many times, but you run on at a special kind of speed when Gwen's involved. You really care about her, don't you?"

Care was a word with many meanings that covered a lot of ground in terms of feelings.

"I do," Arthur said. It summed up his feelings perfectly.

A/N: Oh those silly dance moms. More will be popping up in the future. And if anyone has any ideas for little murder mysteries Arthur should investigate, feel free to let me know. Arthur can't sit in his office forever (technically he can if I write it lol).

Thanks for reading and reviewing! It means a lot!