CHAPTER 2 : HEAR NO EVIL

With the touch therapy course behind him, Merlin was more tactile during his visits. He always held Arthur's hand, continually massaged his palm and his fingers. He also alternated sitting on each side of him often perching on the bed when he was on his left.

He smiled to himself, the two of them reminded him of his grandparents, how they used to sit side by side on the couch watching TV, holding hands and his grandfather's thumb always stroking his grandmother's. He looked at Arthur and pushed the hair back off his forehead.

"Now, listen to me, Arthur, it is now the beginning of February, I want to see you sitting up in bed by Saint Valentine's day. Just think of what a wonderful present it would be to everyone especially your father. If that is too hard, maybe you could just open your eyes for me. That would be the best Valentine present ever."

"Oh, Gawaine and Leon are going skiing in Gstadd. Watch out Les Suisses! Gawaine invited me to join them but that meant that you might be without a visitor so I opted to stay in the UK. Anyway, my mother likes me to be around. I might have to miss coming here one day or maybe I could talk her into staying in London with me and we could both come to visit. You'll like her I promise…"

-0-0-

Valentine's Day came and went; still Arthur lay in the bed, hooked up to various machines. He had lost his tan and his hair was longer than he usually wore it.

Merlin walked past the nurses' station and the nurse who usually brought him tea, told him that the specialist was with Arthur and could he wait on one of the chairs nearby. It shouldn't be long and then he could visit his friend.

Merlin was about to say he's not my friend when he realised that he was. Arthur was Merlin's friend but Arthur not only didn't know Merlin well but would certainly not consider him friend material. All Arthur's friends were rich, with great flats, fast cars and parents who had estates outside London. They would fly off at a moment's notice to some foreign destination and Merlin apart from a trip to France and a school trip one winter to ski in Switzerland had hardly been anywhere.

He leant back against the chair and looked around. He thought, 'Well, where were all Arthur's friends now?' He had never bumped into any of them at the hospital just Gawaine and occasionally Leon. One Sunday, the three of them had visited and had the nurses laughing until one of the doctor's mentioned that although their voices might do Arthur some good, they were annoying the other patients' families in adjoining rooms. Merlin smiled, it had been Gawaine's fault as one of the jokes he had decided to tell Arthur had been rather risqué and had had both Leon and him roaring with laughter. Sadly, Arthur had not joined in.

Merlin saw the specialist leave and the nurse on duty nodded at him so he made his way to Arthur's room. "Hi, Arthur, it's me Merlin! You have been busy today. I had to wait outside while you saw the doctor. Hope the news was good." He looked at the figure in the bed and suddenly his heart clenched. Who was he trying to kid? Arthur was unchanged physically and probably mentally. In spite of the daily physio his father had arranged as recommended by a specialist to keep Arthur's muscles from seizing up or atrophying, he was not looking his best. He'd lost weight, his skin seemed sallow but that could be the lighting, his hair was dull and the fluids he was on had altered his smooth skin and made him puffy. His nails no longer had the manicured look and his hands appeared scrawny. Merlin smiled when he looked at Arthur's facial hair. Since Merlin had started working at the office, Arthur had always been clean shaven and now he had stubble which was shaved off once a week by a male nurse.

He walked to the bed and leant over, and gingerly stretched out his arm softly moving the hair away from Arthur's closed eyes. "I think you are going to have to have another hair cut soon. Otherwise, you might need to wear a pony tail." He smiled envisioning Arthur's blond hair tied back and hanging onto his shoulders. He wished he'd react to some of the silly things which he said but he had only once flickered his eyelids and the nurse had assured Merlin that that was quite normal and sadly as it only had happened once, nothing to get too excited about.

Time passed and Merlin's mother had come to stay and together they visited Arthur.

Hunith's heart went out to the young man lying in the bed. Her son was now so involved in this one-sided friendship and yet if Arthur had suddenly opened his eyes he might have no recollection of who he was, let alone who the dark haired young man was. She tried to talk to Merlin encouraging him to have a life outside the hospital but for some strange reason, Merlin was happy with his work, his work acquaintances and his time spent with Arthur. He asked for nothing more.

He had lots of information about Arthur's life prior to the accident as both Gawaine and Leon often spoke about the wild times they used to have together. It made Merlin smile as more and more he learned of Arthur the man and not Arthur the patient. When Gawaine and he visited together, Gawaine would recall many of the crazy things they'd done together and Merlin would routinely ask Arthur if he remembered or remark upon how wild the two of them must have been.

One day out of the blue, he was called into the Chairman's office at work and asked point blank what ulterior motive he had in visiting Young Mr. Pendragon every day. He was flustered and said none just that the hospital was on his way home and he and his immediate supervisor Gawaine had often gone together and he had decided to keep going should Gawaine or Leon be unable to do so and now he enjoyed the visits.

"You realise that there will be no financial remuneration for visiting the hospital. Mr. Pendragon's father will never hear of it nor make any financial settlement because you are visiting his son."

Merlin was shocked to think that the Chairman would think him so shallow, "I don't expect anything in return. Are you implying that I am no longer allowed to visit Mr. Arthur?"

"I'm not saying anything of the sort but a young man as yourself should be living life to its fullest not wasting your time with an unresponsive…" The chairmen in the nick of time realised what he was saying and stopped mid sentence. He coughed saying, "Thank you, Mr. Emrys, you may leave. I would prefer if this conversation were kept private."

Private it might have been but Merlin was so shocked that when he returned to his desk, Gawaine glanced at him and came over to check that everything was all right. Merlin didn't look well, had something happened. Merlin nodded still shaken but said, "Can we talk later?"

True to his word, on the way to the hospital later that afternoon, Merlin brought Gawaine up to date on his conversation with the chairman.

Gawaine said, "I can't believe that Arthur's father was privy to that conversation. He might seem distant and uncaring but he's not malicious. Maybe if it had been one of Arthur's ex-girlfriends, he might have reason to worry. Some of them were conniving bitches. Anyway, Mr. Hughes didn't say you couldn't visit Arthur anymore so let's just do as we see fit."

Gawaine was rather annoyed at what had happened and leaving Merlin in Arthur's room he went to the Nurses' Station to find out if Arthur had been besieged with visitors. One of the nurses from Ireland told him confidently that if Merlin didn't visit, no one outside of the hospital darkened Arthur's door.

Gawaine nodded saying, "Can we get some information on Arthur's progress?"

Sadly, the nurse shook her head, "The patient's progress is privileged information for the family. Could you maybe talk with Arthur's father?"

Gawaine shook his head.

"Well, leave it with me. As Merlin is here so often, we might get one of the doctor's to have a little chat with him. I can't promise anything but I will try."

Gawaine returned to the room and stood at the door listening to Merlin chattering away with, or sadly at Arthur. He was into a story about the neighbour's cat having kittens and how if his life wasn't so busy he might have considered having a cat. "Do you like cats, Arthur?"

Gawaine walked in saying, "Sorry, Merlin, Arthur is more of a dog and horse man. Aren't you, Mate?" Merlin burst out laughing and Gawaine was sure that Arthur's eyelids had flickered.

Soon, Merlin's conversations were of more than what had happened in the office. He introduced Arthur to his past life, his schooling and how he had left home to study. "You know, it was almost touch and go. My mother was alone and I felt really bad leaving her but she had made the arrangements for me to stay with an old family friend in London which I did. Can't say it was easy to begin with but I finally settled in and completed my degree." He smiled and chuckled, "Arthur, hard to believe but I'd still happily return home to live with my mother. Not that I don't know people in London but apart from Gawaine, I can't say that I have really close friends. I bet you have so many that you can't even count them. You're happy and outgoing and if you don't mind my saying, very good looking."

Merlin smiled adding quickly, "I know that once you are up on your feet, you'll get right back into your old life. Did Gawaine tell you that I heard that your insurance company paid on your car which was a total write off? Guess your father will be ordering a replacement maybe the navy blue model, very chic. And Arthur when you get into it drive carefully, I wouldn't want to hear that you had been in another accident. Mind you, I know the accident wasn't your fault you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He sat there looking at Arthur's hands which were lying at his side, remembering how strong they had been. "If I were your father, I'd want to choose another type of car for you. Maybe a Volkswagen Beetle! Arthur, I can see you now arriving at work in your car complete with flowers in the little flower holder on the dash." He stopped talking as for some reason that thought made him feel closer to Arthur.

He glanced out the window and commented on the rain. "It's raining cats and dogs…by the way I did get a kitten. Oh, Arthur, I wish you could see her. She is so cute; I've called her Spot as she is marked like an ocelot. Technically, she's a short-haired tortoiseshell but she is more spotted than striped. If you'd like to see her, I can smuggle her in to see you however, you'll have to open your eyes or you'll miss the spots."

Merlin returned to the bed and noticed that Arthur's heart rate was elevated again. The nurse came in to take Arthur's stats and he mentioned it to her. She was non-committal but did venture that maybe he was conscious of Merlin's presence.

"But, he couldn't be as apart from meeting me with Gawaine at work, he doesn't even know me."

"Maybe he's used to hearing your voice everyday. Who knows how deep he is in his coma at the moment. Perhaps, he knows you more than you realise," the nurse said kindly. "Anyway what do the two of you talk about?"

"Well," said Merlin with a smile, "He's a very good listener and we 'talk' about everything, don't we, Arthur?"

The nurse noticed the fluctuation in Arthur's heartbeat and smiled as she left, maybe it was a positive sign.

"I'll miss you when you are better. But I think I'll continue to come here as Gawaine's nurse said that they can always use visitors willing to talk to or even read to coma patients.

"I told you didn't I that the Gawaine's nurse had agreed to go out with him. Her name is Bridget but they call her Bridie. She seems well suited and really puts up with less nonsense that half of his other girlfriends. He says that she's useful as she can bandage up his group when they get hurt playing football. Do you miss playing football, Arthur?"

He shifted his weight and looked directly at Arthur, "Gawaine said that you were the second star of the game after him that was. Is that right?" There was no answer so he continued, "Maybe when you are all better, you will rejoin the team and I might even see you play.

"I'm no good in sports. Well, I am a fast runner but in football, having to think about controlling the ball really cut into my speed." He laughed and leant toward Arthur speaking more confidentially, "Cut into is maybe an exaggeration…it was a disaster. I had to keep reminding myself to kick as I ran. It didn't come naturally to me. One of my teachers assured me that not everyone was like Suarez and that I should maybe try tennis.

"So the next term like an obedient student, I chose tennis as my optional sport and that was also a washout. I seemed to be the only person to continually get a racket which had a proverbial hole in it. The teacher was very understanding and assured me that not everyone was cut out for ball sports and maybe I should switch to swimming...and guess what? I was good at it. It was like running but lying down if you know what I mean.

"My best friend in school told me regardless of how I felt, I should stay away from balls as I had no flare for them!" Merlin stopped dead, had he actually said that aloud. He thought, 'Please God, don't let Arthur have understood that.'

He smiled saying aloud, "I'm going to change sides now as your other hand will also benefit from a little loving care." He walked around the end of the bed checking the machines. He settled in the chair and took Arthur's other hand. He looked at its puffiness attributed to his being on fluids. He had picked up a lot of the hospital terms but had been surprised one day to hear one of the nurses mentioning that they had specialists in dental care on staff as oral hygiene was important to the long term patients. He knew that the nurses who gave Arthur his bed baths also took care of his teeth but he had never thought of it.

One Saturday morning he came in earlier than usual and a nurse was taking care of Arthur. "I've almost finished," he said, "I'm running a little late. You're Merlin aren't you? I've heard about you from the other nurses."

Merlin smiled and said, "Hope it was only good things."

"It was. By the way, I'm Graham." He continued, running a comb through Arthur's hair. "There we go, Arthur, almost finished."

"Can I do anything to help?" Merlin asked.

"Just have to do his hands and feet, then have to straighten the bed and I'll be gone. Here, rub this cream into his hands, it will stop the skin from cracking. I see on the record that you have done the touch therapy course. Might as well make yourself useful."

Merlin smiled, he liked this nurse's straight forward attitude. He said, "I haven't seen you around before."

"No, I usually do Arthur before you arrive. But I came in a little late this morning as my sister had a baby last night and I had permission to switch my hours so that I could be there."

"What did she have?

"Well, it was actually twins, two boys to be called Edward and Alexander after Edward the VII and Queen Alexandra. Her husband's a history buff and monarchist. We'll probably call them Ted and Alex. Can't believe I'm an uncle…"

So Arthur lay there with two people chatting quietly as they fussed over him. Merlin rather enjoyed the affect of smoothing cream over Arthur's hands and watching the nurse, made sure that he also massaged them at the same time.

"He's lucky to have a friend like you." Graham said quietly, "We've even had married partners unable to deal with the stress. They first make excuses and start coming less often and then never show up except for holidays when they arrive as a group and sit talking together ignoring their loved ones."

"But it must be very hard for them," said Merlin. "I really only know Arthur through his friends as I hadn't, been with his firm for long before his accident. His best friend is my supervisor and I sort of came along to visit and stayed." He turned to the nurse and shrugged his shoulders.

The nurse said, "Well, I only hope that should I ever be captive in a hospital bed that some acquaintance of mine would also be as wonderful. There," he said, "That's his feet done." He walked around the bed straightening the sheet and plumping up Arthur's pillow. It was nice meeting you and keep up the good work."

"…and congratulations on being an uncle."

Graham laughed, "Thanks!" and wheeled his cart out into the hallway.

Merlin turned to Arthur and said, "Another nice staff member, I think they pick them especially for this job, don't you, Arthur? What did you think about his being a brand new uncle? That's one thing I'll never be as I have no brothers or sisters." He added quietly "…and the chance of my ever having a kid is unlikely."

However, he was happy with his life as it was…