Hidden Royalty Chapter Twelve

Leon regained consciousness almost immediately when he felt Elyan shake him at his shoulder with his injured arm while keeping pressure on the wound with his good arm. Leon got up on his knees and looked around for the Prince and to locate where the shooter was, if the gunman was still around he needed to protect Arthur. Just one turn to the left gave him his answer. The man stood perhaps a good four feet away from him and he had his gun raised. Quickly following the line to where the gun was pointed to, he saw that it was towards Arthur who was trying to get away and dragging Merlin with him. Leon quickly patted his own belt, but his gun wasn't there and he had no time to look for it, he needed to act. Fast.

He saw that many security agents started to enter the playground, but it wasn't their responsibility to care for the Prince's safety, it was his. With unsteady legs he clambered up and told Elyan to stay back and to keep pressure on the wound.

Without his gun he would just have to convert to physical strength and he knew he possessed a great deal of that. He had found solid footing and had taken just three steps forward when he heard a gunshot, followed almost immediately by another shot, that caused the shooter to fall down. He watched if the man would move, but he remained motionless on the ground.

Now he needed to know how the Prince was. Had he gotten hit by that first shot, or had he been able to get away? He didn't saw the Prince at first because his eyes fell on the person that fired the last shot and was confused; he didn't recognize the guard. It was strange to him, because he knew every agent that worked in the secret service of the British Royal Family.

He put it to rest for the moment being because the next thing his eyes caught, was that many people were making a circle to where Arthur had been last standing. His heart pounded loudly against his ribcase because he feared that the Prince had indeed been shot. He walked faster now, regaining more and more control over his limbs with each step. He started to run to the spot everyone was gathered around and while he came closer, he heard it; "His Highness has been shot!"

His breath caught up in his throat. Not only was Arthur his Prince and responsibility to protect, Arthur was also someone he considered a friend. He started pushing people aside and pushed himself through, until he finally got to the centre of the circle. But he wasn't met with Arthur lying on the ground with a shot wound like he thought had happened, but he was met with the sight of Arthur's friend (if not boyfriend already) lying on the ground.

More security people which he didn't recognized were around Merlin, applying pressure to what seemed to be a chest wound, with other agents not yet yelling in their mics to tell the King that his son had been shot.

He looked around, frowning, they were talking about the King and son, but he didn't saw Arthur anywhere. Had they already transferred him to the hospital? Leon wondered. That was until the said person came crashing through the wall of people like he himself did not yet thirty seconds ago. He saw that Arthur had his hand clasped around his upper right arm, and determination was evident on his face… at least it was, right until his eyes caught the figure lying on the ground.

~oOoOo~

When Arthur was on his knees, staring at Merlin's body on the ground, he was being pulled up on his feet and led away. Only Arthur struggled with great force against the bodyguards that wanted to get him in one of the SUVs. He wouldn't want to have any of it, he wanted Merlin. He had seen Merlin lying in the snow, and he had seen that his boyfriend wasn't moving at all and Arthur was scared that they were too late. But he wouldn't believe that until he saw it with his own eyes. And even more, he needed to tell Merlin not to leave him, he wasn't allowed for fuck's sake!

But the three or four guards (he wasn't sure) that were pulling and pushing him further and further away wouldn't allow him to go back and this made him struggle even more, even when his arm hurt when he did it. Finally, with one strong pull of force he didn't know he was capable of, he released himself from the tight grips and shot forward to the protective circle and pushed himself through the people.

He came to a sudden stop when he came into the circle of the security guards and saw his boyfriend lying on his right side, his breathing ragged and he was fighting hard to keep his eyes open as the guards were instructing him to stay awake. The white snow beneath him slowly turned into a pinkish red, despite the coats that had been laid underneath him and despite the large efforts several guards did to stop the bleeding.

He surged forward, his own discomfort in his arm complete forgotten now, and sank down onto his knees close to Merlin's head. No one tried to stop him and even if they would try they wouldn't succeed.

Arthur heard the sirens of ambulances coming closer, but he also heard people still screaming around him that the Prince is wounded. It was making him more and more angrier with every second that went by. The fact that the security guards were far more busy with him than with Merlin, pissed him off to no end, and he would have a good talk about it when this all would be over. From what he felt, his arm had just a scratch. But Merlin… Merlin was lying on the ground bleeding to dea–.

No he wouldn't think that, Merlin would get through this. Merlin never gave up. Merlin would not leave him alone.

He cupped one side of Merlin's face and stroked his cheekbone with his thumb. As he bent down closer, he whispered, "Hold on Merlin, help's here. Stay awake." He hoped to get some kind of respond from his boyfriend, but the only thing he could hear was the fast raspy breathing, and he really did not like that sound. It was like Merlin wasn't getting enough air.

But then. Those blue eyes, which were now glassy and holding nothing like their usual brightness in them, looked up trough half lidded eyes. Merlin tilted his head up ever so slightly and he tried to smile, but the smile faltered halfway and Arthur watched helplessly how Merlin's whole body went limp and how his eyes closed fully. "Merlin!" Arthur yelled. He grabbed Merlin's head in both hands, but Arthur was soon pulled away and he struggled even harder this time round. But this time it didn't work, he just wasn't washed up against now six of his guards who pulled him away from the scene.

They dragged the struggling Arthur towards the exit, where ambulances had now arrived and some paramedics made their way to the circle and started to work fast at Merlin, while other paramedics came towards Arthur.

"No, please." Arthur started to beg, but his security didn't listen to him. "Please, I need to be with him." Arthur tried again and looked around. Leon was there. "Leon, please!"

"I'm sorry your Highness." He said with authority, but there was a hint of sadness behind it. "But you're our first priority." He nodded to the two men standing closest to Arthur, who ushered Arthur into the ambulance. Leon climbed in after Arthur was set down on the stretcher and the paramedic started to shine a light in Arthur's eyes.

The minute the doors were shut the ambulance drove off.

~oOoOo~

The King and Queen of England arrived at the hospital. Ygraine was in tears and Uther tried to look strong, but inside he felt anything but that. They were greeted by a ton of press and paparazzi, who must've been tipped off by people who were at the playground or in the park nearby the playground.

Their security kept them at a distance, but that didn't stop them from shouting questions. Uther ignored them and instead softly pushed his wife towards the entrance of hospital. Inside, they were quickly led to the room where their son was in with Leon standing guard in front of the door. He was cleared from any injuries and immediately went back to his duties.

When they were in the room, the King and Queen were introduced to the physician assigned to their son. Ygraine nodded to the man and then all but ran to the bed where Arthur laid in, touching his face and running a hand through his soft golden hair. "Arthur… sweetie?" Her broken pleas were being unanswered and her tear streaked face looked up to the doctor.

"Why isn't he answering? They said he wasn't injured apart from a small wound at his upper arm." She eyed the bandage that had been wrapped around a part of his upper arm.

The man swallowed. "When… His Highness was brought in, he was very stressed. He kept asking where someone called Merlin was, and the stress at that point was so high that it was starting to overwork his heart. We had to sedate him to calm him down, but he should be waking up any minute now. However, when he wakes try to keep him calm." The doctor swallowed again, it wasn't every day that the King and Queen were in the hospital and it wasn't every day that you had to care for the Prince.

"When we had sedated him we could fully assess the wound, and the Prince was very lucky. It seemed that the bullet only grazed a patch of skin which should heal quick and nicely and without any scarring." The man's pager beeped furiously. "I'm really sorry, there's an emergency. If you have any questions, I'm more than willingly to answer them later when I'll do a check-up."

The man left the room before either royal could say something.

Uther ran a hand across his face. He was happy, of course, that Arthur came out of this relatively unharmed, but he knew Merlin wasn't as lucky as his security had reported to him.

The last thing his security guards had seen, was that Merlin had stopped breathing. Arthur was already in the ambulance at that time, so he wouldn't know that it had happened… and to be frank, he didn't know how to tell his son about that. He had seen how Merlin and Arthur looked at each other when they were in the room earlier that day.

They were in love, he was positive about it and he knew that Ygraine knew it too. Both of them knew how serious Arthur was about Merlin, even though he didn't explicitly said it to them. But he didn't had too, the way he acted the last few weeks was all the confirmation they needed to know that their son was very much in love with the dark haired boy.

Uther breathed in deeply and walked forward and sat heavily down into one of the chairs next to the bed and placed an arm around his wife's shoulder. With his other hand he gently gripped Arthur's hand into his own and then they waited. Ygraine was murmuring small nothings to their son while he just looked at him.

If things had gone different then his son would be the one in trauma right now.

It were fifteen stressful minutes before their son started to stir. Both were immediately on their feet, Ygraine stroking his hair and Uther holding a tight grip on his son's hand.

Arthur's eyes fluttered. "Mum… dad?" He croaked out. He blinked a few times and moved his head from side to side to see where he was.

Uther and Ygraine saw on their son's face the exact moment that it dawned on him of what had happened not yet an hour ago.

Arthur wanted to sit up, but Uther pushed him lightly down onto the bed.

He tried again, but again his father held him down.

Knowing he couldn't go against his father, he laid down and closed his eyes. He breathed deeply in and asked nervously, "How's Merlin?"

Uther and Ygraine looked at each other, both not knowing the answer nor wanting to answer that question. It would only upset their son even more.

~oOoOo~

Balinor laid in bed with Hunith in his arms. Her head was resting on his chest, a playful smile gracing her face as she was drawing patterns on his stomach with the tips of her fingers.

He was softly stroking through her hair with his fingers and savoured the moment. That was until he and Hunith were interrupted by an insisting and urgent knock that was just short of banging on the bedroom door.

"Sire! My Lady!"

Lancelot.

Balinor had a flash of panic going through him, Lancelot wouldn't just interrupt them like that for something minor. He stood up from the bed and passed Hunith a robe while he quickly shrugged into his pants and trousers. He looked over his shoulder to see if Hunith was decent.

She closed the robe around her waist and looked at him with confusion.

Balinor opened the door and saw a panicked Lancelot on the other side. "What is it?" His own voice now panicked too. He watched his security guard, it was almost like what Lancelot was about to say would be too bad to say.

"Lancelot…" Balinor urged. He felt Hunith getting closer to him now, she must've sensed something was wrong.

"It's." Lancelot swallowed deeply. "It's Prince Merlin… he's been shot."

Hunith gasped loudly first before breaking out in tears and burying her head into Balinor's chest, murmuring, "No, no, no."

Balinor stood frozen for a moment, his mind doing overtime, but his body was as good as paralyzed. He closed his eyes and willed himself to calm down, but it did little. As he opened his eyes he looked straight at Lancelot and said, "Where is he now."

"The ambulance has taken him to Escetir Hospital-"

"How bad is it." Balinor asked knowing damn well he interrupted Lancelot. And even though he tried his hardest to look as calm as possible, inside he was aching, knowing that his son was hurt. What if his son was badly injured, he would never forgive himself. What if his son would die, he would never had the chance to tell Merlin about who he really is and Merlin would never know that he was his father. That was unacceptable and Balinor prayed that everything would be okay.

Balinor kissed Hunith on the top of her head and whispered, "Get dressed." He let go of her to quickly grab his dress shirt and socks and stepped out to the landing to put them on. He could care less about modesty right now, but he still wanted to give Hunith some kind of privacy while she dressed.

While he dressed, he listened to Lance's explanation who tried to ignore his King's state of undress.

"Prince Merlin has been shot in the chest that went straight through and exited from his back. The bullet then grazed Prince Arthur's upper arm. Some of our security were finally able to shoot the gunman after several failed attempts, while others started to apply pressure on the Prince's wound. From what reports told me, the Prince had difficulty breathing and they're almost positive that he has a collapsed lung. When the paramedics arrived, the Prince lost consciousness."

Hunith came out of the room, dressed in the first clothing she could find and gripped Balinor tightly around the waist, burying her head once again in his chest. She hadn't stopped crying ever since and Balinor tried his best to be a comfort to her by slowly rubbing circles on her back, but even he had difficulties to keep himself composed.

"Take us to the hospital." Balinor said, choking down a sob.

~oOoOo~

Not much time after Ygraine and Uther had entered the hospital, Balinor and Hunith arrived.

The press and paparazzi went even more nuts at seeing the Mercian King with an unknown woman at his side, but were more intrigued to why the Mercian monarch was there in the first place. They started speculating; most of them thought it was because of the English Prince, but others said that it was impossible because the Mercian monarch left last Thursday and he wouldn't be able to travel that fast from Mercia to England.

"Was that King Balinor of Mercia that just rushed past us?" Nimueh asked her colleague with a surprised tone and took a few photographs of him and the unknown woman.

Initially, she had been waiting in front of the hospital - as many other members of the press, news channels and paparazzi.

They all wanted to have the scoop about Prince Arthur being shot, as well as from his close friend Merlin Browne, who appeared to be in a life or death situation. If she would caught sight of the grieving Prince, she would have pictures and video footage that would be worth gold and that wasn't a chance she would pass up.

And the fact that the King of Mercia was also present was just an added bonus!

"I think it was." Her colleague replied. "But why would he be here?" He sounded positively confused.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." Nimueh replied with determination and hid her photo camera in her coat. She slipped away from the crowd to walk to one of the side entrances of the hospital. She would be the one with the exclusive inside story.