Arthur rang Morgana after lunch to reassure her and then answered the door to Gwen who had come to visit. She was surprised to see Arthur home but didn't mention it as she picked up the vibes from them that all had not been well. She had brought a chocolate cake and a few more meals for the freezer.
They spent her visit telling her how good she was to them and how she could visit every day if she bought cake with her. Gwen promised to bring a carrot cake the next time.
Luckily, Merlin seemed to settle down once more and over the next few weeks only had a couple of nightmares that Arthur easily calmed him after. Arthur continued to work part time but now put in the occasional full day.
He heard back from Dr Kilgarrah to say that he had raised Arthur's idea about moving at the case conference and it had wholeheartedly been thought good idea. The Orthopaedic Consultant suggested that as a precaution it would be best to consider somewhere that had the master bedroom on the ground floor and easy access for a wheelchair as there was a good possibility Merlin would have a permanently week leg and need at least occasional wheelchair use. This had already been raised as a possibility before as well as the likelihood of Merlin's left wrist and hand having residue loss of function so this came as no surprise. It had decided not to tell Merlin at the onset that he might not regain full mobility, but wait until all the tests had been done when he was ready for surgery.
Merlin's mouth had settled enough and Arthur arranged for a dentist to visit Merlin at home and sort out Merlin's dentures. He had lost too many teeth for bridges and his jaw was too weak for the new system of imbedded magnets to be an option. After a couple of visits Merlin had his dentures and although they were uncomfortable at first he soon got used to them and at least he could eat easier. The dentures also made his face look better as his mouth line was improved.
Arthur started to make enquiries at estate agents for appropriate houses for sale or a plot of land. He asked for all details to be sent to the office so Merlin didn't find out to soon.
Arthur needed to be in commuting distance but had no real worries as to where he lived. The situation was more important to him he wanted to find the perfect spot. He wanted to buy and move before selling the penthouse so to reduce the hustle of moving. That was one blessing of being left a wealthy man from his mother's legacy; they at least had no money worries. Once he had a few options he intended to involve Merlin fully in the final choice but until then he would keep it secret.
The other thing he hadn't mentioned yet to Merlin was the work being done to prepare for the trial of the four people who had been charged with kidnapping him.
The QC had been selected by the Crown Prosecution Service and as expected it wasn't Arthur or Leon they were far too close to the case. Alator Pagan, someone who Arthur had the utmost respect for, was to be the prosecuting Q.C. His team was working on the case using the police and medical evidence together with the statements that had been taken from various people including Arthur.
So far, they had worked using the statements given by Merlin to the police- but Alator wanted to speak to Merlin personally. Arthur was trying to put him off for a while. The court case wasn't due to start for another six months and he felt it important to give Merlin space, but he knew the time would soon come unless they only used the available evidence and refused to let Merlin testify. This could be done but would be less effective.
All four of the defendants had entered innocent pleas at the pre court hearings. Morgause had been extradited a few weeks previously far sooner than expected.
The evidence was strong they had even found Merlin's mobile in Morgause's London home hidden in her attic. But despite this none of them had any intention of pleading guilty.
Christmas was fast approaching and Merlin asked Gwaine if he could take him shopping as he wanted to buy Arthur a present. Gwaine was reluctant as he thought Merlin would be too uncomfortable in crowds. He had a quiet word with Arthur who agreed but suggested that perhaps they could talk a shop into opening just for Merlin one evening. He suggested involving Morgana. She loved shopping and probably knew someone who would agree.
So Gwaine asked Morgana and she talked one of the larger stores into a special opening. Merlin's story was well known and had generated a lot of sympathy. She agreed to make it a group outing. So it was arranged for the group of friends to all go together, including Arthur. Morgana would 'keep Arthur out of the way' whilst Gwaine helped Merlin chose Arthurs present.
They all had a great deal of fun. The shop shut at the normal time but then they let in Morgana's group for one hour to shop. The shop did well as they all did their shopping and Merlin went out without the worry of how he would cope with crowds. The shop also got publicity for doing it. Merlin found Arthur a gold tie clip in the form of a Merlin (bird) which he thought Arthur would love as well as several new ties, something Arthur never seemed to have enough of.
He bought presents for everyone else as well as Christmas food hampers full of chocolates and biscuits for all the wards he had been a patient in. Arthur, not realising what Merlin had done, had purchased similar ones with Tea and Coffee selections.
Christmas was a happy affair with Hunith once more staying. Gwaine took up residence as Mithian was going back to her family for three days. Arthur and Merlin both gave her presents before she left.
On Christmas morning, before they joined the others, Merlin gave Arthur his present. Arthur loved the Merlin tie clip and swore to wear it every day. Arthur had bought Merlin a new light weight Rolex watch to replace the watch he had been wearing when he was kidnapped, that had never been recovered. He purposely had a leather strap fitted to fit Merlin very slender wrist. He would take it back once Merlin had got back to his original weight to have the correct metal strap fitted.
Once they got up, the four of them spent a happy but busy morning with several of their friends dropping in to exchange gifts. Hunith cooked the Christmas dinner so Arthur and Gwaine washed up afterwards. In the early afternoon Morgana and Leon visited and stayed until early evening. The group played board games and watched television.
They finished the day singing carols as by then Arthur and Gwaine were merry.
That night Merlin slept well with no bad dreams.
The first thing next morning Arthur and Hunith visited Guys and delivered the presents to the wards. Oxfords had been posted before Christmas. Dr Kilgarrah and Aithusa's were left in ITU who promised to deliver them as soon as the holiday was over. They got back to the penthouse in time to eat lunch which Gwaine had cooked with Merlin supervising. Luckily it was edible; being mainly left over's from the day before.
Kay and Oswain arrived after lunch with a gift for Merlin from the police station. It was a complete surprise and Merlin was moved to tears. It was a painting of a view of the Welsh Hills near Merlin's childhood home. One of the policemen was married to an artist and they had commissioned her to paint it. Merlin decided there and then to replace one of their present pictures with it so they could hang it straight away.
About a fortnight after Christmas the hospital had contacted Merlin with an appointment to go into hospital for his skin grafts to heal his remaining open wounds. They were happy with the amount of weight he had put on but wanted him to keep on with the night feeds. Once all his wounds and the resulting donor areas were healed the orthopaedic team wanted to start work on his wrist and leg. They were unwilling to do the bone surgery until all his other wounds were healed as the risk of infection was too great.
So, a fortnight, later Merlin was admitted once again to Guy's Hospital, this time to the Plastic Surgery Unit. The hospital reluctantly agreed on the bodyguards as Merlin was once again to have a single room. It seemed they were unwilling challenge Arthur once again. The day before admission Merlin was getting more and more anxious. He didn't want to go into hospital again.
Gwaine came round to see him and brought two CD's with him and downloaded them onto Merlin's iPod. They were relaxation tapes, one with sounds of the woodland with bird song and the other of Whale song and ocean sounds. This seemed to help calm Merlin down and he was going to take it in with him. The trouble was they weren't as good with earphones due to Merlin only having hearing in one ear. But they all agreed that as he was in a single room he should be able to use the iPod without the ear pieces.
On the morning of the operation Merlin was accompanied by Arthur and Morgana, as well as Boris and Tristan the two bodyguards on duty that morning. It wasn't long before he was taken to theatre. Arthur and Morgana waited in the hospital until Merlin was back on the unit, some three hours later. Morgana had a brief word with the sleepy Merlin and left. Arthur stayed until the end of visiting even though Merlin was asleep most of the time.
The operation was a success and Merlin stayed in hospital until the first graft dressing at five days. He hated every moment; the doctors prescribed sedatives for night time to try to prevent any nightmares so that he wouldn't damage the grafted areas by moving around too much. He also had his relaxation tapes going all night on a loop, which seemed help.
He had a couple of nightmares, but they weren't bad ones and Geriant managed to calm him down by talking to Merlin. At night one of the body guards stayed in the room with Merlin and the other outside the room. Hiring a team of bodyguards himself rather than using an agency had been one of Arthur's better moves it meant Merlin knew all the team members well and trusted them. As usual for him- he slept with the light on.
After five days his grafts were inspected and had healed well. The donor areas would not be inspected for another five days but Merlin was allowed to go home, with Mithian once again on hand to help look after him. She had gone on holiday at Arthur's expense while Merlin was in hospital and pleased to come back.
It was the donor areas that caused Merlin the most pain after surgery but as the days went on they began to itch instead of hurt which made him irritable. He even managed to make Gwen cry on one of her visits. Merlin had regressed since his ordeal and often acted in a childish manner, but he was upset when he made Gwen cry and sent her a large bunch of flowers via 'interflora' by way of an apology.
When he went back to hospital five days later, for the dressings to be taken down on his donor areas everyone was very pleased and he returned home with no dressings for the first time and clear instructions on how to cream and care for the healed areas. The hospital still wanted him to continue with the naso gastric feeds as he still had some way to go to reach a decent weight.
Although Arthur had planned to select several new homes for Merlin to choose from, he had found the perfect place for their new home when Merlin was in hospital. It was a large plot with outline planning permission on the edge of a small village in Buckinghamshire.
It was part lot from the breakup of an estate and he could buy four semi detached cottages cottages in the same lot. The views at the back of the plot looked over fields with hills in the background. The land was flat so was idea for their purposes. The cottages were all with empty possession and would be useful as they would need a housekeeper who could live in one.
Another factor was that one would be useful for the bodyguards to use if they didn't want to travel home when on a run of sifts. He was sure the other two would be needed if not he could rent them out later if no other use was found for them.
The price was high but affordable, and it was rare to get such a plot in the areas he had been looking in. Arthur had driven down and visited the site with Gwaine one morning when Merlin was in hospital. They had a good look round. The cottages needed some work but it was cosmetic only. They all had small gardens except for the one on the end which had a large corner plot.
They went down to the nearby village and found it had a small shop with post office, a butchers and a pub. The nearest small town was seven miles down the road and it had a train link to London so it all looked good. They took lots of pictures to show Merlin. On the way back Gwaine said he might be interested in renting one of the cottages which surprised Arthur.
"I had you down as a city boy, Gwaine"
"You forget I was bought up in Ealdor the same as Merlin and there is a pub… what more do you need? He paused. "I want to be based near Merlin. Also Mithian's family only live fifteen miles away."
Arthur said no more but was surprised he didn't realise that Gwaine and Mithian had become that serious. But then he wasn't surprised that Gwaine wanted to be near Merlin. Gwaine had become as protective of him as Arthur was.
When Arthur got back home he expressed interest in buying to the estate agent and told them he was a cash buyer but needed to speak to his husband who was in hospital before finalising but he would contact them in a week. So four days after Merlin had come home he talked to Merlin about the plot showing him all the pictures. Merlin loved the idea and the views; he was also pleased that Gwaine wanted to live nearby