By the following Friday and Arthur's uncle showed no signs of moving on. In fact he seemed to be getting very comfortable. Then to Merlin's dismay he found out that Agravaine had taken his mother out for a meal. This made Merlin feel very uncomfortable. So during Merlin's time in the pool with Gwaine, he asked the other man what he thought of Arthur's uncle.
"Not for me to say mate." Gwaine looked at his friend. "You look worried what's up?"
"I don't like him he gives me the creeps, and Isolde doesn't like him either." Merlin realised he sounded daft.
"Isolde doesn't like him because you don't Merlin; she picks up on your vibes."
"No Gwaine, she growled at him as soon as he arrived, and I hadn't even met him properly then. There something about him and now he's taken mum out. I don't like it." Merlin was clearly worried. "He also seems to snoop about a lot."
"Look Merlin your mums a sensible lady, she can look after herself. But if it makes you feel better I'll keep an eye on him for you and ask the others what they think, but I don't expect he's snooping but looking around you've got a great place here. Listen why don't you speak to Arthur?"
"No I can't do that! He's Arthur's uncle." Merlin sounded horrified at the thought.
Hunith went out twice more with Agravaine and Merlin remained unhappy. He started to go into a down period, and sat alone not wanting to talk to anyone. Arthur noticed his husband's mood seemed to be getting low once more. He tried to cheer the young man up but nothing seemed to work. He phoned Gaius and asked if he could visit Merlin, to see if that would help but Merlin didn't want to talk to anyone. He had said his bit to Gwaine, and felt he was being silly. He knew his mother was careful so decided there was nothing he could do. This didn't help his mood.
During the week Gwaine asked Percy what he thought of the guest.
"Well I don't go much on him, I know the pup doesn't like him either and that's good enough for me." Percy looked at Gwaine "Why you asking."
"Merlin asked me what I thought; he doesn't like the man and is worried about Hunith. He also used the excuse that Isolde doesn't like him. What is it with you two?" Gwaine grinned at Percy.
"Look that dogs got good sense, she don't like Uther either." Percy was quite serious. "Trust her animal instincts."
One morning after Arthur had left for work, Merlin and Gwaine were in the pool when Agravaine walked in. He was clearly intending to have a swim. Merlin saw him and stood behind Gwaine. He didn't like anyone new to see his scared body. Gwaine looked over towards Arthur's uncle.
"Sorry but no one can use the pool when Merlin is in here, come back in about an hour we'll be out by then." Gwaine was civil but firm.
"But I won't be long and there's plenty of room." Agravaine clearly still intended to get in.
"NO one can use the pool that applies to you as well." Gwaine's voice left no room for argument. He was not someone that Agravaine wanted to push things too far with. The younger man was obviously far fitter than him. So after looking at Gwaine and Merlin he turned and left obviously not pleased.
"OK Merlin he's gone, let's get moving." He looked at Merlin who as white as a sheet. "You ok mate?"
"mm fine" was all Merlin said so with that they continued with the exercise regime.
After they had got out and got dressed Merlin went into the lounge. He knew he was sinking into his black hole again but just couldn't seem to motivate himself. Gwaine had gone to get Merlin a hot drink and Merlin was sitting looking out of the window. Agravaine came in and started to talk to Merlin, trying to draw him into conversation. He was having no luck and was getting impatient.
"Look Merlin you're not doing yourself any good just sulking, buck yourself up boy!" His voice was impatient in tone.
At that Gwaine came back in with two coffee's he gave one to Merlin and, just as he was going to sit down next to Merlin, Agravaine walked over and took the second cup out of Gwaine's hands and took a sip.
"Hey! That was my coffee." Gwaine was shocked at the man's actions.
"Make yourself another; you are after all, only an employee here." Agravaine said dismissively he was obviously still annoyed by having to back down at the pool.
"That was rude, and Gwaine is here to look after me! He's not paid to look after you." Merlin looked up. He might be down but he wasn't out there was still a streak of his old sassy personality underneath it all.
"I was under the impression my nephew paid the wages." He spoke to Merlin as if he was nothing.
That was a mistake. Gwaine turned to Agravaine "I'm employed by the Pendragon's not you! I'm not here to make you drinks and you will NOT speak to Merlin in that tone. As a visitor you will be polite to your hosts." The bodyguard glared at the other man. Agravaine had clearly overstepped the line.
Unfortunately Agravaine seemed unaware of what he had done.
"You will not talk to me in that tone! I will report you to my nephew when he arrives home."
"You do that! I think you'll find that the care of Merlin is of more importance to Arthur than your opinion of me!"
Merlin butted in "Thank you Gwaine, but I can talk for myself. Agravaine you are not to treat any of the bodyguards in such a manner, or any of the other staff. You are here as a guest but that doesn't give the right to be rude."
Agravaine looked scornfully at Merlin and Gwaine and then left the room.
"Hey Merlin, where did that come from?" Gwaine was surprised at Merlin. Normally when he was low in mood he didn't raise to any comments anyone else made.
"I don't like him!" Merlin looked back out of the window and said no more.
Gwaine went to get himself another coffee and sat quietly with Merlin. But Merlin didn't want to talk anymore.
Arthur came back mid afternoon and found Merlin was out with Isolde and the bodyguards. Hunith and Gwen were in the kitchen making some chutney from some spare beetroot from the garden. Agravaine made the most of their absence to talk to Arthur. He knew the altercation with Gwaine would come to light and wanted to get his side in first. Arthur had already changed out of his suit and was in his office.
"Hello Arthur, good day?"
"Not too bad, better now I'm home. I suppose Merlin is out with his dog?" Arthur smiled at the thought.
"Yes he is, Arthur the bodyguards are they still necessary? It must be costing you a fortune."
"Yes they are, and worth every penny to me."
"The one on this morning seemed to spend all day drinking coffee and sitting down. Hardly doing his job and he was very rude to me. He didn't even want to make your guest a cup of coffee. You need to keep them in check or they will take advantage of you."
"Gwaine isn't here to make you or anyone else but Merlin and himself coffee Uncle. He can spend all day talking to Merlin for all I care, and if he was rude to you I suspect he thought he had cause to be, he's very protective of Merlin. Sorry but I don't hire him to be polite." He looked at his Uncle. "I don't think you understand how this house runs; as long as Merlin is looked after and protected I don't care what anyone does here. He's all that is important to me. Gwaine is the last person to take advantage of either me or Merlin."
Arthur's comments shocked his uncle. "You can't mean that!"
"Oh I do! Now I don't know what went on today and quite frankly I don't care. You are welcome to stay here uncle, until you make permanent arrangements. And you are welcome to visit after that, but understand this, I won't sacrifice Merlin's safety and well being for anything or anyone and the team here know that. So if you have anything else to say please keep that in mind." Arthur looked his uncle in the eye. Then trying to lighten the mood he spoke once more:
"Now let's go and make ourselves a drink and hopefully Merlin will be back soon."
They were in the kitchen when Merlin and Isolde came into the kitchen closely followed by Gwaine and Pallinor. Isolde ran up to Arthur and jumped up at him for some fuss.
"Oh no girl, you know better than that, It's your masters turn first." with that Arthur went to Merlin and gave him a kiss. "Sit down love, you look tired" Arthur pulled out a chair at the large kitchen table.
"I'm ok" Merlin gave Arthur a weak smile that said more to Arthur than any words.
"Still feeling down?" Arthur asked concern in every word.
"Bit" Merlin mumbled. Unwilling to say more with Agravaine stood there.
"Have your drink and we'll go in to the other room." Arthur hated to see Merlin like this and hoped his uncle's presence wasn't causing too many problems.
As Merlin drank his tea, Gwaine went to fetch the indoor wheelchair. This also made Arthur worry as Gwaine was obviously concerned about the young man as well. Merlin normally walked and wouldn't use the wheelchair when he was indoors unless he was ill. After Merlin got into the wheelchair they all moved into the lounge, except for Pallinor who went on his rounds.
Agravaine watched Arthur and Merlin together and frowned, as usual he was amazed at the public display of affection Arthur lavished on his husband. He could see why Uther found the relationship difficult to tolerate.
Gwaine was the only one who noticed but he said nothing. Until their evening meal Arthur sat next to Merlin and cuddled up to the quiet and sad man. All evening Merlin hardly said a word and only ate a small amount of his plate at supper. Arthur took him to bed early and Agravaine was left to watch the television alone.
A couple of days later Arthur was having a day off work. Merlin was still low and had refused to get out of bed. Arthur had got up to have some breakfast and was sitting in the kitchen alone when his uncle found him.
"Good morning Arthur" Agravaine was going to try to talk to Arthur while he had him by himself.
"Morning" Arthur clearly wasn't in the mood for talking much.
"I was hoping to have a word with you today if I might?" he was concerned about his nephew.
"Ok, I need to go and try to get Merlin to eat and drink something. We can talk after that." Arthur hated mornings like these. It made him realise that Merlin was still far from recovered.
Arthur finished his breakfast in silence, then making a cup of tea and some toast, headed towards the master bedroom. Gwen arrived and started to wash up.
"Good morning Gwen. Tell me is Merlin often this much trouble of Arthur?"
Gwen thought, Agravaine was obviously snooping he didn't normal talk much to the staff.
"I don't think Arthur looks on it as trouble." Gwen was annoyed at Agaravaine's tone of voice. Gwen like the others was very loyal to Merlin.
"Perhaps the wrong words, Is Merlin often this low in mood?"
"He has good times and bad times, but he's a lot better than he was." Gwen was clearly unhappy talking about her employers.
"Yes I'm sure, I was only thinking how hard it must be for Arthur, has he ever thought of finding Merlin somewhere he could be looked after?" he made it sound like the only sensible thing to do.
Agravaine was surprised when Gwen looked at him as if he were mad. "No he hasn't, and I don't suggest you say such a thing to Arthur!" with that Gwen flounced off out of the room.
Just round the corner she bumped into Gwaine who was doing the rounds. He immediately noticed her anger.
"Hey Gwen, what's up darling?" He asked winking at her, thinking that Lance had upset her before she came to work.
"That Man!" she said glancing back towards the kitchen. It was obvious to Gwaine then that she wasn't mad at Lance.
Gwaine pulled her into the bodyguard's office and closed the door.
"By that man I assume you mean Arthur's uncle?" Gwen nodded to angry and upset to say more. "What did he say to you?" he asked.
"He wanted to know why Arthur didn't put Merlin in a home somewhere. He's as bad as Uther!" Gwen started to cry. "Why can't they leave them alone?"
"Don't worry Gwen I'm sure he'll be moving on soon." Gwaine was beginning to think Merlin and Percy were right.
In the bedroom Merlin was still refusing to eat anything, but he did drink the tea. Arthur tried to get Merlin to tell him what was wrong but Merlin just shrugged his shoulders. Then he asked to be left alone. Arthur left but asked Gwaine to hang around near the master bedroom and keep an eye on Merlin. Then he went to speak to his Uncle. He found the man sitting in the lounge drinking a cup of tea.
"Right Uncle you wanted a word." Arthur sat down not really wanting to talk.
"Arthur I'm concerned for you, you can't keep this up, and you're being dragged down. You're not going to like this, but it needs to be said, you need to find somewhere to put Merlin so he can be looked after, for both of your sakes." Agravaine clearly thought he was right and that Arthur should listen to him.
Arthur stood up "Look Uncle I'm sure you mean well, but that's never going to happen. You're seeing Merlin when he's down. He isn't always like this. Now I'm sorry but this isn't up for discussion" with that the blonde man left the room.
Merlin was lying curled up in the bed, his mind kept drifting back to what had happened to him, and he couldn't understand why he couldn't stop being so low. He tried, he really did, and he knew he was useless, he shouldn't have let himself get kidnapped in the first place, and then he wouldn't be in this mess. His thoughts just kept going round and round in his head.
Gwaine sat in the hall thinking about Agravaine wondering if his presence was making Merlin worse. He decided it probably was, and made up his mind to speak to Arthur. He heard Merlin moving so went into the room to check on him. Gwaine sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at his friend.
"Hey Merlin, you going to get up, Isolde need's to go for a walk." He smiled at the unhappy man trying to get through to him.
"Don't want to!" was all he got back.
"You might not want to, but she does, come on it will do you both good." To his surprise Merlin sat up. He was dressed Arthur had seen to that.
"Come on, I'm not taking no for an answer."
Merlin stood up and moved across to his wheelchair and sat down without saying any more. Gwaine followed him out and went to the kitchen to pick up Isolde. Arthur was sat having yet another coffee.
"We're off for a walk you coming?" Gwaine asked Arthur.
"Yeh I'll come, glad you got up Merlin." He kissed the other mans forehead.
Merlin didn't reply. They collected Pallinor and set of out into the sun. Merlin seemed a bit more responsive when they got back and sat in the lounge cuddling his dog.