The three stretchers had just been pushed through another door and Doctor Robinson had to have a firm grip on his colleague's arms in order from stopping him from running after the stretcher his son was lying on. It didn't however stop Balinor from struggling heavily.

"Balinor you have to calm. down! Call your wife and be with your daughter." Doctor Robinson sternly told his colleague and pointed to Morgana who had arrived with Will minutes after the three victims were brought in. "There's nothing you can do for Merlin anymore. Sit down and calm yourself!"

"No, I've got to see him. Please." Balinor pleaded and was still struggling to get out of the grip.

"Dad…" Morgana sniffed. She held a good grip on Will's shirt and hadn't let go ever since she heard that someone died. They learned quickly who it was and she had placed her head on Will's shirt and started crying. She couldn't believe it.

"Dad please." Morgana sobbed even louder and finally Balinor gave up fighting his colleague and went to sit with his distressed daughter. He watched his colleague rushing to the doors where the stretchers had been pushed through just moments ago.

He turned to look at his daughter. She had looked so happy and beautiful in her dress when she left the house just hours before and now she looked so upset, with tears streaming down her face and her hair in disarray. He slung an arm around her and brought her close before sighing deeply. He couldn't do anything more now.

"He-he was s-so cold." Morgana stuttered after a moment of silence. Her words slightly muffled by her father's shirt. "A-and there was a-all that blood, and th-he-hen his eyes rolled back." Morgana took a quivering breath. "I-I just didn't know what to do anymore. I-I tried to -"

"Shhh, darling. You've done everything you could." Balinor soothed in her ear, rocking her from side to side in the hope it would calm her down. "We need to call your mother and tell her the news." Balinor said grimly and accepted the phone Will offered him.

Will himself was nearly in shock after learning what had happened to his best friend. He couldn't believe that someone could do that to someone as kind and humble as Merlin. When Will was looking around him, he saw police officers, doctors and nurses bustling in the small reception space of the emergency area and he heard doctors yelling orders. Will looked back to Balinor when he heard him sigh deeply.

"Hello-o." Hunith's almost singing voice greeted Balinor. How could he ever have enough strength to tell her what had happened to her son? She was already completely out of her mind when she heard that Merlin was beaten, telling her what had happened now would completely destroy her.

He sucked in a breath and stubbornly wiped a tear away that had fallen down his cheek with his thumb.

"You… you need to come to the hospital. Please love."

"What, why? Didn't your car start again? See I told you, you should've taken that thing to the garage to get it checked when it happened the first tim-"

"Hunith, please. It's important. Please, just come to the emergency room, now." Balinor pleaded her, his voice cracked and he forced himself to take long deep breaths. He didn't want to tell her about Merlin over the phone, not when she still had to drive, because she would be too distracted to pay attention to the road.

"Balinor, you're scaring me. Tell me what's wrong."

"Hunith I can't tell it over the phone. Just, promise me that you'll come here soon."

"Yes. Yes." Hunith's voice turned even more serious. "I'll be there as quick as I can."

~oOoOo~

It took Hunith forty-three minutes to come to the hospital because there was traffic jam due to some accident. Hunith never swore, but that time she did because it took so damn long and she was still not any wiser on why she needed to get to the hospital. There were a million scenarios running through her head, and all of them were involving her husband being seriously hurt. She just wished that he hadn't been so mysterious on the phone.

The minute she parked her car she ran to the right floor and found not only her husband there, but also her daughter and Will.

"Balinor!"

Balinor looked up at hearing his name and stood quickly up when he saw his wife coming towards him. He embraced her tightly and then sat her down on the chair next to him. Morgana's arms were immediately drawn around his arm once more and her head placed on his shoulder. Will kept rubbing soothing circles onto her back. Hunith reached out to her daughter and asked what was wrong, but she didn't got an answer apart from sobbing.

Balinor quickly introduced Uther as Arthur's father, but Uther was too distracted to pay attention to his surroundings. Hunith had frowned now even more. She thought there would be something serious with her husband, but he didn't seemed to be injured. But why was her daughter there then too? And why was she crying?

"Balinor, please tell me what's wrong. Now."

Balinor let out a shuddering sigh. "It's – it's about Merlin and Arthur."

"What about them!"

"They, they have been stabbed."

Hunith stared up at her husband. "No." Hunith breathed out eventually. She looked around her and saw four unknown persons all dressed in neat suits looking at her. "W-what happened? Oh, Balinor tell me our son is okay. Tell me Arthur is okay. Please…"

"Gwaine did it to them…" Balinor told his wife and gripped her tighter. "I-I don't know what happened exactly." Balinor breathed deeply in. "He has drugged Merlin and had stabbed him and Arthur." Balinor paused for a short moment, he needed a moment to collect himself. As a doctor he had to bring bad news often, but never about his own family. "They've lost a lot of blood, both of them."

"A-are they…?" Hunith left the inevitable word linger in the air, she just couldn't get the word 'dead' over her lips. If she would say it, it would be too real and if she wouldn't say the word at all, then it just wouldn't be true. Balinor would just tell her that both boys were okay and that they were just sleeping.

And then her husband shook his head and she didn't know the meaning for it and tears welled up in her eyes.

"No." Balinor finally admitted. "But they are far from okay. When Merlin was brought in, he was drifting in and out of conscious. When he would be awake, he was confused and stressed and wanted to know where Arthur was. They had to sedate him to prevent him from causing any more injuries to himself."

Hunith sat silently and listened, but her heart was thundering against her ribcage. Her little boy was hurt and there was nothing she could do but what. She tried to keep the tears at bay as well as she could because she needed to be strong for her boy… and her little girl who still was softly sobbing against her father's arm. Hunith knew how much Morgana cared for her brother, even when she would deny any reason too.

"Merlin had a large bleeding at his arm and a smaller cut in his neck, but they managed to stop both bleedings. They have administered extra blood to Merlin too, because his blood levels were a little bit down. Hopefully he'll be doing a whole lot better in some time."

"C-can I see him?" Hunith asked softly. But Balinor shook his head, his eyes casted down at the floor.

"Not at the moment. He needs rest and can't have any excitement around him."

Hunith nodded. She didn't liked it to be denied to see her son, but she could understand the reason behind it. She looked towards Arthur's father. "And Arthur?"

Balinor blew out a puff of air and looked in Uther's direction. Uther still sat on the chair, staring at the floor with his hands clenched in fists.

"We still don't know, he's still in theatre. He had a more seriously stab wound than Merlin."

Hunith nodded softly, her eyes still trained on Uther. She wanted to know a lot more on what exactly has happened, but this wasn't the time to ask. She now wanted both her boys awake and wanting to know what happened with the person who had inflicted all this suffering on her family.

"And Gwaine?" She almost spat the name as she said it, her hate for the man was clear from the moment she learned he was the one who had threatened her son at his work.

"He's dead." Balinor answered coldly. He said it without any emotion and Uther interrupted him, muttering more to himself than to the people in the room.

"And he's lucky he's dead, otherwise I would've killed him myself." Uther growled low.

"Has Merlin..." Hunith cautiously asked. She wanted to know if her son was responsible for Gwaine's death.

Balinor knew that no one was interested on how the man had died, but Balinor still felt the need to explain what had happened with Gwaine. Or at least what the paramedics had told him. They weren't sure and they had to wait a few more days for the coroner's report on what exactly was the cause of death, but just like Balinor, they were convinced that the head wound was the cause of death.

"I don't think it was Merlin. Leon," Balinor pointed to Leon who was now sitting next to Uther with a comforting hand on Uther's shoulder. "told us that he had found Merlin unconscious. I think that Arthur had been struggling with Gwaine and somehow Gwaine hit his head hard. Gwaine's skull probably cracked by the impact, but we don't know for certain. But if that had happened, then chances are big that blood had been slipping through the crack, which would cause for pressure to built up in the skull."

He took a small pause before muttering, "And it might be against my doctor's oath, but I'm glad he's dead… the pain he caused Arthur and Mer-"

Hunith felt her husband's emotions rising and gripped his hand into her own, it made him stop talking and made him look at his wife. "Don't spent any more time thinking about him." Hunith whispered. "We now have to hope that everything will be fine with Merlin and Arthur."

~oOoOo~

Hours passed and every time the swinging doors opened, Uther leaped up from his seat, hoping the person who walked through them had news that his son was out of surgery. But mostly he was disappointed by the news that they told him.

Nurses came and went to inform the group about the progress that was made with Arthur's surgery and Balinor explained some medical things that Uther didn't understand. The last nurse that came through the doors, told them that it could still take a long time as there had been an internal bleeding which was hard to stop. Arthur kept losing a lot of blood, but Doctors Robinson was doing his best in stopping the bleeding. Balinor told Uther that Arthur was in the best hands as Doctor Robertson was the best vascular surgeon they had.

Another forty minutes went by before another nurse came by to give an update on Merlin's situation. His blood pressure had suddenly dropped and the situation was now considered critical. If it would drop even more, there was a chance that Merlin would slip into a coma.

~oOoOo~

Another hour passed and a nurse came through the doors with the news that the surgery was finally over and Arthur was being transferred to Recovery. He was in most critical condition and no visitors were allowed for the time being.

~oOoOo~

Minutes ticked by at an unbelievably slow pace and all that the people could do was waiting, waiting and some more waiting.

Uther was constantly on his phone now, talking to who knows who and Balinor kept Hunith as well as Morgana close at his side. They were waiting for the moment that they could visit Merlin, but his situation was still too critical to let someone visit.

~oOoOo~

Just a few minutes after two in the morning, both families were informed that Merlin and Arthur's condition was concidered stable now, but because of the time, no one was allowed to visit and the nurses suggested that they would come back in the morning.

No one left.

Just before visiting time would begin, a nurse came up to the group of people and told them that Merlin and Arthur were put in the same room and she further told them about how the night went. Arthur had started to become slightly feverish, but they managed to control it and Merlin had gotten a couple of nightmares at the start of the night, but with sedatives he had slept through the rest of the night.

The nurse instructed that only two persons per patient were allowed for now, and it was quickly decided that Hunith and Balinor would visit Merlin and that Uther would visit Arthur alone. The rest of the group were desperate to see both Arthur and Merlin, but they knew that their parents were obligated to go in first.

When the three of them entered the ward, Hunith started to feel uneasy. She didn't know what to expect and was just glad that her husband was there to support her. She drew the curtain away that separated her son's bed from the other beds and before she entered, she watched Uther do the same to the curtain around his son's bed.

Her eyes finally flicked to her son's direction and she didn't know how to feel. From her point of view it looked like Merlin was just sleeping, he was just lying there so peacefully and she felt like she was drawn back twenty-fours years, and imagined herself standing at her three year old son's room, just watching him sleep.

She was brought back to the present when Balinor had nudged her towards a seat next to Merlin's bed.

Her eyes looked at the bandages wrapped around his upper arm and neck. "Merlin." She softly whispered, but her son didn't moved a muscle and she sank back into her chair. Her husband gently wrapped an arm around her and she laid her head down on his shoulder. They could only wait some more now at this point.

~oOoOo~

Uther didn't know what was wrong, but when he drew back the curtain he saw that there was an unmistakable frown onto his son's brow. The rest of his face was peaceful, but the frown was evident.

Uther sat down onto one of the chairs and before he knew what he was doing, he was brushing away the sweat clad hair from his son's forehead and was leaning forward to be closer to his son. He was starting to murmur reassuring words to his son and it was like Arthur could hear him, because the deep frown started to lessen. Still, Arthur remained unconscious.

"My boy." Uther whispered, resuming the action of brushing his son's hair out of his face. "I'm so sorry. I wish I looked after you better. I wished I had paid more attention, because if I had, than this wouldn't have happened. I'm so sorry that I haven't been father of the year, but I'm trying to change that. What do you say, eh? You open your eyes and then you can tell me exactly how a good father should act."

There wasn't any reaction and Uther sighed. He pulled the chair even closer to the bed until his knees collided with it and brought his free hand up to grasp Arthur's hand into his own. He was careful for the IV that had been inserted in Arthur's hand and where blood was now traveling from the blood bag to his veins.

Uther squeezed his son's hand for his own reassurance. It told him that Arthur was still there and if hopefully also sent the message to his son that he wouldn't leave him. He so hoped Arthur knew that. He sat like that for a while, keeping the hand gently into his own, while continuing to rake his fingers through the golden blonde hairs.

Uther was staring at his son and thinking about literally everything, when he was brought out of his memory by Merlin's parents' happy voices.

"Slowly Merlin, slowly…. Balinor he's awake!" Hunith's voice rose higher and higher from the fact that her son had opened his eyes.

"Deep breaths now Merlin." Balinor told his son. "That's it, good boy. No, no. It's okay, stay in bed. Merlin please listen to me. Just keep lying… yes, that's it."

"I'll get his doctor." Hunith told her husband and left

Uther heard the curtain being opened and closed and footsteps were leaving the ward. He could now hear Balinor coo softly at his son, and if he wasn't mistaken, he could hear that Merlin was starting to cry.

Uther turned his attention back to his son with mixed feeling. He was happy of course that Merlin had woken up, but at the same time felt sad that his own son remained unconscious. Uther placed his palm on top of Arthur's hair and stroked his thumb over his son's forehead.

"Come on my boy, open your eyes."

Expect the next chapter (hopefully) tomorrow…