A/N: I don't own Merlin. That was the luck of the BBC.

Hey guys! Sorry it's a little later than I planned. I rewrote some of the scenes in this quite a few times, I could see them playing out in my head perfectly, then when I wrote them they were not nearly as emotional as I would've liked.

Anyway, onwards.

The search party leaving Camelot consisted of four knights: Sirs Lucan, Owain, Pellinore and Bruin. It was the fifth search party to venture out into the woods, in what they believed was yet another vain attempt to locate the king and the four knights missing along with him. However much they would deny it, they had no plan on how to rescue the king. There was no ransom note demanding money, no quest he'd not returned from, no reports of attacks. The king and his comrades had quite simply vanished from their patrol.

They'd heard talk of some form of recruitment of men in the lowlands, but the location was a precarious one, being ruled by neither Arthur nor Cenred. Sending Camelot's army charging in could have been viewed as an act of war by Cenred, and without a leader they would've been a hundred times weaker against an invasion.

Camelot's advisors had worried what was to happen to the kingdom if the worst was confirmed, as Arthur was childless and without a consort. The Pendragon dynasty would be dead, the throne open to claims by tyrants. Daily business had been called to a halt when the disappearance had become apparent, the sole focus of the kingdom to regain its lost monarch.

Gaius watched the men leave Camelot from his empty quarters, recalling the moment Lucan had entered his chambers days ago. He'd expected it to be Merlin, late for dinner and no doubt exhausted and grumpy from the patrol. Gaius knew Merlin never really liked patrol, though it'd become better with time as he and Arthur had become friends and the knights behaved as if Merlin was one of them.

So the sight of Sir Lucan in his chambers was startling to say the least. He'd glanced the man up and down, and frowned, seeing no visible injury or discomfort. He'd asked how he could help, offering the knight a seat, to which he had declined, but suggested that Gaius did so. Gaius also declined, then insisted that Lucan tell him why he was there and what was so urgent that he had come to his chambers so late in the evening. Especially when he was expecting a grouchy warlock home any second.

Lucan had taken a breath, clearly pondering over his words before he spoke to the physician, who was growing more and more irritable by the minute. Gaius had finally grown weary of the man's hesitancy, demanding he either give him some sort of explanation as to why he was there or leave his quarters, deciding it better to go to bed than wait up any longer for Merlin. No doubt he'd get the full account of the day's events over breakfast.

Gaius had never imagined that the next words out of Lucan's mouth would be 'the king and his entire patrol have gone missing'. In a second his exasperation with Lucan had been replaced by a disoriented numbness, shortly followed by a nauseating stabbing pain. He'd stumbled backwards into a chair by the workbench, denials escaping from his lips without much thought.

Merlin couldn't be missing. He just couldn't be.

He'd refused to believe it at first, the doctoral rationality his brain usually possessed becoming overtaken by what was an immediate subconscious grieving. He'd told Lucan that he was mistaken, that they'd probably just ventured further into the woods than usual, and had been forced to camp for the night, or it had taken them longer than usual to return. He'd assured the knight that they'd be home in the morning, that there was nothing to worry about. Though the words were possibly more to comfort Gaius than the man in front of him.

Lucan let out a heavy breath, unwilling to argue with the medic. He knew that the boy was like a son to the old physician, and could see no reasoning with him at that late hour, instead promising to inform him should the king return at first light. Lucan didn't know how he would react if he'd been given the news that his own son was missing, but he understood the shock and hurt that Gaius would be feeling. With any luck the group would be home in the morning, the entire idea a bad dream, but he was most doubtful.

Gaius thanked him, finding enough strength to stand and show Lucan out, then collapsing in the same chair once more. He'd wait for Merlin after all, then he'd catch up on sleep the next day, and make his ward do the early morning medicinal deliveries around the castle for scaring him so. Everything would be fine in the morning.

Except it wasn't.

He awoke with a start at dawn, still slumped in his chair, having kept awake for half the night until sleep had finally overtaken him. He glanced around the room, anxiously searching for his ward's return, ready to chastise him, and then welcome him home, in that order. But he didn't find Merlin, instead Gwen was there, apologising for waking him and babbling something about not knowing who else to talk to. Her face was covered in dried tears, her eyes red-rimmed and heavy, lack of sleep evident upon her tired features.

He'd shaken off her apologies, not letting his disappointment show, and stood to make tea for the pair, his caring instincts finally kicking in. He sat her down at the table, placing a hot cup in front of her, then taking the opposite seat. It was clear that neither were in the mood for anything to eat, instead sipping tea in an attempt to calm their nervous stomachs.

The moment was one of simple ordinariness, two people sat together taking tea, but something had clicked in Gaius. Perhaps it was the manner in which he was sat with Gwen, as he normally would with Merlin at this time, had he awoken early and was not forced to rush out, forgoing breakfast in favour of bringing Arthur his. Perhaps it was simply the beginning of a new day that had made the old physician see more clearly, but Gaius had suddenly realised that Merlin was not on his way home.

He was missing.

And it was killing Gaius all over again.

In the coming days Gaius had spent most of his time with the knights leading the search parties, making sure they were covering as much land as possible and sending correspondence to areas of Camelot and outer laying lands, hoping for some news of a ransom, or some wannabe tyrant to confirm he had Arthur. It was with luck that no one particularly needed his assistance that week. One of the servants had been instructed on how to make people's daily doses of medication and a woman from the lower town had offered herself to help with mild ailments.

He also spent time with Gwen, she having lost both Merlin, one of her best friends, and Arthur. Gaius was never quite sure what the relationship was between the pair, but he knew something had been changing, the looks shared of a different nature recently.

Gaius wouldn't lost hope, not even as prospects of locating them without any outside help dwindled. They'd had to remain cagy about what information was given out, unwilling to alert the wrong people of the king's absence. Gaius knew Merlin, and he knew Arthur and the knights. None would go down easily, even if, god forbid, it meant Merlin revealing his magic, something which would become apparent as either wise or foolish. Gaius hoped for wise.

Days after the news of their disappearance, Gaius was stood stoically at the foot of the castle, waiting patiently for the return of the fifth search party. He looked terrible, older than ever before as dark bags rimmed his eyes and heavy lines wrinkled his face. The slight breeze caught the hem of his robes as the horses began to enter the walls of the castle, and Gaius stood like stone with bated breath as they arrived.

The shock almost made him keel over when he realised the party returning was far greater than the party that left. The physician kept his gaze upon them, searching for one figure and one figure alone.

The band was led by Lucan, who caught the physician's eye and gave him a small nod, the tiniest gesture with the most significance, though the expression he was given was tight, guarded, filling Gaius with worry, but Merlin was here, and he was alive, he couldn't ask for more than that. Lucan was followed by the three younger knights who'd left with Lucan; Owain, Pellinore and Bruin, relief of finding the monarch, alive and well, lighting up their faces.

Then the returning knights. First Percival and Elyan, the two smiling to themselves and clearly revelling in their homecoming. They were followed by Arthur and Leon, the pair quietly discussing something between themselves, and Gaius believing he had never seen Arthur looking so drawn. Then finally one more horse, carrying the two final distinctly dark-haired men. The physician legs moved him towards them, whilst his brain caught up with what was happening.

Merlin was home.

Merlin was home.

Though Gaius froze as Merlin's shirt slightly caught whilst Gwaine helped him from the horse. His wounded torso revealed a fraction of the injuries on his body, but it was still enough to make Gaius unwell. A worn bandage with pale red soaking through was plastered over green and yellow bruises, and one of his ribs looked to have swelling around it and it was clearly displaced.

The old man let out a silent groan of upset, feeling an intense anger at whoever had done that to his ward. He would talk to Arthur about that as soon as he could, he would not let anyone get away with hurting Merlin. The warlock was swaying and mumbling something to himself, very clearly in pain as Gaius rushed towards the boy, seeing his mentor and breaking into a weak but heartfelt grin.

Neither said anything for a moment, Gaius simply enveloped the boy in a fatherly hug, clutching him tight, but careful of not further injuring whatever was ailing the boy. Merlin reciprocated wholeheartedly, letting out a breath he felt he'd been holding in since his capture, and the two stood together embracing for a silent moment.

"I thought I'd lost you, my boy." Gaius' usual stoic voice was cracking with emotion.

"Me too." Merlin murmured faintly, overwhelmed to be, quite literally, back into the arms of the familiar.

No cliff-hanger this time, just some overdue happiness.

What did you think? I wrote this chapter a little differently with very little dialogue. I didn't intend for this to be a catch up in Camelot originally, but I began writing Gaius' flashback and quite enjoyed the tone.