A/N: I don't own Merlin. That was the luck of the BBC.
Hello people. New chapter. Quick question at the end.
"He tried to." Gaius looked up at Gwaine, the knight placing a hand on Merlin's undamaged shoulder, keeping a protective watch over him. "Do a spell, that is. A few times. All he managed to achieve was making the fire flicker and to throw a beaker off a shelf."
They had been sat there for the better part of an hour, Gaius had cleaned Merlin's torso and stitched up the rest of his wounds a while ago, and now they were just waiting. Gwaine hated it, he felt like he should be doing something to help him rather than just sat by his bedside.
"He must've been very weak." Gaius frowned, a concerned look still etched into his drawn features. "I'll tell you now, there's not a soul more powerful than Merlin. Escaping from magic suppressing manacles is damn near impossible, so it's to be expected that he was rather exhausted."
Gwaine looked as if he was about to ask something else, press Gaius for more information, when the door swung open and a very pensive-looking Arthur strode through, deep in thought and grumbling to himself.
"How was the council?" Gaius' voice seemed to snap him out of the trance Arthur had been in.
"The usual." He muttered, shaking his head. "Leon and I have decided to withhold some facts from them. We didn't mention our stop in Redferran, nor the extent of Merlin's injuries. I'm worried it could raise more questions than necessary. They know we were attacked and kidnapped, and Merlin was injured and had to be brought to you, but very little apart from that." Arthur rubbed at his tired eyes. "How is he?" He cast his eyes up to the figure on the bed, as if he'd been preparing himself for the worst, relieved though a little disheartened to see there was little change in the warlock's condition. The few differences he could see was that more colour was returning to his face and his chest and stomach were no longer covered in bandaged gaping wounds, but rather more neat stitches.
"Doing better. I've closed all of the open wounds and cleaned the smaller cuts and scrapes. He's cooled off a little as well, so there's not much to be done for him now, only wait and see." The old man let out a resigned sigh. "I wish there was something to be done, something just to keep me busy, I hate seeing…" He took a breath in an effort not to get himself so worked up. "I'm sorry, Arthur."
"You love him like a son, you've done far better than most would in your situation." Arthur reassured Gaius, taking note of his haggard appearance. "Why don't you get some rest? Me and Gwaine can keep watch, and we'll let you know if there's the slightest change."
"You promise?" Gaius said, stifling a yawn.
"Absolutely. Like I said, I'm leaving the medical stuff to you from now on." Arthur let out a small laugh.
"And Gwen will no doubt come and see how he is." Gwaine added, noticing the maid had been gone quite a while.
"If you're absolutely sure." Gaius nodded, heading towards his room at the back of his quarters.
There was nothing else to do after Gaius disappeared but set themselves up for watch as if they were guarding a camp on a patrol. Gwaine sat at Gaius' workbench, toying with all measures of glass cylinders and pots of ingredients, whilst Arthur sat by Merlin, keeping an eye on everything, from his temperature, to the way his breaths were taken.
A short while later, Gwen arrived with a fresh bowl of water and some clean cloth, desperate to be updated on his condition. Arthur offered her the seat by Merlin, glad to have the company of another person. The silence between him and Gwaine had been deafening.
The three sat together for quite some time, chatting softly so as not to wake Gaius. Gwen wanted the full unabridged version of events, and Arthur felt terrible for lying to her, but knew now was not the right time to tell her. Merlin had to regain some control of his secret and Gwen would be one of the few people who'd find out on his terms, not anyone else's.
Eventually Gaius re-joined them, having had a few hours' sleep and looking all the better for it. Though there were still large bags around his eyes, his disposition had improved and Arthur wondered how much sleep the physician had actually got whilst they'd been missing.
"No change?" Gaius queried, examining how the stitches were holding and how Merlin's fever was decreasing.
"Not really. Should there have been?" Arthur glanced from the physician to the still sleeping figure.
"No." Gaius shook his head. "I hoped he'd woken up, but no change just means he's still repairing himself. With luck, he could wake today, but more likely it'll be tomorrow." He took a seat by his ward. "You three need to go sleep. It's late, and there's not going to be much change with his condition. I'm confident he's going to be alright, his fever's dropping, the infection's clearing up, he's getting better. Go and rest."
"What about you?" Gwen placed her hand over Gaius'.
"It wouldn't be the first time I've sat up all night with a patient, and now Merlin's back I feel like I can breathe again." Gaius smiled. "I needed the sleep, but I'm alright now."
"I really don't think we should…" Arthur trailed off, his brain desperately searching for some excuse as to why he could stay with Merlin, but there was no denying, he was tired. His thoughts were getting sluggish and he'd been having trouble keeping his eyes open for some time.
"Arthur, as your physician, I am telling you, go get some sleep. You're still king, no matter how Merlin is. I expect they'll want you back running the kingdom in the morning, and you'll be in no fit state to if you're sleep deprived. Now go." Finally, the famous eyebrow was raised towards the three of them and there was no more arguing.
Merlin thought he could hear voices, but he couldn't be sure if they were real or simply in a dream. It sounded very much like Gaius, Gwaine, Gwen and Arthur. But the fact that there was Gwen and Gaius with them meant he was in Camelot, and of that he couldn't be sure.
His memories were hazy, he thought he wasn't in the tower anymore, as he wasn't in constant freezing temperatures or loud echo-y rooms anymore. He still hurt, and could feel various types of pain all over him, but with his medical knowledge he knew that he'd be feeling his injuries for quite a while. He thought he could remember a town, a kindly man who wasn't Gaius treating his wounds and a painful journey on a horse next to Gwaine, and, possibly, meeting Gaius in the courtyard of the castle.
He heard a door close, as quiet as the creaking wood could close, and tried to open an eye. It took all his effort just to open his eyes, and could feel himself drifting off back into sleep, but before he did, he saw the very real face of Gaius, watching over him. Merlin tugged a smile onto his lips before he went back into the darkness.
He was home. He hadn't dreamt it.
When he woke again, the first thing Merlin noticed was how comfy he felt. He was in a bed, and though not the world's comfiest, it was an actual bed. Not cold stone floors or harsh woodland. And then the dull ache all over his body, as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to each one of his bones. Finally, he cracked an eye open, adjusting to the bright daylight in the room, and tried to stretch his achy muscles.
However, every inch of him rejected the movement and he found one of his arms had been pinned to his chest. Merlin tried to speak, not a long and complicated sentence, merely a simple 'what happened?' directed at his friends, but even that seemed difficult. The sound that came out of his mouth was nowhere near 'what happened', it was mostly a groan of pain.
He tried to use his one good arm to prop himself up, but the combination of a rippling pain running throughout his torso, along with the steady hand that could belong to no one else but Gaius on his shoulder, resigned him to lie flat, his neck the only source of movement.
"Merlin, are you awake?" Gwaine almost leapt from where he sat, a large grin on his face.
"Think so." He yawned, rubbing at his eyes.
"Before you do anything else, swallow this. I imagine you're in quite a bit of pain, this'll help." Gaius pressed a cup to Merlin's lips, and he let out an unwilling groan before drinking the concoction. As he suspected, the drink tasted foul.
"Thanks." Merlin grimaced, the taste lingering in his mouth. "Been asleep long?" He mumbled, his brain still not quite making sense of the world yet in his sleepy haze.
"We've been back two days. You've been mostly asleep all that time lazy-bones." Gwaine laughed, coming around to sit by Merlin's side.
"Arthur?" Merlin asked, glancing around the room as much as his stiff neck would allow. Worry set into his stomach as to why the king was not there, panicked he'd changed his mind about how he felt.
"He's been in and out. Mostly in. We had to make him go out, remind him there's still a kingdom that needs running." Gaius said, and Merlin almost heaved a sigh of relief, feeling bad for doubting Arthur, though he told himself if his mind wasn't so foggy then he'd have assumed that was where Arthur was.
"Everyone's been into see you mate; Leon, Percival, Elyan." Gwaine continued. "They've all been making up excuses to come see you. 'Gaius, I think I've strained my wrist in training', 'Gaius, I think there's flu going round', oh and my personal favourite, 'Gaius, are you certain I don't need this insect bite dressing?'" He mimicked, making Merlin let out a short laugh. He instantly regretted it as the muscles in his stomach tensed around what he thought must be stitches. "Princess has been here quite a bit as well." Gwaine glanced behind him to make sure Arthur was not stood right behind him, arms crossed and foot tapping.
In fact, he wasn't there, but had Gwaine made that joke about ten seconds later, Arthur would've been stood behind him, arms crossed and foot tapping.
"You're finally up." Came the voice from the doorway, unmistakeably Arthur's, as the king tried to supress the big grin forming on his face. "I hear you've been in bed these past couple of days." Merlin reciprocated the grin.
"Finally got a day off." He tried to laugh without doing too much more damage.
"How are you feeling?"
"Like I've been tortured." Merlin grimaced, bluntly. "But Gaius gave me something akin to sulphur to drink," he gave the old physician a pointed look, "so that's helping." Merlin went quiet for a minute. "You we have a lot to talk about."
"We don't have to talk about that now," Arthur stood by the foot of Merlin's bed. "I mean you've just woken up, surely you can't be up to talking."
"No, I need to tell you now." Merlin finally managed to sit up enough to scan the room. "You've deserved the truth for long enough."
So OSAW is drawing to a close and I am working on the storyline for the sequel, and hope to publish that soon after the end of this fic. I also have a bunch of half-finished one-shot fics lying about. Would you guys like me to solely focus on the upcoming sequel, or would you like to see me publishing some random one-shots?