Chapter 39 A/N I don't own Merlin. I am wondering why I find it easier to write Harry Potter fics than I do Merlin, but that could be because I've literally had Harry Potter practically all my life, and Merlin just about a decade. Hope you like it!
"Gaius! I really need some help! I am- I don't- I've never taken care of a baby before! I have no clue what to do!" Cassie cried as she burst into the Physician's chambers.
"Did you change him? Has he eaten?"
"No. I-I don't know how. And I'm afraid if it was something in the food that caused this disease." Cassie admitted tiredly.
"What do you mean?"
"The first man that died had porridge for breakfast, and Robert and Mary had porridge as well."
"Here, crush some berries for now, but you might need to find him a wet nurse. He's too young for food still." Gaius told her, taking the ten-week old from her arms and checking to see if he needed changing.
"Why do you have a baby?" Merlin asked as he walked into the room.
"He's staying with me for now. I'll take the kids back to the lower town tomorrow, but tonight they'll stay with me." Cassie said sadly, sitting down exhausted.
"Can't do that. Uther's cordoned off the Lower Town. No one in, no one out." Merlin told her.
"Ughh." Cassie groaned as she crushed the strawberries. "How long? I mean the people there are going to-"
"We know. There's curfew, too. I'm guessing it's in place until we figure this out."
"It has to be spread through food. Alex was curled up next to his mother and he's not sick. So it can't be in the air, right?"
"It's not a bug bite, I've checked the two victims from earlier and neither had any." Gaius told them, rejecting her earlier theory.
"It has to be something they eat." Cassie said, taking the baby from Gaius and trying to feed him.
"Is this the first time you've held a baby, Cassie?" Merlin asked with an astonished look on his face.
"It's the first time I've tried to feed one." Cassie said defensively; his observation had hurt her.
"Here, he's going to choke if you try like that. Sit him up like this, you don't want him to be completely laid down." he said, sitting next to her and taking the boy from her arms, demonstrating how to properly feed him.
"Why are you so good with babies? Have a few kids we don't know about?" Cassie teased.
"Ealdor's a small village. We all helped out, I sometimes looked over the babies while everyone was in the fields." Merlin explained. "He's a bit young to be eating already, though."
"Yeah, I don't know anyone in the castle who's nursing right now, and the new mothers that should still be nursing are all in the lower town." Cassie said smiling at Merlin feeding the baby.
"You might want to bathe him in a while. I can all but guarantee he'll need it." Merlin told her when he'd finished the berries.
"Thanks, Merlin." Cassie said, giving him a quick kiss and leaving with the baby.
"There you are!" Owaine said as Cassie opened the door to her chambers.
"Yes, here we are. How was training? Did Owaine lose a lot?" Cassie asked teasingly, not wanting Alex to be too sad.
"No! He was soo cool!" Alex said in awe, his eyes shining as he talked about the rest of his day. Cassie and Owaine exchanged amused glances as the boy embellished the training he'd seen. "You have to wash him now, Cassie." Alex told her, scrunching his nose, "I think he's pooped his pants." he said giggling.
"I'll go and get some water." Owaine said.
"No need, I've still got some left in my room." Cassie told him, taking the baby up the stairs and trying to figure out how to wash him without hurting him.
"Actually, Owaine! Can you get Merlin please!?" Cassie called over her shoulder.
"Yeah." he said, making a funny face at Alex and going out the door.
"What now, Cassie?"
"How do I bathe him?" Cassie asked frantically, tears forming in her eyes.
"Okay, come on, no tears, Cassie. You cry, he cries." Merlin warned. "Just make sure his head is above the water at all times, and it's best if you hold his head up and use a…." Merlin explained to her patiently, showing her everything to bathe him.
"I'm in over my head. What am I going to do with them?" Cassie asked him quietly, not wanting Owaine or Alex to hear.
"I don't know, Cassie. But I do know that whatever you decide, that man out there will support you; he loves you too much to do otherwise."
"Thanks, Merlin. For everything, I owe you." Cassie said, drying Taran and wrapping him in one of the softer cloths she had.
"Don't worry, I'll be sure to take you up on that." Merlin told her with a wink, laughing as they went down the stairs. "Bye, mate." he said to Owaine, high-fiving Alex as he walked past.
"I want kids, but I am so hopeless with them." Cassie told Owaine looking at the sleeping children on her bed.
"Cassie, you are anything but. The way you hold Taran and comfort Alex, you will be a great mother when we do have kids. It's just practice, a matter of learning." Owaine told her, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her nose.
"You don't know how bad I felt earlier, he was just crying and crying and nothing I did could calm him. And now I have to find someone who could nurse him. And on top of that, we're getting married in three weeks and we'll be leaving for your family's lands in two. I have two week to figure out what to do with them. And I hate to say this, but if today is this hard, I don't know how I could possibly take care of them." Cassie said in one breath, ignoring the desperate tears forming in her eyes.
"With help. You have me, and Merlin and Gwen and I'm sure Lady Morgana wouldn't be against playing with a baby for a day." Owaine said looking at her. "And Alex is a really great kid. Lambkin, whatever you decide, I'm here for you."
"I love you, my Knight." Cassie told him with a smile, standing on her toes and kissing him deeply.
"I love you, my Queen." he told her when they went up for air.
"I was never Queen. And I was never meant to be." Cassie told him sadly, remembering her family and missing her mother more than ever.
"You are to me." he told her, leaning down to kiss her more.
"You should go to your chambers, I'm going to sleep on this cot here. And you no doubt have a long day ahead tomorrow." Cassie told him, pushing him gently to the door and kissing him goodnight one last time.
"I can just as easily stay." he said, not letting her close the door.
"Goodnight, Owaine." Cassie told him with a small smile.
"One last kiss?"
"If I grant you this kiss, you'll never leave." Cassie told him knowingly.
"Then I shall stay the night." Owaine said. "Okay, okay." Owaine said, backing up with his hands up at the glare he received. "Goodnight, my love."
The following morning Cassie woke up to find Gwen and Merlin there, Merlin giving Alex some porridge and Gwen feeding the baby.
"Don't you two know it's rude to come into someone's room while they're asleep?" Cassie mumbled their way, turning on her side and groaning.
"Rise and shine, Cassie!" Merlin said happily, giving Alex a piggyback ride to give her some breakfast.
"You're too cheerful in the morning, Merlin." Cassie said disgusted, ignoring Gwen's soft giggles.
"Well someone got up on the wrong side of the cot." Merlin said, lowering Alex from his shoulders. "Get it? Wrong side of the bed, but you slept on a cot."
"That's extremely clever and funny, Merlin. There really are no limits to your wit. Now, will you please just let me eat my breakfast?" Cassie said unamused.
"Yes of course. Gaius need me anyway." Merlin said, winking at Gwen and Alex and leaving her chambers.
"You really are very grumpy in the mornings, can't imagine how Owaine puts up with it." Gwen teased half heartedly.
"Hmm, I'd tell you, but there's innocent ears here." Cassie said, covering up Alex's ears with a silly look.
"Morgana wants to meet the baby. And she'd like to see Alex again as well. She's asked me to ask you to bring them, although with the way you were sleeping, Merlin and I could have come and gone with them and you would have been none the wiser." Gwen said hoarsely.
"Gwen, are you okay? You've been crying."
"My father. He's become ill." she said, sobbing brokenly, "Gaius says there's nothing he can do."
"Oh Gwen." Cassie said, walking over and taking the baby from her, "How about a hug? Alex gives the best. And then you should go to your father. Don't worry about Morgana, I'll be there." Cassie said, nodding at Alex to hug her.
"Can't breathe." he choked out after a minute of hugging her tightly.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Gwen said, sniffling and wiping her face. "She's right, you are a good hugger."
"Maybe your dad will see my mum and dad. They're not here anymore, but Cassie says that the place they went to is happy and free and full of love." Alex said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you, Alex." Gwen said, a sob escaping her. "Thank you, too, Cassie. I don't know what I'd do without you."
"You'd probably be with Morgana for a bit before she'd order you to be with your father. Now go." Cassie said, showing her out the door.
"Where are we going?"
"We're going to Lady Morgana's. Five seconds while I change quickly." Cassie said, going up to her room and donning a deep purple dress.
"It's such a big castle! Even bigger than what it looks, outside!" Alex said, looking around in awe of everything.
"I know, the one in Reccopolis was grand, but nothing compared to this one. It was only two floors, although very spacious and definitely had the better bettlements, and it had these great pillars holding the second floor up, the balls we had there were splendid and the feasts even better than the ones here-well, the entertainment was, no one ever tried to kill the prince." Cassie joked, leading them up the stairs towards Morgana's chambers. "And on the grounds there was a yearly tournament, that was thrilling. The fighting was different than how the knights fight, but it was still exhilarating watching the tournaments and all."
"It sounds so cool!" Alex said wide-eyed.
"It was, but Camelot has the better castle. And Prince Arthur really is an exceptional warrior. I don't doubt he may have beaten my brother with the broadsword. No one beats him with the spatha." Cassie said, knocking on the door and waiting for the soft 'enter' from the other side. "Good morning Morgana." Cassie said with a smile as she led Alex inside.
"Good morning, my Lady." Alex said with a quick bow.
"Good morning to you too, Alex. Morning, Cassie. Please tell me Gwen went home. The poor girl's only got her father." Morgana said from the settee.
"I insisted. Someone wants to meet you." Cassie said softly, showing her the sleeping baby.
"Aww! He's so adorable when he's sleeping."
"He is." Cassie cooed, letting her take the baby in her arms while she went over to the dresser and took one of Morgana's brushes.
"Would you like me to read to you, Alex. I was just in the middle of a wonderful story." Morgana asked with a smile as she sat down and let Cassie brush out her hair.
"Yes!" he said excitedly, sitting down cross-legged on the floor.
"Alex, that's not the way to answer a Lady." Cassie said reproachfully.
"Yes, please, my Lady." he corrected himself, bouncing excitedly.
"Okay, how about you, Cassie. Would you like to hear a story?" she asked, looking over her shoulder.
"I would love to, my Lady." Cassie said with a smile. "Start it without me? Taran seems to be waking up and I've learned it's one of three things." she told her with a look that said 'not again!'
"Here you go." Morgana said, handing over the waking baby. "Let's read it from the beginning, shall we?" she said, patting the seat beside her for the young boy to climb onto. " 'My lords, if you would hear a high tale of love and of death, here is that of Tristan and Queen Iseult; how to their full joy, but to their sorrow also, they loved each other, and how at last they died of that love together upon one day; she by him and he by her…"