The Concept

Merlin doesn't belong to me

Got the idea from Dr. Romantic a Korean TV show
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Guinevere Degrance made her way slowly around the ER; she still couldn't get over how many patients the small hospital in Ealdor got. Ever since she'd been punished and sent down from the main hospital in Camelot, for having dared to speak up about Dr. Agravaine's mistreatment of one of the poorer patients, she'd barely had a moment to rest.

Her life, her professional life that is, had been going according to plan, she was a fourth year resident at Excalibur Hospital, the biggest and best hospital in land, and she was fulfilling a lifelong dream of becoming a general surgeon, and she barely had any student loans to pay off. Her life was perfect.

That is, until Dr. Agravaine, head of general surgery started shouting at Mrs. Timmons in the ER, telling her to get of the bed because he'd discovered that she had no medical insurance, although she could barely move with all the tubes that were attached to her, added to which her son who was yet to appear at the hospital had agreed to pay for his mother's expenses and had in fact sent in a cheque to do just that (which is why she'd even been able to get a bed in the first place and have emergency surgery performed on her). Gwen had lost it, told Agravaine off in front of the whole room and he had done what he'd been threatening to do for months. He'd sent her off to the hospital in Ealdor – a smaller rural hospital, where she'd have less chance of improving of her skills, or so he thought, where she'd amount to nothing more than a village doctor with the pay to prove it.

Gwen had packed her bags, and gone off to Ealdor and wasn't surprised to find that the hospital lacked most of the amenities and surgical equipment that she'd taken for granted at Excalibur but the people at Ealdor far better than those in Camelot and somehow they were able to make do with the substandard equipment and there were quite a number of really qualified doctors starting with head, Dr. Gaius who had been banished to Ealdor for daring to be better at a particular skill than Agravaine, Merlin, who was in charge of Internal Medicine, Morgana, a skilled cardiothoracic surgeon, Vivian, an orthopedic surgeon and Arthur Pendragon, another general surgeon.

She could understand why all those other surgeons were at Ealdor; Merlin was born and raised there in addition to being Gaius' nephew, Vivian was doing her community service, Morgana had volunteered to work at Ealdor (as a show of defiance and independence against her father Gorlois, the secretary of health), but Arthur Pendragon, the son of the Prime Minister, she still hadn't managed to find out what he was doing in Ealdor.

Not that it was any of her business, she was just there to work and hopefully move on to a better place after her time was done.

Arthur Pendragon looked around his small office in disgust and reminded himself that it had been his choice- after he'd almost killed a man on the operating table because he'd refused to listen to Lancelot who should have been the lead surgeon on that surgery anyway. Lancelot had taken it in his stride, like he usually did, and after he'd saved the man and Arthur, he'd told him about Ealdor hospital and how Dr. Gaius had saved his life and made him a better surgeon. Lancelot had worked in Ealdor for five years before he'd been transferred to Excalibur; he told Arthur that the experience he'd gained in Ealdor was what had made him the best general surgeon in Camelot.

"I don't mind having a little competition," Lancelot had laughingly told Arthur, "and I know that in a little while you'll be far better than I can ever hope to be, but you need guidance and since you have failed to learn from me, or maybe I've failed to teach you, I'll send you to my teacher."

"But isn't he a bit… you know, isn't he certifiably mad?" Arthur had asked him; he'd heard of Gaius of course. Everyone in the medical field knew about Gaius.

"He certainly seems that way," Lancelot had agreed, "but don't let that pesky detail stop you from learning from the best surgeon you and I have ever known. Trust me, you'll become the best and that is what you want, isn't it?"

So Arthur had asked for a transfer, and while bewildered and unhappy, Agravaine had let him go to Ealdor.

Arthur looked out his small window and saw Guinevere Degrance pass by with two nurses, Lillian and Freya. There was something about Guinevere that …appealed to Arthur, truth be told he was halfway in love with her, although he'd never let anyone know about it.

He remembered the first time he'd seen her. He had been coming out of the long surgeon and bumped into her in the corridor; she'd obviously just come out of the on-call room, where the doctors who were on duty slept.

"Good morning," Gwen smiled at the man she'd almost ran into. He was wearing green scrubs and had just taken off the cap and was rubbing his arm, obviously he was one of the doctors she was going to be working with.

"Good morning," Arthur replied, looking at her questioningly. He knew all the medical personnel at hospital.

"You must be wondering who I am," Gwen told him. "I'm Guinevere Degrance, Gwen actually, general surgery, I just came in yesterday."

"Ahh," Arthur nodded, "Arthur Pendragon."

She waited for him to say more but after staring at her a tad more than was polite, he'd nodded and walked off.

He'd noticed her at the cafeteria, saw her friendly she was with the other members of staff; he'd also found why she'd been sent to Ealdor and the fact she had a brother who was a copper, and her father owned a bakery and that she was single.

He'd tried talking to her (about non-work-related issues) twice, but they'd been interrupted both times by Vivian. But today he was going to try again; it wasn't like he had never asked a woman on a date before although he had to admit that it had been a while.

He got up and walked to the reception where he could see Guinevere talking with the two nurses. As he made his way towards them, Vivian and Morgana joined the three women and Arthur decided to stop and read the notices on the notice board.

"That's an interesting concept," Freya told Gwen.

"What concept?" Vivian asked.

"Gwen, here, just told us that instead of risking rejection and potential heartbreak, when she likes somebody, she just writes them letters in her journal."

"That's totally ridiculous," Morgana laughed, "and not a little cowardly."

"It is," Gwen agreed, "but I've had my fair share of heartache and let me assure you this is way cheaper on my pocket and emotions."

"But what if he likes you back?" Morgana asked.

"It hasn't happened yet," Gwen replied.

"How do you do it?" Freya asked.

"Well," Gwen told them, "I see someone I like, and instead of talking to them I just get my journal and write down my feelings. Eventually the feelings pass and … that's that."

"That's because you've never really fallen in love," Morgana argued, "if you were in love, just writing in your journal wouldn't be enough."

Gwen smiled, wondering how long she would be able to carry on with the lie. As if. She did have a journal, and she did write in it every chance she got but she didn't write letters to imaginary men she liked.

"So, who are you writing to these days?" Vivian asked.

"No one," Gwen replied.

"Just tell us already," Lillian urged. "You know there's someone."

"Are you afraid to tell us because they might hear you?" Freya asked looking around the room.

It was mostly full of patients waiting to see the doctors, but they were two doctors in the room. Percival was talking to a young child, while Arthur was standing in front of the noticeboard.

"It's not Percy, is it?" Lillian asked.

"Of course not."

"Then it must be Arthur?" Freya almost clapped. "If I didn't absolutely love Merlin I could be into Arthur."

"It can't be Arthur," Vivian said at once.

"Why not?" Morgana asked.

"Anyone with eyes in their head can see that it could never be," Vivian snapped. Everyone with any sense knew that Arthur wasn't meant for the likes of her, not that she was going to tell them that.

"Oh, I don't know," Morgana eyed Gwen closely, "I think it would work."

"Me too," Freya and Lillian said together.

"It's not Arthur," Gwen denied.

"He's very handsome and nice and I think you're his type," Morgana said, "and I should know, I've known him all my life."

"It's not him," Gwen insisted.

"He's a great catch," Morgana insisted. "And I bet you, he's interested in you. In fact, why don't we ask him?"

Gwen looked at Morgana in shock as she called Arthur over to join them; she ran off to the cafeteria. She should never have told them that ridiculous lie in the first place.

Arthur listened to the women's conversation with interest, he hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but he couldn't help himself. He wondered if it was true that Guinevere wrote to the men, she liked in her journal instead of telling them about it.

He was still thinking about Guinevere's concept when he heard his name mentioned. He looked up at Guinevere, their eyes held for a few seemingly unending seconds and then she looked away. He let out a breath that he hadn't known he was holding when he heard her say that it wasn't him.

What had him expected? That Guinevere, whom he hadn't shown the least bit of interest in, although he thought about her all the time, was interested in him? It was too good to be true.

Gwen couldn't believe what had happened in the reception room. If she'd known that Arthur was in the vicinity, she'd never have told them that stupid lie. And to top it off, she'd probably hurt Arthur's feelings, although why that really bothered her, she didn't know. It wasn't like they were friends or even friendly, she could count on one hand the times they'd even spent any time together or even spoken when it wasn't work related.

Fine, she could accept that her heart rate increased whenever he was near, and she did enjoy the conversations they had and wished they could go beyond work. She wondered about those two unfinished conversations which had been interrupted by Vivian. Yes, she could confess to herself, she did like Arthur Pendragon and if she had been telling the truth about writing letters in her journal then she would have already filled quite a few pages writing to him.

lll

"And she said it wasn't you?" Merlin asked again.

"How many times do I have to repeat myself?" Arthur was frustrated.

"Maybe she didn't want them to know," Merlin said, "Gwen is friendly sure, but she's quite private too."

"It's more likely that she's not interested in me," Arthur said.

"So, you're just going to give up," Merlin said, sadly. "This isn't like you."

"How would you know?" Arthur asked him. "You barely know me."

"I've seen the way you go after surgeries," Merlin told him, "You always go after what you and you don't stop until you get it. So, if you're ready to give up on Gwen without even trying then you don't really like her."

Arthur was still thinking about Merlin's words later that evening as he shut down his computer and prepared to leave. A knock at his door surprised him.

"Guinevere," he said in surprise when she entered the room.

"I'm sorry," she told him, "I know it's late and you're probably tired." She should never have given in to the impulse to check on Arthur.

"Yes," he agreed, "but not too tired to talk to you."

Gwen nodded and walked to the bookshelf that was overflowing with books. She took one and turned to him.

"I just came to ask if you talked to Mr. Gladstone's daughter."

"I did," Arthur told her.

"Good," Gwen nodded, "then I guess everything's in order then."

"It is," he said.

"Okay then," Gwen started towards the door.

"Why can't it be me?" he asked causing her to stop walking and turn around.

"What?"

"According to your concept, you just write letters and the object of your desire, if I may be so bold as to call him that, never knows, so why can't it be me?"

"I…the…I mean, I didn't want to embarrass you," she said at last. "Vivian, Morgana, Freya and Lillian, not to mention several repeat patients were all listening to our conversation."

"Okay," he nodded in agreement, "we're alone now, so you can tell me. Why can't it be me?"

"No reason really," she said, "it just isn't."

"What if I want it to be me?" he asked walking slowly towards her. "What if I asked you to join me for a dinner now?"

"You want me to join you for dinner?'

'Yes."

"Okay."