Chapter Text
Merlin was proud of himself for pulling off such a lovely—if he said so himself—dinner last minute.
The adults were still at the dinner table, conversing over pudding and coffee, while the kids were at the living room table, sorting out the sweets evenly amongst themselves.
Just then, Lizzy skipped on over to Uther with a jar of Maltesers.
“Would you like a-oh? Are you okay, Grampa Uther?” asked Lizzy.
“I’m perfectly fine, though I’ll pass on the chocolate,” said Uther with a smile.
Merlin looked over at Arthur to see amused surprise, writ all over his face. Merlin chuckled, figuring that Uther wasn’t a man who smiled often.
“Oh. Are you sure? It’s just, I think you’re bleeding,” said Lizzy, pointing at Uther with a confused look on her face.
“Lizzy, what did I say about pointing?” Merlin lightly admonished.
“But daddy, I’m not doing it to be rude, I’m just trying to show gramps over here where it is,” said Lizzy with a slight pout.
Uther looked down to where Lizzy was pointing, but didn’t seem to see anything.
Lizzy was about to climb the empty chair next to Uther to show him herself, when Arthur interrupted her.
“Lizzy, why don’t you tell me where it is and I’ll check to make sure,” said Arthur.
Merlin threw him a grateful look.
“Okay. It’s just right there. Near his right shoulder. It’s just his clothes is kind of hiding it. It kind of blends, but obviously clothes don’t just melt their colors into each other,” said Lizzy, going off on a tangent about colors now.
“You mean his waistcoat?” asked Arthur, moving to check the area anyway.
When Arthur lifted the waistcoat a little, he let out a small gasp, realizing there was blood there.
“What the—” Arthur began, but was interrupted by Uther.
“Oh, it must have been that rude jogger from earlier,” said Uther with a scowl.
“Kids,” began Merlin, “can you please go and hang out in my room?”
Lizzy and Kay looked puzzled for a minute, but just shrugged. Mordred put all the sweets back into the bag to Kay’s indignant cry of, “aww, now we have to sort it all over again.”
“Perce, come here for a second,” said Merlin.
“Yeah dad?” asked Perce, coming over while Mordred stood in the doorway of Merlin’s room.
“I don’t want you to panic, but when you go to my room, I want you to lock the door. If you hear the signal, you press that button, with or without me there,” said Merlin, trying not to let his anxiety creep through.
“Merlin, what’s going on?” asked Morgana from the table.
“You got it, Perce?” asked Merlin.
“Of course, dad. I know the drill,” said Percy with a solemn nod.
“Good. Now go on,” said Merlin, giving his eldest a little push.
Percy dutifully went to the room and nodded his head before closing the door and locking it.
“Okay, Merlin, please tell me what the fuck is going on,” said a concerned Morgana.
“Right. Well, we’ve been living in this neighborhood for sometime now. I make it my business to know what goes on for the safety of my children. That being said, there are no joggers in this neighborhood. And I think I know why my smoke detector was acting weird earlier,” said Merlin, looking over to Arthur.
“Why is that?” Uther cut in.
“Well sir, my smoke detector not only detects smoke, but it detects poisons or toxic fumes,” said Merlin.
“Oh my gods!” gasped Morgana, before hurrying over to Uther.
“Sir, I think you’ve been injected with something. That’s the only explanation I can think of for not recognizing the warning. Whatever it is, it’s already in your system,” said Merlin, trying to keep it together.
Just then the doorbell rang, and everyone went silent.
“It could be Leon,” started Morgana, looking at her watch, “he said he would be by later.”
Merlin nodded his head, “Right, let me just check the monitor.”
To his immense relief, he saw Leon’s face on the screen. “You’re right, it’s Leon. He can call for backup.”
“I’ve already called for an ambulance,” said Arthur, looking pale, but decidedly calm.
“Leon, thank fuck you’re here,” said Merlin opening the door, “something’s happened to Uther and you need to call for backup.”
“Not so fast,” said a voice he didn’t recognize.
Merlin was confused until a woman materialized behind Leon. She had disconcerting blue eyes and startling red lips. Merlin started to back up into the hallway when he realized that she had a gun to Leon’s back.
“Who are you and what do you want?” said Merlin, angry that this woman had dared bring a gun into his house.
“So this is what Balinor’s son looks like,” said the lady.
“How do you know my father? You couldn't have been more than a little girl when he passed,” said Merlin, confused.
“Deloofi fucking Muhn,” snarled Morgana, “I should’ve fucking known.”
“Ms. Le Fay,” Deloofi grinned.
Then she threw Leon on the floor and shot him in the arm.
Merlin yelled ‘AZKABAN’ towards his room at the same time as making his way towards Leon.
“Are you fucking mental?!” shrieked Morgana, rushing to aid Leon.
“Sorry, I just needed to make sure nobody would be calling for backup,” said Deloofi with a shrug.
“I don’t understand why you’re doing all of this,” said Merlin, pulling off his oversized neckerchief to tie around Leon’s arm.
“Why, to watch Uther suffer of course. Take everything he has away from him, as he once did to me,” said Deloofi.
“What could my father possibly have done to you to warrant such actions,” Arthur said, voice like steel, rising from the table to slowly inch his way towards Merlin and Morgana.
“I told you. He took everything from me,” said Deloofi, looking straight into Uther’s eyes.
Uther’s eyes widened in recognition. “No. That’s impossible. She died before she could have any children.”
“Father? Who are you talking about?” asked Arthur.
“Nimueh,” Uther whispered.
Merlin let out a small gasp. At the end of their first date, Arthur had come back to Merlin’s for a small nightcap. Although instead of it leading to the bedroom, it led to Arthur sharing a piece of himself that he never told anyone before.
He told Merlin the story of his mother, and how she died during childbirth. Arthur had revealed that he was some sort of miracle baby. His mother hadn’t been able to conceive, but through the help of one of his mother’s best friends, Nimueh, a promising Fertility specialist, she was finally able to become pregnant with Arthur.
However, when Arthur turned 16, he was miserable and missing his mother. He snuck into Uther’s study and picked the lock to his safe. There, instead of reaching for the picture he knew his father kept of his mother, he saw a partially opened file.
His curiosity got the better of him, so he pulled it out to read. He was horrified at what he found. Nimueh had lied about her methods being approved and went through with the treatments after showing Uther some forged documents. Everything was going smoothly until it came time for the birth. Apparently, Igraine was the first person to go through with these treatments and complications ensued that ultimately led to her death.
When Uther found out the whole truth, he had ripped Nimueh to shreds. He then had her committed to a mental facility because no sane woman could do that to her best friend. He completely discredited everything she ever did, but did it all quietly. No one ever knew what happened to her, and after a while, no one even remembered her. Nimueh had died a couple years later.
Uther and Morgana had found Arthur in the study, retching into the waste basket and quietly sobbing. Uther said he was waiting until Arthur was 18 to tell him the truth, but was kind of hoping Arthur would find out on his own. There was a reason why Uther made his safe so easy to break into for Arthur. The three of them were the only ones left to know the truth of the matter and the three agreed to keep it that way.
“Deloofi, you won’t get away with this, we’ve already called an ambulance for Uther,” snarled Morgana, snapping Merlin’s attention back to the now.
“Oh, but I already have. I’ll be long gone by then. I’ve been planning this for a very long time,” smirked Deloofi.
“What do you want? Money? Power?” spat Uther.
“You’ve not been listening Uther. I’m going to take everything you have from you. I’ve injected you with a slow acting poison. You’ll be dead by tomorrow, long enough to see me kill Arthur and then take down your company. I pretty much already got your house,” said Deloofi with a manic gleam in her eyes.
Merlin started to get a little hysterical as he saw her stepping forward at the same time as pointing her gun toward Arthur. “I’m going to shoot you now, Arthur. I’ll even do you a kindness and shoot you where you’ll have just enough time to say your goodbyes.”
“Your mother was dead long before you could even know her. Why go through all of this?” pleaded Morgana.
“Oh, well you see, I never said I was her daughter. No. I am Nimueh,” said Deloofi.
“That’s impossible,” retorted Uther.
“It’s a little something called surgery. I faked my own death and reinvented myself. Like I said, I’ve been working on this plan for a very long time—”
“Why the fuck did you change your name to something as ridiculous as Deloofi?” taunted Morgana, trying to get her attention away from Arthur.
“If you unscramble the letters of Deloofi Munh, you get ‘Nimueh of Old,’” said Nimueh with a pleased smile, “completely fitting.”
“Fucking mental,” grimaced Leon.
Just then, Merlin let out hysterical laughter.
“What is it now? I never really liked Balinor. I was glad he moved away to the country,” said Nimueh.
“It’s just-it’s just,” Merlin continued to laugh, “you’re the most unimaginative villain of all time!”
“What are you talking about,” Nimueh scowled.
“I assume all this fucked up shit was part of your plan, yes? Okay, I’ll give you credit for the flowers because, yes, that was pretty clever. But winning the lottery? You copied that from Doctor Who. De-aging yourself? That’s got to be Sky High. Faking your death is like countless other movies, but the winner has got to be your name. Definitely Harry Potter,” said Merlin starting to ramble while laughing.
“Gods, it was your lipstick on Valiant’s dead body wasn’t it,” said a disgusted Morgana, realization dawning on her face.
“I had to snog the guy and accidentally bite his lip for the poison to get into his system. You’re lucky I saved you from that nasty man, sweet child,” Nimueh bragged.
“That’s like some rip off of Poison Ivy,” said Merlin, still laughing, “gods, how can you even take yourself seriously?”
“That’s enough wasting time!” yelled Nimueh.
“Hang on, what about Agravaine then?” asked Arthur.
“He’s just my idiot accomplice of sorts. I had him hire the Witchfinder for me. Now he’s sitting in jail, thinking I’ll come for him once I’m through with this. As if,” cackled Nimueh.
“Nimueh. Think about Igraine. Arthur is the only thing left of her,” Uther pleaded.
“Oh, Uther, that’s why this is so great. You lose the last of your bloodline and I get to gift him back to Igraine. Then I know she’ll truly forgive me,” said Nimueh, talking to Uther like a child.
Merlin spotted Kay’s toy car and swiftly grabbed it from under the table.
“I’m doing the world a favor by getting rid of all the Pendragons. Say goodbye Arthur, and tell Igraine I say hello,” said Nimueh, raising her gun.
Merlin couldn’t tell you what was going through his mind, he just acted. He got up from his knees and chucked the toy car at Nimueh before tackling Arthur to the floor.
The gun still went off, so he frantically searched Arthur’s body, coming away relieved when there was no bullet wound. When he turned to stand and face Nimueh, he felt himself falling straight back to the floor.
“You idiot!” Arthur muttered in alarm, taking his tie off.
Merlin glanced down to see his thigh bleeding profusely. “Oh, so that’s where it went.”
“Was that fucking necessary?” growled Nimueh, rubbing her forehead where the car hit dead center.
“It was worth a shot,” said Merlin with a grimace, “okay, pun totally not intended.
“Stupid idiot. Have no sense of self-preservation. Cannot believe this just happened,” Arthur muttered to himself as he applied pressure to Merlin’s thigh with his handkerchief after tying his tie around the wound.
“No. Enough. ENOUGH! I will finish this!” yelled Nimueh starting to raise her gun again.
All this commotion was enough time for Leon to up and tackle Nimueh, making her lose purchase of her gun. She quickly wriggled out of his grip, using his injured arm to her advantage, but Morgana snatched it and brought it square to Nimueh’s chest.
“Oh, what are you going to do Ms. Le Fay. I told you not to get involved. You don’t owe that man anything. I can take you in. We can be brilliant together. Who do you think you are that you think you can stop me?!” yelled Nimueh.
“The name’s Morgana fucking Pendragon, bitch!” said Morgana with steel in her voice before she backhanded Nimueh with the gun, knocking her out cold.
*
“The kids!” Morgana gasped and made her way towards Merlin’s room, pounding on the door
“No one is answering. Merlin! Oh my gods,” Morgana started panicking.
“Morgana. MORGANA!” Arthur yelled, “calm the fuck down. I can’t hear what he’s trying to say.
“Fuck! I almost forgot,” said Morgana, rushing over to Merlin. “I’m so sorry, I can’t believe I almost forgot you were shot. I have so much adrenaline running through me, I can’t stop!”
“It’s okay, Morgana. Look, the key to my room is behind the last bottle in the right side corner of my emergency wine cellar," said Merlin, waving his hand in its general direction, "under a tiny false bottom."
Morgana raced over to the wine cellar to get the key, then came back with a bunch of towels.
“Arthur, help me wipe all this excess blood off the floor. I don’t want to traumatize the kids for life,” said Morgana, already going over to clean Leon’s area as best as she could.
Then she raced on over to Merlin’s room and opened the door.
“Merlin!” Morgana screamed.
“What!?” replied an alarmed Merlin, trying to get up.
“Stop, Merlin. You have to stay down,” pleaded Arthur.
“Merlin, the children are gone!!” Morgana choked back a sob.
“Oh,” said Merlin, sagging back down in relief.
“Oh?” said an incredulous Uther.
“The kids are safe in the panic room I have hidden in my bedroom,” said Merlin with a weak smile.
“Is that what the whole ‘azkaban’ thing was about?” asked Leon.
“Yes. We have safety drills once a month, and that’s one of them,” said Merlin.
“Impressive,” said Uther, “but why is the code Azkaban?”
“It’s the name of a wizard’s prison that is virtually impossible to break into or out,” answered Arthur.
When he realized all eyes were on him, he stammered a little saying, “what? I did my research. For the kids.”
Merlin’s beaming smile was worth it.
“Have you called for backup?” Uther asked Leon.
“I was just about to,” said Leon.
“Lucan should already be on his way. When anyone enters the panic room and the door is closed, it automatically triggers a call to the Yard, in this case, Lucan,” said Merlin, holding back a yawn.
Arthur saw his father give Merlin a look that could only mean that ‘yes, he’s a damn good father and I accept’ which made Arthur feel extremely good.
“I can hear the sirens for the ambulance,” said Leon, gingerly getting up from the floor.
“Thank the gods. Took them fucking long enough,” said Morgana, petting Merlin’s hair back and then using Arthur’s shoulder to get up.
“I’m going to call Forr, make sure she can help with the slow acting poison bit. Why don’t you give a call to Morgause,” said Leon.
“Yeah, I will, sure,” said Morgana. She sat down on the sofa to make the call.
As soon as she was finished, Lucan burst through the door.
“Fucking hell, what happened?” said Lucan, making his way towards Merlin.
“Long story. Kids are in the panic room. Let them out, yeah? I would, but you know,” said Merlin, motioning to his thigh, “oh and call Gaius for me.”
Lucan grunted his assent and went to Merlin’s room.
“Morgana, go with him. I don’t want the kids to freak out too much,” said Merlin, starting to close his eyes.
“Hey, hey!” said Arthur, gently patting his face, “stay with me.”
“Not a head wound. Don’t worry about it,” said Merlin, though trying to keep conscious.
“I don’t care. I’m not taking any chances,” said Arthur, maneuvering himself so that Merlin’s back was to his chest.
“I’ll be fine. Reassure my kids of that, yeah? I’ll talk to you in a bit,” said Merlin, before slumping in Arthur’s embrace.
“You better be right, Merlin, or I’ll bloody kill you myself!” muttered Arthur, brushing Merlin’s hair back and placing his chin gently on top of Merlin’s head.
*
Arthur felt the soothing gesture of a hand carding through his hair and sighed into the bed. It took a couple of seconds for him to realize that he wasn’t at home. He remembered he was sitting vigil by Merlin’s bed in the hospital and shot back into his seat.
“Morning,” said Merlin, voice hoarse from disuse, “how long have I been asleep?”
“Two days,” Arthur replied.
“Tw-two days!?” said Merlin, eyes wide.
“Yes, you stupid clotpole,” said Arthur in both relief and annoyance.
“Hey! That’s my word,” said Merlin with a small smile.
“Yes, and it suits you perfectly,” said Arthur with a small smile in return.
“Where are—”
“Hunith, Freya, and Morgana have all but moved into your house,” said Arthur.
“Oh, that’s good,” said Merlin, relaxing back into his pillow.
“Merlin,” said Arthur, tone serious.
“Yes?” replied Merlin.
“Don’t ever do that again,” said Arthur in a small voice.
“I can’t promise that. Besides, I’m fine. Overshot how long my nap would be, but I’m good,” said Merlin.
“No, Merlin. You don’t understand. You were incredibly and I mean incredibly lucky. If the bullet were to hit a little more to the right or the left, it could have been fatal,” said Arthur.
“I’m sure it would have been fine,” said Merlin, waving Arthur off.
“No, you don’t understand Merlin. You could have died. Are you insane? We’ve known each other less than a month and yet you would still risk your life for me? What about your kids? Or your mother and Gaius? Just. I’m just not worth it,” said Arthur desperately.
Merlin stared at Arthur for intense moment before grabbing his forehead and leaning it down to his own.
“Look. I wasn’t trying to get myself killed for you. I was trying to save you. Big difference. And don’t you ever think your life isn’t worth it. I may not have known you very long, but I sure as hell plan to,” said Merlin.
At that, Arthur couldn’t help but kiss Merlin. It was a desperate kind of kiss filled with tenderness and tears, but it was something the both of them needed.
“It’s all finally over now,” whispered Merlin, pulling back from the kiss.
“Fucking finally,” whispered Arthur while being pulled down on to the bed—which was rather big and comfortable thanks to Uther.
Arthur started to have doubts of whether the case was truly over—too much shit happened to rule it out, right?—before being nudged in the ribs by Merlin.
“Stop thinking. You’ll just hurt yourself,” teased Merlin.
“But what if—”
“No. It really is over. I have a good feeling about it,” said Merlin, yawning.
“How can you still be tired?” asked Arthur.
“I don’t know. I’m not a doctor. Besides, the bed just got more comfortable,” said Merlin, snuggling into Arthur.
“Idiot,” muttered Arthur, kissing the top of Merlin’s head.
“Arthur, no matter what, we’ll figure this out together, okay? Just, sleep. Let’s sleep to conquer a new day,” said Merlin.
“Fine. But if you sleep for another two days, I’m going to leave you here to fend for yourself, you lazy sod,” said Arthur, trying to tease.
“Whatever, no you won’t,” muttered Merlin before starting to gently snooze.
“You’re right, I won’t,” whispered Arthur, hugging Merlin closer to him and falling asleep.
EPILOGUE:
Nimueh L’Afanc was transferred to the maximum penitentiary in the Perilous Lands under solitary confinement, where there would be no chance of escape. Agravaine Du Bois and Jonas Whitley were transferred to the penitentiary in the Isle of Mora, for their involvement in the death of Helen Mary Collins. Any information the Round Table had gathered on The Witchfinder was quietly passed on to Interpol.
With the case truly over with, Leon had been promoted to Detective Chief Inspector, for his outstanding dedication and hard work. Simon Godwyn and Charles Bayard were officially named the new CEOs of Avalon Tech Inc. The paperwork was signed and completed—with Uther’s approval, of course—and construction on Arthur’s new company, Excalibur Inc., was well underway.
As for Merlin, it took a couple months to get out of his wheelchair and onto a pair of crutches, but he found that he couldn’t complain.
When Arthur told him that the wound could have been fatal, Merlin didn’t regret his actions, but it made him even more grateful for the fact that he was still alive. Physical therapy was—and still is—a pain in the arse for Merlin, but he didn’t complain. Okay, maybe he did, but only to Arthur and Morgana, and maybe Gwen and Lance, and alright so he complained, but he never missed a day of it and that’s what really counted.
After a couple of weeks, Morgana and Mordred moved back into their own home, and after a month had passed, Freya moved back home as well. After Merlin got out of his wheelchair, Hunith finally moved back home, but not before Arthur basically moved in himself. Merlin was only too glad that the kids were on Summer Hols so that he wouldn’t need too much assistance with them.
It was a beautiful afternoon and Merlin was having a barbeque in his back garden. Uther, Gaius, and Hunith were chatting inside the house, waiting for the food to be done. Morgause was on the grill being pestered by Owain until he was whisked away by Kay to join his and the other lads’ sword play—Arthur bought them all foam foils that day. Forr was in the mud with Lizzy and Sefa, helping them build castles.
“I’m helping them with science!” Forridel defended anytime someone passed by.
“No one believes you, Forr, so I say you just keep on happily building castles with the tinies,” laughed Ellie, passing by with a ice bucket of beers.
“Let me take that for you,” said Gwaine, smoothly rescuing the bucket before Ellie could trip.
“Sometimes, I don’t know if you’re being gentlemanly or just trying to rescue the booze,” Ellie teased.
“And why can’t they go hand in hand?” asked Gwaine, moving his free hand to wrap around Ellie’s waist.
“Because your name is Gwaine,” teased Lance, coming out of the house with the non-alcoholic beverages.
“Gwen, control your husband,” said Gwaine with a pout.
“No, I shan’t,” sing-songed Gwen, setting the table.
“Come on then, let’s join the cool kids in the gazebo,” said Ellie, maneuvering Gwaine and herself to the other end of the garden.
There, Morgana was lounging with Leon while Arthur was lying on his back, arm covering his eyes.
“The princess sleeping then?” asked Gwaine, setting the bucket down on the center of the table before sitting down.
“Nah, he’s just tired from having taken care of the kids all week,” said Morgana, grabbing two beers from the bucket.
“The princess? Taking care of actual human beings besides himself?” asked Gwaine, in mock shock.
“It’s unbelievable I know,” teased Merlin, walking up to the gazebo entrance and leaning against the entryway.
“Your pits chafing from the crutches yet?” asked a sympathetic Leon. It was incredibly fortuitous that his wound wasn’t fatal as well. His arm was still in a light cast, but it was healing nicely.
“Nah, I have Arthur lotion them for me every night,” said Merlin with a wicked smile.
“Yeah, I did not need to know that, Merlin,” shuddered Morgana.
“He’s lying anyway,” said Arthur, sitting up with a pink face.
“Your face says otherwise, Arthur,” teased Ellie with a broad smile.
“All that aside, how is he with taking care of the kids, really?” asked Gwaine, genuinely curious.
Merlin stared at Arthur with his brows thoughtfully furrowed.
“Well, Merlin? Please, don’t hold back on my account,” said Arthur with a sense of confidence he didn’t have at the start.
“Not bad,” said Merlin with a nod.
Before Arthur could preen, Merlin added, “for an amateur.”
“Ama- an amateur?!” Arthur spluttered.
Merlin had a wicked grin on his face and swiftly gathered his crutches.
“I’ll show you amateur!” said Arthur, getting up to chase after a cackling, hobbling Merlin to the laughter of everyone around.
The End.
