King Arthur, his wife Guinevere, his half-sister Morgana, and his father, Uther, were going on a family picnic and being protected by Arthur's five most trusted knights, Sir Percival, Sir Lancelot, Sir Gwaine, Sir Elyan, and Sir Leon. The knights had originally wanted to bring more protection for the Pendragons, after all Merlin was kidnapped three months ago and they still hadn't managed to find him. However, Uther insisted that now they were on high alert with Merlin's kidnapping and were better knights than before.

The knights and their leaders were riding when suddenly a noise like a sword coming out of its sheathe was heard to their left. Arthur stopped and pulled out his sword, the knights quickly followed pulling out their swords. A noise to their right, which sound like a chuckle echoed into Arthur's ears. Suddenly twenty men surrounded them, all with maces, swords, or knives. Arthur and the knights dismounted and started to fight for their lives.

Arthur parried one attack and hit the bandit with the hilt of his sword then stabbed him in his chest. Arthur began to fight another bandit, out of the corner of his eye he saw Uther leading the women away from the bandits, slashing at any that tried to get close to them. Killing bandit after bandit, the six warriors finished them off in a short time.

"We did it!" Gwaine shouted.

"Quiet." Leon told him. "We don't need to attract more."

"Let's go find where Guinevere, Morgana, and Uther." Lancelot said, changing the subject.

"Lancelot's right," Arthur said. "I saw them go this way."

Arthur leads his knights in the direction of his family after they get back on their horses. They have to climb a small hill and not only did the find the royal family, they found the camp of the bandits. Uther, Morgana, and Gwen are waiting for them off of their horses, staying as far away from the camp as they can. Arthur runs over and hugs Gwen, then Morgana, and then his father.

"I'm so glad you're all okay." Arthur tells them after he hugs his father.

"You too, son." Uther says to Arthur.

"Can we please leave?" Morgan asked looking back at the camp. "This plays scares me."

"Of course we c-" Arthur starts to say.

Percival is the one that interrupted Arthur by saying, "Merlin?"

Everyone turned their heads to where Percival was looking after this. Arthur took in the appearance of the camp for the first time. There were tents all around the border, a fire pit in the middle, a large pile of wooden logs for the fire, and a wooden tower that lead to a platform at the top that was probably used as a lookout tower. However, Percival was looking at the five metal cages that held one man or woman in each.

In the exact center cage, a man with long and ratty black hair looked up at the mention of the name Merlin. Arthur gasped when he saw the blue eyes that man had, exactly like Merlin's. The nose is Merlin's too, and the big ears. It was Merlin. Merlin's eyes widened when he saw who called his name and started to stand up, that's when Arthur realized that all the people in the cages were nude. They all had a blanket, however, and as Merlin stood up, he used his blanket to cover himself and made a tight knot with the blanket to keep it from falling off.

"Find the key to his cage!" Arthur yelled before he ran over to Merlin followed by Morgana and Guinevere, while Uther and the knights searched the bandit camp for the key.

"Arthur…" Merlin said. His voice was weak and he sounded tired.

"Hold on we'll get you out soon." Arthur told his friend.

"Found it!" Gwaine shouted. Arthur turned to see Gwaine sprinting towards him, the key in his right hand. Gwaine handed Arthur the key and Arthur unlocked the cage, practically dragging Merlin out of the cage. The two shared a hug then stopped when Arthur felt something on Merlin's skin. He turned Merlin around and saw cuts in his skin that were caused by a whip undoubtedly, a few welts, and purple and blue bruises.

Arthur didn't notice the other knights and his father had joined him until he heard eight other people gasp with him. Lancelot approached Merlin and took off his red cloak and wrapped it around Merlin, Arthur smiled at Lancelot's unselfish nature.

Arthur turned to the group, "We need to get him back to Gaius. Guinevere, Morgana, father, and Lancelot you come with me back to Camelot. The rest of you, unlock the rest of the cages and get them to their homes."

Arthur handed the key back to Gwaine and helped Merlin over to his horse. The five rode back to Camelot, Merlin on the back of Arthur's horse, their backs facing each other. Back at Camelot, Arthur and Guinevere helped Merlin get to Gaius.

"My lord, what seems to…" Gaius stops when he sees the man Arthur is carrying.

"Hello Gaius." Merlin says smiling.

Gaius immediately clears off space for Merlin to lie down, and Arthur and Guinevere help Merlin lay face down on the table, immediately passing out when his head touched the table. Gaius' eyes widen when he sees all of the bruises, cuts, and welts on Merlin's back. Gaius sighs, "I'm going to need some help, one of the cuts is very infected."

Arthur steps forward, "I will."

"Arthur, you have a council meeting in an hour, and you haven't prepared yet." Guinevere says.

"But…" Arthur starts. "I can't leave him."

"I'll help Gaius and if Merlin…" Gwen trails off. "If anything happens I will tell you."

"Thank you, Guinevere." Arthur says looking at his wife. "I will return after the meeting."

Arthur left Gaius' chambers, Gwen and Gaius looked at each other before they started to work on Merlin. They disinfected the infected wound first, then stitched it and the other three whip cuts. When they were done with that, Gaius made a white salve and put it on the welts and minor cuts.

"The bruises should heal on their own." Gaius said. "Now let's put him on his bed."

Gaius grabbed Merlin's arms and Gwen grabbed his legs, together they put Merlin on his already made bed. The room was dusty from the lack use in the past three months. Gaius grabs for the blanket to put over Merlin, but stops when his ear hears something in Merlin's abdomen. Gaius drops the blanket on Merlin's legs and presses his ear to Merlin's abdomen. Gwen looks at him with a confused, and that look turns into worry when Gaius' mouth drops open.

"Gwen," Gaius says taking his ear off of Merlin. "Listen to this."

Gwen hesitates before she bends down and places her ear where Gaius' was. At first, there is nothing but then there is a sound like thump thump thump thump. Gwen quickly takes her away in shock and looks at Gaius, expecting him to tell her what that was.

"What did that sound like, Gwen?" Gaius asks.

Gwen thinks for a second, "A heart beating, but in his stomach. Did it somehow move from his chest?"

Gaius looks at Merlin then back at her, "No, that's impossible for a heart to move in that location with cutting Merlin open."

"Than what was that?" Gwen asks.

"I have an idea, but we need to do some research." Gaius said. "Find as many books as you can written by Cedric Tulie. He wrote about warlocks and special abilities they have."

Gwen and Gaius left Merlin to search through the many books that Gaius had for anything written by Cedric Tulie. The total was ten books and they started to search through the books to find something of use. Gaius was looking through changes that could happen in the anatomy of warlock when he stumbled upon something interesting. He picked up the book and walked over to Gwen and put the book down in front of her pointing to the particular section of the page.

"I might have found something." Gaius said.

Gwen quickly read what Gaius pointed at, her mind was racing after she finished. She looked up at Gaius who was looking at her like he already knew what she was thinking. Gwen asks, "Is this suggesting that the heart beat in Merlin's stomach means that he is with a child?"

"Yes," Gaius says and sits next to her. "Warlocks are fertile creatures. However, the question we should be asking is who did this to Merlin?"

"Gaius?" Merlin's voice called from his room.

Gaius looked at the door then back at Gwen and at the door again. He got up from his seat and walked into Merlin's room, Gwen right behind him. Merlin smiled when he saw them, Gaius couldn't help but notice how Merlin's eyes were so full of hope and happiness. This was going to be the hardest thing Gaius has ever had to do. Gaius sat down by Merlin's legs and looked at the boy, Gwen sat on the other side of the bed, the same curious expression on her face.

"Why are you guys looking at me like that?" Merlin asked, the smile still high on his face.

"Merlin…" Gaius started. "Did any of the bandits… force themselves on you?"

"No." Merlin said, the smile dropping from his face.

"Merlin, you don't have to be ashamed." Gwen says with a small smile.

"They didn't." Merlin says looking away from them.

"What happened besides the injuries?" Gaius asks. "Did you do something you regret? Something that hurt you?"

"It was a mistake," Merlin says, Gaius can see a tear drop from his eye. "But don't regret it."

"What don't you regret?" Gwen asks taking Merlin's hand in hers.

"Did you fall in love with one of the bandits?" Gaius asks, he can tell that Merlin is very angry with him, but he has to make sure that Merlin wasn't robbed of his innocence.

"It wasn't a bandit, and I didn't fall in love, I did it to survive because I couldn't use my magic, I was too scared." Merlin said wiping his face with his free hand. "It was another prisoner. The man in the cage next to mine, a druid, he was around my age. That's how the bandits picked us, because we were so close in age."

"What happened Merlin?" Gwen asks.

"Five of the bandits took us out of our cages and brought us to the leader of the bandits. He said that for me and the druid would only keep our lives if we…" Merlin stopped talking when began to cry.

Gwen did her best to comfort the boy, but Gaius had to ask one more question. Gaius sighed, "Merlin, was this boy… was he on top of you."

Merlin didn't look at Gaius, but he still nodded. Gaius looked up at Gwen to discover she was already looking at him. Gaius turned back to Merlin, "Merlin, we believe… that you are with a child."

Merlin slowly looked up at them, letting what Gaius said sink in. Merlin asked in a disbelieving voice, "How is that possible? I'm a man."

"Yes," Gaius agreed. "A male warlock. Warlocks are fertile creatures."

"He's telling the truth Merlin," Gwen told him. "No matter how much you want to say that we're wrong, you know we're telling the truth."

Merlin was speechless, then the door to Gaius' chambers opened. Arthur's voice called out, "Gaius… Guinevere… Merlin?"

Gaius and Gwen start to get up from their seats when Merlin grabbed their arms. They looked at him waiting for him to say what he wanted to say, "Please keep this a secret, even from Arthur."

They smiled and nodded their heads in agreement. Arthur suddenly opened the door and ran to Merlin when he saw that his old servant was awake. Arthur hugged him and Merlin was surprised before he hugged Arthur back.

"I've missed you old friend." Arthur said to Merlin.

"And I you," Merlin told Arthur.

"Well, if you are feeling up to it," Arthur said. "There is a feast being held in celebration of your return to us."

"Really?" Merlin asked with enthusiasm. "That'd be great, but let me heal my back first."

Merlin started to reach for his spell book when Gaius stated, "Actually Merlin, you haven't used your magic for so long that starting again with such a complex spell is bad for your safety, and others very close to you. And besides, I gave you a salve that should completely take the pain away and rapidly speed up the healing process."

Merlin understood that using a lot of magic during the pregnancy would be bad for both him and the child. Merlin nodded his head and looked up at Arthur, "I guess I'm going."

Arthur smiled, "Good, I'll see you soon. I'm going to change into my party clothes, are you coming with me Guinevere?"

"Yes," Gwen says. "I need to bathe and dress."

"See you two soon." Gwen said before joining her husband to walk to their chambers.

When the two left, Gaius turned to his friend. "Are you alright?"

"A child." Was all Merlin could manage.

"I know this must be very confusing," Gaius said. "But on the bright side, because you are a warlock you will never show that you are pregnant. Not physically anyway, your magic will make the womb bigger on the inside, but it will stay the same as it now. You will show only when the baby is ready to come out."

"Lucky pregnant Merlin." Merlin said glumly.

Gaius touched his shoulder, "Enough moping, this is supposed to be a beautiful time in your life."

Merlin smiled, then said, "Let's get to the feast. I'm starving."

"Yes," Gaius said, he got up to leave so he could go to the feast when turned back, "And remember Merlin, you are not a servant at this feast. So eat enough for the both of you, it should be easy enough with the time on your hands."

"Yes sire." Merlin joked and Gaius shut the door as he was chuckling.

He got up from his bed and put on trousers, a light blue shirt, and red neckerchief. He would usually put on his brown jacket, but the only one he had was thrown into a fire when the bandits made him and the other prisoners strip naked. However, when opened his wardrobe he found a brand new one inside. Merlin smiled and put it on. Now fully dressed for the first time in three months, Merlin left for the feast.

Merlin walked swiftly through the castle walls, even though he had been gone for three months, he still knew exactly where he was going. Eventually, he made it to the banquet hall and heard the loud noise coming from the room. Merlin took a deep breath before entering the room and he saw his friends, knights, and the royal family at the front of the room. Gwaine, Percival, Elyan, and Leon were here too, done from delivering the other prisoners to their homes. Gwaine looked up from his dinner and noticed Merlin by the door. Gwaine stood up and walked over to him.

"Merlin, my friend." Gwaine says putting a hand Merlin's shoulder. "It's good to see you're okay."

"Thanks." Merlin said. "It's good to see you too. Good to see everyone."

"Yes," Gwaine agrees. "Come. You shall eat with me and the other knights."

"Alright." Merlin said before following Gwaine over to the table he was sitting at. Merlin sat down between Gwaine and Percival. A servant brought him dinner, which was chicken and a bit of bread to go along with it.

Before Merlin took a bite of is dinner, he looked up to see Arthur smiling at him. Merlin smiled back then turned his eyes to Gwen. She was smiling at the people and knights, then her eyes got to him and she smiled wider. Gwen mouthed the word, eat. Merlin looked away from her and started eating. The knights telling jokes, to Merlin, this was the best feast Camelot has ever thrown. Perhaps it was because he didn't have to be a serving boy at it.