4. (cont'd) Care

"…knows the only place an antidote would be found is in the forests of Balor. Arthur could be walking into a trap."

Through the excruciating pain, heat and exhaustion Merlin was experiencing, those were the first words to reach him, and they made his heart clench painfully. Or… more painfully than before at least. He had just saved the Prat's life! What was he doing endangering it all over again?!

"Ar…thur." the words passing his lips came out in a desperate whisper, and if Arthur had been there Merlin was sure he'd have been mocked for it. But damn it, the man was absolutely insufferable! Arthur's name was the last conscious thought he had before the darkness overtook him once again.

*

The Forest of Balor was altogether… underwhelming, in Arthur's opinion. The woods just outside Camelot were more impressive really. And yet the fog that had appeared seemingly from nowhere and was currently surrounding him still made him feel… uncomfortable. Like he was being watched. He didn't like it. He continued to lead his horse down deeper into the trees when suddenly the feeling of a hundred lidless eyes staring him down suddenly vanished. His steps slowed for barely a second before he shook off the feeling and trudged on. It was then that he saw the girl.

She was hunched in on herself, seated on a log, and he could hear her crying softly from where he stopped to tie up his horse.

"Hello?" the girl didn't acknowledge him until he knelt down in front of her and she shrank back farther. "Are you alright?" the girl's eyes slid behind him and she gasped in fright at what she saw. The cockatrice. Well wasn't that just perfect. The brief fight with the beast was –besides his rather impressive sword toss- hardly worth remembering, so he didn't bother. Honestly, from what Gaius had said, Arthur would have expected something a little more ferocious. He turned back to the girl and approached her. It was only as she stood that he noticed the large welt on her arm.

"It's alright. I'm not going to hurt you. Who did that to you?" he asked, gesturing to the red marked arm.

"My master." She answered hesitantly. "I ran away from him, and I got lost…. Please don't leave me." She begged. Arthur understood how she must have been feeling; scared, alone, helpless. But his sympathy for her was nothing compared to the worry he still felt for Merlin. As a gentlemen however, he could hardly leave a damsel in distress… distressed.

"I won't. I'm not going to." He promised.

"You can take me away from here?" her words, which coming from most other maidens should have sounded hopeful, were very lacking in their sincerity. Perhaps she had lost all her hope. He could help with that.

Later.

"Not yet." He replied firmly. "There's something I have to do first." He looked past her to the cave he had almost missed in all the excitement.

"Why have you come to the caves?" the maiden asked him curiously. Arthur hesitated in providing her with his response. He just didn't… trust this girl as much as any of the other numerous damsels he'd saved in his days.

"I'm looking for something. It can only be found here."

"What is it? I know this place. I could help you." She offered kindly. Well if she knew the region… but she said before that she was lost. Then again, if it weren't for the tricks he'd been taught since childhood, Arthur figured he'd probably get lost in the woods by Camelot himself more often than not. And if she was telling the truth, perhaps she would be able to help him.

"It's a type of flower that only grows inside the caves. It's very rare." Her eyes turned calculating as he approached with his now untied horse.

"The mortaeus flower? I know where they are." She smiled at him… perhaps eager to be of service to her rescuer…. But the smile did not reach her eyes. "I'll show you."

Arthur watched her walk away, not knowing what to think anymore. But his worry for Merlin won out over his apprehension of his new self-appointed guide and he followed her into the caves she had seconds ago disappeared into, leaving his horse outside. It was dark within the cavernous walls, but the girl had somehow managed to procure torches to light their way and walked steadily onwards. Arthur could do nothing but follow in her stead.

*

Merlin watched this all as if in a dream, soaring above their heads. He recognized Cara –if that was her real name- immediately. Her being there could not have been coincidence. He tried to warn Arthur; shouted at him that it was a trap, but the prince couldn't hear him. No one could. He tried all the incantations he could remember from his book of magic, anything that might help him, even resorting to stringing together any words he could remember into made-up spells that had just as little effect. Nothing worked.

"Merlin," He heard the voice as if it came from the walls of the cave itself, pressing in from every angle "You must fight it." Strange… it sounded almost exactly like Gaius. Either way, the voice was right. The evil-tainted magic within this girl was strong. It would take all his power to fight her off and protest the prince. And that was exactly what he was going to do.

*

After what felt like the hundredth corner he had to have turned, Arthur was finally met with a dead end. Well, excluding the thousand foot drop directly in front of them.

"There they are." The girl pointed to the wall across the gap. There, somehow rooted into the stone [A/N: wait… didn't Gaius say they grew on the roots of a tree? Oops] were three yellow flowers. Arthur stepped out further onto the ledge and tried to judge whether or not it would be able to hold his weight. The girl leaned forward with him when he looked down trying to measure the length of the drop. He held out his arm to stop her from going too far.

"Keep back from the edge. Don't worry; we'll be out of here soon." Her eyes held an intensity he hadn't noticed before, and the small part of his brain that used humour to deal with stress wondered whether it would be entirely inappropriate to reject the girl if she jumped him then and there. The serious part of his brain snapped at the funny part to shut up. Arthur started making his way across the pointed ledge carefully, fully aware of the layers crumbling away under his feet. It was then that he heard the maiden hissing words in a strange language he didn't recognize, but he knew exactly what it meant.

Sorcery.

"What are you doing?!" demanded Arthur. She ignored him, her foreign words growing louder until he finally felt the entire ledge start to give way beneath him. He jumped for the cave wall across from him at the last second and managed to grab on by a thin outcrop, breathing hard. So hard, in fact, that he almost missed those stinging words that reminded him so much of his father's.

"I expected so much more."

He shoved away the pain and hurled back at her. "Who are you?!" The sorceress removed the hood of her cloak with haughty purpose.

"The last face you'll ever see." Arthur grunted in rage, but his retort was cut off by an ominous hissing sound. "Seems we have a visitor." She spoke, of course of the absolutely giant spider crawling out of a little niche by where Arthur was hanging on for his life. Now Arthur had never been particularly fond of spiders, so seeing one approximately the size of his head was enough to get him shuffling away from the offending thing as quick as he was able. Perhaps it hadn't been the best idea to drop one hand from his grip on the ledge to pull out his sword, but the pathetic scream the spider emitted as it got sliced almost in half and fell the rest of the way to its death was more than satisfying enough to make up for the extra strain in his left shoulder.

"Very good." Drawled the sorceress, in what he couldn't help but think of as a mocking tone. "But he won't be the last." She warned as he swung his sword up onto the ledge and reattached his right hand to grip the stone.

"I'll let his friends finish you off, Arthur Pendragon. It's not your destiny to die at my hand." And she swung her cape around her as she left with a flourish.

Well what did you call this then, Arthur wanted to scream, but instead settled for another "who are you?!" as he tried to maintain his grip. There was no answer but the echoes of his own pants for breath resounding off the enclosing walls.

*

When Cara had taken the torches, she left practically no light to see anything by. Merlin had to see that Arthur was still alright. It was dark. Too dark. Words he hadn't read in any book came to the front of his mind and, as he muttered the incantation a bright glowing sphere of blue light appeared in front of him. He sent it up, beside Arthur and then above him.

"Come on then! What are you waiting for? Finish me off!" Arthur shouted at the globe. The words pained Merlin, even though he knew Arthur probably thought Cara had conjured the light to kill him, but he persevered; tried to show Arthur he meant no harm. That he was trying to help. With a mighty heave Arthur pulled himself up on the ledge and immediately grabbed and sheathed his sword. Merlin willed the sphere higher, urging Arthur to follow it, but the blonde's attention was drawn to the flowers above him on his other side.

"Leave them, Arthur." Merlin's pleads fell upon deaf ears as the sound of thousands of scuttling spiders started making its way up the walls. "Go, save yourself. Follow the light." He coaxed. Finally Arthur started the climb up. Agonizingly slow, Merlin's ball of light hovered never too far away. They were only part-way up the cliffs when Arthur veered off course, heading for the flowers.

Merlin hated how happy he felt that Arthur managed to pluck one of the flowers, but his unwelcome happiness was cut short by the onslaught of the spiders, who seemed to have picked up their speed, and were now climbing faster up the walls. Arthur seemed to realize this as well, once he'd pocketed the plant safely in his side pouch, and he resumed his climb upwards.

"Faster." Merlin encouraged. "Go faster! [A/N: My god, who wrote this?] Follow the light! Move! Climb!" And finally, as if drawn away on the breeze of fresh air that floated down from the opening now just above Arthur, Merlin's ball of guiding light was whisked away into the night. Arthur followed behind not a second too soon. Finally, Arthur was safe. And with his job finally finished, once again, Merlin was drawn into darkness.

*

The ride home to Camelot was a blur. But his arrival most certainly was not. Honestly? Under arrest? Was that even legal for a Prince? Uther certainly thought so.

"You disobeyed me." Were the first words his father uttered when he finally deemed it time to visit his only son in the dungeons.

"Of course I did, a man's life is at stake." Argued Arthur. "Do not let Merlin die because of something I did."

"Why do you care so much? The boy's just a servant."

"He knew the danger he was putting himself in. He knew what would happen if he drank from that goblet, but he did it anyway. He saved my life." And good God how many more times more would he do so if he survived? How many more times would Arthur use that exact same excuse? Calming slightly, Arthur's tactical mind started to re-function. "There's more. There was a woman at the mountain. She knew I was there for the flower. I don't think it was Bayard who tried to poison me."

"Of course it was." Uther shot back, as if it were impossible that it could be anyone else. Fine; let his father start a war despite evidence that could easily prevent it. Arthur had more important things to worry about at the moment. He plucked the mortaeus flower from his pouch and held it out to his father.

"Gaius knows what to do with it." He explained as Uther took it from him. "Put me in the stocks for a week –a month even- I don't care. Just make sure it gets to him. I'm begging you." Arthur stepped back as his father watched him emotionlessly. His job here was done. Merlin would be saved.

Or so he thought.

To Arthur's horror, Uther clenched the flower Arthur had risked his life to obtain in an iron fist.

"No!" exclaimed the prince as he rushed back in front of the King.

"You have to learn there's a right, and a wrong, way of doing things. I'll see you're let out in a week." And with that, the man Arthur called his father walked out of the cell he was being held in before turning back once more to add "Then you can find yourself another servant." And he dropped the mutilated flower to the filthy stone floor and left.

By the time Arthur had processed what had just happened, the door to his cell was already closing. He didn't dare risk trying to force it back open. Not with his father in hearing distance. So as soon as it was closed he got down onto his stomach and stretched his arm as far as it would go through the thinly spaced bars of the door. And still the harbinger of all his and so many others' hopes remained, quite literally, just beyond his reach.

*

The next time the voices broke through his pain-filled haze, they spoke the sweetest words Merlin had heard all day. He couldn't make out all the words, but what he did get out of the muddled voices was that Arthur was back. And he was alive and well. It didn't matter if Gwen couldn't get the mortaeus flower from him. The Prince was safe. And that was all that mattered.

*

Ever since the whole debacle with the Avanc in Camelot's water supply and the unfortunate unjustified accusation of the girl, Gwen had never really registered as anything more than Morgana's maidservant to Arthur. Since the incident however, she was certainly starting to gain more leverage in his eyes. For example, at the moment he could have kissed the ground she walked on. Of course, he probably shouldn't have been surprised that the girl Merlin supposedly…um… loved, would sneak into the dungeons to get the one thing that would save the man's life. Arthur had always scoffed at the idea of Merlin and Gwen together –for some reason it just seemed to make him uncomfortable- but if she was willing to go this far for the man, perhaps he had… underestimated their relationship after all. Either way, she was there now and even though he very clearly did see the contemptuous glare she shot him when he snubbed the food she'd brought, he instantly forgave her because he also saw the satisfied smile she sent him when she saw the yellow blossom between the bread chunks. She would be the one to get the mortaeus plant to Merlin, and for that he would be eternally grateful.

*

When Merlin first realized his pain had all but disappeared, it took him a moment to remember to wake up and revel in the newly-restored feeling of consciousness. When he did manage to get around to opening his eyes, he immediately wished he hadn't.

"That's disgusting." He admonished Gaius as his mentor immediately broke his embrace with Gwen. "You should be ashamed of yourself. You're old enough to be her grandfather."

It was somewhat grating that the old man showed no signs of chastisement.

"Merlin!" Gaius managed to exclaim reverently in a voice barely louder than a whisper. "You're alive!"

"No, I'm a ghost come back to haunt you." He joked, as the relieved joy in the air started to affect him as well. His laugh, however, was swallowed by a pair of lips that had suddenly descended upon his own. They were gone just as quickly as they appeared and his vision refocused on Gwen's blush-reddened face.

"Sorry! I'm sorry, I just… I thought you were dead." She rushed to explain.

"It's fine." He assured her. Hell he was alive! "It's more than fine." Everything was more than fine. Even that disgusting taste he still had in the back of his throat from what had probably been the antidote that saved him…. Saved him… uh…

"Um… what happened?" he asked Gaius, shaking his head to better focus his thoughts. "The last thing I remember is… drinking the wine." Gwen and Gaius exchanged a look and got seated so as to better tell him the tale that had unfolded over the past few days.

*

"Okay. Let the bragging begin." prompted Morgana, as she, Arthur and the King watched Bayard's party leave Camelot. "How'd you manage it?"

"I'm not sure." Arthur admitted honestly. "All I do know is I had help.... Someone knew I was in trouble and… sent a light… to guide the way." Morgana looked up at him in confusion.

"Who?"

"I don't know." He replied. Perhaps too quickly. He… had his suspicions. But baseless accusations were useless, not to mention dangerous, and he was still trying to work out exactly how he felt about it. "Whoever it was… I'm only here because of them."

"I'm glad you're back." confessed Morgana after a brief silence, before she left to go… brush her hair or something. Her place was soon substituted by the King, who brought the line of conversation –limited as it was- to the woman he met in the forest that had tried to kill him.

"You must have been scared." Guessed the King.

"It had its moments." Moments that seemed to be all dedicated to fear for Merlin over himself, actually.

"Those who practice magic know only evil. They despise and seek to destroy goodness wherever they find it." stated Uther with utmost conviction. Arthur couldn't find it in himself to agree though. That light… the beautiful globe of light that had guided his way and basically saved his life… could not have been evil. Despite his initial mistrust for the thing, it had not stopped him from noticing that it seemed to exude a sense of protection and support… the feeling that he was… cared for. It was impossible for such a thing -or its creator- to be evil, of that he was sure.

After receiving rare praise from his father, Arthur was in a good enough mood to visit Merlin for the first time since he'd been released. He felt guilty fro not going earlier, but such a display would have surely gained Uther's attention in the worst way.

He paused in the doorway to Gaius' workshop as an overwhelming peace took over his body at the sight of Merlin, alive and eating. Collecting himself he made his way across the room.

"Still alive then?" he questioned sarcastically, his muscles un-tensing as Merlin spun around in his chair to face him, face no longer sallow with the sickly pallor he had last seen on him.

"Um… yeah, just about." Merlin grinned weakly and pulled the blanket around his shoulders tighter as it started to slip. Arthur was content to simply watch him, revelling in the sight of the grin he had feared he would never see again. Merlin seemed to take his silence as an expectation of gratitude. "I, uh, understand I have you to thank for that." This broke Arthur out of his gaze.

"Yeah well, it was nothing. A half-decent servant is hard to come by." He lied. Merlin breathed out a laugh anyways. "I was only dropping by to make sure you're alright. Check you'd be back to work tomorrow."

"Uh yeah, yeah, of course. Bright and early." Confirmed Merlin. Arthur grunted –in a princely way of course- to let Merlin know he'd heard, but also to cover the sigh of relief that had almost escaped upon hearing that Merlin would be there the next day. He was almost to the door when he was stopped by Merlin calling his name. "Thank you." The brunet stated simply and sincerely. The look in Merlin's eyes took him by surprise and it took him longer than it normally would have for him to reply.

"You too…. Get some rest." With that he walked out the door, leaving what just might possibly be an actual friend, behind him.

Author's Note: Okay so… O my G, this chapter took me forever. No lie. You'd think that basically re-scripting a TV show of 45 minutes would be super easy, but it's so not. And even though it's really only half an episode this chapter, it's still disgustingly long. I tried to cut it down, but obviously I'm too in love with my own writing to throw any of it out. That is so pathetically narcissistic of me I want to puke. At myself…. I need professional help. Or bubble-wrap; that's always good. Hope its not too boring practically rereading an episode, I tried to make it more… well, just more. Switching between the two boys' points of view took a lot of patience and brain-frying, but hopefully it's worth it. Also, please excuse any mistakes, i tried my best to edit properly. Anyways, sorry for the long wait. Again. It was mostly due to me being lazy, but also because between bouts of laziness I was actually super busy. Went to Ireland on a rugby tour with my school team for March break. It was awesome. Dublin actually reminds me of Toronto a little. You know… besides the crazy stop-walks and cars driving on the other side of the road, and a Carroll's store on every block. Seriously loved it though. Met some cool Irish rugby players. Girls, obviously, who were very gracious winners. Hope to go back someday.

Anyways, answering your reviews all at once is way easier than doing it individually, so if you left one last chapter, thank you, and feel free to leave one again. :) And… here ya go:

CrayonsPink: I'm so pleased with your enthusiasm for my chapters. It honestly helps me get out of bed on the weekends to write more. Thank you :)

Razer Athane: The entire time writing this chapter, I was trying to guess which line you'd quote. No lie. I bet it wasn't any of the ones I picked. I'm bad at guessing things like that. Thank you so much for the review, and the welcome back. I needed it.

MakotoJinx: yeah, the guys' relationship is slowly transgressing. Frustratingly slow whenever I'm writing it. I think I overdid it a little this chapter. Hope not. "Well written, as usual!" O my G, seriously? As usual? I'm so happy I almost want to cry. But I don't do that, so congratulations on getting me close! Thanks. :D

Alice I: I wish I could have stuck to one POV, but alas, this episode called for choppiness and multiple personalities. Oh, btw, just thought I'd warn you, but I'm a Merthur shipper myself. Can't help it, sorry. But for this fic at least, I think I'm going to stick with friendship. If I do feel like progressing into slash, it'll just mean two alternate endings. The first last chapter (does that make sense?) will end in the two being bff's, and the second last chapter (as in last last, not second-last… I'm not making sense; message me if u want clarification) will be filled with slashiness. But that's only if I feel like it… or my reviewers prompt me to it. Hope this doesn't put you off the story cause I'd really like to hear more feedback from you :) thanks.

MirrorMyThoughts: I totally loved your review, it made total sense to me and it most certainly was not pointless. But then again, I like pointless, so feel free to add some pointlessness anywhere you like. I'm so glad you think the chapters aren't just typed up episodes, I'm really worried about this chapter especially, and I love the compliments that help me relax about it! Thanks so much!

Ona Ralgold: Hey, "totally legit" is perfectly respectable concrit in my opinion. :) thanks for the review!

Ruby890: yes, he does care. Oh, I just realized that my chapter has been named after your review! Congrats and thanks are in order I think :)