Chapter 3

Unsurprisingly, it had taken them about twenty minutes for them to get over that little nugget of information and come find and confront Morgana.

Silly little children, they would need to be much faster on the uptake in this fast paced world or this was just going to take forever.

As she glanced at the news playing on the muted flatscreen mounted on the wall, none of them had that kind of time. Not if the riots and famine in the third world countries that had been increasingly occurring lately were anything to go by.

She sighed and turned the TV off just as they all "stalked" in. How cute, they thought they were threatening.

She sort of wished it had taken them a little bit longer. By now it was almost six. Dinner would be ready soon, (she cheated a little and used magic) and Merlin would be home in time to eat.

Looking at them, she noticed one missing from their group. "Where is Gaius?" she asked while chopping the last of the vegetables.

Looking at her coldly, with half an eye warily on the knife in her hand, Arthur answered, "He's sitting in an area with a lot of furniture, looking at all of the paintings and statues."

"Ah, one of the sitting rooms then. I know you came in here to say something but I should tell you it should wait until dinner…"

"No, what did you mean by this being Merlin's apartment to?" Gwen, surprisingly, demanded. She looked every inch the Queen she once was.

Morgana could feel through her magic that Merlin was entering the building at that moment. So, glancing at Aithusa for a slight burst of courage and calm, she said the first thing that she could think to stall their questions just a little bit longer.

Holding up her left hand, with her wedding bands on clear display, sparkling slightly in the last of the sunset and said, "I assume you all know what these are?"

There was a beat of silence, as they all registered what she was presenting them with, before denial mixed with growing tinges of anger and betrayal flashed across all of their faces.

Arthur, finally snapping from the immense pressure of the day, yelled, "No, Merlin wouldn't do that! He wouldn't betray us, his friends, his family! Betray me that way! He wouldn't marry you! A witch! Not willingly. You must have enchanted him! Because otherwise he wouldn't!"

I got angry, finally, after trying so hard to keep it together. But this was just too much. I wasn't going to take this shit, and Merlin wouldn't either. But since he wasn't quite here yet, it was my job as his Mate to set them straight until he could.

"Excuse me?! He wouldn't betray you? You? Like you did to him? Have you somehow forgotten what actually happened? What most of you did? "King" Arthur, his Fair Queen, and his Noble Knights! You finally discover My Merlin's innate magic, something he was born with, something he had no control over having, and you all turned on him so fast it was like he meant nothing to you at all! You labeled him as a traitor and tried to kill him when he did absolutely nothing but protect all of you since he met you."

"Do you know how much he has lost, how much we have lost trying to protect you and Camelot? Where exactly do you get off playing the bloody victim here?"

Many of them seemed to, surprisingly, hear Morgana somewhat and actually think about their actions.

Lancelot who had been dead for a few years before any of this happened, looked outraged at the implications of what she was saying.

Percival, Gwaine and Gwen seemed to realize exactly what they had truly done and looked extremely guilty and pained at the realization of how much they must've hurt Merlin with their thoughtless actions. They really did care for him.

That didn't mean they were off the hook, though.

Leon and Elyan simply didn't seem to know what to think. That was fair, Morgana decided, they were entitled to feel that way.

Arthur was so angry about his perceived betrayal that he wasn't really listening.

Two things happened simultaneously after that.

The first, Gaius came wandering in, asking what all the shouting was about.

The second, even as Leon turned to give a quick recap of the last five minutes and Morgana opened the oven to take dinner out, the door swung open rather quickly.

Before all of their eyes, Merlin strode through looking annoyed and radiating command with a touch of you-do-as-I-say-because-I-tell-you-to, snapping at someone in Portuguese.

From the conversation I got before he stopped dead at the sight of our guests, someone had just been fired because they disobeyed orders, thinking they knew how to run the company better, and as a result it was found out that the employees of that branch had no insurance following a rather large scale accident related directly to those disobeyed orders.

After Merlin hung up the phone, he stood there, waiting. He knew that most present wouldn't listen until they had had their say, or rather, rant. Actually, mostly Arthur, the others might be persuaded to listen.

Arthur, being his usual insensitive, thoughtless self, jumped right down his throat. No hello, been a long time or, good to see you. Just straight up yelling and accusations.

"Is it true Merlin? Have you really betrayed us by marrying this witch? Who, in case you don't remember has tried to kill us all! Who tried to destroy Camelot! Now we're gods knows where and you don't even have the decency to keep her away from us! If you're some sort of "great and powerful" sorcerer, why have you not taken care of her?" His voice was filled with rage and venom.

Even the knights were starting to look stunned as Arthur's callous words flooded the room. Gwen, Gaius, Lancelot, Gwaine and Morgana were already glaring at him.

Merlin it seemed, had finally had enough of being Arthur's verbal punching bag. After ten years of putting up with it. It was time to show them who he had become these long millennia with Morgana by his side.

Without raising his voice, he very deliberately, very calmly commanded, "stop talking."

Before he could say more, once more Arthur jumped in. "What did you just say? I am your king! You have no to right to speak to me that way."

Everyone but Merlin and Arthur glanced at Morgana when she snorted and shook her head at that. Though Merlin did send her a brief greeting through their magic. He should have stopped talking when her beloved told him to.

Merlin's eyes narrowed, flaring a dangerous gold. "First of all, you are NOT the king anymore. Second, Camelot has not existed for thousands of years. And third, you will not be eating the meal Morgana has prepared for us tonight until you apologize for your behavior to her and your insults. DO NOT speak of things you don't understand."

"You need to learn some humility, these days if you act like that, people will not hesitate to punch you in the face, or worse."

While everyones jaws once again flapped in the breeze, Morgana smiled.

While they were a partnership, there did have to be a dominant half. When they had realized that, about a hundred years after Arthur's reign had ended, they ultimately decided that since Merlin's magic was stronger, if by just a smidge, he should be the dominant party.

Since he was the dominant partner, not that Morgana was in anyway submissive, he could take control in certain situations and give orders to Morgana if it was needed. (i.e life and death or high stress). It was rare nowadays, the last time had been during the war in the forties.

This was not life or death, and he didn't have to give orders, but it was a time when she had to follow his lead unquestionably. She didn't absolutely have to though, it wasn't total control, if she was genuinely opposed to it, he couldn't force her. It was like a retired General commanding troops.

Morgana would follow his lead, just as he followed hers. But it was Merlin's right to be in charge right now.

After a moment of silence, Merlin swung his attention to her. He walked over, wrapped his arms around her and asked with a loving smile, "how was your day mo ghaol?"

"Today was very…. productive, gradh. Although, I do have some things to discuss with you about the company now that they're back."

He nodded then turned to Gaius and smiled happily. Merlin rushed to hug his father figure, and suddenly Morgana moved forward and joined the hug.

Both men welcomed her.

When they all pulled back, Arthur opened his mouth to speak again when Merlin's head snapped up.

"Not another word unless it's an apology." he growled warningly.

Turning to face everyone he said, "let's eat I'm sure everyone is hungry. We can hash this all out after dinner. Arthur you can stay here or sit at the table with us, but I meant what I said. Why should Morgana feed you if all you do is insult her?"

With that, he went to collect dinner to take to the formal dining room and walked out answering a few of Gaius's questions about the time period. Morgana grabbed a few things and handed them to the closest person, which happened to be Elyan, and motioned that he follow Merlin and Gaius.

Grabbing the rest, Morgana turned to follow when the same jittery feeling swept over her and, again feeling as if she were shoved, feel to the ground dropping everything, the crashing sound from just outside the dining room signified that Merlin was down as well.

"You know," Merlin called, "this is really getting old."

Morgana huffed in annoyance, "you're telling me, tell that to my dry-cleaner!"

"I guess I should call for takeout, how does Italian sound?"

As she called that that sounded fine, there was a rush of questions about what had just happened, a few wondering if there had been an attack.

Just one more thing to explain after dinner.