(no subject)
Title: Law & Order: Mid Evil
Author: lostinlace
Rating: M (ish) will contain gore and maybe some sex
Characters/Pairings: Gwen/Arthur, Morgana, Merlin, Gaius, Uther...with lots of guest appearances
Disclaimer: I own nothing. It's sad isn't it. I don't even own my car, YET.
Summary: Modern AU. Arthur is a prosecutor in a modern day metropolis, while Morgana has struck out on her own as a defense attorney.
Author’s notes: This was a prompt but also an idea that's been stalking me forever. Thanks to
neela_barnett5 for the official jump start, and a big big thank you to thy3tuth_iswon for the fantastic beta'ing. Also thanks to the group for being a lovely safe place that's full of awesome.
Extra note: The second link is messed up (ARRRG), the first one should be both parts.
The train whirred by as the last of the passengers walked off. Person after person filtered in a line to go up the escalator that led to the city above. Businessmen and women shuffled briefcases and spoke on their Bluetooth as if they believed they were more important than the next person doing the same exact thing. Day laborers and factory workers who were dirty and exhausted stretched from their ride and ignored the dirty looks from the others who wished they didn't have to see or smell them. Students lugged books and laptops while their iPods and Nintendo’s played away.
It was a normal early Tuesday evening.
Two of the students stepped out of the moving line to finish an argument they were having. The male student grabbed the girl's arm and angrily took her around the corner. She glared at him, and he at her.
“What,” she asked feigning as much innocence as she could.
“I cannot believe that you would even try something like this, Kristen.”
“It's mine, and I can do what I want. You have no right. You were the one who cheated.”
“Look, no one is perfect. But that doesn't mean that you have to do this.”
“Brian, you made your choice. Now its my turn. This needs to stop. Every time I think about it I get sick. Like now. I need a place to puke, ASAP-style.”
Brian looked at her skeptically, but his expression changed quickly when he heard her stomach lurch. “Fine, c’mon, bathroom's over here.”
“Public bathroom...in a train station! Are you kidding?”
“Puke in the corner then.”
“Where is it?” Kristen realized when she was beat. She flipped her dyed blond hair full of extensions as a form her stubbornness in not conceding to this fight. If anything else, her dignity would not be thrown away with this mishap.
He pointed behind her and, indeed, there on the wall was the perpendicular sign for a unisex bathroom and heard her groan. The fleeting thought crossed his mind again. What had he seen in her again? He had a full sports scholarship and grades that weren't completely awful. All of it was about to be gone in the wind one way or another. No matter what, Brian knew that all he had worked for was gone. He made a promise to himself that no matter how hot, how drunk, or how willing, he would never get busy with any more party girls. This one and the last one were so not worth his effort.
As Kristen walked the guilty thirty feet to the restroom all she could think about was how this couldn't possible get any worse. If she tried her luck and spewed in the corner, she'd get caught by a random cop that would appear at the most inopportune time. She reluctantly made her way to the bathroom. When she opened the door, her entire world swam around her.
Then she screamed.
The bathroom was covered in splattered blood. Walls were lined in red dripping ribbons, the smell of iron and chemicals hung thick in the air. Kristen made the mistake of glancing up in the mirror. There was a woman who may or may not have been blonde once staring back at her from her final position in the corner of the bathroom. Her held was hanging to the side, and her eyes were wide open. Blood still flowed out of the many lacerations that were slashed into her neck. Her expensive colorful party dress was ripped to shreds and was also drenched in her blood.
Kristen didn't hear Brian busting in the door. She didn't hear the clew of scared curses that came out of his mouth, nor did she see him call the police from his mobile. But she does remember being grateful when the police did come and conveniently forgot how she would had bulked at the sight of one less than ten minutes before.
***
Gauis watched his class giggle at the argument made by one of its fellow students. A young woman had argued very passionately about how it was utterly stupid it was to bargain with warlords in places, which were beyond third world, with things like Cialis and Viagra. She ended her argument with a question.
“How utterly self-destructive is it to send troops to protect human rights, and women's rights with it, if they were to be bartered and traded to older men who now are able to use them for an even longer rate?”
Both Gaius and his post-graduate assistant looked up at the man in the shadows who quietly snickered as the students whined out loud with the assignment that asked to debate the pros and cons of that question. When they left, no one seemed to notice the tall blond man in the expensive form fitting suit that leaned against the very wall they had to pass, like he owned it.
“Merlin,” he said, “Still working on that PhD? How long has it been? Weren't you a super senior three years ago?”
Merlin's teeth mashed against each other. He hated how his old roommate magically blew through the bar exam (with scores that have yet to be released), and was hired by the state in the blink of an eye. Oh nepotism, he thought, it must be nice to have you as an ace in the hole.
“Arthur, don't you have your father's...” his mentor's arm found his shoulder, and with it a heavy pile of papers found their way into his hands before he could finish his comment. As he juggled their off balance weight in his arms, he tried to open his mouth to complain, but found that his main concern was not to drop the work Gaius had given him.
“Finish this Merlin, and then you can go,” Gaius said.
Merlin blew out a sigh, and headed up to his partial office with his workload. If he could he would have tossed each and everyone at Arthur just to see him work, for once. Four years of undergrad studies and not once had Merlin ever seen a textbook or any form of litigation studies in front of Arthur. Just this once, he would love to have quite literally shoved his obnoxiously prattish nose in it.
When he left Gaius turned to his former student. “You must want something. It's the only time you come.”
Arthur dropped his jaw in mock surprise. “Am I that clear?”
Gaius merely looked at him. “Is it serious?”
Arthur sighed and sat down at a front row desk. As much as he tried, he just couldn't convincingly lie to the people who had gotten to know him best, or people he had just met. Technically, there was only one person he could successfully lie to, and it wasn't Gaius.
Arthur looked away and lowered his voice. “Elaine Asolot was found dead yesterday.”
Gaius squints trying to remember her. Then he rolled his eyes. “Ah yes, Bernard's daughter.”
He wisely left out, “and her issues.”
Arthur's left half of his mouth perked up despite himself. “Oh C’mon, she wasn't that bad. Just kinda stalker-ish...”
“What happened?”
“I've only read the preliminary corner's report, but it looks like multiple stab wounds, lots of them. Whoever did it just went berserk.”
“Does anyone else know yet?”
“They will by tomorrow.”
“You need to tell Morgana.” Gaius turned away from Arthur at that point. He knew that things were going to get complicated. He prayed silently that those he cared about were not involved, but things were not looking his way already.
“I know. I figured I could use a bit of a buffer for that.”
“Merlin is busy.”
“Ah, doing your job.” He got a raised eyebrow for that. “Just let me borrow him for this case.”
“NO,” Merlin shouted from his personal space where he had been listening to the entire conversation. “I refuse not to finish my thesis this year.”
“I'll pay of a year of your loans,” Arthur said smugly and waited through the awkward pause.
“Fine,” Merlin said in a defeated tone. “When do I start?”
“Now,” said Arthur as he had already started to leave.
“What!”
“Hurry up, first task, here.” Arthur threw an I-phone at him which he fumbled to catch. “Call Morgana.”
As Merlin jogged to keep up with Arthur's long strides he remembered her fondly. “I haven't seen her in ages, how is she?”
“For god's sake Merlin, if you call you can find out!”
Merlin started to say something, but changed his mind and began to cycle through the phone. Arthur's apps were, well, they were Arthur. He pulled up the phone book and scrolled down.
He blinked away his surprise to see a picture of his best friend, Gwen, smiling to represent her number. On her neck dangling just below her collarbone, was a stunning diamond engagement ring that was completely encrusting with what seemed like hundreds of smaller stones. Merlin thought he needed sunglasses just to look at a bloody picture of the thing.
“When did that happen,” he mumbled more to himself, or so he thought.
Arthur shook his head and looked behind him, “Focus Merlin. Call Morgana's office, please! See if she knows about anything we need to talk about.”
Merlin was taken aback by the odd amount of vitriol Arthur was channeling out of nowhere.
“Right,” he said and pulled the picture over once more to the 'M' section and found what he was looking for.
“Hello,” a controlled female voice said. “This is the office of Mallory, Lake, and LeFay. How can I direct your call?”
“Hi there. This is Merlin Ambrosius. Um, I was wondering if I could talk to Morgana, err...please?”
“I'm sorry sir, but you'll have to hold on for a bit.”
As Arthur walked and Merlin jogged because he always had trouble keeping up with his friend's long confident strides, something occurred to Merlin. “Why did you come all the way out here for me, don't you have an entire staff at your beck and call?”
“Merlin,” Arthur said, not trying to hide his exasperation, when they reached his Beamer. “If I wanted them to work on this, they would have. Now the first thing I need you to do is to call Morgana. Casually see what she knows and tell her we'll be stopping by to...talk.”
“See what she knows about what?”
“Elaine.”
“Crazy-stalking-groupie-Elaine or one of the others.”
“That's the one.”
“What kind of stunt has she pulled now? I remember the last one, and it was kind of cruel actually. I'm just glad Gwen never found out.”
Arthur's eyes were hidden behind the latest sunglasses that Oakley had come out with, but Merlin saw the white knuckle grip that he had on the steering wheel. Merlin now knew that Arthur was still sensitive when it came to all one thing: Gwen.
“Get your mind out of the gutter, and call Morgana's firm.” Arthur dug in his pocket and tossed Merlin his phone without taking his eyes off the road.
Merlin threw him a silent raspberry, and flipped threw his Iphone. As he scrolled down the phone book he couldn't help but pause at the photo that came up for their friend Gwen. She was sitting across the street from the courthouse on a bench. He left over lunch was still next to her purse. Arthur had managed to snap a photo of her just as the wind picked up and her brown curls flew sideways across her face. One of her hands had come up to thread her hair so it wouldn't continue to get in her eyes. Merlin's brow shot up threw his hairline when he caught the pricey diamond ring on her hand that held back her hair.
That explains why Arthur had such an attitude earlier about her, Merlin thought.
“Do you need help?” Arthur asked in a rhetorical manner.
“No,” Merlin answered in an equal matter. He put the phone to his ear once he finally found what he was looking for.
“Whatever, tell her that we'll be there in twenty minutes.”
“You had me call just to tell her we're on the way. What about Elaine?”
“We'll talk about that when we get there.”
The phone only had to ring twice before the secretary answered it and asked, “Hello. Mallory, Lake and Lefay, how can I direct your call?”
Morgana's secretary told her over the intercom that she had a call from someone on her personal list. As much as she wanted to continue making a worn in path on her new carpet, she gladly took the interruption. At this point anything was better than concentrating on her current train of thoughts. In the twisted hours that made up the last two days, Morgana had managed to secure enough information that would shatter the fragile happiness her best friend, Gwen, had finally managed to find for herself.
Her fiancé had been taken in for questioning about the murder of a woman he had been having an affair with. If he were here, in front of her, Morgana would have throttled him.
Lancelot had sworn to everyone who had caught him with Elaine before that nothing had happened, and he would never be put in that kind of position again. Morgana and Merlin, who had walked in on him, promised not to tell Gwen if he kept his promise.
Everyone kept their end of the bargain up, or so Morgana thought. Now she would have to tell Gwen that her newly made fiancé had been cheating on her, and now the extra woman was dead, as well as the fact that Lancelot had spent the early pre-dawn hours in questioning.
Morgana rubbed the bridge of her nose. Of course the only reason why she knew all of this was because she was Lancelot's lawyer, and had been present the whole bloody time! She really regretted joking about being on retainer for him after he signed that multi-million euro contract for his new club.
“Damn,” she muttered.
It was almost nine am. Gwen would be here to pick up official documents to drop off at the court house first thing. It was the worst errand, and Gwen had never complained when she got it, so it was her's. Morgana was ever so grateful for her meticulous nature. Gwen was irreplaceable as a paralegal and a friend, so telling her about this had more repercussions than she was willing to admit to herself. But because Gwen was thorough and friendly, her task would take longer than it would anyone else.
Morgana finally realized how long she had kept the caller on hold, and gently picked up the phone.
“Hello,” she asked gently.
“Hey, Morgana. Are you alright?” He didn't bother for an answer as he continued, “Arthur asked me to call to let you know that we'd be stopping by.”
“Wait, Arthur's with you? Why are you hanging out again? He's a terrible boss, a crappy friend, and he's horribly mean in general.”
Arthur glared at Merlin and asked what Morgana just said to make him so nervous.
He ignored him. “We're almost there. See you- -”
“Merlin wait!” Morgana remembered. “When you get here, can you talk to Gwen for a bit and send Arthur up. I need to talk to him, it's important.”
“Ok, sure. That's what he was calling for. It's always weird how you two do that.”
By the time they pulled up, they could see a flustered Guinevere dash out of her dinged-up hoopdy. Merlin gave her a good-natured wave and she smiled in return.
When Arthur turned around after closing his door, it took all he had not to strangle his passenger. The incessant happy attitude, the snide comments to his foster-sister, and now this.
He watched them greet in the middle of the parking lot like the last three turbulent years hadn't passed between. It had been a random encounter that he had caught her outside the courthouse last month. He hadn't seen her since he had nearly told her how he felt. Instead, he had insulted her, her family, and her lack of fiancés. Totally by accident of course. So instead of getting closer, he had just emotionally punched her in the face, and she justifiably walked away from him.
Only during lunch that day, it seemed that everything had been water under the bridge. Until she reached out to rub his forearm to comfort him about another bad breakup...and then the shine from the ring blinded him. He joked about it, and she laughed shyly. Gwen talked about how much Lancelot's proposal was a surprise and how fast it happened. Arthur told her how she wasn't kidding. He supposed now it was her turn to emotionally punch him square in the nuts. He had let it slip about how he didn't know that there was anything between the two of them.
Arthur never told her how much he HAD considered Lancelot to be a friend. More water under the bridge he thought. Still, as he caught up on Guinevere's current phone number and address, he made an inward challenge not to screw-up everything up this time.
When Gwen had finished and threw her trash out, she held out her hand to shake his and asked, “Friends?” He wrapped his hand around hers and squeezed gently. Her smile at him warmed his heart and made him so reluctant to let go. But when he did, he made sure to include her in his weekend plans.
Which actually worked. They had been golfing, going to movies, ethnic restaurant hopping, and even shopping. Although the last one was just the two of them, when generally they had gone out with his friends. But again, instead of his feeling waning, they grew which was why Guinevere's engagement felt like a betrayal. She didn't wait for him. Hell, she didn't even think about not accepting Lancelot's proposal. She readily said yes, like no one else mattered.
No one said she had too. Arthur knew he had been too gutless to ask. Now, it was too late. He hated thinking about this so he left it on the back burner. Now it was waving at him from a few meters away.
He shuffled his feet before giving his friends a fake smile and friendly man-nod from across the parking lot. Of course Merlin waved him over. Even through his sunglasses and his position from that far away, he could see her wide-eyed expression of...fear? With his smile frozen on his face he walked up to them like he really wanted to. Except that he didn't. By the time he caught up to Gwen and Merlin, he managed to catch the tail end of their conversation. Merlin had been suggesting first dance songs.
Of course Merlin would. He was happy for Gwen. As should any good friend would. Arthur made a serious attempt with feeling to be involved in this. He didn't appreciate the lack of respect his song choices got. Who wouldn't want to dance to Electric Boogaloo or Groove?
Before he could get into a heated discussion about how great (awful) it would be to see the happy couple dance (or just Lancelot make an ass out of himself), his cell received a message. He glanced at it. “Sorry guys, it's Morgana. She wants to see me now, and she wanted to know if you two would pick up a few boxes of phone records that were just received at the post office. If you don't mind?”
Merlin shook his head, but Gwen perked up. “I don't mind. C’mon Merlin. You can help me narrow down songs that won't humiliate its dancers.”
She glanced back to throw her tongue back at Arthur. He smirked in reply. As he watched them leave he wanted to know what the hell her message actually meant.
Arthur bounded up the spiral stairs only briefly glancing at the secretary who was on her wireless headset. He really didn't mind the fact that Morgana told him to met her in the conference room which was on the fourth floor. He knocked on the door and pushed it open without waiting for a reply.
Morgana was sitting with her back facing him. Her head was down and her long dark waves of hair couldn't hide her body language that was slouched and gave away her emotions.
“Oh my god, what's wrong,” Arthur asked.
“If I tell you, I would be violating just about every code of confidentiality there is.”
“You can tell me. I won't say anything.”
“That's just the point, Arthur. I know you will because this will eventually land in your lap.”
He moved his swivel chair closer.
“Lancelot was taken into questioning last night because he doesn't have an alibi for Elaine's murder.”
“You're kidding!”
Morgana shook her head. “You can't get mad about this. There are things that I think you don't know.”
Arthur braced himself.
“During the bonus party, Merlin walked in on Elaine and Lancelot, and it wasn't the first time either.”
“WHAT!”
“That's not the only thing.”
“How much does Guinevere know?”
Morgana looked away, and Arthur looked towards the ceiling hoping that some deity would give him the strength not to start shredding things. She had known Arthur as a brother since she was ten years old and yet this was the first time she'd seen him quietly angry. “There's enough evidence to arrest him, and they will before the day is out.”
“Morgana, how much does Guinevere know,” he asked again, this time with more urgency.
Once again Morgana shook her head negatively. Both Morgana and Arthur looked at the door when they could hear the jovial voices of Merlin and Gwen returning from the post office.
“They’re coming back with Lancelot's phone records from the last sixty days. Arthur, how am I going to tell her this?”
He didn't know how to answer her even when their friends came into the room with six boxes full of paperwork.
“Hey guys, what is all of this?” Gwen asked as she placed the last box on the conference table.