Fic: Irresponsibility

[bana05]

Last night had run particularly long, abnormally so, to the point Gwen hadn’t been able to return home to get a little sleep or even change clothes.  Gaius had had a very particular patient this night, a girl not more than four years old, whose parents had insisted Gwen be by her side while she rode out her illness.  The mother would’ve been there herself had she’d not had a nursing baby and three other small children waiting for her at home, and the father needed to keep the mother calm.  Luckily, the little girl was very agreeable even despite her travail, so it wasn’t too much of a hardship.  Merlin had tried to stay up and keep her company, bless him, but Arthur and Gaius had worked him hard that day, and the bags under his eyes had been larger than the flour sacks in the kitchens.  Besides, she’d had some mending to do and Gaius had been teaching her how to brew several remedies, so she’d passed the occasional down time that way.  Yet morning took forever to arrive too soon, and the sun was so bright it hurt Gwen’s eyes whenever she walked through the courtyard or by a window with the chatters of nobles in the court and the clang and grunts of Arthur’s knights on the training fields traveling such a distance to assault her ears.