No Emergency Exit; Merlin Modern AU
Title: No Emergency Exit (1/21)
Authors: mydoctortennant
Pairings: Arthur/Gwen, Merlin/Morgana
Warnings: None for this chapter, later chapters yes.
Disclaimer: Not real. Despite birthday wishes and night time prayers to Santa (all Hail Amy Pond!) Merlin still isn't mine!
Rating: This chapter 12/12a whatever you want. Will go up later!
Summary: Sometimes relationships just don't work in order. Or so they find out when one mistake leads to a life altering experience.
Author Notes: For the lovely noodlesishere; this is a modern AU based loosely off of the Abby/Luka storyline in ER series 12/13. Some medical info I have taken from ER, so it's totally their fault if it's wrong! Other stuff I researched myself, which may not be 100% correct but I tried my hardest =]
Also; totally OUT of my comfort zone with this, so I worked extra hard. Hope it pays off.
Thanks to mustbethursday3 for reading over it for me and purely_distel for the name =]
Another thing; I'd quite like it if a couple of peeps could read over the next part (the one that included the first written smut by me EVER... so if there are any willing volunteers, gimme a shout. If not, I'll force myself on people =D
Enjoy the add my lovelies =D
My Merlin Prompts Table
| Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Part One
Being a nurse, Gwen knew not to trust just one test. She’d seen a load of girls over the years come to her thinking they were pregnant when really they’d had a big lunch, memory lapse and a false positive.
The very same afternoon she had booked herself in for a professional test. Somewhere in her, her body was telling her that she already knew the truth.
She’d been able to squeeze in the very same afternoon, not having a lot of time off and the Duty Nurse understanding from the very same busy schedule she’d managed to find her a gap where a patient had cancelled that morning.
The lady, Nurse Bolter, wore a sympathetic look on her face, as if she was picking up on the vibes that Gwen was given off that pleaded for the test to be proven wrong.
As Nurse Bolter sat inputting Gwen’s details onto the tube of her urine, she kept replaying moments in her mind. Wine. Scotch. Hands. Button. Fingers. God it felt so good.
Then she remembered exactly who it was. The womanising prat she worked for.
Yet when she remembered the touch of his hand running up the inside of her thigh she couldn’t help the excitement she felt.
“Okay, so we’ll send this off to the lab for you,” Gwen snapped out of her reverie, “we should be able to get the results by tomorrow. I understand you’re busy, so would you prefer for us to give you a call with the result?”
“That would be great, thank you,” Gwen replied; her nerves suddenly back.
“If you could just confirm that your contact details are correct,” she reeled off two numbers, Gwen nodding at them both, “Okay great. We’ll let you know as soon as possible, Miss Leodegrance.”
“Thank you.”
-
She may have thought the two minute wait had been suspenseful, but waiting near twenty-four hours for the nurse to call her was damn near killer. She’d just finished with a patient when her phone started to ring in her nurse scrub pocket.
“Hello?”
“Good afternoon, Miss Leodegrance?”
“Speaking.”
“Hello, I’m Jayne Bolter calling from Cenred Medical Centre, I’ve got your results. Is this a good time?” She asked as Gwen reached the lounge, looking around and seeing nobody there.
“Now is fine,” As good a time as any, she thought to herself, leaning against the side of the sofa like Arthur had a month ago.
“Okay, the results are as follows;” Yes? “Pregnancy test for Miss Leodegrance,” Yes? “Have come back from the lab as-“ Oh get on with it! “Miss Leodegrace?”
“Pardon?”
“The result was positive.”
“Oh,” it confirmed what she knew, yet she couldn’t help but sink down onto the seat properly.
“Are you okay, Miss Leodegrance?”
“I’m fine, thank you. Thank you for calling.”
“Do you need any help organising appointments?”
“No, I’m okay, thank you.”
“Okay, have a nice afternoon.”
“You too,” Gwen hung up, “You too.”
-
Merlin Emrys had wanted to be a surgeon.
When he was younger he’d cut up insects and plants, even the toys his mother gave him and try and find the problem. The things with bugs was they tended to squish at the touch of the blade. Plants were incredibly flat and well toys - they were just filled with white fluff.
When he’d hit medical school he’d run out of funds, he didn’t have the means to train any further and for the last two years had been a nurse at Albion County Hospital. In such a time he’d made firm friends with Gwen, moved in with her to split the rent and found a girlfriend who could understand his long working hours.
Unlike Gwen, he didn’t find the lexical choice painted across the door to the break room demeaning; he just choice to ignore it in favour of rank coffee and a lumpy sofa.
When he’d seen Gwen with her head in her hands a he walked past the window with a pile of charts he had to know what was wrong. It was part of his nature. He had to fix it if he could. He dropped the charts off at the nurses’ station and entered the Doctor’s Lounge with caution.
“Gwen?” he called out, she didn’t look up, but her crying subsided, wiping her cheeks of the tear tracks, “Gwen what’s wrong?” She didn’t offer him anything, so he took a seat next to her, gently leaning her into his chest, hand on her shoulder, “What’s wrong?” he whispered into her hair, gently rubbing his hand up and down her bicep.
“How could I slip, Merlin?” she asked quietly, “Why did I let this happen?”
“What’s wrong, what’s happened?”
“I should have known better, I never should have gone back with him.”
“Gwen, who are you-“ then it dawned on him, the only person - to his knowledge - that she had recently gone home with had been their mutual annoyance and boss, “What did he do?”
“He didn’t do anything,” she sobbed, “It’s just really,” he voice broke, “really, bad luck.”
“Gwen, you’re not-“ he stopped himself from asking, not knowing if he even wanted the answer. He took a few deep breathes and took the plunge, “You’re not pregnant, are you?”
“I don’t know what to do,” was the only answer she gave him, but that in itself was a good enough confession, “I’ve not spoken to him for a month. Even then it was just to get him to sign off a chart. We’ve not had a conversation for two.”
“Do you want him to know?”
“I could never get rid of it, not after that accident. This job, it makes you realise that life is too precious.”
“Are you ready?”
“I’m going to have to be.”
“And what about Arthur? You know what he can be like, what if he doesn’t accept your decision?” but that hadn’t entered into Gwen’s mind. It had been one of the topics of conversation they’d had that night that she could still remember.
Both of them admitted that they didn’t think they could ever support having an abortion (in his partner’s case for Arthur) considering they witnessed everyday just how quickly life could be taken from them.
It had been the last part of conversation before they’d both closed the gap that had gradually been decreasing and kissed. Leading to buttons. Hands. Fingers. Pumping. Thrusting. Shouting his name.
“It’s not like he hasn’t got the money to support you.”
“Merlin, can we not do this now?” she asked, pulling away from him, hooking her arms around her knees and sinking into the arm of the sofa, “I need to think about this, I can’t go running head first into this. I just need to think it through.”
“Anything you need, let me know okay?” Merlin offered, putting his hand on her knee in reassurance.
Gwen rested her own shaking hand on his in attempt to calm herself, gently squeezing his hand as if he was the one in need of reassurance, “Right now, I just need to get back to work.”
-
Gwen loitered by the door to the OB clinic, she’d spent the last ten minutes trying to build the courage to go in. She needed to book an appointment for an ultrasound, and it was quicker and easier for her to do it in Albion rather than keep making trips to Cenred, at least she could make her appointments in her lunch break or after her shifts.
“Gwen?” the nurse turned to see Morgana walking alongside a gurney down the corridor.
“Morgana,” Gwen tried to smile and failed, she wouldn’t be able to lie to her, the girl to read her like a book, like she had some sort of ability to read minds.
“What are you doing up here?” she asked, instructing the nurses and fellow doctor with her to carry on to the Intensive Care Unit without her.
“If I said patient follow up you’d never believe me, would you?”
“Not in the slightest,” Morgana replied, her look was sympathetic; but her body was tense. Gwen looked away from her friend, unable to keep eye contact with her, “Do you want me to come in with you?” Morgana set her hand on Gwen’s shoulder in firm reassurance that it would ‘all be okay’, when to Gwen it couldn’t be more from the truth.
“I’m only making the appointment,” Gwen admitted looking down at her hands as she fiddled with the ring her father had given her on her eighteenth birthday. Morgana squeezed her shoulder and let her arm drop.
“Dr. Le Fay?” a nurse called up the corridor. The Doctor looked over towards the other nurse and nodded at her in recognition.
“I’d better go, I’ll talk to you later, okay?” Morgana reached out once again and rubbed Gwen’s arm. She had taken it better than Gwen had thought she would, but she knew Morgana. She knew that deep down she would be wanting to go and tear her brother limb from limb.
“Morgana,” Gwen called out as her friend passed her, Morgana turned back around to face her as she continued to back away, “I’m sorry I didn’t want you to find out like this.”
“I know,” Morgana smiled at her encouragingly, as much of a shock that it was, she knew Gwen didn’t need her being angry about it. It seemed that the poor girl was in enough of a daze about it as it was. What she needed was support right now, “Come and get me if you need me, yeah?” Gwen nodded.
-
“You’re looking at about eight weeks since you last menstrual cycle. Approximately six weeks since conception. That you can see there, is the heartbeat,” Gwen knew this, but she played along to humour the OB, Doreen, and Morgana who was smiling at the screen like a toothy maniac.
“Your baby is all healthy, Gwen, nothing to worry about, sweetie,” Doreen smiled taking the probe from the young nurses abdomen, “Here you are,” she passed her a wad of tissues to wipe herself over, Gwen mumbled her thanks.
“If you schedule yourself in for about seven weeks’ time, okay?” Gwen nodded sombrely as Doreen handed her a small picture. It was all black and white with this indiscriminate blob on it.
That indescribable blob was her baby. Their baby.
“How am I going to tell him?” Gwen asked as they left the office and headed for the reception to book the second appointment.
“Shove the picture in his face and tell him to say hello to Mini Arthur?”
“I’m serious, Morgana!”
“So am I!”
Gwen scheduled her appointment, accepting the polite smiles of the middle aged woman behind the counter. They exited the department and headed for the lift.
Morgana hit the Ground Floor button and watched the doors shut before continuing with their conversation out of privacy for her friend.
“So it’s definitely his?” she asked, trying not to sound quite so disgusted by the prospect of her brother having his evil devil spawn with her best friend.
“Morgana,” Gwen warned in tone and her glare.
“Just checking.”
“We were safe. We were careful.”
“Not always enough, is it?”
“Guess not,” with one floor to go the conversation dwindled.
“Well, you’ve got seven weeks to figure it out,” Morgana stated just as the doors opened to the jam packed ER. Yeah, I suppose I have.
-
Arthur had spent the last four minutes and thirty-two seconds looking for Gwen. He’d spent the last three days on shift with either Merlin or Morgana suffering from deathly glares and awkward silences.
He knew he hadn’t pissed them off directly (mainly because Morgana wasn’t giving him the cold shoulder and ignoring him point blank and when Merlin was usually annoyed at him for pissing him off he would be intolerably talkative to irritate Arthur back). He knew that it must have been something he’d done to somebody of common acquaintance and the only person who fell into that category that they would get annoyed for is Gwen.
It had been worse than the looks they’d given him for the last two months collectively. He’d tried but no matter how hard he just couldn’t get it through to that he didn’t use Gwen. No matter how many times the words passed his lips. Through some terrible misunderstanding on Gwen’s part she had come to the conclusion that the night they’d slept together had meant near to nothing to Arthur, when in fact it was the complete opposite.
She’d become rather talented at avoiding him - getting Leon or Kay to sign off on the patients that needed no further assistance - so when he caught a glimpse of the back of her head going into the Doctor’s Lounge he made to follow her.
When he looked through the window in the door he saw her sitting on the sofa with her back to him, looking at a small picture in her hand. He felt the urge to knock, but stopped himself when he reminded himself that it was public domain and he didn’t need to.
“Guinevere?” he saw her put the black and white image back into her scrub pocket, “Have I done something to upset you?”
“Why do you say that?” she asked voice quiet and lacking its usual mocking tone she took with him. Something was definitely up.
“Because Morgana and Merlin are annoyed with me.”
“And you don’t think you did something to upset them?” she asked, confused.
“If they were annoyed with me because I’d done something to then I wouldn’t be dead twenty times over from the death glares Morgana is sending my way instead of ignoring me,” he utterly nervously, for a man who was usually concise in his orders it was unnerving to see him trip.
“And Merlin?”
“Is quietly watching me stew instead of talking my ear off; which is unlike him. So that just leaves you,” he realised he probably could have phrased it better instead of making it sound like that made it worse somehow.
But in some way it did. He knew he should have tried speaking to her after their argument but she’d made it impossible and getting her number would mean raiding her file or asking Morgana or Merlin, which just seemed somewhat stalkerish.
“You got to that conclusion how?”
“Because you are the only thing we all have in common that they care about,” it was a fair assumption he thought and the flash over Gwen’s features told him he was right, “What have I done?”
“Nothing.”
“Oh, come on, Gwen. I might be a prat but I wasn’t born yesterday.”
“If you had been there wouldn’t be a problem, would there,” she’d meant it as a joke, but Arthur wasn’t laughing. It’s now or never, she admitted to herself, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the sonogram picture she had been looking at before. She held it out for Arthur to take.
He stared dumbly down at it, she offered it again and he took it.
“Er, congratulations?”
“That is my eight week scan,” she told him, it didn’t seem to sink in, he was still looking at it.
“And they’re giving me evils because I’ve what? Refused you maternity leave?” she didn’t reply to that, only glared at him with a raised eyebrow, “Eight weeks?”
“A week ago.”
Gwen watched his face as he did the maths. She’d never known Arthur Pendragon to be stunned into silence before. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came and he promptly closed it again. Staring at the picture in his hand he sank into the sofa next to her silently.
“But you can’t be,” he offered.
“You think I didn’t think that? Imagine my utter inability to think when my period date had been and gone by a week, two weeks; three. I still don’t quite believe it, but I can feel it,” she subconsciously raised her hand to rest over her stomach.
“Oh God, Gwen, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Wow, have you tried telling the two Ms that?”
“They didn’t listen,” a small laugh left Arthur’s lips, along with what Gwen had heard as ‘typical.’ “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I only found out last week.”
“Who went with you for the scan?”
“Morgana,” Gwen admitted. That bit hurt; his own sister had been there over him, then again she had a sixth sense for these things and he doubted Gwen had told her in so many words before Morgana had joined the dots together. A few shifts off her with nausea. A shift swap last week for ‘unforeseen circumstances’. It all started making sense.
“What are you going to do?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way-“
“Oh,” he looked disappointed, handing her back the photo, “I understand, I mean it was all a mis-“
“No, Arthur, please let me finish,” he stopped and looked at her as she pushed the photo back towards him, “This foetus is a product of our neutral agreement that we could never take a child’s life. Kind of. I stand by that. I couldn’t even contemplate answering positively when the nurse asked me if it was an option.”
“You’re having the baby?”
“I’m having the baby. With or without you.”
“Guinevere, don’t think I’d ever leave you deal with this on your own! I might not be perfect but I’m not an arsehole. I’ll be there, for you, for,” he looked at the picture in his hand again, “Blobby here,” Gwen laughed, “Both of you. For the next seven months; the next seven years; hell the next seven decades if you’d let me.”
“Arthur, you don’t have to make promises like that.”
“No, hear me out. I never got to say it before. You were too busy shooting me down,” Gwen looked away guiltily flattening her nurse’s shirt over her currently unaffected abdomen, “I wanted to tell you, that,” he paused turning himself in his seat to face her, “That it didn’t mean nothing to me. It took kids dying, a really shit day at work and comforting you over alcohol for me to even get you near me long enough without Morgana there. The last two months have been somewhat hellish without your sarcasm and retorts.”
“Arthur?”
“I don’t want to force myself on you, not again-“
“I don’t remember being particularly forced-“
“But we could do this right. I want to,” he timidly reached out a hand and rested it over hers on her shirt, “If you want.”
“Arthur, I,” she had know Arthur Pendragon, son of Uther, Doctor extraordinaire for a long time. Never had she seen him so vulnerable and open to anybody or anything. She knew deep down he wasn’t the persona he used to take charge of the Emergency Room. And she would never have spent time with him if she hadn’t liked him.
He removed his hand and withdrew from her personal space completely; “Doesn’t matter, it was only a thought,” he stood, lying the sonogram on the table in front of them before heading for the door behind the sofa to try and avoid her. Quickly she reached forwards and grabbed the picture, then turned and stuck her arm in front of him to stop him.
“I heard the new Ewan McGregor film is good,” he smiled gently down at her. Gwen offered him the sonogram and the smile grew.
“Thank you.”
| Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Authors: mydoctortennant
Pairings: Arthur/Gwen, Merlin/Morgana
Warnings: None for this chapter, later chapters yes.
Disclaimer: Not real. Despite birthday wishes and night time prayers to Santa (all Hail Amy Pond!) Merlin still isn't mine!
Rating: This chapter 12/12a whatever you want. Will go up later!
Summary: Sometimes relationships just don't work in order. Or so they find out when one mistake leads to a life altering experience.
Author Notes: For the lovely noodlesishere; this is a modern AU based loosely off of the Abby/Luka storyline in ER series 12/13. Some medical info I have taken from ER, so it's totally their fault if it's wrong! Other stuff I researched myself, which may not be 100% correct but I tried my hardest =]
Also; totally OUT of my comfort zone with this, so I worked extra hard. Hope it pays off.
Thanks to mustbethursday3 for reading over it for me and purely_distel for the name =]
Another thing; I'd quite like it if a couple of peeps could read over the next part (the one that included the first written smut by me EVER... so if there are any willing volunteers, gimme a shout. If not, I'll force myself on people =D
Enjoy the add my lovelies =D
My Merlin Prompts Table
| Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Part One
Being a nurse, Gwen knew not to trust just one test. She’d seen a load of girls over the years come to her thinking they were pregnant when really they’d had a big lunch, memory lapse and a false positive.
The very same afternoon she had booked herself in for a professional test. Somewhere in her, her body was telling her that she already knew the truth.
She’d been able to squeeze in the very same afternoon, not having a lot of time off and the Duty Nurse understanding from the very same busy schedule she’d managed to find her a gap where a patient had cancelled that morning.
The lady, Nurse Bolter, wore a sympathetic look on her face, as if she was picking up on the vibes that Gwen was given off that pleaded for the test to be proven wrong.
As Nurse Bolter sat inputting Gwen’s details onto the tube of her urine, she kept replaying moments in her mind. Wine. Scotch. Hands. Button. Fingers. God it felt so good.
Then she remembered exactly who it was. The womanising prat she worked for.
Yet when she remembered the touch of his hand running up the inside of her thigh she couldn’t help the excitement she felt.
“Okay, so we’ll send this off to the lab for you,” Gwen snapped out of her reverie, “we should be able to get the results by tomorrow. I understand you’re busy, so would you prefer for us to give you a call with the result?”
“That would be great, thank you,” Gwen replied; her nerves suddenly back.
“If you could just confirm that your contact details are correct,” she reeled off two numbers, Gwen nodding at them both, “Okay great. We’ll let you know as soon as possible, Miss Leodegrance.”
“Thank you.”
-
She may have thought the two minute wait had been suspenseful, but waiting near twenty-four hours for the nurse to call her was damn near killer. She’d just finished with a patient when her phone started to ring in her nurse scrub pocket.
“Hello?”
“Good afternoon, Miss Leodegrance?”
“Speaking.”
“Hello, I’m Jayne Bolter calling from Cenred Medical Centre, I’ve got your results. Is this a good time?” She asked as Gwen reached the lounge, looking around and seeing nobody there.
“Now is fine,” As good a time as any, she thought to herself, leaning against the side of the sofa like Arthur had a month ago.
“Okay, the results are as follows;” Yes? “Pregnancy test for Miss Leodegrance,” Yes? “Have come back from the lab as-“ Oh get on with it! “Miss Leodegrace?”
“Pardon?”
“The result was positive.”
“Oh,” it confirmed what she knew, yet she couldn’t help but sink down onto the seat properly.
“Are you okay, Miss Leodegrance?”
“I’m fine, thank you. Thank you for calling.”
“Do you need any help organising appointments?”
“No, I’m okay, thank you.”
“Okay, have a nice afternoon.”
“You too,” Gwen hung up, “You too.”
-
Merlin Emrys had wanted to be a surgeon.
When he was younger he’d cut up insects and plants, even the toys his mother gave him and try and find the problem. The things with bugs was they tended to squish at the touch of the blade. Plants were incredibly flat and well toys - they were just filled with white fluff.
When he’d hit medical school he’d run out of funds, he didn’t have the means to train any further and for the last two years had been a nurse at Albion County Hospital. In such a time he’d made firm friends with Gwen, moved in with her to split the rent and found a girlfriend who could understand his long working hours.
Unlike Gwen, he didn’t find the lexical choice painted across the door to the break room demeaning; he just choice to ignore it in favour of rank coffee and a lumpy sofa.
When he’d seen Gwen with her head in her hands a he walked past the window with a pile of charts he had to know what was wrong. It was part of his nature. He had to fix it if he could. He dropped the charts off at the nurses’ station and entered the Doctor’s Lounge with caution.
“Gwen?” he called out, she didn’t look up, but her crying subsided, wiping her cheeks of the tear tracks, “Gwen what’s wrong?” She didn’t offer him anything, so he took a seat next to her, gently leaning her into his chest, hand on her shoulder, “What’s wrong?” he whispered into her hair, gently rubbing his hand up and down her bicep.
“How could I slip, Merlin?” she asked quietly, “Why did I let this happen?”
“What’s wrong, what’s happened?”
“I should have known better, I never should have gone back with him.”
“Gwen, who are you-“ then it dawned on him, the only person - to his knowledge - that she had recently gone home with had been their mutual annoyance and boss, “What did he do?”
“He didn’t do anything,” she sobbed, “It’s just really,” he voice broke, “really, bad luck.”
“Gwen, you’re not-“ he stopped himself from asking, not knowing if he even wanted the answer. He took a few deep breathes and took the plunge, “You’re not pregnant, are you?”
“I don’t know what to do,” was the only answer she gave him, but that in itself was a good enough confession, “I’ve not spoken to him for a month. Even then it was just to get him to sign off a chart. We’ve not had a conversation for two.”
“Do you want him to know?”
“I could never get rid of it, not after that accident. This job, it makes you realise that life is too precious.”
“Are you ready?”
“I’m going to have to be.”
“And what about Arthur? You know what he can be like, what if he doesn’t accept your decision?” but that hadn’t entered into Gwen’s mind. It had been one of the topics of conversation they’d had that night that she could still remember.
Both of them admitted that they didn’t think they could ever support having an abortion (in his partner’s case for Arthur) considering they witnessed everyday just how quickly life could be taken from them.
It had been the last part of conversation before they’d both closed the gap that had gradually been decreasing and kissed. Leading to buttons. Hands. Fingers. Pumping. Thrusting. Shouting his name.
“It’s not like he hasn’t got the money to support you.”
“Merlin, can we not do this now?” she asked, pulling away from him, hooking her arms around her knees and sinking into the arm of the sofa, “I need to think about this, I can’t go running head first into this. I just need to think it through.”
“Anything you need, let me know okay?” Merlin offered, putting his hand on her knee in reassurance.
Gwen rested her own shaking hand on his in attempt to calm herself, gently squeezing his hand as if he was the one in need of reassurance, “Right now, I just need to get back to work.”
-
Gwen loitered by the door to the OB clinic, she’d spent the last ten minutes trying to build the courage to go in. She needed to book an appointment for an ultrasound, and it was quicker and easier for her to do it in Albion rather than keep making trips to Cenred, at least she could make her appointments in her lunch break or after her shifts.
“Gwen?” the nurse turned to see Morgana walking alongside a gurney down the corridor.
“Morgana,” Gwen tried to smile and failed, she wouldn’t be able to lie to her, the girl to read her like a book, like she had some sort of ability to read minds.
“What are you doing up here?” she asked, instructing the nurses and fellow doctor with her to carry on to the Intensive Care Unit without her.
“If I said patient follow up you’d never believe me, would you?”
“Not in the slightest,” Morgana replied, her look was sympathetic; but her body was tense. Gwen looked away from her friend, unable to keep eye contact with her, “Do you want me to come in with you?” Morgana set her hand on Gwen’s shoulder in firm reassurance that it would ‘all be okay’, when to Gwen it couldn’t be more from the truth.
“I’m only making the appointment,” Gwen admitted looking down at her hands as she fiddled with the ring her father had given her on her eighteenth birthday. Morgana squeezed her shoulder and let her arm drop.
“Dr. Le Fay?” a nurse called up the corridor. The Doctor looked over towards the other nurse and nodded at her in recognition.
“I’d better go, I’ll talk to you later, okay?” Morgana reached out once again and rubbed Gwen’s arm. She had taken it better than Gwen had thought she would, but she knew Morgana. She knew that deep down she would be wanting to go and tear her brother limb from limb.
“Morgana,” Gwen called out as her friend passed her, Morgana turned back around to face her as she continued to back away, “I’m sorry I didn’t want you to find out like this.”
“I know,” Morgana smiled at her encouragingly, as much of a shock that it was, she knew Gwen didn’t need her being angry about it. It seemed that the poor girl was in enough of a daze about it as it was. What she needed was support right now, “Come and get me if you need me, yeah?” Gwen nodded.
-
“You’re looking at about eight weeks since you last menstrual cycle. Approximately six weeks since conception. That you can see there, is the heartbeat,” Gwen knew this, but she played along to humour the OB, Doreen, and Morgana who was smiling at the screen like a toothy maniac.
“Your baby is all healthy, Gwen, nothing to worry about, sweetie,” Doreen smiled taking the probe from the young nurses abdomen, “Here you are,” she passed her a wad of tissues to wipe herself over, Gwen mumbled her thanks.
“If you schedule yourself in for about seven weeks’ time, okay?” Gwen nodded sombrely as Doreen handed her a small picture. It was all black and white with this indiscriminate blob on it.
That indescribable blob was her baby. Their baby.
“How am I going to tell him?” Gwen asked as they left the office and headed for the reception to book the second appointment.
“Shove the picture in his face and tell him to say hello to Mini Arthur?”
“I’m serious, Morgana!”
“So am I!”
Gwen scheduled her appointment, accepting the polite smiles of the middle aged woman behind the counter. They exited the department and headed for the lift.
Morgana hit the Ground Floor button and watched the doors shut before continuing with their conversation out of privacy for her friend.
“So it’s definitely his?” she asked, trying not to sound quite so disgusted by the prospect of her brother having his evil devil spawn with her best friend.
“Morgana,” Gwen warned in tone and her glare.
“Just checking.”
“We were safe. We were careful.”
“Not always enough, is it?”
“Guess not,” with one floor to go the conversation dwindled.
“Well, you’ve got seven weeks to figure it out,” Morgana stated just as the doors opened to the jam packed ER. Yeah, I suppose I have.
-
Arthur had spent the last four minutes and thirty-two seconds looking for Gwen. He’d spent the last three days on shift with either Merlin or Morgana suffering from deathly glares and awkward silences.
He knew he hadn’t pissed them off directly (mainly because Morgana wasn’t giving him the cold shoulder and ignoring him point blank and when Merlin was usually annoyed at him for pissing him off he would be intolerably talkative to irritate Arthur back). He knew that it must have been something he’d done to somebody of common acquaintance and the only person who fell into that category that they would get annoyed for is Gwen.
It had been worse than the looks they’d given him for the last two months collectively. He’d tried but no matter how hard he just couldn’t get it through to that he didn’t use Gwen. No matter how many times the words passed his lips. Through some terrible misunderstanding on Gwen’s part she had come to the conclusion that the night they’d slept together had meant near to nothing to Arthur, when in fact it was the complete opposite.
She’d become rather talented at avoiding him - getting Leon or Kay to sign off on the patients that needed no further assistance - so when he caught a glimpse of the back of her head going into the Doctor’s Lounge he made to follow her.
When he looked through the window in the door he saw her sitting on the sofa with her back to him, looking at a small picture in her hand. He felt the urge to knock, but stopped himself when he reminded himself that it was public domain and he didn’t need to.
“Guinevere?” he saw her put the black and white image back into her scrub pocket, “Have I done something to upset you?”
“Why do you say that?” she asked voice quiet and lacking its usual mocking tone she took with him. Something was definitely up.
“Because Morgana and Merlin are annoyed with me.”
“And you don’t think you did something to upset them?” she asked, confused.
“If they were annoyed with me because I’d done something to then I wouldn’t be dead twenty times over from the death glares Morgana is sending my way instead of ignoring me,” he utterly nervously, for a man who was usually concise in his orders it was unnerving to see him trip.
“And Merlin?”
“Is quietly watching me stew instead of talking my ear off; which is unlike him. So that just leaves you,” he realised he probably could have phrased it better instead of making it sound like that made it worse somehow.
But in some way it did. He knew he should have tried speaking to her after their argument but she’d made it impossible and getting her number would mean raiding her file or asking Morgana or Merlin, which just seemed somewhat stalkerish.
“You got to that conclusion how?”
“Because you are the only thing we all have in common that they care about,” it was a fair assumption he thought and the flash over Gwen’s features told him he was right, “What have I done?”
“Nothing.”
“Oh, come on, Gwen. I might be a prat but I wasn’t born yesterday.”
“If you had been there wouldn’t be a problem, would there,” she’d meant it as a joke, but Arthur wasn’t laughing. It’s now or never, she admitted to herself, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the sonogram picture she had been looking at before. She held it out for Arthur to take.
He stared dumbly down at it, she offered it again and he took it.
“Er, congratulations?”
“That is my eight week scan,” she told him, it didn’t seem to sink in, he was still looking at it.
“And they’re giving me evils because I’ve what? Refused you maternity leave?” she didn’t reply to that, only glared at him with a raised eyebrow, “Eight weeks?”
“A week ago.”
Gwen watched his face as he did the maths. She’d never known Arthur Pendragon to be stunned into silence before. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came and he promptly closed it again. Staring at the picture in his hand he sank into the sofa next to her silently.
“But you can’t be,” he offered.
“You think I didn’t think that? Imagine my utter inability to think when my period date had been and gone by a week, two weeks; three. I still don’t quite believe it, but I can feel it,” she subconsciously raised her hand to rest over her stomach.
“Oh God, Gwen, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Wow, have you tried telling the two Ms that?”
“They didn’t listen,” a small laugh left Arthur’s lips, along with what Gwen had heard as ‘typical.’ “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I only found out last week.”
“Who went with you for the scan?”
“Morgana,” Gwen admitted. That bit hurt; his own sister had been there over him, then again she had a sixth sense for these things and he doubted Gwen had told her in so many words before Morgana had joined the dots together. A few shifts off her with nausea. A shift swap last week for ‘unforeseen circumstances’. It all started making sense.
“What are you going to do?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way-“
“Oh,” he looked disappointed, handing her back the photo, “I understand, I mean it was all a mis-“
“No, Arthur, please let me finish,” he stopped and looked at her as she pushed the photo back towards him, “This foetus is a product of our neutral agreement that we could never take a child’s life. Kind of. I stand by that. I couldn’t even contemplate answering positively when the nurse asked me if it was an option.”
“You’re having the baby?”
“I’m having the baby. With or without you.”
“Guinevere, don’t think I’d ever leave you deal with this on your own! I might not be perfect but I’m not an arsehole. I’ll be there, for you, for,” he looked at the picture in his hand again, “Blobby here,” Gwen laughed, “Both of you. For the next seven months; the next seven years; hell the next seven decades if you’d let me.”
“Arthur, you don’t have to make promises like that.”
“No, hear me out. I never got to say it before. You were too busy shooting me down,” Gwen looked away guiltily flattening her nurse’s shirt over her currently unaffected abdomen, “I wanted to tell you, that,” he paused turning himself in his seat to face her, “That it didn’t mean nothing to me. It took kids dying, a really shit day at work and comforting you over alcohol for me to even get you near me long enough without Morgana there. The last two months have been somewhat hellish without your sarcasm and retorts.”
“Arthur?”
“I don’t want to force myself on you, not again-“
“I don’t remember being particularly forced-“
“But we could do this right. I want to,” he timidly reached out a hand and rested it over hers on her shirt, “If you want.”
“Arthur, I,” she had know Arthur Pendragon, son of Uther, Doctor extraordinaire for a long time. Never had she seen him so vulnerable and open to anybody or anything. She knew deep down he wasn’t the persona he used to take charge of the Emergency Room. And she would never have spent time with him if she hadn’t liked him.
He removed his hand and withdrew from her personal space completely; “Doesn’t matter, it was only a thought,” he stood, lying the sonogram on the table in front of them before heading for the door behind the sofa to try and avoid her. Quickly she reached forwards and grabbed the picture, then turned and stuck her arm in front of him to stop him.
“I heard the new Ewan McGregor film is good,” he smiled gently down at her. Gwen offered him the sonogram and the smile grew.
“Thank you.”
| Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |