No Emergency Exit; Merlin Modern AU
Title: No Emergency Exit (5/21)
Authors: mydoctortennant
Pairings: Arthur/Gwen, Merlin/Morgana
Warnings: None for this chapter.
Disclaimer: Not real. Despite birthday wishes and night time prayers to Santa (all Hail Amy Pond!) Merlin still isn't mine!
Rating: And with this chaper it jumps up to MA-15
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 suggesting Costa should sponser me for mentioning it so much XD) and purely_distel for the name =]
My Merlin Prompts Table
| Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Part Five
The shift was busy, enough so to keep one occupied but not enough that the nurses wore themselves into the ground and the doctors didn’t accidentally kill patients. “Blobby looks like a boy,” Arthur said having found the time to study the picture as he stood behind the reception.
“I thought he looked like a she actually,” Merlin commented spinning around in the office chair having been admitting new comers and sending them down to the waiting area. The queue had finally stopped after a steady flow and it looked as if it was finally going to head.
“He does not.”
“I was going to say girl,” Morgana said as she passed dropping off one chart and taking the next without checking the ailment. She walked over to the waiting room, “Alexa Dury?” she called, a small woman with a baby looking up and standing, “What’s the problem, Mam?”
“I think she has a temperature, and she’s not sleeping well,” the worried mother said as Morgana lead her towards a curtain to continue her examination.
“Do you ever think about what if your kid gets the slightest cough you and Gwen would like freak out?”
“Merlin, we’re professionals in the medical career, I think we could tell when it was serious,” Arthur replied, moving away from the whiteboard. He raised an eyebrow at Merlin who shrugged at him.
“It’s always different when it’s your kid though, isn’t it?”
“Is there something you and Morgana aren’t telling us?” Arthur asked with an amused smirk on his face.
“No. I’m just saying.”
“Well go just say whilst doing some work, looks like Morgana might need you,” Arthur shoved Merlin up out of the seat, forcing the nurse away from the reception desk.
The radio crackled to life, “Car crash involving two vehicles at high speeds, we’ve got two critical and a minor, can you take them?”
Arthur picked up the microphone, clicking the live button, “Albion Hospital, we can take all patients,” he confirmed.
“We are four minutes out.”
Arthur leapt into action, heading down the wide hospital corridor down towards the trauma rooms. He quickly counted out four trauma gowns, before he started calling out for the others, “Leon! Grab William and Percy. We’ve got a double trauma on the way in,” He handed him three of the gowns and prepared himself with the other. Merlin emerged from the curtain with Morgana. They left the woman with the baby, swabs in hand to send to the lab.
“They should be back within the hour. I’m sorry for the wait; they’ll be as fast as they can,” Morgana assured the worried mother.
“Morgana, set up for trauma, we’re going to need you in there.”
“Okay, I’ll find Val and Sophia. Where’s Gwen?”
“Break room,” Arthur replied, heading out into the ambulance bay. Morgana poked her head into the Doctor’s Lounge as she went on her way to find the other nurses.
“Trauma rolling in, we’re going to need you, hun.”
Gwen abandoned her stale coffee and put down the magazine she’d been reading that was six months out of date, “On my way.”
-
“Head on collision, two cars. A driver and a passenger in critical condition, other driver is shaky with a head contusion and minor concussion, other wise fine.”
“Okay, Morgana, Leon; take the driver. William with me and the passenger. Percy can you take the other driver,” Arthur reeled off. The ambulance crew started listing vitals and injuries to both parties as they hurriedly made their way through the hospital into the traumas rooms.
Sophia and Valerie had split themselves between the two trauma rooms, Merlin and Gwen at the gurney sides.
“On my count. One. Two. Three.” The doctor’s hefted the passenger onto the trauma bed, the gurney discarded to the side whilst they worked.
“We’re going to need an airway,” Arthur ordered, checking the patient’s pupil responses. William collected the tube from the store, ripping it from the package and readying himself to insert the tube into the airway.
He prised the metal open, placing it in the male’s mouth, one end on the tongue whilst he guided the tube through the chords and into the airway, “I’m in,” he said. Gwen attached the bag to the end of it and started to pump.
-
They worked on the passenger for twenty minutes, internal bleeding found, a collapsed lung and a chest tube later and they were still no where near close enough to saving them.
The machine beeped, “Get the crash cart!” Arthur called, “Start compressions.”
The bag had since been passed to Sophia. Gwen sorting tubes and injections and now stepping up on the side of the table to start CPR. Push. Push. Push. Push.
“Charging 200,” William announced rubbing the components together as another nurse placed the gels on the patients chest, “Clear!”
Gwen stepped off of the frame of the bed and stepped back with everybody else. The shock went through the man’s body, jolting it, but no rhythm. Gwen stepped back up to the body and starting compressions again.
The repeated the process a number of times increasing the charge with no prevail. Sophia turned to Gwen, “Swap out,” she said. Gwen frowned.
“I’m fine. Keep going.”
“Swap out,” Sophia repeated. Gwen looked to Arthur who nodded, “Okay go.” They swapped positions, Sophia gradually taking over compressions. The other nurse had taken the bag leaving Gwen standing, “You shouldn’t be doing compressions in your condition.”
Gwen couldn’t help her jaw from dropping. She bit back the need to fight her corner and looked around, “If I’m no longer needed I’ll go and deal with patients I can deal with in my condition,” she left, shedding herself of gloves and trauma scrub and depositing it in the bin on her way out.
“Charging 360,” William said again, looking over to the door before continuing with his work, “Clear!” he shocked the man again after Sophia had stepped back. No good.
“Call it,” Arthur ordered.
“Time of death, twnety twenty seven. Is she okay?” William asked setting the paddles back on the cart. Arthur shrugged, tugging his yellow scrub from his chest and following Gwen’s lead.
He found her in the lounge as he’d assumed he would. She wouldn’t go onto the department floor in a bad mood, she’d defuse first. Stop the explosion from happening at a time that she deemed inappropriate.
“Gwen?” he broached tentatively.
“Fat lot of good you were,” she snapped throwing her mobile back into her locker and slamming the metal door shut.
“What did I do?”
“Fuck all! That’s the point! I might be pregnant, Arthur, but I’m not a fucking invalid!”
“Sophia was just looking out for you.”
“By not letting me do my job?” she shouted shrilly, “I might as well not be here at all if I can’t do that. As far as I was aware I don’t have to stop working for at least another three months at most. So tell me why I’m so fucking incapable now!”
“She didn’t say-“
“But it’s what she meant. I’m not so porcelain doll that needs wrapping in cotton wool, Arthur!”
“I know. I’m sorry,” he stepped forwards, instinctively reaching out a hand to hug her.
“Touch me, and you’ll be the invalid.”
He raised both hands away from her, taking a step back, “Okay, Gwen, I’m sorry. They’re just looking out for you.”
“I don’t need people looking out for me, Arthur, I’m more than capable of taking care of myself! I don’t need a knight in shining armour!” she pushed past him, storming out of the door and back onto the floor. Her anger vented into Arthur for the most part.
Dazed, Arthur left the break room heading back into the other trauma room to check on the driver.
“Morgana, report?”
“Tubed, chest tube, re-inflated lung. And,” she kicked off the brake, “Off to surgery.”
“Good. Can I talk to you?” Merlin took one look at Arthur and followed on with the gurney knowing the look on his face.
“Sure,” she ridden herself of the blood covered gloves and trauma scrubs, throwing them into the bio bin and heading out, “I saw the other guy didn’t make it.”
“Too much internal bleeding compressing everything else. He bled out faster than we could put it in him.”
“And Gwen? Where did she go?”
“Off on one, apparently,” he cringed, scratching the back of his head.
“Arthur?” he opened a door to an empty exam room and shut it behind the pair of them, “What’s wrong?” Morgana’s brow knitted, studying her step-brother’s face.
“Can you talk to her?” He asked, fearing that he would only piss Gwen off more by trying to talk to her at present.
“About what?”
“Sophia made her swap out of compressions and implied that she didn’t think Gwen should be doing compressions, and Gwen took it pretty heavy. Thinks that I think she incapable.”
“Did you tell her otherwise?” her forehead creased, raising her eyebrows at him in question of his actions.
“I tried!” he said pathetically, voice going higher than natural.
“Not hard enough, Arthur,” Morgana soothed, through her amused smile, “I’ll talk to her, but if she throws things at you tonight you bought it on yourself.”
“Okay, thank you, Morgana,” he smiled at her, giving her a quick hug. She patted him on the back patronisingly.
“What else are sister’s for, if not sorting out your mistakes?” Morgana chimed, smiling at her step-brother sympathetically.
“It wasn’t my fault!” he folded his arms defensively, a pout on his face.
“It’s your fault she’s pregnant, therefore any repercussions of that are automatically your fault too. Deal with it Daddio, you’ve got eighteen years of problems being pinned on you and there is no way out of it,” she patted his folded arms and left him to go and find Gwen.
Eighteen years of this? God he hoped Blobby was a boy. He’d need the extra support.
-
Morgana found Gwen sat on a bench in the Ambulance bay. She watched her for a moment, she had her arms wrapped protectively over her stomach and was seemingly talking to herself. On closer inspection Gwen was chatting away to the life growing inside her; “He’s just a massive prat who needs everything explained to him in plain English for him to understand it. Uncle Merlin calls it ‘Pratish’. Though I wouldn’t repeat that around me or your Daddy. Say it to Uncle Merlin, maybe Aunty Morgana, they’ll find it funny.”
“I would,” Gwen looked up at her; she still looked annoyed but allowed Morgana to take a seat next to her, “What did his pratness do?”
Gwen sighed, “Nothing. He just,” she let out a frustrated groan and mimed strangling the air in front of her. Morgana laughed, “I’m fed up of people treating me differently because of the baby.”
“People are just trying to be nice,” Morgana stated, knowing it wouldn’t be what Gwen wanted to hear.
“I wish they wouldn’t!” Gwen admitted, shifting on the bench to face Morgana, “I can still do my job, if I couldn’t the doctors would tell me so; so far they haven’t.”
“Arthur’s worried about you. Thinks that you’re mad at him.”
“I am.”
“No you’re not,” Morgana smiled pulling her best friend into an awkward hug, “You love him. He loves you. He’s supposed to piss you off occasionally.”
“I’m not an invalid; I don’t need people mollycoddling me,” she said into her friend’s ear, arms tightly around her friend.
“He just worries about you, hun. He’s still adjusting.”
“It’s been two months.”
“Eight weeks. Two months, it’s not that long. Besides; he’s a guy, he’ll be adjusting until ‘Blobby’ graduates from university, then he’ll need to adjust to the fact that ‘Blobby’ doesn’t need him anymore,” Gwen laughed at her friend’s disgusted tone at Arthur preposterous nickname, “That’s more like it. You’re just hormonal.”
“It’s a crap excuse,” She leant back against the bench wood, heaving a sigh.
“But if you use it to Arthur he can’t complain. Wield your attributes, lies or not,” Morgana ordered, “Now go give him a cuddle before he goes plutonic and starts giving me all the gross things. Okay?”
“Okay,” Gwen agreed. They stood together heading back into the building, “Can’t I let him stew for a bit?”
“Oh of course, in fact I demand it. But only for a bit. I don’t want the gross things.”
-
In a lull in the amount of patients admitted to the department, Arthur stood with his phone in his hand looking at his father’s number. He tapped the top of his pen on the reception desk thumb hovering over the call button.
“You know you actually have to press buttons to make it work,” Gwen suggested, a small smile on her face. Her shift was over for the day and she’d left Arthur stewing all day. He put the phone down again and put his hands into the pockets of his white doctor’s coat, “I’m sorry I snapped.”
“It’s okay. I should have said something to Sophia in there-“
“Arthur, don’t worry about it okay,” she reached her hand out and rested it on his arm. He took his hand out of his pocket, moving his hand so he could trace the backs his fingers over her knuckles. She twisted her hand and interlocked her digits with his.
“I just don’t like arguing with you.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just, at the end of the day, this is my job. If I don’t have this, I don’t have much.”
“You have me.”
“And I have the baby, but I don’t want that to be the only thing that defines me as a person. I love you, but I just need something right now that I can work for. More than a personal level. I’m nothing special, I’m a nurse, I just want to do my bit to help other people and I can’t do that if people stop me.”
Slowly he nodded, “I’ll talk to them.”
“Just because I’m ‘puffy’ doesn’t mean I can’t do my job.”
“I never said puffy.”
“Yes you did,” Merlin interjected, filing away a chart and sitting down behind the desk, “I distinctly remember puffy leaving your lips.”
“Thanks, Merlin. You’re a gem.”
“Have you actually pressed call yet, or are you still staring at it?” Merlin asked him, having seen his friend stood staring at the device fifteen minutes before.
“Who are you calling anyway?” Gwen asked him. She had a feeling who it would be. Arthur wasn’t a person who suffered from confidence issues. At least not often.
Merlin formed his hands into faux claws in front of his chests and growled. Gwen raied an eyebrow at him, slowly shaking her head trying to figure him out. He moved his hand to flap beside his shoulders; “The Dragon!”
“Now?” Gwen looked from her scruffy haired friend to Arthur.
“I was gunna get him to come over, or, you know, arrange a meeting,” Arthur said, trying to keep it light hearted and failing.
“Bit formal isn’t it?” Gwen stated, amused at the thought of needing to book himself in to see a man who was otherwise absent in his life.
“Yeah, but this is my father, all work, no play.”
“Make the Dragon a dull boy…”
“Yes, thank you, Merlin,” he pressed the green call button. He held the phone to his ear and waited for it to start ringing.
“I don’t know what the big deal is,” Merlin continued loudly. The call was directed to voicemail straight away, Uther on another call. The message played out, the tone beeping, “All you’ve got to do is point him in the direction of the board.”
“Hi Dad, it’s Arthur. Just wanted to-“
“Et volia, ‘Hey Dad, my girlfriend is pregnant.’” Gwen’s jaw dropped; her eyes wide in shock. Arthur stopped in his tracks, silent; he hung up quickly. Merlin looked between them, “What?”
“We have to intercept that message. Now.”
The lift doors opened, the Assistant Head of Medicine and Chief of Staff, Gaius Castle, and Dr Pendragon Senior exited. Uther hanging up on whomever he had been speaking to before. He tapped a few more buttons and held the device back to his ear, frowning at the pre-message drivel the phone company provided.
“Oh fuck,” the expletive escaped the young trio’s lips. Gwen looked up at Arthur the blonde’s eyes fixed on his father.
“Go,” he ordered, “Find a chart, refill something, do anything. I’ll deal with this,” Gwen didn’t need telling twice and she ran, grabbing the nearest chart and headed to the exam room down the hall.
’Hi Dad, it’s Arthur,’ Uther spotted his son and hung up, “Arthur? You called?” he looked at his son, knowing the lad wouldn’t waste his time with a trivial thing. He watched as his son did the perfect impression of a goldfish and Morgana’s boyfriend slipped away sheepishly. Gaius watched the boy leave, a question in his eyes. He’d known his family for a long time and he knew when he was acting shiftily.
Uther noticed a new sign on the whiteboard behind where the male nurse had been sitting, blocking it from his view originally. He read the caption that he could see before he focused on the picture he recognised as a sonogram image.
Arthur followed his father’s gaze over his shoulder and cringed, his eyes shutting fearing the oncoming storm.
“Arthur?”
Gaius raised an eyebrow at the notice, “Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” Arthur said weakly, looking at his hands. Gaius bowed his head and moved away, leaving the grandparent with the father, “I was going to tell you.”
“Tell me what exactly, Arthur? I wasn’t aware you were seeing anyone,” the elder man said sternly, his jaw clenched. He leant his fisted hands onto the desk.
“You’ve met her, she’s a nurse here, Guinevere.”
“Morgana’s little school friend?” Uther asked. Arthur nodded looking his father in the eye. He looked away again, spotting Gwen out of the corner of his vision.
“Are you okay?” she mouthed as she wrapped a bandage around the patient’s wrist. The slight nod of the head Arthur sent in her direction didn’t go unnoticed by Uther whose head snapped around to glare at the recipient. Gwen held the man’s gaze for a second until she purposefully blinked and she looked back to her work.
His eyes trailed to her midriff. Even under the baggy scrub top she was wearing he could see it, “And when exactly were you planning on telling me?” Uther asked, turning his attention back to his son with an expectant look on his face.
Arthur held up his phone lamely, “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Judging by the looks of her that sonogram is fairing on recent. It’s taken you how long to tell me?” his voice was verging on too loud now, patients and staff alike were starting to stare.
“Can we not do this here?” Arthur pleaded, for his own good and the people surrounding him. If it turned ugly they didn’t need to see this.
“I think now is a good a time as any, Arthur.”
“It’s not always about what you think,” his son retorted, pocketing his mobile. He reached into the pile of started charts, picked up a selection and walked off. He was better than that, “This is your fault,” he muttered to Merlin as his passed him.
“Mine?” he exclaimed, “You’re the one who didn’t tell him.”
“Shut up Merlin.”
| Part Six |
Authors: mydoctortennant
Pairings: Arthur/Gwen, Merlin/Morgana
Warnings: None for this chapter.
Disclaimer: Not real. Despite birthday wishes and night time prayers to Santa (all Hail Amy Pond!) Merlin still isn't mine!
Rating: And with this chaper it jumps up to MA-15
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 suggesting Costa should sponser me for mentioning it so much XD) and purely_distel for the name =]
My Merlin Prompts Table
| Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Part Five
The shift was busy, enough so to keep one occupied but not enough that the nurses wore themselves into the ground and the doctors didn’t accidentally kill patients. “Blobby looks like a boy,” Arthur said having found the time to study the picture as he stood behind the reception.
“I thought he looked like a she actually,” Merlin commented spinning around in the office chair having been admitting new comers and sending them down to the waiting area. The queue had finally stopped after a steady flow and it looked as if it was finally going to head.
“He does not.”
“I was going to say girl,” Morgana said as she passed dropping off one chart and taking the next without checking the ailment. She walked over to the waiting room, “Alexa Dury?” she called, a small woman with a baby looking up and standing, “What’s the problem, Mam?”
“I think she has a temperature, and she’s not sleeping well,” the worried mother said as Morgana lead her towards a curtain to continue her examination.
“Do you ever think about what if your kid gets the slightest cough you and Gwen would like freak out?”
“Merlin, we’re professionals in the medical career, I think we could tell when it was serious,” Arthur replied, moving away from the whiteboard. He raised an eyebrow at Merlin who shrugged at him.
“It’s always different when it’s your kid though, isn’t it?”
“Is there something you and Morgana aren’t telling us?” Arthur asked with an amused smirk on his face.
“No. I’m just saying.”
“Well go just say whilst doing some work, looks like Morgana might need you,” Arthur shoved Merlin up out of the seat, forcing the nurse away from the reception desk.
The radio crackled to life, “Car crash involving two vehicles at high speeds, we’ve got two critical and a minor, can you take them?”
Arthur picked up the microphone, clicking the live button, “Albion Hospital, we can take all patients,” he confirmed.
“We are four minutes out.”
Arthur leapt into action, heading down the wide hospital corridor down towards the trauma rooms. He quickly counted out four trauma gowns, before he started calling out for the others, “Leon! Grab William and Percy. We’ve got a double trauma on the way in,” He handed him three of the gowns and prepared himself with the other. Merlin emerged from the curtain with Morgana. They left the woman with the baby, swabs in hand to send to the lab.
“They should be back within the hour. I’m sorry for the wait; they’ll be as fast as they can,” Morgana assured the worried mother.
“Morgana, set up for trauma, we’re going to need you in there.”
“Okay, I’ll find Val and Sophia. Where’s Gwen?”
“Break room,” Arthur replied, heading out into the ambulance bay. Morgana poked her head into the Doctor’s Lounge as she went on her way to find the other nurses.
“Trauma rolling in, we’re going to need you, hun.”
Gwen abandoned her stale coffee and put down the magazine she’d been reading that was six months out of date, “On my way.”
-
“Head on collision, two cars. A driver and a passenger in critical condition, other driver is shaky with a head contusion and minor concussion, other wise fine.”
“Okay, Morgana, Leon; take the driver. William with me and the passenger. Percy can you take the other driver,” Arthur reeled off. The ambulance crew started listing vitals and injuries to both parties as they hurriedly made their way through the hospital into the traumas rooms.
Sophia and Valerie had split themselves between the two trauma rooms, Merlin and Gwen at the gurney sides.
“On my count. One. Two. Three.” The doctor’s hefted the passenger onto the trauma bed, the gurney discarded to the side whilst they worked.
“We’re going to need an airway,” Arthur ordered, checking the patient’s pupil responses. William collected the tube from the store, ripping it from the package and readying himself to insert the tube into the airway.
He prised the metal open, placing it in the male’s mouth, one end on the tongue whilst he guided the tube through the chords and into the airway, “I’m in,” he said. Gwen attached the bag to the end of it and started to pump.
-
They worked on the passenger for twenty minutes, internal bleeding found, a collapsed lung and a chest tube later and they were still no where near close enough to saving them.
The machine beeped, “Get the crash cart!” Arthur called, “Start compressions.”
The bag had since been passed to Sophia. Gwen sorting tubes and injections and now stepping up on the side of the table to start CPR. Push. Push. Push. Push.
“Charging 200,” William announced rubbing the components together as another nurse placed the gels on the patients chest, “Clear!”
Gwen stepped off of the frame of the bed and stepped back with everybody else. The shock went through the man’s body, jolting it, but no rhythm. Gwen stepped back up to the body and starting compressions again.
The repeated the process a number of times increasing the charge with no prevail. Sophia turned to Gwen, “Swap out,” she said. Gwen frowned.
“I’m fine. Keep going.”
“Swap out,” Sophia repeated. Gwen looked to Arthur who nodded, “Okay go.” They swapped positions, Sophia gradually taking over compressions. The other nurse had taken the bag leaving Gwen standing, “You shouldn’t be doing compressions in your condition.”
Gwen couldn’t help her jaw from dropping. She bit back the need to fight her corner and looked around, “If I’m no longer needed I’ll go and deal with patients I can deal with in my condition,” she left, shedding herself of gloves and trauma scrub and depositing it in the bin on her way out.
“Charging 360,” William said again, looking over to the door before continuing with his work, “Clear!” he shocked the man again after Sophia had stepped back. No good.
“Call it,” Arthur ordered.
“Time of death, twnety twenty seven. Is she okay?” William asked setting the paddles back on the cart. Arthur shrugged, tugging his yellow scrub from his chest and following Gwen’s lead.
He found her in the lounge as he’d assumed he would. She wouldn’t go onto the department floor in a bad mood, she’d defuse first. Stop the explosion from happening at a time that she deemed inappropriate.
“Gwen?” he broached tentatively.
“Fat lot of good you were,” she snapped throwing her mobile back into her locker and slamming the metal door shut.
“What did I do?”
“Fuck all! That’s the point! I might be pregnant, Arthur, but I’m not a fucking invalid!”
“Sophia was just looking out for you.”
“By not letting me do my job?” she shouted shrilly, “I might as well not be here at all if I can’t do that. As far as I was aware I don’t have to stop working for at least another three months at most. So tell me why I’m so fucking incapable now!”
“She didn’t say-“
“But it’s what she meant. I’m not so porcelain doll that needs wrapping in cotton wool, Arthur!”
“I know. I’m sorry,” he stepped forwards, instinctively reaching out a hand to hug her.
“Touch me, and you’ll be the invalid.”
He raised both hands away from her, taking a step back, “Okay, Gwen, I’m sorry. They’re just looking out for you.”
“I don’t need people looking out for me, Arthur, I’m more than capable of taking care of myself! I don’t need a knight in shining armour!” she pushed past him, storming out of the door and back onto the floor. Her anger vented into Arthur for the most part.
Dazed, Arthur left the break room heading back into the other trauma room to check on the driver.
“Morgana, report?”
“Tubed, chest tube, re-inflated lung. And,” she kicked off the brake, “Off to surgery.”
“Good. Can I talk to you?” Merlin took one look at Arthur and followed on with the gurney knowing the look on his face.
“Sure,” she ridden herself of the blood covered gloves and trauma scrubs, throwing them into the bio bin and heading out, “I saw the other guy didn’t make it.”
“Too much internal bleeding compressing everything else. He bled out faster than we could put it in him.”
“And Gwen? Where did she go?”
“Off on one, apparently,” he cringed, scratching the back of his head.
“Arthur?” he opened a door to an empty exam room and shut it behind the pair of them, “What’s wrong?” Morgana’s brow knitted, studying her step-brother’s face.
“Can you talk to her?” He asked, fearing that he would only piss Gwen off more by trying to talk to her at present.
“About what?”
“Sophia made her swap out of compressions and implied that she didn’t think Gwen should be doing compressions, and Gwen took it pretty heavy. Thinks that I think she incapable.”
“Did you tell her otherwise?” her forehead creased, raising her eyebrows at him in question of his actions.
“I tried!” he said pathetically, voice going higher than natural.
“Not hard enough, Arthur,” Morgana soothed, through her amused smile, “I’ll talk to her, but if she throws things at you tonight you bought it on yourself.”
“Okay, thank you, Morgana,” he smiled at her, giving her a quick hug. She patted him on the back patronisingly.
“What else are sister’s for, if not sorting out your mistakes?” Morgana chimed, smiling at her step-brother sympathetically.
“It wasn’t my fault!” he folded his arms defensively, a pout on his face.
“It’s your fault she’s pregnant, therefore any repercussions of that are automatically your fault too. Deal with it Daddio, you’ve got eighteen years of problems being pinned on you and there is no way out of it,” she patted his folded arms and left him to go and find Gwen.
Eighteen years of this? God he hoped Blobby was a boy. He’d need the extra support.
-
Morgana found Gwen sat on a bench in the Ambulance bay. She watched her for a moment, she had her arms wrapped protectively over her stomach and was seemingly talking to herself. On closer inspection Gwen was chatting away to the life growing inside her; “He’s just a massive prat who needs everything explained to him in plain English for him to understand it. Uncle Merlin calls it ‘Pratish’. Though I wouldn’t repeat that around me or your Daddy. Say it to Uncle Merlin, maybe Aunty Morgana, they’ll find it funny.”
“I would,” Gwen looked up at her; she still looked annoyed but allowed Morgana to take a seat next to her, “What did his pratness do?”
Gwen sighed, “Nothing. He just,” she let out a frustrated groan and mimed strangling the air in front of her. Morgana laughed, “I’m fed up of people treating me differently because of the baby.”
“People are just trying to be nice,” Morgana stated, knowing it wouldn’t be what Gwen wanted to hear.
“I wish they wouldn’t!” Gwen admitted, shifting on the bench to face Morgana, “I can still do my job, if I couldn’t the doctors would tell me so; so far they haven’t.”
“Arthur’s worried about you. Thinks that you’re mad at him.”
“I am.”
“No you’re not,” Morgana smiled pulling her best friend into an awkward hug, “You love him. He loves you. He’s supposed to piss you off occasionally.”
“I’m not an invalid; I don’t need people mollycoddling me,” she said into her friend’s ear, arms tightly around her friend.
“He just worries about you, hun. He’s still adjusting.”
“It’s been two months.”
“Eight weeks. Two months, it’s not that long. Besides; he’s a guy, he’ll be adjusting until ‘Blobby’ graduates from university, then he’ll need to adjust to the fact that ‘Blobby’ doesn’t need him anymore,” Gwen laughed at her friend’s disgusted tone at Arthur preposterous nickname, “That’s more like it. You’re just hormonal.”
“It’s a crap excuse,” She leant back against the bench wood, heaving a sigh.
“But if you use it to Arthur he can’t complain. Wield your attributes, lies or not,” Morgana ordered, “Now go give him a cuddle before he goes plutonic and starts giving me all the gross things. Okay?”
“Okay,” Gwen agreed. They stood together heading back into the building, “Can’t I let him stew for a bit?”
“Oh of course, in fact I demand it. But only for a bit. I don’t want the gross things.”
-
In a lull in the amount of patients admitted to the department, Arthur stood with his phone in his hand looking at his father’s number. He tapped the top of his pen on the reception desk thumb hovering over the call button.
“You know you actually have to press buttons to make it work,” Gwen suggested, a small smile on her face. Her shift was over for the day and she’d left Arthur stewing all day. He put the phone down again and put his hands into the pockets of his white doctor’s coat, “I’m sorry I snapped.”
“It’s okay. I should have said something to Sophia in there-“
“Arthur, don’t worry about it okay,” she reached her hand out and rested it on his arm. He took his hand out of his pocket, moving his hand so he could trace the backs his fingers over her knuckles. She twisted her hand and interlocked her digits with his.
“I just don’t like arguing with you.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just, at the end of the day, this is my job. If I don’t have this, I don’t have much.”
“You have me.”
“And I have the baby, but I don’t want that to be the only thing that defines me as a person. I love you, but I just need something right now that I can work for. More than a personal level. I’m nothing special, I’m a nurse, I just want to do my bit to help other people and I can’t do that if people stop me.”
Slowly he nodded, “I’ll talk to them.”
“Just because I’m ‘puffy’ doesn’t mean I can’t do my job.”
“I never said puffy.”
“Yes you did,” Merlin interjected, filing away a chart and sitting down behind the desk, “I distinctly remember puffy leaving your lips.”
“Thanks, Merlin. You’re a gem.”
“Have you actually pressed call yet, or are you still staring at it?” Merlin asked him, having seen his friend stood staring at the device fifteen minutes before.
“Who are you calling anyway?” Gwen asked him. She had a feeling who it would be. Arthur wasn’t a person who suffered from confidence issues. At least not often.
Merlin formed his hands into faux claws in front of his chests and growled. Gwen raied an eyebrow at him, slowly shaking her head trying to figure him out. He moved his hand to flap beside his shoulders; “The Dragon!”
“Now?” Gwen looked from her scruffy haired friend to Arthur.
“I was gunna get him to come over, or, you know, arrange a meeting,” Arthur said, trying to keep it light hearted and failing.
“Bit formal isn’t it?” Gwen stated, amused at the thought of needing to book himself in to see a man who was otherwise absent in his life.
“Yeah, but this is my father, all work, no play.”
“Make the Dragon a dull boy…”
“Yes, thank you, Merlin,” he pressed the green call button. He held the phone to his ear and waited for it to start ringing.
“I don’t know what the big deal is,” Merlin continued loudly. The call was directed to voicemail straight away, Uther on another call. The message played out, the tone beeping, “All you’ve got to do is point him in the direction of the board.”
“Hi Dad, it’s Arthur. Just wanted to-“
“Et volia, ‘Hey Dad, my girlfriend is pregnant.’” Gwen’s jaw dropped; her eyes wide in shock. Arthur stopped in his tracks, silent; he hung up quickly. Merlin looked between them, “What?”
“We have to intercept that message. Now.”
The lift doors opened, the Assistant Head of Medicine and Chief of Staff, Gaius Castle, and Dr Pendragon Senior exited. Uther hanging up on whomever he had been speaking to before. He tapped a few more buttons and held the device back to his ear, frowning at the pre-message drivel the phone company provided.
“Oh fuck,” the expletive escaped the young trio’s lips. Gwen looked up at Arthur the blonde’s eyes fixed on his father.
“Go,” he ordered, “Find a chart, refill something, do anything. I’ll deal with this,” Gwen didn’t need telling twice and she ran, grabbing the nearest chart and headed to the exam room down the hall.
’Hi Dad, it’s Arthur,’ Uther spotted his son and hung up, “Arthur? You called?” he looked at his son, knowing the lad wouldn’t waste his time with a trivial thing. He watched as his son did the perfect impression of a goldfish and Morgana’s boyfriend slipped away sheepishly. Gaius watched the boy leave, a question in his eyes. He’d known his family for a long time and he knew when he was acting shiftily.
Uther noticed a new sign on the whiteboard behind where the male nurse had been sitting, blocking it from his view originally. He read the caption that he could see before he focused on the picture he recognised as a sonogram image.
Arthur followed his father’s gaze over his shoulder and cringed, his eyes shutting fearing the oncoming storm.
“Arthur?”
Gaius raised an eyebrow at the notice, “Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” Arthur said weakly, looking at his hands. Gaius bowed his head and moved away, leaving the grandparent with the father, “I was going to tell you.”
“Tell me what exactly, Arthur? I wasn’t aware you were seeing anyone,” the elder man said sternly, his jaw clenched. He leant his fisted hands onto the desk.
“You’ve met her, she’s a nurse here, Guinevere.”
“Morgana’s little school friend?” Uther asked. Arthur nodded looking his father in the eye. He looked away again, spotting Gwen out of the corner of his vision.
“Are you okay?” she mouthed as she wrapped a bandage around the patient’s wrist. The slight nod of the head Arthur sent in her direction didn’t go unnoticed by Uther whose head snapped around to glare at the recipient. Gwen held the man’s gaze for a second until she purposefully blinked and she looked back to her work.
His eyes trailed to her midriff. Even under the baggy scrub top she was wearing he could see it, “And when exactly were you planning on telling me?” Uther asked, turning his attention back to his son with an expectant look on his face.
Arthur held up his phone lamely, “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Judging by the looks of her that sonogram is fairing on recent. It’s taken you how long to tell me?” his voice was verging on too loud now, patients and staff alike were starting to stare.
“Can we not do this here?” Arthur pleaded, for his own good and the people surrounding him. If it turned ugly they didn’t need to see this.
“I think now is a good a time as any, Arthur.”
“It’s not always about what you think,” his son retorted, pocketing his mobile. He reached into the pile of started charts, picked up a selection and walked off. He was better than that, “This is your fault,” he muttered to Merlin as his passed him.
“Mine?” he exclaimed, “You’re the one who didn’t tell him.”
“Shut up Merlin.”
| Part Six |