No Emergency Exit; Merlin Modern AU
Title: No Emergency Exit (11/21)
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: Previous chapters make it NC17
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 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Part Eleven
Doctor Morgana Le Fey stood watching her step-brother and best friend arguing at the admit desk. They’d been at it now for the last five minutes. It was totally inane. At twenty-two weeks you’d have thought they may have started a shortlist of names for their unborn child; but Morgana (and the rest of the Emergency Department), had soon learnt that as a couple they preferred to keep it complicated.
Arthur had had his turn and now it was Gwen who was spouting random names at him for him to shoot down like an enemy aircraft; “How about Lilah?” she suggested.
“No,” Arthur said for the fifth time in a row.
"Tegan?"
"No."
"Ashley?"
"No."
"Ruby?"
"No."
"Sarah?"
"Too common."
"Bella?"
Arthur groaned as if he were in horrible pain and Gwen swatted at him.
"Isabella?"
"No."
“Rosalie?” Morgana stuck her nose up at that one, not that they were paying enough attention of her to notice.
“No,” oh thank God, Morgana thought to her herself as she enjoyed watching the show.
“Victoria? Tori!” Gwen said as if it were the best idea she’d had in her lifetime.
“No,” it was a shame, Tori Pendragon didn’t sound that bad in Morgana’s mind. Didn’t quite work with Emrys. Not that she was looking that far ahead. She never had before; she wasn’t going to start now. Besides, she didn’t want a kid just because her brat of a brother was having one. She’d get there was she was good and ready (and when Merlin suggested it first.)
“Susannah?”
“No.”
“Katie,” Traditionalish, pretty, I approve. Morgana thought smiling to herself.
“No,” Or not, Morgana huffed ignoring the poking that was happening to her left shoulder. She could hear Merlin talking to her but she wanted to know what her idiot brother was turning down and had tuned him out after a lot of practise.
“Louisa.”
“No.”
"Fine. I give up. You know we might have to take Merlin up on his suggestion box idea," Gwen declared handing Arthur the chart for Mrs Peters in curtain three, “She demanded to see ‘The Doctor with the nice hands and the pretty eyes’, but I suppose you'll do.”
“It’s like watching sport,” Morgana mused and finally turned her attention to Merlin.
“What is?” Merlin asked looking non-the-wiser to the situation.
“Oh never mind,” Morgana took the chart he had been attempting to hand her for the last minute, along with the other two he currently held in his possession.
-
In the summer heat, the two medic adults sat in the setting sunlight with the small balcony doors opened. A light breeze filtered through the Kensington apartment, cool enough to allow the residents to be curled under a thin sheet on the plush sofa.
“Laura?” the male suggested, eyes closed, his voice distant in his exhaustion.
“Noooo,” Gwen drew out, cuddled into her partner’s safe embrace.
“Jacqueline?” Arthur threw out, trying to remember Morgana’s bookcase as a child.
“No.”
“Jane?” so far so bad; none of Morgana’s books were helping him so far.
“No traditional names,” Arthur sighed; having exhausted the bookcase, he imagined the overly large video and DVD collection the pair of them had unsuccessfully shared as children, trying to pluck any number of names from thin air.
“Fine. Jasmine?” he said, mentioning the lead female of his favourite Disney film.
“No.”
“Tiana,” which was Morgana’s of late. She said something about Tiana reminding her very much of Gwen in her attitude and personality and - for once - Arthur had been inclined to agree with her.
“No,” that rejection was a shame to Arthur. He rather liked the name, but he could see why she’d said it.
“Ariel?” he said with a smile on his lips as the last of the summer sun bathed their faces in it’s dying light.
“No Disney names,” Gwen laughed slapping her hand down on Arthur’s chest with no more than a soft thud.
“Lois?”
“Mention Clark and I’ll make it impossible for you to have any more children, savvy?” Gwen opened her eyes and looked up to scour Arthur’s serene face. She ran her hand down his chest and over his stomach before he stopped her hand. He knew fully well that she didn’t intend for him to get any pleasure from her touch had her hand reached its destination.
“Kal-el?” he yelped as Gwen jabbed him in the side sharply.
“Or kryptonian names.”
“I’m impressed,” she poked him again, “Okay, okay; Hayley?” he suggested, not really thinking the name the one for them, but it had been the first one he had thought of without any stimulus.
“Better.”
-
“Hazel?” Gwen stopped chopping the onion and looked up at him with a thoughtful expression on his face. She waved the knife in her hand around as she did so before she decided.
“Mmm, no,” she went back to cutting up the root vegetable, a skill so practised that her eyes no longer watered.
“Eliza?”
“No,” point blank. The only Eliza Gwen had ever known had been her primary school bully. Not a particularly pleasant girl and not one Gwen would want to honour in the name of her child.
“Willow?” Gwen looked up to see a small contemplative smile on Gwen’s face and she was all to aware exactly which namesake he was thinking of. She threw a piece of chopped pepper across the room at him; missing him by a mile but making him look at her instead.
“Not bad,” the tone in her voice was enough to make him stand up and pretend that he could help her prepare their dinner without killing them both. He looked down at his mobile and searched the screen for another name he hadn’t tried already.
“Aria?”
“Where the hell are you getting these names from?”
“Internet,” Arthur stated waving his Blackberry at her. She couldn’t help but laugh.
“No,” she replied after considering the name for a second. She presented him with a small tub of mushrooms and another chopping knife. Surely even Arthur couldn’t bodge this up?
“What do I do?” Arthur asked. Gwen mocked him, wordlessly chopping the mushroom into thick slices with her own knife. He smiled, embarrassed. He placed his phone down on the counter having exited the internet in favour of helping, “What about boys?”
“David?”
“No,” he said without even thinking about it. Everybody might know a ‘Dave’ but he sure as hell wasn’t naming any child of his after the television channel or the builder who lived three floors up.
“Daniel?”
“No.”
“Ewan,” she threw out there with the intent to do so until Arthur accepted it.
“Is this just so you can think about McGregor on a daily basis?” Arthur asked halting his chopping chore to scrutinize her.
“No,” she replied guiltily, “It’s a nice name!”
“Fine,” he replied, still suspicious of her intentions, “maybe.”
“Alex?”
“Lexie!”
Gwen looked up, that hadn’t been the expected response. If anything she’d expected another ‘maybe’.
“What?”
“For a girl: Alexandria,” Arthur said, loving the idea of the name for his little girl. It would suit her from the day she was born until the day she was old and wrinkled, “Lexie.”
“I like it,” she nodded. One argument was moderately over; now for the battle for a middle name.
“Yeah, me too,” he leant over and kissed her chastely on the lips, a smile on his face when he turned his attention back to the mushrooms in front of him. He frowned at them, why could he not be gifted with the talent of cooking?
-
“Patients start here,” Sophia introduced, gesturing to the admit desk and waiting area, “You sign them in and start working through them in order of arrival. If it’s more urgent - say they’re losing a vast amount of blood - let them through. Find them a bed and get them seen.”
Sophia continued to run through protocol with a new, younger, blonder, brighter looking nurse.
“Ah, this is Gwen, she’s been here a couple of years now, longer than most of us, actually. You could learn a lot from her,” not used to receiving a compliment from Sophia Gwen smiled and accepted it, giving a short wave to the other nurse.
“Who’s he?” Vivian asked pointing behind Gwen. She followed her finger over her shoulder to Arthur and smirked. He was talking to an old lady about the solution to her allergy to her new kitten.
“That’s Arthur Pendragon. He’s in charge of the department,” Gwen answered, with her hands resting on her lower back.
“Are there any rules about doctors and nurses?”
“No,” Sophia admitted, “But there are against men cheating on their pregnant girlfriends and girlfriends in general,” she added nodding towards Gwen. Vivian looked positively abashed by the news. The look on her face reading ‘her?!’ better than any expletive comment. Gwen smiled and waved her fingers at her. She tried not to laugh at the smile on Sophia’s face, “Anyway,” Sophia led the new girl away from admit. She looked back over her shoulder and mouthed an apology to Gwen.
Gwen just laughed, “Who was that?” She looked up to see Arthur now finished with the old lady who was now waiting on her prescription that he had promised her.
“New nurse. Likes the look of you.”
“Really? Maybe I should see how many of the nurses I can pull,” he started to walk away from the desk after the pair of retreating nurses. Gwen grabbed his hand as he did, pulling him back around to face her, “Or I could just stay here.”
“Mhmm,” she nodded with a smirk on her face. He kissed her briefly on the lips.
“How are you?”
“I’m fine and Ewan is well, moving around a bit, but fine,” Arthur shook his head with a smile.
“No.”
“Oh, come on, it’s a good name!” Gwen protested a pout on her face.
“No, don’t pull that look on me. I’m helpless to that look.”
“That’s meant to make me stop?”
-
“Okay. So, boys?” Merlin asked, as they sat around a too small table in a tucked away corner of their local pub. It was a quiet Thursday night with only the darts game in the corner making more than a little noise.
“Ray?” Morgana asked. Gwen shot her a look; there was no way she was naming this child after some punk rocker doctor that her best friend wished existed.
“No,” Arthur concluded taking a swig from his pint.
“Noah?”
“No,” Gwen refused. Morgana sighed, there was her suggestions out of the window. She had tried reinstating ‘Katie’ into the mix earlier only to be told they had a girl’s name and they weren’t changing their minds. If only to save more arguments.
“Arthur!” Arthur asked gleefully only to be greeted by a stony glare from his partner, “I’ll take that as a no?”
“No way, honey, not a chance,” she patronizingly patted him on the arm, taking her drink into her hand as the waitress appeared with their food in her hands. She dished it out to the appropriate people and disappeared again to retrieve the remainder of the meals.
“Gareth?” Merlin suggested as he sat without a plate in front of him. He didn’t even long for the meat filled plates his friends had, preferring a vegetarian pasta dish
“No,” both parents denied together as they unwrapped their cutlery. Arthur swiped the mushrooms from Gwen’s plate and dished over the black pudding from his. Gwen pointed at her plate frantically with her fork. Arthur looked to see he’d missed one offending mushroom and stabbed it harshly.
“Paul?” Morgana said looking at the shorter barman behind the bar, he was always happy and a little bit over-jolly, it would be a good personality to live up to.
“Meh,” Gwen managed through her mouthful.
“Martin?” Merlin added playing the same game as Morgana only he was looking at usually taller, seated barman. He had an order pad in his hand and a pen in the other as he poked fun at the shorter male.
“No,” though a thoroughly pleasant guy, she didn’t want ‘Marty’ as her eldest heir and the one who would be choosing her nursing home in fifty years.
“Matthew?” Morgana said as the waitress gave her and Merlin their food, “Cheers.”
“Matty?” Arthur suggested to Gwen, she looked back at him, trying to see herself calling their child that name for the rest of their lives.
“Yeah?” she agreed slowly.
“No,” Merlin shook his head stuffing a hot chip into his mouth without complaining that it was too hot and shaking his hand in front of his mouth as if it would actually do anything to remotely help.
“No,” Morgana agreed, this was her nephew, or niece, they were talking about, “Urm-”
-
The department was quiet, dead one could say, so Arthur decided he’d take the opportunity to escape the cold confines of the deserted emergency department and go across the street with Gwen to grab a coffee and have a break.
“I still like Ewan,” she stated as they stood waiting for their order to come. The night staff were particularly sluggish in this place. Gwen could never understand the point of having a twenty-four hour store, but she wasn’t going to complain when she got to have hot chocolate at four in the morning.
“You would,” Arthur responded, his arm around her waist. He prodded her in the side
“Drew?” Not quite traditional but with a ‘nice strong name’ that would please Uther.
“Too Neighbours.”
Gwen snorted a laugh, “You watched Neighbours?”
“You didn’t?” it had been a pivotal part of his childhood and student days. Whenever they’d hung out in the SU after lectures Neighbours had been on and back when he was a kid it had been on before The Simpsons and after Blue Peter so he might as well watch it.
“Dylan?” He looked at her, wondering if she knew she’d chosen another character name from the Australian soap. The smirk on her face told him likewise.
“No.”
“Ewan,” she said for the fifth time and smiled at the barista behind the counter presented them with their drinks. She coyly looked over her hot chocolate up at him, smirk on her face.
Arthur thanked the lady for his double shot riddled coffee. She returned to looking bored. Arthur handed her a couple of loose pound coins he had in his pocket, “Get one on us, okay?”
“I hate coffee.”
“Then buy a pint,” Arthur offered with an amused smile and turned back to Gwen, “You’re never going to drop that are you?”
“No,” Gwen said opening the front door to the shop. The very early morning air hit them as they exited, strangely fresh for London and tinged with warmth. Soon the sun would be rising and they would be free to go home and sleep for the rest of the day after their shift had dragged of what felt like double the amount of time.
“What if I find a better name?” Arthur asked as they crossed the empty road.
“You won’t,” Gwen replied smugly, taking a swig from her fresh hot chocolate.
“I might.”
The whir of an ambulance siren sounded through the street. On rounding the corner of the Ambulance Bay the expecting couple could already see Leon and William in trauma gear ready to accept it.
“We got two on the way in,” Leon reported, “Motorcycle versus drunk,” Arthur handed his cup to Gwen and accepted the gown that Sophia handed his way.
“Gwen, suit up,” Arthur ordered.
She nodded and retreated into the hospital slowly enough to hear Sophia object, “She shouldn’t-“
Arthur’s reply was polite but firm, “She doesn’t need coddling, Sophia, she’s more than capable,” Gwen smiled to herself, relishing in the last swig of hot chocolate that she was going to get before it no doubt went cold during the trauma that was just rolling into the bay.
She placed the two cups behind the reception desk and headed to Trauma One. She found another nurse already waiting in the second trauma room. She pulled out a set of small rubber gloves and pulled them on. She readied herself for the oncoming slaughter and prepared to work on which ever victim came her way.
It was cases like this that she didn’t know who to feel more sorry for, the run over or the runner down, considering it wasn’t their fault the drunk had probably stepped into the road. Then again, one couldn’t judge the drunk until she knew the story. It was four in the morning on a Monday, nobody would be out at this time unless they needed to be.
Or worked at the hospital.
Gwen watched Arthur lead the motorcyclist into the next room, Sophia with him. She couldn’t help but think that it was a ploy to allow Gwen to get on with her job without the other nurse interfering. That paired with his want of not annoying Gwen to the nth degree.
“What have we got?” she asked Leon as he wheeled the drunk into the trauma room before her. She presented him with a pair of gloves and handed a pair to Viv. She had one of those annoyingly shiny personalities but she meant no harm; most of the time.
“Hit by a motorcycle, suspected broken pelvis and scapula, head trauma,” Leon tossed a wallet in Gwen’s direction. She opened it to find a driving licence; on which came a name and address.
“Fredrick Gilbert,” Gwen said, looking at the address, “I’ll call the admit desk, get whomever is there to track down family.”
“Hi, I need you to try and track down a family for one Fredrick Gilbert. He lives at 145 Wetherby Gardens, Kensington. By the looks of it he has a wife and small child, but the photo could be old,” Gwen reasoned. She saw the happy smiles on the three of their faces, and the ring on his ‘wife’s’ hand. Gwen knew better than assume that children meant married, “Thanks Catrina, can you patch them through when you get a hold of them. Thanks.”
-
They’d been working on him for thirty minutes before his wife had gotten there. In her arms she held a three year old girl who had fallen asleep against her shoulder.
“Vivian, could you show Mrs Gilbert to the family room, give her somewhere for the child to sleep. She shouldn’t be seeing this,” Leon ordered, the mother thanked him, adjusting her hold on her little girl and looking at the two nurses expectantly.
“Why not give her to Gwen?” the blonde nurse complained.
“What because she’s better with kids?” Leon asked sarcastically, knowing exactly the reason why.
“No because she’s pregnant,” Vivian shot back. Gwen rolled her eyes and continued to mill about collecting the equipment Leon needed along with making sure everything remained in order.
“And with that, you just earned the task for certain, can you take her to the family room, now,” Leon ordered, as Gwen prepared the stomach for the cut it needed. Surgery were on the way down but it he didn’t act now it could kill the man on the table, Surgery could bitch at him later when the guy was still alive.
-
His wife had returned pretty quickly, but in the time she had Surgery had made there way into the trauma room - finally - had complained at Leon, like he knew they would, and had deemed ‘Freddie’ stable enough to take upstairs.
“Nice work team,” Leon thanked, “I’d best go get Vivian to take the kid up. Sorry about her, Gwen.”
"She's young. She'll soon learn that experience trumps idiotism." Gwen smiled as Leon laughed.
He paused in the doorway and his eyes twinkled at her. "Have you ever considered the name Leon?"
"Happy with Gwen, thanks, besides how confusing would that be?"
Leon rolled his eyes, "I'll take that as a no."
They left the trauma room together and went their separate ways.
-
The carriage of the tube was oddly empty considering the time. People were usually on their way to work at this time in the morning so there was usually people already starting to cram onto the train.
It gave them the chance to sit down and relax on the short journey they had from the hospital to their home.
Gwen curled into Arthur side with a smile on her face. He had his fingers splayed against her midriff gently rubbing small circles over the soft fabric of her top.
“What about Bradley?
Gwen shook her head, “Kid in secondary school called Bradley used to follow me everywhere. It was kinda creepy.”
“But completely understandable.”
“It was really awkward, he was in all my classes and somehow all the teachers managed to seat him next to me or near me. I used to get notes. And on valentines they would do this ‘send a rose’ thing for charity. Every year from year nine to thirteen I got one from him without fail.”
“That’s sweet.”
“The poetry was creepy,” she said nuzzling into the crook of his neck as the train screeched.
They both winced; “Nice.”
“He was probably lovely, but he creeped me out too much.”
“Then you got the hunky boyfriend and he left you alone?” Arthur replied, hardly able to contain the bite in his tone.
“Hunky, really?”
“It’s a perfectly good word.”
“That you’re using in relation to my ex, and talk about living in the past.”
“I do not live in the past.”
“Of course not,” She rolled her eyes, “And no. He used to tell me how wrong for me Lance was. That he’d never love me the way he did.”
“Should have gotten a restraining order.”
“Why do you think the attentions stopped?” she said lifting her head from his shoulder to look at him the picture of seriousness.
“You’re joking,” Gwen tried her hardest to keep her expression stony but soon failed and laughed.
“Yeah. He tried to arrange to go to the same uni as me but didn’t get in. Thus his plans were thwarted.”
“But then you were single, he could have had his chance,” Arthur jibed with a cheeky smile on his face.
“You’re not funny.”
“Am so,” he prodded her in the side.
“You see how he treats me Ewan?” she asked her stomach and looked back at Arthur, “You should be grateful I didn’t submit. He probably would have never let me leave him and either killed me or locked me in a dungeon.”
“Well thank you for resisting his creepy charms. I certainly appreciate it,” he laughed as the train pulled into their stop and his assisted her from her seat, “Bed calls.”
-
“Looong night,” Arthur elongated as he pulled the keys from the door and let Gwen pass. The sun was streaming through the window, casting long sunny patches across the floor.
“At least nobody died,” Gwen reasoned dumping her bag on top of her shoes.
“There is that, but right now I just want to sleep,” he yawned disappearing into their bedroom, “You coming?”
“Be there in a minute,” she called out. She went to stand in the window, looking down over the street. She could see the bin men collecting the rubbish down the street. She saw Old Man Simmons from across the hall walking his cat along the pavement. She smiled, running her hands over her bump. “What do you think, baby, do you think Daddy should agree to Ewan, hmm?”
The baby kicked out, “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“That’s because you’re bias,” Gwen turned to see Arthur leaning against the bedroom door frame; he’d changed into his jogging bottoms and stood with his arms across his bare chest.
“The Baby agrees; what more can I say,” Arthur smiled and pushed off of the door frame and walked over to Gwen to crouch in front of her.
“What do you say, Blobby?” Arthur said placing a kiss to Gwen’s expanding waistline, “Is Ewan a good name?” Gwen took one of his hands and placed it over the repetitive moment.
“See?”
“That’s Blobby disagreeing with you. Looks like it’s a ‘no’ to Ewan,” Gwen frowned and tapped him upside the head.
Gwen linked her fingers behind his head, forcing him to look up at her. She took a small step back and bent at the hip to kiss him firmly on the lips, “Ewan stays,” she stated firmly, he laughed against her lips and pushed up, hands still about her waist.
“Okay,” he kissed her again. He looked out of the window behind her and saw Old Man Simmons and his cat, “Strange man,” he blinked it off and looked back to Gwen, “Now can we sleep?”
END NOTE: SO LIKE WOAH! That's half way... I've literally written everything apart from part 21 now... obviosuly it all needs editing and stuff but the basics is done. Eep. I'm stil interested to know whether you think Blobby will be a boy or girl over on my journal so tell me what you think (Already written it but it's just a bit of fun. Name suggestions are also welcome, just to know what you think really. Love to all =]
Next Part
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: Previous chapters make it NC17
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 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Part Eleven
Doctor Morgana Le Fey stood watching her step-brother and best friend arguing at the admit desk. They’d been at it now for the last five minutes. It was totally inane. At twenty-two weeks you’d have thought they may have started a shortlist of names for their unborn child; but Morgana (and the rest of the Emergency Department), had soon learnt that as a couple they preferred to keep it complicated.
Arthur had had his turn and now it was Gwen who was spouting random names at him for him to shoot down like an enemy aircraft; “How about Lilah?” she suggested.
“No,” Arthur said for the fifth time in a row.
"Tegan?"
"No."
"Ashley?"
"No."
"Ruby?"
"No."
"Sarah?"
"Too common."
"Bella?"
Arthur groaned as if he were in horrible pain and Gwen swatted at him.
"Isabella?"
"No."
“Rosalie?” Morgana stuck her nose up at that one, not that they were paying enough attention of her to notice.
“No,” oh thank God, Morgana thought to her herself as she enjoyed watching the show.
“Victoria? Tori!” Gwen said as if it were the best idea she’d had in her lifetime.
“No,” it was a shame, Tori Pendragon didn’t sound that bad in Morgana’s mind. Didn’t quite work with Emrys. Not that she was looking that far ahead. She never had before; she wasn’t going to start now. Besides, she didn’t want a kid just because her brat of a brother was having one. She’d get there was she was good and ready (and when Merlin suggested it first.)
“Susannah?”
“No.”
“Katie,” Traditionalish, pretty, I approve. Morgana thought smiling to herself.
“No,” Or not, Morgana huffed ignoring the poking that was happening to her left shoulder. She could hear Merlin talking to her but she wanted to know what her idiot brother was turning down and had tuned him out after a lot of practise.
“Louisa.”
“No.”
"Fine. I give up. You know we might have to take Merlin up on his suggestion box idea," Gwen declared handing Arthur the chart for Mrs Peters in curtain three, “She demanded to see ‘The Doctor with the nice hands and the pretty eyes’, but I suppose you'll do.”
“It’s like watching sport,” Morgana mused and finally turned her attention to Merlin.
“What is?” Merlin asked looking non-the-wiser to the situation.
“Oh never mind,” Morgana took the chart he had been attempting to hand her for the last minute, along with the other two he currently held in his possession.
-
In the summer heat, the two medic adults sat in the setting sunlight with the small balcony doors opened. A light breeze filtered through the Kensington apartment, cool enough to allow the residents to be curled under a thin sheet on the plush sofa.
“Laura?” the male suggested, eyes closed, his voice distant in his exhaustion.
“Noooo,” Gwen drew out, cuddled into her partner’s safe embrace.
“Jacqueline?” Arthur threw out, trying to remember Morgana’s bookcase as a child.
“No.”
“Jane?” so far so bad; none of Morgana’s books were helping him so far.
“No traditional names,” Arthur sighed; having exhausted the bookcase, he imagined the overly large video and DVD collection the pair of them had unsuccessfully shared as children, trying to pluck any number of names from thin air.
“Fine. Jasmine?” he said, mentioning the lead female of his favourite Disney film.
“No.”
“Tiana,” which was Morgana’s of late. She said something about Tiana reminding her very much of Gwen in her attitude and personality and - for once - Arthur had been inclined to agree with her.
“No,” that rejection was a shame to Arthur. He rather liked the name, but he could see why she’d said it.
“Ariel?” he said with a smile on his lips as the last of the summer sun bathed their faces in it’s dying light.
“No Disney names,” Gwen laughed slapping her hand down on Arthur’s chest with no more than a soft thud.
“Lois?”
“Mention Clark and I’ll make it impossible for you to have any more children, savvy?” Gwen opened her eyes and looked up to scour Arthur’s serene face. She ran her hand down his chest and over his stomach before he stopped her hand. He knew fully well that she didn’t intend for him to get any pleasure from her touch had her hand reached its destination.
“Kal-el?” he yelped as Gwen jabbed him in the side sharply.
“Or kryptonian names.”
“I’m impressed,” she poked him again, “Okay, okay; Hayley?” he suggested, not really thinking the name the one for them, but it had been the first one he had thought of without any stimulus.
“Better.”
-
“Hazel?” Gwen stopped chopping the onion and looked up at him with a thoughtful expression on his face. She waved the knife in her hand around as she did so before she decided.
“Mmm, no,” she went back to cutting up the root vegetable, a skill so practised that her eyes no longer watered.
“Eliza?”
“No,” point blank. The only Eliza Gwen had ever known had been her primary school bully. Not a particularly pleasant girl and not one Gwen would want to honour in the name of her child.
“Willow?” Gwen looked up to see a small contemplative smile on Gwen’s face and she was all to aware exactly which namesake he was thinking of. She threw a piece of chopped pepper across the room at him; missing him by a mile but making him look at her instead.
“Not bad,” the tone in her voice was enough to make him stand up and pretend that he could help her prepare their dinner without killing them both. He looked down at his mobile and searched the screen for another name he hadn’t tried already.
“Aria?”
“Where the hell are you getting these names from?”
“Internet,” Arthur stated waving his Blackberry at her. She couldn’t help but laugh.
“No,” she replied after considering the name for a second. She presented him with a small tub of mushrooms and another chopping knife. Surely even Arthur couldn’t bodge this up?
“What do I do?” Arthur asked. Gwen mocked him, wordlessly chopping the mushroom into thick slices with her own knife. He smiled, embarrassed. He placed his phone down on the counter having exited the internet in favour of helping, “What about boys?”
“David?”
“No,” he said without even thinking about it. Everybody might know a ‘Dave’ but he sure as hell wasn’t naming any child of his after the television channel or the builder who lived three floors up.
“Daniel?”
“No.”
“Ewan,” she threw out there with the intent to do so until Arthur accepted it.
“Is this just so you can think about McGregor on a daily basis?” Arthur asked halting his chopping chore to scrutinize her.
“No,” she replied guiltily, “It’s a nice name!”
“Fine,” he replied, still suspicious of her intentions, “maybe.”
“Alex?”
“Lexie!”
Gwen looked up, that hadn’t been the expected response. If anything she’d expected another ‘maybe’.
“What?”
“For a girl: Alexandria,” Arthur said, loving the idea of the name for his little girl. It would suit her from the day she was born until the day she was old and wrinkled, “Lexie.”
“I like it,” she nodded. One argument was moderately over; now for the battle for a middle name.
“Yeah, me too,” he leant over and kissed her chastely on the lips, a smile on his face when he turned his attention back to the mushrooms in front of him. He frowned at them, why could he not be gifted with the talent of cooking?
-
“Patients start here,” Sophia introduced, gesturing to the admit desk and waiting area, “You sign them in and start working through them in order of arrival. If it’s more urgent - say they’re losing a vast amount of blood - let them through. Find them a bed and get them seen.”
Sophia continued to run through protocol with a new, younger, blonder, brighter looking nurse.
“Ah, this is Gwen, she’s been here a couple of years now, longer than most of us, actually. You could learn a lot from her,” not used to receiving a compliment from Sophia Gwen smiled and accepted it, giving a short wave to the other nurse.
“Who’s he?” Vivian asked pointing behind Gwen. She followed her finger over her shoulder to Arthur and smirked. He was talking to an old lady about the solution to her allergy to her new kitten.
“That’s Arthur Pendragon. He’s in charge of the department,” Gwen answered, with her hands resting on her lower back.
“Are there any rules about doctors and nurses?”
“No,” Sophia admitted, “But there are against men cheating on their pregnant girlfriends and girlfriends in general,” she added nodding towards Gwen. Vivian looked positively abashed by the news. The look on her face reading ‘her?!’ better than any expletive comment. Gwen smiled and waved her fingers at her. She tried not to laugh at the smile on Sophia’s face, “Anyway,” Sophia led the new girl away from admit. She looked back over her shoulder and mouthed an apology to Gwen.
Gwen just laughed, “Who was that?” She looked up to see Arthur now finished with the old lady who was now waiting on her prescription that he had promised her.
“New nurse. Likes the look of you.”
“Really? Maybe I should see how many of the nurses I can pull,” he started to walk away from the desk after the pair of retreating nurses. Gwen grabbed his hand as he did, pulling him back around to face her, “Or I could just stay here.”
“Mhmm,” she nodded with a smirk on her face. He kissed her briefly on the lips.
“How are you?”
“I’m fine and Ewan is well, moving around a bit, but fine,” Arthur shook his head with a smile.
“No.”
“Oh, come on, it’s a good name!” Gwen protested a pout on her face.
“No, don’t pull that look on me. I’m helpless to that look.”
“That’s meant to make me stop?”
-
“Okay. So, boys?” Merlin asked, as they sat around a too small table in a tucked away corner of their local pub. It was a quiet Thursday night with only the darts game in the corner making more than a little noise.
“Ray?” Morgana asked. Gwen shot her a look; there was no way she was naming this child after some punk rocker doctor that her best friend wished existed.
“No,” Arthur concluded taking a swig from his pint.
“Noah?”
“No,” Gwen refused. Morgana sighed, there was her suggestions out of the window. She had tried reinstating ‘Katie’ into the mix earlier only to be told they had a girl’s name and they weren’t changing their minds. If only to save more arguments.
“Arthur!” Arthur asked gleefully only to be greeted by a stony glare from his partner, “I’ll take that as a no?”
“No way, honey, not a chance,” she patronizingly patted him on the arm, taking her drink into her hand as the waitress appeared with their food in her hands. She dished it out to the appropriate people and disappeared again to retrieve the remainder of the meals.
“Gareth?” Merlin suggested as he sat without a plate in front of him. He didn’t even long for the meat filled plates his friends had, preferring a vegetarian pasta dish
“No,” both parents denied together as they unwrapped their cutlery. Arthur swiped the mushrooms from Gwen’s plate and dished over the black pudding from his. Gwen pointed at her plate frantically with her fork. Arthur looked to see he’d missed one offending mushroom and stabbed it harshly.
“Paul?” Morgana said looking at the shorter barman behind the bar, he was always happy and a little bit over-jolly, it would be a good personality to live up to.
“Meh,” Gwen managed through her mouthful.
“Martin?” Merlin added playing the same game as Morgana only he was looking at usually taller, seated barman. He had an order pad in his hand and a pen in the other as he poked fun at the shorter male.
“No,” though a thoroughly pleasant guy, she didn’t want ‘Marty’ as her eldest heir and the one who would be choosing her nursing home in fifty years.
“Matthew?” Morgana said as the waitress gave her and Merlin their food, “Cheers.”
“Matty?” Arthur suggested to Gwen, she looked back at him, trying to see herself calling their child that name for the rest of their lives.
“Yeah?” she agreed slowly.
“No,” Merlin shook his head stuffing a hot chip into his mouth without complaining that it was too hot and shaking his hand in front of his mouth as if it would actually do anything to remotely help.
“No,” Morgana agreed, this was her nephew, or niece, they were talking about, “Urm-”
-
The department was quiet, dead one could say, so Arthur decided he’d take the opportunity to escape the cold confines of the deserted emergency department and go across the street with Gwen to grab a coffee and have a break.
“I still like Ewan,” she stated as they stood waiting for their order to come. The night staff were particularly sluggish in this place. Gwen could never understand the point of having a twenty-four hour store, but she wasn’t going to complain when she got to have hot chocolate at four in the morning.
“You would,” Arthur responded, his arm around her waist. He prodded her in the side
“Drew?” Not quite traditional but with a ‘nice strong name’ that would please Uther.
“Too Neighbours.”
Gwen snorted a laugh, “You watched Neighbours?”
“You didn’t?” it had been a pivotal part of his childhood and student days. Whenever they’d hung out in the SU after lectures Neighbours had been on and back when he was a kid it had been on before The Simpsons and after Blue Peter so he might as well watch it.
“Dylan?” He looked at her, wondering if she knew she’d chosen another character name from the Australian soap. The smirk on her face told him likewise.
“No.”
“Ewan,” she said for the fifth time and smiled at the barista behind the counter presented them with their drinks. She coyly looked over her hot chocolate up at him, smirk on her face.
Arthur thanked the lady for his double shot riddled coffee. She returned to looking bored. Arthur handed her a couple of loose pound coins he had in his pocket, “Get one on us, okay?”
“I hate coffee.”
“Then buy a pint,” Arthur offered with an amused smile and turned back to Gwen, “You’re never going to drop that are you?”
“No,” Gwen said opening the front door to the shop. The very early morning air hit them as they exited, strangely fresh for London and tinged with warmth. Soon the sun would be rising and they would be free to go home and sleep for the rest of the day after their shift had dragged of what felt like double the amount of time.
“What if I find a better name?” Arthur asked as they crossed the empty road.
“You won’t,” Gwen replied smugly, taking a swig from her fresh hot chocolate.
“I might.”
The whir of an ambulance siren sounded through the street. On rounding the corner of the Ambulance Bay the expecting couple could already see Leon and William in trauma gear ready to accept it.
“We got two on the way in,” Leon reported, “Motorcycle versus drunk,” Arthur handed his cup to Gwen and accepted the gown that Sophia handed his way.
“Gwen, suit up,” Arthur ordered.
She nodded and retreated into the hospital slowly enough to hear Sophia object, “She shouldn’t-“
Arthur’s reply was polite but firm, “She doesn’t need coddling, Sophia, she’s more than capable,” Gwen smiled to herself, relishing in the last swig of hot chocolate that she was going to get before it no doubt went cold during the trauma that was just rolling into the bay.
She placed the two cups behind the reception desk and headed to Trauma One. She found another nurse already waiting in the second trauma room. She pulled out a set of small rubber gloves and pulled them on. She readied herself for the oncoming slaughter and prepared to work on which ever victim came her way.
It was cases like this that she didn’t know who to feel more sorry for, the run over or the runner down, considering it wasn’t their fault the drunk had probably stepped into the road. Then again, one couldn’t judge the drunk until she knew the story. It was four in the morning on a Monday, nobody would be out at this time unless they needed to be.
Or worked at the hospital.
Gwen watched Arthur lead the motorcyclist into the next room, Sophia with him. She couldn’t help but think that it was a ploy to allow Gwen to get on with her job without the other nurse interfering. That paired with his want of not annoying Gwen to the nth degree.
“What have we got?” she asked Leon as he wheeled the drunk into the trauma room before her. She presented him with a pair of gloves and handed a pair to Viv. She had one of those annoyingly shiny personalities but she meant no harm; most of the time.
“Hit by a motorcycle, suspected broken pelvis and scapula, head trauma,” Leon tossed a wallet in Gwen’s direction. She opened it to find a driving licence; on which came a name and address.
“Fredrick Gilbert,” Gwen said, looking at the address, “I’ll call the admit desk, get whomever is there to track down family.”
“Hi, I need you to try and track down a family for one Fredrick Gilbert. He lives at 145 Wetherby Gardens, Kensington. By the looks of it he has a wife and small child, but the photo could be old,” Gwen reasoned. She saw the happy smiles on the three of their faces, and the ring on his ‘wife’s’ hand. Gwen knew better than assume that children meant married, “Thanks Catrina, can you patch them through when you get a hold of them. Thanks.”
-
They’d been working on him for thirty minutes before his wife had gotten there. In her arms she held a three year old girl who had fallen asleep against her shoulder.
“Vivian, could you show Mrs Gilbert to the family room, give her somewhere for the child to sleep. She shouldn’t be seeing this,” Leon ordered, the mother thanked him, adjusting her hold on her little girl and looking at the two nurses expectantly.
“Why not give her to Gwen?” the blonde nurse complained.
“What because she’s better with kids?” Leon asked sarcastically, knowing exactly the reason why.
“No because she’s pregnant,” Vivian shot back. Gwen rolled her eyes and continued to mill about collecting the equipment Leon needed along with making sure everything remained in order.
“And with that, you just earned the task for certain, can you take her to the family room, now,” Leon ordered, as Gwen prepared the stomach for the cut it needed. Surgery were on the way down but it he didn’t act now it could kill the man on the table, Surgery could bitch at him later when the guy was still alive.
-
His wife had returned pretty quickly, but in the time she had Surgery had made there way into the trauma room - finally - had complained at Leon, like he knew they would, and had deemed ‘Freddie’ stable enough to take upstairs.
“Nice work team,” Leon thanked, “I’d best go get Vivian to take the kid up. Sorry about her, Gwen.”
"She's young. She'll soon learn that experience trumps idiotism." Gwen smiled as Leon laughed.
He paused in the doorway and his eyes twinkled at her. "Have you ever considered the name Leon?"
"Happy with Gwen, thanks, besides how confusing would that be?"
Leon rolled his eyes, "I'll take that as a no."
They left the trauma room together and went their separate ways.
-
The carriage of the tube was oddly empty considering the time. People were usually on their way to work at this time in the morning so there was usually people already starting to cram onto the train.
It gave them the chance to sit down and relax on the short journey they had from the hospital to their home.
Gwen curled into Arthur side with a smile on her face. He had his fingers splayed against her midriff gently rubbing small circles over the soft fabric of her top.
“What about Bradley?
Gwen shook her head, “Kid in secondary school called Bradley used to follow me everywhere. It was kinda creepy.”
“But completely understandable.”
“It was really awkward, he was in all my classes and somehow all the teachers managed to seat him next to me or near me. I used to get notes. And on valentines they would do this ‘send a rose’ thing for charity. Every year from year nine to thirteen I got one from him without fail.”
“That’s sweet.”
“The poetry was creepy,” she said nuzzling into the crook of his neck as the train screeched.
They both winced; “Nice.”
“He was probably lovely, but he creeped me out too much.”
“Then you got the hunky boyfriend and he left you alone?” Arthur replied, hardly able to contain the bite in his tone.
“Hunky, really?”
“It’s a perfectly good word.”
“That you’re using in relation to my ex, and talk about living in the past.”
“I do not live in the past.”
“Of course not,” She rolled her eyes, “And no. He used to tell me how wrong for me Lance was. That he’d never love me the way he did.”
“Should have gotten a restraining order.”
“Why do you think the attentions stopped?” she said lifting her head from his shoulder to look at him the picture of seriousness.
“You’re joking,” Gwen tried her hardest to keep her expression stony but soon failed and laughed.
“Yeah. He tried to arrange to go to the same uni as me but didn’t get in. Thus his plans were thwarted.”
“But then you were single, he could have had his chance,” Arthur jibed with a cheeky smile on his face.
“You’re not funny.”
“Am so,” he prodded her in the side.
“You see how he treats me Ewan?” she asked her stomach and looked back at Arthur, “You should be grateful I didn’t submit. He probably would have never let me leave him and either killed me or locked me in a dungeon.”
“Well thank you for resisting his creepy charms. I certainly appreciate it,” he laughed as the train pulled into their stop and his assisted her from her seat, “Bed calls.”
-
“Looong night,” Arthur elongated as he pulled the keys from the door and let Gwen pass. The sun was streaming through the window, casting long sunny patches across the floor.
“At least nobody died,” Gwen reasoned dumping her bag on top of her shoes.
“There is that, but right now I just want to sleep,” he yawned disappearing into their bedroom, “You coming?”
“Be there in a minute,” she called out. She went to stand in the window, looking down over the street. She could see the bin men collecting the rubbish down the street. She saw Old Man Simmons from across the hall walking his cat along the pavement. She smiled, running her hands over her bump. “What do you think, baby, do you think Daddy should agree to Ewan, hmm?”
The baby kicked out, “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“That’s because you’re bias,” Gwen turned to see Arthur leaning against the bedroom door frame; he’d changed into his jogging bottoms and stood with his arms across his bare chest.
“The Baby agrees; what more can I say,” Arthur smiled and pushed off of the door frame and walked over to Gwen to crouch in front of her.
“What do you say, Blobby?” Arthur said placing a kiss to Gwen’s expanding waistline, “Is Ewan a good name?” Gwen took one of his hands and placed it over the repetitive moment.
“See?”
“That’s Blobby disagreeing with you. Looks like it’s a ‘no’ to Ewan,” Gwen frowned and tapped him upside the head.
Gwen linked her fingers behind his head, forcing him to look up at her. She took a small step back and bent at the hip to kiss him firmly on the lips, “Ewan stays,” she stated firmly, he laughed against her lips and pushed up, hands still about her waist.
“Okay,” he kissed her again. He looked out of the window behind her and saw Old Man Simmons and his cat, “Strange man,” he blinked it off and looked back to Gwen, “Now can we sleep?”
END NOTE: SO LIKE WOAH! That's half way... I've literally written everything apart from part 21 now... obviosuly it all needs editing and stuff but the basics is done. Eep. I'm stil interested to know whether you think Blobby will be a boy or girl over on my journal so tell me what you think (Already written it but it's just a bit of fun. Name suggestions are also welcome, just to know what you think really. Love to all =]
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