Don't Enter Into Things Lightly; Merlin
Title: Don't Enter Into Things Lightly
Authors: mydoctortennant
Pairings/Characters: Arthur/Gwen, Merlin/Morgana, Leon, Tom, OCs
Warnings: Second time writing smut, so please be lenient with me ♥
Disclaimer: Not real. Despite birthday wishes and night time prayers to Santa (all Hail Amy Pond!) Merlin still isn't mine!
Rating: NC17
Summary: A snippet into the everyday lives of Family Pendragon; no sleep, awkward patient's parents, each other...
Author Notes: Another No Emergency Exit fic, one day I'll stop writing for this verse XD Maybe...
Written for the lovely ella_rose88 who really didn't mind XD
My Merlin Prompt Table
He’d been on shift for coming on nineteen hours. It had been endless and he was bordering on exhausted. Jamie had been up the previous night with an ear ache and he’d only gotten a few hours sleep between helping Gwen tend to their two year old son and making sure Lexie got off to school okay the next morning.
After hours of non-stop work he had finally been able to take the opportunity to sneak into the call-room for a nap. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep, regardless of the nurses playing in wheelchairs in the now deserted corridor.
X
Two hours later and Gwen entered the deserted department bound up in her winter coat and scarf. She’d woken up an hour earlier to let her father into their house and head into work. It wasn’t often that their shifts would overlap to the point of leaving their children without the guardianship of either of them, but with Morgana out on maternity leave and Merlin taking extra hours off to help her with Baby Nivian they were left a little short staffed and they were picking up the slack like they had done for them when they needed it.
Gwen checked the board as she entered, surprised to find one patient on it waiting on lab results; “Morning Leon, slow night?”
“Mental night that suddenly died.”
“Good for me.”
“Good for Arthur too; he’s crashing in the call room.”
“Excellent. I’m going to wake my husband up before it gets too busy again.”
“Make sure you put a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign up,” Gwen laughed as she walked away shaking her head in disbelief, “Don’t pretend you’ve never-“
“I’m not listening,” Gwen put her fingers in her ears and picked up her pace.
X
After dropping her bag and coat into the Doctor’s Lounge Gwen slipped into the Call-Room. The light from the corridor cast over Arthur’s face, revealing him, his hand behind his head as he slept. He looked peaceful. She hadn’t seen him in over a day so it was delighting to see him.
She moved over to the bed and sat on the edge. She moved her finger through his fringe moving it from his face. He shifted in his sleep moving into her hand. A smile crept over his face as she cupped his cheek. She leant down and kissed him on the forehead. He stirred, “Hi.”
“I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“No?”
“But now you’re awake I’m sure I could utilise your current position,” one of her eyebrows rose suggestively.
“At six in the morning?”
“You’ve been working all night, and I’ll be working until late only to miss you again at home when you’ll be dead to the world later tonight. If it’s not six am: why you’ll just have to wait until the weekend.”
“You mean you will.”
“This is also true and I really don’t want to wait that long,” Arthur pushed himself up onto his elbows to capture her lips in a kiss.
“In the call-room?”
“Is there anywhere better here?” No, in truth there really wasn’t. He pushed up further from the bed and caught her lips with his again, suddenly very awake and painfully aware that he really didn’t want to wait for another three days and nights to be able to touch his wife in every way he’d just been dreaming he wanted to.
Gwen moved her knee to push herself onto the side of the bed leaning into the kiss with more vigour. With one hand in her hair Arthur was fully sat up on the bed, causing Gwen to slip off the side slightly; “These beds are not made for two.”
“Not horizontally, no,” she smirked, she stepped away from him for a second before pushing up on the CPR step and knelt her left knee on the edge of the bed before manoeuvring so her right was on the other side of Arthur’s outstretched legs, straddling his lap. His hands pushed under her scrub top, moving her tank top underneath up over her stomach as he did, tracing his fingers over her skin.
She raised her arms above her head and he quickly ridded her of her shirt, leaving her tank top for the second. She wasn’t so patient with his clothing ridding him of both scrub shirt and his t-shirt he had on underneath in the same moment.
She ridded him of the sheet he’d been sleeping under and her hands moved down to the tie of his scrub bottoms. She could already feel his growing erection beneath the material. She pushed up onto her knees so he could make quick work of the fastening to her trousers and push them down her thighs with her underwear in one go; “Somebody’s in desperate need,” she teased, both her hands on either side of his face and kissing him firmly.
“Anybody could come in,” he said as if she hadn’t realised, “Did you even lock the door?”
“Does the door even have a lock?”
“No.”
“There’s your answer then,” she laughed kissing him again with her hands making quick work of ridding him of his scrubs down to his knees as he raised his hips from the bed to make her job easier.
Neither wasted time seeking out their wanted destinations with fumbling fingers, a helping hand to begin to tip off the other. So much want and desire surge through them it wouldn’t take long for either of them.
“I need you, Guinevere,” he managed, his voice hushed and husky, “Right now.”
She willingly, nearing on desperately, obliged. She was slick, ready to take him. She lowered herself onto him, eliciting a satisfied gasp from both of them. With her vantage point being on her knees she was able to rock herself more than Arthur was able to thrust with his legs out along the bed.
She caught his lips in a sloppy kiss, her tongue in his mouth massaged with his as she continued to bring herself down on him. He reacted, pushing up as best he could, rasping breaths escaping both of them with every move.
“Ar-thur,” she panted as her excitement rose. He pushed a kiss to her bare shoulder before scraping his teeth against her skin. His hands grasped her tank top, creasing it as he fisted it.
Her nails dug into the taught skin of his back as she reached her climax. Arthur came as she did. She rested her forehead against his as she came down again.
“Arthur, you’re- ahh!” the door slammed closed before either of them noticed Merlin enter. Through her laughter Gwen blushed. Arthur pushed one final kiss to her lips before he helped her up, “You decent yet?” Merlin called through the ajar door.
“Hang on!”
Gwen pulled her knickers and trousers back on at stealth speed as Arthur reached for a tissue to clean himself up; “I’ll see you later,” she said quickly pecking her husband on the lips before she headed for the door, making sure he wasn’t too exposed before she pulled the door too behind her.
Merlin stood by the door staring at the opposite wall. He looked stunned. Gwen didn’t say anything just cleared her throat, and smiling sheepishly itching the back of her neck before she practically ran towards the admit desk.
“You ready yet?” Merlin called out, his back still to the door. He didn’t need to see that. He really didn’t. As much as he knew all about his brother-in-law’s activities with his wife, he didn’t need to see it first hand.
The door opened behind him, revealing Arthur in his scrubs and lab coat, “What did you want?” They were both facing the wall opposite, too awkward to look each other in the eye.
“Kid in curtain two needs you. Fell out of his top bunk, broke his wrist.”
“You couldn’t get Leon?”
“He was busy.”
“So was I.”
“I saw,” Both of them snorted a laugh; “Sorry.”
“Our fault.”
“So, curtain two?”
“Curtain two. How’s Niv?”
“Doing good, slept through last night which was a godsend.”
“That’s Parenthood for you. Been through it twice.”
“The rate you’re going it’ll be three before the year is out.”
“Three’s a good number.”
“One is more than enough. Morgana still wants to kill me after her labour.”
“She suffered for twenty-four hours. Of course she wanted to kill you. Gwen wouldn’t let me touch her for a month after Jamie was born, let alone anything more.”
“Well luckily for you she got over it,” Merlin snorted again as they reached the curtain and he pulled it open.
“Hi,” Arthur checked the chart for his name, “Rufus, I’m Doctor Pendragon. What’s wrong, bud?” His mother started mouthing off about all of his so-called problems. The obvious one being his broken wrist, “Okay Mrs Webb, we’ll get him a local aesthetic so we can push the bone back into place. We’ll wrap his wrist and set it in a cast.”
“What about his chesty cough?” Arthur listened to the boy’s chest through his stethoscope.
“Deep breathe in,” Rufus did so, “And out,” he moved the end o his scope to the other side of the boy’s chest, “And in. And out. His chest is fine, Mrs Webb. We’ll get his wrist sorted for you. See you in a bit, bud, okay?” The young boy nodded, cradling his broken arm in his other.
The two men walked away back towards the admit desk. Arthur added his notes to the boy’s chart and handed it back to Merlin, “Sort him out with a local and we’ll get that bone back into place.”
“Sure you don’t want Gwen to help you with the bone?” Merlin smirked, laughing at his own lame attempt at a joke.
Arthur ignored him, looking up at the board and deciding on a patient who had just been brought in via ambulance with no more complaint other than dizziness and nausea. He could predict the outcome already.
X
Arthur opened the curtain to reveal a scared looking teenager, no older than eighteen, sitting with her father with Gwen taking down her temperature an other important pieces of information he would need, “Good morning, Charys?”
“Yeah,” she smiled meekly up at him, holding her father’s hand as tightly as she could.
“Could you recount what happened for me? I understand you were bought in feeling dizzy and felt sick?”
“Yeah. I got up to go to college. Got into the bathroom. I felt a bit dizzy so I sat down, head between my legs-“
“Smart girl,” Arthur commented with a warm smile on his face.
“Thanks. Then I threw up.”
“I brought her in; I didn’t know what else to do,” her father started, worried beyond belief. Arthur could understand where he was coming from. The slightest hint of a cold with both Lexie and Jamie and he and Gwen worried, “Her Mum’s away. She normally deals with this sort of stuff.”
“Same here,” Arthur offered glancing towards Gwen who smirked at him, amused, “I might be a doctor, but the second my kids get a fever I’m a lost cause.” Gwen handed him the completed chart of information. He scanned it, “Okay, we’re going to need a urine sample. And we’ll go with a blood draw just for safe measure.”
“I’ll just go grab the kit for the draw, if you want to go to the toilet down the hallway,” Gwen handed her the pot.
“I have to pee in the pot.”
“I’m afraid so. Do you want me to go with you, just in case you feel faint again?”
“I think I’m okay,” Charys stood from the bed and slowly pushed herself upright, “Yeah, I’m cool.”
“Okay, we’ll be back soon.”
Gwen made sure to keep to the girl’s side on the way to the toilets but she was stable, “See you in a bit.”
The nurse headed back towards the admit desk where Arthur stood scribbling down his orders for the girl; “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
“I think so. Only time will tell.”
x
“Alright then, kiddo, that should be enough time for the local to set in. Can you feel this,” Arthur prodded the tips of the boy’s fingers with his pen. Rufus silently shook his had, “Okay then. Merlin,” he looked up to the nurse, “Ready?”
“Yup,” They skilfully manoeuvred so the bone went back into place before they carefully held him perfectly still so Arthur could start wrapping the padding around the boy’s wrist.
“Here we go then, blue cast? Green? Red?”
“Red please,” Rufus replied in a small voice.
He lined the red had casing up ready to start rolling it around his wrist when a head popped around the curtain, “Arthur, results are back on our girl in three,” the look on her face told him that it couldn’t wait.
“Okay,” she disappeared again. Merlin took the cast bandaging from Arthur, “Merlin here is going to take over for me; that okay?” the little boy nodded furiously, “Okay, good. I’ll come and check he’s done a good job before you leave, okay?” he nodded again.
“Is he qualified to do that?”
“He’s wrapped more wrists than I ever have. He’s plenty qualified Mrs Webb.”
x
“So we were right, huh?”
“We were. We’ve been doing this a while. You get hunches when the same cases present themselves time and time again,” Gwen shrugged, “Do you want me to tell her? Might be easier for her to hear from me.”
“Yeah, sure. If you think it’s for the best.”
They entered the room that Charys had been moved into, both heading towards her bed, “Do you have the results?” her father asked, standing from his seat with his coat hung over his arm.
“We do. Charys, are you comfortable with your father being here.”
“Why? Is it bad?”
“She’s eighteen years old, Mr Benson, legally if she doesn’t want you to hear this you’d have to leave the room,” Arthur explained. It hadn’t even occurred to Charys to ask her father to leave. They were close, anything they told her she would only tell him anyway and she told them such, “Okay.”
“The tests we did came back,” Gwen started to explain, “We ran all the usual tests, one of those being a pregnancy test,” realisation flashed across the girls face, she knew, but Gwen still had confirm, “It came back positive.”
“There are a number of options open to you-“
“I’m keeping it,” her father looked down at her, his expression unreadable.
“There are options for you, Charys,” Gwen said, looking to Arthur for reassurance.
“I don’t want them. I didn’t want this, didn’t plan for it. But I’ve always wanted to be a Mum. I’ll be good at it.”
“What about the father?”
“Doug? He’ll want nothing to do with me.”
“Don’t be so sure.”
“Because you weren’t happily married before you had children?”
“No, we weren’t. We weren’t even together when I fell pregnant. He might surprise you.”
“He’s nineteen. He doesn’t want a baby.”
“He needs to know.”
“We’ll handle this from here, thank you, nurse,” he father snapped with his hand on his daughter’s shoulder. Gwen smiled sympathetically at him; she’d dealt with a lot worse before.
“Any information you need can be picked up from the reception desk,” Arthur said finally opening the door to the room and pushing Gwen out, “There’s nothing more we can do here,” he said quietly into her ear with a hand on her arm.
x
Gwen walked out to the ambulance bay with Arthur as he headed towards the tube station with his heavy jacket done up to his chin and his satchel thrown haphazardly over his shoulder; “Do you ever think about having any more kids?” she asked him, having been thinking about it herself for most of the morning.
“Well if we didn’t want them we’d have to be a bit more careful than this morning.”
“I know, but, do you?”
“Is that some backhanded way of asking me if I like the two we already have?”
“No, it’s a direct way of asking if you want another child.”
“I dunno. How about if it happens, it happens, if it doesn’t then it’s not meant to be?”
“I think I can accept that,” she said as he wrapped his arms around her to stop her from getting too cold in just her scrub shirt, “Does that mean we deliberately try? Or do we still play it safe?”
“Play it by ear? If things happen like they did today then no, if not then we do? However it goes?” he shrugged as she looked up at him, “I’m going to go home now. I’m shattered. I’ve been here far too long and I miss the two children we do have. We’ll talk about this later?”
“Okay,” she pushed onto her toes to kiss him goodbye, tenderly letting her lips linger, “Love you.”
“Love you too.”
X
Raising his keys into the lock on the front door of their suburban home, Arthur could see the flashing images of the TV through the living room window. It was certainly different living in a house in the outskirts of London rather than the hustle and bustle of the centre. Still they needed the space and the garden and the safer roads and pretty much everything the house had over the Kensington apartment.
“Daaddeeeeeeeeee!” Before he had even shut the door behind him Lexie had run into his legs, throwing her arms around him nearly causing him to fall over, grabbing onto the banister to stop himself from falling on her.
“Hey Blob,” he managed to prise her arms from around his leg and crouch so he was level with her, “How was school?”
“We did paintings. Grandpa put it on the fridge. We learnt about colours too.”
“What did you learn about colours?” he asked, sitting back on the bottom of the stairs, pulling her into his lap as she talked animatedly.
“That if you mix red and blue and get purple!”
“Ah haaa.”
“I like purple.”
“So does Mummy,” he said stifling a yawn.
“You should sleep,” Arthur looked up to see Tom standing in the doorway to the living room.
“Yeah, probably, but I don’t have to be in until 7 tomorrow morning. I can hold out another couple of hours.”
“You have to see my picture!” Lexie suddenly realised jumping from his lap and tugging on his hand towards the kitchen.
“Duty calls,” Tom laughed turning back into the living room to make sure Jamie didn’t poke his fingers into anything he shouldn’t.
x
With Jamie already asleep Arthur didn’t feel too badly about sitting in his daughter’s bed with her as he read to her, “I am Sam. Sam I am,” he started.
He always felt that she was older than Dr. Seuss at eight years old, but she loved it all the same and he was too tired to think about more complex literature. Lexie was cuddled into her bed, with her head resting on her father’s chest as he hugged her with the book in his hands.
“I like green eggs and ham. I do. I like them Sam I am,” he finished not as lively as he would normally. His eyes were already starting to drift shut occasionally, the second he paused for more than a second Lexie would elbow him. Now he was finished she dug her nose into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her tighter, kissing the top of her curls. He didn’t want to move, he was too tired.
He looked down at her; she was already falling asleep on him. What difference would a small, short nap make?
x
Gwen got home just after nine. She noticed her Dad’s car was still parked on the road outside which hadn’t surprised her in the slightest.
She yawned as she kicked the front door closed.
“Hey Pumpkin.”
“Hey Dad. Thanks for today.”
“Never a problem. It’s nice to be needed. Jamie’s asleep as are Lexie and Arthur. Though, one of them might need moving. I’ll see you at the weekend.”
“Thanks Dad,” she kissed him on the cheek and quickly hugged him. She needed sleep; otherwise she’d have made them a cup of tea and had a chat, “See you Sunday.”
He left then, rather abruptly with a smile on his face.
Gwen moved upstairs at a sluggish pace, pulling herself up the banister. Sometimes she missed the simplicity of collapsing through a doorway on the other side of the room, but with a family it really wouldn’t work, it certainly wasn’t big enough for four people.
She headed straight to her and Arthur’s shared room, surprised to find it empty.
She shuffled up the hallway towards their daughter’s bedroom, the door open still with no nightlight on outside the door like usual. Gwen couldn’t help but smile to herself at the sight before her. She didn’t want to disturb them. She tiptoed across the room and gently pulled the duvet up over Lexie and smoothed Arthur’s head. She placed a kiss to his forehead and left them. She flicked the nightlight on at the wall and pulled the door to. Arthur could stay there as long as he was asleep. He’d wake eventually and leave Lexie asleep.
Gwen was grateful for the family she had. Her husband. Their children and all of their pet goldfish ‘Spock’. Though sometimes she couldn’t help but think that maybe one more wouldn’t hurt.
END NOTE: Now I'm going away for the weekend, so I shall see you guys soon. =]
Authors: mydoctortennant
Pairings/Characters: Arthur/Gwen, Merlin/Morgana, Leon, Tom, OCs
Warnings: Second time writing smut, so please be lenient with me ♥
Disclaimer: Not real. Despite birthday wishes and night time prayers to Santa (all Hail Amy Pond!) Merlin still isn't mine!
Rating: NC17
Summary: A snippet into the everyday lives of Family Pendragon; no sleep, awkward patient's parents, each other...
Author Notes: Another No Emergency Exit fic, one day I'll stop writing for this verse XD Maybe...
Written for the lovely ella_rose88 who really didn't mind XD
My Merlin Prompt Table
He’d been on shift for coming on nineteen hours. It had been endless and he was bordering on exhausted. Jamie had been up the previous night with an ear ache and he’d only gotten a few hours sleep between helping Gwen tend to their two year old son and making sure Lexie got off to school okay the next morning.
After hours of non-stop work he had finally been able to take the opportunity to sneak into the call-room for a nap. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep, regardless of the nurses playing in wheelchairs in the now deserted corridor.
X
Two hours later and Gwen entered the deserted department bound up in her winter coat and scarf. She’d woken up an hour earlier to let her father into their house and head into work. It wasn’t often that their shifts would overlap to the point of leaving their children without the guardianship of either of them, but with Morgana out on maternity leave and Merlin taking extra hours off to help her with Baby Nivian they were left a little short staffed and they were picking up the slack like they had done for them when they needed it.
Gwen checked the board as she entered, surprised to find one patient on it waiting on lab results; “Morning Leon, slow night?”
“Mental night that suddenly died.”
“Good for me.”
“Good for Arthur too; he’s crashing in the call room.”
“Excellent. I’m going to wake my husband up before it gets too busy again.”
“Make sure you put a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign up,” Gwen laughed as she walked away shaking her head in disbelief, “Don’t pretend you’ve never-“
“I’m not listening,” Gwen put her fingers in her ears and picked up her pace.
X
After dropping her bag and coat into the Doctor’s Lounge Gwen slipped into the Call-Room. The light from the corridor cast over Arthur’s face, revealing him, his hand behind his head as he slept. He looked peaceful. She hadn’t seen him in over a day so it was delighting to see him.
She moved over to the bed and sat on the edge. She moved her finger through his fringe moving it from his face. He shifted in his sleep moving into her hand. A smile crept over his face as she cupped his cheek. She leant down and kissed him on the forehead. He stirred, “Hi.”
“I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“No?”
“But now you’re awake I’m sure I could utilise your current position,” one of her eyebrows rose suggestively.
“At six in the morning?”
“You’ve been working all night, and I’ll be working until late only to miss you again at home when you’ll be dead to the world later tonight. If it’s not six am: why you’ll just have to wait until the weekend.”
“You mean you will.”
“This is also true and I really don’t want to wait that long,” Arthur pushed himself up onto his elbows to capture her lips in a kiss.
“In the call-room?”
“Is there anywhere better here?” No, in truth there really wasn’t. He pushed up further from the bed and caught her lips with his again, suddenly very awake and painfully aware that he really didn’t want to wait for another three days and nights to be able to touch his wife in every way he’d just been dreaming he wanted to.
Gwen moved her knee to push herself onto the side of the bed leaning into the kiss with more vigour. With one hand in her hair Arthur was fully sat up on the bed, causing Gwen to slip off the side slightly; “These beds are not made for two.”
“Not horizontally, no,” she smirked, she stepped away from him for a second before pushing up on the CPR step and knelt her left knee on the edge of the bed before manoeuvring so her right was on the other side of Arthur’s outstretched legs, straddling his lap. His hands pushed under her scrub top, moving her tank top underneath up over her stomach as he did, tracing his fingers over her skin.
She raised her arms above her head and he quickly ridded her of her shirt, leaving her tank top for the second. She wasn’t so patient with his clothing ridding him of both scrub shirt and his t-shirt he had on underneath in the same moment.
She ridded him of the sheet he’d been sleeping under and her hands moved down to the tie of his scrub bottoms. She could already feel his growing erection beneath the material. She pushed up onto her knees so he could make quick work of the fastening to her trousers and push them down her thighs with her underwear in one go; “Somebody’s in desperate need,” she teased, both her hands on either side of his face and kissing him firmly.
“Anybody could come in,” he said as if she hadn’t realised, “Did you even lock the door?”
“Does the door even have a lock?”
“No.”
“There’s your answer then,” she laughed kissing him again with her hands making quick work of ridding him of his scrubs down to his knees as he raised his hips from the bed to make her job easier.
Neither wasted time seeking out their wanted destinations with fumbling fingers, a helping hand to begin to tip off the other. So much want and desire surge through them it wouldn’t take long for either of them.
“I need you, Guinevere,” he managed, his voice hushed and husky, “Right now.”
She willingly, nearing on desperately, obliged. She was slick, ready to take him. She lowered herself onto him, eliciting a satisfied gasp from both of them. With her vantage point being on her knees she was able to rock herself more than Arthur was able to thrust with his legs out along the bed.
She caught his lips in a sloppy kiss, her tongue in his mouth massaged with his as she continued to bring herself down on him. He reacted, pushing up as best he could, rasping breaths escaping both of them with every move.
“Ar-thur,” she panted as her excitement rose. He pushed a kiss to her bare shoulder before scraping his teeth against her skin. His hands grasped her tank top, creasing it as he fisted it.
Her nails dug into the taught skin of his back as she reached her climax. Arthur came as she did. She rested her forehead against his as she came down again.
“Arthur, you’re- ahh!” the door slammed closed before either of them noticed Merlin enter. Through her laughter Gwen blushed. Arthur pushed one final kiss to her lips before he helped her up, “You decent yet?” Merlin called through the ajar door.
“Hang on!”
Gwen pulled her knickers and trousers back on at stealth speed as Arthur reached for a tissue to clean himself up; “I’ll see you later,” she said quickly pecking her husband on the lips before she headed for the door, making sure he wasn’t too exposed before she pulled the door too behind her.
Merlin stood by the door staring at the opposite wall. He looked stunned. Gwen didn’t say anything just cleared her throat, and smiling sheepishly itching the back of her neck before she practically ran towards the admit desk.
“You ready yet?” Merlin called out, his back still to the door. He didn’t need to see that. He really didn’t. As much as he knew all about his brother-in-law’s activities with his wife, he didn’t need to see it first hand.
The door opened behind him, revealing Arthur in his scrubs and lab coat, “What did you want?” They were both facing the wall opposite, too awkward to look each other in the eye.
“Kid in curtain two needs you. Fell out of his top bunk, broke his wrist.”
“You couldn’t get Leon?”
“He was busy.”
“So was I.”
“I saw,” Both of them snorted a laugh; “Sorry.”
“Our fault.”
“So, curtain two?”
“Curtain two. How’s Niv?”
“Doing good, slept through last night which was a godsend.”
“That’s Parenthood for you. Been through it twice.”
“The rate you’re going it’ll be three before the year is out.”
“Three’s a good number.”
“One is more than enough. Morgana still wants to kill me after her labour.”
“She suffered for twenty-four hours. Of course she wanted to kill you. Gwen wouldn’t let me touch her for a month after Jamie was born, let alone anything more.”
“Well luckily for you she got over it,” Merlin snorted again as they reached the curtain and he pulled it open.
“Hi,” Arthur checked the chart for his name, “Rufus, I’m Doctor Pendragon. What’s wrong, bud?” His mother started mouthing off about all of his so-called problems. The obvious one being his broken wrist, “Okay Mrs Webb, we’ll get him a local aesthetic so we can push the bone back into place. We’ll wrap his wrist and set it in a cast.”
“What about his chesty cough?” Arthur listened to the boy’s chest through his stethoscope.
“Deep breathe in,” Rufus did so, “And out,” he moved the end o his scope to the other side of the boy’s chest, “And in. And out. His chest is fine, Mrs Webb. We’ll get his wrist sorted for you. See you in a bit, bud, okay?” The young boy nodded, cradling his broken arm in his other.
The two men walked away back towards the admit desk. Arthur added his notes to the boy’s chart and handed it back to Merlin, “Sort him out with a local and we’ll get that bone back into place.”
“Sure you don’t want Gwen to help you with the bone?” Merlin smirked, laughing at his own lame attempt at a joke.
Arthur ignored him, looking up at the board and deciding on a patient who had just been brought in via ambulance with no more complaint other than dizziness and nausea. He could predict the outcome already.
X
Arthur opened the curtain to reveal a scared looking teenager, no older than eighteen, sitting with her father with Gwen taking down her temperature an other important pieces of information he would need, “Good morning, Charys?”
“Yeah,” she smiled meekly up at him, holding her father’s hand as tightly as she could.
“Could you recount what happened for me? I understand you were bought in feeling dizzy and felt sick?”
“Yeah. I got up to go to college. Got into the bathroom. I felt a bit dizzy so I sat down, head between my legs-“
“Smart girl,” Arthur commented with a warm smile on his face.
“Thanks. Then I threw up.”
“I brought her in; I didn’t know what else to do,” her father started, worried beyond belief. Arthur could understand where he was coming from. The slightest hint of a cold with both Lexie and Jamie and he and Gwen worried, “Her Mum’s away. She normally deals with this sort of stuff.”
“Same here,” Arthur offered glancing towards Gwen who smirked at him, amused, “I might be a doctor, but the second my kids get a fever I’m a lost cause.” Gwen handed him the completed chart of information. He scanned it, “Okay, we’re going to need a urine sample. And we’ll go with a blood draw just for safe measure.”
“I’ll just go grab the kit for the draw, if you want to go to the toilet down the hallway,” Gwen handed her the pot.
“I have to pee in the pot.”
“I’m afraid so. Do you want me to go with you, just in case you feel faint again?”
“I think I’m okay,” Charys stood from the bed and slowly pushed herself upright, “Yeah, I’m cool.”
“Okay, we’ll be back soon.”
Gwen made sure to keep to the girl’s side on the way to the toilets but she was stable, “See you in a bit.”
The nurse headed back towards the admit desk where Arthur stood scribbling down his orders for the girl; “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
“I think so. Only time will tell.”
x
“Alright then, kiddo, that should be enough time for the local to set in. Can you feel this,” Arthur prodded the tips of the boy’s fingers with his pen. Rufus silently shook his had, “Okay then. Merlin,” he looked up to the nurse, “Ready?”
“Yup,” They skilfully manoeuvred so the bone went back into place before they carefully held him perfectly still so Arthur could start wrapping the padding around the boy’s wrist.
“Here we go then, blue cast? Green? Red?”
“Red please,” Rufus replied in a small voice.
He lined the red had casing up ready to start rolling it around his wrist when a head popped around the curtain, “Arthur, results are back on our girl in three,” the look on her face told him that it couldn’t wait.
“Okay,” she disappeared again. Merlin took the cast bandaging from Arthur, “Merlin here is going to take over for me; that okay?” the little boy nodded furiously, “Okay, good. I’ll come and check he’s done a good job before you leave, okay?” he nodded again.
“Is he qualified to do that?”
“He’s wrapped more wrists than I ever have. He’s plenty qualified Mrs Webb.”
x
“So we were right, huh?”
“We were. We’ve been doing this a while. You get hunches when the same cases present themselves time and time again,” Gwen shrugged, “Do you want me to tell her? Might be easier for her to hear from me.”
“Yeah, sure. If you think it’s for the best.”
They entered the room that Charys had been moved into, both heading towards her bed, “Do you have the results?” her father asked, standing from his seat with his coat hung over his arm.
“We do. Charys, are you comfortable with your father being here.”
“Why? Is it bad?”
“She’s eighteen years old, Mr Benson, legally if she doesn’t want you to hear this you’d have to leave the room,” Arthur explained. It hadn’t even occurred to Charys to ask her father to leave. They were close, anything they told her she would only tell him anyway and she told them such, “Okay.”
“The tests we did came back,” Gwen started to explain, “We ran all the usual tests, one of those being a pregnancy test,” realisation flashed across the girls face, she knew, but Gwen still had confirm, “It came back positive.”
“There are a number of options open to you-“
“I’m keeping it,” her father looked down at her, his expression unreadable.
“There are options for you, Charys,” Gwen said, looking to Arthur for reassurance.
“I don’t want them. I didn’t want this, didn’t plan for it. But I’ve always wanted to be a Mum. I’ll be good at it.”
“What about the father?”
“Doug? He’ll want nothing to do with me.”
“Don’t be so sure.”
“Because you weren’t happily married before you had children?”
“No, we weren’t. We weren’t even together when I fell pregnant. He might surprise you.”
“He’s nineteen. He doesn’t want a baby.”
“He needs to know.”
“We’ll handle this from here, thank you, nurse,” he father snapped with his hand on his daughter’s shoulder. Gwen smiled sympathetically at him; she’d dealt with a lot worse before.
“Any information you need can be picked up from the reception desk,” Arthur said finally opening the door to the room and pushing Gwen out, “There’s nothing more we can do here,” he said quietly into her ear with a hand on her arm.
x
Gwen walked out to the ambulance bay with Arthur as he headed towards the tube station with his heavy jacket done up to his chin and his satchel thrown haphazardly over his shoulder; “Do you ever think about having any more kids?” she asked him, having been thinking about it herself for most of the morning.
“Well if we didn’t want them we’d have to be a bit more careful than this morning.”
“I know, but, do you?”
“Is that some backhanded way of asking me if I like the two we already have?”
“No, it’s a direct way of asking if you want another child.”
“I dunno. How about if it happens, it happens, if it doesn’t then it’s not meant to be?”
“I think I can accept that,” she said as he wrapped his arms around her to stop her from getting too cold in just her scrub shirt, “Does that mean we deliberately try? Or do we still play it safe?”
“Play it by ear? If things happen like they did today then no, if not then we do? However it goes?” he shrugged as she looked up at him, “I’m going to go home now. I’m shattered. I’ve been here far too long and I miss the two children we do have. We’ll talk about this later?”
“Okay,” she pushed onto her toes to kiss him goodbye, tenderly letting her lips linger, “Love you.”
“Love you too.”
X
Raising his keys into the lock on the front door of their suburban home, Arthur could see the flashing images of the TV through the living room window. It was certainly different living in a house in the outskirts of London rather than the hustle and bustle of the centre. Still they needed the space and the garden and the safer roads and pretty much everything the house had over the Kensington apartment.
“Daaddeeeeeeeeee!” Before he had even shut the door behind him Lexie had run into his legs, throwing her arms around him nearly causing him to fall over, grabbing onto the banister to stop himself from falling on her.
“Hey Blob,” he managed to prise her arms from around his leg and crouch so he was level with her, “How was school?”
“We did paintings. Grandpa put it on the fridge. We learnt about colours too.”
“What did you learn about colours?” he asked, sitting back on the bottom of the stairs, pulling her into his lap as she talked animatedly.
“That if you mix red and blue and get purple!”
“Ah haaa.”
“I like purple.”
“So does Mummy,” he said stifling a yawn.
“You should sleep,” Arthur looked up to see Tom standing in the doorway to the living room.
“Yeah, probably, but I don’t have to be in until 7 tomorrow morning. I can hold out another couple of hours.”
“You have to see my picture!” Lexie suddenly realised jumping from his lap and tugging on his hand towards the kitchen.
“Duty calls,” Tom laughed turning back into the living room to make sure Jamie didn’t poke his fingers into anything he shouldn’t.
x
With Jamie already asleep Arthur didn’t feel too badly about sitting in his daughter’s bed with her as he read to her, “I am Sam. Sam I am,” he started.
He always felt that she was older than Dr. Seuss at eight years old, but she loved it all the same and he was too tired to think about more complex literature. Lexie was cuddled into her bed, with her head resting on her father’s chest as he hugged her with the book in his hands.
“I like green eggs and ham. I do. I like them Sam I am,” he finished not as lively as he would normally. His eyes were already starting to drift shut occasionally, the second he paused for more than a second Lexie would elbow him. Now he was finished she dug her nose into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her tighter, kissing the top of her curls. He didn’t want to move, he was too tired.
He looked down at her; she was already falling asleep on him. What difference would a small, short nap make?
x
Gwen got home just after nine. She noticed her Dad’s car was still parked on the road outside which hadn’t surprised her in the slightest.
She yawned as she kicked the front door closed.
“Hey Pumpkin.”
“Hey Dad. Thanks for today.”
“Never a problem. It’s nice to be needed. Jamie’s asleep as are Lexie and Arthur. Though, one of them might need moving. I’ll see you at the weekend.”
“Thanks Dad,” she kissed him on the cheek and quickly hugged him. She needed sleep; otherwise she’d have made them a cup of tea and had a chat, “See you Sunday.”
He left then, rather abruptly with a smile on his face.
Gwen moved upstairs at a sluggish pace, pulling herself up the banister. Sometimes she missed the simplicity of collapsing through a doorway on the other side of the room, but with a family it really wouldn’t work, it certainly wasn’t big enough for four people.
She headed straight to her and Arthur’s shared room, surprised to find it empty.
She shuffled up the hallway towards their daughter’s bedroom, the door open still with no nightlight on outside the door like usual. Gwen couldn’t help but smile to herself at the sight before her. She didn’t want to disturb them. She tiptoed across the room and gently pulled the duvet up over Lexie and smoothed Arthur’s head. She placed a kiss to his forehead and left them. She flicked the nightlight on at the wall and pulled the door to. Arthur could stay there as long as he was asleep. He’d wake eventually and leave Lexie asleep.
Gwen was grateful for the family she had. Her husband. Their children and all of their pet goldfish ‘Spock’. Though sometimes she couldn’t help but think that maybe one more wouldn’t hurt.
END NOTE: Now I'm going away for the weekend, so I shall see you guys soon. =]