Chapter Text
After Merlin left, Gaius and Gwen shared a worried glance, the girl hesitating. “I’d better go,” she ventured, and headed for the door after Merlin. She paused after opening the exit and looked back, biting her lip. “Let me know if- when, they come back,” she added, fear in her eyes despite the verbal correction.
Gaius just nodded, as afraid as Gwen but hiding it slightly better after countless years of carefully closed emotion.
Gwen left in a flurry of skirts, hurrying away to distract herself.
Silently, Gaius did the same. He picked up the blunt dagger Merlin had left on the floor, and placed it on the table beside the informational books, glancing over them again despite knowing there was nothing important they’d missed.
He busied himself with clearing up, walking around and putting a few things away, then settled on drying up, towel in his hands forgotten every now and again as he looked out the window and hoped, as he had since the boy had tumbled into his life, that Merlin would return, alive. Everything else could be dealt with.
The door opened and Gaius turned around. Merlin walked in, looking tired but seemingly unharmed.
“You did it?”
A relieved smile spread across his face. “I did it!”
Gaius smiled in return, the tension of waiting draining away, replaced by a similar relief. He instinctively stepped towards the boy, gathering him in a hug, the last of the fear retreating for a moment.
But after a moment Gaius remembered his job – not only as protector but also as physician. He pulled back, taking Merlin by the shoulders and given him a visual once-over, asking firmly, “Are you hurt?”
Merlin shook his head, a slight smile still on his face. “No,” he breathed, eyes flicking over the room as if to ground himself after the frantic way he had left.
“And no one saw you?” Gaius continued, just as strict, still holding the boy still, determined to ensure his safety before letting him go.
He shook his head again, meeting his mentor’s eyes to convey that he was telling the truth. Gaius took a breath and nodded, this time allowing the last of the fear to leave, letting Merlin go after a pat on the shoulder.
Merlin twitched another smile, touched ever since Gaius had stated that he ‘was the only thing he cared about in all this world’ and noting the clear concern his return had caused.
Then he remembered and turned back to the door, holding up a hand before Gaius could ask. “I’ve got to go and see what’s happening,” he said quickly, not speaking the knight’s name just in case, but needing to know what would now become of Lancelot.
Gaius just gave a nod as Merlin glanced back at him with a reassuring look, and hurried back out.
The older man sighed and walked to a table to finish the drying he’d been distracting himself with. Allowing the relief at having his boy back – again, this time – to briefly ease the constant fear that had settled since Merlin had arrived into a place that would kill him in a second.
Fear that meant he cared, too much. Something he hadn’t felt for years.