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Six months after they had married, Merlin had fallen ill and everyone had thought the worst. She had been taken to Gaius and the King awaited news about his wife’s condition. The whole kingdom of Camelot was worried for the new Queen, some feared the worst…she had brought so much goodness into the kingdom, including helping make magic legal. So many more people were living happy lives because of the changes she had helped make, no longer living in fear like many had done before.
But all their worry was in vain. After a few hours under Gaius’ watchful eye and after many tests, Merlin had exited the physicians chambers wide a wide grin on her face. When she came down the stairs, her husband was waiting for her at the bottom and immediately started to question her.
“Merlin, are you okay? What did Gaius say?”
“Arthur, I’m fine,” she said, taking her husband’s hands in hers. “I really am, Gaius gave me some fantastic news!” Merlin said and grinned. Arthur frowned at her and she shook her head, unable to get the smile off her face.
“I’m pregnant, roughly two months along,” she said and moved her husband's hands to her stomach. Her stomach was still flat but the thought that a baby was growing inside her gave her butterflies and made Arthur almost shake in excitement.
“You’re pregnant? We’re having a baby?” Merlin nodded, still grinning and Arthur grinned back before pulling her in for a deep kiss.
-
As Merlin came into her fourth month, her stomach started to round, the baby growing inside her finally showing on the outside. It was around this time when Arthur announced very loudly, proudly and happily to the people of Camelot that he and his wife were expecting their first child and then gave Merlin a very passionate kiss, which the crowd loved, cheering loudly.
The same month, Arthur started walking around town with her and every morning she would take her down to the morning practice sessions at the training grounds so that he could show her and her pregnant stomach off to the knights. They were very happy about the child that the King and Queen were expecting, but it did annoy them how Arthur would constantly rub it in their faces that none of them had a child yet. Some of the knights weren’t even married and Arthur was still rubbing it in their faces.
Merlin noticed that the knights were getting annoyed by her husband’s actions and she had apologised to them personally but they had told her not to worry, they would only have to suffer for a few more months. They were all very happy for their Queen and she was more than happy to let them feel her bump when they asked. They were all very excited and happy about talking to their Queen about the baby, it was only the King that seemed to annoy them to no end.
-
When she was five months pregnant she decided to talk to her husband about all this showing her off and bragging business as well as rubbing their pregnancy in everyone’s faces.
“Arthur?”
“Yes, Merlin?” He called back from the other side of the room where he was undressing and getting himself ready for bed.
“I want to talk to you,” she said as Arthur walked towards the bed, where Merlin was laying in her thin nightdress.
“About what?” He asked, crawling into bed beside her.
“Arthur…you know I love you…and I know how excited the both of us are about the baby, but you really need to stop rubbing it in other people’s faces. I know for a fact that the knights are getting annoyed by it,” she said and Arthur smiled at her, shaking his head.
“If they were getting annoyed by it Merlin, they would have told me and I’m not really rubbing it in their faces,” he said and Merlin rolled her eyes at her husband.
“Arthur, they won’t say anything to you because you’re the King and they’re knights, they don’t want to get into trouble just because they stood up to you…you know, like what happened to me all those years ago?” Merlin teased and Arthur groaned.
“Okay, I will try and stop talking about the baby…I’m just so happy,” he smiled at his wife and she smiled back at him.
“Well, just try and save all of that feeling up for when it’s just the two of us…like now,” she said, pushing herself against her husband as best she could to kiss him. He kissed her back fiercely, his hands coming down to cradle her bump.
-
At six months pregnant, Merlin was feeling and looking enormous and she hated it. The maids were having to make her new dresses as none of her old dresses would now fit her, not without her ripping some of the material and causing her to lash out with her magic, blowing the glass out of the windows or setting something on fire.
And what made her even more annoyed was that Arthur kept taking her out places to show her off. One day she had reached her limit and blown up at her husband, shouting at him before walking away, leaving him behind stunned. That night she didn’t go to the chambers she shared with Arthur, but to her old bedroom in Gaius’s chambers and no matter what either Gaius or Arthur said to her, she refused to go back to the royal chambers.
-
At seven months, she was finding herself becoming more and more emotional and she begged Arthur to let her come back to their chambers. Even though Arthur hadn’t kicked her out and had wanted her back for the almost two weeks that she had remained at Gaius’ so he had eagerly welcomed her back to their rooms. He was also a lot more sensitive of her feelings, knowing that she was becoming very touchy and seemed to have very low self esteem this far into her pregnancy.
She now wanted him to show her off like he had been before, show her off to the entire kingdom which Arthur was more than happy to do. She would still have her mood swings, becoming angry and sad at the drop of a hat, but he was more than happy to have those moments were she was just as happy and excited to show off her pregnant stomach as he was.
-
At eight months her hormones began to calm down, her mood swings only happening every now and again as compared to several times a day. She was also still allowing Arthur to take her around the town to show her off to everyone, although this far into her pregnancy she was struggling with walking constantly and was getting tired much quicker than she had been.
Merlin started to feel the same annoyance coming back from Arthur showing her off, but she wasn’t too far away from giving birth soon, hopefully it would stop, but, there was still her future pregnancies to come.
-
At nine months, Merlin was screaming in pain as Gaius helped her through her labour. Arthur stood by her side, pale as a sheet as he gripped tightly on Merlin’s hand, letting her squeeze the life out of it to ground herself.
The labour wasn’t too long, which both parents were very happy about, as was their physician and soon small cries sounded around the room as their first child entered the world. Gaius passed the baby over to a maid for her to clean the baby up as Gaius led Merlin through the process of delivering the afterbirth.
As soon as that was done and the newborn was clean, the maid handed the tiny baby over to its mother and for the first time, both parents could confirm the sex of their baby. They had a son.
As the mother and father looked at their child, their son, they were amazed. How could they ever have created something so perfect?
Looking up at Arthur, Merlin could see a certain twinkle in Arthur’s eyes, the same twinkle he got when he was showing Merlin off to other people. She knew that even though she wasn’t pregnant anymore, it wasn’t the end of Arthur’s bragging and showing off.