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~*~
Gwaine’s head felt fuzzy, the way it sometimes did after too much ale. Only thing was, he wasn’t at the tavern. Not anywhere near it.
No, he and the others were out in the woods making camp for the evening. They’d received word from a patrol about some mercenaries. Naturally, Arthur insisted on riding out himself and taking the knights of his inner circle with him. Gwaine kept waiting for the day Arthur realized that prince regents didn’t do things like that. They just…sent others out to do the job for them. At least that’s how most of them worked.
“Gwaine, are you alright?” Merlin asked.
Gwaine looked up from where he’d been trying to lay out his bedroll. They’d taken care of the mercenaries but it was too late to ride all the way back to Camelot. Gwaine blinked as he looked around. The others had their bedrolls totally laid out already.
“Gwaine?” Merlin prodded, sounding worried now.
Gwaine reached up to brush some hair off his face. Distantly, he registered that his face felt very hot.
“I don’t feel so good,” Gwaine admitted.
Suddenly the world tilted. Gwaine felt himself swaying but everything felt so fuzzy.
Strong hands steadied him. “Easy, Gwaine. Easy,” Leon said gently. Frowning, Leon turned to the others. “He’s burning up.”
Oh, Gwaine thought. That’s odd.
“We’ve got you,” Lancelot assured, coming to sit on his other side.
Wait. Sit? When had he sat down on the ground?
“Were you injured in the fight?” Lancelot asked, dragging Gwaine’s attention to him and away from his confusion over being on the ground.
Gwaine frowned. Had he been injured? He didn’t think…wait.
“My leg,” Gwaine said. “I think one of them got my leg. It didn’t seem bad so I wasn’t worried.”
He tried to move the leg in question but everything was sluggish.
“His left one,” Leon added. “Now that I’m looking for it, I see a bloodstain on his trousers.”
Merlin frowned as he dropped to his knees beside them.
“You know better than to ignore any injury!” Merlin scolded. “Especially given how dirty their weapons were.” To Leon, Merlin said, “I need a better view of that leg.”
Gently, with more care than anyone in his life before Camelot had ever shown him, Leon turned Gwaine to give Merlin better access to Gwaine’s left leg. Gwaine groaned as the world spun some more even as his heart ached for an entirely different reason.
“Easy,” Leon murmured, running a hand along Gwaine’s arm in a soothing manner. “It’ll be alright. Merlin will help.”
Gwaine attempted a nod. Of course Merlin would help. Merlin always helped. Even when Gwaine hadn’t done anything to deserve it. It still made no sense but Gwaine found himself growing used to it now, odd as that was.
“I think this is more than just a dirty weapon,” Lancelot said, voice low and urgent.
That didn’t sound good even to him, and Gwaine wasn’t particularly skilled at herbs and healing.
“So do I,” Merlin admitted, his voice sounding strained, even as Gwaine felt a breeze on his leg indicating someone must have ripped the leg of his trousers open to better see the wound. “I have only basic things in my bag. It will have to be enough until we get him back to Gaius.”
Arthur’s voice cut through everything else, but there was an edge of concern even in his tone.
“Will he be alright until morning or do we need to ride through the night?” Arthur asked.
Gwaine blinked. That would be dangerous for everyone. He looked up to see Arthur, Percival, and Elyan hovering anxiously a few feet away.
Merlin hesitated. “Give me a few minutes to clean it and get a better look. Maybe what I have will be enough.”
Leon, as usual, spoke up with something sensible.
“Even if we have to ride on, we should stay here long enough for everyone to eat and give the horses a little longer to rest and graze,” Leon pointed out. “If we are going to ask the horses to carry us safely through the night, we need to give them time now.”
Arthur nodded. “Right, of course. Elyan, Percival, check our supplies. See what we have that can be eaten quickly. I’ll check on the horses. I’m sure Merlin doesn’t want all of us standing here watching him work.”
Merlin didn’t look up from where he was carefully cleaning Gwaine’s leg as he replied, “You’re right.”
Arthur rolled his eyes as he, Elyan, and Percival moved off to see to their assigned tasks.
Once they were gone, Leon quietly said, “Merlin, if there’s anything…special you can do, now is the time.”
Merlin and Lancelot both looked up at him with startled faces. Gwaine thought they looked rather like owls at that moment. It was funny and he’d have laughed if he didn’t think it would make him heave.
“Some of us are more observant than our prince regent,” Leon remarked dryly. “Now, be quick.”
Merlin blinked a few times before turning back to Gwaine’s leg. He muttered something and Gwaine was fairly sure his eyes glowed gold for a moment, which made no sense.
Then everything went black.
~*~
Gwaine groaned as he woke.
“Ah, there you are, Sir Gwaine.”
Gwaine blinked slowly as he turned to face Gaius.
“What happened?” Gwaine asked, very confused.
“What do you remember?” Gaius asked.
“I remember getting hurt…I remember Leon and Lancelot helping me, Merlin scolding me. But not much after that,” Gwaine admitted.
Movement beside him drew his attention to where Leon was hunched uncomfortably in a chair beside the cot he was laying on.
“What happened is you decided to try to scare ten years off all of our lives,” Leon informed him. “You failed to mention an injury and it turned out the blade that caused it was poisoned.”
Gaius came to stand beside the cot. “A poison even I cannot name. They barely got you back here in time for me to help you.”
Gwaine ran a hand over his face. Of all the rotten luck.
“Your heart stopped beating twice on the way back,” Leon told him. “It was…unpleasant.”
His heart stopped? How was he still alive?
“Merlin had to reveal his secret to Arthur just so he could use enough of his magic to keep you alive until we got you to Gaius,” Leon explained. “Something about the Old Religion requiring a life if he saved you outright but if he just helped you hang on, that was alright. Arthur was…displeased that Merlin hid it from him but he decided the rest of that argument could wait until we knew if you’d live.”
Exhausted and apparently recovering from nearly dying, Gwaine was not awake enough to deal with any of that. He’d figured out Merlin had magic, but he kept hoping Merlin would trust him enough to tell him about it so he didn’t say anything.
“Right,” Gwaine muttered. “I suppose I should be grateful Merlin likes me enough to do it and Arthur tolerates me enough to let him.”
Leon huffed. “Fairly sure Merlin and Lancelot would have both quit on the spot if he’d refused and Percival likely would have gone with them. Fortunately, Arthur respects and trusts you even if you two do butt heads.” Quietly, he added, “None of us want to lose you.”
A flush crept up Gwaine’s neck that had nothing to do with his injury.
“Funny enough, I’d much prefer not dying myself,” Gwaine replied.
Gaius rolled his eyes at them both.
“You are to drink some water and have some broth. If you keep that down without trouble, I will release you to rest in your own chambers,” Gaius told him. “But you aren't even to think about training for at least two weeks. We shall discuss light training after that.”
Gwaine knew that wasn’t going to happen and Gaius likely did too, but for the moment he politely allowed the old physician to say it without interruption.
“We’ll help you enforce that,” Leon assured.
Most certainly not pouting, Gwaine muttered, “Mother hen.”
Eyes soft and so worried, Leon said, "Watching your heart stop was frightening. Yes, I will be very protective for a while. We all will.”
Gwaine didn’t know what to do with people caring like that. No one ever had before. He was too tired for this.
“You know, I think I’ll nap before that water and broth,” Gwaine said.
Gaius nodded. “Very wise. Rest is what you need as much as anything right now.”
Leon smiled gently.
“Rest, Gwaine. I’ll be here when you wake,” Leon promised.
Almost despite himself, Gwaine found himself actually believing Leon meant it. Leon wasn’t leaving him alone. Merlin exposed his magic to save him. Arthur allowed Merlin to use magic for him. They really cared about him here. Maybe, the smallest part of him whispered, maybe they even loved him. Something else he didn’t know what to do with. Something he’d need to learn if it turned out to be true.
Maybe Camelot really was a place he could stay.
That might be even more frightening than a poison that could stop his heart.
~*~