Merlin Headcanons

Again

"Tell me the story again."

She smiled down at her son. "Again? I thought you didn't like that one. It always seems to bother you."

"Again," he insisted.

"All right. I was at a convenience store - "

"Buying Daddy a coffee because he was in a bad mood."

" - buying your father a coffee, yes. You know how stressful his job is, dear. I was waiting to pay for it and started chatting with the young man behind me. He seemed very excited to see me, and I was trying to remember if I knew him from somewhere, but I was too embarrassed to ask."

"And he had dark hair and sad eyes and was way too skinny."

She frowned. "I don't remember telling you he was too skinny before, but yes, he was. Just before I moved up to the counter, a man ran into the store, waving a gun around. He wanted money from the girl behind the counter. She gave it to him."

"Then the sirens started," he whispered.

His mother took a deep breath. "Right. They didn't have anything to do with us, but the man panicked. He shot the cashier, and he turned to shoot me. The next thing I knew, the shooter was up against the wall with a broken neck, and the nice young man who'd been talking to me was standing in front of me."

"He'd been shot."

Even years later, she teared up a bit. "Yes. Right in the stomach. He sort of collapsed then, and I knelt down beside him and tried to stop the bleeding. I knew you were supposed to put pressure on it. I remember I'd started panicking which was natural enough, but - and this was even stranger than what had happened to the shooter - he reached up and squeezed my wrist, and he was looking worried about me. I felt this kind of warm glow, and I swear his eyes looked gold. He told me I had to keep calm or I might hurt the baby. Only, the thing was, I hadn't even realized I was pregnant yet. I thought I couldn't be pregnant, ever. But he was so worried about it. I thought he was just confused." She wiped her eyes. "He passed before the ambulance could get there. I knew it was crazy, but I was so shaken up I bought a test, and, well - Eight months later, there you were. My beautiful baby boy. Things went bad for a minute, but that warm feeling hadn't ever really gone away and it sort of flared up and then it was gone, and I was fine." She tried to smile. "Remember, this is just between us. You know how much your father hates it when I tell this story."

Ygraine kissed her son's six year old head and pulled the blanket up around him. "Good night, Arthur."

Arthur stared up at the ceiling. "What was his name?"

She frowned. "That was another strange thing. His ID said his name was Arthur Thompson. That's why I wanted to name you Arthur, you know. I've told you this before. But . . . Well, when they looked at it, they realized the ID was fake. No one knows what his real name was."

Memories danced in Arthur's dreams that night.

Uther came home late. He peeked into his son's room and frowned.

Surely his son was too old to cry because of nightmares?

. . . . .