Catrin: Sister of Emrys

Chapter 7: Aftermath

The morning after returning to Camelot, Merlin awoke with his spirits bright despite the fact that Gaius had told both him and Cade that they would need several days to recover from the spell they had performed to seal the veil. He jumped out of bed and ran around the curtain separating his section of the room from Cade's. His sister was still fast asleep, obviously still worn out from the day before.

As he turned to leave, he heard a cough emit from Cade's direction. Turning back around to face his sister, he found her sitting up, a hand to her mouth as a coughing fit erupted from her body. He quickly went to Cade's bed and, sitting beside her, he rubbed her back until the coughing stopped.

Cade groaned and opened her eyes, looking towards her brother. "That could've gone better."

"You were practically coughing your lungs out!" Merlin exclaimed. "And now you make jokes?"

"It's not like you haven't done it yourself." Cade muttered, but Merlin heard her.

"I'm going to go get Gaius." He said and, before Cade could stop him, he had walked out the bedroom door in search of said physician. Cade groaned and laid back against her pillow. Merlin overreacted every time he saw that she was even a little bit sick. Sometimes, it just drove her insane. She looked up as her brother came back into the room, this time, with Gaius in tow.

The physician walked calmly up to Cade's bed and sat down next to her. He put a hand on her forehead, checking for fever. When he felt heat rising off the young girl's forehead, he nodded towards Merlin. "Cade does indeed have a fever." Merlin nodded in agreement. "The coughing is just an effect of whatever is ailing her."

"Which will be even worse than it would've been had you left me alone." Cade grumbled. Once she had turned ten, Cade refused to allow herself to be treated like an invalid, though she was fully aware that her sickly nature would cause her to be an invalid on more than one occasion.

"Just calm down and let us care for you." Gaius said. Cade crossed her arms and muttered angrily to herself. Gaius chuckled and turned to Merlin. "In the meantime, you, Merlin, had better go attend to Arthur." The physician raised an eyebrow as said warlock opened his mouth to protest. At the raised eyebrow, Merlin's jaw snapped shut and he just sighed and nodded. He walked out the door, taking one last look at Cade and Gaius before closing the door of the chambers behind him.

When he walked into Arthur's chambers, he found that the prat was still fast asleep. Smirking inwardly, Merlin travelled across the room to the curtains, yanking them wide open and causing the prince to groan in protest.

"Merlin! Caden!" he exclaimed, which caused a round of chuckles from said manservant. Arthur looked up from his pillow, his mouth open, ready to scold what he thought were two siblings standing in his room and waking him up at an unheard of hour. Then he closed his mouth, his eyes darting around. Merlin had to fight to hold back another round of chuckles. Arthur turned back towards the struggling servant and glared at him. "Merlin, where is your sister, my other servant?"

"Sick." Merlin answered simply. "She caught some kind of chill. She woke up practically coughing her lungs out and when Gaius checked her over, she was running a fever."

Arthur sighed. "So I'm stuck with one useless servant today."

Merlin chuckled audibly. "I may be useless, but Cade sure isn't and you know it Arthur."

"True, she isn't useless. She's loads more efficient then you, Merlin."

Merlin smirked. That's because, unlike me, Cade does ALL her chores by hand. Or, at least tries to.

"As soon as she is recovered, I expect her back to work, is that understood?" Arthur instructed.

"Prat."

"Idiot."

Merlin smirked again and set to work on his chores.

Cade groaned as Gaius passed her the cup with a murky looking liquid inside. She glanced up at Gaius. "Do I really have to drink this?"

Gaius narrowed his eyes. "You've coughed so much, that you're coughing up blood." the physician began. "The sooner you drink that, the sooner it'll ease up and Merlin won't have a heart attack if he sees you've coughed up blood."

"Fair point." Cade said, acquiescing and drinking the vile tasting concoction. In minutes, Cade's throat had stopped tickling, making her able to take a deep breath in without coughing. She laid down and closed her eyes, exhaustion setting in.

Gaius smiled as Cade fell asleep. He exited the room just as his older ward walked in. Merlin was obviously tired, Gaius could see it in the boy's eyes. After giving the boy a light sleeping draft to help him, he sent Merlin off to bed. As Merlin walked in, Gaius smiled as he saw Merlin grin in Cade's direction before changing into his nightclothes and falling in his bed on his stomach, falling asleep instantly.